Dating Caster

The moonlight of a cool night spilled over the entirety of Fuyuki City. The town, which should have been fast asleep, was now surging with undercurrents.

"Assassin..."

A low voice rang out, and a figure resembling black mist manifested beside him.

"What are your orders, Master?" the black figure replied.

"For you, a magical barrier like this fortress shouldn't be much of a challenge, right?" A young man with an expressionless face stared at the luxurious mansion at the foot of the mountain.

"Is this truly wise? As far as I know, the head of the Tohsaka family is your teacher." As expected of an Assassin who walked in the darkness, a single sentence was enough to accurately guess the young man's intentions.

"There is no need to worry about such things. You only have one task to perform..." The young man's eyes remained devoid of any fluctuation as he spoke.

"Bring me the head of Tohsaka Tokiomi."

"As you wish, Master."

After saying this, the Assassin vanished once more, leaving the young man alone to stare at the luxurious residence; no one could guess his true thoughts at this moment.

[Tohsaka Clan]

The Tohsaka family had been the managers of the land in Fuyuki City for generations and were the providers of the land for the Holy Grail War, thus becoming one of the Three Founding Families. The greatest achievement of the current head of the Tohsaka family, Tohsaka Tokiomi, was producing two harems for a certain someone...

Cough, cough!!!

Tohsaka Tokiomi had taken on a disciple three years ago. This disciple had also been favored by the Holy Grail and became a Master. However, what no one expected was that the first battle to kick off the Holy Grail War would be between an Assassin and his Master—who was also Tohsaka Tokiomi's disciple—Kirei Kotomine, launching an attack against his own teacher!

"He's definitely a goner now."

Watching the image of the Tohsaka residence projected by magic through the crystal ball in front of Medea, Kong made a [Prediction].

"..."

Seeing that Medea ignored him, Kong shrugged and walked out of the room. Arriving in the living room, he peered through the floor-to-ceiling windows at this town in the Far East.

No one would ever imagine that this peaceful little town concealed a wish-granting machine that made mages drool with greed, but the mages would also never imagine what kind of terrifying things were hidden within this very machine...

A sound coming from the room interrupted Kong's moment of zoning out. Kong turned his head and found that Medea had also walked out of the room, though her expression was not very pleasant.

Countless Noble Phantasms emerged from the radiance behind the golden Servant, casually obliterating another Servant just like that.

Anyone who saw this insane scene would be shocked to their core.

"If I told you this was just a play, what would you think?" Kong's words brought Medea back to her senses, and she looked at him, asking, "Did you remember something else?"

"Not as clearly as before, I only know that this scene was a play directed jointly by the Masters of Archer and Assassin." Kong truthfully stated the memory that had suddenly appeared in his mind.

"What a calculated scheme." Upon hearing Kong's answer, Medea immediately revealed a cold sneer.

No wonder an Assassin would be so high-profile and mindless; it was likely that Archer's Master had done it on purpose to show off his own strength. The suspicious Medea would never believe that an Assassin proficient in assassination would be eliminated so easily. It seemed they would need to be more careful in their future actions; an Assassin who wanted to focus on hiding would not expose themselves so easily again.

"Then what about their identities?" Medea continued to ask.

"I don't know." Kong shrugged and said, "That was the only information that appeared in my head at the time, and the side effect of the headache seems to have disappeared as well."

"Is that so..."

The thoughtful Medea suddenly raised her head and asked Kong out of the blue, "Your past life, you shouldn't be from this world, right?"

"Holy crap!" Kong, who was just about to exclaim, suddenly realized something was wrong. Once he reacted, he wanted to slap himself a few times.

"As I thought..." Seeing Kong's reaction, this confirmed Medea's hypothesis from another angle. Medea began her own deduction:

"Judging from your previous performance in magic, your past life shouldn't have been a mage; even a half-baked one wouldn't be as pathetic as you. But if you were just an ordinary person, it would be impossible for you to have memories involving the side of mystery. So, where did your memories come from..."

"..." Kong gradually lost his dreams and began to turn grayscale.

Ignoring Kong's antics, Medea continued her deduction: "I don't know where you learned it from, perhaps from literature or something else. But you clearly had familiar memories of your past life, yet you have forgotten them in this lifetime, so your memory loss shouldn't be as simple as just forgetting. I think..."

Medea stated her conjecture:

"This should be the result of the Counter Force intervening."

Counter Force—

Hearing Medea's voice, Kong felt a bit dazed. He didn't know why two little lolis suddenly popped into his head.

"Due to the existence of the Counter Force, this world will automatically reject anything that influences the progression of this world. Although it won't delete it immediately, it will subtly influence you."

Listening to Medea's deduction, Kong suddenly thought of a detail: when he had just been reborn, he had possessed grand ambitions! Novels, songs, and the like—he had long since written them all down clearly in a little notebook.

But when did it start?

His memories of his past life began to disappear in large chunks. He didn't know when he had thrown that little notebook recording his path to wealth into the cabinet, and his grand ambitions had turned into living a mediocre life.

Finally, Medea reached a conclusion:

"Your soul must have undergone a reorganization when it entered this world. Memories of normal values and common sense would be preserved in the center of the soul, while those memories concerning the progression of the world were placed on the periphery of the soul, where they would gradually drift away and dissipate. This way, you would gradually become like those mediocre people and live on. Even if you possess memories of your past life, they would have no effect."

"..."

At this moment, the way Kong looked at Medea was no different from looking at a deity.

You guys are really supportive, here is the extra chapter for this time.

First of all, thank you all for your support. Nothing much to say, as long as you support me, I will update~

The next bonus chapter will be released at 500 favorites.

I think that should be soon!

By the way, the chapter count is correct. I deleted and revised the previous first and second chapters.

It doesn't affect the reading experience~

Chapter 14. The First Clash of Spear and Sword

Fuyuki City is a coastal town located in Japan. The Mion River, which provides the city's main water supply, runs from north to south, bisecting the entire city before finally flowing into the sea.

The Mion River divides the city into two parts with starkly different architectural styles. The east side is Shinto, a highly modernized new city that has everything. The west side is Miyama Town, an old town consisting mostly of residential areas.

On the east side of the river mouth lies a seaside park, a go-to spot for young couples to stroll daily. However, due to the recent string of crazed crimes committed by Ryunosuke, this place, which would usually be bustling even at night, is now deathly quiet.

At dusk, this park welcomed a strange pair.

A beauty dressed in pure white walked in front. Her outfit, a white fur coat made of high-end materials, paired with her ruby-like eyes, snow-white skin, and long silver hair, combined with her noble aura, made her look like a pure white princess who had stepped out of a fairy tale.

If the woman walking in front was a princess, then the person following her, never leaving her side, must be her guardian knight.

With a neutral face that made it hard to distinguish gender, their appearance was no less stunning than that of the princess. A simple black suit and a ponytail tied at the back of their head looked exceptionally dashing. Although this knight was a bit short, the two looked surprisingly harmonious standing together.

But the most eye-catching thing was...

"It really is the ahoge."

Wang Xiaoming, watching from afar, couldn't help but sigh at this black-and-white duo. Wang Xiaoming clearly remembered that the knight in the suit standing beside that pure white beauty also appeared on the battlefield ten years later.

Looking at that face, which was no different from his memory, and... the ahoge, if he wasn't mistaken, she would also be participating this time as Saber—the Servant with the highest overall rating among the seven, and the class that the Masters participating in the Holy Grail War wanted most.

"Hmm?" The blonde Saber suddenly frowned and cast her gaze into the distance.

"What is it, Saber?" The pure white beauty, who had been curiously observing the surrounding scenery, noticed Saber's change.

"I suspect some petty thief is spying on us from afar, but there is no need to worry, Irisviel." Saber withdrew her gaze and smiled at Irisviel.

"Then I shall leave my safety to you~ my knight~" Irisviel stuck out her tongue and made a cute expression.

"Rest assured, my princess."

Saber performed a standard knight's salute to Irisviel.

Meanwhile, Wang Xiaoming, whom Saber had called a petty thief, looked helplessly at Medea beside him. He could clearly see the naked possessiveness in Medea's eyes.

Wang Xiaoming rolled his eyes in resignation.

Great! The thing he was most worried about had happened after all.

"I'm asking you, what exactly did you bring me out here for?"

Wang Xiaoming glanced at Medea beside him, completely speechless. Ever since she saw Saber, this woman hadn't looked away once.

"I would also like to stay comfortably in our base and act as a mastermind behind the scenes." After hearing Wang Xiaoming's question, Medea reluctantly shifted her gaze from Saber to him and said with disdain, "Unfortunately, someone's memory capacity is too pathetic, so we can only experiment based on my deductions."

"Sorry for being pathetic, then." Wang Xiaoming looked at this sharp-tongued woman with black lines running down his forehead.

After deducing Wang Xiaoming's origins last time, Medea had made another hypothesis about his memory capacity. She believed that the memories lingering on the periphery of Wang Xiaoming's soul would only unlock when he [observed at close range] those figures related to his memories and established some form of causality with them.

This explained why he could never unlock memories regarding Assassin and Archer through magical projections before. This led Medea to decide to take Wang Xiaoming to observe a battle between Servants at close range to verify her theory. As it happened, just as Medea was looking for an opportunity, the owner of the barrier began his own move.

The every move of that Lemon Head on the top floor naturally couldn't escape Medea, who already had a certain level of control over the barrier. Shortly after the Lemon Head left the hotel, the familiar Medea had arranged followed far behind them.

In the end, the Lemon Head stopped at a coastal warehouse district. Wang Xiaoming had studied the map of Fuyuki City before; this warehouse area was located at the mouth of the Mion River and also served as a cargo port. But in this cold winter, basically no other pedestrians would pass through this area at night.

Even a layman like Wang Xiaoming could judge that this was a good place for a battle. After all, magecraft was part of the mystery, and the fewer people who knew about it, the better.

Since the location of the Lemon Head was confirmed, Wang Xiaoming and Medea naturally had to start their own actions. The two had just arrived when they discovered the combination of Saber and Irisviel, and then...

"For an entire day, you are the only one in this city who has been able to respond to me."

In the warehouse district, a handsome man with distinct features, holding two brushes in his hands—[Chen Kun]—looked at Saber and Irisviel before him and did not skimp on his praise.

"Are you the petty thief who was spying on me earlier?" Saber stepped forward, shielding Irisviel with her body, and demanded with a stern expression.

"Spying?" Lancer was confused at first, then explained, "I am accustomed to face-to-face combat; I would naturally never resort to such petty methods."

"Achoo!" *2

Wang Xiaoming rubbed his nose, feeling somewhat helpless. This start was a bit rough... Looking at Medea beside him, who was calm and composed, Wang Xiaoming felt a bit ashamed of his own thick skin.

But why did it suddenly feel a bit cold...

"Then I apologize for your accusation." Seeing that the man opposite didn't seem to be lying, Saber's expression softened slightly.

"No matter." The man did not appear irritable due to the baseless accusation; instead, he asked Saber with a calm demeanor:

"This biting fighting spirit, you are Saber, are you not?"

"That is correct."

Saber's gaze swept over the weapons in the man's hands. Both the long and short spears were wrapped in a cloth similar to a talisman, making it impossible to see their true appearance—undoubtedly a countermeasure to hide the true name of his Noble Phantasm. It also pointed out the man's class:

"You are Lancer, aren't you?"

"Indeed." Lancer curled his lips, clearly satisfied with the opponent before him.

"A bewitching magecraft?"

Irisviel, standing behind Saber, snapped out of her daze and shouted at Lancer, "That is truly rude to a married woman, Lancer."

Faced with Irisviel's protest, Lancer could only shrug with a bitter smile.

"My apologies. It is as if I were cursed from birth. But there is nothing to be done about it. If you must hate someone, hate my birth, or perhaps hate the fact that you are women."

"Tsk, tsk..."

Hearing such a shameless declaration, Wang Xiaoming could only sigh in amazement.

Come to think of it, Lancer was quite a handsome man. It wasn't a beauty that leaned toward the effeminate, but rather a sharp, refined look that amplified his masculine charm. From his high-bridged nose and stern brows to his well-defined lips, he possessed a strict, ascetic beauty. Deep within his eyes, the gentle, melancholic aura he exuded made him all the more bewitching.

Huh—it suddenly got colder.

Wang Xiaoming couldn't help but shiver. He first glanced at the sky in confusion—the temperature should have been quite pleasant right now—before turning his gaze toward Medea...

Well, he had finally found the source.

Medea's eyes were currently filled with icy coldness, and the target drawing the brunt of that chill was none other than Lancer in the middle of the battlefield!

Wang Xiaoming suddenly remembered that this woman hated pretty boys. He was suddenly grateful that his parents in this life hadn't made him too handsome.

Why do the favorites rise so fast at night...

Suddenly I want to change the update time.

At this moment, the two on the battlefield had no time to pay attention to anything else.

Saber snorted, looking at Lancer with contempt:

"You aren't expecting me to go easy on you because of that face of yours, are you, Lancer?"