When Su Yun arrived at school, he found exactly what he'd expected: a whole lot of people were late, including teachers and even school administrators.
By the time Su Yun got there, a crowd was hurrying to squeeze through the school gates. Not a single one of the people who usually drove had arrived. Given the situation, they were probably stuck in traffic and might not make it by lunchtime.
For the same reason, the school couldn't hold classes that morning, so it simply announced that all morning periods would be self-study.
For the students, this was naturally cause for celebration. They excitedly chatted about all sorts of things in their classrooms.
Naturally, the topic was the Light Screen footage that had aired that morning.
King Arthur, the knight Diarmuid, Iskandar, King of Conquerors, and the venerable Li Shuwen.
One by one, figures from mythology, history, and even the modern era had appeared. Each offered plenty to discuss. Even Diarmuid, the least famous of them all, had his own stories and legends.
In this age of incredibly convenient information sharing, it had taken less than an hour for information about all the Servants in the Holy Grail War to spread across the internet.
Without a doubt, the most discussed was Artoria, the undisputed star of the Light Screen footage, who had displayed overwhelming strength in battle, carried the whole team, and had stunning looks to boot.
The Knight King had already won countless fans around the world. She was especially popular with teenagers, and so many of them had fallen for her that they'd become her die-hard fans.
After all, beauty was justice. That girl, King Arthur, was unquestionably the embodiment of justice, so it was only natural that she'd attract fans.
Next after the Knight King came Iskandar, King of Conquerors. This strapping man had made his entrance in a blaze of sparks and lightning at the very end. His boisterous personality and commanding presence had fully embodied the heroic spirit.
His personality was the perfect embodiment of every man's dreams of martial heroes, adventure, and kingship.
So the Conqueror King had won countless fans as well. But unlike King Arthur, who appealed to both men and women, his fans were mostly male. Only a small number of women were into muscles and the more unconventional types.
Diarmuid was the opposite of the Conqueror King. This handsome man had plenty of fans too. Sure, he'd lost to the Knight King in battle and had only survived thanks to his Master's support.
But...
He was handsome!
That handsome face and the blue bodysuit that showed off his perfect physique had plenty of women—and even gay men—drooling. They wished they could rush up and lick the Light Screen.
Don't doubt it. Plenty of people really did want to do that.
That was just how absurd a world obsessed with looks could be.
And then there was Li Shuwen. The old man's identity had also been revealed, setting off a storm of discussion online. Most of those talking about him were middle-aged and older people, as well as adults with plenty of life experience.
To them, Li Shuwen was far more interesting to discuss because he was a Heroic Spirit from the modern era.
Among the students, however, it was the complete opposite. There wasn't much discussion of him; only a few people who knew a thing or two about him were interested.
Apart from the Servants, their Masters were also a topic of discussion.
Waver, who was timid and had embarrassed himself, was mocked and teased by plenty of people.
Irisviel's beauty and strength of character won people's affection and sympathy.
Emiya Kiritsugu left a deep impression with his sneaky tactics, and plenty of people thought he'd handled things brilliantly.
Diarmuid's Master had shown how much support a top-level mage could provide a Servant. This made people curious and filled them with a longing for True Magic.
There was no doubt that although the footage released today had only lasted twenty minutes in total—the standard length of an anime episode—there was still no shortage of things to discuss and ponder. It was bound to remain a hot topic for a long time. Countless content creators, streamers, news reporters, and others would surely keep talking about these people and events of their own accord, keeping the topic alive and generating Fantasy Power nonstop.
That was definitely good news for Su Yun. Seeing that his Fantasy Power had already passed the forty-thousand mark made him feel especially pleased and satisfied.
Of course, there were also five digits after the decimal point. In practice, according to the usual conversion method, those digits should all be added together to get the true amount.
But as a game designer, Su Yun had an instinctive aversion to runaway numbers. So when he built the system, he'd carried over his professional habits and forcibly added decimal places to the end of the total.
Of course, none of that really mattered. All he needed to know was that Fantasy Power was pouring in.
At the same time, shards of Fantasy Crystals were also being produced nonstop. He wasn't far from forming a complete Fantasy Crystal.
Once he had his first complete Fantasy Crystal, Su Yun could put Artoria, the Trainee Agent, to work.
That was right. After Su Yun had spent so much effort and so much Fantasy Power to select Artoria as his ace Operator, was she really going to keep slacking off like this?
It was time, girl. You couldn't stop yet. jpg.
Before he knew it, it was noon.
For lunch, Su Yun took out the bread and milk he'd bought from a convenience store on the way to school that morning. It wasn't much of a feast, but it was nutritious enough. At school, that was the best he could do, so there was no need to fuss over it.
Mostly, he just didn't want to squeeze in with everyone else at the cafeteria or school shop. Otherwise, he could have had a more substantial lunch.
As a world-famous top school, it had top-of-the-line facilities and staff.
After lunch, Su Yun left the classroom and started strolling around campus. Plenty of girls snuck glances at him along the way. Many had stars shining in their eyes, while others blushed, God only knew what they were imagining.
After all, his looks were truly off the charts. When the World Consciousness had strengthened and beautified his body during his transmigration, it had also blessed him. Anyone who saw him would naturally feel a certain amount of goodwill toward him; in more extreme cases, they'd practically see him through a fan's rose-colored glasses.
Under those circumstances, he was just like a prince straight out of a manga.
At least at this school, influenced by Yingzhou's age-old chūnibyō culture, he'd earned the title of Tianwang High School's Noble Prince of Flame.
"Flame" meant the Flame Kingdom. The implication was that he represented the image of the Flame Kingdom.
When he first learned about this, Su Yun's face had twitched. What kind of ego did you need to have to call yourself a noble prince who represented the image of the Flame Kingdom? Sure, he was handsome, but that didn't mean he represented the image of a great nation.
Still, when he thought about how people in Yingzhou often gave impressive figures from the Flame Kingdom bizarre nicknames like "The Imperial Destroyer Dragon," "The Most Savage Tiger of the High Heavens," and "The Merciless Demon King Who Kills with One Strike," the title they'd given him didn't seem so strange. It was embarrassing enough to make him want to crawl into a hole, but at least it wasn't completely outrageous.
Of course, the real reason for all this was the Flame Kingdom's cultural victory.
Just as the West on another Earth had cultural hegemony, leading many people around the world—especially young women—to think of handsome Hollywood stars whenever they thought of foreigners, and then to associate those people with the men and women of that country, saying things like, "Foreigners are so good-looking," day after day. They never considered that such beautiful people were only a minority, and that most Western men and women were nowhere near as good-looking as Easterners.
That was the terrifying power of cultural victory. The Flame Kingdom hadn't chosen the simple, brute-force route of conquest. Instead, it had won through culture, creating a worldwide fervent admiration for the Flame Kingdom and rose-colored glasses.
Yep. A classic case of "Even the air in the Flame Kingdom is sweet." jpg.
Of course, none of that had much to do with Su Yun. His mission wasn't to make the Flame Kingdom of this world stronger. It didn't need his help anyway; the Flame Kingdom in this world was already the world's top dog.
Dealing with Mystery was the reason he'd come to this world and received so many benefits and blessings from the World Consciousness in advance.
Then, as Su Yun walked through the school garden, he suddenly ran into someone.
"Oh my~ If it isn't our beloved Noble Prince of Flame. Why aren't you with your adorable classmate Artoria today?"
A playful voice, tinged with deliberate teasing, rang out. It was a sweet voice Su Yun knew well.
Su Yun calmly turned his head. As he smiled, his bright eyes narrowed into the classic "narrow-eyed people are all monsters" smile.
"Good afternoon, Kurumi. Have you had lunch?"
Tokisaki Kurumi was a student at this school, in the same grade as Su Yun, and the young lady of the Tokisaki Conglomerate.
She was also the fiancée he'd gained when he first transmigrated—and the fiancée he'd promptly broken off his engagement with.
Before you continue