Yukinoshita Muzan

Logically speaking, as a member of the Holy Britannian Empire royal family, Artoria should have brought her extraordinary talents back to her own country.

In reality, Artoria herself thought the same—but Su Yun did not!

As Su Yun's first Operator and a close friend, he had no intention of letting Artoria take her talents back home.

For one, if the two were separated by a great distance, it would become very troublesome to keep Artoria under his influence.

Secondly, also due to the distance, he would have no way to provide timely rescue should Artoria encounter danger.

Thirdly, this is a world of mixed anime, where the world's fortune is concentrated in Yingzhou. This island is destined to be plagued by disasters, and the terrifying Mystery threats are drawn to this region, unconsciously gravitating toward it.

If Artoria wants to grow and become an outstanding Operator, staying in Yingzhou is the optimal solution.

Therefore, when bestowing the inheritance upon Artoria, he also informed her that the core battlefield would be in Yingzhou and that she would be better off staying there.

Of course, the persuasion was delivered as a suggestion rather than a mandate, because Su Yun understood that Artoria was the type to respond to soft tactics rather than hard ones; the more forceful he was, the more she would develop a rebellious streak.

Conversely, by framing it as a suggestion, Artoria, with her own sense of persistence and justice, would surely choose to stay.

As it turned out, Su Yun understood this strong yet beautiful girl very well. Not only did she make her decision that very day, but she also laid her cards on the table with Murata Himeko, stating that she had mastered extraordinary power and needed to utilize the resources here to combat the Mystery.

As a member of the Holy Britannian Empire royal family, and due to the nature of her personality, Artoria's mindset did not involve hiding her possession of extraordinary power; instead, she admitted it openly.

Artoria understood perfectly well that to maximize the effectiveness of her extraordinary power, the best approach was to cooperate with secular official forces. Her upbringing allowed her to grasp the terrifying nature of state-level power more profoundly than the average person.

Thus, the secret meeting between Artoria and Murata Himeko took place.

It was a showdown, but also a negotiation for terms and status.

Using her status as a member of the Holy Britannian Empire royal family and as the first human to manifest extraordinary power, Artoria secured very favorable conditions for herself.

Naturally, this also brought trouble and dissatisfaction to the Holy Britannian Empire.

How could a member of the British royal family, having gained extraordinary power, not think of serving her motherland, but instead run off to contribute to another country?

Although the Holy Britannian Empire was no longer as antagonistic as it once was—in fact, the major powers had entered a honeymoon period of cooperation due to the existence of the Mystery—they were still two different nations.

Even if Artoria was not valued within the royal family, was being ostracized and suppressed by other members, and had been sent abroad as an exchange student, her status dictated that she must shoulder the responsibilities of a royal. Was the dignity of the Empire not something to be upheld by royals like her?

Consequently, because of Artoria's stance, the Holy Britannian Empire began diplomatic proceedings with the Y-country, and the high-level officials of both sides began a fierce dispute over the matter.

Of course, the root cause for elevating the affairs of a neglected princess of the Holy Britannian Empire to the highest level of diplomatic negotiation was that Artoria was now an extraordinary individual.

If Artoria were still an ordinary person, the Holy Britannian Empire would likely have paid little attention, or at most, would not have interfered excessively.

After all, it was standard practice for European royals to go abroad to serve other nations; it had been that way since ancient times.

For many years, the Holy Britannian Empire had seen many royal members go abroad to serve other countries. In the past, for a royal of Artoria's status, serving the Y-country or even marrying a man of good standing there would have been of no consequence.

Marriage alliances were a stale trope in aristocratic circles. Even though the Holy Britannian Empire had officially abolished the aristocratic system, the power-holding class was already deeply entrenched and would not disappear just because the titles were gone.

Simply put, because the original Artoria was not valued and was low in the line of succession, the Holy Britannian Empire did not care what she did. Even if she ran off to Yingzhou to date a foreigner, they wouldn't have bothered as long as she didn't expose her royal identity.

But now it was different. As the first extraordinary human, her status and importance had skyrocketed, becoming no less significant than those high up in the line of succession, perhaps even more so.

With such a background, her personal freedom and will could no longer be decided by her alone.

In other words, the Holy Britannian Empire actually wanted to bring Artoria under their control, which was their typical overbearing and barbaric style.

However, Artoria's direct cooperation with the Y-country was undoubtedly a classic backstab, catching the Holy Britannian Empire off guard and leading the two countries into a diplomatic standoff.

Even Morgan, who had planned to arrive in Yingzhou during the day, had to postpone her trip due to this diplomatic state.

Now that the high-level officials of both countries were engaged in friendly consultations to reach a consensus, the Y-country naturally could not easily let go. If Artoria had not voluntarily chosen to join, the Y-country would have had no reason to interfere, and even if they wanted to, they would have had to respect her personal will. But now that she had delivered herself to their doorstep, how could they possibly push her away?

Therefore, the Y-country's stance was also very firm.

Of course, the art of diplomacy is that it cannot be entirely rigid, especially now that the whole world is working together against the Mystery.

Thus, the Y-country proposed a plan—since everyone was indeed discussing the feasibility of deeper cooperation, they could use Artoria as a catalyst to establish an organization (crossed out), a Mystery-countering agency jointly supervised by the major powers.

Several major nations would contribute personnel and funding to establish a special agency that spanned across borders.

Finally, the Y-country also proposed that since Artoria had chosen to join the Supernatural Disaster Countermeasures Office, they could use the Supernatural Disaster Countermeasures Office as the foundation for the new organization, and there would be no need to move the headquarters; it could remain in Yingzhou.

It just so happened that this large island was located in the Pacific, between the Y-country's mainland and the Holy Britannian Empire, making it convenient for the two major powers to conduct negotiations.

To this, the Holy Britannian Empire responded: "Between" your mother!

If you flip open a world map, no matter how you look at it, this damn place is in the Y-country's inland sea area. How could you claim it's located between the Y-country and the Holy Britannian Empire?

Y-country: Geographically speaking, it is indeed so! It's not like we could put it on your crappy Hawaii, right? That place is so small; if the Mystery launched a large-scale destructive attack, wouldn't it be game over immediately?

Holy Britannian Empire: @#!&%...

That was the situation; the two major powers were in a fierce dispute over Artoria, even starting to slam tables during their arguments.

Murata Himeko, as the head of the Supernatural Disaster Countermeasures Office, was aware of this. In fact, her superiors had already hinted that she should prepare for the formation of a new international organization. Although the Holy Britannian Empire was shouting loudly, after dealing with each other for so long, how could they not know the reality of the situation?

The Holy Britannian Empire's current uncooperative posture was merely an attempt to secure a larger share in the new organization.

To be honest, suddenly going from being the leader of a regional Mystery-countering organization to the head of an international super-organization was undoubtedly a huge challenge for Murata Himeko, putting her under immense pressure.

However, pressure was directly converted into motivation, and Murata Himeko, having long been prepared, had already begun making arrangements.

Therefore, when Artoria proposed to go and deal with the Mystery, Murata Himeko agreed immediately.

She did not ask how Artoria knew of the Mystery's existence or how she knew its location; those questions could be asked later. Right now, the priority was to help Artoria eliminate the Mystery and fire the first shot of humanity's counterattack!

Murata Himeko, who possessed a high level of political awareness, understood that this operation would determine the speed at which the new organization could be established; once successful, the timeline for its formation would be significantly shortened.

The efficiency of the Supernatural Disaster Countermeasures Office was beyond reproach. As a professional agency led by a director with such exceptional capabilities as Murata Himeko, they were incapable of failure.

The facts bore this out; in less than ten minutes, Artoria was already aboard a military transport plane, departing under the escort of a top-tier combat squad.

This combat squad, codenamed Nine-Tailed Fox, was one of the elite strike forces of the Supernatural Disaster Countermeasures Office, possessing extensive experience in dealing with Mystery.

Inside the transport plane, every member of the combat squad silently made their preparations. No one spoke a word, and no one questioned why their mission was merely to assist the young girl sitting in the helicopter.

Although their hearts were filled with confusion, unable to understand why the higher-ups had issued such a strange order to follow and assist Artoria, their exceptional professionalism ensured they would still complete the mission with their full effort.

Thus, before long, the group arrived at the target location.

Or rather, the location specified by Artoria.

A helicopter at night was destined to be a nuisance, and along the way, it woke many families from their sleep.

However, the group and the entire Supernatural Disaster Countermeasures Office had no time to concern themselves with that; they simply notified the local police to join them for some overtime.

Then, everyone looked on with solemn expressions at the site of the Mystery—this time, the Mystery was located in a wealthy district of Chiba City, pinpointed exactly to a family with the surname Yukinoshita.

The mansion where this family resided had, at some unknown point, been shrouded in the shadow of the Mystery.

Moreover, this Mystery had completely masked its energy, leaving the monitoring equipment for Mystery here in Yingzhou with absolutely no readings.

Had they not seen it with their own eyes, everyone would still be wondering where the Mystery Artoria spoke of actually was.

The expressions on everyone's faces turned grim, for a Mystery like this, while perhaps not of a high disaster level, was undoubtedly extremely troublesome and possessed special abilities.

Entering the area shrouded by the Mystery recklessly would likely result in their total annihilation—lessons written in blood and sacrifice had long since proven as much.