(The ending of the previous chapter was slightly revised. I suddenly remembered that Hassan was summoned only after Kojiro died; Caster should have died before Hound Bro. It had been so long that I forgot.)
Yuan Shikai arrived above Ryuudou Temple and looked down at the ruined temple from on high. The air was thick with the smell of blood.
The layers upon layers of magecraft barriers that had once stood there had long since been destroyed, leaving nothing behind.
After sensing the area and confirming there were no living presences, Yuan Shikai slowly descended and entered Ryuudou Temple through the main gate.
A fierce battle would soon take place here, and Artoria would also be swallowed by Black Mud, ultimately becoming Artoria Alter.
At the main gate lay a disemboweled corpse. It was probably Kojiro's remains; Cursed Arm Hassan had broken out of it like a hatchling.
He continued onward, heading toward the place where the scent of blood was strongest.
Inside one of Ryuudou Temple's guest rooms, he found Souichirou Kuzuki. Unfortunately, he was a corpse.
He had died horribly. All four limbs had been broken, and his neck had finally been crushed.
Speaking of Souichirou Kuzuki, he too was a tragic figure.
On the surface, he was a world history teacher at Homurahara High School. Cold and stern by nature, he was known to the students as the "robot teacher."
In truth, he was an "assassin" proficient in lethal martial arts.
His fighting style had been taught to him by "Viper," abandoning all rules of competition in favor of combat techniques meant solely to kill.
There were rumors that Shizuki Soujuurou and Souichirou Kuzuki had actually come from the same organization.
That organization took in orphans from a young age and brought them deep into the mountains