Starting in Type-Moon, but an A Certain Magical Index Magician

This immediately gave her a sense of crisis. She had only felt this sort of crisis not long ago, when Sakura Matou and Mephistopheles had seemed very familiar with each other.

And now, that sense of crisis had appeared again, even stronger than before.

"Mephistopheles, she is..."

"Medea..." Mephistopheles opened his mouth and called out her name.

That name made Rin Tohsaka freeze. She immediately realized that the woman before her was the legendary Witch of Betrayal, the woman who had even killed her own children—Medea!

For someone like that to appear here could only mean one thing: she was a Servant, one of Rin's opponents in this Holy Grail War!

But just then, Mephistopheles said something that left Rin stunned.

"You know me?" Mephistopheles sounded puzzled. Rather than becoming tense at Medea's question, he asked one of his own. "But if you know me... then that outfit you're wearing..."

"Maybe something went wrong with the Holy Grail. It should have summoned the Medea of this world, but it called me here instead. Still, it was an opportunity for me, so I answered the summon. I thought that perhaps I could use the Holy Grail to find you."

Medea was not truly angry with him. By now, she had noticed the problem: Mephistopheles clearly carried the aura of a Servant as well!

He too had come to this world as a Servant. But aside from that, Medea could also sense the presence of a human on him, and even the presence of a god.

He was like some kind of hybrid.

"Looking for me... I came here because I had no choice. But you came here too..." Mephistopheles frowned slightly. "That's not normal!"

"Why isn't it normal? Because I interrupted you seducing your own Master?" Medea looked at Rin. Seeing Rin's awkward expression as she tried hard to act unconcerned, Medea smiled. "Nice to meet you, little magus."

Although Medea's reputation in myth was far from good, Rin still greeted her politely. "Nice to meet you, Lady Medea."

"You're quite polite. Let me give you a warning: this guy is a thief who's very good at stealing hearts. Then, after he steals one, he loves to run away in an instant—so far that he vanishes without a trace!"

Rin glanced at Mephistopheles, then replied to Medea with utmost seriousness, "Thank you for the warning, ma'am."

Mephistopheles could not help rolling his eyes. "Choosing to leave was something I made clear from the start, wasn't it? Besides, it wasn't my choice back then. I had no choice. If I hadn't done it that way, everyone on that ship might have disappeared."

After saying that, he protested, "I was saving the world and history back then!"

That only made Medea even angrier. "I would rather have gone with you than been left there alone!"

She took a deep breath and tried to suppress the anger born from her worry. "If Artemis hadn't used her divine power to contact me, and then asked Apollo for help, we never would have calculated that you were safe. I nearly went mad!"

Then she asked, "So, were you summoned this time to obtain the Holy Grail?"

She smiled. "If you need it, you can ask me. I might consider giving the Holy Grail to you."

That startled Mephistopheles, while Rin's eyes widened. "Your Master would agree to that?!"

"Ah, my Master? Of course he would agree. Right now, he can't wait for the Holy Grail War to end so that he can finally be free." Medea smiled, and the sight of that smile made Rin's heart skip a beat. She even felt a trace of inexplicable fear.

"What did that mean? What did she mean, her Master wanted to be freed?!"

Mephistopheles, however, sounded both surprised and approving. "You tied up your Master?"

"You know I'm actually a rather gentle person." Medea praised herself first, then began speaking indignantly. "That guy was simply not human! People say ancient times were more barbaric than modern times, but not even Sparta could have produced something like this!

"At most, they believed in survival of the fittest and natural selection. But that man actually used the lives of countless children as sacrifices to extract magical energy!"

Mephistopheles, who had barely seen the later installments, froze. He knew that Medea had suffered betrayal from her first Master, but he had never expected him to be such a bastard.

"I suggested that he release those children, and that I would build a new workshop. I even demonstrated magic from the Age of Gods in front of him. Yet that bastard became jealous of me and even tried to use a Command Spell to order me to kill myself!"

Medea smiled slightly.

"Although I'm not particularly satisfied with the legends about me in this world, the Noble Phantasm born from them has a rather useful effect. It allows me to sever my contract on my own."

By this point, Rin's back had gone cold. The greatest connection between a Servant and a Master was the Command Spell—the contract granted through the Holy Grail.

It made Masters and Servants seem like masters and slaves, since the contract was compulsory and granted three absolute commands with enough power to enforce even an order of suicide.

But it was also a means for Masters to protect themselves, since Servants were vastly stronger than Masters!

Yet the woman before her had just said that her Noble Phantasm could sever the contract between herself and her Master, allowing her to escape those commands. It was enough to send chills down Rin's spine!

She looked at Mephistopheles, only to find that he was not afraid at all. If anything, he sounded excited as he asked, "Rule Breaker?"

"That's right, that Noble Phantasm. You really do know." Medea nodded without hiding anything. There had never been any need for concealment between her and Mephistopheles. She even asked him rather directly, "Do you need it?"

That question made Rin tense up.

But Mephistopheles shook his head. "No need. I'm a little special. Command Spells have no negative effects on me, only positive ones. I'm not even a Servant split off from a Heroic Spirit. I'm the original body."

Rin opened her mouth, unable to process what she had just heard. Medea, however, was not surprised. She merely nodded lightly before saying, "It seems that after that incident, you encountered some things that would astonish countless heroes. Shall we find somewhere to talk?"

"Then come with me. I happen to have some things I want to ask you too. You don't seem to need the Holy Grail, so... Medea, can I ask you to help me destroy the entire Holy Grail ritual?"

Grandpa Worm's Confusion

Rin did not mind Mephistopheles bringing Medea back to where Shirou Emiya lived. The two knew each other, after all, and they clearly needed to discuss the ownership of the Holy Grail and other matters.

She was extremely curious about the relationship between Mephistopheles and Medea. That curiosity made her keep her ears pricked up throughout the journey, trying to catch clues from their conversation.

By now, Mephistopheles had already told Medea about his plans. After hearing him out, Medea said, "So you intend to analyze exactly what the Holy Grail is, while also minimizing the damage it may cause?"

"More or less. Although Illya is only a hybrid of a homunculus and a human, she has ultimately gained a soul of her own. I don't want the mechanism of the Holy Grail War to damage her body."

Mephistopheles sighed.

"But I also know I can't guarantee that I'll find a true solution. So if necessary, temporarily sacrificing her body, then using the Holy Grail to obtain more knowledge and constructing a new body for her with that knowledge—that's also a possible option."

Medea could not help smiling. "You can't stand seeing others suffer. That really is your style."

Then she thought for a moment. "What I know so far is that the core of the Holy Grail, aside from the Illya you mentioned, is actually located at Ryuudou Temple. Or rather, that is the true center of the entire ritual. I've already investigated it, but I haven't gone there directly yet."

"What are you worried about?"

"There are quite a few magus families here as well. Miss Tohsaka's family is one of the local administrators, and there is also the Matou family. As for whether there are others, I don't know.

"Unlike the magi who came from elsewhere to participate in the Holy Grail War, these families have taken root here. They must have been preparing for the Holy Grail War for decades, perhaps even centuries. Having prepared until now, they certainly possess home-field advantages.

"They must also know about Ryuudou Temple, the center of the ritual. If so, they may very well have set traps there to deal with opponents who might come."

Medea smiled slightly. "My strength is fairly decent, but I'm not so careless. If I were successfully ambushed, wouldn't that be terribly embarrassing?"

"Is that all?"

"No, there's more. I don't trust the Holy Church."

Medea's words made Rin, who had been listening to their conversation, pause. She did not particularly like Kirei Kotomine, but she had never thought of distrusting the Holy Church itself.

Now that Medea had said such a thing, Rin could not help becoming curious about her reasons.

To her surprise, Mephistopheles smiled. "Just as I thought, you suspect the Holy Church too."

Seeing his reaction, Medea smiled. "You think there's something wrong with the Holy Church as well?"

"Yes. There's a problem, and a big one." Mephistopheles nodded, the corners of his mouth lifting slightly. "I don't know what the Holy Church itself thinks, but the person stationed here definitely has issues.

"After all, during the Fourth Holy Grail War, there was someone who used excess Command Spells to openly take sides."

Rin knew that he was talking about her father and her father's disciple, the priest of the church now—Kirei Kotomine.

Thinking of that, she had to admit that he was right. The Holy Church could not be trusted.

Still, Rin had a different opinion on this matter.

"There won't be a problem this time. I have no intention of working with him, so he has no reason to participate in this Holy Grail War."

But Mephistopheles and Medea both rejected that statement at once.

"Rin, you haven't thought this through."

"You're too naive, little girl."

Rin puffed out her cheeks and muttered, "So why are you saying I haven't thought this through and that I'm naive?"

Mephistopheles immediately explained, "It's simple. You don't know Kirei Kotomine well enough, and you don't know what his goals are. Maybe he has a wish he wants granted too? The Holy Grail is a wish-granting device, after all.

"Not to mention how he frantically guided Shirou Emiya that night, as though he wanted Shirou to fully accept that the Holy Grail War was a game in which Masters had to slaughter each other. His mental state is deeply worrying too."

That explanation left Rin unsure how to respond. Mephistopheles was right—there was something deeply wrong with Kirei Kotomine's mind. By ordinary human medical standards, Kirei Kotomine definitely suffered from some kind of psychological illness.

And people with such illnesses were generally quite dangerous. What was most terrifying was that this man also possessed considerable combat ability, as well as an identity that allowed him to hide outside everyone's notice!

At that thought, Rin could not help drawing in a sharp breath.

"Wait, I've always excluded him from consideration and never thought that he might be planning something. If he truly intended to do something in this Holy Grail War, and I hadn't summoned Mephistopheles but that quiet-looking Saber instead...

"No, no, wait. That doesn't mean I would definitely lose. It just means that because I'm too trusting, I might end up getting stabbed in the back.

"But with my intelligence and talent, I would definitely discover his problem in the end and still win. It might just be a little harder than usual."

Thinking that, Rin felt slightly reassured by her own talent and intelligence.

Mephistopheles could not be bothered to tell Rin all of Kirei Kotomine's secrets. She would discover them eventually anyway. Right now, he had other things he wanted to ask Medea.

"So, what happened in Ancient Greece after I left?"

"You were sucked into a rift in space-time and vanished. Everyone searched for you, but in the end, the gods issued an oracle telling them that you could not be found. Only then did they resume their journey.

"Artemis and I got off the ship midway. I hurried home first, while Artemis accompanied me in case anything happened." Medea said, "After all, you know my father had quite a temper."

"Yeah, he definitely did. His temper was so bad that it got written into mythology." Mephistopheles gave his assessment.

Medea continued, "I spent a very long time persuading my father and explaining the hidden issues involved. In the end, I finally convinced him to abandon his insistence on protecting the Golden Fleece.

"Of course, there still had to be trials. If he simply handed it over, then it would mean he had disregarded the gods' instructions.

"And during those trials, I did help Jason solve the challenges my father created. My father's trials were quite difficult, after all. As his daughter, my betrayal caught my father 'off guard.'"

"Right, you have to commit to the act. That was definitely necessary. But that meant your father hunted you down afterward?"

"Of course not!" Medea immediately shook her head. "Naturally, my father 'generously' forgave me because I was his daughter. I willingly gave up the throne and guarded the kingdom, becoming its witch!"

Mephistopheles suspected that the gods had written some sort of script behind all this. But no matter how that script had been written, future history had not changed much. Everything still developed according to its destined course.

The Greek gods departed, Christianity rose, war swept across Europe, and the familiar history that continued until the present remained unchanged.

"Oh, right. Who did Jason marry?"

"Him? He was originally supposed to marry Hypsipyle, but he returned first to demand that his uncle return the throne. Unfortunately, he failed and could only flee alone. I remember that he eventually died in depression...

"Hypsipyle wanted to give him the throne, but he refused it. What a pity..."

"So it was still a tragedy..." Mephistopheles could not help sighing. Jason's future had still become a complete tragedy, though at least his fate seemed much better than in myth. Even if he died depressed, he had lived for many years and had Hypsipyle, who loved him.

"Not bad. At least his love was fulfilled. I suppose that was the gift I gave him."

Mephistopheles smiled and did not blame himself. After all, he had never intended to help Jason in the first place.

"What about Atalanta?"

"She never married and became a priestess of the moon goddess. Artemis couldn't do anything about it and couldn't persuade her." Medea glanced at Mephistopheles. "And that's your fault!"

Mephistopheles immediately cried injustice. "I didn't do anything?!"

His voice was filled with grievance, as though snow might fall in June at any moment.

Medea gave a cold laugh. "Atalanta was never very interested in men to begin with. Then she finally found someone she was interested in, but that person did far too much for her and left too deep a mark. She couldn't move on!"

After saying that, she shot Mephistopheles a sidelong glance. "Tell me, who was this man?"

Mephistopheles put on a puzzled expression. "Yeah, who could he be? He actually made Atalanta interested and even kept her from marrying for life. That's incredible. He must have been an extremely handsome man!"

Medea dearly wanted to condense a magical whip and give the shameless man before her a vicious lash.

How could he be so shameless?!

Though it was true that he was handsome!

And very young too!

The more she thought about it, the more Medea's face reddened.

"Then doesn't that make me and Mephistopheles an older woman and a younger man?"

Rin, who had been listening beside them, felt like her whole world had gone wrong.

What kind of developments were these Greek myths?

Why had Jason ended up with Hypsipyle? Why had Medea become something like a royal adviser?

Wasn't Atalanta supposed to have been tricked by the goddess of love? How had she become a priestess of the moon goddess and remained unmarried for life? And from the sound of it, Mephistopheles was the reason. Atalanta liked Mephistopheles?!

Thinking of that, Rin remembered her younger sister Sakura Matou and the obvious intimacy between Sakura and Mephistopheles. Then she thought of Illya, who clung to Mephistopheles every day, and glared fiercely at him.

She had to admit that this guy's looks really were attractive!