"Word Spirit: Lockdown!"
Inside an ancient castle overgrown with vines, Li Mo was engaged in his final struggle against this mission's target.
"Impossible! Inside my Magecraft Workshop, how could a mage your age possibly possess such an abundance of magical energy?!"
Across from Li Mo, an elderly man in black was both shocked and furious, his face filled with disbelief.
Even when mages altered their appearances, most chose to look middle-aged or young. Li Mo's face made it obvious that his age matched his appearance.
Yet young mages of his age were usually still studying spellcasting at home. How could he possibly possess such powerful, profound magical energy?!
"The ignorant cannot escape calamity!"
Li Mo sneered, even cosplaying a certain child as he looked disdainfully at the old man. "How could a wandering mage like you understand the foundations of our Clock Tower? Charlotte Van Lau, your crimes have been exposed. Accept your judgment!"
"Projection: Heart!"
"Synchronization: Rhythmic Collapse!"
With a swish, an illusory heart suddenly appeared in Li Mo's hand. As it beat, Charlotte Van Lau's body began to twitch unnaturally, and an abnormal flush spread across his face in time with his heart.
"You... Even as a ghost, this old man will never let you go!"
Pfft. Charlotte Van Lau spat out a mouthful of blood and cheerfully went down with a GG.
Emmmm, Li Mo nearly burst out laughing.
"That's a mage's soul. Something that valuable, and you still want to become a ghost?"
They were both mages. Just how ignorant did he have to be to say something like he would not let him go even as a ghost?
Didn't he know that spiritual bodies were also magecraft materials?!
"Heh heh." The illusory heart in Li Mo's hand slowly vanished, and he directly pulled out a crystal ball and tossed it onto Charlotte Van Lau.
A high-grade spiritual body, acquired!
Flamingo's First Feather had long since been bought, and now he had a high-grade spiritual body too. Next, all he lacked was Banshee's Tear!
Once all three were gathered, the sun and moon would appear together... No, once all three were prepared, the puppet Li Mo had been yearning for could finally be made!
That was right. Not only was this his third mission for the Mage Association, but he had also already made contact with Touko Aozaki. The recipe for the puppet-making materials had come from her!
Thank heaven and earth, after waiting bitterly for several months, Li Mo had finally managed to wait for this great master!
If he really wanted to explain it, it would be a long story.
Li Mo wore a nostalgic expression. It had been a bitterly cold afternoon...
"Grandma, one serving of shredded pork with green peppers, another serving of spicy chicken, and seaweed egg soup."
Chinatown was not some specialty of a certain "free" country. Though it was only 1987, a global city like London already had a street entirely made up of Chinese businesses.
After staying at the Clock Tower for three months, Li Mo had spent an entire day searching before he found this place!
Toast, pizza, toast, pizza, every single day. He was about to throw up from it, okay? Was that even food for humans?
Fortunately, there was this place, which was practically heaven to Li Mo. Though the two worlds differed, their food cultures had not diverged much. This street, made up of Chinese people from all over, greatly satisfied Li Mo's appetite.
"Oh, Little Mo, you're here to eat again," Grandma Tang greeted him as he entered the little restaurant he frequented.
The owner's surname was Tang. Widowed early in life, she had fled here with her two children during those chaotic years of war.
As for why Li Mo came here so often, it was not only for the taste of home. Every time, she would add a few extra pieces of meat to his dishes and remind him to eat more. It made him feel warm inside.
It reminded Li Mo of his own grandmother, the elderly woman in another world who had raised him since childhood.
In her words, it was probably something like, "Young people should eat more so they can grow properly."
Though Li Mo ordered several dishes every time and still could not finish them all...
Because he was a mage, not some knight from a novel...
While eating, Li Mo wolfed down his food and teased, "Grandma, tell me about your younger days."
"Hehe, listen to you, Little Mo. What was there to say about Grandma back then?" Grandma Tang looked affectionate, but she did not refuse. Her gaze grew distant as she began chatting with Li Mo.
"Back then, Grandma was a famous beauty throughout all the nearby towns and villages. So many people came to ask for my hand, but I did not fancy a single one of them. Otherwise, how could I have ended up with that dead husband of mine later on?"
"When I was seventeen, several young men came to our village. They said they were students from the Imperial University and had fled to the countryside to escape the turmoil.
"Don't look at Grandma now. Back then, my family were still landlords, so their leader came to pay us a visit. After seeing each other a few times, we caught each other's eye, and he became that dead husband of mine." At that point, Grandma Tang sighed softly, as though lamenting the wandering hardships of the latter half of her life, or perhaps the joys and sorrows of her youth.
"But unexpectedly, not long after Grandma got married, people said that damned war was coming.
"My father told us to run and gathered up all the family's gold, silver, and jewelry for us. He wanted us to flee as far away as possible. But that dead husband of mine insisted on resisting the Japanese, saying that was what young people ought to do.
"Unfortunately, he could not win an argument against my father. With no other choice, he fled with me. Yet while we were running, he still went off to fight the Japanese. Once he left, I never saw him again."
Li Mo's heart trembled as he listened, and he set down the bowl in his hands. "Grandma, did you ever regret it?"
Grandma Tang smiled softly. The wrinkles on her face seemed to ease as she said, "No regrets. Why would I regret it?"
Back then, he was always saying things like "*******" and "Can the country die?" I did not understand those principles as a mere woman, but all I needed to know was that he was my man. If he believed something was right, then as his wife, what right did I have to think otherwise?
"So, children like you are truly fortunate to have been born in this era. That time was far too bitter.
"I know you are looking after me, Little Mo, which is why you order more dishes than you can finish every time. But there is really no need. Grandma still has a son and daughter. I do not run this little restaurant to make money. I am just old now, and when I have nothing to do, I find something to keep myself busy."
Li Mo grinned foolishly without replying, continuing to shovel rice into his mouth.
How much money could this possibly cost? The reward for any random mission he did was millions of times greater.
And in a place like the Clock Tower, it was truly too difficult to find familiar faces from home or eat such delicious food!
Besides, there were elderly people back home in the other world too. He would just consider it building up good fortune for them.
Seeing Li Mo say nothing and only keep swallowing the dishes on the table, Grandma Tang smiled brightly and stared at him with sparkling eyes. "Little Mo, do you have a girlfriend? Would you like Grandma to introduce you to my granddaughter?"
"Uh..."
Li Mo pressed a hand to his forehead. He was not even eighteen yet. He was still a minor, okay?!
Dating too early was bad for his health~
"No, thank you, Grandma! I'm still studying. Getting a girlfriend would be bad for my studies!" Li Mo firmly refused, declaring that he was someone devoted wholeheartedly to learning, someone noble and unmoved by feminine beauty!
"Really not? In my day, people your age already had children." Speaking of her granddaughter, Grandma Tang seemed to glow with vitality. She slowly took a photograph from her clothes.
"Here, look at Grandma's granddaughter. Grandma wasn't lying when I said I used to be pretty, was I?"
Li Mo was speechless. In the age of information explosion in his previous world, what beautiful woman had he not seen?
And in this Type-Moon World, there were Sakura Tohsaka, Rin Tohsaka, Ryougi Shiki, the Saber King... What beautiful women were there not?
When Li Mo raised his head and casually glanced at the photograph in Grandma Tang's hand, his entire body froze.
His hand trembling, Li Mo stared blankly at Grandma Tang.
"Grandma, is your granddaughter named Zhu Yin?"
Before Grandma Tang could even nod, Li Mo sprang up from the table. She was the dream girl of countless people!
And he had actually run into her here?
Before you continue