They've Met, They've Met

Actually, Emiya felt that his relationship with Charlotte hadn't reached that point yet—he considered them merely a cooperative partnership between a job-taker and a client.

Their first meeting had been through a website called "Hunter." This site was specifically for bounty hunters, mercenaries, and assassins to take on jobs for money. The scope of jobs ranged from exploring ancient tombs and ruins to contract killings, with a staggering variety of shady content.

Emiya wasn't surprised by the existence of such a site. His adoptive father, Kiritsugu Emiya, had worked as a mercenary and assassin, and Kairi Sisigou from the Fate/Apocrypha Timeline was the same. Both of them also held identities as mage-killers on the Mystic Side.

This indicated that this was a gray zone between the Mystic Side and the Mundane Side. Although the Mystic Side adhered to the first principle of "mysteries must not be leaked to the general public," this zone was tacitly allowed to exist.

Since his transmigration, Emiya had taken a few ruin-exploration jobs on this platform. Relying on the muscle memory left by his original body, he was agile and quick, and with reliable teammates, he completed them fairly easily.

Along the way, he'd gotten to know Charlotte and the Governor of Gaul, both wealthy employers.

But this time, Shirou Emiya logged on to find leads about Noble Phantasms. Ancient families with long histories might have stockpiles of them, or at least hold key information. He remembered that Bazett's family preserved the Divine Artifact Fragarach, passed down from the Age of Gods, and that Holy Lance Rhongomyniad of King Arthur was in some village in England.

"Oh, what's a Noble Phantasm? Sounds like some kind of setting."

The Governor of Gaul was enthusiastic—turns out he was a hidden anime fan—but his answer was disappointing. Emiya guessed the Governor's family had a short history of inheritance, or was just a branch of some major clan—

Ancient Mage Families might have main and branch houses. Branch houses usually only managed businesses without family inheritance, so they didn't pay attention to Mystic Side news.

"A Noble Phantasm, you can think of it as a legendary armament, often appearing in myths or heroic tales—like the Holy Sword in King Arthur's legend, Indra's Vajra in Indian mythology, or Odin's Divine Spear Gungnir in Norse mythology."

Emiya typed out an explanation, feeling disappointed.

Right, why would an ancient family show up on a bounty hunter site like this? They should have their own secret channels.

But then, Charlotte's cute girl avatar suddenly flickered, and she sent him a private message.

"Do you know the truth of the world?"

—

In Europe, the vast private estate of the Göttingen Family, a renowned alchemy clan with a thousand-year history.

Charlotte Göttingen, the current heir of the Göttingen Family and one of the holders of a Board of Directors seat at the secret society Cassell College, coiled her pale golden hair atop her head. Her face, with a hint of baby fat and skin as white as jade, caught the sunlight, making her look like an exquisite doll.

Outside the window, the noble greenery of the courtyard was as delicate as filigree. Inside, the decor showcased a dazzling, ornate enamel style, and Beethoven's "Spring Sonata" flowed softly in the background.

At that moment, Miss Charlotte wore a serious expression, staring at the screen as messages refreshed. Then she saw Shirou Emiya's reply—

"I do know. This site is the gray zone between your side and the Mundane Side, right?"

Charlotte relaxed and began typing: "Then you should also know that those mythological weapons you mentioned—many of them are Conceptual Armaments beyond human level."

In this world, alchemy had seven outstanding achievements called the "Seven Great Kingdoms," one of which was "Conceptual Armaments." Literally, these were armaments forged from concepts—time, space, cause and effect, natural laws, and so on fell within that scope. The guaranteed-hit effect of the Eternal Spear Gungnir clearly involved conceptual-grade materials.

That was the Age of Gods... something only possible with Dragon King-level alchemy.

In this Dragon World, all myths were distorted dragon history. Before the human era, dragons ruled the planet. The Age of Gods was the Dragon Age, and the top-tier divine artifacts were inevitably alchemical weapons made by Dragon Kings.

What was now called alchemy originated from dragons—it was essentially dragon science, the tools and knowledge dragons used to observe, understand, and reshape the world.

After the Dragon Age was overthrown and the human era began, people developed their own science. Only alchemists like Charlotte pursued the dragon alchemy of the past, but her family's research into the Seven Great Kingdoms was still very shallow.

Then Emiya replied: "Just giving examples. No need for something as exaggerated as mythological weapons—something more recent would work too."

"Good. My family is a renowned alchemy clan, so I can help you look into recently unearthed ancient weapon ruins."

"Thanks! I've been practicing Reinforcement Magic smoothly, but I almost got stuck on the next step."

Reinforcement Magic?

Charlotte's expression froze. What was that?

Emiya explained: it was a technique to reinforce weapons and break through their original performance. He estimated it could cut through alloy steel without issue. He had several such weapons on hand.

Charlotte said, "Isn't that just 'Regenerated Metal' alchemical weapons? The standard alchemy process of 'killing the metal and letting it regenerate' to create stronger regenerated metal... My family specializes in alchemy research and has a stockpile of weapons. But how does a hunter like you have so many alchemical weapons?"

Emiya immediately replied: "I don't know alchemy. Like I said, I reinforced them myself. If you're asking about the source, I bought sword and knife crafts online from eBay, and there are physical stores in Ginza. But a lot of the sword dealers had inflated prices, so I didn't buy those—I only went for low-end stuff. Quality didn't matter much; it was just practice for my reinforcement."

Charlotte was instantly stunned. If he wasn't lying, she might have stumbled upon an alchemy prodigy!

After all, stable production of alchemical equipment these days relied on advanced modern industrial technology. As for high-end alchemical weapons with their own Alchemy Domain, comparable to ancient famous swords—that was the realm of Alchemy Masters...

In other words, this young man, just by practicing with low-quality swords bought online, was already on the verge of becoming an Alchemy Master?

This was as absurd as Stark being kidnapped by terrorists and then handcrafting the first Iron Man Armor in a cave.

Charlotte couldn't help but ask about Shirou Emiya's teacher. Surely he wasn't a graduate of the college?

Emiya quickly said, "Oh, I'm not really one. I used to be an assistant to a Japanese young lady (referring to Rin Tohsaka), following her to the Association to study Western Magecraft. I wasn't even an official student."

Charlotte nodded. She immediately thought of the Japan Branch of Cassell College. Every year, they sent a batch of Japanese half-bloods to the main campus for training, but the main campus knew very little about Japan's situation—even she, as the heir to a Board of Directors seat, was no exception.

But what was this "Association" he mentioned? The Abraham Blood Covenant Society (another name for the secret party)? As for the Reinforcement Magic and Western Magecraft he brought up... Charlotte wondered if this was some Japanese chuunibyou terminology.

Since Emiya wasn't even a student, it seemed he had no mentor either. He might have just heard some unreliable rumors from the News Department. So Charlotte tentatively asked about his general impression of the college's leaders.

Emiya said outright: "Your leaders are about a dozen so-called ancient noble family heads (the Twelve Lords of the Clock Tower). The biggest one is an old man with a weird temper who's lived a long time (the Jewel Mage, over two thousand years old), and he's often not at school. There's another who's always at school but hard to see (Clock Tower Director Brisasan). They're said to be peers, both taught by the same master, King Solomon."

Charlotte thought it over. Cassell's seven Board members plus four elders like Beowulf did make eleven.

The secret party's leader, Hilbert Jean Ange, had indeed lived a long time and often ran around the world. Night Watchman Nicolas Flamel was also elderly, assisting Ange at the college. He mostly lived alone in the clock tower, so students definitely wouldn't see him...

But King Solomon—was he referring to "King Solomon of Mathematics," Blair Bittner? In the field of mathematics, King Solomon was indeed a master...