Actually, Emiya felt that he and Charlotte were not close enough for that—he considered their relationship nothing more than a partnership between a contractor and a client.
They had first met through a website called "Hunter"—a site specifically for bounty hunters, mercenaries, assassins, and similar people to take on jobs for money. Its commissions ranged wildly from exploring ancient tombs and ruins to hiring killers, and all sorts of shady content were everywhere.
Emiya was not surprised by the existence of such a website. His adoptive father, Kiritsugu Emiya, had worked as a mercenary and assassin, and Kairi Sisigou, who appeared in the Fate/Apocrypha Timeline, was the same. Both also possessed the mystic-side identity of magecraft users.
This showed that it was a gray area between the Mystic Side and the Mundane Side. Although the Mystic Side strictly adhered to its foremost principle that "mystery must not be revealed to the general public," this area was tacitly permitted to exist.
Since coming to this world, Emiya had taken several ruin-exploration commissions through the platform. Relying on the muscle memory left behind by the body's original owner, he was an exceptional fighter and moved with agility. With reliable teammates as well, he had completed them rather easily.
He had also happened to become acquainted with two wealthy employers, Charlotte and the Governor of Gaul.
However, Shirou Emiya had logged in this time to find channels through which he could inquire about Noble Phantasms. Ancient families with millennia of inheritance might have Noble Phantasms in storage, or at the very least possess crucial information. He remembered that Bazett's family had preserved Fragarach, a Noble Phantasm passed down from the Age of Gods, while a village somewhere in England held King Arthur's Holy Lance Rhongomyniad.
"Oh, what's a Noble Phantasm? It sounds like some kind of setting."
The Governor of Gaul was intrigued. He was unexpectedly a closet otaku, but his answer was disappointing. Emiya guessed that the Governor of Gaul's family had a short history, or perhaps was simply a branch family of some great clan—
Even ancient Mage Families could have main and branch houses. Branch houses generally only managed businesses and had no family inheritance, so they did not concern themselves with news from the Mystic Side.
"A Noble Phantasm can be understood as a legendary armament. They often appear in myths and heroic tales, such as the holy sword from the legends of King Arthur, Indra's vajra from Indian mythology, Odin's Divine Spear Gungnir from Norse Mythology, and so on."
Disappointed, Emiya typed out an explanation.
That made sense. Why would ancient families appear on a bounty hunter website like this? They should have their own secret channels.
However, Charlotte's pretty-girl avatar suddenly flashed, and she sent him a private message.
"Are you someone who knows the truth of the world?"
Europe, the sprawling private estate of the Göttingen Family, an alchemy family with a thousand-year legacy.
Charlotte Göttingen, the current heir of the Göttingen Family and holder of one of Cassell College's Board of Directors Seats, tied her pale golden hair atop her head. Her fair, jade-like face, still carrying a touch of baby fat, shone beneath the sunlight, making her look like an exquisite doll.
The noble greenery in the garden outside the window was as delicate as gold-and-silver filigree. The interior décor displayed a magnificently glazed style of extraordinary craftsmanship, while Beethoven's "Spring Sonata" flowed softly through the room.
At that moment, Miss Charlotte wore a grave expression as she stared at the screen, where messages kept refreshing. Then she saw Shirou Emiya's reply—
"I do. This website was originally a gray area between your side and the mundane side, wasn't it?"
Charlotte relaxed and began typing. "Then you should also know that many of the weapons from the Age of Gods you mentioned are Conceptual Armaments that surpass human-level standards."
Alchemy in this world had seven outstanding achievements known as the "Seven Great Kingdoms." One of them was "Conceptual Armament," which literally meant armaments forged using certain concepts as materials. Space-time, causality, and natural laws all fell within the scope of concepts. The unavoidable-hit effect of Eternal Spear Gungnir clearly contained conceptual-level materials.
Only the alchemy of the Age of Gods... in other words, Dragon King-level alchemy, could possibly achieve such a thing.
In this Dragon World, every myth was distorted dragon history. Before the human age, dragons had ruled this planet. The Age of Gods was the age of dragons, and the greatest divine artifacts must naturally have been Alchemical Weapons forged by Dragon Kings.
What was now called alchemy had originated from dragons. It was equivalent to their science, a tool and field of knowledge through which they observed, understood, and reshaped the world.
After the dragon age was overthrown and the human age arrived, humanity developed its own science. Only alchemists like Charlotte still pursued the Dragon Alchemy of the past, yet even her family's research into the Seven Great Kingdoms remained quite shallow.
Then Emiya replied again. "I was only giving examples. It doesn't have to be something as exaggerated as mythological weapons. More recent ones would work too."
"That's good, then. My family is also considered an alchemy family, so I can help you look into ruins where ancient weapons have recently been unearthed."
"Thanks! My Reinforcement Magic practice has been going smoothly lately, but I almost got stuck at the next stage of training."
Reinforcement Magic?
Charlotte froze. What was that?
Emiya explained that it was a technique used to reinforce weapons and push them beyond their original performance. It could probably cut through alloy steel without difficulty. He had quite a few weapons like that.
Charlotte said, "Isn't that an Alchemical Weapon made of 'Regenerated Metal'? The standard alchemical process is 'kill the metal, then let it regenerate,' forming Regenerated Metal with stronger properties... My family specializes in alchemy and has some weapon stockpiles, but where did a hunter like you get so many Alchemical Weapons?"
Emiya immediately replied, "I don't understand alchemy. I already said I reinforced them myself. If you insist on asking where they came from, I bought sword and knife crafts online through eBay. Ginza also has physical specialty stores, but a lot of dealers were charging inflated prices, so I didn't buy from them. I only got cheap stuff. The quality being worse didn't matter—it was perfect for practicing Reinforcement Magic."
Charlotte was instantly stunned. If he was not lying, then she might have encountered an alchemical prodigy!
After all, the reason alchemical equipment could be stably produced these days was because modern industrial technology had become advanced enough. As for high-end Alchemical Weapons that possessed their own Alchemy Domain and rivaled ancient famous swords, those were within the realm of Alchemy Masters...
In other words, despite being so young, he had nearly become an Alchemy Master just by practicing with low-quality swords and knives bought online?
It was like Stark being kidnapped by terrorists and handcrafting the first Iron Man Armor in a cave. It was absurd.
Charlotte could not help wondering who Shirou Emiya had studied under. Surely he was not a graduate of the academy?
Emiya hurriedly said that he was not. He had previously followed a Japanese young lady—meaning Rin Tohsaka—as her assistant to the Association to study Western Magecraft. He was not even an official student.
Charlotte nodded. She immediately thought of Cassell College's Japan Branch. Every year, that place sent a group of Japanese mixed-bloods to the main campus for further study. Unfortunately, the main campus knew very little about Japan's situation, even though she was the heir to a Board of Directors Seat.
But what was this Association he mentioned? The Abraham Blood Covenant Society, another name for the secret party? And the Reinforcement Magic and Western Magecraft he had mentioned... Charlotte thought, Were these just cringe Japanese names?
But since Emiya was not even a student, it seemed that he had no mentor either. Perhaps he had merely heard some unreliable rumors from the News Department. So Charlotte tried asking him about his general impression of the academy's leaders.
Emiya immediately said, "Your leaders are a dozen or so heads of so-called ancient noble families—the Twelve Lords of the Clock Tower. The biggest one is an eccentric old man who has lived for a very long time—the Jewel Mage, who is more than two thousand years old. He's often away from the school."
"There's another one who stays at the school but is difficult to see—the Clock Tower Director Brisasan. I heard those two are peers, and both were taught by the same master, King Solomon."
Charlotte thought it over. Cassell's seven board members, plus four elders such as Beowulf, did indeed make eleven people.
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 advanced in age. He was responsible for assisting Angers at the academy, and since he spent most of his time living alone in the clock tower, the students certainly would not see him...
But King Solomon—did he mean Blair Bittner, the "King Solomon of Mathematics"? In the field of mathematics alone, King Solomon truly was their teacher...
Before you continue