The Key of All Spirits.
That was what Roland called the ring on his hand.
That morning, the ornate silver ring had appeared on his hand without warning. It felt so seamless, as though it had fused with his skin, that he barely noticed its presence.
When Roland finally noticed it and took it off in confusion, he discovered something strange about the ring. He had clearly left it on the table, yet the instant he closed the door, it reappeared on his hand as though it had never left.
Whether he locked it in a box or threw it out the window, the ring reappeared on his hand a moment later. While Roland was still agonizing over what to do with the Key of All Spirits, and what this apparent cheat item could actually do, the clock on the wall struck noon.
Then, without warning, he was transported to another world.
That was why Roland was sitting alone on a bench outside a park, wearing nothing but a thin shirt and jacket while everyone else was dressed for winter.
"So, is this Japan? Or some kind of parallel world?"
Roland calmly surveyed his surroundings. He was no international student, but the signs hanging from the surrounding high-rises and the Japanese writing on the street signs made that much clear.
To his own surprise, Roland was not shocked by the fact that he had traveled to another world.
When he arrived in this new world wearing the Key of All Spirits, information about the ring and its various abilities had surfaced in his mind.
The Key of All Spirits could not only travel between worlds, but also grant Roland all sorts of supernatural abilities. Its reason for choosing him was simple: he had the aptitude.
That aptitude had nothing to do with Roland's intelligence, talent, or personality. It was an aptitude for making contact with unknown beings in the void.
In short, Roland had a high degree of spiritual sensitivity.
This aptitude, inconspicuous and even somewhat dangerous in everyday life, was precisely why the Key of All Spirits had bound itself to him.
The Key of All Spirits housed numerous Contract Spirits. They had once been extraordinary beings: some were gods who had existed since the distant past, while others were unusual yet powerful mortals, or members of the many races of other worlds. Apart from a few special cases, most of these Contract Spirits were barely alive, not even qualifying as remnants of souls.
To preserve their power while eroding their wills, the owner of the Key of All Spirits could enter into contracts and obtain their power by paying a certain price. After meeting specific conditions, the owner could fully absorb them, making the Contract Spirits' power entirely his own.
Ultimately, however, the Key of All Spirits was merely a tool without self-awareness. Without a user to direct it, its power was incomplete. After all, a contract required two parties from the outset.
As it wandered aimlessly through countless worlds, mechanically searching for an owner and creating new Contract Spirits along the way, chance occasionally favored a lucky Contract Spirit. After being created, they escaped successful collection and were left scattered across various worlds.
As the person chosen by the Key of All Spirits, Roland's task was to recover these scattered Contract Spirits and increase his access privileges until he truly became its master.
In every sense, the Key of All Spirits was an excellent cheat. Although it gave him a goal, that goal was not compulsory. If he wanted to coast through life, he could spend the rest of his days in this world without any trouble.
As a mere tool, the Key of All Spirits would not issue mandatory missions or punish Roland for failing to complete them. The information it conveyed only told him how to increase his access privileges.
Aside from the first, utterly unannounced jump catching him off guard, Roland was very pleased to have acquired this cheat. He had no attachments in his original world anyway.
"But is this really another world?"
Roland felt a little awkward under the gazes around him. Since he was outside the park entrance, people were still coming and going. Wearing only a thin jacket, he stood out among those who had already begun layering up.
If his age had not offered an excuse-he was barely into his twenties, with the innocence of university's ivory tower still clinging to him-the curious looks directed his way would probably have multiplied several times over.
After almost half an hour of observation, Roland could tentatively conclude that this world had entered the modern era. He still did not know how its history and culture differed, but judging by its technology, it seemed to be a little behind his original world.
Judging by the clothes of the passersby and the housewives playing with their children in the park, there probably were no widely known supernatural abilities either... at least not on the surface.
"Anyway, I should gather some information first."
Roland stood and headed into the park. At a bench beside a nearby flower bed, an office worker in a suit had finished packing up his lunch box. He rose from the bench and hurried toward the exit.
He clearly had no intention of picking up the newspaper he had casually folded and left beside him. Although Roland had only read newspapers as a child, he knew a little about the place those seemingly flimsy sheets had once occupied in the media.
During the past half hour, not a single person had taken out a phone to fiddle with it-not the mothers quietly watching their children play and chatting nearby, nor the wage slaves visiting this pleasant park for a midday break or lunch. Even those pressed for time checked either the watches on their wrists or the clock mounted high above the middle of the lawn like a flagpole.
For someone who lived in a modern society, it was a remarkably novel sight. Before his arrival here, even in the old residential complex where he had rented a place, with hardly a young person in sight, the small groups of elderly residents included a few who played short videos at full volume.
Barring any surprises, this newspaper should provide plenty of information. Still, Roland did not expect a single newspaper to clear up all his questions about the world he had landed in.
Roland unfolded the newspaper and sat on the bench, hiding his expression behind its broad pages as he scanned for Chinese characters he recognized.
The first thing that caught his attention was the small black print at the top of the page. Beside the numerical date, a note in parentheses read "Heisei 6."
"1994, huh? Wasn't that during the bubble economy?"
Roland instinctively began reading from the left, only to find his eyes overwhelmed by densely packed kana and small announcements divided into columns. For someone with no grounding in the language, reading a newspaper, with text as its primary medium, was hardly a pleasant experience.
The goddess of fate seemed to delight in revealing her mischievous side when least expected.
Just as Roland thought he would come away empty-handed and began focusing on headlines composed mainly of Chinese characters, one caught his eye.
-Fuyuki City hits record high of 11.2 degrees
To the right of the headline, lettering printed within a black graphic like a sign identified the newspaper.
Fuyuki News.
He knew that name very well. Although he would not go so far as to call himself a die-hard Type-Moon fan, Roland had seen quite a few works in the series.
But actually arriving in Fuyuki City as an ordinary person was enough to shake even someone as composed as Roland considered himself.
He had long heard all about Fuyuki City's routine brushes with nuclear annihilation.
Although he did not know the exact year, judging by the era, this was undoubtedly the time of the Fourth Holy Grail War.
Roland drew a deep breath and slowly exhaled, forcing his thoughts to settle. Even so, all he managed was to turn his panic into a daze.
By the usual conventions, even if I have to face a trial, shouldn't I start with something like Highschool of the Dead? Isn't making the Nasuverse an ordinary person's first stop a little beyond the syllabus?
If there was any silver lining, it was that after combing through the newspaper, Roland found no sensational news such as gas explosions, only a small sidebar about a murder. Presumably, the Fourth Holy Grail War had not officially begun yet.
But that offered little comfort. On this winter afternoon, the merciless north wind mirrored Roland's state of mind, sinking deeper into bleakness with every passing moment.
He zipped his jacket all the way up and wrapped it as tightly around himself as possible to conserve his body heat. Rubbing his stomach, Roland became aware of another, more immediate problem.
Compared with the distant, nebulous threat of the Fourth Holy Grail War, where he would sleep tonight and what he would eat next demanded far more attention.
He was currently saddled with three debuffs: a language barrier, no legal identity, and not a penny to his name. On top of that, he was in an unfamiliar city. Once the novelty of traveling to another world wore off, dread and fear for the future immediately welled up.
Often, only when people found themselves in danger did they recognize the good things they so easily overlooked in a peaceful life.
Watching the newspaper in his hands tremble and rustle in the wind, Roland's expression darkened. He almost wondered whether this was a hint from heaven. He had only just arrived, and this was his welcome?
"Besides, isn't this the wrong place to grind the homeless achievement? Shouldn't that be on the continent across the ocean? High schoolers are Japan's specialty, aren't they?"
Spouting outrageous remarks, Roland patted his cheeks and dispelled his unease. He could not just sit around waiting to die when trouble struck. Besides, even if he were given another chance to relinquish the Key of All Spirits, he would still choose to hold on to it.
No one would ignore a miracle within arm's reach.
And he still had one chance to turn his fate around.
Roland rubbed the ring on his hand, sensing the information it conveyed.
Key of All Spirits -Contract Spirits held: none -Contract Spirit draws: one
This ring was no wish-granting machine, nor could it let him freely select his desired abilities like a convenient Lord God. But it was a tool capable of creating Contract Spirits throughout countless worlds. Surely it could not be wholly unaware of the person it had chosen?
Roland did not ask for the power to destroy heaven and earth. Contract Spirits were no Doraemon offering help without a price, after all. But he yearned for a chance.
Draw a Contract Spirit.
After a moment of contemplation, Roland silently issued the command in his mind, closed his eyes, and waited for fate to arrive.
Then a chaotic silver-white light appeared within his closed eyes, contracting and twisting as it conveyed the result.
-Contract Spirit: Yoshikage Kira