Watching Ryunosuke Uryu slowly slide off Killer Queen's arm and finally hit the floor like a tattered doll, Roland stepped around him and glanced into the living room.
"What a gruesome sight. If this got out, it would probably make the news. Nobody bothered with you in the original story, but you just had to work at my shop, didn't you?"
Even Roland, whose mind had already undergone an abnormal transformation, found this hellish scene somewhat nauseating. Carefully stepping around the bodies, he found what he wanted behind a nearby sofa.
It was an incomplete Magic Circle, its blood already dried. Judging by the traces, Ryunosuke seemed to have misjudged how much he needed. With little fresh blood left at the end, he had been forced to stop.
If not for his attempt to complete this Magic Circle, Ryunosuke Uryu would never have left evidence lying around this long, given his usual habits.
Realizing this, Roland scanned the area beside the Magic Circle and soon picked up a rather distinctive old book. Riddled with wormholes and bound in a distinctly homemade fashion, it looked like someone's personal notebook.
Roland casually flipped through it and was surprised to find long passages written entirely in Chinese characters, though their contents described Western magecraft.
The Uryu ancestor must have held a respectable position back in the Bakumatsu era to have been able to read Chinese fluently. Considering that he had been a mage, however, that hardly seemed strange.
"Well, lucky me."
Putting away the battered old book, Roland turned and returned to Ryunosuke Uryu. Perhaps because of a tenacious will to survive, the man still had not died.
He could no longer form complete sentences. His body instinctively tried to draw deep breaths, but his lungs could only spit out bloody froth. It looked utterly ridiculous.
"It hurts... ha, haha, so beautiful..."
There was unmistakable joy on Ryunosuke Uryu's face, even though his spasming muscles and the blood he coughed up had already made him look like a fiend.
Yet all he felt was ecstasy.
He could command an invisible evil spirit and regard human death with such indifference. There was no doubt about it-this was the companion I'd been searching for!
With supernatural powers, this man had transcended the world's ordinary rules. He could easily kill in ways beyond any normal person. If Ryunosuke could follow him and witness his art, he would gladly accept dying like this.
See? On our very first meeting, he'd already shown me that the most beautiful death had been hiding inside my own body, hadn't he?
Although blood had blurred his vision into a scarlet haze and his brain could no longer control his body, Ryunosuke Uryu gave one final murmur, as though trying to prove something.
"Ro... land..."
Then he laboriously raised his hand. Just as he was about to lose all sensation, a sudden burning pain shot through his arm.
The moment the dying murderer found something to yearn for, the Holy Grail faithfully bestowed its miracle upon him.
"Command Spells. How frightening. Originally, you were just a lucky fool chosen to fill an empty slot..."
Roland glanced at the murderer sprawled on the floor like sludge, spoke those icy words, then severed his wrist with his Stand without hesitation.
Strictly speaking, summoning a Heroic Spirit should have been impossible with an unfinished Magic Circle, but what if? Roland knew perfectly well that people who took the Holy Grail War's rules seriously generally came to a bad end.
"Oh, right. This probably isn't the time to say this, but I don't think I'll get another chance. I don't really like owing people anything."
Roland took out a five-hundred-yen coin and lightly flicked it onto Ryunosuke Uryu, who had already lost consciousness and was barely breathing.
"Keep the change."
Having secured his spoils, he gently closed the front door, burying the darkness within along with the murderer who had fallen from heaven into hell just after finding meaning in his life.
Once they had walked some distance away, Roland showed no intention of looking back. Killer Queen, following closely beside him, gently pressed his thumb down.
"BOOM-!!!"
The fiery blast whipped up a storm, battering everything nearby with terrifying light and heat and reducing the house to ruins. The gale was so fierce that even Roland's coat snapped in the wind.
Roland turned around, surveyed the devastated lot, and offered a poetic sigh.
"Another peaceful day in Fuyuki City, just like always."
With the man who went around drawing Magic Circles and murdering people gone, most of the remaining Masters still had principles, apart from Kiritsugu Emiya. It seemed life would be much quieter from now on.
As long as that so-called Gravity stopped playing tricks on him.
"All right, time to deal with this."
Roland took out Ryunosuke Uryu's final remnant, intending to blow it up. He had merely been influenced by a hand fetish; his sexual orientation was still normal. A man's hand had no value as a collectible.
Then he witnessed a strange sight.
-On the severed hand, three crimson Command Spells lit up faintly, radiating a dark red glow.
A mild stinging sensation also began on the back of the hand with which he held it.
Roland froze for a moment and turned his hand over. There was still nothing there. He was not even a mage, so naturally he could not be granted Command Spells.
Yet the burning sting did not fade, and the red light flashing from the Command Spells grew brighter and brighter.
Command Spells were the tickets the Holy Grail granted Masters to participate in this struggle. When a Master died or lost their Servant, the spells would be reclaimed immediately and held for reassignment.
Thus, Command Spells had to be seized while their Master was still alive. Otherwise, the Holy Grail acted far faster than any mage could. After all, they were essentially crystallized masses of immense magical energy, precious resources that were almost impossible to replenish.
Even the Command Spells retained by the Church had only been removed when Masters in previous wars voluntarily withdrew.
Then what was going on here?
Roland eyed the charred ruins suspiciously. The same Stand's abilities could vary slightly between users because their mental strength and personalities differed. In Roland's hands, Killer Queen's maximum explosive power was far greater than it had been in Yoshikage Kira's.
At the center of that explosion, not even fragments of Ryunosuke Uryu's corpse remained.
Though deeply shocked, Roland soon regained his composure and began to think.
The Holy Grail chose Masters it favored. Apart from the fixed places belonging to the Three Founding Families, the others were selected according to its own judgment. Since this Holy Grail was filled with black mud, its preferences leaned toward more malevolent candidates.
"So even though I don't have Command Spells, it recognized my qualifications?"
Supplying magical energy was not strictly necessary; the contract was what actually determined who the Master was. After all, Heroic Spirits could also obtain magical energy by devouring human souls.
Roland sneered. "But I refuse! One of my favorite things to do is tell self-important people NO and turn them down!"
"Killer Queen!"
With a light touch of Killer Queen's fingertip, the severed hand turned to ashes that could no longer be held and slowly scattered on the wind.
I've destroyed even your last vessel. Let's see what the Holy Grail can do to me now!
Roland dusted off his hands, a hint of smugness appearing on his face.
But as the ashes dispersed, the magical energy anchored where the severed hand had been did not return to the Holy Grail. On the contrary, the hand's disappearance seemed to have set it free.
In an instant, the Command Spells became a red streak and plunged straight into the back of Roland's hand!
The familiar burning sensation abruptly intensified until it felt like a branding iron, then slowly faded. Once nothing unusual remained, Roland turned his hand over with an ugly expression.
Three intersecting marks rested quietly on his skin, as though mocking him.
At this point, further words were useless. Chosen by the Holy Grail, Roland could only grit his teeth and offer it his warmest regards, one letter at a time.
"S!"