Fuyuki City, first-floor lobby of the Hyatt Hotel.
The usually well-trained receptionist was biting her lip hard, tears welling up in her eyes.
Her hands gripped the edge of the marble counter so tightly it looked like she might faint at any second.
Standing across from her was a foreign man with slicked-back, immaculately gelled blond hair and intensely sharp, harsh features.
Dressed in an impeccably tailored British suit, he held a mystic cane topped with a silver wolf’s head and was berating her in a shrill, piercing voice.
“Absurd!
Absolutely preposterous!”
Kayneth El-Melloi, head of the Spiritual Evocation department at the Clock Tower and Lord of the Archibald family, slammed his cane onto the front desk logbook with deafening thuds.
“A month ago, I had my assistant contact the manager of this wretched establishment to reserve the entire top floor!
Now you dare tell me that the largest presidential suite—the one with the best view—was taken last night by some uncivilized monkey out of nowhere?!
Is this how you Far East primitives treat your guests?!”
Standing half a step behind Kayneth was his fiancée, Sola-Ui.
The red-short-haired noble lady looked utterly impatient, not even bothering to glance at the receptionist who was on the verge of tears.
She merely urged coldly, “Kayneth, why waste your breath on her?
Just use hypnotic magecraft to throw them out.
I’ve been on a plane for over ten hours, and all I want is a hot shower.”
“S-Sorry…
that gentleman paid a full deposit in cash, and hotel policy strictly forbids us from turning away checked-in guests…” The receptionist’s voice trembled like a leaf in a gale.
“Silence, peasant!”
Kayneth completely lost his patience.
His eyes narrowed as a faint green light of mana flickered at his fingertips, preparing to use hypnotic magecraft to force this ignorant mortal to surrender the keycard.
“Yo, isn’t that what’s-his-face?
Bullying a front-desk worker in the middle of the night—is this all Clock Tower aristocrats are good for?”
Right then, the hotel’s automatic glass doors slid open to both sides.
A lazy voice—three parts casual, seven parts arrogant—echoed from the entrance.
Kayneth frowned, dispelling the mana at his fingertips as he turned to look.
A young man wearing a short-sleeved T-shirt strolled in casually, twirling a leftover barbecue skewer in his hand.
Behind him stood a timid man in glasses, a little girl holding a pink water bottle, and a…
golden-haired hoodlum in a leather biker jacket with a thoroughly defiant expression.
The moment the receptionist saw Yoru Hayashi, it was as if she’d seen her savior.
Tears gushed down her cheeks.
“Mr.
Hayashi!
You’re finally back!”
“Mr.
Hayashi?”
Kayneth looked Yoru up and down, his eyes instantly flooding with the disdain typical of a high-born magus.
“So you’re the uncivilized monkey who took my room.
Listen carefully.
I will give you one minute to go upstairs, pack your trash, and get out.
This money is enough for you to buy a doghouse in this wretched city.”
Saying that, Kayneth casually pulled a stack of US dollars from his inner pocket and tossed it onto the marble floor like he was tossing scraps to a beggar.
The air went dead silent for two seconds.
Yoru glanced down at the cash on the floor.
Instead of getting angry, he burst into a laugh.
He turned and patted Kariya Matou’s shoulder.
“Brother, you see that?
That right there is a textbook money-fountain.
Have you been stuck in the Matou family so long you forgot idiots like this exist in the wild?”
Kariya adjusted his glasses and nodded in deep agreement.
Looking at Kayneth now, he felt like he was looking at a ripe piece of chives waiting to be harvested.
“Mongrel!
You dare ignore me?!”
When had Kayneth ever suffered such humiliation?
At the Clock Tower, which apprentice didn’t treat him with the utmost reverence?
He thrust up his silver wolf cane.
A stream of liquid silver instantly surged from his sleeve, transforming mid-air into a sharp metallic whip that slashed toward Yoru’s cheek with an air-rending screech!
Volumen Hydrargyrum!
Not only could this construct defend automatically, but its attacks could cut through iron like butter.
Kayneth had clearly developed intent to kill, intending to slice this “peasant” clean in half.
The sixty Magic Circuits inside his body roared into life, coating his right hand in a haze of pale blue mana.
*Snap!*
A crisp, sharp crack echoed.
Yoru had actually caught the high-speed liquid silver whip with his bare hand!
“What?!” Kayneth paled in shock.
Volumen Hydrargyrum could slice through steel armor plates—how could it be caught so effortlessly?
“Gimme that!”
Yoru sneered, the muscles in his arm flexing with explosive power.
Channeling the raw, unstoppable momentum of Bajiquan, he yanked hard!
Kayneth felt a colossal force surge up the cane.
How could a pampered magus compete with Yoru, whose body was physically reinforced?
He lost his balance completely, stumbling forward out of control.
Yoru stepped forward in tandem, swung his left arm in a wide arc, and delivered a heavy, brutal slap right across Kayneth’s sneering face!
*SLAP!!*
The slap landed with devastating force.
Kayneth spun like a whipped top, completing two and a half full spins in mid-air before crashing heavily at Sola-Ui’s feet with a loud thud.
His immaculately gelled blond hair flew completely wild.
Half his face swelled up like a steamed bun, nosebleed gushing, with half a broken tooth flying out.
“Back in my hometown, we call this ‘physical muting,'” Yoru said, shaking out his wrist as he looked down at Kayneth.
“Do you know what ‘first come, first served’ means?
Ever heard of consumer protection laws?”
“Kayneth!” Sola-Ui shrieked, but her instinct wasn’t to help her fiancé up—instead, she took a horrified half-step backward.
“Y-You bastard!
I’ll kill you!
Lancer!!”
Lying in a pool of blood, Kayneth completely lost his mind, clutching his swollen cheek as he let out a hysterical roar.
*Swish—!*
Answering his master’s call, the ambient mana in the lobby violently surged.
An emerald-green whirlwind blew up, and a handsome knight clad in deep green body armor, wielding two spears—one red and one yellow—manifested out of thin air in front of Kayneth.
“Diarmuid Ua Duibhne, I answer your summons.”
The handsome Lancer’s eyes turned sharp.
The crimson spear in his hand transformed into a flash of crimson lightning, thrusting straight toward Yoru’s heart without a moment’s hesitation!
It was breathtakingly fast—so fast Yoru couldn’t possibly react in time.
After all, his opponent was a full-fledged Heroic Spirit with Agility A+.
But Yoru didn’t move.
He didn’t even blink.
Because behind him stood an individual with a far worse temper than Lancer.
*CLANG!*
A deafening metallic clash reverberated through the hall.
A golden shield etched with ancient divine runes suddenly appeared in front of Yoru, blocking the lethal tip of the red spear!
“A stray dog crawling out of nowhere dares snarl in the presence of the King?”
Gilgamesh stepped forward, his crimson, slit-like eyes oozing intent to kill.
Somewhere along the line, he had acquired a crushed cola can, which he tossed down at Lancer’s feet with a loud *clatter*.
“Kneel before me, mongrel!”
*Hummmmm—!*
In the void behind Gilgamesh, a dozen golden ripples expanded in an instant.
Countless Noble Phantasms radiating terrifying pressure emerged, locking dead onto Lancer and Kayneth on the floor.
“Th-This magic pressure?!” Lancer’s expression shifted drastically.
He immediately pulled back his spear and retreated, shielding Kayneth behind him.
As a battle-hardened warrior, his instincts screamed in alarm: the blond man in the leather biker jacket was overwhelmingly dangerous!
Meanwhile, Kayneth on the floor was so terrified he forgot to even wipe away his gushing nosebleed.
A Heroic Spirit!
That thug in the leather jacket was actually a Servant?!
What foolish Master had summoned such a monster?!
Just as the tension reached a boiling point, a strange gaze broke the deadlock.
Sola-Ui.
The young noble lady, previously so full of impatience, was now staring blankly at Lancer standing in front of Kayneth.
Her eyes were locked onto the intensely captivating beauty mark beneath Lancer’s right eye.
Her original arrogance vanished in a heartbeat, replaced by a mindless obsession and a sickly flush.
She unconsciously clutched her chest, her breathing turning shallow and quick. Read this novel at g.com for the best experience.
Love Spot: Forced Enchantment, triggered!
Kariya Matou, who had been watching the drama unfold from behind, keenly picked up on the shift in Sola-Ui’s expression.
Having once been “Fuyuki City’s No.
1 Simp,” he was all too familiar with that look!
*Hiss—* Kariya sucked in a breath of cold air and couldn’t help but give Kayneth a mental thumbs-up.
*Good lord.
Getting cheated on by your wife is one thing, but this foreigner actually summoned a Servant to cuck himself?!
Is this the legendary ultimate cuckold?!*
Yoru naturally noticed it too and broke out into an unreserved laugh.
“Hey, blond geezer on the floor.
Here you are trying to fight me to the death, while your wife behind you is drooling over your own follower.
With a head that green, people might think you’re a Street Fighter character.”
Kayneth froze.
He glanced back at Sola-Ui and indeed saw his fiancée staring hypnotically at Lancer’s back.
“Sola-Ui!
What are you looking at?!” Kayneth’s blood pressure skyrocketed past mortal limits.
Furious beyond measure, he spat up a mouthful of blood and passed out cold on the spot.
“What a pathetic, fragile farce,” Gilgamesh sneered.
The Noble Phantasms behind him hummed, ready to blast all three of these eyesores to dust.
“Hold up, Goldie, don’t use your ultimate yet!”
Yoru suddenly interrupted Gilgamesh’s channeling as his instincts throbbed wildly.
An abnormally violent wave of mana was approaching the hotel at an unreasonably fast speed!
*BOOM—!!*
In the next instant, the Hyatt Hotel’s two heavy bulletproof glass doors were shattered inward into a sky full of flying shards by a terrifying brute force!
Gale-force winds flooded into the lobby, scattering documents from the front desk every which way.
Through the dust and smoke stepped a small, petite figure clad in heavy silver armor, striding forward with the violent fury of a demon god.
Berserker Mordred.
Dragging her broad royal sword behind her, sparks flew wildly off the floor with every step.
Her emerald eyes were filled with unreasoning madness as she locked onto the blond man in the leather jacket standing in the center of the lobby.
“Found you…
Hahaha!
Found you at last!”
Mordred burst into a screeching laugh, raising her broadsword with one hand and pointing the tip directly at Gilgamesh’s nose.
“That old guy in red told me!
Blond hair, red eyes, and a punchable smug face like he owns the place!
You’re the bastard who stole that stupid fossil, aren’t you?!”
Mordred couldn’t care less about explanations.
Her Mad Enhancement A rank left her brain with only a single instruction: chop this goldie to pieces!
“Die, you thief!!”
The floor tiles beneath the Berserker collapsed into rubble.
Transforming into a streak of silver lightning, she raised her sword crackling with crimson lightning and swung it recklessly down right at Gilgamesh’s head!
*BOOM!*
Gilgamesh’s face turned darker than a burnt kettle.
Who was he?
The King of Heroes, the oldest king!
Today he had first been enraged by a modern arcade machine, then encountered a brainless Lancer, and now a rabid dog jumped out pointing at his face and calling him a thief?!
“Ignorant mongrel!
You dare pin such a low-class crime onto Me?!”
Gilgamesh exploded in full fury.
Gate of Babylon opened at full power.
Dozens of Noble Phantasms surged upward like an inverted meteor shower, crashing straight into Mordred’s descending blade!
Meanwhile, on the edge of the battlefield:
Yoru deftly scooped up Sakura in one arm and dragged the still-dazed Kariya behind a thick marble pillar.
As they took cover, Yoru hollered out to fan the flames: “Goldie!
Beat her up!
This brat is just a rebellious teenager with zero respect for her elders—teach her a lesson on King Arthur’s behalf!”
Inside the lobby, sword flashes and Noble Phantasm explosions blurred together as the entire Hyatt Hotel shook violently under the terrifying clash of magic.
Thus, through a comical series of misunderstandings, the first major chaotic brawl of the Holy Grail War prematurely erupted.