『Newbie』: I might not be able to visit you for a while.
@Esdeath
『Cancer of the Earth』: Huh?
Mr.
Byakuya, did something unexpected happen on your end?
『Newbie』: Yeah.
Something I expected to happen in about a year suddenly moved up to two weeks from now.
I’ve already entered the actual preparation phase, which has messed up my plans a bit.
『Utako Kasumi』: This…
could it be a chain reaction caused by you leaving that world for a bit?
『Newbie』: Hard to say.
『Newbie』: It looks that way, but my intuition tells me the main problem isn’t there.
『Esdeath』: If you can’t come…
should I send the other half of the Winged Lion to you via a red envelope?
『Newbie』: No need, no need.
You guys enjoy it.
Chika and Utako need it more than I do.
I’ll just go hunting once I’ve finished with this.
After apologizing for flaking on his group mates, Byakuya closed the chat interface.
Seeing the young girl still looking at him nervously, he hesitated for a moment and decided to explain the origin of the Command Spells on their hands.
He explained the Holy Grail War—a conflict planned by the three great families: the Einzberns, the Tohsakas, and the Matous.
Occurring roughly every sixty years, the Grail grants qualification to Masters, who then summon Servants to fight to the death.
The final victor claims the Holy Grail…
“Me, you…
and that man are all enemies?” Sakura Matou’s mouth parted slightly after hearing the general process.
“Enemies in name only.
The reality depends on the people making the decisions.”
Byakuya gave her an example: “Look at Tokiomi Tohsaka and Kirei Kotomine.
Both were chosen and received Command Spells, yet they still maintain a master-disciple relationship.”
“Mm…”
Sakura Matou thought about it, then said seriously, “Then I’ll listen to everything you say, big brother!”
“Alright then, thanks, Sakura~”
Byakuya chuckled and gave her a gentle pat on the head.
A short while later, the meat porridge in the pot was ready.
After breakfast, the two went to the living room.
Using a jar of mercury found in Zouken Matou’s warehouse, they began sketching the most basic summoning circle—
Although formally the Master summons the Servant, it is actually the Holy Grail that performs the summoning.
The Master’s primary role is to provide “qualification.” Therefore, the ritual itself only needs to be functional; it doesn’t need to be overly complex.
“Doesn’t it say here that you need a ‘catalyst—a relic with a deep connection to the Heroic Spirit’ for the summoning?”
While Byakuya was sketching the circle, Sakura Matou had been catching up on her studies with a ritual book found in the Matou library.
Seeing Byakuya simply take a piece of white paper, write a few lines on it, and place it in the circle, she asked in confusion.
“What you’re describing is what happens when someone tries to summon a specific duplicate of a Heroic Spirit as their Servant.”
Byakuya explained, “Without a Catalyst, the ritual summons a Servant at random.
However, this ‘randomness’ isn’t truly absolute; it’s influenced by factors like the summoner’s personality and their current circumstances.
In other words, if you set aside raw power, a Servant summoned this way will theoretically have incredibly high compatibility with their Master.”
“As it happens, I didn’t have high requirements for the Servant’s combat strength,” he continued.
“Rather than fighting capability, I was more concerned with whether the Servant possessed a certain…
quality.”
“Quality?” Sakura Matou repeated curiously.
“Yes.” Byakuya nodded.
“If you remember my conversation with that old worm yesterday, you might recall that I admitted I’m not a magus.
Therefore, my goal in participating in the Holy Grail War is to see if there’s a way for me to acquire the aptitude for magic.”
“Originally, I placed most of my hopes on the Holy Grail—the prize for the victor.
However, something I read in a book I found in the Matou library yesterday made me think I could take a gamble during the summoning process itself.”
Saber, Lancer, Archer, Rider, Caster, Assassin, Berserker.
These were the seven orthodox classes of the Holy Grail War.
Among them, the essential requirement for a Caster was to possess a high level of magical ability.
In other words, with a few exceptions like renowned authors or artists, any Servant manifested in this class—even if they weren’t from the Age of Gods—would generally possess magical skills far surpassing those of a modern magus.
And a magus of that caliber would very likely possess the ability to grant Magic Circuits to an ordinary person like him.
“So, that piece of paper you used…?” Sakura looked toward the center of the ritual circle.
“Think of it as a little tweak I added, though I’m not entirely sure if it’ll work,” Byakuya replied.
“Regardless, I have the specific incantations, and since I’ll likely be among the first Masters to begin summoning, bringing forth a Caster should be feasible.
As for whether the Caster is the *kind* I wrote on that paper…
well, even if my luck is poor and I just get a generic Caster, they should at least know basic ‘Reinforcement’ magic, right?”
He gave a small shrug.
“Even in the worst-case scenario—where I summon a Caster who can’t even use Reinforcement—everything simply returns to square one, and I’ll just have to win the Holy Grail with my own two hands.”
“I see…” Sakura nodded, though she looked only half-convinced.
Signaling the girl to step back, Byakuya looked at the Command Spells on the back of his hand.
Although he lacked Magic Circuits, the laws of this world dictated that a small source of Magic Power came from the magus’s own life force.
The primary function of Magic Circuits was to convert that life force into usable Magic Power.
Since the Grail system had granted him Command Spells, completing a basic summoning should be possible…
right?
With a hint of uncertainty, he began the fundamental summoning chant.
Starting with five repetitions of “Let silver and gold fill,” he laid out the foundation of the contract, declaring, “Thy body shall be under my command, thy sword shall be governed by my fate.” He swore “To fulfill all the good in the world and suppress all the evil,” and then added a specific set of incantations tailored for the Caster class.
The ritual circle erupted in a blinding light as Magic Power surged through it.
As he uttered the final words—”Seven days of three great words, coming from the wheel of the World’s Will, Guardian of the Balance—” a figure emerged in the center of the circle.
She was tall and slender, with refined features, snow-white skin, and long, flowing silver hair.
This image…
“Caster, Morgan le Fay.
I presume it was you who summoned me?”
The newcomer’s gaze settled on Byakuya.