Chapter Fifteen: The Twin Blades of Light and Shadow

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My name is Lin Hao.

…There are two Sabers!

268:34:26

I was wrong. I had been wrong from the very beginning.

If I had not summoned an incarnation, I would never have discovered that degrading the disease infecting an incarnation could earn DNA points.

If I had not become so obsessed with infecting, degrading, and reinfecting it, I would never have used my Caster incarnation to create a self-torturing magical workshop.

If I had not built that easily misunderstood workshop, Emiya Kiritsugu would never have mistaken me for an ally.

And if he had not misunderstood my entire worldview, I would never have ended up stranded in this heartbreaking place.

The thing was, I had never been short of DNA points to begin with. What on earth had I been doing back then…?

“You two should have stopped me!”

Lying unconscious in a guest room at Einzbern Castle, I complained to the idiotic system and Miss Prompt while maintaining my comatose state.

[Huh? Wasn’t this all part of the plan?]

[Prompt: This behavior is consistent with both logic and the rules of the Holy Grail War.]

“All right, then. What do I do now? I can’t just return to the Root whenever I want.”

Throwing up blood and falling unconscious was still something I could accept. But suddenly turning into a vegetable? No matter how I looked at it, that was wrong.

[Prompt: Remote control has been connected.]

My formerly pitch-black field of vision suddenly lit up. A screen appeared, displaying the enormous globe in the Root. Oh, and I could even see myself in the corner.

A beautiful girl quietly sitting with her eyes closed in a garden swing chair.

I really wanted to add some gorgeous visual effects…

[The controls are the same as before, but you can no longer adjust the camera manually. Just tell me what you want done!]

The idiotic system sounded extremely… excited?

“Hit yourself first.”

[All right! …Huh?]

On the screen, the red cube froze for a moment before timidly drifting over and rubbing itself against the hand of my “main body.”

[…That should count, right?]

“Never mind. Put it on the tab for now.”

[Nooo… Sob, sob…]

“Hmm. It looks as though quite a few Heroic Spirits have been summoned during this period. Miss Prompt, can you replay the scenes for me?”

[Prompt: Waver Velvet has summoned Rider and suffered an enormous shock.]

On the screen, a gigantic red-haired man was laughing heartily as he covered the head of a thin, undersized boy with one enormous hand.

He was truly enormous…

[Prompt: Kayneth has summoned Lancer. The magical energy supply has been successfully transferred to Sola.]

Although the real people looked more lifelike than their animated counterparts—so lifelike that they seemed slightly unreal—the three figures seated at the nodes of a huge magic circle were still impossible to mistake.

Lancer was just as handsome as expected. What a pity that his eyes were closed; it was hard to tell whether he resembled Chen Kun.

[Prompt: The effects of “Charm” have been severed.]

…Huh?

[Alaya, be careful. “Lin Hao” is merely an ordinary person with mediocre magical aptitude.]

Well… that was all part of the plan.

A Servant alone could not prevent certain things from happening.

[Prompt: Tokiomi Tohsaka has summoned Gilgamesh. After choosing his room, he has already gone out for a stroll.]

More or less normal…

Wait. Does the fact that his class is suddenly being referred to by its English name instead of being transliterated mean…?

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“You mean Gilgamesh’s class is Gilgamesh, not Archer?”

[Prompt: The King of Heroes’ class is not “Knight of the Bow,” but “The Oldest King.”]

Somebody save me! Without acting like an idiot, delivering villainous speeches, flirting with Saber, and drawing Ea the moment he saw someone, how was I supposed to deal with Gilgamesh?

[Prompt: Because Tokiomi Tohsaka summoned two Servants as his retainers, he is unwilling to remain on the same level as his subordinates.]

What a capricious man. But… did that mean he would not act recklessly until the Mapo Priest and Ryunosuke were defeated?

To use his own words, eliminating the evil beasts in the garden was the gardener’s responsibility.

In that case, things should be fine. Even if he did not behave like an idiot, he still possessed the pride of a king.

There would always be some other way to set him up.

[Prompt: Ryunosuke Uryu has failed to summon Berserker.]

…What the hell?

[Prompt: The Holy Grail attempted to summon Caster, but the summoning ritual failed to activate completely.]

Ahaha… all right, that one was my fault. Technically, Illya should now be Ryunosuke’s Servant.

[Prompt: Tokiomi Tohsaka believes that summoning such a powerful Heroic Spirit as Gilgamesh has left the ley lines too depleted for another summoning. He has decided to try again in two days.]

“Idiotic system, disconnect Lancelot and Ryunosuke.”

[Hands successfully joined~]

“Miss Prompt, you are forbidden from letting that idiotic system watch matchmaking shows in the future.”

[Prompt: Confirmed.]

[Noooooo!]

“Then only Kiritsugu’s side remains. It seems he was furious that King Arthur was a woman and refused to speak with her?”

[Prompt: Emiya Kiritsugu is currently performing the summoning.]

Really? Let me see the live feed. The original story barely described the cold war that began between them after they were summoned.

267:45:16

“So, Kiritsugu, how do you intend to negotiate with the King of Knights?”

The images of Emiya Kiritsugu and Irisviel were projected onto the screen before me. They appeared to be inside a modest chapel. Irisviel stood to one side while Kiritsugu inspected the summoning circle on the floor. The legendary scabbard had been placed on a stand in front of the circle.

“According to history, King Arthur ultimately failed to save his country, and a large part of the blame lay with the king himself. Therefore, the wish that brought him into the present world was likely connected to that failure. I intend to use it as the starting point for negotiations,” Kiritsugu replied to Irisviel.

Hmm… What was that saying again?

I felt absolutely no emotional fluctuation. If anything, I wanted to laugh.

I was becoming increasingly eager to see his expression when he realized that King Arthur was a woman.

“Furthermore, as a king, he may not approve of my methods, but he cannot deny that they are necessary.”

Kiritsugu finished checking the magic circle and rose to his feet.

“As for the exact wording, I will improvise once I have made contact with him.”

Hey, I wasn’t bragging, but after coming into contact with me, he seemed to have grown somewhat more shrewd.

I watched as Kiritsugu began chanting the summoning incantation.

In the original story, he had behaved as though everyone else was drunk while he alone remained sober, and he had even waged a cold war against Saber. Yet he had still come within a hair’s breadth of obtaining the Holy Grail.

This time, thanks to my interference, the story would no longer follow its original course. Still, his relationship with Saber ought to improve considerably.

“…I am the one who accomplishes all good deeds. I am the one who carries out all malice.”

As Kiritsugu recited the incantation, the summoning circle began to emit waves of brilliant white light.

Oh… No golden radiance, no lightning bolts. It did not look like an SSR summon.

[Prompt: Spiritual foundation established.]

“—Come forth from the Wheel of Restraint! Guardian of the scales!”

Kiritsugu finished the final words of the spell, and the white light within the summoning circle flared dramatically.

Within it, I could vaguely make out the figure of a slender woman.

Hmm. I could see the ahoge sticking up from her head. Everything was fine.

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“Thank goodness, thank goodness. If Siegfried had been summoned, everything would have fallen apart.”

[Not necessarily. He is very powerful in his own right.]

“I was only making a joke, you idiotic system. Besides, given that the catalyst was a scabbard, the odds of summoning Red Archer were actually higher.”

[That would be the real disaster. Also, I am not idiotic.]

“Hey, seriously, the odds might have been pretty high. He has both the father connection and the relic. And his wish is to prevent himself from becoming Red Archer. If he came here, couldn’t he sever that fate at its source?”

I was enthusiastically letting my imagination run wild when a golden-haired, green-eyed girl in the Saber class stepped out of the white light.

“Nice to meet you, Master. Saber Lily has answered the summons. I look forward to working with you.”

What?

I pulled my thoughts together and looked more carefully.

She was an adorable girl dressed in an exquisitely crafted white dress of armor. Her voice was clear, and her eyes shone with hope. Lilies seemed to drift around her. Rather than wearing her hair coiled behind her head, she had tied it into a simple ponytail with a black ribbon. Even her ahoge stood up energetically instead of drooping down.

“How did this Saber appear? She is definitely Artoria, but did you bug out, you idiotic system?”

“No, I don’t know either… Sob, sob…”

Emiya Kiritsugu’s expression on the screen was indescribably complicated. It would have made an excellent reaction image.

I guessed that all his plans involving the “King of Knights” had just gone up in smoke.

But Lily’s words did not seem to have been directed at him. Her target appeared to be… Irisviel?

“Um… I’m sorry, but I believe your Master should be over there?” Irisviel gestured toward Kiritsugu.

“Hm?” Saber Lily looked at Kiritsugu, then shook her head. “But my magical energy supply is coming from you, Master.”

“This… What?” Irisviel partially closed her eyes and sensed the connection. Once she had confirmed it, she cried out in surprise as well. “Kiritsugu?”

As for Kiritsugu, he was staring at the summoning circle in disbelief. The white sphere of light, which should have vanished by then, had not disappeared. Instead, strands of red-black energy were staining it and its area was gradually expanding.

[Prompt: Spiritual foundation undergoing ascension.]

“Hey, Miss Prompt, what happened? Can eight Servants appear in a single Holy Grail War?”

[Even without counting the other variants, the Fifth War alone had two Assassins…]

That was merely a counterfeit created by Caster through exploitation of a loophole… Though it seemed I possessed the same ability this time.

Vwoom—

After the strange red-black light surging within the summoning circle suddenly swelled, it contracted in an instant and vanished.

In the spot where it had been now stood a black-armored knight, her armor marked with dark crimson patterns resembling flames. A strange mask concealed her eyes. The only other clear detail was that her hair was also golden, though slightly pale.

There was no ahoge at all.

“Saber Alter has answered the summons. Are you my Master?”

Her voice was somewhat low, but it was still clearly female—and very similar to Saber Lily’s. Her tone seemed to carry a hint of… disdain?

Emiya Kiritsugu looked even more shocked. With a slightly dazed expression, he turned toward Irisviel. She answered him with an equally bewildered look and held up the command spells that had newly appeared on her hand.

Identical command spells?

Two Heroic Spirits and six command spells. This was a huge advantage.

At the same time, Saber Lily widened her emerald eyes in surprise as she stared at Saber Alter.

“You… You…”

“Hmph!”

The two of them did not seem particularly compatible.

“Hmm… White summons White Saber, black summons Black Saber. Nothing wrong with that~”

[They cannot be summoned through normal means…]

“Stop dwelling on it. After I summoned Illya, you should already have been prepared for this.”

[Sob, sob…]

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