The infinite sword system has been mastered, and you say this is the dragon clan?

Chapter 386 Power! The very reason to be king!

"Adopted sister? Ugh!" Xia Mi pouted. "I'm afraid your 'adopted sister' is just a facade. Emiya, you wouldn't happen to be..."

"Sister-in-law"? I think it's more like... "Sister-in-law"?
"Hey, stop thinking nonsense. She's very important, but the doorway isn't the place to talk, it's not a good place to explain. Stop talking nonsense, Helvey, let's go!"

Helviel, who had brought Emiya and her newly adopted sister to Shadow Border, nodded dutifully. With a kind smile, she quietly inquired about Emiya's well-being upon his return from the mission, while leading him to the meeting room. She also brought over her sister Orluen to ask if they needed help settling Claudia in. This was a hundred times better service than Xia Mi's.

Seeing this, Head Maid Xia Mi was stunned for a moment, thinking to herself, "Something's not right with you two maids! Are you secretly plotting to overthrow me and climb over my head? Just wait and see, I'll make things difficult for you!"
Herville smiled lightly. That's enough. You lecherous dragon king, you've already self-destructed a truck and want to climb into bed as a concubine. Do you think it's your business if we sisters want to improve ourselves?
As the group stared at each other, exchanging friendly glances, little Claudia nestled closer to Emiya's chest, her breathing even and her sleeping face radiant with sweetness. It seemed the little girl was exhausted from running around outside.

Emiya didn't pay attention to the maids' daily workplace conflicts. Such petty squabbles probably happened at least two or three times a week, if not seven. Compared to these trivial matters, he was more concerned about and thinking about what happened before he returned to Shadow Border.

Previously, Claudia had been in high spirits as she was led by Emiya into the capital city of Jerusalem.

However, after Emiya left the church and found temporary accommodation (having asked Kiyohime for help, and promising to help her in return), the girl fell asleep within minutes of sitting on the soft, luxurious velvet bed in the bedroom, instantly entering a state of baby-like sleep. Clearly, her long journey and wandering had accumulated considerable fatigue.

But Emiya keenly noticed that the girl showed no surprise at the luxurious living environment they had found in the Holy City.

It's worth noting that Kiyohime, who led them to their residence, said that this was a noble residence only a Heroic Spirit like herself deserved, complete with a sizable courtyard and garden, a private bath... No wonder the Servants were willing to risk their lives for the Emperor; besides the Holy Grail Drops, this superior treatment was clearly an attraction.

However, Claudia was not interested in this, which means that her previous environment was already quite high-class, and the only place that could be more upscale than such a large aristocratic mansion was basically the emperor's residence.

Sure enough, this girl has some inexplicable connection with Nero, who was said to have died a year ago.

After the little girl fell asleep, Emiya brought her here.

Of course, Emiya didn't go to Shadow Border after leaving Jerusalem, as that would have been too conspicuous and easily discovered.

Servant-level powers have become rampant in this singularity world, and strange and unusual powers may emerge one after another. For example, Assassin may be able to hide in the shadows and monitor others using "Presence Concealment," and he may not be able to keep up with everything.

Therefore, Emiya only contacted Helvétie after arriving at the temporary residence and confirming that little Claudia was asleep.

Afterwards, she led Emiya and the other two to infiltrate the Imaginary Realm using imaginary teleportation, arriving at the waiting Shadow Border. This significantly reduced the chances of their clandestine operation being discovered.

"Has everyone else arrived?"

Emiya finally placed little Claudia on a bed in the small infirmary within Shadow Border, and then went to the meeting room with the others. Already seated were Nuwa, who had accompanied the mission, Captain Constantine, and Mash, the marshmallow-like junior…

There should have been a group of followers as well.

They separated from Emiya to explore other cities in this singularity—unlike the Chaldea staff, Servants do not need to change their appearance or identity; they naturally appear in different eras and thus do not reveal whether they belong to Chaldea—so in situations where it is not advisable to be exposed in Chaldea, they are all natural explorers.

They had agreed to return to Shadow Border at the same time as Emiya, but it seemed that the Servants were a little late in arriving.

"It seems that Miss Jeanne Alter and the others have some matters to attend to. I heard they have been recruited by Roman emperors from various places. Because they are discussing whether it is worthwhile to pretend to agree to go and 'infiltrate' them, a dispute has arisen among them. When Miss Orluen went to pick them up, it seemed that they decided to resolve the issue in a meeting."

Mashu gently explained Emiya's question, then she noticed that Emiya's attire was also quite different from usual.

As one of the people exploring the singularity, Emiya's ability to impersonate the "Sword Emperor" was not based on words, but on the illusion carefully prepared by the black magician Prellati.

This made his hairstyle, clothing, and even demeanor completely different, resembling a dashing young war general in a cloak, not much different from the image of the Sword Emperor Lucius, almost seven or eight parts similar. Coupled with the disguised Spirit Origin reaction, even the Servant opposite him would find it difficult to doubt the Sword Emperor's identity.

“Emiya-senpai’s outfit is very fashionable!” Mashu said, looking at Nuwa. “I heard that this design was thanks to Miss Nuwa?”

When Nuwa nodded, Emiya, while having no objection to the aesthetic style of the battle robe, couldn't help but remark, "Well, this should be considered retro, right?"

"Ah, I've heard about this 'cosplay' style of role-playing in modern times, so seeing what you look like now, I couldn't help but feel a sense of déjà vu..."

The group chatted for a while before the Servants finally took their seats. It seemed the Helviel sisters had finally brought the person back.

To be honest, Emiya found it too troublesome to make this round trip every time, and he always had to do it secretly. If the Servants or he were busy and couldn't get away, they would also have to miss it. But since he was new to the Singularity, he really had no choice. Under the premise of concealing his identity, communication with Chaldea required an environment so secretive that even the local Servants couldn't detect it.

Emiya watched helplessly as several of them, especially Minamoto no Yorimitsu, Shuten-dōji, and Jeanne d'Arc Alter, argued incessantly from the moment they entered Shadow Border, and their conflict seemed to escalate further as they fought over seats in the meeting room.

He inwardly sighed with relief that he had been so "foresighted" as to sit between Nuwa and Mashu early on, with Nuwa sitting first at the end of the conference table.

Therefore, those who came later had to sit on the other side of the long table or next to Mash, which caused Mash to shudder and feel inexplicably uncomfortable, as if she had suddenly been subjected to a lot of invisible stares.

"Then, the meeting of the 'Rome Singularity' shall officially begin."

The screen lit up, and Caesar Gattuso's blond face leaped out of the void. "I have received briefings from relevant personnel, including information on the six Roman emperors of this singularity and the Holy Grail War taking place on this land."

"Then, there are the specific events of the Holy Grail War, and the mysteries that still need to be investigated. I will not repeat the basic information about the known rulers of the major Roman Empires—the following is the latest battlefield intelligence obtained by Joan of Arc, Mary Alter, and a few others."

"First is Caligula, located in the northwest corner of the Roman world. He and his territory are on the verge of being completely conquered. He is retreating step by step in the face of Emperor Trajan's offensive, and it seems that he will soon lose his last capital. We all believe that he will be the first to be eliminated in the Holy Grail War."

"Secondly, Gaius Octavian Augustus has always maintained a tight defense and will not give any preferential treatment to Servants recruited temporarily. Deep intelligence is difficult to investigate, so he is not a good partner." "According to intelligence, the situation in the east is that the dictator Caesar is at a stalemate with Trajan. Constantine is the weakest party besides Caligula, but he is the most willing to cooperate. Emiya, you can try to cooperate with him."

"As for this side, Servants skilled in conquering cities and engaging in direct combat can try temporarily joining Trajan's side to participate in the final battle of 'annihilation.' Trajan happens to be the strongest force in the west, and he is expected to continue accumulating advantages to eliminate his opponents. This will give you a better chance to investigate and make contact with the 'Holy Grail' held by each of the emperors..."

"In short, we can temporarily cooperate to obtain more information without directly and independently participating in the Holy Grail War. Do you Servants have any problems? What do you think, Emiya?"

As soon as Caesar finished speaking, a chorus of voices rose and fell.

Because of the late-night meeting, Jeanne Alter was still yawning and daydreaming. When she was suddenly asked, she looked blankly at Mary Alter beside her, but the latter gave a silent sneer and made no attempt to tell her what had just happened. In her panic, she looked at Emiya.

“I think so too,” Emiya nodded.

Upon seeing this, Jeanne Alter immediately declared, "Me too!"
Caesar observed this strange interaction, thinking to himself that Emiya's range of choices in potential partners was getting wider and wider... "Team Leader Emiya, I heard that you also qualified for the Holy Grail War thanks to a girl? Are you sure?"

"Theoretically, yes, it is the golden cup-shaped prop that the little girl I brought back was holding. There's a small chance that she's the seventh one, but more likely she's some kind of being that's one with the Lesser Grail. In any case, to others, I seem to be the seventh participant."

After finishing his sentence, Emiya recalled the words of the Holy Grail War overseer, the deity named Amor, "You've all seen the briefing, haven't you? This thing called the Lesser Grail seems to need to accumulate magical energy on its own, rather than being full of magical energy from the start. This is completely different from a regular Holy Grail War."

“I find this strange too,” Caesar said, puzzled. “Perhaps the appearance of Servants in large numbers is due to the singularity, which can be explained to some extent. But why does building a nation and making its territory prosperous fill the Lesser Grail with magical power? What is the principle behind this?”

He vaguely sensed something was amiss. Magic itself was a usable resource, and considering the phenomenon of this singularity—the more prosperous and powerful a society was, the more abundant its Holy Grail magic became; the more abundant the Holy Grail magic, the more magic resources could be distributed, which would further promote social prosperity and national strength—

Isn't this just like stepping on your right foot with your left foot and ascending directly to heaven, turning into an infinitely ascending path to the heavens?

If this singularity hadn't waged the Holy Grail War, but was instead a complete Roman Empire without any rivals, wouldn't it have made rapid progress, with its civilization's development soaring all the way to space, given its seemingly limitless resources and expansion-encouraging mechanism?
Is this reasonable?

"It's definitely unreasonable. The currently available information must contain some deliberate misleading information."

Nuwa pointed out a direction: "I looked at the records of the last singularity. Didn't that Charlemagne, who almost swept across Europe, build the extremely high throne of human love by sacrificing the spirits and souls of the common people?"

"The prosperity of the Roman world today must be built on some sacrifice or irreversible consequences; there is no such thing as a blessing that falls from the sky without any reason."

Caesar also expressed his hope to find out a similar truth, but when asked about such matters, Emiya and the others all shook their heads.

"We also want to find out something, but all the signs indicate that, apart from some war casualties, these magical resources called 'Drops of the Holy Grail' have more or less improved the original situation of the Roman people."

"At least for now, there are no negative effects from the Holy Grail's power. The problem is either the Greater Grail that hasn't appeared yet, but the Greater Grail won't appear until the entire war is over."

"So, we're completely helpless? Except for turning the entire Roman continent upside down?" Caesar felt the situation was difficult to handle.

“Even searching the whole world might not work!” Leonardo da Vinci from Chaldea suddenly chimed in, “According to the historical records of the Holy Grail War, the conditions for the Greater Grail to manifest are either winning or finding the original location of the Greater Grail system.”

She pulled up the data and projected it to everyone, saying, "Those kinds of places usually have extremely high-level barrier interference, right? In other words, they are specialized 'Nibelungen' that are difficult to detect."

"Isn't the method obvious?!" Jeanne Alter slammed her hand on the table in frustration. "Forget about any temporary cooperation, just join the Holy Grail War and defeat everyone! Then we'll see what kind of scoundrels are hiding behind the scenes! Perfect—"

She paused, and the instant her eyes met Shirou's, she flinched as if electrocuted, feigning confidence, "Perfect, we...we're qualified to participate in the Holy Grail War! Let's fight!"

"Uh—" Emiya thought to himself, I haven't even expressed my agreement yet, and you were looking at me just now. Did you take some kind of spur-of-the-moment interpretation?

"..." Black Mary remained silent, having just witnessed the eyes, mindset, and subtle movements of Black Jeanne, a girl experiencing the first stirrings of love in her adolescence.

What should I do? Can I smile? But I feel like if I smile, this dark-skinned, irritable assault woman will turn red in the face and start a fight on the spot.

"The Holy Grail War? We can fight it." Nuwa was surprisingly the first to agree.

"Shirou, you still remember the abilities you displayed this time, which were all related to the Sword Training Ground system, right?"

"Yes, although I tested the summoning of Servant Shadows when I rescued Claudia, I felt that I could only summon a maximum of twenty or so at a time. What are the benefits of participating in the Holy Grail War?"

"Of course there is. Your sword training ground needs more martial arts and weapon reserves to be improved. It just so happens that there are so many Servants in this singularity. Isn't this a natural treasure trove?"

Nuwa's words left Wei Gong speechless, his expression shifting rapidly.

In that instant, his perspective on the singularity completely changed.

That's right! This isn't a singularity that urgently needs to be addressed, but rather a blessed land where he can cultivate and increase his power! And the qualifications to participate are readily available.

Indeed, this power is the very reason to be king!

I, the Chaldean Sword Emperor, the Rakshasa King of a foreign land, the seventh strongest king on earth, challenge the entire Roman world!

(End of this chapter)