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

Chapter 426 And you, my friend, you are the true King of Alchemy.

Two flowers bloom, one branch each.

Meanwhile, at Chaldea headquarters, the Chaldea Anti-Monopoly Ordinance and the basic policy of collecting resources from various eras, promulgated by Director Caesar, had been in effect for some time. During this period, the notorious merchant Leonardo da Vinci had to work overtime to develop the Shadow Border II (a transport-specialized model) in order to atone for his crimes. As a veteran captain, Constantine took on the important task of piloting the ship without hesitation.

Ordinary daily necessities and food reserves are easy to deal with, since these things are not difficult to collect in any era. If it is really inconvenient or not cost-effective, Chaldea headquarters can also grow and process them themselves. Besides, the warehouse reserves are far from being depleted.

But other things are different. Whether it's the research needs of Da Vinci's workshop or other Caster Servants, or the research needs of the magicians at Chaldea headquarters, there's a significant shortage of special and rare materials. Where will these shortages be filled? By excavating the historical lair of dragons, of course!

It was for this reason that Constantine, who was more familiar with his own kind, was appointed as the captain of the second unit... Of course, it wasn't his turn to actually take action; that role went to Xia Mi.

The little maid, grumbling and feigning reluctance, became a "dragon traitor" or rather, a guide, leading a large group of Servants, including Constantine, Darius III, Odysseus, and Finn, to sweep through dragon lairs and nests in different eras, destroying various ancient tombs and ruins, and looting all valuable items, materials, and treasures.

As for the Death Servant Dragon Guardians who were originally going to resist, they dared not move at all when they saw Xia Mi leading the way. Under the intimidation of the bloodline of the first generation, they all bowed and scraped and called her "Great King". It can be said that they have brought a free and plentiful welfare gift package to the Taijun.

Xia Mi's thoughts on this were: Wow, finally... finally she's found a field to excel in! It's not easy, this opportunity where she can be summoned and dismissed at will, where leading is guaranteed to win and she can make a fortune has finally come her way!
Thinking about the ups and downs of her life ever since she entered Chaldea—no, ever since she bumped into Emiya—she couldn't help but shed tears in the middle of the night, only to wake up and have to continue working for others for many more years.

Constantine retorted, "Isn't your current predicament entirely your own fault? Besides, you won't always be in charge of the supply transfer operation, Xia Mi. Once the material shortage isn't so severe and the number of transport-specialized imaginary submarines increases, we'll definitely select a more suitable heroic spirit to replace you—"

Xia Mi, jolted awake from her blissful dream by a slap, glared angrily at Constantine. How dare this cowardly brat following Norton around so blatantly look down on her? You've gone too far!
Constantine thought to himself, "Me, a little kid? You're the youngest of eight brothers and sisters." He paid almost no attention to anyone except his brother Norton. He simply shook his head, seemingly ignoring Xia Mi's protests and annoyance. Then, taking advantage of the opportunity to go out for a transfer and driving, he applied for a short leave from Director Caesar and returned to the Atlas Institute to spend two days with his brother.

"Why are you back? The crisis of humanity hasn't been resolved yet, has it?" Norton was still conducting experiments when he received the message. He was wearing a white lab coat with charred hem and messy hair, looking like a reclusive researcher who had been staying at home for a long time.

It wouldn't be accurate to call him autistic, because the Atlas Institute had a whole bunch of neurotic researchers just like him, tinkering with research projects.

...But looking at Norton's unkempt appearance, Constantine saw a worrying tendency for him to assimilate with the mentally ill.

"Not yet, I just came back to see my brother."

Constantine himself was neatly dressed and had a natural gaze. Having gone through the trials of at least two high-intensity singularities, he seemed to have become more humane and learned teamwork. It was as if a recent college graduate, with clear but foolish eyes, had been working hard for several months on a difficult, stressful project that, once overcome, yielded extraordinary results, and his whole demeanor had undergone a transformation.

At least that's how Norton sees it.

He watched with slight surprise as his younger brother Constantine stepped forward, straightened his disheveled clothes, dusted them off, and placed a gift box in his hands.

"this is?"

"A small formal dress I made in my spare time while at Chaldea. It uses a singularity specialty called the Holy Grail Drops and the scales of the demonic beast Crimson Scales. It has the effect of strengthening the body and increasing magical power..."

"That's interesting, but why did you suddenly think of giving me this?"

Constantine's fingers nervously clenched inside his sleeve. "According to Emiya, this is a 'bond costume' that can serve as proof of a partner."

Constantine overheard this from a conversation between Emiya and Leonardo da Vinci. The former criticized the latter for trying to make money by putting this into the Atelier gacha pool without any conscience, but Constantine thought the idea itself was quite good.

"Hmph... unnecessary." Norton's expression seemed unchanged, but according to his little brother Constantine's observation, there seemed to be a barely perceptible two-pixel upturn at the corner of his mouth, probably because he felt that his brother's trip out for training was worthwhile.

Seeing that his brother had accepted the gifts, Constantine began to inquire about the current situation of their old home, Atlas House. Norton snorted again.
"There's not much to say. You know what the mental state of these human researchers is like. Don't worry, your brother is definitely the most normal one among them... Oh, they recently heard that many gods and large monsters have appeared in the singularity, so they've finally given up on Transformers and started working on those individual weapons that can kill gods."

Norton spoke with a hint of smugness in front of his brother, “I told them that one of my seven weapon projects happened to be a concept related to ‘black guns,’ and then they all finally agreed to work together with me! The only slightly annoying thing is that they occasionally have a brain fart and affect me.”

Constantine thought to himself that this was exactly what he was worried about.

He sensed that his brother Norton was starting to accept, or even be assimilated, by the mentally ill members of the former Armaments Department... You see, before, his brother's attitude towards these crazy people was as if they had encountered some shameful source of pollution, and he wanted to isolate them immediately. Now, they were actually able to work on projects together!
And judging from my brother's tone, it seems he's been involved in this for quite some time now. This is an incredible change! A huge and shocking turn of events!
Constantine felt this way about Norton, and Norton felt the same way about his brother.

After talking for a while, Norton asked again, "You must have had a mission this time, right? Will Chaldea allow you to come back? They won't mistreat you, will they?"

When this topic came up, Norton seemed to transform from a fanatical alchemy expert back into a cool and aloof older brother who openly and secretly cared for his younger brother.

"It's alright, brother. I've already asked the director for leave, and the atmosphere at Chaldea is great. We have more than one dragon..."

Constantine was giving some descriptions that seemed rather abstract to others.

In reality, even he himself found it difficult to express the composition of Chaldea, because it was simply impossible to go into detail... Aside from a few dragons of both Eastern and Western origins, Chaldea had a mysterious death queen and songstress, a training room war maniac, a singularity beast-level war criminal, a Roman emperor obsessed with eating and drinking, a genius shrewd businessman, and a female imp illusion master...

If all the Heroic Spirits gathered at headquarters, they wouldn't rest without causing a few disturbances every day. Fortunately, Emiya and Director Caesar had the foresight to come up with a way to both exhaust their energy and make them contribute to Chaldea by sending them to various eras as foreman and temporary individual business owners running internal shops. Otherwise, the order would be even more chaotic.

Norton probably couldn't comprehend the bizarre and arduous life he experienced at Chaldea; after all, dealing with the researchers around him, who were masters of creating drama, was already enough to drive anyone crazy. Unable to empathize, he simply nodded. "So, there were other people on this Shadow Border ship you sailed here with? Or did you come back alone?"

“Ah, there are Servants on the submarine. Chaldea currently only has one combat submarine for conquering singularities and this supply submarine. But I’m the captain, so they won’t disembark unless I say ‘we’ve arrived,’” Constantine knew how troublesome the Servants’ personalities were, so he would occasionally use his wits.

Norton frowned as he looked at the massive, black imaginary submarine not far away—a different model, but much larger. Because it was rushed out by Da Vinci, the technology was up to par, but the aesthetic appeal was nowhere near as impressive.

He suddenly said, "What, Jormungandr is here too?" Constantine turned his head and saw the girl's head sticking out of the open hatch. "Didn't you say you wouldn't come down?"

"I didn't want to come either, but times have changed!"

Xia Mi pouted. Seeing the two brothers together reminded her of her good-for-nothing, foolish older brother, Fenrir. Unlike Constantine, who showed obvious improvement, Fenrir hadn't matured in temperament or become much smarter in all the years since hatching. She seriously suspected that dissecting his head would reveal a brand-new, completely unused brain. Sigh, she'd be satisfied if Fenrir's IQ increased by even 30% or 50%.

Norton then said, “Brother, it doesn’t matter what Jormungandr says, it doesn’t matter whether she comes or not—with her ignorant and simplistic thinking, she probably wouldn’t understand a single punctuation mark used in the communication here at Atlas.”

"Hey! I didn't mess with you this time! I'm against the alchemical hierarchy; dragons are equal now, you know that?!"

Xia Mi, once again subjected to a blatant taunt, wanted to give this reclusive alchemist a good beating, but ultimately held back, remembering she had something more important to do. "That reclusive... Norton, it was Emiya who suddenly asked me to come find you—he's in the Singularity and can't come back right now—mainly because I have a new idea I'd like to discuss with you about the Servant's 'Spirit Origin Ascension'..."

"Spirit Origin Ascension!?"

Although he didn't like the guy in front of him, Norton patiently listened to Xia Mi's description out of respect for Emiya. His eyes flickered, and he completed a high-speed calculation in his mind almost as soon as he finished speaking.

"Huh?... Multiple superimposed spiritual reforging, I see. Although it's bold, it is indeed a technology that can break through the limitations of ordinary spirit origins. It's theoretically feasible if combined with a special environment! It can even greatly enhance the growth potential of Servants! I'll stop the other projects for now and let Hermes calculate the specific spirit particle processing model."

Norton spoke with certainty and without hesitation, because he was very skilled at creating spirit origins, and Constantine was second only to him in skill.

The two brothers were very familiar with the techniques, but they were amazed that this would be another extraordinary technological breakthrough... Emiya always came up with ingenious ideas and was also strangely responsible for the principles of alchemy. They really wanted to pry open his head to see what kind of otherworldly brain circuits were inside.

Xia Mi hesitated for a moment, "Actually... Emiya said he tried it on himself first..."

"Nonsense!" Norton blurted out instinctively, his Atlas Institute researchers frequently causing trouble by violating regulations, which was almost triggering a stress response in him. But then he remembered that Emiya couldn't be judged by ordinary standards. "How is he?"

"It seems like they said a lot of things, meaning that although it hurts a lot, the effect is good, etc."

Norton sighed, "Fine, I understand. It's because his constitution is different."

To become a god-slayer means one's physical aptitude is sufficient to bear the weight of a god. After a long period of fusion and adaptation, one has undoubtedly surpassed many living beings and followers. In short, high stats, high tolerance for error, and the ability to withstand setbacks. This is a unique advantage.

Moreover, Emiya's approach is correct. Even without relying on theoretical models, if he tries based on his own intuition, he will inevitably make good progress.

The brothers, the Kings of Bronze and Fire, exchanged a glance. So, Emiya had already completed the research steps, and all that was left was theoretical refinement and application? Completely unchallenging! Norton thought maybe they should just give the title of King of Alchemy to Emiya. Constantine, noticing his brother's reaction, also imagined Norton pointing a finger and saying, "And you, my friend, you are the true King of Alchemy!"...

Norton pondered for a moment. In the context of conquering singularities, this would be something urgently needed in a critical situation. "Alright," he said, "I'll complete the theoretical model and immediately produce a test version of the spell and related magical artifacts and tools—"

Constantine raised his hand, "Brother, let me help too! I'll deliver it when I'm done."

“Very good,” Norton nodded. The brothers worked together so well that the work was not tiring. Then he turned his gaze to Xia Mi, “As for you… go away and don’t disturb the work.”

"Hey! You talk like I care, but who's bothering you!"

"Because of you, my brother's hard-earned vacation was ruined!"

"Are you being unreasonable? You're the one who's in such a rush to finish the job, aren't you?"

"Use your brain, Jormungandr. If the situation wasn't urgent, Emiya wouldn't have risked his own life, much less send someone as useless as you to deliver a message!"

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

However, the singularity at this point—

"Let's have a banquet! Let's have a banquet!"

"Oh, oh, oh! A feast! Fine wine, delicious food, and a great treasure!"

Emiya sat in a daze at his banquet seat on the deck of the Red Furs, surrounded by the aromas of champagne, rum, grilled fish, lobster, snake soup, and other dishes.

He looked around and saw the Golden Hind and the Gorgon docked on either side without any warning. Then there were the captain and his first mates—Drake and Anne & Mary, Stheno and Euryale, and the Medusa sisters. The six of them sat on either side chatting and laughing. At the other banquet, there was a bunch of silly pirate sailors and Amazon warriors drinking, playing drinking games, and fooling around.

"By the way, wasn't I supposed to be presenting my mediation proposal? Why has it turned into a banquet?"

"Huh? What's the problem? We can talk about it over drinks, right? Pirates are all about living life to the fullest and having fun."

Drake downed a large bottle of rum. "Phew! I've never tasted this before, but it's surprisingly good! It has the potential to be a bestseller! Shanks, how about your chef consider joining my ship? The contract terms are negotiable."

Emiya resolutely refused, "I am but a humble chef, I do not sell myself, thank you!"

(End of this chapter)