My wife is the stand-in.

Hmph, you think I'm after that piece of chicken?

I'm after the toppings for Kung Pao Chicken!

Bibimbap is the essence of Chinese cuisine and a must-try.

Don't underestimate the wit of a lazy bum!

Rin Tohsaka chewed the diced chicken angrily, then poured the Mapo Tofu into her bowl.

Having completed her revenge, she then replied with a hum:

"Of course, we're preparing a magic array."

Amanosaki shoveled rice into his mouth, speaking indistinctly, "Can't you use gemstones for painting? Why do you need to use these things? They look so troublesome."

He had barely finished speaking when he was lightly tapped on the head with chopsticks.

"Idiot, how can disposable items be the same as everyday items? You'll be using this magic circle from now on."

"Wow, that's awesome!?" Amanosaki swallowed the rice in his mouth and looked at the ingredients with some curiosity. "You mean you can use these things to make something that can last forever?"

"Humans can even forge machines from stones; the important thing is the technology, and materials are merely there to support that technology."

Rin Tohsaka ate a spoonful of tofu and said slowly:

"Your body has already memorized the feeling of using magic. What you lack now is the key to activate the magic circuits in your body. Unfortunately, I don't have enough time to collect those expensive catalysts and materials, so I can only give you the magic inscription."

Magic Crests are an important tool for modern magicians in the Fate universe, also known as the Type-Moon universe.

It is an artificial organ used to pass on the results of a magician's research to the next generation. By imprinting it, a magician can pass on his research and magic to his successor.

In the world of Type-Moon, since the Age of Gods ended, magicians have been unable to access the origins of the world. To reverse the estrangement caused by time, magicians developed something called a "magical crest"—a mysterious crest that has been trained and solidified. It can also be said to be a magical legacy that makes a magician's family lineage a magician's family lineage.

Rin Tohsaka's offer to relinquish her Magic Crest is as absurd as Madara Uchiha suddenly telling Naruto Uzumaki during the Fourth Shinobi World War:

It's like saying, "I'm going to give you the Rinnegan."

Or perhaps the Pirate King found Luffy before being captured, threw him a map, and said:

"This is the treasure map to my great treasure, 'ONE PIECE'. I feel it's destined to be with you, so I'm giving it to you today."

In short, it is far removed from the grand scheme of things.

"Huh!?" The man put down his chopsticks, staring at Rin Tohsaka in horror. "Aren't magicians just useless without their magic crests? You're the only magician in the whole world, no way!"

Rin Tohsaka patiently explained, "It's not a complete transfer."

"A magician family can only have one magic crest. It's not that people don't want to have more, but rather that cultivating a magic crest is too expensive. It often requires the entire family's resources to cultivate just one. In ancient times, the first generation of magic crests were often created by magicians implanting fantasy species into their bodies, such as the remains of dragons or werewolves."

"This world has supernatural abilities. Judging from the information about the fight with the heretics at the training ground that day, using the remains of those heretics is not impossible. However, I myself have no experience in cultivating magic crests from scratch, and using remains as magic crests would cause inhuman pain to the bodies of previous generations of magicians."

Rin Tohsaka rolled up her sleeves, revealing an exquisitely crafted magic crest that resembled a mechanical structure and encircled her wrist like a watch:

"After so many years of development, magic families have developed very mature techniques for passing on magic inscriptions. Children chosen as heirs often begin receiving inscription transplants at a very young age. The transplantation of magic inscriptions is not something that can be done overnight, but rather little by little, over many years."

"So magic crests can be cut. Moreover, in order to expand their families, magic families will also recruit young talents, separate a magic crest, and implant a small piece of it as a 'branch' so that the person can use magic systematically. It is much faster than starting from scratch."

"Of course, the person who implants the branch must offer tribute to the mother plant, which is called the main family's Origin Mark. After a few years of recuperation, the main family's magic mark will naturally recover its health. Those tycoon-like magic families have expanded rapidly by relying on this power."

Amanosaki listened attentively to Rin Tohsaka's explanation, but he was confused and didn't quite understand what "family-owned conglomerates" and "sowing pigs" meant. It felt like he was walking through a huge pig farm.

He took a while to process it, then suddenly slammed his fist on the table and stood up.

“I understand! This magic family is like a pyramid scheme. The Origin Imprint is like the head of a pyramid scheme developing downlines. Those who get a branch then develop their own downlines, and those downlines develop their own downlines. At the same time, a portion of the income is given to their parent branch, which is their upline, and the upline then gives it to the Origin Imprint.”

"Through this pyramid scheme model where one person tells ten, and ten tell a hundred, one can quickly obtain far greater profits than working alone. The internet is truly amazing; everything is indeed based on pyramid schemes! Even these magicians are getting involved. Hmm! I think it has a very promising future!"

Rin Tohsaka, watching Amanosaki get excited on his own, began to consider whether to throw the chopsticks like throwing knives, eliminating a potential criminal for society before this wicked man commits any further crimes.

Chapter 31: This thing is much better than a graphics tablet

In China, a very small room is called a "doushi" (斗室).

Whether on Earth or in this parallel world, Amanosaki seems to have a special connection with the small room.

From childhood to adulthood, he slept in cramped rooms. His family, which was not well-off, could not afford to provide him with a spacious bedroom, not to mention school dormitories.

Even after transmigrating, he was still penniless and renting an illegal rooftop structure with a living room.

But now, even against his will, Amanosaki has no choice but to admit it.

Here, on the eighteenth underground floor, hundreds of meters away from the surface, in a forty-square-meter alloy room where the sun never shines and the only light comes from artificial lamps.

He felt a peace he had never known before.

After finishing his meal, Amanosaki put on the only apron in the room, cleaned up the stove and dishes, then slumped onto the bed, stretched out his legs lazily, and started drawing on his digital tablet with a pen in hand.

He drew Rin Tohsaka sitting on the ground.

Rin asked him to relax as much as possible, not to do any strenuous exercise before the magic circle was completed, and to maintain a stable mindset.

So he chose to draw Rin's appearance.

The room was quiet, except for the occasional clinking of bottles and jars that Rin placed. Apart from that, the girl's breathing in front of Amanosaki could be heard clearly.

It's like springtime when the pond water rises, mosquitoes aren't rampant yet, the sun is shining brightly, there's little algae, and the clear pond water remains calm.

He thought this was perfect.

In reality, Rin was using enhanced gems to draw the base of a magic circle on the alloy floor, carefully pouring in a mixture of mercury and salt.

She was performing a dangerous operation that no one else could understand.

In Amanosaki's computer, Rin Tohsaka presents a different image.

The girl sat with her legs crossed by the lush pond, her colorful kimono clinging to her body, the folds accentuating her youthful figure.

She carefully took the bait out of the jar and fed the fish, which had been starving and thin from the winter, with great curiosity and joy.

Two hours later, Amanosaki put down his pen, took out his phone and casually snapped a picture of Rin Tohsaka's straight back, then uploaded the photo and the picture together to his post.

Unsurprisingly, several angry comments soon followed, with some even mimicking the sound of kowtowing and begging for tips on how to pick up girls.

While replying "True feelings for true feelings," Amanosaki uploaded the drawing she had made that morning of Rin facing off against the JK girl, and then opened the drawing software to start a new round of creation.

About two hours later, Rin Tohsaka patted her hands, which were covered in dust from the materials, and kicked Amanosaki with her foot.

"Okay, lie down now."

Amanosaki shifted his body, half nervous and half excited, joking, "I heard that hospitals forbid doctors from performing surgery on relatives and acquaintances. They say that cutting open the body of a friend or relative with a knife, watching the blood spurt out, and then cutting out internal organs, would make even the most skilled doctor's hands tremble and their heart soften. Rin, do you tremble too?"

Rin Tohsaka slapped Amanosaki's forehead with her wet, clean hand, pressing him into the magic circle: "Shut up!"

"Even if I pulled your guts out, my hands wouldn't tremble. I'm the best magician! Don't look at me with those mundane eyes!"

"Yes, yes, yes." Amanosaki let Rin do as she pleased, turning her head to look at the misty magic circle.

Amanosaki is a liberal arts student, and his chemistry and physics are quite bad.

Even he knew that liquid mercury is very stable at room temperature and could not possibly react chemically with table salt.

However, it happened. Rin Tohsaka simply sprinkled salt into the slime-like, shimmering mercury, like adding seasoning to soup.

These crystals slowly melted away; the mercury didn't change color, but a strange light emanated from them.

This operation, which would make all science students tear their hair out and curse, is as commonplace as dressing and eating in Rin's hands.

These things, which are absolutely contrary to science, are now slowly flowing along the inscribed magic circle.

Rin Tohsaka wrapped the beaker on the alcohol lamp with a handkerchief and poured the boiled herbal water into a test tube lined with filter paper. The same test tubes, filled with colorful liquids, were placed on a shelf. The girl was bright and beautiful, but when she performed these operations, she inexplicably reminded people of an old witch with tumors on her face, who was hiding in a dark and damp room in the Middle Ages and snickering.

"I know what you think of me."

Rin Tohsaka placed the test tube rack filled with test tubes beside her legs, and knelt in front of the magic circle with a pleasant smile: "I'm considering whether to give you an injection to refresh you so you can better feel the whole transplant process. Trust me, this will give you a deeper understanding of magic, and I guarantee it will be unforgettable."

"No, no." Amanosaki shook his head. "In this world, only Rin is etched in my memory. No one else deserves it."

"Grumpy."

Rin Tohsaka snorted and placed the cut-open can over the alcohol lamp, the calming and soothing balm bubbling. The strong, numbing fragrance bloomed like an invisible flower in the small room, and Amanosaki was momentarily dazed.

Rin added the potion to the gurgling mercury, her voice becoming much more serious:

"I know you've watched a lot of anime based on the Type-Moon universe, but I'll explain magic and magicians again, and you must remember it."

"Magic is about taking things that are possible with common sense and doing them in uncommon ways. Magicians can do things that technology can also achieve. For example, flying can be done by airplanes and gliders."

"In the early days of human civilization, all magic was magic. However, with the advancement of science and technology, the things that humans can 'do' have increased, and magic has decreased accordingly. The number of 'magic' that remains in modern times is very small, reduced to only five."

Amanosaki listened attentively. He knew that this was Rin Tohsaka's deliberate act to calm him down. People are much more at ease in their familiar surroundings, and Rin Tohsaka was undoubtedly doing this for his own good.

“I’ve already explained the magic crest to you, so I won’t go into details. As for the so-called magic circuit, you can think of it as a special organ of people with magical talent. It cannot be detected by ordinary means and can convert a person’s life force into magic power to activate magic.”

“Every magic family possesses a magic base, which contains the family’s magic theory for magicians to use. The mystical energy in this world is unusually active. After I became Rin Tohsaka, I didn’t need to create this thing to cast spells, so you won’t need it in the future either. That’s a good thing.”

“This is a good thing.” Amanosaki repeated Rin Tohsaka’s words, deliberately ignoring the smell of blood in the air.

His body was not in pain, which meant that the blood came from Rin Tohsaka.

This strong-willed girl was explaining magic theory to him while she began to peel away her own magic markings.

Magic Imprints are artificial organs, and both implantation and removal are extremely painful.

Amanosaki had seen a simulation video of breast augmentation online before. The process of cutting open the chest wall, removing excess tissue, and inserting silicone made him feel pain just watching it. At that time, he vowed that no matter whether his future wife was voluptuous or thin, he would never let her have any plastic surgery.

As it turned out, he was overthinking it. Until he transmigrated, he was a complete bachelor, all alone.

"Therefore, I believe that in this world, there is no issue of the more people know about a mystery, the weaker it becomes. Once you adapt to the Magic Crest, you can..."

Rin Tohsaka, forcing herself to speak, took a deep breath. Blood flowed from her torn skin, forming a long, crimson stream on her fair wrist, dripping onto the floor.

And so, tiny, blood-red plum blossoms appeared on the floor.

"Rin, tomorrow. I mean, when tomorrow comes, you will become something else. At that time, both the magic crest and the magic circuits I shared will disappear. Even if I learn magic, it will all be just a mirage."

Amanosaki turned his head away, not wanting Rin Tohsaka's pale, sweat-covered face to come into his view.

He treats his "ideal type" as an independent person, and he is afraid that if he sees Rin Tohsaka's appearance, he will soften his heart and stop the transplant.

The surgery was Rin's suggestion, and since Rin wanted to do it, he would go along with it.

So he took the initiative to take on the task of initiating the topic.

Rin Tohsaka bit her bloodless lips, continuing to cut into her flesh, and answered softly:

"I'm asking you, is something real better, or something fake?"