Type-Moon, the Path of a Magician

As for the failure of the Holy Grail War, he also had a general understanding of it.

Based on the setting of Type-Moon World.

The first time was because the Holy Grail system had just been created, and the Masters and Servants participating in the war had no experience or awareness of cooperation. The Masters did not even have the Command Seals to restrain the Servants, resulting in the Masters being unable to control the actions of the Servants at all. So under the influence of various factors, the first Holy Grail War collapsed directly.

Although the Second Holy Grail War learned from the first lesson, created the Command Spell system, and planned various rules, it failed again due to factors such as instability.

It was not until the third round of improvement that the construction of the Holy Grail system was truly completed.

But all bad karma arises the third time.

In the third time, because of the disastrous defeat in the previous two times, the Einzbern family had the idea of ​​causing trouble. They actually violated the rules and summoned Angora Mainyu, who was an additional class A Venger. However, he was unexpectedly weak and quickly withdrew from the stage. However, the evil and distortion attached to him were ridiculously strong, causing the Holy Grail to be contaminated by the resentment carried in his soul. As a result, the magic ritual failed again, and it also laid hidden dangers for the fourth and fifth wars.

Perhaps if it weren't for this family's mess, all these troubles wouldn't have happened later, and perhaps the Holy Grail War would have come to an end in the third time. When thinking about the stories that followed the two androids, Irisviel and Illya, judging from the results, this family really did more harm than good.

However, it seems that I am not qualified to criticize them this time. After all, the rank of my servant seems to be Extra A Venger - The Count of Monte Cristo.

By the way, if the Earl, who is also at the enemy level, also entered the Holy Grail, would he and Xiao An be able to purify the black mud?

No, that kind of thing is impossible no matter how you think about it.

"..."

"Mr. Xia Yuan."

Kotomine Risei's voice brought Xia Yuan's thoughts back to reality.

Originally, his work as a referee should have been considered finished here, and he should have seen the guests off. But after looking at the silver cross still hanging on Xia Yuan's hand, and that face that he didn't hate, he sighed slightly and then gave instructions.

“Mr. Xia Yuan, forgive me for being blunt, you are the only ordinary person in this Holy Grail War, so your situation will be very dangerous. The Holy Grail War is a magic ritual centered around the mysterious side, and as an ordinary person, there is no need for you to take risks.

If possible, please summon your Servant as soon as possible to ensure your own safety. If your Servant is destroyed in the war, please give up immediately and rush here to ask for the Church's asylum. Kirei and I will always be here."

"Finally, may God bless his believers... Amen."

"Amen."

After a pause, Xia Yuan also imitated the Amen gesture and made the sign of the cross.

"Thank you for telling me, Father Kotomine. May God bless you as well."

"Then I'll take my leave."

"Okay, goodbye, little friend Xia Yuan. I hope you are safe."

…………

At the same time, in Fuyuki City, in a luxurious manor.

The elegant man with a goatee also received information from the Fuyuki City Church.

There is information about the seventh master, Xia Yuan.

Seeing the paper crane familiar flying into his hands, Tōsaka Tokiomi stretched out his fingers to tear it apart.

The information recorded above surprised him a little.

"Oh, the seventh Master is not a magician, but an ordinary person involved in this?"

"Hmm... He seems to be a small thug. There is no record of him using magic or having any contact with the mysterious side in the past. So he should be a simple ordinary person, just a lucky person chosen by the Holy Grail."

After reading the information he had just received, Tōsaka Tokiomi was filled with disdain from the bottom of his heart, and he was full of contempt for Xia Yuan's existence.

To him, Xia Yuan, an ordinary person who was chosen by the Holy Grail and mistakenly entered their ritual, posed no threat at all. Even if he could use the magic power of the Holy Grail and the earth veins to summon a Servant, he would not be able to supply magic power to the Servant without magic circuits.

Therefore, Xia Yuan is definitely the first Master to be eliminated in this Holy Grail War.

So from now on, this Holy Grail War is just a war between six people.

Now, including him, all the Masters of this Holy Grail War have appeared, and among these seven Masters, half of them are people he doesn't need to worry about.

Kotomine Kirei is his trusted disciple who will not only not threaten him, but will also assist him in achieving the final victory.

Not to mention the other weirdos, the already impoverished Matou family can't even come up with a suitable candidate to participate in the contest, and has even given up on the third class. There is also the evil magic hired by Einzbern, which is not a concern, not to mention the non-graduates of the Clock Tower. Now there is another ordinary person involved.

In the eyes of Tohsaka Tokiomi, these four contestants pose no threat to him at all. The only one he has to be wary of this time is the famous Mineral Master of the Clock Tower, Kenneth El-Melloi Archibald.

Facing Kenneth, who was known as the prodigy in the magic world, alone, if they only compared their magical attainments, Tōsaka Tokiomi knew that he had no hope, but things were different now.

The Holy Grail War is more than just a competition of magical proficiency.

This time, even the Holy Church, the referee, stood on his side, and he also had Kirei's assistance, and he had two Servants in his hands. In order to ensure victory, he also spent a high price to buy the holy relic that only existed in legends - [The Shedding of the Original Serpent], and planned to use it as a medium to summon the strongest heroic spirit.

With such an absolute advantage, he was sure that even that monarch could not defeat him, and this Holy Grail War was already in his pocket.

The time, the place and the people are all on our side, how can we lose even if the dragon hits our face?

Suppressing his inner restlessness, Toosaka Tokiomi's excited hands trembled a little, and the corners of his mouth could not help but begin to rise.

"The long-cherished wish of the Tohsaka family...will finally be realized in my generation..."

Chapter 8: Cherry Blossoms and Flames

Time: Night.

Location: Suburban area of ​​Fuyuki City.

"Master, you are really something. You just went to the church and you actually packaged yourself as a believer."

When the Earl saw the black Bible in Xia Yuan's hand when he came back, and the silver cross on his chest, he couldn't help laughing.

At the same time, I thought to myself that this Master of mine could really give me surprises.

Of course, with his keen eyes, he could tell that these two items were not cheap goods sold on the street, but came with a faint blessing.

The black-covered Bible in his hand is an authentic product produced by the Cathedral Church and blessed. The cross is also a special prop soaked in holy water. It really has a bit of an exorcism effect. The spell on it is enough to deal with the lowest level of Dead Apostles.

Although they were not precious treasures, they were not something that could be given away casually. He was surprised that the priest of the Fuyuki City Church gave them away so easily to ordinary people he met for the first time.

The Count thought to himself: I have gained a good impression from the church on our first meeting. I, as a Master, can always do things that surprise people.

"I didn't expect the old priest to be so enthusiastic, or perhaps more devout. I just said it casually to improve our relationship, but he stuffed these gifts into my pocket before he left. He also invited me to try to serve as a pastor at the Fuyuki City Church after the Holy Grail War is over."

"Congratulations, Master. Being accepted by the church might be a solution. However, you have to be careful. Compared to magicians, these priests are not easy to deal with."

Seeing the earl's strange expression, Xia Yuan smiled bitterly and added: "I didn't betray you, you have to believe me."

"Oh, of course I will believe you, Master. If you really want to betray me, you can just use the Command Spell to remotely control my suicide in the church. Why would you come back and take this risk?"

The Earl sat down next to Xia Yuan, not taking it seriously. He flipped through the Bible in his hand and said, "Those guys in the church claim to be doing things in the name of the Lord. Although they look upright, they are actually harboring filth and are no better than the Magician's Association. Master, you should be careful when dealing with them."

"I know this too."

Xia Yuan nodded and agreed with the Earl's statement, "Although Father Yanfeng looks good, he is a person who violated the rules after all. A black whistle referee who has already leaned on other contestants is certainly not worthy of trust."

Thinking back to what Kotomine Risei said, and thinking of what he and Toosaka Tokiomi had done, Xia Yuan could guess that Toosaka Tokiomi had already obtained all the information about him.

However, he didn't care about the information leak this time. Instead, he wanted to thank the church for helping him confuse the public. He became a magician only yesterday, and the information from the church was just his recent information.

Through his conversations with Kotomine Risei, he was able to confirm that in the intelligence they had gathered, he was still an ordinary person who couldn't even worship a demon, and he didn't become suspicious.

This poor intelligence allows me to hide and gives me a lot more room for maneuver.

Even when the Holy Grail War begins, they will classify themselves as outsiders with no threat or competitiveness. Although the possibility of them eliminating themselves first cannot be ruled out, as long as they hide deeply enough, no one will be willing to expose themselves for the sake of their existence.

No one would do such a stupid thing as to expose their position and combat power in advance for a group that has no ability to win.

So as long as you can survive, the safety factor is actually quite high.

After thinking carefully for a while, Xia Yuan didn't plan to continue to dwell on this matter for too long.

He looked at a huge building not far from here and let out a long breath, then lowered his head and began to think. His face was gloomy and it seemed that he was engaged in some kind of ideological struggle.

He secretly glanced at the count who was flipping through the Bible beside him, opened his mouth slightly and wanted to say something, but after hesitating for a while, he finally put his hand down.

"No... I really can't do that. Attacking the Matou family... is still too exaggerated."

Just like other predecessors who traveled through time, Xia Yuan also longed to change the tragedy.

The Matou family was the greatest tragedy he had ever known.

If the Fourth Holy Grail War is a collection of tragedies, then the biggest victims of this tragedy are undoubtedly the two poor people, Toosaka Sakura and Matou Kariya.

The former was because his father, the idiot Tōsaka Tokiomi, meant well but ended up with a bad result by adopting her into the Matou family, but he was unaware that the Matou family had already fallen into depravity, the former righteous partners had become half-human, and their proud butterfly magic had degenerated into insect magic, which resulted in Sakura suffering inhumane torture in the insect cave for more than ten years.

The story of Matou Kariya is also full of tragedy. He tried hard for many years to escape from the hellish insect cave, but because he wanted to save Sakura from the suffering, he was willing to suffer the cruel transformation of the old insect's engraving worm and fight on behalf of the Matou family. After a year of torture and transformation, he became a monster and finally died in the Fourth Holy Grail War.

If it were a fairy tale where a knight died protecting a little princess, it would indeed be very sad.

But he didn't know until his death that Matou Zouken had no intention of keeping the agreement from the beginning. While he was fighting hard, Sakura had already been pushed into the insect hole by the old bug, and everything he did was in vain.

Having witnessed such tragedies from across the world, he had empathized with them.

I thought: If I could save her and avert the tragedy, that would be great.

This is empathy. Xia Yuan also wanted to try to save others, but he could more clearly understand his own situation.

In terms of attainments in magic, he, a guy who has just opened his circuit, is not even worthy of carrying shoes for a magic master like Lao Chongzi.

If nothing unexpected happened, I would probably be eaten up by his swarm of insects the first time we met, the most mortal death possible.

But if the Earl were to take the stage...

Now that the problem of magic power has been solved, in addition to the Berserker summoned by the Matou family, the Count, as a top Servant, can naturally sweep the entire Matou family.

Even the so-called magic master is meaningless when it comes to the mysterious crushing of servants. The magic of that old bug Matou Zouken will never make a difference in the hands of the Count. Even if Lancelot has been summoned, he can't stop the Count from taking someone away even if he is crazy.

But...is this really good for me?

He and Sakura Tosaka were not related, and had never even met each other. Why would he take this risk for her? Was he putting himself in danger just out of kindness?

Once the count and himself were exposed, the initiative would likely turn into passivity.

Now the masters of all parties have not shown up yet, and everyone's situation is like that of a hunter in a dark jungle. The deeper you hide, the greater the advantage. Is it really worth it to act so rashly for the sake of others' happiness?

Who will thank me?

There is no reward, but instead you have to bear risks and responsibilities.

He himself is not a saint, nor is he as powerful as those predecessors who traveled through time. At best, he is just a small-time thug who knows how to get along with everyone and some street fighting skills.

"I don't have the strength."

I can't do anything at all.

"……Let's go back."

After a long mental struggle, Xia Yuan sighed, stood up disappointedly, and called the Earl to go back with him.

"..."

However, the count did not move. He narrowed his eyes and looked at him calmly, then lit a cigarette.

"Count...what are you doing? We should go back and prepare for the battle later."

"I know."

"But before I go back, I want to talk to you first, Master. I can't ignore your worried state."

"Hmm... Is it obvious what's on my mind?"

Xia Yuan smiled bitterly.

"What do you think? Didn't anyone tell you? Master, you are really bad at hiding your emotions. You wrote down everything with such a bitter face. Who can you hide it from?"

"So, what happened? Would you mind telling me? You don't have to keep it to yourself. We are accomplices."

The golden eyes lit up slightly, and the count was staring at him seriously.

"Well then...Count, accompany me somewhere."

After hesitating for a moment, Xia Yuan said, "I'll explain it to you on the way. I may really need to borrow your strength this time, Earl."

"With pleasure, my accomplice."

The Count took his hand.

……

……

"Krypton, hahahaha, I thought it was a big deal, but seeing how you hesitated, is that all you have?"

After listening to Xia Yuan's story, the count probably understood everything.