AN: This is a new series I am wishing to complete. Not sure if it will be received well, but I am going to try to complete it anyways! Enjoy!

Chapter 1: The King and the Fool

There were two people in a small room. The first was a young girl with scarlet eyes and snow white hair. The other was a noticeably older man wearing a suit who was grooming the young girl. The room was sparsely decorated. One of the few decorations was a photo on the bedside table. The photo was of the little girl, a woman with long black hair, and a boy with messy brown hair. The two others had their arms around the girl and the group of them were smiling and laughing.

"Daddy, I'm scared," said a little girl.

"Why are you scared?" the man asked while buttoning the cuff of her gown.

"What if they are mean?"

The man had a moment of hesitation before responding, "I don't think they would be considered a hero if they were mean."

The little girl thought about it for a second before smiling at the man she called her father. The man smiled back as he stood up having just finished tending to the girl. At that moment, the sound of the doorbell ringing distracted the two.

"Is it eight already?" the man said as he left the bedroom.

The main door was not too far from the little girl's bedroom. It only took around ten seconds to cross the short distance in the flat to reach the door. When he opened the door, a boy had messy brown hair and was noticeably less dressed than the man by wearing just jeans and a hoodie. The man knew who the boy was. His wife had been working at the Clock Tower in England, and the boy in front of him was one of her favorite students.

The boy had frequently visited during the breaks to discuss magic and research that they shared interest in. During these talk, the man would frequently lose interest and leave. As a non-mage, he was shocked at first to learn about the existence of magecraft, but as time went by, he started to believe that there was reason that it was hidden to begin with. Mages seemed to have no consideration for common decency, and any subject matter was just another topic of interest to them regardless of the morality or common decency. He still loved his wife despite his disregard to magecraft. It was only because of his love for his deceased wife that he took care of the homunculus back in the other room.

"Hello, Henry," the man said to the boy as he walked into the flat.

"Hi, Mr. Carter. How's Mary doing?" asked the boy.

"She is doing better. She is still weak though," Mr. Carter replied, "I believe that you already know the details. My wife claimed she taught you well."

The smile on Henry's face waned at that response, and he dropped that question for another.

"How have you been doing? After Suzanne's death, I mean."

There was a short pause as Mr. Carter glared at Henry before saying, "I am fine. I am sure that if she was here, she would be pleased to see you and Mary getting along," he motioned towards the door, "Now if I may, I have to go to work. Make sure to lock the door on your way out."

After that, Henry was left standing alone in the flat. This was not his first time being alone there. He had frequently visited during the breaks since his professor's death to check-up on Mary. Even though Mary was a homunculus that his professor created for her research, he did not wish to check-up on her as a follow up to her research, but instead as what may be considered a brother. He had known Mary since the day after her creation, and had grown close to her. After the initial tests were done, Suzanne wanted to treat her as though she were her own daughter. Henry would meet her at Suzanne's office and discuss the things that he learned that day while waiting for her mother to get done with her other work.

Henry crossed the empty flat to Mary's room. When he reached the door to her room, he could already hear Mary's squeals of excitement failing to be contained. The moment he opened the bedroom door, she finally exploded.

"Henry!"

"Hi, Mary! How's everything going?"

"It's been great! Although, Daddy has been busy lately, so I haven't been able to play much lately," she said with a hint of loneliness in her voice, "But he says that he'll be around more soon!"

Henry knew exactly what she meant. He knew, just like any other mage, that a Holy Grail had recently emerged in the area. Mages had been entering the city during the last month in hopes to become a Master. He found out about that same time that Mr. Carter intended to join the war with Mary. He confronted Mr. Carter about this, but was unsuccessful in changing Mr. Carter's mind.

He wanted to tell Mary that she should not join the war with Mr. Carter, he wanted to tell her that if she does, she may die, he wanted to tell her that she should live her life how she wants to live; however, he couldn't stop but remember how Mr. Carter threatened to remove him from Mary's life if he attempted to prevent him from joining the war again. He knew that if he was not around, Mr. Carter would throw away Mary without hesitation. He viewed her as just a mistake that his wife left him when she died.

"That's great to hear," he said trying as hard as he could to hold back, "Maybe we will be able to spend more time together too like we did back at school."

"Yeah!" she squealed, "I've missed having you around every day. Both you and Mommy!"

Henry could hear a slight note of sadness with that last statement, but she seemed to come back as happy as ever. He couldn't help but respect the strength that she seemed to show.

"I do too."

The two continued to talk for a while. She asked about the magic he learned, the people he met, and the places he saw. During all of this, he would try to explain them as clearly as he could without making it too complex for her, and she was entranced the entire time. It was not much longer before she demanded they play. He was unable to resist her demands and eventually gave in. A few hours later it was time for Henry to leave.

Later that night, Mr. Carter had returned with a package. It took only an hour for him to prepare for the ritual. The magic circle was drawn on the floor of Mary's room. The content of the package was place in the center of the circle. It was a page of a text. The paper seemed to be ancient, and a corner of it was partially burnt.

Mr. Carter started to read the ritual's incantation from a book. During the entire ritual, he was holding Mary's hand. He required her, a homunculus, to provide the magic circuits and mana for the summoning since he was not a mage. As the ritual continued, the magic circle began to glow red. Mr. Carter began to feel a burning sensation on the back of his hand telling him that the Command Spells were starting to set in.

"…You, seven heavens clad in three words of power, arrive from the ring of deterrence. O keeper of the balance!"

With the last line, the magic circle grew blindingly bright. The entire room was engulfed in the red light before it quickly vanished. It took a moment for the two to regain their sight, and as they did, they saw a man kneeling before them.

The first thing they noticed about him was his size. The man looked to be easily over six, if not seven, feet tall. Not just was he tall, but he was muscular. He was an older man too. His hair, which fell down to his shoulders, was grey and so was the beard on his face. As for what he wore, he wore thick, brown woolen trousers held up by a thick belt with buckle etched with the head of snarling wolf and a sleeveless smock over short sleeved chainmail which framed his muscular arms. Around his head was a generous circlet of gold.

The man before them stood up. While standing, he towered over them. The large man seemed even larger now. The two of them felt as though he took up half the room.

"As your Master," Mr. Carter said trying to shake off the intimidating presence and gain the giant's attention, "I ask you. Who are you?"

The giant looked over both Mr. Carter and Mary before responding, "I am the slayer of monsters and demons, the great warrior of the Geats and hero of the Danes, and the noble King of Geatland," there was a pause from the giant as he turned his head back to gaze at Mr. Carter, "My name is Beowulf, and I am the Saber servant of this war."

"My name is Richard Carter," replied Mr. Carter who began to stretch out his hand towards Mary, "This is my homunculus who will be providing you with mana. You may call her Mary."

Beowulf turned to look towards Mary again. She was visually slow and weak due to the amount of mana that she used during the summoning. She did not have anything to hide behind, but she still seemed to try to hide herself from his gaze. She took a momentary glance towards Beowulf having fully expecting him to be glaring at her with disgust; however, what she saw was not what she expected. Although he was glaring at her, she did not see any disgust or hatred in his eyes, but instead she saw what looked like compassion.

"Now, I have some details we should discuss regarding your abilities," said Richard trying to gain Beowulf's again, "I also need to show you the place you will be staying here."

"That will not be necessary," Beowulf responded, "Servants need no sleep since we are spirits. Even so, I am used to housing with my fellow warriors instead of by myself."

Richard seemed a little put off at the idea of waking to the giant of a man freely wandering his room during the night, "I would prefer if you do not join me tonight."

Beowulf seemed a little confused at this before stating, "I was not referring to you," he pointed towards Mary, "She provides me with mana for my fights, and as such is a fellow warrior," he pointed back at Mr. Carter, "You only provide me with orders, and as such are a mere master."

Richard seemed angered by Beowulf using the word 'mere' to refer to him, even if he was declaring him as his master, "And what about your abilities?"

"That is of no concern at the moment either," Beowulf responded, "I have just been given a second life, so it is time to rejoice!"

With that, Mr. Carter had enough. 'I have summoned possibly the least helpful Servant there is,' he thought, 'But if his legends are accurate about his strength, he should be a Servant with few equals."

Richard Carter decided to leave his Saber servant and homunculus behind and rest for the night. Meanwhile, Beowulf began telling stories of the great Nordic heroes he knew in life and the trials they experienced. At first, Mary was scared by some of the tales and the horrors some of the heroes faced, but eventually the stories started to feel like those Henry told her. They were about the accounts of grand magic, extraordinary people, and otherworldly places. She even started asking Beowulf about the heroes themselves and what kind of people they were like. Meanwhile, the other Masters began summoning their Servants too.

Later that same night around midnight, there was a boy with messy brown hair etching a magic circle into the ground in an alley behind an apartment complex.

"There we go!" Henry said while he finished the last detail, "Just like how it is in the book. Now I just need to place this here."

He pulled out a small dagger from the bag he had with him and placed it in the center of the magic circle. He did not know whether the dagger would be enough of a catalyst to summon a Servant, but it was the only thing he could find. It originally was inside Mrs. Carter's office when he would visit after classes, and always seemed to be regarded as one of her most prized assets despite its common appearance. He once asked about it, and she only told him that the dagger was magical in nature.

He stood up and rolled up his sleeve revealing his magic crest and prepared to start the summoning ritual. The magic circle started to glow red when the ritual started. It grew brighter and brighter until he had to close his eyes. When he muttered the final lines, a sharp pain shot across his hand as command seals appeared. There was brief wave of exhaustion and ease as the ritual ended. He was not sure if it was because he was relieved that he succeeded or that he was tired from the mana loss. Either way, he slowly opened his eyes to see the Servant before him.

Standing in front of him was what seemed like an average person his age. He was shorter than Henry at around five and a half feet tall and did not seem very muscular. He wore rather modern clothes as well. The only specific characteristics of his appearance were his glasses, red plaid scarf, and the white patches in his spiky, red hair.

"Are you a Servant?" asked Henry who was unsure about whether he had succeeded after all.

The person before him tilted his head in curiosity, "So I was summoned into another Grail War?"

Henry took a moment to understand what the person just said. It was obvious now that the person before him was a Servant, but Servants lose their memories between Holy Grail Wars if they were summoned before; however, he seemed to retain his despite this. A sudden realization came to him from this.

"You were a Master in another Holy Grail War?"

The Servant looked a little disappointed in what Henry asked, "I hoped that this wouldn't happen, but I guess I was already summoned before anyways," the boy looked at Henry and said, "My name is Shirou Emiya. You probably wouldn't have heard of me since I never succeeded in being a hero, but you may call me Caster."

Henry looked shocked at Shirou for a moment, "Caster?" he asked fully knowing the respect that class has regarding magic, "I didn't know there was anyone from the modern age that could qualify as a Caster class Servant!"

Shirou nodded his head as though he understood where Henry's understanding was coming from, "Yeah. I'm not what you would normally call a sorcerer or even a mage. In life, I was only able to learn two types of magecraft."

"What?" Henry shouted out from shock, "How could you be a Caster and only know two types of magecraft? Casters should know magic that borders on miracles!"

At this, Shirou chuckled, "Thanks."

"For what?" asked Henry who still was not over the fact that the Caster he summoned only knew two types of magecraft.

"You reminded me of someone else for a moment, and it made me laugh since you two are nothing alike."

Henry was taken aback a little. He was not expecting his Servant to say that.

"Um…You're welcome," Henry finally said.

"Just like her, you might be a fine Master. So, let me tell you this," he said, "Although I only know two types of magecraft, I am the strongest Servant."

Henry looked at Shirou for a moment while he considered what he just said. Despite the ridiculous nature of the statement that he just made, the look in his eyes told him that Shirou fully believed in what he just said.

"Now if I may ask," said Shirou, "What is your wish?"

"My wish?" responded Henry, not expecting that question to be asked so early, and unprepared to answer. He took a moment to put himself back together before telling him, "My wish is to save a certain person."

This time, it was Shirou that looked surprised. It was only for a second before he let out another chuckle.

"That's funny," said Shirou. Henry was about to get angry at his Servant for rejecting his wish before Shirou grabbed onto his scarf and began to look sad again, "I too wish to save a certain person."