Annoyance and Recklessness

Diantha has friends...and suitors...

But she cannot trust the latter.

Suitors, came from prominent families who are dangerously in-the-red. and She's rich, with great luck in money ventures. Not only that, her thesis is a huge start even for a beginner.

Using Legilimency, they have state of the art spells, mystic codes and such, but they sure did not bother defending their heads.

Thus with Magecraft, cursed them into getting into misfortune when they think of getting her to say yes in marriage for her money upon obtaining their hair and photo ala Dobby Express. She caused a lot of deaths that way and nobody knows she's the culprit...

Then there's this guy.

Waver met this kid and they hit it off.

Diantha heard of said kid who's a step foot into the grave if not for his daily dose of magical hematopoietic medicine or he won't live past a day.

Melvin Weins, a branch off the Trambellios.

He could have had the ability to be a Brand come graduation, but with a body like that, making him impossible to use, nevermind research and experiment on magecraft, he has no future as a mage. She can only wonder when he'll quit.

They're only five years and some months apart.

A momma's boy who genuinely likes Waver enough. Its good Waver got friends in his first school year.

But seeing her at first sight? Yikes. Like someone hit him with Cupid's Arrow she had no idea how to deal with it.

Shouldn't he wait as Magus Society or not, ephebophilia is illegal? She's 14!

But its still amazing that a MAGUS can be a normal teenager...

Waver is face-palming. He must regret introducing his first friend to his mentor...

But nonetheless, she had to teach yet another clumsy guy.

But right now, she has to deal with Neville's Case. She can heal the body but she needs to know how to overcome self-imposed mental blocks through torture. There's a spell...with a catch...so yes, family consent is needed.

Now she went to her kitchen to make her own dinner.

xxx

Next day...

Leaky Cauldron, Private Meeting Room...

The Longbottoms were already there. Neville and some...old ladies. Their clothes...are something very victorian-ish if books and paintings were to go by, the kind governesses would wear with some fur-trimmings, but really, throw those UGLY bird hats! Take after Queen Elizabeth! Her hats are cute for their age!

'Oh my! Neville wasn't kidding!'

'You've grown into a fine young lady!'

'I'd say she resembles some of us a bit...'

'Obviously, the Potters are related to everybody so its understandable youngsters these days have bits of everyone!'

'Good morning everyone.' Diantha greeted with a curtsy. 'I wish it really WAS a good morning, but I have the results here and all of you will be angry in a few minutes.'

'Y-yeah, you made that point in your letter...but what did you find out Dia?' Neville asked nervously. The other ladies sat stiffly in anxiety, their fondness all gone.

Dia took out her shrunken trunk, resized it and took out an easel frame and put a well-made board showing a picture of a human silhouette.

'The human body has a lot of systems with different functions as the Muggle World knows. I don't know if this is taught in St. Mungo's in training...so what I am showing here, is the Nervous System. It's one of the many systems of the body that keeps us alive.'

'Nervous System?' a lady asked, unfamiliar with the term.

'Yes. Throughout our bodies, we have these branch-like structures called nerves linking to our brain. And through the brain, we move our bodies through these nerves so we can do what we want.' Diantha explained. 'This system is the major controlling, regulatory, and communicating system in the body. It is the center of all mental activity including thought, learning, and memory. And this is where our problem lies, no thanks to prolonged Cruciatus Curse.' the Longbottoms' expressions now turned stony.

'These nerves are fried due to hyperstimulation with a focus in pain as well as exposure to dark magic with malicious intent, so they are in a near-vegetative state, unable to move much on their own. Not only that, Mr. and Mrs. Longbottom understandably found the pain unbearable that they locked themselves in their own minds to dissociate to cope. They're not insane, just locked away, unable to get out, thus a prisoner in their own minds. It must be dark in there.' she said grimly to their shock. 'We need a skilled Mind Healer to coax them back out after fixing their bodies...which will take a year.' she said. 'Greek Healers are a total pros at this, success rate 100% that their NEWTs must be all Os with a mastery in Legilimency as well as mastery of mental medicine and discipline. Had St. Mungo's had such skill, Neville's parents wouldn't have wasted for nothing for years.'

Yup, they're mad now.

'My parents...' Neville shook in rage. 'If only our healers are up to par...?!' he was denied his parents by incompetence of people in such a crucial field...! A missed happy childhood...he could have been spared the abysmal childhood under his family elders! At least with his parents he would have grown up with love and doting despite his shortcomings by birth unlike his grandma and countless aunts and uncles who made his life hard by pressure, nagging and forever deeming him beneath a Longbottom for being a near-Squib!

'Well, Magical Britain went extreme conservative route so progress stagnated and stilled, thus nobody dared to go against the laws the Ministry made for economical and living progress. Thus crucial fields such as law, medicine, fashion and architecture are garbage that unknown to you, the rest of the world sees us as trash.' Diantha told them, incensing the Longbottoms. 'Magical Mainland Europe went leaps and bounds that by combining the knowledge of both wizardkind and muggle, and developed spells and potions for every known problem last I checked...they can heal damn anything now except one's stupidity and of course, death. But Greece is leading edge in Mind-Healing, followed by Japan and Australia...'

'My Frank! Alice!' Grandma Longbottom wailed in outrage. 'We didn't go further and they paid for it!' she sobbed as the other ladies were no better in grief.

'How soon do we start Dia?!' Neville cried despairingly. 'I want my parents back! We lost too much time!'

In response to that, Diantha took out a long parchment and enlarged it for all to see.

'...what medicine are those?' another lady asked as she saw required Vitamins and Minerals and their function for the body. 'Where to buy those potions?'

'Only accessible to muggles as muggles discovered these nutritional components and function as its these components that keeps our bodies functional, and magicals even in my school has no idea these existed as I studied both magical and muggle medicine so they'll be with me for a year, before we set up an appointment in Magical Italy.' said Diantha. 'Magical Potions work by consuming these nutritional materials in the body to heal faster in moments. The problem is, both are malnourished so I'm wondering what the hell are they eating in hospital, who recommended that diet and why. If you feed them potions the way they are now, they get worse...thus over time, they get more and more malnourished that for adults in their thirties...they look and feel like centenarians.' that, was further nightmare fuel in their minds. What's supposed to be good actually harms them due to malnutrition! This was too much for them. 'It'll take a year in my lab to rejuvenate and heal them before seeing that Healer. The best in Greece in the Mind Healing field is Healer Adrastos Bakirtzis.'

'Diantha, what exactly are you studying in your new school?' Neville asked her in wonder. 'You're only my age and yet...'

Yet she's so...capable. He couldn't help but envy her. That, or she's got great teachers!

'Well, my school is sorta pragmatic...the motto is 'we'll do anything for progress'.' said Diantha. 'My school has different fields...I can only tell you that I'm in the Witchcraft and Pharmacy(Botany) Course. Students are required to finish five years of fundamentals, before allowed to take in a course that lasts five years as a single course has so many sub-fields of study. Understandably I'm in the Witchcraft and Pharmacy Department being a witch since I applied for a nasty schedule just to get things done faster, Hermione would be proud.' she snorted. Neville just looked amused as that's what Hermione would go for alright! 'We study the human body first and their functions for first year...before studying potions and spells. It's kinda nasty.'

'The nasty?' Neville asked her nervously. For her to know so much, there must surely be a catch, he thought.

'My school has ties here and there, that they purchase Death Row Criminals as test subjects and teaching material like how a person buys groceries, for the low-low price of 10 galleons per criminal.' said Diantha with a shiver as the Longbottoms gaped at her. Why is her school purchasing Death Row Criminals for?! 'Being used as such, makes them pay for the heinous crimes against their fellow human. On my first year studying the human body, a professor crucified this one guy naked and dissected him live in class just to show us what's under the skin.' bile rose up their throats at the mental imagery caused by her words.

'With magic, he was kept alive and quiet even though he understandably screamed in pain as he was opened up.' she quickly conjured chamber pots for them to do their vomiting in. 'But we were told not to feel sorry for them as did they listen to their victims' cries and pleadings to stop while they enjoyed themselves with their sick fantasies? They didn't, so why should we, was what our teacher said. So the classroom is their execution sentence by magic methods while muggles are told they got the Lethal Injection or Electric Chair.' she shook her head. 'These subjects are imported abroad where Death Penalty is still legal.'

'Our teacher said they should at least, make themselves useful as teaching material and test subjects so we'd know how our spells and potions affect the body...in live action after the lecture and live demonstration, before we make our own potions, or use them as practice dummies for our spells until they die and we just get a new criminal to practice on until we get our potion or spell done right.' she said. 'So tuition fee is quite expensive because of the test subjects we need every day until we master a topic.'

'M-Merlin...' Grandma Longbottom shook, horrified for the young girl before her. 'You must be traumatized...' Diantha Potter learned by torture exposure at a young age after leaving Hogwarts?! Just what kind of teaching method is that?! That's so inhumane! Are her teachers even human, they thought.

'You're not joking about your school motto are you?' Neville was pale and wide-eyed in horror. Diantha sighed.

'Sadly, no.' she said. 'Understandably, our first few months, we had a bucket in hand to puke on until we no longer needed it and I couldn't eat meat for a year I went bread, eggs, seafood and vegetarian.' The ladies shivered and they imagined what hellish school year the poor girl went through just for education and one even went as far as giving her a comforting hug.

That, Diantha did not expect.

Nobody hugged her, her whole life and this left her shaken. Not even Sirius did as he had a great excuse...he was SMELLY with skin problems as Azkaban doesn't allow their inmates baths. And after a bath, he went into his tank.

'So you paid a great price that fixing my parents is so easy for a kid my age.' Neville was deeply shaken and sembled a ghost in how pale he was, out of horror. By seeing how magic affects the body, and since she grew up muggle, Diantha knows how to fix his parents because the way her classroom works was plain evil and insane for the sake of knowledge and experience. its immoral for the sake of progress! 'You've seen way too much. The price of Freedom sure is steep.'

Diantha gave him a rather sad smile before going serious.

'I know. But I'm willing to pay it. Did you tell your grandma and aunts what we talked about?'

This was the girl who kidnapped a fugitive using her spy and none of them knows what she did with him.

'Not yet.' said Neville. 'I wanted to wait for my parents first. Its all too surreal.' he croaked out as Diantha's eyes took on a stony look.

'Its all real. I did shove Veritaserum while he was out cold before I grilled him.' she said. 'Because I suffered eleven years under my maternal muggle relatives who didn't like magicals. I thought he was the reason for my misery but he didn't have a legal trial that cements the stories as fact. But he is innocent and framed for what he never did, and he was thrown in prison without a trial.' she said. 'He's under Healing so nobody in Court can claim his mind is still addled by Dementors once I'm done with him.' she said. 'As an Orphan with money and noble name, a lot will ensure I'm still an orphan without protection to exploit me. My only option was running away and seal my vaults after taking some money for my schooling.'

Its not lost on the Longbottoms what she implied, much to the outrage of Neville's relatives.

Diantha was ripe for exploitation by denying her protection she needed. She wound up in the care of abusive muggles, making them wonder about Lily Potter's home life ever since she became a witch...and why Diantha ran away to another school.

The whys, they need to know. Its the least they can do after she learned how to fully-heal Frank and Alice Longbottom. They owe the girl a huge debt.

The Longbottoms arranged for a private room in St. Mungo's because Diantha was in hiding and she didn't want to be found too soon. They left everything to Diantha. However, for one year of treatment, they pay her 60000 galleons as the total costs as the vitamin supplements are wallet-friendly for even poor muggles, plus her tanks. She even showed them currency values and conversion to justify her price as well as the price of her wares in the market, plus round-off.

And they need that much vitamin and mineral supplements, plus potions to rejuvenate extremely-malnourished adults, and then spelling some food into their stomach to keep them alive. Namely, wholegrain porridge with honey for energy and Lolly, Grandma Longbottom's elf as their bodyguard, responsible for feeding them and spelling out body waste every four hours for their comfort with Lolly then dosing the couple with regenerative potions manually after hourly flow of supplements through the tube in their stomachs. Lolly will be dayshift with Octie at nightshift. Not only that, Diantha will refill the tanks every six hours with supplements.

Operation: Begin.

Duration: 1 year.

Before that date with the Healer.

xxx

And while it began?

'Hey hey Diantha! It'll be just us for a while.' said Melvin, casually wrapping an arm around her when he heaved and that, was Diantha's cue to divert his blood vomit so she won't get showered with about...two tall glasses' worth of blood. How the hell is this guy alive losing so much blood? 'Guhee!'

'Huh? What do you mean? Waver got called in sick or did some guy make him a test subject?' to magi of Clock Tower, they walk with death. Let your guard down and all manners of black jokes will happen to you if some psycho wants a test subject, or if you made enemies beyond your paygrade; either they'll send assassins at you or kill you themselves.

However, what protects Waver from being a test subject is his lousy magic circuits, so he's no use in any experiment or ritual, and no value anywhere else so he's safe as a person, so he better not make any dangerous enemies!

'He borrowed some cash off me to go to Japan for some reason!' said Melvin with a grin. 'In exchange for an amazing story he'll bring me home!'

'Er, how much?'

'Oh, just about ten million pounds!'

'Wait-WHAT?!' Diantha squawked. Huge amount of money aside, where Waver went, raised her eyebrows. 'But Japan is a no-magus' zone right now!'

There was one good reason for this.

Every sixty years comes the ritual of Heaven's Feel created by three families of Einzbern, Tohsaka and Makiri. Three slots are taken by them, then four from the Association...well, whoever gets the Command Spells, that is! Only they are allowed to go to Japan at a time like this.

'I know, right? The Holy Grail War is starting soon!' said Melvin excitedly, 'Maybe he'll be a daring awesome spectator?'

Diantha face-palmed.

'We better tune in on the news.' Diantha harrumphed. 'Can you?' she asked hopefully.

'Haha, some stuff will be censored if some bigshot died! it'll be embarrassing after all!' Melvin laughed. 'But its better than nothing!' he said. 'They say Lord El-Melloi's in it!'

'OK, why'd a big name join in? He's powerful and rich like a typical Lord.' Diantha scoffed. 'He has no need of the Grail when he can easily get what he wants to reach the Root...'

'Apparently he joined just for laughs.' Melvin explained away. Diantha formed an 'O' expression.

'Ah, he's bored. A bored rich.' Diantha snorted dryly and Melvin shrugged. 'Typical of aristocrats.'

'Pretty much.' he said as Diantha then summoned Dobby.

'Dobby! I got a job for you...'

At the local airport where Waver booked Economy Class, he rested in his hotel until its his flight. That's when Dobby appeared.

'Mister Waver, Miss Di asked you to take this mirror with you.' said Dobby, giving Waver a mirror. 'Its a Communication Mirror. But please be mindful of the Time Zone as Japan is 8 hours ahead of London.'

'Got it.' Waver packed the mirror in his bag. 'My flight is after lunch, so I'll get some rest for now.'

'Okie dokie!' and Dobby was gone.

xxx

'...so it seems.' the two remaining friends exchanged looks.

'How'd he get a Command Spell? That baffles me.' Melvin croaked out.

'That makes two of us...guess we can only check on him once in a while every after classes...'

xxx

Nobody had ever understood Waver Velvet's talent. That was what he felt, until Diantha became his mentor and cracked down on his beliefs so he would survive Clock Tower.

As a magus, he was neither born of a famous family nor lucky enough to meet a good master at a young age until later in life. Mostly self-taught, he finally got himself accepted to the Clock Tower, the teaching arm of the Magus Association that controlled magi across the world.

Waver always believed this fact to be incomparably honorable, being very proud of his talent. "I am the most capable student of the Clock Tower since its founding. Anyone should have to respect me." At least, Waver himself thought this way. In truth, the magus lineage of the Velvets had only existed for three generations. his grandma, his mother and finally, himself.

As time goes on according to self-study at home, the number of Magic Circuits and concentration of Crests constantly increase and expand. Many students that receive scholarships to the Clock Tower are offspring of families with more than six generations of pure magi blood. Meaning, generations marry magi and only magi for the sake of a descendant having one more circuit and stronger than their parents as a primary goal, the second being gaining power and resources for the ultimate goal; Akasha.

The wonders of magecraft could not be completed within one generation; therefore, the results of a whole life of research by parents are passed on to their children... only through this could their magecraft become more refined. The stronger prana of the old magi families is stronger precisely for this reason. Compared to the offspring of well-established magi family, Waver's Crest concentration and Magic Circuit quantity paled by comparison.

Furthermore, because a magi's Magic Circuit count is determined at birth, there are some ancestral magi families that deliberately contrive to increase the amount of Magic Circuits in an offspring, thus distancing themselves from new magi families in this regard. In other words, advantages within the world of magecraft are predetermined even before birth. This is a commonly accepted point of view. He can only marry a woman willing to pair up with him.

But Waver did not see it that way.

Differences in ancestry could be made up for by increasing experience. Even without exceptional Magic Circuits, the difference between quality caused by birth could be bridged through deep understanding and skilled utilization of magecraft. Waver had always believed that deeply. He believed himself to be an excellent example of that, and had always strived to show off his abilities.

But, the reality was cruel. The workings of the Clock Tower are determined by those who boast of their ancestral bloodline, and those who endlessly fawn over them.

Even the lecturers were no exception, only expecting anything from those with great lineages. To a pauper researcher like Waver, they were reluctant to even let him into the library to browse books, let alone teach him magecraft. He was reliant on Diantha who was willing to teach him until they reached a point where spells cannot be supported by his sad output.

Why are the expectations of a magus' future dependent on his lineage?

Why is the credibility of a theory dependent on the experience of one's lineage?

Nobody cared about Waver's questions. The lecturers used flowery language to trick Waver when presented with his research thesis, then acted as if Waver had been convinced otherwise, laughing at it, ignoring it.

It truly is unbelievable. His anxiety drove Waver to take action.

To expose the Magus Association's corrupt system, Waver wrote an exposition, "An Inquiry of Magecraft's Path In the New Century." The result of three years of conceptualization and one year of writing, it viciously attacked traditional views, was written with painstaking effort, presented clear and intense thought, flawless. If seen by the Inquisitors, it would have definitely caused quite the scandal.

But - The Department of Eulyphis's lecturer tossed it out after casually reading through it just once.

His name was Kayneth El-Melloi Archibald. He was the heir of the Archibald family with nine generations of magus lineage, a very popular man whom everyone called "Lord El-Melloi." Engaged to the daughter of the Evocation Principal, a lecturer at such a young age, he was the best of the best. He was also the representative of authority that Waver despised.

'A man who gives in to delusions such as yourself is not suited for research, Waver.' - lecturer Kayneth said in a condescending manner, without a shred of pity in his voice. Kayneth's ice cold gaze was something Waver would never forget.

In the nineteen years of Waver's life, he had never been humiliated worse.

If Kayneth had the talent to be a lecturer, it should have been impossible for him to not understand Waver's talent. No, he was probably jealous precisely because he understands. He was probably afraid of Waver's hidden talent, becoming jealous of him, treating Waver as a threat to his own position. That is probably why he treated Waver's exposition in such a violent manner. To purposely rip an exposition of gathered wisdom...is this the attitude a scholar should assume?

Unforgivable. His talent, which could cause the world to tremble, was actually arbitrarily written off by an authority. There really is no justice. He only had one friend who listened but sadly, he's powerless as nobody wants to shake the status quo, and set in their ways unless upstart in question is someone like Aozaki Aoko. Woman was in a way like him as the Aozaki lineage died out until the family had two miracles in Touko and Aoko, their daughters.

Touko was born with 20 circuits with superhuman quality while Aoko has ten circuits with average quality yet Touko became a Grand-Class magus for her research, enough for her to get designated while Aoko became the Fifth Magician. Diantha used them as example to him. Waver knew he needed something as big as that to shake the rafters as Aoko was proof that even a pauper can become someone great one day and was inspired by her story. But...while living these infinitely frustrating days since school began, Waver heard a rumor.

The rumor was that the reputed Lord El-Melloi, for the sake of adding an entry to his resume for his vanity, had decided to join the nearby thaumaturgical competition in the far east.

Waver began researching about the details of this 'Heaven's Feel' overnight; he was deeply mesmerized by the horrific details. With the wish-granting 'Holy Grail,' summoning Heroic Spirits into the present world and commanding them was possible, resulting in a battle to the death among their Masters.

Title, authority, everything lost its value: skill was the only factor and luck.

It truly was a bit barbaric, but also a simple yet fair method of judging superiority. For an unrecognized genius, this was an excellent opportunity, an idealistic stage to exhibit himself. Lady Luck had finally smiled at the excited Waver. He dare not tell Diantha, she'll surely stop him even if its too late...he manifested Command Spells in response to his desires. The books were right in that regard and he lucked out big time!

It began with the financial department's negligence. Lecturer Kayneth's requested holy relic from Macedonia was delivered to Waver to give to his teacher along with normal parcels, when it should have been a parcel opened only when Kayneth himself was present.

Waver immediately realized that was a catalyst used to summon Servants in the Heaven's Feel. And so, he received a once in a lifetime opportunity.

He no longer had a shred of love left for the corrupt Clock Tower. The glory of graduating as a valedictorian was trash compared to the honor brought by Fuyuki's Holy Grail. The moment Waver Velvet became victorious in the war would be the moment when those insignificant members of the Magus Association would grovel at his feet.

That day, Waver left England, heading for the island country in the far east. The Clock Tower immediately realized who stole Kayneth's parcel, but did not chase after him. Nobody knew Waver was interested in the Heaven's Feel.

But there was something Waver didn't know. Everyone thought he did no more than to hide Kayneth's relic in rage. Nobody thought he was on the level to knowingly risk his life to participate in a thaumaturgical competition. In that aspect, the Clock Tower really had underestimated Waver.

In the far eastern city, Fuyuki City, the place that would decide his destiny, Waver hid under the blanket of the bed, desperately trying to hold back his laughter. No, it was impossible to hold back. Illuminated by the dim sunlight coming through the cracks of the curtain, he raised his right hand every few seconds, letting out some muffled laughter.

With the relic in his hands, himself in Fuyuki, and enough quality as a magus...how could the Grail turn a blind eye to someone like that? Indeed, the pattern of the tripartite Command Seal had clearly materialized on Waver's right hand last night, proving that he was a Master, one who can summon a Servant. Thus he borrowed money from Melvin in a jiffy when he heard of his unusual condition in Clock Tower. Even the ruckus made by the roosters in the courtyard near dawn went unnoticed.

Although a backwater place for an island nation, Fuyuki City had a lot of tourists from other places. And precisely because of that, Waver's appearance, obviously different from that of the Japanese, did not attract too much attention. Even so, Waver was cautious and cast a suggestion spell on the old couple who had always lived alone, deceiving them into thinking that Waver was their grandson. He had very successfully used a fake identity to live comfortably here. He didn't need to pay hotel fees; it was like killing two birds with one stone. Things worked out perfectly; Waver began to have more and more admiration for his own ability to adapt.

To fully enjoy this mild morning, Waver descended the stairs to the first floor kitchen. Like any other morning, the plebeian dining room table was decorated with newspapers; the television news and cooking welcomed the freeloader openly.

'Good morning Waver, did you sleep well?'

'Yes, grandpa. I was sound asleep until morning.'

Waver answered with a smile while he spread jam thickly on his toast. The soggy bread that cost only a hundred and eighty yen per catty wasn't very pleasant to chew. Usually, that was very unsatisfactory, so it could only be made up for by putting lots of jam on it.

Glen and Martha Mackenzie immigrated to Japan from Canada more than twenty years ago. But their son could not get used to the Japanese lifestyle and went back, creating a family in his home country. Their grandson, raised in Japan until he was ten, also went back. Not a single letter was sent, let alone a visit. Ten years passed in this manner. Discovering that information through hypnosis, Waver decided that that kind of family was ideal for him. Through suggestions, Waver transformed the old couple's impression of their grandson into his own image, successfully becoming their beloved grandson, 'Waver Mackenzie.'

'But Martha, ever since dawn, I felt that the chickens were very noisy...would you know why this is?'

'We have three chickens. Where exactly did they come from...?'

Hastily making up an excuse, Waver hurriedly swallowed the bread in his mouth.

'Ah, that...I have a friend who sent his pet chickens for us to take care of for a few days. He's going on a trip and won't be home, so they'll be here temporarily. I'm returning them this evening.'

'Ah, so that's how it is.'

It seems like they didn't really mind, so the two easily believed it. The fact that these two old people were hard of hearing was good for him: the incessant crows of the three chickens nearly annoyed the surrounding neighbors to death that day.

But the most stressed person was Waver. As soon as he found the Command Seals on his hand, Waver excitedly began preparing sacrificial offerings needed for the ceremony.

He never thought finding a chicken farm nearby would be so difficult. He finally found one, but actually catching three chickens wasted nearly an hour. He finally got home just as the sky began to grow bright, covered with chicken droppings, hands pecked bloody.

In the Clock Tower, animals used as sacrificial offerings were always prepared. But here, how can a genius magus such as myself be in such a piteous state for catching merely three chickens? Having this thought, Waver almost cried out in lamentation. But staring at the Command Seals on his right hand, his mood began to gradually brighten.

He decided to hold the ceremony tonight. Those annoying chickens could at most live until then. And, Waver wanted to have the strongest Servant. The relic hidden in the closet of the second floor bedroom...that would be the catalyst for summoning a great Heroic Spirit...Waver already knew that much.

The withering, half decomposed piece of cloth was a piece of the cape that once hung on the shoulder of a king. The legendary King of Conquerors who destroyed the Achaemenid Empire of Persia and created the world's first huge empire spanning from Greece to north western India. His Heroic Spirit would descend upon Waver through summoning tonight, to guide him to the glorious Grail.

'...Grandpa, grandma, I'm sending the chickens back to my friend's house tonight, so I might be a bit late. Don't worry about me.'

'Okay, be careful. Fuyuki isn't too safe lately.'

'As in, that fabled serial killer has appeared once more. This world really is too scary.' Eating cheap sliced bread at that long dining table, Waver was surrounded by life's greatest happiness. The noisy cries of those chickens were only slightly grating.

They won't be crowing come morning.