"…What do you make of his story, Archer?"
I kept a neutral face as the woman turned to her servant for his opinion.
"I mean, I can't make sense of the first bit; that sounds like your magical institute shit" Archer sighed. "But as for why he only has two command spells, and doesn't even know the class of his servant… It's possible, depending on who the grail forced upon him. Perhaps even probable, knowing how he tends to behave."
Archer added that last bit with a smug smirk.
"I would say he should still be able to analyze his own servant, but… Lack of any magical energy from him lends credibility to the notion that he can't see details like that…" the woman muttered. "But that lack of magical energy leaking could very well mean the servant's gone rogue as well, which would be a whole other headache…"
"At least it can't be the Archer class servant; Independent Action would be an issue, but without that, any rogue servant should burn themselves up, so to speak, within a day. No… The contract still holds, but for how long the servant can sustain themselves... that's the real unknown."
"So naturally, the two unknowns would be the Caster and the Assassin; lowest cost and typically high mana parameter, respectively…"
"No defensive war is ever easy; I would know."
"Yes, I'm well aware of that, Archer…"
"Hold up" I interjected. "You see this as a defensive war? How the hell do you convince yourself of that?"
"Child spellcasters running around, using a ritual they can't possibly comprehend, risking the revelation of magecraft to the entire world? As a defender of magecraft, how could this be anything but?"
"Sorry, ma'am, but do you know how this ritual works? From where I'm sitting, the only other person who seems to have a remote clue, besides me, naturally, is the damned priest!"
"On that note…" the woman glared from behind her handheld fan. "You're telling me you first found out about this ritual from the Einzberns? Frankly, that's just impossible. The Einzberns haven't left their land since the fifth war came to a close. Every correspondence the association has tried to send never received a response. Every messenger sent unable to find their castle. How could you have possibly learned, from them, about their most prized work in magecraft?"
"Because it wasn't directly from them. It was more… coincidental…"
"I would have you elaborate on that."
"Well…" I broke my neutral expression and allowed myself to smile slightly. "How well do you know the internet?"
"I know it exist, and it's purpose, but technology like that is irrelevant to us magi."
"Ah…" I smirked. "You see, the kids told me the same; you magi types ignore technology for your fancy magics. Problem with that though is that technology has become your greatest weakness, and you do nothing to try to defend yourself from it. I had honestly hoped they had been exaggerating, but damn…"
"I'm sorry, but what can your technology do that magecraft can't?"
"Communication on an unprecedented scale. With the dawn of the internet, cell phones, computers, well… Society is more connected than ever before. Information flows further and faster than ever before. Evidence: photos, videos, documents… They're given a means to be preserved forever in a digital form. They can be broken down, to the most minor of details; examined like never before."
"Your point in this tiring lecture…"
"Coverups don't work anymore. Not when they're done by people who have such a limited understanding of what their opposition has access to in their endeavors to peel away the veil. The 'Fuyuki Incident' of 94, as us netizens refer to it as? A gas leak causing an explosion doesn't hold water. We've accessed the city layouts and plans for that area, for that time. It doesn't add up. The damage caused, when compared to other, actual gas leaks, by expert analysts, doesn't add up. Records of payments, from the Catholic Church to local Fuyuki politicians and officials? I dug through them and uncovered the trail. Beyond the fact there's little to no reason for the Catholic Church to have any interest in Japan, let alone Fuyuki City… Money always leaves trails, unless very carefully covered up. The Church and the Einzberns alike clearly didn't know what they were doing; the link all the way from Fuyuki to the Einzberns was, while not child's play, far from the hardest trail I've ever chased. Sure, the Einzberns stumped me for a while; they have next to nothing to their name, on records at least."
I wagged a finger as the look on the woman's face had morphed from one of boredom and annoyance to one of… well, honestly, I couldn't really tell what. It wasn't horror, per say, but she was very clearly off her game now.
"Except… Except for one payment, to have a phone line put in their castle."
"Nonsense" she snapped. "The Einzberns are a proper family of magi, through and through! They would have never needed a phone line for their castle!"
"The one in Germany, no. But the one in Fuyuki? They did indeed install one. Just slightly before what I assume was the start of the fourth Holy Grail War, the one which causes the 'Fuyuki Incident'. They had a stand-in for the fourth war, hadn't they? He was probably the one to have it placed. Shame he never covered the paper trail…"
"…They have another castle in Fuyuki?!"
"Yes, they do" I smirked. "Or at least they did. Considering the state it was in when I visited it a little while ago, it's been abandoned. Little more than fancy rubble now, but a collection of research had been left behind. In German, naturally, and what I think is some unique coded language, or perhaps a cypher. But the parts in German? That I could translate. The contents within the pages… Simply divine, I say."
I couldn't help but shudder with anticipation as I replayed the moment in my mind.
"So many people say magic isn't real; it's just a conspiracy theory. I was one such person, actually. But the 'Fuyuki Incident'… I hadn't thought it would go anywhere, but I was bored, and the theories people had thrown out were wild! I just had to get in on the fun for myself!"
Had my hands not been bound, I would have added in some dramatic flair for effect here.
"I hadn't expected to discover that magic, or magecraft as you all put it, actually exist though! It was quite the thrilling discovery!"
…Ah, now that was the look! Hidden behind the fan, sure, but enough of her face remained visible that I knew. Now, she was truly horrified.
"Who else knows about this" she practically shrieked.
"If you mean outsiders like me, then no one. I haven't told anyone yet, nor have I revealed my translations, or the original findings. Haven't disclosed the location of their castle in Fuyuki either."
"Then this may still be salvageable… I want everything you have from that place!"
"Can't do that, sadly."
"You will, or I'll kill you here and now!"
"One, that only harms you, in more ways than one" I smirked. "Two, I don't have either my translations, or the originals, anymore: served as payment for the alliance with the kiddies."
"You gave spellcasters secrets of the Einzberns?!"
"You say that as if it's supposed to mean something to me" I shrugged. "I don't have this distinction like you do. You're either a magus, or mage, or whatever, or you're a normie like me. That's the extent of it. Besides, an alliance of three in a seven-way war is quite the good deal, wouldn't you say? Especially since I have a copy of all that shit digitally anyways…"
"Then give me your copy!"
"Sure thing! You have an Email address?"
The woman stared at me as if she had no idea what I was talking about.
"Oh, too bad then" I laughed. "See, I can't send you a copy if you don't have an Email address to receive it. It's digital, remember? I just said as much! This shit is simply astounding to me: are all magi so far up their asses in their quest for the root that they have simply ignored everything else?!"
Both the woman and Archer remained silent. Archer from amusement, if his expression meant anything. The woman from… well, a whole bunch of conflicting emotions, let's say.
"Archer, kill him now" she finally snapped.
…Maybe I pushed that a bit too far… Damn, but that's what the nuke is for anyways…
"Ah, ah, ah" I quickly jumped in as Archer notched an arrow far faster than a man relaxing without a weapon around him should have any right to. "You see, you can't actually afford to do that…"
"WHY NOT?!"
"Because that is how you will reveal the existence of magecraft to the world."
That stopped her in her tracks cold. Archer was patiently waiting for his master's go ahead to fire, bow still aimed directly at me. Yet, the order to fire never came…
"You lie… It's a bluff; a poor one at that!"
"Oh darling, I don't even need to lie for this" I grinned. "Now, I take it you took not only my sword from Saber, but also my backpack?"
"Of course I did."
"Have you gone through the contents of the bag?"
"A phone, camera, some food and a bottle of pills. What of it?"
"Think on it a moment" I smiled. "If you know what phones and cameras are capable of, then the answers should be easy to grasp."
"…"
"…"
"…You've been taking photos of everything?!"
"Not just photos. Videos too. Sometimes just audio, but that also works. I wish I could have been recording this, but alas-"
"Archer, destroy that bag!"
Somewhere in the room I heard the sound of electronics being obliterated. That could have only been my stuff.
…Bitch, you have any idea how much that shit costs? …Ok… Not actually too much; I cheap out a bit on the portable devices. But still! The disrespect to technology was indefensible!
"There! Now I can kill you safely."
"Except no, you still can't" I sighed. "You turned on your smugness too quickly. Now, had you done that night one, then yes, you would be correct. However, just like the stuff from the Einzberns, I already put everything on there onto my computer. You would have to destroy that as well, but I don't have that on me, clearly."
"Then you will take me to this computer of yours, and if you cooperate right now, I'll let you live."
"One, you're a bad liar" I laughed. "Which, for a supposed noble, is kind sad."
Archer audibly smirked a bit.
"…Has a point…" he mumbled when the woman turned her focus onto her servant.
"I'll deal with you later" she growled.
"Two" I continued, dragging her attention back to me. "Even that actually doesn't solve the issue for you. All the stuff I've gathered sits in a file in cyberspace. It's also on a timer, set to be released all over the internet should the timer hit zero. Now, I can reset that timer; have been doing so ever since this war started. But only I can get through my security measures to do so, at least when talking about the people participating in the war only."
"Meaning what?!"
"Meaning that the moment I die, within a period of twenty-four hours, that file will be released all over the internet. Documents, photos, video files, audio files… everything I've ever collected on magecraft is in there. Now, I'm sure many would still remain skeptical. At first, at least. Then, they'll find that the photos aren't edited. The videos aren't faked. The audio files aren't forged or stitched together. Meaning one of two things just be true: everything that was released is real, or this random nobody, in the eyes of the internet, is the best video editor, photo editor, and audio file manipulator in the world. Considering I also have specifics from that priest and Rider, as well as the kiddies, like Heroic Spirit, servant, Mage's Association, Clock Tower, the list goes on… Well, I think it's obvious that people won't believe for long that I'm the most gifted digital asset editor in the world, so they'll turn to the only other option. How long do you think it'll take for magecraft to be uncovered when the entire world starts looking?"
"…"
"How do you think this Mage's Association will react when they found out you knew killing me would lead to this outcome, yet you did so anyways? I'm not expert, and I wouldn't say the kids are either, but from what they've said about this Mage's Association… Well, I wouldn't trust you to live for long after that…"
"…"
"You can't stop it either. No magecraft can; I'd bet on that. You all have no comprehension of how the internet works; how technology in general works. No way you'll figure out a countermeasure within a period of twenty-four hours or less!"
My grin was uncontainable at this point.
"So no, you can't kill me. Granted, I can't just drop the file whenever either, unless I want to die. But I don't fear death, girl. Maybe I will if you rub me the wrong way, just for the shits and giggles of it all; your hidden world crumbling apart. This is my nuke. This is my weapon for this war. …Dare I say it? This is my magecraft, girl! You can't kill me! You can't imprison me! In fact, if anything, you must protect me: besides the kids, you're the only other one who knows this so far. If the other masters and servants get me, well… there goes your secret world! I know for a fact the next time I see Rider as well, he's going to try to kill me. Provided my estimates on his capabilities aren't wrong, that is, but I think he's plenty capable to figuring out what he needs to..."
"…"
"And I will keep participating in this war; gathering evidence of magecraft and expanding the file. If you want to take the risk, wage the bet and kill me, best do it now. Otherwise, the hole only gets deeper and deeper should I die."
You see? This right here is why you don't disrespect technology! Sure, magecraft was beautiful, but it's the magi who will die in this war. Me? I'm invincible! Neither the Church, nor the magi of this Mage's Association will pull that trigger and risk it! The kids can't kill me either, else the Mage's Association and even possibly the Church hounds them the rest of their, what would be, short lives!
…Invincibility, omnipotence, and power over the void; the cycle of creation and destruction… The actualization of 'God'…
