"According to the information Little Red Riding Hood and the others sent back, the enemy in the other world is probably Tesla, the man who invented alternating current." A blue haired child sat at a round table and spoke to the two people seated in the other directions.
One of them was a middle aged man in black clothes, his face fixed with a professional smile. The other was a white haired little girl with pink eyes. She held a book in her hands and sat on her chair, swinging her legs.
The middle aged man took out a book, wrote Tesla's name inside it, and continued, "A troublesome opponent. What about the Holy Grails inside him? How many does he have?"
The blue haired child tilted his head, listened for a while, then answered, "The same as us. Two."
"Are there any others?" a clear voice asked. The white haired girl did not even raise her head. "Only two Holy Grails should not be enough to sustain an entire world."
The blue haired boy took out a fairy tale book titled The Smurfs. He flipped through it while speaking. "I already sent the Smurfs to investigate, but so far they have found no other Servants. It is almost as if that world has no Servant aside from Tesla."
"Wonderful, wonderful. Inspiration. Endless inspiration is pouring out of me!" The middle aged man was writing furiously. The other two ignored him and continued discussing the new world.
The white haired girl turned a page, still looking unconcerned. "This could be minor, or it could be serious. Either that world has overlapped with fewer worlds, or Tesla killed the other Servants and had not yet absorbed their Holy Grails. Another possibility is that his body cannot bear more."
The boy nodded. "We do not have enough information, so those are the only two possibilities for now. Capturing or killing Tesla is our current objective. I already sent Pinocchio and the Ugly Duckling over to help. The princesses are standing by too. To prevent anyone from attacking our home, I also had the Three Little Pigs build houses outside. I wrote the concept of The Emperor's New Clothes onto the houses as well. Now all we have to do is wait."
Crack.
A snapping sound echoed through the room. The blue haired boy and the white haired girl froze, then followed the sound. The middle aged man sat there in a daze, holding a broken pen. The sound had come from him.
"Shakespeare, your pen... broke!"
The man the boy called Shakespeare trembled as he picked up the other half of the pen with his free hand. His gaze dropped. The script in the book was still unfinished.
Shakespeare tried to form a new pen with magical energy, but even the new pen appeared broken. His eyes widened with rage.
"No! Why? I finally have endless inspiration this time. Why?" Shakespeare pounded the table in a frenzy. Inspiration had arrived, but he could not write. The feeling was like losing the connection halfway through a download. It left him stranded between desire and completion.
"Shakespeare, let me interrupt. You are not writing an autobiography, are you?" the blue haired boy asked hesitantly.
Shakespeare ignored him. Instead, he grabbed the half with the nib and started writing.
The boy was about to ask again, but the girl interrupted him. "No need to ask. It is definitely an autobiography. And since this is a broken pen on the conceptual level, it means this autobiography cannot be finished. In other words, it has been cut short."
At the girl's words, Shakespeare froze. At that moment, he seemed to sense something. He hurriedly activated his Noble Phantasm.
"First Folio. The hour of opening has come. Let there be thunderous, uh..."
"Next time, remember to shorten the name of your Noble Phantasm." Wu Ling's voice sounded behind Shakespeare. His hand reached in, and the two Holy Grails were already in his grasp.
Then Wu Ling turned his gaze to the boy and girl.
"Shakespeare, Hans Christian Andersen, Nursery Rhyme. No wonder this world turned out like this."
The blue haired boy, Hans Christian Andersen, closed his book and sighed softly. "How troublesome. Fairy tales and life both have tragedy at their core. I saw my own ending from the moment we first acted."
"You do not plan to resist? Especially you." Wu Ling walked to Nursery Rhyme's side, gently pinched her cheek, then stroked her hair. "If you are willing to act cute for me, I might not be able to send you back."
Andersen explained, "If you can reach this place without making a sound, then no matter what I do, I do not have the ability to resist, do I? Still, are you a degenerate? You are even picking on a child."
"Relax." Wu Ling laughed. "I am not a demon. Neutral Servants and Servants leaning toward good get one chance from me."
As he spoke, Wu Ling put away his smile. He placed his hand on Nursery Rhyme's shoulder and asked again, "So, will you join us, or will you return to the Throne of Heroes here and now?"
Nursery Rhyme was the first to raise her little hand.
"I hate tragedies, so I want to join."
Wu Ling patted her head and welcomed her with a smile. "Good, good. Welcome aboard."
Seeing this, Andersen also chose to join. "I will join too."
"Tch." Wu Ling glanced at him with obvious disdain. "Fine, fine."
Even Andersen nearly lost composure at that. "Hey, did I just hear you click your tongue?"
"No. You misheard."
Seeing Wu Ling's perfunctory attitude, Andersen took several deep breaths and forced his anger down. Then he looked toward the place where Shakespeare had been seated.
"If Shakespeare had not attacked just now, all three of us should have survived, correct?"
Wu Ling waved his hand. "No. Even if he had not attacked, I still would have killed him."
Andersen looked baffled. "Why?"
"Because he did not fit my aesthetic. To put it plainly, he was too ugly."
"You really are a degenerate!"
Wu Ling ignored Andersen's accusation and removed two Holy Grails each from Nursery Rhyme and Andersen.
"Right. There is also the other world. Without the Holy Grails supporting them, the phantoms summoned from your stories will weaken sharply. How do you plan to deal with Tesla? Recruit him like you, or destroy him directly?"
"What nonsense are you saying?" Wu Ling answered. "Scientists are the kind of people who hit a wall, refuse to turn back, then tear the wall down and keep walking. Especially someone as stubborn as Tesla. Of course I have to cut him down. Why else would I have killed the other two?"
After hearing Wu Ling's explanation, Andersen finally understood.
"I see. No wonder I could not find the other Servants in that world. You were the one who dealt with them."