Hyatt Hotel
Within Kayneth's magical workshop—not some whimsical wonderland, but a meticulously crafted bastion of magecraft—three figures of varying heights and appearances crowded into the cramped room.
"Oh, oh, oh! This place is brimming with fascinating treasures! I can feel the mana pulsing through these items, especially that marvelous furnace. It truly delights this king!"
"And... my condition has never been better. Mana overflowing, I can unleash at least twice my usual strength! Finally, I can fight to my heart's content!"
Under Kayneth's direction, Waver had recently connected his mana supply to one of the workshop's mana furnaces.
The persistent issue of insufficient mana that had plagued Iskandar was now resolved. Restored to his peak, he was visibly in high spirits.
Curiosity got the better of him, and he materialized from spirit form, slipping into the workshop from outside. His eyes sparkled at the array of dazzling magecraft tools and materials, particularly the Lord-level mana furnace at the center, fueling his power.
"Don't touch anything, Rider! Get out of here! Your size will wreak havoc in this workshop if you mess things up."
Seeing Iskandar barge in uninvited and start poking at the magecraft tools, Waver's heart raced, and he hurriedly tried to stop his reckless behavior.
"Oh, will it cause trouble? Fine, this king won't touch anything. I just want that furnace." Iskandar pointed at the humming mana furnace behind him.
He didn't care much for the smaller components, but the Lord-level mana furnace supplying his mana was another matter.
Having experienced its power, he wasn't about to let it go easily.
With it, he no longer had to worry about whether Waver's body could sustain his strength, allowing him to fight at his peak at all times.
His trump cards could now be used without restraint, massively boosting his combat prowess.
From both a personal and strategic perspective, this furnace was a must-have—a treasure that could significantly increase his chances of victory.
"Rider!!"
Waver's heart leapt to his throat at Iskandar's outrageous declaration.
This big oaf might not grasp the furnace's value, but Waver certainly did.
A Lord-level mana furnace was an extraordinarily rare treasure, even in the Clock Tower. In some magecraft families, it was treated as a cornerstone, a trump card, its value rivaling that of a small-to-medium magecraft family. It was practically a portable, weakened leyline.
To hear this guy casually demand to take such a vital treasure made Waver's heart pound. He rushed to stop him, terrified Iskandar would actually follow through.
"Oh, buddy, are you trying to stop this king from claiming his prize?"
Iskandar asked Waver, "That makes you my opponent."
"Claim, my foot! Who goes into someone else's home to 'claim' things? That's just banditry! And... this is an ally's workshop. Were you the type to rob allies in life?"
Waver mustered rare courage, perhaps because recent events had shattered his worldview. He was starting to realize the Holy Grail War's brutality and that his former half-hearted, timid mindset wouldn't let him survive, let alone save his far stronger professor, Kayneth...
He needed to change.
"Ho, you've grown, kid... Got some backbone now."
Iskandar crossed his arms, looking at Waver thoughtfully. "You've matured. Influenced by this king's fine qualities, perhaps?"
"Fine qualities? From anyone else, maybe, but not you. All you talk about is stealing. Where's the quality in that?"
Waver pouted, clearly annoyed.
"Stealing? That's called conquest! As the King of Conquerors, I follow the path of conquest. What this king desires, he conquers!"
Iskandar pointed proudly at the furnace, patting Waver's back. "Kid, if you can get me one of those, I'll leave this one alone."
The slap on Waver's frail back nearly knocked the wind out of him, his brows twitching.
Could you repeat that nonsense?
If I could afford a Lord-level mana furnace, would I be this broke, crashing at someone else's place?
"I refuse! Forget that I can't afford it—Rider, I'm your Master. Stop making impossible demands!"
"Can't afford it? Is it that expensive?"
"Isn't that obvious? It's worth over a hundred million pounds, and it's priceless on the market."
"You think your Master can afford that?"
Waver was done with him, firmly shutting down the absurd idea of buying a mana furnace.
"I see..." Iskandar sighed deeply. "Then this king will have to earn the money himself."
"?!!"
Waver's eyes widened, his mind racing with countless scenarios in that split second.
Construction work, demolition, farming, or boxing—with his over-two-meter frame, Iskandar was perfect for manual labor.
But Iskandar didn't seem to grasp modern economics. A hundred million pounds wasn't something manual labor could earn, unless...
Waver's eyes widened further as a thought struck him. He cautiously asked, "What kind of work are you planning to do?"
He couldn't imagine Rider's personality settling for honest labor like bricklaying to support the household. Ruling out all impossible options, the last one, however unbelievable, had to be the truth.
"Need to ask? Robbery's the fastest way to make money..."
Iskandar gave a thumbs-up, flashing a bright grin. "Come on, kid, let's rob a bank! We'll make big money! I recall banks are your modern treasuries, right? Back in my day, I plundered plenty of national vaults, seizing gold and jewels. To think I'd get to do it again—robbing a modern bank sounds thrilling!"
"You wouldn't dare!!"
Waver's scream was piercing, his legs buckling as he fully surrendered to this lunatic.
He knew Rider's personality meant he'd follow through, likely without any disguise, robbing in broad daylight and dragging Waver along as an accomplice!!
If that happened, they'd headline Fuyuki's news, and he'd be the first Master in history to rot in a police station until the war's end.
"Quiet down, both of you!"
"Waver, get over here!"
During their squabble, Kayneth had finished extracting his latest research results.
After sharply scolding the two idiots for plotting to rob a bank—a foolish act that disregarded the secrecy of the mysteries—he called them over to witness the pivotal moment of unraveling the Mage-Killer's secret.
"As expected, this special bullet works on that principle..."
"This is the true secret the Mage-Killer kept hidden, and why Roy stepped in to block it that night."
Looking at the Origin Bullet sample floating in the test tube, Kayneth exhaled slowly, still shaken.
After hours of research, he had fully cracked the secret of the Origin and even traced the essence of the Mage-Killer himself.
The principle was brutally simple yet surprisingly effective...
A natural bane for magi.
"A clever blend of fire and earth, with bone powder infused with the Origin of [Severing and Binding]—the properties of cutting and reconnecting. The craftsmanship is appallingly crude, like some third-rate alchemist's botched work, but the composite attributes are terrifyingly potent..."
"Kiritsugu Emiya—Kiritsugu, Severing and Binding... To think someone would hide their greatest secret in their name. What an unexpected twist. I nearly fell to that despicable man's trick."
Recalling the Origin Bullet Kiritsugu fired at him at the port, Kayneth felt a surge of relief that he hadn't recklessly caught it. No matter his magecraft prowess, it would've taken him out.
"Waver Velvet, having seen my experiment, it's question time. What happens if a magus is hit by this bullet?"
Glancing at the trembling Waver, Kayneth asked brusquely.
"This king knows!" Before Waver could answer, Rider clapped his hands, as if struck by epiphany. "Nothing happens, right? Cutting and reconnecting cancels out, doesn't it? Too simple."
"You idiot..."
Kayneth's brows furrowed, tempted to kick the fool but restrained by Rider's towering build.
"Stupid Rider, why would they make a useless tool? If it had no effect, why would Professor Kayneth fear it?"
Waver shook his head, exasperated. "Not everyone's as dim as you..."
"It's not like that?"
Iskandar scratched his head, puzzled. "Didn't you say severing and binding?"
Ignoring Rider's interruption, Waver thought briefly and gave the correct answer. "The more intricate something is, the more valuable and fragile it is. For a magus, nothing's more precious or fragile than their Magic Circuits, akin to vital organs. This bullet severs and reconnects. If a magus is hit, their Magic Circuits, mid-operation, would be disrupted and violently reconnected."
"Correct. That's exactly its effect, and its power is terrifying."
Kayneth nodded, approving his answer.
"That's horrifying." Waver's face paled.
A single small bullet could silently end a magus's life—an instinctively terrifying weapon.
"Huh? But it reconnects, doesn't it?"
"You really are an idiot..."
Waver clutched his head, utterly speechless.
"You're missing the point. Think—though it reconnects, it does so incorrectly. For a normal person, it's like misaligned blood vessels, blocking proper flow. For a magus, Magic Circuits are like those vessels."
"In simpler terms, it's like wrecking your game console's circuits and rewiring them randomly. It won't start—it crashes. In my analogy, a crashed console means a magus's death."
"...Hiss, a crashed console equals a dead magus. I think I get it. You mean if a magus is hit, they die, right?"
Iskandar stroked his chin, finally grasping it.
"Exactly. If a magus is hit, their Magic Circuits get violently tangled, practically equivalent to death."
Waver nodded, acknowledging Iskandar's answer.
"So this tiny thing is that terrifying, able to kill even a magus so easily? That's shocking."
"Yeah, this monstrous thing is a magus's natural enemy."
Waver said warily, "It's hard to imagine someone hating magi so much they'd create such a weapon..."
"No denying it, that's the truth. But..."
Kayneth nodded, agreeing. "You don't need to worry too much, Waver Velvet. Its power scales with the magus's quality. With your few, shoddy Magic Circuits, even if you were hit, the damage wouldn't be fatal."
Waver's mouth twitched.
Thanks for the reassurance... Why doesn't it make me happy?
"But aren't you in danger, then? You're a Lord," Iskandar said, looking at Kayneth.
"Indeed, if I were unaware of its nature, I could've fallen for it and capsized in the gutter." Kayneth smiled confidently.
"But now that I know its secret, it's no threat. At most, it's just a magecraft tool. Once its secret and principle are known, countermeasures are plentiful. Simply avoid getting hit. Even if hit, as long as you don't use your Magic Circuits, there's no major issue."
Kayneth spoke confidently.
"Waver, if I tasked you with countering this Origin Bullet, what would you do?"
"Uh... Logically, I'd analyze the bullet's mystery, deduce the rules and sequence of its severing and binding, then prepare my Magic Circuits. If hit, I'd trigger pre-set magecraft to stabilize the circuits, preventing the bullet from causing disruption and rendering it ineffective..."
"Not bad. You're not entirely useless."
Kayneth nodded, about to say more, when Waver stunned him again.
"But that complex method is beyond me right now... So I'd wear multiple bulletproof vests."
"Brilliant!!"
Iskandar clapped in approval, while Kayneth was momentarily speechless.
After a brief thought, he realized this was indeed the simplest, most feasible short-term solution and nodded.
"A magus wearing bulletproof vests... You've got plenty of unorthodox ideas, Waver."
"But it's viable. You pass this time."
"I'd love to scold you, but even I'd need two days to adjust my Magic Circuits, so we'll use your method for now," Kayneth said, a slight smirk forming. He called out, "Lancer."
"My lord, your command?"
Fionn materialized, responding to the call.
"Go to Fuyuki's police station and acquire some bulletproof vests and riot shields. Next time, I'll personally crush that despicable Mage-Killer!"
Waver froze, staring at Kayneth with a strange look—
He hadn't expected Kayneth, who rarely acknowledged him, to adopt and approve his suggestion. It was... flattering.
But before he could ask more, suddenly—
—Boom!!
"Hm?"
A massive explosion jolted the three, their brows furrowing.
"Enemy attack!!"
Someone dared attack his magical workshop in broad daylight?!
The thought filled Kayneth's eyes with unparalleled fury.
***
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