Arknights' Lock of Heaven

"However, brave warrior, I think we should forget all those things, shouldn't we?"

The wizard put on a sincere expression and said, "After all, you really need help right now, don't you?"

"..."

Upon hearing this, the patriot fell silent.

If it's not about demanding a price... then the so-called help is just adding another round of 'investment'?

"What exactly are you plotting, wizard?" His crimson eyes flickered uncertainly. "What do you want to achieve with the infected?"

“Alas, if I said I didn’t want anything, you certainly wouldn’t believe me,” Merlin sighed upon hearing this. “Yes, you are an indomitable warrior, fighting your whole life, witnessing so much deceit and treachery, that you can hardly believe there are still people in the world who uphold justice.”

“No, I believe there are such people,” the Patriot denied. “They have already come with a full load of food and supplies to carry out their ideals. I just don’t believe that you, who are hiding your true identity, are such a person.”

"Then why not take a look at this letter?" Merlin smiled mischievously, reached out and pulled out a letter, which fluttered in the wind to the Patriot.

“It comes from the ship you believe in, and your daughter wrote it herself,” Merlin said, crossing his arms as if to watch a spectacle. “Why don’t you open it and take a look?”

“Wizard, you’ve gone looking for my daughter again,” Patriot said, unmoved, his right hand gripping his halberd tightly. “Thanks to you, I have a long life ahead of me. If you have any schemes, come at me!”

"Don't disturb Yelena!"

“No wonder she always calls you that old stubborn person,” Merlin sighed upon hearing this. “But you’re wrong this time.”

He looked up and met Patriot's eyes. "I was living a carefree life in Avalon, but I owed someone a favor. And what you owe, you have to pay back, right?"

"Oh, right, this isn't a hidden meaning. Let me reiterate, those two everlasting flowers were simply a gift. You don't owe me anything, and I have nothing to ask of you or the infected."

The reason I'm appearing before you again is simply because I owe someone a debt and can't refuse his request.

"As for that person, he is the captain of the ship you regard as your savior, ha, you should know him, right?"

Merlin winked at Patriot. "So you should know, I can't refuse him."

"..."

Upon hearing this, the patriot fell silent.

Is this wizard in front of me still connected to that ship?

but……

Subconsciously, the patriot wanted to stay away... but he found that he couldn't leave.

Without the supplies on that ship, all 200,000 people would die this winter.

He felt as if he had fallen into an invisible net.

“Sigh, stop with the conspiracy theories,” Merlin said quietly. “You always think I’m after something from you, and even with him, because you know me, you’ve started to suspect he’s after something from you.”

"But there are some things they can't explain to you over the phone because they're too shocking. Even I'm amazed by their extravagance."

"When your daughter comes back to you, you will know that he doesn't want anything from the infected. On the contrary, you are very lucky, extremely lucky."

“I understand your concerns, hero… no, Bozokasti. Your life has made you hostile to the unknown. You have two hundred thousand men under your command, and you must consider their lives and deaths.”

"So you carefully examine every olive branch extended to you, which is not wrong. After all, you are responsible for 200,000 lives, so it's always good to be cautious."

"However, since you're used to this way of talking, let's communicate in a way that you're familiar with."

At this point, Merlin opened his arms, and a silver card slowly appeared in front of him.

Spirit Origin - Tawara Tota.

This card combines the Spirit Origin of Tawara Tota, a Servant Chaldea encountered in the Sixth Singularity, the Sacred Round Table Realm—Camelot, with Class Card technology obtained from a certain magical girl.

The function is not complete. Due to the constraint of magic power, only Xia Yu herself can use it in the entire Terra continent. However, under normal circumstances, if you want to use a certain spirit origin, you can just load the pseudo spirit origin onto your body. There is no need to specially create a class card.

Moreover, since Xia Yu's Spirit Origins are just data and she can't actually interact with the Throne of Heroes, the class cards she creates are essentially basic versions, lacking in many aspects.

However, class cards also have their advantages. Using pseudo-spirit origins is not so simple. You must have enough knowledge of that Heroic Spirit. Even Xia Yu doesn't know much about niche Heroic Spirits like Tawara Tota. Forcibly loading them would consume more mana.

However, if the power of the Holy Grail is used to create class cards from the Spirit Origin data, then mana will be greatly saved.

While class cards may not be as powerful as those that can be loaded with pseudo-spirits, they are more economical and convenient. For example, the reason why Tawara Tota's class card was made is because the Endless Rice Bag is just too damn useful!

As long as there is enough magic power, it can be continuously transformed into food... This thing is incredibly useful, isn't it?

This class card was something Xia Yu made as practice when he was learning magic. Since it was a basic version, he discarded all of Tawara Tou Taiki's other abilities and only kept this Noble Phantasm of Endless Rice Bag. He never expected it would come in handy today.

Merlin ceremoniously placed the silver card on his forehead, and the card slowly disappeared, revealing in his hand a rice bag woven from straw, full of Eastern flavor.

This Noble Phantasm originates from the legend of Tawara Tota.

Wielding a golden katana passed down from his ancestor Fujiwara no Kamatari, he has made numerous military achievements and is a rare and brave general. One day, he accepted the request of the incarnation of the Dragon God and went to defeat a giant centipede on Mount Mikami that was long enough to circle the mountain seven and a half times.

As a token of gratitude, the dragon gods gifted Tawara Tota a rice bag that could produce an infinite amount of rice.

This legend was also elevated to a Noble Phantasm as Tawara Tota became a Heroic Spirit.

“You are lacking food,” Merlin said slowly, holding a sack of rice. “I can provide food, but I don’t know if you Ursus people are used to eating rice.”

Upon hearing this, Quartermaster Andrew stepped forward and saw that the bag was full of the finest rice.

But... his lips twitched.

“This… wizard,” Andrew said tactfully, “what we need is enough food to feed two hundred thousand people for four days, and this…”

He glanced at the rice bag Merlin was holding, saying nothing, yet everything was understood without being said.

With this little bit of rice, it wouldn't be enough to feed 200,000 people for four days, let alone feed the people in the military tents for four days.

434 An Irresistible Condition

Everyone looked at Merlin, who was holding a bag of rice with a proud expression, and a question mark slowly appeared above their heads.

"Two hundred thousand men?" Upon hearing Quartermaster Andrew's words, Merlin smiled slightly and said with an exaggerated expression, "Oh dear, that's probably not enough."

He looked down at the bag of rice in his hand, sighed, and said, "This little bit will probably last twenty people a day."

Merlin looked at the bag of rice in his hand, then patted his head with his right hand. "How about this?"

"Watch closely, the great wizard Merlin is about to cast a spell!" He turned the rice bag upside down with a whoosh. "Now is the moment to witness a miracle!"

The snow-white rice in the bag was pulled down to the ground with a whoosh by gravity, and soon became indistinguishable from the white snow.

"Hey, what are you doing..." Andrew panicked when he saw this. He was the quartermaster of the Shield Guard. In the past, he was only responsible for the logistics of no more than three or four thousand people, which he could barely manage.

But ever since this base was established, Andrew's hair has been falling out in clumps. The reason is simple: every morning he wakes up to find hundreds of thousands of mouths waiting to be filled...

Add to that the guerrillas' warehouses, which are mostly empty and so poor that even rats that come in have to crawl out with tears in their eyes... What he can't stand the most right now is food being wasted.

Andrew was so eager to catch and eat the rats himself that he couldn't bear to see the white rice being carelessly dumped on the snow.

This is practically pushing his limits!

Seeing the white rice piled up on the snow, his blood pressure spiked, and he instinctively lunged at it.

Then, with his eyes wide open from inertia, he fell into the pile of rice.

Andrew was stunned.

What did he see?

In those two seconds that I lunged at him, the rice in the bag seemed to be pouring out endlessly, almost filling a small mountain...

What the heck is going on?!

He jumped out of the pile of rice with a whoosh, then rubbed his eyes hard.

That's right, he wasn't hallucinating. The rice was still pouring out of the rice bag in the wizard's hand, and in just a few seconds, it had almost filled the area outside the tent.

The wizard, still sporting a frivolous smile, moved to another spot and continued pouring out the fluffy white rice.

Andrew stared blankly at this and slapped himself in the face.

"Ugh, that hurts," he thought, rubbing his face. "I'm not dreaming."

The shield guards behind them fared no better; they all stared in disbelief as rice was poured continuously at the tent entrance.

Even Patriot couldn't help but let go of his halberd, step forward, grab a handful of rice, and put it directly into his mouth to chew.

Ah, this is the taste! This is genuine rice, not some kind of deceptive witchcraft.

The staple food of Ursus people is bread, not rice. Many people are not familiar with the taste of rice, but Patriot has lived for so long and has a lot of experience.

"Bozokasti," Merlin said, stopping the pouring of rice and righting the rice bag.

Everyone looked over and saw that the rice bag was still full of rice.

"You stubbornly believe that I'm after something from you, that I'm trying to make you owe me a favor."

"In that case, let's make a deal."

Merlin smiled and said, "How about exchanging Originium, which you can't even use, for food? Fair enough?"

"A standard weight of Originium can be exchanged for ten times its weight of rice here. Ha, my business is absolutely lucrative."

"I've given you a condition you can't refuse."

“So, you agree, Bozocasti,” Merlin extended his hand to him, “and it’s a pleasure doing business with you?”

"..." Patriot looked at his hand and remained silent for two seconds.

Then he reached out and shook it.