[Double North] Fate

winter day.

The weather in Xingsha City was not so cold that it would snow, only the rain mixed with the cold wind made the dry air damp.The temperature of five to six degrees Celsius above zero forced the passers-by walking outside to tremble and breathe white air, cowering in the winter clothes covering their whole bodies.Whether it is the gloomy sky above or the gloomy road in front of you, there is a thin layer of dull gray floating, as if something deliberately blocked the warmth of the distant sun.

Occasionally, the sound of the engine of a speeding car can be heard on the street with few pedestrians.A man in a black down jacket stood by the dark green glass wall on the front of the building. The long, slim fit set off his thin figure.The hood of the down jacket went over the top of his head, and the fluffy fur trim on the outer edge of the hat tightly covered his face from the side.With his right hand stretched into the hood and close to his ear, the shape of his lips changed rapidly in a small arc, and he was whispering to the voice on the phone.

"I've already started preparing for "that" two years later....Hmmm. Okay....Understood, I will work hard."

During the call time of about 10 minutes, he kept pacing in the unoccupied area.After hanging up the phone, he looked at the time on the screen.There were still 15 minutes before the hour when he had to return to work, which was enough time for him to calm down and walk back into the sight of his colleagues calmly and calmly.

The call just now came from his mother.The content of the conversation was not asking him to add clothes when it was cold, or to go home and have a look when he was free.He knew that his family was not an ordinary family, and such ordinary family greetings did not exist.Neither yearning for the care of his parents nor the warmth of his family, he was not disappointed by his mother's uncompromising tone of voice when she gave orders.

He Jiong, 44 years old, native of Xingsha City, Xiangliu Province.The family is a scholarly family with extremely academic status, and the parents teach in famous colleges.He Jiong has shown extraordinary learning talent since he was a child. He studied in prestigious schools all the way, and worked in a local TV station after graduation.In the eyes of outsiders, He Jiong's life so far has been going very smoothly, and he will continue to shine in the workplace in the future.

——On the surface.In fact, whether it is the parents who teach their students carefully in the lecture hall of the university, or the happy and harmonious family, they are all disguises.The real He family is a small magic family that is isolated from the outside world and has indifferent kinship: from the octogenarian old man to the youngest son, they are all born with an extraordinary number of magic circuits, able to turn magic circuits scattered in the surrounding environment Absorb the magic power in it as a magician for your own use.

He Jiong's number of magic circuits is not poor, but his magic aptitude is still not as outstanding as his brothers of the same generation.He didn't have much interest in the magic system passed down by his family, but instead taught himself Western element-based magic, and found his talent by mistake.He is good at mental magic, and in the process of studying this kind of magic for a long time, speech interpretation and situational analysis have also been strengthened as subsidiary soft powers, making it easier for him to gain the approval of the conversation partner unconsciously.He decided to use this unexpected advantage to obtain a career in the world, and became a TV presenter, an artist who uses language to express art.

However, the traditional magic family hates descendants who often show their faces in front of ordinary people.They believe that this is the root cause of the gradual decline of the magic world in modern society-the successors of the magic family have no fundamental respect for the concepts of "secret" and "mystery" that form the foundation of family history.

"Flipping your tongue and earning applause from fools", the family who made such an evaluation of He Jiong's watch career has since completely cooled down towards him.

A year ago, the elders in the He family knew through the gathering in the magic world that the next subspecies Holy Grail War held in China would be held in Shanghai three years later. Participating in it and winning it meant that the family had a great reputation in the magic world. The status of the United States will be greatly improved that has not been seen in decades.In the following year, the family has been discussing who is strong enough to participate in the Holy Grail War as the representative of the whole family.But He Jiong knew that his name would definitely not be included in the list of candidates.

Just now when his mother called, his cousin was selected as a master candidate for the subspecies of the Holy Grail War.This result was not beyond his expectation. What he didn't expect was that the family's further squeeze and containment of him had just begun.The host's job was stuffed into his schedule, and he used to listen to the Holy Grail War as a family anecdote that had nothing to do with him.But now that the master candidate has been selected, the Patriarchs require that everyone, regardless of their relatives or ages, must prepare magic materials for future wars and hand in the items on the list regularly.

"Phantom Light Dust", "Evil Skeleton", "Cursed Spirit Poison Needle"... He usually doesn't want to use those few things, but the reason of the Holy Grail War is enough for them to justifiably demand dozens of copies from him every month. hand in.

Forget it, don't worry too much.He sighed to himself.

For a person who has always lingered on the fringes of the family, such a deal can be used to exchange for the freedom to keep a long distance from the family center.He finished his contemplation and wandering, and walked towards the building of the radio and television station.The wind blew light rain, and the rain wetted the tips of his hair hanging by his ears, and also wet the eyelashes of his eyes.

He wanted to wipe the rain off his eyelashes, but in a flash he bumped into a young girl passing by.She almost slipped and fell, and the book she was holding in her arms also slipped from her hands.He Jiong hurriedly supported her shoulders, and with his other hand, he narrowly grasped the spine of the book, saving it from fate before it was destroyed by the wet ground.

"Sorry, I didn't notice you. Are you okay?"

The girl's fair cheeks immediately turned red, she stared at her toes and softly thanked her, then walked away quickly.

This girl is quite cute.He Jiong thought so, walked through the automatic door of the building into the hall.The staff at the front desk moved their eyes away from the screen in front of them, and seeing him take off his hat to reveal his face, he said excitedly as if seeing a celebrity he admired: "Hello, Teacher He!"

"Xiao Xu good afternoon." He returned a gentle smile and walked into the elevator.Two young men in suits and leather shoes walked out of the opened elevator car and had just finished recording work in the morning. Their footsteps were tired and procrastinated, and their faces were full of tiredness.The person walking behind caught a glimpse of He Jiong carefully before he passed by him completely, and the latter was taking off his coat and lowering his head to pat the water droplets on the down jacket.

Only then did the two of them realize that they almost didn't recognize the senior from the TV station, and they felt flustered: "He, Mr. He, have you had lunch yet?"

Seeing the two young men who looked like interns were too frightened to vent their anger, he couldn't help but chuckled softly in his heart.Am I that scary?He thought, with a warm voice like a spring breeze: "Well, go back and prepare for the recording in the afternoon, and you will go out on location today. Eat well, it's cold outside, wrap up tighter." The approachable tone made the two people in front of them ease their nervousness, and looked out. And walking has become easier.

He Jiong has worked here for nearly 20 years. He is low-key and has an excellent reputation in the industry.He was always able to find a way to reconcile the disparate guest groups when he first came into contact with them through unobtrusive observation.His outstanding professionalism and adaptability made him a success in the program shortly after he joined the TV station.

As an experienced professional host, in addition to hosting the family carnival programs that have been broadcast regularly for ten years on the mainstream channels of Xiangliu Province for a long time, he is also often arranged to participate in various new variety shows to drive the popularity of the programs.This afternoon's recording of the column is exactly the same. The crew shot continuously for three or four hours in the rainy suburbs shortly after the start-up. All the people present were full of rain and were exhausted.

"Click! Call it a day!" the director announced loudly with a tweeter.

"Thank you for your hard work..."

The recording scene, which was finally disbanded, was full of voices. With the help of the assistants, the actors and guests sorted their clothes, and the stage props team and the photography team were busy packing up equipment and equipment.He Jiong also heaved a sigh of relief, his bare hands were almost unconscious from the cold wind.While saying goodbye to the staff, he rubbed his hands a few times to keep them warm, put on his gloves, got into the car, and headed straight for home.

It was just dark when we got back to the residence.He Jiong inserted the key into the door lock, turned the key, and pushed the door open a thin crack.At this moment, he keenly noticed something strange in the room.

The house is pitch black, only the incandescent lamp in the corridor outside the door casts light into the crack of the door, drawing a bright white oblique shadow on the floor tiles in the entrance.The area around the shoe rack is tidy, because he likes a tidy and comfortable living environment very much.But it doesn't mean that every day when he is rushing out, he has time to put the slippers with the tip facing inwards, and place them side by side on the ground close to the edge of the tiles.

Someone has been here and set up these slippers.

He quickly sorted out two possibilities in his mind-the thief broke into the house, or a friend saw that he had unlocked the door and pushed the door open.But no matter what, it was hard for him to convince himself that someone would do something too detailed like arranging slippers.He turned on the chandelier on the top of the living room and looked around the living room, but found no signs of being messed up or damaged.The foreign language magazines on the coffee table are still piled up meticulously.He walked through the hallway with light steps, and his senses were surprised to receive the scent and light signals from the kitchen.At the same time, there was also a ray of magic power floating in the air.

The uninvited guest was most likely a magician.

He Jiong lived a life of living alone, and his estranged family relatives would never come to his house at will.Confused and apprehensive, he approached the half-hidden door of the kitchen, and leaned on the door frame to peek inside.

There are several porcelain bowls on the countertop of the cabinet. The white jade-like clean bowls contain prepared beans, shrimps, Chinese cabbage, shredded ginger and minced garlic. Alright stew.In front of the gas stove at the other end stood a strange man.

The upper body is a black leather jacket, the lower body is slim-fit trousers with a slightly casual style, and a pair of thick high-heeled leather boots are on the soles of the feet. The heels are as smooth as salad oil in a pot. As long as my little finger.The man is holding the handle of the frying pan with one hand, and with the other hand, he is holding a long-handled wooden spoon to pick and pull a few golden-fried fish in the pan, humming an unknown tune leisurely.When he turned sideways to pick up the dishes in the ceiling cabinet, He Jiong saw that his apron with aqua blue and white checks was slipping on his leather jacket.

The eyes of the two met, He Jiong was so shocked by the scene in front of him that he was speechless, but the movement of the man's hands did not stop.He poked his head and glanced at the cooked white rice, then turned his neck to look at He Jiong at the door of the kitchen, and said casually, "You're back."

The calmness of the words made He Jiong wonder for a second whether he had lost his memories of several years.But soon he understood the ridiculousness and irrationality of the reality at the moment, and asked, "Hello, this is my home, right? Excuse me, what's the point of breaking into an empty door and working my kitchen without authorization?"

The man in black's face paled, and then He Jiong was surprised to feel the breath of the huge magic power emanating from him.For some reason, this man had been suppressing his own magical power before, and did not fully reveal it.If He Jiong's magic power is like a clear and shallow stream in a mountain stream, then the thick and dignified magic power on the man is like a roaring river tearing apart the plain.Even if a very small gap is opened in the embankment of the river bank, the amount of water pouring out is enough to form a flood, destroying more than [-] households on the entire floor in an instant, and not even a single intact brick is left.

Comparing the two, the disparity in strength is obvious.This is He Jiong's first formal contact with a magician outside his family, and the other party is so powerful.Is this really a magical reserve achievable by ordinary humans?Or, he has another identity——

"It seems that you don't know my origin at all?" The man turned off the fire on the stove and leaned against the sink with his arms folded.

He Jiong felt weird: "You mean what should I know? But I don't remember seeing you. Who are you? What is your purpose?"

The man's expression changed from a little surprised to one that looked like he was facing an enemy, ready to fight.The situation exceeded expectations, he took off the apron full of home atmosphere and put it aside, staring at He Jiong with dark eyes.Even on stage, it has been a long time since He Jiong has experienced such a tense moment.

"Servant Caster, appeared here because he was summoned," the man said without a word, "Aren't you the Master who summoned me?"

A Servant is a copy of a Heroic Spirit.Since the emergence of human civilization on the earth, through the ages, there have been countless images that have appeared in recorded history or in oral legends.They are remembered by people because of their colorful deeds, and they accept the prayers of future generations.These characters or concepts are called "Heroic Spirits", and their spiritual foundation records are kept in the high-level space "Heroic Spirit Seat" outside the world.

Whenever there is a suitable opportunity and there is enough magic power to materialize the heroic spirit and descend to the surface, these magical power collections that are exactly the same as the records of the Heroic Seat will appear, which is the so-called "Servant Summoning".In other words, the Servant is a copy of the Heroic Spirit; without careful consideration, it is no different from the Heroic Spirit itself.They may be famous kings and generals in history, or they may be famous heroes and knights in legends, or even detectives and thieves in widely circulated novels.

At this moment, He Jiong was no less surprised than someone who was suddenly told by the phone that he had won a lottery prize of tens of millions of dollars that he had never bought before. "Servant...you? I summoned you?" His finger changed from pointing at the man who called himself "Caster" to pointing at himself, "But, isn't the subspecies Holy Grail War in the capital city going to start two years later? Impossible now A servant summoned by the Holy Grail appears!"

What's more, although his family has decided to participate in this war, he is not the only master candidate qualified to summon servants.

There is no magic circle prepared for summoning, and there is no key cultural relic placed in the eye of the circle that is necessary for summoning servants, that is, the "holy relic" that is crucial to them in the stories and legends of the heroic spirits.Under such circumstances, how could there be a servant summoned to this world?

The gully between Caster's eyebrows was as deep as a knife.He motioned for He Jiong's gloves with his chin: "Take it off and take a look."

He Jiong suddenly came to his senses and quickly took off the glove on his right hand.In the center of the back of the hand, a scarlet red tattoo pattern was drawn at some point.When both He Jiong and Caster cast their eyes on the pattern, it seemed as if the cognition of both parties deepened the contract itself, and the pattern on the skin gradually warmed up, and then became hot.

The three-toed bird's claws, which are entwined with thorny vines and scattered broken leaves, are as red as soaked in blood.

It only takes one glance for any magus to understand that that tattoo is a proof of identity as a Master.It is a magic formula used to bind the summoned servants during the Holy Grail War, and it is called "Command Spell".Possessing this powerful magic engraving means that the magician, as the master, has the power to absolutely control the followers three times. When necessary, he can give the followers a powerful force that breaks the rules, and can also make the followers feel betrayed when they have evil thoughts. It committed suicide.

It's like ensuring that the master can use the humanoid weapon safely and conveniently - this thought made He Jiong a little uncomfortable, he put down the back of his hand and no longer looked at the pattern.

"Since the Command Seal appears, it means that I am really your Master, right. To be honest, I have no wish for the Holy Grail, and I never thought that I would participate in the Holy Grail War... I still can't believe it."

"You're not the only one who finds it unbelievable. I really hate things like fighting and war. I thought it was some ignorant magician who forcibly summoned me to appear." Caster held his chin thinking.

"Don't you have a wish for the Holy Grail? This is quite rare. I heard that the servants who appeared in response to the master's call during the Holy Grail War are all heroic spirits who wish to make a wish for the Holy Grail. This should be quite important for the heroic spirits. After all, the Holy Grail is the legendary "universal wish machine", as long as you become the final victor in the Holy Grail War, no matter what kind of impossible wish you have, you can use it to come true."

Caster shook his head resolutely: "I don't have the desire to entrust the Holy Grail. If this was an orthodox Holy Grail War held under normal circumstances, I would never pay attention to anyone's summoning. But now you have not prepared the summoning ceremony , but I appeared here to become your servant, this incident itself shows that the current situation is very abnormal."

He paused and changed the subject.

"Anyway, let's introduce myself first."

Caster got up and left the cabinet against which he was leaning, and walked in front of He Jiong in a dignified manner.He has the unique face shape and facial features of the East Asian race. He looks about 40 to [-] years old. His thick eyebrows look like two upside-down characters, his eyes are like two black jade beads, and his lips are tight and thick.The black and thick left hair stood upright in the air, and a few locks at the root of the forehead stretched out pervertedly, blocking the full forehead.He Jiong had no reason to believe that he would name a Chinese.

Put the left hand in the trouser pocket, and stretch out the right hand towards the middle of the two, with the five fingers slightly stretched and strong.At this time, Caster exuded a natural self-confidence, as if he was never stingy or shy to introduce himself to strangers, or he had trust in the Master he had never met before.

"I am——. You can call me Benin, Xiaoza, or Mr. Sa. You can call me whatever you like. By the way, as I mentioned just now, my class is Caster (Magic) who is the least good at fighting. Teacher). Generally, in order to avoid calling the servants by their real names, the Master will be called by their rank; but I don’t like being called this way. It will make me feel that I am logged in with thousands of others on the Throne of Heroes, and is called Caster as a battle tool is no different." He shrugged.

Caster whispered his breath when he said his real name.This is a common practice in the Holy Grail War. If the real name of the servant is known by the enemy, the attack method of one's own servant may be guessed by the opponent based on historical rumors.So they are always extra cautious and never mention it when they have to.

"He Jiong, a magician who mainly studies mental magic." He Jiong admired Caster's frankness and sincerity, as if meeting a work partner for the first time on a formal occasion, he stretched out his right hand to hold Caster's right hand, "The profession is a TV host , and also work as a drama actor.”

"Oh? This is quite interesting. I remember that mental magic is not a type of magic with strong offensive power. It seems that we are quite compatible in this regard," Caster expressed interest, "I am looking forward to seeing you as the master. Performance."

Once the atmosphere changed, the two could finally sit at the dinner table and chat while eating.He Jiong was already hungry after working all afternoon, and the dishes in his mouth were even more delicious at this time.Stewed pork ribs with yam, dry fried yellow croaker, green beans and shrimps, fried cabbage, a lot of home-cooked dishes got into He Jiong's stomach.

"Your cooking tastes delicious." He Jiong stretched out his chopsticks and salivated to hold a piece of fried fish.

"Hey, thank you for the compliment. Anyway, I usually have nothing to do at home, so let me do the shopping and cooking." Hearing the praise for his cooking skills, Caster grinned in a great mood.

"You sound too idle. Are we really participating in the Holy Grail War?" He Jiong asked after swallowing and chewing the fish.

"How about discussing the action plan for now? The known information so far is——neither you nor I know why this summoning occurred, and we don't know how many servants and masters participated in this call. The Holy Grail War. To put it more extreme, we don't even know if this is a Holy Grail War, following the rules of the Holy Grail War as we know it."

Caster picked out the green beans on the plate and arranged them in a neat 7x2 square like a formation.

"The three previous Holy Grail Wars held in accordance with the regular rules started every few decades, and seven masters summoned seven servants of different ranks to fight each other. Since then, a Holy Grail war occurred Due to various reasons, the Great War unexpectedly turned into a seven-on-seven melee between two camps and fourteen masters. After that, the process of the Holy Grail War, which should have been kept secret by the organizer, was leaked. The holy grail wars caused by the poor-quality holy grails made by the people are frequent.”

He Jiong continued: "This unorthodox Holy Grail War is called the "subspecies Holy Grail War". Generally, it cannot reach the scale of seven cavalry in the regular Holy Grail War. At most five cavalry, at least two cavalry can be carried out. "

"That's right. To sum it up, the best case scenario is that this summoning of me is just a wrong call, and the Holy Grail War has not yet started. The worst case scenario is that we will face another six or thirteen pairs from The most likely scenario is that we will be involved in an unknown subspecies Holy Grail War, and we will fight one to four servants.”

"Currently, I am more inclined that this is an accidental subspecies Holy Grail War. In other words, our first task is to investigate any clues that point to the outbreak of the subspecies Holy Grail War. In addition, we should also find out the origin of the Holy Grails. The location, it will be helpful to find out the situation of the battle and find out other servants. By the way—well, Sasha. I haven’t asked, how is your workshop and Noble Phantasm?”

Caster was obviously happy to hear such an endearment.He straightened up and sat upright: "The magic workshop is the fate of all Casters. Of course, I will start to build it immediately. I will find a way to find the materials for the workshop. The problem is still the magic power needed for the treasure. At present, your magic power is not enough. It is enough to support my Noble Phantasm to unfold normally, even if I use it barely, it can only achieve one-ninth of the normal effect.”

He Jiong sighed: "Of course, I summoned the servant without any preparation."

"You should be lucky that I am a class characterized by high magic power. Otherwise, if you encounter a class like Berserker (Berserker) who wastes magic power endlessly, it will not be surprising to drain you until you die from exhaustion of vitality. Before the workshop was established, I couldn’t use large-scale magic, so I could only do errands…”

The two simply decided on their plans for tomorrow at the dinner table.After He Jiong finished washing the dishes and returned to the living room, Caster was already sitting cross-legged on the sofa.He Jiong felt that there was no need to dress so formally at home. He looked at Caster and thought that he was about the same size as himself, so he asked him to change into his home clothes. The loose T-shirt and sports cotton trousers barely fit him. .

Caster picked up the remote and turned on the TV.When a servant is summoned, he will have all the necessary knowledge of the current era, so basic operations such as using contemporary languages ​​and controlling electrical equipment are not difficult.But he casually grabbed the square pillow on the sofa and hugged it in his arms. It didn't look like he was going to do something serious.

"I packed it up. Didn't you say that you have important information to study together tonight?" He Jiong asked.

Caster stared at the screen without moving his head, and patted the sofa with one hand to signal He Jiong to sit beside him: "I want to study the precious historical video data."

"About what?" He Jiong walked over seriously, "There is no record of the Holy Grail War on the TV."

"Which channel host are you here? From Xiangliu Provincial Station?" Caster suddenly turned to look at him, "I want to watch your show."

"..."

He Jiong was silent. "You can be angry too?" Caster twitched his tongue exaggeratedly, as if he had completely forgotten the thing about teasing the other party with a serious face before.

"Why would I believe what you said about researching important information?" He Jiong rubbed his swollen temples.

"It's very important," Caster rolled his eyes, "isn't the first step in the cooperation between the master and the servant is to understand each other. The few words of self-introduction are not enough, I have to observe carefully and work hard to understand. For example, as soon as I woke up on your sofa, I noticed that you are a person who pays special attention to the hygiene of the room and organizes things very well. So it must make you feel very uncomfortable that the slippers were not arranged before I went out this morning, so I will do it Tidy up. Then do you want to watch TV with me?"

He Jiong was taken aback by this speech, not knowing whether to praise him for his careful observation, or continue to reprimand him for being too naughty. "I still have something to watch, so I won't accompany you to study myself. I usually host several programs, you can choose slowly." He left the living room and walked towards the study, and Caster muttered in his ear, " It's a pity" voice.

It is true that he does not often watch the TV programs he recorded, but more importantly, watching the videos of the programs he recorded with the people he met for the first time will undoubtedly be exposed in person.Instead of reading this, it is better to dig out some actual content about the Holy Grail War from the magic book at home.Before going to bed, He Jiong took a thin blanket and put it on the sofa. After that, the two of them focused on their own affairs and never communicated again.

The next morning, He Jiong rubbed his eyes and walked into the living room, only to find that milk, coffee, French toast and frozen fruit salad had been set on the dining table.He blinked in disbelief. "Wow, western breakfast. Do you know what time it is?"

The breakfast cook next to him who was laying out silver knives and forks and tissues - a part-time servant - said, "Of course, at six in the morning. I started preparing twenty or ten minutes ago. Don't forget that I don't need to sleep."

He Jiong sat in the chair: "Then you didn't sleep at all last night?"

"In order to save you magic power, I'll just rest on the sofa for a few hours," he bowed down and made a "please use" gesture like a deacon serving the castle owner in a western story, "By the way, Is there anything in those books you read last night that could help, Teacher He?"

He Jiong's knife and fork stopped for a second.This title is undoubtedly a demonstration of Caster's achievements in his research on "precious historical image data".This Servant... is really grumpy.He put down the old and new mobile phones in his arms, and said: "I looked at the information, and the usefulness is indeed very limited. The only thing I can conclude now is that as the master, you must be careful about Assassin (hidden) In addition, this is an idle mobile phone that I can find at home now, you choose one to use, I will store the current number in it, and use it as a means of communication. If the distance is too far, the response of the magic connection is not fast enough Sometimes we can rely on technology.”

Caster fiddled with a small phone with a frayed shell. "It's like an old model from before smartphones."

"It is true, so there is no way to use it to surf the Internet, only phone calls and text messages can be used."

"I quite like this kind of old machine. It is enough for the communication tool to have a communication function, and there is no need for some cumbersome uses," he said, "Then I will repeat today's plan-you hide the identity of the master at the same time. Go to work as usual, I will go to the place in the city where the Holy Grail is most likely to appear to investigate the situation, and then go home to build a magic workshop. If there is important information or danger, please contact me at any time.”

"If I can't contact you in time in an emergency, I will consume a swipe of the Command Seal to force you to come, no problem?"

"Correct. As you said before, Assassins and even Archers are servants who can silently assassinate the Master with their own abilities. You must be vigilant at all times."

After finishing speaking, Caster suddenly approached He Jiong who had just finished breakfast.He looked down at him and conjured a rose out of his hand.This scene has nothing to do with romance; Caster just tore off a few petals and stuffed them in He Jiong's jacket pocket.

"Where there are my roses is my position. They will protect you at critical moments."