They've already fought their way through the Holy Grail War, and you still call them dragons?

Above the massive ice floe, the spiritualization quietly dissipated, and the princess's cold voice echoed in the night sky, with a hint of sarcasm.

Mai Jude looked up at Anastasia above the ice floe and wisely chose to remain silent. After all, the Master was talking about Zero, not her. However, she couldn't help but complain in her heart:

Shouldn't you be the one at a higher altitude now?

"Caster, thank you for your hard work." Zero's voice was equally cold, as if it had merged with the chill in the night sky.

She didn't care about the content of Anastasia's seemingly sarcastic words, but instead easily tasted a hint of complaint from them... Between this master and servant who both had the nickname "Princess", there seemed to be a psychological tacit understanding that Jiude Mai could not understand.

"What's next?"

Anastasia tread lightly on the massive ice mass, her long silver hair fluttering slightly in the night breeze. Her gaze swept over the scarred hull below, and her voice was filled with a hint of cold vigilance.

"This sunken ship seems to be infested with something truly extraordinary. Do I need to shatter the entire ship along with the ice?"

"No, no, no!" Jiude Mai hurriedly raised her hand to stop him, with a hint of panic in her voice.

The Lenin, rumored to have sunk over a decade ago, held a crucial ancient dragon embryo that the boss had specifically requested. According to the boss, it was a noble, first-generation embryo, and she couldn't bear the responsibility for even the slightest damage to this ancient king.

Thinking of this, Jude Mai turned to look at Zero, with a hint of helplessness in her tone, "Let your servants thaw the ice on the upper part of the deck. It will be my turn next. I will go aboard and take out the embryo myself."

There was no way, Anastasia was Zero's servant, she could only ask Zero first.

Jiude Mai muttered to herself, and this servant was also a Tsarist princess who had lived a life of luxury during her lifetime. She was as precious as the boss's little cotton-padded jacket - Zero, so it would be safer to do this kind of rough work by herself.

After listening to this, Zero nodded slightly and gestured to Anastasia who was standing high on the ice floe.

The princess said nothing more, but with a light leap, she gracefully descended from the ice floe more than ten meters high, landing lightly beside Ling, as silent as a feather.

At the same time, the huge ice shattered in half in an instant, and ice cubes fell down with crisp crashing sounds.

Exposed before everyone's eyes was the scarred hull, densely packed with parasitic creatures—the lung snails. Thick, dark red blood vessels emanated from the hull, like hideous tentacles, appearing particularly terrifying in the night.

Jude Mai witnessed the princess's swift and agile performance. She opened her mouth, but was speechless. If she had known this Servant was so capable, she would not have been so stubborn and would have simply asked her for help.

However, words spoken are like spilled water, irrecoverable. She could only silently complain in her heart that she was born to work hard while she stepped onto a small steamer along the pier and slowly sailed towards the Lenin, which was surrounded by broken ice.

----

While the night in Tokyo was as dark as ink, on the other side of the earth, on the hillside in the suburbs of Chicago, North America, Kassel College was basking in the bright morning sunshine.

Gilbert Jean Angers, dressed in a perfectly tailored black suit, the red rose on his chest looking even more vibrant in the sunlight, is known to his students as a "living dragon-slaying legend," a "most popular principal," and the epitome of "excellent office afternoon tea."

Of course, the first title has now been largely replaced by Emiya in the outside world.

At this moment, he walked calmly into the student dormitory. Some passing students in dark green uniforms were surprised at this rare visitor to the dormitory, but then they realized what was happening and excitedly greeted President Angers.

Ange smiled and nodded in response. However, the enthusiasm of these few students soon attracted the attention of more people. Upon learning that the principal was coming, students gathered from all directions, and in a blink of an eye, the dormitory lobby was packed.

However, when they looked around, they found that the respected principal had already quietly slipped away, as if he had never appeared.

Of course, Angers didn't come here just to visit the student dormitories.

Like a silent assassin, he quietly pulled out a card, deftly opened the door to the men's dormitory, No. 303, Area 1, and tried to push it open...

The door didn't move at all.

Ange squinted his eyes and peered through the half-open door. What he saw was a foul-smelling garbage heap made up of KFC bucket packaging, leftover chicken bones, and plastic bottles of Otaku Happy Water.

The garbage unceremoniously occupied the floor behind the door, revealing the tip of the iceberg to the principal.

"..."

Ange was silent for a few seconds, then without hesitation, he violently pushed the door open and rushed in. The door swept over the garbage pile, and the beverage bottles collided with each other with a loud ping-pong sound, instantly waking up the boy who was sleeping soundly on the upper bunk.

"Damn it! Who the hell wouldn't let me sleep peacefully so early in the morning..."

The slovenly boy scratched his bare back, half-crouched on his elbows, and rubbed his sleepy eyes. When he saw the identity of the visitor, his sleepiness disappeared immediately:

"Principal!?"

"Fingal, good morning." Ange stood in the middle of the garbage dump, still with that signature smile on his face.

However, Finkel smelled a hint of danger from that smile.

"Good morning, Principal! Wait for me for three minutes! In three minutes, I will be dressed and clean up all the garbage for you!" Finkel hurriedly put on his clothes and jumped off the bed, with a hint of panic in his voice.

"Okay, pack up and follow me." Ange's voice remained calm.

"Ah? Where are you taking me?" Finkel asked cautiously while wearing a wrinkled T-shirt.

"attic."

Ten minutes later.

Finger finally dressed himself up to be presentable. His hair was still a little messy, but at least it no longer looked like a bird's nest. He followed Ange through the campus of Kassel College and finally arrived at the attic of the church bell tower.

What caught my eye was an old man in a cocked-brimmed hat and cowboy boots, sprawled on the sofa like a giant potato, watching the Western "High Noon" with great interest.

This is the vice-president of Kassel Academy, the mentor of "Night Watchman" Flamel, and also Fingel's mentor.

"Watching others masturbate so early in the morning?"

Fingle couldn't help but blurt out a dirty remark, which instantly destroyed the wonderful movie atmosphere that the Night Watch had worked so hard to create.

The night watchman picked up the beer bottle at hand and pointed it at the burly but wretched Finger, saying with a hint of dissatisfaction in his tone: "Hey! Ange! I don't think you told me before that we would include a bear in our conversation!"

"Calm down, old friend, Finkel was just joking. It's a harmless joke." Angé smiled and took the seat opposite the night watchman with familiarity.

Seeing that there was no place to sit, Finkel had no choice but to find a seat next to him and stood there in a hurry.

"Okay, okay," the night watchman muttered as he switched off the movie program on TV and took out two videotapes from the cabinet.

"That means he wants to watch it too, and then act with you, right?"

He put one of the tapes into the VCR and pressed play.

Finger felt a chill in his heart as he heard words like "watch together" and "act together." The principal and vice-principal were joining forces. Was he being sent on some horrible, suicidal mission?

The thought of this made Fingel retreat with all his might. His calves began to tremble, and then he began to feel abdominal pain, back pain, dizziness, and a pale face. He was ready to say goodbye and run away...

"Please watch the VCR!"

Fingel heard a low voice from someone unknown, and subconsciously looked up at the TV screen. He was stunned in an instant -

What was displayed on the screen was not a western movie with gun battles, but a surveillance video.

The picture shows an elegantly dressed girl with a veil covering her face. She is as young as a doll, but she can wave her hand and control a torrent of mercury out of thin air, swatting the crowd surrounding her like flies.

The video was short and ended quickly. The night watchman switched to another clip.

This time, the scene changed to a tall, Western-style beauty in a nun's uniform, wielding a dagger, charging fiercely. She swung her sword with both hands, blocking all the submachine gun bullets, and then smashed her opponent through the wall with one blow.

Finkel blinked and muttered to himself: What are these?

Is the Vice Principal planning a reality show featuring beautiful women performing magic tricks at the school? They've got everything from petite, slender girls to blondes with curly hair—quite the variety! Oh, and the Principal seems to have a good relationship with the Vice Principal, so it seems the Principal is a real flirt at heart...

However, the two old men's expressions were extremely serious. They raised their eyes and looked at Finger with a low and solemn voice:

"Fingal, have you... heard of the Holy Grail War?"

Chapter 172 "Fingal, you are not allowed to repeat a grade!"

Holy Grail War…?

Finger stroked his rough, unshaved chin and wondered to himself, "Could this be the topic that's been going viral on Hunter's Internet lately?"

He did see a poster with the ID "Huginn" post a video of a duel with amazing special effects, claiming to be promoting the mysterious "Holy Grail War".

But Finkel always felt that it was just a battle between the legendary God Slayer Shirou Emiya and an unknown Dragon King, which was filmed by a drone and uploaded to the Internet, triggering a wave of public opinion and being led by a group of people who were happy to watch the fun.

With his many years of experience as the head of the paparazzi team in the Kassel College News Department, Finkel could tell at a glance that the video was carefully edited and the actual battle situation was unclear.

After all, as a student who studied alchemy with Vice-Principal Night Watch, he was well aware of the weight of the term "Holy Grail" - in addition to its lofty status in religion and symbol of miracles in mysticism, in the study of dragon alchemy, it also refers to legendary rare items such as the Dragon King's fetal blood and the Dragon Bone Cross.

In other words, this Holy Grail War post is most likely a pretext used by someone to attract a group of ignorant guys to PK with the Dragon King?

The principal and vice-principal wouldn't have really prepared some holy relics for him, intending for him to seriously participate in the Holy Grail War and summon heroic spirits, right?

"Fingal, we have discussed that it is necessary to send people to represent the secret party in this Holy Grail War." Principal Ange's voice was low and serious, and his tone was completely serious.

"No, Principal, this..." Finkel was speechless for a moment, his eyes widened in disbelief.

"This video shows signs of editing, right?" Ange smiled slightly. "But I want to tell you, this is a serious incident that actually happened."

Principal Ange changed the subject and talked about an incident that seemed unrelated.

"The day after the Heroic Spirit attack video was released, my office mailbox received a total of 34 withdrawal applications. All of them were from students in the advanced training class who were from Japan. The implication was that the Japanese mixed-blood families had torn up the education agreement they signed with the secret party."

"The Eight Snake Clans." The Night Watchman took a sip from his beer bottle. "They have reached a unique equal cooperation relationship with the Secret Party worldwide. The education agreement was signed later, based on the covenant."

"According to the agreement, the Eight Snake Qi Families sent their descendants to Kassel for further training. After returning home, these students formed the Japanese branch of the academy. Originally, signing this agreement meant that the Eight Snake Qi Families officially belonged to the secret party, but now..."

Ange's voice turned cold. "They are breaking the contract. The Eight Snake Qi Clan intends to become independent again."

Ange continued, "The Snake Eight Families used these Japanese students to give me a reason to withdraw from school and break my contract... The family needed their strength to deal with their greatest enemy in their homeland. They simply wanted to say that major events like the Holy Grail War were also the work of their enemies."

The night watchman nonchalantly swung the bottle of wine in his hand and sneered, "Oh, a classic blame-shifting tactic, throwing all the dirty laundry onto the very enemy they point their swords at, as if doing so would make their own bottoms appear clean."

Anger nodded, his gaze deep and profound. "Regardless of their hidden motives, the severity and reality of the Holy Grail War are undeniable. It's no wonder that the Clock Tower and the Holy Church are also trying to intervene."

Upon hearing the two unheard-of terms of power, Finkel's brain almost short-circuited. Who are these two?

"Fingal, do you remember the two videos just played?" The night watchman turned and stared at him.

"I remember, I remember it very clearly!" Fingel gave his mentor a thumbs-up, his face full of flattering smiles. "I, Fingel, have always been in awe of your taste in beautiful women. It's hard to catch up with you!"

"Haha! I'm always amazed at your level of flattery. It's hard to catch up..."

The night watchman was so delighted by the senior paparazzi captain's words that his beer belly quivered with laughter. Suddenly, he turned to look at Ange, "Why does this feel off? Is this how Chinese idioms are used?"

Ange helplessly testified, "It's not 'hard to catch up', it's 'beyond reach'."

"Oh, yes, yes, it's beyond reach!" The Night Watchman took another sip of his wine and wiped the foam from the corner of his mouth. "Where were we just talking about... the Clock Tower and the Cathedral Church."

"The two people you saw in the video just now, according to the branch's investigation, came from the Clock Tower and the Holy Church respectively." The Night Watchman narrowed his eyes. "Fingal, have you figured out anything?"

Finkel carefully recalled the girls' fighting power in the video. He took a deep breath and finally uttered four words: "So terrifying!"

After hearing Finkel's nonsensical answer, the night watchman put on a look of disappointment and said, "Who told you to express your feelings? Give me a detailed analysis!"

"Uh... the first little girl seems to be good at alchemy, but I can't see any Word Spirits. The second nun seems to be using a physical enhancement Word Spirit, 'Immortality' or 'Bronze Throne'? But..."

"But you noticed they never chanted a single word of dragon scripture, right?" The Night Watchman interrupted him. "Yes, that's right. We've confirmed they never used word spirits, but instead employed some seemingly unknown new system."

"Ah?" Finkel's eyes widened, and his mouth opened so wide that it seemed like a few eggs could fit in it.

He suspected that there was something wrong with his ears. The conversation just now was just like Columbus in the 15th century who finally set sail with the support of the Spanish royal family, but easily discovered a new continent on an unfamiliar route with just a few gusts of wind.

Ange added, "These two videos are just the tip of the iceberg. Many branches in Europe have sent reports that a large number of families affiliated with the secret party have recently suffered multiple premeditated ambushes. The academy's board of directors has asked Norma to block the release of this information, so the students at the headquarters generally have no way of knowing."

The Night Watchman snorted coldly. "The school board has argued about this several times. They're convinced that this is a pawn of Westminster Abbey and the Order of Solomon's Temple, and that they're behind the Holy Grail War."

"God damn it, they're still shouting that the secret party's reputation and status cannot be challenged and that they're gathering the best hands from the executive department to fight back! Damn it, every one of us talented guys from Kassel Academy should become elite members of the Dragon Slaying United Front, instead of joining the school director's family and becoming their private soldiers!"

The night watchman waved the bottle indignantly, and beer foam leaked out of the bottle and flew everywhere. Fingel dodged in time when he was about to be in trouble. Under his strong appearance like a bear, he actually had the agility of a wild monkey.

"No, although the attackers are from a local mixed-blood family, they probably want to use this to coerce the academy's branch to 'hand over regional jurisdiction'." Angé shook his head, a complex look flashing in his eyes.

He inexplicably had a sense of déjà vu, and the memory of the last time he had negotiated for peace with the Lord Wa in Shenzhou flashed through his mind.

"Let's get back to the point," Ange said, gathering his thoughts. "What's certain at this point is that the Westminster Clock Tower will send people to intervene in the Holy Grail War. The Templars, founded by Solomon's Temple and the Christians, have even claimed that 'the Holy Grail is a symbol of God's revelation and should be brought under the management of the Church.'"

"...The sudden display of these two parties' unknown new systems and this incident are no coincidence. We, the Camarilla, cannot remain indifferent to the Holy Grail War."

"Speaking of heroic spirits...Fingal, what do you think of?"

"Heroic Spirits..." Fingel pondered for a moment, a flash of realization in his eyes. "Norse mythology, Odin's Hall of Heroes, Valhalla? I remember the poster's ID 'Huginn' was also a raven raised by Odin."

"That's right. Thinking back to 'Odin' who appeared in Shenzhou at that time, we can't help but suspect that this Norse god is not dead at all. From the out-of-control situation in Europe to the renewed turmoil in Japan, the mastermind behind this series of events is probably closely related to him."

Ange's voice was low and cold, his eyes like a sharp folding knife about to be unsheathed. As the principal spoke, he put another big blame on Odin.

"Even the losses we suffered in the Shenzhou incident last time were ultimately due to Odin's conspiracy in Shenzhou. Now that He has finally revealed His true colors again, we must not be slow to react like before!"

After Ange finished speaking, he slowly raised his head and looked at Finger with a burning gaze. The latter looked terrified, as if he had seen the Yan State map finally reveal the end of its dagger. He subconsciously looked at his mentor with a pleading look.

However, the night watchman's expression at this moment was exactly the same as Ange's.

That look seemed to say, "Heaven has bestowed upon this man a great responsibility! We have already decided: you will fight the Holy Grail War!"

Finger pointed at himself with a trembling voice, his face sad. "Does it really have to be me?"

Is there no one left in the secret party now? Is it finally my turn to head to the battlefield of that Dragon King-level real-person PK?

"Fingal, don't be so self-deprecating. You are, at least, an A-rated bloodline and a well-deserved elite dragon slayer. Besides, you are a senior now, and your roommates have all been assigned to branch offices for internships. If you don't go out for an internship this year, you might not be able to graduate normally."