How come the Ace of Cups isn't considered the Holy Grail?

There's absolutely no way out!

As she walked up to the second floor of this two-story motel, Ayaka Sajou pushed open the door to the room assigned to her by the front desk, filled with despair. Inside, she found a cramped and shabby room with nothing but a table and a bed.

The fiery passion that had driven her to transform into a Spinosaurus on stage had faded from her mind, and now that she had calmed down, she no longer had any thoughts of wanting to fight anyone.

Yuuto deactivated his spirit form and returned to his physical body. He shook his head and helped Ayaka Sajou, who had just entered the room and collapsed onto the bed without even taking off her glasses, close the door. When he turned around, he saw Ayaka Sajou looking at him with a wary expression.

Yu Du: "..."

You're not going to say to me, "Why are you still here?"

Fortunately, after staring at Yuuto for a while, Ayaka Sajo pursed her lips but ultimately said nothing. She simply sat up from the bed and voiced her question in a slightly low voice.

"Um, the Servant you mentioned before... is someone like you?"

Actually, she didn't want to get involved with magic, Servants, or the Holy Grail. If she could, she wanted to leave this city as soon as possible, preferably far away, to the other side of the world.

Unfortunately, she also knew that she was not in control of her own destiny. If she wanted to survive, she had better learn more about the relevant things, otherwise, she might be kidnapped again like today.

If you happen to encounter a Servant or a Master who has already summoned a Servant, then the kidnapping step can be skipped altogether...

“Hmm, more or less…” Yuwatari nodded: “I’ve already told you about the specific class divisions, and I am a Saber-class Servant. My real name is Yuwatari. You can just call me Saber when you’re in Tsuboshi.”

"Saber..." If she were the Knight King who pulled the sword from the stone, this class would indeed be very suitable for her...

Ayaka Sajou nodded, thinking to herself.

And even the name Youdu fits the description perfectly—

Ok?

Ayaka Sajou stared wide-eyed at Yuuto, her face full of surprise: "Aren't you King Arthur, the one who ruled Great Britain?!"

Yuuto stared back in surprise: "Why would I be King Arthur?"

Huh? Right... he never said he was King Arthur...

But didn't the man who kidnapped her say before he died that he was going to summon King Arthur?

He even used the box that held King Arthur's sword sheath as a sacred relic...

How can it be crooked?

Although the gacha games that were so prevalent at that time had not yet emerged, Ayaka Sajou still subconsciously had this question pop into her mind.

"Then... if you're not King Arthur, then who are you?"

There is no corresponding person in Ayaka Sajou's memory for the name Yutari.

"Hmm... if I had to say..." Yuuto held the [No. 39 Hope of the Emperor] card he had previously put away between his fingers, with the card face up to Ayaka Sajou.

The dark, deep card seemed to absorb all her gaze, and mental fatigue surged up at that moment. Her consciousness gradually blurred, and the sound of the boatman in her ears grew more and more distant.

"I guess I'd call myself an ordinary duelist?"

Chapter 247 Life is so captivating because of all sorts of unexpected events.

Yu Du: "..."

Fell asleep?

He looked at Ayaka Sajou, who was lying on the bed, in silence.

Being young is great; you can fall asleep as soon as your head hits the pillow...

but why?

He seemed so energetic just now, like he was about to ask him some questions, but how did he fall asleep in the blink of an eye?

Is my own voice really that hypnotic?

This seems to be even more effective than his high school math teacher's lessons...

Reluctantly putting away the card, Yuto sat down at the table, took off the Imperial Key that was hanging from his chest, and examined it in his hand.

"Wasn't it said that it would have an incredible effect when summoned? Why hasn't it done anything yet?"

He thought that after being summoned, he would first use the Royal Key to open the Gate of Destiny... but he was summoned directly instead...

Do you have some kind of activation password or something?

After tossing the Imperial Key up and down a few times, Yuuto thought for a moment, then grabbed the rope and swung it back and forth in front of him, muttering incantations.

"Soaring into the sky?"

Imperial Key: "..."

"Isn't that so? Then... shake it! Pendulum of the Soul! Draw arcs of light across the sky!"

Imperial Key: "..."

"It's still no use..."

After waiting for a while, seeing that the Imperial Key still hadn't moved, Yuuto wasn't surprised.

After all, the Emperor Key in Z4 wasn't activated by a password; Yuma was suddenly pulled into it while fighting the shark... wait, Yuma seems to have seen that Gate of Destiny in a dream before that?

Recalling the content of the first episode of Z4 that I watched 14 years ago, Yuuto... wait a minute, what the hell, Z4 is already that old?!

After a brief moment of surprise at the timing, Yuuto had two guesses in his mind.

You can either sleep to activate the Royal Key and open the Gate of Destiny, or find someone to play cards with and wait for it to pull you in on its own.

As for what will happen after the door is opened... who knows?

Could it be that an Astral could actually fly out from inside and act as his ghost?

Haha, how is that possible?

Let's try sleeping first!

After hanging the Imperial Key back around his neck, Yuuto summoned the Black Magician to help him keep watch and also had him cast a sleep-inducing spell on him. He then sat in the chair and fell asleep immediately.

……

"Is the explosion definitely caused by the summoned Saber?"

The enclosed space was completely dark, with no light coming in from the outside. Faldius stood in front of a grid of screens displaying images from street surveillance cameras, talking to Francesca on the other end of the phone.

“I understand. Then we’ll announce that the fire was caused by paint used by cultists to draw the circular array, which then ignited gas leaking from an underground gas pipe, causing an explosion.”

"As for the man without a heart and the missing girl... how about we explain it as 'sacrificial offerings prepared by cultists for a ritual,' Ms. Francesca?"

Faldius, who had already anticipated that he would have to work overtime tonight, nonchalantly took over the police's judgment for his own use and sounded somewhat listless.

"Okay! Let's do it this way!"

A faint, energetic girl's voice leaked from the telephone receiver. In a room on a 200-meter-long unmanned airship located 20 kilometers above Snowfield City, a girl with long white hair, dressed in a black and white gothic dress, sat on the bed and happily made a phone call to him using a communication magic trick.

Francesca Prellati.

He was a contemporary of Joan of Arc, a friend of Gilles de Rais, known as the Caster Marshal in Type-Moon, and also the original owner of the Naraka: The Book of Annihilation, which was given to him as the Caster Marshal's Noble Phantasm, leading to his downfall.

She received magical instruction from a certain lake spirit, and was even involved in the trial of Joan of Arc. She was executed along with Gilles de Rais after his execution, but seemingly due to her immortality, she has only died once so far at the hands of Orange, nicknamed the Crimson of Pain.

After that, he changed from his original male body to the body of a young girl he is in now.

Fuyuki went to watch the fourth battle, but did not choose to participate out of fear of the old bug.

In this Holy Grail War, she used herself as a medium to summon herself as a Servant, a version of herself executed during the time of Joan of Arc. The two are different forms of the same person.

"Speaking of which, Ms. Francesca, do you know the identity of the Saber summoned in the theater?"

Not intending to miss any opportunity to gather information, Faldius casually inquired about Saber.

Based on his understanding of Francesca, she was very likely to know Saber's real name, and it was even possible that she was the one who had summoned Saber!

I'm just not sure if she'll tell me... Maybe if she's in a good mood?

Otherwise, he would only get a response like, "It's a secret~".

After a brief silence, Francesca gave Faldius an unexpected answer.

"They don't know that~"

"Don't know?" Faldius frowned slightly, habitually ignoring the other party's deliberately cute tone.

Just as he had thought, if Francesca didn't want to tell him, she would have said so directly, instead of using "I don't know" as an excuse.

So you mean she really didn't know?

Francesca also has something to say!

Although the man who kidnapped Ayaka Sajou was a magician under her command, and that magician did indeed bring the holy relic she had prepared to summon Saber, but...

She had prepared a wooden box that was used to store the sword sheath Avalon during the Fourth Shinobi World War. Using that box should have been able to summon Artoria, so why did she end up summoning a complete stranger?

With black hair and black eyes, he appears to be of East Asian descent. When summoned, he seems to be holding a holy sword, albeit a rather large one. He shouts "Excalibur" as he attacks...

He is not Artoria, but he seems to have some kind of relationship with King Arthur, otherwise how could he be summoned by that wooden box as a catalyst?

If he's supposed to be a male version of King Arthur, he shouldn't look like an Easterner, which is why Francesca still can't figure out his identity.

“But isn’t this kind of unexpected situation interesting?” Francesca couldn’t help but laugh out loud, thinking of how dumbfounded she looked when she saw Yudo through the crystal ball.

"That's what makes life so irresistible~"

"Right?"

click -

Faldius hung up the phone on his end.

He sensed that the other person was about to go crazy, and he didn't really want to hear the kind of girlish laughter that would give him nightmares late at night.

However, he is unlikely to get a good night's sleep tonight.

The moment Faldius hung up the phone, another call came in.

"Uh... what is it?"

Faldius sighed and answered the phone, hearing the panicked voices of his subordinates on the other end.

"Report! A massive golden dragon has appeared in the sky above Xueyuan City!"

Faldius: "?"

what?

Chapter 248 Open the door!

"I'm so lucky, I won the lottery right away!"

In the dark space, Youdu stood on a narrow stone path with bottomless abysses on both sides, looking at the huge door in the distance that was bound by iron chains and had a ferocious dragon face pattern printed on it.

The only place with light in this space was behind that door. A silvery-white light shone faintly from within the walls. The light was not strong, but it illuminated the entire stone path leading from Youdu's feet to the gate.

"It's only because this door doesn't exist in reality that it's possible to open something of this size completely with something the size of half a palm..."

Muttering a complaint, You Du stepped onto the stone path that seemed so precarious that if he deviated even slightly, he would slip and fall into the abyss.

If he were to fall, would he wake up instantly?

It's that feeling of falling from a great height while you're sleeping that wakes you up with a start, your legs tremble, and you flip your desk over, drawing the attention of the entire class...

That situation really sends chills down your spine...

You Du recalled how his deskmate had encountered this situation before. He reached out to brace himself against the table, only to find that he had already overturned it himself. He could only stand there awkwardly with his head down, looking like he was thinking, "These books scattered all over the floor are so messy."

God knows how many sad things he was thinking about at that time, in order to not laugh out loud in front of the other person's flushed face.

Maintaining his balance to avoid stepping on the edge and falling into the abyss, Youdu quickly reached the gate after navigating the stone path.

Uh... judging by the card name, it should be called the Gate of Destiny.

The eyes of the ferocious dragon face on the Gate of Destiny lit up, as if activated by You Du stepping on a pressure plate, and a deep, husky voice echoed in the space.

"Open this door—"

"By opening this door, I will gain new power, but in return, I will lose the most important thing. Hmm... that's about it? Is there anything else you'd like to add?"

The gates of destiny had barely opened when Youdu preemptively delivered its lines.

He held the Emperor's Key in his hand, looking somewhat eager to try it out.