Half an hour later.
Clock Tower, a corner of the courtyard.
"Very nice... looks like I've triggered some kind of incredible special CG quest, huh?"
Sunlight filtered through the gaps in the leaves, dappling the ground.
Alvin lounged comfortably beneath a large tree, admiring the system notification on his personal interface.
In the past, seeing a red exclamation mark flashing on a system alert would have sent him into full panic mode.
But the current him had been through hundreds of battles.
He was long used to the system's so-called "kind" warnings.
"It's just a Bad End, right? How many Bad Ends has he survived already?"
As long as he had enough strength, turning a Bad End around really wasn't that hard.
Besides, the only girls at the Clock Tower with whom he had a "complicated" relationship were Gray and Sajyou Manaka... and this time, after returning, she hadn't come looking for him right away; maybe she'd already gone back to her own era?
If that was the case, there was even less to worry about.
While his mind wandered through these random thoughts, a flash of bright red suddenly passed in front of him.
Tohsaka Tokiomi.
He had been about to cut straight across the courtyard, but something in the corner of his eye made him instinctively turn his head.
"White Dragon... Alvin?!"
The moment he spotted the young man in the courtyard, Tokiomi's pupils dilated.
He stared in disbelief, clearly never expecting to see him here.
"Tokiomi...?"
Alvin blinked, then quickly raised a hand in greeting and flashed a warm smile. "What a coincidence. You work fast; feeling better already?"
Tokiomi paused for a second, then placed a hand over his chest and performed a flawless aristocratic bow. "Thanks to your guidance last time, I am much improved. I am currently focusing on recuperating."
Though he was dying to ask why the White Dragon of Britain was at the Clock Tower, some things didn't need to be spelled out.
If Alvin didn't bring it up, Tokiomi wouldn't pry.
"He's surprisingly good at reading the room..." Alvin gave the refined, elegant man an extra once-over, mildly impressed, before letting it go.
Magi were proud by nature, sure, but the man was still the head of the Tohsaka family.
There had to be a reason he'd become the local boss of Fuyuki.
"By the way... this is a small token of gratitude. I'd like to present it to you now as thanks."
After a bit of small talk, Tokiomi seemed to remember something and produced an exquisitely crafted little wooden box and offered it to Alvin.
Alvin instinctively glanced at Tohsaka Tokiomi. "What is this?"
"Please open it. With your insight, I believe you'll recognize it at a single glance."
Tohsaka Tokiomi said.
With a trace of doubt in his heart, Alvin accepted the wooden box and slowly lifted the lid.
Under the sunlight, a scroll lay quietly inside.
Ancient characters on its surface flickered with faint golden light, as though whispering a forgotten secret, waiting for the destined person to awaken its power.
Alvin's pupils contracted slightly as he immediately looked up at Tohsaka Tokiomi. "This is..."
The man gave a small nod and said gravely, "The blueprint for the Jeweled Sword."
As expected... Alvin wasn't surprised.
Long ago, when Zelretch had passed through Fuyuki, he took the first-generation head of the Tohsaka family as his disciple.
Upon leaving, he gifted him the Jeweled Sword, a mystic code capable of travelling between parallel worlds.
Yet throughout the long years that followed, no one in the Tohsaka family had ever succeeded in recreating this ultimate mystic code.
And now, even while studying at the Clock Tower, Tohsaka Tokiomi had never used the blueprint to trade for resources.
Instead, he gave it directly to Alvin...
Part of it was gratitude for his guidance.
The other part was undoubtedly planning for the future.
After everything that happened in the last Holy Grail War, Tohsaka Tokiomi had begun thinking about what came next.
He had considered that if something ever happened to him in the future, as long as Alvin was around, the Tohsaka family would at least not completely fall.
The two chatted idly for a little longer before Tohsaka Tokiomi took his leave.
Only after watching him disappear did Alvin unroll the Jeweled Sword blueprint.
Though the sword came with many restrictions, it possessed the operation of parallel worlds, the Second Magic itself.
To put it bluntly, it could peek into corners of parallel worlds and even interfere with them.
Of course, putting aside the astronomical difficulty of actually crafting it... even if it were successfully made in the future, very few people in the modern age could wield it to observe parallel worlds.
After all, its magical energy requirements were absurdly high.
In the end, I don't really have any need for the Jeweled Sword...
Alvin chuckled to himself and prepared to put the blueprint away and leave.
But right at that moment, a new notification silently appeared:
[You have triggered the prerequisite task for "The Girls' Decision". Please collect the corresponding jewels within three days to complete this task.]
At the same time, a list of jewels appeared on the task window, clearly stating the names of the gems he needed to collect.
"Ruby, emerald, crystal diamond... Is this seriously asking me to gather every single jewel in existence?"
Alvin stared in shock, thinking to himself: Is this system task just messing with me?
Sure, he was the White Dragon of Britain in name, but the gems this quest demanded... he couldn't afford even one of them, let alone the full set.
And it had to be done in three days?
'Where the hell am I supposed to find that many gems?'
Wait... there is a way. After all, he was currently at the Clock Tower!
A name instantly popped into Alvin's mind: Kayneth!
No matter how you looked at it, the El-Melloi family was one of the Twelve Lord Families of the Clock Tower.
If it was Kayneth... he could definitely afford this kind of money.
The only question was whether he could convince him...
Thinking was one thing, but Alvin still left the courtyard and headed straight for the mansion where Kayneth lived.
After half an hour's walk, he finally arrived at a classically decorated residence and knocked on the door.
The door opened to reveal a woman in an elegant formal dress, poised and refined.
Her figure wasn't particularly voluptuous or explosive, but her proportions were perfect, and her modestly curved chest gave her a graceful, upright silhouette.
The moment she saw Alvin, surprise flashed across Sola's face. "...Alvin?"
"Sola-nee, long time no see."
Alvin raised a hand with a smile and waved. "Is Professor Kayneth in?"
Sola blinked, then smiled gently.
"He just stepped out a little while ago... Come in first. If there's anything you need, I can pass the message to him later."
After leading Alvin inside, Sola quickly brought over a cup of coffee and placed it in front of him.
"Would you like sugar?"
"Thanks... no need, it's fine like this."
Alvin answered politely, while his eyes quietly scanned the surroundings.
Sola took a small sip of her own coffee, then looked at the young man with curiosity. "It's really rare for you to come all the way here looking for him... Did something difficult come up?"
"It's not exactly a difficulty, just... a rather shameless request."
Alvin spoke quite tactfully.
The El-Melloi family might be rich, but they weren't pushovers who'd throw money away for no reason, unless Alvin gave them a reason.
Under Sola's puzzled gaze, he delicately explained that he needed "gems"... and when she heard the full story, her brow arched slightly.
She lifted her teacup, crossed her long legs, and looked at the young man with interest, speaking in a soft tone. "So what you're saying is... you need a large quantity of jewels to experiment with crafting a certain mystic code?"
"Alvin... you must have considered the feasibility before coming here, right? Kayneth is such a stingy man; he'd never hand over that many gems just for experiments."
Alvin felt a twinge of regret and quietly sighed to himself.
He was about to stand and take his leave when Sola's tone suddenly shifted, carrying a hint of amusement. "I did say earlier... if it were Kayneth, he might not agree to your request."
Alvin froze, instinctively looking at the beautifully dressed woman before him.
His eyes quickly lit up. "You mean..."
"I can give you what you want,"
Sola said, propping her chin on one hand, her voice turning lazy. "But I have one extra condition."
She paused, then continued, "I want to watch with my own eyes exactly how you conduct the experiment."
"Of course, I'll stand a little farther away... I won't disturb you."
She added that last part quickly.
"Deal!"
Alvin nodded instantly, thinking to himself: Even if you stand right next to me, you still won't figure out what I'm actually doing...
The system has already simplified the entire "crafting" process for me anyway.
He hadn't expected her to actually agree to this kind of request...
Should he chalk it up to her trusting him as Kayneth's student, or was she simply fond of him?
After all, the woman in front of him had always been a sucker for good looks.
Alvin might not be exactly her type, but this face of his was the kind that easily won the favor of older women.
"Wait here for a moment."
With that, Sola turned and left the hall.
Alvin sat and waited for a short while.
Soon, she returned carrying a notebook-sized box.
"Here. Are these gems enough for you? Most of them are gifts Kayneth gave me over the years, and some came from my own family."
Sola placed the box on the table.
Alvin opened it as a dazzling array of multicolored jewels sparkled under the light, nearly blinding him in an instant.
"As expected of a child from a magus family... I probably couldn't afford even one of these stones with my entire fortune."
"As expected of a child from a magus family... I probably couldn't afford even one of these stones with my entire fortune."
Alvin sighed with genuine admiration.
Sola stood to the side, arms folded beneath her chest, smiling. "Come on, let me see how you plan to craft the mystic code you mentioned."
Even now she was still skeptical.
She didn't believe Alvin could actually turn gems into anything decent; giving him an entire box of jewels was purely out of curiosity about what he was up to.
Alvin said nothing and simply reached out and lightly touched the jewel box.
At the same moment, a system prompt quietly appeared in his vision.
[Prerequisite task for "The Girls' Decision" completed]
Before Alvin could react, a blinding, brilliant light suddenly flared inside the hall!
All the gems that had filled the box seemed to be devoured by some unseen force in an instant.
Alvin felt a burning sensation in his arms; he pulled out the Jeweled Sword blueprint Tokiomi had just given him and saw that its surface was now ablaze.
At the same time, the gems began fusing together, intricate magical circuits forming across their surface.
Alvin felt his palm close around something sharp-edged and radiant.
He looked down; his eyes instantly lit up.
This was... the Jeweled Sword!
Sola's beautiful eyes widened in shock as she stared at the mystic code in Alvin's hand.
She didn't know exactly what it was, but she could feel the terrifying power contained within that "sword."
Following the system's guidance, the White Dragon furnace-heart inside him pulsed gently, pouring a strand of magical energy into the Jeweled Sword.
Hum—!
In that instant, the Jeweled Sword released an unprecedented radiance, and in the blink of an eye it swallowed Alvin whole.
...
Silence.
Absolute silence all around; nothing but endless white as far as the eye could see.
Alvin stood at the boundary between light and shadow, looking around in complete bewilderment.
"What the hell did this Jeweled Sword just do to me?"
By its setting, the Jeweled Sword was a mystic code of infinite possibilities.
It was supposed to let its wielder travel between parallel worlds... but no matter how you looked at it, no parallel world should be this bizarre, right?
There was literally nothing to see; it was almost exactly like the Imaginary Number Space he had once visited when he touched Tiamat.
Alvin hesitated for a moment, then strode forward.
After walking for a few minutes, a new scene gradually appeared before him.
He had expected a completely empty void, but what greeted him was an endless expanse of green grassland.
Farther ahead, a pure white tower stood beneath the vault of the sky.
For some reason, faint elven singing seemed to echo in his ears; pious, warm, and full of reverence.
Not far away, beneath a great tree, two women lay leaning against each other.
One was a silver-haired seductress in a luxurious court gown, the other carried an eternally solemn and sacred aura no matter the time.
Sunlight filtered through the leaves and fell upon their faces, breathtakingly beautiful.
...Morgan and Artoria!
In the world line where Alvin resides, after the complete end of the Age of Gods, King Arthur, Morgan le Fay, and the White Dragon have been eternally sleeping inside Avalon.
That is what the historical records and legends state.
The moment he saw the scene before him, one word instantly flashed through Alvin's mind: Avalon!
'Wait… could I have arrived at the timeline after the Age of Gods has ended…?'
His heart jolted as he opened his personal interface, glanced at the time displayed at the bottom, and muttered to himself exactly as expected.
As expected…
Unlike the time point he originally came from, the place he was currently in was already the world after the complete end of the Age of Gods.
Under normal circumstances, Heroic Spirits should go to the Throne of Heroes to slumber after death.
But in Alvin's world line, Alvin and the others had not died; they were merely "asleep" inside Avalon.
He never imagined the Jeweled Sword would actually fling him straight into Avalon…
Alvin's eyes were filled with shock and he silently walked toward Artoria and Morgan.
Just then, a glaring system prompt suddenly appeared before him.
[Detected a summoning from a participant of the Fuyuki Holy Grail War. Does the host accept the summoning?]
When he read those words, Alvin was completely stunned.
It hasn't even been that long since the last Holy Grail War ended, right?
Normally the Greater Grail needs at least ten years to cool down… How can another Holy Grail War be starting so soon?
Or… this isn't Fuyuki at all, but some other region's Grail system summoning me?
Countless thoughts surged through Alvin's mind in that instant.
Then, like a bolt of blue lightning, a realization struck him.
Hold on… The Fuyuki Greater Grail only activates once every ten years.
If a Fuyuki participant is summoning me right now, does that mean—
As though something had just clicked, Alvin's eyes widened in shock and a bold guess surfaced in his mind.
This place… is Fuyuki, ten years later?!