The larger a magus's magic circuits were, the more mana they could provide to a Servant.
In other words, if one wanted to win the Holy Grail War, the first requirement was to have a Master with relatively strong magical energy, and then have them supply mana.
However, he had no idea who any of these Masters were right now. It felt like opening blind boxes.
If he got summoned by a pretty weak Master, then no matter how strong Alvin was, he'd still be dragged down until he died.
"No helping it. Since I don't know who's summoning me, I'll just trust my luck."
As Alvin was thinking this, one of the summoning frames suddenly lit up with a dazzling glow, as if the Master summoning him was filled with urgency and hope. This made him hesitate for a moment.
'Hmm… Even if I don't know who it is, handsome boys usually don't have terrible luck.'
'Since summoner's desire is this strong, I'll give them a chance.'
He quietly closed his eyes and accepted the summoning.
In an instant, the surroundings turned pitch black.
———
In the basement of a mansion in Fuyuki, Morgan le Fay stood before a blood-red magic circle, her expression dark to a frightening degree.
Within the magic circle lay a black scale. It was the White Dragon's relic. By all logic, as long as one possessed it, they should absolutely be able to summon "Alvin."
Yet she had failed.
"Why?"
After an unknown length of silence, Morgan le Fay finally couldn't help asking this question.
She had clearly made preparations in advance, and on top of that, there was her relationship with Alvin. So why had Alvin not responded to her?
Why did it fail?
The answer was obvious.
Someone had already summoned him in this Holy Grail War.
Once she realized this, Morgan's gaze gradually turned cold.
She didn't know who it was, 'But just wait…'
'Even if he's your Servant right now, in the end, he will definitely be mine.'
———
'Cold?'
Faintly, it seemed possible to smell the biting chill of winter in the air.
On the upper floor of an extremely luxurious high-rise building in Fuyuki, Alvin's figure gradually took shape.
As a Servant, Alvin didn't feel any cold at all, but he could vaguely sense wind pouring in from outside the window. White curtains fluttered in the breeze, stirring the hem of his clothes.
He was dressed in a black long robe, with a hood over his head, adding a few hints of mystery.
From beneath the hood, the pale skin of the young man could be faintly seen.
"So this is me in Servant form. It's actually better than I imagined," Alvin murmured to himself as he lowered his head to look at his hands.
Normally, Servants were bound to be much weaker than their living selves, and Alvin was no exception.
This was when the Master's own magic circuits really came into play.
The stronger the Master, the more power the Servant could unleash.
As for this mysterious Master of his, Alvin was very satisfied.
He could feel that his current state had already reached the limit of what a Servant could possess.
In other words, a so-called "irregular-class" Servant.
If the worldline hadn't changed, then in this Holy Grail War, there should only be one irregular-class Servant, Gilgamesh.
"So it really worked?"
At this moment, he suddenly heard a girl's voice full of joy coming from behind him.
"At first, when I foresaw that someone else might summon you first, I really panicked a little, hehe!"
Alvin felt his thoughts short-circuit for a moment, and the joy in his heart was instantly dampened quite a bit.
'Wait a second, why does this voice sound so familiar?'
Following the sound, Alvin slowly turned his head, and was quickly drawn in by the girl's appearance.
The girl wore a gorgeous Gothic-style long dress. Her golden hair framed a delicate, pure face, with small cherry-red lips. Beneath the skirt were slender white-stockinged legs, stepping on a pair of snow-white short boots. At first glance, she exuded the air of a noble young lady.
The moment their gazes met, Alvin's pupils slightly dilated, his eyes locking onto the girl.
"You…"
Then he opened his mouth, shock surging up from the depths of his heart.
'Sajyou Manaka?'
———
On the upper floor of a high-rise building in Fuyuki, Alvin stared blankly at the blonde girl before him. His lips parted slightly, yet he couldn't force out a single word for a long time.
It was no wonder he was so shocked.
Sajyou Manaka was someone Alvin actually knew very, very little about, but he did know that she didn't belong to Fuyuki of this era.
Yet now she had appeared in Fuyuki during the time of the Fourth War… What exactly did that mean?
"Are you wondering why I'm here?"
As if seeing through the boy's thoughts, Sajyou Manaka smiled gently and said, "After the transmigration countdown ended, I didn't return to my own world. Instead, I was sent to this unfamiliar city. I also want to know why."
"To be honest, I was really scared at first, wondering what I should do if I couldn't go back."
"But later, I realized that the Greater Grail in this city seemed to have just started operating, so I tried a little to see if I could perform a Heroic Spirit summoning."
Sajyou Manaka paused, lightly clapped her hands together in front of her chest, tilted her head, and smiled, "Luckily, the result went smoothly. If it had failed, I really wouldn't have known what to do."
'A transmigration countdown?'
'So she "transmigrated" to Fuyuki?'
'But why is she the Master?'
After hearing Sajyou Manaka's explanation, Alvin felt a wave of helplessness wash over him.
Before accepting the summoning, he had imagined several possibilities.
For example, whether the one summoning him might be Tokiomi Tohsaka.
Or maybe Kayneth, or even Kiritsugu Emiya, or someone from the Matou family.
Yet, the moment he accepted the summoning, this Holy Grail gave him a huge "surprise."
Sajyou Manaka. In a sense, she really was extremely compatible with him. Alvin needed an enormous supply of mana, and Sajyou Manaka just happened to be able to provide him with ample magical energy.
After all, being born connected to the Root, Sajyou Manaka herself simply didn't lack mana.
Since things had already come to this, Alvin could only calm himself a bit and say, "Every Master participates in the Holy Grail War with a wish. Do you also have some wish you want to fulfill, Miss Sajyou?"
"That's not quite right, is it?"
"What?"
"I mean, the way you addressed me just now isn't quite right, is it?"
Sajyou Manaka lightly touched her small cherry lips with her fingertip, raised her eyes, and smiled faintly, "By rights, you're the Servant I summoned, so what should you be calling me?"
Despite her petite frame, when she looked up at Alvin, she didn't lose any presence at all, faintly exuding an inborn pressure, like an ancient princess.
While Alvin was still dazed, Sajyou Manaka suddenly let out a pleasant laugh and said, "I'm joking. But I don't want you to be so formal. Compared to a superior-subordinate relationship, I'd rather we get along more amicably, you know?"
"So if you don't mind, just call me Manaka."
In Japan, directly calling someone by their given name implied a very close relationship.
He and Sajyou Manaka hadn't even met that many times, yet her current demeanor made it seem as if they'd known each other for a long time.
Of course, Alvin didn't dislike this.
If anything, compared to gloomy personalities, cheerful and innocent ones were far easier to like.
"Manaka, what's your wish for participating in the Holy Grail War?", Alvin quickly asked.
"To be honest, I haven't really thought about that," After thinking for a moment, Sajyou Manaka answered with a rather confused tone.
'If you don't even have a wish, why are you participating in the Holy Grail War?'
Just as Alvin was at a loss for words, Sajyou Manaka paused and continued, "If I really had to name a wish, I guess there is one."
"You should know what 'omniscience and omnipotence' are, right?"
Alvin nodded lightly. The ability to foresee the future, and to have everything spoiled in advance before doing anything.
To put it plainly, no matter what Sajyou Manaka did, she already knew the outcome beforehand.
With a Master like that, winning the Holy Grail War should be quite easy.
Just as Alvin was thinking this, he suddenly heard Sajyou Manaka say in an extremely dejected tone, "Because I already know the results before doing anything, my life has always been very boring."
"Your wish is for the Holy Grail to shut off your 'omniscience and omnipotence'?", Alvin guessed.
Sajyou Manaka gently shook her head, "I just want to properly enjoy this Holy Grail War… with you."
For Sajyou Manaka, everyone she came into contact with would be completely spoiled by "omniscience and omnipotence" in an instant.
If love was like reading a book, with everyone having a different number of pages, and you could turn those pages little by little through continued interaction, then Sajyou Manaka, from the very beginning, already knew exactly what was written in the book, so there was no joy in falling in love at all.
But Alvin wasn't within the range of omniscience and omnipotence.
After thinking for a bit, she continued smiling and said, "If I really had to say it, my wish is probably to help you fulfill your wish."
Listening to Sajyou Manaka's extremely earnest words, Alvin was momentarily stunned, then chuckled helplessly, "I actually don't have much of a wish, I just came to save my teacher."
'Teacher? The Lord of the Clock Tower, right?', Sajyou Manaka thought to herself, then quickly smiled sweetly and said, "Then let's enjoy the Holy Grail War together."
After saying that, she seemed to remember something important and grabbed Alvin's hand, "Come with me."
"Where to?", Alvin asked instinctively.
At this moment, he could feel an endless stream of mana flowing from Sajyou Manaka into his body.
Despite possessing such an enormous amount of magical energy, the girl herself looked especially slender, as if she might topple over from a gentle breeze.
"Just come with me."
After saying that, she didn't give him any room to refuse, pulling Alvin through the hall toward the kitchen.
On the kitchen table were already plates upon plates of warm dishes.
"You prepared all this for me?"
Alvin couldn't help freezing for a moment, thinking that although the class he'd been summoned as this time really was Saber, he wasn't Lily. He didn't have that much interest in food.
And besides…
"You made so much food. What if the Servant you summoned wasn't me?", Alvin couldn't help asking.
"Then I'd kill them and find a way to summon again," Sajyou Manaka said.
"Even if the probability is small, I'd get you eventually, right?"
She had the [Demonic Dragon Scale] as a relic. She didn't believe she'd keep failing to summon Alvin forever.
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