Chapter 13: The Beginning of the Nightmare
Inside the old mansion of the Tohsaka family, as one of the three great mage families, even if their numbers had dwindled, they naturally still had their foundations. Take Tohsaka Rin, for example—this second-generation mage fought using gems, treating all kinds of rare jewels as consumables. The extent of her extravagance was unimaginable; if her family were poor, she wouldn’t even be able to use magecraft.
“This is my home. Pretty nice, right?”
Tohsaka Rin stood in her own courtyard. The night wind blew, rustling the leaves. Behind her was a European-style villa, the yard filled with flowers and plants, and the iron fence of the wall was covered in climbing vegetation. This was clearly not a residence that could be bought with money alone; it required generations of accumulation.
“Last time I was here, I fought my way in.”
“You… fought your way into my home?”
Tohsaka Rin’s mouth opened and closed, and finally she let out a sigh.
Following Tohsaka Rin into the villa, since it was almost the middle of the night, the interior was pitch black, yet spotlessly clean. The wooden staircase leading upstairs had an antique charm, and several famous paintings hung on the walls.
“You can stay on the second floor. I live here alone. After 10 PM, the third floor is absolutely, definitely off-limits. If you have any improper thoughts about a poor high school girl who’s also an orphan, well, I can’t stop you.”
Tohsaka Rin casually placed her school bag by the shoe cabinet, changed into bear-shaped slippers, and went upstairs.
Su Xiao didn’t go upstairs. Instead, he came to the courtyard and began setting up warning devices.
An hour later.
“Bai Ye, where are you? Seriously, don’t Servants need to sleep?”
Tohsaka Rin, wearing a cream-yellow nightgown, came down from the third floor. As she reached the corner of the first-floor staircase, she saw Su Xiao setting something up by the door. Through the light, she could vaguely see the fiber threads in his hand.
“From now on, don’t wander around the courtyard.”
“What’s wrong with the courtyard?”
Tohsaka Rin suddenly had a bad feeling.
“I just buried 170 anti-gravity mines.”
“…”
The corner of Tohsaka Rin’s mouth twitched violently. After a moment, she patted her face and turned to go upstairs. She must be dreaming.
Su Xiao spent the rest of the night resting on the sofa in the second-floor living room. The next morning at 7:30, a dazed Tohsaka Rin crawled out of bed, her chestnut hair a bit messy, looking completely groggy.
“Mornin’~”
Tohsaka Rin greeted Su Xiao as she passed through the second-floor living room, then went down to the first floor to wash up. When she finished, she ran back to the second floor.
“I have to go to school. As for you… well, I doubt you’d listen to me anyway.”
“School?”
Su Xiao was momentarily surprised when he heard Tohsaka Rin mention school, but then he remembered that he had indeed seen her going to school before.
The Masters of the Fifth Holy Grail War weren’t particularly skilled, but they were all masters of courting death. This girl was still thinking about going to school during the Holy Grail War. It was hard to say whether she was just carefree or had a strong passion for education.
“If you don’t want to die, take a temporary leave of absence.”
“This…”
Tohsaka Rin instinctively stepped back a few paces, a thought creeping into her mind: was her Servant planning to imprison her? Various inappropriate images flashed through her head.
“Servants probably wouldn’t attack their Masters during the day, right?”
“…”
Su Xiao didn’t speak. He just silently stood up. Two minutes later, Tohsaka Rin, still in her cream-yellow nightgown, was bound hand and foot and thrown onto the sofa.
In the near future, Su Xiao wouldn’t show himself actively. The reason was simple: those people from the Blood Gate would definitely be searching the entire world for him. For now, all he had to do was wait for the right moment.
Su Xiao sat cross-legged on the sofa, deeply engrossed in a game. Seeing this, Tohsaka Rin, lying on the sofa nearby, felt her worldview shatter. A Servant playing games was surprising enough, but the fact that he seemed to be better at it than her was even more shocking.
Tohsaka Rin was forcibly put on leave by Su Xiao, putting an end to her suicidal behavior. That same morning, Su Xiao took her to a new residence—an ordinary house on the outskirts of Fuyuki City.
Clearly, Tohsaka Rin was much easier to handle than Emiya Shirou. Apart from being a bit tsundere, she didn’t see herself as a champion of justice. More importantly, her magecraft skills weren’t weak.
One day, two days, three days passed quickly. This was the first time Su Xiao had spent so long doing nothing in a derivative world. If things got truly bad, he could even consider not completing the hunt mission. At worst, he would be summoned to a war world as a temporary Arbiter.
Su Xiao could afford to wait, but the Blood Gate Adventure Group couldn’t. Their main mission wasn’t about survival. After three days of doing nothing, Stan, Nairoy, and Old Smoker could stay patient, but the members below them were growing increasingly dissatisfied. The team’s main mission hung over their heads like a mountain.
On the morning of the fourth day, Stan, who was in an abandoned building on the outskirts of Fuyuki City, decided he couldn’t wait any longer. They really couldn’t afford to stall. If they failed the team’s main mission, they would all die.
“Stan, wait another two days. I don’t believe that guy will never show his face.”
Nairoy spoke from inside the abandoned building, her expression grim. Time was becoming harder to endure.
“We’ll lure him out ourselves. If the team mission fails, we all die.”
“But…”
“No buts. I don’t wait for death.”
Stan stepped out of the abandoned building. They simply couldn’t afford to wait any longer.
That evening at 6 PM, a loud explosion shattered the days of silence in Fuyuki City.
Inside the ordinary house on the outskirts of Fuyuki City, Su Xiao was watching the footage remotely transmitted by Bubu Wang. It showed a burning church—the Kirei Church. Although it had been abandoned for a long time, this church in the city center was still a place Kirei Kotomine frequented.
“You’ve finally lost your patience.”
Su Xiao turned off the image on the micro-computer and walked out of the house. Seeing Su Xiao about to leave, Tohsaka Rin perked up.
“Is it starting?”
“Not yet. You don’t need to appear for now. Stay here as our trump card.”
“Tch. Just say I’m dead weight.”
In reality, unless she was facing a Servant, Tohsaka Rin absolutely couldn’t show herself. Contractors had too many ways to kill her. Su Xiao was in this world as a Servant. If Tohsaka Rin died, he would need to find another mage quickly, and that was no simple task.
Su Xiao quickly made his way to the city center. Compared to him, Bubu Wang, who had been wandering around the city, had already arrived. Su Xiao hadn’t been idle these past few days. He had memorized the layout of Fuyuki City perfectly. This was crucial to a certain plan—a plan that would keep everyone in the Blood Gate Adventure Group awake at night.
In front of the burning church, Bubu Wang’s nose twitched as it searched for something.
Soon, Bubu Wang caught a suspicious scent in the air—the smell of intense explosive flames. Following the pungent odor, Bubu Wang quickly locked onto an ordinary-looking boy who wouldn’t stand out in a crowd.
Bubu Wang began its tail. It wasn’t tracking from a distance; instead, it followed just two meters behind the boy.
Bubu Wang followed for a full three hours before the boy finally left the area near the church. He looked somewhat disappointed.
On an old clock tower in Fuyuki City—something that should have been demolished long ago but was preserved for its historical significance—Su Xiao stood at the top.
Su Xiao pulled back the bolt of the Duke of Annihilation. His plan was simple and brutal: have Bubu Wang infiltrate the Blood Gate’s main force. Once it successfully penetrated the enemy’s ranks, it would provide Su Xiao with real-time coordinates. Su Xiao would then snipe from a distance. With his sniping skills and the performance of the Duke of Annihilation, he could hit a target 3.5 kilometers away. The gun’s maximum range was 4,762 meters; beyond that, the bullet trajectory would deviate severely.
After taking one shot, Su Xiao would immediately retreat, while Bubu Wang would continue to lie low, providing Su Xiao with the Blood Gate’s coordinates. At a distance of 3.5 kilometers, unless the Blood Gate had a collective teleportation ability, they couldn’t touch Su Xiao. Unable to defeat all of the Blood Gate at once, Su Xiao chose to slowly whittle them down.