Chapter 41: Meeting the Lord El-Melloi
(Idk, I just get a feeling this and the following next chapter is bad... Maybe because I had been squeezing three chapters in one day that my idea run dry.)
When the morning came, Ray and his group departed from the Einzbern castle to the Fuyuki Hyatt Hotel. Their arrival was welcomed by the entire staff after Kayneth went to such lengths as renting the entire building for the entire day to remove other guests and accommodate his guests.
"Greetings, I am Kayneth El-Melloi Archibald, the Lord El-Melloi of the El-Melloi faction and Lord of the Mineralogy department in the Clock Tower." Kayneth is among the welcoming group with his fiance and Lancer. Then he points to his fiance. "This Sola-Ui Nuada-Re Sophia-Ri from the Sophia-Ri family and daughter to the Head of Spiritual Evocation division."
"Please come in." He greeted Ray only and acknowledged Saber's existence while somewhat ignoring Tanya and Charlotte behind him. Thankfully none of them are offended as Kayneth's prideful nature makes him ignore those with low and unknown standing like the two. Both groups walked in while the staff went ahead to prepare the venue.
"So, may I know your name?" Kayneth asked in a high spirits while they were heading towards the dining hall which was prepared just for them.
"Name?" Ray decided that declaring himself to bear the Einzbern name would not be appropriate yet. Not until he achieved Third Magic. Thus he decided to borrow a name instead.
"My name is Raymond Angelo or you can call me Ray for short. As for my companions. She is Tanya von Degurechaff. She is also currently my lover." Ray purposely emphasizes her standing which Kayneth clearly re-evaluated the moment he declared Tanya is his lover.
"Oh, a nobility. But I never heard of one named Degurechaff before. Also, her name's origins aren't German at the very least." Kayneth nodded while appraising Tanya's identity which hopefully can shed some light on Ray himself.
"You are correct. For the other one, she is Charlotte. Tanya considers her a sister although not by blood."
"I know that you probably already guessed it, but I am not Caster. I killed the real one which was crawling underneath the city creating abominations along with his serial killer Master. His identity is Blue Beard who own the Prelati Spell book." Kayneth was taken aback when Ray told him about the dangerous grimoire.
"I see."
Kayneth was actually shocked. He didn't know Ray was not a servant. He didn't expect this at all and just discovered it. Even Lancer is surprised. Not only that, but Ray also killed a Servant which is generally superior to a Magus unless the Magus is very strong as even him, a Lord within the Clock Tower cannot achieve his feat.
"I on behalf of the Clock Tower thank your deed for eliminating such danger from the world."
"It was nothing. I also admired Lord El-Melloi as the only person to reach rank Pride at such a young age. Not even I can achieve it." With such an easy flattery, Kayneth already overjoyed. Indeed the prideful one is easy to please.
If he wanted, Ray can reach Pride rank too with his knowledge if he contributed it to the Clock Tower but he rather not and keep it to himself as associating to them has no benefit for him.
After a short silence, Ray starts another conversation.
"I am curious about your intention to invite me over."
"I am simply curious about you. Now you said that you aren't a Servant. How do you have divinity which you showed to everyone on the port and how you defeated Archer. I am interested to meet the person who achieved such a feat."
Ray tried to find an answer to reply but Kayneth continued.
"I used everything in my disposal to dig for anything about you but none of them bore any result." Kayneth said and the entrance to the hall is within view. "As if you never existed and suddenly appeared."
"..." Ray struggles to find an answer as his prepared script is all gonna be scrapped.
"No worries, everyone has his secret and I won't pry much of it. Ah, we had arrived."
Kayneth suddenly stopped asking and welcomed everyone into the dining hall which had only one long table in the middle of a large hall. There is hundreds of smartly dressed butler and maids bringing wonderful looking dishes that make Saber become excited and hold her stomach in anticipation. On the furthest east of the hall, there is an entire band of performers of an orchestra preparing to perform.
Ray took one end of the table with his companions and Kayneth took another. Everyone takes a seat and the food is immediately served, starting from the appetizer.
Saber in particular is unsurprisingly wolfing down plate after plate of food and stacking enough empty plates to form a mountain. Ray uses this opportunity to feed this ravenous beast in the form of a human without any shame.
Both Ray and Kayneth have small talks and discussions about magus in general. Both trying to pry information from each other. But an hour went by and the feast finally ended and they moved to another room where they could relax and have more discussion with just the two of them while their companions were excluded.
"I am sure you are familiar with the branch of divination." Kayneth nodded when Ray asked him. "I have seen what will happen in this Grail War and you can say I am trying to provide a fair battle for every participant."
"Caster will inevitably cause issues and involve the non magical community with his insanity, Tokiomi and the Overseer of the War is colluding and I have proof of that too." Ray grabs a small crystal and gives it to Kayneth before instructing him to use the artifact.
"This! Recording memory! Such a revolutionary method. Countless knowledge of magecraft can be stored with this artifact if it were to be popularized." Kayneth immediately exclaimed after seeing the device in action.
"Indeed, but it is very hard to produce and requires my special magecraft to extract and store those memories." Ray tried to dissuade Kayneth by telling him it's hard to replicate and only he is capable of it.
"Anyway, this is the proof and I am sure you can benefit from it. Take it as a gift for organizing this event for me."
"No need for a gift. But I am grateful for it." Kayneth wants to reject it but this is too valuable to reject. This is a weapon that can be used against the Holy Church and a very powerful one on the right occasion.
"From today onwards, you are my close friend. As long as you spoke of the name El-Melloi, there is little I cannot assist you within the magical community." Kayneth laughed happily with satisfaction.
Indeed, Ray had mastered the techniques of sucking up in a matter of hours. He manages to turn Kayneth into a useful ally for now and is even willing to acknowledge Ray as a close friend.
"Many thanks and if possible, I want to cash it out immediately." Ray laughed awkwardly and sheepishly while taking out a ring and emptying out its content to let Kayneth see.
"You see, I recently just attacked the Matou family Head. We have grievances stemming from our history and now I am stuck with all this useless stuff that I don't need." Ray showed Kayneth the culmination of a thousand years old family and even reached rank Pride. Yet Ray says this stuff is unnecessary.
With that stuff, a first generation magus family can instantly be elevated to a high position as that culmination of knowledge is what is important to a Magus. This is essentially an ancient family inheritance that can cause an uproar in the magus family yet is regarded as useless to Ray. Kayneth had a suspicion of Ray and his background but he didn't express it.
"Can I ask your help for a place where I can sell them?"
"Sell them…" Kayneth thought for a moment before making his decision. "How about selling them to the Archibald family instead, I can provide a premium price for them."
In Kayneth's mind, he is laughing at his words. Premium price? This knowledge and research accumulated by an ancient family has no price. None dare to sell them away and most either obtain them through generations of marriage between houses or plundering. These can help strengthen his House of Archibald and cement his authority even deeper within his faction.
If previously he thought of Ray as a person worthy of his friendship, now he thinks of Ray as the goose that lays him golden eggs.
"Many thanks, Lord El-Melloi. I shall bother you no longer. I still have important matters to attend to later, so I hope you can excuse me." Ray tried to excuse himself.
"I regard you as a close friend of mine, calling me by my name is sufficient." Kayneth nodded and escorted Ray and his group out.
After that, he immediately contacted his House of Archibald to make the preparations. All these priceless treasures any Magus will salivate upon sight cannot be valued by money. This made it tricky but Kayneth with his pride on the line, will make sure he can get a payment that will satisfy Ray.
Upon returning home, he told Tanya and Charlotte he will be busy for a few days and hope they will not disturb him while he is doing an important task. He also informs them to try to delay the war from ending too quickly. After that, Ray enters his workshop and seals the room with dozens of Bounded Fields and barriers to prevent interruption to his focus.
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First Day.
Irisviel kindly provided a large pile of books on the study of Third Magic. Ray wonder how there precious books are found in this castle. Shouldn't it be keep in the Einzbern main house?
Anyway, Ray tried to create a soul which is easy. The system didn't specify if the soul needed to be real or not and an artificial soul is still a soul.
Reforming soul though… he didn't even have an idea where to begin. He tried by letting Risei's soul to disperse almost completely before using mana to fill it like patching up holes and filling cracks. But this wasn't considered a reforming soul or at least, it isn't a complete reform.
The main issue is that other Magus have difficulty to reform the soul because they cannot access the theoretical realm of the Astral plane which is a higher dimension where the soul is located. Once a person dies, their soul will slowly dissipate and return to the root. But, Ray can directly pluck a soul from the body and drag them down to the physical plane and thus interfere with a soul directly. Soul once dissipated will go from Astral plane to Root and the soul he brings to physical plane is the same and he must be able to access the Astral plane to collect those shards to allow a complete soul reforming.
"I would need Charlotte's help for this…"
On the Fuyuki city, the Holy Grail War continue although without an Overseer anymore. But, it is unnecessary since there only 3 participants left excluding Ray and Kariya that somehow can remain hidden for very long time ever since the attack on Matou mansion. As for Waver and Kayneth, none of them will dare cause trouble and will keep themselves in line and only proceed with their servant battle which is actually happening right now.
The teacher and student duo is duking out in an abandoned factory complex. Kayneth sent Waver the challenge and trying to defeat his student and lecturing him. Everything went down pretty much like the anime.
Tanya also didn't stay idle as Irisviel offered to teach her some magecraft and she accepted to learn more magecraft. Charlotte practice wielding her weapon, especially the sword that her master made just for her.
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