Chapter 5: Brief conversation… Or not so brief?

Chapter 5: Brief conversation… Or not so brief?

"This guy is clearly crazy." Shirou whispered to Rin, though Julius could hear him perfectly.

"You're wrong, boy." The magus turned serious again so they wouldn't misunderstand him. "You have a unique talent that it would be a shame to waste by committing suicide with your poor control."

"Suicide?" Shirou was alarmed to hear that his practices were hurting him so much.

'He's been practicing magecraft?' Rin questioned herself internally and chided herself for not noticing. 'Luckily he hasn't gone too far, I wouldn't know how to look Sakura in the face if something like that happened right under my nose.'

"The damage has not been severe enough to be permanent, but it is necessary to practice safely in the early stages of a magus." Julius explained.

The three of them arrived at the hotel he was staying at and both boys proceeded to walk in without a care in the world.

"Wait! You don't think I'll follow a magus into his own lair, do you?" Rin held up a finger and yelled at Julius. "Do you take me for a rookie? I have years of experience and have dealt with others like you in the past!"

"The room is on the first floor." Julius completely ignored Rin and led Shirou.

The girl went blank for a couple of seconds before she saw that they were actually walking away. Her shame grew and her ears turned red.

"Gah! Alright, wait for me!" She ran after them at the confused look of the hotel receptionist.

"Here it is." Julius knocked on the door, and soon after, Saber opened it.

"You're back, master." Artoria greeted him with a small smile. "Looks like you've brought company."

The two teens were shocked at Artoria's appearance, which she dressed in iron armor as if it were her casual clothes.

"As stoic as ever, Artoria." Julius teased. "I need to discuss some things with these guys, I'd appreciate it if you would listen too."

The Servant nodded without further question and they went to sit around a table.

"Okay, I'd like to start by formalizing what we discussed on the road earlier." Julius started looking at Shirou, who listened carefully. "Right now we are in the middle of what is known as the Holy Grail War. Seven chosen magus gather to fight, and for this, they use what we know as Servants. Artoria here is the representation of King Arthur from the legends."

Julius revealed this information on purpose so that Rin would hear it as well.

"Servants are heroes or legendary characters that are summoned to the modern world through an extremely boring method which I won't explain." Shirou could understand the latter since he didn't know anything about magecraft theory.

"And why fight? What is the incentive?" The teenager couldn't imagine seven people fighting to the death simply for pride or honor, mages didn't seem like that kind of people.

Julius nodded in approval. "The prize for the winner of the war is the reason why so many people want to participate. It is nothing more and nothing less than the Holy Grail, a mystical object that can fulfill any wish you ask of it."

Rin remained silent as Shirou was stunned.

"Something like that exists in this world?" he questioned.

Julius nodded.

"That's right. However, its original purpose was to open a path to the Root to grant the winning magus one of the True Magics." He declared solemnly. "We'll talk more about this when the war is over, but you must understand that True Magic allows for acts unattainable through science."

Shirou gulped, that sounded like something powerful and he could somewhat understand why someone would risk their life for it.

"Anyway, I wanted to tell you that you will have to stay under my watch until the war is over." This time Julius broke the solemn atmosphere and spoke in a cheerful tone, even though his words were not pleasant.

"Huh? Why?" Shirou asked a bit awkward.

"It's because Lancer is going to start chasing you from now on. They called that guy the Hound of Culann, believe me, you better not stay alone." He explained.

"The Hound of Culann? I recognize that name, so Lancer is Cú Chulainn, the Irish hero." Rin spoke with a hand on her chin as she thought.

Julius nodded.

"That's right, although your Servant surely noticed it already if they fought." He commented.

"Oh, Archer!" Only then did Rin realize that her Servant was left behind. She tried to contact him using the connection they had. 'Archer, are you okay?'

A deep voice answered her immediately.

"Master! Lancer retired and I can't find you." Archer explained the situation to him.

'I am with the magus who saved the intruder and also with the latter. The magus is the master of Saber and it seems he wants to talk about something, I don't think he will attack me.' She then sent him the information about the place they were at.

Julius cut her conversation short when he spoke again.

"Now, there's a reason I've brought you here too, Tohsaka Rin." He turned to the girl. "I would like to form an alliance to combat a Servant in question."

She wasn't surprised, she had already expected something like this.

"Is there a Servant so powerful that even with Saber you can't defeat him?" she asked herself curiously. She knew the legend of King Arthur, and it was clear that this Servant was one of the most powerful the Throne could summon.

"I'm not sure of our chances of victory. Actually, he's not one that was summoned in this war." Julius met Rin's eyes. "It is the Servant your father used during the previous war in Fuyukk ten years ago. The King of Heroes, Gilgamesh."

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