[FDJ] Chapter 6: Instructions

Leaning against the sofa, Yuki surveyed everything in the living room, afraid that if he closed his eyes, the Assassin he had seen during the day, the Curse-Arm, would appear before him.

Was this because he was afraid of death? Perhaps.

Yuki does not understand this. He was probably afraid because he had not yet figured out why he was here or why he died without any previous memories. According to his understanding, death meant mission failure, a task that could never be completed and had no value left. The death he perceived had nothing to do with pain or sadness, nor did it involve any emotional concept. Yuki needed someone to give orders and maintain the necessary physical functions to complete the mission.

This is why he was afraid of death.

The clock on the wall was still ticking. By candlelight, Yuki could see that it was already 10 p.m., which was the most suitable time for humans to fall asleep according to their instincts.

Shaking his head to dispel the thoughts of sleeping, Yuki walked to the door, leading from the living room to the entrance hall. He used a low table to block the door because the lock no longer provided him with a sense of security, although his current action of blocking the door was meaningless. Even if he sealed off all entrances and exits with steel bars, Assassin could easily kill several humans.

"Why are you blocking the door?!" Just as Shinji stepped out of the bedroom, he saw Yuki standing in front of the living room door blocked by a low table and curiously walked over. Shinji had drunk five cans of beer in a row, which didn't affect his consciousness, but still emitted a nauseating alcoholic smell.

"There's no reason for the Assassin to spare us. He will likely track our footsteps tonight and chase us here."

"Do you think blocking the living room door with a low table is useful? If he sneaks in from my bedroom or the bathroom, we'll have to move the table to escape." Shinji placed a half-drunk sixth can of beer on the sofa and walked up to Yuki.

"Based on my knowledge, constructing an emergency shelter..."

"Alright, stop showing off your fragmented knowledge. Does mixing measures to prevent wild animals with methods to prevent Servants from intruding work?" Shinji moved the low table aside, but all he saw was Yuki malfunctioning, still narrating meaningless content.

"Quiet down!" Shinji grabbed Yuki's collar and shook him vigorously a few times, finally shutting him up. "So, even someone as strange as you can be afraid of death."

Burping, Shinji didn't pay any further attention to the dazed Yuki. He still wanted to drink cheap beer, making him nauseous. Although the four cans he had consumed gave him a somewhat bewildering feeling, he still could not calm down.

"If the Assassin comes, we won't survive. Lancer won't be able to come back in time to save us."

"What's there to be afraid of? You are well aware that, if something like this happens, we will surely be killed. Why do you bother to think about how to deal with it? My Servant Lancer must have told you that she set up warning barriers on the outskirts and would return immediately in case of an accident, right? She told me at least five times this month. At first, I was afraid and could not sleep; however, I managed to live until the next day. When you can't do anything, isn't it easier to do nothing at all?"

Shinji laid on the sofa and finished the beer in his hand. Although he found the taste repulsive, he had no room to be picky.

"Suzuki-kun, you said you're from Chaldea? What kind of place is that? How far is it from Japan?"

Feeling a bit tipsy, Shinji closed his eyes, enjoying the "bliss" of self-delusion, something he had rarely experienced during the month of escape.

"I don't know how far it is from Japan, but I do know that it's located beneath a year-round frozen cliff, where people from various countries can be seen... and most of them understand magecraft to some extent."

"Oh? Is it a secret stronghold for magi?"

"All I know is that it's called Chaldea, and at night, you can see many stars through the skylight." Yuki can recall only these memories.

"Do you not remember your parents, Suzuki-kun?"

"No..."

Strictly speaking, the term "parents" elicited a response from Yuki similar to that of furniture or chairs. With his eyes closed, Shinji did not notice this.

"I can understand. Your parents, who left you in a magecraft workshop to fend for yourself, must be obsessed with the Root. The people there are all focused on various studies to reach the Root, right?"

"Not exactly. The knowledge I acquired, aside from reading books on my own, was mostly taught by the teacher. Whenever I close my eyes and reminisce, I can recall the voice of that teacher, tirelessly teaching me everything about the Holy Grail War."

"It's a truly strange place, teaching you about the Holy Grail War. Could it be that they were grooming you to become Masters specifically for participating in the Holy Grail War? But it's pointless. If you manage to obtain the Holy Grail, you'll surely end up using it yourselves..."

Shinji's voice gradually grew softer as he fell asleep under the influence of alcohol.

No. A "person" without desires would not use the Holy Grail.

Yuki thought about summoning a servant himself, even if it was just an average one. However, he couldn't find the materials to create the summoning circle, nor could he use magecraft.

He vaguely remembered some simple magecraft, but whenever he tried to use it, he failed. Regardless of how many times he attempted, he could not even ignite a flame, let alone summon a servant.

There were clear red Command Seals on the back of Matou Shinji's hand, and for some reason, Yuki found himself staring at the three marks he had seen many times in pictures in books, but they were absent from his hand. He was not the chosen Master of this Holy Grail War. He was just an amnesiac youth who inexplicably arrived in this destroyed city from a place called "Chaldea."

Resting across from him was a magus who held the position of a Master in the Holy Grail War and had formed a contract with a Lancer-class Servant. Although it could not be definitively stated how powerful he was, a young magus master who could survive for a month in the Holy Grail War was a rarity that Yuki had encountered in his research.

He realized that he was fortunate to have encountered this peer named "Matou Shinji," a magus who cared about the people around him. According to the books he had studied, normal magi would go to great lengths to eliminate potential threats in the Holy Grail War, not only killing other Masters or those who could become Masters but also hunting ordinary people for various magical materials.

However, Matou Shinji and his Servant had awakened him, provided him with food and water, offered a safe place to stay, and unabashedly lived with him, a "potential threat."

Yuki didn't know how to repay this kindness. It was not something he had learned from the books, but he felt that blindly accepting help from others was not the right thing to do.

As the time neared 11 o'clock, Yuki suddenly felt a slight tremor during his drowsiness. He immediately ran to the nearest window but stopped before reaching out to unlock it. If he could visually perceive the anomalies occurring in the darkness of the night, it meant that he was within the range of the Servant battles.

It was meaningless.

Based on the intensity of the tremors, the distance was considerable.

Yuki felt tired. He blew out the nearly extinguished candle on the chair and fell asleep, leaning against it. Since he could not do anything, it was better to do nothing.

The uncomfortable sleeping posture and heavy mental pressure plunged Yuki deeper into his dream memories. He wasn't alone. In the pristine "classroom," many peers dressed like him, mechanically studying the same textbooks.

The teachers were familiar faces, but Yuki's deskmate often changed, and as the curriculum became more complex, the number of "classmates" around him dwindled.

A professor dressed in green robes was always the kindest "teacher" to Yuki and all the "students." Only this professor would enthusiastically open the slides and vividly describe the heroes from history, mythology, and legends, sharing their deeds and showing the "students" images from the outside world that they couldn't find in the data room or books.

He told them that on a plain where two rivers flowed, humans existed before 4000 BC, recording the earliest writings on stone tablets. The kings recorded on several stone tablets unearthed through modern archaeology were the most powerful among all the Archer-class Servants observed by the Chaldea organization to this day...

This knowledge was of utmost importance.

The rest of the "teachers" only knew how to say, "If you encounter an enemy Master who summons the Archer-class Servant, King of Heroes, Gilgamesh, just accept your fate and die. The information Chaldea has collected about this Servant is in your textbooks, yes, just one line. Let's move on to the next chapter..."

At that time, he might not have been able to articulate what was different about the professor in green robes, but looking back now, only that professor treated them as "students" and never uttered words like "accept your fate." Instead, he always repeated...

Survive.

Yuki had never come across this short command in textbooks or other books, and only the professor kept repeating it as if he could not bear to say it.

As the curriculum deepened, the number of "classmates" around him gradually decreased, and Yuki had the opportunity to sit in the front row. This was not because his grades satisfied the "teachers," but rather because the more outstanding "classmates" did not return to the classroom for further lessons.

Eventually, Yuki became "qualified" to receive one-on-one lessons from seven "teachers." However, at this point, the "teachers" who had previously taught him in the large classroom seemed uninterested and left Yuki alone to study the books he had access to. Only the professor in the green robes would maintain his previous enthusiasm and bring new information not found in the books, ensuring that Yuki remembered them.

It seemed that as long as Yuki could continue to read the materials personally collected by the professor, the professor would persist. Day after day, they continued teaching—a "teacher" and a "student" engaged in something that no one else persevered in.

The subsequent memories became even blurry, and Yuki did not know how long he slept. When he woke up, there was still no hint of light passing through the curtains. He looked up, and the clock on the wall showed the time—5 a.m.

=======================

Check My Other Work: Shinji Matou At Your Service