It’s the best――――
The man who successfully summoned a Heroic Spirit which should’ve been the first in history, described this moment as such deep down.
It’s no wonder he was screaming cheers without knowing it.
The history of the Jinga family which was his own family is not futile, and in the Far East which is regarded as the next generation in the world of magecraft, have acquired the strong feeling that the accumulation of hundreds of years of history was meaningful in itself.
The summoning process itself doesn’t have much skill, but it is still the first historical large scale magic ritual taking place in Tokyo――――so it must be due to the Jinga family that he was found to be a Master fit for the
Holy Grail War which is a conflict over the Holy Grail.
Man: “Haha.”
The man laughs.
Man: “Hahaha.”
The man laughs.
After that, he cheered loudly.
With the same or more excitement as his earlier spell.
Man: “I did it, I did it!!”
How long did he continue applauding himself?
A few seconds, a few minutes? It shouldn’t have been more than ten minutes, but the man at that time was completely out of touch. Despite correctly recognising that the achievement of the first-ever Heroic Spirit summoning was due to the Grail’s own power, it was such a great joy to him.
The man――――
Seiji Jinga was a magus.
He was a thin man.
Is he regarded by his sharp acuity?
Or by his pale thin features?
That impression will change 180 degrees depending on the viewer.
But, what about this moment?
Man: “………I did it!”
In the Far East, he was born and raised in a family lineage, that was relatively old and suitable enough to be called a prestigious family.
In his twenties, he inherited the position of family head from his predecessor along with their magic crest, and although it was a request from the Holy Church, he was a magus who held the skill to be selected for a city-wide magecraft ritual that was equal to sponsorship from the Mages Association, the centre of the magecraft world.
He was not always happy with his ancestry and his twenty-odd years of life.
Although they’re a prestigious family, it is only relative.
Their scale is different from that of the genuine one like the Reiroukan family and their influence on public society is small.
Moreover, the Far East is considered a backward frontier in the magecraft world, and is in fact, far from the level of the London based Clocktower―――― the Mages Association. Meaning, it is far from the Root which is the greatest mystery and the pinnacle of truth and magic.
While studying alchemy, the magic of his family, and inheiritng the magic crest, the man called Jinga was always irritated and thirsty. Is this right? Will he, like his father and grandfather, just live dreaming that his future descendants will obtain their ambition at the end of their diligent studies and inheritance?
No.
He was different.
He was chosen.
What he felt so far, must have been no more than impatience, craving, no―――
ambition.
He didn’t know the history of the Grail brought into Tokyo.
And its not as if he swallowed the slogans,
“The activation of the Greater Grail is proof of a miracle,” “Therefore, we will demonstrate its miracle with the cooperation of you mages,” “We will not thwart you from achieving your long-cherished wish by using the omnipotence of the grail,” solemly spoken by the bunch from the Church, but he got on board anyway.
The attitude of the Mages Association messenger was unforgettable.
Courteous, but rude. Did the Clocktower see the magecraft ritual in the Far East, the Holy Grail War, as a poor-planned approach to reaching the Root or something to be recorded just in case?
The truth is unknown, but it was clear that they despised him, the man called Seiji Jinga.
However. But.
Seiji: “Hahaha. A Heroic Spirit…..no, it showed itself to me as a Servant! To me of all people! I was able to put a legend, an embodiment of mysteries into a frame, as one of my familiars!”
Surely and steadily.
He took a step towards the Greater Grail.
He hadn’t receive notification from the Holy Church that other magi had successfully summoned their Heroic Spirits.
Then, as he suspects. He’s the first in history. He was probably the only one in the world who was the first to perform a perfect Heroic Spirit summoning.
Seiji: “I will! I will do it!”
His determination. Overflows from his lips with his excitement.
Seiji: “I will! I will slaughter the other six Masters and Servants! I will find the Greater Grail hidden somewhere in Tokyo! I’ll obtain the Grail with these hands―――― and take the Root, the long-cherished wish of all mages!”
A shout of cheers.
His voice shakes the dark warehouse.
Inside the warehouse where all the inner cargo was emptied and abandoned, except for Jinga, there was only the newly summoned Assassin now. He had no collaborators. And he never called any magi who were close to his family to Tokyo as his force.
Jinga recognized that the true nature of the Holy Grail War was a solitary battle.
‘A struggle I should do all by myself.’
That is why, he has already poured in all of his family fortune. He needn’t worry abou how much he shouted inside the warehouse. He purchased all the cargo inside the surrounding warehouses, and modified them into his own magic workshop. This area of the Minato Ward Warehouse District is now the territory of Seiji Jinga.
If a magus steps into it, he’ll kill them.
Even if a Heroic Spirit comes to attack them, he’ll turn the tables on them.
With himself and
this woman.
Seiji: “……….A Servant.”
Eventually, he recognises her.
His partner who is magically
bound to him through the summoning.
A Heroic Spirit who achieved materialisation, and the Servant who is the key to the Holy Grail War and his greatest fighting strength――――
――――It had the form of a young woman.
The moment he realized that.
Sudden emotions passed through Jinga’s mind.
Heroic Spirits are extremely powerful beings. Far surpassing human wisdom, myths and legends reappear, and freely exercise their mysteries as if it were child’s play such as those exercised by magi.
Therefore, even if it was a young girl.
She can’t just be a woman.
Seiji: (A woman…..)
Yes, he thought.
His heart was pounding.
The core of his body became hot.
It was a reaction he had no knowledge of after living for more than twenty years.
Or maybe he wouldn’t have had reacted at that moment, if hadn’t actually had the best excitement in his life with the fact that he had summoned a Heroic Spirit. Perhaps he could afford to calmly observe the woman as the embodiment of a paranormal mystery.
But,
that didn’t come to pass.
He was interested in her.
To put it bluntly, yes, he desired her.
For her youthfully tense body.
Seiji: (Her age……is she in her mid teens, late teens……or……..)
He was head over heels.
For the woman’s young and supple figure.
For her well-proportinate brown limbs.
For her body that was covered by a perfectly thin black robe.
He didn’t see if she was trained for battle, but he was fascinated by the woman’s body which was filled with intentional femininity.
Sadly, he wasn’t one to touch the sword and risk his life with a blade.
Seiji: “…….You……..you’re, my Servant, right?”
Seiji Jinga doesn’t notice.
That this woman is an unmistakable warrior.
Her body. Her black thin silk. They were nothing more than a woman’s weapons.
Seiji: “You answered my summons……you came…..in order to grant my wish……right?”
Assassin: “Yes.”
It was a voice as if she was enduring something, like she was suppressing something.
It was a woman’s voice.
Jinga, recognised that the woman was also lustful.
Seiji: “Then, you acknowledge me as your Master…..yes?”
Assassin: “Yes.”
It was a quiet obedient voice, as if it was enduring something.
It was the woman’s voice.
Jinga realized that the woman was waiting for him.
Seiji: “I like to know your name. Tell me.”
Assassin: “My name, so you don’t know it?”
It was a terribly calm voice that seemed to realize something.
It was the woman’s voice.
Her facial expression was covered by a white mask, so he couldn’t peek at it.
It hid from her eyes to her nose. However, given the contours of her face and her well-shaped lips, he couldn’t help feeling certain she had a beautiful face. Jinga imagined the woman smiling seductively behind the mask.
Assassin: “I am the one who was led to the class and name of Assassin.”
Seiji: “I see…..”
He nods while loosening his collar.
The woman is seeking him.
Then, he must respond in kind.
Assassin: “I am the one who kills all life.”
Seiji: “I see….”
He approached the woman step by step and nods.
The woman is anxious.
If she is, then he must comfort her.
Assassin: “I am one who can only kill. Even so, is it okay……if I serve you?”
Seiji: “Of course.”
He whispers, while reaching for the woman’s cheek.
The woman is at a loss.
Then he must guide her.
He had met her. His destined partner. So, what else is there?
Seiji Jinga steps into
her space without any doubts. He doesn’t realize that he is the one who does what he wants, without any hesitation or worry. Despite his magical mental defenses, despite being inside his own magic workshop which was his own territory, he does so.
Is it due to his Servant’s skill?
No. It’s not that.
It is something not recognisable to the Master.
It cannot be understood just by grasping the form of the
“Servant” that imprisons a Heroic Spirit as a magical being composed of parameters and skills, which accompanies the summoning backed by the enormous mana of the Lesser Grail.
――――It’s because she is
what she is.
Assassin: “Well then, Master. I dedicate all of myself to you. My name, as well as my Noble Phantasm too.”
It can be called a habit.
The woman――――
Assassin holds the man’s stretched hand. Before she touches his cheek.
After that, she turns over his palm. Jinga whose body balance had crumbled falls on his back, but just before that, she gently hugs him. As a result, he was held by her from above when she propped her knee on the floor.
Seiji: “Hey…..”
Faster than he could say,
“What’re you doing!?”
The woman cuddled close to him.
Beyond his gaze――――there was the woman’s face directly above Jinga.
The woman’s fingers touches his cheek and his casually stretched black hair.
‘Aah. I want this woman. No, she’s been mine since the moment I summoned her.’
‘We walk together for the sake of our ambition.’
‘What is my ambition? No, I just want to kiss her now.’
Yes, he thought. In that moment.
――――Their lips overlap.
It was a
first for him.
It’s not like he had zero relationships with the opposite sex, but even so, he can assure that he had never tasted this before. The organ for vocalisation, his mouth, his tongue, was plugged up, so he moaned with his throat instead. It was a sweet moan.
She had soft lips.
It was a hot kiss.
He quickly became intoxicated――――
Everything becomes hazy. His consciousness and thoughts become dull.
His ambition. Long-cherished wish. Family lineage.
Mages Association. The Holy Church.
Holy Grail. Greater Grail. Lesser Grail.
Heroic Spirit. The summoning. Ability.
Noble Phantasm.
Something is terribly weighing on his mind, but he didn’t think anything more on it.
A hot, soft, sweetly melting pleasure amply permeates his brain through his lips and tongue.
――――And with that, Seiji Jinga ended his more than twenty year life.
Assassin: “…….My true name is Hassan-i-Sabbah. My Noble Phantasm is Zabaniya
[1].”
With a sigh. The woman slips out words.
Their lips were already separated.
As the woman lets go of him, Jinga’s body which had completely lost the heat of life softly collapses to the floor.
Assassin: “All of me is a lump of poison.”
Her nails, skin, body, body fluids.
Everything is poisonous.
Everything is a blade.
Everything is death.
It was the true identity of the woman with the name of Hassan.
A poison in the shape of a woman.
A woman who was completed as a poison.
A
flower of assassination that recreated the
“Poison Damsel” in long ago Indian myths.
Even her high-quality perfume like body odor, even her sighs, are poisonous.
Even her fresh and lustrous skin, even her body, is poisonous.
In particular, the poison in her mucus is too strong. No matter how much talismans and magecraft a human magus protects themself with, if she touches them once, there is no way out of the consequences. Even if they are a Heroic Spirit, if they receive the death kiss twice, they will meet the same end.
In other words――――
Assassin: “Meaning death.”
The woman was a warrior.
To be exact, one who continues to take lives in the darkness.
As determined, and as ordered.
Following her own way.
Assassin: “………..”
As she stares at her Master who has collapsed like a marionette with its strings cut, the woman exhales.
Deeply, deeply. Heartbreakingly.
If there were living things around, then her poisonous breath would’ve stopped their movements.
After doing so for a few seconds.
The woman leans over her Master’s corpse.
Once more, she brings her lips down to his lips which had started to get cold――――
Assassin: “…….It wasn’t you……”
At a distance of touching or not touching.
She briefly said.
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[1] Zabaniya: Delusional Poison Body