Waver should have continued sleeping. Maybe, and just maybe, he would have managed to avoid the tense situation he was in.
Waver had descended the stairs to the second floor together with Rider, who had refused to leave him alone. This had frightened the young Master a little, but he was also confident that his Servant would protect him from whatever danger awaited him behind the door of the home in which he resided.
Upon opening the door, he had been dazzled by the smile of a young man. That smile had been the cause of this awkward and tense situation Waver found himself in, a smile he had seen the night before.
That smile was accompanied by a perfectly proportioned Caucasian face, with characteristic heterochromatic eyes. His medium-length hair was a charcoal black color, with a few silver highlights.
"W-what a-are you doing here?"
Waver could barely formulate the question. All the confidence he had gained from his own Servant's presence had vanished.
Rider did not seem to have reacted to the presence of the non-guest and seemed relatively calm, which also calmed Waver a little.
However, he did not know that Rider was prepared to defend his Master at any moment. Waver was unable to comprehend the danger he was in right now.
Drako entered the house's interior, ignoring both Waver and Rider, and climbed the stairs to the second floor.
"Hey, t-this is not your house!"
"It's not yours too."
Waver had to shut his mouth at the dragon's response, for he was right.
"Come on, kid. It seems that he doesn't want to fight, so let's see what's he has to say."
Rider followed Drako to the second floor, as he had understood that the latter didn't want to fight. Or at least, that was not his current intention. Depending on how the conversation continued
Waver could only nod his head and follow the two powerhouses. An overwhelming sense of weakness ran through him, feeling like a third person who shouldn't be in this place.
When he returned to his room, now with one more person than usual, Waver felt that this place no longer belonged to him. Drako's presence forced him to unconsciously regard him as the most important person in the place.
"Nice shirt."
While looking at the T-shirt in the package Rider had brought, Drako gave his impressions of it.
"Hoho!"
Rider shouted in jubilation as he pulled out the T-shirt, since he had forgotten about the package that had arrived.
"Not bad, not bad! I like it a lot. The real product looks even better than the pictures."
"...A T-shirt?" Waver asked.
Rider pulled a size XL T-shirt out of the package. On the front of the shirt was printed an eye-catching logo above the world map - "Admiral's Grand Tactics". It looked like one of those products that game companies published on the front page of the special edition of a magazine.
"It's actually not bad. After I saw Saber last night, I had a sudden inspiration too. You wouldn't mind if I wore contemporary clothes when I go to the street, right?"
Waver's Heroic Spirit hated the spiritual form and strongly preferred the physical form. Although Waver had headaches about this matter, the silver lining was that at least Rider wasn't thinking of going out shopping in the city. Now he was in big trouble. Waver was furious to the point of wanting to curse Saber for giving Rider that idea.
Meanwhile, Drako watched as Rider tried on his new T-shirt and struck various poses. Rider's happiness was too pure to interrupt this moment.
"Wahaha! Just as I wanted it - The effect of having the whole world on my chest. Haha! It really makes me happy."
"...ah, ahh. Yes, yes."
Waver was extremely embarrassed seeing the gleeful Rider wearing the shirt in front of a possible enemy.
"You need pants if you want to go outside."
The detail Drako had commented on was like a cold water pitcher for Rider.
"Do I really have to wear that?"
Looking a bit annoyed, the giant who wasn't even wearing underwear held his forehead with his fist as he asked seriously.
"You must."
Drako nodded with a serious face as he struggled to keep his gaze on Rider's face. This situation was really awkward.
Although he hadn't washed his face yet, Waver's drowsiness had disappeared in a puff of smoke.
This inconsiderate muscular idiot, ignorant of common sense, who is as lacking in manners as a gorilla...Once Waver thought of the countless indulgences she had made for him, he couldn't help but feel angry.
"Let me make this clear. I'm not going out on the town just to get super-sized pants for you. I'm definitely not going."
"What did you just say?"
With an exaggerated look, Rider glared at Waver. But Waver wouldn't take a step back this time - he had established his determination with an iron will.
"Hey pacifier, are you going against my majestic feats?"
"Your majestic feats and your pants have no relation! Before you go out to have fun, show me what you can do! At least kill some of the opposing Servants!"
Watching this pair of idiots argue was really interesting to Drako. He felt like he was watching the anime in first person.
"Well, you can't kill Lancer or Caster."
Drako caught the two idiots' attention again, and Waver turned pale as he understood that the dragon had heard his words.
Rider understood Drako's words a little more than his Master had.
"You mean Caster is dead?"
"Yes, I got rid of Bluebeard last night. No one wants a couple of pedophiles kidnapping little kids in their town, especially when you have little kids in your family."
Rider nodded, understanding the meaning in Drako's words. He and Waver knew about the strange disappearances of children these past few days, so they didn't doubt Drako's words when he blamed the enigmatic Caster. If on top of that his identity was that of Bluebeard (Gilles de Rais), any hint of doubt left in the minds of both of them had disappeared.
"By the way, one of my subordinates killed Lord El-Melloi last night."
One more statement made Waver shudder. His master, one of the greatest geniuses that had appeared in this century, had died on the first day of the Holy Grail War.
"You really want to end this Holy Grail War, huh. Why?"
On the previous night, Drako had declared war on all the participants of the Holy Grail War. He wanted to destroy the Holy Grail, and had threatened everyone who would stand in his way.
"The Holy Grail is corrupt, useless, and will only bring suffering and destruction. I don't really care about that, though. Fighting powerful individuals like you, Servants, is what really matters.
I know you're not really interested in the Grail, but others like the Masters of Saber and Archer would die to get it. Their hopes and dreams depend on it. Destroying the Grail is no different from destroying them. That is why I, the person who wants to destroy them, am their main enemy, and they will try to destroy me with all their might.
Fighting against you, I gain strength. I seek that strength. I have to be stronger."
Rider and Waver listened carefully to Drako's serious speech. He seemed to be obsessed with that strength he was talking about.
"Why do you want that strength?"
Curiosity was killing Waver. What was it that was driving this person, who was already strong enough to kill a Servant, to seek even greater strength?
"I don't know if you'll believe me, but I'll tell you anyway. There are beings beyond this world, in another galaxy, or even in another universe. Their goal is to bring chaos and destroy all that order has created. Although, once again, I don't care about that. I already said it; what matters to me is my family, and I want to be able to defend them from this coming threat."
Drako spoke sincerely, hoping they understood what he had said.
"An outside threat... that's a good theory..."
Waver began to ponder. He had already entered his own mage world.
Drako finally said what he had come to say.
"I came here to ask you both, will you help me defend the universe, the world, my family?"
------------------------
As always, sorry for the lack of updates. My studies are taking away my will to live :(
Remember when last time I talked about a stream writing a new novel with the readers, I have some time today so we can do it.
I'm going to start it at 22:30 Spain hour, that is GMT+2. In other words, 10 minutes after the post of this chapter.
I think that it is going to be really interesting, so take a look!
https://www.twitch.tv/er_patogeno15
"I came here to ask you both, will you help me defend the universe, the world, my family?"
That's right.
Drako had come to the McKenzie home to try to recruit Rider, and Waver was also a good choice to add to his group.
Why was Waver a good choice? That's what many may be wondering.
Out of pure curiosity, Drako had decided to use [Inspect Status] on Waver. To his surprise, something had happened that Drako had already experienced with an object.
[Record of a Servant with this human's characteristics found]
Just as with the Nemean Lion's pelt that Aphrodite had given him, the system had detected a Servant's records with Waver's characteristics.
This meant that, when it came to turning Waver into a Servant, he would not follow the same process as Kuroka or Zoë.
When Drako turned the two girls into Servants, they gained the default parameters of their respective classes. With Waver, it would be different since there were already records of Waver as a Servant. The system would take those parameters and implement them in Waver. Not only that, but he would also gain all his Skills and Noble Phantasms.
This was all that the system had been explaining to Drako while Rider and Waver were discussing.
In a single moment, the plans Drako had made for the Nasuverse had received a big change.
His main goal in arriving at the place where Waver was residing was to invite Rider to join him since he was the only Servant Drako was willing to ally within this Fourth Holy Grail War. The others were nothing more than experience to level up and gain personal strength.
But now that he knew of this possibility, a new possibility had appeared in front of Drako. Perhaps there were more people in the Nasuverse like Waver, with their own Servant record.
Shirou Emiya was a clear example of this. With Waver's example, Drako could turn Shirou into a Servant and give him the characteristics of Archer EMIYA.
If, for example, Irisviel also has a Servant record in the system, then turning her into one would be much more profitable than Drako thought. Who knows, maybe Sakura and Rin have their own Servant records.
That being the case, Drako had already figured out what he could do in the 10-year gap between the fourth and fifth war.
"I see; you're asking us to abandon Holy Grail and ally with you to deal with this outside enemy."
Rider put his hand to his chin and ducked his head as he thought.
Drako knew of Iskandar's directness. He didn't tend to overthink things, so the answer he was going to give him was the final one.
Iskandar raised his head, and through his eyes full of ambition and determination Drako received the answer.
"I see..."
The negotiations had failed. No, there was no chance to negotiate in the first place.
"My dream is to reign over all the land at least once. That's right, I don't care about Holy Grail. However, I cannot let go of my dream. Because this one is not mine alone. I owe it to my subordinates, those who followed me across unknown lands, facing fearsome enemies, only to find Okeanos. If I were to start working for you, I would be betraying everything I stand for."
Alexander the Great, Iskandar, it didn't matter what the name was. The Conqueror King was a person worthy of Drako shutting up and listening to what he had to say. He was an idiot, but he was also a wise man. The experience he had was no match for Drako's.
Drako couldn't be mad at him for not taking him up on his offer, even if Iskandar knew that the future of humanity was at stake. Rider had on his back the hopes of thousands of soldiers who had fought alongside him. They were his family, and Rider wasn't going to abandon his family even if it meant the others would die.
Drako wouldn't either, so he could only nod his head at Rider's words.
Waver watched in amazement as these two great powers smiled at each other, knowing they were enemies. Since Rider had rejected Drako, they were destined to face each other.
At that exact moment, boom! A deafening explosion reverberated in Waver's ears.
No, to be specific, it was not a sound but an auditory stimulus. It directly attacked the sensitive nerves of a Waver magus - in other words, a magical impulse.
"So that's the method they use to summon magicians. If I wasn't here, I wouldn't have detected anything."
Drako muttered as he looked to the east, the place from which the magic impulse had been launched.
With a frown, Drako watched as a layer of smoke dispersed into the clear sky. Although the cloud pattern looked like those clouds formed by fireworks, the flashing glow did not look like any fireworks.
Even though Drako could clearly see the smoke, people could not see it outside of magicians since it had been formed from magic. The same went for the noise. To a normal person, this would be nothing but the normal noise of fireworks.
"That location... That's where the Fuyuki Church is, right?"
As one of the Masters participating in the Holy Grail War, Waver possessed at least the essential knowledge. So he immediately understood the meaning behind the sign.
As the overseer of the war, the Holy Church would trigger that signal whenever there was something crucial to report to the Masters. This is the most appropriate method to inform the Masters, since the Holy Church would have no idea where they would be.
"Would it be something related to us?"
Waver struggled to find the best answer to Rider's question.
"I couldn't say it's completely unrelated to us. How should I put it..."
In fact, Waver did not announce his identity as Master to the Holy Church.
As long as his Servant is in the land of Fuyuki, naturally, his position as Master would be established. So there was nothing to urge him to do things under the Church's approval - that was what Waver decided. After all, he had obtained the holy relic through unscrupulous methods. If he did something else strange, wouldn't he be getting into more trouble?
However, it would be unsafe to ignore the consensus called by the Fuyuki Church. A meeting for all Masters called by the supervising Holy Church, what emergency could it be? Usually, it would be something related to the amendment of rules, addition of new conditions... Besides, it could announce some new information.
This information could be the key point for the battles from now on. From the current situation, it would be better if you listen to the supervisor's suggestions. And in case they were specific regulations that would restrict them, when the time comes, all he would have to do would be to ignore them.
"It is related to my presence. The Church and Tohsaka Tokiomi have grown tired of my interference in the ritual. They are going to launch a war against me."
Drako said unscrupulously. He had no doubt why they were summoning the Masters.
Originally, that call was to finish off Caster. Since Caster was already dead, the next nuisance for Tokiomi was none other than the variable named Drako. Probably, they had found the remains of Ouryuu that Drako hadn't bothered to clean up, so they were going to use it as an excuse to unite the Masters against Drako.
"Rider, Waver Velvet, the next time we meet, it will be as enemies. It's been a pleasure talking to you."
Drako got up and left without waiting for Waver and Rider to be able to say anything. Now that he was sure Tohsaka had him in his sights, he wanted to say that they probably already knew where he resided.
It was time to make preparations for what was coming.
............
I'm back! :)
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