บท 27: Huang Luan as a Servant

Not long after the "death" of Assassin, in the Fuyuki Church, Kotomine Kirei and his father Kotomine Risei are having a conversation.

"Father, is there anyone watching the Church?" Kirei asks.

"No, the Church has been declared a neutral sanctuary. The Holy Church will censure any Master who defies this decree," Risei says.

"Then it's safe…"

"Yes," Risei nods.

Turning his back slightly Kirei says, "Keep watch, just in case. Post one guard here at all times."

A female body of Assassin appears from the shadows with their signature skull mask, "Yes. Understood."

"Who was watching the battle?" Kirei asks.

"I detected the presence of familiars from four separate Masters. And what should have been the presence of another Servant," Assassin says.

"Is there any information about this unidentified Servant?" Kirei asks.

"They should have been looking from a far distance leaving no room for interaction. From what we could tell, the Servant was small in stature and wearing modern clothes, most likely a disguise to blend in with the modern world. Due to the distance, we couldn't find anything else before she left, but I don't believe the Servant should know about our surveillance," Assassin says.

"It wasn't long before the battle that I confirmed the summoning of the final Servant. There's just one problem, the Servant summoned wasn't Caster, but something else. This is not without precedent as the Einzbern family did this in the previous war, but I heard from my predecessor that the Servant they summoned was extraordinarily weak. I don't believe there is much to worry about in regards to this irregular summoning, but Kirei, it doesn't hurt to be careful. Regardless, all seven Servants have now been summoned." Risei says.

"If we assumed the unknown Servant who was watching to be this irregular summon, then all seven Masters should have been watching. In this way, all the other Masters won't think that Assassin is still lurking in the dark," Kirei says.

Several hours later the morning arrives. In Theresa and Satsuki's hotel room, the two of them are watching the Group Chat after breakfast.

Advocate of Gender Equality: "By the way, as a Master, have you looked at the little Emperor's stats?"

Great Teacher Onizuka: "Lulu will definitely look to trouble you if she sees what you called her."

Black Star: "He reaps what he sows."

Great Teacher Onizuka: "If anyone asks, I don't know the man called Satou Kazuma."

Advocate of Gender Equality: "Hey! C'mon, aren't we good brothers who have taken to the Group Space as a living space!?"

Great Teacher Onizuka: "I'm sorry, who are you?"

[Advocate of Gender Equality sends a Red Envelope to Great Teacher Onizuka]

Great Teacher Onizuka: "Hello Brother Kazuma."

Advocate of Gender Equality: "Help me out of the danger zone."

Great Teacher Onizuka: "As much as I'd like to help, it's just…"

Advocate of Gender Equality: "Great Father Onizuka."

Great Teacher Onizuka: "I'll see what I can do."

Opening a private chat, Onizuka sends a message to Huang Luan.

Great Teacher Onizuka: "You were watching right?"

Retired Loli Sovereign: "Of Course. He's already made a bit of a fool, so I won't do anything to him personally. Of course, I have other plans, but don't tell him that."

Getting affirmation from Huang Luan, Onizuka tells Kazuma the good news. But he naturally failed to mention Huang Luan's closing words, 'Sorry, but your Father's safety comes first.'

Teriri: "Going back to the previous subject, what was that about Huang Luan's stats? Is such a thing viewable?"

Advocate of Gender Equality: "As a Master, Satsuki should be able to see the Statistics and Skills of her Servant, in this case, Huang Luan. They are ranked from E to A, E being the lowest with A being the highest. There is also the EX rank for things that cannot be measured. Satsuki should be able to see them by looking at Huang Luan. This can also be used on other enemy Servants, but it would be far more limited."

Sacchin: "I haven't looked. I didn't even know that was a thing. To begin with, we don't even know where Huang Luan is right now."

Just as she writes that in the Chat Group, Satsuki can feel someone's breath right by her ear as a soft voice calls out.

"I'm right behind you."

"Ahh!"

Satsuki jumps up in fright, also startling Theresa who was sitting next to her.

"Huang Luan, please don't do things like that. It's not very good to scare children like that," Theresa says.

Although she's acting calm, Theresa honestly doesn't have any confidence she wouldn't react in a similar manner as Satsuki if Huang Luan did the same thing to her. Perhaps her reaction would be even more exaggerated.

"The two of you can call me Lulu. Oh, but in this world, the two of you should just call me Huang. This is for the sake of disguising myself. Which clothes do you think are better, this green jade or yellow dragon," Huang Luan asks, pulling out clothes that resemble Hanfu, one is primarily a jade green colour that shines under the light, while the other is a bright yellow colour with a yellow dragon embroidered over it.

"These are?" Theresa asks.

"Clothes I am borrowing indefinitely. One was taken from the Jade Emperor and the other was taken from the Yellow Emperor. But in the case of the Yellow Emperor, he's dead, so I don't need to return the clothes."

"I think the green one looks nicer," Satsuki says.

"Alright, for now, I'll pretend to be the Jade Emperor," Huang Luan says as she walks over to the mirror and begins changing clothes.

"You saw that Chat right? Can I take a look at your stats?" Satsuki asks.

"Aren't you the Master? Why ask, just do it," Huang Luan shrugs.

While Satsuki begins looking at Huang Luan's stats, Theresa can't help but comment on the Emperor's appearance, "Wasn't those clothes a lot bigger before you put them on?"

"Don't think too hard about such minor details," Huang Luan waves her hand.

Sacchin: "Lulu came back and I'm looking at her stats right now. But I don't know what I'm looking at."

Advocate of Gender Equality: "Try opening the live stream. I'm not sure if we'll be able to see what you see, but it doesn't hurt to try."

Kazuma has no faith that this idea will work, he's only trying to trick Satsuki into opening the live stream and hope she forgets it's on… for various reasons.

The kind and naive Satsuki naturally has no suspicions and quickly learns how to turn on the live stream as the other group member open the stream one by one as soon as it opens. And as expected, the live stream can't show the Master's Perspective that Satsuki has.

Advocate of Gender Equality: "Too bad it doesn't work. Oh, well, can you tell us what you see?"

"Ok," Satsuki says as she begins to list off what she sees, "Strength is A, Endurance is A, Agility is EX, Magical Power is E-, Luck is B+, and Noble Phantasm is EX."

Black Star: "As expected, her physical body is rated rather high. But the magic rating is somewhat pitiful."

Advocate of Gender Equality: "But what's with that Agility rank? Why is that EX?"

Black Star: "EX rank only means it can't be measured, right? Then this makes sense, how do you measure that which can manipulate distance, both the Black Emperor and Justiciar Pathways can do this. The Black Emperor should be able to achieve this through distorting distance. And the Justiciar can directly erase distance for short-range teleportation. This of course doesn't take into account Huang Luan's strong physical body, so it should go without saying that by default she should be relatively fast and have good reaction time."

Advocate of Gender Equality: "Now that you mention it, it does make sense.

Lightning Archpriestess: "On a side note, Huang Luan looks good dressed like that."

"I look good no matter what I'm wearing," Huang Luan announces.

Ignoring Huang Luan's small outburst, the conversation in the chat group continues.

Konakona: "What about her Skills and Noble Phantasm?"

"Her Noble Phantasm is called Embodiment of Distortion and Order. It simply says that Lulu can distort rules and laws while also creating new ones. It doesn't elaborate further. Oh, but it does say that its true name doesn't need to be announced when being used. She has a second Noble Phantasm called Resurrection, it just revives her if she dies." Satsuki says.

God-Emperor of Man: "This is just her regular abilities as the Black Emperor and the Justiciar, right?"

Black Star: "Yeah, that's what it looks like."

"By the way, Lulu has another Noble Phantasm," Satsuki mentions.

Advocate of Gender Equality: "And what is it?"

"It's called, Mythical Creature Release. Lulu reveals her true undisguised appearance as a Mythical Creature. Anyone who isn't at her level of strength will suffer injuries and be driven mad by merely looking at her. Using this Noble Phantasm will also cause Lulu to fully manifest as a Threat to Humanity."

Advocate of Gender Equality: "Hold up, that last part sounds really dangerous."

"We actually received a warning about this when we first arrived in this world. If She uses this then we fail the bonus objective about the Counter Force," Theresa mentions.

Konakona: "Yeah, it's probably best if that doesn't get used."

Satsuki continues to describe what she sees from the Master's Perspective, "As for her Skills, the first is "Existence Outside the Domain" Rank EX. Then there's "Independent Manifestation" Rank A, "Divinity" Rank A+++, "Mystery-Slayer" Rank A, "Magic Resistance" Rank EX, and "Territory Creation" Rank EX."

Advocate of Gender Equality: "Looking at just the stats, Huang Luan is a top tier Servant."

"And that's about everything," Satsuki says.

Walking to the door, Huang Luan says, "Then if you're done now, let's go have some fun in the city."