Through the corridors of the Clock Tower, a man in his middle adulthood was walking toward an office. He wore a black coat and carried a briefcase in one of his hands.
Many of those who encountered him saw him with fear and terror, many others watched him with disgust and anger, and most of them watched it with all four emotions together.
Despite all this, no one got in his way.
Kiritsugu reached the door where his target was located. He didn't even have to knock on the door, the moment he approached it, he heard a voice on the other side.
"Come in."
The magus killer entered the Lord's office.
"Emiya Kiritsugu…"
"Lord Trambellio."
Without much to say, Lord Trambellio pulled a folder from his desk and handed it to the freelancer.
Kiritsugu opened the report that had been passed to him and looked at the most important data. "I see…" Turning back to the Lord, he asked, "what happened to our agreement?"
"One week before the start of the next academic year, the Lords will meet. In that meeting, several things will be discussed, among them, we will propose the revocation of the
Emiya Crest."
Kiritsugu nodded
"However, there is a necessary condition for us to have a chance to succeed."
"Which…?"
"The crest, as you have requested, will be implanted in your child. This is mandatory since it's almost impossible for the other Lords to consider returning the crest to someone
who won't bring any discoveries to our world. But your son, despite his limitations as a magus, is working and researching like one of us inside the Clock Tower and has already
shown results."
"So, the Lords won't be able to so many bugs, that is what you mean."
Trambellio nodded. "But, obviously, the boy will have to reveal himself as your son. I don't need to say what that will mean to him, do I?"
"Of course not." Kiritsugu prepared to leave the office.
"I suggest that you take him along with you for this job," commented the Lord.
"Barthomeloi?" he asked.
"Her hatred against the superior dead apostles is not a secret. If the boy is useful against them, it will be easier for her to agree to return the crest to them."
"I'll keep that in mind," he said before leaving.
Shirou must have already finished his last class for this year, he had kept an eye on him thanks to his contacts. Kiritsugu planned to keep his distance from him for a while longer;in his original plans, he would contact Shirou through his cell phone and present him with various options on what he thought was best to do.
They still did not have enough resources to face the Einzbern, and Kiritsugu was still rebuilding his entire arsenal, as much of it was lost or damaged during the war. Also, they were still exploring how the castle could be invaded. But, above all else, Kiritsugu still did not have the resources to take down his biggest obstacle: Jubstacheit von Einzbern.Jubstacheit was the current head of the Einzbern family and one of the only two family members who are "naturally" part of it; the other was his daughter, while the rest were just mass-produced homunculi.
The magus killer was not innocent Jubstacheit would not let him keep his daughter even if the rescue was successful. Kiritsugu would have to kill him since this was the only way his daughter could have a future free from Jubstacheit's obsession with rediscovering the Third Magic that his family had lost.
Nevertheless, his plans were moving forward, perhaps at a slow pace, but at a safe pace:
Shirou had progressed as a magus and as a blacksmith. He had managed to restore part of his arsenal, and his old contacts were working on what he would use to take down oldEinzbern. Finally, the Emiya Crest was getting closer and closer to his reach.
As his plans to keep hiding his relationship with Shirou for as long as possible were cut short, he had to move on to plan b. If he couldn't protect him by keeping him away, then he would have to protect him by keeping him as close as possible and teaching him everything he could to survive in this world.
That said, he decided to start as soon as possible. He was only about two and a half months old before the next year of study began, and then his son would have to go back to the Clock Tower. In the next course, all the magi will know that he was not only Muramasa Shirou, but also Emiya Shirou.
"He should be here," said the freelancer in front of an auditorium door, and without waiting, he knocked on the door.
"Come in."
After hearing this, the magus killer opened the door and entered the room.
Lord El-Melloi II was finishing his last class before the vacation period began. This period is nothing more than a lie because there really are no vacations. The Clock Tower exists only for and for the study of magecraft; therefore, a vacation period is silly. Most of the students don't even go home, instead, they stay in the Clock Tower studying by themselves. The only difference is that the professors take a break from their lectures.
This was a blessing for Waver, as his real goal was not to be the best teacher in the Clock Tower but to become a great magus. And, during this vacation period, he will be able to devote himself entirely to his own interests.
Also, since that day a week ago, his daily life had become somewhat annoying. For a mage of an unknown lineage to have defeated a mage of an ancient and known lineage was somewhat complicated, but it was not something that had not happened before in the history of the Clock Tower.
What was the problem this time?
It was that, what was going to be a simple duel between magi, three Lords attended: himself, Lord Trambellio, and Lord Meluastea. The latter, he suspected, had come to observe because of Yvette's reports. Although what Lord Meluastea wanted, he did not know.
This made the battle a little more special value in the perception of the magi community, and this had brought him several headaches, in fact, to make matters worse, the battle itself was already giving him a dose of a migraine.
The Lord knew the limitations of his student, the same redhead had informed him of these during his first days of classes. So, how had he managed to create a nearly perfect projection of a sword that, while no match for a sword of Excalibur's level, was undoubtedly a work of art made by a master smith?
He also didn't understand why the blade was so absurdly long. Furthermore, he did not know that his student possessed a such mastery of the swords, but, in his eyes, everything happened so fast that he could not evaluate it.
Everything was so sudden that no one understood what Shirou had done.
The mana expenditure was not exaggerated, and the projection was almost perfect, however, these were not the only mysteries he observed during the fight. Waver remembered it, that light.
The light was much like the one Rhongomyniad emitted when Gray had used the mystery sealed within Add, but, more than anything else, that light was very similar to that emitted by that sword.
He asked Gray if she had noticed something, and her explanation only confirmed his suspicions. Whatever it was, it was related to the legend of King Arthur. And if that light indicated anything, then it should be a Divine construction or the like, used for defense and healing.
Finally, there was that other thing: Shirou used some kind of acceleration magecraft or something like that. And this magecraft had caused damage to his body, although this damage had already been healed by the other thing.
Waver did not understand where such magecraft had come from, the only thing that occurred to him was two possibilities: a Mystic Code or a Magic Crest.
His theory was confirmed when he took the boy to the infirmary and was able to examine him, there, under his shirt, a Magic Crest was shining. After analyzing the crest for a while, he realized that it not only allowed the boy to increase his speed but also manipulated his time, this confused Waver, time manipulation was an extremely complicated magecraft that could border on True Magic. In other words, only a family with several generations dedicated to this type of magecraft could have a crest that, although incomplete, contained a highly complex amount of information on this type of magecraft.
At that moment, Waver got it. The clues were there, and he just had to put the puzzle together: something to do with King Arthur, whom he had faced during the Grail War, the fact that the boy lived in the city of Fuyuki, and, finally, this magecraft.
There were only three masters who survived the Holy Grail War as far as he knew: Him, a member of the Church, known as Kotomine Kirei, and, finally, the true master of saber, the magus killer, Emiya Kiritsugu.
After investigating the Emiya family, the puzzle was completed. The magecraft used by that family was: Time Manipulation.
Secretly, Lord El-Melloi II hoped that all of this was nothing more than chance or something like that. Even if he had the truth in front of his face, even if he was someone who couldn't leave a mystery unsolved, and even if he was extremely rational (for a magus), he could dismiss all of this if doing so avoided meeting that man, with the murderer of his teacher and the master of King Arthur.
But fate was capricious, and that day he would realize it more than ever.
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AN: This extra chapter comes from the first review! Thank you so much!