As Cael ran away from Museum, he soon reached a forest where his Beauty Magecraft began losing effect. He took a rest absorbing the surrounding prana without alerting anyone.
'So, the limit is along 80 minutes. I should still not give up my identity. I don't know if the mage won, even if the mage didn't, I can't be under the radar of Church. If the Mage did win, the mage will be after me '
"Speak of the devil"
Cael jumped onto the branch of a tree as three knives landed on his previous spot.
Just then, He heard the mage speak for the first time.
"I know you are there so, I won't make this difficult for you, give me the painting. You and I both know the people of the church will be looking for us at any moment"
While Cael is surprised by the voice as it is feminine while the figure is masculine. He has more pressing matters to be concerned about. He once again activated his Beauty magecraft concealing his face and body structure.
Just as Cael is about to jump, he stopped. He can feel it, his mind's eye warning about the inescapable danger he'll be in if he defied the woman. For the first time, he felt a threat.
"I don't mind giving you the painting but what would I get in exchange? You can't expect me to just give you away this priceless artifact. We are talking about an object that is radiating mystery"
His voice came out distorted but still, the mage could hear the voice.
"Very well, what do you want? Nothing outrageous though and I can kill you in a second if you try any funny tricks"
"Do you have any Alchemy spells?"
"I will give you Memory partition and Thought acceleration spells. How about it?"
"You have a deal"
At the exchange, he finally understood why his mind's eye warned him to not act rashly.
She has dangerous mystic eyes, the eyes that allow one to view the past and bring the past effects into the present. Mystic eyes of Transience.
Cael thought 'She must have had some lethal attacks from the past and stored them. If she went full offensive, I will die even with all my magecraft.'
"Don't show off these spells, You will be killed if someone from Atlas learned of your knowledge"
'She's a good person among mages, If I were in her place with those mystic eyes, I would surely not negotiate like this'
After the exchange, Cael ran away changing his looks various times. He used projection magecraft to change the look of his clothes.
He used so much magecraft that more than half of his prana is drained to casting spells. He got to his room and took a rest restoring his prana.
After feeling refreshed, he smiled.
"The mission is accomplished with extra benefits"
He took a note from his pocket which contained everything about the painting and mainly the way the art is designed.
It's his speculation but that's what the mission is, to give details on the art of ancient paintings of Christ.
The head of the neutral faction belongs to the Department of creation which focuses on art-type magecraft.
Cael left the hotel and returned to the clock tower submitting his thesis.
Returning to his workshop, He once again focused on his work in progress, Blood Magecraft.
It is used mainly for offensive purposes, although it is not complete yet.
Another year passed as Cael completed a few more missions, although they are not crazy as the first one where he encountered a dangerous scenario.
His blood and beauty magecraft came far due to his research and practice. He should be mainly thanking the Alchemy spells he traded, although it came with a price.
He mastered the spells easily mainly, Memory partition. He can create 5 rooms but he stopped after that.
Even then, it comes with a deep cost of consuming a lot of his stamina and nutrients which weakens his body but he countered it by eating a lot 9 times a day.
Today he is just doing his research in his workshop when he stopped all of a sudden.
"What do you want?"
"Just how are you doing that Senpai~, hmm~, how do you know I'm here~"
"First, stop calling me Senpai. For god sake, You are speaking English Daphne. And you don't think I wouldn't place a bonded field?"
Daphne is a young teenager with black hair and a slim build. She's pretty to look at and her gray eyes are a unique part of her.

"Oh~ right~, Bounded fields~"
"Can you please stop dragging the words? What do you want anyway?"
Cael is getting annoyed with the new disciple Noah took after his first year with him. He doesn't understand how could Noah bear her when he already feels constipated just to teach him. He continued to work with a new mystic code while keeping an eye on her.
"I have an offer"
The sudden change in tone made Cael stop once again what he was doing.
"It's about what going to happen in a few years in the future."
Sophia is from an alchemist family with her being the third generation. So, Cael believes the information from them to be Authentic.
"What is it about?"
"It's really simple, the holy grail war"
Listening to it, Cael began laughing which annoyed Daphne.
"What?"
"Haha, it's nothing but really, A holy grail war? "
The whole Fate franchise revolves around Summoning and servants along with masters fighting. Ironically, Cael hated that system.
He didn't like summoning heroic spirits who are potentially equal to or above Nuke when he is just a human who can be killed by the same spirits.
Hell, he loathes Summoning where he's weak and his summons is stronger than him. He only ever liked Sung jin woo's and Bayonetta's summoning.
Cael likes the remaining elements like Magic and all but participating in a holy grail war is the last thing he will ever do.
"It's a waste of time in my opinion. That ritual is just a way to reach the root by some wish. I will find other ways, thank you. And why the hell do you want to join it anyways? Don't you know It is a failed ritual? Something happened during the third war and let's not talk about the disaster in Fuyuki a few years back"
It's another reason why he has no interest in the Holy grail. He also understood why most western mages don't participate in it. It's just a waste of time.
Due to his meta-knowledge, he also knows the Grail is corrupted.
It is absolutely pointless.
Daphne didn't like how Cael is laughing and taking this so lightly. This is information some mages would die for.
The holy grail war happens every 60 years. This is common knowledge but due to some reasons unknown to her, it's going to be held in 5 more years. Just 10 years after the 4th holy grail war.
This is such vital information but her 'Senpai' didn't care about it at all.
Still, Daphne looks up to him and knows he's a genius as she heard it from Noah.
"What do you want to originally offer, anyway?"
Cael asked casually.
"I wanted you to participate in it along with it and give me the command seals to me. In exchange, I would give you something valuable from my family's vault. Even my father, the family head has agreed to it."
Cael sighed, as much as he likes the offer he still don't want to summon some weird sicko spirit and he has no interest to invest and look for a catalyst to get the good heroic spirit.
"You don't get it, Daphne. First, I don't like Summoning and Servants are not just mindless beings, they are sentient. They are stronger than us, what if the summoned servant threatens us? Sure, since they are 'servants', they have to obey us but that doesn't mean they can't scheme behind our backs for our demise and pass our command seals to the mage they made a pact with."
"But, don't they have wishes too? And they are heroic spirits. Surely, they would have noble qualities"
"Last time I checked, Assassins don't care about morality, only orders and We can be called Casters if we just made it to the throne of heroes and you know the morality of the mages"
"I get it. Still, I want to try"
"All the best"
"Thank you, Senpai"
Daphne left feeling quite de-motivated. She didn't understand why everyone are downplaying such a ritual.
Cael looked at the leaving Daphne and thought ' If you participate in it, then you will not return to Europe alive, Daphne but I can't change your fate and even if I can, I have no interest to do so '
Cael's only goal in this life is to reach the root.
He doesn't care about anything else until he achieves his goal.