Chapter 7: Elric: I seem to have been tricked by the panel
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"Zhuge... Kongming?"
Waver brushed the dust off his pants, then craned his neck forward, his disbelief practically etched into his face. The scene would have been even more perfect if a giant black question mark hovered above his head.
"Are you sure?"
He squinted at the man who introduced himself as Kongming. No matter how hard he stared, the man before him was undeniably British. Sure, his long hair was a little unusual, but otherwise, everything about him screamed England.
Even his voice had a crisp London accent. If this man wanted to convince anyone he was Zhuge Kongming of the Far East, the least he could do was speak a word or two of Chinese!
But no. Without even attempting an accent, this tall, well-dressed figure insisted he was Kongming. It was almost offensive, like he assumed Waver was some gullible fool.
To make matters worse, there was something annoyingly familiar about him. Waver couldn't shake the feeling he'd seen this man before, though he couldn't pinpoint where. Frustrated, he chalked it up to one of those visual illusions, where the brain gets lazy and files new faces under "vaguely familiar" instead of actually processing them.
Still, something about this didn't add up. Zhuge Kongming was a figure from the Far East, a brilliant tactician who lived over 1,800 years ago. Yet here this man was, wearing a modern Western suit, the kind that wouldn't be invented for another millennium and a half.
No way Western fashion existed during the Three Kingdoms era. Unless, Waver thought with a flicker of sarcasm, Kongming wasn't from 1,800 years ago but from 1,800 AD.
"I understand your confusion," the man said, taking a leisurely drag from the cigar in his hand. "But you don't need to overthink it. All you need to know is that I'm Kongming."
"Still—"
"That's enough, isn't it?" he interrupted firmly, his tone leaving no room for further debate.
Waver hesitated, struggling between his instincts and the reality in front of him. Finally, after a long pause, he gave a reluctant nod.
"Fine... Uh-huh."
---
The next morning.
Elric Bradley found himself attracting a lot of attention as he walked down the street. And why wouldn't he? Having a cat draped around your neck like a living scarf wasn't exactly subtle.
Originally, he'd tried to have Tom follow behind him on all fours, but it quickly became clear that the cat wasn't suited to walking quadrupedally. Every few steps, Tom would stand upright and stroll beside Elric like a person. It was uncanny, and more than a little unsettling for any bystanders who happened to see it.
Not one to give up easily, Elric tried carrying Tom in his arms. That turned out to be even worse. As he walked, Tom's body inexplicably stretched longer and longer under the pull of gravity, until his lower half resembled a bizarre, 20-meter-long rope. By the time Elric noticed, Tom was practically coiled up like a spring, flopping about awkwardly. It was a good thing no one else was around—otherwise, the sight might have given someone a heart attack.
After several failed attempts, Elric was left with no choice but to improvise. Leaving Tom behind wasn't an option; the cat's constant presence was as much for Tom's comfort as it was for Elric's survival. Without Tom—his primary source of fighting power—Elric was little more than a self-proclaimed weakling.
In the end, he settled on the least inconvenient solution: wrapping Tom around his neck like a scarf. It wasn't perfect, of course. The living scarf wriggled constantly, leaving Elric's neck itchy and mildly irritated. But on the bright side, it was warm, and more importantly, it worked.
Elric Bradley had originally planned to wake up early, but his biological clock seemed to be stuck in its usual routine. Just like before his journey through time, he ended up sleeping until 11 o'clock.
And even then, it wasn't like he got up of his own accord. The main reason he was awake was Tom's terrible sleeping posture. At some point during the morning, the cat had kicked him squarely on the forehead. It hurt more than Elric expected, especially since it was just a cat's kick.
But then he thought back to the time Tom hadn't even moved his arms and still managed to knock Ryuunosuke out cold with a stick. With that in mind, the pain made more sense.
If not for Tom, Elric was fairly certain he wouldn't have woken up until at least 1 PM.
Though he had to admit Tom deserved some credit for waking him up, being rudely kicked awake was far from a pleasant experience. Now, Elric's head was buzzing, leaving him feeling slightly disoriented as he got out of bed.
But that wasn't the most pressing issue. What truly mattered was the unsettling discovery he made as he started to explore this world—it wasn't what he had imagined at all.
For starters, he was absolutely certain the Fifth Holy Grail War took place in 2004, with the Fourth happening ten years earlier, in 1994. But... why was everyone on the streets holding smartphones? Why were there enormous LED screens everywhere? Why were cafe workers dressed as maids handing out flyers in the middle of the street?
Elric now felt like Granny stepping into the Grand View Garden.
It wasn't as though he hadn't seen these things before—he absolutely had. What made this bizarre was where he was seeing them. These sights were commonplace in modern cities, to the point where their absence would feel odd. But this wasn't supposed to be a modern city; this was 1994. Back then, mobile phones were the size of bricks, and smartphones were nothing more than a distant dream.
Now, all Elric could feel was how utterly absurd it all seemed.
Unable to suppress his curiosity, he finally worked up the nerve to stop a passerby and ask, "What year is it today?" This earned him a strange look, as though he'd asked something utterly ridiculous.
However, the answer he received left him even more confused: it was 2012.
That meant 18 years had passed since the Fourth Holy Grail War. By now, not only should the Fifth Holy Grail War have ended, but the Holy Grail itself should have been destroyed two years ago.
"Eighteen years later?" Elric muttered to himself, his thoughts racing. But if it really was 18 years later, why did Ryuunosuke still look like he was in his twenties?
"Tom," he sighed, stroking the cat draped around his neck, "do you think we've been tricked?" His mind flashed back to the words on the panel that had so clearly stated the Fourth Holy Grail War. The realization hit hard, leaving him with a sinking feeling.
Tom, ever the enigma, merely shrugged his shoulders and spread his paws, as if to say, How would I know? I'm just a cat.
Faced with that response, Elric could only sigh and refocus. No matter how strange everything seemed, his next step was clear—he needed information. Without understanding the situation in Fuyuki City, making any meaningful move would be impossible.
Fortunately, he'd already identified the locations of the Matou and Tohsaka family mansions. The homes of these prominent mage families were hard to miss—grand and eye-catching in their design. Finding them had been as easy as pretending to be a tourist and asking passersby for directions.
The Emiya residence, however, was a different story. Unlike the other mansions, it was far less distinct, blending into the neighborhood with its unassuming design. Searching for it without prior knowledge felt like trying to find a needle in a haystack.
While Elric was busy scouting various locations in Fuyuki City, a plane from Germany touched down smoothly on the runway at Fuyuki Airport.