Emiya's house.

As she used her familiar to observe Fuyuki City, Caster noticed a large fluctuation of mana in one of its corners.

This fluctuation left Caster doubtful and cautious. It's immense scale left Caster pondering the possibilities of what it could be.

Of the seven servant classes participating in this war, Caster had the best magic capacity and abilities.

But just now, an individual had revealed that they rivaled even her mana.

There were various kinds of heroic spirits, perhaps one of the servants summoned had a mana capacity almost equal to her’s, despite not being of the caster class.

This left Caster worried.

A moment later, two of her familiars were suddenly destroyed.

They were located far apart, and it was a certainty that whoever detected them were either a master or a servant.

Unfortunately, before the two familiars could detect their adversary, they were destroyed, leaving Caster in the dark.

Koe walked into Caster's room.

Since the Emiya residence had plenty of open rooms, Koe lent one to Caster.

“Caster, how are preparations for the farm going?”

Since Koe's magical talent was subpar, he needed another way to support his two servants.

One option was to create a farm.

"So far, everything is going according to plan." Caster calmly replied, however doubts still racked her mind.

Seeing this, Koe asked. "What is it?"

“My familiars detected three different servants. Two of them were destroyed before they could detect their attackers and the last one could only detect their mana fluctuations. ”

Koe grew grim. "Are you sure they were servants?"

“Most likely, few magus in current times can detect my familiars, thus most certainly servants.”

"I see." Koe accepted her conjecture.

"Have you detected anything else?"

Caster nodded.

“Two of my familiars have detected a barrier protecting the residences they were spying on. In addition, the familiar that was destroyed had been observing the Tohsaka residence."

When Koe went to help Sakura, he researched the families of this city and discovered there were oddities associated with the Matou and Tohsaka families.

Therefore, he wanted to confirm his hunch.

Asit turns out, these two families were magus families.

“So, one of the seven masters is from the Tohsaka family.” Koe thought for a moment, then recalled a name. “The only surviving member of the Tohsaka family is Tohsaka Rin.”

“As I thought, she is a magus.”

"Hmm…. Good thing I'm not going to school today." Koe felt a little grateful playing hooky.

Continuing on to the next topic, Koe asked. "How is the next step going? Are the preparations complete?”

“The second step will require more time, but I’ll be able to finish it soon if no servants attack during it .”

Koe nodded in approval before leaving.

The Emiya's residence’s dojo.

Koe met with Assassin.

Assassin stood unmoving in the dojo’s center..

"Assassin, you’re a sword wielder, correct?"

"Teach me swordsmanship."

Not content with just practicing magecraft, Koe also wanted to learn swordsmanship. He had even learned kendo from Fuji-nee before the start of this war.

Assassin simply nodded her agreement and summoned a rusty sword into her hand.

Koe was shocked by the sword’s condition, had he summoned a weak servant?

Assassin looked like a withered flower on its last breath of life.

Noticing Koe's disapproval, Assassin retorted. “Master, appearances can be deceiving. Despite my body and weapon looking decrepit, no weapon can destroy them.”

Assassin raised her sword and took a knight’s stance.

Grasping her sword in both hands, she pointed her blade slightly down.

“Hahh..” Koe sighed and cast away his doubts , “We shall see after our spar.”

Koe took out a wooden sword and casted an enchantment spell onto it.

Assassin tilted her head and said, “Master, against my sword, that weapon will break in a single swing.”

Thus, Assassin too equipped a wooden sword instead of her original blade.

Excited by the thrill of battle, Koe began to attack.

However after several exchanges, Koe realized servants were existences above ordinary humans.

Without even moving, Assassin parried every single one of his strikes.

Koe’s attacks were too weak and imprecise to break Assassin’s defence.

Exhausted, Koe collapsed onto the dojo’s floor.

"I am revising my opinion of you, there is no way you are a weak servant."

"I don’t care about appearances, they are simply proof of my existence and history."

Koe turned his head and looked at Assassin sitting beside him.

From a different angle, Koe realized that Assassin was still beautiful, despite her wrinkled and dry skin.

“Master, why didn't you use all of your skills during our spar?” Assassin asked dryly.

As a swordsman, Assassin had a deep understanding of sword techniques.

When she was clashing with Koe earlier, she realized Koe was just playing with her.

He never even attacked her seriously.

He smiled. “I’m not hiding anything, I’m just not that good at them.”

“How about we fight again, but this time, I’ll use everything?”

Assassin nodded and waited for Koe to finish resting before continuing their spar.

. . .

After coming back from the city, Rin flopped onto her plush sofa.

[Master.] Archer appeared in the room.

"Did you deal with it?"

Archer crossed his arms and looked at Rin relaxing on the sofa.

After sighing at his master’s conduct, Archer replied. "I've dealt with all of the familiars spying on this house, it appears to have been Caster."

Rin closed her eyes and pondered to herself.

“Caster, huh? Could it also be a Rider or an Assassin?”

Casters were servants with very high magical abilities. In addition, because they were also heroic spirits, many of them could use magecraft originating from the the Age of gods.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

Rider servants had a mobility advantage, whether it was in the form of vehicles or animals.

While the Assassin class had special abilities pertaining to infiltration and espionage while remaining unnoticed.

“Riders would never use such lowly familiars.” Archer paused for a moment before continuing, “While familiars used by Assassins would be more difficult to detect.”

Rin nodded.

After analyzing everything that had occured, Rin knew another master was targeting her home.

The familiars were only the beginning.

"What do you think, Archer?"

Rin thought Archer might have a plan to deal with this problem.

“In my opinion, we shouldn’t panic just because our location is known. It is impossible for Caster to attack without any prior preparation.”

“The Caster class specializes in Territory creation, thus it is unlikely for Caster to come out of the fortress they constructed.”

"Alright, I’ll be going to sleep now. Take good care of this house, Archer.”

Rin got up and went to her room.

Seeing Rin treating him like a mere 'servant', Archer bit back his tongue.

[You're getting too carried away with the title of 'Master'.]

. . . .

Lancer was making his way back to his master.

While on patrol, he found a familiar and destroyed it before it could react.

As he approached his destination, he saw Saber leisurely sitting in the backyard.

Saber was busy munching on some food, as if a war wasn’t even happening, surprising Lancer.

Lancer jumped over to Saber.

Saber, who had sensed Lancer's arrival, didn't react much.

"Oh, Saber. Aren't you too relaxed?"

Saber finished eating her food before speaking to Lancer. "Don't worry, I'm still doing my duty, there’s no harm in taking a break now and then right?"

Seeing Lancer still appearing displeased, Saber decided to offer him some food.

"Would you like anything? Master gave me money to buy whatever I want.”

“You know, modern food is quite varied and deletable.”

"Aren't you a servant? Why do you need to eat?” Lancer asked as he walked over to Saber.

"Because it's fun, that's why."

"Is that so?" Lancer took her food then sat beside her.

“Hmm…” Saber was quite surprised. "Aren't you afraid that I've poisoned this food?"

Lancer ignored her as he took a bite of the food and muttered. "My instincts know you didn’t."

Lancer replied apathetically.

"Ha ha." Saber was amused by Lancer's answer. “You have sharp instincts.”

They then proceeded to finish the food together.

[Lancer.] Bazett telepathically called to Lancer.

[What is it, Master?]

[How was your patrol tonight?]

[Not much happened, however I did find a familiar lurking in a certain part of the city.]

[Familiar? Was it a servant’s?]

[I'm not sure, but it was most likely a familiar from Caster.]

[Caster, you say ? Okay, I understand.]

Bazett was sitting on the second floor of Ayumi’s house.. As she looked out of the window, she began to contemplate tomorrow’s plans.

. . .

At one of the cheap inns in Fuyuki city, a girl with short black hair used magecraft to get a room for the night by bewitching the innkeeper.

Sitting on her bed, she started to complain. "Another fruitless night."

Ever since she had woken up from her 'rest', the woman had been spending all of her time searching for her scurrying enemy.

Reminiscing over the past, the woman then lay down on the bed.

After thinking for a moment, a bold idea came to mind. "What if I make my presence known in the city center?"

If either made a public appearance, the other would rush towards the former.

"However..." The woman massaged her forehead. “The Holy Grail War is in progress. If I made myself known, I would be mistaken for a servant and be targeted.”

This had happened once in the past already during a previous Holy Grail War.

With a long sigh, the woman decided to go to sleep and continue her hunt tomorrow.

. . .

Rin still decided to go to school the next morning.

Archer didn’t object.

But when they entered the school grounds, they were shocked.

[What the,Archer?] Rin didn't hide her surprise.

[That's right, there's no mistaking it. All of the magic circles that were carved here are gone.]

Rin frowned, this entire affair was absurd.

Moreover, she didn't know which servant had carved the circles into the school.

[Could this be Caster's doing?]

Connecting the magic circle and the familiar together, Rin could only think of one culprit, Caster.

[That remains unconfirmed.]

[Even so, isn't this great, master? Your workload has been greatly reduced.]

During her free time, Rin checked on all the magic circles again to confirm her prior observation.

As expected, all the magic circles she had seen yesterday had completely disappeared.

But then, due to a sudden announcement, school ended early.

Due to many people disappearing in a single day, many parents were fearing for their child’s safety. Thus, they asked that that school end early.

Happy at this happenstance, Rin was ecstatic. “Great, now I have more time to explore.”

[You are probably the only master that cares about school nowadays.]

. . .

With Caster's help, Koe managed to get Fuji-nee to fabricate a reason why he wasn’t attending school.

Inside the dojo, Caster and Koe were practicing magecraft.

Caster paid close attention to all of Koe’s actions.

“Master…” When Caster saw that Koe had managed to create a self-made spell in just two days, she became quite impressed.

“Even though you don't have a formal education in magecraft, your foundation along with your understanding and control of mana is already astonishing.”

“You understand the concepts, tweak your application of mana, and use your knowledge to simplify the problem before you.”

Caster praised Koe's ingenuity.

"Are you going to name this spell, master?"

"Huh?" Koe, who was immersed in experimenting with the spell, looked at Caster.

"A name?" He was confused.

"Why should I give it a name? This spell is nothing more than one possible form of mana manipulation.”

“Giving it a name will only limit its limits and creativity.”

The Spell made by Koe was a Spell that condensed mana into the shape of a needle, its concept having been created before he had met Castor.

After two days of learning and consulting with Caster, Koe managed to turn this technique into a complete Spell.

Koe opened his palm, and through his will, a faint blue needle shot out of his palm.

"In my opinion, there's no point in naming this spell."

After saying that, Koe began to concentrate.

As he concentrated, Koe started to condense mana into different shapes.

First he made an arrow, then a small ball. His mana twisted and turned into a myriad of forms through his will.

Caster was amused by this.

“Master, how does this make you feel?”

Although Caster was a skilled magus, Koe's talent intrigued her.

"How do I feel?" Koe thought for a moment. "I don't know, I'm just controlling mana, that's all."

“Initially I feel the conversation of life energy into mana. As it flows in my body, I study its properties before I begin to manipulate it into the shapes you see."

“In the end, all magecraft is just the usage of mana.” Koe answered.

Caster chuckled, “If what you say is true, then all magecraft is ultimately just mana manipulation. If I heard it from any other magus, I would have ignored them, but after observing you, I think it is a possibility."

“If it is like you said, then there is no end to magecraft. Everything will always continue to evolve and improve.”

"But even so master, do you really have no interest at all in pursuing rue magic?"

After spending two days with Koe, Caster learned that Koe was a free-minded individual, nothing she said would change his mind.

"What do you think, Caster?" Koe asked.

Caster didn’t know, she didn’t know how Koe thought.

Koe then canceled the spell he was using and looked at Caster.

“You said that every magus wants to attain True magic, to reach the root of magic. However, I ask you this, is that really the goal of magecraft?”

"If I obtain True magic, does that mean the end of the evolution of mana manipulation?"

“I have come to this conclusion, True magic is nothing more than mastering a subsect of magecraft.”

"Then there is you." Koe pointed at Caster. "Can’t you use a spell that is close to True magic ?"

"Answer me this, is your spell a failed spell or a copy of True magic?"

Caster was amused by Koe's questions. “Master, you are an intriguing individual. There may be no one else in this world that thinks like you."

"The origin of magecraft and True magic are a mystery, and the source of those mysterious is the root. ."

“Magecraft is nothing more than a replica of past events or possible events. On the contrary, every True magic spell is a unique creation, never before seen.”

"Although one of the spells is close to True magic, it doesn’t mean that it’s a failure or a copy of True Magic. Instead, the spell is following in the footsteps of True magic itself."

"Do you understand?"

"Although I understand what you are saying, I don’t agree with it. It seems we have different views on this subject."

“Tell me Caster. If an illusion is stronger than reality, which one is the truth?”

Koe's question contained his deep knowledge regarding magecraft and True magic.

"Assassin." Koe summoned his servant.

Assassin appeared in a corner of the dojo.

"What is it, master?"

Koe smirked and said. "You will be my training partner."

Successfully casting a spell and being proficient in its usage were two completely different things.

Assassin was the best candidate for Koe to hone his newly formed magecraft on.