Three days later, afternoon.
[Magic Circuits (Green) (25,8892 / 100,0000)] [AFK… (Tap to claim +166 Growth)] [Mana (Lv.4) (14,9367 / 100,0000)] [AFK… (Tap to claim +81 Proficiency)] [Rune Magecraft (Lv.5) (27,3819 / 1000,0000)] [AFK… (Tap to claim +0 Proficiency)]
After Morgan's final rune lesson, Baiye casually claimed his AFK rewards.
Knowledge points that had still been hazy during class were instantly "patched" by experience, becoming crystal clear.
From Lv.5 to Lv.6 required ten million proficiency. If he relied purely on AFK, that was 115 days, 7 hours, 46 minutes, 40 seconds. And even though he already had over 270,000, it didn't even cover the "change" of five days.
So after claiming the rewards, Baiye returned the Rune Magecraft AFK slot to Unity of Heaven and Man.
As for Rune Magecraft itself… he could grind it manually along with meditation and Hundred Martial Arts.
He dialed a number.
"Any movement on those two names I asked you to watch?" Baiye asked.
"I'm very sorry," Matou Tsuruno replied on the other end. "My contacts at immigration records and the airlines still haven't sent me anything about the two people you mentioned. Should I check again?"
"No. Just call me when you have news."
Baiye hung up.
This Grail War—besides Baiye and Matou Sakura—also had two Master slots that were effectively confirmed: Tokiomi Tohsaka and Kirei Kotomine, since Sakura had already seen Command Spells back when she was still at the Tohsaka household.
Beyond them, the Einzberns—one of the Three Founding Families—were guaranteed to hold one slot.
That left only two of the seven Master slots unclear.
The two names Baiye told Tsuruno to watch were:
Kayneth El-Melloi Archibald
Waver Velvet
In other words: the original Fourth Grail War Masters of Lancer and Rider.
The Fourth Grail War had been pulled forward by a year. But Baiye remembered reading online arguments: some people joked Kayneth's death was "locked into the Quantum Time-Lock," others insisted Kayneth had to die so Waver could become Lord El-Melloi II…
No idea whether that was pure meme or something real.
Even if it was just a meme, telling Tsuruno to keep an eye out was a simple phone call. If he guessed right, he profited massively; if wrong, he still reduced unknown variables.
"Any movement at the Einzbern castle?" Baiye asked Morgan.
On the first night after summoning her, Baiye had already explained the Grail War's basic situation. The Einzbern castle in the forest southwest of Miyama Town naturally entered her surveillance net.
Not just the Einzbern castle.
The Tohsaka residence and the Fuyuki Church—where Kirei appeared from time to time—were also under Morgan's watch. Any significant personnel movement or mana fluctuation of meaningful scale, and she'd know immediately.
"No," Morgan said, shaking her head. "They haven't arrived yet."
"Tch… are they seriously going to wait until the last day of the half-month window?"
Baiye clicked his tongue, glanced at the chat interface, and suddenly thought of something.
"If I leave this world, will it affect you—given the way you're currently anchored in the present?"
"Second Magic?" Morgan asked.
"No. Somewhere beyond what Second Magic can reach."
"Further…"
Morgan frowned, thinking. "I can draw mana directly from the Greater Source, so I don't need your supply. But the contract that brought me into the present is still the foundation of my existence… I've never encountered this scenario before, so I can't give you a definitive answer."
"What if I only leave for a short time?" Baiye pressed.
"That would be fine," Morgan said immediately. "With the Matou library, I've already partially parsed the 'Servant system.' The contract can be severed for a day or two without issue. Worst case, I can form a temporary contract with Sakura. The system rules don't forbid one Master from holding more than one Servant."
"Eh? Me?" Sakura blurted, startled.
"What, don't you like me?" Morgan looked at her.
"No, it's just… I… um…"
Under her teacher's stare, Sakura stammered herself into silence.
"All right, stop teasing her," Baiye said, patting Sakura's head. "That's only a contingency plan if everything goes wrong… normally it shouldn't come to that."
After a brief pause, he said to Morgan, "Then let's test it. See whether leaving affects you."
He vanished on the spot—then reappeared one second later.
"Well?" asked Baiye, who had just used the group-task teleport "bug" to hop to another world and back.
"Strange," Morgan said, genuinely puzzled. "During the second you disappeared, our contract clearly severed due to distance. But in that second, I felt none of the 'present world rejection' that should have occurred."
"So if it's like just now—so long as the Grail War is still ongoing—I can be gone as long as I want and it won't affect your existence?"
"Yes," Morgan nodded.
"Huh…"
Baiye fell into thought.
That meant this new "trans-dimensional mutual-aid chat group" he'd joined a few days ago—its relationship with worlds, at least with member-origin worlds—was… unusually "compatible."
"If it doesn't affect you, then I'll leave you to keep watch here," Baiye said. "I'll still come back every few hours. Even if the Grail War suddenly starts while I'm away—and we somehow end up targeted—your power should hold until I return."
"…Instead of worrying about that," Morgan replied, "you should worry how long the other five teams would last if she gets serious."
"Fair."
Morgan's "she" was Kama.
As a Beast—whatever her current state—this Fuyuki Grail War, with Servants capped by locked Spirit Origins, had essentially zero chance of threatening her unless the Counter Force intervened.
Speaking of Kama—
"Where is she? I don't think I've seen her since last night."
"Um… Kama seems to really like the game console you brought out yesterday," Sakura said. "She's been playing nonstop since then. I've been bringing her food."
"Food?" Baiye echoed.
Sakura's voice shrank several octaves. "Chips and cola… but Kama said, 'If it fills you up, why can't it be called food?'"
"…Right."
Honestly—better lazy, snacking, and gaming than suddenly remembering she's a Beast and deciding to "do something big."
-------
My : pat*eon*com/RuneA
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