This Is My Holy Grail War

As the night settled over the city, Rider—Iskandar—was quick to materialize from his spiritual form. The towering, muscle-bound man stood brimming with excitement as he gazed at a large building in the distance.

"Hey, kid! Is that the biggest library around here?" he asked eagerly.

"Rider, what are you doing?!" Waver Velvet exclaimed, panicking as he glanced around. "Thank goodness… there's no one nearby." His voice dropped into a mutter.

The street was nearly deserted, with only a few scattered pedestrians illuminated by the dim glow of streetlights.

"We agreed you wouldn't reveal yourself in public!" Waver glared at Rider.

"But there's no one around," Rider replied matter-of-factly, glancing around to confirm his surroundings.

"That's not what I meant, Rider!" Waver shouted, though his voice trembled as he glanced nervously toward a dark alley. "What if Assassin sees you? She's still alive!" he added, voice shaking. "The Assassin in this Holy Grail War is a killer who can fight Saber toe-to-toe. You know what happens when someone dies, don't you?!"

"Oh, come on, Waver!" Rider scoffed. "Assassin doesn't seem like some sneaky, conniving killer to me. She's more like an honorable warrior—strong enough to hold her own against a swordsman and still insists on fighting head-on." He stroked his beard thoughtfully.

"How can you place any faith in Assassin?" Waver retorted. "As long as you don't expose yourself, no one will know I'm a Master."

"Not necessarily." Rider's words sent a shiver down Waver's spine. "You said yourself: the Holy Grail War isn't exactly a secret among magi. Any mage could participate, right?"

Had it not been for this openness, Waver wouldn't have been able to obtain the Holy Grail War's documentation so easily.

The Founding Families had marketed the ritual as a means of wish fulfillment. Even participants like Kayneth Archibald El-Melloi believed it was little more than a rural ceremony. In reality, it was a pathway to the Root—a manifestation of the Third Magic, the pinnacle of magecraft.

"Even so," Waver muttered, "how many Clock Tower mages would actually bother coming to participate? Most of them are cowards, too scared to leave their ancestral mansions. Hiding behind family legacies is all they're good for." He sneered disdainfully, though he added under his breath, "But yeah… coming all the way to the Far East is a bit inconvenient." His ticket, after all, had been courtesy of someone else's generosity.

"Mages are hunters, Waver," Rider said gravely. "Any mage with mana could become their target. In this war, anyone is an enemy. This is a battlefield—don't expect mercy."

Waver swallowed hard, cold sweat forming on his brow. But before he could respond, Rider changed the subject.

"Now then, hand me the books!" Rider gestured toward the thick tomes Waver was holding.

"You're still hung up on Assassin?" Rider asked, scratching his ear nonchalantly. "If Assassin's survival keeps everyone in hiding, then this war's going to be boring as hell!"

"Well, of course!" Waver snapped. "That's how it's supposed to work! As long as Assassin lives, no one will risk exposing themselves."

"Doesn't that make you itch for excitement, though?" Rider grinned.

Waver groaned but didn't protest further as they began their covert operation. Breaking into the library wasn't a particularly challenging feat for a magus, especially with Rider's ability to phase into spirit form and bypass locked doors.

Waver had a clear goal in mind: after witnessing Assassin's battle with Saber the previous night, he'd seen Saber's golden sword—brilliant, majestic, and undoubtedly one of the most legendary blades in existence.

Tonight, he hoped to find information about that sword. It was the only reason he'd agreed to Rider's impulsive proposal.

The library was closed, and even the security staff had left for the night.

The dim interior lighting was no obstacle for Rider's sharp eyes. He marveled at the endless rows of shelves packed with the treasures of human knowledge.

"There must be millions of books here!" Rider exclaimed, rubbing his hands together with delight. "This is a treasure trove!"

"It's just an average library," Waver muttered, unimpressed. "I've seen libraries in England that are several times larger."

"Well then, let's dive into these treasures!" Rider announced with enthusiasm. With a loud click, he turned on the lights.

"Rider?!" Waver hissed, immediately slapping his hands over his mouth.

We're here to steal books, not announce it to the world!

"What are you doing?" he demanded in a frantic whisper.

"It was too dark to read," Rider replied nonchalantly, pulling a geography magazine from the shelf.

"Ugh, whatever." Waver sighed, massaging his temples in frustration.

Resigned to his fate, Waver grabbed a book on European sword legends, hoping to find clues about Saber's identity.

Unbeknownst to them, their activities were being observed.

The day before, a bookstore had been robbed under circumstances suggesting Servant involvement. The Church and the Tohsaka family had taken over the investigation, but their unfamiliarity with modern surveillance allowed crucial evidence to slip through their fingers.

Security cameras had captured Rider's image, including footage of him brazenly carrying books out of the store.

Kiritsugu Emiya, ever the strategist, suspected the pair were searching for something. It didn't matter what—they were enemies, and their plans couldn't be allowed to succeed.

Thus, Kiritsugu had rigged the library with explosives. Even if his efforts yielded nothing, disrupting his foes was preferable to idle waiting.

"They've entered the blast radius," Maiya Hisau reported, monitoring the library's internal cameras.

"Can you tell what they're looking for?" Kiritsugu asked.

"It seems the Master is researching Saber's identity," Maiya replied. "Rider, on the other hand, appears to be… browsing different versions of world maps? It's hard to tell."

"Understood." Kiritsugu lit a cigarette, his voice calm. "Detonate the explosives."

Inside the library, Waver meticulously returned a book to its proper place, trying to leave no trace of their intrusion.

"I think I've figured out Saber's identity," he murmured to Rider. "But there's no way King Arthur could be a girl!"

"Are you done?" Rider asked, uninterested in the finer points of Waver's research.

"Yes. Let's go before we get caught." Waver glanced around nervously, noticing something odd. "Wait… Rider, what about the books you brought with you?"

"Leave them here," Rider said nonchalantly. "This place is meant to store books, after all. And besides, this library has been conquered by me, the King of Conquerors! Let this mark the first step in my conquest of the world!"

Rider spread his arms wide, his booming laughter echoing through the building.

And then came the explosion.

A deafening roar shattered the silence as the first detonation was followed by a chain reaction of blasts. In an instant, the library was engulfed in flames, its walls crumbling under the relentless destruction.

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T/N: damn, there goes your first step