Chapter 4: Tests (Patreon)

[Conquest Quest:]

[Target: Matou Sakura. Progress (Favorability): 25%]

[Target: Tōsaka Rin. Progress (Favorability): 15%]

Shinji stopped at the second entry, his mind buzzing with confusion. System, why did Rin's progress suddenly increase by 5 points? Weren't the initial values both 10? I've never even met her!

[Grandfather does not know.]

Shinji's mental composure shattered. SCREW YOU! That's enough! Three years! How many times are you going to pull this 'grandfather' crap? Are you ever going to stop?!

[Is that any way to speak to your Grandfather?]

I DON'T GIVE A DAMN ANYMORE! Fine! A husk it is!

[Even if you become an unresponsive husk, the binding cannot be undone. You would still be able to hear This King’s voice, my Grandson.]

AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!

A completely unhinged Shinji launched himself off the bed, grabbed his pillow, and started savagely beating the mattress, venting all his pent-up fury.

Coincidentally, Matou Byakuya was passing by his son's room after finishing his... assistance work. Hearing the violent thuds and the intermittent, gritted-out curses of "Kisama!" from within, he could only shake his head and sigh in resignation.

No Magic Circuits, so what? Just give up already and inherit the family assets with me. What's the big deal?

Why push yourself so hard?

This foolish son of mine takes after absolutely no one...

...

After his useless tantrum, Shinji decided he needed some air. But the moment he opened his door, he found Sakura standing there, clutching the little rabbit plushie, her eyes hollow and vacant.

She had probably... just endured another session.

It did hurt his heart to see. He was, after all, a mature adult at his core, and seeing a child abused like this was genuinely difficult to stomach.

So many times, he'd wanted to just yell it out loud:

—This is NOT how you treat a loli!

You're supposed to dress her in cute little dresses, make her look pretty, have her smell nice! That's how it's done!

Of course, he only dared think these things.

"Brother..."

"Hmm?" Shinji furrowed his brows, his face clearly displaying displeasure.

"Good night..."

Sakura bowed slightly, then turned and slowly walked away, still holding the rabbit.

It wasn't until Sakura had entered her own room at the other end of the hallway and closed the door that Shinji finally moved.

THUD!

Gritting his teeth, he punched the wall hard, as if to say: What was that? Showing off? Mocking me?

Naturally, this was also an act. The old man had his ways of observing, and if he slipped up, it would be disastrous. The performance had to be flawless.

...

As Shinji jogged through the night, a mask of resentment and hatred fixed on his face, the image of Sakura's expression from earlier kept flashing in his mind.

It was—the look of utter despair from someone who had given up, who no longer hoped for any salvation.

Across the three routes of Fate/stay night, the only one who brought salvation to this pitiful girl was the protagonist, Shirou Emiya, in the Heaven's Feel route. In the other two routes, Sakura, with her limited screen time, only made a brief appearance at the end. As for her future in those timelines, Shinji didn't know.

It was probably better, but likely not by much.

Right now, Shinji was truly powerless, his hands tied. He could only cling to the hope that the girl could hold on until he managed to complete Main Quest One.

Anyway...

Zouken! Get out here and take the blame!

...

Time flew by.

Two and a half years passed in the blink of an eye.

Now a first-year middle school student, Shinji was largely the same as before: skipping class, training for his daily tasks, and refining his reiryoku control.

There was one difference from the original timeline that Shinji was quite pleased about, however.

His height was already close to the official stat for "that Shinji," only seven centimeters short. He estimated he'd surpass "that guy" before even starting high school!

His teachers would describe him as: A handsome honor student who skips class obsessively, yet is surprisingly sociable and well-liked!

Though his behavior was occasionally... peculiar. For instance—on the first day of middle school, he went to the wrong school. He ended up confessing to some new student at the gate, only to be soundly rejected and beaten up.

Or like during swimming class, where he wore those distinctive pink swim trunks printed with a cute anime girl and didn't seem the least bit embarrassed.

It was October, right before the school culture festival.

As the famous student who had skipped more than sixty days in his first semester alone, Shinji found himself cornered by his homeroom teacher after school the day before the festival.

Blocking the classroom door with her arms crossed and a stern expression was a woman in her mid-twenties, dressed in a sharp purple business suit and glasses, her gaze fixed intently on him. Shinji casually brushed a strand of hair from his forehead.

"Oh my Yuko-sensei, while I'm not entirely opposed to such a forbidden relationship, could you perhaps give me a little more time? Cornering a student after school like this is definitely going to lose you points in my book, you know"

Ignoring Shinji's antics, his homeroom teacher, the woman named Yuko, retorted with clear exasperation, "Matou-kun, do you have any idea how many days you've actually attended school since you enrolled?"

"Sensei, could it be... you're thinking about me every single moment?" Shinji put on a look of exaggerated surprise, then furrowed his brows as if pained. "I'm truly sorry, Sensei. I failed to notice your sincere feelings. I'll consider them carefully and give you a proper answer. Tomorrow... no, the day after... let's talk the day after that."

Yuko didn't give him a chance to escape. In an instant, she grabbed the back of Shinji's collar as he tried to slip past her. Adjusting her glasses, she turned and began pulling him toward the teachers' office.

"Sensei, where are you taking me?" Shinji finally dropped the act, his tone turning somewhat resigned.

"Good grades aren't everything, Matou-kun! Your absenteeism is far too severe! The student council has spoken to me about it more than once! We are going to have a serious talk today! If this continues, I'll have no choice but to call your parents!"

Hearing this, Shinji let out a sigh. "Sensei, if you could actually get my parents to come in, I'd genuinely promise to stop skipping. But... that's probably impossible, right? They're not exactly... invested."

...

By the time Shinji left the teachers' office, night had fully fallen.

In the dimly lit hallway, he walked with his hands behind his head, bored, heading for the staircase not far away. Most of the homeroom teacher's lecture had gone in one ear and out the other; he hadn't retained a single word.

Checking his system panel as he approached the stairwell corner, Shinji reflected on his progress. After two and a half years of grinding daily tasks and refining himself, he had finally broken through the Reiryoku Absorption stage and stepped into Soul Condensation.

The ranks were roughly divided into: Reiryoku Absorption, Soul Condensation, Spirit Forging, Mind Weaving, Spirit Gathering, River Transformation, Mountain & Sea, Sun & Moon, Path Illumination, and Cosmos Comprehension.

Each major realm was further divided into several minor stages. Advancing through each minor stage brought a qualitative leap in power, though the nature of the progression differed between realms. For example, Soul Condensation involved solidifying the inner spirit layers so they could act as stable anchors, while Spirit Forging involved tempering one's will and essence into a combat-ready core.

According to the damn system, to "redeem" Zouken with relative ease, he would need at least the third stage of Spirit Forging. But Shinji felt that going from the initial step of Soul Condensation—before even successfully stabilizing his first inner spirit layer—to the third stage of Spirit Forging in just over four years was nothing short of a pipe dream.

Of course, there was one thing Shinji, who had always been extremely cautious and never used his powers openly for fear of detection, hadn't yet realized:

While the magecraft and Magic of this world might have been considered eldritch horrors in his original life, what he was learning now was, to the current world, the true uncanny thing—or perhaps, an ancient and mysterious onmyō nightmare...