In truth, Emiya felt he and Charlotte weren't nearly that close—he saw their relationship as nothing more than that of a job-taker and a client.
Their initial meeting had come through a website called "Hunter"—a platform for bounty hunters, mercenaries, and assassins to pick up commissions. The assignments ranged from exploring ancient tombs to full-on contract killings, with all sorts of shady jobs in between.
Emiya wasn't surprised such a site existed—after all, his adoptive father Kiritsugu Emiya had worked as a mercenary and assassin. Even in the Fate/Apocrypha worldline, Kairi Shishigou worked similar gigs, and both of them also held the identity of a magus.
This was the gray zone between the mystical world and the mundane. Although the number one rule of the magical world was that "mystery must not be revealed to the general public," gray areas like this were tacitly allowed to exist.
Since arriving in this world, Emiya had taken on a few ruin exploration jobs through the platform. Thanks to the muscle memory of his original self, his physical skills were exceptional, and with reliable teammates, things usually went smoothly.
That's how he'd come to know Charlotte and the so-called Gallic Governor—both loaded clients.
But this time, Emiya logged on not for a job, but to ask around for information about Noble Phantasms. Some ancient noble houses might have relics stored away—or at least key information. He remembered Bazett's family possessing Fragarach, a Noble Phantasm from the Age of Gods, and that Arthur's sacred lance Rhongomyniad was said to still lie in some British village.
"Oh, what's a Noble Phantasm? Sounds like some game thing."
The Gallic Governor responded with enthusiasm. Apparently, he was a closeted anime fan—but his reply was a letdown. Emiya figured the guy's family either didn't have much history or was a branch family of some greater house.
In ancient magical lineages, it was common for the main house to hold the heritage, while the branch families ran businesses and remained distant from mystic affairs.
"A Noble Phantasm is basically a legendary weapon. You'll see them a lot in myths and epic tales—like King Arthur's holy sword, Indra's Vajra in Hindu mythology, or Odin's spear Gungnir in Norse lore."
Emiya typed back, disappointed but patient.
Then again, why would ancient noble houses be hanging around a bounty hunter site? They probably had their own secret networks.
But suddenly, Charlotte's cute girl avatar lit up—she sent him a private message:
"You're one of the people who know the truth about the world?"
In Europe, within the vast private estate of the thousand-year-old alchemy noble house, the Göttingen family:
Charlotte von Göttingen, one of the board members of the secretive Kassel College and the current heir of her family, sat with her platinum-blonde hair coiled neatly atop her head. Her fair, doll-like face caught the sunlight, looking almost sculpted from fine jade.
The exotic garden outside the window looked like something out of a golden-threaded tapestry. Inside, the intricate decor shone with brilliant enamel artistry, and Beethoven's Spring Sonata played softly in the background.
Right now, Charlotte was staring seriously at her screen, reading Emiya Shirou's reply:
"Of course I know. This site is basically the gray area between your world and the ordinary one, isn't it?"
Relieved, Charlotte started typing:
"Then you should know that many of those myth-era weapons you mentioned are actually Conceptual Armaments—gear that surpasses human boundaries."
In this world, alchemy had achieved seven great accomplishments, known as the "Seven Kingdoms." One of them was Conceptual Armaments—weapons forged from concepts like time, causality, and natural laws. Odin's Gungnir, with its guaranteed-hit effect, was clearly a conceptual weapon.
These belonged to the era of myths—or rather, to the Dragon Kings.
In this Dragon World, all myths were distorted dragon history. Before humans ruled, dragons reigned supreme over the planet. The mythic age was really the dragon age, and the best of the legendary weapons were actually alchemical weapons forged by the Dragon Kings.
Modern alchemy came from dragons themselves—alchemy was the dragons' science, their way of observing, interpreting, and reshaping the world.
After humanity overthrew the dragon age, they developed their own science. Only those like Charlotte, alchemists clinging to dragon knowledge, continued to pursue the old ways. But even within her family, their understanding of the Seven Kingdoms was still shallow.
Then Emiya replied again:
"That was just an example. It doesn't have to be something as epic as a myth-era weapon. Even something more recent would be fine."
"Good. My family's considered an alchemical lineage—we might be able to help you find a recently unearthed artifact."
"Thanks! I've been making great progress with Reinforcement Magecraft lately, but I almost hit a wall at the next stage."
Reinforcement Magecraft?
Charlotte blinked. What the heck was that?
Emiya explained that it was a method for enhancing weapons beyond their natural limits—being able to slice through alloy steel and such. He had several reinforced pieces already.
Charlotte responded,
"That sounds like regenerated metal alchemy weapons. A standard alchemical process is to 'kill the metal and rebirth it,' creating stronger properties in the reborn metal… My family has a few in storage. But how did a bounty hunter like you get so many alchemy weapons?"
Emiya quickly replied:
"I don't know alchemy! I already said—I reinforced them myself. If you have to know, I bought cheap sword replicas off eBay. There's a shop in Ginza too. I avoided the overpriced stuff and bought only low-end blades, didn't care about quality—they were just for practice."
Charlotte was stunned. If he wasn't lying, she might've stumbled upon an alchemy prodigy!
Today's alchemy equipment relied on industrial tech to mass-produce. True high-end gear with auto-alchemical fields—like ancient swords—was the domain of master alchemists.
So this guy, with no teacher, using junk swords from eBay, just reinforced his way into mastery?
This was like Tony Stark building the first Iron Man suit in a cave—utterly insane.
Charlotte was dying to know who taught him. He couldn't have been a Kassel student, could he?
Emiya quickly replied:
"Not really. I was more like an assistant to a Japanese heiress (he meant Rin Tohsaka). Came to the Association with her to study Western magecraft. Never even enrolled formally."
Charlotte nodded. She immediately thought of Kassel's Japan branch. Every year, they sent a few mixed-bloods to the main campus for training. But the main campus knew little about Japan, and even she, as a board member, didn't know much.
And this "Association" he mentioned—did he mean the Abrahamic Blood Covenant (a.k.a. the Secret Party)? And that "Reinforcement Magecraft, Western magecraft" stuff… Was this some Japanese chuunibyou thing?
Still, if Emiya wasn't even a formal student, then he probably didn't have a proper mentor. Maybe he'd just picked up wild rumors from the campus grapevine.
So Charlotte asked what kind of impression he had of the school's leaders.
Emiya immediately answered:
"You've got, like, ten or so ancient noble family heads (the Twelve Lords of the Clock Tower). The biggest one's this super old weirdo (the 2,000-year-old Zelretch). He's barely on campus."
"There's another guy who's always there but rarely seen (the dean, Bricis). They're supposedly from the same era—both disciples of Solomon himself."
Charlotte thought for a moment. Kassel had seven board members, plus elders like Beowulf, for a total of about eleven top figures.
Their leader, Hilbert Jean Angers, had lived a long time and traveled the world constantly. The Watcher, Nicolas Flamel, also aged and wise, usually kept to himself in the clocktower and rarely interacted with students…
As for Solomon—did he mean "the Solomon of mathematics," Blair Bitner? In the field of mathematics, Bitner really was called the "Solomon King"…