Chapter 04

In the morning

I woke up with the movement by my side. When I look over, I was Lorelei. "Sorry. Did I wake you up?" she took a glance at me while tying her hair into a ponytail.

"No. I'm just about to wake up. Nature's calling. And need to prepare for the operation," I replied while trying to get up from the bed.

"Rude. And try to get along with the representative from the church. Although I don't care about the relationship between the association and the church getting bad but I don't want more paperwork," she said.

"I'll try," and I make my way to the bathroom.

After coming out of the bathroom, I asked Lorelei for her whip. "Lorelei, do you need to go hunting for Dead Apostle these days?"

She glanced at me, "No. I'm thinking about waiting for you to return before going hunting myself. You do you ask?"

"Well, as you know I also have a wind element now, right? I would like to borrow your whip. With being near you for years, I know how you fight and would like to try it myself." I got a hard stare from her.

"I could lend it to you. Here you go," she gave me after looking for her whip in the bag. When I tried to grab the whip, she pulled my hand and said, "You have to, no. You must come back alive. If you don't come back, I promise I'll hunt every single Dead Apostle on the earth."

"No. No. You don't have to, Lorelei. I promise you, I'll come back alive."

"Good then," she smiled.

After readying ourselves, we went our way. Lorelei to the association and I go to the park. It's still 7 in the morning. Since it is still early, I wait at our meeting place and think about my situation as I'm alone now.

I'm no stranger to fanfiction and I've read my fair share of self-insert fanfic. But the good thing is I'm not the self-insert main character but a reincarnation one. In which my memories awaken at the age of 20. It resurfaced randomly since that day was not my birthday. As I'm not a self-insert mc, I don't need to freak out about my situation.

But that is that. Since unlike most of the reincarnation fanfic, I don't have time to prepare for the future since young. Most of the time I got to prepare for the fourth Holy Grail War is four years. And I know, it won't be enough. So, unlike others, I didn't have time to nor flawless plans to "fix" the story.

I can already imagine the voice of the people coming here for power fantasy with a badass male lead who don't give a f**k about anything and do whatever he wants. I can hear them saying, "What the hell are you doing?! Start planning to beat the shit out of Alayashiki, Gaia, and ORT! You, idiot beta male MC."

Well, my dear reader, unlike you guys who are reading and lazing in a safe place like your home or café, I'm living a reality. I'll be damned if I want to try and plan for the death of Alayashiki and Gaia. Alayashiki won't die unless all the humans die. Do you want me to plan a mass genocide? Let's not talk about Gaia.

I'll be able to handle ORT if I have time, plans, and teammates. So, readers, no language on Earth has a word for how little I care about the power fantasy story you are looking for. A quantum supercomputer calculating for a thousand years could not even approach the number of fucks I do not give. I'm a human and I have my own fears.

I fear for my life. I fear for the future to comes. I fear Lorelei. I fear the Servants. I fear Zelretch. I fear politics. I fear many things. I'm not an over-powered main character that can do whatever he wants. The only powerups I got are Yamato, the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception, becoming an Average One, and can connect to ROOT for a while. With these, I would be able to face Dead Apostles and some low-level Servants. Other than that, I need to use my knowledge about this world to keep myself alive.

Some might say, "Why do you need to fear Lorelei? She's just your fiancé." Well, you need to fear your fiancé when she is one of the most badass magus in the world. And readers, please tell me, who don't scare their own wife or girlfriend? I'll give them a medal if there is. And if you don't even have a girlfriend, I believe you don't have the qualification to tell me how to act around my fiancé as you can't even have a girlfriend.

After thinking about my future, I look at my watch and it's already 7:45 A.M. Any minutes now and the representative will come. After a while and I saw a silhouette coming over here. The person is wearing a priest outfit, so, I'm sure that he is the one I'm waiting for. When I saw him, I need to hold myself from cursing my luck.

Short black hair? Check. Empty eyes? Check. Cold face? Check. Yup. I think my luck can challenge Shirou Emiya's luck in the "Whose luck is worse" challenge. It is non-other than Kotomine *fucking* Kirei. With him here, I'm sure the Dead Apostle we are facing will not be an easy one. When he arrived in front of me, he introduced himself.

"Nice to meet you. My name is Kotomine Kirei. With Kirei being my given name."

"It is my pleasure. My name is Oswald Kingsley. Do you already have your breakfast?" I asked.

"I did. Then, let's go. Shall we?"

I tried to inform you about our target, "Right, the name of our target is Silvan Alaric. Age: unknown. White hair with black stripes on it. Or was it black hair with white stripes on it? Nah, who cares? Last known location: America? That's far away. We need to cross the North Atlantic Ocean to get there. Let's not waste more time."

"Mr. Kingsley, you seem really energetic," the priest stated.

"Really? Well, it might be because this is my second time working with other people. I tend to be really energetic when I'm nervous."

"Is that so? It is good then."

We left the park and went straight to the airport. With the help of the Association and the church, we got our tickets pretty quickly. Not that I'm complaining. The first flight was from London to New York. Then from New York to Stowe as we got the news that he was going there. We became friends quickly on the way. While we are walking in the town, I asked Kirei about our target.

"Hey, Kirei! Do you know anything about our target other than being a potential ancestor?"

"Nothing much. But I've heard that he is good at fighting with swords."

"He'll be a bad match for me then. I've just started learning how to use swords."

"Do you want me to take care of close combat? You can give support from the back if you want to."

"No, I'll also fight melee. I asked the Queen for her whip. I can fight the way she fights using it. The only thing we need to concern about is our target. He is an ancestor candidate, right? Then he must have trump cards," I stated.

"Right, he seems to be able to cut anything that comes in his way," he said while reading the report.

"That'll be pretty hard to deal with," I muttered to which he replied with a nod.

"By the way, Kirei. Why do you look like you are not interested in anything? You kinda looked empty."

It was then he stopped walking. He slowly turned to me and said, "You really like to be a busybody, huh?"

"What can I say? I need to know more about you to make plans." Please let that bullshit work.

"… I want to know the meaning of 'beauty'." Damn, it works. "The meaning of 'beauty' is it?" I asked. He nodded, "I grew up according to my father's expectations, like, showing morals and good sense since young. I understand I was not in accordance with the world. So, I worked hard to correct it. I've attempted to be pure and beautiful. But I didn't know what my father means by 'beauty'." Then he heaves a sigh.

"I did everything I could to overcome my defect after accepting its existence. I've started trying to pursue something I lacked from the start. But what is it? I've known. I've known that I'm a sinner. I should be punished. So, I tried shaving away my skin, ripping off the flesh, and dislocating bones. I've even tortured my mind. This is more painful than physical pain but purgatories and sufferings were useless to change me. Then I turned to religion with fervor to turn myself into a normal person. But the result was tragic," he gave me a grim look.

"I could not find greater pleasure than the pain of others. But the teachings of god forbid immorality. Even now, seeing others suffer makes me feels like a normal person," he put his hands over his head while crouching down on the ground.

Now, that's deep. I knew about it of course, from the Type-Moon wiki from my previous life. But seeing and listening from him is another deal. He truly enjoys making others suffer. How can I change it? What can I do to help him? He, without a doubt, is a good guy in the heart. Just trying to find a way to fill his emptiness. How about pranks? Just like one fanfic I've read in which MC taught Kirei how to prank. It should work.

"Kirei, how about pranks?"

"Pranks?"

"Yes, pranks," I nod while giving him a thumb up.

"Why pranks?"

"Well, you like seeing other people suffering, yes?" I asked.

"Yes, but why are you helping me? Shouldn't you look at me with anger and disgust like other people?"

"Why should I? Kirei, even though I've known you for a day, I treat you like my friend," I told him while giving a pat on the back.

"Like I've said before. If you want to see other's suffering faces, why not play pranks on them? It won't make you a sinner. (I think?) By the way, you've told me that you will be studying under an Asian magus named Tohsaka next year?"

"Tokiomi Tohsaka, yes." He confirmed.

"Great! How about playing a prank on him? Like turning his coat into pink? Or turning his hair into purple?" I suggested.

"Are you sure that will make me see his suffering face?"

"Yup. Try it. If it works then, you know what to do to see other's suffering faces. Right?"

"I'll try."

I then give another suggestion, "How about opening a mapo tofu restaurant?" He raised his brow. "Why mapo tofu?" he asked. "Well, you see. Mapo tofu is powerfully spicy with both conventional 'heat' spiciness and the characteristic málà flavor of Sichuan cuisine. It would be great to look at others' suffering faces, right?"

"That might… actually works. I'll try it. Thank you," he said. But then I give him a hard glare. "But one thing, Kirei. I'll come for you when I want mapo tofu. But! Under no circumstances you must never bring me the mapo tofu. Under no circumstances, you hear me?" He got taken aback. "Noted," he replied.

"Great! Then, let's go to our destination."

While talking and walking, we arrived at our destination. It is a church. Yes, a Vampire aka Dead Apostle is waiting for us at the church.

"Silvan Alaric, right? We have come to deliver your soul to god," Kirei said while taking out his black keys.

Standing by an altar, Silvan looks at us with a mirthful face, "They finally decided to send an enforcer and an executor, huh? I'm honored. Do you know why I still haven't turned all the people in this peaceful town into ghouls? Because I've come to love humans. I might be a Dead Apostle, but my time as a human was enjoyable too."

Holy shit! Is this the infamous 'Villain's Monologue before the Battle'? Wow… This is the first time I'm seeing this. I haven't seen this even before I got my memories back. Guess this will be my first battle with my new powers huh? Welp…

"Let's have some fun."