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Chapter 2: A "Fairy" and a Shielder

Bomenslik Imperial Academy, dormitories, female section

The section of the dormitory designated for female SS students had become quite hectic since a few minutes ago thanks to the latest news about Archduke Draco Silva and the Demon Count, as well as news of internal conflict in Arcaden.

Several students belonging to the lower echelons of the student council could be seen moving randomly between floors and stairs alongside the gaudy and beautiful elite students.

Some were talking amongst themselves with expressions of bewilderment or excitement as they wore their holocans, others were expressing concern about some sort of issue that had them nervous, whether religious or something else.

And the maids in the corridors also gossiped among themselves.

There was a certain tension in the air.

All these girls are very excited for some reason....

That was what came to mind to a young woman wearing rather indecent armor inside a luxurious room, as she curiously looked at the chaotic corridors from the half-open door, wondering what was going on.

Her "Master" — if she had to call her something befitting her current status — was called to a meeting some time ago for some business with the Academy Board, and for many reasons, she could only stay here, hidden from the others inside this room filled with luxurious items and beautiful pots with small but vibrant bay trees.

Realizing this again, the girl quickly put aside her curiosity for the moment and quickly closed the door before she was noticed, letting out a sigh.

This is…a disaster

The girl….Mash Kyrielight, at that moment felt quite worried about the strange situation she found herself in as she looked at the beautiful sunset that could be seen through the terrace, with an anxious expression.

Her lavender pupils twitched restlessly as she sat on the unnecessarily elegant bed, without her usual glasses, and the 'armor' that was far from her usual attire... being quite inappropriate, showed that she was in the middle of something incomprehensible in many ways to the average human.

This is a disaster...

It repeated itself in his mind over and over.

As a Designer Baby created by scientists and sorcerers for the sole purpose of becoming an artificial Semi-Servant to serve the purposes of Chaldea, Mash had of course lived through several experiences that no ordinary human could dream of experiencing in their lifetime; and there were even thoughts of having her travel back in time, accompanying a trained team on missions to correct anomalies in human history itself, preventing the destruction of the species and ensuring the light of humanity...

——The latter is something others would no doubt consider mere delusional science fiction if they ever heard it... though she naturally wouldn't fully grasp that common sense.

However... if there was one thing Mash Kyrielight never dreamed of experiencing, even as someone who was technically part of Earth's ruthless supernatural society... it was suddenly traveling to a world other than Earth after a steel column fell on her and nearly split her in two!

Yeah.

Mash Kyrielight was in a different world from her own after nearly dying somehow. Of that she was now certain.

Why? Why was she so sure of something so crazy, that could only happen if the Second Magic had been used on her for some reason as far as Mash understood?

Was it because her 'summoner' spoke a language she had no idea about, even though she was magically able to understand her somehow?

No problem, Thaumaturgy was already capable of doing something like this through a telepathic connection that allowed immediate linguistic understanding between two individuals without the need for linguistic understanding from the other party.

Many of the 48 provisional Masters gathered in Chaldea were from different nations, and many were not necessarily fluent in different languages. Therefore, it was necessary for them to be able to communicate seamlessly to facilitate joint missions against any potential uniqueness.

So, Mash thought this because he was currently inside a set of artificial islands that collectively formed a city called Bomenslik (Why is it called superhuman in Afrikaans? I didn't know) that supposedly teaches sorcery and other abnormal abilities to anyone with enough money?

Again, that was ridiculous; the Clock Tower on Earth also had a school for that... albeit only for those with the potential to be magi and almost exclusively for members of Magus bloodlines, but it was still a school. (But not on the scale of a metropolis, let alone a massive lake!)

Or... perhaps it was because he had heard a few minutes earlier that the sister country of the Loveritia Empire—the country he was apparently in—was the Kingdom of Camelot, supposedly the fortress and kingdom of the legendary King Arthur?

In a way, that was a strong indication that this place was strange, but she would have simply considered that the Rayshift had mistakenly taken her to the British Isles when the legendary King was still alive and that Loveritia was just a forgotten country that arrogantly called itself an empire.

With the odds of that being true being so low, especially with the whole thing about her being somehow "summoned" by a young girl using an unknown thaumaturgy, it was still more believable than being in a different world, right?

So... Why was Mash Kyrielight sure she was in another world right now?

No, it wasn't because he faintly saw two moons in the sky; there was only one, just like on Earth.

It wasn't because the mana in the atmosphere felt much denser than it would be on Earth or that there were literally three flying ships in the distance (That's still kind of weird, though!)...

The reason for her thoughts, was because her summoner and now Master (she thought?)... is a real fairy!

Cough...to be clear, what Mash means is that her summoner and master is an Elf, an Álfar or if I had to be more technical given her gender, an "Elfina"... a mystical life form very similar to those extraordinary beings of mythology that are said to be spirits and possess a beautiful appearance, living in one of the nine worlds of Yggdrasil.

To be more precise, elves are creatures from Norse and Germanic mythology.

Originally, they were minor fertility deities, and later, they were depicted as tall, beautiful young men and women who lived in forests, caves, or springs. They were considered long-lived or immortal beings with far-reaching mystical powers...

However, when Mash first saw her, besides being shocked by her unreal beauty, she was also deeply confused when she appeared without much explanation in front of a girl wearing an elegant school uniform with long ears on her head and a mystical aura surrounding her, in the middle of a complex magic circle.

And Mash was pretty sure she wasn't human just from seeing her once... in some way she didn't quite understand, something that puzzled her quite a bit. Anyway, she later concluded she was in another world for that and many of the other reasons mentioned...

Did Mash mention there were maids with realistic cat ears and tails walking around like nothing was wrong...?

Well, though before that she first remembered that she almost died with her Senpai by her side, sending her into a state of total panic at the sudden change of location, leading her to make a small fuss, and wondering uneasily about what happened to that kind girl who stayed by her side when she couldn't do anything to save her, even at the risk of dying as well.

If she had died in such a touching but sincerely pointless act, Mash would have felt very guilty…..

After all, she already knew that she would die no matter what in about two years, so the thought of someone she barely knew and had so much to live for perishing to save her was heartbreaking for the Demi-servant.

And another thing that worried her as much or more... What happened to Chaldea?

He recalled the terrible explosion at the Chaldea Organization facilities when he was about to travel back in time with the other Masters, who were on a mission to resolve the F Singularity in Fuyuki when the sudden enemy attack on the organization occurred.

How many people tragically died during the explosion? How extensive was the destruction across Chaldea, and who is responsible...?

Was Lev-sensei okay? What happened to little Fou? Was Dr. Roman safe inside the medical department room?

...Director Olga Marie wasn't pulverized, was she?

Those questions tormented his mind non-stop.

However, he knew he wouldn't have any answers anytime soon, as he would first have to leave this world... or at least somehow contact Director Olga and Chaldea... if they still existed...

Just realizing her line of thinking was heading in that direction depressed her quite a bit.

Suddenly, the door to the room opened, causing Mash to tense up as she subtly glanced at the enormous shield in the corner; her equipment that she had acquired from that Heroic Spirit within her as soon as she had given it her power before leaving again without even telling her her true name at all.

She couldn't think about what would happen if others besides her teacher found her there. After all, she'd been told to stay inside, which meant that if they saw her, she'd be expelled into a completely unknown world she knew nothing about... or arrested for indecency.

Any of those results were bad in themselves.

However, Mash could only calm down when she saw that the other party was her Master.

The person who entered was a girl with short blonde hair and glasses on her face; looking completely like a fairly attractive human to anyone else except Mash, who could clearly see her Elf ears; as well as that her hair was actually as green as olive leaves.

Lucia Tanmer, the student council treasurer and an elf in disguise, looked at Mash with her usual expressionless gaze as she closed the door to her room without looking back.

—I'm back

-And..

Without saying anything else, Mash simply nodded as she stroked his arm with her gaze downwards.

On the student council treasurer's side, silence also remained as she sat opposite Mash in a beautiful wooden chair, before turning her gaze to the strange knight she had somehow summoned, asking expressionlessly, "So, shall we continue our conversation from before?"

"Hu?" Mash Kyrielight inevitably wondered, a little puzzled by how she casually wanted to continue their conversation after being called to a stressful meeting (she thought that anyway).

...I had no way of knowing that Lucia Tanmer, in addition to nominally being their "teacher" in this world, was also one of the characters who gives a small piece of information to players of the game [Britannia: Lost Order] shortly after starting.

It can be said that this behavior is to some extent engraved in his psyche by the Idea of the world itself.

"Yes, let's continue," Lucia said simply, as if she could read his thoughts. "...I'm literally reading them right now."

—Huh?!?

—Just kidding; your thoughts are so obvious on your face that anyone could guess what you're thinking.

—Th-that's all...

Watching the elf's subtle and unexpectedly playful smile, Mash blushed in embarrassment at the thought that others could read it so easily.

However, since the other party wasn't even human, she wasn't sure if she really didn't have that ability.

Although she couldn't say for sure, the elves of this world might be some kind of fairies, and Mash remembered that they were supposed to be able to make mysteries come true without having to go through the hassles of Thaumaturgy thanks to something called 'Divine Patterns'.

As far as she knew, being able to read minds without even trying might be quite natural for elves like Lucia.

And in a way, Mash isn't entirely wrong.

The elder elves were perfectly capable of reading minds... of normal humans and younger elves, of course.

For Aspirants, Awakened, and semi-servants like Mash Kyrielight, that ability might as well be nonexistent unless the elf is stronger than their opponent, and first of all, Lucia was an Elf who could be seen as a little girl in their society, given that she was literally 22 years old.

She was far from being an old elf.

—I assure you I'm not reading your mind, okay? — Lucia sighed, still seeing some caution in the other's gaze — Leaving aside that I'm not even a teenager by the standards of my species, I must inform you that a summon would know very well when its summoner is accessing its thoughts and would instinctively block them if it doesn't want to be read, cutting off telepathic communication between the two with its mere will unless it does something to prevent it.

—Oh....

Mash thought it wasn't very trustworthy when she thought for a moment about the familiars used by the Magi of her world as soon as she heard that... but she quickly remembered that it wasn't a real familiar and shook her head.

Mash Kyrielight at this point was more similar to a true Servant in that the summoning Magus would have no chance of spying on their Servant's thoughts or placing their consciousness upon it, even if they were the most skilled in thaumaturgy, unless they decided to waste their command spells; not that comparing themselves to a true Servant would make sense to her.

As someone who only received a small portion of a Heroic Spirit's power in the face of death, Mash was merely an imitation of the royal servants; which is ironic, since she would also be an imitation of a real human, designed from the womb...

“Even so, it’s still unsettling that you were able to see through the ancient polymorphic spell engraved on my family heirloom so easily. Only Headmistress Amelia could do that, discovering that I’m a pure elf and that she’s the most powerful Thaumaturge in the Loveitia Empire… So what kind of ‘Aspirant’ are you to do that, and what rank are you at? Are you perhaps an ‘Awakened’? I sense that you’re quite strong, but your presence is strange… And what are these things?”

Lucia Tanmer asked him the same questions she had asked him before being suddenly summoned to a meeting, as if time had simply returned to that moment, curiously pointing to the sacred mark of a master on his right hand that was in the shape of a red circle.

A little stunned by this attitude, Mash cautiously opened her mouth. “I really don’t understand what you’re talking about, Master… What do you mean by Aspirant and Awakened? I understand those words, but I have no idea what meaning you’re giving each one in this conversation. Also, what do you mean by Ranks?”

Is that what they call servants here...? Are they graded by rank instead of stars? A thought like that crossed his mind for a moment.

—Hmmm... forgive me, I forgot for a moment that you were from another physical plane of existence. Obviously you wouldn't understand what I'm talking about. Blame it on my intellectual curiosity... anyway. An "Aspirant" is... how do I put it...? Someone who performs a better Role than themselves using a class registered in the world as a base... I suppose that's the best definition here. The Awakened are simpler than that, but more special...

—Someone...who plays a better role than themselves?

Mash was really confused. What did he mean by a registered role in the world?

While she knew of intangible things like thaumaturgical fundamentals, which were basically human doctrines and lore that were engraved into the "World" as they perceived it, Mash had never heard of a Role that could do the same.

Also...Classes? Like Servants)

—To explain it better... Do you know what the Trades are?

—They're a job that people do throughout their lives, right?

He had to ask, as there was a chance the meaning was different and she was subconsciously just using a rough word to make sense of it through the telepathic connection with the other party.

After all, I could see that Lucia's words didn't match the movement of her lips... somehow.

—More or less. The Trades are a way of life we lead, following in the footsteps of our peers, and are a fundamental role in any society of intelligent beings, not just humans. They are a 'Role' we could all follow until the end of our lives, forming an integral part of our reality.

Mash nodded, clearly not fully understanding, but getting the general idea to some extent.

♦♦♦♦

Do you know what a trade is?

It's basically a person's usual occupation, that is, the activity to which they dedicate the greatest amount of time and effort, and which defines their work in society. So, when people ask us what we do, that is, what we do for a living, they're asking us about our profession.

However, as far as Mash knew, this word is very old and throughout history has been part of many different formulations and has accumulated new specific meanings.

Originally, it was a Latin word: officium, the simple form of opficcium, a term combining two words: opus ("work") and facere ("to make"). Thus, the craft was the type of work we did for society: the shoemaker made shoes, the carpenter made wooden objects, the leatherworker made animal skin objects, etc.

This could also extend to things and objects, which had a purpose in their profession... their usefulness.

But... human activities and dedications were not always so simple, and the term "profession" had to be adapted to account for the new social realities of humanity, thus giving rise to new words such as "officer" and "position," for example.

Hence, today in his homeland this word is associated with bureaucratic matters (i.e., office matters), or with certain ecclesiastical rites (such as the "office of the dead," through which the church prays for the souls of the deceased), since these areas were once closely linked to the administration of society.

In a way, Mash could understand how trades, roles, and professions could be imprinted on the world in a similar way to folk tales and doctrines; if we think of the role merchants played throughout known human history as an example.

However, I still didn't understand what Lucia meant.

Knowing full well that I still didn't understand her, the elf simply continued her explanation: "Being recorded in the history of humanity at large as an intrinsic part of their 'World', these jobs or roles carry significant existential weight, and the gods decided to use those roles to empower humanity and any other intelligent races that served them, allowing them to defend themselves more effectively against magical beasts and demons.

Were they then something like a non-living manifestation of something recorded in human history, as some traditional magi considered servants or "Ghost Line"?

Mash really wasn't sure. However, she just needed to ask. "How... how exactly did the... gods... use crafts to strengthen humans?"

Lucia noticed Mash hesitate before saying "Gods." Unaware that she was subconsciously trying not to say the word "Divine Spirit" elsewhere, she looked at her curiously for a second before continuing the conversation, much to the Shielder's relief.

—You see, by using a 'container' that represents a specific job or role in the history of civilization, the Divine Spirits who embody the gods can materialize these concepts into reality as a sort of conceptual essence that is infused into the containers used during the sacred ritual, turning them into a «Class Symbol». By injecting maryoku into the Class Symbols or having an overwhelming resonance with them, they merge into one, creating a 'Conceptual Body' that grants us skills and abilities that reflect the essence of those jobs and turning us into 'Aspirants'; those who aspire to be a better version of themselves by embodying the cogs of human society, and the 'Class Emblem' engraved on our bodies would serve as the primary proof of that status, generally. There are people with very keen senses to sense conceptual bodies to a certain extent... anyway, this is my emblem

"..." Mash stared at her with wide eyes as Lucia circulated her magical energy through her body and something began to glow through her white shirt, which she weakly lifted to show something that looked very similar to a Magic Crest on her belly as she said "see?"

—I thought you were an Aspirant, since I feel something similar to a Conceptual Body about you but somehow, I now believe that is not the case... Oh, by the way, the 'Classes' here are the actual containers of these manifested concepts and the physical is just a form that allows us to interact with it to gain its power for pure convenience. It also requires some kind of enchantment to access it, but generally speaking, if your affinity is terrible, it talks about classes that even if you want them, you will never be able to obtain them...

If Mash was very confused before, now she was very surprised.

Isn't that... like trying to become some sort of Semi-Servant-like entity without the drawbacks of needing a pure soul or even a Heroic Spirit to begin with?

Not caring much about the stunned silence from her strange humanoid summon, Lucia continued sharing her knowledge with some enthusiasm despite it being common knowledge to her. “By the way, there are a total of 7 official classes that are considered relevant to the progress and survival of humanity. Those are: Caster, Saber, Lancer, Archer, Hunter (Assassin), Fighters (Bersekers), and Rider. There are also officially non-standard classes known as ‘Extras’, among them Hero (Grand Saber?), Saint (Ruler?), Artificer (???), and Bard (???), but these are usually created by other churches that worship gods other than Emmanuel and the 7 Gods, or are born from the powerful bloodlines….. Eh? Mashu, are you alright?”

Lucia called her by that cute nickname she gave her that seemed universal somehow, watching worriedly as Mash turned slightly pale upon hearing her news section.

The elf disguised as a human didn't know it, but Mash unconsciously overlapped most of those Aspirant classes with the Servant classes she knew from her studies in Chaldea, giving her a fright at the implications that completely defied her common sense.

"Which...?" Mash gulped nervously before continuing. "What is your class and class abilities, Master?"

—I think you should stop calling me that first...

-Please!

With Mash pressing the matter at hand, Lucia sighed and said with a disapproving frown, “My class is obviously Caster, I specialize in Thaumaturgy and Summoning… my main class skills would be [Territory Creation] and [Item Creation], of course….”

—No way!

—Huh?

Lucia was understandably puzzled, but Mash didn't have the mind to pay attention to that. A fairy who casually uses Thaumaturgy despite her own innate magical abilities... no, not that!

A mortal lifeform (as far as I knew) using the abilities of a Caster? And there are supposedly hundreds of similar ones in this place!?

These people, no... the civilization of this world were actually imitating the Demi-Servants with their own power!

Mash Kyrielight couldn't believe it. It was crazy, really silly, but... technically, was it possible?

After all, Mash now had the powers of a Heroic Spirit... but... this was different!

It seemed that this world had specialized in creating Semi-servants since who knows when without them actually being Semi-servants!

Another thing that bothered Mashu was… What did “aspiring to a better version of themselves using a class as a base” mean?

Was it something like imagining yourself being a Saber (Sword User) with all your strengths and weaknesses and somehow becoming an expert in Saber?

Is that why they called themselves "Aspirants"? And what about the "Awakened"?

Even with her current knowledge of Thaumaturgy, Mashu would still have to understand how that would work!

The bewildered Semi-Servant had no way of knowing, but this world originally had no such concepts at all. At least, not when it was a mobile game, let alone a VRMMORPG infamous throughout Japan and Europe in its original world for its realism.

First of all, it was already said that the game [Chronicles of Saint Grial] did not originally have anything like a class system, and the Britannia Saga, although based in the Nasuverse, barely used any explanation for the class, sorcery, and skill system, if any at all.

As such, when the game [Britannia: Lost Order] was created, the New Type Moon developers and writers involved in this shit took some liberties with everything, using old systems from the Fate Stay Night and Grand Order remakes and slightly tweaking them to keep things simple instead of creating new ones and building these concepts off of existing ones.

In fact, the so-called “Class System” was explained as a creation of the gods in Britannia Lost Order.

It was quite accepted, unexpectedly...

The idea that an entire civilization from a world other than Earth in the Nasuverse had developed so drastically differently that almost all of humanity was naturally born with Magic Circuits and could obtain Semi-Servant-like abilities and parameters while still human, thanks to the gods… seemed to make perfect sense; especially if it was one of the ways they were trying to preserve their Era alongside the churches and times.

Many even claimed it was better than the whole Servant Universe thing and all its strange particles.....

It didn't help that Britannia was explained to be apparently a parallel world to Earth that simply had its historical course extremely distorted by a mysterious metallic meteorite filled with strange cores from another universe that formed the current 'Divine Eyes of Centoria' and somehow prevented the unnecessary parallel timeline pruning phenomenon.

At least, according to the short and almost useless story shown in the game...it wasn't a strange Losbelt like the Deinos', but rather a direct deviation from pans-human history that was sustained by external forces.

Either way, Mash had no way of knowing any of that, much less knowing that she's currently a game character that the developers could do whatever narratively absurd things they wanted with if she hadn't died under Nao's attack.

To her, this was a crazy world where a Divine Spirit intervened at some point in history and allowed humanity to gain powers similar to those of a living Servant without needing to summon legendary souls to obtain those powers in the first place, which was insane. What kind of incredible concept was this?

A world like that... was definitely dangerous!

I mean, what kind of civilization makes young children acquire power comparable to a weapon capable of annihilating entire modern armies?

Although Mash didn't know how strong the 'Aspirants' were compared to an actual Servant who embodied the power of a Heroic Spirit, it was still a terrifying concept to have hundreds of humans with a state of existence similar to a Semi-Servant like her laughing and gossiping about it on a daily basis...

She remembered all those girls in school uniforms walking calmly through the halls and felt a chill run down her spine. They were all supposed to be there to master their supernatural abilities... which means every single one of them is a Challenger!

Although it was a concept that would certainly fascinate many Magi, Mashu Kyrielight believed that something like this was simply nothing more than a terrifying phenomenon.

And there are still the so-called Awakened, whom the teacher claims are more special than the Aspirants....Mash could hardly imagine how special they would be compared to those people.

She already wanted to go home, though she wasn't sure if they still had a place to call "home." Perhaps the person who stayed by her side during that terrible incident was in a better place than she was... and Mash Kyrielight felt a little envious at the thought.

—How exactly do Aspirants become stronger? You said something about ranks... right? What exactly does that mean for an Aspirant...?

—Hmmm - Lucia, who was worried about Mash's strange behavior, hesitated for a moment, but seeing her eyes eager for answers, she opened her lips to say more than she knew with a barely perceptible irony in her gaze.

Honestly, Mash felt like she didn't want to know much. However, it was information she needed to gather immediately, because while she was in this parallel world, she would be subject not only to its strange and unwise rules, but also to all the dangers it could offer during her stay.

In other words, he couldn't just avoid it and live in ignorance if he wanted to find a way to return to Earth, to Chaldea...safely.

...Of course, that didn't change the fact that the information they would get from the Elf would be no less shocking to her.

♦♦♦♦

There are many myths and legends in the world of Britannia similar to those on Earth...stories that tell of epic and wondrous feats, horrors of cosmic proportions, and heroes facing the impossible.

Interwoven between reality and fiction given the fantastical nature of this universe, there was a man who would become a god who "condensed" these stories into six classifications with the goal of placing higher and lower existences into understandable "conceptual containers" using chess, his favorite game.

These were: Peonius, Conteurion, Episcopi, Torrius, Lorius and Corunus; words in a nearly dead language of Britannia.

Each of these classifications reflects a level of tales, legends, and myths, and was originally the way that guy categorized the beings of the world into different “boxes” that represented different states of existence, nothing more…until the gods used it for a divine game.

Not many details will be entered into, only that the father of sorcery would use the scheme of this divine game as a kind of magical ritual that would allow Aspirants to ascend to higher ranks of existence as they strived to level up.

All normal humans were classified as beings inferior to the Peonius (Pawns), who are inherently weak existences that beings superior to them can use at will for their own ends—with no control over their own destinies—forced to play the games of beings who don't even rise to the feet of the gods as mere pawns.

After the Peonius comes the 'Conteurion' (Knight/horse), brave men who lead soldiers across the battlefield and fight fearlessly against fearsome armies. Some notable army men from certain ancient stories are classified as Conteurions due to their relatively remarkable feats in war, though nothing out of the ordinary by the standards of humanity.

Next comes the Episcopi (Bishop or Bishop). Leaving aside the military and religious aspects often attributed to the name, the Episcopi are described here as individuals who can attract the attention of the gods and gain some of their favor, or they refer to those who have come into contact with supernatural beings such as Dragons and Demons, managing to survive the encounter.

The Torrius (Tower), basically, is a level of existence where the epic tales of legendary heroes who have left their mark on history come into play. The realm of those mighty and brave heroes capable of killing multiple Wyrvens single-handedly, or of those who can even be said to carry the blood of the gods...

As for the Lorius (Lords/Queens), they are basically beings who are at a level where they can defeat several demigods with ease, and hunting Dragons could be just one of their many feats.

In short, an unprecedented level of existence that is supposedly capable of making the impossible possible with a snap of the fingers, the makers of incredible miracles among mortals that are not performed with the power of a god, blessed be they by the world.

And Corunus (King)... is the domain of the Gods, Demon Kings, and Primordial Dragons. So far, only 23 humans have reached that unheard-of realm; two of them disappeared without a trace for some reason, and one managed to reach the realm of the gods at some point...

—That would be the basics. Things aren't that simple. Even if you level up in order to reach a higher Rank as an Aspirant, you still have to have personally created your own Ascension Piece within your internal world using many alchemical materials to accumulate magical power and create that “phantom,” which is a higher version of your current self that you can fuse with if it's exact in everything except power, of course… which would not only “upgrade” you to the same vessel level as that phantom version of you, but might even allow for the acquisition of new abilities or the strengthening of existing magic circuits… of course, Awakened ones like a certain Archduke are another story…

Basically, Aspirants were humans or other races who gained Servant-like powers and strengthened themselves using a sort of mental ritual that turned them into a superior version of themselves, which usually fit one of those conceptual vessels, using the 7 Classes as the basis of that version.

This meant that Aspirants had to learn very well about themselves and their classes—at least on a physical and magical level, if not spiritual—to create that phantom version of themselves belonging to a higher vessel in order to avoid mistakes, and thus “upgrade” themselves to the rank they desired without lethal complications, as long as they had the level for it.

That was what Rank Promotion was all about...of course, it was a simplification of the process and it was already complicated in itself.

But regardless, when Mash Kyrielight heard all these things about Lucia Tanmer that were pouring out of her mouth with absolute indifference, she could only wonder what kind of absurd world she had ended up in.

Students seeking to understand themselves in order to create higher versions of themselves and become those phantom versions as if they were... phantom spirits born from their imagination with which they merge?

All based on a simple idea of a random God/human who somehow ended up working to create this ascension system?

How…absurd…

And... upon learning that this world was also filled with phantom species that on Earth it would be a miracle to see even a small group, Mash Kyrielight knew that her path home would be filled with countless terrible hardships.

How I wish Fou were there to comfort her with his adorable existence...

"Princess of Olive.....!"

—Hmm? Maru....? — With a suddenly nervous expression in her eyes while Mash was frozen, Lucia looked at the girl with some apprehension as she responded to the voice of a creature that seemed to resonate in her mind as much as her Master's.

"Maru?" the Shielder wondered, her face somewhat puzzled. She was also confused by the source of that unnatural voice that seemed to easily ignore her magic resistance.

Before Mash could ask, a small, humanoid creature flew out from the balcony, causing her eyes to widen.

—A-a fairy!?

"Olive Princess~!"

Ignoring the shocked Semi-Servant as if she didn't exist, the purple-skinned and purple-haired Fairy, Marv, flew around Lucia with an expression that seemed like he was about to cry.

Lucia looked completely worried and anxious when the Fairy entered tearfully, quickly asking, "What are you doing here, Maru?"

Why do I feel like her way of coming up with that nickname of mine came from this fairy...? Mash Kyrielight, who was still somewhat shocked at seeing a fairy who looked like she came out of a storybook in front of her, suddenly wondered about something so trivial.

"Princess of Olive, Princess of Laurel has just fled the Academy towards Draco Silva using the power of His Holiness!"

—My sister did what!?

Lucia exclaimed, horrified, as Fairy Marv flew around her in agitation.

"I'm sorry, but you know how she is! II definitely wouldn't have the power to stop her with just useless defensive powers... No, even if I reminded her about the church she would do whatever she wanted...!"

...Actually, Marv didn't try at all, but there was no need to mention that to the other party. Lucia, who was trembling with righteous anger and worry, didn't have time to ask about all the details at that moment.

He quickly got out of bed in a hurry as he glanced at Mash Kyrielight, a shadow of doubt appearing in his eyes before he gathered his resolve and told her in a tone that allowed no argument.

—Get ready Mashu, we're leaving.

—H-huh? Where to?

"Weren't you listening?" Lucia said matter-of-factly, frowning. "Let's go to Draco Silva and bring back my troublesome laurel princess before she gets us into trouble with the damn Holy Church of Divine Order!"

Holy Church of Divine Order? No...Wait...Fairy Princesses!?

...Mashu is surprisingly slow to realize that just at that moment.

♦♦♦♦

Author's Note: Well, I had already written this chapter months before publishing this, but that version doesn't match my current novel, so I considered rewriting the whole thing, but that made me lazy.

So I modified it as much as possible based on my current setup, and it may not make much sense, but I wanted to continue the story anyway. Besides, not many people are reading this, apparently...

Anyway, just know that it won't always be like this, and that's all. Oh, and I almost forgot, this would be Lucia's image in human form.

♦♦♦♦

Shiragaki Sora is a 17-year-old delinquent who found himself involved in an extraordinary situation.

First of all, after "massacre" a gang of ferocious clowns (XD) on Earth, the place where the fight started was suddenly destroyed by terrifying explosions....Quickly killing him! Or so he thought....

Shortly after, upon regaining consciousness, Shiragaki Sora found himself in a completely unfamiliar environment, being challenged to a duel by a stupid redhead with a face worthy of a heroine (Lol) out of nowhere while a crowd of beautiful students surrounded them.

After leaving the idiot behind and meeting the powerful Butler, Jonathan Warmater, and the beautiful and dangerous Chimera, Franx Leumiere, Sora discovers that he has somehow been brought to the game world of {Britannia}; a very popular FLS game franchise in Neo Tokyo, being developed by a fan of New Typemoon's VRMMORPG {Chronicles of the Saint Grail}, which was a total failure that only survived two and a half years.

The red-haired, child-faced man who challenged him to a duel was the protagonist of this world, Lars Hamilton von Laniere, the only son of an insignificant baron and possessor of the [Authority of Sorcery], and he was now....the final boss of the first game, Arthur Pendragon, Archduke of Draco Silva!

Then the Master System appeared, telling him that his reason for being in this world was to interfere in the plot of the world while maintaining his character for a time to avoid the world's hostility and allow for the eventual Conception of All or something like that.

The Master System — whom he liked to call “Alice-chan” for her eerie childlike voice — offered him various items and Servants based on fictional characters like Terminus Est and Ikaros in exchange for Story Points (SP) that were rewarded for every meaningful action he took in the story, even mere deductions or... covering his new body’s sister in sperm!

Either way, after a brief conversation with his fiancée—the reason why the protagonist of this world started antagonistic to him—the sexual tension between them led them both to have unprotected sex three times and ended up impregnating her.

Oh, did he forget to mention that Franx Leumiere almost killed his fiancée in a rampaging animal attack, that he had to neutralize her to stop her using a Trait that made him feel like he was using Kodama Magic or something, and finally that he had to fight an Event Boss that should have only appeared at the Academy he was attending...all in his damn mansion!?

...That despite his overwhelming victory against Count Betano, the Mutant Minotaur equivalent to a Torrius Rank, he lost one of his valuable properties as soon as he arrived in this world in a sudden explosion?

Oh…and not least, that the Angeloid Servant he summoned and eventually fucked, Ikaros, had fallen unconscious when he recklessly projected his Noble Phantasm that he shouldn't be able to use without the Uranus System to protect him, nearly scaring him to death until he knew he was okay?

-Damn all that shit!

Sora couldn't help but swear.

The feelings they had after those incidents were simply beautiful and calming (?)…..Let's ignore the chairs in his lab thrown on the floor and the smashed table with a half-open blue book on it, shall we?

Of course, let's not worry about the tense Franx Leumiere kneeling on the floor as he looked at everything with trembling eyes and the stunned Ikaros who had just woken up….

Currently, our friend Sora was inside a flying ship alone in his personal alchemy workshop (It was a room in a pocket dimension with several access points, it seems), since the others, noticing his anger, decided to give him time for himself while he took an unconscious Ikaros and Franx inside (Not without disapproving looks from certain people).

Sora then decided to let off some steam before finally starting to check out the system...which by the way, was becoming somewhat unreliable as time went on....

<Maesteo, my Administrator and Creator is Lady Chaos, the best chaos sorceress in the world~>

What's with that smug tone!?

Sora kicked a poor chair again that wasn't guilty of anything... there were quite a few chairs for some reason.....

Still, he took a few calming breaths, trying to keep his boiling emotions under control. There were more important things to do than let this system and everything else get to him while he sat in a chair…

First and foremost, this world was Britannia; an immersive virtual reality world in which players had to explore the realistic world of sorcery and swordplay as its main offering when it was officially released....The reason a game that boasted of being realistic failed was because it was too realistic, even with a relatively normal gameplay system (albeit classless).

Although Sora and his gaming friends loved that excessive realism to a certain extent anyway.

That aside, the world he knew was unexpectedly medieval—in the sense that the general idea of Japanese people as being in the Middle Ages falls far short of reality.

There were no magical technologies that made the commoners' lives more comfortable, and the nobles had a standard of living far inferior to even the average citizen of Earth. It was essentially a world based on ancient myths and historical countries with unparalleled complexity...

….That was not the case in this Era.

Due to the elements introduced in mobile games, this once underdeveloped world was now barely inferior to modern Earth in terms of its technological level.

Evidence of this is the ship-shaped airships he was currently using and the fairy doors installed in various regions of the Empire.

The level of scientific knowledge, although lower than what was known on their world, was by no means small. In fact, in some respects, Britannian humans surpassed Earth's technologically...

In other words, much of the knowledge he could glean from the system was honestly useless beyond making him more knowledgeable among his peers, which might be of some use in social circles, sure, but not much, or so he thought.

As far as he could see, it was just one of several now-obvious system flaws he'd recently noticed. Only the future will tell if that's not the case.

Secondly, the loss of his newly acquired mansion (?), although painful and anger-inducing, was also worth it.

That's because of the system rewards he got after the battle with Count Betancourt ended.

In fact, it's the main reason why that incident was arguably as fruitful as it was maddening.

The SP he received for impregnating Laura and overcoming such a significant event as defeating the highest in the Lesser Demon Hierarchy amounted to at least 500,000, which, combined with the SP he earned by drenching Nava with semen, increased to 700,000, which was a significant amount of wealth. Especially since...

The large amount of SP not only increased his authority over Alice-chan, but also decreased the cost of gacha tokens and gave him access to the system store's class 6 item list!

Marvelous!

If it weren't for the dignity of a Noble (And the anger of losing the Mansion and seeing Ikaros unconscious), Sora might have screamed like crazy in public out of excitement over these windfalls during that catastrophe, and as a result, he would also gain the reputation of someone who went crazy over losing a measly mansion….

Only after calming down could he feel happy about this.

But that wasn't all… as there was also the capricious gift from the Master System, which was surely instigated by the so-called “Chaos Sorceress”, the simulation function of parallel worlds based on fictional stories, the 20 Devil Fruits of unknown effects that he wasn't going to bother with for now, and lastly, the enormous Soul Orb that he obtained by bravely killing Count Betano.

Due to a new feature in the system, Sora could now also use that enormous soccer ball-sized crystal stored in his Space Ring to summon various useful characters from other verses without needing to introduce them to many people or having emotional ties to this world!

A price reduction is even guaranteed as a bonus, and can be used to upgrade!

Of course, Sora also came to understand that in order to summon a Servant permanently without making overly suspicious moves in public as would normally be required, it was very important for him to consider how many Soul Orb fragments or kilos of it would cost.

And it was actually obvious, but you couldn't spend a finger-sized Soul Orb to keep a God-level Super Saiyan like Goku-kun summoned into this world.

If he did something that stupid, not only would Sora end up with a huge loss, but as Arthur he would have no choice but to make a lot of troublesome and flashy moves to ensure his summon remains anchored to this world by the other methods mentioned by the system; the most troublesome being the emotional connection to a planet from a completely different universe than your own (It depends really).

Fortunately, the Soul Orb Arthur currently possesses should be enough to keep a newly villainous Vegetta in check forever... which was already impressive!

Weren't Vegetta-san and Goku-kun already powerful warriors at that time who could blow up a celestial body like the moon with energy beams or something?

At least from what he vaguely remembers, the destructive power of those guys could wipe out an entire nation even before they went Super Saiyan. It would be amazing to have that in itself as a permanent ally without worrying about them disappearing the next day.

That would be a total pain.

Anyway, Sora decided to celebrate that those beauties, Dizzy-chan and Mizuha-chan, could soon be summoned so the three of them could get to know each other better….Anyway, the only thing left for Sora to address are the new system function and perhaps the strangest item a person could have received from this confusing system….

<[Pai Pai Rocket Kun]: An alien artifact capable of transforming men into women, although that was not its original purpose, but rather to enlarge breasts. Despite being an alien technology made with pure high-level scientific principles (?), it carries in its essence the Concept "Transcendental Sex Conversion" that allows it to transform even the protagonists into women without the laws of any world being able to prevent it. Due to its power capable of affecting even "The beloved children of the world", it is considered a Divine Grade Mystic-Technological Code. It is single-use>

"..."

....As far as he could remember, this ridiculously described thing was an incredibly powerful technology designed in the world of To Love Ru by a beautiful and sexy alien princess, Lala Deviluke.

So... looking at the virtual card that appeared on his retina every time he thought of that thing with such a ridiculous name - with the image of what looked like the fusion of a pink rocket and a very thick penis - Sora didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

I couldn't help but feel that the damn Administrator had a pretty dark sense of humor, giving her something like that...

And that was because this “device,” which was created by Lala—that alien girl with an extremely sexy body that she wouldn’t mind summoning if she could—was actually capable of something as absurd as turning men into women with no way back unless you used a different technology to fix it.

And he clearly remembered how with it, Lala accidentally turned the protagonist of the manga and anime To Love Ru, Yūki Rito, into a woman; something quite funny considering that the original purpose of that thing, as the description said, was to enlarge Lala's already large breasts, or something like that.

The "problem" Sofay had with this... adorable piece of divine technology (XD) is that, according to the system, it's apparently single-use. And besides sparking his imagination with several original ideas when he saw it, Sora had to decide what to actually do with this thing.

Leaving aside any strange thoughts he had upon learning the identity of this thing... (cough) What was he supposed to do with a technology that turns men into women?

He wasn't going to use it on himself, that was obvious; Sora loved his masculinity, especially that of his new body. So, of course, he'd have to use it on another man and turn him into a sexy TSF or something...

But with whom exactly? With the one named Bridget that she got from Gacha? There was no way she wanted to turn a man who probably already considered himself a woman into a woman, that was too boring... cough, what she meant was that she wouldn't grant him that favor, after falling into his trap!

Even if he had intended something like that, and he hadn't, Alice-chan had already given him the hint. Basically, the Administrator probably wanted him to use it on an important man in the empire to cause more chaos in the plot and the world.

She was literally screaming with her tone to try and use the [Pai Pai Rockect-kun] on an extremely powerful man, turning him into a woman, only for her to become just another source of entertainment for him and any other unknown entities watching her actions besides Lady Luck.

But the only one she can think of who could bring her the chaos the administrator desires after becoming a woman is the Emperor himself of the entire damn empire... But why the hell did he want to turn a fat 78-year-old man into a woman? (Yes, Laura's father is such an old man despite his appearance!)

Sounds like a waste!

You should know that Shiragaki Megumi Sora explored the Gender Bender; and for him, if he was going to turn a man into a woman, he would prefer it to be a man who was sure to later become a celestial beauty.

...After all, I'd always fantasized about dominating someone like that and teaching them the pleasures of a woman ever since I saw the hentai TSF Monogatari with its sexy protagonist, Musashino Takumi. It was really hot to see how she grew to love penises so much despite spending so little time as a woman...although the Yuri-futunari ending was something I absolutely hate.

If I had the chance, I'd fuck them both to stop them from doing stupid things like that...

Anyway, it would be amazing if the result was as hot as Takumi, it wouldn't matter if it was something super adorable too, or a mix of both; as long as it's not an ugly little thing worthy of a comedy and a horror story at the same time.

Since he was already in a fantasy world, Sora wanted to fulfill that hidden desire that made his penis harden every time he fantasized about it.

The Master System and the Administrator only had to give him the tool to make this happen, as if they wanted him to unleash his strangest fantasies for entertainment.

Seriously, he didn't know why, but the idea of overwhelming a girl who was once a man by using his strength and his penis to immerse her in a sea of pleasure and slowly make her lose her resolve to protect his manhood and surrender to him completely... was quite stimulating for Sora. And now that he was Arthur Pendragon, one with a system, he could fulfill it.

Naturally, that meant Sora wanted an ending where the TSF would be his lovely lover forever... and it was with those absolutely depraved thoughts that he realized it.

-Wait... What if I use it on those guys?

Boys who are so socially important that their transformations will cause tremendous chaos, and their appearances guaranteed two absolute beauties if what he had in mind was feasible... Sora thought he knew who the ideal target for Pai Pai Rocket-Kun was.

The moment the idea came to him, he quickly went to consult Alice about the risks involved. Her response was one that almost made him crack the evil grin he used to use against his enemies in Neo Tokyo...

That answer was enough to turn him on, and Sora decided to celebrate the opportunity to fulfill one of his strangest fantasies, along with his fondness for the sexy twins, with a sex session with Laura and Nava in his room.

Of course, after thoroughly convincing them to have a threesome in private.

Naturally, we couldn't forget about the parallel world simulation function that the Master System enabled, right?

With the so-called Laplace Subsystem—a hypothetical demon of a scientist of the same name, he remembered—he could apparently experience extremely realistic simulations of worlds based on fictional stories. One of them was the aforementioned Highschool of the Dead, a world of zombies and busty women that he would definitely like to experience.

Apparently, the power of the Laplace Sub-system greatly surpasses one of Atlas's 7 super weapons, the Logos Reactor, by being able to simulate entire parallel worlds that, according to the system, the Human Order is forced to recognize as real thanks to the Schrödinger Sub-system.

This information was obtained because his Authority grew enough to know these things… and apparently, the system possesses the power of the “Four Mythical Beasts of Science” which are composed of not only Laplace and Schrödinger, but also Maxwell’s Demon and Zeno’s Tortoise; the former granting him almost unlimited magical energy and the latter allowing the system to create an almost limitless amount of simulations of parallel worlds and timelines somehow….

It was incredible….Sora could never have imagined that Lady Chaos, as she would be called, was such a powerful sorceress who could use the unstable Chaos Sorcery to create something so complex and powerful.

I was speechless at the power of that woman. Besides…

Those words, spoken with indifference, would shock anyone who even minimally understood their meaning. At least, Sora thought he understood how momentous it was.

Rewriting reality with simulations?

Was it really possible?

Sora immediately understood what this meant.

In other words, the events you will experience in the simulator would not be fictitious processes similar to data inference.

This simulation process was very similar to that of a Fantasy Tree in the game Fate: Grand Order.

In the game, Ophelia Phamrsolone hypothesized that the blank period between when a Lostbelt was pruned and when it was "replanted" in the present takes place within each Tree.

I suspect the Trees take the point that the history of a Lostbelt is pruned and simulate what would happen if that history had continued from that point. The Trees, therefore, effectively prove the existence of that history and project the result onto the planet's surface.

And the system seemed capable of doing something similar… For once the system's simulation standard reaches a certain level, it will advance directly from an alternate history to reality, overwriting the Human Order to artificially create a Parallel World by proving the existence of that simulated world.

Obtaining an Ex Ranking would allow the alternate history to overwrite reality to become its own parallel world, and even the Throne of Heroes could record Sora's exploits….

At that time, it wouldn't be impossible for him to be summoned as a Heroic Spirit...although it would be awkward to meet the other Arthurs.

“This system is too powerful”

Sora was amazed. And he thought he should try it sometime, when he had time…and SP to spend as he pleased.

Only the lowest-level simulation put in 10,000 SP, okay? Sora still wasn't sure he could win by going to the world of zombies and boobs that never had a real ending besides women, so he put it off.

In addition to organizing the information and his ideas, he had to discipline Franx Leumiere for his actions in the guest room….

Oh...of course, there were other things that needed to be mentioned.

And it has to do with Laura's pregnancy and its repercussions throughout the Empire.

Of course, Sora knew there couldn't be any consequences to the fact that his beloved fiancée was pregnant right after they'd had intense sex once... or three times; without him having bothered to first understand exactly how biology works in this world.

It was a total stupidity on his part, he won't deny it.

And whether or not he trusted Alice-chan, Sora now had complete faith that the damned System Administrator liked chaos just as her pseudonym "Lady Chaos" suggested, and he had no doubt that both she and the System Master weren't lying at all about Laura's pregnancy.

After all, rather than mocking Sora on mere impulse, it would seem that such an Administrator would rather enjoy any kind of major disaster he inadvertently or willfully causes, be it on a purely social level or on the level of human extinction.

And well, no matter how you looked at it, Laura's pregnancy was definitely a political disaster of epic proportions... for the aristocratic faction of the Empire, that is.

Before we can get into what we're talking about, it's necessary to first share some very important information about why the above events happened, at least from what Arthur managed to learn from the system.

Well, you see, Arthur, our dear friend Arthur, in his quiet time inside (?) a magical ship with two world-class beauties, was finally able to remember that there was a Master System function called [History].

And when he went to use it to find out why the hell the incident with the Head of Events, Count Betano, literally happened in his own backyard when he apparently didn't do anything particularly important to provoke it since he came into this world... the only other piece of relevant information they showed him about it was like a powerful slap in his handsome face.

With a big and strong hand too.

That was all; they didn't tell him the name of the sect within this "Holy" Kingdom, nor the cursed method that made their meteorite terror act possible in the first place, nor what exactly the demons that attacked the mansion's interior were; though Luminia had already informed him that they were Gremlins and Gnolls equivalent to the Episcopi Rank.

Either way, this was a slightly worse summary than what one might have read on a wiki about the past events of their favorite anime or manga, when the identity of the evil organization behind the evil plaguing the world had yet to be revealed.

That, besides surprising him with the consequences of such a simple move, also left him quite disappointed... At least now Arthur understood why all this was happening.

And it was very simple but still surprising.

Basically, because he didn't accept Lars's absurd request to duel and beat him to a pulp, Laura had no reason that the narrative causality of this world could artificially motivate to stay by her non-victim's (?) side in one of the Academy's infirmaries; giving this second heroine instead a good reason to visit her beloved fiancé coincidentally on the same day a dangerous cult from a foreign kingdom wanted to kidnap her as a sacrifice to the Demons of Hell.

That would be the cause of everything... Laura for some reason was a good demonic sacrifice in both timelines....

And I had a good idea why.

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Chapter 2: A "Fairy" and a Shielder

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Chapter 2: A "Fairy" and a Shielder

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