Chapter 314: Size

The sunlight, carrying a hint of warmth, spilled onto the outdoor seats of a street-side cafe.

Ms. Herta chose a relatively secluded corner. Dressed in a simple, dark purple velvet long dress, her brown hair was casually draped, yet it couldn’t conceal her innate elegance.

She unhurriedly stirred the black coffee in her cup, oblivious to the occasional gazes of admiration or curiosity directed her way.

Her attention was more focused on her communication with Stelle.

Kayneth had, before his death, conveyed the issue of water. Combined with the bizarre incubation traces within his body, this led Ms. Herta to cast suspicious glances towards Fuyuki City’s vast and hidden sewer system.

That place was the dark underbelly of the city’s metabolism, where water converged and waste accumulated. If there truly was something abnormal hiding or spreading through the water, it would undoubtedly be the best breeding ground.

Make her personally crawl into the sewers?

Ms. Herta took a sip of coffee, a slight curve forming on her lips.

What a joke.

Such dirty and arduous work naturally had more suitable candidates.

“Situation?” she asked concisely into the communicator.

Stelle’s voice came from the other end, accompanied by echoes and dripping sounds in the cavernous environment: “Entering main passage. Space is acceptable. Dark, can see. No special discoveries.”

Ms. Herta tapped her fingertip lightly on the table.

Stelle’s reporting style was always like this, saving words wherever possible.

“Continue deeper, focus on checking water convergence points, sedimentation areas, and pay attention to anything unusual.”

She instructed, “Whatever was inside that guy couldn’t have appeared out of thin air; there must be a source.”

“Understood.”

Stelle responded, then added, “Many rats. Size… slightly large.”

Her tone showed no surprise, merely stating an observed fact.

Ms. Herta frowned slightly.

“Size?” she pressed.

“About calf height.”

Stelle replied, then seemed to pause. A few rustling sounds came from the background, “No magic or special aura detected. Judged to be a local ecological feature.”

It must be a local specialty.

Ms. Herta gave an noncommittal hum.

In this world where Heroic Spirits and Magecraft exist, rats in the sewers growing to half a meter tall didn’t seem like such an earth-shattering event.

She told Stelle to continue deeper.

The communication went silent for a moment, with only faint static.

Ms. Herta leaned back in her chair, closing her eyes to rest, arranging and combining the possible fragmented information in her mind, trying to piece together a more complete picture.

However, there were too few clues and too much interference, especially that Heteromorphic Energy, a Heteromorphic Energy system not based on magic… Just then, a boisterous, almost deafening laugh approached from afar, breaking the tranquility around the cafe.

“Wahahaha! Found her! This King knew it, such a unique beauty would surely appear in the most conspicuous place!”

Ms. Herta couldn’t even be bothered to lift an eyelid.

That voice, that tone, who else could it be but that idiotic red-haired guy?

Iskandar walked over, carrying a seemingly heavy wooden wine crate, like a moving small mountain. He wore ordinary casual clothes and trousers that were at odds with his temperament, and a frank, undisguised smile on his face.

Behind him followed Waver, whose face was pale and who wished he could shrink into a ball. The young man was still holding several bottles of what looked like good sake.

Scattered passersby turned their heads, attracted by Rider’s imposing presence and the conspicuous wine crate.

Rider strode to Ms. Herta’s table and placed the wine crate on the ground with a “thud,” making the coffee cup on the table jump slightly.

He stood with his hands on his hips, his bell-like eyes shining as he looked at Ms. Herta, clearly ready to begin his impassioned “recruitment speech.”

However, just as he opened his mouth, before the first syllable could escape—

“Not joining. Not interested. Go away.”

Ms. Herta’s cold voice, like three precisely thrown ice picks, cleanly nailed all of Rider’s prepared lines in his throat.

She didn’t even look him in the eye, maintaining her posture of resting with closed eyes, as if merely shooing away an annoying fly.

Rider stood with his mouth open, his expression instantly frozen, looking somewhat comical.

He had probably anticipated rejection, but not that it would be so absolute, not even giving him a chance to speak.

“Uh…”

He scratched his fiery red hair, appearing a bit flustered, but quickly regrouped, trying a different approach, “Ms. Herta, don’t be so quick to refuse! This King isn’t here to persuade you to join this time! I’m here to invite you to a banquet!”

“Banquet?”

Ms. Herta finally lifted her eyelids slightly, her dark purple eyes filled with impatience.

“That’s right!”

Rider slapped his thigh, his voice booming, “It’s tonight, at that rather grand white castle in the suburbs! This King plans to invite all the worthy fellows in this Holy Grail War. We’ll sit down, drink, chat—that’s how heroes should meet! How about it, Ms. Herta, interested in joining us for a drink?”

After he finished speaking, Ms. Herta’s lips curved into an undisguised sneer.

“So I said, not interested.”

She repeated, her tone almost overflowing with disdain, “Childish, boring. I’d rather read a few more pages of a book with that time.”

She waved her hand, a gesture like dispelling smoke in front of her, “Go on, don’t disturb my peace.”

Just as Rider was about to try harder, perhaps saying something like, “How can one miss out on fine wine?” Ms. Herta’s figure suddenly flickered like a TV screen with a bad signal, then vanished into thin air right before their eyes!

Even the coffee cup in front of her returned to its original state, as if she had never been there.

“Whoa!” Several passersby who witnessed this scene gasped.

Rider and Waver were also stunned.

In the air, only a clear statement remained, directly entering their ears, its tone as flat as if announcing the weather:

“Oh, right. Lancer’s master, that Magus named Kayneth, is gone. No need to bother looking for him anymore.”

This sentence was like a huge stone thrown into calm water.

Rider merely raised an eyebrow, appearing somewhat surprised, but more with a sentiment of “Oh, one less opponent.”

Waver, beside him, reacted much more intensely.

The young man’s face instantly turned ashen, his eyes behind his glasses wide open, and his body swayed involuntarily, almost dropping the wine bottles in his hand.

“Kayneth, Professor Kayneth… gone?”

Waver’s voice trembled, filled with disbelief.

That was a Lord of the Clock Tower, his professor whom he once feared and hated, yet had to acknowledge for his talent and status!

Although they were enemies now, hearing that such a powerful Magus was so abruptly “gone,” and death announced in such an understated manner, a huge shock and a chill of shared fate instantly gripped Waver’s heart.

This meant the cruelty of the Holy Grail War far exceeded his previous imagination.

Even someone like Professor Kayneth could disappear without a trace… Rider noticed Waver’s distress and clapped him hard on the shoulder, almost knocking him to the ground: “Boy, cheer up! This is war! But…”

He stroked his chin, looking at the spot where Ms. Herta had disappeared, his fighting spirit growing stronger in his eyes, “This Ms. Herta is truly… becoming more and more interesting! I wonder if she’ll change her mind about tonight’s banquet?”

Meanwhile, deep within Fuyuki City’s dark, damp, and complex-smelling main sewer passage.

Stelle stood in a relatively open hall formed by the convergence of several pipes.

Beneath her feet was viscous, slowly flowing sewage, and all around, various urban waste remnants piled up, forming dirty “islands.”

The air was murky, but no discomfort was visible on Stelle’s expressionless face.

Her golden eyes scanned the surroundings.

Indeed, no obvious bloodstains, corpses, or anything else were found.

Only rats, many rats.

They were large, their fur wet and plastered to their bodies, scurrying among the garbage piles and along the edges of the sewage, making tiny noises, their beady black eyes reflecting faint light in the darkness.

She was about to report “no abnormalities” to Ms. Herta and prepare to leave this unpleasant-smelling place when her movements stopped.

Because those large rats, which had been rustling about everywhere and hadn’t shown any particular interest in her, the uninvited guest, suddenly stopped in unison.

Then, they all turned their heads.