Chapter 192 - 193: Ruby

Tohsaka Rin, who had already been "duped" once by her father, Tohsaka Tokiomi, before the start of the Holy Grail War, was truly not at all surprised by such a case with precedent.

However, compared to Tohsaka Rin, who was troubled by how many more traps her ancestors had dug for her, and Bazett and the others, who were worried about how to convince the Clock Tower that a major incident was indeed happening in Fuyuki City, Emiya Shirou felt quite puzzled as to why the Clock Tower would not believe their report and would refuse their request for reinforcements.

Although Shirou, with his memories of a past life, knew that within the Clock Tower—a place that valued bloodline theory and practiced feudal rule—the identities of Tohsaka Rin and Bazett actually carried very little weight, even if Bazett possessed combat strength on a Servant level and Tohsaka Rin could spend jewels to destroy one of the Berserker Hercules's lives, it didn't change that fact.

But Tohsaka Rin's ancestors were, after all, disciples of Zelretch. Even if Zelretch had long since forgotten that he had such a disciple (who wasn't really much of a disciple), the parallel world crossover issue brought about by Miyu Edelfelt, the ley line issues in Fuyuki City as reported by Tohsaka Rin, and most importantly, the fact that Waver Velvet, now Lord El-Melloi II, who had participated in the Fourth Holy Grail War, kept a close watch on the Holy Grail War and Fuyuki City, made it impossible for them to not take Rin's report seriously. It was even more impossible that they wouldn't pass this report up the chain of command.

"After all, no matter what, Waver is a Lord of the Clock Tower. In the world of Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya, Waver is the one who assists Zelretch in dealing with the ley line issues in Fuyuki City.

Not to mention that in the past-life memories I awakened, if the Holy Grail War were to truly proceed as it did in that original work, Waver and Tohsaka would have completed the work of dismantling the Great Grail together in the end."

—"It is impossible for him not to notice the problems appearing in Fuyuki City."

These thoughts flashed through Shirou's mind.

'Unless someone interfered with Waver handling this matter.

But who could interfere with Waver? Interfere with one of the twelve Lords of the Clock Tower?'

This was almost an impossible task. It wasn't a question of whether it was doable or not; it was that in the Clock Tower, where feudalism prevailed, the existence of a Lord was equivalent to a vassal king appointed by the Emperor. Before someone shouted, "Are kings and nobles gifted with special status by birth?", could a commoner interfere with a monarch? How much more so for the even more feudal Europe and the Clock Tower, which had fully inherited this feudal system?

As for whether this was the same reason that Waver—who had always wanted to participate in the Fifth Holy Grail War and summon Iskandar again—ultimately failed to participate, perhaps he was held up by something else midway, causing him to miss this news sent by Tohsaka Rin through Tokiomi's connections... Shirou wasn't quite certain about that.

After all, the Type-Moon world created by Nasu only provided an outline. At most, it added small stories that happened within the Type-Moon world, such as the Holy Grail War in Fuyuki, the love story of the serial killer and Google Maps in Mifune, or the battle of the sisters in Misaki... Other stories and various events happening at different times and locations were thrown by Nasu, the creator, to other authors to write.

Judging by the popularity of the Type-Moon world, Shirou wasn't certain if Waver would encounter something else in the future. But during this period after the Holy Grail War started, according to Shirou's current knowledge of his past-life memories, Waver should still be in the Clock Tower, busy sorting out and integrating the magic theory materials left behind by Kayneth. It was naturally impossible for him to not know about the news Rin passed on just because he wasn't in the Clock Tower.

"So, is it Zelretch?

Did he observe something through the Second Magic and conclude that no problems would occur in Fuyuki City, so he ignored the issues happening here?

Or, perhaps, based on the images Zelretch observed himself through the Second Magic, he felt that given the greedy nature of those mages in the Association, not letting the Mage's Association come to help—keeping them unaware of what happened here—is the most correct decision?"

Shirou guessed uncertainly in his heart.

However, there was one thing Shirou could be certain of: the reinforcements he wanted were likely impossible to obtain.

Even his idea of tricking another Kaleidoscope staff (Magical Ruby) from Zelretch's hands for Miyu to use for self-defense would likely fall through. Although according to the plot of Fate/hollow ataraxia, it was highly probable that Ruby was currently lying in Zelretch's treasure chest at the Tohsaka residence, permanently sealed by a note left by a young Tohsaka Rin telling her future self never to use it, the Ruby in Fate/hollow ataraxia was very different from the Ruby in Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya. The Ruby in Fate/hollow ataraxia didn't turn people into magical girls; it allowed its contractor to gain the skills of their parallel-world self, and the changes in clothing were just a quirky change corresponding to that skill.

Of course, it wasn't impossible to turn Miyu into a magical girl; after all, in another parallel world, she did indeed become a magical girl.

But...

"In other words, we can only observe this location here, confirming that this is the cause of the distortion in ley line magical energy, but we can't truly enter the different space where the culprit resides?"

Shirou spoke out the reason why Tohsaka Rin and the others felt embarrassed and intended to seek help from the Mage's Association: "Without Zelretch's Second Magic, we cannot achieve this kind of transfer between multiple spaces."

On this point, even Emiya Shirou had no good solution. Perhaps [Enuma Elish] could perform such a feat of piercing through space, but except for the Reality Marble and the Dream World, Shirou couldn't project [Enuma Elish].

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