In an orphanage, a blonde, purple-eyed figure sat in the office, falling silent as she stared at the darkened screen in front of her.
Did it succeed? Or did it not?
Cocolia picked up an alarm clock from the side, which displayed the current time.
"Only one minute has passed…"
As one of Anti-Entropy's executives, the former Cocolia held immense power. She even managed to sideline rivals and seize resources through her extraordinary infighting skills during the few years the Leader was absent, almost single-handedly controlling Anti-Entropy's lifeline.
She even cloned the Leader's clones, attempting to control the Son of Heaven to command the feudal lords.
Everything was so perfect, when did things start to go wrong?
She recalled the Leader's sudden return a year ago.
The Leader, who had been severely injured or even dead, immediately suppressed Anti-Entropy completely upon his return.
Despite being outside for so many years and completely unfamiliar with the organization, he quickly and accurately struck down multiple contingencies she had arranged upon his return.
Almost all the clones were purged in that cleanup. She had originally wanted to offer treacherous advice to deceive the Leader, who was completely unaware of the organization's situation, but the other party did not listen to her explanations at all, directly suppressing her with thunderous means, stripping her of a large amount of power, and causing her status to plummet.
Fortunately, Anti-Entropy's executive system allowed her to retain her most basic rights, but what good were these rights?
Not to mention the two old men and the Leader above her, just dealing with the hyenas who wanted to bite a piece of flesh off her was something she couldn't handle now.
She could only retreat to the orphanage she had established when she joined Anti-Entropy; this could be said to be her last refuge.
Although those who feared her comeback wanted to get rid of her quickly, under the Leader's prestige, they dared not violate this last pure land of hers. However, all the branches and leaves outside the orphanage were completely cut off by those guys, leaving her a bare commander, with nothing but the orphans of the orphanage.
Even experiments couldn't be conducted anymore.
"I didn't expect Madam Cocolia to still harbor such great ambitions."
Just as Cocolia was pondering why she had fallen to such a state, a voice suddenly echoed in her office.
Cocolia was startled at first, then quickly realized that the owner of this voice was the masked man from the recently concluded live broadcast.
"Cocolia greets you, Lord."
As expected of an Anti-Entropy executive, Cocolia quickly calmed herself down, stood up, and bowed to Takatsuki, who was examining her office.
"Mm."
Takatsuki didn't have many thoughts about Cocolia's respect. He had indeed considered using his Stand ability to modify Cocolia's personality to prevent her from causing trouble, but later gave up due to Welt.
Looking at it now, Welt handled it quite well. Although Cocolia's love was a bit twisted, she wasn't bad when she had no power. Otherwise, the children in the orphanage wouldn't have loved her so much.
But for Takatsuki, as long as she didn't bother the people around him, he didn't care about Cocolia or Otto.
"I'm here to deliver your contract and briefly tell you about Servant summoning."
A piece of paper floated out from a golden portal and landed on Cocolia's desk. Although Cocolia was excited, she didn't immediately go to check it, but respectfully said, "I'd like to hear the details."
"The magic circle and incantation for summoning a Servant are drawn on the back of the contract. This magic circle can only be used by participants, and only one Servant can be summoned. The main body of the summoning ritual is at the Holy Grail, so you don't need to prepare anything. The material of the magic circle does not affect the summoning result."
It might have some effect in Type-Moon, but it doesn't matter in Takatsuki's version, as its essence is connected to Takatsuki's Throne of Heroes.
"Then, there are two ways to summon a Servant. One is to prepare nothing and summon directly; that will summon the Servant most compatible with you. However, compatibility refers to personality, meaning they will be compatible with you in terms of character. After all, Heroic Spirits have their own thoughts and personalities, and although there are Command Spells, they may not be fully controllable. The other way is to prepare a Holy Relic for summoning."
"A Holy Relic refers to something a Heroic Spirit once used. This item does not need to be of great value; a remnant of clothing, or even a fragment of armor, will suffice. This is merely for locating the Heroic Spirit. Whether it can be summoned depends on whether the other party is willing to respond to you. If they don't respond, the summoning fails. Failure is fine; just try another one. Do you have any questions?"
Cocolia thought for a moment before asking, "Lord, I'd like to know what kind of person can become a Heroic Spirit?"
"Well…"
Takatsuki knows his own business; how many people are in his Throne of Heroes? And there are basically no truly historical great figures. But it doesn't matter; if it fails, he can just say it's because they didn't respond.
"Legendary fame, I suppose. Not just heroes, even notorious villains can become Heroic Spirits, what are called Anti-Heroes. So, whether one can become a Heroic Spirit depends on their legendary fame. To use you as an example, hoping you'll be remembered in history is probably out of the question, but if you can make yourself infamous for ten thousand years, you can also become an Anti-Hero based on that legendary fame."
Although Cocolia was somewhat displeased with Takatsuki using her as an example, she dared not show it. After all, the gap in status and position was there, and she was still hoping to rely on him to turn things around.
"Then, how do I get there when the Holy Grail War begins?"
"You don't have to worry about that. I will send you there when the time comes. Only the Master and Servant can go; no one else can be brought along. That's all, I still have to deliver things to others."
Just Cocolia wasted three minutes of his time. Takatsuki directly opened the passage and turned to leave, no longer bothering with her, otherwise, who knew if she would ask a bunch more questions.
Only after Takatsuki left did Cocolia pick up the contract from the table, and a smile spread across her face as she looked at the clauses and the magic circle on the back.
Meanwhile, Takatsuki, on the other side, instantly traveled from Siberia to Shenzhou.
He raised an eyebrow as he watched a little girl kneeling on a meditation cushion, bowing to a statue in front of her.
This was the second chosen participant.
"Yang Yuxin."
Takatsuki suddenly spoke, and the little girl in front of him was startled, then came back to her senses and looked at Takatsuki.
"Lord! Did my prayer work?!"
Prayer, huh? Takatsuki looked at the enshrined statue. Perhaps so…
Although he was very familiar with this statue, he didn't choose this child, who seemed to be only thirteen or fourteen, for that reason. Rather, he genuinely felt the child's deep longing for the Holy Grail.
"More or less. This is your contract. Next, I'll tell you how to summon a Servant and what to pay attention to."
After repeating what he had said before, Takatsuki added, "If you feel it's dangerous, you can abandon the contract. If you feel it's dangerous during the Holy Grail War, you can also voluntarily give up your Master qualification. The Holy Grail War is not a game; people will die."
Yang Yuxin blinked her eyes, looking at Takatsuki whose tone had softened, then smiled at him.
"Thank you for your concern, Lord, but I have already made my decision. As long as I can fulfill my wish, even if I die, I will be content."
"Is that so…"
Without asking what Yang Yuxin's wish was, since she was just a child who hadn't appeared in the original work, Takatsuki left in front of her again.
"This is… an immortal's technique? Is Lord also an immortal?"
Watching Takatsuki leave, Yang Yuxin looked at the contract in her hand. After finding a pencil at home and signing her name on it, Yang Yuxin looked at the magic circle on the back.
"Holy Relic, huh…"
She looked out the window, unlike Cocolia.
She was a pure ordinary person, even inferior to many in modern society, because she was just an orphan who wanted to live in a small mountain village.
"Mom and Dad… please bless me. I will avenge you."
After much thought.
She walked outside, drew a crude magic circle on the ground with a stone, then returned home and took out—or rather, respectfully invited out—the statue enshrined in the shrine, placing it reverently in the very center of the magic circle.
She placed the worn-out meditation cushion next to the magic circle and knelt upon it.
"Scarlet Phoenix Immortal… please help me."