Fate: I Heard After Death, You Can Ascend to the Throne of Heroes?

(Words: 1747)

In the blink of an eye,

About five days had passed.

Five days later, at night.

Outside the Clock Tower, Waver's residence.

Waver, the Lord El-Melloi II, dressed formally, held a cigarette in his mouth and quietly waited in the cool night breeze for the visitor tonight.

The vistor was none other than the student under his care.

Gray stood behind him, the moonlight illuminating the beautiful silver hair beneath her hood.

At this moment, her eyes were filled with anticipation for the arrival of her classmate, and even a hint of nervousness.

Because during this week, she had quietly supplemented her knowledge and consulted the legends about that person left behind in the age of Greek mythology.

As a result, Gray finally fully understood what kind of monster this person was!

"He's here."

While she was still lost in thought about how the newcomer would appear and what he would say, Grey heard Waver put down his cigarette and speak while looking up.

Following his gaze towards the night sky, she saw a silver meteor falling from the stars.

A mythical and fantastical creature, a Pegasus with pure white wings, descended from the stars, carrying a young man seemingly favored by the gods to the mortal world.

The breeze blew through the young man's hair, his clear and bright emerald eyes sparkling like stars.

Gray, who took all of this in, couldn't help but stand there in a daze as looked at the young man, feeling as if the figure in front of her had stepped out of a legendary mural.

"Honestly," Waver sighed and said. "Couldn't you have made a simpler, more normal entrance? Do you have any idea how much effort I've put into covering up your existence these past few days?"

Well..he sounded quite disgruntled.

In fact, the more important reason was that this place was very close to the Clock tower.

"It's alright, Professor," a gentle voice replied as the smiling young man, Promise, dismounted from the Pegasus and calmly explained, "The beautiful night will conceal my tracks. You can see me because I allow it."

Hearing this, Waver couldn't help but click his tongue in exasperation.

Ignoring him for the moment, Promise turned to Grey beside him as he raised his hand with a smile and greeted her. "Good evening, Grey. It's been a while, hasn't it?"

"Ah, yes,"

Gray, startled for a moment, regained her composure and nodded gently with a calm expression, saying, "Long time no see, Promise."

What should I do? What should I say next? What should I say! ... Just as she was thinking about this—

"I say, Gray, Professor must have been talking about me behind my back these past few days, right?"

Promise walked over to Gray as Pegasus turned around and skillfully wandered off to graze nearby.

Hearing this, the latter instinctively blinked at Promise as she hear him say.

"Because I can completely imagine it! And the professor's dark circles are just too obvious now, making his temper seem really irritable at the moment."

As Promise spoke, he even exaggerated his expression and said, "So, these past few days, the professor must have been hiding information from me while grumbling fiercely about me behind my back!"

Listening to this, Gray couldn't help but recall the past few days when Waver had been angrily expressing his frustrations while hiding information from Promise and her lips involuntarily curled upward.

"You're aware of that, huh? Then can't you make less of a commotion for once?" Waver shouted angrily.

"I've been trying my best! And look, haven't I been quiet and well-behaved for these five days?!"

Promise loudly defended himself.

But the more Promise said, the angrier Waver became as he raised his voice, and said, "Then it would've been better if you hadn't been this quiet! Do you know why I called you back now? It's to stop you from causing trouble next!"

In those five days, Promise had indeed been quiet and obedient—so much so that it scared everyone.

During those days, instead of participating in the Holy Grail War, Promise seemed more like a tourist in the city.

He wandered around with the little girl Kuruoka Tsubaki and Jason, taking them shopping, buying clothes, visiting various amusement parks, and trying out modern games.

They had completely gone wild!

Oh, and where did Promise get so much money, you ask?

Well, let's not mention that in this era, Promise was the young master of a declining mage family.

Besides, wasn't Gilgamesh around?

The day after the Ishtar and Bull of Heaven incident, Promise went to find Gilgamesh—or more precisely, another little girl with brown skin.

After all, Gilgamesh's master was a well-known heiress of a prominent family in the region...

Well..that arrogant king might have been furious about Promise freeloading, but the obedient Tine Chelc still paid for everything Promise wanted.

And because of this, Promise facilitated a connection between his family and Tine's family and even brought Tsubaki to his family, where she was soon treated as a treasure.

Due to Kuruoka Tsubaki's modifications, her body contained a large number of magic circuits.

Although this made her look fragile and she had too endure pain all the time, a few golden apples from the Age of Gods, a gift of the Queen of Heaven...easily resolved the issue.

Thanks to Promise's care, Tsubaki's health quickly improved.

As for Promise's mage family, which had long been troubled by issues related to magic circuits, they were overjoyed to discover such a rare gem.

Moreover, because of everything Promise had done for her, the little girl also had no objections to joining the family.

She was so delighted to become Promise's nominal sister that she often stayed up at night, too excited to sleep.

Thus, she became the darling of Promise's family.

"What are you even saying, Professor? Listen to yourself!"

Promise widened his eyes and said to Waver, "What do you mean by 'prevent you from causing trouble next'? You're making it sound like I'm always up to no good!"

It's clearly that trouble keeps finding me!

No, wait.

As a devout follower of the goddess of wisdom who loves stirring up trouble, it's absolutely not my fault.

She's the one holding my hand and dragging me into mischief.

So everything is Athena's fault!

"Heh."

With a simple chuckle, Waver perfectly conveyed his current mood before he took a long drag on his cigarette, exhaled and spoke with a weary expression, "Alright, stop playing innocent. Just tell me what you're planning to do next, so I can mentally prepare myself."

If the centaur sage Chiron were here, he would probably get along well with Waver right now.

After all, back when Promise kept insisting on leaving the mountain, Chiron used to give him the exact same look.

"Oh, it's nothing much, really. I just plan to finish this Holy Grail War by dawn after seeing you, Professor,"

Promise replied honestly and his tone was so casual, as if he were discussing something utterly normal and mundane.

Over the past five days, all the Servants had appeared.

Besides the Pale Rider and Ishtar, who had already exited the stage, there were still more than a dozen Servants remaining.

Waver, who had been secretly observing the Holy Grail War, was naturally aware of this.

And not only was Promise planning to eliminate all of them tonight, but he even made time to visit Waver...

Waver's hand trembled, and he accidentally inhaled too much smoke, choking and coughing uncontrollably.

"Professor, Professor! Are you okay? Are you okay?"

Promise stepped forward, patting his back with concern as the latter shoved him away, pointing at him with trembling hands, unable to speak for a while, before finally managing to say, "Fuck..."

"Hey, hey, hey! Professor, you're the Lord of the Clock Tower, admired by all your students. You need to maintain your elegance and decorum!"

Upon hearing these words, Waver's body trembled violently.

He stared at Promise for a long time, forcing himself to calm his raging emotions.

Over and over, he reminded himself not to get angry—not to get angry.

Mainly because he couldn't win in a fight.

Gray, standing to the side, lowered her head, doing her best to hold back her laughter.

Thanks to this little interlude, her initial nervousness disappeared completely and she had a sudden realization: the title of the class's biggest troublemaker was about to change hands.

Originally, it had belonged to that idiot genius Flat, but now it clearly belonged to Promise.

"Fine. Do whatever you want,"

Waver finally said after a long sigh as he snuffed out his cigarette, exhaled heavily and glared at Promise. "But keep the commotion down!

And... tell me what you're planning next. Is there anything I can do to help?"

Hearing his words, Promise blinked in surprise as he looked at Waver with a hint of astonishment in his eyes.

"I've taken some time to investigate a few things about you,"

The latter said, lifting his gaze to the starry night sky, the beautiful expanse of stars shimmering above.

"You didn't hand me that withdrawal notice that day, which means there's something you have to do at the Clock Tower. I'm not interested in what you want to do or what fate might have shown you, nor do I want to know.

"But if you need help, just say the word. I'll help if I can."

Hearing this, Promise couldn't help but laugh.

As expected of the most beloved teacher at the Clock Tower, the tsundere professor who skips the awkward phases.

"Professor, I want to go to Chaldea," So, Promise said, finally revealing his intentions without hesitation.

"Alright." Waver nodded, true to his word.

He didn't ask why, nor did he inquire about what Chaldea even was.

"I'll handle it,"

He just said, and turned around.

Seeing this, Promise smiled, understanding his intentions.

So he also nodded slightly toward Gray as a farewell, then turned to mount Pegasus once more.

As Pegasus spread its holy wings, preparing to take Promise back into the starry night sky, Waver finally couldn't hold back anymore as he covered his forehead, and said, "Keep the commotion to a minimum."

"Got it, Professor~~"

With a flap of its wings, Pegasus carried Promise into the sea of stars above.

"...Fuck, he definitely won't listen,"

Gray looked Waver's frustated expression and secretly nodded in agreement.

Yeah, he absolutely won't listen.

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