"Heh… so you really still refuse to trust this old man."
That nauseating voice crawled into Ritsuka's ear again.
"But I truly didn't expect this, Ritsuka—holding out here for so long. Do you have plans of your own?"
Several days had passed since Ritsuka's return.
In the pitch-black cavern beneath Ryūdō Temple, Matou Zouken's hunched silhouette appeared once more—because Ritsuka still hadn't come back.
And the instant the old worm returned to this place, he saw it:
Ritsuka's figure, busy in the cavern—preparing something.
"Isn't that obvious?" Ritsuka answered flatly. "Old worm, what did you think I'd do? Did you really believe I'd ever entrust you with trust?"
Even as he spoke, he kept working.
He bent over and continued drawing on the ground—lines and symbols spreading into a carefully constructed pattern. He couldn't even be bothered to lift his head, as if Zouken's reappearance was nothing but a trivial annoyance.
"You're as cold as ever," Zouken said. "We may not share blood, but I did raise you for over ten years. That's no way to treat an elder, Ritsuka."
"Heh," Ritsuka replied without looking up. "If you call that 'raising,' then sure—you raised me by torturing me for over ten years."
He flicked the insult back like a knife.
"What, do you want me to be grateful? Should I thank you with tears in my eyes?"
"Without hardship, how does one become strong?" Zouken's voice sank lower. "A magus's training is never instantaneous. Without my careful arrangements and 'cultivation,' how could you have grown into what you are in such a short time?"
"Pain is the beginning of power," he continued, as if preaching. "Wasn't everything I did for your future? To keep you from squandering your talent like my two useless descendants… to forge you into a true powerhouse who can stand alone."
His tone turned almost regretful.
"I thought someone as clever as you would eventually understand my intentions."
Ritsuka's answer was immediate.
"Nice speech. Pure bullshit."
"If you came here just to talk nonsense, then you can leave right now."
He still didn't raise his head.
"Old worm, you know perfectly well I'm not some ignorant brat like Shinji. Verbal bait doesn't work on me."
Zouken's words were smooth, one line after another—always framed as I'm doing this for you.
But Ritsuka didn't trust him in the slightest.
To him, Zouken was like a devil in hell—guiding humans into ruin. If he believed even a fraction of that honeyed poison, he'd end up destroyed.
So Ritsuka didn't intend to believe even a punctuation mark.
"…"
Seeing that his rhetoric had no effect, Zouken didn't show much emotion—no anger, no frustration. It seemed like idle amusement to him: if it worked, fine; if it didn't, also fine.
Because something else mattered far more.
"…By the way. Are you really going to summon a Servant now—and choose this place to do it?"
Leaning on his cane, Zouken stood to the side and examined the summoning circle Ritsuka had painstakingly drawn—clearly modified and improved from a standard design.
Something unreadable flickered in Zouken's eyes.
"Summoning this close to the Grail… you're bold."
Ritsuka, standing at the center of the circle, nodded once.
"What's the problem?"
"You tell me." Zouken's voice deepened. "Yes—summoning Caster early gives you more preparation time and strengthens your readiness. But have you considered what matters most?"
"The Grail system has only just started," he said, gaze fixed on the circle. "The mana it carries hasn't truly filled to capacity. If you summon a Heroic Spirit now, you might fail because the Grail's mana supply isn't sufficient."
Compared to Ritsuka's "seize the initiative" strategy, Zouken's concern was more pragmatic:
A failure here could plant an irreversible flaw in everything that followed.
"It won't fail," Ritsuka said, sharp and certain.
His eyes held the calm confidence of someone who had already done the math.
"I'm summoning in the Great Cavern because of the mana that lingers here."
"And I'm not calling a high-consumption Class like the Three Knight Classes."
"I'm calling the least costly one—Caster."
"Even if the Grail hasn't filled, the initial output plus the accumulated power in the local leyline is enough."
Ritsuka had absolute confidence.
He was deliberately trying to slip through a loophole—cheating the timetable.
And the real reason he chose Caster was simple:
He wanted to bring in a Age of Gods mage as early as possible.
Compared to other Servants, Caster's strength was never raw stats.
It was setup, infrastructure, preparation.
On paper, Caster might look like the weakest in a Holy Grail War.
But in terms of ceiling?
Almost no one could rival them.
The reason Casters "underperform" in most Grail Wars was time.
Even a divine-era magus needs time to build a workshop and establish territory. But the Grail War's timeframe is brutally short—forcing a Caster to erect defenses capable of withstanding multiple enemy teams in just days.
Even getting materials is a problem, let alone building.
But what if time wasn't scarce?
What if you had one or two months to patiently construct a workshop?
Then Caster's threat profile changes completely.
As a magus, Ritsuka understood exactly how overwhelming a proper workshop could be.
So the question became:
Who can defeat a divine-era magus head-on inside a complete workshop built by that same divine-era magus?
Right now, there were roughly three months until the Holy Grail War officially began.
That was why Ritsuka decided to summon three months early.
If he could secure an Age of Gods Caster and give them three months to lay foundations, the odds of victory would skyrocket.
And there was another reason, too—
Ritsuka wanted to verify something.
Zouken had delivered what appeared to be an important relic tied to a famous divine-era archmage.
But that archmage was too special.
Too uncertain.
Ritsuka couldn't reliably predict what might happen next.
Because… the target might not even be dead.
It was possible the summon would fail outright.
So he needed to test the relic early.
If the intended Servant couldn't be summoned, he would still have time to switch relics and fall back to a backup plan—summoning someone else instead.
Anything was better than having a fatal misfire at the last second.
After weighing everything, summoning now was—by Ritsuka's calculation—the best decision.
But…
Just as the old worm said, nothing came without a price.
If you wanted the benefit, you accepted the risk.
"Even if you can summon before the Greater Grail is full," Zouken warned again, "it may affect the quality of what you summon."
"You might not call their peak," he said, voice low. "You might summon an aspect from childhood, or some other special period."
"Even then… you're fine with it?"
Ritsuka didn't hesitate.
"Don't worry. I've already accepted everything."
"No matter what the result is…"
"I won't regret it."
He knew it was a gamble.
But once the decision was made, there was no room for retreat.
A magus was—by nature—obsessive and absolute. Once they chose a path, they didn't stop midway.
Even if failure demanded a price, they would pay it willingly.
When the last trace of hesitation vanished, Ritsuka raised his hand and released his mana—pressing it steadily into the activation node of the ritual circle.
And then, right in front of Zouken, he triggered the Heroic Spirit summoning ritual he had prepared in advance.
"In this place, I declare—"
Join here to read ahead.
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TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter20)
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