"Zhuge… Kongming?" Waver patted the dust off his backside, then craned his neck forward, his distrust almost visibly written on his face. It would have been even more perfect if a black man's question mark had appeared above his head.
"Are you sure?"
With that, Waver once again scrutinized the man who called himself Kongming, but no matter how he looked, this was completely and utterly a genuine Englishman, wasn't he? Besides his slightly long hair, everything about him just reeked of England.
Furthermore, this man who called himself Kongming even spoke with a London accent. If he was going to lie, he should at least speak Chinese!
He didn't even bother to hide his accent and just insisted he was Kongming from the Far East. Was he... taking him for an idiot?
And for some reason, Waver always felt that this tall man in a suit was very familiar, as if he had known him for a long time, but Waver couldn't recall where he had ever met such a person. He could only attribute it to the brain's classic illusion phenomenon. Simply put, an illusion is when the brain is too lazy to process current information and directly assumes that what it is encountering is something already known.
If he wasn't mistaken, Kongming should be a figure from the Far East from 1800 years ago, yet the person in front of him was wearing a suit that only came into existence in modern times. How could someone from 1800 years ago in the Far East be wearing something like that? It didn't make any sense, did it?
Surely, suits weren't invented during the Three Kingdoms period 1800 years ago? Unless Kongming wasn't from 1800 years ago, but from 1800 AD.
"I know your doubts, but there's no need to worry about them. You just need to know that I am Kongming," Kongming said, taking a puff from the cigar he held in his right hand. "In short, I am your Servant in this Holy Grail War. Knowing that is enough, isn't it?"
"But..."
"It's enough, isn't it!" Seeing that Waver seemed to want to press further, Kongming said again, righteously.
Waver hesitated repeatedly, finally nodding.
"Mm... mm."
— — — — — —
The next day, morning.
Haku, walking down the street, frequently attracted the attention of passersby. After all... if you have a cat constantly wrapped around your neck, it's bound to be quite eye-catching, right?
He had originally wanted Tom to walk with him, but unfortunately, Tom didn't seem to be used to moving on all fours all the time. After walking for a bit, he would stand up and walk alongside Haku. To be honest, for ordinary passersby, this kind of thing was quite unsettling.
Then Haku tried carrying Tom, which was even worse. After a while, Haku noticed that Tom was being stretched longer and longer by gravity.
By the time Haku realized it, Tom's lower half had already turned into a twenty-meter-long rope. He could even coil himself up into a roll of cat. It was truly hard for people to keep a straight face. Fortunately, there was no one around at the time, otherwise it would have been over.
None of the methods worked, and he couldn't just not bring Tom, as Haku himself would feel very insecure.
After all, if you remove Tom, who is the main combat force, calling Haku a 'battle-scraps' would be an insult to the term. He would definitely be finished if he encountered danger.
So, in summary, Haku finally chose to wrap Tom around his neck like a scarf. And surprisingly, it was quite warm. Besides Tom constantly wiggling and making Haku's neck itchy, there weren't too many other drawbacks.
Haku had originally planned to get up earlier, but unfortunately, his internal clock seemed to be fixed. Just like before he transmigrated, he slept until 11 AM.
And he didn't even wake up on his own; the main reason was that Tom, next to him, had a terrible sleeping posture. He actually kicked in his sleep, directly hitting Haku's forehead. It actually hurt quite a bit, even if it was just a cat's kick.
However, recalling how Tom had previously taken down Ryunosuke just by swinging a large club with his hand, without moving his arm, it suddenly made sense.
If not for that, he probably wouldn't have woken up until 1 PM this time.
Although this was indeed Tom's credit to some extent, the experience of being kicked awake early in the morning was clearly not going to be too pleasant. Haku still felt his head buzzing.
But these things weren't important. What was important was that he discovered that this world... seemed to be different from what he had imagined?
First of all, he was very certain that the Fifth Holy Grail War was in 2004, and the Fourth Holy Grail War was ten years prior, in 1994.
However... how come everyone on the street had a smartphone in their hands? And looking up, he could see all sorts of large screens? Certain streets even had café employees dressed as maids promoting their businesses outside?
Currently, Haku was like Grandma Liu visiting the Grand View Garden.
It wasn't that he hadn't seen these things before; he definitely had. But the crucial point was where he had seen them.
Seeing them in a modern city was perfectly normal, so normal that the absence of these things would feel bizarre. But 1994 was different; back then, cell phones were 'big brother' phones (early bulky mobile phones), not these large-screen smartphones. Haku's only feeling now was how preposterous it was.
All his doubts were finally resolved when Haku, at the cost of being taken for an idiot by passersby, asked one of them, 'What year is it?'
However, this result completely confused Haku. It was actually 2012, a full 18 years after the Fourth Holy Grail War in the normal timeline. Not to mention the Fourth Holy Grail War, by rights, the Fifth Holy Grail War should have already concluded, and the Holy Grail would be dismantled in another two years.
18 years later is 18 years later, but a new problem arose: if it was 18 years later, then why did the Ryunosuke he encountered still look like he was in his twenties?
"Tom, do you think we've been tricked?" Recalling the words "Fourth Holy Grail War" clearly written on the panel, Haku couldn't help but feel a pang of sorrow, and he stroked Tom, who was wrapped around his neck.
Tom could only shrug and spread his hands, as if saying, 'How would a cat like me understand what you're talking about?'
Seeing this, Haku could only continue his investigation in Fuyuki City. Whatever he had to do next, intelligence was essential, especially now that he knew the timeline was completely off.
He had previously located the Tohsaka Family and Matou Family residences, as these two mage families' mansions were quite conspicuous. He didn't even need to search; he just pretended to be a tourist and asked passersby for directions.
Only the Emiya Family residence was truly impossible to find. Many houses in that area looked similar to the Emiya Family's, and actually searching for it would be a real headache.
Meanwhile, as Haku was scouting various locations in Fuyuki City, an airplane from Germany landed smoothly on the runway of Fuyuki Airport.