Magician in Type-Moon

Page 641

"But at the beginning..."

His gaze seemed to drift into some empty space, recalling a dusty corner, "...just a bit of related information that I casually unearthed while investigating Kirei Kotomine."

Although I don't quite believe Matou Ike's claim of "it was just a coincidence".

But Shirou Kotomine still nodded.

“Brother Chi,” his voice lowered, the last trace of ease from the reunion with an old friend gone, replaced entirely by the sharpness and solemnity of an agent.

"Do you remember... that ritual that appeared in the ruins of the Nightfall Mansion a month ago?" He deliberately emphasized a certain word, "...the ritual of the Reverse Kabbalah Tree of Life."

“Reverse Kabbalah Tree of Life…” Matou Ike’s brow furrowed almost imperceptibly.

“…I remember.” His voice was steady, yet carried a hint of alertness, as if a crucial clue had been touched. “What is it?”

He stared directly at Shirou Kotomine, waiting for him to continue.

Kotomine Shirou took a deep breath, as if he was carefully choosing his words, or perhaps gathering the courage to reveal some huge secret.

He leaned forward slightly, his gaze fixed on Matou Ike with an almost entrusted sincerity:

“That ritual…the source it points to, certain key ‘mediums’ it uses…are inextricably linked to certain taboos that the Church has sealed deepest, that must never be touched.”

His voice was even lower, each word carrying a heavy weight, "Brother Chi, do you still remember... that ceremony back then, what happened in the end?"

“Hmm…” Matou Ike let out a low groan that was hard to decipher, as if he was searching for details in his memory. He picked up the cold coffee cup, his fingertips unconsciously tracing the rough, chipped rim of the cup.

"At the end of that ritual..." His gaze drifted to the empty space, as if he could see the blasphemous scene deep within the Nightfall Mansion, "...it seemed to summon a...demon."

He paused, his tone as flat as if he were describing stepping on an insect.

"...Finally..." He tilted his head slightly, his movement carrying a cold, almost inhuman indifference, "...it seems I killed him."

Chapter 666 The Deal (4k)

Upon hearing this, Shirou's gaze instinctively swept towards Kallen, who seemed to blend into the shadows behind him.

The wide, low-hanging hood swayed very slightly, yet with unusual determination, from side to side—a silent denial.

The white-haired nun's presence in the shadows was like a cold phosphorescent flame, faint yet impossible to ignore.

Shirou withdrew his gaze, and when he looked at Matouike again, the warmth of familiarity deep in his eyes had been completely overshadowed by the sharpness of the proxy. His voice was even deeper, carrying a solemnity as if facing an unknown taboo:

“Brother Chi,” he spoke slowly, each word as if weighed precisely, “Are you… absolutely certain? That He… has truly vanished completely?”

"Oh?" Matou Ike's eyebrows, which were as fine as precision instruments, twitched upwards by an extremely subtle millimeter, and the eerie light in his demonic eyes seemed to flow faster for a moment behind the lenses.

He caught the unusual certainty in Shirou's words and Kallen's silent denial. This was by no means a simple questioning, but a conclusion based on some information he did not yet possess.

"It seems..." Chi's voice remained calm, but with a hint of cold amusement, "...that you seem to possess some... 'confirmed information' that I haven't been informed of?"

His sitting posture remained unchanged, but his vast memory bank was instantly activated, and countless fragments related to that night began to be retrieved, collided, and reassembled at high speed.

The scene freezes deep within the Night Robbery Mansion, in a space distorted by the power of the blasphemous ritual.

“...Back then,” Chi’s voice was as if he were reading a cold experimental report, “and indeed only ‘gnawed’ at some of His core powers.” He used the unusually precise yet inhuman verb “gnawed”, as if describing the dismantling of a part of a sophisticated device.

"As for what happens next..." He paused slightly, the dark brown coffee surface failing to reflect the slightest ripple in his eyes.

"...I was busy with other things at the time, so I didn't pay attention to it."

At the time, he considered the name that was listed as one of the Seven Deadly Sins alongside Beelzebub, and the fragments of information about the "Imperial Sorcerer Guild" organization that was vaguely associated with it, to be nothing more than redundant data that no longer needed to be sorted out in the dust of the events.

Being brought up again now is like a forgotten file number, flashing a faint light in the depths of memory.

"Is that so..." Shirou nodded slowly, his voice low.

However, the fleeting doubt that he forcibly suppressed between his brows was like a tiny grain of sand stuck in a precision gear, and it had nowhere to hide under Matou Ike's magical eyes that could see through the movement of microscopic particles.

The air seemed to freeze for several seconds between the cheap plastic tables and chairs, with only the indistinct laughter of diners at the next table and the sizzling sound of oil pans in the distance as background noise.

The silence was so heavy it seemed to drip water.

Ultimately, it was not Shirou who broke the tense stalemate, but the presence behind him that was almost one with the shadows.

Karen Altsia silently took half a step forward. The pale restaurant lights finally and sparingly illuminated her beautifully shaped jawline and her pale, tightly pursed lips beneath her hood.

“Matou-nii,” her voice rang out, clear and pure like a silver bell tolling deep within a church, carrying a purity stripped of all emotional fluctuations, yet with the playfulness of a young girl.

“We…” she paused slightly, as if carefully choosing her words, “…hope to receive your assistance in this matter involving ‘reverse Kabbalah’ and the roots of church taboos.”

"Oh?" Matou Ike's gaze was like two cold laser beams, instantly focusing on the dark shadow under Karen's hood, as if trying to penetrate the fabric and look directly into those eyes that were said to be like gold.

His lips, which were almost never moved by emotions, now curled upwards in a tiny, playful, and inquisitive arc, a rare occurrence.

"A deal?" His voice remained calm. "...Do you want to make a deal with me, Miss Altasia?"

Matou Ike's overly direct words, which almost stripped away all polite pretense, clearly caused a crack in Karen Ordesia's inhuman composure.

Her silhouette beneath the hood seemed to stiffen slightly—this straightforward business logic clashed abruptly with the subtle familiarity and even brotherly casualness of their earlier conversation.

It's as if they were discussing the weather one second, and the next they've revealed the blade of the contract.

But Kallen is Kallen after all. She quickly grasped the situation: the other party was Matou Ike, a magician whose foundation was rationality and equivalent exchange, not a church member who relied on personal relationships or positions. Here, the aura of holiness and curse was meaningless; only the weight of the scales mattered.

“If…” Her voice remained cold and crisp, but her pace quickened almost imperceptibly, as if adapting to the rhythm of this blatant negotiation, “…If Lord Matou needs anything, Shirou and I… will do our best.”

"Hmm." Matou Ike let out a low groan that was hard to decipher, the playful smile on his lips deepening slightly, his gaze like a cold probe, locked onto the shadows beneath Kallen's hood.

“This idea…” he said slowly, his fingertips tapping lightly on the rim of the cold coffee cup, producing a subtle yet clear tapping sound, like some kind of countdown, “…is not bad. I’ll help you once, you help me once…”

He paused deliberately, making the "tap-tap" sound particularly jarring in the silence.

“...But,” his voice suddenly became as smooth and hard as ice, “...does it conform to ‘equivalent exchange,’ Miss Ordesia?”

Karen's jawline tightened instantly beneath her hood, her pale lips pressed into a bloodless line. The icy aura surrounding her seemed to freeze. No words were needed; the silence itself was the answer.

She knew. She knew it perfectly well.

Their "help"

Even if one were to exert all one's strength—for Matou Ike, who is labeled "extremely dangerous," "uncontrollable," and "unfathomable" even in the deepest archives of the Holy Church, his value might be as light as a feather.

The secrets he possessed, the power he wielded, and the areas he explored were far beyond what she and Shirou could easily attain.

The so-called "mutual help" is more like a one-sided demand, with a huge and unbridgeable value gap looming in front of us.

In the shadows, her fingers, clasped tightly in front of her, turned white at the knuckles, as if resisting some invisible pressure. She thought rapidly, trying to find a leverage point among the scarce resources to move this inhuman being before her—

Church secrets? Forbidden knowledge? Or perhaps it's her own cursed, twisted nature...

Just as these thoughts were churning, and a heavy choice was about to be made—

"but……"

Matou Ike's deep, steady voice rang out again, like a precisely placed chess piece, instantly cutting off her thought process.

He leaned forward slightly, and the speed at which his demonic eyes, hidden behind his glasses, seemed to quicken slightly as they focused on Karen with a pure and cold interest.

“…I do have something,” he uttered clearly, his gaze like invisible chains, “…that I need your help with.”

“…Ike-nii,” Shirou’s voice broke the brief silence, carrying a hint of tension, “What is it?” He leaned forward slightly, his Proxy’s instincts telling him that something unusual was amiss.

Matou Ike's gaze shifted from Kallen to Shirou's face, as if he were merely mentioning a trivial matter.

“I heard,” his voice was calm and even, “that your church recently took in a Shugendo fellow.”

——!

These words, like a pebble thrown into a calm lake, instantly stirred up silent ripples in the hearts of Shirou and Kallen.

Shirou's pupils contracted almost imperceptibly, and the shadow under Kallen's hood seemed to deepen for a moment as well.

The two exchanged a quick glance, their eyes filled with surprise and confusion. Shugendo? That eccentric guy who had only recently joined their temporary team?

Why did Matou Ike suddenly turn against him?

This sudden piece of information, seemingly unrelated to the reverse Kabbalah taboo they were investigating, was brought up by Matou Ike himself, suggesting a deeper and more complex causal chain behind it.

In the brief silence, only the hum of cheap fluorescent tubes could be heard.

Shirou's mind raced, weighing the implications and consequences of revealing too much information. Ultimately, he chose to confirm the most basic fact, his voice tinged with cautious probing:

“Hmm…” He nodded slowly, his gaze fixed on Ike’s reaction, “…There is indeed such a person. His name… seems to be Tokito Jirobo Seigen.”

“Tokito Jirobo Seigen…” Matou Ike repeated the name in a low voice, the syllables sounding as if they had been chewed by a cold machine, devoid of any emotion.

The almost imperceptible curve at the corner of his mouth seemed to deepen by an extremely subtle amount.

“Since you know…” His gaze was like a precise probe, capturing every subtle change in Shirou’s face, “…that makes things much easier.”

He leaned back slightly, disappearing back into the shadow of the plastic chair back, his posture exuding a relaxed sense of control.

"The terms of the deal are simple." Matou Ike's voice was clear and cold, as if reading out the terms of a contract.

“As long as your Holy Church…” He paused slightly, his gaze sweeping over Shirou before finally settling on Karen’s low-hanging hood, “…is willing to ‘hand over’ that Shugendo fellow to me for disposal.”

He deliberately emphasized the word "交" (jiao), as if it were the delivery of an item.

“Then,” he said finally, his tone calm yet carrying a great promise, “…I will provide the assistance you are concerned about in accordance with your request, and do my best to help you accomplish it.”

Shirou and Kallen's silence fell like heavy lead weights between the tables and chairs.

The air seemed to freeze, even the muffled chatter of diners at the next table and the sizzling sound of oil in the pan seemed to be shut out.

They were clearly taken aback by this sudden, almost cruel demand—to hand over their teammates who had fought alongside them.

This touches on a certain bottom line, whether it's the responsibility of acting as an agent or the basic morality of being a human being.

Matou Ike's cold, demonic eyes, like a high-precision scanner, silently recorded the resistance and embarrassment on the faces of the two people that could not be completely concealed.

He didn't urge him, but observed this "human" reaction with great interest, like observing the stress changes of colonies in a petri dish.

"Oh?" He uttered a short syllable, breaking the silence, his voice carrying a hint of cold inquiry.

“Could it be…” His gaze slowly moved between Shirou’s tense face and Kallen’s lowered hood, as if analyzing data. “…This Shugendo guy has already climbed to the position of an ‘important member’ within the Holy Church so quickly?”

This statement, like a precise probe, pierced through the facade of silence.

Shirou took a deep breath, as if trying to suppress that heavy burden.

He raised his head to meet Chi's cold gaze, his voice low yet exceptionally clear, carrying the uncompromising decisiveness unique to an agent:

“Yes,” he answered decisively, “then Jirobo Seigen, he… recently officially assumed the role of acting head. Therefore,”

He paused, each word like a nail driven into a wooden board, "...We cannot accept these terms of the deal."