Semiramis observed the city with her dove familiars. She was still wondering how to gather so many materials for her dazzling Noble Phantasm. The best way was to spend tons of money, which will strengthen the Mystery of the Hanging Gardens. But her Master didn’t have the wealth required for that route, so they could only steal the items.

Haruki spent about an hour with Medea. From her previous words to the current magic circle laid before her, Medea had pieced together some information. The Grail was a tool with the sole purpose of opening a door to Akasha with an enormous supply of magical energy. The amount of energy was about the same as seven servants of her level. In other words, every servant in the war would be sacrificed to open the door to Akasha.

Her Master had told her about another option, which only required the souls of six servants. She couldn’t validate his claim as she didn’t see the Greater Grail system—its physical manifestation and its core. It was meant to only appear when the Lesser Grail had amassed enough energy. Even so, she came to know that her wish required the sacrifice of seven servants as it would create a different timeline where Jason will be dead before Aphrodite cursed Medea. Any change related to the timeline was only achievable through Akasha.

—That meant discarding her wish as well as her life.

Giving another look at Haruki, Medea sighed.

‘Can Master give me happiness? If yes…’

She didn’t mind sticking around with him even after the war ended. Was it love that pushed her or just pure reliance on someone who opened their heart to her? She didn’t know, neither did she care.

Medea told her findings to Haruki through telepathy. As if she’d trust the Poisonous Witch with precious information like this. If push comes to shove, Medea didn’t mind discarding Semiramis.

Haruki, who already knew the information, sighed.

‘Anything about Angra Mainyu?’

“Nothing for now. I can’t do anything without manifesting the Greater Grail System,” Medea conveyed with a tiny smile. “I’m confident in doing it… in less than a day.”

He wholeheartedly believed in her. In one of Shirou’s bad endings, she had done the same and fulfilled her wish by using Shirou for his projection magic. She had the capability of tinkering with magic. After all, the entire Heaven’s Feel System was still made with magecraft of the modern era. It couldn’t stop her if she set her eyes on obtaining her wish.

“Hmm.” Haruki rubbed his chin. “Caster, you should work on my Mystic code today, then on the Grail.”

“As you wish, Master.”

Haruki placed his hand on her cheeks. “Thanks for making my life easy.”

Medea placed her hand on his, revealing a charming smile. “It’s what I want to do.”

“My master, stop flirting,” Semiramis said. “Can I move to this place? It may lack the luxury of a castle, but I can make do with it.”

“Sure. I’ll still stay at home.”

“I'll stay with Master,” Medea added, recalling Kaede’s teasing behavior. She was going to lure out the mischievous woman for her son.

They returned to the surface. He chose a random room and sat down with his servants.

“Caster, you’ll be working on that. Semiramis will be creating bounded fields around the temple.”

“I already did that,” Semiramis said with a smile and triggered the bounded fields. “My dumb master.”

He felt the thin layer of mana in the air. For Mages, the effect was non-existent unless it was a specialized bounded field like Medusa’s Noble Phantasm ‘Blood Fort Andromeda’, which sucked the magical energy of anyone trapped in it. Any human would unconsciously avoid this area protected by normal bounded fields.

“I have something to do at the school,” Haruki said and checked his wristwatch. “In about two hours, I’ll leave with Semiramis.”

“Master—”

“Stop worrying. I’ll be fine.”

“Okay…”

Medea relented, afraid of annoying him too much.

“Can you create some skeletons for me?”

Since he had some time, he was going to smash some skeleton heads.

“Of course,” she turned to Semiramis with a glare. “Help out Master.”

Two witches glared at each other. Semiramis gave up with a sigh.

“Fine…”

He dragged the two into the yard. The wide, open area was an awesome place to spar. Medea created some dragon tooth soldiers and left a ton of dragon fangs to Semiramis. Her job was to recreate them until he was exhausted while Medea worked on the Mystic Code.

Haruki wasted no time in charging at the skeleton warriors. Using the same snatch and kill technique, he finished off a group of nine skeleton warriors.

Semiramis sat on the wooden platform outside the shrine, resting her face in her hands.

“More,” Haruki said.

She lazily tossed a few dragons fangs to create another batch. A fight of this level was outright boring to her.

‘Damn it.’

His pride hurt, just a little. Keeping his dragon pride under control, he dove into another fight and finished off the seven dragon warriors.

[Awakening progress: 1.0%]

[Authority acquired: Dragon Core (Incomplete)]

A wave of magical energy burst from him, pushing him off the ground. He levitated a few meters off the ground, feeling the magical energy rampaging around him.

Semiramis’s eyes widened. Her years of experience in magecraft and witchcraft didn’t tell her about this situation. She was about to help him, but Medea held her back.

“Don’t disturb him,” Medea said, watching Haruki closely. If anything was dangerous, Haruki would have told her.

He looked fascinated and happy as he felt the magical energy coursing through his veins. His Od slowly reeled in and accumulated near his heart. He sensed another heartbeat from the newly found ‘dragon core’ in his chest. The dragon core had multiplied his magical reserves by several folds. His muscles felt hardened, his flesh bursting with energy. It was as if he was reborn.

[Mana Flow Control Skill evolved to D rank]

“This is just the beginning,” Arch said, a hint of pride in her voice. “You’ll see how broken our race truly is.”

‘I can see that already.’

“It’ll come with many risks… such as Gaia or Alaya finding you and labeling you as a threat to humanity or the world. Your dragon aura is sealed, and your current power is no threat to any conceptual entity.”

‘This will be a bumpy ride…’

He looked over to Semiramis and Medea. The former was full of curiosity about his change while the latter had a hint of worry in her eyes. He stopped himself from clearing her concerns and bringing her usual soft smile back.

‘Not now.’

Instead, he checked his status and the new authority.

[Haruki Hayashi] Species: Dragon [Current awakening progress 1.00%] Age: 17 Gender: Male Height, Weight: 181cm/75kg Alignment: Chaotic Neutral [Parameters] Strength: 10 (E) Endurance: 10 (E) Agility: 8 (E-) Magical energy: 40 (B) Luck: 10 (E) [Authorities] Dragon Heart ... Dragon Core (Incomplete) A dragon core that can generate nearly unlimited magical energy as per your desires.

His height and weight increased alongside his stats. No wonder he had this odd feeling about his body being more robust.

‘What’s the catch with this core?’

No conditions were listed under the dragon core despite it being incomplete.

“Sharp as usual,” Arch answered. “It will burn your blood if used too much.”

‘That’s… How do I complete it?’

“Awaken more.”

He saw this retort coming from a mile. Arch was becoming too predictable for a goddess.

“I’m a muscle-head. Is that what you want to say?”

‘No. I was talking about our relationship. We’re growing closer every day. Don’t you think?’

“…”