=9 PM, Abandoned Building=
"This is a suitable place to summon a Servant."
"Yes, Mama thinks so too."
Honestly, it was hard to find an abandoned building.
The reason was simple.
Tiamat's appearance drew too much attention, so we couldn't just walk into a deserted building suspiciously.
I wish I could have learned some kind of magecraft to ward people off.
As someone who is just an ordinary person... should I say life is tough?
In any case, we were only able to enter the abandoned building after nightfall. This place was one of those buildings where construction had been halted and was eventually left abandoned after a strike. It was a place no one paid any mind to.
Such buildings are hard to find but not uncommon, and in any case, it was a fitting location to summon a Servant.
"First, the magic circle..."
I looked up the magic circle on my smartphone and drew it with chalk.
"Do you need Mama's power?"
"No? I don't think I'll need it right now..."
When I said that, Tiamat looked at me with a somewhat dejected expression.
Hey, I can do this on my own!
Once the magic circle was complete.
Ding~
An alert sounded from my smartphone, and I checked it.
『Select Class.
Saber (Summoning Impossible)
Lancer (Summoning Impossible)
Archer (Summoning Impossible)
Rider (Summoning Impossible)
Caster (Summoning Possible)
Assassin (Summoning Impossible)
Berserker (Summoning Impossible)
Extra (Summoning Possible/You will be chosen as the 8th Master.)
First, I clicked on Extra.
=Ruler=
Jeanne d'Arc (Possible)
Amakusa Shirou (Impossible)
Martha (Possible)
Sherlock Holmes (Impossible)
Qin Shi Huang (Impossible)
Astraea (Impossible)
Himiko (Impossible)
Karen C. Hortensia (Impossible)
=Avenger=
King of the Cavern, Edmond Dantès (Rejected)
Jeanne d'Arc [Alter] (Does not exist in the current situation)
Angra Mainyu (Possible)
Gorgon (Possible)
Hessian Lobo (Impossible)
Antonio Salieri (Impossible)
=Alter Ego=
Sessyoin Kiara (Impossible)
Okita Souji [Alter] (Possible)
Sitonai (Impossible due to conditions)
Meltryllis (Impossible)
Passionlip (Impossible)
Kingprotea (Impossible)
Ashiya Douman (Impossible)
=Beast=
Tiamat (Impossible as she is currently alive)
Goetia (Impossible)
Kama/Mara (Possible)
Nero Draco (Possible)
'...Alright, I'll give up on this path.'
If I was designated as the 8th Master, it would become impossible to know who the 7th Master was.
I pressed the back button and selected Caster.
=Caster=
Medea (Possible)
Gilles de Rais (Possible)
Hans Christian Andersen (Possible)
William Shakespeare (Possible)
Mephistopheles (Possible)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Possible)
Zhuge Liang (Impossible)
Cú Chulainn (Possible)
Tamamo-no-Mae (Possible)
Medea [Lily] (Possible)
Nursery Rhyme (Possible)
Paracelsus von Hohenheim (Possible)
Helena Blavatsky (Possible)
Thomas Edison (Possible)
Geronimo (Possible)
Xuanzang Sanzang (Possible)
Nitocris (Possible)
Leonardo da Vinci (Possible)
Gilgamesh (Impossible)
Merlin (Alive/In Avalon)
Solomon (Impossible)
Scheherazade (Possible)
Circe (Possible)
Sheba (Rejected)
Anastasia (Possible)
Avicebron (Possible)
Scáthach-Skaði (Impossible)
Asclepius (Possible)
Chen Gong (Possible)
Artoria Caster (Conditions not met)
There were many I could summon, but it was more of a dilemma than I expected.
First off, Gilles de Rais was out. The book-related Servants were basically non-combatants, so I decided to exclude them.
Mephistopheles would be bad for my mental health, so no thanks. Mozart had nothing to do with magecraft and was more of a debuffer, so I had to pass on him.
The scientist Servants were also out.
Xuanzang was quite powerful in combat, but she wasn't necessary here, so she was excluded.
If I was summoning a Servant to learn magecraft, there weren't many options.
Medea and Circe.
Circe might be a character who gets lonely too easily, but when it came to a legendary sorceress, Medea seemed like the better choice.
There was one other reason.
Rule Breaker.
A dagger that destroys all magecraft.
An ultimate anti-magecraft Noble Phantasm that reverts objects reinforced by magical energy, relationships bound by contracts, and life forms created by magical energy back to their state before their creation.
A sorcerous armament that embodies the divinity of the Witch of Betrayal.
This was extremely appealing.
Considering the number of Servants I could potentially take in was practically infinite, I chose Medea.
Thinking about Medea's personality, as long as one doesn't betray her, she won't betray them. There was also the fact that she is greatly influenced by her Master's disposition.
She wasn't a bad Caster from the start; she just got a bad reputation because she met the wrong Master. In history, she was nothing more than a female victim who was used and abandoned by a man named Jason.
Her life was screwed up by the gods to begin with, so she was a pitiful Heroic Spirit. And honestly, considering her love turned to madness and she was abandoned without any reciprocation for that love... couldn't you say she was on the good side? That's what I thought.
Well, it wasn't like I remembered everything, and it wouldn't be strange if my memories were distorted, but summoning Medea was just very attractive.
In the end, just as I was about to choose Medea, I was tempted by Tamamo.
One thing I'd wanted to do if I ever entered a fantasy world was to touch the ears and tail of a beast person.
If there was a 5th Holy Grail War after the 4th, I'd have to endure for 10 years, but my dilemma turned into agony.
Don't they say human desire is endless?
One could say that "fluffy is justice," but right now, I had to choose Medea.
But my heart wanted to choose Tamamo, and in the end, I agonized over it for an hour.
"Akira, you seem to be greatly troubled by something..."
"I'm debating whether to summon Tamamo or Medea."
"Hmm... Mama doesn't know much about history, but do your best."
"I want to touch a Heroic Spirit with animal ears and a tail, but for the Holy Grail War, Medea is better..."
At my words, Tiamat shook her head and shrugged.
"Mama will summon Tamamo for you later."
"Hmm..."
I didn't know when "later" would be, but since Tiamat said so, I had no choice but to select Medea.
『Fill. Fill. Fill. Fill. Fill.
Let each be turned over five times, simply breaking asunder the fulfilled time.
I announce.
Your self is under me, my fate is in your sword.
In accordance with the resort of the Holy Grail, if you abide by this feeling, this reason, then answer.
An oath shall be sworn here.
I shall attain all virtues of all of Heaven; I shall have dominion over all evils of all of Hell.
From the Seventh Heaven, attended to by three great words of power,
Come forth from the ring of restraint, protector of the balance!』
As I selected the Servant, the text appeared on my smartphone, and I recited the words.
"Fill. Fill. Fill. Fill. Fill.
Let each be turned over five times, simply breaking asunder the fulfilled time.
I announce.
Your self is under me, my fate is in your sword.
In accordance with the resort of the Holy Grail, if you abide by this feeling, this reason, then answer.
An oath shall be sworn here.
I shall attain all virtues of all of Heaven; I shall have dominion over all evils of all of Hell.
From the Seventh Heaven, attended to by three great words of power,
Come forth from the ring of restraint, protector of the balance!"
Then, a bright light erupted from the magic circle, and from it emerged a somber woman with purple hair and purple clothes.
"I ask of you, are you my Mast—?"
Then, the newly appeared Heroic Spirit, Medea, saw Tiamat and couldn't finish her sentence.
"...?"
I looked over at Tiamat, who just tilted her head.
"Wait, I, I, I don't understand this situation...? Why is she here!?"
"Aaaaa?"
"LaLaLa?"
And then, I got a light chop on the head from Tiamat.
"Don't imitate my younger self. Shouldn't you explain the situation? That child looks troubled, doesn't she?"
The spot where she hit me hurt, but Medea just stared at Tiamat with a frozen expression.
"For now, it's true that he is my Master."
"Ah... is that so...?"
What was with that questioning tone at the end?
"So, what are your thoughts?"
"Master, are you in your right mind?"
"Am I in my right mind?"
What, do I look like some sort of madman?
Am I chewing on rocks or something? What's the problem...?
"How can you be with an Evil of Humanity?"
I understood what Medea was trying to say.
"Evil of Humanity or not... it doesn't matter right now, does it?"
Medea pondered for a moment, then nodded.
"I suppose that's true..."
It felt like she was convincing herself.
"Anyway, Medea, I look forward to working with you."
"Wait, did I ever tell you my name? What are you?"
I said it without thinking, but it seemed I had been too hasty.
"Hmm... does it matter? We'll get to know each other as we spend time together, right? And my name is Akira."
"...Together, you say. If you show any sign of suspicious behavior, I won't hesitate."
I raised both my hands and smiled.
I didn't know what "suspicious behavior" she meant, but Medea's trauma was betrayal.
Meaning, as long as I didn't betray her, she was a pure person who would never betray me. Knowing this, I raised my hands and smiled.
"Well then, shall we go to the motel?"
At the word "motel," Medea froze for a moment.
"What!? Well, you are a man, after all..."
It seemed there was some kind of misunderstanding, but I'd have to explain it to her step by step, right?
In any case, we returned to the motel with Caster in her Spirit Form. Afterward, I was so tired that I washed up and immediately fell asleep.
Later, Medea, who had misunderstood on her own, felt ashamed all by herself, or so I assumed~ It was nothing more than my own speculation.