In the suburbs of London, in the Clock Tower headquarters town disguised as a university town, in the modern magic teaching building, in the exclusive office of the El Melloi classroom. Two otakus, one big and one small, one adult and one underage, sat on the sofa holding a Gameboy handheld game console.
That’s right, they were connected face to face. In 1998, technology had not yet developed to the point where wireless connection was possible, so they could only exchange data over short distances through data cables.
"Communication, communication, some pets must communicate in order to evolve."
"Let me check the guide. Haunter, Yamagata, Golem, and Rumblestone. These are the only four. Are you ready?"
"Of course, I caught it last night."
"You stayed up late again."
"Nonsense, I have been staying up late these past two days (cultivating immortals), and you know the reason. I will continue to sleep after you go to class. The most important thing now is to complete the illustrations!"
"It's starting to spread. The first Haunter. Oh, let's witness the birth of Gengar!"
The game that Shinji and Weber are so crazy about is Nintendo's first IP, the super popular series "Pokemon", which spans all two-dimensional fields such as games, comics, animation, etc.
The two were playing the first games in the series, Pokémon Red and Pokémon Green. Both games were released in 1996. After their release, they quickly became popular in Japan and spread to the world with their cute pet shapes, rich collection elements and playability. The phenomenal effect they brought once saved the Gameboy console, which had poor sales, and completely established Nintendo's position as the dominant force in the gaming industry. Before Shinji came to the Type-Moon world, Pokémon was still a national game in Japan, and every new game released would set off a wave of waves.
With Shinji and Weber's home life, they completed the game early and completed the achievements of raising all pets to the maximum level and collecting all Pokémon encyclopedias - except for a few pets that must be online to evolve.
Weber was in London, and the popularity of Pokémon had not spread here. Shinji had been traveling around with Orange, and the women around him had little interest in the game. At first, Fujino and Sakura were interested in playing with Shinji, but then Orange had a sudden idea and taught them the basic techniques of making puppets, asking them to make puppets by facing the pile of "stacked color blocks" (Orange's original words), and directly play the live-action version of Pokémon. Soon, Sakura and Fujino abandoned Shinji and devoted themselves to making magic puppets. Therefore, these two magician otakus had no online partners, and they didn't think of looking for online partners elsewhere.
A few minutes later, the cheers of the two otakus echoed throughout the office.
"Successful. Gengar, Alakazam, Strange, and Rhydon."
"Finally I have collected all 151, 151, 151. I will find time to upgrade them to the maximum level and that will be the end of my mission."
"Let's wait until the evening. The lunch break will be over soon. I'll go to class and you can catch up on your sleep."
"You can play games at night, but I can't. From today on, my wonderful life of playing games all night long is over." Shinji saved the game, threw the handheld game console aside, stood up and stretched.
At the same time, Waver restrained his relaxed expression when playing games: "Yes, the teacher should have arrived by now. The clock tower will be turbulent for a while."
"It's inevitable." Shinji nodded. "Many factions, especially those who attacked El-Melloi in the past three years, are worried about the lord's revenge. But you, the teacher, have left a bad impression on people before. Just from the news you and I have received, there are three families who are planning to make Mr. Kenneth disappear forever. We don't know how many conspiracies we haven't heard of yet."
"So the teacher bought a ticket from Japan to London, but he did not board the plane. Instead, he disguised his identity and flew from South Korea to Ireland, then smuggled himself from Ireland to the UK and returned to London by land."
"Yes, if we enter the country openly, even if we bring all our combat power, we cannot guarantee Mr. Kenneth's safe return. You know, no matter how strong we are, we cannot stop the targeted bombing of missiles."
Shinji said this and exchanged a knowing look with Waver.
There is a major premise in the Type-Moon world that is ignored by many people but is real. That is, the development of technology, especially in weapons, has surpassed magic in all aspects. The damage caused by a group of top magicians who spend several days performing magic is not as great as that caused by a nuclear bomb.
Arrange a few bombers at random, calculate the time to bomb Kenneth in turns, and even if Kenneth has ten lives, it will not be enough to die. And with the power of those ancient families, it is not difficult to arrange a few bombers. Although those nobles who are supreme in magic are unlikely to have such a magician's idea, it is better to be safe than sorry. Before Kenneth successfully returns, no matter how small the possibility is, it must be prevented in advance.
What the two didn't know was that even so, Kenneth's return trip was not smooth sailing. Apart from other things, Emiya Kiritsugu spent three "Origin Bullets" on this, and one of the two Mercury Maids he brought was severely damaged, which shows how great the resistance was.
Of course, all this only lasted until noon today. When Kenneth entered the sphere of influence of El-Melloi in the suburbs of London and joined up with Lanis and the elites who were still loyal to El-Melloi, it meant that the lord had officially returned, and even if the other factions were unwilling, they could only accept the defeat. Otherwise, it would not be a private conflict, but a formal war, a slap in the face of the entire Clock Tower and the twelve lords' families, and no family could afford such a price.
The struggle will become more political and aristocratic in the future.
On the surface, it will be solved through negotiation or wrangling. Tranberio and Baruyereta, who are hostile to the aristocracy, will lead the democrats to question and impeach Kenneth's three-year disappearance without reason, in order to prove that Kenneth is derelict in his duty and further attack El-Melloi, preferably to make this "genius" lose his position as lord and trigger civil unrest among the El-Melloi faction.
Kenneth would naturally not sit idly by and watch this happen. He had already prepared a series of excuses and "merits" that were enough to offset his three years of dereliction of duty.
The leader of aristocracy, Barthelmero, will also provide limited support and assistance depending on the situation - even if they are in a unified camp, it does not mean that they are of one mind. If Kenneth has no value, aristocracy will abandon him immediately. This is one of the reasons why he has been dormant for three years. A person with all his magic circuits destroyed has no value at all.
When the night falls, covering everything, all the superficial "elegance and harmony" will be thrown aside, and conspiracy, conflict, purges and other shady actions will unfold in unknown places.
There were only a few hours left until the first night of the Lord's return.
Weber entered the classroom as usual.
Shinji lazily fell on the sofa, gathering his strength.
PS: In "Fate Zero", the Japanese Self-Defense Forces lost two F15 fighter jets. Risei directly arranged for people to get two from the Middle East and send them to Japan overnight to fill the vacancies. As the major factions under the Magic Association, which is as famous as the Holy Church, they must have this ability.