Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg

“O-Oh, geehrtes Juwel, ich flehe demütig deine Aktivierung an, um den Zaubermarschall zu kontaktieren!”

M- Marshal Schweinorg! I… I cannot thank you enough! The moment your official and public response of announcments echoed through the communication channels of the Association, the Enforcers literally froze mid-incantation and walked away without another word. The Dean of Mineralogy practically sprinted out of his study to welcome me back, sweating profusely and offering me a promotion on the spot just to stay on your good side! To be under the direct, chaotic protection of the apex of magecraft and the Second Magic is a terrifying honor, and my heart has finally returned to a normal rhythm.

However, while my execution has been officially canceled, the pressure on me hasn’t stopped—it’s just changed shapes! Now, half the Grand Roll are practically breathing down my neck. They are desperate for me to keep pressing you for answers, and they've made it clear that my personal safety relies on me finishing this historical transcript. They might not kill me, but they know various ways to trouble me and so on, and I dare not stop now!

So, please, Lord Zelretch, since you are enjoying this so much, I plead with you to move on to the grand finale and set the record straight!

How exactly did the mediocre, martial-arts-practicing Nagato Tohsaka cross paths with the likes of Zolgen Makiri and the homunculus Justeaze Lizrich von Einzbern? Out of all the prestigious, apex magi available in the world at the time, why, in the name of the Root itself, was he recruited among them to become one of the three founding patriarchs of the Fuyuki Holy Grail War? What kind of relationship did you personally have with Zolgen and Justeaze back then—did you view them with the same casual amusement, or something more profound considering their superiority in skill?

And most importantly, from a scholarly standpoint: what exactly did you teach Nagato that enabled him to contribute to the founding of the Heaven's Feel ritual as he did? What did you leave him with that allowed the Tohsaka lineage to contribute to the Fuyuki system and remain on it for generations before it was entirely dismantled during the Fifth War?

The Lords are losing their minds trying to peace this together, and since I was the one who started this, I feel compelled to be brave enough to see my responsibility THROUGH! Please, Wizard Marshal, tell us the truth of Fuyuki's beginning!

HO HO HO! 🌭 (Takes a bit of one of the special hotdogs whose recipe only he knows as he answers) Oh, look at you, my brave little academic messenger! You’re very welcome for the save. I must admit, you are proving to be quite the amusing conversationalist. Most of the snobs walking the halls of the Clock Tower would have fainted into their tea or ran away at the mere sight of an Enforcer, yet during the moments where you were on the run, you were shaking like a leaf but still possessed the sheer willpower and creative nerve to not be entirely cowed and salvage the situation by calling me, and right now, you still manage to show some composure despite the frantic demands of your superiors. In a sea of stagnant sycophants who value nothing but empty pedigree, you actually had it in you to point out decades-old rumors right to my face and refuse to be cowed by the entire Clock Tower hierarchy. Mark my words: a magus with that kind of grit and unyielding curiosity is someone who can go very far in the future. Keep that spark alive, and you might just make something truly magnificent out of your career. Who knows… Maybe I might even take you in as a pupil as a bonus.

Now, since the entire Grand Roll is holding its collective breath, let’s tear down another wall of your precious historical archives. You want to know the grand secret of how the mediocre Nagato Tohsaka ended up rubbing shoulders with apex prodigies like Zolgen Makiri and the homunculus Justeaze Lizrich von Einzbern?

Let’s shatter another illusion. The reality is that when Zolgen and Justeaze approached Nagato, they weren’t looking at his qualities as a magus. Far from it! Let's be entirely realistic here—Zolgen and Justeaze were both far more talented, ancient, and flat-out powerful than Nagato could ever hope to be. No, they approached him for one specific, monumental reason: they wanted a direct line to ME. I won’t even bother comparing their raw thaumaturgical capacities to his, because frankly, it’s not even funny. No, their primary motive for recruiting the head of the Tohsaka Clan was entirely for another reason: they needed a proxy who could directly contact me, the Wizard Marshal, and in Japan, back then, he was the only one who was renowned for it.

At that time, conflicts between the Mage's Association and the Holy Church were fierce, so they needed a land in the Far East so the Church could not monitor and the Association could not entirely perceive. That was partially the reason, but beyond that, they also knew they needed someone who was extraordinarily powerful enough to be known and feared across the entire world to give the ritual the credentials it needs to not get instantly checkmated by the Mage's Association, and that someone must not just be powerful, but also extremely skilled and knowledgeable in the ways as to provide help in the process of finalizing the ritual. And who else but I, the Wizard Marshall, the Kaleidoscope, the pinnacle of magi, was qualified for all that?

They wanted the Second Magician to oversee the establishment of the Heaven’s Feel ritual, to lend the weight of my name as a supervisor to their grand experiment, and to help iron out the massive conceptual kinks in their theoretical design. There is also the fact that I was, at that moment, and even now can still be safely considered to be considering how Aoko Aozaki is like, the only Magician directly active who has completely mastered the "miracles" and also is at the top-tier of magecraft prowess, someone who has lived through the Age of Gods as to understand when Magecraft was close to Magic. As such, who else, but I could truly help them?

And when Nagato actually managed to reach through my communication arrays to present their request, I was honestly highly amused! I had just been perfecting my recipe for making hotdogs (Don't look at me like that. I really appreciate the finer stuff in life! I am immortal, sure, but I still like food) when it happened, and I looked at the situation and thought, “Well, look at that. The decent, everyday bloke I decided to look out for is finally gaining some real prestige in the world.” At the same time, I did feel a slight sense of responsibility. Zolgen and Justeaze had specifically sought out Nagato because they knew of his connection to me. Since his involvement was entirely my fault, I felt inclined to comply and give them a hand.

Because of this grand undertaking, I decided to step up my guidance. While I still considered myself far too casual and detached for Nagato to ever truly consider him a proper pupil, I did impart a few more advanced skills this time around—and I did it with a bit more seriousness. 'Use only the bare minimum of effort as you are a master in dealing with most things, but remember to be ready for anything unexpected and to put in seriousness in it' IS my motto!

Nagato was already somewhat adept at basic summoning spells, as I said earlier, from my early teachings, but his foundations lacked the sheer scale required for what the Fuyuki ritual demanded. Fortunately for him, I happen to have learned quite a lot about the mechanics of summoning during my youth from my dear old teacher, King Solomon—who remains the undisputed founder and strongest summoner in human history. I was one of the few pupils back then who qualified to read Lemageton fully! Utilizing those sublime principles, I fine-tuned Nagato's formulas, which was admittedly not half bad but to a real master like me, it's not anywhere near enough, enabling him to master the highly precise art of compressing true, massive Heroic Spirits into highly stable "Servant" class containers, effectively turning grand historical legends into controllable familiars. It helped me exercise my brains and my magecraft for something better than my personal experiments too, so that's a win!

I was also the one responsible for integrating the concept of physical relics and catalysts into the summoning circle itself. Yes, that was entirely my idea! The poor guy was struggling so hard to come up with a reliable anchor to tie a specific soul to the ritual that I finally took pity on his agonizing brainstorming sessions and casually dropped what should have been completely obvious. Got to admit, though, his ideas were surprisingly born of hard work, so again, I really enjoyed it.

Furthermore, I handed down specific consecration and land-affecting techniques required to prepare the spiritual land of Fuyuki to act as a proper stage. Fuyuki happens to be the second greatest of all spiritual lands in the Far East—ranked right behind Misaki City—but while Nagato had learned enough to manage it in our "first round, he still needed some serious, specialized fine-tuning in preparing Fuyuki to prevent the sheer density of the ritual from tearing the local ley lines to shreds. (And as a side note, had Rin Tohsaka been the one judged in that little trial I saved her from, it would have given the Mage's Association a massive headache trying to figure out how to manage those spiritual lands as efficiently as the Tohsakas naturally do!)

And, naturally, I also provided Nagato with a fundamental breakdown of dimensional thaumaturgy—a advanced topic I didn't even consider touching around him up until that point. This specialized knowledge formed the absolute core of the Tohsaka family's contribution to the War: the technique to bore a hole directly into the World. I designed the structural programming infused into the Greater Grail container to ensure that the massive magical energy of defeated Servants would be neatly absorbed, stored, and then utilized as an absolute fuel source to open a path and enable the Master and Servant to achieve their respective wishes. I made the theory, and the rest was up to them.

Though, to give credit where credit is due, it was actually Nagato's daughter who did the heavy lifting of physically implementing those complex dimensional spells and land-preparation techniques. Like I said, she was the one with the practical talent. Nagato learned the abstract principles from me, but it was his daughter who possessed the practical genius to weave those foundations into reality, playing the key role in cementing the physical system before the entire apparatus was ultimately dismantled during the Fifth Holy Grail War.

Now, as for the actual nature of the "relationship" I shared with Justeaze Lizrich von Einzbern and Zolgen Makiri…

(Suddenly, his face turns serious, his smirk turning into a dark grin)

I will confirm this much: our direct interaction began precisely when Nagato contacted me at their behest. I stood alongside them at the dawn of that ritual. I watched the absolute, unyielding devotion of the Winter Saint, and I knew the grand, tragic scope of what the Makiri patriarch was willing to sacrifice for his ideals before time and decay utterly broke his mind.

But if the pompous elites of the Clock Tower think that I am going to comfortably lay bare the exact, deep step-by-step thaumaturgical blueprints behind the Fuyuki Holy Grail War just to satisfy their evening gossip, they have grossly underestimated the Wizard Marshal. I am quite aware of the fact that many in the Association are currently interested to recreate the ritual, and I can name them all here, but what's the point? I have no intention of laying bare the core mechanics of the Greater Grail. You all will get the surface, and nothing more. The deep archives remain locked.

Consider this chapter closed for now. Oh, and, because I love the suspense and as a kick towards those factions who seems to not understand exactly WHY the closing of the path and the destruction of the Holy Grail completely was a nice things, I am going to temporarily suspend you for a whole week! Until then, your device would be deactivated. But do not fret, my brave little researcher—feel free to drop an ask one or two more times! You’ve proven to be a delightful source of entertainment, and I'm quite eager to see what other thing you try to pry out of the Kaleidoscope next. 🃏✨

​“O-Oh, geehrtes Juwel, ich flehe demütig deine Aktivierung an, um den Zaubermarschall zu kontaktieren!”

L- LORD ZELRETCH!

Your response has quite literally thrown many of the executives and some of the Departments into an absolute, unmitigated panic! The Dean of the Department of Mineralogy has locked himself in his study, senior lecturers are frantically thinking of rewriting generations of family trees but afraid of incurring wrath and retribution, and I am currently writing this from an alcove while trying to avoid three different Enforcers who want to know who leaked the hotel bill archives! Apparently, it was some secret rumor no one cared to acknowledge until now and now that it is out, many people want my head for exposing it!

​Please, Wizard Marshall... I implore you, if you possess even an ounce of mercy for the academic integrity of the Association, give us something concrete! You cannot simply drop the revelation that the great Tohsaka lineage began with some meager room service balance and then leave us in perpetual darkness!

If Nagato Tohsaka was truly as mediocre by your standards as you claim, then exactly WHAT did you actually teach him during those casual observations from the back of whatever halls you trained him at? Or did you merely force him to read books with no direct teaching and reserve only sarcastic critoque at his posture while he mixed basic elixirs?​

And just how "distant" was this relationship, truly? Were you truly just a passive phantom lounging in the corner of the workshop you likely made for him, occasionally muttering a sarcastic correction while he sweated over baseline thaumaturgy, or did you actually deign to hand him a piece of chalk once in a while?

​I know—I know you are going to troll me. I know the Wizard Marshal does not simply hand out historical explanations without a catch, and I fully expect to find my own thaumaturgical notes rearranged into comedic limericks by tomorrow morning just for asking this. But please, Marshall Schweinorg! Set the record straight before the Lords of the Clock Tower completely lose their minds trying to decipher what constitutes a 'spark of goodness' in your eyes as to then attempt to improve the efficiency of their apprenticeship petitions!

HO HO HO! HE HE HE... 🍦🍦 Oh, this is magnificent! I haven’t had a laugh this hearty since I watched the Clock Tower’s Department of Mineralogy spend three months trying to decipher a grocery list I left behind in the 1400s, convinced it was an alchemical blueprint for gold synthesis. Mind you, since I left that Department, the standards there have reduced... A lot! Maybe someone with the kind of mind like Rin Tohsaka should be in charge. She's steadily becoming one fearsome magus under me, she is! 💥

First of all, take a deep, soothing breath, my anxious little researcher. You can crawl out of that alcove. I've officially announced to all of the Mage's Association, including every single Deans and Enforcers, that they are to call off any negative orders or hunts made for you and to welcome you back, even as I am currently publicizing this entire response, along with the tone of your questioning, to everyone! I am thoroughly enjoying this little academic meltdown, and I won't have anyone spoiling my entertainment by locking away my favorite new pen pal. Consider yourself under the direct, chaotic protection of the Wizard Marshall.

Now, onto your desperate academic pleading. You want to know exactly what I taught Nagato and just how "distant" we truly were?Let’s exercise those stagnant gray cells of yours for a moment. You lot already know that the Tohsaka Clan utilizes German incantations for their spellcraft, and you’re perfectly aware that they are considered premier experts in the field of Jewel Magecraft. Given that my own titles include Father of the Jewel Magecraft, which, if I have to remind you, means I INVENTED the system, and Zelretch of the Jewels, it doesn't take a genius level of intellect to connect the dots. Yes, I taught him the structural foundation of converting raw gemstone matrices into volatile, high-capacity magical batteries. Why else did you think the Tohsaka Clan could excel in the delicate techniques of Flowing and Transferring of Power to do that, hmm? Although apparently it was his daughter who made the majority of advancements for the Tohsaka Clan. I met her a few times and boy, was she a sharp one! She looks quite a bit like Rin Tohsaka!

From what I could tell, it seems that after one of the sisters of the Edelfelt Family married into the Tohsaka Family Head, in that disastrous and hilariously quick defeat they had in the Third Fuyuki Holy Grail War (I actually had a good laugh at it. The vitriolic sister relationship and the looks they gave when they lost... Just like right now, I was enjoying some rare ice cream when I saw them! Really comedic😝), thanks to combining the Edefelt's research and knowledge with the foundations I built that was, admittedly, advancing rather steadily even before that twin-tails became the Sixth Head, they advanced pretty quickly in that. Too bad I am now rapidly teaching Rin to TOP even that with how much Jewel Magecraft I am cramming into her, on top of how I am even teaching her the primal arts of pure energy construction and stabilization.

And as for the German Incantations? Well, I AM from Germany, sure, but I'm sure you all know that with how old I have and all my experiences, I practically know every single human language (Along with also all the non-human languages, too!) and can speak them with either native fluency or near-native! So why just teach Nagato German? Let's face it: Sure, it might seem like a historical handicap since they come from the Eastern Lands, but I think ahead! Unlike Latin or English's fluid sweeping words and emphasis on show-offs of broadity, German's rigid linguistics, reliance on strict syntax, and hyper-specific compound words leaves no room for poetic interpretation (And this is actually me being insightful, as that brat was always prone to "goofing up" and he passed down that trait well, so I figured he would appreciate absoluteness) and makes the spell always stable, ensuring the incantations are always locking the Magic Circuits firmly for the spell!

The dense, blocky compound concepts makes it quite versatile and useful for german practitioners to pack immense amounts of conditional information into short phrases and eschews the kind of long, flowing paragraphs most of the sods who use Latin do to perform powerful spells but telegraph their meanings so easily. And Jewel Magecraft is also more efficient when used by the kind of guttural, heavily accented, and hard-stopping phonetics of German anyway: The vocal cues act like an ultra-flexibe physical valve that snaps open and shuts as easily as water flows! Be it in the sharp psychological triggers, the unpredictability, and the maintainance of structural stability with maximum output, was it not a wise decision? 😉 (And while we're talking about it, let's get one thing straight. Yes, I am quite the avid fundamentalist, so I always laugh when I see students using incantations WAY too long due to their language. The key to maximizing that, since I have many students from various backgrounds, is to do some changes in the tone and so on, but I'm not here to crack the linguistic codes, so I'll say no more)

But if you think that was the limit of our time together, you vastly underestimate how bored I was in the late 18th century. Besides, I am a man of PRINCIPLES! Why did you think the magus who came back as some of the best in their generation were all radically changed, hmm? I was always happy to put in effort when I had to! I am quite hardworking, you know!

Aside from the jewelry, I actually spent quite a bit of time helping Nagato refine his mastery of the secret styles of Chinese Kenpo. You all have definitely heard the rumors of me being one hell of a tough old guy in physique and all, so don't be too surprised! And stop looking scandalized, you sods! I know you guys think like "The Great Magician... The apex of the magi... A proud thrower of fists and kicks!?" Dude, I literally beat many martial arts into even the most proud of the students who didn't become wrecks! I took great pride in passing down proper form, and so why did I hold back? For all of his flaws, at least HE already knew the beauty of physical combat from the start!

Nagato, bless his stubborn heart, had this utterly absurd, borderline hilarious premise where he viewed sorcery and martial arts as completely equal paths. The man actually attempted to reach the Root—the Akashic Records—purely through achieving a state of mushin, an empty mind through sheer physical execution! I used to tease him mercilessly for it, and I knew that the Root doesn't work like that (I literally made a path INTO the Root through the Kaleidoscope, so I am a premier authority in that), but between him and the bunch in the Mage's Association? It was a damn sight better than the rigid, archaic, inbred nonsense most of you sods could ever come up with. It showed a stubborn, gritty resourcefulness that I couldn't help but respect.

To round out his education so he wouldn't look like a total amateur in polite society, I also taught him the core fundamentals of Summoning. I gave him just enough advanced theory that he could comfortably pass himself off as an elite expert in summoning spells without actually having to summon anything world-ending. Add to that a few decades' worth of wisdom regarding mystical lore, international magus politics, and the practical skills required for managing and cultivating major spiritual lands (How do you think he got Fuyuki?), and you have the full picture... For the first round.

So, how "distant" were we? I wasn't just a passive phantom lurking in the shadows of his workshop, though I certainly did my fair share of lounging and delivering sarcastic critiques while he sweated over baseline thaumaturgy. I did, on some occasions, actually deign to pick up the chalk, draw out the arrays, and physically guide his hands when he was on the verge of blowing himself up. Unlike Rin Tohsaka, her ancestor was much more aloof and cold so he rarely showed me that kind of bipolar nature directly and I had to try to see him act like that, and in that, I suppose, you could say that highlights the "distance", since many apprentices of mine would often scream and throwing things at me while I would laugh and pat their heads. He very rarely did that.

But let's face it: Nagato might have been "mediocre" by the extreme, reality-bending standards of an archmagus or a Magician , but the man deserves some real credit. He possessed a decent degree of power, immense competence born of grueling hard work, and a resolve that never wavered. I don't consider myself 'close' to him, but I do have to admire that spirit of his, how he persisted and managed to become fairly decent by most standards.

Which brings me to a very important message I must declare to the Clock Tower: If any of the arrogant, pedigree-obsessed people, be they Lords, Deans, or other stupid, baffling elitist idiots, dare use this revelation to look down on the Tohsaka family, or if I catch wind of anyone attempting to retroactively rewrite Nagato's historical achievements out of spite... I will personally curse their entire lineage to a life of absolute, unmitigated unluckiness. Every spell they cast will misfire, every potion will curdle, every piece of toast will fall butter-side down for the next seven generations. And just to drive the point home, I will still personally step through the Kaleidoscope to nullify any legal charges, seals, or insults levied against his descendants. After all, I consider myself as someone with many virtues, and "looking out" in that kind of way is one of them. Besides, while I wasn't too close to the Tohsaka Family back then, I'm enjoying Rin Tohsaka and backing up the family a bit more, ain't I? 😋

... What's that? You want to know how this all ties into Nagato eventually becoming one of the three founding patriarchs of the Fuyuki Holy Grail War alongside the Einzberns and the Makiri?

Ah-ah-ah. Now that? That is a story for an entirely different day. I absolutely adore the suspense, and I’m not about to give away the grand finale just when the audience is getting hooked.Keep these questions coming, my paranoid academic friend. You're proving to be quite the amusing conversationalist, and your sheer panic is the best entertainment I've had in weeks. Let the gossip rage on! 🃏

Hmph. To think the legendary Second Magician, the so-called pinnacle of magi, has stooped to broadcasting himself through these crude, public frequencies. No matter. Consider this my official notice, Wizard Marshal.

My name is of some of the highest pedigree within the Clock Tower, boasting a lineage of pristine Magic Circuits and mastery of various Thaumaturgical Foundations. I have already surpassed my instructors, and they have nothing left to teach me. I require a master who matches my caliber.

Since you have opened these 'windows' to the multiverse, I demand to know: must people in general, especially myself, bother with the tedious, bureaucratic nonsense of a formal Clock Tower petition, or will you bypass the red tape right now and accept me as your premier pupil through this device? I don't care about the others, but I might as well as extend magnanimity and open the room for other magus with the ambition to request you through the device. As for compensation, name your price. My family possesses rare relics, conceptual blueprints, and resources that would easily suffice for whatever 'entertainment' you claim to seek. I await your prompt acceptance.

🎓 APPRENTICESHIP EVALUATION: FAILED (SPECTACULARLY) 🎓

Oh, haha! Ahahaha! Oh, my sides… 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

To think, the very first candidate to step up to the plate after I set up these channels is a textbook example of the Clock Tower’s finest, most beautifully bloated egos! Heh, you think you surprised me? AS IF! I've had more than enough experience with people like you… So… Let’s break down this masterpiece of a FAILURE of an application, shall we?

"My name is of some of the highest pedigree… I require a master who matches my caliber."

First of all, your "caliber" is a plastic water gun trying to match a supernova. 🔫💥 Brat, I have watched the rise and fall of entire magical dynasties across a thousand timelines. I have mastered so many forms of magecraft, and I am currently enjoying drilling all the unreasonably hard magecraft I've figured out to Rin Tohsaka! Your "pristine Magic Circuits" and "various Thaumaturgical Foundations" are about as impressive to me as a particularly shiny pebble is to a jeweler. You say your instructors have nothing left to teach you? Let me translate: you’ve reached the very top of a very tiny, very pathetic little hill and decided you’re the king of the world. Let me make this perfectly clear to you, boy: You're only the best at your FIELDS! There are not so few magus in the Clock Tower who can still match or even slaughter you.

"I don't care about the others, but I might as well as extend magnanimity and open the room for other magus…"

Oh, how incredibly noble of you! Truly, a savior of the common magus! Your "magnanimity" is touching, but let's be real—you just wanted an audience to watch you lick my boots. 👅👢

As for your "rare relics and resources"—hahaha! You are offering pocket change to the man who has amassed easily the greatest collection of magecraft knowledge and developed some of the most powerful and esoteric Mystic Codes in the entire world! It's so funny I can't even drink! I don't need your family's dusty blueprints. I have drawers full of things that would make your entire lineage faint from sheer magical overload. Even just my collection of gems can probably humiliate your family's entire collection!

🌀 TO ANSWER YOUR ACTUAL QUERY: Yes! The rumor is true, and I will officially confirm it here:

Anyone, from any corner of the World of Magecraft, can indeed use these crystal-lens channels to petition me, not just ask questions. And by the way, it can be not just apprenticeships, but also about other wishes, like asking for mystic codes, needing some help, and so on! 📬✨

But let’s make one thing abundantly clear: Just because the channel is open does NOT mean your requests, be they apprenticeships or wishes, will be accepted. RULES!

I don't give shit about your pedigree because I don't even need True Magic to school most magi these days. Just my magecraft is more than enough. Anyone who boasts to me about their magecraft will get cursed and jinxed for a whole month through these channels.

I laugh at your family wealth because I've got some of the most powerful Mystic Codes in the world and I can buy entire countries with my money. If you try and send some things to me already as "proof", I'll send them back to you and thoroughly modify those mystic codes so that they'll make you weep.

What I care about is the resolve and the nature of the cause. I am a man of principles! A good cause and a humble pupil is accepted. Most importantly, how much you entertain me is also a bonus. 🃏

If you submit an application, you had better be prepared for me to grade it publicly, rip your ego to shreds, and potentially leave you with a permanent twitch if you are a bastard. On the other hand, people who submit petitions with humility and selflessness can expect praises even if it's still public!

❌ THE VERDICT GRADE: F- (For Fantastic Comedy)

You asked if you could bypass the red tape? Granted! You are officially rejected without having to fill out a single piece of paperwork. Consider it a mercy. I already knew from your tone that you have no intentions of being a "pupil of a great magus", so with that attitude, no matter how good you are, if I let you step foot into the workshop where the Second Magic is about, you'd be a pile of finely ground dust before we even finished introductions, to be swept aside like a piece of trash. 🧹

However, since I am a benevolent old man, and you did give me a fantastic laugh, I’ve decided to send a little token of my appreciation back through your crystal-lens. It's a custom-made, highly advanced curse! 🎁✨

Whenever you try to channel prana through those "pristine" circuits of yours, it will play loud, obnoxious circus music in your head. 🎪🤡 Don't worry, it's completely harmless! It just makes it utterly impossible to concentrate on complex spellcasting. It'll wear off… After a month. Maybe you'll learn humility then!

Lord Zelretch! Forgive the intrusion, but a matter of historical prestige has been causing quite the academic schism within the Clock Tower. For generations, the Tohsaka lineage has been respected—envied, even—because their ancestor, Nagato Tohsaka, was famously recorded as one of your few pupils to return from your tutelage entirely unscathed, along with also the fact that he has good standings with the Holy Church and the Tohsaka Clan inherited that tradition. He is held up as one of the paragons of the concept of "successful student", returning alive where most did not!

... However, deeply disturbing rumors has recently circulated out from unknown sources since Rin Tohsaka began her apprenticeship under you, and that which I, as a devoted scholar and expert of lore, must humbly beg for you to clarify! The rumor claims that Nagato did not earn your favor through you sensing some exceptional magical talent in him or genius-level intellect, but rather because he happened to... pay for your hotel bill, even though you could easily afford it as you likely possessed the kind of money to buy an entire country? And that you merely viewed him as an "ordinary but good-natured follower" rather than a true prodigy, observing him the way a supervisor casually watches a student from the back of a lecture hall?

Please, Wizard Marshal, put this madness to rest. Does the patriarch of the Tohsaka family truly deserve the illustrious title of the 'pupil of the great magus,' or have we all been praising a man whose greatest achievement was handling your room service?!

…

…

…

HA HA HA! 🍷 Oh, I got to admit, I was expecting for people to eventually ask it once the rumors start circulating. I didn't bother to make a public statement, because I enjoy the suspense, but to think someone ACTUALLY asked it through one of my communication devices! Truly, how magnanimous I must be to answer this question. Heh, the pure, unadulterated panic of the Clock Tower academics when the fragile illusion of pedigree shatters is like music to my ears! 😈 I can practically hear the porcelain teacups rattling in various Departments from across the dimensional divide.

To answer your question with the absolute, unvarnished truth: Yes. The rumor is entirely correct.

Ah… I still remember that day. 1790s… That era was not half bad, but still, got to admit that the persecution of Hidden Christians was… Not exactly something I enjoyed. I barely give the Holy Church a time in the day, but got to have standards, right? Besides, I am a proud pupil of King Solomon, so I've got some sentiment for it. (To be honest, though, I honestly don't really care about the Bible. It's like textbooks made by human development to be the manual for the prosperity of mankind. Never been particularly religious here, so to me, the scriptures are just the fulfillment of my dear old teacher's visions. The Thaumaturgy of the Holy Church (Yes, their "Sacraments" are but another form of Magecraft. The asshats in charge won't acknowledge it, maybe, but the reality is they ARE magus).

Anyway, I was relaxing on a cheap Japanese hotel that day, even if I had to share the room with that one guy who acted like a bipolar kid despite his age. At first, I thought of him as just an amusing fellow, and I could easily tell he was a Hidden Christian just by looking at the tells. When you live as long as me, you don't need magecraft or True Magic to perceive patterns that would have been dismissed or not cared forth by others as natural as it would be to breathe! I didn't bother exposing him, since while I didn't lift a finger to stop the persecution (And we all know how Japan eventually came around, even if the number of people who practice the "foremost faith" in the world is still rare in that country), why would I want to get someone killed for no good reason?

But just as I was about to casually leave, the guy suddenly stepped up to settle my hotel bill when I was casually about to give jewels to pay! He did it so naturally and gracefully, even though I had spent most of the time teasing him and annoying him. And I am many things, but an ungrateful man is not one of them. I had already detected that the man's lineage had latent Magic Circuits, so I decided to take him on. So yeah, I DO hope I disappointed the lots in the Clock Tower: No, there was no grand duel of wits, no dramatic awakening of Magic Circuits, and certainly no prophecies. Just a bloke being a decent fellow to an old man who had been a bit too sarcastic around him.

I never bothered to correct the Mages' Association because, frankly, the comedy value was priceless. Watching centuries of pompous Lords bending over backward to establish "prestigious relations" with the Tohsaka family—purely because they assumed Nagato was some apex prodigy of his generation—was the finest entertainment I’ve had in eras. Why would I ruin a perfectly good joke? Besides, it gave Nagato a comfortable standing, so it was a win for everyone involved.

But let’s clear something up before you go writing off the Tohsaka lineage as a fraud.

You pathetic bunch at the Clock Tower are so blinded by concepts of "bloodlines" and "magical output" that you miss the forest for the trees. By my standards? Yes, Nagato was completely mediocre. In terms of raw, explosive talent, even his own daughter outclassed him later on. But my standards happen to be quite extreme. Nagato was far from incompetent; he was a hard worker who understood the fundamentals and could achieve a few decent things through serious effort.

More importantly, he possessed something that 99% of you backstabbing, power-hungry magi completely lack: a genuine, uncorrupted spark of goodness.

He was a fundamentally decent man, for all that coldness and bipolar nature of his. If he had just been some average, talentless hack looking to leech off my status, I would have tossed a casual book of spells at his head, granted him a minor favor to square the bill, and never looked at him again. I chose to actually sit in the back of the room, supervise his work, and guide him because I liked the fellow. I saw a man who wanted to build something stable and honest, even if he never expected to enter the world of sorcery in the first place!

So, does he deserve the title of "pupil of the Great Magician"?

Let's face it, the Clock Tower's definition of a pupil tended to be someone who survived my lessons without their mind imploding into the Kaleidoscope, not wanting to acknowledge the harsh reality of how leaving aside the True Magic, the MAGECRAFT matters. So, in my opinion, yes! He passed the ultimate test: he kept his humanity, he kept his sanity, and he kept his head down.

Go ahead. Tell the rest of the World of Magecraft my confirmation. After all, I never "lied". I simply never bothered to speak up the truth, and now that it's known, it's fine by me! Do hope you enjoy being the highlight of the gossip, though.

No one knew what hit them when it happened. Suddenly, hundreds of ancient, crystal-lens artifacts appeared and flared to life, be it in the Clock Tower, the Wandering Sea, the Atlas Institute, to even the Holy Church, along with dozens more found in every corner of the world. Massive, a floating projection of shifting, kaleidoscopic energy that overrides local leyline communication appeared from those devices.

Sitting comfortably in an ornate armchair within the projection is Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg. He rests his hands casually over his jewel-encrusted cane, peering out across the infinite dimensional lines with a sharp, distinctly dangerous glint in his crimson eyes.

"To the scholars of the Clock Tower, the calculating guys in the Atlas Institute, the shut-ins in the Wandering Sea, the heretic-focused people in the Holy Church, the various scattered magus families who uncovered these jewels, and other curious souls who happen to be tapping into these frequencies... pay attention," Zelretch muses, his tone carrying the calm weight of an absolute apex master. "After a while, I believe that I should open up windows to this particular coordinate. Consider it an audience with the guy who once practically forced all the magi in the world to work together and saved the world from the existential threat of Crimson Moon. To brighten, or worsen, your days, I suppose. After all, I have too much free time, right now, and I am SURE you people would have a lot to ask from the Wizard Marshall yet could never get in touch with me! Well, congrats, because today you get the right to."

He leans forward, a slow, teasing smirk pulling at his lips.

"You may send your inquiries through these channels. When you want to ask something, you may recite "Oh, geehrtes Juwel, ich flehe demütig deine Aktivierung an, um den Zaubermarschall zu kontaktieren!" and depending on my mood and the mood of those crystals, they might or might not enable you to contact me. Ask of the arcane principles, the records of the past, or whatever trivial mysteries occupy your finite minds. But remember to play by the rules if you want answers. I am under no obligation to satisfy your curiosity, and I reserve every right to decide if your question is even worth my breath."

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