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(Fate) Chapter 233: The Clock Tower
🕑 Added 2024-12-20 16:50:01 +0000 UTCLondon, England
Somewhere in the city..
Clock Tower.
The modern night, with its neon lights and noise, often disrupted the quiet and serene beauty of the nightscape.
But here, at the outskirts of London, the place known as Clock Tower" was an exception.
Contrary to its name, which might suggest a tourist attraction, the area remained unusually tranquil after dark.
After all, this was the heart of the Mage Association, the governing body for countless magi, as well as the premier academy for young mages—the cradle of modern magecraft practitioners.
Yet tonight, this prestigious institution witnessed the presence of a "traitor."
No, perhaps calling him that was inaccurate.
This "traitor" was a boy who had already faced the downfall of his family and the disappearance of their vital Magic Crest.
He had already applied for withdrawal from the academy and was on the verge of being expelled.
Well..to be honest, he wasn’t really a traitor.
Even if he had transitioned from being a mage to becoming a hero..no, a hero of the Age of Gods, it wasn’t betrayal, right?
“I like the night."
Sitting beside the fountain outside the Clock Tower’s main building, the boy, with his black hair and emerald-green eyes, stared at the sky and murmured softly.
The light from within the building and the gentle glow of the moon illuminated his figure.
He looked up at the stars in the sky, but they were dimmer now, obscured by modern light pollution, far less beautiful than he remembered.
His gaze carried a hint of confusion, as if he hadn’t yet fully awakened from an overly long dream.
He stared blankly at the heavens, appearing dazed.
It was normal, of course. After all, he had only just woken up—literally.
“Promise.”
At this moment, deep voice called out, breaking the silence.
Footsteps approached, and a man with long hair, around thirty years old, wearing a red coat with a yellow sash draped over his shoulders, came to stand beside the boy.
The man looked at the boy named Promise, who was still staring at the night sky in his Clock Tower uniform, and his expression darkened slightly, his tone becoming solemn.
"Have you made up your mind?”
As he spoke, his gaze shifted toward the withdrawal application in Promise’s hand.
The latter pulled his gaze back, blinking at the man with a hint of confusion before glancing at the paper in his hand.
He flipped through the application, studying its contents and gradually, the confusion in his emerald eyes cleared, replaced by clarity.
After a moment, the boy’s lips curved upward in a faint smile, one that made the man beside him furrow his brows in puzzlement.
Promise remembered now.
He remembered everything.
After awakening from a long fever, he had regained the memories of his past life, allowing him to understand precisely what kind of world he was in.
So, he soon prepared his application for withdrawal and was going to hand it to his teacher tonight.
Waver Velvet.
Waver, a professor at the Clock Tower, was known as Lord El-Melloi II, a figure both young and widely regarded as the academy’s finest instructor.
Every student who had graduated under his tutelage had gone on to become accomplished magis, leaving behind remarkable legacies.
Promise had once admired Waver, too.
But after waking up, those feelings had changed dramatically.
After all, he knew far more than he should have about Waver’s “dark history,” so it was obvious that perspective had shifted.
Moreover, because he woke up, he knew more clearly that this person was actually one of the "protagonists" of this world.
At first, Promise thought that he had accepted mediocrity, so he prepared the application for withdrawal, and even said goodbye to his family, ready to go home and live an ordinary life with no worries about food and clothing.
But now…
"Looking back, if they knew what I was thinking, they’d probably laugh their heads off and mock me endlessly,” Promise mused.
'You? Living an idle life? Impossible!'
They would surely assert this with confidence.
After all, he was the most unstable person in the entire ancient Greek Age of Gods.
In just two or three years since he came down the mountain, he turned the entire world upside down, causing countless heroes, gods and beautiful girls to suffer from splitting headaches and helplessness.
To suggest that he intended to “do nothing” and “live peacefully”?
Even Zeus, king of the gods, would laugh uproariously at such a joke.
Waver, on the other hand, said nothing.
He furrowed his brows as he looked at Promise in front of him, sensing something profoundly different about him, so much so that the boy before him no longer felt like the student he knew.
What had happened?
As Waver pondered this, Promise’s mind cleared completely.
It hadn’t taken him long to regain his composure.
After everything he had been through, adapting to unfamiliar circumstances had become second nature.
Though he no longer had access to the Golden Apple to “recharge” and cheat his way into a refreshed state, he adjusted quickly nonetheless.
Promise turned to Waver, with a smile on his face. "Good evening, Professor. And… it’s been a while."
It truly had been a long time.
Waver didn’t respond immediately, his gaze fixed on Promise with a seriousness that deepened the creases on his brow.
The young chuckled softly, fully aware of his confusion.
As a transmigrator, Promise naturally knew about Waver’s abilities.
This renowned teacher, head of the Modern Magecraft Department, was not a genius mage but possessed extraordinary observation and insight, skills known as Discernment of the Spirit.
His sharp eyes, dubbed the Eye of Appraisal, allowed him to perceive the essence of people.
So Promise naturally knew what was confusing Weber at the moment.
Although Promise’s Spirit Class Card had allowed him to project himself into the Age of Gods and become a Greek hero, his true body hadn’t undergone any drastic changes.
Yet the experiences he had accumulated, the knowledge, the aura...everything had transformed him profoundly.
Not to mention, someone like Weber, who was good at judging people, even if it were someone else in this world, familiar with Promise, they would be able to clearly see that something was wrong.
Unless the latter deliberately masked it.
But he had no intention of explaining anything to Waver.
Because thus matter was too difficult to explain.
After all, how could he possibly say that in just a few hours, he had spent seven or eight years in ancient Greece, turning the world upside down?
Promise rose to his feet, lowering his head slightly with an apologetic expression as he said. "I’m sorry, Professor, for troubling you and making you busy with my affairs at such a late hour."
Indeed, this was no small matter.
After all, Waver Velvet, whose reputation was well-known across the modern magus world, was secretly a die-hard Otaku (homebody).
And getting a homebody to leave the house?
That was truly a painful ordeal.
"But everything’s fine now.
I’ll be looking forward to your lecture, tomorrow…”
'Ah, wait, it seems that I am not looking forward to it that much.'
'After all, whatever you say, I don’t understand it. And even if I did, I wouldn’t be able to learn it.'
Thinking this, Promise smiled apologetically once more and then without giving Waver a chance to respond, he bid him goodnight, turned, and walked away.
As he left, and while Waver stood frozen in place, still processing what had just happened, Promise deliberately tore up the withdrawal application in his hand and tossed the pieces into a nearby trash can.
"Come to think of it, I suppose I was never really the kind of person to settle down… Maybe I was, once. But ever since that day I woke up and realized what kind of world this was, along with the dangers and futures it holds…”
He chuckled softly to himself.
"Trying to live quietly would’ve been difficult, wouldn’t it?”
Promise walked unhurriedly, fully aware that Waver was still watching him from behind.
He could imagine the professor’s confusion, his astonishment, and even the less-than-ideal thoughts that might be forming in his mind.
For example, whether Promise had been shaken by some kind of trauma, or perhaps encountered something… unclean.
But those doubts could only be dispelled by time.
As for now, having returned to the modern world, Promise had just one thing on his mind.
To return to his dorm room at the Clock Tower, close his eyes, and have a good, long rest.
Not because he felt physically or mentally exhausted, but simply because, after realizing he was truly back, he was overwhelmed by a strange mix of emotions—complex and indescribable.
In this moment, all Promise wanted was to close his eyes and rest for a while.
---
...
A Night of Silence
The Next Morning, Waver’s Classroom at the Clock Tower
Waver Velvet entered the classroom, dark circles under his eyes.
Due to his perpetually stern expression and a demeanor that always seemed irritated, the addition of those black circles made him look even gloomier, like a volcano on the verge of erupting.
When he walked in, even the loudest and most unruly student in the class, Flat Escardos, went silent.
Flat, a well-known problem child in the Clock Tower, possessed extraordinary magic circuits and an uncanny ability to control them.
His carefree attitude was uncharacteristic for a mage, and he had even perfected a comedic imitation of Waver’s mannerisms.
In the not-so-distant future, this same Flat would go on to steal from his professor and participate as the Master of Jack the Ripper in the Snowfield Holy Grail War in America.
But even someone as carefree as Flat quieted down when Waver entered the room today.
Waver, oblivious to the shift in the atmosphere, didn’t realize how off his mood appeared.
If anything, he found the unusually quiet classroom suspicious.
Still distracted by the inexplicable yet oddly familiar feeling he had when he saw Promise last night, Waver removed his glasses and rubbed his tired eyes as he scanned the room, his brows furrowed.
"Where’s Promise?"
The moment he said this, the entire classroom exhaled in relief.
Flat immediately returned to his usual energetic self, raising his hand and standing up. "Professor! Are you looking for Promise? But he didn’t come to class today!"
Waver froze. "He didn’t come?"
Indeed, Promise hadn’t shown up.
Although he had woken up early with no initial plans to skip class, something along the way caught his eye and diverted his attention.
It was the Clock Tower library.
The moment Promise saw the library, a thought popped into his mind.
Through his Spirit Class Card, the “golden cheat,” he had traveled to ancient Greece, leaving his mark on that era and the Class Card had permanently recorded those experiences.
But in this world… did those marks still exist?
Or had they been erased, corrected into a singularity, leaving no trace behind?
The curiosity sparked by these questions led Promise to make a quick decision: skip class and head to the library.
The librarian, upon seeing Promise enter, merely glanced at him before returning to their book.
Promise was a frequent visitor to the library, and his extensive knowledge of the Age of Gods was largely due to his habit of studying there.
Navigating the shelves with ease, he quickly found the section he needed and pulled out a book of Greek myths and legends.
Opening the book and flipping to the section that referenced him, he found the answer to his question.
There it was—his story.
A hero of the Age of Greek Heroes, one whose presence streaked across history like a meteor.
The God of Greek Painting, a divine figure immortalized in myth.
Wait.
'I became a god?'
Hold on—why didn’t I know this?!
As Promise read the text on the page, he felt a mix of surprise and confusion.
So, it really became part of history, huh?
For the longest time, he had assumed it would all be corrected by Chaldea, turning into something only he would remember.
But now, thinking it over, he realized how infuriated he would have been if that had happened..if that really happened he might have even gone to have a serious “chat” with the Counter Force.
Promise’s lips curved into a faint smile.
After all, if everything had been erased, then all the fates he had worked so hard to rewrite, and his vow to Clotho, the goddess of fate, would have become the biggest joke in history.
'But… I’ve done a lot of things. The ripple effects must be enormous, right?'
On this point, Promise was very self-aware.
And if everything he had done truly remained part of history, then… what about them?
In that moment, countless faces flashed through his mind.
He couldn’t help but wonder about the futures of those friends he had left behind...and the goddess who had cried when he departed.
With these thoughts swirling in his mind, Promise eagerly prepared to flip through the heavy tome of mythology in his hands to uncover what had happened to them.
But just as he was about to turn the page,
"So this is where you were.”
A familiar yet distant voice interrupted him.
Startled, Promise instinctively looked up.
The figure approaching him, with short chestnut hair and brown eyes, smiled warmly as he walked closer.
Though seven or eight years had passed for Promise..three years spent on the mountain and another three to four years causing chaos after descending..it took only an instant for him to recognize the man.
The familiarity hit him even harder than when he saw Waver because this was someone he could never forget.
“You’re here too?”
Promise smiled as he greeted the man.
“Emiya.”
Comments
Jack Sheldrake
Thanks
ABnox
Uh wait..I forgot to put the rest
Jack Sheldrake
Noooo… that’s way too short
