Chapter 290: Size

Sunlight, carrying a hint of warmth, spilled onto the outdoor seats of the street‑side café.

Black Tower chose a relatively secluded corner, wearing a simple dark‑purple velvet gown, her brown hair loosely draped, yet still unable to hide her innate elegance.

She leisurely stirred the black coffee in her cup, ignoring the occasional amazed or curious glances around her.

Her attention was more focused on the communication with A Xing.

Kenneth, before dying, passed on the water issue; combined with the strange incubation marks in his body, it led Black Tower to cast a suspicious eye toward the vast, hidden Sewer system of Winterwood City.

There, the city's metabolic dark side, where water currents converge and waste settles; if any abnormal thing were hidden or spread via the flow, that place would undoubtedly be the perfect breeding ground.

She should go down into the Sewer herself?

Black Tower sipped her coffee, a faint smile curling her lips.

What a joke.

Such dirty, arduous work naturally has a more suitable candidate.

"Status?" she asked the Communicator succinctly.

From the other end, A Xing's voice came, accompanied by echo in the open space and dripping water: "Entered the main passage. Space is adequate. Darkness, can see objects. No special findings."

Black Tower tapped the tabletop with her fingertip.

A Xing's reporting style has always been like that—save where possible.

"Proceed deeper, focus on inspecting the water junctions and sediment zones, and watch for any unusual occurrences."

She instructed, "That thing inside that creature could not have arisen from nothing; there must be a source."

"Understood."

A Xing replied, then added, "There are many rats. Size… slightly large."

No surprise could be heard in her tone, only a statement of observation.

Black Tower slightly furrowed her brows.

"Size?" she pressed.

"About calf‑height."

A Xing answered, then seemed to pause; a few rustling sounds came from the background, "No magical energy or special aura detected. Judged as a local ecological trait."

It should be a local characteristic.

Black Tower gave no comment.

In this world, Heroic Spirits and Magic both exist, so sewer rats growing to half a meter tall hardly seem earth‑shattering.

She told A Xing to continue deeper.

The communication fell silent for a moment, only faint electrical hiss.

Black Tower leaned back in her chair, closed her eyes to rest, arranging the fragmentary information in her mind, trying to piece together a fuller picture.

However, clues were too few, interference too great, especially that non‑magical, alien energy…

At that moment, a boisterous, almost noisy laugh rolled in from afar, shattering the café's surrounding calm.

"Wahahaha! Found you! The King told you so—such a unique beauty must appear in the most conspicuous spot!"

Black Tower didn't even bother to lift her eyelids.

That voice, that tone—who else but that idiot redhead could it be?

Iskandar shouldered a hefty wooden Wine Crate, walking over like a moving little hill, dressed in an ordinary casual shirt and trousers that clashed with his demeanor, his face wearing an unabashedly bright smile.

Behind him trailed Weber, pale‑faced and wishing to curl into a ball, while the youth clutched a few bottles of fine sake.

Scattered passersby nearby turned their heads, drawn by Rider's presence and the conspicuous Wine Crate.

Rider strode to Black Tower's table, slamming the Wine Crate onto the floor with a "dong" that made the CoffeeCup on the table give a slight hop.

He planted his hands on his hips, his copper‑bell eyes shining as he stared at Black Tower, clearly ready to launch his rousing "membership invitation speech."

However, just as he opened his mouth, the first syllable hadn't left—

"Not joining. No interest. Get lost."

Black Tower's cold voice, like three precisely thrown Ice Cones, cleanly nailed Rider's prepared lines into his throat.

She didn't even look him in the eye, still keeping her eyes closed, as if merely shooing an annoying fly.

Rider's mouth hung open, his expression instantly frozen, looking rather comical.

He probably imagined being rejected, but hadn't expected such a blunt denial that left no chance to speak.

"Uh…"

He scratched his flaming hair, looking a bit taken aback, but quickly regrouped and tried a different angle, "Black Tower Lady, don't be so quick to refuse! The King isn't here to persuade you to join this time! I'm here to invite you to a banquet!"

"Banquet?"

Black Tower finally lifted her eyelids slightly, her violet‑black eyes full of impatience.

"Exactly!"

Rider slapped his thigh, his voice booming, "Tonight, at the grand white castle on the city's outskirts! The King plans to invite all qualified participants of this Holy Grail War, have everyone sit, drink, chat—that's how heroes should meet! So, Black Tower Lady, interested in having a drink together?"

Black Tower, after hearing him finish, let a wholly unmasked sarcastic smile curl her lips.

"So I said, no interest."

She repeated, her tone dripping disdain, "Childish, boring. If I have the time, I'd rather read a couple more pages."

She waved her hand, as if dispersing smoke before her, "Go away, don't disturb my clarity."

Just as Rider was about to try harder, uttering something like "How could one miss fine wine right now," Black Tower's figure flickered like a bad TV signal, then vanished into thin air before the two.

Even the CoffeeCup before her returned to its original state, as if she had never been there.

"Waa!" several onlookers nearby shouted in surprise.

Rider and Weber were also stunned.

In the air, only a clear sentence remained, directly entering both their ears, its tone as flat as a weather report:

Oh, right. The Master of Lancer, the Magus named Kenneth, is gone. No need to bother looking for him any longer.

The words struck like a boulder thrown into a calm water surface.

Rider merely raised an eyebrow, looking a bit surprised, but mostly feeling, "Oh, one more opponent gone."

Weber beside him reacted far more violently.

The boy's complexion turned deathly pale in an instant, his eyes behind the glasses bulging, his body involuntarily shuddered, and the bottle of liquor in his hand nearly slipped from his grasp.

"Ken—Kenneth‑sensei… gone?"

Weber's voice trembled, full of disbelief.

That was the ruler of the Clock Tower, a teacher he had once both feared and hated, yet could not deny his talent and status!

Although they are now enemies, hearing such a powerful Magus abruptly "gone," death announced so casually, the massive shock and a fox's sorrow at a rabbit's death chilled Weber's heart.

This meant the cruelty of the Holy Grail War far exceeded his previous imagination.

Even someone like Teacher Kenneth could vanish without a trace…

Rider noticed Weber's lapse, gave his shoulder a hard pat with a big hand, almost knocking him to the ground: "Kid, pull yourself together! This is war! But…"

He stroked his chin, looking at where the Black Tower had vanished, his eyes burning with more battle intent, "This Black Tower Lady is really… getting more interesting! I wonder if she'll change her mind about tonight's banquet."

Meanwhile, deep within the main passage of the Sewer in Winterwood City, darkness and moisture swirled, a complex odor filling the air.

A Xing stood in a relatively open hall formed by the convergence of several pipes.

Beneath his feet was thick, slowly flowing sewage, and all around were piles of assorted city waste debris, forming dirty "islands."

The air was foully murky, yet A Xing's expressionless face showed no sign of discomfort.

Her golden eyes scanned the surroundings.

Indeed, no obvious bloodstains, corpses, or anything else were found.

Only rats—many rats.

They were massive, their fur wet and clinging to their bodies, scurrying along the trash piles and sewage edges, making tiny rustling sounds, their black little eyes reflecting a faint glint in the darkness.

She was about to report "no anomalies" to the Black Tower and prepare to withdraw from this unpleasant‑smelling place when she halted.

Because those massive rats, which had been rustling about everywhere and shown no particular interest in her as an uninvited guest, suddenly all stopped in unison.

Then, they all turned their heads one after another.