To Become a King and a Magician

I am Natsukawa Naoki, a time traveler as you can see. Like many of my predecessors, I was hit by a truck driver on a business errand and sent to another world on a sunny day.

According to the normal process, after time traveling, you would meet a god-like old man in the afterlife, and after obtaining some cheat abilities, you would go to another world and start your invincible life. Or, at the request of a beautiful goddess, you could embark on a mission as a hero to fight the Demon King to the death and save the world. At worst, you could start your second life with a laugh from God saying, "I accidentally killed you, so I'll compensate you."

Naoki had fantasized about this, but the reality now is that he has become a... noble worker.

His location is a convenience store at a gas station in Fuyuki City. His position is a cashier, with an hourly wage of 1,200 yen, working five hours a day and having two days off a week.

It's a fairly normal job. Wages in Fuyuki City aren't high, and it's more than enough to live on alone. Moreover, the manager of the convenience store is a good and reasonable person. He doesn't mind at all if some "expired" items in the store are disposed of internally, which ultimately helps Naoki save a lot of money.

Who made Naoki a lone student who came from the countryside to study in Fuyuki City? It can only be said that the original owner's identity was very helpful.

Of course, there were problems.

Naoki was originally from a foreign country, and he time-traveled and became a Japanese person living a good life in Japan. This change in identity caused various issues in his daily life, and the most terrifying one was that he couldn't speak Japanese.

Although the original owner of the body could speak Japanese, from Naoki's perspective, it was basically like:

"Head: I know, do you know?"

"Mouth: No, he knows exactly what to say, but as soon as he says it, his words become distorted, plus he's poisoned by various porn movies and ear recordings from his previous life..."

The worst moment was when Naoki was almost fired due to a conflict with a customer.

Of course, all of this is in the past. Half a year has passed since the time travel, and Naoki can now speak Japanese fluently. After all, the original owner had a solid foundation in Japanese.

Aside from these small episodes, Naoki's time-traveling life hasn't had too many twists and turns, to the point that he, who yearned for an invincible style, decided to become a plagiarist. It's still 1994, and if he insists, it's not impossible. The main problem is that he doesn't have much inventory in his mind.

However, this peaceful life was shattered half a month ago.

◆━⊰✧⊱━◆

After getting off work on time and bringing home a bag of dinner, Naoki returned to his apartment—a cheap single apartment with a monthly rent of 10,000 yen.

Before he could take out his key, the apartment door opened automatically, and someone appeared before him: "Welcome back, Master, you've worked hard today."

Standing at the doorway was a man filled with light—literally, filled with light.

His hair was golden like the sun, and the smile at the corner of his mouth was gentle yet shone like the morning sun. Although he was only wearing ordinary black pants and a red shirt, his cooling temperament never faded.

Facing the man's greeting, Naoki closed his mouth and pushed him inside. He quickly looked around and locked the door.

"I've told you many times, Arthur, don't make noise and don't appear outside the door. Even if you have to go out, you must turn into a spirit! If the landlord finds out someone else is living in my house, I'll definitely suffer!"

"Ah... I'm sorry, Master, I just sensed your presence and wanted to greet you out of habit."

"I'm glad you understand."

Naoki put the bag in his hand on the small round table with a frown. Seeing the bread and carton of milk rolling out of it, Arthur frowned: "Is this your dinner tonight? Master, forgive me for being blunt, but for a young man still in the growth stage, this is a bit—"

"Don't you think about who spent all my savings?"

Naoki became very angry when he mentioned this issue.

The man in front of him is named Arthur, Arthur Pendragon. He is a Servant summoned by Naoki half a month ago and a Knight King from a parallel world.

1994, Fuyuki City, Servant Summoning.

If these keywords are combined, if Naoki still doesn't know where he is, then it's all for naught.

The Fourth Holy Grail War.

Actually, if Naoki had to choose, he would prefer to go to the Fifth Holy Grail War. If he followed Emiya Shirou, it might not be completely safe, but at least the chances of survival would be higher. He might even get some food at the Emiya household and have a chance to become a Heroic Spirit.

But the Fourth Holy Grail War... Compared to the Fifth Holy Grail War, the Fourth Holy Grail War is truly brutal!

On the Servant side, there's the Heroic Spirit King who died from overwork, the Conqueror King who can summon thousands of troops to turn a one-on-one duel into a true one-on-one duel, and the Knight King who is a professional at cutting the Holy Grail. These three kings are well-known to everyone. Besides them, there's also the Hundred-Faced Hassan, Gilles de Rais, Diarmuid, and Lancelot.

Although in the era when Naoki wandered, these characters almost all became comedians or funny characters, in terms of background, they are truly tough individuals!

Let's look at the Master side.

Although Tohsaka Tokiomi appears embarrassing, his Magecraft skills are clearly not bad, and his achievements in Magecraft rank second among the Masters. If there's a Master battle, there might only be two people who can definitely defeat him—if he fails at a critical moment, that's another matter.

Then there's Kayneth, who is the most unfortunate. His Mana is the best among the Masters, and his practical combat level is also quite impressive. He is confident that he can compete with the three great families that created the Holy Grail War, or even defeat them with his own talent alone. Of course, his abilities are fully worthy of this confidence—but he is too suspicious and has a bad relationship with his Servant.

Next, let's talk about our true taste: Emiya Kiritsugu. In terms of danger level, he is the most dangerous among the Masters. He always uses RPGs, C4 bombs, Kalashnikov light machine guns, and Walter sniper rifles. He is decisive and ruthless, as if he suffers from a traditional fear of insufficient firepower. Naoki even wonders if he would launch a surface-to-air missile if conditions allowed.

As for Origin Bullets... Although they are a special attack against Magus, even if you're not a Magus, if you get hit by a sniper rifle, you'll be half-dead if not killed—at least that's what would happen to Naoki.

And the remaining four...

At this point, there's already news about the serial killer Ryuunosuke Uryuu on TV. Let's see if we can drag him to his death. It's better to let Matou Kariya, who suffers the most in the Fourth Holy Grail War, be alone, not to mention he's only targeting Tokiomi.

'But the problem is... I've taken over the Saber class, so I don't know if Kiritsugu will summon Artoria.'

Assuming the configuration is the same as the original situation, relying on the foresight advantage of a time traveler, Naoki feels that if he's smart enough, he can still survive. He doesn't intend to participate seriously. He doesn't know Magecraft and can't plan anything. If he really wants to participate seriously in the Fourth Holy Grail War, he can only curl up for warmth. So as long as he survives until the end, he'll be considered successful.

And if because he stole Saber, Kiritsugu can't summon Saber... then his living environment is actually more difficult.

Because this way, the only one left for Kiritsugu is Caster. The meaning of this situation is—let's just say, if Caster or Assassin is given to Kiritsugu in the Fourth Holy Grail War, unless Tokiomi is smart enough to let Gilgamesh play freely, or use a Command Spell to let Gilgamesh fight seriously and wipe everyone out at night, all the Masters will die.

Thinking of this, the bread in Naoki's hand no longer tastes good. Others who come to Type-Moon go straight to the Fifth Holy Grail War and win the Fourth Holy Grail War like a piece of cake. Destroy the Matou family—kill Matou Zouken—kidnap Matou Sakura—start training young Rin and Sakura, the entire process is done at once, so why is it different when it comes to him?

"Master?" Arthur's voice snapped Naoki out of his reverie.

"What?"

"Nothing, it's just that Master isn't eating. So... is Master worried about the Holy Grail War?"

Naoki nodded.

Putting down the bread and milk in his hand, Arthur placed his hand on his chest and said, "Don't worry, Master. No matter who our opponents are in this Holy Grail War, I swear on the name of King Arthur and the holy sword in my hand that I will definitely bring you victory."

"Of course I believe in you, but believing in you and worrying about you are two different things. We have to consider various situations." Naoki sighed, "Forget it, I don't know when the Holy Grail War will start, so I have to try to make some preparations before then—Arthur, where's my bread?"

After eating a piece of bread and wanting to touch another, Naoki saw the empty bag and turned to Arthur.

As expected, there were several bags of bread in front of Arthur.

"Sorry, Master, I can't get Mana support from you. I need to eat, and the Mana that bread can convert..."

"Sigh..."

To repeat again, after summoning Arthur, Naoki was actually very angry—he couldn't afford to support King Arthur, a big eater!

"I'm really sorry I can't give you Mana!"