Chapter 177: Party of Married Woman
"Do you want to drink something?"
Eikou sat on a long bench in the shopping center, while the man looked at the vending machine in front and asked.
"No need." Eikou replied.
"Anyway, I already bought two cans, just feel free."
The man smiled and placed a can of soda next to his seat.
"Umu," Eikou nodded, "so do you have something you want to tell me?"
"I want to know what is troubling you right now. Just now when I saw you, you were only standing here blankly, head lowered in gloom, which made me unable to resist caring about your situation."
The man sat on the bench, eyes looking forward as he spoke.
"I see…"
Eikou didn't quite understand the true intent behind the man's question, but if he chatted with someone, maybe his mind would become clearer.
At first he hadn't planned to drink a beverage given by a stranger, but his throat was parched to the point of discomfort; after all, he had been tossing out sarcastic remarks non-stop all day.
"I want to help a girl. Recently her life has met with a lot of suffering and fear… I clearly know what I should do now, but how to actually do it I completely don't understand."
"Why do you want to help her?" the man gently asked.
"Just putting myself in her place. If I encountered something similar, I would also hope that someone would be by my side, loving me unconditionally, accompanying me through the most painful and dark times. I normally don't face that kind of situation, but I always sympathize with such people, so I want to wholeheartedly help them."
"I see, you're truly gentle."
The man nodded in thought.
"It only looks gentle, in reality I'm rather careless, not knowing how to understand others,"
Eikou gave a bitter smile,
"The way I wish to be is still far off; right now I still don't understand what it really means to love someone."
"Then do you love her?" the man asked.
"That depends on how you define love,"
Eikou answered,
"My future ideal, either to become the owner of a board game shop, or be a teacher, or become a suicide-prevention hotline operator, but those things to me are all the same, you get what I mean?"
"I understand, I once had such a dream too."
The man gave a comforting smile,
"Then take back that determination, and go tell her clearly once again. That girl, if I remember correctly, she is conservative, introverted, stubborn, so you must seriously say it again, this time truly speak clearly, use all your speaking ability to make her understand your meaning."
"If you give up right now, then maybe the people of Chaldea Academy can rescue you from the Singularity, but Yu Ji absolutely will not be saved anymore, she will forever sink into the Singularity, and the Singularity of Sesshouin will continue to expand."
"Eikou, this is your only chance."
"I… I understand."
Eikou was startled by his words, but still nodded.
He looked doubtfully at the man in front of him; the man looked tall and strong like Gawain, yet extremely haggard, the flow of mana around him seemed about to fade away.
"Very good, then you must know to cherish the people by your side." The man spoke sternly.
Eikou looked at his sorrowful face, "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine. Why?"
"Well… although I'm just a stranger, but, do you need me to hug you once?"
"Why would you hug me at this moment? That's meaningless." The man said.
"Because I feel you look very lonely, as if you're enduring something. Before I go to find Yu Ji, I want to care for you a little."
"I see… I would rather be hugged by a woman, best if it's a married woman. Hahaha, just kidding."
After speaking, the man used his strong arm to hug Eikou, giving him a tight embrace.
Eikou suddenly said: "Buddy, I kept thinking you might be Brother-in-law Xiang Yu, now I don't believe it anymore."
"Why did you think I was Xiang Yu, is it because of an ability like predicting the future, or because I kept urging you to save Yu Ji?" He laughed, "Or is it because my sturdy build made you admire me and think of the Hegemon-King of Western Chu?"
"All of the above, so are you or not?" Eikou said, "You look very much like him, just that your way of speaking is a bit annoying; that part isn't quite the same."
"Of course not."
The other party tightened his embrace around him.
[You sense from Mochizuki Eikou a quality both gentle and unhurried.]
[You have learned the skill 'Determination of Steel (Moon) EX'.]
Eikou stared wide-eyed in shock.
"You… you are…"
"Now you know who I am," the other man said with a smile, "and next, you must listen carefully to what I'm about to say."
Before Eikou could ask anything, that Servant used an unprecedentedly serious tone and patted his shoulder.
"Strictly speaking, you absolutely cannot win this Holy Grail War of Love."
"The majority of Servants here are not from Chaldea Academy, but are summoned by the Holy Grail to prevent you from repairing the Singularity. Anyone here might win, but absolutely not you."
"All those competitions have also been carefully arranged. The thread of trust you painstakingly built with Yu Ji was fragile to begin with, then shredded by those malicious games, making her unable to endure it, destroying the trust she had in you—so the two of you collapse on your own."
Eikou frowned; he truly could not refute those words. "Then what exactly should I do?"
Servant Mochizuki bared his teeth in a grin: "Rely on the three married woman in Love Sleeping 2!"
"What the hell!"
"Didn't Tristan already say it? Your copy of Love Sleeping 2 is especially hard; the married woman all turned against you. Even if you switch devices it's still that dead save, basically impossible to play normally."
Servant Mochizuki blinked with a playful smile, "You really like force-kissing Siegfried, huh?"
"Don't tell me you were behind some trick, making me suffer like that—what was the point of it? I was sure the Siegfried route definitely had a problem!"
Just remembering the painful gaming experience made him instantly irritated.
"But you more or less understand now, right? From that dead save in the game to when they were suddenly summoned here, every step was prepared in advance for success…"
Servant Mochizuki hurried to explain:
"Principal Da Vinci could use a dating game to create a bond between you and Yu Ji, so I could also modify Love Sleeping 2 in reverse to carry out reverse summoning."
"And Love Sleeping 2 happens to have extremely high compatibility with this Singularity, but to avoid violating the chaotic rules of the Holy Grail War—like the so-called 'Emergency Mechanism' (Black and Red factions)—of course I couldn't help you too openly."
"So I deliberately made the wives in the game oppose you, but their very existence brought an enormous variable into the Singularity. Now things are different: when you go to find Yu Ji, those rampaging married woman have already overturned the old rules, Sesshouin's game as well, her contestant too—none of it can be maintained any longer. Next it will be the married woman who set the new rules!"
"So this time you all have hope of completing this Singularity."
Eikou was somewhat astonished.
Could this person really accomplish such a thing—connecting to the Singularity and even reverse summoning?
"This place itself was originally a Singularity built on a dating-game framework, and now it's been mixed with strange elements from Love Sleeping 2. The result will be complete chaos…"
"I'm willing to call it—Singularity: Party of Married Woman!"
Servant Mochizuki revealed a proud smile.
"That name is unbelievably awful, you bastard!" Eikou roared.
Servant Mochizuki was startled: "What, don't tell me you betrayed Tristan's Married Woman Club?"
"Don't say betray—I never joined to begin with, okay!" Eikou exclaimed, "just what kind of nonexistent memories are stuffed into your head?"
"Is that so, it's been so long I hardly remember anymore…"
Servant Mochizuki stepped right in front of him, using his height advantage to firmly place a hand on Eikou's shoulder, turning his body toward a passageway in the shopping center:
"But I remember that lovely person. Before you join another new Singularity, try to open your heart to her—the one that, in my worldline, you forever missed and can never meet again—Yu Ji. And at the same time, open your own heart as well."
"I…"
"It's fine, just say what you're thinking, do your best."
"I… I'll try."
"Next time we meet, I want to hear your experiences again—how your life is when you've gained new companions. If you like, we could even change the way we meet, like me coming to kill myself or something—"
"I don't want to become an Ally of Justice!"
Eikou was about to retort on instinct, but when he turned his head, he found that the man had already vanished.
Only a crescent-moon glow remained, as if the wind had erased every trace.
He stood there blankly for a long while, his mind packed with too many things to think about.
But the urgent matter right now… hmm, of course he still had to go meet Yu Ji properly first.
Talk things out clearly with her, then seize victory.