Rin Tohsaka was thoroughly annoyed, but her frustration had nowhere to vent.
The problem was entirely her own fault—she couldn't blame anyone else.
Harry's imagined reasons for the ritual's failure: perhaps the stars were misaligned, perhaps the ley lines had shifted, perhaps some shadowy conspirator was plotting behind the scenes—whatever it was, it had to be a complex issue.
The actual reason for the ritual's failure: Rin Tohsaka got the time wrong.
Harry wasn't wrong about her family's decline. The Tohsaka household lacked a holy relic, relying solely on compatibility to summon a Heroic Spirit. Most mages could only attract weaker spirits with such a method, but Rin Tohsaka was no ordinary mage.
In her original timeline, she managed to summon Archer—Red A—a feat that was already a golden stroke of luck.
In this timeline, however, things were even more extraordinary. With a single summon, she called forth a stranger from another world: Harry, the Mighty King.
Her luck was beyond even pulling an SSR in a single draw.
That was the fortunate part of this summoning. The unfortunate part? Yesterday, she stumbled upon a new, massive gemstone pendant. For the Tohsaka family, masters of jewel magecraft, a gem of that caliber could practically bring someone back from the dead or heal a fatal wound.
But, alas, while studying the gem, an accident occurred. The magical fluctuations disrupted her clock, causing her alarm to wake her prematurely.
Today, she had stayed up late reviewing magecraft, setting up the summoning circle, and still had to attend school.
Exhausted after a long day, she forgot to reset the clock to the correct time. This threw her meticulously planned summoning ritual into chaos—and to top it off, she carelessly botched the procedure by standing inside the summoning circle.
Harry's descent from the sky was a genuine accident. A proper summoning would have manifested the Heroic Spirit from within the magic circle, not dropping them from above.
The girl felt utterly doomed. The summoned Heroic Spirit was a Caster—and a child, no less. He didn't seem particularly bright, either, and his aura screamed rebellious teenager, difficult to handle… disobedient.
And then there was his whining about needing food to replenish his mana—what a joke! As if the meager mana from eating could compare to the power she could provide.
Unless he was suppressing his true strength or had some ability like Independent Action, the mana bond suggested his requirements were minimal—which likely meant his stats were low. He probably just wanted to eat, like some reincarnated glutton… The most critical issue, though, was his class.
The girl couldn't help but think a Saber would have been better. She had no patience for skulking in the shadows—true strength meant facing enemies head-on.
This was not the card she wanted at all.
Taking a deep breath, Rin forced herself to calm down. "Alright, let's hear it," she said. "What's your True Name? Your stats, skills, Noble Phantasm, basic info… There might've been a slight mishap, so I can't see a lot of your details."
"True Name? Is that important?" Harry replied. "Besides, I doubt you'd know who I am. Unless those visions…" He paused, then nodded. "Alright, I get it. It's important."
From Rin's reaction and the fragmented information lingering in his mind from the botched summoning, Harry sensed that in this world, a True Name was critical intel.
He decided to probe further, testing whether this so-called ally was trustworthy or if she was a blabbermouth like Ron.
"Stats… I can tell you that," he said. "My highest stat is Charisma, followed by Divinity, then Intelligence, then Stamina, then Strength, and finally Magic. But my favorite is physical strength—I trust in my own power."
If you used a system algorithm, five points in a golden-tier stat would equate to fifty silver-tier points or five hundred bronze-tier points.
But higher-tier stats might come with a conversion premium. From his own perception, four points of Stamina, once mastered, felt roughly equivalent to twenty points of Strength—a one-to-five ratio.
Regardless of the math, his top stat was undeniably Charisma.
"What the hell?" Rin muttered, wondering if her Servant had a screw loose or if the botched summoning had stuffed his head with bizarre, incorrect knowledge. "I'm asking about Strength, Agility, Endurance—your physical stats! Did you mistranslate something? You do speak Japanese, right?"
"Of course I do," Harry shot back. "It was granted to me when I arrived. Otherwise, what are we even speaking right now—Chinese?"
Rin opened her mouth, then closed it. She'd been sarcastically asking if he spoke Japanese, hoping he'd read the room, but this Caster clearly wasn't picking up on her tone.
"Oh, you mean Strength, Agility, Endurance," he said, as if it had just clicked. "Why didn't you say so? Those are all at twenty points—perfect physique, no weaknesses, the pinnacle of human potential, the threshold of legend."
"Twenty points? What's that supposed to mean?" Rin snapped. "I'm asking about A, B, C, D, E rankings! Ugh, forget it…"
Rin gave up. They weren't getting anywhere. A pang of guilt and responsibility crept in—she must have really messed up the summoning, causing his memories to jumble and mix with some nonsensical system unrelated to the Holy Grail War.
But Divinity and Charisma? What kind of nonsense was that? And where was his Luck stat?
And a Caster with Magic weaker than Strength and Agility? What kind of absurdity was this?
"Ugh, fine," she sighed. "What about your skills? Your Noble Phantasm? And your True Name."
"Skills? I'm proficient in all eighteen types of weapons, specializing in cleaving combos and decapitation strikes. I know a bit of magic, but in a real fight, most of it's not very useful. Oh, but my Illumination Charm—er, Light of the King—has evolved, so it might come in handy… As for Noble Phantasms, I don't think I got that info. What's a Noble Phantasm? Is it edible?"
Harry wasn't an idiot. He'd figured out that Noble Phantasms were tied to combat, and the strange mana-draining sensation in his body was likely related. He was throwing her sarcasm right back.
Rin collapsed into a duck-sitting pose, kneeling on the floor.
"A bit of magic," she muttered. The girl didn't believe for a second that he actually knew magic. His words only confirmed he was an uneducated amateur, a rookie mage who couldn't even cast proper spells and relied on physical combat—
Oh, but he could cast an Illumination Charm.
What, was this guy going to cast a light spell and then charge into melee?
If a Caster who couldn't use magecraft was already outrageous, the real kicker was—
No Noble Phantasm!
Some mages could wield powerful magecraft through their Noble Phantasms, which might qualify them as Casters.
Rin guessed this kid was one of those cases, meant to rely on his Noble Phantasm to fight. But because of the summoning mishap, he couldn't even remember it!
This was hopeless!
Rin Tohsaka, ever prideful, always confident in victory, never one to admit defeat—she wanted to forfeit the Grail War right then and there.
Harry could sense her disappointment. Was it because his answers didn't satisfy her?
He'd planned to keep his True Name a secret, but now he switched tactics.
"Lastly, my name," he said. "You can call me Dudley."
Rin wasn't surprised she'd never heard of him. Of course she hadn't—it was only natural she'd summoned some obscure, bottom-tier Heroic Spirit.
"You can address me as King Dudley, Your Excellency, or just Caster," he added. "This game seems to be about hiding names, right?"
"Oh, and your name?" Harry asked the girl.
"Rin Tohsaka, your Master," she replied, waving a hand dismissively. "As you can see, I'm a mage. Heh."
She was past caring.
"So, magical girls here are called mages? Interesting…" Harry mused. "Alright, Rin it is. Starting tonight, we're bound by fate."