Fate/Ultimate Antagonist

[66] He's Still Alive

"So that's how it is..."

"...You spent such a tumultuous time as the Son of the White Dragon in your dreams, experiencing all of that... Quite an extraordinary revelation."

Quietly, silently.

Waver sat in the sickroom, patiently listening to the disciple's slow and detailed narration of the entire lengthy, convoluted, and grandiose story.

Reinhard's final words fell silent.

Waver remained silent for a long time.

His fingers hung slightly in the air, as if holding an imaginary cigar.

He took a deep breath, inhaling the invisible substance into his lungs, and then slowly exhaled.

Those complex, chaotic thoughts seemed to empty out along with it.

"Hmm..."

"Rein, I probably understand... what happened."

"Well... can this also be explained?"

Hearing this, Reinhard couldn't help but be stunned.

Because he knew best that Alvin Pandragon's adventures were actually triggered by the system as a simulation... it wasn't a real dream.

It was the reality of this world, a history that had once existed.

But the existence of the system made it inconvenient to speak of such things.

So, Reinhard explained it in the form of a dream.

Reinhard had complete trust for his mentor.

If at first it was just the impression left by the anime that made Reinhard favor Waver.

Then, after more than a year of being together, he knew exactly what kind of person Waver was... a mentor worthy of entrusting everything to.

For his disciple, this mentor could risk his own life.

According to Gray, Waver once risked great danger in Castle Adra, bravely continuing to maintain Luviagelita Edelfelt's magic circuit, breaking the bounded field that trapped everyone in the castle.

If there were any doubts, Reinhard wouldn't have accepted Waver as his teacher. His mastery of magecraft had actually surpassed Waver's.

It wasn't just his trust in his mentor.

His mentor, in turn, also gave him unconditional trust, without treating him differently because of his suspicious identity as a 'foreigner'.

They trusted each other as mentor and disciple.

However...

Reinhard felt that saying, "Professor, you're actually a character from anime," might be a bit too disillusioning, so it was better left unsaid.

A 'dream'...

This was the interpretation Reinhard had carefully considered for Alvin's experiences.

Could such a thing actually provide a reasonable explanation?

"Yes... Rein."

"Do you know what 'Necromancy' is?"

Waver brought up a somewhat obscure term.

Reinhard pondered for a moment.

"Are they... the magus who like to use corpses as spell materials?"

Things like corpse explosion, flesh stitching, undead summoning, resurrection, tainted soil...