Shinji Matou at Your Service

"Defeated."

Ten minutes later, in the underground training hall of the Matou family, Medea looked dejectedly at the blade resting on her neck.

"If you're not convinced, you can choose another opponent," Shinji said cheerfully, retracting the Divine GunBlade back into his sleeve.

Ten minutes earlier, Medea had finally accepted Shinji's suggestion to pick a family member for a friendly match. Unsurprisingly, she chose Shinji.

Although they hadn't known each other for long, the observant Medea had already figured out that Shinji was the core of the family, the one with the real decision-making power, and the strongest in terms of ability. If she could beat him, her status in the family would rise significantly.

That led to the scene at the start of this chapter.

For context, Shinji had been in the living room when he took a call, and Medea had cast her Clairvoyance spell there as well. It took them five minutes to move from the living room to the underground training hall, and the actual duel lasted just five minutes.

Here's how it unfolded:

Standing ten meters apart, Shinji activated his Runes, to which Medea critiqued, commenting that although Shinji's magecraft was decent, it was still far inferior to hers.

She then showed off, casting a barrage of spells, and filling the space between them with extravagant magical displays.

Just when she thought victory was hers and was about to declare it, Shinji suddenly dashed out from the magical light with incredible speed, placing a blade against her neck and turning the tables.

Medea's confident smile froze, and she had no choice but to admit defeat.

However, admitting defeat and accepting it are two different things.

"Wha—?! You, a magus, used a blade!"

To Medea, battles between magus should be elegant, purely contests of magecraft. Charging in with a sword was simply barbaric.

"Sorry, but self-defense is a must-learn for modern magus. What I did, she could do too — and if you'd tried testing her, you'd probably be dead by now."

Shinji chuckled. This was Medea's greatest weakness: while her magical prowess was unmatched throughout human history, her hand-to-hand combat skills were practically non-existent. Even ordinary people with martial training, like Mitsuzuri or Issei, could easily defeat her in close combat.

"I know you're not convinced. Fine, you can pick another opponent and have another friendly match."

Medea agreed. Her pride wasn't the issue — during her lifetime, she'd sailed with the Argonauts and encountered many heroes stronger than her. She wasn't overly arrogant. But she hated being looked down on and especially didn't want to be ridiculed by that annoying Medusa. From the moment she laid eyes on Medusa, Medea felt they were incompatible, opposites in character.

Her next choice of opponent was Fujino. The reason was simple: Shinji was off-limits, and the training hall's space was too small for a proper fight with a hand-to-hand combat expert. Sakura was the Master, and Medea had already killed one Master before. Fighting another would have too many negative consequences.

Of the remaining two, although Kirie was slender, she was always full of energy, clearly someone who trained regularly. Fujino, on the other hand, had fair skin, a gentle personality, and a similar temperament to Medea's. If it weren't for her lack of magical abilities, Fujino would have made an ideal Master for Medea.

To secure her reputation, Medea chose what appeared to be the easiest target — but little did she know, appearances can be deceiving. Medea's judgment was flawed, and she picked the worst possible opponent.

This second friendly match was even shorter than the first. From the moment Shinji called for it to begin, to the end, only three seconds passed.

Yes, you read that right.

"Begin!"— Fujino glared— "End."

Exactly three seconds. It was so brief that Medea didn't even have a chance to cast a single spell. Just as she gathered magic, the air around her head exploded with a force that left her trembling. With her keen insight, Medea knew immediately what would have happened if that distortion had targeted her head directly.

"Convinced now?"

Shinji chuckled.

"I know that if there were a second round, you'd win. Once you're prepared, you can become nearly invincible. But battles don't have second chances; sometimes one move is all it takes to decide life and death. Modern magecraft may be far inferior to the mysteries of the Age of Gods, but in terms of unexpected methods, modern magus has the edge. Don't underestimate them just because of someone like Atrum. You can look down on their magecraft, but never lower your guard in battle."

This was the lesson Shinji wanted to impart to Medea, and it was also her downfall in the original timeline.

Medea is a deeply conflicted woman. When dealing with Servants, she is cautious, securing her stronghold and acting discreetly. But when facing modern magus, she assumes a condescending posture.

All the Masters known so far, except for the deceased Atrum, are far from weak. If Medea continued with her current attitude, it wouldn't be long before she was killed. And that wasn't something Shinji wanted. He needed to wake her up.

From Medea's response, it seemed the method was effective — maybe a little too effective. Her defeated, disheartened expression looked just like it had when she left Atrum's workshop days before as if she was about to hang a sign around her neck reading:

"I'm a useless magus."

"I'm so incompetent."

Watching her left Shinji with a headache, unsure of how to comfort her. He ended up sitting there awkwardly with Fujino, both staring at each other in silence until Kirie came to pass along a message: Bazett had summoned her Servant.

Once again, Bazett proved how simple-minded and straightforward she was.

Even someone like Atrum knew to enter Fuyuki discreetly, establish a workshop, and make thorough preparations before summoning. But Bazett? She went straight to the seaside park nearby, found a suitable spiritual land, and casually performed the summoning ritual, cutting her wrist for blood to draw the summoning circle.

As for the catalyst? It wasn't some rare relic like Golden Fleece fragments, "fossilized skin of the oldest snake, or scabbard of a holy sword, but the rune-engraved earrings she took off — decent magic items, sure, but hardly valuable as a relic.

There are countless heroes associated with runes, both strong and weak, so summoning in this manner was essentially like gambling.

"This is it! Let's see what I get!"

Bazett tightly gripped the Command Seals, as if clutching her future!