It's cold.

This is X's first reaction after he is conscious.

The cold touch from the vest made him breathe a sigh of relief—because he could still feel the cold, indicating that he was still alive.

No, it should be said that I still feel it, which means that I am still alive.

Immediately after that, there was the feeling of confusion.

Yourself, where?

He found that his memory was disconnected, and his amnesia was unlikely, it should be ...... Well...... Fainted?

At the end of the memory, he fell into the water, and the icy water of the Weiyuan River quickly robbed him of his body temperature, and under the effect of the low temperature, he probably lost consciousness.

I see. Then it is quite understandable to feel cold.

Have you been saved?

The sturdy touch from his back told him that the place where he was lying was definitely not a comfortable place, probably a hard and cold place like the floor.

It's really unpleasant, and it's obviously not too good care for the sick person. However, X reminisced about life at the training camp and suddenly realized that it was nothing. At least it's much more comfortable than a tree branch, so you don't have to worry about falling to the ground.

He tried to mobilize the muscles in his body, but did not try to move his body, and simply tested whether the muscles were still in good condition.

This way, even if the enemy happens to be watching you, you won't notice anything out of the ordinary.

At no time should you let your guard down.

His arms were intact, and there was a sharp pain in his back muscles, which looked like a dense wound left by the steel needles that the strange bugs had shot at him before. Fortunately, the magic mark of the dirty inkstone was mostly destroyed by the magic mark of the Kiri, otherwise it would have been easy to kill X by turning the magic power into a toxin.

Muscles of the legs...... It's probably completely destroyed.

He tried to move his bones, but he couldn't feel the muscles, only the soft and amorphous sensation of the water.

It looks like the magic was overused and burned off the muscles.

He just opened his eyes, and he lost his legs, so he must not be able to escape. It's better to be frank, no matter what the enemy's purpose is......

"Ah, are you awake? I'm sorry, did I disturb you?"

As soon as X opened his eyes, he heard a friendly greeting.

Moving my eyes, my first reaction was that this should be a warehouse-like place.

The roof is high, and it looks like a classic Japanese-style house. Judging by the way the beams are laid, at least not a functional, European-style house.

The lighting is not very good, a little dark, the skylight shines a meager light, probably because the time is still early, the light is very dim.

Looking at the side of myself, it is obviously all clutter, and it seems that this place is used as a storage room on weekdays.

In the faint light, he saw a dark-haired boy with a kind smile.

Because the light was too dim, the boy was in a backlit perspective, and he couldn't see his face clearly, but the black hair and the bright smile were so vivid.

He didn't know what he was doing, he played with two decks of poker with both hands, one on the left and one on the left, the thumb of his left hand quickly bounced the poker to his right hand, and his right hand was already there, and the two hands easily played the two decks of pokers between the palms of the hands into two strap-like structures. From this, this teenager must have put a lot of effort into it, right?

“……”

"Ahh......h

The young man's brow suddenly showed an embarrassed smile, and he continued, "I'm sorry, I've made you noisy. ”

(You just said that.) ）

X thought so in his heart.

"Here...... Where is it?"

"Ahh......h Well...... My family's warehouse. Well, no one will come on weekdays, don't worry. ”

(Don't worry? no one will come?...... Is it a bootcamp guy?)

X had just brought up the idea and immediately dismissed it himself.

Impossible.

Because......

It's too weak.

This man, who calls himself Tsukahara Meishi, is too weak.

Through the shirt, I can clearly feel the weakness of my muscles, which is not the level of possibility. It's too weak. Although it can be seen that he has received some combat training, he is not strong enough. It's just a general degree. Very weak.

(So, are you taking care of my feelings? Think I'm being hunted and killed?)

"Here...... Where is it?"

He asked again.

Tsukahara also seemed to understand what he wanted to ask, so he explained the location of his family in detail.

"It's amazing. ”

X sighed. He actually has some questions he wants to ask, but it is easy for people to understand that he has ulterior motives. Therefore, he deliberately used this provoking tone to let the other party ask questions. This belongs to the conversational technique, and at the end of the training camp, when he was studying Emiya Kiritsugu, he talked about this kind of speech.

"What?

Sure enough, he was tricked.

If X asks the question, then X wants to know, and X is passive.

If Tsukahara asks questions, then it's [X wants to answer], and X suddenly becomes active.

"Why...... Will you save me?"

Yes, that's at the heart of everything.

Is it for profit, or is it simply for good intentions?

If it is for profit, he will definitely place himself in a more comfortable place to do favors.

If it's for good intentions, then you should send yourself to the hospital so that you can give yourself the best care.

However, he was clever enough to choose this dark and secluded place......

The strange contradiction contained in this, X can't let go of it.

"Ahh

As he spoke, there was a rather smug smirk. He is like the hero of the manga, showing an innocent and bright expression.

“……”

(Stupid.) actually helped someone from an unknown source, and the other party was still injured...... ）

"So, your next sentence is - why am I trying to help a person of unknown origin, who is still injured and should be sent to the hospital, right?!"

Suddenly, I don't know which tendon is wrong with Tsukahara Mingshi, he put his hands together, put the poker between his hands, twisted his body strangely, and posed a very awkward-looking, like a Greek statue, in order to highlight the strength and beauty of human beings, he forcibly made some movements that are not very friendly to the human body structure.

X didn't know that this was the line of the protagonist of a certain manga, and he couldn't understand that what Tsukahara Mingshi had just posed was the cover protagonist's pose.

“…… You guessed it. ”

However, it did guess right. Although most people think so, it's not too surprising.

"Hey, hey, hey!"

However, just such a small correctness still caused Tsukahara Mingshi to have a smug expression on his face.

"Because...... You're being hunted, aren't you?"

He hit the nail on the head.

The speculation is very correct.

"When I found you, your body was soaked in water, you had a dense needle puncture wound on your back, and your legs were not supported, which means that you were seriously injured. This is obviously not an ordinary injury, you must have been hunted down, right? Apparently, it was a nail gun or something like a weapon sprayed with steel needles. In this case, wouldn't it be too easy for someone to find you if you were sent to the hospital? Wouldn't that be sending you into a fire pit? Judging from the fact that you threw yourself into the water and escaped, the people chasing you should not want to make a big fuss, and although the river is wide, it is quite easy to forcibly send people to salvage and find a person who cannot paddle with both legs. However, it is too noticeable to do so. Because the Fuyuki Bridge has now become a rendezvous place for the current people, if it is salvaged along the riverbank, it will definitely attract a lot of attention, and the enemy does not want to do this, which means that they do not want to make a big deal out of it. In that case, I just have to hide you, and it's safe for you, and it's safe for me. How nice it would be that I could be at peace and that you would be safe?"

Tsukahara Mingshi's analysis made X stunned, he couldn't help but look at the young man in front of him carefully, his eyes adjusted to the darkness, and he saw the appearance of the person more and more clearly.

It was a face younger than himself, looking only sixteen or seventeen years old, no more than nineteen at most.

He was really shocked that such a childish boy could come up with such a logical and clear statement.

Think about it for a moment, if you change to someone else, another minor, and see someone injured, bleeding, floating on the water like a floating corpse, what would it be like? Either shouting, or screaming and fleeing, or calling friends, or calling the police.

And Tsukahara Mingshi's response was to fish him up first, then examine the wound, deduce his condition, and then reasonably rescue him......

This reaction......

It's too right, it's so right, it's so right that it scares me.

This kid is a good seedling of an assassin.

When human beings are faced with sudden changes, they will always make bad moves because of panic. In fact, the second time X killed, he took advantage of the rough nerves of the children who always released water, and suddenly attacked, even if they were trained, they also made a wrong reaction for a while, not to mention this teenager who had no training at all?

Very calm and very wise. Judgment, this judgment shocked X.

"That'...... I could also be a bad person, a heinous murderer, and that would be okay, right?

X said this, a little indifferent look between his eyebrows. He deliberately used that somewhat self-deprecating tone to figure this out. Risking oneself to save others...... This......

"You ask me, why don't you suspect that you are a bad person?"

Tsukahara Mingshi showed a little troubled expression, his eyebrows frowned slightly, and after thinking about it for a while, he smiled: "You would say such a thing, doesn't it mean that you are a good person?"

"But you didn't know that at the time, did you?"

Faced with X's forced questioning, Tsukahara Mingshi could only rack his brains again and try to give him an acceptable answer.

"Well, as far as probability is concerned, the probability that you are a good guy or a villain, half the chance, then, I have a 50% chance that I won't be victimized, and a 50% chance that I will be killed. However, there is one more problem to consider here, you have received a lot of injuries, as long as you are not the kind of stupid villain, you will not choose to kill me directly, but need to use me. As the saying goes, one out of every three people is stupid, and there is only a 15% chance that I'll meet a bad guy who doesn't listen. ”

It's a kind of death revolver-like gamble.

Once you lose, it's too late.

Still, there are people who flock to it.

X still wondered if he was too reckless to lend a helping hand to someone who came from an unknown source.

Even if there is only a 1 in 10, 1 in 1000, 1 in 1,000 or even 1 in 10,000 chance, if it may cause you to have an accident, you should try to avoid it.

Outcome......

Tsukahara Mingshi smiled awkwardly again, and actually overturned what he said before.

"Well, actually, it's because I don't want to regret it. Rather than regretting it later because of inaction, it is better to act now. That's my father's words, and it's also a famous quote from the Fujimura group! It's always the body that moves before the brain!"

What shocking words...... X only felt that the young man in front of him was a little stupid again......

This is a smart, stupid man?!

"Well, what's your name? It's just your name, so it's okay to tell me, right?"

"Name?"

X was silent.

It's not that he doesn't want to, how can he say it? Saying that his name is X? Obviously, it sounds like a prevarication, right?

Name...... Name......

Originally, assassins didn't need names, everyone called each other by code names, and when they were on a mission, they would get a temporary pseudonym, but X had never performed a mission, and he didn't need a passport to fly, so the magic of charm was enough......

Words of the name......

"Carl. ”

The name suddenly came to him.

In addition to Ayaya Makiri, what impressed him the most was this name.

"Carl Winster. ”

Tsukahara Mingshi nodded heavily, and the pause just now had already made him understand that this person was thinking of a fake name to prevaricate himself, but he didn't think there was anything wrong, a person who was hunted down! Whether it was from the perspective of secrecy or never dragging others down, it was impossible to say his real name.

"Well, I see, Carl, please advise me during this time. ”