Don't expect a reply of any kind if you skip this portion.

Contains: AU, OC, OOC, Alternate Timelines, etc.

Have fun reading.

Bell Cranel blinked as he stared at the building in front of him.

Only yesterday, there was nothing there but an empty plot, and today, there stood a building with such odd structure that he found himself wondering if he was seeing things.

The large gathering of curious passerbyers told him that he was not dreaming or seeing things.

And everyone was staring at the sign that was being fit into place over the glass doors of the building made entirely out of white marble.

[Illyasviel von Einzbern's School of Combat and Magic]

...

Perhaps they can help him become stronger?

"Sorry, we're not open today," a young girl said from front doors of the building. "But we will be tomorrow, so give us try!"

The young girl had flourishing white hair not too unlike his own, but her eyes were blood red. They were like gems. She had a big smile on her face. She would have looked very friendly if it weren't for the helmeted knight beside her.

It was knight in steel and blue. He stood behind the girl with absolute stillness that Bell thought for a second that he was staring at a statue.

But when the girl made to enter the building, the knight moved, and he knew that was no statue but a very well disciplined warrior.

...

Yes, Bell would give this school a go if it produced warrior like that knight. He certainly needed some tips.

When Bell opened the door, he was immediately assaulted by his goddess Hestia. She jumped at him like a missile and tackled him the moment he entered the church.

They rolled away from the door and tumbled on the ground, but by the end of it, she was sitting on top of him with a grin on her face.

"How's your day Bell?" she asked

He smiled albeit with a bit of a struggle. "M-My day was fine, thank you, my goddess," he replied. Then he remembered something. "I saw a something odd today."

Hestia raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

"A school for combat and magic."

Hestia frowned for a second.

"It appeared in the vacant lot by Hostess of Fertility," he explained. "There was nothing there yesterday, and now it's there today."

"That's strange," she replied as she moved off of him. "What's the name of the school?"

"[Illyasviel von Einzbern's School of Combat and Magic]," Bell dutifully supplied. "Goddess, I wanted to know if I would be allowed to learn from there?"

Hestia looked surprised. "You aren't going to go into the labyrinth?"

Bell shook his head. "I will be going to the labyrinth, but I'm thinking about spending some time there at the school. I feel that I can learn something from them."

"Why do you think so?" she asked him.

"Because there was a knight."

"A knight?"

"Yeah. That knight stood so perfectly still that I thought he was a statue for a second. He had so much discipline."

Hestia nodded. "Then I give you permission to do, Bell, but only if ..."

"Yes?"

"You let me hug you to sleep tonight," she grinned.

"Goddess...!" he whined.

The next day, he returned from his labyrinth run, earning just enough.

Then a thought hit him.

Would the school demand from him payment? He really hoped not.

He stood before the marble building with its glass doors. With a deep breath, he stepped forward and pushed the doors open.

The glass doors slowly swung open without a sound, he noted. They were also smooth at the hinges, unlike most of the doors he was used to.

When he pushed past the door, he found himself in a room bathed in soft white light. He looked up, and found that lights seeping out from between the tiles that made up the ceiling thrice his height away.

The lobby had few chairs on the side and two sofas. At the opposite side of the room was a wide greeting desk. A purple haired girl sat there.

For a second, she didn't realize that he was-.

"Come on up if you have questions, Mr. Bell Cranel."

Or maybe not.

He slowly did so, and stood before the desk.

She looked up and smiled. "Hello. How can I help you, Mr. Cranel?" she asked.

"H-How did you know who I was?" he asked back, surprised by her question.

She chuckled a bit. "Our building is surrounded by a Bounded Field that shows the names of those who enter the building," she said as she pulled the paper she had in front of her and turned it around to show him.

The paper had a lot of names, a dozen perhaps, with the very last being his.

Illyasviel von Einzbern
Berserker
Saber
Rin Tousaka
Armand Solaris
Vincent
Bell Cranel

"Are there that many students already?"

She shook her head. "Most of the people listed here are faculties," she replied. "Ilya is our Principle. Berserker, Archer, Saber, and Rin are our teachers. Shirou and I am the school's cook and mother hen, so to speak. Gilgamesh..." her face darkened. "...Are you here to join us?"

He nodded. "A-Ah, but I ... don't have money to pay with..."

Sakura smiled. "It's alright. You can always pay with mana."

Bell blinked. "Pay with what?"

That's how his first lesson with the Einzberns began.

He was pushed into a class with two others. The classroom was not big. Perhaps ten meters by ten meters with the ceiling being 3 meters off from the ground. There were twelve chairs and desks in total with one white board of some kind at the front.

He sat down somewhere in the middle row and waited.

Not too long after he came in, a girl came in.

She looked to be no older than the oldest student here.

"Hello guys," she said with a smile as she walked up to the podium and set her notebook down. "My name is Rin Tousaka. And I'll be your teacher. But first, I would like to have a round of introduction."

The first to stand up was a teenager like himself.

"My name is Armand Solaris! I am a son of a merchant who's looking to become an adventurer. Please take care of me."

"Nice to meet you, Armand," the only other student smiled.

Bell just grinned.

Then the other student stood up. "My name is Vincent. I am a member of the Loki Familia. I came here to learn about magic because I find that I am too dependent on others for heals and support. Please teach me well."

It was now his turn.

He quickly stood up from the chair he had been sitting on. "I- umm. My name is Bell Cranel. I am the only member of Hestia Familia, and I also came here to learn. I'd like to better myself in everything I can. Nice to meet you all."

"Well, then, the introductions are over," Miss Tousaka said with a smile. "The first thing we will do is gauge your understanding of the world around you. That means ... an exam!"

Then she pulled out three small packets of paper.

"Argh," Vincent grumbled as he stared at the thickness of the exam packet.

Teacher Tousaka chuckled darkly. "He has the right reaction."

Bell raised an eyebrow. What's wrong with paper exams?

Bell had never felt so ignorant and dumb.

Physics? Gravity? Formulas? Prana exchange? Prana?! True magic vs magecraft? High end math? Calculus? Electricity?

'I have a lot to learn,' he thought to himself.

He looked around and saw that he wasn't the only one.

Vincent looked like his soul was leaving his body.

Armand fared a bit better but he too looked as if he had been told that his labyrinth loot was a pile of garbage after slaving over an entire day to get them.

Miss Tousaka went over all of their papers with a red pen, and by the look and sound of her movements, everyone did bad.

"Well, at least all of you are on the same page in terms of knowledge," she replied. "However, this simply won't do at all."

With that, she conjured a fire to burn away the papers she had just finished grading. When the fire burnt out, there was no ash or soot in place of the paper.

"It seems that we have to start from the very beginning."

When Bell didn't return late into the night, Hestia was worried.

Bell did say something about going to a school, but only after he left for the day that she realized that Bell probably didn't have any extra money to pay for the tuition.

Creakkk...

"I'm back..."

Hestia quickly rushed out of their room and saw Bell.

He looked pale and gaunt. His eyes were far-seeing.

He looked like a starved corpse.

"What happened to you?!" she shrieked as she quickly came and hugged.

"I feel ... so .. dumb."

Blink. Blink.

She pulled back and held him at arm's length.

"Huh?"

Bell looked up with tears streaming down. "I-Is this how you think us humans? Dumb and small?" he asked her. "I feel so small ... and weak..." he sniffed.

"...Seriously, what happened at that new school?"

"They taught you what?" Loki frowned.

"A lot," Vincent muttered. Had someone dragged either Vincent or Bell to the other, then they would be in agreement that Vincent looked about as tired, starved, and weak as Bell did at that moment. "I ... I ..." Vincent muttered before he buried his face between his knees.

There were many people around him, staring in confusion and a bit of apprehension.

He sat in the main lobby of the Twilight House, the main campus of the Loki Familia. It was night, so there were barely any visitors and familia member in the lobby. But those who were there were around Vincent and Loki as they tried to coax out exactly what happened at this new "school of combat and magic" that appeared right next to the Hostess of Fertility.

"T-they tested us."

Loki and the familia members paled. "They experimented on you?!"

Vincent blinked. "No. It was a written exam."

They deflated. "Well?"

"She burned the papers because we did so bad."

Some of them flinched, Loki included. "Ouch," someone muttered.

"What exactly did they test you on?"

"Physics."

Loki frowned. "What?"

"Physics, mathematics, calculus, logic systems, philosophy, combat, tactics..."

"All of it on paper exam? That makes no sense."

Vincent shook his head. "But that's not the worst of it. When she actually began to teach us, I-I-I was overwhelmed by what I learned. I couldn't t-tear my eyes away from what she showed us. I felt ... so ... small..."

Loki and his familia looked at each other.

"It was so cool! I didn't know such creatures existed!" Armand said enthusiastically over the dinner table. "And the other two adventurers were clueless as I was!"

"Must be nice to be actually on equal footing with the adventurers," Armand's father said. "But I've yet to hear about why you came home so pale."

Armand chuckled nervously. "Oh that... hehe..." he said as he put the spoon down. "Well..."

"You paid in what?!" Loki shouted as she shot up.

Vincent blinked. "Mana. They told us that it regenerates every day, so I gladly gave them some of mine. I was actually surprised when I saw my mana become a blue rock."

Loki's mind was racing.

It was an art so lost and so forgotten that only the gods knew anything about it.

The ability to so freely manipulate mana. Even gods had trouble with pure mana ... but humans didn't.

The First Race never had issues with anything related to magic. It was the reason why most of the most powerful magicians were humans.

But humans possessing magecraft?

The magic used today were closer to spellcraft than magecraft due to the fact that very few non-personalized spells were developed and knowledge of spells were either passed down by the gods or grimoires. Due to this feature of using grimoires and gods as the method of transferring knowledge, it was no longer classified as magecraft but rather spellcraft with emphasis on individual spells.

Humans using magecraft?

That was ancient history. History mired in struggle where the Second Race broke away from Gaia and began their eternal struggle.

A war that eventually the humans won... and with their victory, they killed Mother Earth, leaving it to the gods to tend to whatever was left of the planet.

But that had been more than half a million years ago.

Humans had survived the Apocalypse, just barely. They were also the reason why the gods had decided to descend down. To keep an eye not only on the labyrinth, which had appeared mysteriously and pumping out monsters, but also on the humans themselves. By situating themselves at the heart of human development, they were also being their watchers.

Loki's eyes shot towards the center of Orario where that school was supposed to be.

Her eyes narrowed.

Those humans ... Oh she knew what probably brought about the rise of this new magecraft.

"Zelretch...!" she hissed.

A name that the gods cursed even half a million years later, for that creature knew no bounds of time nor space.

"You son of a bitch!"

They worked too hard to make this world habitable again. Their work was not going to be undone because of that bastard!

"So how's this world?" Ilya asked with sparkles in her eyes.

It had been only a day since they settled in this world for good. The first thing they had done was to set up a school of combat and magic as both Rin and Ilya wanted. Once they arrived her, they had done so, and separated the second and third floor from the first floor; the second and third floor were their storage and living spaces while the first floor was where the classes were held. If they needed more room, they could just dig down.

Shirou smiled. "It's wonderful. It might be a bit medieval, but magic is known to everyone in this world. We won't have to hide."

"Wouldn't our magecraft deteriorate then?" Sakura asked.

Rin put up her finger to debate the fact. "Not exactly. I think I have a theory about that."

Everyone deadpanned at her.

Then the other half of the family came in.

"Shirou-tan!"

A gold blur slammed into Shirou and carried him away from the low table and across the room. They rolled and rolled until their momentum came to a halt.

Shirou groaned as he saw his Servant. "Why do you keep on doing this?"

"A queen can do as she wishes!" she shouted as she pressed her skantily dressed breasts into his chest.

"Gilgamesh," Sakura said coldly. "Could you kindly let go of Shirou-senpai?"

The golden servant pouted before rolling off of Shirou.

"Sorry," Archer said as he came in. "I was too slow to stop her."

Rin glared at her Servant. "You mean you didn't care enough to stop her."

Archer raised an eyebrow. "Is there a difference?"

Then the third Servant entered.

Or rather, tried to.

He had to bend his back a bit.

"Berserker!" Ilya said happily as she ran up to the giant and hugged his leg.

He returned the hug with a pat on her head.

Then the last Servant entered. "What's for dinner, lad?!" a red-haired, very muscular man with a equally red cape demanded with a grin on his face as he entered the living room on the second floor of the school.

And thus, everyone was here.

All of the survivors of the Sixth Holy Grail War.

Happily away from the Magus Association. Happily away from Gaia that persecuted them. Happily away from all pursuers.

Yeah, it can be confusing, but appreciate it as it is. Or not.