Dracula wanted to die.
Head down, face covered, he sat between Iskandar and Gilgamesh at the racing arcade setup.
To his left, Iskandar shouted "Conquer! Conquer!" as a group of fans behind him roared in excitement.
To his right, the golden queen let out a majestic laugh.
"Kneel before your queen, mongrels!"
"As you command, Your Majesty!" the entire crowd on the right side fell to their knees with synchronized fervor.
{Oh right… both of them have that ridiculous "Charisma" skill… and it's high-rank, too…}
Dracula sighed internally. He could've easily dispersed this whole crowd with a low-tier spell like "Disperse Rabble," and left just the three of them in the room.
But no.
These two clowns insisted that a king's duel must be witnessed by their people.
And since he didn't want to trigger another meltdown or property damage incident, Dracula had no choice but to sit there and bear it.
"Hey, Dracula."
Gilgamesh tugged at his sleeve and pointed at the arcade controller between her legs.
"This contraption isn't moving."
Iskandar also squirmed on his machine, which creaked loudly under his bulk. He scratched his chin and said, "Hmm? Does this thing require a mechanism of some sort?"
With a silent sigh, Dracula reached over and grabbed a few coins from the basket nearby. He inserted them into the machines for the two clueless ancient kings, whose Holy Grail-gifted modern knowledge apparently did not cover "how to operate an arcade machine."
Apparently, the Holy Grail wasn't a gamer.
"Oh oh, here it comes! The blood-pumping showdown is about to begin!"
Iskandar shouted enthusiastically.
Gilgamesh's eyes were locked onto the screen, utterly focused. Dracula moved his hand away, still lowering his head, yet his gaze slowly shifted toward his own screen.
A three-way clash—the game duel—was on the verge of ignition.
The countdown on the screen ticked down… and hit zero.
"AAAALaLaLaLaLaie!!"
With a mighty cry, Iskandar twisted the throttle of the motorcycle controller with such force that he literally tore it off.
[You idiot! That was way too much force!!]
Dracula widened his eyes and screamed internally.
But then, something strange happened. Despite the throttle being broken off, Iskandar's in-game motorcycle didn't slow down one bit. It actually blasted through the starting line at top speed.
[So that's your trick… locking the throttle at max from the start to keep top speed the whole way? And on top of that…]
Dracula glanced at the faint magical runes glowing on Iskandar's real-life motorcycle seat.
[Should I be laughing that the great King of Conquerors is cheating with a Riding skill, or crying that this junky arcade machine actually responds to Servant abilities? Who would've thought Iskandar, with those thick brows and manly aura, had such a black heart beneath it all!]
He then peeked over at the other side—at the focused, serious expression of Gilgamesh.
[And this Woman… She's no slouch either. As expected of the oldest king, she's somehow mastered this arcade racing game through sheer instinct after barely touching it once. Unreal.]
On the screen, Iskandar took the lead, with Gilgamesh hot on his tail. Dracula trailed just behind, biting at their heels. Thus began a high-octane three-way race of kings.
Meanwhile, Nero and the others found Kiyohime standing by the sidelines, clutching a shopping bag and staring blankly. They walked up to her, and Kirie asked:
"Kiyohime, what's going on here with Lord Dracula? And those two... they're Servants, right?"
"Ah, Lady Kirie… and the big lizard," Kiyohime turned around upon hearing her voice.
Ignoring Elizabeth's protest of "Who are you calling a lizard, you four-legged snake?!" Kiyohime calmly explained:
"Just now, I was shopping with my Master for these things called 'discs' in that store over there. But then the Master and those two Servants happened to want the same disc. A dispute broke out, so to avoid attracting attention from ordinary people, Master suggested resolving it with something called a 'street machine' game."
Kirie sighed. "Isn't this drawing even more attention?"
"No no, I think it's still better than having them brawl in public," Jeanne replied earnestly.
Kirie turned her gaze to a shivering, long-haired youth cowering in the corner. "And who's that? Someone you know? Or someone Dracula knows?"
"No," Kiyohime said. "I think he's the Master of that red-haired Servant, Iskandar."
"Oho," Nero's eyes gleamed with interest as she looked at the muscular redhead loudly shouting by the arcade machine. "So that's the legendary King of Conquerors?"
"Looks more like a big oaf," Kirie muttered, eyeing the scene skeptically.
"No no no, Kirie, you don't understand," Nero rebutted. "To race under the gaze of the masses, against such famed heroes and kings—along with Lord Dracula himself… I too would be excited! Hah, that's the spirit of a true emperor!"
Kirie responded dryly, "Yeah? Because I get the feeling if you were out there, you'd be the most hyped one of all."
As the girls continued to banter, the race neared its final stretch. Iskandar still held the lead, but Gilgamesh and Dracula were hot on his heels. Gilgamesh attempted to overtake several times, only to be skillfully blocked by the "old driver" Iskandar, blessed with the Riding skill.
"Wooooh! Victory belongs to me, Iskandar! AAAALaLaLaLaLaie!"
"Fool! No one defeats this king in a duel! No one!!"
The three riders thundered into the final corner of the track—the sharpest bend of the entire course.
[Here we go. Time to end this. Good thing I saved a bit of my boost. Gilgamesh won't make it past me… As for that guy…]
Dracula glanced at Iskandar's motorcycle and noticed a faint crack forming in the frame.
[Reinforcing this cheap plastic with raw magical power? This controller's almost at its limit.]
Sure enough, as the three bikes leaned sharply into the final curve, the weight of Iskandar's hulking body proved to be the last straw. With a loud snap, his controller broke in half, sending him tumbling to the floor.
It was all going according to Dracula's calculations… until Iskandar, falling on reflex, grabbed onto Dracula's sleeve. Given Dracula's frail physique, the tug was more than enough to pull him down too.
Thus, both Dracula and Iskandar's bikes plummeted off a virtual cliff, leaving Gilgamesh to claim the finish line unopposed.
"Hahahaha! Mongrels! This pleases me! Here is your reward!!"
With a triumphant queen's laughter, Gilgamesh stood on her in-game motorcycle and pulled out heaps of gold and jewels from her robes, scattering them into the crowd.
"Wooooo! Long live the Queen!!"
The crowd cheered, scrambling to grab the falling treasures.
"Ahhh, lost by just a hair," Iskandar chuckled, rubbing his back as he stood up.
Dracula sat dumbfounded on the floor, unable to process what just happened.
Then the system spoke to him.
[Give it up, host. That woman has an A-rank Luck stat. And that meathead next to you? He's at A+ level. If you didn't cheat from the start, you had zero chance of winning.]
Dracula stared blankly at Gilgamesh, unable to muster a word.