How About You Find Another Savior

If that were all, Morgan would have merely taken it as an association Shiohmi had made.

The problem was that the thing the girl held in her hands was glowing. Though it was extremely faint due to the distance, Morgan still sensed the presence of magical energy.

"A child carrying a magical energy detector..." Morgan said.

Shiohmi gave a precise answer. "Tokiomi Tohsaka's eldest daughter... Before Sakura was adopted by me, her original sister, Rin Tohsaka."

"No wonder." Morgan studied her with mild interest. "So that was the eldest daughter born with all five elements? The Tohsaka Family found themselves a fine vessel."

"That's beside the point. It isn't important right now." Shiohmi watched Rin Tohsaka jog out of the station and run along the road toward the New City district. "Before the war began, Tokiomi Tohsaka sent his wife and daughters to their maternal grandfather's home for safety. Why would she come here at a time like this?"

"Children with talent for magecraft are always drawn to abnormal events. It is the period of the Holy Grail War, after all," Morgan said.

"That may be true, but..." Shiohmi felt deeply uneasy.

She was Sakura's sister, after all. If the two girls were to recognize each other as sisters in the future, Shiohmi naturally would not stop them over something like this.

But if something happened to Rin Tohsaka at a time like this, and Sakura learned the truth in the future...

"Have a familiar follow her and take a look."

He opened the window and released a crow, sending it after Rin Tohsaka.

Very soon, Shiohmi learned that Rin had slipped out alone in the middle of the night to investigate the disappearance of one of her classmates.

In other words, it was connected to Caster.

Unfortunately, Caster's Master was exceptionally good at running. By the time Shiohmi prepared to head over, the other party had somehow vanished without a trace.

His ability to escape really was something else.

But clearly, Caster's Master had not given up after Rin disrupted his child abduction plan. Before long, Caster arranged for a Sea Monster to intercept Rin Tohsaka, who had rescued her friend and intended to leave quietly.

"Ah... ahhh..."

Through the magical energy detector, Rin realized that the Sea Monster's magical energy exceeded anything she could handle. She was so frightened that she could not move.

The sound of footsteps behind her made her instinctively turn around, but before she could see Shiohmi clearly, he used magecraft to put her to sleep.

Shiohmi picked up the unconscious Rin and turned to leave.

Behind him, the Sea Monster was reduced to ashes in an instant by Rune Magic.

Naturally, Aoi Tohsaka learned that Rin had slipped out in the middle of the night, and hurried to Fuyuki in search of her daughter.

This naturally did not escape Shiohmi's notice, as he swiftly deployed familiars to investigate the surroundings. Taking Rin Tohsaka with him, he found Aoi Tohsaka.

"Your daughter is unharmed. I merely used a little magecraft to put her to sleep." Shiohmi returned Rin to her mother.

"You are..." Aoi Tohsaka froze for a moment before recognizing who he was.

"No matter how one looks at it, allowing a child to run all the way to Fuyuki so late at night is hardly in keeping with the Tohsaka Family's usual caution." Shiohmi folded his now-empty arms. "When Mr. Kariyama returns home and hears about this, he will surely laugh at you."

"Y-Yes..." Aoi blamed herself as well for failing to notice Rin's movements. "Thankfully, Mr. Shiohmi was there. Thank you very much."

"No need to thank me. I just happened to see her." Shiohmi waved a hand. "Besides... she is Sakura's sister. I would not want to be unable to face Sakura in the future."

Hearing the name of her younger daughter, Aoi Tohsaka paused. A child who had been adopted out to inherit magecraft should not have been asked after again, yet in the end, her maternal instincts made her ask, "That child... is she doing well?"

"She is doing very well." Shiohmi spoke with slight pride. "Especially in magecraft. She has a teacher better than any she would have had in the Tohsaka Family."

His approachable attitude put Aoi Tohsaka more at ease. "That is good."

There was nothing more she could say. At the very least... knowing Sakura was living well with the Shiohmi family was enough.

After seeing the Tohsaka mother and daughter off, Shiohmi returned to the roadside, where Morgan was waiting outside the car door.

"Why did you get out of the car?"

That made Shiohmi feel a little embarrassed.

"It was nothing." Morgan watched Aoi Tohsaka drive away from the road on the other side of the park. "I did not expect you to intervene directly. I thought you would at most contact someone from the Tohsaka Family."

"I acted because I thought of it. She is Sakura's blood-related sister, after all," Shiohmi explained honestly.

"Was this also an action you took for a 'better tomorrow'?" Morgan asked.

"I think it was."

Shiohmi considered it for a moment, then smiled sincerely.

A Visitor Arrives with a Bang

After taking a bath, Shiohmi finally felt drowsiness gradually washing over him.

With a towel draped around his neck, he changed into casual home clothes and walked out, only to find Morgan nowhere in sight.

Both children were asleep in their own bedrooms—they were now able to sleep alone, which gave Shiohmi less to worry about much of the time.

He casually searched around the house and eventually found Morgan sitting on the floor facing the garden. She had opened the floor-to-ceiling glass doors, her feet resting on the bluestone of the courtyard as she gazed into the distance.

Winter air flowed into the room through the open glass doors, yet it did not become particularly cold.

From here, one could take in the entire garden behind Shiohmi's house, as well as see the moon in the night sky.

There had still been thick clouds when they returned home, but now the sky had completely cleared. A waxing gibbous moon and countless stars glittered overhead, illuminating the entire courtyard.

Moonlight spilled over the Fairy Queen like a faintly chilly fall of snow, giving her an oddly desolate appearance.

"It is a fine courtyard. There is clearly nothing particularly remarkable about it, yet the longer one looks, the more one likes it," Morgan said.

He had not intended to disturb Morgan's time alone, but she spoke to him first. He stopped and listened as she continued.

"If you are not in a hurry to sleep, accompany me in some idle chatter for a while," Morgan invited him.

Without a word, Shiohmi sat beside Morgan and looked at the bright moon overhead.

With only the slightest shift, his shoulder would touch hers.

Yet he did not feel unsettled because of it.

Was it thanks to the winter night, or had he simply grown used to it?

Though Morgan was so close, his heart felt strangely calmer than usual.

"This is a place well-suited to living alone," Morgan said. "A Magus's workshop often reflects its owner's personality. Judging from this alone, you should be the type of Magus who lives more apart from others."

Shiohmi pursed his lips. "But I am not merely a Magus. I am also a person. No matter how much one wishes to avoid the world, one cannot truly separate oneself from it and survive on one's own."

"That is precisely it." Morgan nodded lightly, as though in approval. "In ordinary terms, it means this place feels more human."

As she said that, she turned her face toward him. Shiohmi had not deliberately looked at Morgan before, but when their gazes met, he realized that the witch who had seemed to possess an air of clear solitude had been smiling all along.

It was not as warm as winter sunlight, but neither was it as cold as ice and snow that never melted.

It was a smile that seemed as though only Morgan could wear. Looking at her, Shiohmi involuntarily forgot to respond.

"Especially those two children. They seem to have naturally disrupted the workshop's original, complete form, yet they have not harmed the way you conduct yourself as a Magus. Instead, they have made certain things more perfect." Morgan did not seem to require Shiohmi to answer every time and merely slowly withdrew her gaze.

"Just as you said before, people are incomplete." Shiohmi lowered his head, looking at the grass, plants, and scattered stones in the courtyard. "That is why they need someone beside them to fill in what is missing."

"And yet, with such thoughts, you joined the Holy Grail War." Morgan looked at the Command Spells on the back of Shiohmi's hand.

Shiohmi raised his hand and smiled at the Command Spells. "What if I said it was not by my own will? That one day, the Command Spells suddenly appeared—not in the form of a stigmata, but as complete Command Spells granted directly to me?"

Morgan looked at him and nodded. "Because you received Command Spells, you chose to fight? Even without a wish you wished to entrust to the Holy Grail?"

"Is that not allowed? I am hardly the only Magus in this Holy Grail War who joined with such thoughts." Shiohmi smiled with pursed lips.

Kirei. Waver Velvet. Kayneth El-Melloi Archibald.

Of the Masters Shiohmi knew, none of them had a clearly defined wish.

What the latter two sought from this Holy Grail War was more personal glory and proof of their own beliefs.

"Then let me ask differently. If you won in the end and obtained the Holy Grail, what wish would you want to fulfill?" Morgan looked into Shiohmi's eyes. "Wealth, power, fame—anything is fine. Even something a little vulgar would be acceptable."

"Do I have to choose one?" Shiohmi raised an eyebrow.

"You could say you want them all." Morgan shook her head. "Or perhaps you are actually the very serious sort of Magus, one who wants to use the Holy Grail's power to reach the Root?"

Morgan's questions were not aggressive, yet every sentence struck directly at Shiohmi's heart.

He had no wish that could only be achieved through the Holy Grail, nor did he have any pain that required an omnipotent wish-granting device to overcome.

But if... if he had to find a reason.

If it was not a task imposed upon him by some existence, but his own desire.

Then there truly was one, though Shiohmi also doubted whether his "goal" was necessary at all.

If possible, Shiohmi wanted to bury that thought deep in his heart, letting no one know until the moment it could be realized.

Unless... even his heart could be completely seen through.

Suddenly, without any warning, Morgan seized Shiohmi's wrist.

Her expression shifted into one prepared for battle.

Shiohmi immediately realized that, though the stars and moon were visible overhead, faint thunder was rolling in from afar, gradually drawing nearer to where he was.

The magical energy carried within it swiftly became clear.

It was no surprise who the visitor was.

Shiohmi raised a hand and opened the barrier around the place, leaving a sufficiently wide opening for someone to enter and leave.

The barrier's spell formation would be destroyed by such a crude act, and restoring it afterward would be more troublesome than setting it up from scratch.

No matter how he looked at it, it was a pain in the neck.

That was the sound caused by Rider's Noble Phantasm, the Gordius Wheel, passing through.

Perhaps seeing the barrier open and realizing the landlord was prepared to receive guests, the ox-cart Noble Phantasm slowly descended along the indicated path onto the broad lawn behind Shiohmi's house.

"Does not look like you came here to fight, Rider." Shiohmi remained seated without moving.

Yet the King of Conquerors on the ox-cart rubbed his chin and looked teasingly at the Master and Servant, whose shoulders were nearly pressed together.

"Did I come at a bad time and interrupt something good?" Iskandar laughed heartily, flashing a mouthful of white teeth. "Should I come back another time?"

Shiohmi instead glanced at Artoria, dressed in a suit, who leaped down from the ox-cart while carrying Irisviel.

"Since you came prepared, if you accepted being sent away so easily, that would be what made me wary." Shiohmi rose from beneath the eaves, his bare feet stepping onto the floorboards. "Einzbern, are you planning to abandon our alliance and ally yourselves with Rider's faction instead?"

A Landlord's Hospitality

"A banquet?" Shiohmi was taken aback.

Shiohmi knew nothing about any planned banquet. Thinking about it, it had to be something this exceedingly willful King of Conquerors had decided on his own.

Hiding behind Rider's massive body, Waver looked at Shiohmi and Morgan with an expression that was difficult to tell whether it was hostility or fear.

But Shiohmi could clearly read the words written across Waver's face: I want to go home already.

"Yes, a banquet."

As he spoke, the King of Conquerors, dressed in faded jeans and a white T-shirt, hoisted a large wooden barrel from the ox-cart.

There was no mistaking it. It was a wine barrel.

"So you came looking for people to drink with?" Shiohmi and Morgan exchanged looks, once again feeling the Macedonian king's unrestrained boldness.

"Exactly. Lend me your courtyard. That should not cause any inconvenience, should it?" Carrying the wine barrel, the King of Conquerors jumped down, and the ox-cart Noble Phantasm vanished into the void afterward.

Shiohmi merely turned around. "Wait here."

And so, the two groups of uninvited guests truly waited in the garden for nearly an hour.

Shiohmi truly did not reappear until an hour later.

He had thrown on a jacket against the cold, but he had not gone to change clothes. Instead, he had gone to the kitchen to prepare food that could be eaten with drinks, as well as blankets for everyone to sit on.

Shiohmi often ate easy-to-carry foods prepared in advance with Sakura and Karen in the courtyard, things such as homemade sandwiches, homemade bread, and baked pastries.

It was precisely because of this that Shiohmi discovered he was not completely helpless when it came to daily chores and could still handle some housework.

The dazzling spread of food caused Artoria, who had been on high alert, to relax, her eyes shining. Irisviel still looked somewhat listless, but her mood was generally quite good.

"Hoho! This truly opens one's eyes. I decided to hold this banquet on a whim, yet you, the one providing the venue, personally went and prepared the food." Iskandar praised him.

"You knew it was spontaneous and still did not send invitations?" Shiohmi retorted. "Did banquets in your country never follow any procedure?"