He was a young man under thirty, with a gentle yet weary smile on his face, speaking with Jianxi and Sakura.
It seemed that the man knew Sakura.
"...It looks like everything is fine. It seems I worried for nothing," the man said.
"Though she got caught up in the Holy Grail War, looking after one or two children is no trouble for me." Jianxi stroked Sakura's hair. "Besides, Sakura has exceptional aptitude. As a beginner Magus, she could probably defeat Mr. Kariya already."
Having been praised, Sakura gave an obedient smile that was both proud and shy.
"Of course," Kariya said with what seemed to be a somewhat bitter smile.
At that moment, Morgan walked around the porch, and the sound of her entering the living room interrupted the visit.
Seeing the stunningly beautiful woman who had appeared so abruptly, Kariya froze for a moment, then instinctively guessed that Morgan was someone from Jianxi's household.
"This is...?" Kariya asked politely.
Jianxi narrowed his eyes with a smile, concealing his inner awkwardness. "...My wife."
"Is that so?" Kariya was greatly surprised. "When did that happen?"
"Just recently." Jianxi could only give a vague answer.
Fortunately, Kariya did not press the matter, nor did he realize that Morgan was a Servant rather than an ordinary human.
After chatting with Jianxi for a few more moments and leaving Sakura a gift, he informed them that "he would be leaving Japan soon for overseas research and would not be able to visit," then departed from Jianxi's home.
"So, you finally made up your mind?" Morgan looked teasingly at Jianxi as he returned from seeing Kariya off.
She was referring to how he had just lied to Kariya and called Morgan his wife.
"Anyone could tell it was just a polite excuse. What else was I supposed to say?" Jianxi sighed. "And it was only because you insisted on walking in. If you had dematerialized, he isn't even a Magus, so he wouldn't have noticed you at all."
Morgan lightly smiled and ignored Jianxi's complaint. "Who was he?"
"Kariya Matou. Before Sakura was adopted by me, when she was still with the Tohsaka Family, he often looked after her and her sister." Jianxi explained, "He apparently had some history with Aoi Tohsaka when they were young."
"Matou..." Morgan recalled the old Magus she had encountered that afternoon, the one who controlled insects.
"Don't worry about it. The Matou Family has nearly declined completely by this generation. Mr. Kariya is the only one with talent, yet he gave up the magecraft path and chose a life far from it. He's just an ordinary person, and he isn't even a Master."
As Jianxi explained the situation, he headed into the kitchen to prepare dinner.
After dinner came the usual magecraft lesson. Sakura had already gone ahead to the workshop to wait and review what she had learned.
During that time, Morgan roughly told Jianxi about her encounter with the Matou Family Head outside the Greater Grail and the state of the Greater Grail itself, but she did not mention the most crucial matter: the Holy Grail had been corrupted.
She still did not know why Jianxi was participating in the Holy Grail War. Did he need it as a wish-granting device, or did he, like the Three Founding Families that had established the Fuyuki Holy Grail War system, seek to reach the Root?
During the conversation, Morgan tested him once more, but Jianxi evaded the question with the same evasive manner as before.
Therefore, Morgan felt that this hidden matter, which could become an unstable factor, should be set aside for now while she continued observing this version of him.
"If there's nothing else, I'll go to the workshop and teach Sakura—"
Just as Jianxi was about to end the conversation, the phone rang.
Jianxi answered it, responded briefly, then hung up.
"That wasn't an ordinary call," Morgan said.
"Yes. The Church's supervisor just informed me that a Servant of the Caster class has been summoned." Jianxi's expression turned serious.
"It seems the Holy Grail War will begin tonight." Morgan chuckled softly.
Jianxi was already heading toward the workshop. "Let's hold our position for now and watch how the others move."
During his time in Fuyuki, he had placed familiars for surveillance throughout the city, especially at the Tohsaka Family, the Matou Family, and Einzbern Castle in the suburbs beyond the city—territories of the Three Founding Families.
Now, he intended to activate those familiars and see which factions would clash first in the opening battle of the Holy Grail War.
"Dad?"
Seeing Jianxi hurry in with such an urgent expression, Sakura understood that there would be no magecraft lesson today.
"I'm sorry, Sakura. The evening magecraft lessons will be suspended for a while. Go back to your room and rest first. Dad has something to deal with." Jianxi bent down and reached out to comfort Sakura, who was sitting in her chair.
Sakura obediently nodded, then left the room.
"I forgot to mention it earlier. That child's element is Imaginary Numbers, isn't it?" Morgan said.
Jianxi, who was activating the surveillance familiars in various locations, merely nodded. "It is indeed rare. Is there a problem?"
"You can't teach her anything related to Imaginary Numbers magecraft." A faint, confident smile appeared on Morgan's face. "The Holy Grail War does not continue without pause. If there is time, I can teach her."
Jianxi hesitated for several seconds. With a wave of his hand, the familiars' shared vision appeared in the workshop lit by runes, like surveillance monitor windows.
"I'll consider it."
That was how he replied to Morgan.
A First Battle Full of Doubts
"What do you think, Morgan?"
Through familiars stationed throughout Fuyuki City, Xi Jianxi quickly caught sight of the first battlefield.
It was at the Tohsaka Family residence, on a hill in the Miyama district.
Under his Master's orders, Assassin launched a surprise attack on the Tohsaka Family residence, which had long been wrapped in ten or twenty layers of detection and defensive barriers, resembling a military fortress.
Yet Assassin effortlessly broke through the barriers with agile movements. Just as he attempted to dismantle the foundation of the first barrier, he was instantly killed by Archer, the Servant summoned by Tokiomi Tohsaka.
The entire process was incredibly fast. Jianxi barely had time to switch the familiars' vision and angles, and could only glimpse that majestic golden figure from afar.
The first battle ended, and Assassin was defeated.
Jianxi was certainly not the only Master who witnessed the first battle of the Holy Grail War.
He froze the image generated from the familiar's recorded feed, leaned against a desk at the side of the workshop, and asked his Servant.
"That was quite a despairing gap in combat strength." Morgan sat in the chair before the desk, elegantly crossing her legs as she leaned against the backrest.
From an outsider's perspective, the distance between them made them appear as though they were in an intimate relationship.
Of course, there was no one else here, so it did not matter.
"At least judging from those attacks, every weapon that pierced Assassin was a Noble Phantasm." Jianxi folded his arms. "Servants in the Holy Grail War generally possess only one Noble Phantasm. Exceptional Heroic Spirits may have two or three..."
But numbers alone held little value. What truly needed to be evaluated was the type and rank of the Noble Phantasms themselves.
A Noble Phantasm could be a weapon, a concept, an ability, or a special technique.
"Or perhaps those weapons that appeared so numerous are actually a single Noble Phantasm." Jianxi continued his analysis. "The prototype of Gae Bolg, wielded by Scathach, Queen of the Shadow Realm, can split into countless copies to attack... When necessary, it can even transform into a three-section staff, daggers, or even a longbow..."
As he spoke, Jianxi could not help recalling the time he had spent in the Shadow Realm, where it was impossible to judge the passing of years.
He had reached the Shadow Realm, survived among the undead and revenants that could appear at any moment, been discovered by Scathach when she came out to investigate, caught her interest, and then become her student.
At the thought of that merciless practical training, as hellish as something devised by demons, Jianxi still could not help shivering despite having long endured it.
Fortunately, fortunately... that woman could not die, which meant she could not be summoned as a Servant in a Holy Grail War like this.
"You seem quite familiar with the Queen of the Shadow Realm, Master." There was a faint trace of displeasure in Morgan's voice.
Coming back to his senses, Jianxi thought that it was probably Morgan's pride as a Servant. She could not accept her Master using another Heroic Spirit or hero as a standard of comparison.
"Not especially." Jianxi did not wish to reveal his past to anyone, so he gave an ambiguous answer. "Since I was going to participate in the Holy Grail War, I did plenty of research."
Morgan watched Jianxi calmly, as though trying to discern something from his expression. After a while, she finally withdrew her gaze and turned toward the recording of the first battle with her usual cool smile.
"I never expected Assassin to flee in defeat right at the beginning. Those assassins seem even more useless than expected."
Her judgment was not unreasonable.
Among the seven classes of the Holy Grail War, Assassin and Caster were considered the two weakest.
Because the class itself was the medium, only one of the successive Assassins of the Hassan of the Sabbah order could be summoned into the Holy Grail War.
"You can't quite say that. If the first Hassan of the Sabbah had answered the call, the outcome of this Holy Grail War would have been decided in advance." Jianxi disagreed.
"For a common Magus to think of gaining that old man's response is far too presumptuous." Morgan remarked mockingly. "Since you can suggest such a thing, Master, you should know it is impossible."
"Just as you say." Jianxi did not deny that he had merely been joking.
As for Caster, since the three Knight classes and even Rider possessed Magic Resistance, even an excellent Caster-class Servant would suffer from that disadvantageous compatibility.
Still, Jianxi was quite interested in what might have happened if Morgan had descended as a Caster rather than a Berserker.
But that was only a hypothetical topic and held no value for discussion now.
"Still, don't you think everything went too smoothly?" Jianxi looked into Morgan's eyes and bluntly posed the question.
Morgan instead asked him to explain why he felt that way. "How so?"
"From Assassin appearing and attempting to dismantle the barriers to Archer retaliating, the interval was too short. It was as if they knew the other side was coming in advance and had set an ambush, waiting for the opponent to take the bait. Moreover, Assassin has the class skill called Presence Concealment. Being discovered so easily makes him far too incompetent." Jianxi laid out his thoughts. "Could it be that Archer has some skill similar to 'presence detection,' allowing him to notice Assassin?"
"Now that we do not even know Archer's true name, how can we determine what abilities he actually possesses?" Morgan did not immediately agree. Instead, she seemed quite interested in discussing the possibilities with Jianxi.
Jianxi raised his brows high. Morgan had a point, but that led to another question.
"If that's the case, why would Archer deliberately reveal himself?" Jianxi pointed out another issue. "If he had the ability to notice Assassin's intrusion beforehand and execute a perfect ambush, then concealing the Servant's figure and ensuring that none of the other factions obtained any information would have been the best course of action." Jianxi raised a finger, a confident smile appearing on his face. "That leaves only one possibility."
"Go on." Morgan nodded.
"This was a prearranged 'fixed match.' Assassin's Master joined forces with Tokiomi Tohsaka to stage this, making Assassin's Master's withdrawal after losing his Servant seem reasonable enough." Jianxi cracked his knuckles, producing a crisp sound.
The smile in Morgan's eyes turned subtle. "They entered the Holy Grail War to obtain an omnipotent wish-granting device, yet they would lose and withdraw so decisively? Aren't you oversimplifying this?"
"Who knows? After all... Assassin's Master is Tokiomi Tohsaka's disciple." Jianxi brought out the information he had gathered on the other Masters.
At last, Morgan's expression changed. "It seems this Holy Grail War in the Far East will be more interesting than expected."
"No matter what, the Holy Grail War has officially begun. We should begin acting as well."
Jianxi rose from beside the desk and headed out of the workshop. Before stepping onto the stairs, he suddenly turned back.
"As for what you said earlier about teaching Sakura magecraft, if your schedule permits later, I'll leave her to you. After all, the better the magecraft teacher, the better."
A Form of Greeting
"This is the information on the Masters participating in this Holy Grail War. Take a look."
The next day, as he drove through the streets of Fuyuki, Xi Jianxi handed Morgan a stack of documents in the passenger seat.
"Shouldn't you be giving me information on the Servants?" Morgan asked, though she still accepted and opened the documents.
"Easy for you to say. How could that information be so easily obtained?" Jianxi could not help complaining. "Besides, if we want to ensure victory in the Holy Grail War, prioritizing the elimination of Masters would be more convenient."
Morgan lifted her eyes and glanced sideways at Jianxi, who was driving. "Every Magus participating in this war probably has the same idea. It means little."
"Have you heard of Tian Ji's horse racing?" Jianxi smiled. "Use inferior horses against superior horses, superior horses against average horses, and average horses against inferior horses. In the end, win two out of three rounds."
Morgan raised her brows slightly. "You mean I should handle the Masters while you delay the Servants? That is quite a mad idea. Has my husband already given up before the fighting has even begun?"
"...I told you, that was just a polite excuse. Can you stop taking it seriously?" Jianxi nearly slammed on the brakes atop the Miyuen River Bridge.
If that happened, he would probably become the first Master eliminated—by a traffic accident unrelated to the war.
"I do not intend to obey anyone's orders, not even my Master's. Treating you as my husband is the greatest tolerance I can offer." Morgan teased Jianxi in an even tone.
Jianxi did not know Morgan well enough, but he could tell that the Fairy Queen was not someone who could remain meekly beneath another for long. He could only tacitly accept how she treated her Master.
"Are you dissatisfied?"
"Of course not..." Jianxi gave a few dry laughs.
"Ultimately, you never intended to treat a Servant as a familiar, did you?" Morgan pointed out Jianxi's attitude.
Ordinary Magi used class names to refer to Servants, both to conceal their true names and to emphasize the master-servant relationship between them.
Yet Jianxi had never once called Morgan Berserker.
"Even if they are high-ranking familiars, they are still heroes whose names remain in history and legend. I hold respect for such existences." Jianxi answered honestly, a sharp curve appearing at the corner of his mouth. "Of course, if it is a god, that would be another matter."
Morgan's eyes widened slightly in surprise.
At that moment, the car crossed Fuyuki Bridge and arrived on the streets of Shinto.
The scenery abruptly changed from traditional streets into a forest of steel and concrete.
Morgan was not particularly interested in modern cities, but neither did she dislike sightseeing in this manner from inside a car.
When the car stopped at an intersection to wait for the traffic light, Morgan suddenly held her breath for an instant and stared fixedly at a black sedan slowly pulling over ahead.
Before you continue