In Type-Moon, Starting with Adopting Little Sakura

—Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.

What did it feel like to suddenly become a father?

Was he happy?

Or did he hate it?

Rovey did not know what he should have felt under normal circumstances, but at this moment, he did not feel anything particularly deeply.

Neither joy nor irritation showed especially clearly in him. All he felt was the same calm as always.

Of course, the reason for this situation still had to be found within himself.

He understood that very well.

He did not have any particular affection for Sakura Tohsaka. At most, he pitied what she had gone through.

After all, on the original World Line, Sakura Tohsaka's fate had undoubtedly been tragic.

This included, but was not limited to, being adopted by an old man who was a monster, being personally shoved into the worm pit by her own father, having the only uncle who cared about her die in the war, enduring more than ten years of modification and torment without anyone knowing after losing her protection, and eventually falling for the same person as the older sister she had not acknowledged for years...

If the god of fate still existed in this era, then what It had done to Sakura Tohsaka truly could be called overflowing with malice.

Thanks to certain memories from his previous life, Rovey possessed a certain advantage in foresight in this world. Though it could not cover everything as directly as Future Sight, it could still help him make decisions and understand certain important events.

This included the rather important matter of Sakura Tohsaka being adopted by Matou Zouken.

So...

Did that make me a hero of justice who saved a girl from a den of demons?

As he gently flipped through the storybook in his hands, Rovey turned to look at the gloomy sky beyond the window and murmured inwardly.

It probably did.

Though part of his reason for doing this was to make his future arrangements more convenient, judging by the final result, his actions had undoubtedly saved the girl from a miserable life.

A gentleman was judged by his deeds, not his heart. That was enough.

Though he did not deny that some of his own selfish desires were mixed into it.

"..."

Rovey gently closed the book in his hands, the corners of his mouth lifting slightly.

He raised his head and looked out the window. Fuyuki City had become especially quiet after the heavy snow. A white mantle draped over the gray city, making it appear even purer. The light cast by the full moon hanging at the edge of the sky streamed through the glass and fell over him, exceptionally bright as it quietly flowed through the starry night.

Then he shook his head, half-mocking himself, half-smiling with relief. Finally, he lowered his head and quietly muttered in a joking tone.

"Rather than becoming a hero of justice, maybe I actually want to play a girl-raising game..."

He pitied her, favored her, and wanted to do something within his power.

It was better to be honest with himself. It was not as though he had broken any laws. If anything, what he was doing now was the best choice for everyone.

As for whether this deal was worthwhile?

Using the family's Magic Crest as the price to adopt someone else's daughter—no matter how one looked at it, was that not going a little too far?

For others, perhaps it was. But for Rovey, it was worth it.

Unlike the Magi of this world who were obsessed with pursuing The Root, his desire for The Root was not as great as one might imagine.

Besides, compared to ordinary Magi, his family's magecraft was more unusual, and it did not lack things like Crests.

Alchemists valued inheritance even more than Magi did. A Magus creating a unique first-generation Crest did not cost much; the only concern was whether the Crest would be rejected.

But an Alchemist could develop an Alchemy Array system of his own. So long as enough materials were spent, it was enough to reconstruct a Magic Crest suitable for its user. Though its value was far inferior to the precious source Crests of ancient mage lineages, for Mage Families, this was already the best solution to the issue of inheritance. It was simply that the research cost was too exorbitant for ordinary families to bear, so only specialized Alchemists could create them.

Most inheritances of Alchemists capable of such work were preserved within the Atlas Institute, and they were famously averse to dealing with the outside world. Thus, most of the so-called Alchemists active in the world were frauds. At present, the only Alchemy organization outside that possessed this capability was the Crowley Family, whose hereditary magecraft was Alchemy. Rovey, who had inherited the position of head of this generation, understood this technology very well. That was why he had dared to sign a Magic Contract with Tokiomi Tohsaka.

If Tokiomi Tohsaka found out that the person who had seemed so sympathetic to him today actually dared to set him up like this, he would probably be hopping mad, wouldn't he?

However, Rovey did not care much about that.

Whether Tokiomi Tohsaka knew the truth did not matter to him.

Even if Tokiomi came to his door with the Magic Contract, it could not do anything to Rovey. After all, it only stated the Crowley Family's Magic Crest; it did not specify a source Crest. Who said Crests made and replicated by an Alchemist did not count as inherited Crests?

As for whether the other party would resort to force, there was even less reason to worry.

After all, once he decided to participate in this Holy Grail War, he and Tokiomi Tohsaka were destined to become enemies. The two would certainly clash during the war, and perhaps one of them might even lose his life because of it.

If they truly met, neither of them would hold back for Sakura Tohsaka's sake.

Compared to staying in the Clock Tower, where scheming and deception went on every moment, Rovey preferred the open sky.

But one thing was one thing. What Rovey hated was merely that environment filled with deceit and mutual scheming. What he loathed were those old fossils in the Clock Tower who did not properly study their own magecraft and instead spent every day engaged in political struggles. That did not mean he hated magecraft. On the contrary, Rovey was quite interested in the secrets hidden in this world and the interesting things that were about to happen.

For example, the Holy Grail War.

Experience enough interesting abnormal events, accumulate the corresponding experience, and keep taking his own steps along the path of magecraft until he obtained the treasure he desired.

That was enough.

As for scheming against other Mage Families, or constantly expanding his power like some senior transmigrators, planning to occupy the Clock Tower, rob the Mystic Eye Train, and beat up the Twenty-Seven Dead Apostle Ancestors—setting aside whether he could accomplish such things, why should he do them? What reason did he have? And what meaning would there be after he succeeded?

Was it merely to become strong for strength's sake, to become strong so he would not have to eat beef?

Was it merely to make others fear him, to suppress the entire world of mystery with one hand?

This was not the world of madmen where everyone competed to cultivate magnetic force just so they could freely violate the world.

Nor was it a cultivation world where people fought over the Great Dao and constantly advanced their realms for immortality.

On the contrary, there were many ways to live and many choices to make.

If he had no goal and no meaning, then actively doing such things would be far too boring...

Rovey had no grand ambition to become a king or lead all humanity to ascend among the stars.

He only needed to do what he wanted to do and what he was capable of doing.

That was—

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.

This was Rovey's principle, as well as his magecraft and even his philosophy of life.

Do what you want to do. Pursue what you want to pursue. That is your creed.

With that thought, Rovey closed the storybook, turned off the bedside lamp, and gently pinched her soft cheek. After tucking her in, he rose and stepped out.

"—Good night, Sakura."

Rest well. There would not be much peaceful time like this left. Now, it was time for me to go out and make a few preparations for the coming war.

"Well then, I will temporarily leave little Sakura in your care. That should not be a problem, should it, Mr. Matou Kariya?"

Rovey slowly turned his head toward a secluded spot not far from the door.

At that moment, in the corner by the entrance, a handsome and gentle-looking man stood with a backpack slung over his shoulders. He wore a black tracksuit, and the thick concern in his eyes was half-hidden behind the tousled black hair over his forehead.

"...Thank you."

Scarlet Red (2/2)

Mifune City.

Inside a branch of a famous fast-food chain.

"Over the years, I have met all kinds of customers, some strange enough to be called bizarre, but you are the first I have ever seen who summoned someone around the moment you arrived and even chose a fast-food restaurant for the meeting."

"No matter what, I am your senior. Since you are asking me for help, you should at least show me the respect I deserve, Junior Crowley."

Aozaki Touko quietly stubbed out the cigarette in her hand and looked at the black-haired young man seated across from her, who was eating fries while nodding along.

"Compared to eating pastries at those upscale cafés that look good but taste terrible and do not even fill you up, fast-food restaurant food is more convenient and quicker."

Rovey gave her a bland glance, then answered without even raising his head.

"Besides, I do not think some unlucky person drowning in debt has any credibility left with me."

After dealing with matters in Fuyuki City, he had traveled through the night. He had directly boarded the Shinkansen in the early hours of last night and only arrived here at dawn.

If one carefully analyzed his itinerary, one would find that from yesterday until now, he had first flown from London to the Far East, then taken a taxi, and finally the Shinkansen and subway without stopping to rest. It could truly be called traveling day and night.

Therefore, following the principle of convenience, Rovey had ordered some fast food at a restaurant near the subway station as soon as he got off. He had also called and arranged to meet the acquaintance he had come to find this time—the red-haired woman currently sitting before him.

Do not be fooled by her youthful appearance. She looked only a little over twenty, but her background was extraordinary. She had once been a famous magecraft prodigy at the Clock Tower. Her talent and achievements far surpassed ordinary imagination and had already reached the level of miracles.

Of her achievements, two were the most striking—

She had reconstructed two magecraft systems that had already declined in the modern era.

In this era of declining mystery, she had single-handedly restored the most outstanding puppet techniques of the Middle Ages. She had even surpassed and improved upon them in certain respects, achieving the feat of a different kind of immortality while retaining her self-awareness.

Not only that, she had revived the lost Rune Foundation of Northern Europe. She had not only magically regenerated the twenty-four common Runes that formed its foundation, but had even analyzed several Primordial Runes that had originally vanished during the Age of Gods. This talent made her a genius among geniuses, a miracle among modern Magi.

It was precisely because of the revival of Puppet Magecraft and the Rune Foundation that she had naturally obtained the highest rank a Magus could attain in the Mage's Association—the Grand Rank.

That was right. Her true identity was Aozaki Touko, the fugitive wanted by the Clock Tower who bore the title Scarlet Red, a miracle born among modern Magi.

Yet even for such a genius, such a miracle of magecraft, her circumstances at this moment were not good. They could even be called utterly terrible.

The reason things had turned out this way was entirely thanks to a brain-dead system at that hellhole known as the Clock Tower—Sealing Designation.

A Sealing Designation was the lifelong confinement and capture, in the name of "protection," of Magi who possessed rare talents or violated taboos.

Those who possessed magecraft that could not be obtained through study and could only arise due to bloodline or constitution, such as a Reality Marble, were treated by the Mage's Association as "valuable items" and given "protective custody." The Mage's Association arrested Magi placed under Sealing Designation, preserving their magical traits unchanged and passing them down through the ages as valuable specimens.

Put simply, a Sealing Designation was no different from being sliced apart and soaked in formaldehyde as a specimen. To the Association, it was a Sealing Designation made out of goodwill. To the chosen Magus, it was a death sentence.

It was precisely because of her exceptional talent that Aozaki Touko had been personally placed on the Sealing Designation list by her own teacher, beginning several years of flight.

At this moment, she wore a white shirt beneath a brown sweater and a light coffee-colored trench coat. She carried a suitcase in her right hand, her wine-red hair tied into a ponytail. A pair of ordinary oval glasses rested on her high nose bridge. She appeared more intellectual than she had at the Clock Tower, but Rovey could vaguely sense several traces of exhaustion hidden deep in her eyes.

"Senior Aozaki, life on the run must have been hard, right?"

"...Tch, do not rub salt in the wound."

"When the Department of Law's hounds are on your trail, how could I possibly have time to rest?"

Aozaki Touko was rendered somewhat speechless by the young man's words and sighed helplessly. Then, without any politeness toward Rovey, she grabbed several fries from the table and shoved them into her mouth.

In her view, Rovey's question had been entirely unnecessary. As one of the most wanted criminals in the magecraft world, hunted by the Clock Tower and forced to hide throughout the world while evading pursuit, Aozaki Touko's life could not possibly be called peaceful.

Not only did she have to guard against Sealing Designation enforcers who could appear at any time every day, she also had to find time to earn money and repay the debts she had accumulated in the past.

Though with her abilities, there were only a handful of beings in the entire world capable of truly killing her.

But being impossible to kill was one thing. This endlessly hunted life still gave Aozaki Touko an especially severe headache.

After all, she was alone, while the other side had all the Sealing Designation enforcers of the Department of Law, as well as those audacious bounty hunters. No matter how capable she was in a fight, she would inevitably seem outnumbered before such an enormous force.

Moreover, the hounds trained by the Department of Law were not comparable to those useless Clock Tower Magi who knew nothing but magecraft research and political struggles. Every one of them possessed formidable combat skill and magecraft, and the intelligence they held was exceptionally accurate. Even Aozaki Touko, a Grand Magus, had no choice but to flee before their pursuit.

But such an exhausting life of fleeing and dealing with pursuers every day was absolutely not what Aozaki Touko wanted.

For a Magus, having a stable place to research magecraft in the hope of one day reaching The Root was the proper path. This kind of life on the edge of a blade was better suited to lunatics.

Furthermore, unlike the wealthy and powerful Clock Tower, her materials and funds were limited. Every item she used was one less remaining. If this continued, she feared that even the money for making spare puppets would be worn away.

That was why Aozaki Touko had abandoned the Western European circle and voluntarily fled back to the Far East, taking refuge in this small island nation whose lack of mystery had long made it scorned by Western European nobles.

And now, not only had she failed to make up the financial shortfall she owed from before, but her credit had also gone into the red because she owed too much money and had not repaid it. Coupled with the fact that no one wished to offend the all-powerful Department of Law, it was difficult for her even to secretly contact Mage Families and seek investment.

She was truly desperate for money now.

Who would believe that a dignified Grand Puppet Master had fallen so low that she could barely afford the materials to make puppets?

That was why, when she suddenly received a call from a certain wealthy bastard—no, from a dear junior—she had hurried out of her base, hoping to secure a little more investment and improve her situation.

As for the debts she had previously run up with Rovey, Aozaki Touko did not mention a single word.

She owed too much anyway. She could pay it back slowly. In any case, she no longer had to worry about her lifespan.

If she really owed too much to repay, she could simply mortgage her Rune research results to him. Those things were not as useful in her hands as they had been before, anyway.

"Come to think of it, it has only been two years since we last met, but you have changed a lot, haven't you?" After calming down a little, Aozaki Touko examined Rovey again, a trace of curiosity flashing through her crimson eyes.

"Have I changed that much?"