Looking at the instruments around her, each one visibly coursing with chakra, then pointing at the Giant Python in the distance that Orochimaru had modified to continuously produce chakra and power the various devices.
Sakura's face clearly showed an expression of, Are you joking? at Orochimaru's talk of science.
"Such sharp observation... But Sakura, these are merely replicas I recreated using results I once had in my mind. They are not new achievements."
"Replicas... I more or less understand. Still, please crack this world's Magecraft System as soon as possible. We do not have much time..."
"Hehehe, I will do my best."
Although she had ample faith in Orochimaru, who possessed such "core technology," Sakura had not actually placed all her hopes on him.
After all, Orochimaru had cost only a thousand Destiny Points to summon. There had to be some flaw that made him so cheap in this world.
Now, after hearing Orochimaru mention replicas and seeing the instruments in the Basement, all of which operated on chakra, Sakura had roughly found her own answer to Orochimaru's weakness.
His research system is currently built entirely upon an environment with chakra... Is that Orochimaru's flaw...? As expected, in the end, I still have to rely on—Grandfather.
With that thought, Sakura quietly approached the tank containing Zouken Matou's true body. Looking at the bloated insect still wrapped in that layer of blue light, a faint, rather chilling smile appeared on her face.
"The life of the flesh is too brief, too uncertain... Isn't that right, Orochimaru?"
"That is so. All things with form will eventually wither, and humans are no exception..."
"Then, as his granddaughter, it seems I need to prepare Grandfather a body that will never wither as soon as possible..."
As she spoke, a terrifying aura began to erupt from Sakura's small body. Even Orochimaru, who stood behind her and had seemed so composed in the face of everything, could not help but look at her differently.
Just as even Orochimaru was looking at Sakura differently, Sakura herself waved at him, then turned and walked toward the Laboratory entrance...
"Orochimaru, starting tomorrow, please spend one hour every day training me in basic Body Techniques..."
"Hehe, no problem."
Watching Sakura's figure disappear into the Laboratory, Orochimaru, his face pale beneath the dim lights and his entire body radiating a cold, sinister aura, suddenly laughed...
Sakura, what kind of scenery will the wind you bring create...? I truly look forward to it...
"Subduing" Zouken Matou
The study that had belonged exclusively to Zouken Matou half a month ago.
All traces that had once belonged to Zouken Matou had vanished after Sakura took over the entire Matou Family.
With its excellent lighting, modern design, and desk and chair specially prepared for Sakura, the study's transformation by a professional design team made it abundantly clear who the true master of the Matou Family now was.
Panting heavily, he trembled as he stopped striking the wooden post before him.
Shinji Matou, who had been awake for a full week, was striking the wooden post with all his strength.
Suddenly, a curse rang out from the second floor of the Matou Family's Inner Residence. Shinji stopped what he was doing and looked toward the study from which the sound had come with worship and respect, murmuring,
"My foolish Grandfather, can't you accept reality yet?!"
Listening to the vicious words that drifted continuously from the study, almost like curses, Shinji's face flashed with disdain. Then, with an extremely dashing gesture, he brushed back his sweat-soaked bangs.
The half-month period had ended, and the Matou Family's Insect King had awakened.
But for Zouken Matou, who had been frozen by the Power of Destiny half a month ago, the half month in which the Matou Family had undergone earth-shaking changes had been nothing more than an instant.
Twisting his bloated, maggot-like body with all his might in hopes of escaping Sakura's palm, Zouken Matou refused to yield.
"Vicious little brat of the Tohsaka Family, don't even think about it! You will never get any knowledge or information you want from this old man... Aaaahhh~!"
With a delighted smile on her face, Sakura interrupted Zouken Matou again by tearing off one of the abdominal legs from his true body.
This interrogation had already continued for nearly an hour.
Sakura, who had begun judging and torturing Zouken Matou the moment he awoke, asked her question once more.
"Grandfather, hand over everything you know about the Holy Grail and magecraft. That way, you can suffer much less."
Hand it over? How could he possibly hand it over?
Zouken Matou had no idea what method Sakura had used to prevent him from using even a trace of magical energy. How could he possibly give her what she wanted?
Having lived for more than five hundred years, Zouken Matou knew perfectly well that the moment he gave Sakura what she wanted, that little monster from the Tohsaka Family would crush him to death without hesitation.
He could not die. He absolutely could not die. No matter what, he had to live.
Zouken Matou, whose once-noble dream had long since been forgotten and twisted into its current form over five centuries, now had only one pursuit left in his heart: to live, to live forever.
Therefore, let alone Sakura merely tearing off his abdominal legs, even if she skinned him, pulled out his tendons, transferred his soul into a maggot, and threw him into the filthiest place in the world, Zouken Matou would stubbornly survive.
Sakura naturally knew this.
Thus, the nearly hour-long questioning and torture had been purely for Sakura to "take revenge" on Zouken Matou from the very beginning.
But the revenge would probably end here.
By now, Sakura had torn off nearly all of Zouken Matou's abdominal legs.
If she kept playing, she would probably have to give Zouken Matou another body... But that would not do. After all, to control Zouken Matou, Orochimaru had spent a full eleven days using an improved Sealing Technique to completely eliminate every possibility of Zouken Matou rising up, turning him into an insect she could toy with in her palm.
"Grandfather, are you truly unwilling to 'help' me no matter what?"
"Hiss—hiss! Never..."
"Then what if I sign a Self-Imposed Contract with you, guaranteeing that I will not kill you after you hand those things over?"
As Sakura's words left her mouth, a distinctly human-like face emerged atop the flesh insect that Sakura was holding up before her with one hand, instantly making her feel sick.
"Hehehe... So your purpose really isn't to kill me..."
As though he had grasped Sakura's weakness, Zouken Matou, who had looked quite feeble just a moment ago, suddenly let out a bizarre cackle.
Zouken Matou's old face had already disgusted Sakura, and that sudden cackling laugh made it truly intolerable.
Just as Zouken Matou smugly believed he had seized Sakura's weakness and was preparing to take the opportunity to make some demands.
A force powerful enough to reduce Zouken Matou to dust in the next instant made him understand his situation immediately.
"Change back! Speak like a human!"
Sakura clenched Zouken Matou tightly in her palm. Disgusted to the point of nearly losing her mind, she had undoubtedly seized Zouken Matou by the throat of his destiny in that instant.
Seeing Sakura's eyes, which had nearly lost every trace of emotional light, Zouken Matou did not doubt for a moment that if he did not do as she said, this little brat before him might truly crush him to death.
"Y-yes... This old man will change back at once. D-don't... squeeze any harder..."
Sakura tossed the transformed-back Zouken Matou onto the desk in front of her. After this, she would perhaps never again choose to touch that disgusting insect with her hands for the rest of her life.
Suppressing the lingering nausea in her body, Sakura waited until Zouken Matou had struggled back before her.
Then, a Self-Imposed Contract Sakura had created over the past few days using the Matou Family's magecraft materials was placed before Zouken Matou.
"Sign it, Grandfather, and you can live... If you are willing to serve me..."
As she spoke, Sakura took another Self-Imposed Contract from the desk drawer.
"Then I can guarantee that, before I come of age, Grandfather will obtain the immortality you desire from me!"
Immortality...
There was no need to say how great an impact those two words had on Zouken Matou, who wanted only to live, to live forever.
But...
Staring fixedly at Sakura's face as she looked at him with a faintly smiling expression, Zouken Matou seemed, at that moment, like a child tempted by candy, caught in painful indecision.
The Self-Imposed Contract was real, and there was absolutely no issue with its contents.
But... did this young girl before him truly possess the ability to grant others immortality?
Without question, she did.
Holding the Temple of Destiny, which contained the destiny gathered by countless people unwilling to be toyed with by fate, Sakura could naturally use the Temple of Destiny to grant people... immortality, in a certain sense.
Moreover, there were many ways to accomplish it—so many that even Sakura herself probably could not tell how many there were.
Therefore, Sakura would have no problem fulfilling this Self-Imposed Contract.
Of course, Sakura would not tell Zouken Matou exactly what kind of "immortality" she would grant him, or what form that immortality would take.
But one thing was certain... Once the time came to fulfill the contract, if Zouken Matou had lost his usefulness, he would probably regret it very much...
Matou Family Affairs
At the Matou Family lunch table.
Other than Orochimaru, who did not know whether he counted as a member of the Matou Family now, and Kariya, the wandering prodigal still off somewhere unknown.
Every member of the Matou Family currently in Fuyuki City had gathered here.
But unlike ten or so days ago.
The head of the Matou Family seated at the head of the table had changed to... Sakura Matou, a young girl who had only recently celebrated her fifth birthday.
Sitting in the chair Tsuruno Matou had specially made to please her, Sakura faced the three generations of the Matou Family, all of whom were visibly "shorter" than her.
In high spirits, Sakura tapped the armrest of the custom chair, signaling that everyone could begin eating.
The Matou Family had come from Europe to the small place that was Fuyuki, so they naturally did not have the Japanese custom of saying something before beginning a meal.
The moment Sakura gave the signal that everyone could start.
Shinji, who had spent the entire morning in the garden training Body Techniques with his head down and was already starving, naturally reached for his chopsticks without hesitation and launched an attack on the tableful of delicacies ordered from a high-end hotel.
But just as Shinji placed a large piece of premium wagyu into his bowl and prepared to dig in.
Shinji, who under Orochimaru's guidance over the past few days had successfully begun using the Chakra Seed within his body and gained the wondrous power of chakra, suddenly noticed... that aside from himself, neither his "useless" father nor his "monster" Grandfather had moved at all...
"Dad, eat... Grandpa, you should eat too?"
Sakura smiled gently at Shinji. Knowing how exhausting his training had been, she looked at his astonished expression and immediately said,
"Brother Shinji, you eat. Grandfather and Uncle Tsuruno might not have much of an appetite."
"Oh~..."
What lack of appetite? Those were all excuses.
The reason those two had not touched their chopsticks was entirely because Zouken Matou and Tsuruno Matou knew that this so-called family meal could not possibly be just a meal.
Compared with enjoying the food, learning as soon as possible what plans and orders this strange young girl before them had was the most important thing for the Matou father and son.
Sure enough, just as Shinji lowered his head and resumed eating, Sakura, seated at the head of the table with a beaming smile, spoke.
"Uncle Tsuruno, how much money can our Matou Family still mobilize?"
"Hmm, without affecting our foundation, give me one week and I can mobilize thirty million dollars... In one month, I can mobilize at most fifty million dollars."
"Only that much?"
Sakura was not exaggerating. Although the Matou Family's magecraft had declined, its finances had not weakened in the slightest. Under Zouken Matou's management as the family head for more than five hundred years, compared to the impoverished Tohsaka Family next door pretending to be wealthy.
The Matou Family, which owned large amounts of real estate and collected rent from Magi by leasing Spiritual Land, not only had a stable source of income, but could even be called enormously wealthy.
"I'm sorry... That is all we can gather on short notice. Most of our family's accumulated liquid funds were used to purchase Experimental Equipment and materials for Lord Orochimaru."
Hearing Tsuruno's somewhat trembling report, Sakura then remembered that a few days ago, she had had Zouken Matou and Tsuruno gather more than a hundred million dollars to acquire equipment for Orochimaru.
"Mm... I'm sorry, Uncle Tsuruno, I forgot... But my next plan requires a great deal of money. What should we do?"
Although she asked what they should do, Sakura's eyes had already turned toward Zouken Matou, seated to her left.
Facing Sakura's gaze, Zouken Matou, who had temporarily submitted beneath Sakura for immortality and was wearing the Clone Body Orochimaru had prepared, restoring his human appearance, naturally understood what she meant.
"Ahem, Tsuruno... Sakura's 'plan' is the most important matter for our Matou Family... Do you understand?"
"Father, you mean..."
"Choose ten property deeds. This old man will contact some old friends and gather the funds."
"Yes, Father. I will prepare it this afternoon."
Listening to the exchange between the father and son before her.
Sakura nodded in satisfaction.
Having achieved her goal, Sakura turned with a pleased mood, picked up her chopsticks, and began enjoying the delicious food before her in peace.
Before you continue