Alliance

A new day began.

The atmosphere at the Matou Family dining table was somewhat off.

Matou Shinji fearfully glanced at Matou Zouken, who was staring at him. "G-Grandfather, what's wrong?"

Mo Li spoke in a grave tone. "Tsuruno, I've already made arrangements for the two of you. The Holy Grail War is about to begin, and it won't be safe for ordinary people like you to remain here. When the time comes, all of the Matou Family's public assets and magecraft tomes will be transferred to you as your inheritance. Then leave Fuyuki City. Take Shinji and go as far away as possible. Move to another city and live there."

Matou Tsuruno stared at Matou Zouken in astonishment. "H-How can that be? The Matou Family has always been under your control. Even if those properties were suddenly handed over to me, I wouldn't know how to manage them. I'd only end up squandering the family fortune."

Mo Li was not surprised by this at all. For hundreds of years, the Matou Family had effectively been controlled by Matou Zouken. How could he possibly let go and hand it over to a descendant he did not even trust?

Mo Li said, "Ten billion."

Matou Tsuruno froze. "What?"

Mo Li said indifferently, "I'll give you ten billion yen. You must leave today at the latest and settle in another city. Take all the tomes with you when you go. If the Holy Grail War fails, you can still ensure the Matou Family's survival. A Magus does not necessarily need pure blood to produce outstanding descendants. So long as the Matou Family's foundation remains, the family will have a chance to start over."

In 1994, ten billion yen was no small sum. A few years earlier, it would even have been enough to have Tong Jiuzhao hunted down in utter misery.

Matou Tsuruno looked at him in disbelief. "Uh, Father, isn't that a little too..."

Mo Li's expression darkened. "What? Not enough? Thirty billion yen. Take Shinji and get the hell out of Fuyuki City! Even Taiwan would be better than staying in Japan."

At that, everyone stared at Mo Li in shock.

Matou Sakura was surprised by Mo Li's method of driving people away. Matou Tsuruno, meanwhile, was deeply uneasy, while Matou Shinji was simply stunned that his grandfather truly intended to throw him out.

Mo Li's expression eased somewhat. "This is the maximum amount of assets the Matou Family can currently split off. Everything remaining must be used to sustain the Holy Grail War. Tsuruno, do not make me repeat myself a third time!"

"O-Okay! Father..." Matou Tsuruno hurriedly agreed, never stopping to consider whether thirty billion yen was too much for the two of them. Matou Zouken's authority had long since left him too afraid to resist.

Kariya Matou, who had dared to resist, had returned, but there was still no news of him.

Matou Shinji looked at Mo Li in surprise. He had never expected things to take such a turn. With the magecraft tomes in his hands, wouldn't he be free to read them whenever he wanted? They always said he lacked talent, but he refused to believe that, as a child of the Matou Family, he could truly be utterly worthless.

After the matter was settled, no one spoke for the rest of breakfast. There was no need to wait until the afternoon. By noon, Matou Tsuruno had decisively taken Matou Shinji, loaded up all the Matou Family's tomes, and driven a luxury car out of the city.

"Grandfather... no, Brother, they've left." Matou Sakura looked obediently at Mo Li.

Mo Li's body shifted, returning to his original appearance. He smiled as he looked out the window. "They have indeed left. Too bad I don't have the Talisman of Ultimate Annihilation..."

Although Matou Shinji was an utter piece of trash, he was still young. Mo Li could not possibly just kill him. If he had the Talisman of Ultimate Annihilation, though, he could have tried purifying Matou Shinji's filthy heart.

Congratulations, Master. You have completely changed Matou Sakura's fate. Matou Shinji has left the place where fate converges. Reward: 20,000 Fate Points.

Mo Li was speechless. So he did not need to kill Matou Shinji after all? Still, changing the fate of Matou Sakura, one of the Moon World's perennial leading heroines, only gave him twenty thousand... Well, it was already quite a lot. After all, traveling between worlds only required one hundred thousand.

Mo Li habitually rubbed Matou Sakura's head. "You haven't seen your family in a while, have you? Do you want to go see them?"

Matou Sakura grabbed the hand that had mussed up her hair and pulled it down. After taking a deep breath, she smiled. "Okay. I want to go see Mom!"

Tohsaka Rin sat by the table, listlessly looking through the family's inherited magecraft book. She missed Sakura a little, but her father had said that Sakura was someone else's child now, so she should not miss her too much...

"Rin!"

Tohsaka Rin suspected she was hearing things. She immediately looked around, only to discover, to her shock, that Matou Sakura was right beside her. "Sakura? How did you come back?"

"That big brother who saved us brought me back!"

"That big brother?" Tohsaka Rin immediately recalled what had happened at the park a few days ago. But then she remembered that her little sister belonged to someone else's family now, and promptly put on a stern expression. "You ran back with someone else like this? Be careful the Matou Family doesn't catch you!"

"Ha, they won't~" Matou Sakura waved her hand, then happily hugged Tohsaka Rin. "I missed home so much. I was scared the whole time at the Matou Family these past few days. Something terrible almost happened..."

"Something terrible?"

In the first-floor hall of the Tohsaka Estate, Tokiomi Tohsaka frowned at the uninvited guest before him. "You were the one who saved my wife and daughters in the park a few days ago, were you not? For that, I am deeply grateful. However, bringing Sakura back like this will undoubtedly place her in a truly terrible situation. In my view, no matter how harsh the Matou Family's methods of passing down magecraft may be, they cannot possibly be worse than what you are doing now."

Mo Li said lightly, "I am Matou Zouken now. I sent Matou Tsuruno and Matou Shinji off to Taiwan. Under my guidance, Matou Sakura can obtain all of the Matou Family's inheritance."

"What?!" Even with Tokiomi Tohsaka's composure, he could not remain seated after hearing such news. He immediately gripped his staff, his gaze turning dangerous.

"Don't be so hasty. Watch a recording first. I saved Matou Sakura for the second time. If you attack me without watching this footage, you will definitely regret it, excellent Magus."

Tokiomi Tohsaka frowned deeply. Mo Li's tone when he called him an excellent Magus had been openly mocking, without the slightest attempt to conceal it. Even so, he decided to endure it for now.

Then, without even Tokiomi Tohsaka understanding how Mo Li did it, he pulled a laptop from behind his back, placed it on the table, and began operating it.

"Tokiomi? Do we have guests?" Tohsaka Aoi came down to the first floor and was surprised to find an outsider there.

Tokiomi Tohsaka tightened his grip on his ruby-inlaid cane. "Aoi..."

Mo Li smiled. "There's no need to worry, Mr. Tokiomi. Mrs. Tohsaka Aoi, please come over. There's a video here that I'm sure you will want to see. It is surveillance footage involving Sakura."

The moment she heard Mo Li's voice, Tohsaka Aoi recognized him. Both delighted and confused, she stepped between the two men. "It's you. I didn't get the chance to thank you for saving us last time..."

"You were fortunate that I happened to be there that time. But for this second matter, I think you should be grateful I was present." Mo Li brought up the surveillance footage from the Insect Pit beneath the Matou Family home. He had infiltrated the Matou Family some time ago, and had delayed revealing himself in order to protect the miniature camera and record everything within—including the footage of Matou Sakura being controlled as she walked toward the Insect Pit, right up until he rescued her.

"This is... Matou Zouken?!" Tokiomi Tohsaka's face turned ashen after just one glance. He could not believe what he was seeing.

"Oh, heavens! How could this happen?!" Tohsaka Aoi stared in horror at the images on the laptop screen. It had only just begun, yet something was already terribly wrong.

What family's magecraft inheritance ceremony required someone to strip naked and walk deeper into a place of darkness?

The couple immediately felt intensely uneasy. Especially as Matou Zouken spoke with Sakura, and then when they reached the Insect Pit—when Matou Sakura clearly resisted but was unable to stop herself from walking toward that horrifying pit of insects that made anyone's scalp crawl—their emotions finally erupted.

Tokiomi Tohsaka roared, his eyes bloodshot. "Matou Zouken! How dare you deceive me! An ancient covenant? What a joke!"

If this had not been surveillance footage, but something happening right before his eyes, he would have wanted nothing more than to reduce Matou Zouken to ashes immediately!

Tohsaka Aoi covered her mouth, nearly bursting into tears. "Sakura..."

Seeing that Tokiomi Tohsaka truly did not know, Mo Li immediately understood that it was indeed as Mushroom had said—Tokiomi Tohsaka had no idea what Matou Sakura had suffered in the Matou Family.

The final part of the surveillance footage made the couple breathe a heavy sigh of relief. Mo Li had suddenly appeared and saved Matou Sakura, raised his hand and thrown the Heavenly Halberd to kill Matou Zouken, then destroyed the Insect Pit before leaving with Matou Sakura.

The couple immediately understood everything.

He had saved their daughter, and the head of the Matou Family was dead.

Tokiomi Tohsaka calmed himself in relief, no longer harboring the hostility from before. He looked seriously at Mo Li and asked, "What do you want?"

Mo Li smiled. "My current identity is Matou Zouken, head of the Matou Family. I want to trade the Matou Family's magecraft tomes for the Tohsaka Estate's. I need all of the Tohsaka Estate's magecraft knowledge. Think it over carefully—you won't lose out."

Seeing that Mo Li did not seem to be joking, Tokiomi Tohsaka fell silent for quite a while before asking, "All of the Matou Family's magecraft tomes?"

"All of the magecraft tomes? Mm, that's right." Mo Li realized he had slipped into his old way of speaking. In this era, they were indeed called Magi, and magic was called magecraft—it was different from the Age of Gods he came from.

Tokiomi Tohsaka asked, "The originals?"

"No, but I'll transcribe them for the exchange."

"How am I supposed to know whether you're giving me everything the Matou Family has? Besides, some magecraft tomes are quite special in themselves. Their value does not lie solely in the knowledge they contain."

Mo Li spread his hands with a smile. "I saved your daughter. Matou Sakura is now learning the Matou Family's magecraft from me, and once you look at what I write, you'll know whether I held anything back. I guarantee it'll be worth more than what you pay."