"W-Wait a second, Eiri! Give me some time to process this!"
Shirou's face was filled with astonishment. "You're not joking with me?"
"...No, I'm not."
Looking at the others beside him again, Rin Tohsaka wore a solemn expression, Sakura Matou looked troubled, and even Illya was more serious than usual.
And the most important witness who could prove that Eiri wasn't lying—
Justiça was sitting directly opposite Shirou.
Her beautiful face lacked emotion, as if she were a doll. Her full figure was exactly the same as Irisviel's, and her gorgeous silver hair resembled a winter lake—
Every feature matched the descriptions in the legends.
Shirou finally understood the source of his déjà vu.
He had visited the Einzbern main estate in Germany several times for work. Hanging in the very center of its chapel was a huge portrait.
The "Winter Saintess" in the oil painting possessed the same air as the homunculus who entered his room and chatted with him every night.
"You're Justiça..."
Shirou's mouth fell open. So she wasn't another personality of Irisviel...
In other words, that's what this was?
For the past week, I've been ○○ing the ancestor of the Einzbern every night!?
*
Volume Six, 268: The Third Magic Is Shirou's Exclusive ○○ Cup
"..."
Shirou was deeply shaken.
He had never expected the truth behind the "cold-hearted personality of Irisviel" to be someone who had died more than two hundred years ago.
Speaking of the "Winter Saintess" Justiça, wasn't she the only miracle in the Einzbern's thousands of years of history—a flawed imitation of the Third Magic?
Shirou's understanding of the "Winter Saintess" came entirely from Irisviel's account of Einzbern history.
Originally a workshop founded by the disciples of the person who had achieved the Third Magic, it had continued to exist since