"Father, isn't it a little too early to perform the Servant summon now? As far as I know, although Uncle's ultimate goal isn't the Holy Grail, he still needs to take part in the fighting of the Holy Grail War, doesn't he?"
"After all, this is the [rule] of the Holy Grail War."
Standing to Matou Byakuya's left, the next head of the Matou Family—Matou Byakuya's son, Matou Shinji—watched Matou Kariya preparing the ritual and raised his question to his father.
Tohsaka Sakura, who had already been renamed Matou Sakura, stood to Matou Byakuya's right, holding his hand as she curiously watched Matou Kariya.
Unlike Kirei Kotomine's summoning ritual, whose circle had been formed from blood, the summoning circle Matou Kariya used this time had been provided by his nephew.
Matou Shinji.
A catalyst filled with magical energy was a superior choice to blood. Though Servant summoning did not require such complicated and expensive preparations, summoning a Servant held a deeper and greater significance for the Matou Family itself. That was why they had made so many preparations.
Matou Kariya placed Lawrence's portrait—The Giant's Departure, painted by Lawrence's only student, Manlio Ferdino Springer—in the center of the enormous summoning circle made of liquid gemstones, then took several steps back, retreating outside the circle.
"Shinji, Sakura, sit down."
As he spoke, Matou Byakuya knelt upon the cushions that had been laid out beforehand.
"Uncle Byakuya, I remember that the previous three attempts to summon Ancestor Lawrence's Servant all ended in failure. Then which Servants did our Matou Family summon during those three attempts?"
Matou Sakura obediently sat down and asked Matou Byakuya.
"The previous three Holy Grail Wars? During the first Holy Grail War, we used a paintbrush our ancestor had once used, yet summoned our ancestor's teacher, Andre del Verrocchio.