"Miss Akuta, why are you still following me?"
There was no awareness left in Irisviel's eyes.
Yet she still spoke these words.
To Hinako Akuta, who was following behind her.
"I was wondering that myself."
Hinako kept her eyes closed as she followed step by step behind Irisviel.
It was as though she could not bear to open her eyes and look at Irisviel.
"Why? Why are you still holding on when you've clearly become a walking corpse? There is no meaning in maintaining that last shred of consciousness. Why are you still holding on?"
"Your life is fleeting as an epiphyllum bloom."
"Is it for that man named Emiya Kiritsugu?"
Hinako asked that question without even realizing it.
"Why not?"
Irisviel's body walked onward unconsciously, yet the corners of her lips curled faintly upward.
"Everything I have was given to me by Kiritsugu."
"The meaning of my life, the awareness of my life—all of it was given to me by Kiritsugu."
"And... our daughter. Ah, ah..."
"Illya, my daughter."
"You have a daughter?"
Hinako was somewhat surprised.
"Ms. Hinako Akuta, do you know?"
"I'm very afraid."
"As a mother, I'm not qualified. I have even failed utterly."
There was a heart-wrenching pain in Irisviel's voice. Even following behind her, Hinako could feel that pain.
"I dreamed... I dreamed that Illya was crying as she told me."
"'Mama, it hurts, it hurts so much. It feels like holes have been opened in my soul, and seven enormous things have entered it.'"
"I'm afraid."
"Afraid that Illya will end up like me."
"What a tragic day that would be."
Though there was no light left in her eyes, though her body was no longer under her own control, Irisviel still began to cry.
But—
It was useless.
They had arrived at