"...Miss."
When Illya woke up, the first thing she saw was her two maids.
"Leysritt, Sella."
Illya rubbed her bleary eyes and looked at Sella in confusion.
"What time is it now? How long was I asleep?"
"Miss slept for a full day and night."
Leysritt's sense of self was not clearly defined, so her speech lacked coherence. Thus, those words had been spoken by Sella—generally speaking, anything requiring greater coherence was said by Sella.
In truth, Sella and Leysritt had initially been created as Lesser Grails meant to contain Servants' souls. However, the process seemed to be difficult; even the Einzbern Family under Jubstacheit could not guarantee they would successfully create a qualified Lesser Grail every time. Therefore, Sella and Leysritt were both failures. It was only because Illya needed two maids that they had escaped destruction.
"A full day and night."
Rubbing her head, Illya felt that something was off.
"Ugh..."
She could not say exactly what was wrong, but in any case, she felt somewhat weak.
Was it because of Assassin's soul?
"...Those people haven't come, have they?"
Lowering her hand, Illya's face looked somewhat pale.
Neither Sella nor Leysritt spoke. They merely shook their heads lightly.
"...Is that so?"
Illya nodded, climbed out of bed, slipped on her slippers, and walked to the window to pull back the curtains.
Beyond the curtains was the night sky. Illya pressed her lips together and stared blankly at the dark, unfathomable heavens, lost in thoughts unknown.
"Miss... what should we do?"
There was a trace of helplessness in Sella's voice.
By all rights, neither Sella nor Leysritt was weak. But yesterday, when they had faced that white knight, the sense of powerlessness they had felt...
Some things, some people, could not be defeated merely by having "a little strength."