Chapter Thirteen: Enjoying the Show Without Caring About the Consequences / Chapter Fourteen: Of Course You Go to the Beach in Summer

Martha's forehead twitched with black lines. How had she ended up taking in such a little brother? It was embarrassing.

A flash of light lit up the living room, and a dimensional gate appeared. Yuxian rose from the sofa, ready to welcome the children home.

"Welcome ba—" Before he could finish, he saw a curvaceous woman pulling along another woman who was even more curvaceous.

He was dumbfounded. This was nothing like what he had expected.

"Master, long time no see!" Seeing Yuxian standing there in a daze, Martha immediately stepped forward to greet him.

"Ah, Miss Martha! How did you get here?" Mash asked in surprise.

"Mash, you're here too. I ran into Jack and Gretel, so I came with them."

Gretel hopped out of the dimensional gate and immediately claimed credit. "That's right, we found Sister Martha. Shouldn't Master reward us?"

By then, Yuxian had recovered. He was also happy to see Martha, so he agreed to Gretel's request. "I'll take you to an amusement park next time."

"Yay!" The little ones immediately cheered.

"I'm Elma. Please take care of me!" Elma politely introduced herself.

But soon, she sniffed the air, and her eyes lit up. "I smell Tohru. She's nearby. I'm going to find her!"

Thump!

Before she could take a step, Martha smacked her on the head with a fist and warned, "Don't cause trouble!"

Elma took the heavy blow and curled into a ball, squatting with her head in her hands. Tears nearly streamed from her eyes.

Seeing this, Yuxian's scalp went numb. The Iron Fist Saintess was indeed terrifyingly forceful. He warned himself that he absolutely could not provoke her in the future.

Nope, definitely not.

After returning, Kanna politely said goodbye to everyone and went home. Martha and Elma stayed at Yuxian's house. Elma looked utterly unwilling, but she could not resist Martha's tyrannical rule and could only accept the arrangement, silently grieving by herself in a corner.

She felt as though she had fallen into the hands of someone truly dreadful. Her future looked utterly bleak.

Watching the Drama Unfold Was Never Too Much

After greeting Yuxian, Martha happily began chatting with Mash. They were like sisters who had not seen each other for years, whispering private girl talk.

"Master still dotes on those children just as much as before," Martha sighed softly.

Mash nodded. "Everyone in Chaldea knows that. It's not as though this is the first time you've noticed, Miss Martha."

"Those children are getting more and more unruly. If Abby and the others join them, they'll become even harder to control." Martha was worried about this.

"Miss Martha, are you going to use your Iron Fist Judgment to discipline them and make them behave?" Mash asked.

Martha put on an angry expression. "Even Mash is making fun of me now?"

"No, no! I'm trying to think of a solution." Mash hurriedly denied it. She did not want to offend Martha. Just look at poor Tarasque—offending Martha never ended well.

"Mash, you should be more assertive. You've been by Master's side for so long, but you've always been too obedient. Be careful, or one day he might dump you, and then you won't even have anywhere to cry."

Martha lectured Mash with the air of someone experienced. In truth, she had no experience in that regard herself; she simply could not stand Mash's habit of complying with Yuxian in everything.

"Senpai isn't that kind of person!" Mash was very dissatisfied with Martha's assessment of Yuxian. She had always trusted Yuxian deeply and absolutely did not believe he would do such a thing.

"Ah..." Martha sighed. Looking at Mash's expression as she defended Yuxian so wholeheartedly, Martha did not know what else to say.

In the end, she could only remind her, "Mash, Master might not abandon anyone, but you need to understand that there are simply too many outstanding girls around him. If you don't fight for what you want, do you think no one else will?"

Martha spoke in a tone of frustration. "If you don't seize the chance now, it'll be too late once Kiyohime, Tamamo, Soji, and the others all gather around Master."

"Th-this..." Mash anxiously twisted her fingers, not knowing how to respond.

She had never considered this issue before. In her heart, simply being able to remain by Senpai's side had always been enough. Martha's words now gave her a few other thoughts.

Seeing Mash lower her head in silence, Martha knew she could not say any more. She patted Mash's shoulder and said earnestly, "I only told you this because I think the most highly of you. If those girls find out I encouraged you, they'll definitely want to fight me."

"Of course, I'm not afraid of them either." With that, Martha turned and left to tidy up her room.

Just after entering the room, she poked her head back out and said to Yuxian, "Master, it's your birthday today, right? Want to borrow Tarasque and go rafting nearby? A walk through the sky would work too."

"No, no, I'm afraid of heights!" Yuxian respectfully declined Tarasque. That evil dragon carried Leviathan's blood; only Martha could tame it. He had no desire to ride Tarasque for a spin.

If it were Kanna instead, that would be another matter...

The next morning, Mash got up with red eyes and made breakfast for everyone. After Martha's lecture last night, she had suffered from insomnia.

By the time Little Jeanne woke Yuxian, plates of breakfast had already been set out on the table.

Elma reluctantly walked out of her room. The moment she saw the food on the table, her entire attention was drawn to it. She forcibly maintained her manners and did not start eating until everyone was seated.

The delicious food instantly made her forget her dissatisfaction at being kept under watch, and an expression of bliss appeared on her face.

What an easy dragon to deal with.

Martha ate with great elegance, but her movements were fast. In a flash, she finished all the food in front of her.

She slowly wiped her mouth and said with satisfaction, "Mash's cooking has gotten better and better. Emiya will be able to relax more in the future."

After breakfast, before Yuxian could even lie down on the sofa, Siegfried was standing before him again.

"What happened in the end yesterday?" Yuxian asked curiously.

Siegfried answered, "After you left, we felt there was no point in continuing, so we left as well."

"That doesn't sound like you. That was Fafnir! Wasn't Fafnir the evil dragon you killed? Maybe his blood could even eliminate your weakness."

Yuxian was purely trying to stir things up. He felt their rushed ending had not been exciting enough. But if Siegfried and Fafnir truly fought to the death, he would have another headache on his hands.

"We merely share the same name..." Siegfried saw things clearly. He and Fafnir clashed simply because they disliked each other. It had nothing to do with anything else; he was not determined to slay every dragon he encountered.

"Then why did you come so early today?" Yuxian continued. "Oh, right, Martha is here. Do you want to talk to her?"

Siegfried shook his head. He had other matters to attend to. While he was certainly happy that Martha had been found, that was not why he had come to see Yuxian.

"Sorry, I need Master's help again..."

After learning that Siegfried had come to ask for help, Yuxian did not refuse.

Yuxian knew that yesterday's request for help had been a planned birthday surprise for him. So why was it happening again today?

With that expectation in mind, he followed Siegfried back to the courier warehouse.

When the door opened, Yuxian saw mountains of packages piled before him. There were probably more than twice as many as yesterday.

He turned to look at Siegfried. "So..."

"Sorry, I'm genuinely busy today..."

Yuxian let out a wail. So yesterday's workload had been Brother Fei's normal workload. He had thought that was already the busiest it could get.

Since this was actual help, there was naturally no surprise to look forward to...

Siegfried explained, "There's a shopping festival going on recently, so there are more packages."

Damn shopping festival! Did people these days never leave the house? Was buying things at the mall really that difficult? They were all just excuses for laziness!

Yuxian complained endlessly in his heart, never considering that he himself was someone who could curl up on the sofa all day without leaving home. What right did he have to complain about others?

After a busy day, Yuxian and Siegfried finally delivered all the packages.

According to Brother Fei, today's work could not be put off until tomorrow. Otherwise, there would be even more work tomorrow.

His self-discipline in this regard was clearly far beyond Yuxian's.

By the time Yuxian returned home, it was already late at night. The little ones had gone to sleep first. Mash had left Yuxian a note and some food on the table so he would not have to sleep on an empty stomach.

Yuxian hastily shoveled down a few bites, barely easing his ravenous hunger. Dragging his exhausted body, he staggered into his room without thinking about anything and collapsed into a deep sleep. That entire day had truly worn him out.

Summer Meant Going to the Beach

In the days that followed, Yuxian still went to help Siegfried deliver packages every day.

After Martha arrived, they had not properly held a welcome celebration for her, nor had they even had time to form a contract.

In terms of results, the Salty Master Rescue Squad's objective had basically been achieved. No one had expected that beforehand.

Once the shopping festival ended, Yuxian, who had been busy for so many days, was finally able to relax.

He held a simple contract ceremony with Martha.

So far, Yuxian had not encountered any Heroic Spirit unwilling to form a contract with him again. Whether he would encounter one in the future was hard to say, but Yuxian was also very willing to respect their wishes.

It was best if they were willing to form a contract. If they were unwilling, he would not think there was anything wrong with that either.

After forming a contract with Martha, the Command Spells system changed once more.

Command Spells: Special commands could be issued to Servants by consuming Command Spells. One Command Spell would be restored at midnight each day.

Effect One: Enhancement. (LV3)

Effect Two: Recovery. (LV3)

Effect Three: ???

Current number of contracted Servants: 10

The number of contracted Servants had reached ten, and Command Spells: Enhancement and Command Spells: Recovery had both risen to LV3.

Yuxian guessed that the levels were related to the number of contracted Servants. The previous upgrade had occurred when he reached five Servants, while this one came at ten.

Based on that, he could infer that the level increased for every five contracted Servants.

As for how much stronger the effects had become after leveling up, he would have to find out through actual use. Yuxian had no opportunity to test them right now.

In essence, Command Spells were a restraint mechanism for Servants. Unless necessary, Yuxian would not use them on everyone lightly. Only in battle would he use them as a means of increasing their strength.

However, the effect Yuxian cared about most, Effect Three, still displayed as ???. This unknown function made his heart itch.

Based on his many years of gaming experience, the more mysterious an ability was, the more powerful it often turned out to be.

Perhaps it would be an incredibly powerful, utterly overpowered ability. That made him increasingly eager for the moment when the mystery would be revealed.

The weather had grown hot, and before long, summer had arrived.

This was the perfect season for a trip to the beach. Kobayashi and the others happened to be planning one, so they came to invite everyone to join them for a seaside vacation.

The children were on break as well, so Yuxian changed the amusement park trip he had promised them into a beach trip for surfing. No one objected.

Martha had just arrived, and they had not yet properly celebrated her arrival. The beach was also a place Martha loved very much, so she was quite satisfied with the plan.

Come to think of it, this was already the second time Yuxian had failed to fulfill his promise about the amusement park.

He found Illya and said apologetically, "Illya, we can't go to the amusement park again this time. You won't be angry, right?"

Illya sensibly shook her head. Last time in Fuyuki, there had been special circumstances, and they had not had time to go to the amusement park. This time, she was also very happy about going to the beach.

Her eyes darted around, and an angelic smile appeared on her face. She said to Yuxian, "Master, it's okay. Illya doesn't mind not going to the amusement park! As long as Master agrees to one tiny little condition. A very, very tiny condition!"

Illya gestured with her hand, indicating that her request was only the tiniest little thing.

Yuxian instinctively prepared to nod in agreement. Feeling guilty, he thought there was no harm in satisfying Illya's small request.

Just as he opened his mouth to agree, he saw a sly glint flash through Illya's red eyes. The alert Yuxian immediately shut his mouth again.

Illya saw that Yuxian was about to agree, and the joy in her heart was about to show on her face. But at the crucial moment, Yuxian suddenly stopped talking. Her little face immediately fell.

Seeing Illya's emotions change so quickly, Yuxian could easily guess what she was plotting.

After spending so long with the little ones, he had become extremely vigilant through their repeated battles of wits. Even so, he had nearly fallen for it.

He truly could not let his guard down for even a moment.

A victorious smile appeared on his face as he thought, You're still too green to challenge me.

He said to Illya, "The vacation is still long. We'll have plenty of chances to go to the amusement park. Don't worry, I definitely won't break my promise next time."

Illya reluctantly gave a response, then turned away and ignored Yuxian. Going to the amusement park should have been something happy, but at that moment, she could not feel happy at all.

Mash witnessed this battle without smoke and heavily smacked Yuxian on the back. Half annoyed and half amused, she said, "Senpai, you're getting more and more childish. Do you really feel accomplished teasing children?"

"Not at all!" Yuxian immediately denied it. "You don't understand. These little ones are each smarter than the last. If I don't show them something serious, their tails will be sticking up in the sky."