Type-Moon Start, but an A Certain Magical Index Mage

Artoria felt that Mephistopheles was insulting her right now, calling her a villain.

Yet knowing that this would cause problems with Illya's body and still continuing the Holy Grail War, Artoria had no way to refute him.

However, Mephistopheles clearly was not finished.

"But if, even after sacrificing others—especially friends and people you know well—you still can't achieve your goal in the end, then I wouldn't call that an idealistic villain. I'd call them a complete idiot."

Artoria finally understood. Mephistopheles was not saying that she was an idealistic villain; he was calling her a complete idiot.

However, Artoria immediately noticed the crucial issue in those words.

So, she asked the question.

"What exactly happened to the Holy Grail? Why do you say the Holy Grail isn't what I think it is?"

There was no need to ask whether he knew her wish. Right now, she only needed to know what had happened to the Holy Grail in order to determine whether it could fulfill her goal.

"Saber, you're a smart person, so let me ask you this. Are you familiar with Kiritsugu Emiya? Do you know what his wish was?"

Mephistopheles's question left Artoria silent. After a long while, she said, "I know his goal. It was hollow and difficult to achieve, but he was also someone who would stop at nothing to accomplish it."

"I can say this: he was even more extreme than you. So why would someone that extreme give up the Holy Grail at the very moment he achieved victory? Why would he even destroy it?"

Artoria sank into thought after hearing that question.

She had considered this question many times. To Artoria, Kiritsugu Emiya was a traitor. He had betrayed her, and naturally, he had also betrayed the Einzbern Family.

They were supposed to work together to achieve victory, then use the Holy Grail to fulfill their respective wishes. Instead, she had been stabbed in the back. Forced under the control of Command Spells, Artoria had no choice but to destroy the Holy Grail with her own hands during the Fourth Holy Grail War!

This was why Artoria hated Kiritsugu Emiya. Her thoughts had always been clouded by that resentment, preventing her from viewing the matter objectively.

But now, listening to Mephistopheles's words and considering Kiritsugu Emiya's character, Artoria found many suspicious points.

"That's right. Kiritsugu was an extreme man who would do anything for his goal. Unless he changed that goal midway through, then no matter what, he should have used the Holy Grail's power for the sake of peace for humanity...

"So why would he rather destroy the Holy Grail than use its power? What reason could there possibly be?

"Mephistopheles said the Holy Grail wasn't what I thought it was. In other words, there was an enormous secret hidden within the Holy Grail. That secret was what made Kiritsugu willing to set aside his lifelong wish just to destroy it..."

At that thought, Artoria could not help taking a deep breath.

Then Mephistopheles continued, "What if Kiritsugu destroyed the Holy Grail because he discovered that using it would completely destroy his wish and make it impossible to fulfill ever again?"

Now that things had been put that plainly, no matter how slow Artoria was, she understood what Mephistopheles meant. Her eyes widened as she blurted out, "That's impossible!"

She was not saying Kiritsugu's actions were impossible. She was saying the Holy Grail could not possibly be like that!

Even though she had already grasped the key point, she refused to believe it at that moment. Because if she believed it, then what had been the point of coming to this era and participating in the Holy Grail War?!

Illya's Wish

"I've said enough. As for what you do next, I think you'll think it through yourself." With that, Mephistopheles stopped speaking with Artoria and chose to leave.

Although he would be staying at Shirou Emiya's house for the next few days and eating the food Shirou cooked, Mephistopheles decided to go out and buy some groceries, following the principle that he could not freeload every day.

But he had barely gone any distance when someone called out behind him.

"Uncle!" Illya called to Mephistopheles as she jogged over. "Wait, where are you going?"

Mephistopheles looked at Illya in confusion. "Do you need something?"

Illya glanced around and casually said, "It's not very good for a Servant to wander around alone, right? I'll come with you."

Seeing her say that, Mephistopheles smiled slightly. He knew Illya just wanted to slack off, but he did not expose her and simply nodded. "All right, then you can lead the way."

"I'm pretty familiar with this area!" Illya asked, "So where are you going?"

"The supermarket. I need to buy some vegetables and fruit. There are too many of us, so the ingredients in the Emiya Household's refrigerator probably won't be enough."

"The supermarket? Then come with me. I know where it is!" Illya walked ahead, clasping her hands behind her back and taking big strides. Her behavior really was no different from that of a child around ten years old.

As they walked down the street, quite a few people looked their way.

Mephistopheles was British, while Illya could be considered German. But to the Japanese, the people of those two countries were difficult to distinguish, so to outsiders, the two looked like a pair of siblings.

Looking at the vegetables and fruit in the supermarket, Illya blinked, then suddenly pointed at something nearby and shouted, "I want fried chicken legs!"

So Mephistopheles readily followed Illya's command, taking a large box of frozen chicken legs and putting it into the cart.

At that moment, Illya suddenly looked in another direction. Mephistopheles turned and saw two children walking together over there, each holding a milk tea. They chatted while drinking, looking thoroughly relaxed.

They're not in school. Did they make up some excuse and sneak out to play...? Mephistopheles thought to himself. Then he looked at Illya and saw her staring at the milk tea without saying anything. He took out a thousand-yen bill from his pocket and handed it to her.

"I'm a little thirsty. Go buy me a milk tea. I'll wait for you at the supermarket entrance."

"Huh? I'm going? You're not?" Illya looked at the bill in surprise.

"I'll keep buying groceries. Once I'm done, I'll wait at the entrance. Besides getting one for me, you can keep the rest as an errand fee. Buy whatever you like."

"Really?!" Illya's eyes immediately lit up. When Mephistopheles nodded, she happily accepted the bill and hurried toward the milk tea shop outside the supermarket.

Seeing how happy the girl was, Mephistopheles found himself happy as well. Humming a tune, he continued selecting ingredients, from things that would not keep well to those that could be stored longer. After buying enough food for roughly the next three days, he finally left the supermarket.

At the supermarket entrance, he saw the girl sitting there, swinging her little feet as she quietly waited for him to come out.

The moment she saw Mephistopheles emerge, she immediately stood up, jogged over to him, and handed him the milk tea.

Along with some change.

"It's all your errand fee. Keep it."

Only after Mephistopheles said that did Illya put it away. Happily sipping her milk tea, she asked, "Uncle, where did you get your money?"

"Of course, I got it from Rin!"

"Won't she get angry if you spend her money however you want?"

"She probably will." Mephistopheles thought for a moment, then shook his head. "But it's fine. I'm pretty good at making money!"

"You're going to make money here?!" Illya stared at Mephistopheles in surprise. She had never expected a Servant, who would not be here for very long, to actually plan on making money.

"Yeah, I've already started. You can't lose money trading stocks anyway. Buy and sell, and by tomorrow, I should be able to multiply the money Rin gave me by several times."

Illya was even more astonished. "You can keep winning at stock trading?!"

Mephistopheles merely smiled faintly. "Can't I just use divination?"

Illya had never expected such an answer, but it made perfect sense. By using divination to determine which stocks would rise, when they would rise, when they would fall, and when they would rise again, all he had to do was buy accordingly!

This was magic!

This was how magic could be used in the real world, in the world of ordinary people!

"Anyway, there's very little interference in this world, so the success rate of divination is extremely high."

"Uncle, that's cheating. That's completely cheating!" Illya giggled as she accused Mephistopheles of doing something practically equivalent to directly checking backend data, though there was not the slightest hint of actual blame in her expression.

If anything, Illya even looked eager to try it herself.

If she left her family and wanted to survive, what mattered most?

After ensuring her own safety and solving the problem with her body, the most important thing was obviously money. Without money, one could not get anywhere in this world!

And now, Mephistopheles had shown her a path: use divination to trade stocks. As long as she kept it under control, no one would notice her!

Seeing through the girl's thoughts, Mephistopheles immediately pressed his advantage. "So study magic properly with me. You don't need to worry about all those troublesome things from the past anymore!"

But Illya merely glanced at him. "Uncle, you sound like you're trying to lure an underage girl."

"Tch, you're underage?"

"I'm younger than you, anyway!"

"Nonsense, I'm only sixteen!"

Illya did not believe Mephistopheles's protest at all.

"You say you're only sixteen? Who are you trying to fool? With your level of magic, and the fact that you're a Heroic Spirit summoned as a Servant, there's no way you could only be sixteen!"

Watching Illya say that, Mephistopheles helplessly shook his head. "I'm telling the truth. This body of mine is only sixteen, a real sixteen-year-old. I'm even a high school student."

"A high school student?!" Illya's mind quickly began turning. "When did high schools appear? Are you from the modern era?"

"No. How about this? Let's exchange questions. You answer one question from me, then I answer one from you. Either of us can refuse to answer and ask for another question instead, and the questions can't be malicious."

"Are you trying to play the King's Game with me?" Illya continued laughing, even explaining in a serious manner, "The King's Game is only fun with at least three people. There are only two of us, so it won't be fun. There's no drama!"

But Mephistopheles was not joking. He directly asked, "Illya, my question is: what is your wish? Your true wish."

Illya fell silent. After a while, she asked in return, "Don't you already know?"

During their conversation yesterday, when Mephistopheles proposed cooperating with Illya, the things he said had proven one thing: he knew Illya's wish.

Illya understood this, so she was confused as to why Mephistopheles would ask that question. It was practically like giving her a free question.

But Mephistopheles shook his head. "A guess is still only a guess. It might not be entirely correct—or rather, I can't be certain it's entirely correct. That's why I'm asking you. I want to hear the right answer from your own mouth."

Illya said nothing. Seeing her remain silent, Mephistopheles continued.

"Many tragedies could have been prevented, but because people communicate too little and deliberately refuse to say certain things, they end up with terrible results. So I hope you can honestly tell me what you think."

"You really are troublesome, Uncle. Looks like I was right to call you Uncle. With that mentality of yours, you're such an uncle."

Illya smiled, then fell silent again for a moment before saying, "My wish? It's simple. I just want the people I care about to live well. If possible, I want to live with them, all together. That's all."

Then she shook her head. "But it can't come true anymore. Part of the puzzle of that wish was missing from the start. Let me tell you, I've always hated Kiritsugu. I always thought it was his fault. No... even after you told me the truth, I still think it was his fault."

Illya's voice was low as she fell into her memories, recalling the happiness of the past and the suffering of recent years.

If everyone in the Einzbern Family was merely a homunculus, then as a half-human, half-homunculus, her status in that family was even lower than theirs. Simply because she was Kiritsugu's child, and Kiritsugu had betrayed them in the Fourth Holy Grail War.

If she had not been meant to become a key tool in the Fifth Holy Grail War, she would probably have been discarded long ago.

"If... I mean, if he had taken me away earlier, taken my mother and me away, wouldn't things have turned out differently?" After saying that, Illya fell silent again. Only after a long while did she sigh. "And what happened to Mother... I... can't really accept it either."

"Actually, you're very strong, Illya."

Illya looked up in confusion, blinking as she looked at Mephistopheles. "Huh? Why did you suddenly say that?"

"I've heard that many people spend their entire lives healing the wounds they received as children. With what you went through, I think it would be perfectly normal to become insane."

"I think you're calling me mentally ill, Uncle."

Mephistopheles shook his head seriously in denial before saying, "No, I'm not insulting you. I'm saying that most people would have gone mad after going through that, but you didn't. So you're very strong."

Illya turned her head away. "I won't be happy just because you praise me."

"I'm not praising you. It's just... I don't think anyone should have to go through something that forces them to be this strong... And your wish, just as you said, was incomplete from the beginning."

There was undisguised compassion in Mephistopheles's voice. He had stepped onto the path of magic in pursuit of truth. Perhaps one had to cast aside many things on the road to truth, but the pursuit of truth itself came from one's own desires—and from the fiercest desire of all.

Desire was bound to emotion. Within those emotions, he had always held onto his true self, and that true self naturally included a love for life.

He believed he could not reach the level of that woman in the Anglican Church who acted as an enforcer and bore the magic name Salvare000, meaning to extend a helping hand to those who could not be saved.

He could not even measure up to many priests and nuns of Christianity. But at the very least, for the tragedies he witnessed and encountered with his own eyes, he still hoped to use his own strength to do something about them.

It was not because of some grand ideal like saving the world. He simply hoped there would be fewer tragedies before his eyes.

"I've already gone through it, and I'm still alive now. So, Uncle, you don't need to worry about me!" Illya smiled, still appearing so strong.

That only made Mephistopheles feel more heartbroken.

"Don't worry. Your wish may be missing some pieces now, but you can fill those missing pieces yourself. You don't have to recover the original missing pieces.

"They are your memories and your past. In your new life, you can find new pieces and slowly fill it in, even expand it."

As he spoke, Mephistopheles gave the girl another promise—or rather, a promise clearer than the one he had given yesterday.

"Shirou Emiya is practically your younger brother from another father and mother. After all, he's only an adopted son, but as Kiritsugu's child, he'll certainly treat you well and see you as family. You already see him as family too...

"You also see your two maids as family. Beyond them, I think you also see Heracles as family, don't you?"

Illya looked at Mephistopheles in surprise, then shook her head in realization. "So you already know Berserker's true identity."

"He and I are friends, though not the Heracles of this world." A nostalgic look appeared on Mephistopheles's face. "After all, we joined the Golden Fleece expedition together and fought Gigantes together."

Illya immediately shouted, "There! Uncle, you gave yourself away! How could you possibly be sixteen?!"

"You're focusing on the wrong thing! Shouldn't you be focused on the fact that I participated in such famous battles?!"

"I can't be bothered to care about that!"

Mephistopheles could only shake his head. Sure enough, Illya was different from Rin Tohsaka. Their priorities were completely different.

Then Mephistopheles said, "What if Heracles regained his consciousness? What do you think?"