The Sorrow of the Sakuragi Family

No, how could I forget my little cutie?

Li Mo turned back and smiled at Illya, who was puffing out her cheeks at him. Then he looked at Irisviel and Kiritsugu Emiya, who were holding hands, and said, "This child is quite compatible with me. Have you considered sending her to the Clock Tower to study for a few years?

Or are you still planning to have her continue down the Einzbern family's old path, existing solely for the Holy Grail?"

Irisviel fell silent, while Kiritsugu Emiya looked utterly bewildered and turned to Li Mo in confusion.

Arad, who had fallen out with Li Mo, looked even more displeased.

Seeing Kiritsugu Emiya's puzzled expression, the smile on Li Mo's lips suddenly turned mocking. It seemed this son-in-law of the Einzbern family still did not know the fate his daughter was destined for.

With a soft laugh, Li Mo ignored Illya's resistance and stepped forward to vigorously ruffle her little head. Then he winked at Kiritsugu Emiya and said quietly, "If you change your mind and decide to bring little cutie... uh, Illya, to the Clock Tower, remember to find me."

"Otherwise, a third-rate mage family like the Einzbern family can't even get into the Clock Tower's library."

Li Mo laughed heartily. His broad trench coat fluttered despite the lack of wind, and without giving Kiritsugu a chance to ask anything, he turned and strode out of the hall, which no longer had a ceiling.

Sakuragi followed Li Mo with a bitter smile and mixed feelings. One after the other, they left the thousand-year-old castle.

A third-rate mage family? So was his.

And just as Li Mo had said, during those years when he had studied at the Clock Tower, he truly had never even entered the library. When he graduated, all he received through his family was the rank of "Count."

To put it bluntly, mages were realistic creatures. Unless you were a genius, who would care about mages from commoner backgrounds or third-rate mage families?

If the inherited Magic Crest was too crude—or if there was no Magic Crest at all—then expecting the Mage Association to nurture you was less realistic than hoping a pie would fall from the sky and a Magician would take you as an apprentice!

Without strength or talent, you could not even enter the Clock Tower's library!

That was why meeting Brishisan after coming to this world had been an opportunity others could only envy. There were only a handful of mages like him in the entire world, not to mention that he was a Lord of the Clock Tower!

Li Mo might bicker and joke around with Brishisan every day, but he had been at the Clock Tower for nearly half a year now. Did anyone really think he did not understand these things?

He simply kept them in his heart. Why did some things need to be shown? And how could they possibly be shown?

As the saying went, climbing a mountain was easy, but descending was hard.

Yet Li Mo did not find it difficult at all. In fact, he was ** damn happy. It had taken him several hours to climb up, but now he whistled as he walked down the mountain.

He had obtained the Second Magic, and he did not even need to return Avalon to the Einzbern family. How could he not be happy?

From now on, he could just throw out Mana Burst in a fight, then hide inside Avalon. Who could possibly hit him!

Was an absolute-defense Noble Phantasm a joke?

Even if Mana Burst could not hit anyone, he could just project the sun and clear the field with an area attack!

Today, Li Mo was going to win with just three moves. If he said he would beat you to death, then he would beat you to death. Even Jesus could not save you. That was what he said!

Sakuragi, walking behind him, hesitated to speak, then stopped himself again and again. In the end, he looked helplessly at Li Mo, who was apparently daydreaming about something.

"I mean... now that this matter has been settled, shouldn't you give me the payment for the commission?" Sakuragi had initially been too intimidated by Li Mo's earlier display to speak, but seeing Li Mo's utterly complacent expression, he could not help opening his mouth.

Li Mo looked completely confused. What the fuck was he talking about?

Shouldn't payment be something Teacher Brishisan gave him? Why was he asking Li Mo, the apprentice, for it...

And he actually dared ask Li Mo for payment. What a loss—Li Mo had even wanted to give him a warning, to keep him from suffering the pain of losing a daughter again!

But on second thought, perhaps his teacher had some other intention?

Scratching his head, Li Mo asked, "Did my teacher agree on the payment with you beforehand?"

Teacher Brishisan had packed so many things into the space inside the rusty spearhead. Could those actually have been intended as payment?

But Li Mo had really misunderstood. Brishisan was a man of his word. How could he deceive his adorable apprentice?

Sakuragi raised his head and stared at Li Mo with burning eyes. His face was full of longing as he said, "The curse—it's the curse! Your teacher promised me that if I completed this commission, you would help me find a way to resolve the curse!"

A curse? Li Mo had a rough idea of what this was about.

That was right. Why else had Sakuragi died in the Romanian Holy Grail War of another timeline? Was it not because he could make a wish to the Holy Grail and remove the curse!

This was clearly only a commission from a Clock Tower department head. Why would an independent mage risk his life so desperately for it?

He had simply resolved himself to die.

Li Mo let out a long sigh. Sakuragi Kirie—or perhaps a third-rate mage family like the Sakuragi family—might seem enviable to ordinary people who learned of them, but in the end, they were only a third-rate family, each with their own sorrows.

The sorrow of the Sakuragi family was their curse.

The Sakuragi family had not originally borne that name. They had once been a European mage family, but for some reason, they later ended up in Japan and changed their name.

As for why they had changed it, that was a problem every third-rate mage family had to face: family decline. The Sakuragi family had not merely declined back then; even their Magic Crest had nearly vanished. The problem only became more severe after they went to Japan, until eventually they could no longer even call themselves mages.

Could a family without a Magic Crest still be a mage family? They had to reform!

The reform made by the Sakuragi family head at the time was to form a contract with some unknown entity and obtain power from it. The price was forgetting every magecraft they had learned before, being able to wield only necromancy from then on, and possibly suffering an even more terrifying curse.

After flourishing for several generations, the curse finally came in Kirie Sakuragi's generation—he would have no descendants!

Without exception, every one of Kirie Sakuragi's children died immediately at birth. Because of this, his wife later left him. Even later, an adopted daughter with distant blood ties, whom his family had found through connections, died while having a Magic Crest transplanted into her.

Some people might think that this was all the Sakuragi family's fault for signing a contract with that unknown thing in the first place. Since they had known this would happen, why had they signed it?

If the family was declining, then let it decline. Could they not simply live properly as ordinary people?

Perhaps that was right. But if you asked someone who had once stood atop Mount Everest to go climb a little hill in the suburbs with you now, would anyone be willing?

Family decline was not a crime. Weakness was!

Li Mo raised his head and met Sakuragi's hopeful gaze. "Is your adopted daughter still alive?"