"Whew..."
Kiritsugu Emiya drew a deep breath. He should not have been this nervous, but at the thought of summoning a Servant powerful enough to tear the skies apart, cleave steel, and shatter jade, instinctive fear rose in his mind alongside reason.
As someone who called himself a Magus, Kiritsugu Emiya naturally did not regard Servants as mere familiars to be summoned and controlled at will, as other practitioners of magecraft did. They were all great heroes with distinct personalities. If they proved incompatible with him, the consequences would only be worse.
The Command Spells on his hand were the best proof of that. Without them, the distinction in standing between Servant and Master would probably have been far less clear.
Honestly, he was more interested in the Caster and Assassin classes. But Ahad had been right: this was not another assassination like those he had carried out before, but an ever-changing battlefield. A powerful Heroic Spirit would give him the greatest margin for error.
"Kiritsugu... it's almost time."
"I know."
Under Irisviel's worried gaze, Kiritsugu Emiya raised his right hand.
"I declare-!"
Chills and pain swept through his entire body, a sign that his Magic Circuits were operating at full capacity. Yet compared with the miracle he was about to perform, this expenditure was nothing.
Kiritsugu Emiya recited the summoning incantation in a low voice. Even as swirling winds battered everything around him, he never paused, as though he were merely another component of the ritual.
"Thou, the seven heavens clad in the three great words of power, come forth from the ring of restraint, Guardian of the Scales-"
As the incantation reached its end, Kiritsugu Emiya felt the magical energy within him accelerate to its limit.
Amid the raging wind, Irisviel, standing guard nearby, narrowed her eyes slightly, trying to preserve as much of her vision as possible against the dazzling light of the summoning circle.
But her gaze was not fixed on the summoning circle. Instead, it rested on the scabbard on the altar behind it. Since that day, she had never seen anything like it again, as though it really had been nothing more than an illusion.
Yet whenever she thought of Illya's recent abnormalities, Irisviel still could not put her mind at ease.
While she fretted, the light of the Magic Circle gradually faded, and white mist slowly spread around a human figure.
A figure clad in close-fitting silver-white armor, face obscured by a hood, appeared before the Magic Circle.
Kiritsugu Emiya let out a breath that might have been release or reassurance. His sharp eyes scrutinized the figure before him.
As though noticing Kiritsugu Emiya's gaze, the figure removed her hood, revealing her face.
Short golden hair, emerald eyes. Though her features held a certain softness, she was undeniably handsome, with an enviable, sunlit radiance.
Then she looked at Kiritsugu Emiya, the person to whom she was most deeply connected, and spoke.
"Servant Saber. I have come in answer to your summons. I ask of you-are you my Master?"
That morning in the Einzbern Forest, Saber had set aside her armor and was dining with Irisviel at a sunlit table.
Although she ate remarkably quickly, every movement carried a natural elegance that only made her seem more imposing.
As a homunculus with little need for food, Irisviel simply sipped her black tea in silence, with a curious Illya seated on her lap.
"Is it all right for my Master to leave ahead of us alone like this?"
Once she had finished eating, Saber finally voiced her question. "In this Holy Grail War, wouldn't straying too far from one's Servant give the enemy an opening?"
"Yes, ordinarily, that might be true. But that man's abilities in this regard far surpass mine. I trust him."
As a specialized version of the Lesser Grail, Irisviel was also proficient in alchemical magecraft and would certainly not be a burden in combat. Even so, she still fell far short of Kiritsugu Emiya.
"It seems I still haven't earned his trust."
Saber's expression stiffened into a slight frown, and her sunlike smile dimmed a little. Even so, her commanding presence still made it clear that she was a powerful knight.
Even if the contract between Heroic Spirit and Master had no limit on distance, his decision to act alone spoke for itself.
After being summoned a few nights earlier, Saber had confirmed their relationship as Servant and Master, only for Kiritsugu Emiya to leave in a hurry. He had left every explanation of their circumstances to Irisviel, almost as though he were rejecting the Heroic Spirit he had summoned.
"You must be unhappy about it, right? But please, trust him. I can promise you that he only seems cold."
To say that Kiritsugu Emiya distrusted Saber would have been truly unfair to him. His abilities as a Master were not particularly outstanding, yet even so, all of Saber's parameters except Luck were top-tier. Her Endurance, in particular, was ranked A+, meaning that as long as her Master supplied enough magical energy, this knight could fight multiple opponents at once, even against other exceptionally rare heroes.
No matter how he looked at it, Kiritsugu Emiya could find nothing to fault.
He maintained that cold attitude only to prevent discord between Master and Servant should a noble Heroic Spirit like the King of Knights object to such underhanded acts as assassinating Masters.
Until the number of Masters began to dwindle, he and Irisviel would continue operating this way.
"Or could it be that you're unhappy with me serving as your temporary Master, Saber?"
Seeing Saber's low spirits, Irisviel immediately tried to smooth things over with a teasing tone.
"Of course not. I'm very happy to have you as my Master, Irisviel." To Saber, Irisviel, who had breathed nobility as naturally as air since birth, was like a princess from her own era. Besides, for certain reasons, few of the women around her had been reliable, whether her teacher or her elder sister.
A well-mannered, purehearted woman like Irisviel seemed nothing short of an angel to her. Thus, even without a contract, Saber had sworn herself to Irisviel's service with a knight's courtesy.
"Hehe, to receive such praise from the legendary King of Knights, Arthur Pendragon... I must be quite impressive myself, then?"
Irisviel smiled brightly, her gaze softening as she reached out to stroke Illya's head.
Saber's arrival had lifted a weight from her heart. Everything about this Heroic Spirit was normal, whether her gender, her strength, or her noble character.
It seemed the lingering image in the scabbard that day really had been nothing more than an illusion. In that case, there was no need to worry too much about Kiritsugu, who had deliberately concealed the scabbard's existence from Saber and taken it with him to Fuyuki City ahead of them.
"Because you deserve that praise. However, Arthur Pendragon was the most widely known name for me back then. You may call me Artoria, Irisviel. That is my true name. In battle, though, please continue to call me Saber."
"The feeling is mutual, Artoria. We must win this war!"
"Yes." Saber smiled gently, then looked questioningly at Illya in Irisviel's arms.
"Perhaps I'm overstepping, but is your daughter all right like that?"
"Huh?"
Only after hearing Saber's words did Irisviel look down at Illya in her arms. At first, after being picked up, the girl had gazed curiously at Saber and the dining table. Later, however, she had gone back to staring quietly in the direction of Fuyuki City, just as she usually did.
But this time was different. When Irisviel saw what Illya was doing now, she understood why Saber had asked.
With each breath Illya took, a searing stream of flame emerged from her mouth, drawing back and shooting out as though it were a toy. Yet she seemed completely unaware of it, gazing at the distant sky as though she had sensed something.
"Illya? What are you looking at?"
Irisviel gently shook her daughter, calling her back to her senses.
"Mommy?" Illya came back to herself, her expression turning reverent and joyful, and spoke words that plunged Irisviel into icy dread.
"Can't you feel it? Daddy has been born."