"None of that matters!"
Saber loudly interrupted Rider, but Akatsuki could no longer see them. While the others were arguing about Saber's height, she had already left the Fuyuki Docks and was wandering through Fuyuki City alone at night.
"Reminiscing with a bunch of 'acquaintances' who don't even know me is truly a bit boring."
With her hands in her pockets, Akatsuki glanced sideways behind her. Immediately, a Black Key shot out at a speed invisible to the naked eye, heading straight for Assassin's head.
As an Assassin's head was severed, Akatsuki's cold voice reached Kirei Kotomine's ears.
"This is the first warning, Kirei Kotomine. Do not attempt to send your pretentious Assassins to tail me. Otherwise, I wouldn't mind wiping out the Church directly."
Through Assassin, Kirei Kotomine heard Akatsuki's words clearly. He frowned and pondered for a moment before reporting his speculations about Akatsuki's strength to Tohsaka Tokiomi, who was far away in the Tohsaka Family basement.
After leaving the Fuyuki Docks, Akatsuki walked straight toward the Matou Family home. It might be inappropriate to say, but she actually held a sliver of expectation for Matou Sakura at that age.
Humans form their own set of values after reaching adulthood. Whether good or bad, the most fundamental parts are very difficult to change.
What Ye Keer enjoyed doing was completely destroying everything about an adult—their worldview, values, outlook on life, self-esteem, soul, moral standards, personality, and consciousness—crushing them bit by bit while they were still intact.
Akatsuki, however, was the exact opposite. When Ye Keer was alive, Akatsuki's interest was actually quite simple: observing the recovery of children after they experienced significant psychological trauma. Although she had always wanted to intervene herself, Ye Keer loathed this interest to the point that Akatsuki never had the chance to put it into practice.
Yet at this very moment, inside the Matou Family home in Fuyuki City, there was a young girl whose soul was being gradually destroyed and whose personality was being slowly erased. For Akatsuki, who wanted to help Matou Sakura while also satisfying her own interest, she might even have to thank the two lolis who had sent her here.
Thinking this, Akatsuki arrived at the perimeter of the Matou Family estate.
Even in the middle of winter, the sound of insects buzzing around this house was incessant. The magecraft boundary enveloping the Matou Family home made the entire place feel like a worm nest.
"Marble Phantasm."
With a snap of Akatsuki's fingers, towering walls rose from the ground, surrounding the Matou Family home in the center. First the sides, then the sky and the ground—walls filled with expensive anti-demon metal silently encased the entire Matou Family estate, like a box specifically designed to exterminate pests.
Akatsuki looked at her masterpiece, nodded in satisfaction, and then stepped inside.
"Is that fellow Tsuruno planning to fool around outside again tonight?" Unable to sense the presence of his son, Matou Tsuruno, Matou Zouken sighed while leaning on his cane. "Kariya went out hunting with Berserker tonight. That little girl from the Tohsaka Family just came out of the worm pit not long ago. It seems this old man is destined to be bored tonight."
Matou Zouken was not tall; at first glance, one might even wonder if he had dwarfism. He had a bald head that could serve as a light bulb even under a light source, limbs as withered as a mummy's, and a shriveled body wrapped in a bluish-gray kimono.
At this moment, his hands were folded, gripping a wooden cane as he stood inside the Matou house.
In those sunken eye sockets, no eyes resembling a human's could be seen. The whites were completely black, leaving only two crimson pupils. Yet, even in this state, they emitted an incredible, sharp glint.
He carried a foul, decaying odor. Though he looked human, his movements were stiff and slow, like a walking corpse.
A Magician who used horrific means to extend his lifespan time and again in an attempt to escape death, the source of the Matou Family bloodline—one of the Three Founding Families of the Fuyuki City Holy Grail War—a monster who had lived from five hundred years ago until the modern era.
If one didn't know of his appalling deeds, he would look like an empty-nester abandoned by his children, lamenting their lack of filial piety out of late-life boredom.
"Hmm? Is it a bit too quiet tonight?"
Through his "Vision Bugs" Familiars, Matou Zouken began to observe every corner of the Matou house. Everything was as usual: the boundary in the magecraft workshop was functioning properly, and his Familiars were meticulously patrolling every corner of the estate.
But it was too quiet!
It was as if his Familiars had encountered some terrifying natural predator; at this moment, they didn't even dare to breathe, all maintaining an eerie silence.
Matou Zouken did not understand.
But five hundred years of experience told him this was definitely not a good thing. Through the Magecraft Crest in his body, Matou Zouken tried to interfere with his Familiars and send them commands. However, these actions were like pebbles thrown into the ocean—they couldn't stir up even the slightest ripple.
"Just what is going on?!"
A terrifying thought appeared in Matou Zouken's mind: an extremely powerful Magician had invaded the Matou house, first cutting off his connection with his Familiars, and then planning to kill him once and for all.
After attempting to fully activate the screening function of the magecraft boundary covering the entire Matou estate, he immediately found the target. This wasn't because the boundary he had established was exceptionally powerful; in fact, any boundary could have done this.
After all, Akatsuki had no intention of hiding herself. Instead, she had grandly opened the Matou Family's liquor cabinet and was choosing from his collection of fine wines while smoking, as if she were in her own home.
She seemed to have noticed Matou Zouken's prying, but Akatsuki didn't care, continuing to smoke and drink on her own.
In Akatsuki's eyes, Matou Zouken was already a dead man—no, a dead bug. She wasn't in a hurry to kill him; what mattered most was how Matou Zouken would die.
During the Fifth Holy Grail War, because Akatsuki had just obtained this body and didn't know much about magecraft, and because she had raided the Matou house directly in broad daylight, she hadn't had time to properly torture Matou Zouken before killing him. That was truly a pity.
"A Dead Apostle?!"
Upon approaching Akatsuki, Matou Zouken immediately noticed something wrong. This blonde girl before him was actually an extremely powerful Vampire!
"Is even a Dead Apostle going to get involved in Fuyuki City's Holy Grail War?"
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