"Woooow..."
Was this place insane or what?
Our new home was the kind of sight that left your jaw hanging open.
The house itself came first.
According to Koyanskaya of Light—Assassin—it was over two hundred pyeong in size, which made it absurdly huge.
The overall shape was rectangular.
The color was black.
Even from the outside alone, it looked like a luxury mansion fit for the chairman of some conglomerate.
Then there was the parking area.
Ten separate spaces had been marked out like a public parking lot.
How many pyeong did that make altogether?
Even estimating loosely, it had to be over three hundred.
And around both the mansion and the parking lot stood a wall—thick, high, and solid.
You could practically smell the money poured into it.
"Wow..."
"This is a bit much."
Even Zenin Maki and Zenin Mai stared with wide eyes.
They were too stunned to even feel happy yet.
The Servants, on the other hand, looked calmly satisfied.
Their own domains, Chaldea, and places like that.
They had lived in places even larger than this massive estate.
"The furniture, internet, and all the other basic appliances you might need are already in place. All that's left is for each of you to sort out the personal belongings you shipped over. Simple, right?"
Koyanskaya of Darkness, Foreigner, slipped up beside me and linked arms with me.
The other Servants' gazes sharpened a little.
"Thanks. This is seriously amazing."
"I've also prepared a spacious underground area for BB. Digging directly beneath the house might have destabilized the ground, so it's set at a slant below instead."
"Then she can use it as a workshop."
A magus's workshop was usually hard to invade in the first place.
They also tended to be built in places with a damp, shadowy atmosphere.
And among those, underground spaces were especially beloved.
Like the worm pit beneath the Matou residence.
Just thinking about it sent a chill down my spine.
I looked at BB, remembering scenes from Fate/Zero.
And of all things, she had a Sakura-face...
"Hm? Senior? What is it? Is there something on my face? Or is this about the underground workshop?"
BB, who had been looking faintly jealous, tilted her head.
Good. Since we'd been talking about the basement, I could play it off.
"Yeah. I was just going to say the underground space is yours, so you can remodel it however you want."
"Oh, come on. You already told me that yesterday. Are you emphasizing it just in case?"
"Exactly."
"Don't worry. I'll make it so cutting-edge it'll blow your mind."
BB smiled with confidence and brushed a hand across her chest.
My eyes were dragged there on reflex.
Aside from Shuten-douji and Ushi-gozen, every woman here was stacked...
Even so, BB still stood out.
A jewel hidden among jewels was still a jewel.
"All right, everyone. Let's head inside."
Koyanskaya of Light, Assassin, took control and neatly guided the mood forward.
Everyone entered the mansion as if spellbound.
I stayed behind for a moment and turned my head to the side.
The wall blocked the view, but there was another mansion there—an identical one.
The Cursed Womb: Death Painting brothers and Yuji.
It was far too large for just four people, but that also made it perfect for receiving guests.
For inviting friends over.
Or even for taking in some kid I happened to run across on the street.
"Master. Are you all right?"
Foreigner, still with her arm linked through mine, looked at me and asked.
Her eyes were full of concern.
I met her gaze and smiled.
I had only drifted off into thought for a second. There was nothing wrong.
"Yeah. I'm fine. Let's go in. I'm curious what the inside looks like."
"I had a hand in it too, so I'll give you a proper tour. It's so large you may need time to get used to it."
"I'm counting on you."
With Foreigner smiling at me with her eyes, I stepped inside with her.
The exterior had been extravagant, but the interior was just as lavish.
A house bigger than the mansions of chaebol chairmen you sometimes saw in dramas.
This was a tycoon's estate.
I wasn't rich, but when your Servants were, this was what happened.
My role was nothing more than supplying Magical Energy and serving as the anchor that kept the Servants bound to reality.
The ones who had built this life were the Servants alone.
A Master hiding behind his Servants and enjoying the benefits.
If someone described me that way, I wouldn't exactly have a rebuttal.
Even so, I stood by it without shame.
Our relationship had gone beyond necessity.
Beyond inevitability, even.
It was perfect fate.
"Whoa, this is insane! This is really our house?!"
Inside the enormous residence, Itadori Yuji—back on leave—stared around with his eyes wide.
From the materials covering the walls to the sheer size of the property, everything screamed luxury.
The furniture inside, the appliances, all of it was top-of-the-line.
"This is truly astonishing. It's larger than any mansion I've ever seen."
Choso, who had come carrying only a single suitcase, looked just as stunned.
I'd told them all they only needed to bring personal belongings, but even that now seemed unnecessary.
The closets were already filled with all kinds of clothes.
The shoe cabinets held multiple pairs of shoes too.
There were even plenty sized specifically for Yuji as well as all three brothers.
Different styles, different seasons—everything had been prepared.
Eso, standing behind Choso, had his eyes opened so wide they looked ready to pop.
He was that shocked.
"Are we really allowed to live here? Now that we're actually here, this is kind of terrifying."
"Seriously. It's scary, but Kadoc said it'd be fine."
Kechizu, his mouth hanging open and twitching uselessly, was just as stunned.
Which was only natural.
"Choso. A place like this has to cost a fortune to maintain, right? How much would the monthly electric bill even be?"
In the middle of all that, Yuji voiced a very modern concern.
A very modern perspective.
Choso, on the other hand, had only been concerned with food and clothes for his younger brothers.
He hadn't paid much attention to the house itself.
Rent, electricity, taxes, all the other expenses?
Kadoc had handled all of it.
Still, Choso wasn't ignorant of the concept of rent, or of how important it was.
He was the older brother, after all.
"I was told the electricity and heating are supplied through Magecraft, so they cost nothing. He said we only really need to worry about the water bill."
Most of the upkeep was handled through Magecraft.
Only variable costs like water were meant to be paid normally.
Electricity, water, heating, and so on.
If usage dropped too low, some utility office might call to ask whether anyone actually lived here—but that wasn't a problem.
After hearing Choso's explanation, Yuji nodded.
That was enough to put him at ease.
"This is seriously great."
"Yuji. Are you going to leave your grandfather's house as it is? Or..."
"My old place? Yeah... Kadoc's been managing it for me up till now, so I just left it alone, but I guess it's about time I sorted it out."
Yuji smiled bitterly.
Thinking of his grandfather's death left a bitter taste in his chest, but not grief.
He was saving people, just like his grandfather's last words had asked of him.
And he had found a new family.
It was more than good. It was almost extravagant.
Choso stood facing Yuji and nodded.
"Then I should speak to our employer. What about your grandfather's remains or memorial tablet?"
"Grandpa's in a columbarium near the funeral hall where he was taken after he died. There's no memorial tablet, though."
"Then it would only be proper to visit him often. It might also be good to place a Buddhist altar in one of the empty rooms."
"Huh? Why?"
"Your grandfather is, in time, our grandfather as well. He cared for our younger brother. We can only be grateful."
"Choso..."
Yuji's eyes shook hard.
He was moved by the way Choso regarded his grandfather Wasuke as real family.
Your younger brother's family is your family too.
Even without a single drop of shared blood, hearing that still hit deep.
"Thanks."
"No need to thank me. It's only natural. Eso? Kechizu?"
"Of course we agree too."
"Yeah. If he's our little brother's grandpa, then he's our grandpa too."
Eso and Kechizu accepted it readily.
Their brotherly affection was no less intense than Choso's.
There was no way they would refuse.
Not that they had any intention of doing so.
Choso nodded and spoke again.
"All right, then. Let's each choose a room and unpack. Even if we sleep together, we should each have our own room to keep our things in. There may be times when we sleep separately too."
"Huh? You guys slept together?"
"It's only natural for brothers to stay close."
Yuji's eyes trembled violently once more.
The emotion from before was gone.
Now there was only fear.
In the spacious basement, BB—left alone—immediately began decorating the entire underground level.
The floors and walls were finished in Chaldea-style tiles.
The broad space was divided into several sections.
Let's see. A system room for monitoring the house goes here. The section next to it can be used as a materials storage room, maybe?
True to her nature as an AI, BB designed the space in the blink of an eye.
Then she started building it according to plan.
It looked almost like watching a 3D printer at work, except vastly faster.
Even with modern materials, she could create whatever she wanted.
The same went for space itself.
Among all those materials, she especially liked discarded computers.
As objects inseparable from an AI, they felt deeply familiar to her.
Through Assassin, BB procured a number of computers.
Then she heavily customized them.
The engine heat can be converted into energy, and I can supplement the rest with Magecraft.
The wiring was organized so cleanly it didn't look dirty in the slightest.
A server room. A medical room.
The basement of the giant mansion transformed into a space packed wall to wall with cutting-edge machinery.
Utterly futuristic.
The other Servants were awkward to put to work.
And making Master Kadoc work was even more unacceptable.
So she had been working alone, but Zenin Maki and Zenin Mai helped her.
There wasn't much they could do, but they were still useful.
They're probably feeling self-conscious.
Unlike the other Servants, they were human.
And within the house, their standing was fairly low.
Of course, Kadoc and the other Servants thought of them as family out of genuine affection...
But the sisters saw it a little differently.
They also thought of Kadoc and the Servants as family, but they drew a line and treated them as superiors.
So they would never become presumptuous.
From Kadoc's perspective, that might have felt a little lonely.
Still, it was the right decision.
The household would only stay peaceful if the hierarchy remained stable.
BB understood that too, so she used them lightly and comfortably.
There were only so many areas where she could use their help anyway.
Even so, it gave them more time to spend face-to-face and grow closer.
They had started talking more freely too.
BB could be mischievous, but she wasn't the type to handle humans the way Koyanskaya did.
BB sat down on a sofa in the basement and called the sisters over.
It was a sofa with a futuristic design worked into it.
"Maki. Mai. Come over here and rest. That's enough work for today."
"Okay..."
"Yeah. Coming."
Mai and Maki walked over and sat down in front of BB at the same time.
No matter how late they had joined, a Servant was still unquestionably above them.
She's one of Senior's women anyway, so I can't exactly treat her carelessly. Better to treat them like little sisters, right?
Smiling, BB took canned drinks from a nearby refrigerator.
They were all sports drinks.
"Drink up."
The sisters accepted the drinks BB offered and took a sip.
"Thank you."
"I'll have it, thanks."
The sisters' eyes flicked toward BB's openly exposed chest.
At the moment, BB was wearing a dress.
An awkward silence settled over them.
For a while, the only sound was the soft noise of each of them drinking.
When the cans were about half empty, Maki finally spoke.
"By the way, what are all these machines for?"
"Asset management, like Ms. Koyanskaya mentioned. They can also be used to dig up useful information—political corruption, things like that. I'm building a surveillance network too."
"Whaaa..."
Maki gaped in admiration.
It felt like she had stepped into the middle of a national intelligence agency.
"All of that?"
"For me, it's easy. More importantly, both you and Mai are very interested in Senior, aren't you? Romantically, I mean."
At once, Maki and Mai's shoulders twitched.
It was already something everyone knew, but having it brought up so suddenly made things awkward.
Mai looked at Maki, who had gone speechless, then opened her mouth.
She was more used to this kind of conversation.
"Yes. That's right. He said if our feelings haven't changed by the time we're adults, he'll accept us..."
"And they still haven't changed?"
"No. Have we... been a burden?"
"A burden? What an absurd thing to say. If anything, I welcome it wholeheartedly."
BB answered with sincere honesty, without a trace of affectation.
The sorrow of failing to end up with someone you've loved for a long time. Separation.
She was especially sensitive to feelings like that.
Even if she herself hadn't been the original person to experience them directly...
She had copied those experiences perfectly.
"Thank you."
Mai let out a long breath too, realizing BB meant it.
Her sincerity put the girl at ease.
"Then you'd like to stay by Senior's side for as long as possible, right?"
"If possible, yes... but can that really happen?"
"I won't torment you with false hope, so I won't say it's possible right now."
She would try, though.
Leaving that possibility hanging in the air, BB took another drink.
Jujutsu. Cursed Tools.
If she searched long enough, she might find some method of achieving immortality.
But...
Searching for clues that might not even exist would be a waste of time.
Because the closest and most certain result was already right beside her.
The materialization of the soul.
She didn't know the process, but the result was already there.
If the result existed, then perhaps the process could be reverse-engineered from it.
A miracle from the realm of True Magic that had a high chance of being degraded into the realm of Magecraft.
The Third Magic, Heaven's Feel.
The manifestation of Servants was also an application of that principle, but it was incomplete.
Kadoc's materialization, on the other hand, was perfect.
If you reverse-engineered the process from a defective product, all you'd get in the end would be another defective product...
But if a completed version existed, then the process changed.
It's not impossible, is it?
BB firmed her resolve to help Zenin Maki and Zenin Mai.
Because she knew all too well how immense the sorrow was when love failed to come true.