[.........]
Merlin leaned against the steps and gazed up at the dim starless sky above the modern city.
Though these were memories, once the story reached its middle, she no longer had any part in it.
Everything that happened afterward, and the truth behind the replaced history, were things she only learned after merging with the lingering echo.
Where had Arthur and Morgan gone after leaving Britain? What had they done? She did not know.
She had tried peeking in with her Clairvoyance, but his location had been blocked by something like a wall of storms.
Morgan, I do not remember raising you to become such a nasty wicked witch, you know? Let me see Arthur too!!
How were Arthur and Morgan doing in that new world?
Were they living together happily?
She badly wanted to know how the story continued, but... [Mm, well, never mind♡]
Merlin smiled in satisfaction.
She had already seen what she needed to see.
She had already seen more than enough beautiful things.
So this pleasant little journey, adrift like duckweed, should end here.
From here on, she would return to Avalon and quietly await the end of the planet there, all alone.
It would probably be a very, very, very long wait.
But since she was not human, she would not feel lonely.
More importantly, she already had more than enough beautiful stories to keep boredom at bay.
[All right then, farewell, my beloved Arthur... Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, why is my body glowing!?]
[Th, this is a Heroic Spirit summoning ritual... Am I being summoned? No, no, no! I finally got permanent vacation time. I do not want to get dragged into some Holy Grail War!]
[Ahh, how annoying! Who in the world is summoning me...? Let me see just who is this rude. Shirou Amamiya... huh?]
Merlin's eyes widened in disbelief.
Reflected in the beautiful eyes of the female Magus was a child with red hair and amber eyes.
Then her [Clairvoyance] stopped working.
It had been so long since she had felt something this nostalgic.
In an instant, Merlin's thoughts flew back to a time long, long ago.
To the beginning of it all.
To that afternoon on the outskirts of Tintagel, when the Magus of Flowers met a seven-year-old child named Shirou.
The flutter in her chest told Merlin one thing for certain. This seven-year-old child was her Arthur.
Arthur had come back.
But... why was he here in the Far East, in 1994?
I know Arthur drifted to Britain from fifteen hundred years in the future, but...
Countless questions flashed through Merlin's mind.
Did you not leave with Morgan?
Did the two of you have a fight? Or did you already get divorced?
[Wait, stop summoning me. I am not answering. I am not mentally prepared for this yet. Ngh, why can I not refuse the summoning? This is way too forceful...!]
[Ah, I, I am being pulled in. W, wait, at least let me fix my makeup first, aaaaaahhhhhh!]
After a dizzying whirl.
[Ow, ow, ow...]
Merlin pushed herself up from the Magic Circle and let out a resentful groan.
[Oh dear, I really messed that up. I did not think refusing the summoning would be impossible. How pushy...]
When she raised her head, she found the red-haired child staring at her with full suspicion.
[I am asking you. Are you my Servant?]
[Mm... though I would love to say no, that probably is not going to work, is it...]
Merlin brushed the dust off her backside, stood up as though nobody else were around, and took a deep breath.
Then she crouched down in front of Shirou and gave him a dazzlingly professional smile.
[Nice to meet you, adorable little Master.]
That was how Merlin and her Arthur met again.
...
...
As a half-human, half-succubus hybrid, Merlin was a being that could only love beautiful endings.
She looked like a gentle, beautiful older sister, but her true nature was that of a cold-blooded non-human, almost insect-like, with little in the way of ordinary emotion.
[......... At this point, there is probably no use stressing those character settings anymore.]
[I may not understand human love, but I do understand how I feel right now.]
[Yes. Even though I am a succubus, I fell in love with a human.]
[Is it romantic love?]
[I think it is probably the sum of countless kinds of love, including romantic love...]
[I can proudly declare that I love Arthur more than anyone else!]
[But unfortunately, because I cannot understand love, I also cannot make the other person fall in love with me.]
[No, no, no. It is not like I expected Arthur's love from the very beginning anyway... really, I mean it?]
[For a monster that only imitates humans to obtain true love. Even irony should have limits.]
So in the Fourth Holy Grail War, Merlin decided to do only one thing.
She would imitate what Arthur and Morgan had once done for each other.
Merlin loved her Master through self-sacrifice.
The three black-and-red Command Spells engraved on the back of Shirou's hand were linked to her Spirit Origin.
Each time the [Dead Count Shapeshifter's Command Spell] was used, the female Magus moved one step closer to death.
She had thought she would be able to hold out until all three uses of [Dead Count Shapeshifter] were spent, but she had underestimated the cost.
After only the second use, Merlin was already unable to move.
She could barely endure until Shirou used the third [Dead Count Shapeshifter's Command Spell], but there was no way she could still fight alongside her Master as she normally would.
So she sent Shirou on alone to Ryuudou Temple while she remained on the steps to rest.
She needed to preserve the last shred of her life so Shirou could trigger the final [Dead Count Shapeshifter's Command Spell] when he faced Saber.
[This time, it really is goodbye... my Arthur.]
Watching the red-haired boy walking toward Ryuudou Temple, the female Magus murmured weakly.
[I am sorry. I made such a bold promise to you, but in the end I really could not stay with you in that cool way Morgan did until the very end... It is so frustrating.
But this time, at least it does not count as running away right before the final battle, so please forgive me.]
Lady Avalon slowly closed her eyes.
There was a smile at the corner of her lips.
"Do your best in the Holy Grail War to come, Master..."
"I've changed my mind. I've decided not to use the third 'Dead Count Shapeshifter's Command Spell'."
".........Master!?"
Lady Avalon opened her eyes in shock and found that Shirou, who should have already left, had come back and was standing right in front of her.
Shirou stepped over to her side, laid a hand across Lady Avalon's abdomen, and released a gentle green glow.
"A healing spell... Master! At a time like this, don't waste your Mana on me!"
With a serious look, Shirou said, "Rather than using the 'Dead Count Shapeshifter's Command Spell' to defeat Saber, I'd rather work together with Avalon-nee-san and beat her that way."
"Even if you heal me, Master, there's no way I can fight Saber with the Mana I have left! So use the 'Dead Count Shapeshifter's Command Spell'!"
Lady Avalon's tone turned reproachful.
Shirou frowned a little at that. "Avalon-nee-san, do you have some kind of self-destructive tendency?"
"...You're the last person I want to hear that from."
Shirou said, "It's not like I spend all day thinking about sacrificing myself, okay?
I'm more selfish than anyone. Just like you."
As he spoke, he picked up the female Magus in his arms.
With Shirou's child-sized body, carrying an adult like Lady Avalon should have been difficult.
Fortunately, Lady Avalon was even lighter than Shinji, so Shirou was able to carry her with ease.
"Avalon-nee-san, self-sacrifice doesn't suit you. Living boldly and making it to the very end. That's the teacher I know."
"!"
The title "Teacher" made Merlin's eyes widen.
She looked at Shirou and found that he was gazing back at her with a meaningful look of his own.
"......"
Lady Avalon's face instantly turned red.
She did not even understand why. Her cheeks suddenly felt as hot as if she had a fever.
After a brief shutdown of her thoughts, she started struggling violently.
"Put me down! Master! I'm really going to get angry!"
Lady Avalon's long, slender legs flailed wildly in midair, but Shirou ignored her and forcibly carried her into the nearby woods.
Lady Avalon's injuries had two sides to them. One was damage on the spiritual foundation level, and there was nothing Shirou could do about that.
As for the remaining bodily injuries, Shirou managed to heal them with Magecraft, but in doing so, he exhausted all the Mana he had gained from drinking the rejuvenation potion.
"......What have you done?"
Lady Avalon pressed a hand to her forehead and let out a helpless sigh.
"We're about to face the enemy in the final battle, and you went and used up the last of your Mana.
How exactly are we supposed to fight now?"
Shirou did not seem bothered. "I couldn't just stand there and watch Lady Avalon die... I'd have nightmares."
Lady Avalon rolled her eyes. "Master... you've already noticed, haven't you?"
Shirou blinked. "Noticed what?"
"Stop playing dumb... You called me 'Teacher' just now, didn't you?"
Shirou nodded. "Yeah, because I had a weird dream... In that dream, I became Avalon-nee-san's disciple."
The moment Lady Avalon realized her Master had lost his memories of Britannia, she decided she would keep that memory buried until the very end.
Because she did not believe she was someone who could save this child.
Even if a monster like her told him the truth, Arthur surely would not be happy about it.
In a Holy Grail War, a Master and Servant with especially good compatibility could learn about each other's experiences through dreams.
Lady Avalon could enter human dreams, but she could not completely control them.
All she could do was hope that her compatibility with Master was not quite that strong... but unfortunately, it was far too strong.
Shirou had most likely dreamed of those memories from Britannia.
"......Ah." Merlin let out a faint sigh.
"Why do you keep sighing?"
"And whose fault do you think that is?"
"Sorry."
"There's no need for Master to apologize."
Lady Avalon shook her head. "Now that it's come to this, the only option is for the two of us to defeat Saber with our own strength."
"Yeah, that was my plan from the start."
Seeing the blazing determination in Shirou's eyes, the Magus of Flowers felt her cheeks warm slightly.
Ugh... Don't look at me with those expectant puppy-like eyes!
"O-okay, okay. I'll think of something!"
"Ohh, that's so like you, Avalon-nee-san!"
Lady Avalon opened her right hand. "Master, give me your hand."
"Okay~ What are you going to do?"
Shirou craned his neck curiously, and Lady Avalon said:
"Next, I'm going to break down the 'Dead Count Shapeshifter's Command Spell' and convert it into pure, colorless blocks of Mana.
The enemy has already taken over the Command Spell system, so we can't revert the 'Dead Count Shapeshifter's Command Spell' back into an ordinary Command Spell. We'll just convert it directly into Mana.
It won't compare to the 'Dead Count Shapeshifter's Command Spell' itself, but it will still be an enormous amount of Mana.
Enough to let both me and Master fight Saber in peak condition, with our Mana fully surging."
Shirou nodded. He agreed with that plan.
Lady Avalon took Shirou's hand in both of hers. As her fingers kneaded the back of his hand, she simultaneously constructed a spell formula inside his body.
"That tickles."
Lady Avalon frowned slightly. "Don't move, Master."
"......Sorry."
Shirou noticed that the black-red Command Spell on the back of his hand was gradually disappearing.
To be honest, he really did enjoy the feeling of having his adult body back. That sense of being able to do anything was impossible to hide.
But if it came at the cost of Lady Avalon's life force, then he would rather stay in the form of a child.
Five minutes later, the last stroke of the Command Spell on the back of Shirou's hand disappeared.
"There, all done... How does it feel? Do you notice anything?"
"Yeah!"
Shirou nodded and looked down at his chest. The block of Mana produced by breaking down the Command Spell was now stored in his heart.
"It feels like power just keeps pouring out of me.
It's nowhere near the level of the 'Dead Count Shapeshifter's Command Spell' state, but maybe now I can hold out against Saber for a full minute!"
Lady Avalon's lips twitched. "So you'd still lose after a minute...
Honestly, what am I going to do with you~ Hehe. Let me fight by your side, Master."
Shirou looked deeply moved. "Ohh, that's so reassuring! Avalon-nee-san!"
"Alright, it's getting late. We should get going."
Lady Avalon stood up and looked toward her Master. "Master, share some of your Mana with me too."
"?"
Seeing Shirou tilt his head, Lady Avalon looked even more confused.
"What is it, Master? We don't have much time, and I still haven't received any Mana.
I barely have any left right now. I'm extremely weak, so I won't be able to help you like this."
"No, um..."
Shirou looked at the now-empty back of his hand.
Lady Avalon seemed to realize it at the same time, and her beautiful eyes widened.
When the final Command Spell was dismantled, the Master-Servant contract between Shirou and Lady Avalon had also come to an end.
The path that allowed Mana to pass between them had disappeared.
Shirou: "......"
Lady Avalon: "......"
Blushing, the two of them turned their eyes away.
At the exact same moment, they both thought of a way to quickly solve the problem of supplying Mana.