"As you can see, this is a long-abandoned, dilapidated house, but I'll do my best to make you feel welcome."
The girl calling herself Caren paused, as if searching for something to say.
"Right... Oh, if you're thirsty, I can get you something to drink."
Shirou frowned. "Thanks, but I didn't come here for tea."
"...Is that so? I don't know any other way to welcome a guest, so please tell me plainly if you need anything."
For some reason, she seemed a little shy.
This woman... She was saying "welcome" with such a calm face, but could this actually be her first time receiving a guest?
Now that he thought about it, Shirou had been back for several days, and if he had not heard the harp music today, he never would have gone near the church at all.
Caren interrupted Shirou's thoughts. "Then let's begin with the greetings.
I already know that you are the victor of the Fourth Holy Grail War, so there is no need for you to introduce yourself."
The instant she said that, the air in the Chapel sharpened.
Shirou's lazy expression vanished, and his eyes filled with wariness and distrust.
After the Fourth Holy Grail War, he had taken every precaution to keep the information sealed, all to prevent a Fifth Holy Grail War from happening.
By now, only a very small number of people should still know the inner details of that ritual.
The Kayneths... No, if it was the Church...
"What is your relationship with Father Risei Kotomine?" Shirou asked.
"Oh my..."
Caren looked genuinely surprised.
After all, she had come prepared. She had thoroughly investigated the boy before her.
For example, she had randomly selected a lucky shopkeeper or housewife near the shopping district and used suggestive magic... ahem, the Lord's Teachings, to ask about Shirou Amamiya's character.
The conclusion was that he was a warmhearted, kind, honest, and all-around good young man.
But judging by how he had instantly connected her to Risei Kotomine, he was far removed from the honest boy others saw.
"Hey, answer my question."
"Well, Father Risei is my mentor."
"Is that really all?"
"...!!"
Caren's shoulders trembled faintly.
Shirou's sharpness sent a chill down the girl's spine.
So this was the one who defeated that man...
She had been careless!
Because he was a boy around her own age, she had not taken him seriously and thought she could handle him easily. And yet...
Everything about Caren Hortensia, even the truths she wanted to hide, could not escape his eyes.
Under his gaze, she felt no different from standing there completely naked, with nothing to cover herself!
Just as the girl began to feel that even breathing had become difficult, the pressure suddenly vanished.
Shirou withdrew his gaze from her and softened his tone.
"...Sorry. I didn't mean to offend you.
Some things happened recently, and they've left me a little on edge."
Caren shot the red-haired boy a resentful glare, took a few seconds to compose herself, then spoke.
"I am the acting representative of this church."
"At your age?"
"Normally, I would not yet be qualified to manage a church, but this church has been entrusted to me temporarily.
I am fully aware of my own lack of ability. This time, I have come to this town as a trainee under orders from the Church to conduct an investigation."
Shirou said, "Huh... Is the Church really that short on people?"
Caren said, "It is a matter of assigning the right person to the right place. I am indeed only a nun, but I was sent here precisely because I am suited to this task.
The work assigned to me is to investigate the Holy Grail that has been observed once again."
"...What?" Shirou wondered if he had misheard.
Caren repeated, "To investigate the Holy Grail that has been observed once again.
According to Father Risei's report, the Holy Grail was completely destroyed during the Fourth Holy Grail War, yet it has now appeared in Fuyuki once more.
My job is to come here in person and confirm the Holy Grail's actual condition..."
"That's impossible."
"Excuse me?"
Shirou raised his voice. "I dismantled the Holy Grail myself. I watched it collapse with my own eyes. There is absolutely no way it still exists."
"......I understand. Could you let go now?"
Shirou hurriedly released Caren's wrist. In his agitation, he had grabbed her without realizing it.
"But the fact remains that the Greater Grail has been observed."
"That's what I'm saying..."
"If your conscience is truly clear, then there should be no reason for you to refuse the Church's supervision, should there?"
"I get it... Could you take your hands off me now?" Shirou said.
Without warning, the silver-haired girl had suddenly drawn close and cupped his cheeks in both hands.
"All right. I forgive you."
Caren dropped her hands and stepped back, putting distance between them.
Shirou asked unhappily, "Then, Sister, have you already found where the Holy Grail is?"
"I have confirmed the presence of something with functions similar to the Holy Grail, but I have been unable to locate it.
My assigned task was to investigate. Any further action would exceed my authority."
Hearing that, Shirou's lips curled into a smug smile.
"Hm~ So in other words, you haven't actually found this so-called Holy Grail."
Caren said, "The mission I was dispatched for has already been completed.
Formally speaking, I have been entrusted to continue acting as this church's representative, and if any abnormalities occur in Fuyuki, I will step in to resolve them."
She herself might not have meant it that way, but the statement sounded exactly like a warning telling Shirou not to try anything in secret.
The red-haired boy looked deeply at her, and the two remained at an impasse for a moment, neither saying a word.
"I see. Then I look forward to working with you from now on, Caren-san."
Shirou rose from the bench.
"I will definitely prove to you that the Greater Grail does not exist."
Leaving those words behind, he left the Chapel.
Caren, the Fuyuki Church's new acting nun, watched the boy's back disappear completely through the crack of the door, then leaned weakly against the pulpit.
"......Phew."
For a moment there, she had nearly thought she was going to be killed.
When she came back to herself, she realized that the underwear beneath her pitch-black nun's habit was soaked through.
Looking down at her legs, which would not stop trembling, the girl bit her lip.
"Could I be... getting excited... when I'm being bullied...?"
It seemed Caren had awakened to a new kink.
...
...
"Excuse us."
Rin Tohsaka and Sakura Matou entered the Amamiya family's living room.
Waiting for them there were Irisviel and Illya, mother and daughter, both wearing serious expressions.
"So, what happened?"
Irisviel's delicate brows drew together slightly as she spoke, sounding somewhat displeased. "Didn't we agree last time that we should minimize private meetings like this from now on?"
After a brief silence, Sakura Matou said, "Senpai seems to have noticed something...
Yesterday, he asked me whether we were hiding something from him."
"Oh no~~~"
"No way!"
"So it really is happening. I knew we wouldn't be able to keep it from him..."
"Then what do we do now? Should we tell Senpai everything?" Sakura Matou asked.
"Absolutely not! If that child finds out, then we'll..."
Irisviel looked troubled. "We have to continue the ritual before Shirou fully realizes what's going on.
At this point, that's our only option."
Rin Tohsaka went pale with shock. "That's impossible! Are you saying we're going to hold another Holy Grail War behind Amamiya's back? There's no way he won't notice something like that!"
"But... are you saying I should confess everything to him?"
Irisviel bit her lip. "While you were gone, we secretly created a new Greater Grail.
So that you, who left without a word, could return to us, Illya and I staked our lives on it.
Do you really think I could say something like that to him?!"
"......"
The Tohsaka sisters fell silent.
Knowing Shirou as they did, if he found out about this, he would blame himself beyond measure.
"No matter what, we cannot let that child know that we secretly created the Holy Grail behind his back."
As Irisviel spoke, she tightly clasped her daughter's hand.
Illya looked up at her and nodded firmly. "Yes, Mother."
That was easy enough to say, but no one had any good idea how they were supposed to hide it from him.
"By the way, how is the [Greater Grail] doing?" Rin Tohsaka asked curiously.
"The [Greater Grail]..."
Irisviel hesitated, unsure how to answer. After all.
Just then, footsteps rang out.
A silver-haired woman walked into the living room.
It was neither Sella nor Leysritt. This Einzbern woman possessed the same noble beauty and long, silken hair as Irisviel, the ninth head of the family.
The moment Irisviel saw her, her face drained of color. "Lady Justeaze! Why did you leave your room?!"
During Shirou's absence, the [Greater Grail] created by the New Three Founding Families was none other than the former head of the Einzbern family, who had planned the First Holy Grail War two hundred years ago.
The [Saintess of the Winter], Justeaze Lizrich von Einzbern.
...
...
It all went back to the early days of the Fourth Holy Grail War.
The greatest spoil Shirou had obtained during that ritual.
Irisviel would insist that she herself was Shirou's spoil, but setting that debate aside for the moment, it was undoubtedly the Magical Energy Reactor passed down through the El-Melloi family for generations.
It was a Mystery that had existed since ancient, ancient times, perhaps even before humanity was born.
A living mass of Mana, the Star's Drop.
Across the long passage of time, "it" had been caught up in countless struggles and lost its life again and again. Each time, it reverted to a mass of Mana, then was reborn, melted, reborn, shattered, reborn, crushed, reborn.
Only after it was unearthed by an ancestor of the El-Melloi family did it finally see the light of day again.
The Magi of the El-Melloi family believed "it" to be a humanoid fantasy. Later, after deeper research, the Lord of the Department of Mineralogy at the time divided "it" into three parts, modifying each into the form most efficient at generating Mana.
A Magical Energy Reactor in the shape of a heart, a torso, and wings.
That Lord gained a deeper understanding of "it."
If "it" were fused back into one and revived, perhaps it could provide even greater Mana.
However, he believed that form would not make a perfect Mystic Code (tool), so he regarded its divided state as the ultimate form and passed it down through the generations.
Later, "it" was brought to the Far East by Kayneth El-Melloi Archibald as a Mystic Code, only to be stolen by Shirou and Assassin and carried straight back to their own home.
After that, no one ever asked about "it" again. Everyone had assumed this state would continue for thousands more years.
Until the young master of the mansion, who was also the owner of the Mystic Code, disappeared.
The women in the mansion searched everywhere in a panic, but found nothing.
Shirou Amamiya seemed as if he had been taken away from this world itself.
They immediately thought, if only there were a Holy Grail, if only there were an all-purpose wish-granting machine... then they could make a wish for him to return to their side.
Irisviel, Sakura Matou, and Rin Tohsaka, who had been unable to withstand her younger sister's pleading, became the three members of the New Three Founding Families involved in the plan to create a New Holy Grail.
They noticed "it," displayed in the storage room and covered in dust.
Shirou had once told them about "it," the supreme Mystic Code handed down through the El-Melloi family.
Rin Tohsaka had heard of the object before, and after studying it more deeply, she discovered just how extraordinary "it" truly was.
Even if it could not compare to Fuyuki's Greater Grail, the energy it supplied was enough to perform Grand Magecraft approaching sorcery. To a Magus, it was practically a reusable miniature wish-granting machine.
If they added the Einzbern family's magical formula into it, perhaps they could improve its efficiency even further...
Blinded by the loss of her beloved son, Irisviel immediately decided to fuse the three cores together.
She even returned to the Great Hollow. There, the remains of the Greater Grail, dismantled and discarded years earlier, still lay.
The Magical Energy Reactor had originally taken the form of stone statues, so adding a new "stone" during the fusion process was not difficult.
Yes, what she intended to add was a fragment of the altar where the [Saintess of the Winter], Justeaze, had once sacrificed herself.
And so, "it."
No, "she" was reborn.
"She" could sense human wishes and desires.
They wanted the Greater Grail. They wanted a wish-granting machine...
The obsession of the women in this mansion was so intense that it entered "her" body.
The [wish] was perfectly fulfilled.
"She" decided to be born into the world in human form.
"She" had originally been an existence close to a fairy or an Elemental, and now she had also incorporated the circuits of a Homunculus (a natural infant), along with the residual consciousness of the Saintess of the Winter contained in the altar fragment.
As a result, the first and most ideal Greater Grail, [Justeaze], was born in perfect form.
Her appearance, thoughts, and personality were all exactly the same as the Saintess of the Winter. "She" could even wield an incomplete form of Third Magic.
The women of the Einzbern family were stunned. Only then did they realize they had committed an irreversible sin.
"Irisviel."
The silver-haired woman slowly walked into the living room.
Although her appearance resembled Irisviel's, their temperaments were completely different. One was passionate as fire, the other cold as frost.
Because she had been born without clothes, she was currently wearing Irisviel's clothing.
"Lady Justeaze...!"
Irisviel hurried over to support the Saintess of the Winter.
It was said that Justeaze had been so frail in life that she could barely walk. The fact that she could move about like this now was likely thanks to the Mana Block.
"It seems I've caused everyone trouble," Justeaze said.
"No, not at all..." Irisviel replied awkwardly.
She had originally intended to create a new Holy Grail, only to accidentally resurrect their great ancestor by sheer mistake.
If that had been all, it might still have been manageable... but now that Shirou had returned, Justeaze's situation had suddenly become extremely awkward.
Over the past few days, Irisviel had repeatedly told Justeaze not to leave her room, lest Shirou notice her existence.
But how long could they really hide it? Shirou looked honest enough on the surface, but he was actually very delicate and perceptive.
He had already realized something in the house was off. It was only a matter of time before he discovered the existence of the [Greater Grail], Justeaze.
"Let me meet that child named Shirou."
Justeaze suddenly spoke.
Irisviel's eyes widened. How could that be allowed...!
She instinctively wanted to refuse, only to notice that the Saintess of the Winter's expression was utterly resolute. She was serious.
Justeaze had already heard from Irisviel about the immense changes the Einzbern clan had undergone over the past few years.
The Homunculus clan, whose way of existence had not changed for a thousand years, had now abandoned its long-cherished wish, stepped out of the Barrier in the snowy mountains, and achieved great success in the human world of Magecraft.
All of this was inseparable from Shirou's help and advice.
One could even say that the Einzbern family, long since aged and meant to be headed for ruin, had been renewed by Shirou's appearance.
For the first time, Justeaze felt curiosity toward the boy so deeply trusted by her clan.
...
...
"That woman really was rude..."
Shirou walked out of the church in a huff.
"She actually implied I was secretly hiding the Holy Grail... No, she didn't say it outright, but that was clearly what she meant!"
After the Fourth Holy Grail War ended, Shirou had personally destroyed the altar in the underground Great Hollow.
That altar was the true body of the Greater Grail, engraved with the Magic Circuits of the Saintess of the Winter, which extended over a kilometer in length.
Once it had been completely destroyed, the Fuyuki Holy Grail War had come to an end.
And now someone suddenly showed up claiming that a Holy Grail reaction had been observed in Fuyuki again... This was clearly aimed at me, Shirou Amamiya.
"...?"
Shirou suddenly thought of the recent strange behavior of the women at home.
"Haha... No way. There's no way that's it..."
Back when Shirou said he would end the Holy Grail War in his generation, both Irisviel and Tokiomi Tohsaka had agreed.
Tokiomi was now in London and had passed the position of head of the family to his daughter.
That daughter, Tohsaka, had recently been getting strangely close to my Irisviel... Huh?
Shirou stopped walking.
Could it be... No, surely not...
After standing there blankly for two whole minutes, Shirou started walking again.
It was decided. He would use Irisviel as his starting point and investigate this thoroughly.
The method was simple.
He would check whether she had received Command Spells.
If they were really hiding a Holy Grail War from him, then there would definitely be Command Spells.
Right, and considering special cases like Manaka...
Shirou decided that tonight, he would find an excuse to strip Irisviel naked and examine her carefully from head to toe.
...
...
Justeaze said calmly, "Let me meet that child."
"But..."
Irisviel was still hesitating.
"Don't worry. I won't cause you any trouble."
The Saintess of the Winter smiled as she gently stroked Illya's hair.
Irisviel: "?"
Justeaze looked at the dress she was wearing and said, "I'll disguise myself as you, get close to that child, and simply have a chat with him."
***
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