37

036 - Making friends and… making other things.

Mitsuzuri Ayako

The supernatural exists. There's an entire hidden civilization of wizards (magecraft users, Haku was very insistent on that) and other magical thingamajigs the mundane people will never know. And they're apparently a bunch of snob psychopaths. To top it off, Fuyuki is a supernatural hotspot where a bunch of weirdos gather every sixty years to try and kill each other with summoned heroes from the past.

It's like the wet dream of every nerd out there, turned into a nightmare right as they were about to stain the sheets. Granted, I only have Haku's word on it, but if I ever have to choose anyone to blindly trust, she'd be near the top of the list.

And now I'm involved. Which could easily involve anything from mind control to vivisection.

Convincing my parents to allow me to spend the night with a classmate has been a struggle and I think they only accepted because it's the Ryuudou Temple we're staying in. I'll be paying for this once I get back, but screw it. I don't think I'll dare walking the streets of Fuyuki alone for a long time, much less at night.

Now that the adrenaline from watching Arthur Pendragon the sexy Sith Lord brutalizing the opposition is fading, I'm starting to consider that maybe I should've picked the damn blue pill. Too late for second thoughts, I guess. I haven't gotten to where I am by backtracking and stammering an excuse. That's Sakura.

Thinking about my cute Kouhai brings a smile to my lips. Judging by the noises coming through the bedroom walls, she's getting very lucky. I'm glad for her, the poor girl deserves a lucky break.

A particularly loud moan echoes all through the living room and I can feel my cheeks burning. If this keeps up much longer, I'm not sure my maiden heart will be able to take it. Lucky or not, deserving or not, I'd wish Sakura had taken better precautions. I refuse to believe there's no magic capable of soundproofing rooms.

… But I'm just distracting myself from the elephant in the room.

Emiya-kun excused himself right after dinner to take some food to someone I haven't met just yet. A Greek Witch, no less. Who just so happens to be the adoptive mother of Jack the Ripper. Because of course.

Haku is outside in the yard, playing ball games with said serial killer, who by the way is a white-haired loli with a better ass than mine. Because, as Emiya-kun so kindly put it, the world is under no obligation to make sense to me.

But since I'm not suicidal enough to venture into the night with a known female killer, no matter how cute she acts, I remained behind. That means I'm alone in the living room with Space Arthur the Super Jedi.

I take a peek in her direction. She's apparently an alternate version of the King Arthur from legend, who actually was a woman, and became a tyrant instead of a fair king, and lived in the space in a galaxy far away in the distant future of another reality, which seems to work on a battle academy anime logic. And answers to the name of 'Ecchan'. I've been advised not to think too hard about it but I'm not sure how I'm supposed to do that.

One doesn't really register it when she's all geared up with her black armor and red lightsaber, but she's actually tiny and adorable when not going full murderblender on some poor innocent enemy. Her casual clothes are cute and her attempts at remaining stoic in spite of blushing almost as hard as myself are outright adorable.

Now, the question is… should I follow my baser instincts and try to know this cute girl a bit better, or listen to my common sense and remain quiet in my corner of the room, doing my best to appear as unassuming as possible and hope I don't draw her attention?

...Wait.

"It's that…" I speak without thinking, almost flinching when my words draw her attention towards me. But my curiosity has always been stronger than my self-preservation instincts and I'm already committed. "You're reading 'How NOT to summon a demon lord'?"

The girl tilts her head, studying me in silence with her sharp-yellow eyes for what is easily the longest second of my entire life. "You know it?"

"Yeah! The premise is a bit silly, but I love the way they try to play it straight." I nod enthusiastically, that's one of my favorite light novels. "Every new situation has you thinking 'how will Diablo react to this one'? And every time someone gets antagonistic you're wondering how it'll backfire on them."

"It's very interesting." She agrees with a small nod. "You like light novels?"

"Yeah, they're a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine." I explain, scratching the back of my head uncomfortable. Am I really doing this?

"Guilty…?" Her head tilts to the opposite side, the book in her hand dropping all the way to her lap. Welp, looks like I got her interested, no backsies anymore.

"My parents are the strict bunch, always pushing me to do more and better at school and exceed at everything." I explain. "I don't resent them or anything, but it gets a bit much sometimes, you know?"

"Oh." Her eyes widen in understanding and I find myself wondering what sort of upbringing a Secret Super Sith Servant would've had back in her original timeline. "I see."

"Anyway, I got my hands on some light novels when I was younger because they're 'books' and thus my parents allowed them. I might've binge-read them for..." The memories of that incident have me looking away in embarrassment. I did go a bit overboard. "A fairly long and intense period of time."

"It's hard to stop." She nods in understanding.

"Yeah… my parents caught on after a while and there was hell to pay." I spent the following month locked in my room. Those holidays weren't fun at all. "I'm technically not allowed to read them anymore, but still manage to sneak some in from time to time."

From there, the conversation goes to the titles she's already read, enthusiasm slowly picking up as we let ourselves get engaged. At some point, we kind of stop registering the moans and thumps coming from the bedroom and end up sitting together, taking turns to read the dialogues out loud.

She nails Rem's deadpan, which leaves me to act the part of the airheaded Shera, but it's hard to hold a grudge when I see Ecchan's small smile on her lips. The girl isn't actually bad company, once you get her measure.

Medea of Colchis.

"Ah, I see. I was already dead."

Reflected on the unnaturally still waters resting in the dish in front of me, the last moments of consciousness of the little shit play out before me. A small wave stirs the surface, making the view shift from his delusions to reality, where his body falls to the ground and rapidly decomposes until only blood-red bones remain.

I've chosen the southwest forest as the little shit's final resting place. It's conveniently isolated from the mundane world without having to exert my power beyond my area of influence. Maybe the Einzbern familiars will detect the curses from the remains now that I'm not actively masking it anymore, but sort of animating his skeleton, there's nothing that can actually be done about the little shit. Or with him.

If someone wants a cursed servant made out of his bones, they're welcome to it. With a sigh, I let myself sit back and relax. The little shit wasn't Jason, but I have to admit that taking care of him has been…

"Cathartic?" Master's voice draws my attention towards where he stands inside my domain, a foil-covered dish in his hands and an amused smile on his lips..

"Very much so, Master." Anyone else invading my Temple would've found their flesh stripped from their bones and their eyes boiled in their sockets. For my Master though, all I offer is a tired smile. "Is that for me?"

"You missed dinner because you were working hard on tying the loose ends." He nods, removing the cover to reveal some steamed meat buns, still steaming hot. "It didn't seem fair to let you go hungry."

"Wasting magecraft on keeping my share hot?" I huff without head, accepting the offered platter. "You spoil me, Master. Servants don't actually need to eat."

"Maybe you deserve to be spoiled." He winks with a smile that makes my heart throb. "And I have said it before, I might be a good magecraft user, but– "

"You are a lousy magus. Yes, we're all aware of that by now." I take a small bite from one of the buns. Delicious. "Don't ever change that part of yourself, Master."

He sits with me and we talk about everything and nothing while I eat the rest of my dinner. At some point, the fingers of our hands ended up interlocked without anyone saying anything. It's ironic that I, who have both lived with the luxury of royalty and the mystery of a homeless beggar, would find my peace on something as mundane as this.

A peaceful, everyday life where uneventful days happen one after another. Where I can sit beside my loved ones and enjoy their company without any threat looming on the horizon. Is there anything more worth fighting for than this?

And, speaking of fighting…

"What are our plans going forward, Master? There are still threats ahead of us."

"We'll stall for time so you can finish your own project." He answers slowly. "Rin and Illya are still around and I have no interest in fighting them, but trying to bring them to our side isn't really viable as things stand."

"We don't really know whether the failsafe in the Grail still works or not." I nod along. I've been working on and off in the Greater Grail for a while. But while I'm more than capable of unveiling its secrets, the process still takes time. I have to grudgingly respect the effort the Founding Families put into the ritual. If nothing else, the thing is complex. "It wouldn't do to suddenly find ourselves with another seven Servants to plan against."

"I'll be depending on you again, Princess." He agrees with a smile that has my heart beating faster. "We need that failsafe out of the way at the very least. I hate to keep piling expectations on you like this, but…"

"Please keep doing so, Master. You can depend on me, I like it when you depend on me." It's cute how he worries about overworking me, but I'd rather be useful than lay around with nothing to do. "What about the other Servants?"

"Gilgamesh won't move a finger until there's a clear winner he can crush in one fell swoop. And that won't change even if he knows my plans." Master casually leans into me, voice pensive as he evaluates the situation. I try not to smile too much at the gesture. "If anything, it'll make him double down on his approach, just to prove all my scheming amounts to nothing against him. That's just the way he is."

"What's really troubling is that he can back up his confidence, but there's only so much we can do about it. The Priest and Lancer?"

"They are the real wildcards here. We'll take the chance to eliminate them if it presents itself, but… that's unlikely." I nod in consideration. For what I've learnt Kotomine Kirei is the sort of twisted individual who cannot be properly predicted. Ideally, he'd be eliminated first, but we can't really make an overt move against him with the King of Heroes on his side. "I hate being on the defensive, but until our plans come to fruition or we get an opening..."

"It can't be helped, Master. Medusa and that schoolmate of yours will need to get properly introduced into the group too…" I trail off, doing my best not to get distracted by the thumb tracing circles on the soft of my hand… And failing miserably. I finish my thought in a voice that sounds less like the sagely advice I was going for and more like a flustered squeak. "Sometimes we can only sit back and wait for our plans to come together. "

I feel my face flush at the pathetic display, but before I can try to hide my face in my free hand, Master turns around with a mischievous smile, catching it with his own and intertwining their fingers together. I'm pinned in place, my hands secured by his and our faces inches apart.

My only recourse to try and hide how flustered I am is to look away.

"And speaking of coming together…" He drawls with a glint in his eyes.

… Damnation, I can't look away from those eyes. Curse my Master's… everything. I'm not a blushing maiden, I shouldn't be reacting like this!

"Someone has really earned some pampering and tender lovemaking." He leans closer to me, his grin widening. "I wonder who it was…?"

Meep.