“Senior, are you going out today?”
At the dining table, Matou Sakura placed the freshly made miso soup in front of Emiya Shirou, looking at him with concern as she asked.
“I won’t be going out for the time being today.”
Emiya Shirou shook his head. The magic power Artoria consumed last night hasn't fully recovered yet. In addition, due to his special physical condition, the magic power he provides can barely maintain Artoria's daily needs without the pressure of death.
As a result, her injuries and magic power recovery are not optimistic. It's best to stay at home today.
“By the way, Sakura, please go home after you finish eating later.”
“Does Senior have something to do?”
Across from him, upon hearing the urging for her to leave, Matou Sakura subconsciously looked at Artoria, who was eating heartily. Some bad thoughts appeared in her mind, after all, she grew up in a magus family since childhood.
She is also clearly aware of what methods there are to replenish a Servant's magic power the fastest, besides hunting ordinary people and extracting their souls, which is what she and Archer did.
‘She wants to snatch Senior away from my side!’
Looking at Artoria, Matou Sakura's mind was filled with images of Emiya Shirou being taken away by her. Having regarded Emiya Shirou as the last hope in her life for so long, she absolutely would not allow anyone to snatch Emiya Shirou away from her.
“Sakura, what’s wrong?”
At this moment, Emiya Shirou's voice interrupted Matou Sakura's thoughts. Ever since he finished speaking just now, Emiya Shirou noticed that Matou Sakura's gaze was a bit off. Actually, the reason he wanted Matou Sakura to leave quickly was just to protect her safety.
Emiya Shirou didn't want to involve Matou Sakura in the dangers of the Holy Grail War. If she stayed with him all the time, she might be killed by a Servant who came looking for him.
Therefore, even knowing that saying so would make Matou Sakura sad, Emiya Shirou had no choice but to make her leave here quickly.
“It’s nothing, Senior. I will leave later.”
Facing Emiya Shirou's question, Matou Sakura smiled gently and shook her head, indicating that she would do as he said later. However, after speaking, Matou Sakura inadvertently glanced at Artoria.
“Hm?”
On the side, Artoria, who had just refilled her bowl with rice, blinked her big eyes and looked at Matou Sakura. Her intuition told her that Matou Sakura was suddenly full of hostility towards her. Could it be because she ate too much?
It can only be said that the King doesn't understand people's hearts.
An hour later, Matou Sakura, who had finished eating and cleaned up the Emiya household, left after saying goodbye to Emiya Shirou.
“Yo, we meet again.”
At the corner of the street, Matou Sakura, who had just left the Emiya house, suddenly stopped. Looking at the smiling man with golden hair and crimson eyes in front of her, her body began to tremble subconsciously.
“You’re still as boring as before. This king still had some expectations of you.”
Good Samaritan Mr. Jin walked to Matou Sakura with his hands in his pockets, looking at the trembling girl in front of him with a hint of disappointment in his crimson eyes. He had somewhat expected the girl to show a hint of something that would please him.
“.......”
Facing the question from Good Samaritan Mr. Jin, Matou Sakura just lowered her head and didn't dare to answer at all, as if the person in front of her wasn't a handsome foreigner, but a monster.
“Forget it, I hope that the next time we meet, you can bring this king a little bit of pleasure.”
Looking at Matou Sakura, who was like an ostrich burying her head, thinking that she wouldn't encounter danger if she buried her head, Good Samaritan Mr. Jin yawned and walked aside. He was looking forward to seeing what interesting expressions the ostrich would show when she raised her head and discovered the despair that she had deliberately ignored.
“Where to go next?”
After Matou Sakura walked away, Good Samaritan Mr. Jin began to look around with a bored expression. Suddenly, he noticed a girl in a black short skirt with pigtails in the distance, and a hint of pleasure appeared on his face.
“An anomaly?”
After muttering to himself, Good Samaritan Mr. Jin walked towards the pigtail girl with his hands in his pockets, while his gaze inadvertently glanced at the corner near the girl. It seemed that there would be a good show next.
........
“Caster!”
In a deserted alley filled with garbage, Tohsaka Rin suddenly stopped and vigilantly looked around, while calling out to Lu Minghao, who was hidden in her shadow. Ever since she left home, Tohsaka Rin had a vague sense of unease.
At first, she thought it was just her illusion, but then the unease in her heart didn't disappear.
Out of caution, Tohsaka Rin had also secretly used magic to scout the surrounding environment, but found nothing. It wasn't until she stepped into this alley that the unease in her heart reached its peak.
“Got it.”
Lu Minghao crawled out of the shadows little by little, looking boredly at the corner behind Tohsaka Rin. There, a figure wearing a skull mask and a black cloak was hiding, with bandages wrapped around his exposed right hand, exuding a strong aura of curse.
He is the Assassin of this Holy Grail War, inheriting the name of Hassan-i-Sabbah. Relying on the A+ rank Presence Concealment, he had been secretly following her ever since Tohsaka Rin left home today.
As for the arm full of curse aura, it was a product of self-modification using the Middle Eastern magic 'Curse Hand' specialized in cursing others.
“Caster, did you find something?”
Seeing that Lu Minghao kept staring at the corner as soon as he appeared, Tohsaka Rin subconsciously looked over, but didn't find anything, and then raised her head to ask.
“There's an Assassin squatting over there, do you want to see, Master?”
As he spoke, Lu Minghao snapped his fingers, and the shadows in the corner began to twist, directly grabbing Hassan, who was in a state of Presence Concealment, out.
Whoosh!
Just as Tohsaka Rin hadn't figured out how Lu Minghao pulled a Servant out of that corner, suddenly a row of short swords flew out from the corner behind her, each short sword aimed at Tohsaka Rin's vitals.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Just as the short swords were about to hit Tohsaka Rin, the surrounding shadows suddenly wrapped around Tohsaka Rin's body, and the short swords were directly bounced away.
“There's another Assassin?”
At this time, Tohsaka Rin, who finally reacted, looked at the short sword on the ground with lingering fear, and then turned her head to look in the direction where the short sword flew from. There, a guy who looked exactly like the Servant captured by Lu Minghao was standing there.
“No, it's just a Noble Phantasm effect.”
As Lu Minghao spoke, he raised his hand at the other Hassan, and the surrounding shadows immediately turned into chains, piercing through his body and hanging him in mid-air. By the way, Lu Minghao also crushed the Hassan he had captured at the beginning.
“He died so easily?”
Watching the assassin being killed without any resistance, Rin Tohsaka felt a sense of unreality. It felt like this Hassan, aside from his ability to conceal himself, was less capable in actual combat than even an average mage.
“These are just existences similar to clones, but that’s fine.”
As he spoke, Lu Minghao casually tossed Hassan's two corpses into a nearby trash heap. Otherwise, if they were just left here, some thrill-seeking young couple might stumble upon them and get scared.
“Master, let's go. The Holy Grail War has been going on for several days, and yet not a single Servant has been eliminated. If the participants of the previous Holy Grail Wars knew, they would surely laugh at us. Now that we've encountered an assassin, let's send him off.”
If he remembered correctly, the assassin's Master was that old bug hiding in the Matou household. In the original story, Zouken Matou used Medea's (Caster's) summoned pseudo-assassin, Kojiro Sasaki's body, as the base to summon Hassan.
However, now that Lu Minghao had replaced Medea's position as Caster, it meant that this time, Zouken Matou had used a normal method to summon Hassan.
Perfect. For the upcoming Emiya Shirou crafting plan, Zouken Matou would also be of great use. After all, his main body was still hidden within Sakura Matou's heart. Now, taking advantage of the opportunity to eliminate Hassan, Lu Minghao planned to completely clean up Zouken Matou's physical body and those bugs.
He would only leave Zouken Matou's main body within Sakura Matou's heart, pretending not to have noticed anything. He believed that, with that old fellow's fear of death, he would definitely continue to hide within Sakura Matou's body.
As for what would happen later, of course, he would let Emiya Shirou experience the taste of despair.
“Let's go!”
Saying that, Lu Minghao immediately headed towards Sakura Matou's location. Rin Tohsaka quickly followed, but after ten minutes, Rin Tohsaka realized that the surrounding environment was becoming increasingly familiar. When an old house appeared before her, Rin Tohsaka was completely stunned.
“Caster, are you sure this is the place?”
Looking at the familiar place before her, Rin Tohsaka had secretly visited it countless times since Sakura was sent away as a child. She had never imagined that the assassin's Master would be in this place.
Could it be that Sakura had also become one of the Masters in this Holy Grail War...?
“Of course. Besides, is there anyone familiar to you inside, Master?”
Knowingly asking, Lu Minghao turned to look at Rin Tohsaka, but for some reason, Rin Tohsaka fell into silence in the face of Lu Minghao's question.
“Let's go, Master. The timing is just right. We might even be able to see something interesting.”
Facing the silent Rin Tohsaka, Lu Minghao smiled lightly and led her into the shadows, arriving inside the Matou residence and heading towards the bug nest located deep within the Matou household.
Inside the dark, damp bug nest, the disgusting stench filled the air, and the rustling sound of bugs crawling echoed constantly in the basement. In the center of the dense swarm of bugs, a purple-haired girl lay expressionlessly, her large eyes lifelessly staring upwards, still being violated by the bugs.
“This... What is this... Sakura... Why is she here!?”
Within the shadows, Rin Tohsaka looked at everything before her in disbelief. Her sister, that gentle girl, was now lying in the middle of countless bugs, letting them violate her body.
“Ugh!”
In the next second, this scene, which completely exceeded her imagination and physiological limits, caused Rin Tohsaka to no longer be able to hold back, and she knelt on the ground, vomiting.
“It seems that you know that girl, Master. But that's right, after all, you have similar bloodline auras.”
Beside her, Lu Minghao crossed his arms and watched Rin Tohsaka, who was vomiting non-stop, with a hint of disappointment in his heart. Clearly, the beautiful girls in the anime world vomit rainbows, but when it came to Rin Tohsaka, it changed.
“Caster, let me out. I want to save her!”
A few minutes later, Rin Tohsaka wiped away the vomit remaining in her mouth and looked at Lu Minghao with an incomparably firm expression. She was going to rescue Sakura from here!
“Give up, Master. That girl's body has long been riddled with holes. According to my observation, if nothing unexpected happens, she should have been violated by these bugs since childhood, and it has been like this every day since then.”
Faced with Rin Tohsaka's request, Lu Minghao only stated the facts that made Rin Tohsaka feel infinitely despairing. From the moment Sakura Matou was adopted into the Matou family, her body had been suffering the same thing every day.
If it weren't for the fact that a mage's physique was different from ordinary people, she would have already died under this torture, but now it wasn't much better.
If it weren't for Emiya Shirou, this pillar of support in her heart, Sakura Matou would have already turned dark.
“What!”
The sudden truth made it impossible for Rin Tohsaka to accept. She simply couldn't believe that her sister had been experiencing this kind of thing ever since the first day she was sent to the Matou family.
“To be honest, Master, I admire your father quite a bit. He's countless times more cruel than I, this demon king. Even I wouldn't send my own offspring to this kind of place. Your father is really amazing. Even I, this demon king, can't help but feel admiration.”
Lu Minghao looked at Sakura Matou in the bug nest, his handsome face with an extremely cold expression, his voice filled with mockery. Lu Minghao didn't believe that Tokiomi Tohsaka didn't know what would happen after sending his daughter to the Matou family.
But, it was on the premise of knowing all of this that he personally pushed Sakura Matou into this abyss, and even called it a good thing for Sakura Matou.
What a mockery!
“........”
This time, faced with Lu Minghao's mocking words, Rin Tohsaka no longer had any intention of refuting. Looking at everything before her, the image of that gentle, tall father in Rin Tohsaka's heart was collapsing.
The things Lu Minghao could think of, Rin Tohsaka could of course also think of, but she still didn't understand why her father would do this.
Was it just because they were born into a family of mages?
“This is all Tokiomi's fault. Now I will correct his mistakes!”
In the next second, Rin Tohsaka raised her head and looked at Lu Minghao. At this moment, she could no longer call that man her father. Since that man chose to personally push Sakura into this abyss, then now, as her sister, she would save her!
“I swear, in the name of the Command Seals, Caster, rescue Sakura, completely destroy everything here, and kill Zouken Matou!”
“As you command, my Master!”
Looking at Rin Tohsaka's murderous face, Lu Minghao gracefully placed his hand on his chest, bowing slightly like a gentleman, and led Rin Tohsaka out of the shadow world.
