"Zuke-san!"
The moment Zuke appeared inside the house, Reines had already sensed it, so before long, Zuke saw Reines appear on the second floor.
The interior of Reines' house had standard multi-level decoration. After Reines came out from her room on the second floor, she directly vaulted over the second-floor railing and jumped down toward Zuke in the hall.
Zuke helplessly extended his hands to catch Reines, then was embraced around the neck by the laughing Reines.
After these few days of familiarization, Reines had become increasingly lacking in boundaries when facing Zuke, and could now perform many intimate gestures.
For some reason, Zuke always felt that Reines' behavior was somewhat similar to Illya's—probably because Reines, like Illya, had no one to rely on since childhood, so she always lacked a sense of security.
And Zuke's appearance made up for the sense of security missing in her heart, which was why she was so close to Zuke? This was somewhat similar to Illya's lack of fatherly love.
Reines naturally didn't know that Zuke was contemplating why she showed such closeness toward him. At this moment, she maintained the posture of being caught by Zuke's hands and looked toward Waver: "Hey! I asked you to come here to research the Lesser Grail, what are you doing constantly studying that useless guy!?"
When facing Waver, Reines' tone had no courtesy whatsoever—after all, this Waver fellow was just a worker for the El-Melloi family.
Although because Reines was currently too young to inherit the El-Melloi family name, they temporarily let Waver inherit the title of "El-Melloi II," fundamentally speaking, Waver was just a talented magus without family accumulation. Naturally, Reines wouldn't treat him with the same good temper as she treated Zuke.
"Yes, yes, yes, but Miss, this guy is at least a participant in the Holy Grail War, so it's necessary to check him a little."
Waver seemed to have long grown accustomed to being treated like a beast of burden, so facing Reines' complaints, he only sighed and stood up.
Although Reines called Matou Shinji "that useless guy," he was still a participant in the Holy Grail War, so Waver still had to check his condition to ensure safety. Fortunately, after examination, Matou Shinji's physical condition had indeed become corrupt inside and out, with no need for rescue.
As for why they didn't immediately kill Matou Shinji... that was naturally because as a Master, he still needed to provide magical energy to the Heroic Spirit Emiya, allowing him to remain in the present world.
Although the Heroic Spirit Emiya's class was Archer, and even if his Master died, he could survive for a few days by borrowing the class skill "Independent Action," the specific survival time was still not very reliable.
If before they finished creating the new Lesser Grail, Heroic Spirit Emiya's "Independent Action" couldn't sustain him and he directly disappeared, wouldn't the Grail ritual fail?
In this regard, Waver even had to find ways to keep Matou Shinji's little life hanging, lest he die too early.
"So, there are already 6 confirmed participating groups now."
After returning to Reines' bedroom, Reines sat on the bed, organizing the information she had learned during this time for Zuke.
"We are the Berserker group, Tohsaka Rin is the Saber group, Bazett is the Lancer group, Matou Shinji is the Archer group."
Speaking, Reines looked at Zuke and asked:
"And that Einzbern family girl called Illya... what class is she again?"
"Sitonai is Caster."
Zuke nodded in response—although in the mobile game FGO, Sitonai's class was Alter Ego, the situation here was obviously different.
At least Sitonai was indeed manifesting as the Caster class in this Holy Grail War, something Zuke had previously asked Sitonai about, and Sitonai obviously wouldn't lie to Zuke about such matters.
"It's actually Caster? I thought it would be like the Third Holy Grail War, creating an irregular class."
Reines was somewhat surprised—she had obviously heard about the Einzbern family's "masterpiece" in the Third Holy Grail War summoning an irregular class "Avenger" Heroic Spirit.
She had thought that the modified Servant Sitonai created through spirit base modification would also be some irregular class, but unexpectedly it was the normal Caster class.
"Besides these, Sakura has also summoned a Heroic Spirit... but I still don't know what class she summoned."
Speaking of this, Reines' face showed a trace of gloom—she didn't know how to meet Matou Sakura now.
Although by process of elimination, Matou Sakura's summon was either Rider or Assassin, how could she confirm it? Could she directly go to Matou Sakura's door and ask "What class did you summon"?
Not to mention how abnormal it would be for Holy Grail War participants to so directly inquire at someone's door, if Matou Sakura asked back "What Heroic Spirit did you summon," how should she answer?
Bring out Zuke? Matou Sakura would probably go berserk on the spot.
"Sakura's Heroic Spirit... want me to investigate?"
Seeing Reines' tense appearance, Zuke guessed what Reines was worried about and found it somewhat amusing.
This Holy Grail War was actually quite harmonious compared to the Fourth Holy Grail War—the participants were almost all young people, without the ruthlessness of the Fourth Holy Grail War.
"Master, the investigation is complete. The Tohsaka family's Heroic Spirit is Saber."
In room 737 of the Hyatt Hotel, Medusa returned to Matou Sakura's presence, reporting her investigation results to Matou Sakura.
Matou Sakura's command was to investigate the other participants' Heroic Spirits... logically this was indeed very important intelligence, but Medusa always felt something wasn't quite right.
She felt that Matou Sakura collecting this intelligence didn't seem like she was researching countermeasures against Heroic Spirits, but rather seemed to be... looking for someone?
"Is it Saber... male or female?"
Actually, Medusa's feeling was correct. Matou Sakura was indeed looking for someone.
In her view, since she couldn't summon him even using Zuke's feather, it could only mean he might have already been summoned by someone else first.
The biggest suspect was Tohsaka Rin—because in the last Holy Grail War, Zuke was Tohsaka Rin's Heroic Spirit, so being summoned by Tohsaka Rin again this time wasn't impossible.
Although Medusa said the Tohsaka family's Heroic Spirit was Saber, the possibility of the same person being summoned in different classes also existed.
"A female."
Medusa answered Matou Sakura's question, then saw disappointment appear on Matou Sakura's face.
Logically, at this time Matou Sakura should have inquired in more detail about the investigation conclusions regarding this Heroic Spirit... but Matou Sakura seemed to immediately lose interest in that Saber.
This left Medusa even more puzzled.
To be continued…