"I love you."
Ian's single sentence rekindled the light in Vivian's already dim eyes. Having been isolated in this single room for so long, she felt a strong urge to speak more.
"You... what did you just say? Could you repeat it?" The witch's voice trembled as she pleaded. Despite knowing this act would surely defy Tohsaka Sakura's Command Spell again, seeing Vivian's disbelief, Ian endured the pain and gently confessed to her once more.
"Vivian, I love you. This time... was it clear enough? If not, I can say it again."
"..." The witch's eyes gradually became moist. Then, tears gathered into pearls at the corners of her eyes. Drip. A tear fell to the floor. Vivian lowered her head, her whispers filled with endless repetition. "Ian, I'm sorry... I'm really sorry."
"Don't be." The man gently pulled Vivian into his embrace. "Why would you be sorry to me? Vivian, you've done nothing wrong... I was too dull, I realized too late."
Again, he took all the blame upon himself. Hearing those familiar words, so biased towards her, Vivian felt a pang of pain in her heart. If only she hadn't been so willful back then... things wouldn't be like this now, would they?
No! Absolutely not! She couldn't let him think it was his fault anymore! The witch lifted her head, wanting to reject Ian's excessive favoritism. However—the moment their gazes met, Vivian noticed something was wrong. His face was pale, and the magical energy radiating from his body was continuously decreasing. As a magus from the Age of Gods, Vivian immediately realized Ian was in trouble. At this moment, he was stubbornly resisting some extremely terrifying torment with his Magic Resistance.
In an instant, past fears flooded Vivian's heart. She couldn't let history repeat itself.
"Ian, what's wrong with you?!" Vivian took the man's hands, asking anxiously. "Tell me!"
"I'm fine," Ian forced a smile. "Vivian, you don't need to worry about me."
"No!" The witch directly saw through the man's pretense. "You're lying! Ian, tell me, what in the world is going on?!"
"..." Ian didn't answer Vivian. As a Servant, he could indeed resist his Master's commands, but he absolutely could not reveal them to others. Tohsaka Sakura's love, subconsciously, had become something he felt worth keeping secret, even with his life.
Realizing she absolutely couldn't get the truth from Ian, an anxious Vivian cried out. "Artoria! Come here quickly!"
Almost the moment the words were spoken, the door opened. Artoria's figure appeared there. Clearly, after Ian entered, the young knight had waited directly by the door, allowing her to appear so quickly. The emotions contained within this, of course, needed no further explanation.
However—Vivian had no time to dwell on such matters. All she wanted now was to understand what was happening to Ian.
"Sister, did you encounter anything strange on your way here?"
"..." Although she didn't know why her sister would suddenly ask such a question, as her sister and her Servant, Artoria shook her head without hesitation. "No. I... didn't encounter anything strange." This wasn't Artoria speaking carelessly. Although she had been summoned as a Rider in this Holy Grail War, it didn't mean the girl had completely lost her abilities as a knight. She was quite sensitive to her surroundings. If there was nothing, there was nothing. Artoria had absolute confidence in this—besides, she wouldn't stand by and watch Ian be affected by magecraft.
"..." Realizing that her sister Artoria had no reason to lie about this, nor would she, Vivian's gaze fell back on Ian. She gradually realized that the problem might not have formed now, but had appeared much earlier!
"..." "Artoria," the gradually clearing-headed witch became more confident. "Come help me."
"Help you? Help you with what?" The girl was a little confused.
"Help me take Ian's clothes off."
"Ah?!" Although she had seen his body before, faced with such a direct request, Artoria's face flushed instantly, and she stammered a little. "W-what are you going to do? Taking them off directly isn't very good, is it?! At least you should ask Mr. Ian if he's willing!"
"What are you thinking!" Vivian, realizing her sister seemed to have misunderstood something, became even more anxious. "I need to check if someone cast magecraft on him. It'll be inconvenient with clothes in the way."
"Eh, is that how it is?" Artoria understood, but soon she realized a new problem. "But you still have to ask Mr. Ian if he's willing, right?!"
"We can't rely only on asking." A blue light shimmered around Vivian's hands. That was the witch's spell—in this world, only she could use such a spell. "Because if the other party has set up a counter-mechanism, the results would be quite misleading. Artoria, listen to me, there won't be any problems."
"..." This was a completely different Vivian from before. Realizing her sister seemed to have regained some confidence, Artoria no longer questioned anything. After all—she had gone to great lengths to bring Ian here, wasn't it to get her out of that state?
"I understand." The girl looked at the man she admired from the bottom of her heart. "Mr. Ian... I'm sorry."
Fortunately, the resistance Artoria had feared didn't appear. Ian, currently resisting some magecraft, was much weaker than he appeared. With no effort, the girl pushed him directly onto her sister's bedspread.
Swish, swish. Artoria quickly stripped Ian of his outer clothes. After seeing the man's incredibly firm physique, her throat unconsciously swallowed. For the girl, he was the beginning and end of her emotions. And his body, naturally, carried the girl's overflowing emotions.
However—Artoria knew this was not the time to dwell on such things. She looked at Vivian beside her. "Sister, it's done."
"Mm, now, it's my turn." In Artoria's worried gaze, Vivian's hands reached out to Ian. The detection magecraft ritual was now activated to its maximum power, a strength capable of piercing a person's body in an instant. Of course, this "piercing" didn't mean killing the target, but rather completing a physical examination at an unimaginable speed. This was a method Vivian had learned during these thousand years—after all, over time, some unseen problems would continuously accumulate. It came in handy now.
Vivian's hands rested on the man's chest. In the past, this would likely be the moment she commanded him to provide her pleasure. However—the witch had no such thoughts at this moment. She just wanted to quickly figure out what happened—she didn't want him to suffer unwarranted pain for her anymore.
Magical energy was injected. A blue light instantly illuminated Ian's body. The man temporarily fell into a deep sleep. And when the light disappeared, Vivian had completely understood the situation—as a magus from the Age of Gods, she possessed strength far beyond ordinary people's imagination.
"How is it?" Artoria leaned closer, cautiously asking about the situation. She didn't know what was going on; she was merely acting according to her sister's instructions.
"..." "The problem is simple," Vivian replied, "but also a bit tricky."
"What?" Artoria was a little bewildered. "Sister, what do you mean?"
"I've figured out why Ian became like this," the witch said, looking at the man lying on her bedspread, her expression extremely complex. "It's a Command Spell issue. He... is forcibly disobeying his Master's command, which is why he became so weak."
"He's disobeying his Master's command, then..." Artoria nodded thoughtfully, then her eyes suddenly trembled as she realized something. "Wait a minute! So, that means Mr. Ian was affected by...?" Artoria hadn't forgotten the girl who suddenly burst into the battle that night. Although she didn't know what kind of magecraft the other party released at the time, she could feel an inexplicable familiarity from it. More precisely, it felt the same as Vivian.
"..." "Artoria," the recovered Vivian confessed, "that's my student."
"Student?" The girl learned another shocking piece of information.
"Mm," Vivian nodded. "You saw her that night... she's Ian's Master."
"..." Artoria now fully understood—her sister had a significant disagreement with her student because the student summoned Ian. And he, probably for this very reason, had become like this!
"Then—" Artoria looked at the man before her, momentarily at a loss. She was good at fighting, but when it came to magecraft, it wasn't her strong suit. "Sister, do you have a way to solve this problem?"
"Of course I can," Vivian scoffed. "Trying to stump me with something like this... that's absolutely impossible."
[Vivian was not boasting.]
[As a magus from the Age of Gods, she possessed a reservoir of magical knowledge far beyond ordinary people's imagination.]
[And this, naturally, included knowledge of the Holy Grail War.]
[Thanks to this, Vivian quickly analyzed that this was a restriction imposed by Tohsaka Sakura using a Command Spell.]
[Breaking such a thing was child's play for the witch.]
[That being said—it would still take a considerable amount of time to fully create the counter-spell.]
[Time quickly passed, and it was evening.]
Outside the apartment room. Vivian, having just thrown out the trash, saw Artoria leaning against the balcony railing. She spoke: "Sister."
"Eh?" Hearing the voice, Artoria turned around, then revealed a smile. "Sister, you're back?"
"Mm," Vivian nodded, saying self-deprecatingly, "I can't believe I drank so much beer these past few days. It's truly disgraceful."
"Mm, it is a bit," Artoria didn't hide her thoughts.
"So you think so too," Vivian walked to her sister's side. "Sorry—these past few days have been a real bother for you."
"Not at all," Artoria shook her head. "I'm content as long as Sister can return to normal."
"But speaking of which—Mr. Ian is really important to Sister, isn't he?"
"Mm." Vivian's face flushed, and her words gained a hint of shyness. "I never thought that idiot would defy a Command Spell to say those things to me... even though he doesn't remember anything, he still insists he loves me. Truly hopelessly foolish."
"But Sister is happy, aren't you?" Artoria smiled slightly. "After all, you haven't left your room in a long time."
"...Mm." Vivian looked up at the dim, yellowish sun in the sky, her eyes gradually becoming misty. "He loved me so much—why did I only realize it now?"
"It's not too late." Artoria also looked up at the sky.
"However—Sister, do you really plan to keep him here like this?"
"I don't know," Vivian seemed a little lost. "But he definitely can't leave tonight. I don't know if there will be any side effects from that spell to remove the Command Spell restriction—I need to observe him for at least one night."
"Besides—" Vivian looked at Artoria beside her, with a touch of sisterly tenderness. After all, this time, it was entirely because of her sister that this meeting was possible. "Sister... you want to stay with him longer too, don't you?"
"..." Artoria turned her face away and nodded. "Mm." How could she not want to? But Artoria knew she had to distinguish between priorities. She didn't want to be a burden to him, nor did she want him to be burdened because of her.
"Then that's settled." Vivian took Artoria's hands. "Although I may not be qualified to say this—I admit, your love for Ian is a treasure he must receive. So tonight, let the three of us spend it together."
"Three, three of us together?" Artoria was a little flustered.
"Mm," Vivian nodded, then gave a gentle smile. "What we were supposed to do by the lake—haven's it not been finished yet?"