After finishing the battle at Mion River, Shiomi returned home and remembered the banquet remnants still scattered across the courtyard. With a sigh, he had no choice but to clean everything up in the middle of the night.
Drenched in sweat again, he headed straight for the bathroom and took a second shower.
When he came out, hair still slightly damp, he plopped onto the sofa and stared blankly at the ceiling.
It was all his own doing. He muttered inwardly.
Had he known it would end like this, he wouldn't have bothered playing the good host. He should've just let those kings drink cold sake on empty stomachs.
It's not like Servants can get food poisoning anyway.
Thinking that, Shiomi let out another long sigh.
What kind of madness drove him to keep finding new ways to tire himself out?
"You've worked hard. Lie down and get some rest."
Morgan's voice rang out beside him, reminding him that she had been sitting there in the living room, watching him rush around.
As she spoke, Morgan pulled him down without giving him a choice, resting his head on her soft thighs. A cool, faint scent lingered at his nose—unexpectedly soothing, almost hypnotic.
"...Sigh..." Shiomi let out a weary breath without thinking.
Even with Mana sustaining him, he hadn't slept in over two days. He'd also had some alcohol earlier. If he wasn't sleepy by now, it'd be worth checking if something was wrong with him.
Worse yet, he just remembered—he'd driven drunk. Luckily, there was no one on the road and no police checks.
By the time Shiomi drove back, the thick fog had already blanketed all of Fuyuki. He'd taken it slow on the way and used the time to ask Morgan about the status of the Greater Grail.
"Still, you're amazing—changing the weather and covering all of Fuyuki like that," Shiomi said, almost absentmindedly.
"Even you could've done it, if you wanted to," Morgan replied calmly. "Besides, the fog's completely out of my control now and has lost all magical properties. It should dissipate sometime after midnight."
"I wonder if the news will talk about it tomorrow," Shiomi chuckled. "Something like, 'An unexplained weather anomaly,' and maybe it'll go down as one of Fuyuki's mysterious phenomena."
As his nerves finally unwound, the alcohol started to hit, and his eyelids began to droop.
Shiomi, who used to be a complete teetotaler, wasn't even sure if he had a decent tolerance.
"…Come to think of it, when Gilgamesh left, he just left the whole set of wineware behind." Eyes half-closed, he mumbled a complaint to Morgan. "The wine was excellent, and the set was genuine gold… judging by the color, definitely from the Fifth Dynasty of Uruk."
"You're not going to return it?"
"Finders keepers. It's not like I'm some saint who doesn't care about money," Shiomi said with a casual smile.
Morgan smiled too. "Then don't return it."
Then, as if stroking a pet, she gently ran her fingers through Shiomi's soft hair. "About the Master of Caster, the one I executed before you came to back me up—"
"Yeah? What about him?" Shiomi hadn't thought much about it, assuming the matter was already settled.
"When I found him, he'd already been taken over," Morgan said. "Another Magus had intervened in secret. I didn't look into it too deeply, but it was clearly some kind of brain invasion using insects—silently tampering with his cognitive function."
At that, Shiomi felt her body tense slightly, like a bow drawn taut. Through their physical contact, he could sense an almost imperceptible emotion leaking through.
Disgust, fear… or maybe just discomfort.
She's really not good with bugs, huh? Shiomi thought.
He reached up and clasped the hand that had been playing with his hair, holding it firmly to pass on his warmth, to say, "I'm here."
Only then did that faint tension ease, and her usual calm reasserted itself.
"That Zouken Matou again?" Shiomi didn't press the issue, but quietly continued the conversation.
"That's right."
Shiomi pieced it together. "So, in the end… the Matou family's Magecraft, unable to continue due to incompatibility with the land, had no heir qualified to enter this Holy Grail War. That old man had no choice but to intervene himself and try to snatch it from the sidelines."
Strictly speaking, there was still Kariya Matou—a descendant with a trace of magical aptitude.
But Kariya had long since left the Matou household, having grown to despise the path of Magecraft.
Just before the Holy Grail War began, he had wrapped up a short stay in Fuyuki and set off abroad again, continuing his research travels.
At this rate, the Matou lineage would inevitably die out, and their magical legacy would vanish.
No Magus would ever accept that fate willingly.
"Looks like that's how it is," Morgan said, having also learned about the Matou family from Shiomi.
With no successor, and the head of the house surviving only through Magecraft, it was obvious the Matou family wouldn't last until the next Grail War, sixty years later. It was no wonder Zouken Matou was getting desperate.
Still, it seemed Morgan's warning at the Greater Grail beneath Ryuudou Temple had worked—Zouken had prepared well. Even though Morgan could easily sever his control over Ryuunosuke Uryuu, she couldn't trace it back through the magical channel to kill him directly.
The semi-automated control method had made Uryuu think his actions were his own. Even Caster hadn't noticed. And when Morgan disrupted the spell, the mana connection was already designed to cut off.
In short, Zouken Matou had been guarding specifically against someone like Morgan—a Magus from the Age of Gods who surpassed the standards of the modern era.
"Also, when I executed him, I confirmed that Caster's Master had already used up all of his Command Spells," Morgan added. "That's how the Sea Demon managed to act on such a large scale—it was being powered by Command Spell mana."
"He really knows how to cause us trouble," Shiomi muttered. "Now that Caster's side has been defeated, among the remaining factions..."
He paused, thinking over the other Masters.
Eliminating the possibilities one by one, the only one left was Waver Velvet.
That Magus, slightly younger than Shiomi, had handled things well in practice—but when it came down to magical ability, he was honestly quite weak.
One-on-one against Zouken Matou, he'd likely end up as prey.
"Rider's Master," Morgan echoed his thoughts. "But the King of Conquerors isn't like other Servants. He's not so easy to catch off guard."
"Who knows... Honestly, I don't have much intel on Zouken Matou myself. Among Fuyuki's Magus families, Matou is even more discreet than Tohsaka," Shiomi said after a moment. "Looks like no matter how tomorrow's meeting turns out, we'll need to warn Rider and his Master."
If things stayed as they were, Shiomi wouldn't care how the factions chose to battle it out.
But if the war dragged on and more Servants were eliminated, reducing the souls required for the Greater Grail's activation, it would seriously jeopardize his current plan.
"If possible, we should keep the number of fallen Servants to four or less," Morgan said.
Shiomi's senses began to blur.
Already worn out, thinking about the Holy Grail War now demanded more mental energy than expected—and drowsiness set in even faster.
"…Sounds like we're betting on not losing," Shiomi said with a faint laugh.
Morgan was silent for a while. Shiomi assumed she didn't want to answer and let sleep overtake him.
"If we fight separately, we'll lose. But if we fight together, we've always been invincible."
By the time she said it, Shiomi was already asleep.
Listening to his quiet, steady breathing, Morgan smiled softly.
...
(40 Chapters Ahead)
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