"Tenkei, you picked a good time. The yōkan here is really good. Want to try some?"
When she said this, Artoria was accompanying Caren as they browsed the inn's souvenir shop. She had just bought a piece of yōkan and was sitting alone on a bench outside, savoring it, when she spotted Shiomi coming back down to the lobby.
"With a portion that size, it's barely enough for you alone," Shiomi said with a smile as he declined. Then he asked, "Is it just you keeping them company? Where's Morgan?"
"Morgan took Rin and the others to look into that 'Eternal Corridor,'" Artoria replied. "Those two seem more interested in that sort of thing than Caren is."
"So Skadi's absent for the same reason, then."
When Shiomi made the guess, Artoria nodded in confirmation.
She then asked, "Scáthach went to find you earlier. Why did only you come back down?"
Shiomi and Touko had followed the detective and the others into a room to talk. Not long after, Aoko and the rest returned with the detective, so Scáthach said she would go take a look.
"Oh, that," Shiomi said, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "My master is resting in the room, and Touko too…"
He had just finished with Touko and was helping her clean up when Scáthach arrived. What should have been a private moment suddenly turned into a round-robin situation.
"Honestly… yesterday was like that, and today is the same. It really seems like the word 'restraint' doesn't exist in Tenkei's dictionary," Artoria said.
There was a smile in her eyes as she took another bite of the remaining half of the yōkan, watching Shiomi.
The gesture was full of implication. She clearly understood what had happened before he came down.
After all, even without asking, she could already smell the mingled traces of him and the others on his body.
"Ahaha…"
Shiomi gave a dry laugh and glanced into the shop, where Caren was holding up two wooden carvings, comparing which one looked better.
"Are you getting along well with Caren?"
"Compared to how she was at Chaldea, Caren seems a bit more mischievous now," Artoria replied vaguely, yōkan still in her mouth. "But we get along just fine. She accepted pretty quickly that I'm her aunt."
"Aunt?" Shiomi froze for a moment.
Even without a blood relation, Artoria had acknowledged her sisterhood with Morgan, so calling her an aunt wasn't exactly wrong.
"Why that reaction? Does it sound strange for me to call myself that?" Artoria's cheeks flushed slightly.
For her, the idea of a 'relative's child' was something that dated all the way back to the Knights of the Round Table.
The role of an aunt felt both familiar and unfamiliar.
"No, I was just thinking… you never called yourself that at Chaldea. Are you trying to take advantage of the fact that they're still young and easy to fool?" Shiomi leaned forward, resting his chin on one hand braced against his knee as he turned to tease her.
Artoria couldn't help but think it over.
"Maybe… that really is it."
"You're actually admitting it?"
Shiomi laughed out loud, drawing Caren's attention from inside the shop. She raised the two items in her hands and waved at him.
"Which one do you like, Dad?"
"If you ask me, we should buy them all." Shiomi nodded.
Caren immediately looked crestfallen. "But this one costs ten thousand yen…"
"Then let's get three. One for you, one for Sakura, and the last one can be a souvenir for Rin," Shiomi said.
"Dad… when exactly is our family going to go bankrupt?" Caren asked instead. "Please don't push yourself too hard."
"Huh?" Shiomi was caught off guard.
"If you keep spending like this, our household expenses are bound to run into trouble sooner or later."
Caren sighed, turned away, set one item back, and chose another.
"Getting lectured by Caren," Artoria said with a chuckle.
"Well, she understands how to manage income and expenses better than I do," Shiomi recalled. "Before we went to Chaldea, she and Sakura were already handling all the household finances together."
"That's a very fitting role. With her talent in this area, Caren could rival Sir Agravain," Artoria praised.
"Don't exaggerate. Our Caren doesn't have that stiff, stone-faced demeanor," Shiomi waved it off.
"True. Even I've never seen Sir Agravain smile, though the other Knights of the Round Table do."
Artoria paused for a moment, then nodded in agreement.
They both laughed.
Shiomi reached out to wipe some crumbs from the corner of Artoria's mouth, only for her to catch his fingers and suck on them, as if determined not to waste anything.
"So, have you reached any conclusions?" Artoria held onto Shiomi's hand and asked about the case.
"About half and half."
Shiomi then recounted to Artoria what he had discussed with Touko in the room earlier.
"You're saying the prime suspect is the missing 'Tenkei of 2001'?" She was surprised by the conclusion. "Why? Did the you from 2001 really have a motive to kill Aoko Aozaki?"
"Precisely because even I don't know what the motive would be, it feels like I've run into a dead end," Shiomi said, looking at Artoria. "I've lived all these years, yet I still lack the insight to see through everything."
"Without clairvoyance like Merlin's, it's only natural that you can't see beyond your own field of view, even when it concerns yourself," Artoria gently reassured him. "Besides, this is a Singularity. What happens here may not have existed for you at all to begin with."
"I wasn't trying to seek comfort, but thank you all the same," Shiomi said with a nod.
"And now you possess far greater power than you did before we parted, enough to qualify for the seat of a god. If you were to pursue limitless wisdom as well, you might even rival The All-Father."
Artoria spoke from genuine feeling, so Shiomi didn't argue and instead went along with her words.
"Then may I borrow the King of Knights' talent for ruling a nation?"
"Well… to be honest, dealing with courts and prisons isn't my strongest suit, but I'll do everything I can to help you. That vow has never changed," Artoria replied earnestly, a hand to her chest.
"I know. And I've always remembered."
As Shiomi spoke, he saw Caren come out of the shop, several bags in her hands.
"You bought quite a lot," he said, smiling.
"Since it's rare for us to come here, of course I wanted to buy more. Next time, after all, we'll be going to a different hot spring."
Caren pursed her lips, her golden eyes full of delight.
"But they're a bit heavy. Dad, could you help me carry some of them?"
"Sure."
Shiomi reached out to take the bags, and Artoria offered to help as well.
"They're quite heavy," she said to Caren.
"There are some sweets in there. I'm planning to serve them later to you, Aunt, and your friends."
"Then I'll gladly accept," Artoria replied.
She seemed quite pleased by Caren's attitude.
Shiomi could only mutter faintly,
"…So that's all it takes to win you over…"