Tonight, the clouds were thick and heavy, a storm brewing. The car slowly stopped in front of the old Matou estate. The car door opened.
"So this is the Matou household?" Lin Jiuan got out and looked up at the mansion, which appeared particularly gloomy under the dark clouds.
"Jiuan, go get 'em!"
He turned and shot a dark look at Merli. "Shut up!"
Merli pouted, about to cry.
Creaak.
The main door of the Matou mansion, directly facing the courtyard gate, suddenly opened. There was not a single light on inside. The open door was like the gaping maw of an abyss, ready to devour anyone who dared to peer inside. An old man leaning on a cane slowly walked out. His steps were unsteady, as if a gust of wind could blow him over. He looked even more terrifying up close, his skin completely devoid of moisture, his face a web of wrinkles, his eyeballs bulging.
Seeing Matou Zouken emerge, even Sola-Ui was frightened, subconsciously taking a step back. Merli crouched down, completely hiding behind Lin Jiuan. "Ew, so ugly! Jiuan, go get rid of that ugly monster!"
Shut up, you old woman pretending to be young!
Zouken's gaze swept over the four of them, finally settling on Natalia. "May I ask what business the four of you have at my Matou household so late at night?"
Just as Natalia was about to speak, Merli cut her off. "Little Natalia, come back! You can't beat this old worm! Let Jiuan handle it!"
Natalia fell silent. Her humanity, transcending her succubus blood, made her reluctant to do something so scummy. But trusting her teacher, and considering their conversation in the car, she knew she'd likely just be feeding if she faced this old man who looked like he could fall over at any moment.
"Little Natalia, listen to me! Come hide behind Jiuan with Teacher!"
Natalia gave Lin Jiuan an apologetic look and obediently went to Merli's side, though she remained standing instead of crouching like her.
"Jiuan?" Sola-Ui looked fearfully at Zouken, then at Lin Jiuan.
He took a deep breath, suppressing the urge to turn around and team up with Zouken to kill the massive scumbag behind him. "Don't worry. Stay back and hold on to that scumbag."
"Eh? Scumbag? What sc..." Merli was still playing dumb when Sola-Ui silently grabbed the corner of her clothes.
"You are... the orphan the Tohsaka family adopted?" Zouken squinted at Lin Jiuan. It was because of this strange little boy that he had failed to adopt Sakura, forcing him to participate in this Holy Grail War himself. "Aren't you going to call out your Servant?"
"As I recall, the Matou family has no quarrel with you. Why..." Before Zouken could finish, his cloudy, dry eyes suddenly shrank. He immediately raised his cane to block.
The boy, who had been more than ten meters away, seemed to cross the distance in an instant. No, the mud, blending with the night, had crept to his feet, and in the next second, the boy was right in front of him.
BOOM!
Zouken's entire arm exploded. Countless insects were annihilated before they could even flap their wings.
"You talk too much." Lin Jiuan's human-red eyes transformed into golden dragon-slits. He raised his slender, youthful hand and made a grasping motion at Zouken. In that instant, an extreme sense of death washed over Zouken's mind. The countless life-preserving techniques he had accumulated over centuries were unleashed. Myriad insects buzzed, swarming towards Lin Jiuan.
But in the next second, the insects seemed to sense something that terrified them to their core. One by one, they exploded. The few that survived trembled and fell to the ground, letting out desperate death cries. Zouken's body, as if seized by a terrifying power not of this world, violently exploded.
"This is impossible?!" Zouken's exploded body revealed his true form: a filthy, ugly, slimy insect. Its insectoid eyes stared in terror at the boy with golden dragon eyes, who radiated a lofty, noble, and mysterious aura. A primal, animalistic fear told it what this being was.
"You're not human... you're a Dragon?!" the old worm shrieked in terror, as if facing the most frightening thing in his centuries of life. He knew at that moment. The boy before him was not some magus-created chimera with a dragon heart. He was a true Dragon! A real Dragon, a species that should have gone extinct in this age of declining mystery! Even a juvenile dragon... was still a Dragon!
Whether an insect or a butterfly, faced with such a being at the apex of all creation, there was only one outcome: kneel in terror, then commit suicide! When did I ever provoke such a being?!
The primal fear of a bug facing the dragon's might made Zouken want to die instantly. But his great, centuries-long ambition forced him to let out a piercing scream just as Lin Jiuan's foot was about to fall.
"Berserker!!!"
A figure shrouded in black mist instantly burst through the wall of the house and appeared before Lin Jiuan, a longsword slashing straight for his chest. Lin Jiuan crossed his arms to block, golden dragon scales appearing on them. With a clang of metal and a flash of sparks that was blinding in the darkness, he was sent flying backward, crashing through the courtyard wall and several trees into the woods on the side of the Matou estate, kicking up a huge cloud of dust.
"Jiuan?!" Sola-Ui immediately wanted to rush over. Natalia, also in a panic, was about to draw her gun and fire at the female Servant wrapped in black mist. But both of them only managed the initial instinct. Before they could move, they found their bodies frozen.
"Relax, relax. Jiuan will be fine. Just watch quietly," Merli's voice said.
"Teacher?!"
"Don't you worry, little Natalia. When have I ever lied to you? Honestly, the old saying is true, 'once you have a man, you forget your master'... eh?" Merli's words trailed off. She saw that Berserker, having lost her original target, had suddenly turned and was now looking at her.
The relaxed and confident smile on Merli's face froze. "Um, little Natalia, I just remembered I left the rice cooker on at home. Got to go!"
....
Joine support me to read the story in advance
My patron: patreon.com/ImNova724
HP : The Frail-Looking, Iron-Fisted Beauty of Harry Potter 50 Chapter
In Type-Moon: Creating a Magecraft Family Lineage 100 Chapter
Type-Moon, is this really not the Reverse Side of the World? 69 Chapter