The monks of Ryuudou Temple asked no questions about the two visitors who arrived in the dead of night. Only after confirming they had come to seek shelter from the rain did they compassionately provide them with an empty guest room in a side hall.
For this ancient temple that had guarded the Fuyuki ley line since antiquity, perhaps it had long grown accustomed to the visits of all manner of strange people.
The old wooden door was slowly pushed open, and a breath mixed with faint sandalwood and aged wood wafted out, dispelling the cold dampness that clung to Leo and Medea's bodies.
The room was simply furnished, containing only a low table and a few cushions, with a dim oil lamp burning quietly in the corner, casting their long shadows on the paper sliding door, swaying gently.
"Master, that's enough. You can put me down now."
The girl in his arms spoke softly, her voice still somewhat weak, but much steadier than it had been outside the temple gate.
Leo complied, carefully helping her to sit cross-legged in the center of the room.
Only in this short journey from the gate to here did he truly understand just how dire this Age of Gods witch's condition was.
Her body was as light as a feather, and even through her soaked clothes, he could feel her alarmingly cold body temperature.
Had he not arrived in time, she might truly have dissipated into this unknown rainy night due to magical energy exhaustion.
Her delicate body seemed to transform into the center of an invisible vortex.
Leo could sense it—those invisible points of light in the air, what one might call magical power—slowly converging toward her from all directions, from beneath the floorboards, between the walls, from the wooden beams of the ceiling, like a hundred rivers flowing into the sea.
"By the words of the divine, I weave the foundation. By the name of Colchis, I construct the bulwark..."
Ancient and obscure syllables flowed from her lips, carrying a rhythm that did not belong to this era.
Her hands traced intricate and beautiful patterns before her body, golden magical light dancing, extending, and interweaving at her fingertips, rapidly sketching out a massive, intricately structured magical circle on the floor of the room.
The lines of the magical circle glowed, moving across the floor as if alive, finally burning themselves deep into the grain of the wood. The light flashed once and vanished completely.
After completing all this, Medea finally released a long breath. Her originally pale complexion was visibly flushed with color. She opened her eyes, and her violet irises regained their luster.
"...There. The foundation of the workshop is now complete."
She clapped her hands, her tone noticeably lighter, "As long as I remain within this workshop, I can directly draw upon the ley line's magical power beneath Ryudoji Temple to replenish myself."
"Though it's not as efficient as a temple, it's more than sufficient to maintain my presence in this world and perform basic magical operations."
Leo watched silently from the side, his heart filled with shock.
So this was the Caster-class skill 'Territory Creation'?
In mere moments, an ordinary guest room had been transformed into a magical workshop of her own. This ability was practically like a mobile spring command officer.
He also noticed the nuance in her words—"workshop," not "temple."
'It seems that maintaining the Lily form does indeed place restrictions on her abilities.'
Leo pondered silently, 'Both her Territory Creation and Item Creation skills must have been downgraded as a result. In her adult form, she could probably construct an impregnable temple right here.'
However, he felt no dissatisfaction with this. Instead, he felt a hint of relief.
'If I had encountered the adult version of Medea from the start—the one with more mature thoughts and a keener eye for profit—my admittedly naive confession probably wouldn't have moved her at all.'
'It's precisely because she's currently in the Lily state, with a mindset closer to that of a young girl, that she was drawn to that "foolishly sincere" earnestness and willing to form a contract with a Master who possesses zero magical power.'
He was acutely aware of just how much luck had played a role in gaining the loyalty of such a powerful Servant.
Therefore, he would never be greedy enough to demand more.
The immediate priority was to help her recover to her optimal state as quickly as possible.
With this thought, an idea born from his shallow knowledge of the FGO game surfaced in his mind.
That "standard method" in the game for rapidly increasing bond levels and replenishing a Servant's condition...
Leo's throat moved involuntarily.
Even through the helmet, he felt his cheeks growing hot.
He hesitated, organizing his words, and finally mustered the courage to speak carefully in as neutral a tone as possible: "Um... Caster."
"Hmm? What is it, Master?" Medea looked up, her pure violet eyes regarding him with curiosity.
"Your magical power... though the workshop can replenish it, it should be quite slow, right? Would you like to... would you like to try... that..."
Leo's voice grew quieter and quieter, his gaze beginning to drift involuntarily elsewhere, "I mean... magical replenishment..."
"Magical replenishment?"
Medea paused for a moment, seemingly not immediately grasping the meaning of the term.
But as a rare witch who had lived for ages, it took only an instant for her to understand the deeper implication behind her new Master's words.
The air suddenly fell silent.
The flame of the oil lamp flickered slightly.
Leo felt as though his heart might burst from his throat.
He had already prepared himself to be labeled a pervert and then blasted out of the room with magic.
However, the expected anger never came.
"Pfft..."
A suppressed light laugh broke the awkwardness in the room.
Leo looked up in confusion, only to see the girl across from him covering her mouth with her hand, her beautiful violet eyes curved into two adorable crescents, her shoulders trembling slightly as she held back her laughter.
"Did I... say something wrong?" Leo was somewhat bewildered.
"No, nothing..."
Medea finally managed to stop laughing. She lowered her hand and looked at him with a mixture of teasing and helplessness in her expression, "I just didn't expect my Master to be the type who would unexpectedly take the initiative in such matters... when you won't even show your face."
Her teasing made Leo even more flustered. His cheeks beneath the helmet were already hot enough to fry an egg.
"I just... I just thought this was a necessary means for Servants to recover quickly..." he defended quietly.
"Theoretically, that's correct."
Medea tilted her head, like a teacher explaining a difficult problem to a slow student, "Through the exchange of bodily fluids, it is indeed the most efficient way for a Master to transmit magical power to a Servant. But, Master, there's one absolutely crucial prerequisite."
She extended a slender finger and shook it gently.
"That is, the Master providing the power must have 'magical circuits' in their body and be capable of generating 'magical power.'"
Her voice carried a hint of amusement, but it struck Leo like a bucket of cold water, instantly sobering him.
"You're a completely ordinary person without even a single magical circuit. Your body is empty, with nothing to offer."
"Even if we actually did it, it would be nothing more than pure physical activity, which wouldn't help me recover magical power at all."
Leo was completely petrified.
So... that's how it was?
His pitiful knowledge, gleaned from a game, crumbled so easily before the rigorous rules of reality.
Seeing his expression of devastation, as if his entire worldview had collapsed—though the helmet hid his face, his rigid posture said everything—Medea's eyes grew even more amused.
She found that her new Master, though weak and ignorant and wearing a ridiculous helmet, was... truly entertaining.
She rested her chin on her hand, as if struck by a thought, and then added slowly in a tone tinged with a mischievous, devilish quality:
"And besides... taking it a step further, even if you really could provide magical power..."
She looked Leo up and down, taking in his head completely concealed by the V3 helmet, a meaningful arc appearing at the corner of her lips.
"I would at least want to see the face of the person I'm with, rather than do such things with a helmet-wearing stranger whose appearance I don't even know..."
"Master... what do you think?"
This sentence, like a precisely aimed arrow, carried both the coquettishness of a young girl and the seduction of an adult woman, striking lightly yet with perfect accuracy at Leo's heart.
He was completely at a loss for words.
This was no longer a simple rejection. It was a subtle, conditional "invitation."
—Want to take things further with me? Sure, but first show me your sincerity. Let me see what kind of person you are beneath that helmet.
The room fell silent once more, but this time, the air was filled not with awkwardness, but with something far more subtle and heart-racing: ambiguity.
Leo lowered his head, feeling his racing heartbeat, discovering for the first time that this legendary "Witch of Betrayal" had such a... cute and troublesome side.