"Huh?" Sitting alone on the bench, Alaric looked surprised. He couldn't help but size up the girl standing before him—Sakura. She was a year younger than her sister, Tohsaka Rin, and was only a three-year-old child.
Despite her young age, she exuded a different kind of charm compared to her sister. Her smile even gave Alaric the illusion of seeing Ishtar—it was the smile of a mischievous little devil.
Her playful demeanor made Alaric instinctively smile in response. "Hello there, what should I call you?"
"It's Sakura!"
Sakura, seemingly pleased by Alaric's response, stood on tiptoe, trying her best to raise her voice. "Big brother..."
Before she could finish speaking, a girl suddenly stepped between them, blocking the space between Alaric and Sakura. Her familiar twin tails swayed in the wind.
"Sorry for the trouble Sakura has caused you!"
Even though she was only four years old herself, she tried to act mature as an older sister should. The young girl, Tohsaka Rin, looked serious as she apologized to Alaric. "Sorry!"
Perhaps influenced by the actions of her mother and father earlier, Rin had let go of her initial doubts about Alaric. After all, how long could a child's suspicion last?
Childhood was meant to be innocent and bright. Even though they were born into a prestigious magical lineage, both Rin and Sakura were able to grow up healthily under their mother's care.
The future was uncertain, but at this moment, as sisters, they were undoubtedly the perfect example of sibling bonds.
However, Alaric knew that this harmonious life would not last. As the successors of the prestigious Tohsaka family, only one heir could be chosen.
Not only did the family's Magic Crest need to be passed down intact to a single individual, but the entire magical lineage of the Tohsakas could only be inherited by one person.
The problem was that both Tohsaka sisters were rare magical prodigies.
Tohsaka Rin possessed the Five Great Elements (Earth, Water, Fire, Wind, and Void), making her compatible with nearly all forms of magecraft. Her potential as a magus was undoubtedly exceptional.
However, her younger sister, Sakura, was an even more remarkable case.
Sakura had the exceptionally rare Imaginary Numbers attribute, which gave her the potential to master magecraft related to Imaginary Space.
If one of the sisters had been mediocre, the decision would have been simple. But because both were geniuses, their father, Tohsaka Tokiomi, would have to make a difficult choice.
Tohsaka Rin was undoubtedly the best candidate to inherit the Tohsaka family's legacy. That meant the remaining child—Sakura—would have to face a different fate.
"Ah, you're Mr. Alaric, aren't you?"
Arriving a little late, Tohsaka Aoi immediately noticed Alaric's striking white hair. However, it was not the pale white of someone drained of life force, but a vibrant, platinum-white full of vitality.
Not only was his distinctive white hair memorable, but Alaric's overall appearance was also quite striking. Even though a month had passed, Tohsaka Aoi still clearly remembered the man.
"We meet again, Mrs. Tohsaka."
Alaric raised his hand in greeting and smiled. "Is Mr. Tokiomi not with you today?"
It seemed that only Tohsaka Aoi had brought Rin and Sakura out to play. Having memorized Tokiomi's magical presence, Alaric didn't sense him anywhere nearby.
"Tokiomi has other matters to attend to."
Tohsaka Aoi gently brushed back her hair with a soft expression. Her gaze, filled with maternal warmth, lingered on her two daughters as she smiled. "Sakura seems to like you a lot—she even abandoned her sister."
Dressed in a light green long dress, with waist-length hair swaying in the breeze, Tohsaka Aoi carried herself with the elegance of a noble lady.
Hearing this, Alaric looked at the little girl in front of him again. Protected by her older sister, the young Sakura still had a pure and innocent smile on her face.
"Heave-ho!"
Seizing the moment when her sister Rin was off guard, Sakura suddenly reached under Rin's arms and hugged her tightly.
"Eh?! Eh?!"
Caught off guard, Rin immediately realized who the culprit was and shouted, "Sakura! If you're going to do this, then I won't hold back either!"
Growing up in the same environment, the two sisters were surprisingly alike.
Watching the two of them play, Alaric, with nothing better to do, started chatting with Tohsaka Aoi.
"Judging by your appearance, Mr. Alaric, you don't seem to be a native of Fuyuki City?"
Gently smoothing out the slight wrinkles in her dress, which emphasized her graceful figure, Tohsaka Aoi sat down on the other side of the bench and curiously asked, "What brings you to Fuyuki? What kind of work do you do?"
Tohsaka Aoi came from the Zenjou family, which had distant ancestors who were magi. Though they were now ordinary civilians uninvolved with magecraft, the bloodline still carried traces of magical potential.
Because of this, she was well aware of the workings of the magical world—especially since her husband was the head of the prestigious Tohsaka family.
Whether it was intuition or something else, for a brief moment, Tohsaka Aoi saw in Alaric an expression that only her husband usually had—
The expression of a magus.
It was only for an instant, like an illusion. Even Aoi herself wondered if she had imagined it.
Hearing her question, Alaric simply smiled and replied, "Just a small matter, nothing worth mentioning."
Tap, tap.
Accompanied by the sound of light footsteps, Sakura ran over with her little legs and stood in front of Alaric once again. This time, she even stretched out her hands.
"Uncle, hug me!"
"…?"
"Weren't you just calling me 'big brother' earlier?"
Looking surprised, Alaric glanced at Tohsaka Aoi. Seeing that she had no objections, he reached out and picked up Sakura, chuckling.
"Or are you saying that I look that old?"
"Sakura!"
Seeing her younger sister being picked up by Alaric, the slightly late-to-arrive Tohsaka Rin could only tilt her head back and stare at her sister, who was now no longer on the same level as her.
Held up with one hand, Sakura, upon seeing her sister's expression, immediately extended her index finger to press against the corner of her eye, pulling it down slightly while sticking out her tongue. Under the sunlight, her soft pink tongue shimmered brightly. She chuckled and said, "Nee-san, you're so slow!"
...
Time passed quickly. As the Tohsaka family left, other unfamiliar citizens began wandering through the park. Only Alaric remained seated on the bench as always.
Spending time with the Tohsaka family didn't bring much to Alaric, but after seeing Tohsaka Sakura, a certain thought seemed to surface in his mind.
The Matou family, one of the Three Founding Families, had already fallen into decline after centuries of inheritance.
Aside from the parasitic founder, Matou Zouken, the Matou family now had only two or three male descendants.
The eldest son, Matou Byakuya, had little talent for magecraft. After the more gifted younger son, Matou Kariya decisively abandoned the family, the burden of maintaining the bloodline fell upon them.
Even so, Matou Zouken, who had long since given up on Byakuya's potential, never taught him anything—at most, he was only assigned assistant-level chores.
The eldest grandson, Matou Shinji, was even worse—born without the bare minimum required to be a magus: magic circuits. This completely severed the Matou family's lineage in terms of magecraft.
But that wasn't a problem at all.
A magus lineage is defined by the inheritance of Magic Crests, passed down from one generation to the next.
Because this succession is what truly matters, even if biological blood ties are severed, as long as the Magic Crest is transplanted into another body, the magus lineage continues.
Conversely, if a bloodline persists but loses its Magic Crest, the lineage is considered extinct in the realm of magecraft.
That said, most magi prefer to select successors from their bloodline—choosing those with outstanding potential to inherit the Magic Crest continuously.
Children chosen as successors are subjected to rigorous training from a young age.
Because the mind and body required to wield magecraft must transcend common sense, the training to endure such conditions is extremely brutal—even methods such as brainwashing and bodily modification are not uncommon.
As they grow, they inherit magecraft, knowledge, and research, until finally, they receive the entire Magic Crest from their predecessor, thus becoming the new head of the family.
The Tohsaka and Matou families represent two extreme cases of this principle:
Tohsaka has offspring so talented that it's difficult to decide who should inherit the family legacy.
Matou has offspring so useless that they can't even find a suitable heir.
From a magecraft perspective, the Matou family, which has lost its successor, is the best option.
By sending an extra child to be raised in the Matou household, one could legitimately claim the Matou family's centuries-old magecraft legacy.
This way, both sisters' talents wouldn't be wasted.
Whatever else might be said, from Alaric's perspective, the Matou family, lacking a successor, was still a viable option—one of the choices for seizing a spot in the Holy Grail War.
After reading Matou Zouken's literature on Heroic Spirits at the Clock Tower, Alaric had already developed a particular interest in the Matou family.
However, upon arriving in Fuyuki, his attention had been entirely drawn to the Greater Grail, leaving him with no time to consider the Matou issue until now.
And besides—
Alaric quietly lifted his head, locking eyes with a black butterfly lurking in the shadows behind him.
"You've been watching me this whole time, haven't you?"
The emotionless question rang out. To an outsider, it might have seemed as though Alaric was talking to himself.
But in truth, he was unmistakably making eye contact with someone.
Centuries had long since eroded its original form.
Through inherited magecraft, its body had been altered, allowing its soul to persist within an inhuman vessel.
Parasites of bloodline inheritance, propagating generation after generation, are driven by an unrelenting will to survive.
A soul rotting with hatred, trapped in a decaying body—unwilling to die in vain, its obsession had long since transcended reason.
And the entity that appeared before Alaric was precisely such an existence—
Matou Zouken.
Even though it was only a familiar that Alaric had locked eyes with, he could confirm without a doubt that the one controlling it was none other than the head of the Matou family—Matou Zouken.
As if responding to Alaric's question, the butterfly lurking in the shadows suddenly spoke in a human voice:
["Kehaha… Outsider, do you wish to participate in the Holy Grail War?"]