The corner of his mouth lifted in a faint, slightly mocking arc. "Ahad-sama, dropping in uninvited. How discourteous of you."
His clear voice shattered the frozen air of the room.
"It seems I've come at the wrong timeor perhaps at just the right one?" Ahad's face was so dark it looked ready to drip ink. He slammed his staff against the floor with a dull thud. "Who are you?! Why are you in the heart of my Einzbern castle?! And what have you done to Irisviel?!"
Irisviel instinctively edged closer to Rei Ao. That subtle motion made Ahad falter for a moment.
Rei Ao didn't answer Ahad directly. Instead, his eyes returned to Kiritsugu. "Kiritsugu Emiya, a pitiable man chasing the empty ideal of 'world peace.'" His tone was mild, but carried the weight of someone who understood everything.
Kiritsugu's heart tightened; his hand clenched on reflex.
"As for why I'm here" Rei Ao gently patted Irisviel's shoulder, a silent reassurance, then said to Ahad, "I came to tell a purehearted girl the truths you've hidden from her.
"For example: she is not merely a vessel for the Grail. She has her own freedom and futureneither of which should be taken from her.
"And another: the tainted Grail you seek can realize neither the Third Magic nor any wish for world peace. It brings only calamitythe advent of the Evil of This World."
"Absurd!" Ahad barked, cold mana gathering around him. "A millennium of Einzbern pursuit will not be slandered by some nameless interloper! Irisviel was born for the Grail. That is her mission!"
"Mission?" Rei Ao let out a soft laugh, brimming with pity. "To mold a thinking, feeling life into a mere 'object' for the sake of your nebulous dreamthat is the Einzberns' 'mission'? How sad. How foolish."
His words pierced the pillars of faith Ahad had leaned on for centuries.
"And you, Kiritsugu Emiya," Rei Ao continued, turning to the shadow-eyed magus-killer. "You think arithmetic like 'sacrifice the few to save the many' will lead you to peace? Even if you win, the tainted Grail will only twist your wish, realizing your 'peace' in the most cruel, despairing way. What you chase has been a mirage from the start."
Kiritsugu's breath hitched. Rei Ao's words tugged at the deepest fears and doubts in his heartyet years of experience kept him from wavering easily. "Who are you to judge any of this?" he said coldly. "On what basis do you make these claims?"
"Who I am doesn't matter," Rei Ao replied evenly. "What matters is that I've seen the truth, while you keep lying to yourselves."
He took Irisviel's handnatural, intimate. She didn't resist; instead, she gripped him back tightly, as if she'd found her only anchor.
"Irisviel, I'm taking you out of this cage today." His voice was quiet, utterly assured.
"Impudence!" Ahad finally exploded, a storm of power surging through the room as the castle's bounded field roared to life at his command.
Kiritsugu, too, shifted instinctively into combat readiness. Confusion churned within him, but Einzbern support was a crucial piece of his plan. He couldn't let a stranger wreck it in front of him.
Despite the hostility of the two men and the crushing pressure of the castle's ward, Rei Ao's expression didn't change. He merely lifted his gaze a fraction. In those blue-green eyes, it was as if star-rivers turned and laws were born and died.
"I said I'm taking her with me."
The instant the words fell, an intangible pressurebeyond anything that could be called magecraftspread out from him in utter silence.
"!!"
Ahad's frigid mana met a blazing sun and vanished in an instant. The castle's bounded field gave a strained, dying wail; its light flickered violently, then went out.
Kiritsugu felt as though he'd been cast into an endless abyssal sea. The air around him turned thick and heavy; lifting even a finger became almost impossible, and the flow of prana in his body nearly stalled.
What power is this?! It wasn't magecraft at allmore like the world itself was rejecting them, suppressing them.
For the first time, stark terror washed over Ahad's face. Kiritsugu's eyes, too, were wide with disbelief. Before this force, they were as small as ants.
Chapter 987: Livid Ahad...
Rei Ao didn't spare them another glance. He simply took Irisviel's hand and, as if no one else existed, walked toward the door.
As he passed the motionless Kiritsugu Emiya, his steps paused and he left him a loaded remark:
"Kiritsugu Emiya, if you're still clinging to that false wish, come to Fuyuki City.
"See what a true 'miracle' actually looks like. As for the Holy Grail War"
"Heh. It's just a game."
With that, he and Irisviel gradually faded, as if melting into the air, and vanished from the warm room inside Einzbern Castle.
Left behind were Ahadface ashen, seeming to have aged decades in an instantand Kiritsugu, whose heart roiled like a storm-tossed sea, his convictions violently shaken.
They stood there, stunned, unable to come back to their senses for a long time.
The Einzbern plan had suffered an unprecedented, shattering blow before it had even begun. And on the chessboard of the Holy Grail War, a heavyweight piece had just been placedone capable of changing the entire game.
The figures of Rei Ao and Irisviel were wiped away as neatly as if by an eraser, gone from that warm yet stifling room in the Einzbern castle. What remained were broken faith and boiling rage.
"No!!!"
Patriarch Ahad let out a howl like a wounded beast. His withered body shook with sheer fury and fear.
Irisviel!
She was the most perfect "Lesser Grail" they had ever crafted for this Grail Warmodeled on the Holy Maiden of Winter, Justeazeinto whom the Einzberns had poured immeasurable effort!
She was the key to reclaiming the Servants' souls and initiating the Greater Grail rite!
Losing her wasn't just losing a tool for a political marriage; it meant their Grail War plan had collapsed before it even started!
"Find her! Search immediately!"
"Mobilize every force, every bounded field, familiar, and tracking spell we have!"
"Turn all of Europe upside down if you mustbring Irisviel back to me!"
"And that manI want him to pay!"
Ahad's voice was sharp and twisted. He had shed all his usual rigidity and calm, leaving only hysterical frenzy. Servants and homunculi throughout the castle trembled at his roar, then snapped into motion like wound-up automatons. In an instant, the frigid castle was filled with chaos and tension.
Kiritsugu stood where he was, brow furrowed. He had no interest in the so-called marriagein fact, he found it repellent. His life had long been consumed by the vast, hollow ideal of world peace. Personal feelings were superfluousdangerous baggage. To him, Irisviel had been nothing more than a means to an end, a cooperative label called "wife."
But Ahad's near-breakdown made him realize things were not so simple.
"Ahad-sama," Kiritsugu said, his voice just steady enough to cut through the old man's rage. "That woman called Irisvielaside from being a marriage partnerwhat else is she, exactly, that could make you lose your composure like this?"
Ahad snapped his head around, bloodshot eyes locking onto Kiritsugu with a fanatical, near-desperate ferocity. He drew several deep breaths as if to steady himself, but his voice still quavered.
"Special? Of course she's special!
"She's the crystallization of a millennium of our craftthe true core of this Grail Warthe vessel of the 'Lesser Grail'!"
"Lesser Grail?" Kiritsugu's pupils tightened. He vaguely recalled the term from scraps of highly secret records.
"That's right!" Ahad all but growled. "The souls of Servants defeated in the Grail War do not immediately return to the Throne of Heroes; they must first be recovered and stored in a special vessel!
"That vessel is the Lesser Grail.
"It is the key to initiating the final Greater Grail ceremonyto reaching the Root!
"Irisviel was created to be that vessel. Her body and her soul were adjusted to perfectly bear the Servants' souls.
"Without her, no matter how strong a Servant you summon, no matter how many victories you win, you cannot start the Greater Grail
"Your wish is nothing but a castle in the air!"
The truth hit Kiritsugu like a bucket of ice water, chilling him to the marrow. Now he understood why the Einzberns valued a homunculus so highlyand why they had proposed a marriage that seemed unnecessary. It wasn't just to bind a partnership; it was to keep the Lesser Grail firmly under their control and ensure the plan's absolute security.
Irisviel wasn't merely a tool. She was the living, indispensable key to the entire Grail War ritual.
That man hadn't just taken a woman. He had snuffed out the Einzberns'and Kiritsugu'slast hope of realizing their wish.
From deep within Kiritsugu surged an unprecedented urgency and an icy killing intent. He didn't care whether Irisviel lived or died. He cared about the Grailabout his wish for world peace. Anyone or anything that blocked that path had to be removed.
"I understand," he said, voice low and dangerous. The Command Seals on the back of his hand seemed to sense their master's resolve and grew faintly warm.
"I'll use every resource and contact I have to find Irisviel and that man. No one will stop me from obtaining the Grail."
His eyes turned cold and keen again, like a sniper scope. The faint doubts and hesitation from moments earlier were crushed completely. Whoever that man was, whatever uncanny power he wieldedif he stood in the way of peace, he was an enemy to be eliminated.
Seeing the same obsession and ruthlessness blaze up in Kiritsugu's eyesso like his ownAhad calmed a fraction. Panting, he gave a terse nod.
"Good Kiritsugu.
"Find them. At any cost, take Irisviel back!
"All Einzbern resources will support you!"
~~~
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Chapter 988: Freedom
Meanwhile, in a space far from the wind and snow of Einzbern Castle.
It seemed to be a quiet, refined room. Outside the window lay a neatly manicured garden. Sunlight fell gently through the shoji, a striking contrast to the castle's cold oppression.
Irisviel von Einzbernthe homunculus with silver-white hair and ruby eyessat kneeling a little uneasily on the soft couch. She carefully took in the unfamiliar surroundings, her gaze full of fawn-like curiosity and a hint of bewilderment she couldn't hide.
At last her eyes came to rest on the black-haired young man seated by the window on the far side of the roomRei Aowho was quietly studying her as well.
Unlike Ahad's anger or Kiritsugu Emiya's chill, Rei Ao's eyes were calm and deep, like a lake that could hold anything. Under that gaze, Irisviel felt neither offended nor afraid; instead, there was a strangesense of ease, as if a ship long adrift had finally found a harbor.
"Whereis this?" Irisviel's voice was soft and melodious, tinged with uncertainty. "Who exactly are you? Why did you tell me those things? And why did you take me out of the castle?"
She had spent most of her life in that frigid fortress, educated and "adjusted" to serve as the Lesser Grail. Whisked without warning to a place completely unknown, and faced with a stranger who seemed to know everything about her, confusion welled up inside. He had appeared before her out of nowhere and calmly told her so much. From beginning to end, Irisviel had been shockedand curious.
Rei Ao didn't answer immediately. He lifted the teapot on the table and poured her a cup of tea, nudging it toward her. The steam, carrying a faint fragrance, chased away a little of her unease.
"This is a temporary place of mine. It's safeyou can relax." His voice was gentle, soothing. "My name is Rei Ao. As for why I took you away"
He paused, then, looking into those pure ruby eyeseyes with a trace of the hollowness unique to made thingssaid slowly:
"Because you shouldn't be bound to a cold castle, existing only as a vessel or a tool. You have your own soul and your own feelings. You deserve a real lifeto see what the world outside that castle is like."
"A reallife?" she murmured, repeating the words. A glint of longing flickered in her eyes, but confusionand a touch of fearwere stronger.
"Butmy mission is to be the Lesser Grail, to help my family achieve the Third Magic, and towith Kiritsugu Emiya-san"
"Those aren't obligations you were born with, Irisviel," Rei Ao cut in. "They're roles the Einzberns forced onto you. You're an individual, not anyone's property, and not a rung on someone else's ladder. Your value lies in youyour joys and sorrowsin being Irisviel, not in the function called the Lesser Grail."
The words crashed like thunder across the still lake of her heart, where no one had ever told her such things. She had always been taught to submit, to exist for her family's sorrowful wish. No one had ever told her she could belong to herself, that she could choose. Of course, those were Rei Ao's wordsand, more than anything, he himself was very interested in Irisviel.
"But if I don't fulfill my mission, my familyLord Ahad and the othersthey'll" Instinctive worry tightened in herreverence and obedience to her makers, etched into her core.
"They can't hurt you anymore, and they can't force you to do anything," Rei Ao said with unquestionable confidence. "I'm here."
Three simple words, yet they seemed to hold boundless strength, and Irisviel's shaken heart gradually steadied.
She looked at Rei Aothis mysterious, powerful man. The way he looked at her was nothing like Ahad's objectifying gaze back in the castle. There was respect in it, and pityand a tenderness she couldn't quite understand that made her heart beat a little faster.
"Ican I really?" she asked softlyasking him, and asking herself.
"Of course." Rei Ao smiled, encouraging. "Starting today, you can learn what you want, go where you wish, feel the sun and the breeze and the scent of flowers, experience joy, sorrow, angerall the emotions that belong to human beings. You'll find this world is far broader and more wonderful than the Einzbern castle."
He rose and walked to the window. With both hands he pushed it open, letting warm light and the garden's fresh green breath pour into the room.
"Lookthat's the world outside. It may not be perfect, but it's real, and it's full of endless possibilities."
It did sound like the smooth talk used to lure a nave girland Irisviel was indeed nave.
She followed his gaze. Sunlit trees swayed outside; birds played; from far away drifted the faint hum of city life. A feeling she had never knowncalled longingquietly sprouted in that programmed heart.
