That answer, though a little shallow—and even… dangerous—at first glance, unexpectedly felt real to her.
Compared to airy phrases like "it's for your own good" or "for freedom," this kind of blunt desire was actually easier for an artificial human who knew almost nothing of worldly feelings to understand.
At the very least, it proved that her existence held value to Rei Ao—value rooted in his own personal will.
And it was value as a person,
not as another kind of tool.
She looked into Rei Ao's azure eyes—aggressive yet startlingly candid—and the confusion and unease in her heart ebbed away.
In their place rose a mixture of shyness and curiosity,
and a faint, secret flutter she herself hadn't noticed.
The room fell into a brief silence; only their soft breathing could be heard.
Hidden in spirit form, Saber was utterly stunned.
Though she cared little for affairs of men and women, she was not ignorant of them.
Rei Ao's unabashed declaration of possessiveness—and the ambiguous, dangerous air between the two now—
this was entirely beyond the King of Knight's frame of reference.
This man… how could he treat my Master like this?!
And Irisviel—why wasn't she resisting?
Why did she even seem… relieved?!
Just as Saber's mind wrestled with whether to reveal herself and break up this perilous moment, Irisviel spoke again.
She lowered her head slightly, avoiding Rei Ao's too-searing gaze.
"I… I don't really understand matters of the heart," she murmured.
"No one taught me these things in the castle…"
Her voice was barely above a whisper, threaded with unprecedented shyness and a kind of do-or-die courage. She paused, as if mustering all her strength to push the next words past her lips:
"If… if I agree, could you… teach me?"
Like a stone dropped into a still lake, that sentence sent visible ripples through Rei Ao's eyes.
The dangerous smile on his face shifted at once into something deeper—more certain, more intent.
The smile of a hunter when the prey steps willingly into the snare.
"Of course, my Snow White princess."
With a low chuckle, he tightened his arm slightly and, with effortless ease, swept the feather-light Irisviel into his arms.
She let out a short gasp and instinctively looped her arms around his neck,
burying herself against his solid chest.
Her cheeks flushed a crimson so deep it seemed it might drip.
Her heart pounded wildly, but she did not truly struggle.
Holding her, Rei Ao strode toward the bed laid with soft quilts.
"I'll teach you—patiently."
…
Meanwhile, at the Einzbern castle—
the air was colder and more oppressive than ever.
With heavy steps, Kiritsugu Emiya returned to the fortress he once thought would bring hope, but which now yielded only endless frustration.
Ahad appeared almost the instant he entered the parlor.
In the elder's clouded eyes flickered a barely noticeable urgency.
"You're back. Do you have any news of Irisviel?!"
But when he saw Kiritsugu's storm-dark face—and the empty space behind him—
that flicker of urgency cooled at once into a foreboding dread.
Kiritsugu didn't answer.
With a self-lacerating calm, he slowly raised his right hand and showed Ahad the back of it—smooth and bare.
"???"
Ahad's gaze froze.
The place where three Command Seals should have been… was empty.
"W-what… what happened?!"
His voice quivered with anger and alarm.
"Where are your Command Seals?!"
"They're gone," Kiritsugu rasped, his voice cold and sandpaper-rough.
"Not long ago—without warning—they vanished."
"Ahad-sama, the Einzberns have a millennium of lore. Do you know the cause? Is there a way to restore them?"
He clung to a final, fragile thread of hope.
Though he already had his suspicions, he needed confirmation…
Ahad stared hard at the back of Kiritsugu's hand, his expression shifting—
from shock and fury, to scrutiny,
and finally to utter coldness and contempt.
He had hoped this mage-killer could be the blade to reclaim Irisviel.
But now even the most basic qualification for cooperation was gone.
What good is a Master who cannot even keep his Command Seals?
"The cause? Hah."
Ahad snorted, his tone dripping with undisguised disdain.
"Command Seals are bound to Mastership. Unless the Master dies, or they're forcibly stripped away by a higher authority… It seems the man who took Irisviel is more troublesome than we thought."
"As for restoring them?"
"Heh. I've never heard of lost Command Seals being restored."
He stepped back, as if Kiritsugu were something filthy to avoid, and pronounced his final judgment:
"Since you've lost your status as a Master, our cooperation ends here."
"The Einzberns have no use for someone who can't even keep his ticket to the game."
"Leave the castle at once, Kiritsugu Emiya."
"I will handle the search for Irisviel and the matter of that man myself."
His words were like an icy blade, severing the last thread between Kiritsugu and the Einzberns,
shattering the final scrap of wishful hope in Kiritsugu's heart.
He stood frozen where he was, body rigid.
He neither argued nor begged.
But in his downcast eyes, darkness welled like an abyss, and a rage compressed to its limits boiled underneath.
His fists clenched so hard his knuckles blanched.
In the end, he said nothing.
He only looked long and hard at the indifferent Ahad, then spun on his heel and strode away from the place that had once carried his hopes—now leaving only humiliation and despair.