In the real world, in the courtyard of Zuke's home, several figures slowly materialized.
In the dead of night, these figures appearing out of thin air like this—if someone passed by, they would probably be scared out of their wits by this scene.
However, precisely because it was the middle of the night, everyone in the house had already gone to sleep. No one could see this eerie scene in the courtyard, so there was no need to worry about frightening others.
"So this is the world where Zuke lives? It's so quiet."
After entering the courtyard, Mordred couldn't help but comment—if Zuke hadn't specifically warned her to keep her voice down, she probably would have been shouting loudly by now.
In this courtyard, Mordred felt a peaceful atmosphere. She had originally thought that a world capable of nurturing someone as powerful as Zuke should be extremely terrifying.
Perhaps Planet Vegeta would better fit Mordred's imagination, right? However, Zuke really didn't want to take them to Planet Vegeta—the environment there was a bit too harsh.
What he brought back wasn't just Mordred and Medusa, these two Servants with some combat ability. Rin Tohsaka, Sakura Matou, and Reines had also come along.
On the Fate/Stay Night world's side, Waver and Bazett were left to guard Ryuudou Temple to prevent any unexpected situations.
Although Waver's combat ability wasn't strong, Bazett, as one of the most outstanding Sealing Designation Enforcers in Mages Association history, had quite respectable strength. Combat could be left to her without any issues.
"It looks like just an ordinary private residence, just bigger."
Reines stood in the courtyard, surveying the surrounding environment, and quickly made her own assessment.
As the heir of the El-Melloi family, although the El-Melloi situation wasn't optimistic now, a starved camel is still bigger than a horse—Reines's standards were still quite high.
The mansion provided by the Shinomiya family to Zuke was large, but it hadn't reached the level of "luxurious," so Reines's evaluation was naturally "ordinary."
However, Zuke originally hadn't planned on having such a gorgeous house anyway. A larger ordinary house like this was sufficient for him.
"I quite like Zuke-nii's home. If possible, I'd like to live here from now on."
Sakura Matou, on the other hand, gave a completely different answer from Reines, and even glanced at Reines, her expression carrying a hint of rivalry.
"And why did Reines come along anyway? Clearly, there's nothing for you to do next."
Indeed, next Zuke needed to help Mordred and Medusa transfer the magical power supply connection, so he needed their Masters to come along as well.
Reines had nothing to do with this matter, so she actually didn't need to come. It was just that she pestered Zuke insisting on coming to see, so Zuke brought her along too.
"I'm Zuke-san's Master, so why can't I come?"
Hearing Sakura Matou's barbed words, Reines also glared back unwilling to back down, and didn't forget to retort.
"Besides, you won't be convenient to stay here either, right? You still have to go back to take over the Matou family's affairs."
Hearing this, Sakura Matou's eyebrow twitched—she had indeed said she would take over the Matou family's matters. After all, the current her was also the Matou family's only heir.
She just hadn't expected that what she said before would make it so she couldn't legitimately stay directly at Zuke's place. This made her somewhat regretful.
Although going back on her word wasn't impossible, Sakura Matou also didn't want to leave an unreliable impression in Zuke's mind, so she could only wait until after handling the Matou family's matters before discussing it.
"Alright, stop arguing, you two."
Rin Tohsaka looked at Sakura Matou and Reines glaring at each other, and also somewhat helplessly held her forehead.
She could roughly guess why the two were so incompatible—they were both attracted to Zuke.
This gave Rin Tohsaka quite a headache—because she was very clear that her own view of Zuke was definitely the same as those two.
In other words, Sakura Matou and Reines were both her rivals now—thinking of this, Rin Tohsaka felt somewhat at a loss.
Reines was one thing, since Rin Tohsaka's relationship with her wasn't very close. But regarding Sakura Matou, Rin Tohsaka's heart had always felt somewhat guilty.
After all, when Sakura Matou was adopted to the Matou family by Tokiomi Tohsaka, she couldn't do anything for Sakura Matou. So now seeing Sakura Matou so attached to Zuke, she really didn't know what to do for a moment.
With complicated thoughts, she could only temporarily change the subject, shifting the discussion to serious matters:
"Let's have Zuke provide magical power to Mordred and Medusa first."
"Indeed, after coming to this world, I feel my connection with the Grail system has already been severed. The Grail is no longer providing me magical power."
Medusa also nodded, speaking to Zuke.
"My body's condition is already beginning to weaken... If I don't get new magical power replenishment soon, I should disappear quickly."
Apart from those with the "Independent Action" skill like Archer, other Servants after severing their magical power supply could only maintain themselves for a very short time.
So Zuke still needed to quickly provide magical power supply to Medusa and Mordred.
"Taking over from the Grail system to supply you with magical power—I've already learned the method from Waver."
Zuke nodded—when making this plan, he had already asked Waver about the relevant content.
And Waver truly lived up to being the new generation's teaching benchmark of the Mages Association. Although his practical combat ability was average, his theoretical knowledge was exceptionally rich, and he actually provided a solution.
Of course, it was also thanks to Zuke obtaining the Einzbern family's materials for him, which contained much knowledge related to the Grail system, that allowed Waver to provide a method in such a short time.
"Before replacing the Grail system to supply you with magical power, we first need to use the traditional method to transfer mana to you."
Zuke said to Medusa and Mordred.
"Through this mana transfer, we'll establish a magical power connection between me and you two. After that, the magical power you need to maintain your bodies can be directly drawn from my body."
"...Wait, the traditional mana transfer method!? You're talking about that method I'm thinking of, right!?"
However, as soon as Zuke finished speaking, Rin Tohsaka couldn't hold it together anymore.
She of course knew what the "traditional" mana transfer method Zuke mentioned was, but precisely because she knew, she was a bit unable to stay calm.
That's right, the most direct mana transfer method was bodily fluid exchange—and not just ordinary bodily fluid exchange, but that more intense exchange method.
This was also because Fate/Stay Night was originally an 18+ game, which is how such a strange setting came about... But this setting just happened to be useful for Zuke's purposes.
Zuke looked at Medusa:
"So, can you accept this method?"
Zuke didn't ask Mordred, because he knew Mordred definitely wouldn't refuse—after all, he and Mordred had already essentially done the "mana transfer" act.
Therefore, the key was still to see whether Medusa could accept this matter.
As Zuke had expected, after Zuke proposed using the bodily fluid exchange method for mana transfer, Medusa hesitated, while Mordred had almost no resistance.
Originally, this mana transfer method generally wasn't used. For magi, there were many ways to supply magical power. Bodily fluid exchange was the most troublesome and inefficient mana transfer method.
After all, magi were all a bunch of folks without much sentiment, their minds filled with pursuit of the Root. Zuke could understand that too.
This "low efficiency" mana transfer method was generally for people without much magical knowledge who didn't know other mana transfer methods—to put it bluntly, it was for laymen to use.
And very unfortunately, although Zuke's body contained massive amounts of magical power and world-destroying force, on the TYPE-MOON world's "magecraft" path, he really was a layman.
Perhaps the TYPE-MOON world had various methods for mana transfer, but Zuke didn't even have basic magecraft knowledge. Even now, he still couldn't use magical power for hypnosis like TYPE-MOON world magi could.
So now for Zuke to establish a magical power supply connection with them, he could only use this "crude method."
After noticing Medusa's hesitation, Zuke also didn't force her, but instead proposed a method to give her more consideration time—letting Medusa first observe the mana transfer process between himself and Mordred.
If after watching, Medusa felt she could accept it, then Zuke would transfer mana to Medusa. This way everyone would be happy.
If she couldn't accept it, Zuke could only try to think of another solution and see if he could find alternative methods before Medusa disappeared.
After hearing Zuke's method, although Medusa still felt somewhat hesitant inside, in the end she agreed. Finally, she followed Zuke and Mordred to one of the guest rooms inside.
The mansion provided by the Shinomiya family had quite a few rooms, and almost every room had very good soundproofing, so there was no need to worry about waking up the others who were sleeping.
Zuke suspected that when the Shinomiya family prepared this mansion for Zuke, they had considered this point, which was why they specifically optimized each room's soundproofing.
After all, Zuke was a hot-blooded young man. Doing this sort of thing at home was within the Shinomiya family's considerations—in this regard, Zuke had to praise the Shinomiya family's attention to detail.
Over an hour later, Zuke emerged from the room, then came to the living room.
The people waiting in the living room stood up, then immediately saw Mordred behind Zuke—but Medusa hadn't followed out.
"Eh? Where's Rider?"
As Medusa's Master, Sakura Matou naturally asked curiously—it couldn't be that she didn't accept the mana transfer in the end and directly disappeared, right?
If Medusa had disappeared, Sakura Matou as her Master should have been able to sense it, but in her perception, Medusa was clearly still alive.
"That woman? At first she seemed a bit resistant, but after watching me and Zuke finish, she accepted it."
Mordred had quite a tomboy-like personality. Although her appearance looked relatively cute, her speech was often very straightforward.
"After that, on the bed, that woman was even more clingy than me. She's fainted now, and should wake up soon, right?"
Hearing Mordred's words, both Rin Tohsaka and Sakura Matou in the room couldn't help but blush slightly—for the two who hadn't experienced that sort of thing yet, these words were still a bit too stimulating.
However, Reines looked at Rin Tohsaka and Sakura Matou, showing a subtly smug expression.
Rin Tohsaka and Sakura Matou, these sisters, hadn't done that sort of thing with Zuke yet, but Reines already had—so she felt a sense of satisfaction from the bottom of her heart.
That was the superiority of being ahead of her rivals.
However, Reines probably hadn't noticed that when she showed her smug expression, Sakura Matou also turned back to glance at her reaction.
Seeing that Reines didn't show the same shyness as herself and Rin Tohsaka, she seemed to realize something, and her eyebrows furrowed involuntarily.
It was just that with Zuke still here, Sakura Matou didn't immediately voice her suspicions. She planned to find an opportunity later to ask Reines privately.
"Now I've already established magical power supply connections with them. From now on, even without the Grail, using my magical power will be sufficient to maintain their continued existence in the present world."
Zuke said with a faint smile.
"However, next you might need to stay here for a while. You'll have to wait until the 'Holy Grail War' over there completely ends and the Grail enters dormancy before you can return."
Right now Medusa and Mordred had already severed their connection with the Grail system, but once they returned to the TYPE-MOON world, that connection would immediately reconnect.
Only after the Grail system entered dormancy could they return there.
It was like two phones that would automatically connect to wifi. To prevent auto-connecting to wifi, they could only wait until the wifi was turned off first.
"Does this mean we can stay at Zuke-nii's place for now?"
Hearing this, Sakura Matou's eyes lit up—she actually didn't care about the Holy Grail War at all, but if she could live with Zuke, she was naturally very willing.
If it weren't for deciding earlier to go back and take over the Matou family's matters, Sakura Matou would probably have planned to just stay here from now on and not go back.
She knew that if she made this request, Zuke probably wouldn't refuse.
However, Sakura Matou still hoped to become Zuke's help in the original world as well, so in the end she decided to first go back and manage the Matou family properly before discussing it.
"Staying here... but I haven't told my mother about this yet."
Rin Tohsaka scratched her head. Sakura Matou already didn't care about the Tohsaka family's matters, but Rin Tohsaka still had to consider this—she hadn't told Aoi Tohsaka that she would be staying elsewhere.
"Then Zuke, when you go back there later, could you help me tell my mother? Just say that because of Mages Association matters, I need to stay outside for a while."
"That's no problem."
Hearing this, Zuke nodded, though his face couldn't help but show a somewhat peculiar expression.
Having him be alone with Aoi Tohsaka... Don't look at how Aoi Tohsaka appeared to be a dignified married woman, but in reality, her inner self was quite restless.
He'd probably be pestered by Aoi Tohsaka for a while afterward. Who knew if it would delay too much time.
To be continued…