[As agreed upon in the bathroom, Tohsaka Sakura and you temporarily left the old Tohsaka family residence.]
[And when Zenjou Aoi asked for the reason,]
[she and Tohsaka Rin both tacitly avoided mentioning their argument.]
[After all, their mother was no longer young.]
[If she were to know that the sisters had argued over the Holy Grail War, the consequences would be unimaginable.]
[On the matter of protecting their mother, the two sisters still had some common ground.]
[However, despite this, you and Tohsaka Sakura honestly didn't know where to go for a while.]
On the street.
"Okay, I understand, Luvia onee-san."
Tohsaka Sakura, dressed in winter attire, ended her call with her adoptive sister, Luvia. Her expression was somewhat touched, but also filled with indescribable complexity.
"What did she say?" Ian asked, carrying the luggage filled with both their clothes.
"Don't worry," Tohsaka Sakura smiled slightly. "Luvia onee-san said the card can be swiped however I want; she absolutely won't limit my spending."
"Is that so..." Ian nodded. After ten years of acquaintance, he already knew that Luvia, as the future head of the Edelfelt family, was actually quite "frugal." After all, she was the head of the family and certainly couldn't be wasteful in her spending. Yet, even she had moments of spending lavishly—that was when spending money for her adoptive sister, Tohsaka Sakura. Whenever it came to this, she would wave her hand grandly and say with extreme generosity: "It's fine, just spend as much as you want, don't hold back, or people will think my Edelfelt family can't afford it!"
So many years had passed, and Ian gradually understood all of this. It was an act born from a genuine desire to take good care of her adoptive sister. Perhaps, subconsciously, she had long regarded Tohsaka Sakura as her own biological sister.
"Then, Sakura—in that case, we don't have to worry about money."
"Mm." Tohsaka Sakura nodded, but still looked a bit down. Such an obvious expression, Ian naturally couldn't miss.
"What's wrong?" he asked gently. "Sakura, is there anything else on your mind?"
"It's not about being worried or not." Tohsaka Sakura looked at the sky, filled with winter snowflakes. "I was just thinking—Luvia onee-san, who isn't even blood-related, can be so good to me... but the one who is blood-related..."
"Mr. Ian, did I do something wrong again?"
Realizing that Tohsaka Sakura was still dwelling on the argument with Tohsaka Rin from last night, Ian felt a pang of heartache for her. He knew she was fundamentally a very kind girl. It's just that after spending so much time with Luvia, she had become a little bit "shameless." But whenever something like this happened, she would repeatedly go back to the moment of conflict, wondering if she had done something wrong. This habit of always finding fault with herself first seemed to have become her instinct.
The man took the girl's slightly cold hand and put it into his coat pocket.
"Then—what do you think you did wrong? Was it wrong to participate in the Holy Grail War for the Edelfelt family? Was it wrong to return to Fuyuki? Or was it wrong to actively avoid Rin now? Clearly... these aren't mistakes, are they?"
The Servant patiently comforted his Master. "Sakura, sometimes conflicts with others aren't necessarily your fault... don't keep using it to punish yourself, okay? That way—" The man gently left a knight's kiss on Tohsaka Sakura's forehead. "I'll be very distressed."
"..." Kissed by the Ian she loved, Tohsaka Sakura immediately became shy. She snuggled beside him, blushing, and nodded. "Mm, I understand... I won't think about it anymore. But—" The girl lifted her head and looked at the man beside her. "Mr. Ian. Can you... kiss me again?"
"Of course."
With two simple kisses, Ian temporarily appeased the sad Tohsaka Sakura. The two, Master and Servant, continued walking down the winter street.
[It was still early.]
[You didn't want Tohsaka Sakura to rush too much.]
[While looking for a new place to live, you chatted with her about other things.]
On a certain road in Fuyuki City.
"Sakura, the prana traces on the road feel very strong," Ian said, carrying the luggage.
"Mm," Tohsaka Sakura nodded. "After all—according to the records Master Waver left at the Clock Tower, the entire Fuyuki City burned down on the day the Fourth Holy Grail War ended. Perhaps these were left from that time."
"I see," Ian acknowledged with a nod. "Speaking of which—Waver hasn't contacted us in a long time... what has he been doing?"
"I don't know," Tohsaka Sakura shook her head. "I only remember that he came back to Fuyuki this trip to see an old friend."
"Is that so..."
"..."
"..."
Ian and Tohsaka Sakura suddenly fell silent. Of course, it wasn't that they had nothing to talk about. In fact, if they wanted to chat, they could talk for days and nights. It's just that at this moment, they both, by chance, thought of one person—Vivian.
"Vivian also hasn't contacted us in a long time," Ian proactively broke the silence.
"Mm." Tohsaka Sakura nodded, her expression looking somewhat troubled. She still remembered the scene of her teacher secretly kissing Ian. Thinking about it now, while understandable, it wasn't so easy to accept. However, out of respect for her teacher, Tohsaka Sakura knew she couldn't be too excessive, so she could only choose this way of dealing with it.
Ian quickly noticed this and didn't bring up the issue again after she "mm-ed." However—Tohsaka Sakura, at this moment, actually brought up Vivian herself.
"By the way—Mr. Ian, do you care a lot about Teacher Vivian?"
"..."
[You realize this is a question Tohsaka Sakura has always wanted to ask but couldn't.]
[She might be quite afraid to know the answer.]
[But even so, she still chooses to seek the answer from you.]
[Perhaps, at this moment, she has a different kind of expectation for you.]
However—despite realizing this, Ian still couldn't answer the question with a lie. And constrained by the Command Spell, his answer also showed a bit of favoritism.
The man spoke: "Mm... Sakura, if you're asking if I care. Then the answer is certainly yes—after all, she's still your teacher. And—"
"And?" Tohsaka Sakura's gaze fell on Ian, her breathing becoming a little tense.
"And I always feel like she looks a little familiar," the man replied. Ian wasn't lying. He indeed had an inexplicable sense of familiarity with Vivian. As the number of prana replenishments with Tohsaka Sakura increased, this sense of familiarity grew even more intense.
"I see..." Tohsaka Sakura, understanding Ian's true thoughts on this for the first time, nodded.
"Then—" The girl squeezed the man's hand, a hint of careful probing in her tone. "Mr. Ian, can I ask you one more question?"
"Of course you can."
"Mm... if, and I mean if..." The girl's slender finger pointed to herself, her fair cheeks blushing like the midday sun at this moment. "If you had to choose one of me and Teacher Vivian to be your girlfriend—who would you choose?"
"..."
[This should have been a very easy question to answer.]
[Tohsaka Sakura and you have been together for over ten years—you could say you understand each other best.]
[While you and Vivian have also known each other for over ten years, daily contact was limited to meetings during Tohsaka Sakura's magic studies.]
[Comparatively, who to choose should be obvious.]
[But—you find yourself hesitating.]
[Even with the influence of the Command Spell, you still hesitated.]
[You don't know what this means—but you realize that being honest about it would certainly be a huge blow to Tohsaka Sakura.]
"Sakura, what did you say? I didn't quite hear you clearly," Ian replied.
"Eh?" Although she felt Ian wasn't someone who wouldn't hear her at this distance, Tohsaka Sakura didn't think much of it and quickly repeated her question. "It's just—if you had to choose between me and Teacher Vivian, who would you choose?"
This was a question full of a young girl's thoughts. Ian, temporarily pushing aside his earlier hesitation, proved his answer with action without hesitation. He took Tohsaka Sakura's hand and raised it high as if to demonstrate.
"Then Sakura—can you answer me? Whose side am I on right now?"
"..." No direct answer, but more direct than a direct answer. Tohsaka Sakura felt she had received the answer she wanted. "I understand~" A smile played on the girl's lips. "I... seem to have asked a very silly question."
[For the rest of the time, Tohsaka Sakura no longer dwelled on such matters.]
[Realizing she was important in your heart, she immediately "activated" girlfriend mode.]
"Mr. Ian, let's go play claw machines!"
"Eh, okay."
"Mr. Ian, there's a two-person activity over there!"
"Mm, let's go."
Though they were out to find a place to live, Tohsaka Sakura now began looking for activities suitable for couples. This was somewhat "neglecting their duties." But—looking at Tohsaka Sakura's happy, panting face, Ian felt it was quite worth it. After all—what could be more important than her smile? Ian swore he had to protect it.
At a dessert shop.
"Mr. Ian, ah—~"
"Ah—~"
Eating ice cream in the middle of winter, how unique—Ian felt the cold in his mouth and thus exclaimed.
"Mr. Ian." But Tohsaka Sakura stopped at this point, looking uneasily at the man across the table. "Am I doing this—will it make you think I'm being thoughtless?"
"Thoughtless?" Hearing this, the man also paused. "Why would you think that?"
"Because—" Tohsaka Sakura glanced at the luggage beside Ian. "We haven't found a place to live yet... but I'm dragging Mr. Ian all over the place."
"Oh... so you remember."
"..." Tohsaka Sakura lowered her head. She knew what she was doing, but she didn't want to stop. However—just as Tohsaka Sakura was about to apologize, she suddenly heard Ian say: "But there's nothing wrong with that, is there?"
"Eh?" The girl looked up, cautiously watching him—she could hardly believe what she had just heard. "Mr. Ian, aren't you mad at me?"
"Mad at you? Why would I be mad at you?" Ian looked at the two winter ice creams ordered due to Tohsaka Sakura's love for sweets and smiled. "Can't we go out like this together even after we find a new place to live? Right now—you're just doing what we'd do later, a little early, aren't you?"
"Mr. Ian!" With his affirmation, Tohsaka Sakura was now completely free of psychological burden. "That's right. I... just moved up what I wanted to do with Mr. Ian to now~"
"Yes, it's good you know. But speaking of which, what if we really can't find a place to live?"
"Eh... I saw something called a 'love hotel,' it seems quite suitable for us to stay at?"
"But Mr. Ian, that place is... um... maybe it's not impossible..."
"Hmm?"
[You and Tohsaka Sakura spent the entire day strolling around like a real couple.]
[Even more fortunately, before sunset, you successfully found a place to live.]
[It was a rental address provided by a woman named Fujimura Taiga.]
Somewhere in Fuyuki City.
Fujimura Taiga looked at Ian and Tohsaka Sakura, who had come to her, with surprise. "Oh my goodness—! Are you two also from Homurahara Gakuen?! I'm an English teacher there!"
"Is that so?" Ian smiled slightly. "That's great."
"It is!" Fujimura Taiga wiped her nose. "If it's people from the academy, then I'm even more relieved. But—" She looked at the two in front of her. "Why would a teacher and student come to rent a place together?"
"Uh... this!" Tohsaka Sakura quickly fabricated a reason. "Because it was originally a private tutoring situation... now something minor happened, so we're staying outside temporarily!"
"I see..." Fujimura Taiga didn't press further. She seemed to be the kind of person who didn't dwell on details.
"But let me tell you first—! This house hasn't been lived in for a long time since the original owner had an incident, so you'll have to clean it up thoroughly later. Also, you have to be careful of that strange old man in the house next door."
"Strange old man?" Tohsaka Sakura became a little nervous.
"Yes!" Fujimura Taiga put her hands on her hips, seemingly recalling something that made her quite annoyed. "That Li Shuwen, he's always shouting and practicing Bajiquan over there every day, I'm going to complain about him eventually!"