"I never thought I'd get to see you again like this after ten years... It really makes me happy."
Tohsaka residence.
The hall, which hadn't been lively in a long time, had finally welcomed a guest once more... or perhaps it should be called a Servant.
Matou Sakura sat on the sofa, her beautiful eyes gazing tenderly at the young man, a faint smile on her face.
Unlike her older sister Tohsaka Rin, the girl her age already possessed a sensual figure far beyond her peers.
From the moment she sat down, her gaze had never left the young man.
"It's quite fateful, indeed."
Alvin's tone carried a touch of genuine emotion.
To be honest, it wasn't just polite talk; he truly felt it.
After all, there were a full seven Masters trying to summon him in this Holy Grail War... and yet Tohsaka Rin had managed to pull it off even after her relic was swapped.
That in itself was fate.
Sakura, though... she's changed a lot since she was little, huh... in all sorts of ways.
Noticing Alvin's gaze on her figure, Matou Sakura shyly turned her face away and looked toward the girl preparing tea. "Sister, don't bother yourself. Come sit with us for a bit."
Tohsaka Rin glanced over from the kitchen and smiled faintly. "It's fine. You two chat first. I'll join you once the tea is ready."
When it came to her little sister, Rin always tried to show a "gentle" and "mature" big-sister side.
Knowing how much Sakura missed the White Dragon, she deliberately gave the two some space alone right now.
"Looks like Rin's grown up to be pretty considerate..."
Alvin quickly shifted his gaze back. "How have things been these past years? Any issues with your body?"
Matou Sakura shook her head gently, her voice always soft. "Everything's been good. Uncle Kariya has been very kind to me... He says the future of the Matou family will be up to me."
In the last Holy Grail War, Matou Zouken had died at Sajyou Manaka's hands.
The original head of the family had long been gravely ill, leaving only Kariya as someone to rely on.
But Kariya's life had always been hanging by a thread, so for years he had been raising Sakura to become the next head.
"You're still living at the Matou house?"
Alvin's heart stirred as he suddenly asked.
Sakura nodded lightly, then seemed to realize something and quickly waved her hands. "Uncle Kariya didn't use crest worms as a medium.
He said that even if the Matou family's magecraft crest is lost, it's still better than forcing me to inherit it through crest worms."
Alvin didn't have any doubts about that.
After all, everything Kariya had done from the Fourth Holy Grail War to this one was solely so he could watch Sakura grow up healthy.
"And I occasionally stay over at Sister's house for a day before going back."
Sakura continued.
"After all, Mother went to the Clock Tower with Father and hasn't returned yet. I figured Sister might get lonely sometimes..."
To care for Tohsaka Tokiomi, several years ago Tohsaka Aoi took a plane to the Clock Tower.
She returns once a year to visit her two daughters.
For everyday problems, the sisters either handle them themselves or turn to the priest from the Holy Church.
It seems a lot must have happened in these ten years.
'Too bad I'm the kind of player who skips cutscenes, I have no idea what these sisters went through in the meantime.'
Skipping plot really is skipping a slice of life.
The ancients didn't lie...
Looking at the girl in front of him,
Alvin sighed inwardly.
"Are you planning to stay the night?"
He quickly asked again.
Matou Sakura hesitated slightly. "...Would it be inconvenient?"
"What's inconvenient about it? You've stayed here before... and you're originally a child of the Tohsaka family, aren't you?"
At that moment, Tohsaka Rin happened to walk into the hall carrying the tea and snacks.
Hearing this, she set down the tray, placed her hands on her sister's shoulders, and said gently.
Sakura hesitated for a moment, then silently glanced at the young man ahead and murmured, "But doesn't Sister want to be alone with him...?"
"After all, you said before that you hoped to see him during the Holy Grail War—"
Tohsaka Rin's smile froze for an instant, a flash of panic crossing her face as she hurriedly interrupted, "Cough... Anyway, you're staying tonight. It's snowing so heavily outside; it's not safe for you to go back alone!"
Because of her archery club activities, Sakura usually got home a bit later.
On a normal day it wouldn't matter, but today was an extremely special one.
Though the Holy Grail War hadn't officially begun, some Masters had already summoned their Servants ahead of time.
Rin wasn't comfortable letting her sister go back alone right now.
Sakura Matou then gave a soft "Mmm" and said in a low voice, "Then I'll have to bother you tonight..."
Alvin, however, looked at the girl in front of him with a hint of concern.
They were sisters, yet for some reason, he always felt there was some kind of barrier between them, an indescribable sense of distance.
Or rather, it was Sakura's distance from the Tohsaka family.
What the hell was Tokiomi thinking?
He clearly knew his daughter had childhood trauma related to the Matou family, yet he still hadn't brought her home...
Alvin naturally couldn't understand.
For a magus like Tohsaka Tokiomi, rationality always came before emotion.
The Tohsaka family's magecraft crest could only be passed to the eldest daughter, Tohsaka Rin.
If Sakura wanted any "future prospects," she had to stay with the Matou family.
But Tokiomi had never considered how the person involved might feel about it.
From the looks of it, Sakura clearly harbored a significant emotional barrier toward the Tohsaka family.
Alvin thought about it but didn't point it out.
After all, it had already happened, and now, he could do nothing about it.
After sitting in the hall with the sisters and finishing the tea and snacks, night had unknowingly fallen.
The night was quiet and lonely, heavy snow swirling outside.
Alvin sat alone in the courtyard, eyes closed in rest.
Since Servants didn't need sleep, he wasn't resting but instead keeping watch over the sisters' safety for the night.
At that moment, a faint throb suddenly stirred within his body, as though resonating with something.
Alvin instinctively opened his eyes.
In the courtyard ahead, a fingernail-sized flying insect fluttered up from the snow.
If it were just an ordinary bug, that would be one thing, but this clearly wasn't normal.
After all, there generally weren't insects in winter.
This is...
—Crest worms!
Alvin pushed open the door and instantly turned into an afterimage.
He reached out and caught the crest worm that had just flown past him, a doubtful look soon appearing on his face.
"Strange... This doesn't seem quite like the crest worms I've seen before..."
When he fought Matou Zouken in the past, he had personally seen the structure of crest worms.
Yet the one in his hand was clearly resonating with him in some way!
Hum!
At that moment, the crest worm's body suddenly swelled, then burst open rapidly.
It turned into a puddle of black mud that flowed from Alvin's palm, staining the snow on the ground with a deep black.
Black mud...?
He froze for a second, then a chill ran down his spine.
No, what was inside this crest worm wasn't black mud, it was something even "deeper" than black mud.
—The Tide of Chaos!
Why would a crest worm be contaminated by the Tide of Chaos...?
And... why is this thing here?
Just as that thought crossed his mind, his heart jolted.
He vaguely sensed a presence approaching from behind and turned instinctively.
In the dim doorway of the hall, a girl stood there without him noticing when she had arrived.
She wore a white nightgown.
Her cherry-like small mouth and eyes full of tenderness stood out. Her skin remained flawlessly fair even in the darkness, as though it could drip water if pinched.
A girl who had just started high school wore simple clothes, yet they couldn't hide her impressive figure.
The gentleness in her brows paired with that fragile face made one instinctively want to cherish and protect her.
"Sakura?"
Alvin reacted immediately as he stepped back into the hall, closed the door behind him, and said, "Why are you awake? And without even a jacket, aren't you afraid of catching a cold?"
"Go back to your room and rest first."
As he spoke, he draped his outer garment over Matou Sakura's shoulders, intending to escort her back to her room.
But the moment he reached out, Sakura took the initiative and hugged him first.
Her warm, soft, and beautiful body pressed tightly against the young man's chest.
A unique girlish fragrance overflowed from her nightgown, lingering at the tip of his nose.
Alvin froze in place, his body stiffening slightly.
After all, Tohsaka Rin was still asleep right now.
If he was caught cuddling intimately with her little sister in the living room in the middle of the night... it would be fine if they weren't discovered, but if they were, Alvin felt he would probably have a headache.
Matou Sakura buried her face in his chest and murmured, "I've always wanted to see you. I just didn't expect you'd manifest as another Master's Servant."
Alvin's hands hovered in mid-air.
However, after a moment, he gently placed one on her smooth, silky hair and stroked it lightly.
"Actually, you don't need to make such a clear distinction between you and Rin, do you?"
"After all, no matter what, she's still your real older sister."
For an instant, a complicated look flashed in Sakura's eyes. Her tone carried a trace of unusual emotion. "It's still... a bit different..."
"I grew up as a child of the Matou family... while my older sister grew up with Mother's company."
For some reason, the usually bright girl seemed somewhat gloomy at this moment.
It seems she really does care about this a lot... Alvin silently glanced at her and said, "But Rin has always treated you as her incredibly close little sister."
"I know... Sister is a really good person, so I like her a lot."
Before Alvin could respond,
Sakura lifted her head to look at him, her eyes softening a little. "But I've wanted to see Senpai every single moment too."
"If it weren't for Senpai over these years, I probably wouldn't have made it this far."
Because treating the Holy Grail War ten years later as her emotional pillar, even after leaving the Tohsaka family, or amid the insecurity of being "abandoned" by her parents, the girl had always been able to grow up normally.
Because when she ran away from home back then, it was Alvin who took her in.
So the girl firmly believed that as long as he was there, she wasn't alone.
He was the only one who would never abandon her.
"Tokiomi probably considered a lot of things..."
Alvin said.
"I know. I don't blame Father... I can roughly understand his thinking too."
Matou Sakura nestled in the young man's arms, greedily breathing in the warm scent from his body.
Her eyes were filled with intoxication, a captivating blush spreading across her cheeks.
It's this warmth... exactly the same as ten years ago. It gives such a sense of security, making one want to sink into it forever.
But compared to back then, she had become a little greedier now.
It wasn't enough to just hug him like this... she wanted more, so much more.
She craved being loved by him, craved letting this once-pure affection turn into something else... then having him drown in her body.
Just thinking about it made her inexplicably excited...
"Can you hold me, Senpai?"
Matou Sakura suddenly looked up and asked.
Alvin froze slightly, but in the end, he placed one hand on her slender, soft waist, letting the girl press even closer as she wrapped her arms tightly around the young man.
The gradually increasing strength was as though she wanted to completely fuse herself with Alvin and the young man could even feel the sensation of those two soft mounds pressing against him, causing his body to stiffen a little.
Well...the reasons were quite obvious after all, the current Matou Sakura was completely different from when she was little.
Growing up in all the ways...a normal person hugged like this wouldn't have no reaction... and he was no exception.
But seriously, with Sakura's personality, how is she being this bold...?
"Sakura..."
Alvin lowered his head to look at the girl, about to speak.
Before he could react, his face was cupped by a pair of slightly cool small hands.
Matou Sakura's lips curved into a faint smile as she slowly leaned closer to the young man, close enough that he could almost feel her breath.
She tilted her head slightly and smiled. "Sister is still sleeping right now... so even if we do something, it's fine, okay?"
Alvin silently gazed at the girl.
Her small, plump cherry lips parted slightly.
With each breath, seductive warmth brushed against his face.
Sakura's eyes were gentle yet carried an inexplicable allure as she inched closer bit by bit.
Ambiguous breaths filled the space between them. Alvin's hands unconsciously wrapped around her delicate body as he slowly lowered his head.
Swish...
At that moment, the door to the room opened.
Alvin instantly snapped back to his senses, about to take Sakura and leave the hall.
But the girl clung tightly to him, refusing to let go at all.
"Why is it so noisy outside? Is there an enemy attack...?"
Tohsaka Rin rubbed her sleepy eyes as she walked out of her room.
Her fair little feet were in cotton slippers as she headed toward the living room and looked up toward the hall,
In her clear sapphire eyes reflecting the scene of her little sister embracing the young man.
Tohsaka Rin stared blankly at the sight, her expression freezing in an instant.