Alvin didn't linger in the insect warehouse and simply turned, silently leaving the basement.
It was late at night so, the Matou residence was completely quiet, without a single sound.
The howling cold wind added a touch of loneliness to the Japanese-style house at night.
Knock knock...
Alvin quietly closed his eyes as the White Dragon furnace-heart pulsed faintly.
The next moment, the auras within the residence entered his perception.
Besides the Matou family's servants, only three people currently lived in the house.
Matou Kariya, due to his poor health, had gone to bed early.
Besides him, another young man was lying bored on his bed, legs crossed, staring into space.
—That was Matou Shinji.
Where's Sakura...?
Alvin's thoughts stirred as he expanded his perception further.
"Mm~"
At that moment, he suddenly heard a suppressed, seductive voice in his ear, making him freeze slightly and he quickly followed the direction of the sound to the window of a small room.
Through the glass window, he could faintly see a girl leaning on the bed.
Her eyes were lightly closed, a drunken blush seeming to tint her face.
It was clear that the girl was still immersed in her own world.
A girl this age already possessed the voluptuous body of a mature woman.
The alluring curves made Alvin's eyes widen involuntarily.
And just then, the girl's suppressed voice quietly rang in his ear.
"Alvin...Senpai..."
Alvin. "..."
After a brief moment of daze, a strange expression soon appeared on his face.
He hadn't expected to stumble upon something like this late at night...
But it was quite normal too.
After all, a girl this age having some sexual impulses wasn't strange.
As for him being the object of her impulses, he didn't mind it..infact he was quite proud..
It's just the way she addressed him was quite...
Better leave first. If he got caught, it'd be way too awkward...
Alvin gathered his thoughts and turned to go.
But at that moment, the room suddenly fell completely silent.
"Senpai...?"
This time, the voice wasn't the same intoxicated, emotional one from before, enough to send shivers down a man's spine.
It carried confusion and shocked disbelief.
Alvin's body stiffened slightly and he slowly raised his head.
At some point, Matou Sakura had sat up.
Her beautiful eyes were wide, filled with extreme surprise and astonishment.
"Sakura... good evening."
Looking at her, the young man forced a smile onto his face.
Though he maintained calm on the surface, his inner heart was already in turmoil.
Alvin's first reaction was:
'Am I hallucinating? How could she possibly detect my presence?!'
After all, he was an Assassin....
Assassins don't have overpowered strength or some powerful noble phantasms ...the only advantage is that they can hide their presence.
So, with such a top-tier Presence Concealment.
How could Matou Sakura discover him?
"You... when did you get outside the window?"
Matou Sakura finally snapped back to reality and instinctively covered her burning cheeks, asking in a lowered voice.
Alvin hesitated for a moment.
"I haven't been here long..."
"Did you... hear it?"
The girl stole a glance at Alvin, making him pause for a while...before he finally spoke
"If I said I didn't hear anything... would you believe me?"
After that sentence, a long silence fell between them.
After an unknown amount of time, Matou Sakura lowered her head and took a shallow breath.
A trace of gloom seemed to appear on her usually soft and fragile face.
She wrapped the blanket tightly around her shoulders, finally raising her head to look at the young man and murmured, "Senpai, do you want to come in and sit for a while?"
"You came to the Matou house so late at night. There must be something important, right?"
Originally, Alvin did have quite a few things he wanted to talk to Matou Sakura about, but after what just happened, he was already having second thoughts.
"Maybe next time... It's getting late. You should rest early."
With that, he turned around, eager to leave.
Matou Sakura gazed gently at the young man. "If you leave like this, Senpai, it might be hard to explain, you know?"
"After all, if I called Sis right now... it might cause some unnecessary misunderstandings."
Sneaking to a girl's window in the dead of night and seeing things he shouldn't have... Even if he tried to explain, it would be impossible.
Alvin stopped in his tracks and sighed lightly. "I never noticed you had a bit of a dark side before..."
He hadn't expected the usually gentle and considerate Sakura to know how to threaten people.
"There's a lot you haven't noticed about me."
Matou Sakura tucked a strand of hair that had fallen over her shoulder behind her ear.
Looking at the helpless expression on the young man's face, her eyes seemed to soften considerably.
"My secrets... aren't just this much."
.
.
.
Tohsaka residence.
The fireplace cast Tohsaka Rin's shadow in stark loneliness.
Flames licked the wood, crackling and popping.
The vast residence was empty.
Only one girl sat hugging her knees on the sofa, her gaze somewhat vacant.
Ever since coming home, Tohsaka Rin had been in this state.
Part of it was because Alvin had gone to the Matou house to investigate and hadn't returned yet...
The other part was related to something she "dreamed" about that night.
Logically speaking, if it was just a dream, she should have forgotten everything upon waking.
Yet for that dream, Tohsaka Rin could still remember every detail with perfect clarity even now.
How her little sister had intimately hugged Alvin, and the incredibly close actions between Alvin and Matou Sakura...
If she hadn't walked in at that exact moment, what would have happened next?
Even though it was just a "dream," Tohsaka Rin couldn't help thinking about such questions.
She naturally knew how her little sister felt about Alvin.
But at first, she hadn't thought of their feelings in terms of romance and mostly assumed it was a little girl's admiration.
—In the beginning, Matou Sakura's feelings had indeed been just that.
But at some point... those feelings had changed.
Though Sakura usually didn't show much of her emotions and even suppressed them...
As her older sister who had always watched her closely, Tohsaka Rin could naturally see Sakura's true feelings.
But was this really okay?
As a Heroic Spirit, there can be no future for her with her Master... especially since he was King Arthur's husband.
'If I hadn't shown up that night, would they...?'
Tohsaka Rin quickly shook her head, trying to dispel the chaotic thoughts swirling in her mind.
She picked up the long-cold black tea and took a sip, feeling the bitterness spread across her tongue.
There was no need to overthink it, right?
After all, it was just a dream.
—But what if it wasn't a dream?
That absurd idea suddenly flashed through her mind.
Her fingers unconsciously tightened around the porcelain cup, like her nerves that had tensed in an instant.
After all, Sakura's attitude toward Alvin lately had indeed been a bit too intimate.
If it really wasn't a dream...
Tohsaka Rin instinctively looked up toward the direction of the Matou house.
Outside the window, wind and snow howled. Bare branches scraped chaotic patterns across the glass.
"Why hasn't he come back yet..."