Chapter 249: Sorrow After Waking
The fourth day of the Holy Grail War, noon.
After a night and a morning of rest, Irisviel finally woke up.
"Irisviel, you're finally awake…"
Artoria, who had been guarding the bedside since returning to the hotel, felt a wave of relief when she saw Irisviel open her eyes.
With Emiya Kiritsugu and Hisau Maiya gone, if Irisviel had remained unconscious, she truly didn't know what she should do...
"Saber?"
The ceiling that appeared before her was unfamiliar and somewhat yellowed. The bedding beneath her was not soft enough, making her body slightly uncomfortable.
From her surroundings, Irisviel easily guessed that she was in a place with less than ideal conditions.
Her presence in such a place also signaled an important piece of information...
"Did we lose?"
Irisviel vaguely recalled that Archer had attacked last night, just after Artoria had brought her back to their base.
"That's right, Kiritsugu!"
Thinking of how Emiya Kiritsugu had told Artoria to take her away while he stayed behind to cover their retreat, Irisviel struggled to sit up in bed.
It was only then that Irisviel realized she felt completely weak and listless, unable to even pull back the blanket covering her!
"My body..."
Noticing the abnormality of her body, Irisviel's heart instantly sank.
As the vessel for the Lesser Grail, the souls of defeated Heroic Spirits would return to her, and the more Heroic Spirit souls returned, the weaker her body would become.
Judging by her current weakness, to the extent that she couldn't even pull back the blanket...
"I'm sorry, Irisviel..."
Just when Irisviel thought the situation was bad enough, Artoria's avoidance of eye contact and her tone filled with guilt made an extremely absurd guess surface in Irisviel's mind.
"No, that can't be, right?"
Shoving that ridiculous guess out of her mind, Irisviel turned her head to look at Artoria by the bed, hoping to get an affirmative answer from her.
However...
There was no response...
Hearing Irisviel's question, Artoria lowered her head, sinking into a brief silence.
Kiritsugu is really gone...
The strength in her body vanished instantly. Irisviel collapsed onto the bed, staring blankly at the ceiling.
"Please pull yourself together, Irisviel. Don't forget you still have Illya..."
Seeing Irisviel look like a soulless automaton who had lost the will to live, Artoria quickly used Illya, her and Emiya Kiritsugu's daughter, to try and rekindle her hope for survival.
"You wouldn't understand, Saber..."
Hearing her daughter's name, the lovely smiling face of her daughter flashed through Irisviel's mind.
But she immediately realized that she could absolutely never return to Germany. A bitter smile flashed across Irisviel's face.
She wasn't sure how many Heroic Spirit souls had returned to her body last night, but judging from her current condition, it was only a matter of time before she fully transformed into the Lesser Grail.
"Why am I still alive?"
Suddenly, Irisviel realized this point.
If Emiya Kiritsugu was gone, that meant they had lost, right?
If so, why were Saber and she still alive?
"Saber? Time for lunch."
Just as Artoria was about to answer Irisviel's question, there was a knock on the door, and Hikigaya Hachiman's voice traveled through the door to the two people in the room.
"Mr. Hikigaya?"
Irisviel turned her head, looking at Artoria with confusion.
"After escaping Archer's attack last night, we encountered Lancer's group. While we were fighting, the Assassins controlled Ms. Hisau to attack Kiritsugu..."
"Ms. Hisau?!"
Hearing that Emiya Kiritsugu was killed by Maiya Hisau, Irisviel had absolutely no idea what expression she should show right now.
"Then, what about Ms. Hisau?"
"After realizing she had killed Kiritsugu, she committed suicide... I'm sorry, her movements were too fast, and I didn't have time to stop her..."
"No, I think that's what Ms. Hisau would have wanted..."
Recalling the woman who was always serious and silently stood behind Emiya Kiritsugu, a tragic smile appeared on Irisviel's face.
Maiya Hisau must have been in the same kind of pain as she was now, after realizing she had personally killed the person she loved?
"Saber?"
Standing outside the door, Hikigaya Hachiman hadn't received a response from Artoria, so he knocked on the door more firmly.
"Please invite Mr. Hikigaya in, Saber..."
Hikigaya Hachiman's voice successfully roused Irisviel from her self-contained world.
She looked at Artoria, who was sitting motionless beside her, and asked her to bring Hikigaya Hachiman in.
"Mrs. Irisviel, you're awake..."
The door was opened by Artoria. When Hikigaya Hachiman entered the room and saw the awakened Irisviel on the bed, a look of understanding flashed in his eyes.
No wonder Artoria hadn't responded to him; it was because she had woken up?
"Good afternoon, Mr. Hikigaya. You can just call me Irisviel, you don't need the honorific."
Irisviel lay on the bed, forcing a smile onto her pale face as she spoke to Hikigaya Hachiman.
Although her husband was attacked and killed by Assassin while engaging in battle with Hikigaya Hachiman, she did not intend to blame Hikigaya Hachiman for Emiya Kiritsugu's death.
After all, if Maiya Hisau was already under control at the time, Emiya Kiritsugu likely wouldn't have escaped his fate, regardless of whether they were fighting or not...
Moreover, after that, it was Hikigaya Hachiman who temporarily took her and Saber in...
"Then you can call me by my name too, Irisviel."
Hikigaya Hachiman did not refuse Irisviel's suggestion. He nodded, and then stated the plan he had already thought of for dealing with Irisviel.
"Since you are awake, how about taking the flight to Germany tonight?"
With Emiya Kiritsugu dead and Artoria having become his Servant, the Einzbern family had undoubtedly lost this Holy Grail War.
Given this, Irisviel naturally had no reason to continue staying in Fuyuki City. Also, for the sake of her personal safety, Hikigaya Hachiman decided to use his contacts to send her away that same night.