"Utaha, pour two cups of tea."
"Alright… Where's the tea?"
"Just hot water will do."
Roy waved his hand casually.
Kasumigaoka Utaha's expression twitched as she headed toward the kitchen.
Hot water for guests?Her Master truly had an eccentric sense of hospitality.
Behind Tōsaka Rin, her maid-servant Hayasaka Ai also flinched ever so slightly at the words. But as a professional maid, she lowered her head like a machine, her face betraying nothing.
Rin herself, however, acted as though this was perfectly normal. She accepted the cup from Utaha, blew gently across the steaming surface with practiced ease, and sipped.
"She's your Servant?"
Rin's gaze slid toward Utaha, who now stood behind Roy in an imitation of Ai's deferential posture.
"Yes. Her name is Kasumigaoka Utaha."
"My, that's rare. So you've taken in a Servant as well… and such a beautiful girl at that. A young man and woman, living together under the same roof."
Rin's mischievous smile made her thoughts obvious.
Utaha frowned slightly.
"This house is rather large. I simply needed an extra pair of hands."
Roy took a sip of his hot water, his tone indifferent.
"Oh? You've lived here three years already. And only now you realize you need help keeping it in order?"
Rin narrowed her eyes, studying him from head to toe as though trying to see through his mask.
"These next few days, I'll be… busy."
Roy smiled faintly, shaking his right hand in a seemingly careless motion.
For just an instant, a crimson sigil shimmered on his skin—an intricate design like outstretched wings.
"A Command Seal!"
The playful expression vanished from Rin's face, replaced by sharp seriousness.
"When did it appear?"
"Last night."
"You intend to participate in the Holy Grail War? If you didn't, the Greater Grail wouldn't have chosen you."
"…Something like that."
Roy gave the slightest nod.
The Greater Grail's criteria for choosing a Master were simple: magical aptitude, and intent to participate. With so many magi living in Fuyuki now, Roy would never have been marked had he no desire to join.
"Then that means you have a wish you want fulfilled. But you know as well as I do—the current Grail can't grant wishes. It's been broken for years."
"Of course I know."
"Then I won't waste my breath."
Rin leaned back slightly. Three years living in Fuyuki—there was no way Roy didn't understand the situation. And with his personality, once he'd made up his mind, no one's words could dissuade him. She knew better than to try.
All this talk of Holy Grail Wars, Command Seals, and wishes left both Utaha and Hayasaka completely lost.
"…By the way, your wish isn't something anti-social, is it?"
Roy chuckled. "What, like destroying the world?"
He laughed heartily. "Maybe that really will be my wish."
"Don't joke about that."
Rin rolled her eyes in exasperation.
"The world already suffers enough. If anything, we should wish for it to move toward something better."
"…Do I look like I was joking?"
Roy's eyes narrowed slightly. His smile didn't fade, but his voice dropped to a whisper.
"…What was that?"
Rin glanced at him in confusion, not catching his murmur.
"Nothing."
He waved it off lightly and took another sip of hot water, warming his body against the morning chill.
"So, Madam Mayor of Fuyuki City—how does such a busy woman find the time to visit me so early in the day?"
Utaha stiffened, staring at the twin-tailed girl across from her in disbelief.
Mayor?
This girl… this sixteen, maybe seventeen-year-old girl is the mayor of Fuyuki City?
One of the four last surviving base cities in all of Japan, the home of tens of thousands of people—and its leader was sitting right before her, smiling over a cup of hot water.
"Of course, I came on official business."
Rin sighed, her shoulders slumping with weariness.
"Last night, something happened beneath Mount Enzō. Someone slipped into the cavern undetected… and summoned a Servant. They even injured the Gatekeeper and escaped."
"…That so?"
Roy blinked, genuine surprise flickering across his face.
"Yes. It's already caused an uproar at the Association's branch."
Rin lifted her cup, taking a small sip. The warmth chased away the winter chill seeping through the morning air.
"Well, that's quite the incident."
Roy clicked his tongue, amusement glinting in his eyes.
"So why come to me first thing? Shouldn't you be busy managing the fallout?"
"Don't remind me! Those decrepit fossils kept pressuring me nonstop."
Rin groaned, venting her frustrations.
"I told them to wait for the investigation results, but the branch elders were hopping mad, insisting I come here to sniff out information about that person. Honestly… those old relics treat the Greater Grail as if it's their private property."
"The Mage's Association, hm? A nest of vipers no matter where you find them—even in the so-called Japan Branch."
Roy nodded in wry agreement.
"But they'll be disappointed. Aoko hasn't returned yet. And even if she did, there's no way she'd listen to those fossils. More likely, she'd set their beards on fire for fun."
"One can dream, I suppose."
Rin shrugged it off. She'd known full well what the outcome of this visit would be—it was just a matter of going through the motions.
"You sound like a mayor under far too many constraints."
"Keeping my seat as mayor at all is already exhausting enough."
Her voice dipped, tinged with bitterness.
The truth was simple: Rin only became mayor because Fuyuki had always been Tōsaka territory. After her father's death, she was the rightful successor.
It was the end of the twentieth century, yet politics had regressed into feudal inheritance. Many criticized it, but Fuyuki had always been tied to the Tōsaka family—the leyline beneath the city was theirs to control, and only the Tōsakas could use it to shield Fuyuki. For that reason alone, the magi acknowledged her rule, and her position had remained stable.
The only complication was the Mage's Association branch installed in Fuyuki.
Because within Fuyuki lay the source of all corruption: the Greater Grail.
After the great global catastrophe ten years ago, the Grail's existence could no longer be hidden. The Association sent countless families to station themselves here, calling it their Japan Branch. Some of these lineages stretched back a thousand years, their heritage dwarfing the Tōsakas entirely.