Hearing what the Old Man of the Jewels said, Waver and Kayneth both looked on with burning envy.
To become the disciple of the Magus Marshal meant an immeasurable future, far beyond what most magi could ever hope for.
With the disappearance of the Holy Grail, the Servants also began to leave the stage one after another.
"Iri, is it time for us to say goodbye?" Irisviel looked at Artoria with deep reluctance.
"Yes, Iri, it's time for me to go as well." Artoria spoke helplessly.
She could not remain in this world for long.
During the time she had spent with Irisviel, she had genuinely been able to relax. This Master was also someone she could be satisfied with.
"Koji, I want to ask you for a favor." Artoria turned toward Koji and spoke seriously.
"Go ahead." Koji nodded.
He more or less guessed what Artoria wanted to ask.
"You should already know about Iri's situation. If she continues to stay with the Einzbern family, she might be used again. And if I keep staying here, I'll eventually become a burden to you and bring you trouble." Artoria was very uneasy about Irisviel's family.
"I understand. I'll go give them a scare. Irisviel, what do you think?"
For Koji, this was a trivial matter.
"If possible, I'd like to live here in Fuyuki with my daughter."
Irisviel thought for a moment. As long as she could live together with her daughter, that was enough. As for the Holy Grail, she no longer had any interest in it.
"Artoria, you still like meddling in other people's business that much, huh." Morgan spoke calmly.
She had only spent a short time with this Master, yet Artoria cared this much. Unlike Morgan herself, who had no particular attachment to this world.
"Big Sis, for someone as pure as Iri, a knight naturally wants to protect her." Artoria smiled.
Morgan neither agreed nor disagreed. Irisviel was indeed an extremely pure person.
"Kid, traveler from outside this world, we'll meet again someday." Gilgamesh said.
"What did your Clairvoyance show you?" Koji was a little surprised.
He had never looked at his own future. That would be boring; it was far more interesting to witness it with his own eyes.
"Nothing worth mentioning. All of that is for later." Gilgamesh shrugged. His figure faded from this world and returned to the Worm pit.
Koji rubbed his chin, looking somewhat thoughtful.
…
"Old geezer, this is the disciple you wanted to take. I don't care what you've done in the past, but when you teach Sakura, don't use those methods. Teach according to her talent." Koji brought the Old Man of the Jewels over to Sakura.
"Young man, could you at least show a little respect for the elderly?" Zelretch said, speechless.
As the Magus Marshal, no one had ever dared address him like this before. But he couldn't afford to provoke this kid, and there was no way to get back at him.
"Sakura, from now on this will be your teacher. If there's something you don't understand, just shout, 'Old geezer, explode some gold coins!'" Koji completely ignored Zelretch.
Zelretch's mustache practically bristled as his eyes bulged. He suddenly didn't feel like taking a disciple anymore. At this rate, there really might come a day when she yelled at him to pop out gold coins.
"Onii-chan, can't I go with you?" Sakura looked up at Koji pitifully.
Koji smiled helplessly and patted Sakura on the head. "You're still little. Stay with this old geezer and learn some things first."
"The head of the Tohsaka family—your current family head—learned the Tohsaka family's gemstone magecraft from this old geezer. Even though his teaching method is a bit… questionable."
"Hah?" Zelretch immediately looked displeased and retorted, "How am I misleading my students?"
He understood who Koji was talking about: Tohsaka Nagato. Although Nagato hadn't been personally taught by him, the gemstone magecraft he used was indeed related to Zelretch—just a simplified version.
"Tohsaka Nagato was more suited to walk the path of martial arts. Your gemstone magecraft wasn't particularly suited for him." Koji said.
You could tell just from that 'demon-muscle Rin' of later years that the Tohsaka bloodline had a natural talent for martial arts.
The Tohsaka family's later poverty had a lot to do with gemstone magecraft being too expensive. After all, it consumed gemstones to activate spells—that was real money burning away.
Zelretch thought it over. That was indeed true, but it still wasn't his fault. And what was wrong with gemstone magecraft? It was extremely powerful. The version used by the Tohsaka family wasn't the complete gemstone system at all.
"As for Sakura's talent, old geezer, you should know very well, right?" Koji asked.
"Of course I do. You think the Second Magician lives on air?" Zelretch snorted.
"She has a rare Imaginary number attribute."
He had observed countless parallel worlds and was quite familiar with Sakura. This world's Sakura was relatively fortunate—she had been rescued by Koji.
Tohsaka Sakura's attribute was the extremely rare Imaginary element, one of the five fictitious elements, distinct from the five conventional ones.
Imaginary dealt with "interfering with spaces or dimensions that do not exist in reality." It could manipulate nothingness, devour or transfer matter, and embodied "emptiness."
People with such a talent were exceedingly rare.
In theory, the Imaginary attribute could be used for teleportation, Imaginary-number storage space, and dimensional leaps.
As the Second Magician, Zelretch could travel freely between countless parallel worlds. Teaching Sakura magecraft related to the Imaginary attribute was, in fact, a perfect fit.
Once Sakura completed her training, she could become the next Magus Marshal.
"Sakura, from now on the old geezer will be your teacher. You can call him 'Teacher,' or you can call him 'old geezer,' whichever you like." Koji said.
"Teacher, please take care of me."
…
Tohsaka Sakura nodded slightly to Zelretch. She didn't directly call him "old geezer" yet—they weren't that familiar, and she still felt a bit shy.
Zelretch looked at her with satisfaction. A child who could be taught; at least she wasn't calling him "old geezer" right off the bat.
Lumine suddenly spoke up. "I have a question. Tohsaka Nagato is the founder of the Tohsaka family and the ancestor of Tohsaka Tokiomi. In a sense, when he learned gemstone magecraft, he counted as your disciple. Now you've accepted Sakura as your disciple as well…"
"How exactly is Tohsaka Tokiomi supposed to address Sakura?"
The corner of Zelretch's mouth twitched. That was an excellent question.
"Just stick to their own forms of address. Tohsaka Tokiomi can call Sakura 'ancestor.'" Koji said with a grin.
"Let's… not do that. I'm really not that old." Sakura said awkwardly.
Although she did feel some resentment toward Tokiomi as a father, staging an outright family rebellion like that still wasn't something she could do.
"Tohsaka Tokiomi sold you off to someone else, so as your teacher I'll take him out in three hits and settle the score for you." Zelretch said calmly.
No one was allowed to bully his disciple. Not even her biological father.
"If Tohsaka Tokiomi finds out his daughter has become the disciple of the Old Man of the Jewels, he'll probably be green with envy." Lumine said.
The gemstone magecraft Tokiomi used was just a simplified version, while Sakura would be able to learn the genuine gemstone system in the future.
When Zelretch used gemstone magecraft, he didn't need to store his own mana in gemstones at all. He just drew energy directly from parallel worlds. The gap between them was obvious at a glance.
The disciple of the Magus Marshal—counting carefully, Zelretch had really only ever taught one person: Aoko Aozaki.
Now that he was taking Sakura on as his disciple as well, his somewhat empty roster of students was finally filling out a bit.
(End of Chapter)
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