After slowly recovering her strength, Medea left the room. She looked around and, seeing the sparsely populated castle, was reminded of her time in Colchis.
Creeak…
"!? G-golems…?"
In the castle, human-shaped golems were moving about. The golems were acting like servants, taking care of the castle's chores.
"Surprised?"
"You are… a homunculus. Not his Master, but the Master's homunculus, I see."
"Yes, I am Illya's servant."
Leysritt, who had come out of the room, met Medea and greeted her. Because Fergus had brought her, she held no hostility.
"A homunculus of this level of completion in the modern era… impressive."
Leysritt was a combat-type homunculus with a short lifespan, but she possessed enough fighting power to engage in combat with a Servant for a short period of time. Medea was intrigued by the Einzbern homunculus. The homunculus technology of the family founded by the disciples of the Third Magician was comparable to the magic of the Age of Gods.
"Then, those golems…"
"Those, Fergus made them. Fergus is good at magic."
"Magic… so that's Rune magic. No, it's on a completely different level. The Primordial Runes… to think he'd use the Primordial Runes for servant golems. What an absurd man."
Medea, one of the top five witches of mythology in the world. Although she had never seen Rune magic before, she had discerned that the power moving the golems was the Primordial Runes. She was impressed that Fergus, a non-god, was one of the very few who could use the Primordial Runes. She was surprised in a different way that he had used them for golems, and for servants at that.
However, if he were to properly create combat-type golems and mass-produce them, it would be possible to mass-produce powerful golems that could fight on par with Servants. Of course, Fergus did not know how to make such things. He only knew how to use the runes; in terms of precision and understanding, he was probably inferior to any other runecaster.
He could just make the golems move and give them simple commands. That was it. He didn't know how to create golems with the judgment to attack enemies like an automated, repeating doll.
"Follow me. I'll take you to Illya."
"Illya…? She is his Master?"
"Yes, that's right."
Medea followed Leysritt and entered a room at the top of the castle.
"I brought her."
"Oh, thanks for your hard work, Leys."
"…?"
Medea had expected a great and majestic master of the castle, befitting of Fergus's Master. But… what she found was a silver-haired girl playing Mario.
"Ah, the batteries are dead. Leys, go buy some batteries. Eneloops."
"Alright."
"A battery errand… little one, are you the master of this castle?"
"Yeah. Well, it's the Einzbern's castle, to be precise."
Illya put down the game controller and stood up. She stared at Medea intently. It was the look of someone appraising a valuable object, not a person. Medea was used to such gazes, but she felt a slight displeasure at being subjected to it by a child. In the end, even if she was Fergus's Master, a mage was a mage…
"…I hope Fergus doesn't have any ulterior motives."
"…?"
Medea, who had heard Illya's muttered words, doubted her ears. Having been tormented by her aunt, Circe, in the past, she had become good at catching even the smallest of muttered words. She was a little surprised that Illya's reaction was not that of a mage.
"Hmm… I'm not giving you Fergus."
"Huh?"
"What, am I wrong? You look like a fox who's after Fergus… if not, then never mind."
Medea thought, what is with this child…
Illya was jealous of Medea. Anyone could see she was an elf. Of course, an elf was actually a type of fae, but Medea was just a human who looked like an elf. And she had even used Rule Breaker to erase her own divinity, so she was now a pure human with no divine blood. And yet, her face was that of a peerless beauty. Her figure was also that of a mature adult woman, which was clearly visible in her clothes.
Illya was jealous, thinking that Medea was after Fergus. Of course, her jealousy was not romantic. Illya looked up to Fergus as a father figure, and she didn't want his affection to go to someone else.
She was a child who was soon to be an adult, but she was still a child who longed for a father's love.
Medea, who had become a master of reading people because of Circe and Jason, understood that.
"Hey, little one. I know what you're thinking, but…"
"Never mind, I don't believe you. How can I trust a stone that just rolled in?"
"Sigh…"
Medea's head ached at the fact that Illya distrusted her not because she was a witch, but because she looked like a woman who had come to seduce her father. It was like a second coming of Circe.
Just then, Fergus entered the room.
"So you were here."
"Ah, yes…"
Medea had addressed Fergus formally without even realizing it, and even after she did, she decided to continue doing so. He was the king of a nation and a hero who had reached the pinnacle of mythology. And he was her savior, so she could not speak to him disrespectfully.
"Fergus, I'm worried about her…"
"It's alright, Illya. Medea's fundamental nature… was good. Now she's a little… in modern terms, she's a case of going to the dark side, but she's fine now."
Medea couldn't say anything because Fergus's words were the truth. As a child, she was practically pure evil, and now she was in the position of neutral evil, so she couldn't honestly say she was clean.
"But she's still the Witch of Betrayal. Even if that's a false accusation, I can't trust her. She's not an ordinary crazy person."
"That was when she was young. The her now is an adult, you know? And people can change. That was, after all, her previous life. The her now is the Medea who has returned after death. Like me. Well, I haven't changed, but… she must have had a lot to rethink. Right, Medea?"
"...That's right. Little one, as you say, I am a filthy witch. I honestly admit that I have committed many evil deeds. Greece, the environment was not good, but that doesn't justify what I did. I admit that… but for a Heroic Spirit, being summoned as a Servant is a second chance. I don't want to miss that chance. That's why I took his hand."
Medea felt as if the warmth of Fergus's hand, which she had held at that time, still lingered, and she clutched her chest with her hand, feeling a heart-wrenching emotion.
"I admit my evil deeds in my previous life. But the me now is different. Although, I did kill my trashy former Master."
"...What kind of trash was he?"
"A fae."
"That's a bit much, let's say he was on the level of David."
"I don't know what that means, but if Fergus says so, I'll accept it."
Fergus, who had agreed to say that he was on the level of David, as "fae" was a bit too much. Illya didn't really understand, but since Fergus had certified that he was trash, she nodded.
"But… I want to live differently this time. Differently from my previous life, I want to do well. I don't know exactly what I should do. Because I've never lived that kind of life. But… I'll try. Little one, please become my Master. I need your, your power."
Medea spoke to Illya with a desperate expression. Illya stared at her expression intently, then closed her eyes and sighed.
"Alright. Let's make a contract. But in exchange, make sure you're useful."
"...Thank you. I am Medea. I am confident in my magic. I've already thought of a way to make you win."
Illya and Medea shook hands, and their paths were connected. Illya's magical energy capacity was so superiorly large that adding a Caster with low fuel consumption was not a problem.
"So, what's the plan?"
"That is—"
"Assassin."
Fergus spoke of the plan before Medea could.
"You will summon an Assassin, right? Medea."
"...Clairvoyance, is it?"
"Hehe, to be precise, it's the Eye of the Root. I can use clairvoyance (future vision)."
In reality, he had just spoken from the memories of his previous life. He had known it all along.
"An Assassin? Isn't that cheating? A Servant summoning a Servant."
"As long as you win, it doesn't matter, right?"
Medea, who said that as long as you win, rules and all that didn't matter. It was just like the master of Rule Breaker.
"You're already trying to cheat…"
"It's not a proper Holy Grail War in the first place, is it, Illya? So let's just do it."
"That's true… do as you please."
Illya had already heard the truth about the Holy Grail from Fergus long ago. No, in the first place, since she was the Lesser Grail, it was a truth she would naturally come to know when she came to Fuyuki.
"By the way, I've already prepared a catalyst."
"A catalyst already…? Clairvoyance is so convenient. What is this?"
"Since it's Japan, a Japanese Heroic Spirit who can easily receive the blessings of the land and place names would be good, right?"
What Fergus gave her was a faded piece of a flag that was so old that the letters were barely visible. Medea found the catalyst a little unreliable, but since it was something that Fergus had given her, and his words made sense, she immediately drew the ritual circle.
"Now, it would be good to add this."
"A rune…? So that's the famous Wisdom of the Land of Shadows. I see, so it can be changed in this way as well."
Normally, a Servant on the level of a wraith would have been summoned, but with Fergus adding a rune, the level of the summon was raised, and even she, a Servant, could summon a Heroic Spirit.
"Not just magical energy, but Servants without Independent Action can exist in the present world through the wedge of a Master. So that wedge is necessary."
"I was thinking of using this castle as a wedge, but is there anything else?"
"There are plenty. For example…"
Rattle~
"I bought the Eneloops~"
"There's Illya's guard."
"?"
Leysritt, who had returned after buying the batteries. She gave the batteries to Illya, and tilted her head as everyone looked at her.
"Leys as a wedge? Is that alright?"
"It's no problem, Illya. The magical energy will be supplied from Caster, and from Caster to Illya. Leys will just be a wedge. Setting a living being as a wedge is more difficult than a place, but not for me."
Fergus used the Wisdom of the Land of Shadows and, with a slight headache, drew a Primordial Rune and finished setting the wedge.
"In exchange, she won't be able to be far from Leys. Illya is a Master, so an additional wedge is impossible. In the first place, it's an irregular summon, so it's impossible. That's why the most suitable person is Leys, who is always by Illya's side and can fight. Is that alright?"
"I don't really get it, but if it's for Illya, it's fine."
Leysritt didn't understand, but as long as it was for Illya, it didn't matter. She just had to be near her, and it was no burden for Leysritt.
"The preparations are complete. Begin, Medea."
"Yes, then…"
Medea reached out her hand to the summoning circle, and a fake Command Spell was engraved on her hand.
"In the name of our great lord, I call upon you. Come forth from the ring of restraint, guardian of the scales. And offer your life to me, in this city of a battlefield stained with blood!"
As she chanted her own incantation, the summoning circle shone with a brilliant light, and a Servant was summoned.
When the light faded, what appeared was a female swordswoman wearing a haori. Seeing her, Fergus smiled with satisfaction.
"Servant Assassin, Captain of the First Division of the Shinsengumi, Okita Souji. Are you my Master?"