Alvin did not stay in the worm pit. He turned around and silently left the basement.
The Matou mansion was completely quiet, without a single sound.
Cold wind howled past, adding a lonely feeling to the Japanese-style mansion at night.
Thump! Thump!
Alvin quietly closed his eyes as the White Dragon Furnace Core began to pulse.
The next moment, the presence inside the mansion entered his senses.
Other than the servants of the Matou family, there were currently only three people living in the mansion.
Because of his poor health, Matou Kariya had already gone to sleep early.
Besides him, another young man was currently lying on his bed out of boredom, crossing his legs while spacing out.
This was Matou Shinji.
'Where's Sakura?'
A thought flashed through Alvin's mind as he continued expanding his perception.
"Mmm~"
Right then, he suddenly heard a suppressed, alluring voice near his ear.
Alvin paused slightly, then quickly followed the direction of the sound and arrived beside the window of a small room.
Through the glass window, he could vaguely see a girl leaning against the bed. Her eyes were slightly closed, and there seemed to be a faint flush of intoxication on her face. She was clearly still immersed in her own world.
At that age, she already had the graceful body of a mature woman. The tempting curves made Alvin's eyes open wide at once.
And at that moment, the girl's restrained voice quietly sounded again.
"Senpai..."
Alvin: "..."
After a brief blank moment, a strange look quickly appeared on his face.
He didn't expect to run into something like this in the middle of the night... though it was normal enough. It wasn't strange for a girl that age to have certain urges.
The only issue was how she addressed him.
'Better leave first. If she catches me here, this is going to get really awkward,' Alvin gathered his thoughts slightly and turned around, preparing to leave.
But right then, he suddenly felt the room become quiet.
"Senpai?"
This time, her voice no longer carried the intoxicated and emotional tone from before. Instead, it held confusion and disbelief.
Alvin's body stiffened slightly, then he slowly raised his head.
At some point, Matou Sakura had already sat up. Her beautiful eyes were wide open, filled with shock and confusion.
"Sakura... good evening," Alvin forced a smile onto his face.
Even though he maintained a calm expression, waves had already exploded in his mind.
Alvin's first thought was: 'Am I hallucinating? How could she notice me?'
After all, he was an Assassin, and he possessed top-level Presence Concealment. How could Matou Sakura possibly detect him?
"W-When did you get outside the window?"
Matou Sakura finally came back to herself. She subconsciously covered her burning cheeks and lowered her voice as she asked.
Alvin hesitated for a moment, "I just got here not long ago..."
"Did you hear it?"
Matou Sakura secretly glanced at Alvin.
Alvin stayed silent for a moment, "If I said I didn't hear anything... would you believe me?"
After those words, a long silence fell between them.
After an unknown amount of time, Matou Sakura lowered her head and took a light breath.
A faint gloom seemed to appear on the face that usually looked gentle and weak.
She tightened the blanket around her shoulders, then finally looked up at the boy and softly said, "Senpai, would you like to come in and sit for a while?"
"You came to the Matou house this late at night, so it should be something important, right?"
Originally, Alvin really did have quite a few things he wanted to talk to Matou Sakura about, but after what just happened, he was already starting to back out.
"How about next time. It's already late, so you should get some rest."
After speaking, he turned around and immediately wanted to leave.
Matou Sakura looked at the boy with gentle eyes, "If you leave like this, it might be hard to explain."
"After all, if I call my sister right now, it might cause some unnecessary misunderstandings."
Climbing outside a girl's window in the middle of the night, and even seeing things he shouldn't have seen, there was no way to explain something like that clearly.
Alvin silently stopped walking and sighed softly, "How come I never realized you had a bit of a scheming side too."
He didn't expect Sakura, who normally looked gentle and considerate, to know how to threaten people.
"There are still a lot of things you haven't noticed," Matou Sakura brushed aside a strand of hair hanging over her shoulder and looked at the boy whose face was filled with helplessness. Her gaze seemed much softer.
"My secrets... are more than just this."
———
[The Tohsaka Residence]
The fireplace cast Tohsaka Rin's shadow in an especially lonely way. Flames licked the firewood, making crackling sounds.
Inside the huge mansion, there was only a single girl sitting on the sofa with her knees hugged to her chest, her eyes somewhat empty.
Ever since returning home, Tohsaka Rin had remained in this state.
On one hand, it was because Alvin still hadn't returned after going to the Matou house to investigate. And on the other hand, it was related to something she had dreamed about one night.
Normally, if it was just a dream, she should have forgotten all of it after waking up.
However, even now, Tohsaka Rin could still clearly remember every detail of that dream.
The way her younger sister affectionately hugged Alvin, and the extremely intimate actions between Alvin and Matou Sakura at the time.
'If I haven't happened to walk in on them that night, then what would have happened afterward?'
Even though it was only a "dream," Tohsaka Rin still couldn't stop herself from thinking about that question.
Naturally, Tohsaka Rin knew how her younger sister felt toward Alvin.
At first, though, she never thought of their feelings as romantic. She mostly assumed it was something similar to a young girl's admiration.
At the beginning, the feelings Matou Sakura held really were just that.
But at some point... those feelings changed.
Although Matou Sakura usually didn't show too much of her emotions and had always been suppressing them, as her older sister, and someone who had always observed her younger sister in the past, Tohsaka Rin could naturally see those feelings.
'But is that really okay?'
'As a Heroic Spirit, there will never be any result between him and his Master... not to mention he is also King Arthur's husband.'
'If I hadn't appeared that night, would they have...'
Tohsaka Rin quickly shook her head, scattering the messy thoughts in her mind. She picked up the red tea that had already gone cold and drank a mouthful, feeling the bitterness spread across her tongue.
'Actually, there is no need to think so much, right? After all, it was only a dream.'
'What if it wasn't a dream?'
That absurd thought suddenly flashed through her mind. Her fingers unconsciously tightened around the porcelain cup, just like the nerves that had suddenly tensed up.
In the end, Sakura's attitude toward Alvin lately really had been a little too ambiguous.
'If it really wasn't a dream...'
Tohsaka Rin subconsciously looked toward the direction of the Matou house.
Wind and snow howled outside the window, while the dead branches in the courtyard scratched messy marks across the glass.
"Why isn't he back yet?"
———
Late-night Fuyuki was already covered in thick snow across the streets, and the streetlights on both sides looked especially lonely.
Whether in the new city or the old city, very few people would go outside during an early winter midnight like this.
Except Masters and Servants participating in the Holy Grail War.
Alvin never expected that he would only go out to investigate some things, yet end up being kept inside a room by Matou Sakura in this way.
"Then, let me ask something I'm pretty curious about first..."
Matou Sakura sat sideways on the floor with her legs folded to one side, holding a cup of hot water in both hands. She soon looked up at the boy in front of her and softly asked, "Senpai came to the Matou house this late at night. Did something important happen?"
Matou Sakura looked fairly calm, as if she had already thrown all the awkwardness from earlier behind her... or perhaps, precisely because she wanted to ease the awkwardness and change the subject, she immediately got straight to the point.
"It's a long story."
Alvin also tactfully skipped over what happened earlier. He lightly coughed and roughly explained what had happened near Mount Enzou not long ago.
After hearing the end of it, a thoughtful look appeared on Matou Sakura's face as she softly said, "So in other words, Senpai suspects Rider, or the person who damaged the Greater Grail, is related to Crest Worms, so that's why you came here in the middle of the night to investigate?"
"You could say that's basically it..."
Alvin silently nodded, then unconsciously looked at the girl in front of him a few more times.
Very quickly, a bit of emotion rose in his heart.
'Sakura really has grown up... in every way.'
If it were the old Matou Sakura encountering such an awkward situation tonight, she probably would have been too embarrassed to even show her face. But tonight, she handled things very maturely and calmly. Even Alvin couldn't help admiring it a little.
"So... did you find anything suspicious?"
At that moment, Matou Sakura's voice pulled Alvin back to reality again.
Alvin opened his mouth, but in the end lightly shook his head, "I haven't found anything suspicious for now. Though honestly, I didn't only come to the Matou house tonight just to investigate what happened."
"Then what else?"
Matou Sakura tilted her head in confusion.
Alvin looked into Matou Sakura's eyes and seriously said, "Rin and I were both worried about you, so I came to check on how you're doing."
That wasn't completely an excuse either. Alvin really was somewhat worried about Matou Sakura being alone, especially during a time like the Holy Grail War. Masters were especially easy to get attacked when alone.
Matou Sakura froze for a moment, then her gaze softened a little as she quietly said, "Senpai, don't worry. I'm different from before now. Even if I'm alone, there won't be any problems."
Yes, the current her was already completely different from the past. Whether it was Masters or Servants, most of them would not be her match.
And after some more time passed, she would become "the strongest," even leaving her own sister far behind.
"Right," Alvin secretly observed the girl in front of him and suddenly asked, "Where's your Servant? You should have already performed a Heroic Spirit summoning, right? Why haven't I seen them?"
Matou Sakura seemed to suddenly return to herself. Her expression became a little unnatural as she lightly turned her face away, "It's not very convenient for her to come out right now. If there's a chance in the future, I'll let Senpai meet her."
"Are you disappointed by that?", She suddenly asked.
"Everyone has their own secrets. Even if you want to keep it hidden, that's fine."
Alvin smiled, "As long as you're not doing bad things."
As he said this, the corner of his eye unintentionally glanced toward the doorway.