Spring turned to autumn, and three years slipped by unnoticed. During this time, Guinevere still hadn't received a summons from Chaldea.
However, this didn't mean Ritsuka no longer needed her; they simply hadn't reached the Singularity in Babylon yet.
During the Jerusalem Singularity, Guinevere had initially assumed the two timelines had different rates of temporal flow. In reality, they were entirely parallel and independent timelines.
Thus, any communication or exchange of items between them in different years relied solely on the power of Old Man of the Jewels, Merlin, and Morgan.
Guinevere's ability to live in this timeline while also being summoned from the other, despite the different years involved, stemmed from the unique nature of the Throne of Heroes.
"Hah! Lia, are you spacing out?"
In the suburban manor Guinevere had recently acquired outside London, the swords of she and the King of Knights clashed once more.
For three years, Guinevere had resumed her habit of practicing swordsmanship for half a day. Her opponents included the King of Knights, Mordred, descendants of knights from the Camelot era, and various "people" who had gained access to information and the privilege of seeking her guidance.
"Guinevere, I was just thinking about Gray..."
"What is it? Do you think I'm spoiling her too much? Are you jealous?"
"Jealous? She's our adopted daughter—we both agreed on this!"
"Huh? Isn't that exactly what I meant? You're jealous of your youngest daughter, aren't you?"
The young girl Gray, a descendant of the family who guarded Guinevere's tomb, currently held the Holy Lance.
According to Morgan, Gray was actually a descendant of Gareth, one of the Twelve Round Table Knights. At birth, she had been implanted with cells from the King of Knights, a product of her family's attempt to resurrect the King.
However, with the King of Knights now alive and both Guinevere and Mordred standing here, Gray had become obsolete. If Guinevere hadn't personally visited her own tomb three years ago, Gray—whose appearance had completely transformed into Artoria's face due to the King's presence in the Fourth Holy Grail War—would have been destroyed by that family.
Now, however, she was known as Gray Pendragon, Guinevere and the King of Knights' second adopted daughter, and the third oldest among their children.
"Exactly, Father! How did you fall for the Queen Mother's tricks again?"
Wearing denim hotpants, a cool tank top, and a fiery red cropped jacket, Mordred crouched like a monkey at the edge of the Training Ground, mocking the King of Knights.
Hearing her laughter, Sakura glanced around and squeezed Gray's hand, who was half a year younger and nearly ten years old.
As Guinevere's eldest adopted daughter bearing the Pendragon surname, Sakura had long grown accustomed to Guinevere's playful nature. And as the elder sister, she felt responsible for taking good care of her newly acquired younger sister.
With her black hair and white dress, Sakura Pendragon resembled a pristine white camellia.
"It's alright, Lia-mama wasn't distracted out of jealousy."
Due to her striking resemblance to Artoria, Gray had once been hailed as "King," but the subsequent feeling of being unwanted had made her despise her own face.
Over the past three years, however, as she grew increasingly similar to the King of Knights, Guinevere repeatedly pecked at her face, gradually easing Gray's resentment. For a time, she even stopped wearing her cloak.
Until recently, when Mordred made a slip of the tongue, carelessly blurting out her inner thoughts:
"Father's face, Mother's hair color, and being Mother's direct descendant... it's truly... enviable."
After over a thousand years, Gray and Gareth were only distantly related as ancestor and descendant, sharing no true familial bond.
Yet none of this changed the fact that Gareth was Morgan's biological child, allowing Gray to address Morgan as her great-great-great-great... grandmother.
Of course, due to Guinevere and the King of Knights' adoption, this grand lineage had been condensed into "Aunt Morgan."
Snapping out of her three-year-old reverie, the still-tiny Gray pulled her cloak's hood back up before murmuring to Sakura like a mosquito, "Thank you, Elder Sister."
"Mmm-hmm! Elder Sister will take even better care of you now! Just leave everything to me!"
Clenching her empty hand into a fist, Sakura cheerfully waved it. Before Gray came along, Rin had been her only elder sister, and she treasured Gray dearly.
As the two girls chatted, Mordred pursed her lips, briefly considering offering an explanation. After a few seconds of internal conflict, she slumped back into her seat, propping her head up with her hand.
She regretted blurting out that envious remark, but it was just her nature—she couldn't keep her thoughts bottled up.
Still wrestling with her feelings, she finally stood up and deliberately walked over to Gray, wrapping her other arm around her.
"Later tonight, I'll take you out to play. And I won't glare at you anymore—you can call me whatever you want, 'Elder Brother' or 'Elder Sister.'"
Compared to Sakura and Gray, Mordred looked like an adult. Yet, despite her age, she still felt insecure about her gender, bothered by being misidentified.
Being around her was awkward. You couldn't treat her entirely as a woman, nor could you treat her completely as a man. It was just... awkward.
Yet beneath this awkwardness, she genuinely cared deeply for her family. She revered her Father, feared her Queen Mother, pitied her Mother, and wanted to set a good example as the eldest sister to her two newfound younger sisters.
Once, she heard that someone in the Clock Tower's classroom had tried to rip off Gray's cloak, cornering Gray in the restroom to prevent her from leaving.
The moment Mordred learned of this, she stormed to the perpetrator's home, shattered all their windows, and, showing no mercy, gave the child a thorough thrashing.
Of course, it was just a thrashing.
"Sorry, Gray," she admitted, scratching her head. "I was really jealous. Who told you to look more like Father and Queen Mother's child than me?"
She had said these words before, but this time, she spoke plainly while scratching her hair. Gray's perception completely shifted. Though she didn't smile, the words no longer bothered her as much.
She saw Sakura's encouraging nod and squeezed Mordred's hand in return, nodding while shrinking further into herself.
The young Gray was still too shy.
"Hey, hey, hey! Lia, you're not worried anymore, right?"
"So you knew all along why I was distracted, didn't you?"
Swords clashed again and again as the King of Knights, fueled by anger, launched a relentless assault.
Beside the training ground stood not only their three children but also Rin Tohsaka, Waver Velvet...
...and Waver's adopted sister, Reines, and Rin Tohsaka's classmate, Luvia.
Among these four, Waver had already become an assistant instructor at the El-Melloi Classroom, serving as a master to the other three, as well as Sakura and Gray.
Nearly five years ago, after returning from the Fourth Holy Grail War, Waver had become Kayneth's formal disciple and borrowed an enormous sum of money from him to complete his studies.
Predictably, his future would either involve selling himself to Reines to pay off his debts or working for the El-Melloi family for half his life.
Yet Waver welcomed this fate, for he had indeed stolen Kayneth's prepared Holy Relic during the Fourth Holy Grail War.
Sheathing her sword, Guinevere ended the session. Though she had only stayed in the Jerusalem Singularity for seven days, her return had occurred two years later in this world.
Thus, five years had passed since the Fourth Holy Grail War, and variant Holy Grail Wars were now erupting across the globe.
"Waver Velvet, how are the preparations for the Great Holy Grail War going, the one the Yggdmillennia Family is helping to organize?
To make this war possible, I even persuaded Mrs. Irisviel to allow the Yggdmillennia Family to inspect the Fuyuki Greater Grail and requested her assistance in providing data."
Guinevere's current form, still composed of Black Mud, continued to elicit subconscious disdain from the King of Knights. This made securing the Holy Grail once again a matter of urgent necessity.
Of course, the King of Knights wasn't repulsed by Guinevere herself, but rather, as a Heroic Spirit, she instinctively recoiled from All the World's Evil.