"Assassin, you seem to be in a good mood?"
"Caster, is my expression that obvious?"
"Yes."
More than half an hour ago, after Guinevere pushed Sakura into Emiya's arms, only for the two of them to pull apart as if they had been electrocuted, Guinevere chose to take her leave with a soft tsk.
As for the reason? It was simply because the two of them had opened the classroom door, intending to clarify the current situation first.
As for meeting Caster Medea, it was only because she had always dispatched Familiars near Guinevere, peeking at her every move with Guinevere's tacit consent.
"So, why did you come here yourself?"
In the classroom, Emiya and Sakura were still chatting. On the rooftop of the other teaching building they had been on earlier, Guinevere sat on top of the railing, watching Medea in her witch's attire, as well as the still-stern-faced Souichirou Kuzuki standing beside her.
"Assassin, come down first. Don't make me look up at you when I speak."
"Oh."
Medea was Guinevere's Master after all, so there was no reason to refuse such a small request. She leaped down, leveling her gaze with the witch's chin beneath the hood from several meters away.
"Caster, can you tell me now?"
Moving closer to the railing, Medea also looked down at the two in the classroom below and said:
"Didn't you say so in the Master-Servant Contract? That you wanted me to help you look after that little girl."
Medea did not say why she had come; in any case, Guinevere did not believe she had come solely for Sakura's sake.
"Oh, can you actually help Sakura?"
"Cure her? Or find her a new body? But I believe the fastest way, in fact, is for her to win the Holy Grail War. Heh, to be precise, the Holy Grail War lasts only seven days, and two have already been wasted. At least from my perspective, I cannot save her in such a short amount of time."
Hearing this, Guinevere understood slightly. Medea coming in person most likely meant she feared she would desert, and her words actually presented Guinevere with two choices.
"Caster, is your wish to live in this world for a bit longer?"
One choice was to betray Medea and help Sakura obtain the Holy Grail. The second choice was to help Medea fulfill her wish and have her cure Sakura.
As for why Guinevere thought this way, it was, of course, Medea's love for Souichirou Kuzuki. And since she said there was not enough time left, she obviously wanted more time.
Besides, this was likely Medea's way of forcing her hand. Medea had sensed a threat from Guinevere's kindness toward Sakura and had even heard Guinevere ask Sakura to call her "Mother."
In Guinevere's eyes, if she didn't choose the second option, Medea would simply forget their previous agreement and use her Command Spell to order her to fight to the death.
"Assassin, you are indeed a very clever woman, not nearly as foolish as I thought. I can't believe you've gotten involved with your husband's subordinate knight."
Hearing Guinevere's question, Medea actually already knew her choice. After teasing Guinevere in this way, she continued:
"You fulfill my wish, and I will cure Sakura for you. Or do you have other wishes?"
"Not really. You've just gotten one more thing wrong... Well, forget it, you'll find out soon enough. Consider this a surprise for you."
Guinevere had been about to say that the King of Knights was not her husband and was actually a girl, but she stopped herself. Other than wanting to give Medea a surprise, she also wanted to keep her guessing.
But to keep Medea from overthinking, Guinevere spoke seriously through their Master-Servant Contract:
"Caster, as a knight, I pledge to you: I... Guinevere Pendragon, will never actively betray you in this Holy Grail War."
Beneath her hood, Medea's brow was still furrowed as she wondered what the "thing she'd gotten wrong" could be. But with Guinevere's pledge, she had obtained the most important thing she sought from this encounter.
Was Guinevere's promise a lie? For some reason, Medea believed her instantly, judging from her earnest tone and the look in her eyes.
Charm? If it was a Charm spell, Medea would just have to consider herself unlucky. In any case, now that she had received this pledge, she wouldn't sever her own arm just because of suspicion.
Just from the wedding promise Kuzuki had made, Medea truly, truly wanted to live longer. It would be best if they could have children together in the future.
She, the Witch of Betrayal, actually wanted someone she could walk beside, someone who would decide never to betray her.
Now, she had found such a person. Now, she wanted to be even more greedy.
"Caster, are you going back to the temple first? As you said, the strongest class, Saber, has not been summoned yet. To keep the opportunity from falling into the hands of others, all the Master-Servant pairs are still in a reconnaissance phase."
"Oh, Lancer, who at least succeeded in letting you escape and also spared Archer just now, is like that."
The time Medea spent talking was short. Though their tongues sparred, there was no actual conflict.
However, in the classroom, Shirou Emiya seemed to have been provoked by some words, waving his hand in front of Sakura. He held his hand...
No, Emiya was not provoked. His hand stopped in front of Sakura, showing her the Command Spell that had appeared on the back of his hand since dawn, but which he had found a way to hide.
According to the Homurahara School Rules, students with tattoos were not allowed to enter the school, let alone tattoos on the back of their hands in such a prominent position.
"Assassin, did you see it? That's a Command Spell. Is he the Master of Saber?"
"It seems so, if indeed only Saber has not been summoned."
"Assassin, if he summoned Saber, then Saber's attributes would probably not be very good, right? I see his magic circuits are ordinary, and his mana will probably not be enough to use."
"I understand, Caster. You want me to control the soon-to-be-summoned Saber, right?"
With Guinevere still here, Medea would not want to contract another Servant; her mana simply couldn't support it.
But Guinevere had a Noble Phantasm capable of Charming the Three Knight Classes, and using it on a Saber who appeared visually weak would likely result in a high success rate, regardless of who this Saber was.
"Caster, I think we should observe first. At least let's see the strength of the Saber about to be summoned before making a decision. What if he's truly useless?"
In the classroom, Guinevere could lip-read most of what Sakura and Emiya were arguing about. It had already become a matter of Emiya insisting on participating in the Holy Grail War, while Sakura wanted him to simply surrender his Command Spell and withdraw from the competition.
"Senpai, since you have the qualifications of a Master, you can go directly to the Holy Church to seek protection after withdrawing. That will definitely be safer than me trying to protect you. I don't actually have the confidence to survive until the end."
"That's why, Sakura, this is the opportunity Heaven has given me to protect you."
Reading their lips, Guinevere repeated the words spoken by the two in the classroom. It was these words that made Medea fall silent and finally lead Souichirou Kuzuki away quietly. She agreed with Guinevere's reasoning and allowed Guinevere to act according to her own wishes first.
"A mutual admiration between pure love warriors, is that it?"
Guinevere murmured softly to herself. During this time, it was obvious that Sakura had given in to Shirou Emiya's persistence and followed behind him like a wronged little wife. The two finally began walking toward the Emiya House.