"Well then, I'm heading out."
The "Black" Assassin, Jack the Ripper, sat by the third-floor window and spoke to her Master.
"It's going to be dangerous tonight, so Mom (Master) shouldn't come with us."
Reika Rikudou nodded. "I understand. I'll wait here for you, Jack. Be careful."
Little Jack's words left her somewhat uneasy, but considering the dwindling stock of hearts in the freezer, she had no choice but to let her go out.
Reika Rikudou was not a Magus, nor did she possess any knowledge or training in Magecraft. She was merely an ordinary person swept up in the Holy Grail War.
Although she had summoned a Servant by chance, Reika Rikudou could not provide her with Mana.
Even if Assassin was the least costly Servant to maintain, she would eventually disappear if things continued this way. Because of that, Jack the Ripper had no choice but to attack Magi and replenish her Mana by eating their hearts.
Reika Rikudou and Jack the Ripper had killed their way from Bucharest to Sighișoara, and by now there were very few remaining prey, Magi, left to hunt.
They had decided to depart for Trifas tomorrow. Tonight would be their last night in this town.
"Mm, we're going now."
The silver-haired little girl asked tentatively, "Um, um, Mom, when we come back, we want to eat hamburger steak again... Is that okay?"
"Of course. I already bought the ingredients during the day. I'll start making it for you soon."
Hearing that, Jack the Ripper smiled happily, then jumped straight out of the third-floor window.
Reika Rikudou stood by the window, smiling as she waved her off.
She did not know what the Holy Grail War was. She did not know what a Master was, nor what a Servant was.
Come to think of it, she had always been more absentminded than most people since childhood.
Reika Rikudou had been born into a wealthy family. When she was young, her parents had raised her like a proper young lady, teaching her refined accomplishments such as piano.
But later, Reika Rikudou's parents died in an accident. From then on, her happiness came to an abrupt end, and her life began to slide downhill.
Perhaps because of what had happened in her childhood, Reika Rikudou had never had much of a sense that she was alive. She found it difficult to feel any real value in either her own life or the lives of others.
Unable to find joy in life, she drifted along in self-indulgence and resignation, like an emotionless machine.
After meeting Jack the Ripper, however, she changed.
It was the first time Reika Rikudou had ever felt something special toward anyone.
Because in the more than twenty years of her life, Jack was the only one who had saved her without asking for anything in return.
So Jack the Ripper's wish became her wish, and now she lived only to answer Jack the Ripper's expectations.
She did not know when Assassin would return, but in any case, she had to prepare a delicious meal for the girl.
With a happy expression, she turned into the kitchen and began busily preparing.
After some time, Reika Rikudou noticed a knock coming from the other side of the room.
Who could be knocking?
Little Jack never used the front door.
She especially liked climbing in through the window. Reika Rikudou thought it was dangerous, but it was cute, so she never said much about it.
The owner of the house had returned. That was impossible too.
The Magi who had used this house as a base had recently had their hearts dug out, then been dismembered and disposed of.
Could it be Little Jack's enemy?
That possibility was also quite low.
She was not a Magus, so by a stroke of luck, she had no magical presence at all. It was almost impossible for her identity as a Master to be exposed.
Reika Rikudou judged that opening the door should not carry any real risk.
Considering that ignoring the knock might alert the police and cause even more trouble, she left the kitchen and went to the entrance.
"May I ask who you are...?"
Standing at the door was a red-haired boy who looked under twenty.
Seeing an East Asian face in a foreign country immediately put Reika Rikudou on guard.
However...
"Haven't we met somewhere before?"
Reika Rikudou frowned in confusion as she studied the boy's face.
He felt strangely familiar, but the moment she tried to remember seriously, her head grew foggy.
"Has the little girl living with you gone out?"
The boy asked bluntly.
Reika Rikudou looked surprised.
To avoid drawing attention, Assassin always kept "Presence Concealment" active whenever she entered or left the house. No one should have noticed her.
"Looks like she has gone out."
He continued speaking to himself. "That's not good. It's already so late.
And there's such heavy fog outside. What if she runs into someone bad?
Hasn't everyone been talking about it lately?
The newspapers are all saying Jack the Ripper has reappeared in Romania..."
"I'm sorry, but I think you have the wrong person. There is no little girl here."
As Reika Rikudou spoke, she hurriedly tried to shut the door. "If there's nothing else, please leave at once."
She failed to close it. The red-haired boy was gripping the doorframe firmly.
"I-I'll call the police!"
"The police?"
The boy smiled with ill intent. "I don't mind, but what will you do then?
How are you going to explain the male corpses buried in this house's basement?"
"How do you even know about that!?"
Reika Rikudou looked stunned, her pupils filled with unconcealed fear.
She and Little Jack had buried the house owners' bodies with their own hands only a few days ago. There was no way an outsider should know about that!
"May I come in now?"
After the boy urged her again, she bit her lip and slowly stepped aside, letting the guest into the room.
...
"Nice to meet you. My name is Shirou."
Shirou sat down on the sofa for guests and looked at the woman seated across from him.
She had a beautiful face, heavy makeup, and long dark-green hair. She wore a gorgeous coat like a fur coat, while the clothes underneath were rather revealing.
Her wide-open neckline exposed an impressive snow-white cleavage, and beneath the hem of her miniskirt were a pair of beautiful legs wrapped in over-the-knee boots.
Back in Tokyo, Shirou had glanced at her identification, her driver's license, so he knew her name.
"You're Miss Reika Rikudou, right?"
"..."
Reika Rikudou gritted her teeth and said nothing.
At this point, nothing the boy said would surprise her anymore.
"I see, Shirou-kun... You're either a Master or a Servant, aren't you?"
She glared at him with wary eyes.
"Yes."
Shirou nodded without hiding it, and despair appeared on Reika Rikudou's face.
For someone with no means of defending herself, having an enemy come to her door while Little Jack was away was effectively the end.
"Are you going to kill me?"
The woman asked with an expression of self-abandonment.
In truth, Reika Rikudou was a "natural genius" who could be called a monster.
She possessed extraordinary understanding and observation. After studying for barely more than ten hours on the plane, she had mastered the local language of Romania.
The reason Jack the Ripper had been able to slaughter Magi so smoothly was precisely because of this "mother's" brilliant command.
To Reika Rikudou, with her monstrous intuition, the red-haired boy before her was an enemy that she and Little Jack could never defeat.
He had completely grasped all the information on their side and skillfully forced her into a dead end.
At the same time, he exuded the presence of a powerful being on an entirely different level from the small fry enemies they had encountered before.
Reika Rikudou accepted reality. Her life with Little Jack was about to end here.
Faced with her question, Shirou gave no clear answer. "There's one thing I don't really understand. Could you tell me how you met your Servant?"
The woman was silent for a while, then slowly began to explain everything.
...
For the woman named Reika Rikudou, the Black Assassin was fate itself.
"You want to live, don't you?"
"I want to live."
"Mm, understood."
"Let's make a contract, Mom."
One day, she was approached on the street by a young man.
The man's words seemed to carry some kind of magical power, and Reika Rikudou obediently followed him back to his residence.
She no longer remembered what happened after that.
When she opened her eyes again, the man who had approached her had become a corpse lying in a pool of blood.
And inside the room stood more than a dozen strangers she did not know.
"Hey! Woman! What happened here!? Why is Hyouma Sagara dead?"
"Did you kill him? You've got some nerve."
Reika Rikudou was too frightened to speak.
At the time, she still did not know that these people were Magi of the Yggdmillennia clan.
Hyouma Sagara, who had been conducting a Heroic Spirit summoning ritual, had failed to contact them at the agreed time. His companions came to look for him, only to find his corpse and an unconscious woman.
After that, the Magi subjected Reika Rikudou to brutal torture.
Of course, they could not get anything out of her, because she truly knew nothing.
Reika Rikudou had simply been brought home by Hyouma Sagara through suggestion Magecraft. Before she could even become a ritual sacrifice, Shirou had then erased her memories with suggestion Magecraft.
After the Magi of Yggdmillennia confirmed that she really knew nothing, they decided to kill her.
Reika Rikudou was probably the unluckiest person in the world that day.
But perhaps because she had already tasted every bit of "misfortune" in her life ahead of time, she finally encountered her own "good fortune."
When the Magus slit Reika Rikudou's throat, the blood that sprayed out splattered across the floor.
On that floor was not only Hyouma Sagara's corpse.
There was also the Magic Circle he had carved for the ritual, as well as the summoning catalyst he had prepared.
A knife said to have been used by Jack the Ripper in life.
Through the accumulation of countless coincidences, the ritual to summon a Heroic Spirit was completed.
It hurts...
My head is spinning...
Reika Rikudou's artery had been cut open, and her body rapidly lost its warmth.
The burning pain she had felt at first had long since faded. Now, all she felt was a lonely chill colder than a river in the depths of winter.
As her consciousness grew weaker and weaker, an emotion she had never felt before suddenly welled up within her.
The desire to survive.
Reika Rikudou had once believed that someone like her, who lived muddle-headedly like a walking corpse, would surely be able to face death calmly when it came.
But reality was not like that.
I don't want to die... I want to live...
I don't want to die... I don't want to die... I don't want to die, I don't want to die, I don't want to die, I don't want to die, I don't want to die!
Reika Rikudou felt a burning pain on the back of her right hand and instinctively opened her eyes.
Then she saw a silver-haired little girl emerging from the dazzling light and raging wind.
"H-how... How is this possible!?"
The Magi cried out in shock, but it was already too late.
The girl merely swung the short blade in her hand, and in the next instant, the Magi who had been throwing their weight around moments earlier were sliced into scattered chunks of flesh.
The girl did not even look at the dead Magi. Instead, she walked straight to Reika Rikudou's side and held her hand tightly.
"Mom, you're bleeding so much... It's okay. We'll treat your wound right now."
If this was not fate, then what could possibly be called fate?
If she had summoned any Assassin other than Jack the Ripper, Reika Rikudou would have inevitably died.
But it happened to be Jack the Ripper.
The girl who possessed the Skill "Surgical Procedure" pulled Reika Rikudou, whose major artery had been severed, back from the hands of death.
And so, at the end of a life spent drifting with the current, Reika Rikudou met the "Black" Assassin as if guided by fate.
The woman who had been saved became a mother, and threw herself into the Great Holy Grail War.
"..."
Shirou listened to her confession with a grave expression.
He had not expected something like that to happen after he and Manaka left.
Had he known that the Yggdmillennia clan also had influence in Tokyo, he would not have left her there alone.
Shirou realized that his actions back then had indeed been poorly thought out, but that was one thing, and this was another.
Since this woman had already formed a contract with Jack the Ripper, she was now part of the Holy Grail War and had to bear the risks that came with it.
Before Shirou could speak, Reika Rikudou suddenly asked, "After you kill me, could you send Jack to a children's welfare facility?"
"Huh?"
Shirou was stunned by her question.
Jack the Ripper was a Servant. Once her Magus died, naturally, she could not continue to exist... Did this woman not even know that?
Did she really come all the way to Romania without knowing anything?
Shirou shook his head. "Sorry, I can't do that."
Hearing him say that, Reika Rikudou became visibly agitated.
"That child is innocent... Please, I don't care what happens to me! Just... please, spare that child!"
She might look like a little girl, but after killing more than a dozen Magi, there was no way she could be called innocent...
And she was the legendary serial killer, no less.
Shirou answered with silence.
If Reika Rikudou obediently handed over her Command Spells, he was willing to protect her safety.
But Jack the Ripper... A dangerous Servant like that could not be allowed to remain in this world.
That was Shirou's view.
"If you die, Assassin will disappear."
Shirou explained, "Once you're gone, she won't be able to 'live' even if she keeps eating Magi hearts.
That's what a Servant is."
"How can that be...!"
Reika Rikudou's face turned deathly pale, and she was visibly shaken.
She had planned to sacrifice herself in exchange for Jack the Ripper's survival, only to realize now that it was impossible.
If she wanted Jack to live, the only path was to obtain the Holy Grail.
The woman bit her lip and stood up.
"I... surrender."
Shirou could not help frowning. "What?"
Reika Rikudou spoke earnestly. "That child and I are willing to submit to you. Your goal is the Holy Grail too, isn't it?
Jack will help you obtain the Holy Grail. She can still be useful to you.
Whether it's killing or anything else, that child can carry it out perfectly.
So please spare our lives. Please protect us."
"No, even if you say that..."
Shirou scratched his cheek.
He recalled the conclusion Jeanne had reached when they discussed this matter.
Assassin had seriously violated the rules of the Holy Grail War.
Jack the Ripper was no longer considered qualified to continue competing for the Holy Grail. If necessary, Ruler intended to personally deal with and eliminate her.
"Um... well, I can too..."
Reika Rikudou sat down beside Shirou.
"I can also... do anything for you, Shirou-kun."
As she spoke, the coat draped over the woman's body slipped to the floor, revealing her curvaceous, mature figure.