Seeing Cosette take it so seriously, Rowan left the matter to her.
Cosette used ninjutsu and created several clones. With a clatter of pots and pans, she quickly put together a lavish lunch.
Yes, Cosette could use ninjutsu too.
She was Rowan's personal chef, after all. How could Rowan not give her the power to protect herself?
Especially the Clone Technique. It was perfect for a chef. With that jutsu, Cosette alone could equal an entire kitchen team and handle a full banquet by herself.
Everyone ate until their mouths were shiny with oil, loudly praising how satisfying it was.
After lunch, Rowan looked at the group of Heroic Spirits seated around him—Medea, Medusa, King Hassan, Cu Chulainn, Heracles, and the others—and felt full of confidence.
There were only seven Heroic Spirits in the Holy Grail War in total. Now, five of them were already on his side.
Rowan honestly couldn't imagine how he could lose.
However, he remembered that the Holy Grail War had a hidden rule.
If all Heroic Spirits ended up in the same faction, the Grail would issue extra slots, creating the so-called Great Holy Grail War of seven Servants versus seven Servants.
Of course, that was only something that happened in a parallel world.
As for whether it would happen in this world—
Rowan was honestly looking forward to it.
If seven more Heroic Spirits appeared, that would be excellent.
It meant Rowan could recruit more Heroic Spirits and gain even more combat power.
So not only would Rowan not stop that from happening, he would actively encourage it.
Therefore, the next priority was recruiting the last two Heroic Spirits.
Heroic Spirit Emiya, and King Arthur, Artoria.
Last night, Rin Tohsaka had already summoned Emiya, but Artoria had not yet appeared.
That was because the final Master, Shirou Emiya, had not yet obtained his Command Spells.
So after discussing it with everyone, Rowan decided to recruit Emiya first.
Once everyone had eaten and drunk their fill, they went to Homurahara Academy under Sakura Matou's guidance.
The reason they came here was that after summoning Emiya, Rin Tohsaka had not taken a leave of absence. She was still attending school during the day.
And Emiya had turned spiritual and was protecting Rin from the shadows.
If Rowan wanted to find them, naturally he had to come to Homurahara Academy.
After Rowan's group entered the school, they immediately caught Emiya's attention.
After all, Rowan and the others made no attempt to hide their auras.
Five Heroic Spirits appearing together scared Emiya on the spot.
No, wait—what was this situation?
He remembered that during the Fifth Holy Grail War, nothing this absurd had happened.
Why had five Heroic Spirits come together? Had they already formed an alliance?
How was that possible?
Although Emiya was reluctant to believe something so ridiculous, he still informed Rin Tohsaka at once.
"Master, listen carefully—"
Rin, who was currently in class, listened to Emiya's report and immediately felt as if the sky had collapsed.
Five Heroic Spirits arriving together. If they weren't coming for her, who else could they be coming for?
As far as she knew, she was the only Master in all of Homurahara Academy.
What had she done? Had she violated some heavenly law or something? Why were five Heroic Spirits collectively coming to suppress her?
This made no sense.
When she entered the Holy Grail War, Rin knew it was dangerous, but this wasn't merely dangerous anymore. This was not even giving her a way to live.
Rin's face went pale, and her legs trembled.
At the end of the day, no matter how mature she was, she was still only a teenage high school girl.
At the same time, Emiya's voice came again.
"What do we do, young lady? If we run now, there should still be time."
Run? Right. She had to run. If she didn't run in this situation, she was really dead.
"Teacher, my stomach suddenly hurts. I need to go to the bathroom."
At this point, Rin no longer cared about class. She casually made up an excuse for the teacher, and before the teacher could even respond, she ran for it, moving faster than a rabbit.
The teacher on the podium saw this and couldn't help saying, "Looks like Tohsaka really is in a lot of pain."
If she wasn't, she wouldn't have run that fast.
After escaping the classroom, Rin no longer cared about anything else. She opened a window and jumped out, not even bothering to consider which floor she was on.
Someone would catch her anyway.
Sure enough, Emiya materialized, caught Rin effortlessly, and the moment he landed, he kicked off the ground with tremendous force.
The ground exploded beneath him, and his entire body shot forward like a cannonball.
He crossed the courtyard at astonishing speed, like a streak of red light, and in an instant, he vaulted over the wall and escaped the school.
But just then, Emiya's voice suddenly sounded.
"Damn."
Rin's heart tightened. "What happened, Archer?"
Emiya said, "We may not be able to run."
"Huh?" Rin was just about to ask why when she suddenly felt something wrong with Emiya's arms around her. They were hard and cold, with no warmth at all.
She looked down and was horrified to discover that Emiya's lower body, including his arms, had been petrified.
"What is this?"
"Mystic Eyes of Petrification," Emiya said. "Among the five Heroic Spirits, one of them should be Medusa."
"Medusa? That snake-haired monster?!" Rin cried out in shock. It wasn't as if she hadn't heard the legend of Medusa before. The Mystic Eyes of Petrification were indeed extremely troublesome.
But what made her even more helpless was that this amnesiac Heroic Spirit was so useless. He had been half-petrified in a single encounter.
"Think of something, Archer! I'm still so young! I don't want to die yet!"
Rin shouted in panic.
Emiya said, "How about… we surrender?"
He had some confidence in a one-on-one fight, but not enough to fight one against five. Not to mention, he had been careless and already had half his body petrified, including his arms.
At this point, he was basically meat on the chopping board, waiting to be carved up.
Aside from surrendering, there really didn't seem to be another option.
Rin thought it over again and again, then finally deflated like a punctured balloon.
"I guess that's all we can do."
She truly had not expected her Holy Grail War journey to be this short.
She had only summoned this useless Heroic Spirit yesterday, and today she already had to surrender.
The experience was terrible.
Rin swore that if she survived today, she would never touch the Holy Grail War again. This war wasn't fun at all.
"Good afternoon, Tohsaka-senpai."
"Good afternoon, head of the Tohsaka family. Illyasviel von Einzbern greets you."
Just as Rin was silently waiting, two people appeared in front of her.
"Sakura, it's you."
Rin ignored Illya completely and focused all her attention on Sakura Matou.
She really had not expected that one of the people who had almost pushed her into a desperate situation would be Sakura.
Illya was displeased. She had gone out of her way to greet Rin politely, yet Rin had ignored her.
"How rude, head of the Tohsaka family. As expected, country bumpkin paupers have no manners."
"Who are you calling a country bumpkin pauper?!"
Rin nearly lost her mind and wanted to tear Illya apart. She could accept Illya calling her rude, but she absolutely could not accept Illya mocking her for being poor.
Because she really was poor. That hurt.
Seeing Rin lose her composure, Illya became happy and kept calling her a pauper over and over.
The look in Rin's eyes said she wanted to stab someone, and there was no hiding it. If Archer weren't currently useless, she would absolutely make this rude little brat pay.
"That's enough, Illya. Stop."
At that moment, Heracles walked over, lifted Illya up, and placed her on his shoulder.
A few comments about being poor were fine. Keep going, and it would become impolite.
Illya sat cheerfully on Heracles's shoulder and made a face at Rin.
"I'm not angry. I'm not angry."
Rin took a deep breath, forcefully suppressing the rage in her heart and smoothing out the twitching veins on her face. Then she looked at her younger sister and asked gently, "Sakura, can you tell me what exactly is going on?"
Sakura said calmly, "As you can see, Tohsaka-senpai, Illya and I are allies. We've already formed an alliance in this Holy Grail War."
Hearing that, Rin's suspended heart finally died.
"So what are you planning to do with me?"
"Simple. Join us," Sakura said.
Rin sucked in a breath. "You already have five Heroic Spirits. If I join, that makes six. What kind of monster is the final Heroic Spirit that you need this many people to deal with?"
"You've completely misunderstood, head of the Tohsaka family."
Illya rolled her eyes.
"Big Brother's plan is to gather all the Heroic Spirits and go save another world, not fight some Holy Grail War."
"Huh?" Rin looked completely blank.
Another world?
Was she crazy, or were they crazy?
Emiya's heart jolted.
Big Brother. Another world.
Could this be the reason the Holy Grail War had changed this time?
Who was this "Big Brother"?
Emiya smiled and asked, "Little girl, may I ask who this 'Big Brother' of yours is?"
The moment he said that, Emiya felt Illya's gaze change.
That resentful, wounded look made his scalp tingle.
"How sad. Now you're not even willing to call me your big sister, Shirou?"
When Emiya heard those words, a giant "what the hell" appeared in his mind.
He had been doxxed.
"Shirou?"
The moment Rin heard that name, her gaze became sharp. She whipped her head around and stared hard at Emiya.
"What the hell is Shirou supposed to mean, Archer?"
Emiya forced down the tingling sensation in his scalp and said, "Wait, I don't know either. Shirou or whatever—"
At the same time, Sakura smoothly followed up with another stab.
"It's been a long time, Emiya-senpai. These years must have been very hard on you."
Shirou? Emiya-senpai? Emiya Shirou?!
Only then did Rin notice that although Archer had white hair, that face, those features—if she looked carefully, they really did resemble Emiya Shirou's. She simply had never thought in that direction before.
Who the hell would expect the person they cared about to show up as a Heroic Spirit?
~~~
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