A/N: Not gonna lie i kinda get carried away like first half of this chapter. I'm like already thinking about what i want to do for this chapter but i accidentally write 1.5k words about Rikka and Irisviel alone...
So yeah nothing much going on with this one.
Anyway see you in the next chapter~
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I slowly started to wake up from an incredibly deep and peaceful sleep.
My eyelids felt completely glued shut, and my body felt way too heavy and relaxed to even consider getting out of bed.
I lazily tried to stretch my arms to shake off the grogginess, but I quickly realized I was completely trapped.
But it was not a bad kind of trapped at all.
My limbs were wrapped up in a gentle, protective embrace.
A thick layer of comforting warmth completely surrounded me, and I could hear the rhythmic sound of soft breathing right above my head.
It smelled exactly like the sweet, expensive floral soap from the bath last night.
It is so incredibly warm and safe that my brain just melted.
I completely gave up on trying to stretch and let my body move purely on instinct.
I blindly wiggled my way forward under the blankets like a little caterpillar, desperately trying to get as close to that cozy body heat as I possibly could.
Suddenly my face pressed right into something incredibly soft and squishy.
'Wait, what is this?' I thought lazily while rubbing my cheek against the mystery pillow. 'It smells so nice and it is ridiculously soft.'
My rational adult brain definitely should have told me to open my eyes and assess the situation.
But before I could even process that thought, a gentle hand started softly stroking my hair.
A quiet, affectionate hum vibrated through the warm body holding me.
That is the absolute final blow to my adult dignity.
The childish instincts of my eight-year-old body completely hijacked my common sense.
The squishy warmth and the gentle head pats were just way too inviting to ignore.
My hands blindly reached out and grabbed tightly onto whatever soft fabric was in front of me.
Without wasting a single second I happily nuzzled my face deeper into the mystery softness, instinctively burrowing into the embrace like a baby bird seeking ultimate comfort.
I let out a satisfied, drawn-out little hum and completely surrendered to the overwhelming fluffiness
I stayed in that incredibly comfortable position for quite a while.
The rhythmic breathing and the continuous, gentle head pats felt so amazing that I just let myself melt into the warmth.
I genuinely wanted to stay hidden inside that cozy little nest forever.
But eventually I finally managed to slowly flutter my heavy eyelids open, fully expecting to see the bright morning sunlight coming through the castle windows.
But all I could see is a complete wall of soft white fabric.
My vision is entirely blocked because my face is still buried deep inside that mysterious squishy warmth.
'Wait, I seriously need some room to breathe.' I thought while my cheeks started to feel incredibly warm.
I gently pushed my hands against the softness and pulled my head back just a little bit to finally get some air.
As soon as I shifted my body, the gentle hand that was stroking my hair paused for a brief second.
"Good morning." A soft and incredibly melodic voice whispered from right above me.
That gentle voice instantly wiped the remaining sleepiness from my mind and woke me up fully.
I quickly tilted my head up and my wide eyes immediately met her striking crimson ones.
She's looking down at me with the most beautiful, warm, and loving smile on her face.
Her delicate hand slowly resumed patting my hair, making me feel completely safe and protected in her arms.
'She is seriously treating me just like her own daughter.' I thought helplessly, feeling my entire face flush bright red as I finally realized exactly what I had just been using as my personal pillow
Still, this is really embarrassing since this has been going on for a few minutes. I decide this simply has to stop.
"Umm, Aunty...? This is really embarrassing, please let me go!" I struggle slightly to pull back from her tight hug.
"Oh my~ calling me Aunty feels way too stiff, right? How about you just call me Mama Iri." Irisviel says with a warm smile.
"Wha-what?! Isn't that way too fast? We just met a few hours ago!" I blurt out in absolute panic.
I do not know if Irisviel is just naturally this friendly or something, but asking me to call her Mama Iri is definitely moving way too fast.
Also, why Mama Iri anyway?!
"Fufu, your face is really cute when you are confused like that." Suddenly, as she says that, she decides to move and sit up on the bed.
But the problem is she is still hugging me tightly while she does that.
So now I am suddenly sitting directly on her lap as she shifts me around, turning me to face the opposite direction while she hugs me securely from behind.
"Fufufu~" I can hear her happy murmur from behind me as she starts gently brushing my hair with her hands.
"Looking at you reminds me of my daughter back home. I am sorry if you feel overwhelmed by me, but I really could not hold myself back after seeing my husband point a gun at you last night." Irisviel's voice sounds genuinely sad, especially when she talks about her daughter.
I know for a fact she is definitely talking about Illyasviel.
"So just think of this like I am fixing the mistake of my husband. Oh right, I never knew your name. Do you mind telling me your name?"
"My... My name is Reina," I reply, feeling kind of bad for using a fake name with her when she has been so incredibly kind to me.
"I see, Reina. Then my name is Irisviel von Einzbern, but you can call me Mama Iri," she says as she happily rubs her soft cheek against my hair.
"Now try calling me that~" she adds playfully.
That is going to be genuinely hard.
There is absolutely no way I can randomly call someone I just met that.
Even with Lady Ava, I still cannot bring myself to call her Ava-neechan like she wants.
It is just way too awkward.
The memories of being a thirty-year-old adult from my previous life make me cringe uncontrollably at the mere thought of calling someone a nickname like that so easily.
But unlike Lady Ava, Irisviel's request feels incredibly genuine and filled with so much maternal warmth that I actually want to try.
"Ma-mam... Ma..." I stammer, trying to force the word out at least once.
My throat just completely locks up because my adult pride and sheer embarrassment make it physically impossible to say it properly.
Seeing me struggle so much makes Irisviel giggle softly, and her warm smile never fades as she goes right back to gently patting my head.
"You do not need to force yourself because that is just my own selfishness wanting you to call me that," she whispers sweetly.
"It is not morning yet so let's go back to sleep," she suddenly adds while pulling me a little closer to her warmth.
"Huh, not morning?" I blink in surprise and turn my head to look towards the window, noticing that just like she said the sky outside is still pitch black.
How long have I even been asleep? I honestly feel like I have been knocked out for hours until morning, so resting in her arms must seriously be so comfortable that my sense of time is completely warped.
Since it is still the middle of the night, I decide to just accept Irisviel suggestion and we both almost drift right back to sleep together in the warm bed.
That is until I suddenly sense a massive wave of powerful prana that definitely belongs to a Servant getting closer to the castle.
The only reason I can feel it so clearly is because this Servant is completely refusing to hide their presence, purposely letting their prana leak out everywhere to either threaten us or show that they do not actually want to fight right now.
Wait, I am honestly getting kind of lost with the plot right now.
If Kayneth attacked this place last night, then the reason he attacked in the first place has to be because Kiritsugu already blew up his hotel yesterday during the day, meaning I somehow completely missed that happening while I was so distracted.
I have been way too focused on Caster and his stupid serial killer Master, which makes me incredibly frustrated because I have not heard a single thing about missing children or seen any news about them.
It is honestly so stupid because it feels like those two maniacs never even existed in this timeline in the first place.
But right now is definitely not the time to be thinking about missing plot points, especially when I look up and see Irisviel making the exact same tense face as me because she clearly also senses someone boldly walking right through the Einzbern bounded field.
Her expression immediately changes as she quickly tries to act normal, looking down at me with a forced smile on her lips.
"Sorry Reina, but I just remembered there is something important I need to do right now so can you sleep alone for a little bit?" she asks while desperately trying to hide her panic.
"Yeah, I can sleep alone," I reply simply while nodding at her.
"Thank you, Reina is a really good child," she says sweetly before moving away and carefully standing up from the edge of the bed.
"I will be back soon so just try to get some rest for now."
Once Irisviel softly closes the door behind her, I am finally left entirely alone in the quiet bedroom.
If I remember the timeline correctly, this presence has to be Rider showing up for the Banquet of Kings to drink with Saber and Archer and talk about their royal duties while completely crushing Saber's flawed ideals of leadership.
So everything should actually be perfectly fine tonight since they do not even fight each other, except for when Assassin tries to ambush them and Rider uses his reality marble to wipe them all out.
"Not gonna lie, I really want to see a Noble Phantasm in action though..." I mumble quietly to myself in the empty room.
In the end there is really nothing I can do about the situation outside right now so I just close my eyes and try to go back to sleep.
But barely five minutes after I manage to drift off, a violently loud explosion physically shakes the entire bedroom.
"What the fuck!" I scream in pure shock, instantly shooting up from the mattress and staring wildly toward the source of the deafening noise.
"It seems like you have been having fun playing with a doll, Guardian" an incredibly arrogant voice echoes through the settling dust, instantly making my blood run cold because I know exactly who that commanding tone belongs to.
"Did you really need to destroy the wall like that?" I ask in complete disbelief while glaring at Gilgamesh as she casually steps right through the massive hole she has just blasted into the side of the castle.
"Heh, if that wall was not reinforced with magecraft I would not need to waste my treasures to destroy it" she replies dismissively while walking confidently right toward my bed.
"It seems like leaving you alone for a few hours has already made you forget who your King is because you are certainly not talking to me the way you usually do."
"I am sorry, Your Majesty, but literally anyone would react exactly like this when they are sleeping and suddenly get woken up by an explosive blast," I grumble defensively while trying to calm my racing heart.
"Hmm, I will ignore that sarcastic tone from your mouth for now so entertain me, Guardian" she commands effortlessly right before lowering herself onto the edge of the mattress.
Even though she is just sitting on a normal bed, she somehow manages to make the mattress look like an actual golden throne because she crosses her legs with perfect elegance and keeps her posture flawlessly straight while looking down at me with the absolute authority of a supreme ruler.
Entertain?! Am I some kind of circus clown or something? Also, what the hell is she even doing here since she's definitely supposed to be with Rider and Saber doing that whole king meeting right now.
"What about the meeting? I'm pretty sure Saber and Rider are having their king meeting right now, so didn't you get invited by him?" I ask her, remembering that in the anime Rider accidentally meets Gilgamesh on the road and invites her to join them.
"At first it sounded like an interesting way to waste some time," she replies smoothly before her crimson eyes suddenly narrow sharply right at me, "but thanks to you I already know exactly what's gonna happen."
"Huh? What do you mean?" I ask in complete confusion.
"Did you forget what happened at the docks? That day I used Sha Naqba Imuru to see your future, but as usual it doesn't work on you, though I still managed to see the timeline without you existing in it so I already know everything that happens tonight," she explains casually like it's no big deal at all.
"You can see the future too?! I didn't expect that at all, just how many abilities do you even have, King of Heroes?" I blurt out in genuine surprise because back in Fate Zero Gilgamesh literally never mentioned having this kinda overpowered ability.
I mean Lady Ava has Clairvoyance but she can only see everything happening in the current time, not the future or the past.
And I definitely saw a terrifying glance of the future when Gilgamesh kidnapped me two days ago where Manaka was destroying the entire Fuyuki City, but Void explicitly told me that future vision doesn't work on me.
"You said when you try to see the future it doesn't work on me, right?" I ask her again just to make absolutely sure I understand.
"Didn't you hear what I just said earlier? I clearly told you I can't see any future where you exist, so the future I see is only the one where you never existed in the first place," she snaps back with an annoyed huff.
"I'm just making sure, so don't be so grumpy about it," I mutter in a small voice while pouting a little bit at her attitude.
"Anyway, I'm sorry to disappoint you, Your Majesty, but I really can't think of anything to entertain you at this moment because as you can see I just woke up so I'm still super groggy," I say while rubbing my heavy eyes.
Gilgamesh just stares at me deeply with those sharp crimson eyes, her gaze feeling so intense it is like she is trying to peer right through my soul.
She stays completely silent for a few heavy seconds before letting out an elegant and disappointed sigh.
"If you are too exhausted to fulfill your duties then staying in this dusty room is simply a waste of my precious time" she says while gracefully standing up from the edge of the bed.
"Perhaps I should just head to that trivial banquet of kings after all since at least those mongrels will provide some fleeting amusement."
"Hmm? Oh right, if you already saw the future what about Kotomine?" I quickly ask right before she can fully walk away.
"You definitely saw your future self getting to know him and teaming up with him, right?"
Gilgamesh stops mid-step and slowly turns her head to look back at me over her shoulder, her expression instantly filling with absolute boredom at the mere mention of his name.
"Do not compare me to whatever boring path that alternate version of myself chose to take" she answers with a dismissive scoff.
"That fake priest is nothing more than an empty shell desperately looking for a purpose."
She turns her body fully toward me again as a dangerous but deeply amused smirk forms on her beautiful face.
"Why would I ever waste my time trying to entertain myself with such a horribly boring man when I already have an infinitely more fascinating 'human' like you right here in front of me?" she adds smoothly before turning back around and confidently stepping right out through the broken wall into the night.