Chapter 4 Shift in the Situation / Eve of the Encounter
Snowfield City – 4km from the Casino-Hotel "Crystal Hill"
"..."
When she opened her eyes, Sakura saw a ceiling with an ornate pattern. A massive floor-to-ceiling window sat in the direction of the light source, offering a grand panoramic view of the city. Sakura sat up, pulling back the blanket that still held her body heat and folding it neatly.
"Sister?"
Seeing that her surroundings had changed since she fell asleep, Sakura's first instinct was to look for Rin. Instead, she saw Rin briskly drawing a magic circle on the floor using crushed gemstone dust, while Illya wandered aimlessly around the room with nothing to do.
"Eh? What happened?" Sakura was a walking question mark.
"Sakura, you're awake too?" Rin only then noticed Sakura had stirred and greeted her frankly. She didn't stop her movements. To Sakura's question of "What is this?", she replied casually:
"It's just some idiot making unreasonable demands... Sakura, you don't have to do anything. It's fine if you sleep a bit longer, okay?"
'What happened while I was asleep?' Sakura was dazed.
However, her Servant—who had just deactivated her spirit form—provided the answer: "It's Shirou."
Rider continued: "Shirou said he found the address of a Master and went to investigate immediately."
"? That idiot Senpai!" Sakura, showing an unusual unity in her evaluation of him, scrambled out of bed to stand up, but it was clearly too late to catch him.
"Saber is accompanying him."
"...Rider, please finish your sentences all at once. You scared me to death...."
Even Sakura had a clear understanding of the combined combat prowess of Saber and Shirou.
Sometimes, Sakura even envied the way Saber fought side-by-side with him. If those two were as one—they feared no despair.
"So, what is Nee-san doing now?"
"Working for that guy, obviously..." Rin twitched her lip.
"Sakura, do you know the relationship between a Ley Line manager and the Ley Lines?"
Sakura blinked, thought for a moment, and replied: "A Ley Line manager can grasp the central hub of the Ley Lines to monitor their condition?"
"Exactly. But what I'm being asked to do now is different, because this isn't my territory. That idiot said that according to his intel, there's a Heroic Spirit with a very distinct presence residing in the forest on the outskirts of Snowfield. However, the source wouldn't tell him which forest. So, to find his specific location, I have to check the Ley Lines."
This was the task Shirou had entrusted to Rin. Although Shirou and the others had no immediate plans to actually meet that Heroic Spirit, having more concrete intelligence offered only benefits and no drawbacks. The reason they had moved to a new hotel again was because this geographic location was more favorable for Ley Line analysis.
"Forcing an intrusion into Ley Lines without being the manager... he really loves giving people difficult problems. This is like trying to force a Wi-Fi connection when you don't even have a router."
"Nee-san, could you please not hold a grudge for the rest of your life over your recent failures?"
It seemed someone said something, but Rin didn't hear it.
Rin had successfully mastered machinery now; she was absolutely not a tech-illiterate, nor was she a fool who put in ten times the effort to get half the result.
She wasn't!
"A-anyway, I can assert that if I hadn't held the Sword of Zelretch once, I would have found it very hard to pull off such an anomaly. But in reality, that 'if' doesn't exist."
Rin welcomed the challenge, casting a quiet gaze toward the city silhouette. "If it's the current me..."
Only in this moment did she show an expression befitting a top-tier magus capable of ranking in the top hundred of the Clock Tower.
"—Don't underestimate the disciple of the Great Marshal."
The crystalline dagger at her waist, sparkling like a jewel, sprang out on its own. While it hung above her head, Rin grabbed it, triggering a strange, rainbow-colored storm. Rin slowly lowered it, pointing it with a one-handed grip toward the center of the divination circle. As if in resonance, the blade and the circle simultaneously emitted a faint white glow...
A white glow?
"...Eh? Wait, I haven't officially prepared to start it yet? No, don't start on your own! At least let me get mentally prepared... I mean, wait-wait-wait-wait—!!"
If she hadn't let out such an embarrassing scream moments later, she truly would have been the object of Sakura's admiration.
'Why can't Nee-san fix this habit of dropping the ball at the critical moment...'
Sakura covered her forehead with one hand, unable to stop a "pfft" of laughter from escaping. After letting her sister recalibrate the circle for a good while, Sakura straightened up and smoothed out the wrinkles in her clothes. Then, she took a deep breath and put on a new expression. Sakura smiled and parted her lips slightly:
"Is there anything I can do to help?"
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Snowfield City – Kuruoka Residence
"They're still breathing..."
Shirou looked at the two people piled on the floor like unrecyclable trash, a thin bead of cold sweat forming. Shirou didn't approach them. What was eroding them was clearly a dangerous and bizarre phenomenon; even if it wasn't a curse, it was something even harder to defend against. All Shirou could do was utilize his vision to observe from a distance of less than a few meters, judging the rise and fall of their breathing and the symptoms on their bodies.
There were indeed things like colonies on them. At first glance, it looked no different from rotting skin. But they were absolutely not ordinary colonies; not only were they maintaining stable vital signs in this state, but—those abnormalities were writhing at a speed of millimeters. There were no external injuries, and no signs of a struggle nearby. It was as if they had fallen like corpses in an instant, never even realizing they had been hit.
What on earth could cause such a phenomenon? The surrounding darkness seemed to peek in, giving Shirou the illusion that this mansion was actually inside the body of a monster. If that thing was still hiding nearby, a battle would likely be unavoidable later—
"Shirou!"
Shirou started and looked back. The King of Knights was gripping his arm solemnly. "Do not let your thoughts wander further. Thinking too much is meaningless. Before that thing arrives, let us organize what we have found."
"Sorry, Saber." With a bitter smile, Shirou laid down the research papers from his other hand, spreading them across the room's floor. They were texts related to the Holy Grail War found during their search.
"Speculations on the Fifth Holy Grail War... Research on the Fourth Holy Grail War... Deconstruction of the Greater Grail's Principles..."
As his eyes scanned the seventh document, Shirou finally found what he was looking for. "Settings of the Snowfield Holy Grail War. This is it."
Regarding this text, which could be called the core of this Holy Grail War, Shirou and Saber shared a glance. As if in proof of their shared mind, they placed their hands on the book's cover at the same time. Together, Shirou and Saber turned to the very first page of how it all began.
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