When Irisviel opened her eyes, the familiar ceiling was the first thing she saw. This was her room in their Fuyuki mansion. Although it had a double bed, Kiritsugu had been so busy with the Holy Grail War lately that she was the only one sleeping in the vast bed.
It had been the same yesterday, when she woke up here and hurriedly began preparing for the Holy Grail War... Yesterday? Irisviel remembered that she had died, recognized as the Lesser Grail by that Church executor, and then killed.
So, was everything before that a dream?
No, it wasn't a dream. Although the surroundings were the same as before, there were still differences. The furniture was covered in visible signs of age. This furniture had been specially renovated when they moved in, so she knew very well that, even if it was clean, you could tell it hadn't been maintained for many years before the cleaning.
So, this must be long after. Had something happened? The White Grail awakened, and Kiritsugu made a wish for her to return?
Irisviel shook her head. She understood Kiritsugu, and because of that, she knew exactly how deep the man's desire burned. He would never, ever stop because of her. Moreover, she had supported him in going this far. If Kiritsugu were to give up now, he would be betraying both of them.
So, what exactly had happened?
"Madam, are you awake?" Obviously, someone was on guard outside. The moment Irisviel made a slight movement getting out of bed, she was noticed. The room door was quickly pushed open, and a maid with Einzbern features walked in. "I will go notify Miss Illya right away. There is nothing wrong with your body. Although Mr. Jiang You guaranteed there would be no aftereffects, for the sake of your health, please rest for a while and do not move around freely."
In truth, Irisviel didn't feel any discomfort. On the contrary, her body now felt much healthier than before. Or rather, she didn't recognize this homunculus at all. She could only be sure it was from the Einzbern family: "Illya? Who is Jiang You? And you are...?"
"I am Sella, a homunculus specially created to serve Miss Illya. You can ask Miss Illya to explain the details later." Sella offered to prepare breakfast for Irisviel, but with her heart full of confusion, Irisviel had no appetite for it. She quickly declined and insisted on seeing her child immediately.
"If you insist, please follow me." Sella led Irisviel into the living room.
This was the first time Irisviel had seen her own living room so lively. Besides Illya, there was a young man with black hair and a mature... or rather, overly mature, woman with long hair. Strangely, this woman was staring at her with an extremely aggrieved expression. There was also a young girl with long white hair, and an Einzbern homunculus lying on the sofa and snoring.
"My apologies for the unsightly sight," Sella said as she dragged the snoring homunculus away.
It feels like so much has happened. Irisviel looked at the homunculus known as "My Save Point!" and thought it was strange that this being seemed even closer to a normal human than she was.
"Mommy!" Illya had only then noticed that her mother had awakened. Although she had already prepared herself and had waited by her side all night, this was her real mother, unlike the previous ones who had simply impersonated her.
"Illya..." Irisviel didn't quite understand what was happening, but her mother's intuition told her this was indeed her daughter. Her appearance hadn't changed much, but she felt much more mature. Before Irisviel could react, Illya threw herself into her arms, and Irisviel was knocked completely flat by the impact.
"Mommy, I missed you so much! There's so much I want to tell you..."
"Alright, enough with the melodrama. Give them some privacy." Jiang You, knowing that most people wouldn't want strangers to hear the reprimands from a temporary palace, grabbed Melusine and Minamoto no Raikou by their collars and dragged them out, ignoring Minamoto no Raikou's expression of "Unforgivable infidelity!"
The time they had spent together would last for a long time to come, after all, some old problems were still unresolved. So they would just have to deal with the established matters one by one.
"Don't look at me like that. You're not the Dust-covered Master, you can't use your skill to print money infinitely." Jiang You helplessly shrugged his shoulders at Minamoto no Raikou, whose gaze almost strangled him to death.
Although Minamoto no Raikou's Madness Enhancement had never been this strong before, she seemed to want to charge forward again, but Jiang You forcibly restrained her with a Command Spell.
"My Command Spell?" Minamoto no Raikou was forced to settle down and looked at Jiang You with extreme displeasure, "Why do you have it?"
"It's not your Command Spell, it's just changing the Ruler's supervision of the Holy Grail War. Because she asked me to act, so I used this form," Jiang You made a gesture of quickly becoming her Master, "To ensure Fuyuki's security, I will find you a replacement called, for example, Kintoki?"
Raikou's expression softened slightly—at least Jiang You wasn't willing to let her go—but she still rejected the offer. "A mother's love for her firstborn is unique and irreplaceable! You're insulting me!"
"I bet you wouldn't refuse to let me summon Kintoki and use him instead," Jiang You countered, striking her right where it hurt.
"I wouldn't."
"See? Problem solved. Just wait for me a moment."
The handsome man triumphantly kicked open the door, and the Planet's Will didn't object in the slightest. As long as Jiang You didn't try to destroy the world, he could do whatever he wanted. Was this something they could even interfere with? Did they even have the ability to stop him?
Time shouldn't even exist here, but by manipulating the Upper Limit of the Timeline, Jiang You had somehow manifested it. He'd done this because he found it too troublesome to constantly check the timelines (in truth, time did exist here, otherwise, how could events like this be unfolding? It's just a case of setting vs. expression).
"Grand Preceptor Kintoki, do you still remember me?!" Jiang You went straight to the battle zone where Kintoki was located.
"Wait, seriously?! So you're really able to visit us?! This is just too gold!" While high-level organizations might have ways to connect, ordinary Servants generally lacked this ability. Kintoki was thrilled. "Of course I remember! Anyway, how did you pull this off? You've gotta teach me!"
"It's not what you think. But since you've brought it up, I could try to explain it as Timeline Influence and have them unlock the feature. That is, after we do this, the Holy Grail War will just be full of acquaintances... Jiang You nodded, confirming it was possible. "I brought you here to visit. Didn't I promise you a ride on some motorcycles in the modern era back then?"
"Can you really make that happen!?" Kintoki's joy was to the moon. "Don't worry about the fight. Combat is just another form of socializing! Imagine it—we feast together, and once night falls, the slaughter begins. That's just too gold!"
"I don't quite understand, but just follow me for now. Your boss is also waiting for you, we better not keep her waiting too long." Jiang You opened a gate leading to the Fifth War Timeline, saying it as he was about to bring Kintoki over.
"Boss... she's here too?" Kintoki suddenly looked troubled.
When Minamoto no Raikou saw Jiang You return, the only one who walked out of the gate was him alone.
"Where's my son!" Minamoto no Raikou suddenly felt something wasn't right.
"I only said I would bring him here, I never said I'd bring him to your side." Although Jiang You was most reluctant to agree, he ultimately yielded to Kintoki's requests. At this time, Kintoki had been sent by Jiang You to the motorcycle shop, and was also given some startup funds. However, Jiang You didn't plan to draw Minamoto no Raikou's hatred by himself; everything had a price.
Before Minamoto no Raikou could explode in anger, Jiang You took a preemptive step to comfort Nai Kintoki: "You treated him too strictly, which forced him to run away from home. Now he's probably become a biker gang member, right?"
As he spoke, Jiang You placed a projection of Kintoki in front of Minamoto no Raikou.
In short, for himself and Illya, this was a necessary sacrifice.