"This afternoon, I saw you talking with those two from the detention room on the deck for a long time. Are you planning something?"
That evening, in the ship's wiring room, Morgan asked casually while inspecting the seat and circuitry of the Leylines Blocking Armament.
"Not really," Shiomi said. "I just asked them a bit about the other Crypters. They weren't willing to say anything about Magecraft or related intel anyway, so we ended up talking about things like how they conduct themselves."
Morgan understood at once.
"No wonder you brought Skadi along."
"I was worried that if I brought them out by myself, they'd think I was about to hold a public execution on the deck," Shiomi said with a slight pout. He took the lid Morgan handed him and set it on the floor to the side.
"It wouldn't have gone that far," Morgan said, shaking her head. "So? Did you find out anything?"
"Same old stuff," Shiomi said with a shrug. "What they've seen isn't really any different from what I've seen. They're young people who aren't very good at dealing with others, completely unlike Kirschtaria."
"That's exactly why Kirschtaria Wodime was appointed the captain of Group A," Morgan said, unsurprised. "Even if Marie favors my husband, she couldn't change an arrangement that was reasonable to begin with."
After all, Shiomi had arrived later than everyone else. Making a sudden change to the appointment would only have brought confusion to Chaldea.
"Whoever the captain is doesn't matter to me," Shiomi said, perfectly frank. "And I also showed them the battle records while I was at it."
"You were hoping they'd analyze them for you?" Morgan asked.
"Not exactly," Shiomi said. "It's more that even though I only ran into Yu Mei-ren briefly on the warship, I noticed something. She's a Magus from the Department of Botany, yet she fought in a way that didn't feel like a Magus at all."
"Because she was never a conventional human Magus in the first place," Morgan said. "Leaving the past aside, you should have noticed during the naval battle this time."
"…Wait." Shiomi nodded on reflex, then caught the wording. "You already knew?"
Morgan nodded. "I did. I knew before the Incineration of Humanity began."
"What?" Shiomi stared, dumbfounded.
"Is my husband upset?" Morgan looked a little embarrassed. "It's just that in Chaldea, where everyone is human, having someone in a similar non-human situation… keeping each other's secrets was simply doing the other person a favor."
"No, no, that's not what I meant," Shiomi said, still astonished. "I mean, you realized that early?"
"I wouldn't call it realizing," Morgan said. "She asked me directly."
She clapped her hands lightly, as if remembering it clearly.
"Once, when I was borrowing a book in the library, I ran into Hinako Akuta. She watched me for a while, then cut straight to it and asked, 'You… aren't human, are you?'"
Of course, she wasn't referring to Morgan concealing the fact that she was a Servant at the time. She meant that Morgan was not a human Servant.
"After she confirmed that I was a fairy from the Garden of Eden, her attitude softened quite a bit, and she confessed her true identity," Morgan said after a moment's thought. "Though it's also possible she simply found my eyes troublesome and decided it wasn't worth hiding."
Shiomi pressed a hand to his forehead.
"I think I get it now. So—"
"A spirit type with a physical body," Morgan said. "To an extent, she's similar to a True Ancestor, but she's a different kind of bloodsucking being."
"I see," Shiomi said, raising an eyebrow slightly.
He was surprised, but the battle intel brought back by Artoria and Barghest did suggest that Hinako Akuta possessed physical abilities far beyond what a human could manage.
Morgan's words simply confirmed the suspicion. Hinako Akuta wasn't merely an eccentric Magus. She was a vampire fairy species.
"Come to think of it, even though she doesn't seem like someone who talks much, she actually has quite a volatile temper," Morgan said after a moment's thought. "When she talks about humans, her tone and choice of words are extremely sharp. You can tell she really hates them."
Shiomi wasn't particularly surprised. "Whether they're spirits or fairies, they're essentially lifeforms created by the planet as living terminals to regulate humanity. Almost all of them view humans with a distant, detached perspective. Someone like you, who accepted humans and even formed a bond with one… in their eyes, you're probably the real odd one out."
"Hehe~ You're not wrong, my husband," Morgan said, smiling before deliberately adopting a more serious tone.
"But honestly, I'm not especially interested in humans either. There are only a very small number of humans I truly care about. The reason I've helped you fight all this time is simply because it's what you wanted to do."
Shiomi kept smiling, but his voice softened. "Even if you hadn't helped, that would have been fine too. As long as you were watching over my battles from the rear, that would have been more than enough."
"Then why wasn't my husband satisfied with just protecting me back then?" Morgan asked. "Why did you go so far for my dream, throwing yourself onto the front lines?"
The two of them shared a knowing smile, silently bringing the topic to an end.
"So, the Leylines Blocking Armament is good to go now?" Shiomi asked.
"No problem there," Morgan replied. "I adjusted the output slightly based on the previous battles. Olympus has the advantage in numbers, after all. I want to wipe out enemies more efficiently so the front line can focus on the main objective."
"Mm." Shiomi nodded, agreeing with her assessment.
"Tomorrow, we'll depart from Thanatos Island and head to Eris Island, the one closest to Nemesis Island," Morgan said. "Before launching the assault on the 'Void Cavern,' you've finished preparing what you planned, right?"
Shiomi nodded. "The land leylines of Atlantis have mostly recovered. Once we dock at Eris Island, we'll start preparing for Heroic Spirit Summoning."
"Let Artoria handle it?" Morgan smiled faintly. "Seeing their king and the fae queen Morgan on the same ship might make the Knights of the Round Table a bit uneasy."
"The only one we really need to worry about is Agravain. The rest of them are sensible enough," Shiomi said. "And at this point, there's no need for you to keep playing the role of Morgan from Proper Human History. You are who you are, a completely different existence from her."
"That's true," Morgan replied with a smile.
She took Shiomi's hand, and the two of them left the wiring room together, heading back toward their quarters.
"By the way, Skadi mentioned that you're planning to release those two," Morgan said.
"Huh? I only said I'd lift their confinement after this Lostbelt is dealt with," Shiomi replied. "Besides, only Daybit is left. It doesn't really make a difference anymore."
"That's good, then. I thought you were planning to let them go and then wipe them all out together."
"…That would be a bit too brutal."
"Would it?"
"Yes…"