"Arthur, do you know Manaka Sajyou?"
At that, Arthur's expression turned a little strange. He had clearly remembered something. After a moment, he nodded.
"I do know her. She was my former Master. Before that Holy Grail War had even finished, you summoned me away, Master," Arthur said slowly.
To be honest, he and Manaka Sajyou had never been especially compatible. She was always calling him "Prince," which left him genuinely helpless.
Manaka Sajyou was not a normal person. She had been connected to the Root from birth, a being that could practically be called all-knowing and all-powerful. She could not feel emotions the way ordinary people did, and life to her had always been as dull as a blank sheet of paper.
And yet, whenever she looked at Arthur, her eyes held a strangely intense kind of love.
"Master, what is it?" Arthur immediately sensed that something was off.
"A girl connected to the Root just entered this Singularity. She's so flat-chested that if you didn't look at her face, you might not be able to tell her front from her back."
Blessing of Far Sight: With overwhelming eyesight, one can see all the way to the ends of the world, even the stars of the universe.
Hearing Koji's description, Arthur looked awkward. It was true that Manaka was built like that, but saying it so bluntly about a girl was a little too much, was it not?
"I understand. Manaka probably came here looking for me." Arthur felt a headache coming on.
With how obsessive Manaka Sajyou's love was, if she saw that he had a new Master now, she would probably snap.
As for how Manaka Sajyou, the princess of the Root, had managed to find this space-time, all Koji could say was that people connected to the Root really did play by unreasonable rules.
"Prince, I found you at last~"
Space tore open, and a petite girl in an elegant dress stepped out. Her clear blue eyes stared at Arthur with such deep affection that they practically seemed ready to sprout heart shapes.
So it was her—Manaka Sajyou.
Honestly, Koji had to give her credit. To track Arthur all the way here from a parallel world, just how obsessed with him was she?
He could not understand the wiring in her brain at all.
Was that really love? It felt more like curiosity toward a shiny new toy. And if it was love, then it was a badly twisted kind.
"Manaka..." Arthur's expression turned bitter. This did not quite count as a love-triangle disaster, but if Manaka started going crazy, dealing with it would be a real headache.
"This person is my current Master. You may choose to go back."
Arthur had no intention of hiding it. He said it to Manaka directly, hoping to avoid even more trouble later.
"..."
The moment she heard that, Manaka Sajyou's face darkened at a speed visible to the naked eye. The instant she saw Arthur, she had already realized that her Prince now had a new Master.
She almost felt like screaming that someone had stolen her man.
"You little temptress, seducing someone else's Prince like that is really awful," Manaka said, glaring at Koji. Her resentment was practically overflowing.
Koji fell silent.
Hearing her describe things that way left him speechless. Was there actually something wrong with her head?
"Manaka Sajyou, I'm a man. I like women. I have absolutely no interest in Arthur. Is your brain filled with yellow paint or what?" Koji shot back mercilessly.
She was slandering his sexual orientation. There was no way he was going to let that pass.
"See this? These are all my girlfriends."
Koji wrapped an arm around Lumine and the others and spoke smugly. Manaka Sajyou, you green-tea girl who could not get the one you wanted, would never understand how this felt.
Lumine glanced at Manaka's chest.
That really was flat.
Even Hu Tao's figure had at least a little rise and fall to it, but Manaka's was truly level ground.
"You..." Manaka gritted her teeth in anger, as if she had run into an utterly thick-skinned scoundrel.
"Know your place. Don't fight me for my Prince."
Right now, she only had one thought in her head—take Arthur back to her side and enjoy their happy little world for two.
"Heh. I just love telling self-righteous people no." Koji raised an eyebrow. "If I do whatever you say, then where's my dignity?"
"So you intend to fight me to the bitter end?" Manaka asked. There was not the slightest ripple in her gaze.
Terrifying magical power surged out of her body. For someone connected to the Root, endurance was no issue at all.
"The princess of the Root, huh... now that is something," Merlin clicked his tongue. This girl was no ordinary person. He could tell that Manaka Sajyou had the potential to become a Beast.
If she ever stood against Uruk, then the sky really would fall.
"Connected to the Root? You think that privilege belongs to you alone?"
Blessing of the Root: Blessed by the power of the Root, allowing one to freely wield the Root's power.
"What?"
Manaka's aura instantly grew unstable, and shock spread openly across her face. Just moments ago there had been nothing, but now she could clearly sense a familiar Root-like presence.
How was that even possible?
Not just anyone could reach the Root.
She had been connected to it from birth. She was the princess of the Root.
But the feeling Koji gave her was not merely that of someone connected to it. It was more like the Root itself was sheltering him, throwing its doors wide open and letting him use its power however he pleased.
Was this guy a walking cheat code or what?
"Well, Miss Manaka Sajyou?" Koji said smugly. "Does this Root aura feel familiar to you?"
Manaka fell silent, not knowing what she should say.
"Aaaaa—"
Tiamat's juvenile form stepped out and looked at Manaka with confusion in her eyes. There was something about this girl's aura that felt strangely familiar to her.
"The Mother Goddess of Creation... Beast II... Tiamat?"
Manaka Sajyou's thoughts became even more chaotic.
What in the world was going on here?
She had seen the Mother Goddess of Creation trapped inside a nightmare dreamscape, so how could there be a juvenile Tiamat standing here too?
This world was becoming impossible to understand.
But...
A faint smile slowly rose at the corner of Manaka's lips.
A world like this was interesting.
After all, she had known since childhood what it was like to see everything, and that kind of all-knowing existence had long since made life unbearably dull to her.
After her Prince disappeared, she truly had been furious, so she followed Arthur's presence all the way into this world.
She had never expected to witness something like this.
At this moment, her near-omniscient, near-omnipotent power was completely useless.
She could also sense the contradictions surrounding Koji and the others.
Were they really human... or something else entirely?
None of them belonged to this world.
How interesting.
Koji understood exactly what was happening. Manaka Sajyou knew everything there was to know about the Type-Moon world, which was why she found it so boring. But outsiders like them were not part of the things she knew.
And now she was interested.
Very interested.
(End of Chapter)
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