One of the Three Great Families, the Matou family, had its entire ancestral home destroyed due to an accident. The former head of the Matou family, Zouken Matou, and the eldest legitimate son, Shinji Matou, unfortunately perished in this accident.
That said, although the Matou family was one of the Three Great Families and counted as a very ancient magus bloodline, because the Matou family head, Zouken Matou, kept a low profile and didn't have any particularly close friends, it didn't draw much attention from other magus families outside of the Three Great Families.
It was a pity, but new magus families are born every day, and magus families also fall. Everyone was used to it, so nothing caused a stir.
What an unfortunate accident. The Matou family was already sparsely populated, on par with the Tohsaka family. And now, aside from the adopted daughter from the Tohsaka family, the entire Matou family only had Kariya Matou, who was living elsewhere.
But since Kariya Matou wasn't around, the Matou family's assets, according to inheritance rights, were handed over to Sakura Matou.
And Sakura Matou became the youngest head of an ancient magus house.
But the Matou family was, after all, an old lineage, and its wealth was anything but modest. Just the mundane "yellow and white" alone was enough to draw greedy eyes from every side, let alone those classical magecraft tomes that even magi would scramble for.
Such a small heir...
However, not long after, those who had been eyeing the Matou family gave up on the idea, and the matter finally died down.
Because something happened.
The current head of the Matou family, Sakura Matou, hired a butler—a remarkably powerful butler. No, he could practically be described as a devil of a butler.
Of course, only toward enemies.
Right in front of all those magi who came by reputation, hoping to get a slice of the Matou family fortune, he challenged ten magus families that had some name recognition in the magecraft world. Not only did he personally cripple the heads of those ten magus families, he also transferred all of those families' assets into the Matou family—under Sakura Matou's name.
In an instant, it shook the entire magecraft world. All sorts of forces rose up, clamoring to punish this butler's actions and shouting slogans demanding that the Matou family hand over the culprit, but unfortunately every last one of them was personally beaten into silence when that butler went to their door.
In the end, even the magecraft world's most famous and largest organization, the Clock Tower, dispatched a large number of elite magi to intervene, and only then was the incident finally brought to an end.
As for what happened between the Matou family and the Clock Tower, and what agreement was made—perhaps only the parties involved on both sides know.
But this incident also made the name "Matou" completely famous in the magecraft world as a well-known magus family.
That butler's name was: Meruem, and he was now known to the outside world as the Devil Butler.
"Huh? Devil Butler? That name doesn't fit my image at all. I think calling me the Angel Butler would be more like it~ hey~ don't you think so, Sakura~" The guy known outside as the Devil Butler was currently in a luxurious villa, taking off the pajamas of the doll-like little girl in front of him and changing her into a very beautiful princess dress.
"Mm!" The sleepy little girl heard that and nodded her little head happily in agreement. "Meru is the best~"
"Hey, Meru~ wearing this kind of outfit is such a hassle. Can we change into something more normal?" After Meruem had basically finished dressing her, the little girl frowned at the princess dress on her body. It really was pretty... but it was such a pain to wear.
And the skirt is way too big.
"Sakura, I told you— in my heart, you're a little princess. And a princess, of course, has to wear a princess dress~" With that, Meruem fastened the last button for Sakura.
"Sakura's skin is so smooth—feels so nice~" After finishing all that, Meruem looked at the doll-like Sakura and couldn't help bringing his face close to hers and rubbing against her cheeks over and over.
"Don't do that, it tickles." Sakura giggled, placing both hands on Meruem's shoulders as if to push him away. But since she wasn't using any force at all and was only going through the motions, Meruem kept rubbing against her anyway.
The two of them messed around for a while, and Meruem even caught a faint, clean fragrance coming from Sakura's neck. It wasn't a scent from any perfume or anything external—it was a little girl's natural body scent.
In the end, under Sakura's strong protest, Meruem still changed her into a relatively more normal outfit.
By the way, the villa they were in now was the Matou family's new address. The original land did have a pretty good location and was fairly secluded. But it carried far too many things Sakura didn't want to remember. So Meruem changed locations—this place wasn't far from Fuyuki City, and most importantly, the environment was beautiful.
Anyway, it was money Zouken Matou had saved up in the past. Meruem didn't feel bad about spending it at all. Meruem didn't know magecraft barriers, nor could he build a magecraft workshop, and he wasn't particularly interested in those things either. He only learned some offensive magecraft to put on a show and fool those magi.
It wasn't Magic used by a true magician—just magecraft—so the power was really too weak. Even if he mastered it and could bring out three hundred percent of its strength, it wouldn't mean anything to Meruem.
He still had to go back to the Saint Seiya world, where even the lowest opponents he faced were gods.
But when it came to building a base, Meruem's methods were no worse than those magi.
Even though in this world, the power of sealing arts and barrier arts was somewhat reduced, they were still quite good here.
"If only Sakura could always be this lively." As he set the milk and fried eggs in his hands on the table in front of Sakura, Meruem watched her eat in small bites and thought softly to himself.
Don't be fooled by how lively and cute Sakura was in front of Meruem—this attitude was for Meruem alone. In front of other strangers, Sakura would only sit quietly in a corner without saying a word.
Her vibe was basically like the emotionless-type girls represented by the "Major Moe Goddess" Yuki Nagato and the goddess Rei Ayanami—no, she was even colder. That attitude made Meruem both happy and worried.
"Tch—" Just then, the barrier outside the villa triggered an alarm, meaning someone had come to visit. But the visitor apparently had no manners at all—they actually tried to use a familiar to spy on what was going on inside the villa.
"How rare. After I taught so many people a lesson, someone still dares come looking for trouble. Let me see who's got the guts."
Meruem instantly linked into the barrier's detection at the front gate outside the villa.
"It's him? Figures—what's coming will come sooner or later, but... isn't he a little late? Where was this guy when Sakura was suffering?" Meruem's tone carried a great deal of resentment.
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