After settling Irisviel into the cleaned tatami room, Leon and Artoria knelt side by side, quietly watching her peaceful sleeping face.
Her complexion had visibly improved, and a serene smile rested upon her lips as she slept soundly.
"..."
With Irisviel—the team's mediator, mood-maker, and social glue—now asleep, Leon and Artoria suddenly found themselves alone.
The two looked at each other.
Neither knew what to say.
"Um... I-I'll go heat some water for a bath."
As if suddenly realizing something, Artoria's face instantly turned scarlet.
She stiffly stood up and marched toward the door with almost comically exaggerated precision, like a soldier performing a ceremonial goose-step.
Seeing this, Leon simply wrapped both arms around her from behind.
"?!"
Artoria's entire body trembled.
She didn't struggle.
Instead, she merely placed one hand against Leon's arm in a token gesture, applying so little force that it hardly counted as resistance.
"L-Leon...?"
Lowering her head, she softly called his name in confusion.
Leaning close to her ear, Leon whispered something so quietly that only the two of them could hear it.
Artoria's eyes widened in shock.
Her pupils contracted.
Almost instinctively, she glanced toward the peacefully sleeping Irisviel nearby.
Yet under Leon's silent but unwavering insistence...
She gradually surrendered.
With a tiny nod, she silently prayed in her heart.
Irisviel... I'm terribly sorry...
But please... don't wake up halfway through...
…
"What do I do?!"
"What do I do?!"
"WHAT DO I DO?!"
Inside Fuyuki City's tallest building—the Hyatt Hotel—Waver darted frantically back and forth like a panicked hamster whose nest had just been discovered by a cat.
As he ran around in circles, both hands unconsciously ruffled his bowl-cut hair into a complete mess.
"Archer and Saber are both ridiculously strong, Berserker has been hiding the whole time so we can't even find him, and even with Professor's help it feels like we don't have any chance of winning! T_T"
Waver wailed miserably.
At this moment, he resembled a bronze-ranked player who had somehow wandered into a tournament of champions—
The kind who gets eliminated the instant he shows himself.
"Yakamashii!"
"You're so damn loud!"
Veins bulging on his forehead, Kayneth—who had been calmly reading The Legends of King Arthur while sitting across from Sola-Ui in matching armchairs by the sunlit balcony—hurled the book straight at Waver.
Smack!
A perfect hit to the face.
The force was so great that even the coffee table between Kayneth and Sola-Ui shook twice, disturbing the neatly stacked pile of books resting upon it.
Several elegant antique covers peeked out from the shifted pile.
"Ow!"
Waver cried out as he toppled backward dramatically, limbs flailing.
Kayneth's furious voice followed immediately afterward.
"You idiot!"
"You're my student, Waver Velvet!"
"Use that pig brain of yours and think!"
"Why did you steal my Catalyst just to enter this Holy Grail War in the first place?!"
The moment he finished speaking—
Volumen Hydrargyrum extended a silver tendril, effortlessly grabbed Waver by the back of his collar, and without the slightest hesitation flung him right out of the hotel.
The collateral victim was none other than Iskandar, who had been happily playing a strategy game with a controller nearby.
"Hm?"
After successfully removing the two sources of noise, Kayneth noticed several books were now missing from the table.
Turning his head, he discovered that the copy of The Legends of King Arthur he had thrown had also vanished.
A moment later...
A faint smile slowly appeared on his face.
…
"O.O"
"o.O"
The two men who had just been thrown outside like garbage stared blankly at one another.
Iskandar still had one enormous bronze arm—almost as thick as Waver's waist—hooked tightly around the boy's neck.
"Kid!"
"This is all your fault!"
"If you hadn't been screaming your head off for no reason, I wouldn't have gotten dragged into it and thrown out by that silver tentacle monster!"
"My grand strategy had only just begun!"
"Damn it!"
"What?!"
Waver immediately protested.
"You were just as loud as I was, Rider!"
He struggled desperately, trying to pry himself free.
Unfortunately...
He had vastly overestimated his own strength.
Iskandar's arm didn't budge in the slightest.
"Heh."
Grinning broadly, Iskandar flashed a dazzling smile.
"Damn it!"
Waver was practically on the verge of tears.
In the end, however, Iskandar released him.
Objectively speaking...
They really were accomplices.
The instant he was free, Waver charged straight ahead without even looking where he was going.
Several times he nearly got hit by passing trucks.
Fortunately, Iskandar remained close behind, constantly keeping an eye on him.
"Hey! Are you out of your damn mind? I—"
One enraged driver rolled down his window and started shouting.
"URUSAI!"
"URUSAI!!"
"URUSAI!!!"
Covering his ears, Waver continued charging forward with his head lowered like a miniature four-wheel-drive toy car that could only move in a straight line.
Every time he was about to run into traffic, Iskandar simply reached out and manually redirected him.
Only after exhausting every ounce of energy did Waver finally stagger to a stop.
Just before collapsing, he ran headfirst into something firm...
Yet oddly resilient.
Confused, he looked up.
His reddened eyes immediately shifted away again.
Clicking his tongue, he muttered with obvious relief disguised as annoyance,
"Oh... it's just you."
"Feeling better now?"
Iskandar smiled as boldly and patiently as ever.
"What?"
"So you've been treating me like a little kid this whole time..."
"Damn it..."
Resting his forehead against Iskandar's rock-solid abdominal muscles, Waver weakly pounded them with a clenched fist.
His voice cracked with emotion.
"So I was the only immature one all along..."
"Professor..."
"You..."
"Why are both of you always so calm?"
"I just don't understand..."
"Because you're still a child, kid."
Iskandar steadied Waver before he could collapse again.
"A mature adult doesn't easily show fear in front of a child."
Then he reached into his coat.
From inside, he produced several pocket-sized books no larger than the palm of his hand.
Spreading them out like a suspicious street vendor trying to sell secret martial arts manuals to gullible children, he presented them with great ceremony.
Printed across their covers in elegant English lettering were:
The Legends of King Arthur
Epic of the Oldest Hero
Tales of Norse Mythology
The Art of Being a Simp
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