Chapter 32: At the very least, let’s cook a good meal and help everyone recharge.

When morning came and I headed to the living room, I was greeted by a long, heavy sigh from Rin.

“W-what’s wrong?” Saber widened her eyes and asked, and Rin replied with a bitter expression.

“I tried setting a trap at the church last night to catch Shinji… but it was a complete bust.”

“…Huh?”

“――While you two were off on your little date, we were busy making our own moves.”

Rin began to recount what she and the others had been doing while Saber was out with Shirou and Archer――

“After reviewing the fragments of Archer’s past, we’ve figured out a few things.”

It was after Saber had gone on that date with Shirou and Archer that Caster began the briefing. The real reason for sending Archer along with them was that it would’ve been too uncomfortable to dig into his past with him sitting right there. Well… part of it was also that she wanted to give him a bit of time to spend with Saber.

Through the dreams she’d shown, Caster had revealed pieces of Archer’s past. She picked out several key points from them.

“First and foremost, the actual control of the Matou faction switched hands partway through—over to Matou Shinji.”

The reason Archer and his Saber were able to enjoy a peaceful moment was that Shinji had restrained his own Servants, including Artoria, to give them that time.

It was deeply suspicious that Matou Zouken had allowed something like that to happen.

“…Most likely, the ‘Holy Grail’ abandoned Zouken and chose Shinji instead.”

Rin stated matter-of-factly. Both listeners understood exactly what she meant. In Archer’s dream, all the information related to the “Matou Grail” had been blurred, but with some thought, the conclusion was obvious.

“――The true identity of the Matou Grail is Matou Sakura. I’m almost certain of it.”

Caster declared. During the three-way standoff on Mount Enzou, they had already confirmed that the Matou Grail was a living being, just like Illya. And among the Matou faction, there was only one person who had the qualities to serve as the Grail.

“That’s probably why Archer unconsciously altered his memories.”

Illya murmured quietly.

“If he learned the truth about the Matou Grail right after killing Saber with his own hands――” She continued, her expression turning grim.

“The two swords driven into the place where Archer used to train… I think they symbolize his emotional wounds.”

At first glance, they looked like they symbolized two different Sabers—but they didn’t. In the first place, Artoria was nothing more than an opponent he had to defeat.

His hatred, rage, and regret were all directed at himself; he had no real emotions toward Artoria at all. And of course—that made sense. She may have been partly involved, but she hadn’t directly killed Hino Sato.

The true meaning of the two swords was――

“One was the person he loved. The other… his family.”

Archer had loved Saber as his partner. And at the same time, he had loved Sakura as family.

He lost them both at the same time—and killed them both himself, by his own will.

“…He killed the one he loved in order to kill the family he loved. That’s the regret that haunts Archer, the curse that’s kept him from ever stopping.”

Rin couldn’t help feeling a crushing sense of futility at Illya’s words. It was true that Archer had been the one to do it with his own hands, but the one who had driven him to it had been Rin’s counterpart from his world.

She must have realized back then who it really was that needed to be killed…

Caster furrowed her brows and spoke.

“――If Matou Sakura chose Matou Shinji, then it all makes sense. Right now, she’s a monster in every sense of the word. Even I couldn’t control her by force. Seeing how, in Archer’s past, Shinji tried to give him time or pull him out of the fight… I think he’s controlling her with emotion rather than power.”

Whether that was the love they’d built as family, or something else entirely――

“In any case, capturing Matou Shinji would be a huge step forward for us.”

Caster and Rin nodded at Illya’s words.

“But what’s the plan? The Matou Saber isn’t like our useless one—she’s a real threat.”

“…Exactly. That’s the problem.”

With their current forces, they couldn’t risk a direct assault. The battle at Mount Enzou had shown them that Artoria’s strength was overwhelming.

“They know all our tricks now, so this time won’t be like before. No matter how clever our plan, the ‘strongest’ will crush it with brute force. If we want to snatch Shinji, we’ll have to deal with the Matou Saber first…”

Even after the three of them wracked their brains, no brilliant idea came to mind. At Mount Enzou, they’d fielded the strongest lineup they could imagine—yet still failed to bring her down.

“…We’ll just have to get Lancer on our side.”

They couldn’t truly trust someone whose Master might order them to betray their allies without hesitation—but they didn’t have the luxury of being picky.

Rin’s proposal made both of them grimace, but they nodded anyway.

“At least we know where the Lancer faction is hiding, so making contact won’t be hard.”

“…As expected from Caster’s Servant.”

Rin’s face twitched at Caster’s casual ability to locate the enemy.

“The real question is how to negotiate.”

Illya frowned in thought.

“Our stance should be to eliminate them before they can betray us. If we’re going to build a cooperative relationship on that basis, we’ll have to choose our cards carefully.”

“A contract using a signed oath, like last time, is out of the question—and I doubt they’d even suggest it.”

Caster’s Noble Phantasm could nullify any magical contract.

“Being able to unilaterally break a contract is a strength, but also a weakness… There’s no way to build trust that way.”

They were at an impasse. Caster’s Noble Phantasm made negotiations incredibly troublesome. No matter what terms they offered, Bazett probably wouldn’t accept.

“…For now, let’s just get the barrier set up. While we work, each of you think up a plan.”

Caster’s words made Rin and Illya nod in agreement.

After that, the three of them worked together to weave a barrier around the Emiya residence.
It wasn’t quite on the level of a temple-class barrier, but its quality was still impressive.

The three gathered back in the living room and exchanged the ideas they’d each come up with, but none of them were remotely practical.

If they made a wrong move and ended up fighting the Lancer faction, it would be over.
Given the current situation where even the slightest loss of strength was unacceptable, they had to maintain at least the present ceasefire with the Lancer faction.

As the three continued their silent staring contest, Caster suddenly stiffened.

Her Master had run into trouble.
He had gone out on patrol to keep students from loitering around the entertainment district late at night.

A moment later, Caster managed to communicate through the mental link with her Master.
Apparently, he had been caught in a powerful barrier—so much so that even maintaining the telepathic line to speak with him was difficult, causing the delay.

And then, the topic shifted to the decisive battle the previous night between Archer and Artoria.

“…Thanks to Archer taking down Artoria, Caster finally found herself able to move more freely.
That’s why she took a step back to survey the board, switched from defense to offense.”

Rin relayed Caster’s deduction—that Shinji might be aiming for the position of Overseer—to Saber.

“We acted without even giving ourselves time to grieve… though it didn’t bring much in the way of results.”

Letting out a sigh, Rin narrowed her eyes.

“Well, it’s not like there was nothing at all…”

“What do you mean?”

Saber asked.

“First, operating under that same deduction, we were able to make contact with the Lancer faction that had taken root in the church.
In the process, Caster managed to get them to form a temporary alliance.
It was only for that one occasion, though—”

Rin’s lips curved into a sly grin.

“But Shinji doesn’t know it was temporary.
He’ll probably assume the Lancer faction has joined our side.
That means he won’t be able to make any rash moves.
On top of that, we got a read on the Matou forces.
We managed to avoid the worst-case scenario I’d been worried about.”

“The worst-case scenario…?”

“That Archer and Artoria would come back fully restored and fighting for the enemy.”

Saber gasped at Rin’s words.

“You’ve seen Archer’s past too, right?
Matou… Shinji had Sakura—the Holy Grail—resummon Servants.
Sure enough, we saw Archer and Artoria in the church.”

“Th-That’s—”

Saber’s face was stricken, and Rin gave a displeased shrug.

“It’s infuriating, but… at the very least, neither Archer nor Artoria showed signs of reason.
According to Caster, Matou’s Grail resummoning has several drawbacks.”

“Drawbacks…?”

“One is that they become tainted by All the World’s Evils.
We confirmed that the moment we saw Rider after her revival.
Pure Heroic Spirits are especially susceptible to it…”

“You mean Archer and Artoria were corrupted to the point of losing their reason?”

Saber’s voice trembled, but Rin shook her head.

“With Artoria, probably so. But Archer… I don’t think so.
When Caster checked at the church, she said the degree of corruption in Artoria had worsened, but Archer wasn’t much different from Rider.
That’s probably because he can’t exactly be called a pure Heroic Spirit.”

“Then why…?”

“Most likely because leaving his will intact would cause trouble.”

“Cause trouble…?”

“As in, there’s a risk he might rebel.”

The problems were piling up, but it wasn’t as if there was no light at all.

“By the time I’d seen Archer’s past, I’d already considered the drawbacks of Matou’s Holy Grail, so it wasn’t exactly a shock…
Still, the thought of Archer and Artoria coming back at full strength on the enemy’s side… it’s enough to make me shiver.
When I finally got confirmation, I can’t tell you how relieved I was.”

“…Yeah, I can believe that.”

Saber’s expression remained clouded.
The fact that Archer—who had fought so hard for her sake—had fallen into enemy hands and was being used against them left her stunned.

“…Couldn’t Illya have secured Archer’s soul?”

“No way. The enemy’s Grail specializes in usurpation.
The Einzbern Grail is nothing more than a vessel—it couldn’t even step onto the stage for that kind of tug-of-war.”

“I see…”

The war situation hadn’t shifted in any major way.
Tricking the Matou faction into believing the alliance between the Lancer faction and Caster faction was permanent, and managing to gauge Matou’s forces, were both big wins—but they were still stuck in a stalemate.

“…Still, why didn’t you tell me about this sooner?
At the very least, you could have told me last night—”

“You two would’ve just gotten in the way.”

Rin’s blunt words cut off Saber’s complaint.

Saber fell silent, and Rin spoke again, this time with exasperation.

“You need to be aware of your own ignorance.
If I had to stop and explain every term and every situation to you, I wouldn’t be able to plan anything properly.
The time will come when I’ll need you to act, but until then, just go flirt with Shirou.”

“…Rin, I—”

“There’s nothing you can do.”

Rin’s voice was cold and final.

“Understand that you’re just barely above an ordinary human.
As Archer’s Master, I have a duty to see his wish fulfilled.
I’ll leave the ‘making you happy’ part to Shirou, but I’m not going to let you die in this Holy Grail War.
You and your Master are both reckless, so I’ll say this now—don’t you dare act on your own. Got it?”

“…Yeah.”

Even as she answered, Saber felt a wave of frustration.

Things were progressing without her knowledge, and the fear of that was beyond words.
But there was nothing she could do.
If there was anything… it was to accept her own helplessness.

“…Sorry, Rin.”

“There’s no need to apologize. You’re our trump card.
When the time comes, I expect you to do your part.”

“Hah… Go easy on me.”

With a wry smile and a bead of cold sweat, Saber turned to preparing breakfast.
It had been a long time since she’d stood in the kitchen.

In this war, there was precious little she could do.
So she would put everything she had into the things she could do.

“At the very least, I can make a good meal… and help everyone get their strength back.”