The Tohsaka Residence.
Feeling the warmth of the boy holding her tightly, Tohsaka Rin's body stiffened slightly, her mind at a loss, unable to think straight
"…Alvin?"
After remaining frozen for an unknown length of time, Rin felt her heart begin to race.
Once she finally realized what was happening, she almost instinctively tried to push Alvin away.
Yet for some reason, the moment her fingers touched his shoulder, her body refused to muster any strength.
In fact, Tohsaka Rin's feelings toward Alvin were extremely complicated.
At first, upon learning that her younger sister was obsessively attached to a Servant, her reaction had been mostly disdain.
Every time her sister talked about him with adoring eyes, she would think.
'What's so great about this guy, anyway? Why does Sakura think about him all day long?'
Later, after being transmigrated to Britain, when she personally witnessed the overwhelmingly terrifying power of the Night Watchman of Britain and got saved by him, a sense of awe and respect naturally arose within her.
And after that, Alvin introduced her to the royal court and asked Morgan to personally instruct her… from that point on, the distance between them had undeniably grown much closer.
But no matter how close they became, it shouldn't have closed to this point-—zero distance, right?!
"If you don't like it, you can just push me away."
Alvin looked at her with gentle eyes.
Tohsaka Rin didn't respond.
Instead, she silently lowered her head.
How could she push him away...
Even though her rational mind kept telling her that it was wrong and he was Sakura's lover... but, in the end, she was not so much of a rational woman.
Her small hand hidden behind her back clenched unconsciously, a complex expression surfacing on the girl's face.
"Feeling a bit calmer now, Rin?"
Alvin released the girl in his arms and let out a helpless sigh.
"I know you might not believe this… but the relationship between Sakura and me is far more complicated than you think."
"Aren't you… lovers?"
Hearing his words, Rin asked reflexively.
"If we really were lovers, I would have told you when we confirmed it."
Alvin took a deep breath.
After a brief hesitation, he finally made up his mind and said,
"Rin… if one day Sakura were to stand on the opposite side from you… would you become her enemy?"
Become enemies… with Sakura?
Tohsaka Rin tilted her head slightly.
A trace of confusion first appeared in her deep blue eyes, but soon they widened as realization dawned on her a moment too late.
"W–wait a second! What are you suddenly talking about, Alvin?!"
"Leaving aside whether I would ever become enemies with Sakura… do you really think that girl would stand against me?"
In Tohsaka Rin's heart, her sister Matou Sakura had always been a gentle, well-behaved girl.
At school, she was like a weak and helpless little white rabbit, and Rin would always think about how to protect her from bad people.
Especially thinking about how she barely escaped from the tragic fate with the help of the White Dragon, the girl was quite protective of her.
And yet Alvin was suddenly asking such a strange question now… it was honestly baffling.
But then again, true to Tohsaka Rin's nature, after a brief mental storm, she quickly calmed down.
Fixing her gaze on Alvin, she asked,
"…You know something, don't you?"
As the two spoke, pillars of pink light shot into the sky from every corner of Fuyuki City, almost instantly enveloping the entire city in silence.
For a brief moment, Rin's eyes seemed to lose focus.
She rubbed them, feeling her consciousness grow slightly hazy.
At that moment, Alvin seemed to have made up his mind as well.
He took another deep breath and said,
"Actually… I suspect that Rider's Master might be connected to Sakura."
Ever since he had visited the worm pit not long ago, Alvin had harbored this vague premonition.
And just earlier, atop Mount Enzou, Merlin's "hint" had already been more than obvious.
—Matou Sakura was the greatest "irregularity" in this Holy Grail War.
If she were allowed to act recklessly, she might even affect the Human Order itself… which was precisely why Merlin had answered Illyasviel's summoning this time through an "avatar."
However, after saying all this, Alvin noticed that Rin still hadn't spoken.
That was only natural.
After all, in this worldline, Matou Sakura had already been "saved" by him and had never been corrupted by crest worms… by all logic, she should have been pure and untainted.
And yet, unexpectedly… when split open, she was still black.
This girl ..what could he say about her.
"Rider's Master… is Sakura?"
Tohsaka Rin subconsciously looked up, staring at Alvin with eyes full of disbelief. "Then does that mean the incident on Mount Enzou was her doing as well?"
But how was that even possible?
Back then, the enemy had faced multiple Servants at once without falling into any disadvantage, even retreating unscathed… was that really something Sakura could do?
And yet, if it truly was her… then everything made sense.
Calling her to school by phone, then staging a self-directed "attack" all of it had been to confirm whether the White Dragon had been summoned by her.
Looking at Rin, who was still wearing an expression of utter disbelief,
Alvin remained silent.
After all, the amount of information contained in this revelation was explosive.
When Alvin himself had first learned of it, he too had found it hard to believe.
Tohsaka Rin had spent nearly ten years together with Sakura as her sister… learning this now would naturally be even harder for her to accept.
In fact, telling Rin about this had been a decision Alvin made only after careful consideration.
Originally, because Rin had witnessed his "intimate" moment with Matou Sakura, a subtle rift may have already formed between them.
For Master–Servant pairs in a Holy Grail War, such a rift could be fatal at a critical moment.
If he wanted to quickly ease that tension, what he needed was an important shared "incident" to deal with together.
At the end of the day, Alvin had never planned to hide Sakura's matter forever...he simply needed to find the right timing.
And now… while this might not have been the best timing, if he delayed any further, he might lose the chance to tell her at all.
Alvin had expected that after hearing this, Rin might impulsively go and confront Sakura, or at least doubt what he had said.
Yet even after a long while had passed, the girl in front of him showed no reaction at all.
Just as he lowered his head to look at her, Tohsaka Rin suddenly stepped forward and gently hugged him.
The winter night was bitterly cold, yet the girl's soft body was extraordinarily warm.
As she held him tightly, every point where their bodies touched seemed to convey her temperature directly to him.
So hot...
That warmth, mixed with a faint, delicate fragrance, made Alvin forget to pull away for a moment.
Thus, in the vast, empty hall, only the howling sound of wind and snow battering against the glass windows remained, as though the entire world had turned into a land of snow.
It's just..
Feeling the burning warmth of the delicate body in his arms, the expression on Alvin's face shifted from confusion to something far more complex.
"Rin…?"
.
.
.
The Matou residence.
Matou Sakura had her eyes tightly shut.
Within her full chest, the purple crest continued to grow ever more bewitching as it ceaselessly absorbed excess "love."
Rider silently gazed at the girl and spoke softly,
"Once the Beast completes its final evolution, you might no longer be yourself… do you really have no regrets?"
Hearing this, the girl slowly opened her eyes, a trace of self-mockery flickering within them.
"Even if I regretted it now, wouldn't it already be too late?"
As she spoke, her fingertips gently touched the crest over her chest.
"After all, that thing inside my body awakened a long, long time ago."
In fact, ever since she ran away from home ten years ago, Matou Sakura could no longer be considered the true Matou Sakura in the strictest sense.
Over the years, another "consciousness" within her body had constantly influenced her will.
By now, the two had already entered a complete symbiotic state.
Many times, she had felt that she was not Matou Sakura at all.
But at this point...did that even matter.
Hearing her words, Rider parted her lips, about to speak—
Bzz!
At that moment, an incomparably clear and pleasant voice suddenly rang out beside her ears.
"I was wondering how an ordinary Holy Grail War could summon a Ruler for no reason at all… so it's because this Grail War has produced an anomaly?"
"So you're the heretic, aren't you… Miss Matou Sakura?"
Rider's body instantly tensed and she sharply turned her head toward the corner of the room.
At some point, a shadow twisted and distorted beside them, quietly coalescing into a tangible form.
The instant she saw this woman, Matou Sakura's beautiful eyes froze for a split second.
Then, a hint of darkness surfaced within them, and she spoke in a calm, detached tone,
"Heh… another Servant from Britain, is it…?"