Clink.
That was the spear tip meeting spear tip, metal singing.
CLANG—
That was the impact of a heavy sweep or vertical chop being caught by a spear guard, shafts colliding with force.
A crimson spear danced around the armored knight like a dragon in a storm. The knight responded with calm precision—sometimes blocking with her own lance, sometimes using the armored white steed beneath her to dissolve the incoming barrage.
"Phew…"
Irisviel, now placed in the "audience" because her Servant had recognized the challenger's identity and allowed spectators, exhaled slowly.
She tried to follow the battle with intense focus, but no matter how she stared, she could only see two tangled afterimages and the streaks of residual light they left behind.
She brushed a strand of silver hair from her face and turned to Bai Ye, who hadn't blinked once.
"Sir… can you actually see their movements?"
"I can," Bai Ye answered. "And there's no need to be so formal, Irisviel. My name is Bai Ye. If you don't mind, just call me that."
"Huh? You know me?" Irisviel blinked, startled.
"I'm in a Grail War," Bai Ye said with a faint smile. "Doing some investigation beforehand is normal, isn't it? Unlike me—who got dragged in to make up numbers—you're one of the Three Families. That isn't hard to confirm."
—This is a lie!
The real reason Bai Ye knew Irisviel was obvious: he'd watched the story in his previous life.
Once he'd confirmed what kind of world he'd transmigrated into—especially after eliminating the serial killer Ryūnosuke Uryū and securing a slot in the Fourth Holy Grail War—there was no way he wouldn't research his future opponents.
Then he received information that surprised him:
Kiritsugu Emiya, the "Mage Killer," the man infamous for hunting rogue magi with ruthless methods, was still active worldwide even at the time Bai Ye began investigating.
What, you're not even joining the Grail War?
After deeper digging, Bai Ye learned that the Einzberns had not publicly recruited a husband years ago. That confirmed the worldline here matched the FGO/FZ collaboration branch:
Because homunculus tech had achieved, in Irisviel, the level that in the "normal" line would not be reached until Illya, the Einzbern core judged that Irisviel herself, as Master, could win without outside help.
"I see…" Irisviel nodded, unable to know any of those twists, and accepted Bai Ye's explanation.
Bai Ye: "…."
I really do like you—innocent, unworldly, the kind of good kid you can trick nine times in one night.
"By the way," Bai Ye said smoothly, "in the course of investigating the Einzberns, I learned a bit about your millennium-long wish—to reproduce the Third Magic."
Irisviel's eyes sharpened instantly. She retreated half a step, guarded. "Where did you hear that?!"
Bai Ye's eyelid twitched.
So much for being easy.
He gave her a reason she couldn't refute.
"The Three Families keep information about the Grail War locked down. I couldn't exactly walk into the Association or the Church and ask nicely. So after careful thought, I picked the softest target among you."
He gestured casually.
"You know the Matou family, right? The lineage that used to be named Zolgen. The current head of that family is someone I installed."
The Matou family?
Then it wasn't strange.
In Einzbern records, it was precisely because the then-head of the Zolgen family, Makiri Zolgen, visited the Einzbern main house that the Winter Saintess later traveled to the Far East with him to construct the Fuyuki ritual.
Irisviel flushed and bowed her head slightly. "I'm sorry. That was an overreaction. This is just… unimaginably important to the Einzberns. Please forgive me."
She hesitated, then added, "What did you want to ask? As long as it doesn't involve our deepest core secrets, I'll answer what I can."
"It's fine."
Bai Ye waved it off and asked, "I'm simply curious: in your original design, completing the ritual would reproduce the Third Magic. But what if the Grail you obtain is… corrupted?"
"…Corrupted?" Irisviel's voice tightened. "What do you mean?"
"In the last Grail War," Bai Ye said, "the Einzberns summoned a Servant in the Avenger class—Angra Mainyu. You've seen that in your records, right?"
Irisviel nodded.
"Even if he was only an ordinary young man sacrificed under the name 'Evil God's Head,' he was summoned as Angra Mainyu. Which means at least as far as the Grail's judgment was concerned, he was 'All the World's Evil.'
"So when he was eliminated, the 'evil' concept he carried contaminated the Greater Grail's accumulated mana—mana that was originally pure."
Bai Ye watched her expression shift—three parts shock, three parts fear, four parts wariness—and smiled.
"Just my words aren't convincing, sure. But you know where the Greater Grail is. If you don't trust me, go verify it yourself before the war ends. With her guarding you, even a corrupted Grail can't threaten you."
"I understand," Irisviel said solemnly. "No matter what, thank you for the information. I'll go confirm it."
"Then let's leave it there," Bai Ye said. "Once you verify the Grail's state, if you have any thoughts, you can come to the Matou residence. I'll be staying there for the duration."
Mission accomplished, Bai Ye stopped.
Telling Irisviel the Grail was corrupted had been an impulse—the moment he saw what kind of "Artoria" she had summoned.
If it meant fewer problems later, all the better.
Whether a corrupted Grail was still "useful" by Einzbern standards was one thing, but Irisviel herself would very likely judge it as deviating from their wish. In the collaboration storyline, that was already established.
....
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