At the grand hotel where Kayneth was temporarily staying, a case of man-made arson occurred during the night.
The arsonist had pressed the alarm button in advance, giving the people inside the hotel enough time to evacuate.
“There’s a fire downstairs.”
Sola had answered the call from the hotel staff.
After learning what had happened, she looked toward Kayneth, who was sitting in an armchair on the other side of the room, watching the news on TV about the mysterious gas leak explosion that had happened in Fuyuki City’s bay area a few days earlier.
“Man-made arson, with the building cleared out in advance.
It seems likely that Saber’s Master has launched an attack in order to heal the injury on his Servant’s left hand.
“There is no need to pay it any attention.
On this floor, I have already laid twenty-four magecraft defenses and summoned dozens of spirits and monsters to guard it.
Let the attacker come as he pleases.
We shall see whether he can break through the magecraft workshop fortress built by me, Kayneth El-Melloi.
“Lancer, go downstairs and prepare to meet the enemy.
This time, I will not permit you to fail!”
The blond man with his slicked-back hair spoke with absolute confidence.
Beside him, the Servant with a beauty mark beneath his eye bowed and replied,
“I shall not disappoint my lord’s expectations.”
“Kayneth El-Melloi, sir.”
In a plaza some distance from the hotel, the hotel staff were taking roll of the guests who had checked in, worried that someone might still be inside the burning building.
“That’s me.”
Only when the hotel employee called out for the third time did a man finally answer him.
Seeing that the other party looked like a native of their own country, the hotel employee’s expression turned somewhat strange.
His face looked as if he were thinking, You’re seriously called that?
as he stared suspiciously at the responding man.
“My wife, Sola, has already gone somewhere safe.
Please do not worry.”
Kiritsugu Emiya said expressionlessly.
“Very well.”
While wondering whether this man had latched onto some rich foreign woman and changed his name to a Western one, the hotel employee crossed out the names of Kayneth El-Melloi and Sola-Ui Nuada-Re Sophia-Ri from the list.
Kiritsugu Emiya took the opportunity to glance at the list in his hand.
Seeing that the names of the evacuated guests had mostly been crossed off, he moved away from the crowd, took a flip phone from his pocket, and called his assistant, Maiya Hisau.
After confirming from her that Kayneth, who was on the top floor of the hotel, had not attempted to escape, the Magus Killer pressed the detonator.
A frontal duel of secret techniques was something that was never going to happen.
Directly blowing up the entire building and using the force of its free fall to kill the enemy—that was the true safe tactic.
Even a Lord of the Clock Tower couldn’t possibly survive a fall from one hundred and fifty meters.
Mr.
Magus Killer raised a flag, then left the scene by car without looking back.
As for the other attacker who was originally supposed to arrive at the scene, he was currently escorting his teacher’s younger daughter to her mother.
At that moment, he was at the Zenjou family’s villa in Miyama Town, next to Fuyuki City, handing the girl beside him over to Aoi Zenjou.
“Madam, I have brought Miss Sakura here.
My task is complete.
Please inform my teacher.”
“Thank you.
I’ll tell Tokiomi.”
The woman nodded and embraced her younger daughter as she threw herself into her arms.
“Mom, I missed you so much.”
Although her father gave young Sakura a sense of security, only her mother’s embrace was truly gentle.
“Sakura, Mom missed you too.”
Aoi Zenjou’s eyes were filled with tenderness toward her younger daughter.
She held the girl in her arms and buried her face in the child’s hair.
“Me too, me too…”
Tohsaka Rin hopped beside them, also wanting to get close to her younger sister, whom she had been separated from for half a month.
“Big Sister~”
After young Sakura was set down, she threw herself at young Rin and tightly hugged her older sister.
The scene of mother and daughter reuniting, and sisters embracing, seemed very harmonious.
But Kirei Kotomine knew that this was what his teacher wanted: for his wife to educate this girl, who had run back from the Matou family, and teach her to be strong and bravely face her fate as the Matou family’s adopted heir.
Compared to stern lecturing, the teacher who gave off the impression of a rigid magus actually possessed a certain tenderness toward his daughter.
It was truly surprising.
“In that case, Madam, I shall not disturb you any further.
Please help Miss Sakura recover as soon as possible.
When that time comes, I will come again.”
This was a trivial task, one that his teacher, Tokiomi Tohsaka, had handed to him.
Because of it, he could not properly keep watch on the movements of the other Masters and Heroic Spirits—especially that man named Kiritsugu Emiya.
Suppressing the strange dissatisfaction in his heart, Kirei Kotomine left those words behind and departed from the Zenjou residence.
…
“Grandpa, Broly wants to study.”
While young Sakura was being sent to the Zenjou family and was about to receive encouragement from her mother, over at the Fujimura family, Broly, freshly bathed, had also been brought before Raiga Fujimura by Taiga Fujimura.
The girl spoke on the boy’s behalf and stated his request to receive an education.
“Please, Grandpa Fujimura.”
Broly imitated what Taiga Fujimura had taught him in the bathroom, putting on a fairly decent posture as he asked the old man for help.
“Studying, huh? New chapters come out on novelping.com first.
Indeed, children should receive an education.”
Raiga Fujimura nodded.
In the past, being part of the underworld and relying on violence had been enough, but with the development of the times, this old man had also come to realize that those who would operate in the underworld in the future needed to have a sufficient level of culture.
“Then, Grandpa…”
Before Taiga Fujimura could finish speaking, Raiga Fujimura interrupted her.
“However, has this child truly prepared himself to receive an education?
“His age is visibly quite young.
If he enrolled now, he would probably be sent to kindergarten.
“But what can he learn in kindergarten?
That’s nothing more than a place to play around and make friends with other children.
“Rather than sending him to kindergarten, it would be better to keep him here in the Fujimura estate.
“Raised from childhood in the atmosphere of the Fujimura family, he would become a proper, deeply rooted little underworld child.”
The old man said as much.
“Grandpa, please don’t lead this child astray, okay?
There’s no future in being part of the underworld.”
In response, Taiga Fujimura slammed both hands on the table and roared at her grandfather.
“What do you mean, no future?
Isn’t it only because every single one of you descendants refuses to inherit the family business?”
Raiga Fujimura also slammed the table and roared back.
Sparks seemed to flash between the gazes of grandfather and granddaughter, like an old tiger facing off against a cub of his own family.
In the end, seeing that his granddaughter was unwilling to back down on this matter, the elderly Raiga Fujimura took a step back first.
However, he also put forward some conditions.
“If he truly wants to study, then let him go straight to elementary school.
But since you don’t want this child to join the underworld in the future, while also wanting to rely on the family’s financial support, then this child must show his talent and value in studying.
“I need you to guarantee that his academic performance will remain at a good or excellent level.
Can you do that?”
“No problem.”
Taiga Fujimura agreed with a confident slap to her chest.
Broly was a rather clever child, so she chose to believe in the boy’s ability to learn.
“But what if problems appear and you try to go back on your word?”
Raiga Fujimura suddenly asked.
“Impossible.”
Taiga Fujimura flatly denied that possibility.
But when faced with her grandfather’s questioning gaze, which seemed to say, You’ve gone back on your word before, her voice gradually weakened.
“Then what do you say we should do, Grandpa?”
“It’s not that difficult.
When the time comes, Grandpa will simply step down, and you only need to inherit the family business and become the new boss of the Fujimura Group.”
Raiga Fujimura smiled cheerfully, but his true intentions were finally revealed.
“Only if you agree to this condition will the Fujimura family help you financially support this child.”
“Grandpa, you’re so despicable.”
“There’s nothing I can do about it.
Who told your father not to want to inherit the family business?
And you also look like you don’t want to inherit it either.
So, what will it be?
Do you agree or not?
If you don’t, then just keep this child at home and raise him here.”
Taiga Fujimura turned back and looked at the clarity in Broly’s eyes.
In her heart, she decided that she absolutely could not allow this child to be led astray by the Fujimura family’s underworld ways.
She slapped the table again and replied,
“Fine, Grandpa.
I agree to that condition.”
“Bring me the phone.
I’ll call the principal of Miyama Town First Affiliated Elementary School and arrange for a child to study there.”
Arranging for an unregistered child to attend school would be troublesome for ordinary people.
But for the Fujimura Group, a local power entrenched in Fuyuki City, it was merely a matter of making a phone call.
However, because their underworld identity could easily cause misunderstandings, local elementary schools would certainly not be too willing to accept him.
But as long as they chose a school in a town near Fuyuki City, and enrolled him somewhat quietly, there would be no real problem.
“Old Master, do you truly think the young miss will keep her promise?”
After Taiga Fujimura left with Broly, the scar-faced man asked.
“It’s the first time I’ve seen her care so much about someone else.”
“The young miss is kind-hearted.
Perhaps she simply finds that child pitiful, and so she feels more sympathy for him.”
“Then as long as she continues to feel sympathy for that child, we can make her keep her promise and inherit the family business.”
“But what if that child really does have good learning ability?”
The scar-faced man pressed further.
What he meant was whether they should interfere and sabotage the child’s studies.
“If he does, then that will be perfect preparation for legitimizing the Fujimura Group.”
“Eh?”
“My granddaughter said something just now that wasn’t wrong.
“Old Master, even you don’t think highly of the underworld business?”
“It’s not a matter of whether I think highly of it or not.
It’s simply the way the times are developing.”
Raiga Fujimura sighed.
He had lived through the most prosperous era of the underworld, and now he could also feel that the underworld was no longer what it used to be.
“Then what if that child’s learning ability isn’t good?”
The scar-faced man asked again.
“Although the world is abandoning us, wherever there is light, there will also be shadow.
The Fujimura Group will continue to exist in that place.
Even if, in the future, it can no longer compare to what it once was, it will not disappear so easily.
I believe in my granddaughter’s ability.
“As for that child, whether he becomes a good child or a bad child, as long as he has ability, he can become a support for Taiga.
Just like you.”
“Old Master, your insight is admirable.
I will help cultivate that child’s loyalty toward the Fujimura family and toward the young miss.”
Broly did not know what Raiga Fujimura thought of him or what arrangements he had made.
All he knew was that, with his time in this world reduced by yet another day, he had obtained a new identity: an elementary school student, a transfer student at Miyama Town First Affiliated Elementary School.
…
“Broly, you have to study hard at school.
If there’s anything you don’t understand, ask your teachers more.”
The next morning, when they parted ways, Taiga Fujimura instructed Broly like this.
The girl herself was also wearing a middle school uniform.
It was Monday, a school day.
Broly was driven by the scar-faced man to Miyama Town First Affiliated Elementary School.
Along the way, the scar-faced man kept instilling into him how good the young miss had been to him, and how in the future he should be grateful to her and work hard to repay the kindness of her upbringing.
At first, Broly listened and nodded in agreement.
After all, a kindness worth many meals should be repaid like a gushing spring.
But gradually, he began yawning.
The reason was that the scar-faced man kept repeating the same words over and over, like some kind of hypnosis, making anyone who listened feel sleepy.
…
“So this is the child who will be attending school.
Teacher Kimura, take him for a test and see which grade would be most suitable for him.”
The principal of Miyama Town First Affiliated Elementary School, after seeing the child brought in by the scar-faced man, instructed the teacher he had called over in advance to take Broly and test his academic level.
If they had not tested him, they would not have known.
Once they did, it became clear that this was simply an illiterate child.
Unsurprisingly, Broly was assigned to the first grade.
However, in less than half a day, the teachers could no longer endure it.
“Principal, this child asks far too many questions.
I said that one plus one equals two, and he actually asked me why one plus one equals two.
How am I supposed to answer that?”
“Principal, it’s the same on my side.
This child is quite smart, even smarter than the other children, but he simply asks too many questions.
For an entire class, it was just him asking questions and me answering them.
If the questions he asked were meaningful, that would be one thing.
But the problem is that some of his questions have no meaning at all.
They’re purely a child’s stubborn nitpicking.”
In just one morning, over the course of four class periods, four teachers came to complain.
It was not that they lacked patience in teaching children, but rather that Broly, this classroom question machine, was far too terrifying.
He had already seriously affected their teaching of the other children.
“It’s understandable for a child to be curious.
Didn’t you tell him not to ask meaningless questions?”
“We did.
But it was completely useless.
That child said his sister told him before he came here that if he encountered anything he didn’t understand, he should ask the teacher more.
“And that child stubbornly clings to that idea.
As long as he doesn’t understand something, he asks.
Even if he’s punished by being made to stand, he’ll continue asking as if he can’t read the room at all.”
“What’s even more terrifying is that I tried to make him stop talking by hitting his palm.
The child obediently stretched out his hand, but no matter how I struck his palm with the cane, he continued asking questions with a completely expressionless face.
I’ve taught children for so many years, but I’ve never seen such a peculiar child.”
There was one thing the teacher who spoke did not say.
When she was being stared at by that question-asking child, she had felt a trace of fear.
It was not because the child had shown any resentment toward her.
On the contrary, it was because that child had been far too calm.
So calm that she could not tell what he was thinking at all.
And because of that, she felt afraid of the unknown hidden beneath that calmness.
It sounded rather mysterious, but that was truly how it felt.
In the span of a single class period, these first-grade elementary school teachers had already found Broly, this transfer student, extremely troublesome.