Rin stared, certain the exhaustion was playing tricks on her ears.
“Sister, stop spacing out.
Aren’t you going to do something about Father’s safety?”
Sakura’s expression remained entirely blank for a fraction of a second.
“This time I absolutely—”
Then, the temperature in the room seemed to plummet.
“Stressing over a form of address for so long, while not even caring whether your own father lives or dies—that’s really pathetic, Rin.”
Rin choked on her next breath.
She watched Sakura’s face shift from absolute, freezing apathy to a sudden, sickeningly gentle smile.
The sheer whiplash made Rin’s chest tighten.
She felt like she might actually suffer a heart attack at her young age.
Standing a few paces away, Levi watched Sakura’s mask slip and rebuild itself.
He crossed his arms, tapping a finger against his bicep.
‘Did I say something wrong in the basement earlier?’ he mused.
He had told the girl to learn a few things from Kuroka.
He suppressed a sigh.
‘This is entirely Kuroka’s fault.
Her negative example was just too textbook.’
While Levi silently blamed his stray nekomata, Rin managed to weather Sakura’s psychological assault.
She took a slow, deep breath, forcing her spine straight.
The frantic panic bled out of her posture, replaced by the rigid, elegant temperament demanded of the Tohsaka bloodline.
When she turned her eyes back to Levi, the desperation was gone, leaving only sharp scrutiny.
“Mr.
Levi…
can you guarantee that what you just said is the truth?”
Levi didn’t bother answering her directly.
He shifted his gaze.
“Grayfia.
I asked you before—if a Magus’s physical body dies, but their Magic Circuits aren’t completely ruined, can they still be saved using demonic methods?”
“Yes, Lord Levi,” Grayfia answered, her voice perfectly even.
Levi nodded.
He reached into his coat, retrieved the Labor of Gratitude Repayment Contract he had flashed earlier, and tossed it onto the glass coffee table.
It slid to a halt right in front of Rin.
“Whether you sign this or not is entirely up to you,” Levi said, his tone dripping with casual indifference.
“It’s your father who’s dead, anyway.
I never intended to save him to begin with.”
Rin didn’t fly into a rage.
She didn’t scream.
She simply reached out and picked up the parchment.
Her eyes scanned the dense, jagged strokes of demonic script.
She couldn’t read a single syllable of it.
A heavy sigh slipped past her lips.
“I suppose it hardly matters.
I’m already your captive.” She lowered the paper, her gaze drifting back to Sakura.
The rigid Tohsaka mask softened, revealing a quiet, desperate tenderness.
“Sakura…
I couldn’t keep you with me back then.
But this time, I won’t let go again.”
Without another word of protest, Rin brought her thumb to her teeth.
She bit down hard enough to draw a bead of crimson, then pressed her bloody fingerprint against the bottom of the parchment.
The moment her blood touched the paper, the contract dissolved into two streaks of black light.
One shot directly into Levi’s chest, while the other sank into Rin’s.
The binding was absolute.
Levi reached out, patting the slightly dazed Sakura on the shoulder, before turning toward the exit.
Stepping out into the cool night air, Levi approached the waiting car and tapped the roof.
“Drive to the Tohsaka estate.
Let’s see what mess was left behind.”
“As you command, Lord Levi,” the driver replied.
The drive across Fuyuki was swift and silent, the tension in the backseat thick enough to cut with a blade.
The moment the car rolled to a halt outside the grand Tohsaka manor, Rin threw her door open and sprinted inside.
By the time Levi and Grayfia crossed the threshold into the main living room, Rin was frozen.
She had heard the warnings.
She knew her father might already be gone.
But seeing Tohsaka Tokiomi sprawled across the ornate rug, surrounded by a massive, congealing pool of his own blood, shattered her composure all over again.
Her knees hit the floorboards with a heavy thud.
Her hands shook violently as she reached out, pressing two trembling fingers against his neck.
Cold.
No pulse.
No rise and fall of his chest.
By every metric of human science and common sense, Tohsaka Tokiomi was a corpse.
Levi stepped into the room, his shoes clicking softly against the floorboards.
“Grayfia.
Can this be salvaged?”
Grayfia didn’t waste time with words.
She glided to Rin’s side and gestured gracefully. Read this novel at g.com for the best experience.
“Please step aside.”
Rin scrambled backward, her eyes wide.
Grayfia raised one hand, her palm glowing with the icy blue crest of the Lucifuge clan.
A complex magic circle materialized in the air above Tokiomi, casting a pale, ethereal light over his pale face.
The circle spun, humming with raw demonic energy.
From the center of Tokiomi’s ruined chest, right where his heart should have been, something began to sprout.
It looked like a small, translucent sapling woven entirely from glowing nerves.
It twisted upward into the air, stopping when it reached roughly twenty centimeters in height.
Tokiomi’s actual heart remained dead and still.
Yet, this ethereal little tree pulsed rhythmically, expanding and contracting as if acting as a secondary heart.
Grayfia lowered her hand, turning to Levi with a crisp nod.
“He can still be saved.”
“Then hurry up and get it done,” Levi said.
“Understood, Lord Levi.”
Watching the demonic magic stabilize her father’s condition, Rin finally let out a shaky breath.
But the knot in her stomach refused to loosen.
She looked up at Levi, her voice laced with deep-seated anxiety.
“Levi…
can my father really come back to life?”
A decade of strict magical education and human common sense screamed at her that death was final.
The idea of reversing it completely sounded like a fairy tale.
As a Magus, her mind immediately jumped to the darkest corners of her studies.
Levi caught the shift in her eyes.
“I don’t know what’s going through that head of yours, but you aren’t thinking of some cheap necromancy spell, are you?”
Rin flinched.
“How did you know…”
Levi let out a dry scoff.
“Your face is an open book.
You really were thinking of that.
Use your brain, Rin.
If I actually had the ability to use puppetry to control a fake that looks just like your father, why wouldn’t I just kill you right now and turn you into a puppet to work for me instead?”
He took a step closer, looking down at her with a mockingly raised brow.
“You don’t think you’re particularly useful, do you?
Surely not.”
Rin’s jaw dropped slightly.
“You don’t really think that me making you a maid is some special test of your character, do you?” Levi continued, his tone mercilessly casual.
“Could there really be someone with such a high opinion of themselves?”
Levi had only recently discovered this hidden talent of his.
It only took three sentences to push Tohsaka Rin to the absolute brink of an aneurysm.
Right on cue, Rin’s face flushed crimson.
Her lips parted, but she couldn’t even form a coherent word.
Her hands balled into fists, turning ice-cold as her entire body trembled uncontrollably with sheer, unadulterated rage.
However, as the fury spiked, the suffocating grief and anxiety over her father were completely washed away.
She didn’t have the mental capacity to worry about Tokiomi’s resurrection anymore.
She was too busy trying not to die of anger on the spot.
Satisfied with his work, Levi grabbed Rin by the shoulders and physically turned her toward the door, pushing her out of the room.
“This kind of treatment is time-consuming and requires absolute quiet.
Leave it to Grayfia.
Let’s go somewhere else so we don’t get in her way.”
Levi led the rest of the group down the hall to a secondary sitting room on the first floor.
Still fuming but bound by her new reality, Rin practically stomped over to the cabinets, pulling out a tea set and snacks to entertain them.
Watching her aggressively pour hot water into the porcelain cups, Levi nodded in approval.
“It seems you’ve adapted quite well to your new identity.
As one of the three maids of the House of Lucifer, you must get used to this role.”
Rin’s hand twitched, nearly spilling the tea.
“Are there three maids?”
The question came from Irisviel.
Rin had already learned her lesson—responding to Levi’s provocations only guaranteed his next sentence would be twice as infuriating.
So, she kept her mouth shut, leaving Irisviel to take the bait.
Levi shifted his gaze to the silver-haired woman.
“Yes.
Grayfia, Rin—and the other one is you, Irisviel.”
Irisviel blinked, her crimson eyes widening.
She immediately regretted opening her mouth.
But in truth, her asking changed nothing.
Levi had planned to draft her into the House of Lucifer from the start.
Even if he didn’t reincarnate her into a devil, he fully intended to extract every ounce of value from her.
She possessed all the reinforcement techniques, combat skills, and weapon proficiencies ingrained into the Einzbern family’s homunculi.
Levi had a mountain of tasks piling up.
If he dumped all the administrative and logistical work onto Grayfia alone, even the strongest Queen would eventually burn out.
He needed capable hands.
“Alright,” Levi said, clapping his hands once to draw everyone’s focus.
“Grayfia is busy treating Tohsaka Tokiomi.
While we wait, let’s go over the current board.”
He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees.
“The first round of the Holy Grail War is over.
Four Heroic Spirits have been eliminated. Find the original chapter at g.com.
But that doesn’t mean we can pack up and go home.”
His gaze swept across the room.
“We currently have four Masters on our side.
However, Tohsaka Tokiomi’s Command Spells have already been taken by Kotomine Kirei.”
He held out his hand toward Rin and Sakura.
“You two.
Give me the three Command Spells you each hold.”
Neither girl hesitated.
They stepped forward, transferring the crimson marks from their skin to his.
Levi watched the jagged red lines burn into his flesh.
His total count jumped from thirty-three to thirty-nine.
Standing by the wall, Artoria watched the exchange with a deeply conflicted expression, her green eyes narrowing at the sheer volume of absolute authority Levi was hoarding.
Once the transfer was complete, Levi turned his attention to the purple-haired devil sitting quietly on the sofa.
“Ingvild.
How are you adjusting to your Sacred Gear?”
“I’m doing okay,” Ingvild replied, tilting her head.
“Why?
Is there something you need me to do?”
“Fuyuki City is a coastal town,” Levi explained.
“Your ability to control the ocean is perfectly suited for this terrain.
And your secondary skill—taming dragons—isn’t just for show, either.”
As he spoke, his eyes drifted deliberately toward Artoria.
The King of Knights stiffened, her expression souring instantly.
“You agree, right, Red Dragon?” Levi asked, a faint smirk playing on his lips.
Artoria’s jaw locked.
“Although I truly loathe admitting it, and I still cannot fathom just how many methods you possess to forcibly control me…” She ground her teeth together.
“…what you said is factually correct.”
Hearing this, Ingvild’s eyes lit up like stars.
She leaned forward, staring at Artoria with intense fascination.
This was the first time she had ever been in the presence of a real dragon—one she could actually try to tame.
Levi had explained the dual nature of her Sacred Gear to her long ago, but since the Underworld had no oceans and she had never encountered a dragon, she always assumed her powers were highly situational, if not useless.
She never expected that during her very first deployment, both of her abilities would be perfectly applicable.
“Artoria,” Ingvild said, offering a bright, eager smile.
“Let’s get along well from now on.”
Artoria swallowed hard.
“Mm…
yes.
Let us get along.”
She agreed verbally, but her instincts screamed at her.
The sparkling intensity in the purple-haired girl’s eyes definitely did not mean a simple, friendly ‘get along.’
Levi chuckled softly, highly amused by the knight’s discomfort.
He opened his system inventory, materialized a manila folder containing Kotomine Kirei’s profile, and tossed it onto the coffee table.
“We’ve spent enough time on preparations,” Levi said, his tone dropping an octave, turning cold and businesslike.
“As for our next target…
compared to Solomon, I think we need to keep a much closer eye on this man.”
He tapped the photograph of the grim-faced priest.
“Kotomine Kirei.
Or rather, the monster wearing his skin.”
On paper, Kotomine Kirei’s personal combat power couldn’t match a first-rate Heroic Spirit.
His Servant, Hassan of the Hundred Faces, was an assassin who relied on numbers and subterfuge, not raw strength.
Most Magi would dismiss him as a secondary threat.
But Levi knew the truth.
This man was a cockroach, and a highly lethal one at that.
“When Kotomine made his move to assassinate Tokiomi, he had absolutely no idea that Arjuna and Saint George were already dead,” Levi explained.
“The absolute most he could have deduced was the news of Saint George falling in battle.
As for Arjuna, he has zero intel.”
Rin nodded slowly, her anger fading into sharp focus.
“That makes sense.
I was Arjuna’s Master, and I went to the Matou compound with the two of them.
Given the sheer scale of the destruction when Arjuna and Karna clashed, ordinary familiars wouldn’t have survived getting close enough to watch.”
“Exactly,” Levi said, leaning back against the sofa.
“So, after that bastard killed Tokiomi, he just vanished.
He’s operating under incomplete information, which means he’s likely holding onto some backup plan or hidden trump card.
We need to be on high alert.”
Levi’s eyes narrowed.
“If we aren’t careful, I have a gut feeling that right before the final battle with Solomon kicks off, he’s going to pop out of the woodwork and give us a massive headache.”
While Levi and his peerage sat in the Tohsaka manor plotting their next move, Kotomine Kirei was doing the exact same thing in the shadows of Fuyuki.
The priest had no intention of quietly bowing out of the Holy Grail War.
For a man who had only just awakened to his true nature, the brief taste of betrayal had only stoked his hunger.
He needed a stronger, sharper sense of pleasure.
More, he needed to strategize.
He fully expected that once Arjuna and Rin returned to the Tohsaka residence and discovered the body, the wrath of the Archer-class Servant would be turned upon him.
He had to ensure he could survive the inevitable arrow that would come seeking his head.
[Akarin’s Note:
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