Seeing that the other party wasn’t taking the bait, Byakuya decided to just play it off.
It was common knowledge that FGO was a game centered around gacha, so it was only natural that his interest in summoning Servants outweighed his desire to compete for the Holy Grail…
unless the Grail could give him more pulls.
Morgan wasn’t bothered by Byakuya’s evasiveness.
She simply answered his previous question calmly, “If you don’t have a specific Servant in mind, or if you’ve already prepared the appropriate Relics, then you can indeed perform the summoning right now.”
“Then what are we waiting for?
Let’s get started!”
With a wave of his hand, Byakuya released his Magic Power, clearing out enough space to carve the summoning circle for the ritual.
He didn’t have a specific target in mind.
But if he were looking for a certain *type* of Servant…
“Though you were just an ‘ordinary person’ before you summoned me, in some ways, you’re actually more of a qualified magus than those other Masters.”
Morgan raised an eyebrow as she looked at the makeshift “Relics” Byakuya had crafted on the spot: twenty-four rune stones, each etched with a different Rune, and a single blank stone symbolizing the unknown.
She immediately realized what he was trying to summon.
“I mean, a Servant is a Servant, right?
It’s not like we’re short on combat power, so rather than gambling on a random draw, I’d rather summon someone who can definitely be useful to me.”
Byakuya smiled, placing all twenty-five rune stones into the summoning circle.
“By the way, will this irregular summoning conflict with the Servants summoned by the normal Masters?”
“No,” Morgan shook her head.
“I’ll incorporate some of my own understanding when I activate the summoning.
If all goes well, the resulting Servant won’t even be counted among the official participants of this Holy Grail War.”
“That’s perfect.”
Byakuya clapped his hands with a laugh.
“Remember to summon a Caster, just like your own class.
The odds of gambling for a ‘teacher’ proficient in Runes should be higher than summoning some brute of another class who just happens to use Runes…
Oh, right, you know Runes too.
You won’t accidentally summon another version of yourself, will you?”
“…”
Morgan didn’t say a word; she just stared at him without blinking.
“Cough, just kidding.”
Feeling the sudden chill in the air, Byakuya let out a small cough.
Morgan turned her gaze back and stepped toward the ritual circle.
Instead of following the standard procedure of chanting an incantation, she activated the circle directly.
Just like the two summonings Byakuya had personally experienced or witnessed, a figure appeared in the center of the circle amidst a brilliant glow of Magic Power.
Crimson eyes, reddish-purple hair, and attire of purple and black.
A veil covered her face, and in her hand, she gripped a crimson spear…
“Are you sure the thing you summoned is a Caster?”
Recognizing exactly who this was, Byakuya looked at Morgan with a bewildered expression.
“…At least, that is how the other side responded when I performed the summoning,” Morgan answered hesitantly.
“Fair enough.”
Though it was unexpected, his goal for summoning a new Servant—finding a teacher proficient in Runes—had at least been met.
Wait, something felt off.
“If my information is correct, isn’t this person technically still ‘alive’?”
Finally remembering this detail, Byakuya inhaled sharply.
“Is there a rule stating that living beings cannot respond to a summoning as Servants?” Morgan countered.
Byakuya: “…”
Actually, there didn’t seem to be one.
Wait, something is still wrong!
“I suppose I never really noticed before…”
His gaze fixed on his Caster.
“Your main body isn’t still hiding out in the Sea of Stars or somewhere else, is it?
Now that I think about it, no legend explicitly confirms your death.”
“Care to guess?”
Morgan smiled faintly, throwing Byakuya’s own evasive logic back at him.
***
While Byakuya and Morgan were chatting, the spear-wielding Caster in the summoning circle remained silent, simply watching them.
Once the two finished their conversation, she finally spoke.
“Caster, Scathach, come from the Land of Shadows…
Based on your conversation, it seems you already recognize me.
There is no need for a more detailed introduction.”
She paused, and seeing that neither of them disagreed, Scathach looked at Byakuya.
“While my contract is with her, the one who truly summoned me was you, wasn’t it?”
“…Yes.”
Byakuya nodded, his gaze shifting to the crimson spear she held.
“The Queen of the Land of Shadows.
I’ve heard much about you.”
*Seriously, though… since you know you’ve descended in the Caster class, couldn’t you have played the part a little?*
*Not that I’m asking for high-level maneuvers like using a broken branch as a staff, but even if you insist on keeping the spear, couldn’t you have kept it hidden at first instead of flashing it the moment you arrived?*
“Since when was magecraft such an inconvenient thing?”
Reading the look in Byakuya’s eyes, Scathach twirled the spear in a beautiful flourish.
The tip traced an elegant arc through the air, leaving a trail of glowing runes in its wake.
“…”
Fair enough.
“Don’t just stand there.
Let’s sit and talk.”
Byakuya gestured toward a nearby fabric sofa.
Over the past few days, thanks to Tsuruno Matou spending money without restraint, almost everything in the Matou Residence had been updated—much like the kitchen.
While the structural elements like the walls and floors could only be refreshed with a coating of Magic Power, the furniture in the living room, including the sofas, coffee table, and carpets, had been completely replaced.
This served as a small concession to his cleanliness obsession and his utter hatred for bugs.
The three of them took their seats.
Byakuya and Morgan occupied opposite ends of a long sofa, while Scathach sat opposite them on another sofa across the coffee table.
“So, you didn’t summon me to utilize my combat strength, but because you hope to learn more about the application of Runes from me?”
After hearing Byakuya explain his purpose for summoning her, Scathach beckoned with her hand.
Within the summoning circle nearby, a cracked rune stone flew into her palm, drawn by an invisible force.
Her fingertip traced the carvings on the stone, sensing the residual power within.
She let out a soft sound of surprise and wrote the modern Runic characters carved on the stone in the air with her other hand.
Once she confirmed it wasn’t an illusion, she looked at Byakuya with curiosity.
“Did you write the runes on this stone?”
“I did.”
Byakuya traced the air with his finger, depicting the same rune.
Supported by the power of both individuals, the two runes did not dissipate but remained suspended in the air.
The difference became immediately apparent.
This rune, which represented ‘?’, had the basic meaning of the sun, from which meanings like ‘light’ and ‘warmth’ were derived.
If the rune drawn by Scathach was like an incandescent lightbulb—where one had to be quite close to feel the heat—then the one drawn by Byakuya was like a miniature sun, providing warmth even from several meters away.
The reason there was such a disparity despite both being the modern Runes reconstructed by Touko Aozaki was due to the 32-fold increase provided by the 5 extra strength points of [Rune Magecraft] Lv.5.
“Interesting.”
Scathach dispelled her rune.
“I accept your proposal.
Until this war for the Holy Grail is over, I will teach you everything I know regarding the interpretation of Runes in this era.”
“Then I’ll be in your care for the time being.”
Byakuya stood up and gave a respectful bow to his new magecraft teacher.
***
The next morning.
Woken by her internal biological clock, Sakura Matou blinked her eyes open and snuggled against her “bed partner”—a ragdoll bear she had brought from the Tohsaka household.
Once she had cleared the cobwebs from her mind, she sat up and looked toward the beanbag chair in the corner of the room, where “another version of herself” was frantically mashing buttons on a controller.
“Kama-san, why are you still playing that?”
“I am a…
a dignified deity descended into the mortal realm.
I’m not killing people or setting fires; is it so wrong for me to just play a game?”
Kama huffed.
Stretching out her leg, she nimbly plucked a grape from a bunch beside the sofa with her toes and popped it into her mouth.
“No, I mean, why are you still on this level?”
Sakura quickly explained, “I remember you were already fighting this boss before I went to sleep last night.”
Kama: “…”
The character on screen, already depleted of resources and forced to dodge incessantly while waiting for an opening, made one slight positioning error.
The final sliver of the health bar was wiped out.
Watching the boss—who also only had a sliver of health left—unleash a brutal combo to corpse-camp her fallen character, Kama’s eyes turned hollow.
She turned to look at Sakura.
“Do you have any idea that this was the closest I’ve come to success in one hundred and seventy-two attempts over the last nine hours, thirty-one minutes, and fifty-two seconds?”
“I’m sorry…”
Realizing she had stepped in it the moment the screen turned grayscale, Sakura shrank back into her blankets.
“I thought this wouldn’t be hard for you guys.”
“If I had a normal supply of Magic Power, it wouldn’t be.
After all, these games are made for humans; no matter how high the difficulty, it’s designed so that most ordinary people can clear it.”
Kama’s gaze toward Sakura became increasingly resentful.
“Do you know what a stat sheet where Strength, Endurance, Agility, Magic Power, and Luck are all E- means for a Servant?”
“I’m sorry…”
Although Byakuya and Morgan had both mentioned that Kama’s stats were unrelated to her Master, Sakura instinctively continued to apologize, sensing that this was not the time for logical arguments.
“Sigh…
forget it.”
Waving her hand, Kama—whose character had already respawned at the checkpoint—embarked on her quest once more.
“Since you’re awake, stop staying here and distracting me.
Go do whatever you need to do.”
“Okay.”
Nodding in agreement, Sakura threw off the covers, changed out of her nightgown into casual clothes, and freshened up in the bathroom.
She then pretended not to notice that Kama’s character had already died and returned to the checkpoint again before quietly leaving the room.
She headed downstairs to the dining area.
“Good morning, Big Brother Byakuya~ Good morning, Sister Morgan~”
Greeting Byakuya and Morgan as usual, Sakura was about to take her seat when she noticed something unusual.
*Hmm…*
“Is this big sister also a Servant that Big Brother Byakuya summoned, like Sister Morgan?”
Scathach’s attire was clearly not in line with the fashion of the late twentieth century, causing Sakura to immediately rule out the possibility that she was a modern human.
“Strictly speaking, not me.
She is a Servant summoned by your Sister Morgan,” Byakuya introduced.
“This is Scathach, the Queen of the Land of Shadows from Celtic Mythology.
This time, she has descended in the Caster class…
As for you, just call her ‘sister,’ like you do with Morgan.”
As he said the latter part, Byakuya looked at Scathach to ask for her opinion.
“I don’t mind,” Scathach replied.
And so, a new day at the Matou Residence began with Sakura’s sweet cry of “Sister Scathach~”