Chapter 395: The Emiya Residence of the Tohsaka
"That was amazing! We left as soon as we got there," Gudako said with wonder, her amber eyes wide as she looked around.
Only seconds ago, they had been in that enclosed, gloomy basement; now, looking up, she could see the stars in the night sky. They were currently in a small alleyway in a residential district, illuminated by rows of tall streetlights.
Gudako turned her head, following the gaze of the black-haired girl in the long red sleeves, and saw a Western-style villa. Light could be seen near the windows; it seemed they had been teleported out from the basement of that very house by magecraft.
"Damn it... what a waste! If I had summoned a Servant, I could have kept that Lancer," Rin Tohsaka said, gnashing her teeth as she looked at the two shattered rubies in her palm, her heart aching.
Watching this, Gudako couldn't help but retort: "That miserly look—you really are just like Ishtar-chan..."
"Alright, as long as we don't use Command Spells, that Lancer won't be able to get out for a while. Let's go find a safer place first," Rin said, adjusting her emotions. Regardless of everything, Gudako had appeared in the summoning circle she had laid out, and she couldn't just abandon her.
"Um, Rin-senpai, where are we going?" Gudako asked.
"Just follow me, we're almost there. And you better give me an honest explanation of what's going on!" Rin walked briskly ahead.
"Oh..." Gudako agreed. She followed Rin through the long residential corridors and finally stopped in front of a traditional-style mansion.
"Whoa, is this it? A Japanese-style mansion~!" Gudako scanned her surroundings, looking around with great curiosity.
"Yes. Originally, this mansion was bought by someone named Emiya, but the owner died a few years ago, so I bought it."
"Emiya?!" Gudako blinked her large eyes. Since arriving in this world, she hadn't felt like a stranger at all; it seemed to be full of people she knew.
Back during the Fourth Holy Grail War in 1994, although Kiritsugu Emiya had not been consumed by the black mud thanks to Avalon, the mud had still eroded his body. Because of the White God, the Shirou Emiya of this world had vanished; Kiritsugu had failed to save anyone and had fallen into despair. As the magical energy of the Saber who had remained in this world completely dissipated, the sheath—acting as a catalyst—lost its miraculous abilities. Although Kiritsugu lived a few years longer than in the original history, he spent them in endless regret, eventually dying alone as his body's magical energy faded away.
In Japan, when a house owner dies and there is no heir, the property reverts to the state. For a country with scarce land resources, such properties are immediately reclaimed and often leveled to be sold as empty lots. So, before that could happen, Rin had used her connections to purchase it. After all, Japan's land area was less than 1/25th of China's, totaling only 370,000 square kilometers, yet it held a population of over 140 million—more than double the population density of China.
Because it was an island nation located in a remote area, it spanned two climate zones. Places like Hokkaido, consisting of numerous islands, were cold; while it occupied over one-fifth of Japan's land, it only housed five million people. Other regions were continuous mountain ranges containing active volcanoes that erupted from time to time, making them uninhabitable. Then there were the small islands that might disappear as glaciers melted, and the coastal areas located on earthquake belts or prone to typhoons and tsunamis where high-rise buildings couldn't be constructed.
Rin took out a key, opened the door, and beckoned the orange-haired girl inside.
"Pardon the intrusion~!" Gudako took off her shoes at the entryway, curiously examining the Japanese-style architecture.
"Don't be so formal, there's no one else here," Rin said casually.
The mansion was large. Upon entering the main foyer, one could see an antique cabinet from a bygone era. Turning right inside led to a small living room with tatami mats, a rectangular table in the center, and the kitchen further in. Although the layout of each room was small, the house had many rooms, separated by white Japanese paper doors. Pushing open door after door seemed endless; it could easily accommodate over a dozen people.
Behind the veranda was a spacious backyard planted with flowers, plants, and several trees. Attached to one side of the main house was an annex—a Western-style villa—and on the other side was a dojo. In the furthest corner was a small, single-story cabin, which was the warehouse. Everything had been preserved exactly as it was in the black-haired girl's memory.
Rin went into the kitchen to boil water for tea for Gudako.
"It's night now, so black tea is fine, right?"
"Mm, I'm not picky about what I drink," Gudako replied.
"Enjoy."
"Thank you."
After finishing the tea, Gudako began to explain how she had arrived here.
The black-haired girl touched her thumb to her lips, pondering: "If that's the case, it makes sense. Teleportation magecraft that traverses parallel worlds... but if it were that genius from the Renaissance with the Holy Grail providing the energy, this level of feat isn't entirely impossible..."
"It's probably because Da Vinci is a Servant, so the teleportation array used Heroic Spirit-level magical energy. And I just happened to bite my tongue while chanting... No! An accident happened! So the summoning circle turned into a receiving teleportation array, right?" The black-haired girl blushed and quickly corrected herself.
Gudako nodded to show she understood. This was likely the ultimate reason why, after being possessed by gods, the Servants this girl became were not those who excelled in magecraft. Ishtar-chan had also mentioned that she often missed the timing when using reinforcement skills like the Mana Burst (Gem) of her gem magecraft.
"By the way, that Chaldea you mentioned—it sounds familiar. Tell me in more detail; what is it that you do there?" Rin asked.
"Well, the full name is the Organization for the Preservation of Human Order, Chaldea. Director Marie's family seems quite famous in the world of magi. Her surname is Animusphere," Gudako explained.
Rin seemed to realize something; her eyes widened, and she slapped the table: "The Animusphere family!? The noble lineage that governs the Celestial Department at the Clock Tower!"
Gudako was also surprised: "Eh? Is Director Marie's family really that powerful?! Whenever I saw her, she did look very impressive."
Rin retorted impatiently: "Of course! While not one of the three great noble families, the Animusphere family's Starry Sky Magecraft is incredibly powerful. They are proficient in theology, skilled in divination, and it is said they have even produced rare magi who possess the Mystic Eye of Future Sight. Moreover, they and the Barthomeloi family—who hold the highest authority—are both part of the 'Noble Supremacy' faction; they are allies with shared political interests. Gudako, to think you're a key figure in a Lord's research institution... does that mean you're actually quite promising (financially)?"
Rin's eyes lit up. As long as she could build a relationship with those great nobles, wouldn't she have as many gems as she wanted, enough to use to her heart's content!
The twelve Lords of the Clock Tower were renowned magecraft families with thousands of years of tradition. They were the twelve leaders who controlled the educational resources of the Mage's Association; they were effectively the deans of the top departments at the world's most prestigious university, independently running their own colleges. They were the hub of the Mage's Association. Aside from the alchemists of the Atlas Institute and the mysterious Wandering Sea, almost every magus in Europe worth mentioning would choose to apprentice at the Clock Tower to pursue further studies.
The Animusphere Lord was not some stand-in like El-Melloi II, who was thrust into the role to fill a gap until the successor matured after the original head died unexpectedly. Because of this, the El-Melloi family had lost power, and El-Melloi II was marginalized, stripped of the
mineralogy department with its abundant resources and students, and banished to the Modern Magecraft Department—where he could only teach misfits that no one else would take.
However, after a moment's thought, Rin looked at Gudako with suspicion: "But who is Marie? The current Lord should be a man."
Gudako laughed dryly: "Ah, the current Director Marie is probably only 13... no, 12 years old?"
"Hmm... in that case, you're a person from the future too, though from another world. Right! Do you know any information that can guarantee a win? Like winning lottery numbers, the results of the World Cup? News about the Olympics! Anything will do!" The black-haired girl grabbed Gudako's hand excitedly.
Gudako shook her head. A "non-European" (unlucky) player who could only dream of quenching thirst with thoughts of plums—how would she dare to hope to change her bloodline in the 3D world?
She tried hard to think and then said: "No, I haven't really paid attention to those... In 2015, the Demon God King will appear. He wants to incinerate the Human Order. Does that count?"
"Huh? So you were teleported here because of that Demon God King?" the black-haired girl asked doubtfully.
"Don't worry, that's already been resolved," Gudako said with a smile.
Rin smiled as well: "Oh, is that so? That's great... Wait, does that mean you saved the Human Order?"
Gudako felt embarrassed; she scratched the back of her head and said with a smile: "Actually, I'm not that great~! The important thing is everyone else. I just wanted to survive."
"Hey, hey! That's saving the Human Order we're talking about," Rin retorted.
"Although I don't really have a sense of it, and the Mage's Association hasn't said anything clearly either," Gudako added.
Rin's eyes widened, and she cut in: "That's a matter of course! That's the Human Order—the law that guides humanity toward the future; it's like the rule of the World Tree, something like the Akashic Records. Even if your institution provided enough evidence to prove you saved such a thing, no one would be grateful to you. Your actions are like telling a stranger that you went back thousands of years to stop a catastrophe and saved their ancestors, or saying that because of you, their descendants of dozens of generations later were able to be born. Although you did save the world and allowed humanity to continue, that only returned the world to its proper track, allowing people to continue going to school and work the next morning. For those who survived, it's just everyday life—it's expected."
"No matter how great your achievements, it's meaningless to modern society. Instead, because Chaldea can influence human history, it might be viewed as a dangerous existence or a tool to be utilized, and you might find yourselves being targeted."
"But come to think of it... Chaldea, saving the Human Order, repairs, and all that—you really have it rough," Rin said, looking at Gudako with some sympathy.
"Yeah~!" Gudako nodded, feeling it deeply.
She had originally thought that after defeating Goetia, ending the period of Human Order Incineration, and repairing it, everything would be over. She hadn't expected that her life would remain full of surprises, with bizarre things constantly happening. Even if they weren't enemies, accidents would inevitably happen to pull her into strange events. Even the Servants summoned by Chaldea would occasionally drag her all over the place; it seemed she was destined for a life of toil.
Chaldea had suddenly fallen into an unknown crisis, and all kinds of instruments had malfunctioned. She, Mash, and Fou had been teleported to three different worlds by Da Vinci-chan; she had no idea how that child was doing now.
This was also a very dangerous world. When she was in the Chaldea training classroom, she had studied materials related to Fuyuki. The Holy Grail War that took place in Fuyuki City in 2004 was connected to a massive Leyline, and the Greater Grail—which realized the Third Magic (Materialization of the Soul)—though inferior to the original prototype, was still a very special type among the sub-species Grails, with a high degree of completion.
Among the seven Heroic Spirits summoned throughout the eras, there was no lack of top-tier powerhouses, and some even had combat strength that reached the level of Grand Servants. This Holy Grail War system had been executed five times. Finally, around 2014, the head of the Tohsaka family—one of the founders—and El-Melloi II of the Modern Magecraft Department had worked together to dismantle the Greater Grail, which had been constructed on the underground Leyline of Fuyuki City.
And now it was still 2004. In fact, this wasn't Gudako's first time here, but the last time she came, this place had completely turned into burning ruins. She and Mash, as Chaldea's Master and Demi-Servant, had completed their first mission here and had even witnessed with their own eyes the Director being thrown into the pseudo-celestial body by Professor Lev and incinerated... she couldn't help but be deeply impressed.
However, whether it was the Fuyuki City of the Singularity or the Fuyuki City of the Fifth Holy Grail War, they were both ultra-dangerous.
"Forget it~! Everything will work out in the end." Gudako smiled, leaving the unknown worries behind. The optimistic girl always chose to move forward bravely.
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