"My King—Assassin has confirmed the traitors trespassing upon your domain. I humbly beg you to take the field in person and let your glory shine!"
No sooner had Ophis finished establishing her workshop than—back at the Tohsaka residence—Tokiomi's relentless pleading drove her back out again.
…Tokiomi might have been tireless, but Ophis was genuinely sick of the noise.
At bottom, Ophis was the sort who couldn't refuse her subordinates' requests. That was how she'd once been used so miserably by that Cao-surnamed someone and his people—partly because she couldn't stand them droning in her ear without end.
Ophis now wasn't as naïve as she'd been, but most of her nature remained unchanged.
Since Tokiomi had declared his loyalty, then until he showed the heart of rebellion, Ophis would still fulfill a king's duty.
Her vassal had pointed her toward the enemy. So she would go and look.
She walked there at an unhurried pace. If the target was still there by the time she arrived, fine. If not, that wasn't Ophis's problem.
Night had fallen. Pedestrians had dispersed, and the streets were growing quiet.
…Too quiet, for this hour.
In fact, aside from Ophis, not a single person remained.
Just then, hurried footsteps pattered closer. A little girl with black twin-tails and pretty blue-green eyes came running toward Ophis from the far end of the street.
It was the girl who had caught Ophis's attention.
"…A vessel?"
The girl looked only six or seven, yet her features were strikingly similar to how Ishtar had looked after being summoned through possession.
Meaning, unless she had some kind of twin, this girl should be the vessel Ishtar was inhabiting… or at least a parallel version of that vessel.
And right now, the girl looked panicked.
"Run!"
The moment she saw Ophis, her expression tightened in alarm. She lunged forward, grabbed Ophis by the wrist, and bolted—dragging her at full speed, quickly leaving the street behind.
"Hey~ Don't run~"
Not long after, a young man with orange-red hair came sprinting from the same direction. He looked around, clearly failing to find his target. After scratching at his hair, he left.
Perched atop a small building nearby, Ophis held the girl in her arms and watched him go. Only when the young man's silhouette vanished completely did Ophis give a soft sigh, drop back to the ground, and set the girl down.
"Ishta. What are you trying to do?"
"Huh?!"
The girl froze, then pouted.
"What the heck—was it that obvious?"
"…"
Ophis didn't have much common sense, but even she knew an ordinary little girl shouldn't be able to sprint hundreds of meters without so much as a basic reinforcement spell—and still not be out of breath.
"And you're not even surprised. Don't tell me you really don't have emotions? How boring. Boring to death. Boring to a degree so unbelievable that even a goddess would weep!"
"Why didn't you let me kill him?"
Ophis ignored Ishta's increasingly childish rant—likely an influence from her vessel—and asked her question.
That man had a Master–Servant connection on him. By process of elimination, he was probably Caster's Master. Kill him, and Caster would be forced off the board immediately.
He was only a weak, ordinary magus. Ophis couldn't be bothered to go hunting him down, but if she happened to run into him, ending it on the spot would have been optimal.
Since Ishta had dragged her away, she must have been trying to stop that.
"It's nothing. I just thought it'd be more fun this way."
Ishta's eyes stained themselves a vivid crimson as she curled her lips into a little devil's smile.
"Don't forget—I'm the goddess of love and beauty, yes, but I'm also a goddess of war and conflict. Human strife is the finest offering there is."
Ophis gave Ishta a sidelong look. She more or less understood the situation.
Ishtar was a contradictory goddess.
Divine lineages were complicated, and Ishtar—one of the earliest—carried a great many roles and Authorities within her. That complexity was simply part of her nature.
She loved humanity and human civilization, yet she also adored conflict among humans, treating it as her aesthetic.
That was why, when humanity faced crisis, she could be persuaded—given enough reason—to help save them. But in peaceful times…
This goddess was good for nothing except stirring up trouble.
And now, she was returning to her old specialty—causing trouble.
"Heh-heh-heh. A game is only fun when it's lively, and the grander the stage, the better. That nasty-looking Caster may be weak, but I can see the potential in him to dominate the stage. And today, those Chaldea people tried to strangle that potential in its cradle. Unforgivable. So this goddess had no choice but to step in and stop them personally."
Hearing that, Ophis sighed, expression flat.
The moment this goddess chose to interfere, Ophis's hope of quickly eliminating everyone else became impossible.
Still… Ophis couldn't help wondering how far Ishta would go.
Back then, the goddess had dropped the Bull of Heaven straight onto Uruk. It had only been a powerless incarnation, but if Ophis and Enkidu hadn't been strong enough—and if that incarnation had been given time to absorb power—Uruk would have been destroyed, or at least half-ruined.
As long as humanity didn't actually get wiped out, this goddess could play as hard as she wanted without the slightest strain.
"But humans in this city should count themselves lucky,"
Ishta added with a light laugh.
"Because it's not that Ishtar invaded a girl's body—it's that one day, a girl simply became Ishtar. Leaving aside the Divinity, that girl's humanity is so kind it borders on absurdity."
At that, Ishta clicked her tongue.
She'd even gone out of her way to rescue her classmate just now… the sort of unnecessary effort she would never have made in her days as a true goddess.
"I won't let the humans of this city suffer too many casualties. For me, battles between Servants are more than enough."
"Is that so?"
Ophis gave no particular response.
In truth, even she didn't know—if Ishta truly decided to destroy the city, would Ophis stop her?
Ophis liked humans. Not solely because of her promise to Enkidu, but because in the Age of Gods she had seen humanity's beauty and resilience.
But Ophis was not human—and humanity did not need gods.
To humans, Ophis's existence was no different from a god's.
Having ended Uruk's Age of Gods with her own hands, Ophis could no longer interfere with humanity from a god's vantage point.
"More importantly…"
Before her thoughts could settle, Ishta suddenly leaned in close.
"What you've been doing lately looks way more interesting. Tell me about it?"
Her eyes glittered with excited light as the trouble-loving goddess asked.
---
T/N: ISHTA?? RIN JUST SUDDENLY BECAME ISHTAR?
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