"Taken care of?"
The moment Ophis stepped into the Tohsaka residence, she was greeted by Ishtar's voice.
The goddess of Venus was currently reclining sideways on Tokiomi's expensive sofa, elegantly holding a wineglass filled with red wine. Her crimson eyes lazily watched the ripples in the liquid. Even in a body that looked no older than seven, she exuded a hard-to-describe, intoxicating allure.
Compared to her post-fusion appearance, the current Ishtar was closer to her fully divine self.
"Mm."
Ophis ignored her completely, replying with nothing more than a cool nod.
"And you, Ishta?"
"That man… Father is checking Sakura's body. Not that he'll probably have any solution for a state like that, but at least he's doing the bare minimum a father should."
"Is that so."
Ophis didn't particularly care about conflict between parent and child. She tossed out a perfunctory response, sat down to the side, and slipped into standby mode.
Watching Ophis like this, Ishtar pouted in boredom. Then, as if something occurred to her, that signature little-devil smile bloomed across her face again.
Setting her glass aside, the goddess quietly leaned closer to Ophis and reached out her hand.
The next second—
Smack!
A sharp impact cracked through the stillness.
"Ow ow ow ow ow…"
Tears welling, Ishtar clutched the back of her hand—now marked by a shallow welt—and glared furiously at the culprit who'd just struck her.
A silver chain shimmering with golden light writhed in midair like a silver serpent tasting the air. Its other end vanished into a ring of golden ripples.
"You—"
Grinding her teeth, Ishtar lunged and grabbed for the chain, only for it to slip away with nimble ease. But then she flashed a triumphant smile.
Her left hand chased the retreating chain, sealing off its path of retreat, while her right shot out toward Ophis again.
"Now let's see you—"
Smacksmacksmacksmacksmack!
"Ungh…"
This time, Ishtar's tears very nearly spilled for real. Eyes blazing, she stared at the countless identical chains swaying back and forth in front of her like open provocation.
"I'm never forgiving you! Not as long as I live—!!!"
With a roar, Ishtar charged in and grappled with the chains.
By the time Ophis snapped back to awareness, all she saw was Ishtar completely bound in Chains of Heaven, down on all fours like a kitten, baring her teeth at a single chain that was wobbling its "head" at her.
This woman seems even crazier now…
Just as Ophis was about to drop back into standby mode, Ishtar suddenly rolled—somehow wriggling free of the so-called "inescapable even for gods" Chains of Heaven—straightened her clothes, and sat neatly down beside Ophis.
"Rin."
A few seconds later, Tokiomi Tohsaka appeared. He was forcing himself to look calm, but his rumpled clothing and unsteady steps betrayed his disarray.
"Tell me what happened—… King of Heroes, you've returned?"
With half her body tucked behind Ophis, Ishtar might've been out of his line of sight, but even if Tokiomi had his Ignore skill leveled to the max, there was no overlooking Ophis. He immediately dipped into a slight bow in greeting.
He kept his manners, but anyone could see the anxiety written all over him.
"Your vassal wishes to speak with his daughter, King of Heroes—"
Before he could finish, Ophis flicked a hand.
"As you like."
If Ishtar didn't want to talk, then even if Tokiomi sprouted a few extra pairs of wings, he still wouldn't catch her.
But right then, Ishtar suddenly clung to Ophis's arm.
"Father, it was Lord Ophis who saved me earlier. I don't want to be separated from Lord Ophis…"
Flawless acting, perfectly pitched emotion. The fact she could keep it up while Chains of Heaven continued to grind into her back was honestly impressive. Ophis ignored her completely, but Tokiomi, very clearly, believed every word.
"Th-This…"
Tokiomi hesitated, mouth opening and closing.
"Fine. Then tell me directly—what exactly happened between you and Sakura?"
And so, with Ophis repeatedly drifting off mid-conversation and Tokiomi growing more and more aghast, Ishtar tearfully laid out a whole melodrama: an older sister going to visit her younger sister, accidentally uncovering a secret black-ops evil organization, getting hunted down, then being rescued by her father's Servant.
"…So it was… it was like that…"
Regret flickered in Tokiomi's eyes.
In the Tohsaka family records, the Matou family—including their founder, Makiri Zolgen—practiced water-aspected sorcery that controlled familiars. The Command Spell system for the Holy Grail War had been developed by them. Yet there was nothing at all about the Matou familiars being those nauseating worms.
It was Tokiomi's oversight. Had he investigated carefully, he might not have failed to find suspicious signs—but he hadn't.
Having two heirs of extraordinary talent was both the Tohsaka family's fortune and its misfortune. With the Tohsaka's standing, they simply couldn't protect two children gifted to that degree. One of them had to be sacrificed.
And in seeking what seemed like a decent destination for her, Tokiomi hadn't really done anything wrong. If it were any other traditional magus…
Two extremely talented daughters, and you can't keep both? Perfect—one inherits the magecraft, and the other gets used to curry favor with the Mage's Association or serve as material for magecraft experiments. That sort of thing happened all the time.
From a magus's perspective, Tokiomi was practically a model parent—just merely a little stupid.
But now that things had come to this, even if Tokiomi dragged in his ancestors' teachers, it wouldn't change anything.
Sakura's Magic Circuits were, for all intents and purposes, ruined.
"Enough… Enough."
After a long stretch of thought, Tokiomi let out a sigh.
With no aptitude for magecraft, Sakura could live an ordinary life from here on out, and that was… great—my ass. In the eyes of Tokiomi Tohsaka, a man who revered the path of magecraft, that was an outright tragedy.
Even so, he had no solution. All he could do was pin his hopes on whether, after grasping the power of the Root, he might still be able to salvage something. Which only hardened his already iron determination to obtain the Holy Grail.
If he forced himself to find a silver lining, then at least Sakura might be afforded a measure of safety for the time being… Tokiomi still couldn't tell whether her Magic Circuits were completely destroyed or merely unusable, but surely the Mage's Association could help conceal things for a while.
He sighed again, then finally turned his mind back to the Holy Grail War.
"I've shown you an unseemly display, King of Heroes."
"It's fine."
Waking once more, Ophis didn't know what had just happened, but out of habit—drawing on the way she'd once spoken with Siduri and the other vassals—she gave a perfunctory nod.
Tokiomi watched her casual indifference, and his worries surged back up.
How was he supposed to control a Servant like this…?
He was deeply grateful that Ophis had saved Rin and Sakura, but to him, a Servant was no different from a familiar—at the end of the day, a consumable tool to achieve his goals. A familiar saving its master's child was only natural. So his original intent hadn't changed.
"Though I am profoundly grateful for the King of Heroes' lifesaving aid and care toward my daughters, regarding the matter I mentioned to the King of Heroes before… might it be possible—"
---
T/N: SORRY I TOOK A SMALL WEEK BREAK!!!!!!!! I ANNOUNCED IT ON THE P WEBSITE AND DISCORD
bonus chaps
100 stones → 1 bonus chap
200 stones → 2 bonus chaps
300 stones → 3 bonus chaps
and so on :3
100+ new chaps every week across all my TLs on the P website :)
hehe every 100 followers on either instagram or twitter = 5 bonus chaps...?
(for all ongoing tls)
discord.gg/wisetl
patreon.com/wisetl
instagram: hanbaowise
twitter: WiseKingOfUruk_