"Snow—Yay!"
Wearing thick clothes, Taiga rushed directly into the yard. Her boots made a crunching sound on the ground; the snow had already accumulated into a fairly thick layer.
Miyu sat on the edge of the corridor, flipping through her newly bought book, the image of a model student. Sakura, on the other hand, was pulled into a snowball fight by Taiga; snowballs flew back and forth incessantly in the yard.
After tidying up Sakura's room and the room set aside for Taiga, Ritsuka walked along the corridor carrying a bottle of warm water.
It seemed Sakura and Taiga's post-meal exercise was a snowball fight; what should she do?
Ritsuka fell into thought... With absolutely nothing to do, Ritsuka went to the storehouse deep in the yard and casually switched on the light.
Clutter was piled all around, mostly useless junk that Ritsuka had been using for Reinforcement Magic practice; even if they weren't broken, they were nearly ruined under the constant flow of magical energy.
Closing the storehouse door behind her, the crystal dice floated from her palm, one side turning into Ritsuka's view... [Alcides (Archer/Avenger)]
[Synchronization Rate (0%)]
...A dark-skinned giant, though his height wasn't too exaggerated, he was at least two meters tall; the existence named Alcides was quite robust.
Judging by that slightly shriveled body, at his peak, the person represented by the image in the crystal dice was undoubtedly a powerful existence; just standing there would give off a sense of pressure, as even the shriveled body was saturated with evil.
Like an Avenger full of rage, harboring a deep hatred for something.
"I should check some records. That name sounds familiar; maybe he's someone who existed in history."
Inside the storehouse, opening a relatively hidden door, Ritsuka stepped into a place that could be called a library.
Due to Miyu's personal interests and abilities, a significant portion of the money Ritsuka earned over the years went toward buying books, which eventually resulted in this library.
Of course, loving to study is a good thing; not only would she not stop her, but she was also happy for Miyu in her heart.
"Alcides, I wonder if he's in here?"
Talking to herself, Ritsuka held the floating crystal dice in her left hand while her right hand slid across the spines of the books, each marked with a title; she must have heard the name Alcides in a book she read not too long ago.
"Olympian Gods... greek mythology..."
Her finger paused slightly, her index finger resting on a book titled greek mythology, and Ritsuka's brow furrowed slightly.
Casually taking the book off the shelf, Ritsuka's memory of it was still stuck on the last time she looked up the accounts of Pandora, wondering why there was no mention of Pandora's Box.
At the time, she thought the mythology of this world was different from her previous one, and it seemed she had seen the name Alcides in this book.
Taking out the bookmark tucked in the book, Ritsuka flipped back, "No magic box containing calamity and hope, but as for Alcides... Heracles' original name?"
As a fake overachiever and a real slacker, Ritsuka's expression was slightly blank, and she immediately began to reread carefully.
The last time she read it, she probably treated it like a storybook and didn't pay attention to the details.
Time slipped away inadvertently, and after carefully reading the section on Heracles, Ritsuka felt completely stunned; she sat in the corner in a weird, speechless silence, her mood quite complex after reading the book.
With an equally complex expression, she opened the book again and couldn't help but complain aloud, "Heracles, meaning 'Hera's Glory,' but he's Zeus's kid."
"Children are all Hera's treasures, except for Zeus's kids."
"The person who gave him this name was really something. Heracles and Queen Hera had such a terrible relationship; greek mythology is truly bizarre."
Ritsuka was speechless; Hera had even sent poisonous snakes to bite the young Heracles to death.
After all, Hera was Zeus's legal wife, while Heracles' mother Alcmene was Perseus's granddaughter—meaning Zeus's great-granddaughter—and the wife of King Amphitryon of Thebes; she gave birth to the Demigod, Heracles, after being seduced by Zeus.
In short, things were quite complicated, involving all sorts of forbidden elements.
Like rape, incest, and NTR; one could only say as expected of Zeus, a man who dared to do anything to anyone.
He didn't just dare to go after women; status was completely irrelevant. Zeus was a man who even went after men and non-humans; he truly was a super powerful man in a certain sense.
Even that guy named Zhang Churan probably couldn't help but shed tears of envy.
greek mythology is quite chaotic; although Heracles couldn't be called a man of super noble character, he was much better than other Greek heroes of the same period; at least he didn't seem to have forced any women.
Other Greek heroes were basically like thugs and bandits; in a sense, there are only two kinds of heroes in greek mythology: Heracles and everyone else... Tucking the bookmark in, she closed the book, put it back in its original place on the shelf, turned off the light, and left the storehouse.
Now that she knew who Alcides was, she also had some understanding of his abilities; after all, the only function of the crystal dice now was to copy the abilities of the characters inside onto her, even if there was originally only one guy named 'Emiya Shirou'.
He was a somewhat handsome man, but he always gave her the impression of 'Why does this guy look like he's constipated?'
Since he was also an Emiya, maybe this existence had some connection to her, although no such person could be found in Japanese history.
Ritsuka stepped through the snow and walked back to the corridor, her mind constantly thinking.
Alcides, Heracles, the great ancient Greek hero who completed the Twelve Labors, the very symbol of greek mythology heroes.
He was elevated to the Demigod after death and even became a constellation, a god-level existence; his physical strength would likely be terrifying, after all, he was the guy who once held up the heavens.
But what exactly was the suffix of this name, (Archer/Avenger)?
Emiya Shirou also had Archer after his name, which means bowman in English, while Avenger means one who seeks revenge, which was quite intriguing.
In the yard, three girls of various sizes were running around; Ritsuka noticed that even the usually quiet Miyu seemed to have been dragged into the snowball fight and snowman building; after all, it was a rare heavy snow, never this big before.
Walking through the house, Ritsuka suddenly froze as she turned off the kotatsu.
Miyu's learning progress was a bit too fast, which seemed to have caused a shift in her perception; it was good for her to play more at this age.
Children should have vitality; Miyu, at only ten years old, was far too mature for her age, which was actually quite worrying.
However, she probably wasn't in any position to talk about Miyu.
Taking out the crystal dice again, a short-barreled firearm and a box were placed on the table; Ritsuka opened the box, took out the bullets, and wiped them one by one.
These were Kiritsugu's relics and also his entrustment to Ritsuka; that father-like guy had asked her to take good care of Miyu; she was probably doing a good job of that, right?