About thirty kilometers straight west from the bustling streets of Fuyuki City, there is an east-west national highway. On both sides of this national highway is a dense forest. Legend has it that in the deepest part of this dense forest, there is a "mythical city"
”.
According to people who have entered this place by mistake, the castle is made of pure white rocks and is very magnificent. No one lives in the castle, like an abandoned city. However, the facilities in the castle are complete and everything is in order, which makes people feel like
The illusion that someone lives here.
At this time, it welcomes its owner who has arrived here to participate in a life-and-death struggle called the Holy Grail War.
"Mom! It's so beautiful here!"
The little silver girl in a purple thick velvet dress cheered happily while running in the corridor of the castle.
"Illya, don't cause trouble to everyone."
This is a beautiful woman who is 90% similar to the running girl. She is wearing the same fluffy winter coat as her daughter. She also has silver-red eyes. At this time, she sees the maids suspending their tidying up to avoid her daughter. Her name is Alice.
The woman from Phil von Einzbern called out slightly distressed.
"It's okay to let her run away," someone said with a calm voice beside him. When Irisviel turned around with disapproval, he added: "Not only Illya, even you have never been out of trouble."
Go far away."
"Well, that's indeed the case." The silver woman thought for a moment and nodded.
The man next to her with a somewhat stern look on his face and eyebrows is called Emiya Kiritsugu. He is Irisviel's husband. They used to live together in the Einzbern family.
Irisviel was unable to go out at will due to various reasons, although Emiya Kiritsugu often brought her some outside movies and photos to watch, and also told her many stories about the outside world, such as New York, Paris and other international cities, as well as many
People lead different lives, but this was the first time she actually left that castle in Germany and saw it with her own eyes.
As for the reason for coming to Fuyuki one year before the start of the Holy Grail War...
"You can feel it, Airi." Standing in the main entrance hall, Emiya Kiritsugu observed the castle with sharp eyes.
"Ah, yes, there are no signs of damage at all." Irisviel made the same judgment after looking around.
As a specially set up annex of the Einzbern family, this castle is shrouded in multiple layers of illusions and magic barriers. Except for extremely occasional circumstances, it will never be exposed. Even if someone accidentally enters, it will be very dangerous.
Quickly leave on your own under the ubiquitous magic of suggestion.
But now, someone has entered without touching any warning or defensive barriers, and more than once.
Eubustaku Hayd von Einzbern, the old man who is the head of the Einzbern family, believes that this is the work of a magician who is scheduled to participate in the upcoming Holy Grail War, and his purpose is to destroy this place.
Destroy the magic workshop that has been prepared or place traps in it.
Therefore, Emiya Kiritsugu and Irisviel were ordered to rush to Fuyuki in advance to repair and protect it. It makes a huge difference whether a magic workshop has an owner or not.
With Kiritsugu's efforts to persuade, they were allowed to bring their daughter Ilyasviel von Einzbern to experience the atmosphere of the "Holy Grail War", but it must be done three months or more before the official start of the war.
Send her back when the heroic spirit is summoned.
Although he is like the clan leader, he is actually unwilling to separate from his daughter too early. Unlike his appearance, Kiritsugu is actually a very gentle person, Irisviel thought.
"Since the opponent can completely avoid alarm and protection magic, and is only accidentally discovered when his spiritual veins are disturbed, he must not be able to see the appearance of the person even if he uses the 'scene reenactment' magic," Emiya Kiritsugu pondered slightly.
, stepped forward and walked towards the stairs of the castle: "But the other party must not have guessed that the 'one' I placed here is there."
Irisviel knows "that", which is a product of "technology" that is completely different from "mysteries" such as magic and alchemy.
When Kiritsugu came to Fuyuki two years ago to conduct secret reconnaissance, the cameras and recording devices placed throughout the castle were activated in a series of different ways such as magic traps, infrared detection, weight sensing, and sound feedback, so unless
The intruder achieved complete invisibility, otherwise he would have been discovered and recorded.
Although Kiritsugu's behavior is said to be completely without the pride of a magician, from the perspective of the Einzbern family, which specializes in alchemy, both mystical and scientific products are tools that people can control and use them effectively.
As long as he achieves his goal, even though he has the reputation of a magician killer, the great grandfather is still willing to let him marry him.
However, even though he clearly regarded magic as a tool, he was still very angry at the way he was treated as a "magic tool" when they first met. Even because of this... Irisviel held her slightly hot face and was unwilling to continue.
Think about it.
Although Emiya Kiritsugu noticed his wife's strange behavior, he had more important things to do now and ignored this little thing.
At this time, the two of them were in a secret room in the Einzbern annex. More than a dozen surveillance pictures were showing maids cleaning up everywhere. Illya's lively figure appeared in some pictures from time to time.
Afterwards, Emiya Kiritsugu began to remove one by one and play back the video footage that was activated and recorded when the castle "should" be empty.
Zizzizi——The saved content soon appeared on a surveillance screen.
"Hmm, are you still aware of it? Some kind of magic that disrupts vision was used..."
Although the device used by Kiritsugu was very advanced and the scene displayed was relatively clear, the figure was blurry, and we could only initially judge that it was
A young woman in dark clothes and light-colored hair. Judging from the date in the corner of the picture, it was about a year ago.
She pushed open the door as if no one was watching, which startled Irisviel, who knew how much magic was being done there, but nothing happened.
Then the woman began to visit the interior of the annex as if no one else was there - indeed - she walked around briefly before opening the door and leaving, without setting off any alarms or traps.
"I have to admit that she is very accomplished in magic. She can use magic to protect herself at any time without deliberately being vigilant." Emiya Kiritsugu analyzed calmly, but Irisviel vaguely felt that there was something wrong in the picture.
The woman seemed dissatisfied with the facilities here.
The video will stop if the conditions are not met, so the next moment is still the scene of her opening the door and coming in. The difference from last time is that she looks very hard carrying big and small bags. Kiritsugu is about to analyze what is in those bags.
What kind of magic supplies? One of the bags broke open and spilled the contents all over the floor.
"Are those melon seeds, peanuts and potato chips?" Irisviel couldn't help but laugh as she saw the girl stunned for a moment, and then looking dejectedly to find utensils and start cleaning.
"Suddenly I felt that it was a mistake for us to come to Fuyuki so solemnly." Emiya Kiritsugu pinched his forehead and sighed: "Although she is very powerful, she is probably the eldest daughter of a certain magic family who is out for fun."
"She is a good child." From the video playing, you can see that this girl has settled in a room in the castle. She seems to be playing nearby. Some cameras in the forest can sometimes capture her from different places.
When he stayed in the castle room, he either read or practiced magic, often cleaned the room, and occasionally went out to buy a lot of things like he did at the beginning.
"We have to teach Illya not to occupy other people's empty houses when traveling in the future." Kiritsugu no longer paid much attention to the scene on the screen. After all, although there was no surveillance in a sensitive location, he was still a human being after all.
Daily activities of young girls.
"If that child comes here again, you are not allowed to hurt her." Irisviel looked at Emiya Kiritsugu and said.
"This kind of intrusion into other magicians' studios must-" Kiritsugu said mid-sentence, looked at his wife's eyes staring at him, raised his hands in surrender: "-can be forgiven, can be forgiven."
The video of the last day was shown three days ago. It kept showing the scene facing the door of the girl's room. It was a bit strange for a long time. This proved that the girl seemed to be using magic in the room, but because there was no surveillance in the room, there was only the door.
The camera is always running.
Click, click, click - little Illya ran past the door quickly. Next to the screen used for recording, there was another screen showing the live scene.
Ilia, who was passing by, seemed to notice something. She slowly walked back to the door and reached out to open the door.
At the same time, the door in the picture three days ago opened at the same speed.
"This..." Emiya Kiritsugu sat up straight suddenly, and Irisviel's eyes widened.
There was no one inside the door that Ilya opened. When the girl from three days ago opened the door and walked out, there was naturally no one outside.
However,
The unknown girl turned around and raised her hand, touching Illya's head, and Illya narrowed her eyes in contentment.
"Illya!" Irisviel couldn't continue reading. She stood up and rushed out of the secret room, and soon found her daughter who was still poking her head around the room.
"Mom?" Illya, who was suddenly hugged by Irisviel, blinked her eyes in confusion, and then said: "Illya just felt that there was a little sister inside, but she didn't find her after opening the door.
"
Emiya Kiritsugu was still in the secret room staring at the surveillance screen.
First, the girl from three days ago said something, and walked around Illya's position three days later towards the gate, while Illya tilted her head and looked at the direction the girl was leaving in confusion.
Then, in another video from three days ago, when the girl was walking out of the gate, she suddenly dodged something, and in that position in the real picture, there was Irisviel flying past.
