Kuoh.
The next day, I decided to close one thing I had promised, and so I headed out pretty early to the amusement park, which happened to be in town, as was the oceanarium. And now I was sitting quietly at a table in the park's food court drinking coffee, not alone of course.
- "Mr. Archaman, may I ask why we're here?" Griselda asked nonchalantly, dressed in her nun's outfit, which attracted a lot of attention.
- "Are you embarrassed by the stares?" Sarra grinned. "If you wish, I could do as you would like, changing them in the other direction."
- "I'd like to hear the answer, Mr. Archaman," Griselda said, ignoring Sarra and looking at me with an extremely direct gaze.
- "You're so boring," Sarra rolled her eyes. "That will change, though, because you won't be able to maintain your perfect image forever. And it will be especially interesting how one seraphim will react when she sees what her perfect follower is hiding."
- "I can tolerate any words in my direction," Griselda reacted instantly and looked coldly at Sarra, "But Lady Gabriel's honor..."
- "You cannot threaten me, my dear. It's pointless, which you certainly know yourself," Sarra said boredly, to which Griselda could only silently express her anger. "And yet to me, your question makes sense. Why are we here, Magician?"
I calmly took a sip of my coffee while the two twin-like women looked at me and waited for an answer.
- "Well, this matter should have been taken care of a long time ago, since you've become a part of my home," I shrugged. "Besides, it's going to get very noisy soon, and I don't want to waste my energy on something so trivial."
- "So you've decided to run away," Griselda concluded, to which I simply shrugged.
Visits from extremely diverse personalities were more than expected, given yesterday's events.
Sure, I could just turn most of them around, but what if it was some Odin or Ama-chan? Doing that to them would be extremely rude, after all, I liked them, but it was these days that I wanted relative peace. After all, it was necessary to at least partially plan further events, because the canon was still relatively working.
This morning Michael and Sirzechs had already visited me, which was the reason why I decided to take such a step.
Michael informed me that the vampires were now part of the biblical faction, and their representative would soon come to me to introduce himself and officially, so to speak, formalize this decision. And as an advance, I had retrieved the Holy Grail from Valerie, as early as yesterday afternoon, so all that was left was to sign a couple of papers.
He also said that a representative of the Church would also be coming to see me, to share with me the details of the rift within because not everyone was happy with the friendship between former enemies on an official level.
Sirzechs, on the other hand, alerted me to a case that involved Phoenix's artificial Tears, where Sona, with the help of Roygun, was able to save Ravel and gain control of the lab and information on everyone involved.
However, this case had a little nuance in the form of things not going smoothly, and Sirzechs asked me to visit Sona at her home. And if I didn't, Serafall would visit me at my house, which is what literally made Sirzechs turn to me.
So, to summarize, there were a lot more guests than I would have liked, not including the pantheon envoys. And I didn't really want to do all that, at least not right now.
- "Back to business," I began, and, taking out the Sephiroth Grail that had belonged to Valerie, I gave it to Sarra. "Although it is only a third of the whole Grail, its conceptual meaning and abilities are complete. So you can remake it to suit you, and basically anything you want."
- "Really?!" Sarra rejoiced and, grabbing the bowl, began to twirl it in her hands and study it.
- "You can't do that!" Griselda jumped up from her seat, indignant. "This is a Holy Relic, and to give it to the Beast is blasphemy!"
- "As far as I can remember, there are a couple of factors that give me the right to do something like that... I think the Throne of Heaven and Himself, hmm? And Gabriel trusts me enough not to say a word about it, even after learning all the details, or am I wrong?" I rolled my eyes, to which the nun stiffened, then slowly sat back down, unsure how she should have reacted further. "You can try it out if you want, but under the supervision of Tia or one of them. That's fine with me."
- "I will!" Sarra nodded, and without saying anything else, and then opening a gap in space, as all Beasts knew how to do, disappeared, leaving only me and Griselda at the table.
There was silence between us, which was only diluted by the sounds of the park and amusement park visitors having fun. Griselda stared into the void, obviously thinking that this action of mine, which was, in fact, completely acceptable to me, looked completely different to her.
After waiting for a while, I inhaled and took a sip of coffee.
- "How long have we known each other, Griselda?" I asked, getting her attention.
- "Long enough."
- "And in that time you still haven't realized that some of the rules of the world I choose to ignore?" I continued. "Of course, I can afford to do so in the face of strong arguments, but it does not contradict my words."
- "Why are we having this conversation?" She asked, ignoring everything I'd said.
- "Because you're part of the Emiya Residence now, and as the owner of this house, I care about its inhabitants," I shrugged, causing Griselda to stiffen again, apparently not expecting that. "I saw the way you behaved at the villa, so I feel it is my duty to help you. Without coercion, of course, because I respect personal choice. Shyness is one thing, inappropriateness is another. Medusa suffered from the same thing, but things are much better now."
- "You're extremely observant for someone so immature and unserious."
- "I'd call it an advantage, not a disadvantage in my case," I grinned. "Back on topic, I do care about everyone in the house and that's why I want you to feel better. Sarra has already adapted in that regard and you are the only one left."
- "You really know how to disguise your selfishness beautifully," Griselda spoke up, sticking to her opinion, to which I rolled my eyes.
She thought I was a kind of bug in the system she was familiar with, and so her opinion of me had a distinctly suspended state. As it was, most of what I did didn't fit in any way with what she was used to.
- "Is that a bad thing?" I shrugged. "Selfishness is what makes us alive. Healthy, but still. You know, the big house, the beautiful wife, and so on. All these things lead to thought, and thought leads to action, which is what life is really made up of. In your case, you are deliberately holding yourself back, for fear of making a mistake and letting Gabriel down, though she will probably be happy about it, because you will have a life of your own."
After saying that, she looked at me as if I'd said something that....
- "Oh? I guess you've heard something like that before, haven't you?" I grinned. "From Gabriel herself, I suppose?"
There was silence between us again, but this time it was different. Now I sensed a kind of uncertainty and... awkwardness? And that didn't exactly fit the image of an obedient nun following the tenets of the Church.
Generally, I thought of Griselda as rather ordinary, which hadn't changed much since traveling to the other world. However, now that I saw Sarra essentially embodying everything that Griselda held back to some extent, there was some hope of revealing herself.
However, even if she remained so, I would continue to give her the same attention as the rest of the house, for the nun was already a part of us, as previously stated.
- "What would you understand," I began abruptly. "Gabriel and I wouldn't have brought this up if you were okay with it, but you're not, are you? Well, you can't fool her eyes, can you?"
- "But I…"
- "Really? Then where did that look that you get from time to time come from?" I grinned, to which she chose to remain silent. "That's okay. Let's go."
- "Where?" Griselda didn't understand.
- "For a walk," I said. "It's my first time here, and I want to try out a couple of rides. These mechanical horses seem fun."
- "What are you, a little kid?"
- "I don't see what that has to do with wanting to ride mechanical horses," I rolled my eyes and held out my hand to her, which she accepted quite calmly. "Besides, we didn't come here for nothing, did we?"
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