Mordred left. She needed some time to digest the information Zuke had told her.
For Mordred, who wasn't good at thinking to begin with, some of what Zuke said to her today was indeed difficult for her to answer immediately.
Going to another world wasn't just as simple as breaking free from the Grail system. She might directly break away from the Throne of Heroes and shed her identity as a "Heroic Spirit."
Even the usually carefree Mordred would definitely need some time to carefully consider whether to accept Zuke's invitation.
Zuke also didn't make things difficult for Mordred or force her to make a choice immediately. Instead, he gave her time to go back and think it over carefully.
After parting with Mordred, Zuke returned to Reines's base—and this time, as soon as he opened the door and walked in, he saw Reines and Sakura Matou in the hall.
"Brother Zuke!"
Seeing Zuke return, Sakura Matou's face showed a delighted expression. She instinctively took a step forward, preparing to run toward Zuke and give him a hug.
But just as she took one step, Reines beside her was a bit faster—Reines leaped forward and threw herself into Zuke's arms:
"Mr. Zuke! Welcome back!"
Zuke had already adapted to Reines's intimate gestures these past few days, so he wasn't surprised by her pounce and smoothly caught her.
Seeing this scene, Sakura Matou couldn't help but stop in her tracks, and the way she looked at Reines began to turn unfriendly.
That Reines was faster than her was quite normal—because Reines had the maid-outfit Stand that Zuke had given her.
This Stand had the ability to enhance the holder's physical qualities, so now in terms of pure physical ability, Reines could completely crush Sakura Matou.
Although Sakura Matou had also awakened a Stand, her Stand didn't have the ability to strengthen her main body. At most, it could attach to Sakura Matou and help her fight.
Originally, Sakura Matou felt Reines could still be her friend, but now seeing her being even closer to Zuke than herself, Sakura Matou's expression became serious all at once.
It seemed she needed to reevaluate her relationship with Reines—this person obviously also harbored some special feelings toward her Brother Zuke.
And Reines turned her head to glance at Sakura Matou, winking at her—although Sakura Matou didn't know it, she and Zuke had already taken that adult step.
Although she and Sakura Matou were friends, when it came to Zuke, Reines had no intention of yielding to Sakura Matou.
"What did you two just go do?"
Zuke held Reines and looked at Sakura Matou, asking with a smile.
Although he had learned from Waver that Reines and Sakura Matou had gone to Risei Kotomine's place, he didn't know specifically what they had done.
However, no matter how he thought about it, they couldn't have gone to discuss anything serious. Considering that Sakura Matou had awakened a Stand, they had very likely used the Stand ability on Risei Kotomine.
"It was like this..."
Of course, Reines and Sakura Matou couldn't hide anything from Zuke. Hearing Zuke's question, the two began talking over each other, describing what they had just done.
Probably to be the first to explain to Zuke, the two competed with each other. With just two mouths, they made the hall become quite noisy.
From the pained expression on Heroic Spirit EMIYA's face in the corner of the living room, it wasn't hard to see just how noisy their explanations were.
"I see, so Byakuya Matou even went to Risei Kotomine to report me."
Although it was difficult, Zuke still roughly understood what had happened from Reines and Sakura Matou's accounts.
He twitched his lips. He hadn't expected to encounter such a thing—both Risei Kotomine and Byakuya Matou were characters with almost no scenes in the original work.
He didn't expect these two characters could come together—although it was Byakuya Matou who unilaterally went to find Risei Kotomine, he was obviously making trouble for himself.
Indeed, last time Zuke had brought Sitonai to break into the Matou house and captured Shinji Matou, he hadn't concealed his tracks at all. So it was quite normal for Byakuya Matou to see him and Sitonai.
Byakuya Matou was probably also worried about his son—that is, Shinji Matou—but he himself didn't have the ability to snatch Shinji Matou back, so he could only report to Risei Kotomine.
"Tsk, your father is quite worried about you. Unfortunately, you don't have many days left to live anyway."
Thinking of this, Zuke walked to the corner where Shinji Matou was, crouched down, and looked at Shinji Matou who was already barely human, speaking to him somewhat pityingly.
Various parts of Shinji Matou's body had already shown signs similar to decay. On his skeletal body surface, one could see the movement of Crest Worms wriggling.
This wasn't Zuke deliberately torturing him. He had only tied Shinji Matou here. Waver brought food to Shinji Matou every day, ensuring his dietary needs.
His miserable state was purely self-inflicted. The Crest Worms in his body had been constantly gnawing at Shinji Matou's body.
You should know that Shinji Matou's magic aptitude was even worse than Kariya Matou's from ten years ago, so the Crest Worms' gnawing of Shinji Matou's body was even more brutal, with side effects far worse than Kariya Matou's.
Even if Byakuya Matou rescued Shinji Matou, it would only be to watch Shinji Matou die before his eyes a few days later.
"However, although I can understand that guy's thinking, the fact that he's causing me trouble is still a fact."
Zuke narrowed his eyes as he looked at Shinji Matou, saying flatly.
"Since you're about to die anyway, let Byakuya Matou accompany you in death. At least you'll have company on the road to the Yellow Springs."
Zuke's voice certainly reached Shinji Matou's ears, but Shinji Matou had no reaction at all.
Whether he didn't notice Zuke's words or heard them but was too lazy to resist, who knew.
Shinji Matou wasn't the type of character who would explode with determination for his father's sake. Even if he heard Zuke was going to kill Byakuya Matou, he remained unmoved.
"Forget it."
Seeing that Shinji Matou seemed completely unresponsive, Zuke also shook his head—this guy was thoroughly wasted.
And he had wasted himself. Zuke hadn't done anything to him, just captured him here and restricted his movements, and he was already on his last legs.
He turned his head to look at Sakura Matou—compared to Shinji Matou, Zuke was now more curious about Sakura Matou's Stand ability:
"Sakura, your Stand is called 'Free As Bird'?"
Zuke had helped quite a few people awaken Stand abilities, but Sakura Matou was the first to immediately give her Stand a name after awakening it.
The previous Stand users, although they basically all gave their Stands names later, didn't do it immediately but rather determined the names after calming down later.
To be continued…