On the way back, Tohsaka Rin remained silent the entire time.
Her deerskin boots crushed the frozen dead branches beneath her feet, and the heavy footsteps echoed between the two of them.
Alvin silently followed behind Rin.
Even an idiot could tell how terrible the girl's mood was right now... and there was no need to think about the reason. It was obviously related to what Sajyou Manaka had just said.
"Rin..."
After a short silence, Alvin was just about to speak and break the strange atmosphere.
"Can you tell me about Miss Sajyou?", Rin spoke first.
She looked into Alvin's eyes while letting the cold wind blow her hair wildly through the air.
"So you really wanted to ask about that..."
Alvin did not seem surprised. He only let out a helpless sigh.
"Let's talk after we get back first... though I still need to go somewhere later."
"Where?", Rin asked instinctively. For some reason, she suddenly felt nervous and looked at Alvin with a complicated expression.
Seeing this, Alvin could not help laughing.
"At least it's not to see Manaka."
Rin froze for a moment, then awkwardly looked away, "It's not like I'm worried you're going to see Miss Sajyou. I was just a little curious..."
As soon as she finished speaking, she suddenly felt the warm touch of a hand on her head.
Rin subconsciously looked up and saw the boy gently stroking her smooth hair.
Her expression stiffened, and she almost instinctively wanted to avoid his hand.
But for some reason, she only lowered her head in the end and stayed silent.
The cold was biting, yet two faint blushes still appeared on her pale face.
"Where are you planning to go?", After an unknown amount of time, Rin calmed herself down and asked quietly.
"The Matou household," Alvin looked toward the direction of the Matou house in the distance.
The insect wings he had seen near Mount Enzou earlier kept making him think of something.
'In this season of heavy snow in early winter, what kind of bugs would still be active?'
Alvin could only think of one thing.
'The bug pit.'
After Matou Zouken died, the bug pit had basically been abandoned, but the Matou family had never completely given up on Crest Worm magecraft.
Although it felt unlikely, it would still be better to confirm it for peace of mind.
'Maybe Rider, or even her Master, really is connected to that place?'
———
[Matou Household]
Matou Sakura walked heavily through the entrance hall.
As her footsteps echoed, the hem of her plain kimono swept across the dusty wooden floor. Leaning against the doorframe, she slowly slid down to sit on the floor, her fingers unconsciously touching her full chest.
Sweet and alluring breathing echoed softly.
She tried hard to calm herself. The white mist from her breath froze into ice crystals in the air, splitting apart the reflection of the twisted dead trees in the courtyard.
"Sakura... are you really okay?"
Rider knelt beside Matou Sakura on one knee, her long purple hair falling like a waterfall. This Servant who was usually expressionless now had tightly furrowed brows, her face filled with worry.
Matou Sakura buried her face into her sleeve and replied in a muffled voice, "I'm fine. I just need to rest a little..."
The dark red markings symbolizing the "Beast" on her body were resonating with the Greater Grail deep within Mount Enzou. Those were fragments of the Greater Grail contaminated by the Tide of Chaos, and at this moment they were constantly transferring "power" into her body.
The Beast of Desire... this was a special creature born during the previous Holy Grail War, and it had already been hiding inside Matou Sakura's body back then.
At the time, the Beast of Desire had still been too weak. But over the years, it continuously gained power from the corrupted Greater Grail, gradually growing stronger. By now, it already possessed the power of half a Beast.
Likewise, it was now influencing Matou Sakura's will. Many times, when she lost control of her desires, it was because of the Beast inside her body.
Supporting herself against the wall, Matou Sakura slowly stood up and turned to look at Rider beside her.
"Did my sister and the others go back?"
Rider silently nodded, "We have confirmed that Tohsaka Rin returned."
Matou Sakura's gaze seemed to soften slightly as she quietly said, "That's good... If they stayed at Mount Enzou the whole time, I would've been troubled too."
Rider hesitated slightly before softly saying, "Actually, even with Assassin and Caster there at the time, we still had a way to destroy the remaining purification barriers."
"But then I would've had to fight Senpai. If he saw my real appearance, he would probably be disappointed, right?"
Matou Sakura lowered her eyes. Beneath the opening of her kimono, her skin looked faintly pale and white.
"If possible, I still don't want him to find out for now," Rider remained silent.
In truth, she did not know this Master that well.
To put it simply, before Matou Sakura summoned Rider, she had already fused together with the "Beast." She had only kept it hidden while quietly gathering strength through the corrupted Greater Grail.
The reason the Greater Grail could restore itself after being destroyed in the previous Holy Grail War was less because of Matou Sakura's ability, and more because of the other "personality" inside her.
And the fusion between the "black mud" in the Greater Grail and the "Tide of Chaos" had also started back then.
"What are you planning to do next?", Rider suddenly asked.
"The enemy already knows our target is the Greater Grail. It'll probably be difficult to enter Mount Enzou again after this."
Matou Sakura's expression remained gentle as she softly said,
"But we'll find a way eventually. You can leave for now. I want to be alone for a while."
Rider lowered her head slightly, and her figure quietly vanished into purple spirit particles within the entrance hall.
Matou Sakura slightly raised her head and looked toward the deep snowy night outside the window.
Shadows crawled across the girl's pale face. Through the glass, she stared at the weak-looking reflection in the window.
Then her fingers lightly touched the edge of her kimono and gently pulled the fabric down slightly.
Her proud, full chest was impossible to fully see, and on that soft white skin, faint pink-purple flowers could be seen gently pulsing like living things, caught right between her indecently large breasts.
That was a far more dangerous symbiotic creature than the Crest Worms Matou Zouken once implanted into Matou Sakura's body. Beast.
Matou Sakura turned and walked into the room, casually pulling the curtains shut.
Then she lazily lay down on the soft bed and slowly closed her eyes.
["If you really want to have him... there's actually a very simple method."]
At that moment, a voice suddenly echoed in her mind.
An insect quietly flew into the room while flapping its wings.
A Crest Worm.
More accurately, it was a "Desire Worm" evolved through the power of the Beast of Desire.
The tail of the insect secreted a pink liquid. Once someone touched it, even a Servant would feel the urge to obey Matou Sakura completely.
Matou Sakura quietly opened her eyes. Watching the insect fly directly into the room, a certain restless feeling suddenly kept rising inside her body.
She tightly pressed her lips together and unconsciously clenched part of her kimono. Her knuckles turned pale from the force.
"No... I absolutely can't make a move on him right now..."
If Alvin found out, their relationship would never go back to how it was before.
And... what she wanted was something "real," not fake feelings created through force.
Maybe the process would be difficult, but she had already waited so many years. Could she really not endure a few more days?
Thinking of this, the girl gently bit her lip. Her fingers touched her chest as she softly untied the thin ribbon around her waist. Her kimono slowly slipped onto the floor.
Gradually, the only thing left in the room was a soft voice suppressing certain emotions.
———
Because of the special barrier in the room, none of the sounds inside leaked out at all.
But because of that, the girl inside the room also failed to notice the unusual situation in the Matou house tonight.
At this moment, a figure was moving through the darkness.
He silently stepped into the Matou estate without triggering even a single detection barrier.
[Watchman EX]
This was Alvin's unique authority as Assassin. Once activated, even Servants with extremely sharp senses could not detect his presence.
At this moment, Alvin was casually walking toward the direction of the bug pit as if strolling through his own backyard.
When he saw the bug pit during the day, Alvin had already felt an indescribable sense of unease.
And tonight's events only deepened his suspicions.
Without question, the insect wings he saw at Mount Enzou were definitely Crest Worms. But compared to ordinary Crest Worms, the patterns on their wings seemed more unusual, somewhat similar to the Crest Worm contaminated by the "Tide of Chaos" that he had seen at the Tohsaka estate before.
But logically speaking, Matou Zouken was already dead... so who exactly was modifying the Crest Worms?
No matter what, he would know once he entered the bug pit.
Alvin calmed his thoughts and soon arrived at an empty little courtyard in the Matou estate.
It was obvious nobody had visited the courtyard for a long time. Weeds grew everywhere, almost reaching waist height.
And within the weeds ahead, a rusty iron door leading underground could faintly be seen.
The bug pit.
Alvin held his breath. His black clothing seemed perfectly fused with the night as he stepped through the overgrown courtyard and slowly pushed open the door to the bug pit.
Creak!
From deep within the night came the mournful sound of an iron door opening.
When Alvin looked up, he was quickly shocked by the scene before him.
Countless insects filled the entire warehouse.
Some had already grown wings, while others crawled across the ground.
Besides that, tens of thousands of eggs were stuck all over the walls.
At that moment, Alvin's brain worked rapidly as he recalled everything that had happened over the past few days.
Then a question appeared in his mind.
'Who exactly raised so many Crest Worms?'
This sight was enough to make anyone with trypophobia faint on the spot. It was even more exaggerated than when Matou Zouken was still alive.
And... these Crest Worms were clearly different from the ones Alvin knew before. They seemed to have undergone some kind of strange mutation.
The only thing Alvin felt fortunate about was that he did not sense any traces of "black mud" inside these Crest Worms.
If all these Crest Worms had mutated through black mud... Then things would become truly troublesome.
After all, black mud was a dangerous substance ordinary people absolutely could not touch. If all these Crest Worms flew into the city together and scattered black mud everywhere, the consequences would be unimaginable.
Looking at everything before him, Alvin's eyes flickered slightly as his thoughts became more active.
If he remembered correctly, Sakura had just said today that the bug pit only raised a small number of Crest Worms, mainly for researching the magecraft Matou Zouken used while alive.
So the question was, did Sakura actually know the secret of the bug pit?
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