"Ah, so I've been discovered. That's correct." Jean Stardust admitted it generously, as he hadn't intended to hide it for long anyway.
"You just admitted it like that? I thought you would try to make some excuses." Rin had prepared a lot of words to counter him, but none of them ended up being used.
"I was going to tell you eventually, sooner or later. But how did you figure it out?"
"First, when mana is too low, a Servant becomes transparent as if their existence is unstable. Second, you used almost all your mana for combat, not for sustaining your existence. Most importantly, all items carried by a Servant are made of mana, but you brought out actual food and materials—especially that butterfly. Even if you drained all my mana, I couldn't produce that quantity..."
Rin started counting them off on her fingers.
After listening, Jean Stardust was a bit surprised. He hadn't realized there were so many loopholes. However, it was also because he didn't have those habits; these issues could actually be covered up if he just paid attention.
"Then, now that you know all this, why are you still sitting next to me, Rin?"
"Of course it's because I trust you. Besides, if you wanted to do anything to me, I wouldn't be able to resist anyway..."
"Since that's the case, let me tell you about my world..."
Then, Jean Stardust briefly introduced the Reincarnation World and things about himself.
"A world outside the world, a world outside the scope of the Root..." Although Rin had expected that Jean Stardust wasn't from this world, she hadn't expected the scope to extend even beyond the Root.
After all, in the Nasuverse, the Root is the cause of all things and the ultimate goal of every Magician. But today, someone told her that he came from a world even further outside, which was a bit of a worldview-shattering realization.
Fortunately, Rin wasn't the type of Magician who worshipped the Root like a religion, so she wasn't shaken too severely.
After calming down a little, Rin told Jean Stardust about the battlefield she had decided upon.
"I understand. Even if I can't be of much use in battles against Servants, I can still restrict the master. Including the matter of my father, leave that fake priest to me."
"I was saying that you should just stay in a safe place, but if you insist, I'll find you a teacher to tutor you."
"A teacher? Tutoring? (⊙o⊙)..."
Early the next morning, he brought Rin to the house he had rented previously. Medea, having been notified in advance, was already waiting at the door.
"Welcome master, this must be the young lady master, right?"
"I'll leave her to you today. For defense, my items can handle it; the main focus should be on combat style. Her opponent is a tricky guy with strong melee capabilities and a massive amount of command spells as a mana reserve. Although I haven't met him personally, weaker Servants probably wouldn't be his match."
"I understand. Leave the rest to me. Is there anything else you need?"
"Hmm... a higher-level body reinforcement magic, the kind where you don't need to consider side effects. Can I come pick it up at noon?"
"No problem."
Then, Jean Stardust left the place, preparing to go to the Emiya residence for his appointment. Since the other side had specifically invited Ai-chan this time, entrusting Rin to Medea was also a safety consideration. There was no need to worry about Sakura, or rather, she should be the one worried. In any case, it was better to leave her alone.
Just after Jean Stardust left, Medea brought Rin into the room. There was no attempt to hide the large collection of photos of Ai-chan, photos of Lia, and several figure kits in progress. It looked just like the lair of a stalker.
"Ah, this... Ms. Medea, you really have refined tastes..." Rin didn't even know what to say. Her own sister was a stalker, and now there was another one.
"Rin, you are truly favored by master. Rest assured, I will train you well. Hehehehe."
"Th-then, I'll leave it to you..." Rin was suddenly filled with worry about the future.
Afterwards, Jean Stardust stopped by home to pick up Ai-chan and arrived at the Emiya residence.
This place could be considered full of nostalgia, though the Grand Order mother figure wasn't here right now; instead, he saw Irisviel.
"Eh, Mo-mother!"
"That's right, Illya-chan, come here to Mommy."
Even though she knew clearly that this was the Illyasviel von Einzbern of this world, Ai-chan still threw herself into her arms like a fledgling bird returning to its nest. Perhaps this was the power of a mother.
"Young lady, could you let her stay with me alone for a while? Lia is already waiting for you in the dojo."
After confirming with Ai-chan, Jean Stardust headed to the dojo inside the house.
He saw Lia sitting in a Japanese-style seiza, eyes closed in meditation. He didn't know why she was so used to it.
"You've come."
"I have come."
With this Gu Long-style dialogue, Jean Stardust thought she was going to say, "You shouldn't have come." But Lia surely hadn't read Gu Long's works; she simply asked Jean Stardust to stand opposite her.
Then, she took out the Holy Sword wrapped in gale winds and attacked Jean Stardust.
If not for the fact that she had no killing intent and her speed wasn't fast, Jean Stardust would almost have thought this was a trap.
"Wait, is this how Merlin taught you back in the day?"
"That's right. I had to get slashed many times before I learned it, but with your talent, it shouldn't be a problem."
He hadn't expected that Fou-loving sprite to be so unreliable. Jean Stardust quickly called for Lia to stop. It seemed she didn't know any specific method; it was all instinct learned from being slashed too many times.
Jean Stardust had her maintain the activation of the Barrier of the Wind King, then reached his hand through the Barrier and grasped the Holy Sword directly.
Just by lightly placing his hand against the blade, a stinging pain came through. The sharpness of the Holy Sword was truly well-deserved. At the same time, a deeper power wanted to enter Jean Stardust's body, but it was blocked by the Stardust Wind.
This form was not unfamiliar to Jean Stardust; his increased damage against Dragons and Gods felt just like this.
'The Holy Sword's special attack attribute—is it effective against outsiders?'
However, since this power could be blocked by the Stardust Wind, there was nothing to worry about.
Just like that, while sensing the operation of the Barrier of the Wind King, he wrapped wind around his other hand to imitate it. Before long, this hand of Jean Stardust's became transparent in his vision.
Then he tried full-body transparency; because the principle was the same, he achieved it quite smoothly. Lia, who was right in front of him, looked completely incredulous the whole time, which was very amusing.
However, this ability still had a lot of room for optimization. After all, moving wind makes noise; he needed to research how to make it silent, and the sound of walking also needed to be dealt with.
On the contrary, the disturbance to the airflow during movement was naturally shielded. If he could manage all of this, it felt like there would be no difference from complete invisibility.
Next was using Lia for technical adjustments. By noon, he finally learned to walk silently on the floor and successfully deceived Lia's perception, getting close to her.
Although his subsequent bamboo sword attack was dodged due to her Instinct, he could already be considered to have achieved something by this point.
At the same time, the system prompt sounded:
[Presence Concealment: B, perhaps capable of reaching the level of optical camouflage. (Unlocked)]
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