Einzbern Castle,
Seated in the Castle's grandest hall, Black Von Einzbern eyed the screen hovering midair in front of him.
On his right, Medea was lying on a sofa, wearing a tight white t-shirt and blue jeans, her blue hair sprawled casually.
After last night's fight and emptying her Mana reserves against the Lich, she had needed to refuel herself… and that had left Medea out of breath, even though she was a Heroic Spirit.
On Black's left, sipping tea, was Sakura Matou, the golden cruciform pressed deep into the crevice between her breasts.
Behind her, Rider stood, her arms crossed on her chest.
The Einzbern's Homunculus' maids, Stella and Leysritt, were attending to them, dutifully standing against a wall in the background. Both were eying Black with the most disgusting look they could give someone, of course.
Slowly, Medea sat up and looked at Rider.
"You can also regain your Mana by having sex with someone in their dreams, right?" she asked, smiling slightly.
"Please…" Stella closed her eyes, the knuckles of her fists going white.
Leysritt was much forward. "Do not talk of such reviling acts in front of our Mistress, Witch!"
For the maids, Illya's morphed flesh within Black, as the Lesser Grail Heart, was alive and could clearly sense what was happening outside.
Medea's lips twitched. "… you do know that the squelching sound coming from behind the doors is not of water, right?"
Ptttuuuuu!
Sakura spat out a mouthful of tea, her eyes going blurry as the hot liquid came out of her nostrils.
She put the cup of tea on the table elegantly, stood up, and walked away, a dense redness flashing across her cheeks.
Seeing her Master walk away, Rider frowned. "Guard your tongue…"
"My Master removed those bugs from that girl," Medea said, leaning back on the sofa. "… the Lust ones. But those bugs had left an imprint on her consciousness. After being with them for ten years, you can't just get rid of such a magic…"
Rider's frown deepened. "What are you trying to say?"
"I am saying," Medea grinned, "that I wouldn't be surprised if your Holier-Than-Thou Master is pleasuring herself right now…"
"You!" Rider fumed, needles appearing in her hands.
"Enough…" Black said, smiling at Medea. "No need to make fun of someone's plight…"
"Yeah?" Medea shared the smile with him. "You don't want to take that girl to bed and relieve her of that plight?"
"I am standing right here!" Rider hissed, gusts of wind rising in her surroundings.
Black sighed, ignoring Medea. He looked at Rider, then. "As much as I would like to disagree with Caster," he said, "she's right. Sakura has changed. But that change is irrelevant to her physical and mental condition. With the rising stakes of the War, we cannot afford her making silly mistakes on the battlefield. So…"
Rider instantly understood what Caster and Caster's Master were suggesting.
They were asking her to use her powers to deal with Sakura's unusual condition through dreams. Because of Sakura's changed personality, she wouldn't let herself go through something like this voluntarily.
Rider scoffed. "You two are pieces of the same cloth," she said, walking away. "Not only are you two sharing a bed, making a mockery of the Holy Grail War's rules, but you are also constantly thinking of ways to manipulate everything and everyone. If you think you can win this War with mere manipulations, then you have already lost."
Seeing Rider disappear, the maids also shuffled away, going to Sakura's room.
Black let out a breath and looked at Medea. "Seriously?"
Medea shrugged. "I don't like her…"
"That's obvious," Black said, his gaze returning to the screen. "But Rider is right about one thing. Manipulations can only take us so far in this War…"
Medea's face gained a serious look, suddenly.
She left the sofa and came to sit on Black's lap, her gaze also falling on the screen.
"Is he still trying?" Medea asked, narrowing her eyes at the tiniest fluctuations on the Bounded Field outside. "Can he really break through it?"
"Assassin is loved by the Holy Grail," Black told Medea. "Also, I have borrowed Illya's fate. Which means, Assassin being Kiritsugu Emiya is the worst turn of events for us. Because it clearly tells us that if I were to go against him, his Luck would outweigh mine by far… and I will be at a perilous disadvantage. I wouldn't be surprised if something has already happened against me because of merely forcing him to appear last night."
Medea looked away from the screen and brought her gaze to Black, looking into his eyes.
"The way you talk about Luck…" she mumbled. "It feels like you are talking about Fate itself. What aren't you telling me?"
Black tapped his fingers on the chair's arm. "I can't tell you that," he said. "For both your and mine safety. Not until I succeed in my goal and make this timeline mine. Not until you become a part of my Clan."
Medea's brows rose to the highest. "You have a Clan?"
Black finally looked up, their gazes matching. "Of course," he said, smiling. "I didn't lie when I said I am over a thousand years old, my lady."
Medea's eyes narrowed. "Who else is in… this Clan of yours? Do you have other women?"
Black maintained the smile on his face. "If I have, would that bother you?"
"Tch!" Medea tsked, getting off his lap. "You think too highly of yourself…"
Seeing Caster walk away, biting her lips, Black's smile widened. "Even if I can't tell you of my origin, I can tell you of something… something that will affect our plans very soon."
Medea paused and looked over her shoulder. "What?"
Black made the screen disappear with a wave of his hand and said, "About the Bubble, Bubble Entities, and Timelines —
"— about the Sevenfold Path of Multiverse."
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