Issei Ryuudou couldn't have felt worse—he had just seen off Zuke and Sitonai, and now Rin Tohsaka and Mordred had come barging in.
Fortunately, he was the only one home at the moment, so at least the chaos happening in his house wouldn't affect his family for the time being.
"What!? Assassin has already been taken away by Zuke!?"
After pressing her sword against Issei Ryuudou's neck and forcing him to reveal Assassin's whereabouts, Mordred was also shocked. She hadn't expected to arrive a step too late.
Although Issei Ryuudou didn't know the names of Zuke and Sitonai, he merely gave a rough description of the confrontation between Zuke and Assassin, and Mordred confirmed Zuke's identity.
After all, in her view, in this Holy Grail War, the only man who could completely cripple a Heroic Spirit with a single move, aside from Zuke, was probably no one else.
This immediately dampened her spirits—originally, she had wanted to use Assassin as a pawn to help her probe for Zuke's weaknesses, but now it seemed that was no longer possible.
"However, I didn't expect Ryuudou-san to also be a Master... The participants this time are really quite young."
Rin Tohsaka didn't care about Assassin's whereabouts. After all, the idea of using Assassin to probe Zuke's weaknesses was entirely Mordred's wishful thinking.
She looked with somewhat surprised eyes at Issei Ryuudou, who was crouching on the ground not daring to speak, feeling rather speechless.
Her relationship with Issei Ryuudou wasn't good. Issei Ryuudou seemed to really dislike girls with her type of personality, so even though he was the student council president, the two had no friendship at school.
Rin Tohsaka was just surprised that Issei Ryuudou actually possessed the qualifications of a magus.
But thinking about it, since Ryuudou Temple was the location of the ley line where the Holy Grail descended, it was clear that Ryuudou Temple itself had some special qualities.
As the youngest son of Ryuudou Temple, even if Issei Ryuudou's aptitude was far inferior to his ancestors, he would still retain some degree of magical aptitude.
Just like in the Fourth Holy Grail War, even someone like Ryuunosuke Uryuu, whose magus bloodline had been diluted to the point where it couldn't be diluted any further, could still be chosen by the Holy Grail.
So it wasn't surprising that Issei Ryuudou, who still had some magical aptitude—something referred to as "spiritual sensitivity" at Ryuudou Temple—could summon a Heroic Spirit.
"So can you leave now? There really isn't anyone you're looking for here..."
Although Issei Ryuudou didn't like Rin Tohsaka and had never given her a pleasant look at school, at this moment he could only reluctantly submit.
He had no choice. In order to make him understand the truth of the Holy Grail War, Hassan-i-Sabbah had also educated him about magi and such matters.
And now, Rin Tohsaka was obviously the "magus" that Hassan-i-Sabbah had spoken of, so as an ordinary person, he obviously couldn't contend with Rin Tohsaka.
"It seems he's not lying. I can even feel a trace of cold air here... There should have indeed been a battle."
Rin Tohsaka looked at Mordred and said to her.
"Let's go, Saber. Your idea of having Assassin help investigate Zuke's weaknesses is probably going to fall through."
"Damn it! If only we had found Assassin earlier!"
Mordred angrily sheathed her sword, and when she did so, she almost cut Issei Ryuudou's neck, making his body involuntarily tremble.
"Now how am I going to prove my worth to Zuke..."
Although Mordred was reckless, she was also very aware that her strength could almost never defeat Zuke in a head-on confrontation. If she wanted Zuke to recognize her value, she had to find another way.
Understanding Zuke's weaknesses might not necessarily defeat him, but it could at least leave some wounds on him. This would make Zuke understand that her combat ability was no less than Gawain's.
Gawain couldn't leave wounds on him, but she could!
"If you just want to learn about that person called Zuke, you don't necessarily have to send someone to investigate."
Seeing that Rin Tohsaka and Mordred didn't seem ready to leave yet, Issei Ryuudou, probably out of the desire to "get these two to leave quickly," couldn't help but speak up.
"For example, approaching him not as an opponent, but in some other capacity..."
"Huh? What kind of joke is that? This is the Holy Grail War. If my relationship with Zuke isn't that of opponents, then what else could it be..."
Mordred frowned upon hearing this and instinctively began to refute—but halfway through her words, she suddenly seemed to think of something.
"Wait... That guy Zuke did seem to say he would give me one chance to launch an attack at him, but he never said we had to fight as soon as we meet, right?"
In other words... if she went to see Zuke but didn't engage in battle with him, would that be acceptable?
After all, judging from Zuke's previous attitude, he seemed to look down on her, so as long as she didn't take the initiative to attack, Zuke probably wouldn't bother to deal with her either.
"...Saber?"
Rin Tohsaka also heard Issei Ryuudou's words, but she didn't pay attention at first because she thought Mordred would definitely not agree to this idea.
As she expected, after hearing Issei Ryuudou's suggestion, Mordred immediately spoke out in refutation—but halfway through her refutation, Mordred suddenly stopped and instead fell into contemplation.
This made Rin Tohsaka's heart skip a beat as she looked at Mordred. She couldn't really be planning to adopt Issei Ryuudou's plan and personally approach Zuke to gather intelligence, could she?
"Master, I think this is a good idea."
Sure enough, Mordred soon turned to look at Rin Tohsaka, revealing an excited smile.
"I'm planning to personally approach Zuke and try to find his weaknesses!"
Upon hearing this, Rin Tohsaka couldn't help but press her hand to her forehead—what she had been most worried about had indeed happened.
It wasn't that she was worried Mordred would be slapped to death by Zuke before the battle... What she was actually worried about was that something inappropriate might happen between Mordred and Zuke!
Although Mordred was a bit of a tomboy, she was still a female Heroic Spirit who had a fateful karmic connection with Zuke.
Even though Mordred didn't seem to have any intentions in that regard... who could say for sure about future matters?
However, looking at Mordred's expression, she seemed to think this plan was very good. Rin Tohsaka opened her mouth but didn't know how to persuade her to give it up.
"Sigh, this Holy Grail War is truly full of disasters."
Rin Tohsaka shook her head, not knowing whether her wish for Zuke to ultimately remain in this world could be fulfilled.
To be continued…