Without her mana, Illya was now just an ordinary child in terms of physical age, and she was very sensitive to the cold. Standing outside for a while had already made her feel uncomfortable.
"Let's go inside... uh..."
"Huh? Didn't I introduce myself? My name is Ethan."
Shirou invited everyone into the house. In this situation, he still had many questions he wanted to ask.
He wasn't the only one. Everyone present had countless questions for Ethan, especially the Servants. This concerned their very existence.
They had originally thought that with the world's rules distorted, they would quickly disappear. But after watching the battle, they were still standing perfectly fine. The situation was clearly different from what they had imagined.
"Do you want to go in?"
Ethan turned to ask Illya. He expected her to refuse and choose to return to the castle outside the city. Speaking of which, those two doll maids should have also been erased by his rule-distorting attack, shouldn't they?
"Let's go in. I also have some things I want to ask him."
"Me?"
Shirou pointed to himself. He had felt strange for a while now. This little girl seemed full of hostility toward him, and he had no idea why.
"Then let's go in."
The living room of the Emiya residence became lively again. Compared to before, Scathach had joined them as well. She showed no intention of leaving and followed after exchanging a few words with her disciple, Cú Chulainn.
"Is there anything strange about that? I also have many things I want to ask this person."
She pointed at Ethan. In truth, Ethan also had many questions for her, such as what had happened to the Land of Shadows. Was it completely destroyed, or only partially damaged? Or had it merely suffered some disaster?
Regarding those fantasy realms that existed independently outside of this world, Ethan wasn't sure what effect his earlier attack had caused. However, judging by the fact that the Servants were still here, alive and well, it seemed that the Throne of Heroes hadn't been affected.
Everyone sat around the table, but no one spoke first. The Servants looked at one another, seemingly deferring to each other.
In the end, it was Shirou, as the host, who broke the silence.
He had been holding back for a long time. He wanted to understand what exactly was going on and what kind of situation he had gotten himself into. The events of this night had left him completely bewildered. And why was this little girl so hostile toward him?
Although Rin had already explained what the Holy Grail War was earlier, he still couldn't quite grasp it.
In response to Shirou's questions, Rin once again gave a simple explanation.
For example, the Holy Grail War was essentially a battle for supremacy between seven magi, each summoning a Servant and fighting until only one remained, in order to obtain the Holy Grail, an omnipotent wish-granting device capable of fulfilling any desire.
That much was easy enough to understand.
"But why me?"
That was what Shirou couldn't figure out. Although he had learned some basic Magecraft, he couldn't really be considered a magus, could he? Why was he inexplicably drawn into the Holy Grail War?
"Because after the Holy Grail War begins, if there aren't enough magi participating within a certain period, the Holy Grail will automatically select qualified individuals within the area and grant them participation eligibility."
This was Illya's answer. In fact, among the people present, no one understood the Holy Grail War better than she did.
"Why me?"
Even if the Holy Grail selected him, Shirou didn't understand why he was chosen. His magical aptitude was average, wasn't it?
Illya didn't answer. It wasn't that she couldn't think of an answer, but rather she didn't want to say it. Admitting it felt unpleasant.
Ethan, however, didn't care about such matters. Or rather, he deliberately brought it up in front of Illya to make her face these issues directly.
"Because your father, Kiritsugu Emiya, participated in the previous Holy Grail War. After that, he left something inside your body. Combined with the fact that there's a summoning circle for Servants in your home, it's no surprise that the Holy Grail designated you as the final Master."
While it might have seemed that Shirou was drawn into the Holy Grail War by chance, in truth, it was almost inevitable.
He carried Avalon within him, his adoptive father had participated in the previous Holy Grail War, and he had inherited some of Kiritsugu's magical legacy, even if only superficially. Moreover, Shirou's own magical talent wasn't bad. He had more Magic Circuits than many magi, and the number of Circuits directly determined a magus's strength.
With all these factors combined, it wasn't strange at all that the Holy Grail had chosen him.
"As for why Illya doesn't like you... it's because she's Kiritsugu's biological daughter."
"What?"
Shirou was so shocked that he tried to stand up, forgetting his injuries. As a result, his leg hit the table, and he winced in pain, rubbing his knee repeatedly.
"Kiritsugu... Einzbern..."
Artoria looked at Illya in surprise. She had always assumed Illya was just another homunculus created by the Einzbern family. Since all of them were modeled after Justeaze, it wasn't unusual for them to look alike.
But she hadn't expected that the girl before her was actually the daughter of those two. Looking closely, Illya's features indeed bore traces of both of them, not just one.
As a special Servant, Artoria's situation was different from others. When most Servants were summoned, a replica that met the class requirements would descend. Even their personalities and ages were only partial representations of the original Heroic Spirit.
When those replicas returned, the memories wouldn't directly merge with the main body. For the original, those experiences were more like watching a story unfold from an outsider's perspective.
Artoria, however, was different. Time had been frozen for her at the moment before her death, and she had participated in the Holy Grail War as a special Servant. Each time she was summoned, it was her true self descending. Because of this, she couldn't become invisible like other Servants, and the memories of every Holy Grail War she took part in were her own.
Therefore, she remembered Shirou's father, Kiritsugu.
"Kiritsugu... I remember he often went out when I was little... Could it have been then..."
Shirou clearly misunderstood. He thought Illya was the result of Kiritsugu's mistake while he was away. In reality, judging by her true age, Illya should be his older sister.
"Hmph, ignorant fool!"
Now that the truth had been revealed, Illya no longer pretended to be the little girl who called Shirou "big brother." She now displayed the authority of an older sister.
"I don't like you because I can't understand why he would abandon his own daughter and adopt you instead."
"Abandoned you... and then adopted me?"
"Shirou, the Einzbern family is special. She isn't an ordinary human, at least not before Lord Ethan changed the world's rules."
Artoria had already grown familiar with her Master earlier. Because the name "Emiya" brought up unpleasant memories, she chose to call him directly by his first name.
"So, it isn't strange that her actual age is older than yours."
"I see." Shirou finally understood the situation. So this little girl across from him was actually his older sister? He didn't know how to feel about that.
Happy? He should have been happy to have a family member.
Disappointed? Why would Kiritsugu abandon his biological child?
Various emotions tangled together, leaving him silent.
"Illya, your father never abandoned you." Ethan had wanted to help her resolve this for a long time, but until now, he couldn't say anything. Even if he had, Illya wouldn't have believed him.
Now was the right moment. There were people here who could verify his words.
"Your father tried countless times to take you away, but by then, he no longer had the power to break through the barrier surrounding the Einzbern castle."
"... "
Illya didn't quite believe him, but Ethan pointed to Shirou and Saber across the table, telling her that they could confirm whether what he said was true.
Shirou had mentioned earlier that Kiritsugu often went out when he was little, which could be considered indirect proof that he might have been trying to rescue his daughter.
Neither Shirou nor Illya understood why Saber was suddenly brought up.
"Mr. Emiya was indeed injured during the Fourth Holy Grail War."
Artoria then admitted that she had been Kiritsugu's Servant and had participated in that very war.
"So that's how it was... Kiritsugu didn't abandon me?"
"Yes."
Seeing Illya burst into tears, Ethan gently patted her head in comfort but said nothing more. She had held it in for far too long, and crying it out would make her feel better.
Shirou had no more questions for now. Although the other Servants were surprised that this Saber had participated in both the Fourth and Fifth Holy Grail Wars, that matter could wait.
Including Scathach, they all wanted to know how much impact Ethan's rule distortion had on this world.
"To be honest, I can't be sure. Seeing you all sitting here perfectly fine and chatting with me, I can only say that the effect of that move was vastly different from what I expected."
Aside from the result being far from what he intended, Ethan could also sense that several powerful forces were actively correcting the rules he had distorted.
(To be continued.)