Two hours later, in the living room.
Fresh from a shower, Aoko stepped out of the bathroom, drying her hair while glaring at Naoki. "This is all your fault! I could've woken up at eleven and had lunch, but now I'm delayed until now."
"Please, have some sympathy for the guy you used as a cuddle pillow for an hour. I held back with great effort."
Naoki looked utterly innocent. He was a normal man with a perfectly healthy body. Being tightly embraced by Aoko for an hour, it'd be strange if his "wave-calming pillar" didn't react. So, after waking her and being unable to resist pinning her back to the bed, it was unavoidable.
"So, how was it during the shower? Couldn't hold back either?"
"Ugh… well, you could say your destructive power over me is pretty intense, Aoko."
That answer was decent enough.
Aoko nodded, satisfied, confirming she still had control over her little man—completely forgetting that just a few dozen minutes ago, she was the one defeated, begging for mercy.
This must be what they call "wound heals, pain forgotten."
From the living room ceiling, watching the young couple living such a "decadent" morning, Merry, nominally the number one heroine, trembled a few times. "Can you two stop throwing flashbangs in front of me? My eyes are going blind!"
"How about I really blind you with chopsticks, then?"
Aoko grabbed a pair of chopsticks and waved them in front of Merry's eyes.
"Consider this my part of the punishment. Gray's part is still coming."
"Objection! I object! You're torturing a prisoner! That's a violation of international humanity!"
"You're not human." Aoko's single sentence sank Merry's ship. "By the way, Naoki, how long are you keeping them strung up like this?"
Naoki thought for a moment. "If possible, I'd hang them until the Holy Grail War ends. But keeping them up there that long is pointless for them, and it takes up space here. It's a hassle."
"Ugh—!"
Merry and Morgan both froze, visibly embarrassed by their treatment.
"So, let them down?"
"Yeah."
At Naoki's words, he snapped his fingers, and the chains suspending them vanished. Merry and Morgan plummeted from the air—Merry still head-down.
Clinging to the edge of a table to stand, Merry looked at Naoki with a pitiful expression. "The King's really getting heartless. Where's the guy I used to mess with?"
"This is heartless? If I have to join another Holy Grail War, I'll try summoning Chen Gong and show you what real heartlessness looks like."
"Chen Gong? That ancient Chinese strategist?" Merry tilted her head in confusion. "Why summon him?"
"Chen Gong's Noble Phantasm uses a super-small magic circuit accelerator to massively enhance someone, granting them immense attack power. But in exchange, they explode immediately—think of it as using someone else's life to launch a Stella."
Stella, the Noble Phantasm of the great hero Arash. Merry knew it, and because she did, she understood Naoki's meaning.
(If I get the chance, I'll make you a shooting star.)
"Naoki, what made you so cold? Reality?"
"You, the main culprit, please have some self-awareness!"
Naoki irritably smacked Merry's head.
Meanwhile, watching the two instantly get chummy again, as if yesterday's events never happened, Morgan was slightly surprised. "You two have such a good relationship. I thought there'd be some discord between you."
"It's normal. Though not as good as yesterday, she's done inhumane things before. If there was any discord between us, it started ten years ago."
"Hehe~!"
"Hehe, my foot!" Naoki smacked Merry's head again as she tried to act cute, sending her sprawling once more.
What a great relationship they had.
Morgan felt a twinge of envy, then looked at Artoria, who sat quietly at the other end of the table, eating calmly. Morgan sat across from her, smiling.
"…"
Artoria's hand and mouth paused, and she looked at Morgan warily. "What is it, sister?"
"Just looking at my sweet little sister. Is that not allowed?" Morgan smiled. "Don't be too guarded with me. I won't do anything now—my goal is no longer achievable."
Morgan's goal.
Hearing that, Naoki couldn't help but ask, "By the way, last night the conversation got sidetracked, so I didn't follow up. Morgan, what were you trying to do? Conspiring with Merry to put me in that state—what was your goal?"
"My goal? Shouldn't you already know? The child is right beside you."
"The child… Gray?" Naoki frowned. "You wanted to… revive King Arthur?"
"More precisely, an experiment. I wanted to test if I could revive that Arthur through your body. If it succeeded, Lia's revival could proceed normally—unfortunately, it failed."
Morgan said, pulling a half-broken golden dagger from her sleeve.
"Mystic Code, Infection Blade Gold. A Code that can separate spirit and soul."
"You knew about it." Morgan smiled. "Last night, during the fight with Mordred and that unknown Archer, it got shot by accident. Because of that, it's now scrap metal, useless."
"So, I won't do anything more. You don't need to be too wary of me. Just treat me as a prisoner."
Morgan's tone carried a hint of sadness. For her, reviving Artoria was a plan prepared over thousands of years, but now it had completely failed because the crucial Mystic Code was destroyed…
Artoria set down her fork, asking with a complicated expression, "Sister… There's one thing I've never understood. You, who hated me so much, hated Camelot, hated the Round Table—why do you now want to revive me?"
That was the one thing Artoria could never comprehend.
"There's no special reason. If I had to say, it's because after your death, my heart felt what you'd call… 'regret.'"