Inside the Einzbern Castle, having been informed in advance about today's banquet, the homunculus maids were busy with preparations.
As dish after dish of delicacies and bottle after bottle of fine wine appeared, the time for the banquet was approaching.
"So this is the Einzbern's territory? Truly a magnificent structure."
Led by maids from the outermost area, Tokiomi, Kiritsugu, and the others found the scale of the magical barriers along the way unimaginably vast.
Finally arriving at the grand entrance, they saw several girls with exceptional figures and appearances in the opulent hall.
For instance, Merlin, snacking with Artoria.
Morgan, sitting elegantly in a corner, sipping black tea.
Female Gil playing Gomoku with Enkidu.
Ishtar admiring jewelry.
And the Yukinoshita Sisters, Kaguya, Souji, and Irisviel.
"Hey, so these are the Einzbern's False Servants? They feel incredibly powerful."
Having arrived from another direction, also guided by maids, Iskandar drove his Gordius Wheel into the scene with Waver.
"Rider, slow down a bit!"
Feeling extremely unwell, Waver looked at the unprecedented splendor of the hall and felt genuinely out of place.
"By the way, Lancer's Master, who is this woman you brought?"
Noticing Sola-Ui beside Kayneth, Iskandar sensed she had some magical energy but not much, and since there's no Command Spells on her hand, he knew she wasn't a Master either.
They didn't understand that Kayneth hadn't wanted to bring Sola-Ui, but she had insisted on coming.
"Saber, why are you so quiet?"
Noticing Saber had been silent since entering, Kiritsugu saw her gaze fixed on a certain direction. That was...
"Nee-san? Merlin? And you are..."
The impulse from her bloodline could not be false. Morgan, her only family, her sister… but she was her enemy.
Merlin, her teacher, the unreliable one who taught her many skills.
Unsure why the female Merlin looked so much like the male Merlin she knew of, Saber finally saw the figure with an impressive physique, resembling the ideal version of herself in her heart.
"You are... just who are you all...?"
Everything she had witnessed in this Holy Grail War left Saber confused. Moving forward at a loss, she found her hand being taken by the witch holding the black tea.
"Tsk tsk, I heard from Is that there's a girl in this war who is Lily's counterpart. So it's a half-grown child?"
Very affectionate towards her younger sister counterpart, Morgan found the little Saber quite amusing.
"Hey, Morgan, she is Artoria but not Artoria. Ultimately, it's like Gilgamesh, they are parallel world counterparts with no memory connection."
"But you over there, why did you call me Merlin? Is my great name Merlin not cool enough? What is the other-world me doing?" (T/N: The Female Merlin's name is read as Meili in RAW, while Male Merlin's name is Meilin. But since I can't change it, I'll just explain it here and use Male and Female to tell the difference.)
Unexpectedly fixated on the name issue, Merlin stood with hands on her hips.
"Nee-san? Merlin? You really are from Britain..."
Receiving responses from Morgan and Merlin, Saber finally confirmed their identities. This wasn't her illusion. And also...
"Counterpart from another world, I can sense fatigue and helplessness from you. Presumably, your world lacks the presence of Sensei, right?"
Elegant and majestic, the grown-up Artoria, the mature and alluring version of the King of Knights from Ryuya's side captured everyone's attention the moment she appeared.
As she stepped forward, the kingly dignity she exuded made everyone feel breathless.
Meanwhile...
"Enkidu! I won, I won!"
Finally winning a game of Gomoku against her best friend, her confidante, Female Gil was so happy she almost jumped.
Finally, after playing for so long, she won once! So difficult!
"Hey, Enkidu?"
Noticing Enkidu seemed distracted, Female Gil followed her gaze and saw none other than Golden Gil.
"Hmph."
Snorting disdainfully, Golden Gil had no intention of fighting Female Gil for now.
After being beaten by Ryuya, he had reflected a lot and felt it wasn't entirely unacceptable to have a counterpart from another world.
Hadn't he seen that Saber girl also had a counterpart? That meant...
"Ishtar! Why are you here?"
His impression of Ishtar was very poor.
In Golden Gil's memory, this foolish Venus Goddess was his nemesis.
He wanted to give her a good beating and never expected to see Ishtar here.
"Hmm?"
Blinking, playing with a rare gem, Ishtar didn't know who she had offended.
Frowning at Golden Gil, she suddenly had an epiphany, "I see… you're the arrogant guy who got beaten up by hubby, right? Heh."
Her gaze, full of mockery and disdain, hit golden Gil with maximum effect.
Not only that, Ishtar intimately squeezed between Enkidu and Female Gil.
Hugging her two good sisters, one on each side, she even demonstratively kissed each of them, dealing immense damage.
"Bleh, bleh… pissed off, pissed off!"
Her unrestrainedly joyful demeanor showed Ishtar's genuine feelings.
Never before had she felt so glad that Female Gil and Enkidu were simply amazing. Recalling the second round of the competition that night, there were times Ishtar was truly grateful that Golden Gil had broken their prepared gift, otherwise, she wouldn't have known how to win that match.
"You..."
Almost coughing up blood from anger, taking several deep breaths, Golden Gil told himself to endure, endure. Then he suddenly thought of a question.
"Wait, you just said 'hubby'? Ishtar, don't tell me you also...?"
Remembering the scene where both Female Gil and Enkidu called Ryuya 'hubby', Golden Gil took a sharp breath and suddenly thought of a possibility.
'Could it be that my female counterpart from another world, aside from our best friend Enkidu, also shared a man with others?'