Rin was disturbed by Haruki’s identity. Fuyuki City was under her family’s jurisdiction. A magus was living in her town whose son was her classmate, and Kirei didn’t inform her about this. She felt her brows sink deeply. Her hunch about Priest hiding things from her might be right.

‘People are undermining Tohsaka’s authority after Otou-san’s death.’

Haruki saw Rin’s frown and shook his head. He placed a hand on Sakura’s shoulder.

“Senpai?”

“Why do you want Rider?”

He obviously knew her motive, but he wanted to hear it from her.

“I—I want to help Senpai,” Sakura said as her body shook. “I don’t know what I’d do if something happened to you...”

The fear of losing him was evident in her violet eyes.

“What about Zouken?”

“He…”

“He’ll not let you do that,” he said with a sigh before looking dead into her eyes. “Sakura, you’re the most important person to me.”

Other than his mother, he had spent the most time with her. She had remained glued to his side ever since she was five or perhaps six.

Sakura didn’t know how to respond to the out-of-nowhere confession from Haruki. Despite that, the timid smile on her face said everything.

“Same,” she said, giving an upturned glance at him. “I mean… Senpai is my most important person.”

She wouldn’t have told him about her deepest secrets otherwise. Though she regretted telling some of the horrifying things, it didn’t faze Haruki. He always listened to her whenever she poured her heart out and cursed her family. When she was done ranting, he would rub her head like an older brother. She missed the old days where she could be herself.

“Cute…” Haruki mumbled and softly rubbed her head like she was imagining. “You don’t need to ask for someone’s help. I’ll take Rider from Shinji.”

Rin wasn’t sure what to feel about this straight-out-of-a-manga scene happening before her.

‘Master, is that envy I feel from you?’

Archer rubbed salt on her wounds. Just the other day, she and Ayako Mitsuzuri were talking about having a boyfriend. Ayako pitched Haruki as a boyfriend candidate because of the ‘cold’ exterior they carried around the school. She already knew his relationship with Sakura, so it only flustered her when Ayako brought this up.

‘Shaddap!’

“Shinji has a servant,” Sakura said. “He will—”

Haruki placed a finger on her lips, effectively silencing her from speaking further.

“You forgot I also have one.”

“Wait just a minute,” Rin interrupted. “You’re a Master?!”

Her suspicion was right all along!

Haruki nodded. “That makes us enemies.”

“That doesn’t make sense. I can't sense your magical energy so you aren't a mage. Why are you participating in the war?”

She didn’t want Sakura’s only friend to die in the war.

“It’s because of me,” Medea said as she appeared behind Haruki. “I’m masking Master’s magic.”

As Medea made her presence known, Archer also materialized behind Rin and folded his arms on his chest. He looked ready to retaliate against any possible attack.

Medea stared at Archer. Despite being of Archer Class, he had the physique of a swordsman. The confidence in his eyes made her sneer.

“I’m not interested in fighting here,” Archer said, shaking his head. “Caster.”

“Coward.”

Archer just grinned while his Master glared at Haruki.

“Don’t you know the rule? Servants shouldn’t appear in a populated place, much less fight.”

Rin was losing her mind from the surprises. First, she found out Sakura had a boyfriend, then that boyfriend turned out to be a Master in the Grail War.

“We’re not fighting. Instead,” Haruki said and extended his hand. “I want us to be allies.”

“Rin Nee-san will be on our side?”

Sakura gave a puppy-eyed glance at Rin, hoping it would persuade her. She loved Rin, but she also adored Haruki. She was willing to use anything as long as Haruki didn’t meet the same fate as Kariya Matou.

 Rin was put on the spot once again. Will she honor Tohsaka’s name and abandon her sister? Or will she help her sister walk through the burning path of the Holy Grail War?

The hesitation in her eyes was apparent to Haruki. Seeing her like that, Haruki easily guessed what she would do.

‘She idolizes her father too much.’

He thought and sighed. Her father was a cold-hearted individual, but at least he had good intentions when he sent Sakura to the Matou family.

Rin and Sakura both had rare talents. Rin was an Average One, capable of wielding all five elements as well as a natural affinity to Tohsaka’s Conversion Sorcery Trait. Sakura, while lacking any such affinity, possessed the Hollow element. Grooming two such Magus was impossible for the Tohsaka Family. So instead of letting one daughter thrive while the other never saw her true potential, Tokiomi Tohsaka let Matou adopt Sakura. His good intentions yielded a bad result.

Rin stepped on Haruki’s toe. “Did the Church acknowledge your participation?”

Feeling irritated, Haruki took his revenge by stepping on her shoe.

“Argh!”

His ‘restrained’ strength almost crushed her delicate legs. Rin kneeled and held her foot. With tears in her blue eyes, she glared up at him.

“You jerk.”

“You did it first,” he said with a shrug. Before she protested any further, he assumed a cold look. “Don’t you dare bring up the ‘I’m a girl’ card. I hate that crap the most.”

Sakura wasn’t surprised at this side of Haruki. A side reserved to deal with strangers and Shinji. Other than her, he rarely talked to anyone. Rejecting girls’ confessions and other people, he came off as cold to everyone in the school, earning him the nickname of Cold Prince. Not that he cared about how they called him behind his back.

Rin stood up and faced Haruki. “Answer my question first.”

The Church had the right to interfere if a Magus fought in the war without informing them. In fact, the Church was fine with anyone as long as their wish didn’t cause any major effects on the world. Rin hoped he got disqualified for his ‘stupid’ attitude, or he’d die in the war and make Sakura cry.

Medea smiled at Rin’s question. “The Church’s supervisor Kirei Kotomine met my previous master, Atrum Galliasta. I have yet to inform the Church about my new master.”

“That fake priest is my family friend, so I’ll help you meet him,” Rin said, still glaring at Haruki. “Come with me tonight.”

Haruki so wanted to lift the curtains off these so-called Fake Priest’s deeds. She was oblivious to the fact that her current family caretaker, Kirei Kotomine, murdered her father in the previous Holy Grail War. The Priest also wished for the end of humanity in the most painful way. But Haruki refrained from any irrational move. The Priest’s servant, Gilgamesh, was far too strong for him.

At least right now.

“Sure. Let’s go after school.”

Meeting Kirei had to come sooner or later.

“Sakura, we’re leaving.”

He took Sakura’s hand, who stubbornly pulled him.

“Senpai, please. We need Rin Nee-san’s help.”

With three servants on their side, she’d be assured of their victory without any sacrifice.

“She will help us,” Haruki said, looking at Rin. “Or you don’t want to help the sister your family abandoned?”

Rin froze at his voice filled with frost.

“Master, why are you acting like this?” Medea asked.

‘If I have to become the villain to reunite the stubborn sisters, then so be it.’

He hadn’t tried before due to his lack of power. Even if he told Rin about Sakura’s circumstances, nothing would change. The hot-headed Rin would charge into the Matou family and get devoured by Zouken’s worms. The Clock Tower would also take no action against Zouken as he was a well-respected figure there. His ‘experiment’ with Sakura wasn’t that rare within the families associated with the Clock Tower. The monsters associated with the Clock Tower could kill him even if Medea and Semiramis tried to protect him.

‘The old vampire.’

Haruki didn’t need to worry about him for now. His Second Magic was limited in what it could observe. If he tried to observe this timeline too far, he might end up making it the only ‘true’ timeline which exists.

Sakura didn’t dally  any longer. After giving a concerned look to Rin, she left with Haruki.

Medea gave a smile to Rin and Archer. “Allies or enemies? Choose wisely.”

With a confident declaration, she disappeared from their view. Rin, left alone with Archer, sighed.

“Master, you want to help that girl?”

Archer wasn’t opposed to the idea. As long as his ‘goal’ of killing Shirou was fulfilled, he didn’t care about anything.

Rin leaned against the fence and looked up at the sky. “I will… until the final battle. They will be on their own after that.”

“Someone else is here,” Archer warned and changed into his spiritual form.

Rin turned around and found Shinji Matou on the second building’s terrace. A woman with long purple hair appeared out of nowhere and looked back for just a moment. Then, she started inscribing something on the ground.

“She noticed us,” Archer said. “But her master isn’t aware.”

“Sakura was right. Rider doesn’t seem cooperative with Shinji.”

Rin decided to check out what they were doing after school.

***

Haruki escorted Sakura to her class before he made his way to Shirou’s class. Standing near the door, he observed the handsome teen with auburn hair earnestly listening to Taiga’s lecture. Haruki honestly couldn’t sense any servant around Shirou.

‘Medea, do you see a servant nearby?’

“I don’t.”

His hunch was right. Saber hadn’t been summoned by Shirou as Archer and Lancer hadn’t fought. They were earlier in the war than he expected.

‘I don’t remember every detail.’

While he was beating himself over the massive blunder, Arch spoke up.

“No need to beat yourself over it… You used to be a human before. It’s impossible to have a flawless memory.”

‘You really have a soothing voice.’

His first impression of her being a tsundere dragon turned out to be wrong.

‘Why didn’t my blood summon a Saber Class Servant then?’

Medea hummed at his question. “Perhaps Master focused too much on summoning an Assassin.”

‘We’ll return early to summon another servant.’

“Master… how many do you want?”

Medea was stumped at his greed.

‘The more the merrier.’

“Ya?” Taiga shouted as she turned to Haruki. “Hayashi-kun?”

She walked up to him, wrapped her arms around his neck, and pulled him down to her chest. “I heard about your mother… I’m sorry you had to go through that.”

She was usually cheerful and almost childish with her students unless someone called her tiger. But she also knew the pain of losing someone as she had lost Kiritsugu, her first crush.

The students murmured about his mother’s death, giving him pitiful looks. 

Haruki pulled himself back with a sigh and smiled at Taiga. “I’m fine, Taiga-sensei.”

She once tried to enlist him into the kendo club, but he rejected her. Despite that, they still respected each other as fellow martial artists.

“Come to me if you need any assistance,” she said and hollered at the students to quiet down.

Haruki returned to his class, only to be greeted with whispers of him going out with Sakura, which he ignored, and sat down on his seat. With a bored expression, he peered at his notebook. In Saber Class, quite a few servants stood out like Artoria Pendragon, Miyamoto Musashi, Siegfried, Nero, Okita Souji, and Mordred.

Who should he choose?