Leon and Artoria stood side by side, smiling as they watched Irisviel strolling freely along the beach.
"It's been a long time since I've been this happy."
"Leon, Al… thank you for spending the day with me."
Irisviel suddenly stopped walking. With a faint blush on her face, she thanked them sincerely.
"Your satisfaction is our greatest honor, Princess."
Leon and Artoria bowed slightly in perfect unison, offering Irisviel a gentlemanly salute.
"Actually…"
"This is my first time… my first time coming into the outside world. Until now, my entire life has been spent inside the castle."
"As a homunculus created for the Holy Grail War…"
"Before today, everything I knew about the outside world came from movies, photographs, and Kiritsugu's stories."
"So being able to spend today together with you and Al…"
"I'm truly… really very happy."
"So… thank you for staying with me all day."
"And for listening to my rambling."
A trace of apology appeared on Irisviel's face.
"It's alright."
"We'll stay with you until the very end."
Artoria stepped forward and took Irisviel's delicate hand, holding it firmly.
For some reason, she felt she could deeply empathize with Irisviel.
Beside them, Leon stood with one hand behind his back and the other resting calmly in front of him. Draped over his arm was a clean white towel, prepared to dry the seawater from Irisviel's feet.
The three of them exchanged smiles.
The atmosphere of warmth and peace reached its peak.
Even Leon—whose thoughts were usually anything but pure—felt a faint sense of spiritual cleansing.
However—
Beautiful moments never last.
There are always those who dare to confront the radiance of kings and heroes.
"Leon!"
The gentle expression on Artoria's face suddenly sharpened.
"Mm."
"They arrived quickly."
Leon's face lit up with his usual infectious grin as he turned toward the distant apartment building across the road from the beach, its windows glowing with the light of civilization.
Irisviel couldn't see it with the naked eye.
But Leon and Artoria could both see and sense it clearly.
An unmistakable killing intent and battle aura was racing toward them.
"An enemy Servant?"
Irisviel clasped her hands against her chest as Leon and Artoria instinctively stepped in front of her to shield her.
"Yes."
Artoria nodded seriously.
"About 2.5 kilometers away, in an apartment building. The enemy seems to have arrived earlier than us."
"They're inviting us over."
"I see."
Irisviel brushed aside a strand of snow-white hair and smiled calmly.
"They seem rather honorable… not as treacherous as Grandfather described."
"Irisviel, that's probably just an exception."
"It seems our opponent is quite confident in their strength."
Leon sent a message to Kiritsugu Emiya.
Then he spread both arms.
Irisviel immediately stepped into his right arm, letting him wrap an arm around her waist.
Artoria hesitated slightly, her cheeks turning faintly red.
But remembering that she was currently disguised as an ordinary attendant, she followed Irisviel's lead and stepped into Leon's left arm.
For once, the proud Knight King showed a trace of gentle feminine vulnerability.
Two beauties in his arms—
Leon smiled contentedly.
His left hand subtly squeezed—giving Artoria some special attention.
Before she could notice anything strange, he bent his knees and leapt.
In a single bound—
They shot over a hundred meters into the sky, rapidly approaching the source of the battle intent.
At the same time—
On Fuyuki Bridge.
Having already learned that Assassin had been eliminated while infiltrating Archer's stronghold—the Tohsaka residence, Iskandar, the King of Conquerors, sat cross-legged atop the arch of the bridge.
He tipped a bottle of liquor back and gulped it down.
"Ahhh! Now this is life!"
Beside him—
Waver Velvet clung desperately to a massive steel beam thicker than his own body, lying flat against it like a lizard.
"I—I can't take this anymore!"
"Rider, this place is too dangerous! Let's go down already!"
"What are you talking about? Isn't this the perfect place for surveillance?"
"But my familiars can handle surveillance! Just like earlier when we watched Archer and Assassin!"
"I want to go home… I want to go back to England…"
"Why did I even get involved in this mess…!"
The cold wind howled at this height.
Below them, traffic rushed across the bridge nonstop.
If Waver fell, he'd be crushed into paste instantly.
Fear made him homesick.
"Denied!"
Iskandar rejected his plea without hesitation.
"This won't do at all. Such cowardice is unacceptable for one of my subjects."
"Listen, Master."
"What we must do now is not retreat."
"We must remain calm and observe how our enemies maneuver. That too is part of battle."
"If we retreat before even fighting, how can we speak of conquest? How can we speak of victory?"
After Iskandar finished speaking—
Waver quieted slightly and nodded timidly.
"I… understand."
But his trembling body still betrayed his fear.
Seeing this—
Iskandar burst into hearty laughter.
With a large hand like a fan, he pulled the slender, porcelain-like Waver into his arms.
Waver ended up sitting on Iskandar's crossed legs as if on a single-seat sofa.
The king wrapped his thick bronze arms around him from behind, shielding him from the wind.
Waver's face turned slightly red.
Being held like this by a huge man felt awkward.
But sensing Iskandar's genuine care, he muttered awkwardly:
"Thank you… Rider."
"Hahaha! Caring for one's subjects is the duty of a king!"
"And besides—"
"Look. Things are finally getting interesting."
Following the direction of Iskandar's finger, Waver couldn't see anything with his own eyes.
But once he released a crow familiar, a fragment of the Holy Grail War immediately unfolded before him.
"Wow!"
"That's… Saber and Lancer!"
"And—"
"Eek!!!"
"Professor Kayneth?!"
"Hahahahaha! Now I'm getting excited!"
Unlike Waver's panic at seeing a cat like a frightened mouse—
Iskandar's booming laughter seemed powerful enough to scatter the clouds in the sky.
Whoosh—
Holding Irisviel and Artoria in his arms, Leon descended from the sky with effortless elegance, landing smoothly on an empty road.
Streetlights illuminated the quiet street.
Low two- or three-story buildings lined both sides.
The moment Leon and the others arrived—
A man's voice echoed from an unknown direction.
"Excellent!"
"I've been walking openly around this city all day."
"And yet not a single person dared to show themselves."
"You're the only one who answered my invitation."
"That proud fighting spirit…"
"You must be a Saber-class Servant, correct?"
As the voice faded—
From the boundary between light and shadow beneath the streetlamp, a man stepped forward.
He carried two spears—one crimson, one golden-yellow.
A tear-shaped beauty mark beneath his right eye gave him an almost supernatural charm.
With radiant looks and burning eyes—
He stared directly at Leon.
For Lancer's confident but mistaken assumption—
Artoria and Irisviel exchanged a subtle glance behind Leon.
Neither of them said a word.
But the faint smiles hidden behind their hands betrayed their amusement.
"He fell for it."
The same thought flashed simultaneously through the minds of all three schemers.
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