Chapter 263

Chapter 263: Chapter 263

"Whoa, I really have a physical body now! This is amazing!"

Back at the Yggdmillennia estate, Astolfo had been chatting with the remaining Servants when his entire body suddenly jolted.

He immediately began patting himself down from head to toe, confirming the sensation of warm flesh beneath his hands before letting out a delighted shout.

"Hey, Rider! Put some clothes on already! What kind of girl runs around naked in front of everyone?!"

Fiore instinctively covered her younger brother’s eyes with both hands as she shouted at him.

"Hahaha, sorry, sorry. It’s my first time being incarnated, so I got a little too excited."

Astolfo turned toward her with a carefree grin.

"Besides, this means I can keep traveling all over the world and going on adventures from now on!"

Then he noticed that a large number of the surrounding magi were staring at him with expressions of absolute disbelief.

Fiore in particular had gone completely still, her pretty face turning red at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"Y-Y-Y-You... you’re a boy?!"

"What?!"

Caules practically jumped into the air.

His hands immediately moved from where Fiore had been covering his eyes to covering his sister’s instead.

"Don’t look, Nee-san! You’ll get a stye!"

"Hahahaha! I knew you’d react like that!"

Astolfo planted both hands on his hips, wearing the delighted expression of someone whose prank had worked perfectly.

"Huh? You guys only just figured that out?"

Mordred looked genuinely confused.

"He’s obviously got one."

She was not the only person who had known.

Chiron, Kairi Sisigou, and the more experienced people present remained completely calm.

With their seasoned powers of observation, they had seen through Astolfo’s appearance long ago.

It was mostly Fiore, Caules, and some of the younger magi who had been fooled by his delicate features and feminine mannerisms.

"He was that cute... and he’s actually a guy..."

Several young male magi visibly collapsed into despair.

When they heard Astolfo was going to be incarnated, more than a few of them had secretly gotten excited.

Reality had just delivered a merciless blow.

The female magi, on the other hand, reacted very differently.

A cute boy who looked like that?

Their eyes practically began glowing.

Before the noisy scene could become even more chaotic, however, something changed.

Bzzzz—

A faint hum spread through the room.

Mordred and Chiron both paused as their bodies began turning translucent.

Countless particles of light peeled away from their figures and drifted upward, signaling that their remaining time had finally reached its end.

A Servant could remain manifested because the Holy Grail supplied the magical energy necessary to sustain them.

Now that the Greater Grail had begun exhausting its reserves to fulfill the winner’s wishes, the support keeping the remaining Servants anchored to the world was disappearing.

Their time had come.

"So it’s finally time to leave."

Chiron accepted the situation with his usual calm.

He turned toward Fiore, then lowered himself onto one knee in front of her.

"You were an excellent Master. It was truly an honor to serve as your Servant."

A gentle smile appeared on the great sage’s face.

"With your ability and character, I am certain you will travel much farther than this in the years ahead."

"Archer..."

Fiore reached toward him, only for her hand to pass through his increasingly transparent fingers.

Her voice immediately became unsteady.

"Meeting you was one of my greatest fortunes as well."

She swallowed the emotion rising in her throat.

"Will we ever meet again?"

"If fate allows it."

Chiron answered without hesitation.

"Then yes."

A short distance away, Mordred was having her own final conversation with Kairi.

"So this is goodbye, Master."

She rested both hands behind her head, trying to look as casual as ever.

"Kinda sucks. I really wanted to win the Grail for you."

"That doesn’t matter anymore."

Kairi exhaled a slow stream of cigarette smoke and looked at her with a faint smile.

"Meeting you was the best thing I got out of this Holy Grail War."

"W-What the hell..."

For once, Mordred actually became awkward.

She shifted her gaze away, clearly uncomfortable with how sincerely pleased the words made her.

"Well... I guess meeting you made me pretty happy too."

"Yeah?"

Kairi chuckled.

"Glad to hear it."

He raised one hand.

"Then I’ll see you around, if we’re lucky."

"Yeah."

Mordred grinned.

"If fate feels generous, we’ll meet again."

The last of the light gathered around them.

Then Mordred and Chiron disappeared together, their forms dissolving into the air until nothing remained but a few fading particles.

One second later, Kiriya and Jeanne appeared inside the room.

Kiriya glanced at the motes of light that had not yet completely vanished and sighed with genuine regret.

"They’re already gone? Damn, I actually wanted to say goodbye properly."

"Kiriya-san, Jeanne-san, you two..."

Fiore suddenly began stammering again.

Her face turned red almost immediately.

She was not the only one.

Several of the female magi in the room were staring intently at Kiriya, their cheeks noticeably flushed.

"Hm?"

Kiriya looked around in confusion.

"What’s wrong?"

"Master."

Astolfo pointed solemnly at him.

"What exactly are you wearing?"

Kiriya looked down.

Then he understood.

He had given both his shirt and trousers to Jeanne inside the Greater Grail, which meant that right now he was standing in the middle of a room full of people wearing nothing but boxer briefs.

Every line of muscle across his shoulders, chest, abdomen, and legs was completely exposed, and considering the body he had developed through years of combat and supernatural training, it was hardly surprising that people were staring.

Astolfo’s eyes narrowed suspiciously as he looked between Kiriya and Jeanne.

"You two didn’t... you know?"

Then he raised both hands and began clapping.

"Clap, clap, clap—"

Jeanne’s face instantly turned crimson.

"No!"

She hurriedly waved both hands.

"It wasn’t anything like that! My body had only just been created, so I didn’t have any clothes, and Kiriya-kun simply lent me his."

"Ohhh."

Understanding dawned around the room.

Then that understanding quickly turned into amazement.

Astolfo had merely been transformed from a Servant into a fully incarnated physical existence, but Jeanne’s situation had been considerably more complicated.

The Greater Grail had created an entirely new human body from nothing, separated Jeanne’s soul safely from Laeticia, and then placed the Heroic Spirit into a perfectly compatible vessel without harming either side.

That was a vastly more difficult miracle.

The sheer effectiveness of the Greater Grail was difficult not to admire.

"Anyway, enough standing around talking about this."

Kiriya waved the subject away.

"Could someone get the two of us some clothes? Something casual is fine."

"R-Right!"

Fiore immediately arranged for several servants to prepare suitable clothing.

Kiriya and Jeanne both took baths, changed into clean everyday clothes, and afterward accepted the enthusiastic invitation of Fiore and Caules to attend a lavish dinner celebrating the end of the war.

Only after the meal did Kiriya call Astolfo over and return to his room with Jeanne.

...

"What?! You’re leaving?"

Astolfo immediately began waving his arms in panic.

"What do you mean you’re leaving? You’re not taking me with you?!"

Tears were already running down his adorable face.

"Master... you don’t want me anymore?"

Jeanne immediately softened.

"Rider, that isn’t what he means. We’re only leaving for a while. We’ll definitely see you again."

"I don’t care! I don’t care!"

Astolfo stubbornly shook his head like a child insisting on joining his parents on a trip.

"Why can’t I go too?"

"Astolfo, do you seriously not understand the situation?"

Kiriya sighed, then wrapped one arm around Jeanne’s slender waist and pulled her against him.

"We’re going on our honeymoon."

Jeanne immediately squirmed in embarrassment, but remembering what Kiriya had already explained to her, she ultimately allowed herself to remain in his embrace despite the furious blush spreading across her face.

"You coming along would just make you the third wheel."

Kiriya looked at Astolfo.

"So stop trying to invite yourself."

"Who says I have to be a third wheel?"

Astolfo answered with complete sincerity.

"I can join in too. If Master gets tired, I can help push from behind."

The room went silent.

Astolfo’s expression remained perfectly innocent.

After all, the nobles from his era had done far more outrageous things than that.

Kiriya slowly felt Jeanne’s gaze turn toward him.

BOOM!

Without saying a word, he brought his fist down directly on Astolfo’s head.

A swelling rose almost immediately.

"Owwwwww!"

"You deserved that."

Kiriya showed absolutely no sympathy. He clenched one fist and held it up threateningly.

"Say something like that again and I’ll beat your face into a pig’s."

Astolfo crouched miserably on the floor, clutching the lump on his head and looking at Kiriya with the eyes of an abandoned puppy.

Kiriya eventually sighed.

"I already told you. We’re only going away for a while."

His tone softened slightly.

"We’ll meet again."

"Really?"

Astolfo immediately looked up.

"Guaranteed."

"Then pinky promise!"

Astolfo held out his little finger.

Kiriya stared at him.

"Are you five years old?"

Even so, he could not help laughing as he extended his own hand and hooked their fingers together.

The moment the promise was completed, Astolfo’s earlier despair vanished as if it had never existed.

"All right! Then it’s settled!"

He pointed seriously at Kiriya.

"You’re absolutely not allowed to break your promise!"

Kiriya gave the two of them one final meaningful look before Astolfo eventually left the room.

The door closed.

And just like that, only Kiriya and Jeanne remained.

The noisy atmosphere from moments earlier disappeared almost instantly.

Silence settled over the room, and with no one else around to interrupt them, the air between the two gradually became strangely intimate.

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