Chapter 372

Chapter 372: Chapter 372

Whoosh—

As they spoke, a figure descended from above and landed beside them. It was Ryuu.

"You’re back! That fight was pretty damn impressive."

Kiriya greeted her with a broad smile, and before Ryuu quite realized what was happening, both of his hands were already resting on her head, gently rubbing her hair.

Smooth, silky, and pleasantly soft.

Excellent texture.

"W-What are you doing?"

Feeling the warmth and pressure of his hands, Ryuu failed to react for a moment.

Her entire body stiffened.

"Giving you a reward."

Kiriya sounded as though it were the most natural thing in the world.

"Children who perform well deserve rewards, don’t they? Is that not allowed?"

Ryuu’s eyes widened slightly.

What kind of tone was that? Was he treating her like a child he needed to coax?

"Still not enough?"

Kiriya nearly laughed at her adorable reaction, but managed to suppress it.

Instead, he deliberately put on a troubled expression before suddenly brightening as though enlightenment had struck him.

"Ah, I understand!"

’Understand what? You haven’t even—’

Ryuu’s thought abruptly stopped.

Kiriya had leaned down and sealed her lips with his.

The sudden impact, both physical and emotional, made Ryuu’s knees weaken almost immediately.

"Mmph..."

Caster: "...?"

What exactly was she supposed to be watching here?

And Ryuu—where had that cool, reserved dignity of hers gone?

Was she seriously not even going to resist?

Caster was standing right beside them, for heaven’s sake!

If she hadn’t been here, were these two planning to use the sky as their blanket and the earth as their bed and start celebrating their love right in the forest?

’I have never seen such shameless public affection in my life!’

The resentment radiating from Caster could practically have fueled a magical reactor.

For one brief moment, she sincerely wanted to fire off a massive spell and erase the obnoxiously affectionate couple from existence.

Of course, that thought remained firmly inside her head.

She was absolutely certain that the instant she revealed even the slightest murderous intention, that seemingly harmless young man would make her regret it in some horribly creative way.

How did she know?

A woman’s intuition!

Under Caster’s lifeless, dead-fish stare, Kiriya and Ryuu continued kissing for nearly a full minute before finally separating.

"So?"

Kiriya smacked his lips thoughtfully and nodded.

"That should be enough of a reward now, right?"

As expected of an elf.

Ryuu’s lips were soft and cool, carrying a delicate fragrance that reminded him of nectar gathered from dew-covered flowers beneath the morning sun.

"..."

Steam might as well have been rising from Ryuu’s head.

She was far too embarrassed to answer him.

"Honestly, we’ve been together this long and you still get embarrassed this easily."

Kiriya swept the elf into a princess carry, then looked toward Caster, who was still staring at them with the expression of someone who had lost faith in humanity.

"Put your hand on my shoulder."

"Huh? Why?"

Caster was still full of resentment and failed to follow his train of thought.

"Because I told you to. Why do you always have so many questions?"

Kiriya’s patience disappeared immediately.

Caster’s eyebrow twitched.

’Damn bastard. If I could beat you, I’d put you through eighteen different forms of humiliation and torment you from body to soul.’

"What are you thinking about? Why are you smiling like a pervert? Hurry up!"

Kiriya urged her again.

Caster immediately wiped away her expression, put on a rigid face, and placed one hand on his shoulder.

The world changed in the next instant.

The towering ancient forest vanished, replaced by an enormous underground chamber.

"This is... a Magecraft workshop?"

Caster was extraordinarily sensitive to magical barriers, so she immediately understood the nature of the place and even began evaluating it.

"These bounded fields are quite sophisticated. Whoever built this place knew what they were doing."

Coming from a Magus of the Age of Gods—someone whose craft stood closer to True Magic than almost anyone in the modern era—that was already extremely high praise.

If Zouken could hear it from beyond the grave, he might have died happy a second time.

"All right, I didn’t bring you here so you could flatter the dead."

Still carrying Ryuu in his arms, Kiriya walked ahead.

"Follow me."

Caster’s curiosity had already been awakened, so she obediently followed him through a maze of passages until they arrived at a large archive.

Rows upon rows of towering bookshelves filled the chamber.

The sheer number of Magecraft texts stored there was staggering, all treasures Zouken had collected over several centuries.

Among them were detailed records concerning the structure and ritual of the Greater Grail.

"The principles behind the Greater Grail and a complete explanation of its ritual?"

The moment Kiriya told her what was stored here, Caster’s eyes lit up so brightly that they almost resembled searchlights.

"Something like that really exists here?"

During her lifetime, Caster had encountered countless high-level Mysteries, yet even she had never seen anything quite like the Greater Grail system.

Naturally, she was fascinated by a ritual reputed to create a universal wish-granting device capable of fulfilling virtually any desire.

"You want it?"

Kiriya smiled with the warm, benevolent expression of a devil inviting someone to sign a contract.

"Obviously."

Caster made no attempt to hide her desire.

"Then take it."

His answer made her freeze.

Caster pointed to herself, eyes widening.

"You’re... just giving it to me?"

"Yep."

After receiving such an uncomplicated confirmation, Caster forced herself to calm down.

"And what’s the price?"

"Study it properly. Once the Greater Grail manifests, I want you to construct a completely reliable barrier capable of containing every bit of magical energy that spills out."

Caster frowned.

"Contain it? Why would you need to do that?"

A terrible premonition rose in her heart.

Kiriya’s grin widened.

"Because the Holy Grail is already corrupted."

"What—?!"

Caster practically launched herself across the room and grabbed Kiriya tightly by the shoulders.

"What do you mean, corrupted? Explain yourself!"

Her tone had become openly commanding, but she no longer cared. Her thoughts were completely consumed by those three words.

The Grail is corrupted.

She had answered the summoning specifically because she wanted the Holy Grail, the legendary wish-granting device.

And now someone was casually telling her that the entire thing had been contaminated?

It was like hearing thunder crash from a clear sky.

"The story starts with the Third Holy Grail War."

Kiriya began explaining calmly.

"The Einzbern family broke the rules yet again and summoned an Avenger. Unfortunately for them, the Servant they summoned was absurdly weak and got eliminated early, after which he was absorbed into the Grail."

"Because the Lesser Grail was destroyed during the fighting, that war ended without a proper victor. Since the ritual effectively collapsed before completion, no one discovered that the Grail itself had already been corrupted. That left a rather enormous land mine waiting for the Fourth Holy Grail War."

Even Kiriya had to admire the Einzberns’ almost supernatural ability to sabotage their own plans.

In the Fate/Apocrypha timeline, they had violated the rules by summoning Ruler, Amakusa Shirou Tokisada, nearly resulting in humanity being transformed into disembodied souls freed from all worldly desire.

In the Fate/stay night timeline, they instead summoned the Avenger Angra Mainyu, contaminating the entire Greater Grail and setting off a chain of tragedies.

And if he included everything surrounding Illyasviel and Irisviel, the Einzberns’ record of disastrous decisions became almost impressive.

Compared with them, even Tokiomi Tohsaka—the man who seemed born to make catastrophically bad choices—was beginning to look restrained.

Caster, however, was unwilling to accept the claim so easily.

"That’s only your version of events. Where’s the evidence?"

"Ten years ago, the Fourth Holy Grail War took place."

Kiriya continued without hesitation.

"At the very end, when the Greater Grail was about to manifest, corrupted magical energy leaked out and burned a huge portion of Fuyuki City to the ground."

"It was only because one of the Masters at the time, Kiritsugu Emiya, ordered his Servant to destroy the Grail that the disaster didn’t spread even farther. Even then, Kiritsugu himself was contaminated by the corruption and died years earlier than he otherwise would have."

Kiriya looked directly at her.

"If you investigate carefully, all of that information can be confirmed."

With every sentence, Caster’s expression grew darker.

At last, she simply collapsed onto the floor.

A strange mixture of laughter and tears escaped her.

"If that’s true... then what was the point of any of this?"

Her voice shook.

"We dead heroes struggle so desperately to return to the living world, fight one another, risk everything for a single wish... and it was meaningless from the beginning?"

Her laughter became bitter.

"All of it was for nothing?"

"You see, this is why you shouldn’t panic so quickly."

Kiriya sighed.

"I never said I didn’t have a solution."

Caster’s head snapped upward.

The despair in her eyes vanished almost instantly, replaced by burning intensity.

"You have a way?"