It was morning. A pair was seen lying in the middle of a double bed, a woman on top of a man hugging each other.
A pair of eyelids fluttered before showing the world vibrant red eyes. They moved down to look at the sleeping beauty.
'To watch the whole life of a person in one night's sleep time... Overnight, I have gained much more respect for Grail and its creators. How do other Masters cope with it, or is it me the only one who has this situation?
And what do I do with her? Haaa... I am not some hero of justice, but I am also not completely heartless. She is evil. It is a fact. But knowing the circumstances, I can't say anything. After all, I am the same...
In the end, it's not my job to "fix" her, but for the duration of this war, she is my responsibility, and I will be here for her. That I promise.'
Feeling a slight stir on his chest, Raito tightened the hug. Only just awoken, Morgan felt the warmth surrounding her coming from his embrace. If it was any other time or anyone else, the other party would be attacked in a flash without a thought. This time, it was different. Somehow, she was able to see his life, his whole journey from a weak but kind to everyone human to the world's strongest ruthless monster. He only ever showed kindness to those whom he cared about. Now, he was embracing her. She deduced that he also must have seen her life and decided to take her side. She expected to be happy that it happened without her doing anything, but... What was with this swirl of emotions inside her? One thing she could tell for sure. She didn't want this hug to end.
Seeing that she decided to pretend to continue sleeping, Raito called out to her.
"Good morning, Morgan. How long are we going to stay like this?"
"A little bit. Let's stay like this a little bit more, Hajime." She replied without opening her eyes.
'Nostalgic...' He decided to let it be. He wasn't going to break a promise he made himself just a minute prior.
• • •
Breakfast Raito prepared Tortus-style, which raised Morgan's eyebrow because she knew that these herbs and meat didn't exist on Earth.
"My Treasure Trove became a Noble Phantasm here, and I had food there even before it happened. You can even say this meal was made with the finest ingredients ever. Everything for you, dear." At the end, he decided to tease her a little.
Unexpectedly, a blush appeared on her pale skin despite the unchanged expression on her face.
"Thank you, husband."
"... Once we are finished, let's go through our plan of action. I have already developed a general strategy for how to hunt an Outer God. We would need to incorporate it into the Holy Grail War without raising suspicion. If one of that kind goes into hiding, it will be close to impossible to catch it."
"I understand." Saying so Morgan took a sip from the white tea Raito brewed to check if her tastes aligned with Vivian's. "It is too bland. Brew me the same as yesterday." It seemed she really was the opposite.
• • •
Breakfast was finished, and the pair moved into a conference room.
There, the originally long table was folded until only the space for two people to sit comfortably was left. Excess chairs were placed in the storage space within the table. Behind the head seat was a screen the size of the wall, which was inactive. Instead, on the table was shown a 3D hologram of the Fuyuki City and its surroundings with key locations lit up by different colors.
"Einzbern, Tohsaka, and Matou are sure to participate as founding families, Church claims to be a neutral overseer, and some people from Mage Association are bound to be interested, while I act as an independent agent. This is the list of participants. The respective residences are colored by red, gold, and black for the first three while blue is for us.
I have already confirmed 4 out of 7 Servants. Except you, a Caster, there are: a black knight, a Berserker, with Matou; a blond red-eye man in golden armor and accessories, probably a Saber, with Tohsaka; and black cloaked with a skull face mask Assassin with a priest. So much for being "a neutral overseer" of the Holy Grail War.
Title of the strongest Servant might not even be yours, by the way. Goldie has high divinity, so his divine weapon and Noble Phantasm can potentially bring you down.
On the Master side, despite the alliance between Tohsaka and the Church, I would give the priority to Einzbern or Matou. The first hired Kiritsugu Emiya, the magus killer, the man who will do anything to achieve his goal. We also don't know about their Servant. The other one has an old magus who created Command Spells and was a founding member of Holy Grail Wars as his backer."
Raito made a break to allow Morgan to digest all the information he dumped on her and take a sip of water himself. After mulling over the current situation for a couple of minutes, Fairy Queen already cooked up a plan.
"I use my 『Territory Creation: B+』 to make the whole map my domain. Every plant, every animal, the whole nature will be my eyes and ears. Then, we can set up a trap once sufficient intel on our enemies is gathered. The goldie has priority on elimination. I am a queen and only act myself to announce execution to my enemies. If I can't crush them directly, I will just do it the long way."
When Raito heard this, he stared at her for a couple of seconds, and seeing confidence and determination to crush everyone and everything on the path to her goal, a smile appeared on his face. The smile Morgan caught.
"What? Do you disagree with my plan? If you do so, then speak up now."
"No, it's not that. Morgan, you are stunningly beautiful when you act like your true self, you know?"
It was a low blow for the Fairy Queen. Faced with such sincerity and pure admiration, her face flared up crimson, and her mask of dignified indifference crumbled. It was unbecoming for a queen, but she didn't feel like one at that moment. If someone knows your whole life, all the evil you have ever committed, and still declares with such honesty that he likes you in spite of all the ugly things you have done... Maybe. Just maybe, Morgan felt that she found the one and only for herself. Fighting the urge to turn away, she faced the situation head-on and, with a still burning face, replied, "T-Thank you, husband." Another way of red color came to her face and reached the ears but for the different reason this time.
'She stuttered! Wow! I managed to accomplish the impossible. World, I deserve a skill for this! Ah, wait. I already have a skill that rewrites reality and makes impossible possible... But it registered as my Noble Phantasm. Let's work with probability manipulation as my personal skill. Well, the combination of Evolution Magic with Concept Magic should do the trick. I will work on this project once the current mess is resolved.'
By the time his mind trailed off and then already returned back, Morgan finally composed herself. Her rational mind desperately tried to find an answer to this abnormal behavior. Just now, she was doing something counter-productive for her goal. It was she who was supposed to be in control, not the other way around!
This time, Morgan decided to take the initiative, "I will proceed with the plan. In the meantime, what are you going to do?"
"I will be watching you. Nature magic is a new field for me, so it will be nice if I am able to learn it. By the way, if you are up to it, I am ready to teach you what here is called True Magic."
"Yes. I am up to the task. I will teach you everything I know." Her reply was instantaneous and full of enthusiasm. In the face of such opportunity screw restraints! She had already lost her pride as a queen and showed an embarrassing display just a few minutes earlier. True Magic is the dream for every magus. Anyone would die of envy if it became known how easy she obtained it. With it at her disposal, Morgan wouldn't need to struggle anymore ever.
To tell the truth, Raito was not expecting such a strong reaction. It just went to show how crazy people of this world are for something he considers mundane. From the looks of it, he needed to come up with an additional condition, or he would be missing out big time. Lessons on politics were boring, but he didn't diligently go through them just to forget them the moment it really mattered. His head went in overdrive to come up with something. In this tense situation, under a lot of stress, his mind refused to think of anything useful, and so he accidentally blurted out:
"If I am to teach you True Magic, then you are mine."
"..."
"..."
Silence. They both froze. One from the stupidity of his own condition, the other from an abrupt end to her excitement by the new clause to consider. But then her enthusiasm returned with renewed vigor. Isn't it the same thing she wanted all along, the marriage proposal? This way, she would have the lower position in their relationship, but so be it. She wouldn't get a better deal in this limited time anyway.
"Yes. I accept, husband. I am all yours."
Looking at Morgan expressing her honest feelings with disregard for her royal position, that immediately agreed to this outrageous request, Raito's brain stopped functioning completely with only one thought remaining:
'What have I done?'