「 Morgan's Pov. 」
Lowering the handset, I gently put it back onto the switch hook with a sigh, letting go upon hearing the click.
The conversation with Amelia was… uncomfortable. Being the bringer of bad news tended to be one of my more cherished pastimes, but it didn't seem to have quite the same flair when the bad news negatively affects those close to me.
Alas, I felt much better knowing that I was the one to have that conversation with Amelia, rather than Alistair, as he really did not need to have that on his plate as well.
Closing my eyes, I took in a deep breath, and chose to focus on the positives of the conversation.
For one, I had gotten a means of communication to reach Amelia. Naturally, I could have gotten it from Alistair, but he was still in a fragile state, and I'd rather let him rest as much as possible, be it mentally or physically.
The pain was a nice surprise, but I'll keep the fact that Rosalind wanted to make us leave today a secret. No need to give him a chance to further blame himself, or wallow in regret.
The only oddity was the Executioner from the Church, which begs the question, how do I use them to their fullest?
Humming for a moment, I felt the beginnings of a plan start to mold, as my mouth twitched up into a smile.
As long as I get Kiritsugu to fake his death properly, I'll be able to have the Executioner 'find' the 'corpse', and have them 'confirm' their death. It will allow Alistair and I to distance ourselves from the discovery, and give us something to hold over the Church once Kiritsugu is confirmed to be alive.
A win-win if there ever was one.
Of course, that meant that I had the next few hours to get Kiritsugu to drag a burnt corpse into the garage with Kirei, along with another one to stand in for Irisviel. As long as the two corpses were burnt to a crisp, along with an item or two that could confirm their identities were left behind, then it should be fine.
Of course, a few precautions would be needed for it to be believable, but it should not be an issue for me. I'll just have to…
I felt my thoughts come to a screeching halt at the low pitter-patter small feet echoing through the house. Snapping open my eyes, I turned to face the living room's door.
I had put Sakura under a sleeping spell once I came back with Alistair, as she had woken up from the screaming and shaking caused from the end of the Grail War. She was incredibly distressed, so I thought it best for her to sleep, and wipe her memories to give her peace of mind.
Was it distasteful, yes, but given her mental state, it was the obvious choice.
Hearing that her footsteps were closing in, I conjured a minor illusion around myself, to give me the image of 'Vivian'. Walking over to the door, I waited a moment for Sakura to come closer, before slowly opening the door.
As I slid it open, I was met with a blank faced Sakura, wearing the pajamas I had made her. Looking up at me, she slightly tilted her head. "Hello," she greeted me with a meek undertone, causing me to give her a gentle smile.
"Good morning," I replied in a kind tone, trying to sound as reassuring as possible.
She nodded imperceptibly, before peering slightly past me. "Where is Rose?" She asked somewhat impishly.
I instinctively fought against the urge to purse my lips at the question. Telling her the truth right away would probably do more bad than good for Sakura, so I'll have to distract her a bit, while trying to get to know her better.
I'm fairly sure Alistair was not going to abandon Sakura, be it due to fondness, or the more likely reason being that his mother wanted to adopt her. So it was for the best that I started to increase our bond, so as to make the inevitable reveal of Rosalind's death a smidge more bearable for her.
Kneeling down to eye level, Sakura instinctively looked me in the eyes, while slightly tilting her head in confusion. Placing my hands on her shoulders, I ignored the slight twitch that action drew from her, before starting my made-up story.
"Rosalind is not here right now," I explained patiently. "There was a big fire last night, so Alistair, Rosalind and I have been busy, so you won't be able to see her," I said while giving her a reassuring look.
My words caused her to look a bit sad, to the point that she slightly lowered her head, no longer meeting my eyes.
… Handling abused children was not exactly my expertise, but I'd do what I could, and distracting her was probably one of the better options in this case.
The hope was to study how Rosalind would raise her, and take notes. As my own track record for raising children was not exactly stellar, when considering that all five of them hated my guts.
Smiling, I retracted my right hand from her shoulder, before poking her in the chest, causing her to look up at me with confusion. My smile slowly turned sly, something resembling the look one would give another when clueing them in on a secret.
"Do you want to see a magic trick?" I said with a hint of mischievousness, which caused the slightly dejected look on Sakura's face to vanish, instead replaced with the intended look of interest I was hoping for.
She gave a meek nod, causing me to give a relaxed smile, before I used my free arm and swiped it in front of my face. My action was followed by the illusion around my face turning into wisps of mist, revealing my true face, before the rest of my illusion broke down.
Sakura looked shocked, as her mouth turned into an 'O' shape, followed by a slightly dazed look.
If I was going to live in the modern day, I was not willing to keep my 'Vivian' disguise, so it was for the best that I shed it as fast as possible, and acclimate Sakura to my actual appearance.
Smirking at her shock, I lowered my hand, and poked her cheek. "How do I look?" I asked with clear smugness.
The cheek poke seemed to nudge her out of her daze, and she started rapidly blinking her eyes, as if trying to make sense of what just happened in front of her. After a few seconds of indecisiveness, she slightly lowered her gaze and murmured out a soft, "Pretty," causing me to mellow out my smile.
She looked a bit meek, so I stopped prodding her cheek, instead using the hand to quickly scoop her up into a side hug, earning a slight squeak from her, while standing up in the same motion, pressing her into myself to stop Sakura from sliding down.
"Flattery will get you everywhere," I replied in an amused tone, while slightly adjusting Sakura's position to make it more comfortable for her.
"Now," I said while giving her a once-over. "Is there anything you need or want?" I probed gently.
Sakura fidgeted a bit before hesitantly meeting my eyes, looking a smudged troubled, as if she was unsure how I would react to her words. "Breakfast," she mumbled, causing me to nod.
This absurd lack of confidence was not good for her, and it was something I needed to nip in the bud as quickly as possible. Though her case was rather brittle, so a 'slow and steady wins the race' approach would be ideal.
Humming slightly, I moved away from the entrance and closed in on a couch. "Anything specific?" I added, causing her to peer up at me with a hopeful look. "Pancakes?"
I made sure not to give any reaction at the request, instead only nodding slightly. "Sure, but you'll need to give me some time," I explained, while slowly lowering her onto the couch. "I've never actually made any before, but I'll do my best."
Sakura made herself comfortable on the couch as she nodded.
Smiling back, I gave my chin a slight tap while looking down at her. "Seeing as this might take a bit, how about I teach you English?" I probed, causing the girl to slightly tilt her head in confusion. "But isn't that difficult, and won't that take a lot of time?"
Useless as most Magi have been through the ages, the Einzberns deserve some speck of recognition for their ability to implant knowledge into Servants upon summoning. It was a relatively ingenious workaround, using the basis on how the Throne of Heroes implanted information into Servants as an opening to add their own 'useful' information to the mix.
A new language with a native understanding of it being chief among them.
Crude as the Greater Grail's inner workings were, after a whole month of studying it, along with briefly studying the Lesser Grail, I was more than confident in recreating such an outcome with laughable ease.
Smiling slightly, I sat myself next to Sakura. "For most, yes, but with a bit of Magecraft, I could teach you an entire language with the snap of my finger—" my words trailed off as I noticed Sakura trembling in her seat.
Blinking in surprise, I quickly thought over what could have drawn such a visceral reaction, and the answer presented itself almost instantly.
Magecraft.
The brief mention of it had almost caused her to go completely catatonic.
Reflexively, I pulled her into myself and started stroking her hair in a soothing gesture.
For such an extreme reaction, I can only assume she relates Magecraft with the pit, or her adoption into the Matou family. Neither of which are good things.
Tokiomi probably informed her that she'd be learning Magecraft under the Matou, which is why she was sent into the Worm's clutches, and the torture she endured was her 'education'. So it is understandable that she would start to tear at the seams when I mention using Magecraft.
She was simply ignorant of what it was, as she showed no real reaction to me dispelling my illusion, or to the many things she saw in the Workshop, when she, Rosalind and 'Vivian' hid in there when Lancer and Sola-Ui broke in.
Regardless, now I needed to reassure her that I meant no harm, and that Magecraft was more than a form of abuse that was administered through worms…
"Sakura," I said gently, while using a hand to nudge her head to look up at me. She gave almost no resistance, but the gaze I met was almost vacant.
The sight made me internally frown, as things were not looking good, and I had rarely comforted a person, let alone a child, other than when manipulation was involved.
For this to work, I'd probably need to use a flashy, but soft approach… and I knew exactly what to do and who to emulate… but it didn't make it any easier…
Raising a finger in between our faces, slowly a ball of water vapor formed causing the light to be refractured. A small rainbow formed, and from its end light constructs of butterflies flew out, which slowly fluttered around the mist, before landing on Sakura and me.
My little lightshow did as intended, Sakura's eyes were now fixated on the colourful butterflies and beautiful rainbow. Her trembling had stopped, and her body seemed to relax.
I didn't know if I should be impressed that Merlin's little 'pick-up-trick' was working so well on a girl over a thousand years later, or be annoyed that I had to emulate his parlor tricks to help Sakura, but either way, it was good that it had given me some breathing room.
Now I just needed to explain to Sakura on how not all Magecraft is worm-rape in a simple enough way that an abused child could understand, without mentioning the crestworms.
"Magecraft," I said lightly, and the word caused her to stiffen, but I pressed on. "Is much like Breakfast," I began with a soothing undertone. "Some of it is terrible and disgusting, something no one in their right mind would want on their plate, but some still eat it," I continued, and I saw that her eyes had now met my own. "But some are like pancakes," I said while wiggling my finger with the rainbow. "Tasty, great and worth trying."
Dispelling the mist and rainbow, but still keeping the butterflies, I continued. "Just because you haven't had any good Breakfast, doesn't mean you can ignore it, as then you'd starve and hurt yourself," I gave a slight pause, letting it sink in before continuing. "And if you never try any new dishes, you might not get the chance to taste things as wonderful as pancakes due to fear."
… The metaphor was somewhat falling apart, but I was trying to link the importance of learning magecraft to a similar level to not starving, in the vain hopes of impressing upon her the importance of learning it, so she'll give it a chance, and not give up on it due to her terrible impression of it.
Was it a bit manipulative, yes, but I don't think Alistair would disapprove of my methods, given her history with the practice.
Waving my hand and dispelling the butterflies in a puff of light, I gently cupped her face while looking at her. "So, can you be brave for the two of us, so that I can show you that there is more to Magecraft than what you already know," I asked while flashing her the warmest smile I possibly could muster, all while soothingly caressing her cheek with my thumb.
There was a beat of silence where nothing happened other than Sakura looking into my eyes, but eventually she gave a slow and hesitant nod. "Okay," she mumbled.
Her affirmation made me soften my smile, while uncupping her face, instead booping her nose. "Thank you for trusting me," I said appreciatively, while slowly breaking the tight embrace I was holding her in.
"You'll need to take a small nap for this to work, but when you wake up I'll have prepared pancakes for the two of us. How does that sound?" I informed her, and Sakura looked a bit meek at my statement. "But I'm not sleepy… will it still work?" She asked hesitantly, and I only nodded.
"Let me worry about that part, just rest assured and know that you'll be just fine," I explained, drawing a slight nod from her.
Smiling, I placed both hands on her shoulders and looked her in the eyes. "Are you ready?" I probed, and Sakura kept eye contact. "Yes," she stated with more firmness than she had displayed during this entire conversation.
That alone caused my smile to turn more genuine.
It would seem that the worms hadn't eaten her entire backbone, and that was good to see.
Staring deep into her eyes, I started the transfer, and Sakura's eyes practically glazed over, as a haze found its way into her eyes.
We stared into one another's eyes for a full three unblinking minutes, not that she had the cognitive ability to notice such a thing, before the two of us closed our eyes in unison.
But upon opening my eyes, I saw Sakura had not done the same, instead slumping into the couch. Smiling, I adjusted her body to lie on the couch, and pulled a small blanket onto her.
Standing up, I brushed off some imaginary dust from my dress before looking towards the kitchen.
I could count the amount of times I had cooked food for someone on one hand, and I'd have five fingers left to spare. The amount of times I had cooked food in general would leave me with three fingers. Luckily, from my understanding, cooking was simply a far more imprecise form of alchemy, with far more room for error, and I am one of the best alchemy practitioners in history.
I'd still need a cookbook, as I am not so foolish to believe that I could replicate something I only knew the ingredients to, along with its outcome, within thirty minutes. Of course, if I had more time, that would be a whole different matter, but I refuse to think that something requiring only three ingredients would be too difficult for me to decipher.
But for now, I needed to acquire a cookbook, as I am sure that Rosalind didn't use one, so I'd need to borrow one from somewhere else…
Luckily, I know a place where I am fairly sure a book containing at least one pancake recipe resided, along with it being a place I needed to go to tie up some loose ends… the Tohsaka Estate.
In a flash, space folds and my surroundings change. The once homey living room became replaced with a far darker library, lacking any sense of warmth.
Glancing around Tokiomi's Workshop, I idly trail my fingers across the book's spines, as I glide through the room.
Without anyone linking the wardstones, the entire defense was in disarray, not reacting to any foreign intruders. Though, Kirei's meddling certainly added to the Bounded Field's instability, as I can spot a gem or two missing for the formation to be at optimal strength.
Well, 'optimal' according to the standards of today's Magi.
As I pass by a certain bookshelf, I feel my hand brush against a cold metal box, and my fingers instinctively curl around it.
Pulling it from the shelf, I lift it in front of me and study its design. It was simple, the only things that stuck out were the delicate carvings and combination lock displayed prominently in the middle.
Of course, that was only what could be seen on the surface, but I could see more.
Around a dozen relatively well crafted Bounded Fields meant for cursing non-keyed-in individuals, or rather those who don't hold the Family Crest from opening the box. Naturally, the contents would be destroyed if sufficient tampering was detected, but that wouldn't stop me.
Slowly, my shadow expanded, followed by a pale man wearing a red suit, floating out from the enlarged shadow.
With a wave of my arm, Tokiomi's corpse moves, and his hand lands atop the lid of the box. With a small application of my Mana, his crest bloomed to life, and with it the combination lock's wheels began to spin.
Within a moment, the wheels stopped spinning, locking into place, followed by the sound of a bolt unlatching itself.
Tokiomi was such a disgrace.
Keying it to himself was an obvious loophole, allowing him to circumvent two seconds of time used to manually unlock the box was utterly moronic.
All it would take was someone with a strong control type Mystery, and his box would be as good as open to whomever controlled him.
Of course, that's not mentioning that his daughter could technically do what I am now doing, and open it before it's intended time. Though she isn't smart enough to think of something like that right now.
Not giving the corpse a glance, I allowed it to fall back into my shadow storage. Instead I used my other hand to slowly lift up the box's lid.
The sight made me slightly frown.
The myriad of gems and worthless knick-knacks were useless, and the one thing I wanted was smashed to pieces. In the left-hand side of the box, there was an open box with a pillow displaying a crushed snakeskin.
The sight alone irritated me. It was close to worthless, and I knew Tokiomi was not selfish, nor foolish enough to destroy such a valuable catalyst, meaning that either Kirei did it, or the King of Pettiness.
Picking up the snakeskin box, I closed the other one, and placed it back into the shelf where I found it.
I would not let the bastard who certainly orchestrated Alistair's fall get away so easily, so I'd do my damnedest to repair this to a usable state. Once that is done, I think it would make for an excellent gift for him.
Waving my hand over the top of the box, a black shadow covered the top like a lid, before I let go of the box, allowing it to fall into my shadow.
Clearing my mind, I gave the room a once over before sighing.
It was a sad thing to know that a family of over 200 years had nothing worth stealing, other than a destroyed Catalyst. Alas, it wasn't my fault that the family was so 'magically' poor.
Moving away from the shelves, I walked straight through the exit, and made my way out from the basement.
The house was dark, despite the morning sun shining so brightly, causing the house to feel gloomy.
After a minute's walk, I found the kitchen, and instantly started looking for cookbooks, as I refused to believe that a housewife like Aoi wouldn't at least have one or two on western cooking.
The kitchen itself was sparse, as no pots or pans were out, however there was a lone bookshelf filled to the brim with books.
Walking up to it, I pulled out a few books and gave the title, along with their tables of contents a quick once over, before placing them back until I found one with pancakes.
It took a whole seven books before I found what I was looking for, and I eagerly flipped to the designated page for the recipe.
Looking over it, I felt some embers of annoyance start to form at the absolute jargon that was written in the book.
What sort of units of measurement was a pinch? The same went with a cup, dash and a knob, none of these were logical, and it was infuriating…
Flipping to the table of contents Fonce more, I clicked my tongue in disappointment when I couldn't find a chapter dedicated to converting the useless form of measurements to grams.
Snapping the book shut, I gave a tired sigh.
The recipe was still rather straightforward, but I'd need to do some adjusting for it to work… nothing too difficult, and seeing as the recipe says that it only takes a few minutes to make, I'd have more than enough time to experiment to ensure that the food would be presentable for Sakura.
In a blink, I was standing in my kitchen, and I placed the book on the counter, before casting a glance over my shoulder. Sakura was still sleeping soundly on the couch, causing me to smile slightly.
I turned back to the stove, cracked open the book and flipped the pages to arrive at the pancake recipe.
It was time to learn up on the sub-branch of Alchemy known as Cooking….
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A/N
Welcome back, my reader Overlords, please add this to your library and give me some comments, stones and reviews, as it would be much appreciated.
Now then, Morgan is cooking something up, be it figuratively or literally. The Grail War is going to be a big thing, thanks to the people who participated and died during the war, so Morgan has decided to ride the wave, rather than try to suppress information.
Ciel will be making an appearance for the next two ish~ chapters, and before anyone feels that her character is a bit off, she is 18, meaning that she has only recently finished her training under the church, and is yet to be the professional Executioner we see in Tsukihime when she is 23.
Now, just to clear a few things up, they'll be staying for another two chapters in Fuyuki before departure. After that we have a few chapters dealing with the Clock Tower, the fallout of the Grail War and only after then will we be stepping into Alistair's 'Training Arc', which I believe a lot of you will like.
Now, any questions? If so, I'll try to answer, and regardless of that, have a great day!
Hop onto my Discord Server, I'd love to have a chat: https://discord.gg/HAPhryp5M2
Now, hand over those Power Stones, can't you see they are lonely when not used? Give them to me, and allow them to socialize, it's for their best... I swear...