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A certain day in February, 1999.
Evening
Sajyou Mansion, Suginami Prefecture in the Tokyo Metropolitan Area.
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Who knew that there were three Servants, in this small mansion, now?
Who could’ve guessed?
Even the person from the Holy Church who started it was a Cardinal, the Templar Order, Lords in the Mages Association over the ocean, and people of the Far East Mages Association who must’ve known about it.
No-one could’ve predicted it, that just a single magus girl could tie a contract with a Heroic Spirit, and allied with a further two Servants, etc.――――
Girl: “……..”
The girl, exhaled a bit of white breath.
She knew that her breath was exhaled out of her temporary lungs.
Silently standing still, the girl――――Assassin, grasped the cold night atmosphere with her brown body.
There was no deep meaning, in having her standing here with her substance, as she deactivated her spirit body transformation.
It wasn’t a case where she burned her competitive heart by continuing her materialisation until it was unnatural, as Saber was greatly loved more than anyone by her Master.
No, no.
Because it might’ve been her Master’s desire.
If she said it strongly did she want to see, the person beyond her gaze, with those substantial eyes?
The garden which was called by her Master as “Garden” ――――was splendidly covered by reminiscent glass-styled walls and ceilings.
The knowledge brought from the Holy Grail didn’t tell her the particulars of garden landscaping, but even so, she could comprehend that it was a splendid garden with a glance.
There in the night for sure, she had seen its shining beauty under the stars like this.
The girl hadn’t seen it in the morning itself.
So, she didn’t know whether it was also true in the morning.
She was just, only gazing at it.
She stood at the end of the passage which continued from the main mansion, without opening the door to the Garden, she was in front of the door.
Without entering, patiently, she continued to gaze at it through the glass.
Assassin: “The result, huh?”
She didn’t enter.
She wasn’t allowed.
The door had been laid with protection magic.
Did it have a certain effect, on the protected target that was selected beforehand to be safe by entering in there?
It’s interesting, that the target was strengthened by a type of curse.
Even for a Servant the degree of it could function effectively.
The girl naturally thought that “she mustn’t step anything further than this,” particularly, if her body didn’t entirely have a kind of Magical Resistance Skill.
If it was a Servant who had entered here, there would just be a person with a suitable goal――――
Was there a Servant who would murder an enemy Master, in the Holy Grail War?
???: “Who’s there?”
A soft voice.
It was a sound that was filled with caution from somewhere, though she seemed to not be vigilant.
It wasn’t the enemy.
It was without a doubt human.
Terribly young, and terribly fragile.
It which was released from a young child’s throat, didn’t resemble the sound of her Master.
It wasn’t a case where she didn’t notice the other person’s approach.
Just, even if she sensed it still, she had only decided to gaze at this garden.
She who was her Master’s kin had decided that she wasn’t a target for necessary precaution.
It was just that.
Because of that she let out another one of her white breaths――――
Assassin, turned around while shaping her “face” with her Transformation skill.
Her garments, already she was glad she could always feel in her one-piece form.
If it was because she transformed her body in the estate, it was a thoughtful act that didn’t suit her figure as a Servant, but hereafter, would it be good way to keep it in mind even if it was her face?
Assassin: “Pardon the intrusion.”
Ayaka: “Umm, are you……my father’s guest?
Assassin: “Yes.”
Smoothly, she spat out a lie.
She was accustomed to lying.
It was the same in her previous life, and it didn’t change even now that she had materialised in the current world via death.
If it weren’t for welfare which wasn’t the case as she would have gone and officially re-contracted with her Master, she wouldn’t have to prey upon the lives of men who were heading to their amusement quarters every night, in order to provide her with prana, to maintain her body.
Souls.
Prana.
Prana which she would continue to devour.
She would normally use lies.
She drove men made with lying gestures, tempted them with words of lies, and smiled with a lying face.
Tonight as well, she would surely do so again.
On a street corner right in Ogikubo, Shinjuku, or Nagano
Ayaka: “U, umm.”
The young child opened her lips again, couldn’t she bear the silence?
Ayaka: “Are you, maybe, one of my big sister’s friends?
Assassin: “Yeah.”
Again, she spat out a lie.
She immediately realised that it was a matter which was a contradiction and an anticipated response.
So…….
Assassin: “I’m an acquaintance of Mr Hiroki Sajyou, and I’m a friend of Miss Manaka.”
She smoothly compensated for it.
Ayaka: ‘Is that so?”
Assassin: “Yes.”
Ayaka: “I see……”
Was it because she gave out the family name, although it was just more or less her tone.
Was she suspicious of her?
Even if that were so, there was no problem.
She had gotten used to infiltration.
If it was when she was alive, she could proceed countless times to the base of the commander and western knights who had defiled the soil and people in power who had restored their religious organisations, and there were several times that she had encounters with young children unexpectedly.
She had let them go without a problem, which was the same for her soldier companions and the strong knights.
Above all else, she didn’t hate children.
If she could speak of whether she liked them or hated them, right, she liked them.
If with her body which couldn’t conceive or give birth, she could feel especially lovingly to the young people.
To the innocence that should’ve been raised with love.
To her companions who were eternally non-existent, that was an opportunity which she could embrace with both of her arms.
Assassin: “You’re, Miss Ayaka, right? Miss Ayaka Sajyou.”
Ayaka: “Yeah, so.”
Assassin: “I’m――――”
What should she say?
Her name.
The name of Hassan-i-Sabbah wasn’t just hers.
In becoming the only Hassan in this world, a name passed as something lacking in herself.
Even her fragile body which longed for the touch of another person, couldn’t possibly think that she could complete her mission more than enough as a leader of a religious organisation which many had held, and if she stretched her arms she was only, one of the successive generations of Hassan’s herself, because she just died hanging onto the hand of that friend.
Even if she obtained the Grail with these hands, and some sort of miracle occurred in the Holy Grail for example――――
It was a thing that could be called ridiculous.
Surely her body, could be called Hassan.
Assassin: “About me, please call me Zill.”
Ayaka: “Zill”
Assassin: “It means shadow, in my native tongue.”
Shadow.
It suited her to a t.
Without knowing herself, she had come close to expressing her smile of self-derision on her mouth.
She restrained her awareness.
This smile, wasn’t something that should be shown to the young child.
Ayaka: “Zill, do you like the Garden?”
Assassin: “…….Yes. I just, had to turn my eyes to it, because it was very beautiful.”
Ayaka: “Is that so?”
Sighing, the young child said it.
After that――――
Softly, gently, she became shy.
A moment.
Assassin endured her desperation for the urge to attack her.
She was, a lovely thing.
If Manaka Sajyou who was her Master was the moonlight, then her body was the shadow of night, the expression that the young child showed was of sunlight itself
Did the comparison pass as an exaggeration?
No.
Absolutely, not.
Even if her nature seemed different, surely, she was a person who could reach Assassin in the heavens.
If she could say it limitedly to a point she was a beautiful person who she could not reach, even if the amount of light was far unattainable to her Master’s, surely, it was light.
And.
She was different from her Master, as she was a person who she must not touch.
She could touch her Master.
She couldn’t touch this young child.
Even a bit, since there was an absolute difference.
Ayaka: “Here, is my studying spot.”
The young child said.
While being faintly shy.
Assassin: “Is that so?”
Ayaka: “Although I can’t really say, what those studies are……”
Assassin: “I don’t mind.”
It was studies for black magic which was her family line’s magic.
If an onlooker could see, they would immediately know that this end of the garden had these facilities for that reason.
Ayaka: “The truth is I thought it was my big sister’s place, but now I can use as my own.”
Assassin: “That’s……..I wonder if it’s true.”
Ayaka: “Huh?”
Assassin: “No. I’ve said too much. Please forget it.”
These facilities wouldn’t be necessary, to her Master.
There was probably no meaning for such things as magic studies.
Without even borrowing Caster’s words, Assassin would arrive at that fact herself.
Without even differentiating the huge cause which said it of eastern and western styled magics, all magical family lines, for sure her Master, the world’s――――
Ayaka: “Umm……..If you want to see it, the Garden, would you like me to guide you?”
Gently.
She reached out her hand, to her.
Ahh.
What purity, what good will!
She couldn’t.
If she touched her body, she would suddenly fall into anguish and reach death.
So.
Assassin, shirked off the young child’s stretched out hand.
Unexpectedly, she mistook her eye measurements, with a degree of naturalness which she thought was that her hand didn’t reach her.
Her white fingers, couldn’t reach her brown fingers.
Ayaka: “Huh?”
Assassin: “Please restrain yourself. Miss Ayaka.”
She disagreed.
It wouldn’t become heavy hand in hand.
Assassin: “You shouldn’t reach out you hand, to a vulgar person like me.”
Yes, the Hassan of Serenity didn’t notice until her final moments.
In reality there was one possibility that she stopped here.
The precious, beautiful and even gentle sprout of hope, wasn’t a thing that she had ever given her, from here on several days later, she was said to have given it to the blue silver knight――――
She didn’t notice.
Just.
She had just stopped just a bit immediately before it.
She couldn’t respond―――― to her stretched out hand.
