Fate: How About a New Savior?

"I never thought the day would come when I'd be the one assigned to keep an eye on you."

An hour later, outside the Tower of the Moon.

The one who followed Tenkei Shiomi out was Touko Aozaki.

As Shiomi crouched to inspect the densely packed footprints on the grass, Touko spoke from behind.

"Back then, it would've been me, the Sealing Designation executor, sent to investigate your movements." Shiomi let out a small laugh. "They say the tallest tree in the forest is the first to be blown down by the wind. I finally understand what that really means."

Touko flicked open a lighter and lit a cigarette. "You're just too far outside the norm. Magecraft locks, refined through generations of Magus, are now designed to be unbreakable except through brute force. But you bypassed all of that—unlocked it perfectly without even damaging the lock."

"Just some preliminary application of the primordial Runes." Shiomi stayed crouched, studying the ground closely. "You know as well as I do: of the first eighteen Runes ever discovered, the last one's true purpose was known only to the great god Odin. But the other seventeen already cover virtually every aspect of existence. Used properly, there's practically no situation Rune Magecraft can't handle."

Touko couldn't help but chuckle. "So why did you agree to help the Princess of Gold escape? As one of Lady Inorai's favored talents, you had no reason to offend Valualeta."

"At first, I thought it was Lady Inorai testing my loyalties. It wasn't until I found the Princess dead that I realized... she genuinely wanted to run." Shiomi sighed. "And I keep wondering—if I hadn't agreed to help her, would she still be alive?"

"All this sentimentality... are you mourning a lost life, or regretting that Iselma's Magecraft masterpiece has gone to waste?" Touko asked.

"The former," Shiomi said as he stood. "Though it does mean the reward she promised me has vanished too."

"What kind of reward?" Touko sounded intrigued.

"A holy relic," Shiomi answered without hesitation. "The Princess of Gold apparently knew our eldest daughter wanted to enter the Fifth Holy Grail War—and knew we still lacked a relic. I also heard Iselma had recently acquired a valuable Magecraft artifact, something that could serve as a holy relic."

"I see," Touko nodded thoughtfully. "That child… her name was Sakura, wasn't it?"

"Yeah. The one adopted from the Tohsaka family." Shiomi smiled faintly. "The second daughter of Tokiomi Tohsaka—the one who asked me to find you for help with his prosthetic."

Touko nodded, dropping the subject. "Any progress with the investigation?"

"Hard to say." Shiomi pointed toward the forest by the lakeshore behind the Tower of the Moon. "But the Princess of Gold's trail definitely leads that way."

"I'm just here to observe. If you're heading in, go ahead—just don't pull one of your clever tricks and vanish from my view," Touko said, spreading her hands.

Today, she was dressed casually in the same kind of outfit she wore when she opened the Garland Hall in Tokyo: shirt and jeans. Her relaxed demeanor made her seem like a completely different person from the one who had attended last night's formal gathering.

Then again, from a certain perspective, maybe she really was a different person. Shiomi would rank it as the second-best entry in the Touko Joke Archives.

The first was something that couldn't be mentioned at all.

He waved a hand, and Runes shimmered into existence, transforming into glowing powder before fading into the grass.

In their place, a trail of faint footprints appeared, glowing as they stretched deeper into the forest.

Shiomi and Touko followed them in, one after the other.

"Lady Inorai really has a twisted sense of humor, making me your minder," Touko remarked.

Not just one suspect watching another—but an old acquaintance tailing a familiar face.

It was even more outrageous than assigning Caren to keep tabs on Shiomi.

"You mean she's not worried I might bribe you and forge an alibi?" Shiomi laughed.

"It's definitely possible. If you casually show me a Primordial Rune I can't decipher, I'll be on your side." Touko nodded.

"How much grudge are you holding over this... Is it more than the one you've got over your sister stealing your chance to inherit the family?" Shiomi asked. That was Touko's third most joked-about topic.

Exhaling a puff of smoke, Touko shot back cheerfully, "If I could get all the Primordial Runes, the Fifth Magic can go to hell."

"What are you even saying..." Shiomi clicked his tongue at her wild ambition.

But Inorai's move really was ruthless.

Whether or not Touko covered for Shiomi during the surveillance, if things went south afterward, suspicion would only deepen for both of them.

Even though she'd claimed to trust Shiomi, Inorai was still testing him—and even her own student.

As they ventured deeper into the forest, thick fog clouded their vision, cutting visibility to a ridiculous degree.

This wasn't natural weather, but a barrier set by the forest's owners—the Iselma family.

An even more elaborate barrier than the Einzbern Forest in Fuyuki.

Shiomi stepped over a rugged gully filled with decaying branches and animal waste, then turned and offered his hand to Touko—only to recall she was a Grand Magus, unlikely to be tripped up by the forest's deliberately untamed terrain.

"Thanks." Touko took his hand naturally before he could pull it back, stepping over the meter-wide ditch with ease.

Shiomi nodded in response and glanced around at the fog-drenched forest. "Quite the magical ground. No wonder the Iselma family built the Twin Towers here."

"If it weren't for this murder case, I'd have invited you to stroll through the forest," Touko joked.

"Hey, come on... you know I already—"

Before Shiomi could finish, he suddenly turned and raised his hand. A barrier of mana instantly formed, shielding them from a sudden attack.

After a violent impact, Shiomi dropped the shield and took a few steps in the direction the assailant had fallen.

Releasing Touko's hand, he prepared his next spell.

"An Automata... Don't tell me it's yours, Touko?" Shiomi's voice sharpened.

Touko removed her glasses. "That thing's clearly an antique—better than anything I've made."

Just as Magecraft accumulates mystery with age, so does puppetcraft.

The older the automata, the better its craftsmanship—surpassing even Touko's own work.

Clearly, the automatons lurking in this forest—likely property of the Iselma family—belonged to that category.

"Oh, by the way... One of the reasons I was invited to Iselma was to repair these antiques."

Even in her cold, detached tone, Touko felt the need to explain.

"...We'll settle this later..." Shiomi said through gritted teeth.