Whether it was Eriri's suggestion that moved Artoria, or the heartfelt persuasion from Irisviel and the others that took effect, it was hard to say.
But after nearly ten minutes, Artoria finally gave a slow nod.
She then removed the gauntlet from her right hand and gently raised it to rest atop Eriri's hand, which was still tenderly caressing her cheek.
"Eriri, thank you. Thank you for bringing everyone here to find me. From now on… I'll be in your care."
"That's more like it."
Eriri gave her cheek a light squeeze and smiled radiantly.
In truth, solving the crisis of Britain's collapse would have been trivial for Eriri. She could have simply relocated the entire island to another world, without any concern for the preservation of human history.
But she never once considered doing that. To her, only Artoria held any value in Britain.
As long as she could free Artoria from her ties to the kingdom, that was enough. The fate of the rest of Britain's people simply didn't matter to her.
After restoring Artoria to peak condition, Eriri returned to the present with everyone, leaving behind the dying age of the gods.
Looking at the familiar yet distant living room, Artoria was flooded with emotion.
To Eriri and the others, they'd only been away for a few minutes. But for Artoria, it had been decades since she last saw this place where she once stayed.
...
Though it had only been a day since the end of the Fourth Holy Grail War, Eriri's presence had already spread across the entire magical world.
After his return to the Clock Tower, Kayneth wasted no time reporting everything he had learned. Eriri's immense power and her unusual nature sparked intense interest among the mages.
Many believed that someone capable of such feats must be deeply connected to the Root—perhaps even the closest being to it in existence.
Driven by the desire to reach the Root, numerous mages began plotting to make contact with Eriri, completely disregarding the overwhelming power that even the Counter Force feared.
As a result, a surge of mages began converging on Fuyuki City.
Meanwhile, the Holy Church dispatched a number of Executors.
But compared to the obsessive mages, the Church's agents were far more rational. They knew full well that Eriri and her companions were not entities the Church could afford to provoke. Their goal in Fuyuki was merely to observe.
While the entire supernatural world focused its attention on Fuyuki, Eriri quietly traveled alone to Nagano Prefecture—the home of the Asagami family, one of the Four Great Exorcist Clans.
...
In Suwa City, Nagano Prefecture, not far from Sakigawa Municipal Second Elementary School, a small park sat nearly deserted.
There, on a swing set, a young girl around eleven or twelve sat all alone.
She had long, elegant purple hair and a face that was undeniably adorable. But her eyes were hollow, devoid of life.
It was a little after 3 p.m. Judging by her schoolbag and uniform, she had just finished her day at Sakigawa Municipal Second Elementary.
Yet unlike her classmates who headed straight home, she remained alone in the cold, empty park.
Just then, the park received its second visitor—Eriri, who had come directly from Fuyuki City.
Originally, Eriri had planned to return to the Saekano world after saving Artoria.
Just as Eriri was about to return to the Saekano world, a certain person came to mind—someone whose story had left a deep impression on her. Someone who bore a striking resemblance to Sakura and shared a similarly tragic fate: Fujino Asagami.
However, during this period, Fujino hadn't yet joined the Asagami family with her mother. She was still known as Fujino Asagami.
Just days ago, Fujino's father—head of the Asagami family—had passed away. With the family crushed under massive debt, the Asagami house had fallen into ruin.
Soon, her mother, Miyuki Asagami, would remarry into the Asagami branch family, and Fujino would officially become part of the Asagami household.
Eriri had already learned all of this in advance.
In order to change Fujino's grim fate, Eriri decided to intervene—which was why she had come to this park.
The little girl sitting on the swing was the target of her visit: Fujino Asagami.
As for the activities of the mages, Eriri was fully aware of them but simply didn't care. She completely dismissed their existence.
If they were foolish enough to trouble her, she wouldn't hesitate to erase them. It would take no more than a thought.
...
Watching the motionless girl sit with her head down on the swing, Eriri smiled faintly and approached with light steps.
Within seconds, she was seated on the swing beside Fujino.
Rather than speak immediately, Eriri simply began to sway back and forth on the swing.
The chains creaked rhythmically, and the subtle sound finally caught Fujino's attention.
Raising her head, she looked dazedly at the beautiful stranger swinging beside her.
But she didn't say anything. Instead, she quickly averted her eyes, not daring to stare.
And so, several minutes passed in this strange, silent atmosphere.
Just as Fujino was about to stand and leave, Eriri suddenly stopped swinging.
"You look like you have something on your mind. If you don't mind, would you like to talk about it?"
"Eh?"
Eriri's straightforwardness startled Fujino, and her attempt to get up halted.
Glancing around the empty park, Fujino asked uncertainly, "Um… are you talking to me?"
Because she couldn't feel pain, she'd always struggled to express herself. Others found her difficult to relate to and avoided her, which led to her becoming withdrawn and unsure of herself.
"Of course. Besides us, do you see anyone else here?"
Eriri turned toward her with a gentle smile.
"No," Fujino replied quietly, shaking her head.
"There you go, then." Eriri reached out and softly patted Fujino's head. "So, little one, is there anything you'd like to talk about?"
Looking at the girl whose beauty defied description, Fujino felt an inexplicable warmth.
She didn't reject the gesture at all. In fact, the words of refusal that had risen to her throat were swallowed back down.
"Can I really say it?"
Fujino looked at Eriri nervously. In response, Eriri gave her an encouraging look.
"Of course you can."
Perhaps it was the result of bottling up her emotions for far too long, but for the next while, Fujino poured out everything she had been through.
She spoke of her father's death, her mother's plan to remarry into the Asagami family, her condition—congenital analgesia that made it impossible to feel pain—and her inability to connect with others. She even confessed her lack of any sense of being truly alive.
Eriri remained beside her the whole time, listening quietly, never once stopping her gentle caress of Fujino's head.
To ensure they wouldn't be disturbed, Eriri had set up a barrier around the park, repelling any outsiders. Thus, the two had complete privacy.
After about thirty minutes, Fujino finally finished unburdening herself.
Perhaps because she had finally released years of bottled-up emotions, her mood had visibly improved. Even the emptiness in her gaze had softened.
"There's something you said that's not quite right, Fujino," Eriri said.
Since Fujino had mentioned her name earlier during the conversation, Eriri calling her by it didn't come as a surprise. But the words that followed hit Fujino like a hammer.
"You don't actually have congenital analgesia."
"That's impossible. If I don't have it, why can't I feel pain...?" Fujino shook her head in disbelief, her emotions becoming agitated.
Throughout her life, both her harsh father and her kind mother had told her she had this condition.
If it wasn't real, then what did all her pain and alienation mean?
Eriri said nothing at first. Instead, she pulled Fujino into a hug and gently patted her back to calm her down.
Once Fujino had settled, Eriri finally spoke.
"Let me tell you a story, Fujino."
Fujino didn't reply, only buried her face in Eriri's chest and clutched her clothes tightly.
Eriri continued regardless.
"In this world, there exist entities known as 'demons.' Naturally, there also exist those who exorcise demons—'exorcists.'"
"Demons are twisted beings, and exorcists represent the power to restore that distortion. The duty of exorcists is to correct the twisted."
"In this country, there are four great exorcist families: the Ryougi, the Nanaya, the Fujou, and the Asagami."
At first, Fujino listened with detached interest, as though hearing a fantasy tale.
But the moment Eriri named the four families—especially Asagami—Fujino froze.
She knew that was the name of her birth family.
Without pausing to acknowledge Fujino's shock, Eriri continued.
"As the world moved into the modern era, the Four Great Exorcist Families began to fade. Some even chose to renounce their heritage. One of them was the Asagami family."
"The current head of the Asagami family decided they should live as a normal household and abandoned any pursuit of supernatural abilities."
"However, his daughter inherited the family's dormant power—the Mystic Eyes of Distortion."
Eriri spoke as if narrating a fairytale, her voice vivid and expressive. All the while, her hand gently patted Fujino's back.
As the story went on, Fujino began to remember things she had long since tried to forget.
She recalled the strange ability she had as a child—to bend objects without touching them.
The villagers had called her cursed and persecuted her. The stigma had never gone away.
When she heard that her own father had despised her because of her powers, Fujino felt an overwhelming wave of sadness.
While he had been alive, her greatest wish had been for her father to acknowledge her. Now she finally understood why he never did.
Eriri explained that in an effort to suppress—if not eliminate—Fujino's ability, her father had gone so far as to demand that doctors administer strong painkillers after she developed neuromyelitis optica. His goal was to seal off all sensation, thereby sealing away her power—without any regard for her physical or emotional well-being.
That was the true origin of her so-called 'congenital analgesia.'
Her mother, knowing the full truth, had simply stood by and watched, never once objecting.
Upon learning this, Fujino collapsed into Eriri's embrace, drained and heartbroken.
The pain she had endured for so many years had all been orchestrated by the very person she once saw as closest to her. It was a truth she found hard to bear.
Eriri stopped her story there.
Fujino had found the answers she sought—even if those answers were cruel.
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