Chapter 783: The Full Picture of the Incident (Bonus) (Patreon)

By now, the full scope of this incident has become clear.

The Iselma family went down a misguided path, and the Golden Princess died as a result of side effects from their research.

The head of the family, Byron, dissected her body in an attempt to find the cause. At the same time, to preserve the family’s reputation and legacy, he approached Touko Aozaki to help cover up the truth.

To meet Touko’s demands for payment, Byron participated in an underground auction a month ago, where he acquired a Bloodstained linden leaf stained with dragon's blood. This acquisition led him into conflict with Atrum, a candidate Master for the upcoming Fifth Holy Grail War.

Having received her payment, Touko burned the Bloodstained linden leaf into ashes through special means and integrated it into the Cinderella spell. This allowed the maid, Carina, to be reborn as the Golden Princess on the night of the banquet, dazzling everyone, including Byron and Touko herself.

Since it was a Cinderella spell, the effects were short-lived. Not long after her appearance, the spell began to fade. When Carina visited Waver, he didn’t find her as striking as before, not because he had become accustomed to her, but because the Silver Princess wasn’t present.

Incidentally, the maid who accompanied Carina was her twin sister, Regina, who served the Silver Princess. During the banquet, the one by Carina’s side could have been another maid disguised as her or perhaps a puppet. Since Carina and Regina didn’t possess the Golden Princess's unique traits, they were easy to disguise, and no one paid attention to the maids when everyone was focused on the Golden and Silver Princesses.

After visiting Waver, Carina returned to the Golden Princess's room and placed a prepared physical form in the room, locking it with a magical lock before the spell fully dissipated—Touko’s Cinderella spell was perfect, even matching the magical wavelength of the deceased Golden Princess.

Once the Cinderella spell faded, the locked room was created.

Everything that followed was straightforward. Regardless of when the body was discovered, Carina would truthfully explain the situation, and Byron would naturally target the El-Melloi classroom, even if they weren’t involved in the incident—after all, in politics, the truth and the culprit are secondary; the real concern is how much benefit can be gained. Both Byron and Lord Valualeta were qualified politicians.

Their scheme was solid, but they still lost due to a lack of experience. Living in the conservative Iselma family, their understanding of technology was severely lacking, and Detective Waver, with his discerning eye, immediately noticed the flaws, countering their plan effectively. They couldn’t escape the chaos and risked exposure due to Lord Valualeta’s and Waver’s collaboration.

Fortunately, at that moment, Atrum launched an attack. Knowing that time was of the essence, the Silver Princess quickly sent Regina to contact Touko, offering the secret behind the Golden Princess’s beauty as payment to get her involved, while the girls quietly escaped in another direction.

Unfortunately, their plan to deceive everyone ultimately failed because someone who knew the truth had been watching them all along. As soon as they left, Shinji arrived with Katou.

Touko’s original task for Katou was to restrain Shinji, and she was happy to let him leave with her—after all, Katou knew that she couldn’t win against Shinji in a real fight.

In terms of physical ability alone, there wasn’t much difference between the two, and Katouu, as an automaton, was stronger without using magic. But the problem was compatibility; Katou’s skills and fighting style were completely countered by Shinji. Her best stealth tactics were ineffective against Shinji’s soul vision. Her most powerful attack couldn’t shake his soul, which was protected by the Third Magic, and her remaining ninja techniques were no match for his endless supply of Noble Phantasms. How could she possibly win?

Thus, the girls’ plan failed, Touko’s scheme was thwarted, and after all involved were taken to the Moon Tower, Waver revealed his deductions. The truth quickly came to light, exposing the Iselma family’s scandal and implicating the Valualeta family. Touko, unwilling to stay in Britain after playing an unflattering role, returned to the Matou family, while Shinji went to report to Lorelei as usual.

This was the version of events Lorelei heard. Of course, Shinji’s covert actions were omitted, and all credit was given to Waver, with Shinji downplaying his role.

“I think the biggest beneficiary of this incident isn’t Velvet, but you.”

“Huh?”

Shinji never expected Lorelei's first reaction to be this. Aside from following your instructions to expose people and bring Touko back, I was practically a bystander—what benefits did I gain?

Seeing Shinji’s confusion, a slight smile appeared on Lorelei’s lips, and she softly uttered a single word:

“The Holy Grail War. The ritual was established by the Tohsaka family, a disciple of Zelretch, and jointly conducted by the esteemed alchemy families, Einzbern and Matou. Both Lord El-Melloi and Velvet have participated and have changed in some way since their return. Isn’t there some secret behind this? At the very least, it doesn’t seem like the small-scale magical ritual Tohsaka Naga initially reported to the Clock Tower.”

Lorelei’s suggestive remarks set off alarm bells in Shinji’s mind, but he kept his expression calm.

“What kind of secret do you think there could be? The Holy Grail War has taken place four times already, with the fifth soon to come, and nothing significant has happened, right?”

“In terms of outcomes, that’s true. Neither Lord El-Melloi nor Velvet has shown any suspicious behavior, but… a piece of spiritual land, even if it’s exceptionally rare and of high quality, producing three geniuses—yourself, Sakura, and Rin Tohsaka—at the same time? Moreover, Touko Aozaki has a workshop there, and Zelretch occasionally appears there as well. Doesn’t that seem unusual?”

Lorelei’s slightly aggressive gaze made Shinji’s expression strange.

“What do you mean?”

“Nothing much, just pure curiosity. Since the first four didn’t cause any major issues, the Department of Policies won’t dig too deep. Though I have some interest in the legendary summoning of Heroic Spirits, it seems that’s limited to the duration of the ritual. If those Heroic Spirits could remain after the ritual, the magus in the Department of Spiritual Evocation would go crazy, and we’d have a way to boost our power.”

“Since you’re so interested, why not participate yourself?”

Shinji narrowed his eyes, testing the waters.

“According to tradition, the Clock Tower has two slots in every Holy Grail War. This time, aside from Atrum, the other participant hasn’t been finalized yet.”