In the Type-Moon world, at the Tohsaka residence, in Tohsaka Rin's room.
"Onee-chan, didn't you say you needed to use the bathroom? Why did we come here instead?" Tohsaka Sakura, with black shoulder-length hair, looking quiet and well-behaved at only five or six years old, looked at her sister with a confused expression.
Right now, the head of the Matou family had already arrived and was having a conversation with father in the main hall downstairs.
The head of the Matou family was a hunched-back little old man with an extremely sinister-looking face. The moment Sakura saw him, her first reaction was fear.
Those pitch-black pupils that seemed devoid of light were like insects that had caught their prey, with an inorganic luster that carried no emotional color whatsoever.
Although little Sakura was afraid at the time, she had no intention of running away.
No matter what, she couldn't cause trouble for father and onee-chan - that's what she thought.
Fortunately, at that time, perhaps noticing her attitude, her sister immediately spoke up saying she needed to go to the restroom and brought her along.
She was also puzzled about why two people needed to go to the bathroom together, but she didn't resist.
Rather than standing under that old man's gaze, she preferred to stay with her sister.
What surprised her was that Rin didn't take her to the bathroom, but instead directly pulled her to her own room on the second floor.
Watching Rin look around the corridor twice, then lock the door tightly with a guilty, sneaky expression, little Sakura was slightly stunned, suddenly having a guess in her heart.
"Onee-chan wouldn't be trying to make me escape, would she?"
Looking at the window in Rin's room that led to the outside world, little Sakura shook her head.
Not to mention that the house had barriers set up, even without considering that point—
"If we do that, father will be angry at onee-chan!"
Even now, facing Tohsaka Tokiomi who was about to give her away for adoption, she still called him father.
And rather than thinking about herself, she was more concerned about whether Tohsaka Rin would be scolded.
It had to be said, she still had some people-pleasing personality traits.
"Shh! Keep your voice down. Who said I was going to make you escape?"
Hearing little Sakura's words, Rin raised her index finger to her lips.
"At our current age, even if we ran out, we'd be found, and we might even starve to death. I wouldn't make such a foolish decision."
"Then what are you doing, onee-chan?"
Sakura tilted her head, somewhat confused.
"I'm here to welcome Ryuga-sama!"
Rin said in a lowered voice.
"If it's Ryuga-sama, he can definitely solve your problem!"
"Ryuga-sama?"
Hearing this completely unfamiliar name for the second time, Sakura was stunned for a moment, then carefully observed the excitement and nervousness that her sister couldn't suppress on her face.
After hesitating for two seconds, she suddenly asked a strange question.
"Is Ryuga-sama male?"
"How did you know?"
The expression on Rin's face was somewhat surprised.
Could it be that Sakura had also joined the chat group?
"So onee-chan is hiding an unknown man in her room?"
Little Sakura asked with innocent confusion.
Her train of thought was completely different from Rin's, and with one sentence she directly short-circuited Tohsaka Rin's brain.
Although little Sakura's speculation had some rationality, why did it sound so strange?
She wasn't even seven years old!
"That's not it!"
Annoyed by this naturally airheaded sister, Rin's face flushed as she refuted.
"Ryuga-sama is—"
Halfway through her explanation, a familiar male voice from the livestream rang out clearly.
"I am what?"
Ryuga, upon first entering the Type-Moon world, surveyed his surroundings, glancing over various cute decorations, then looked at the two little girls in front of him.
Rin's twin tails had extremely high recognition, no need to guess. Sakura's gentle temperament was also quite obvious.
"Ryu, Ryuga-sama?!"
Seeing Ryuga's figure, Tohsaka Rin was stunned for a moment, then immediately pulled her sister's hand, about to kneel down on one knee to pay respects.
"We greet Ryuga-sama—"
This wasn't currying favor or being snobbish, but basic respect from the weak to the strong.
Actually, never mind Ryuga who was willing to help them and had shown them kindness - even if it were a deity one level weaker than Ryuga who was completely unrelated to them, as ordinary mortals they would still have to express their reverence.
So-called etiquette, besides being able to display the dignity of the strong, could also teach the weak how to interact with the strong and protect the weak from harm.
"You can actually perform spatial transfer inside the house... Amazing!"
Little Sakura didn't resist Rin's movement and followed along in paying respects.
But her gaze toward Ryuga clearly held considerable surprise.
Although she hadn't been raised as an heir, she still knew a bit about common knowledge in the magus world.
Being able to perform spatial movement was already an extremely rare power, and being able to perform spatial movement inside someone else's bounded field was even more divine skill.
Most importantly, the other party hadn't triggered any alarm from the Tohsaka family's bounded field at all, treating the Tohsaka family's defenses as if they were nothing.
"No need for such formalities. You're not my knights, so just treat me as an equal."
Faced with the two young girls' formal greetings, Ryuga casually stopped them.
The two only felt a gentle breeze brush their faces as they were immediately helped up.
[Madoka: "Is this Rin-chan's little sister? So cute!"]
[Kanae: "Little Rin is also very cute!"]
[Kanae: "However, little Rin looks even younger than I imagined!"]
The people in the livestream were also seeing Tohsaka Rin for the first time and immediately showed enthusiasm.
If it were malicious teasing, Tohsaka Rin's counterattack would be extremely swift.
But faced with such sincere praise, she couldn't handle it.
[Tohsaka Rin: "That's not true, don't say weird things!"]
Watching those constantly swaying twin tails and those cheeks red from shy annoyance, even Erica, who was responsible for watching, couldn't help but interject.
[Erica: "If I had known little Rin was this cute, I would have tricked her into being my body pillow!"]
[Erica: "Seeing little Rin looking so embarrassed yet enjoying it, I suddenly understand the appeal of bullying tsunderes."]
[Madoka: "Erica-chan... so scary!"]
[Kanae: "As an older sister myself, I can understand this feeling. This is what you call professionalism!"]
[Tohsaka Rin: "Waaaahhh! Fox woman, I'll kill you!"]
"Onee-chan?"
Seeing Rin's facial expression suddenly become incredibly dramatic, Sakura looked at her puzzledly, then glanced at Ryuga.
She didn't know if it was because of her relationship with her sister, or because this big brother looked more handsome, but unlike the fear she felt after facing that old man from the Matou family, after seeing Ryuga, little Sakura felt her heart seem to calm down a bit.
Like a mountain spring in summer, giving people a cool and calm feeling.
"Don't mind her."
Ryuga said casually.
"I understand!"
Little Sakura obediently thanked him and believed Ryuga's explanation.
Sure enough, realizing that Ryuga was right beside her, in less than three seconds, Tohsaka Rin quickly adjusted her expression back to normal and no longer paid attention to those embarrassing compliments in the group.
"Ryuga-sama, this is my home..."
Looking embarrassedly at the messy pajamas thrown on the bed sheets, Rin introduced with forced composure.
"This is my room right now."
"Mm."
Ryuga nodded, then looked down.
"Your father is downstairs. Shall we proceed with the original plan later?"
The original plan was to first examine the trustworthiness of the Matou family, then decide what to do next.
For Ryuga, the plan that Tohsaka Rin proposed sounded very comprehensive, but actually had no effect. Whether they followed the original plan or not made no difference.
After all, whether it was a one-for-one exchange or self-sacrifice, everything was built on the foundation that Tohsaka Tokiomi hadn't misjudged and that the Matou family was trustworthy.
If this factual foundation was lost, these matters couldn't even be discussed.
The reason he didn't veto Tohsaka Rin's proposal was mainly because some things had to be witnessed by her personally - Ryuga didn't need to interfere too much.
Coincidentally, the thing he wanted to obtain in the Type-Moon world was also at the Matou residence.
To be continued…
Guys, why do I have to tell y'all to drop your power stones?