Bazett Fraga McRemitz was a very traditional Magus.
Whenever she undertook a mission, she would first establish a base of operations in a methodical and meticulous manner.
Finding a defensible base rich in spiritual energy within a modern city was no easy task. Fortunately, Bazett had obtained partial information from the Association concerning the first three Holy Grail Wars.
The Third Holy Grail War, sixty years ago.
Aside from the "Three Founding Families," the Tohsaka, Matou, and Einzbern families, there had been one other special participant who witnessed that ritual.
The Edelfelt family, a prestigious Finnish lineage specializing in Gem Magecraft.
Though their history as Magi was relatively short, they had already become infamous under the derisive nickname "the world's most elegant hyenas." This time, they had chosen Fuyuki's Holy Grail as the target of their treasure hunt.
Because of the unusual nature of the Edelfelt family's Magecraft, two sisters had been sent to participate in the ritual.
They built two Western-style mansions, one in Miyama Town and the other in Shinto, which was still forestland at the time, then fought independently of each other.
Despite being sisters, their relationship was so terrible that they were unwilling even to breathe the same air. Such things were hardly unusual in the world of Magecraft.
As one might expect, the younger sister died during the ritual while the elder sister alone survived. There were even rumors that the younger sister had died after the two sisters turned on each other.
After the Third Holy Grail War ended, the head of the Edelfelt family at the time swore never to set foot in Fuyuki again, and ownership of the two Western-style mansions was subsequently transferred to the Mage's Association.
The base Bazett Fraga McRemitz intended to use was one of those twin mansions.
The short-haired, rose-red-haired female Magus stood straight before the entrance, surveying the luxurious mansion that would serve as her lodging for the foreseeable future.
Sixty years had passed since then.
No matter how lavishly it had once been built to flaunt the family's wealth, all that remained now was decay.
The paint had peeled from the walls, exposing mottled brickwork beneath. The garden in the courtyard had long since fallen into ruin and become overgrown with weeds. The entire mansion lay beneath a deathly silence, like a forgotten tomb.
Bazett took a key from the inner pocket of her suit jacket.
She had received it directly from the Association.
The mansion had belonged to the Association for sixty years, so Bazett was hardly trespassing.
She walked openly inside.
Sunlight flooded the main hall, and it was nowhere near as gloomy or oppressive as she had imagined. That alone improved Bazett's mood considerably.
"Anyway, I'll start by checking every room."
Bazett made her way through the mansion. She first opened the doors and windows of every room on the first floor, then used Magecraft to drive out the stale odor of rotting wood.
She went through each room one by one, checking for any magical traps or mechanisms that might have been left behind.
As an experienced Enforcer, she would never overlook anything suspicious.
"Creak."
"!"
Bazett turned toward the corridor leading to the second floor.
Was that... someone?
The noise from upstairs had not escaped Bazett's hearing.
She slipped on her black leather combat gloves and climbed the stairs, remaining on guard the entire time.
She approached the room the sound had definitely come from.
Bazett pushed open the door. Huddled in a dark corner, trembling in fear, was...
"A rat?"
Bazett blinked blankly.
"Seriously, don't scare me like that."
The female Magus breathed a sigh of relief and closed the door again.
The rest of the inspection proceeded without incident.
By evening, Bazett had successfully finished setting up the Barrier around the mansion, then returned to the room she had chosen for herself.
She loosened the tie constricting the collar of her shirt, sat down beside the bed, and began reviewing the documents related to her mission.
She had lost count of how many times she had already gone over the few files she had brought with her.
Bazett was both a perfectionist and a workaholic.
The reason she had joined the Mage's Association despite her parents' objections was that she had no intention of wasting her life in obscurity.
When she was very young, she had happened across the legend of Cú Chulainn in the family study, an ancient tale widely known in her homeland. Ever since then, she had longed to live a life that shone just as brightly.
Of course, dreams were dreams. Reality rarely turned out the way one hoped.
When Bazett first joined the Mage's Association, her background as a "God's Holder" earned her an enthusiastic welcome.
But that welcome had been little more than a formality. The Association was rife with internal power struggles. They needed brilliant figures they could display to the outside world, yet within their own ranks, they found a newcomer who shone too brightly even more unwelcome than an incompetent subordinate.
In truth, there had been no place for her there.
Bazett naturally refused to let herself disappear into obscurity. She took on one dangerous mission after another, accepting troublesome assignments that no one else wanted in the hope that her efforts would finally earn her recognition.
Before she knew it, she had become a Sealing Designation Enforcer.
Before she knew it, people had begun calling her the strongest Sealing Designation Enforcer of her generation.
Yet even then, Bazett's circumstances never changed.
To others, she was a Magus with no talent beyond fighting.
And Bazett herself felt inferior because fighting was the only thing she truly knew.
In the world of Magecraft, marriage alliances were a common means of rising through the social hierarchy, but even that path was closed to Bazett.
She had no interest in men, and deep down, she genuinely believed that no man would be interested in someone as devoid of feminine charm as herself.
Where exactly am I supposed to go from here...?
Will completing this mission change anything...? Probably not.
Bazett put an end to those wandering thoughts and returned her attention to the documents in her hands.
Once again, she read the report she had already gone through countless times.
Name: Shirou Amamiya
Age: 16
Eight years ago, as an ordinary person with no experience in Magecraft, he was caught up in the Fourth Holy Grail War and emerged victorious.
There was something indescribably absurd about that single line.
He participated in the Holy Grail War... at eight years old? And won?
Yet even that was not enough to explain just how abnormal he was.
In the years that followed, Shirou Amamiya became involved in numerous major incidents, some significant enough to shake even the Clock Tower.
Alice Kuonji's awakening of the First Magic.
Aoko Aozaki's inheritance of the Fifth Magic.
The lifting of the Sealing Designation on the Grand Puppeteer, Touko Aozaki, the first such case in the Association's history.
The elimination of the Twenty-Seventh Ancestor, Nrvnqsr Chaos, and Vlov Arkhangel.
And so on. Shirou Amamiya's presence could be found behind every one of those major incidents.
There was no definitive evidence, but Bazett considered the report highly credible.
Shirou Amamiya's experiences so far could be called legendary without the slightest exaggeration. They were the complete opposite of Bazett's own obscure existence.
It was impossible for her not to feel at least a little envious.
But participating in the Holy Grail War and actually winning it...
Bazett was confident that, when it came to combat, she would lose to no Magus or familiar. But... was strength really all that was required?
Judging from Shirou Amamiya's history, what he possessed was clearly more than extraordinary strength alone.
Tohsaka, Matou, Einzbern, Archibald...
Magus Lineages that had once been Shirou Amamiya's enemies had later become his allies.
Aoko Aozaki, Touko Aozaki, Alice Kuonji...
Witches renowned throughout the world of Magecraft for their fiercely unconventional ways had all fallen for him.
The legendary power of charisma...?
Even that was no longer enough to explain it.
Bazett simply could not understand.
Then again, she had never understood much about the opposite sex in the first place.
On previous missions, she had always avoided interacting with men whenever possible.
My first investigation mission... where am I even supposed to begin?
The female Magus stared fixedly at the photograph in the file.
Red hair. Golden eyes.
A youthful face even by East Asian standards, with remarkably soft features...
Is this the kind of face women find attractive?
Bazett certainly had no way of knowing. Strangely enough, though, she did not find it unpleasant.
In fact, she even thought the face looked somewhat... appealing?
No. She had probably just looked at it so many times that it had started to feel familiar.
"...Amamiya, Shirou."
She touched the photograph of the red-haired boy with one finger, almost as though she were trying to sense her mission target through the image.
...
...
"Clap, clap, clap, clap."
It sounded like clapping, or applause, steady and rhythmic, with strange human voices mixed in.
Bazett listened to the sound in a daze and slowly opened her eyes.
"Where… am I…?"
She couldn't remember.
She felt ashamed of her own negligence.
She was awake, yet her consciousness and reason had failed to follow. As a warrior, that was enough to disqualify her.
"Ugh… mm…"
The female Magus forced strength into her heavy head and limbs.
She raised an arm and managed to prop up her body, which had been lying facedown.
Bazett realized she seemed to be lying on a bed, surrounded by darkness.
How long had she been asleep?
Just as she tried to piece together her memories and recall where this place was, a violent throb shot through her temples.
Her head felt as if it might split open, like the morning after a night of heavy drinking.
"So… where is this…?"
She fought back the dizziness and checked her surroundings.
It was a Western-style mansion somewhere.
She had no memory of it whatsoever.
Why she was here, and why she had slept until now, she couldn't clearly recall.
"Clap, clap, clap, clap."
The grating sound continued.
There was no clock, and outside was a deep darkness.
Bazett felt it was around midnight.
As for the room itself, no, she couldn't see it clearly at all.
Not only were her arms and legs heavy, her eyesight seemed to have worsened as well.
Even though she knew there should be a room around her, everything was blurred, and she couldn't make out the details.
Even so, Bazett gradually got her bearings.
She felt along the wall and left the room.
"Clap, clap, clap, clap."
Once she reached the hallway, the irritating clapping grew much louder.
It seemed the sound was coming from the room next door.
Bazett felt increasingly agitated.
It was as if a voice in her chest were screaming, Make that sound stop right now!!
Bazett shoved open the door to the next room.
"Huh?"
She froze.
The dizziness deep in her head vanished, and at the same time, Bazett stopped breathing.
In the dim bedroom, two figures had their backs to her.
The light was faint, and her vision was blurred, so she couldn't identify them clearly.
Even so, Bazett could tell that they were two shadows intertwined.
"…!"
Bazett couldn't tear her eyes away.
Was it because they were so completely absorbed?
The man and woman didn't notice Bazett opening the door.
"…"
Bazett covered her mouth. As though possessed, she stayed where she was and peered inside through the crack in the door.
Her focus was probably no less intense than that of the two people inside.
As for "Who am I?" and "Where am I?" those pointless questions had long since been thrown to the back of her mind.
Little by little, Bazett became aware of the changes in herself.
An unbearable heat rapidly washed over her, and at the same time, she felt terribly thirsty.
"Mmm…♡"
It was as if her thoughts no longer belonged to her.
It was as if her body no longer belonged to her.
Her head felt light and unsteady.
Her legs felt light and unsteady.
Bazett bit down on her thumbnail and began to envy that woman.
How enviable.
To be treated so roughly.
How jealous she felt.
To be fucked so thoroughly.
Why her?
Why not me?
That woman is basically the same as me. She has no feminine charm, and she isn't cute at all.
My chest is even bigger than hers, and yet she's the one being loved by a man like that.
It really, really…
Bazett pressed her thighs together, biting her lips so hard they nearly bled.
It really… makes me so envious…
"…"
It was over.
The woman collapsed limply.
The man didn't even glance at the woman on the floor.
"Huh…?"
A sound escaped Bazett's dry throat.
Because the man had turned to look at her.
In that instant, she felt her heart stop.
She had been found.
The female Magus flinched in panic. She tried to step back, but her legs gave out, and she collapsed onto the floor.
The man walked toward her.
Bazett could only watch as he approached her, one step at a time.
Even if she wanted to run, she had no strength. More importantly, she didn't want to run at all.
The man was not tall, and his features were still boyish, yet the shadow he cast easily pressed down on her until she could barely breathe.
"Ugh…!"
The man looked down at her expressionlessly and slowly reached out his hand.
Bazett swallowed, then closed her eyes with anticipation.
I'm going to be violated too…!!
...
"…"
When Bazett woke up, she found herself asleep against the bed, with the documents in her hands scattered all over the floor.
Her eyes widened as if she had suddenly remembered something.
She leapt from the bed and rushed frantically to the room next door.
It was a ruined, empty room.
Just as one would expect from a place that had not been used in sixty years, dust lay thick everywhere.
As for the bed in the room, never mind signs of any vigorous activity, it didn't even have sheets. Only the bare wooden boards remained.
Naturally, there was no sign of any man or woman either.
So… had that just been a dream?
"…Sigh."
Bazett let out a sigh.
Am I really that unsatisfied? To think I would have a dream like that…
And the man who appeared in that dream.
Although it had been dark, Bazett would not mistake him.
That man was Shirou Amamiya, the boy five years younger than her whom she had been investigating before she fell asleep.
Leaving aside the fact that he was still a high school boy, I actually turned my mission target into the object of my fantasies…
Bazett covered her face and sank into deep self-loathing.
When she was awake, she had no particular feelings toward Shirou Amamiya, and yet in her dream…
Even now, when she thought back to the scene in the dream, Bazett's heart still pounded.
She could feel that the heat in her body had not faded, and that yearning still lingered deep inside her.
Bazett had once heard it said that virgins with no experience didn't dream of realistic scenes.
And yet, even though she had no experience with the opposite sex, she had just entered a dream that felt more real than reality itself.
It was also the first time she had ever seen the real thing.
Like animals.
That primal, rough, instinct-filled sight was completely different from what she had imagined.
But for some reason, Bazett did not find it repulsive. On the contrary, she thought it was… beautiful.
"Ugh!"
Realizing she had almost sunk back into fantasy, Bazett hurriedly shook her head to clear it.
After a while, she decided to return to her own room.
But then the female Magus noticed something, and her steps came to a halt.
"…This is awful."
Bazett pressed her lips together, overcome with shame and frustration.
She walked awkwardly toward the bathroom of the Western-style mansion.
...
"Is it over?"
"Yes, it's over."
In the secret attic on the top floor of the Gemini Mansion, an eerie crimson light shone.
Shirou and Rider were speaking in front of a mirror inscribed with mysterious characters.
The mirror before them was now physically connected to the full-length mirror in Bazett's room.
Through the connected mirrors, Rider had infiltrated Bazett's bedroom and seized control of her mind while she slept.
According to Rider, she could make the other person dream all sorts of dreams at will.
Isn't this the same as Lady Avalon? Shirou thought. With Rider-san here, it won't matter even if the Professor doesn't come back.
Caren's plan was to use Rider's ability to break down Bazett's mind, shake her resolve, and make her reveal an opening they could exploit.
Having learned that Bazett would be using this Western-style mansion as her base, Shirou and Rider had hidden themselves inside the mansion one step ahead of her and carried out the operation just now.
"Rider, what kind of dream did you make her have?"
Shirou asked curiously.
Bazett had rushed into the bathroom the moment she woke up, and for some reason, that bothered him.
"It's getting late. We should head back, Shirou."
"Ah, right. So what kind of dream was it?"
Rider ignored Shirou's question again and walked toward the attic window instead.
"We'll come back tomorrow."
With that, Rider jumped down from the windowsill more than ten meters above the ground.
With no other choice, Shirou chased after her and jumped down as well.
Their figures soon vanished into the night, leaving only the old Western-style mansion standing quietly behind.
Meanwhile, in the bathroom, Bazett was washing her undergarments with her cheeks burning.
At that moment, she still had no idea that this was only the beginning.
From then on, every night, she would be haunted by dreams like that…
—————————
P.S. The heroine of the dream is Ayako Mitsuzuri, due to Rider's personal interest.
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