Undoubtedly, forcibly using a Command Spell to recall Gilgamesh, who was fiercely battling his long-lost best friend, was an unequivocally poor choice for Tokiomi Tohsaka.
"You have quite some nerve, Tokiomi."
Coldly scrutinizing his Master, Gilgamesh, having returned with his mood ruined, now spoke with a faint killing intent.
For Gilgamesh, even if a subordinate acted as a sycophant or offended him, he could tolerate it to some extent, at most sentencing them to death—given Enkidu's appearance, his tolerance could rise a little more.
But—
Daring to obstruct his battle with Enkidu, without a suitable reason, was, for Gilgamesh, an absolute capital offense!
Regarding this, Mr. Tokiomi was filled with suppressed anger.
You're angry? I'm angry too!
The Holy Grail War hadn't even started, and on the very eve, you caused such a huge commotion, revealing all my trump cards! If it weren't for pursuing the ultimate goal of a magus, I would have run off long ago!
It was just a pity that he clearly didn't dare to say these thoughts aloud to his 'old man'—if he said them one second, the next second he'd probably be nailed to the wall, impossible to pry off.
There was no choice. In order to win the Holy Grail War, Mr. Tokiomi, forced to act subserviently, could only rack his brains, using all sorts of flattering and fawning words, appealing to emotion and reason, even putting on an air of 'remonstrating with one's life,' emphasizing that honest advice, though unpleasant, is beneficial, highlighting himself as a great loyal minister, wholeheartedly thinking for his king!
Tokiomi would bet that he had never been so subservient in his entire life.
Of course, though his acting skills were worthless in Mr. Goldie's eyes, perhaps Gilgamesh was amused by this clownish display. He let Tokiomi off this time, with a warning—there would be no next time.
Then, with a cold snort, he dematerialized and vanished.
Having dealt with his 'old man,' Mr. Tokiomi, though extremely aggrieved, finally felt a moment of peace—he no longer expected his 'old man' to display great power. If he could just stop running around and causing more trouble, Tokiomi would burn incense and pray to his Tohsaka ancestors.
However, before he could feel at ease for long, before he even had time to think about how to deal with that troublesome Enkidu, his wife, Aoi Tohsaka, came to him and said:
"Tokiomi, Rin is missing!"
At this moment, Mr. Tokiomi felt his head buzz.
Great! Just when I finally managed to restrain my 'old man,' you tell me my daughter is gone?
Undoubtedly—
For Tokiomi Tohsaka, he valued nothing more than two things: the pursuit of magecraft and the prosperity of his family. Because of the former, he kowtowed to Gilgamesh. For the latter, he placed all his hopes on his exceptionally talented daughter, Rin Tohsaka. As for affection... from the perspective of a magus, he was already one of the more human-like among a horde of inhuman magi.
Both his precious daughter and the hope of his family, knowing Rin was missing, Mr. Tokiomi immediately put on his 'painful expression' mask.
He tried to get some clues from Aoi Tohsaka.
But unfortunately, she was also in a state of panic—"I don't know!"
She... just disappeared inexplicably!
The only clue, perhaps, was that before that, she and Rin had seen Kariya Matou?
"Kariya Matou?"
Hearing this name, Tokiomi fell into thought—he remembered that in this session, the one representing the Matou family in the Holy Grail War seemed to be Kariya Matou.
As if understanding something, his eyes sharpened at this moment.
"Finally back~"
Breathing in the familiar air, dressed in casual clothes, looking like an elementary school student, well... no, she was an elementary school student! Little Illya excitedly embraced this similar yet different everything.
Although that luxurious snow castle was also very interesting—she had never lived in such a building before and had been envious for a while knowing that this world's version of herself lived in such a place—she still preferred Fuyuki City.
Even though the world she was from was set more than ten years after the current Fuyuki City, for a remote city like Fuyuki, a dozen years wasn't enough to change too much.
"Should we go find Kiritsugu and Mom next?"
After her emotional outburst, what remained for little Illya was mostly confusion. After all, this world wasn't the one she was familiar with. Although many things, in [Illya]—Jiang Qiao's view, didn't have too many differences, she herself wasn't a hero like other Servants, but just an ordinary elementary school student.
Returning to a familiar yet unfamiliar environment, she indeed felt somewhat out of place. Subconsciously, she sought the other 'self's' opinion.
"No need."
This answer made a question mark appear above Illya's head.
Weren't they here to save Irisviel?
If so, then regrouping was clearly the best option—of course, little Illya wouldn't say that in this unfamiliar world, having been inexplicably drawn into such a dangerous situation, she did somewhat want to hide in Kiritsugu and Mom's embrace.
[Illya] naturally understood Illya's thoughts, glanced at her, and shrugged.
"This world's Kiritsugu is quite stubborn, you know."
"If we go over, the result might actually be worse."
"Besides..."
"There are quite a few troublesome fellows in this Holy Grail War. You're so weak, we should try to avoid attracting their attention as much as possible."
"Aah... I'm already very clear that I'm weak, you don't need to repeat that to me~!"
Little Illya, deeply hurt, had tears in her eyes, feeling somewhat dejected.
Though full of doubts, because she was very weak, she completely accepted [Illya]'s arrangements.
And the latter, with the 'sponsorship' of a local Fuyuki tycoon, acquired a mansion in an extremely short amount of time.
"This house looks a lot like ours... By the way, why did we buy a house?"
Looking at the familiar detached house, little Illya felt a sense of nostalgia, but she clearly didn't understand the purpose of settling down.
"Speaking of magi, the first thing to do is to build a 'magical workshop,' isn't it?" The white-haired girl, dressed in a luxurious purple outfit and wearing a hat, turned back and rolled her eyes. "Without a magical workshop, against Servants and the like, most magi are no different from stray dogs on the roadside."
"Eh... Is that so?" Little Illya gained a new understanding of her own weakness.
But the next moment, she fell into distress again.
"But, I don't know how to build that kind of thing."
Previously just an elementary schooler, little Illya's abilities as a magus, if not for an overpowered Mystic Code like Ruby, her combat power would probably be less than that of an ordinary goose. As for her magus aptitude, it was a pitiful negative number!
Despite being a Caster class, she lacked even the most basic Item Construction and Territory Creation. Undoubtedly, even among many Casters, she was in the most unqualified category.
"I never expected you to... I'll do it."
Pursing her lips, the annoyed [Illya] began to take action.
The first thing she added was a magical barrier to block clairvoyance—honestly, she had sensed it when flying over from Europe. A bunch of boring fellows were peeking. It was a good thing she had figured out the 'magecraft' system, otherwise, with just the useless little Illya, all her secrets would have been seen through!
"Uh..."
Little Illya, standing there, watched the busy [Illya], feeling a bit awkward just standing around. Subconsciously, she said:
"Then, can I help?"
"No need."
"Forget it... If you're idle and have nothing to do... Hmm, I remember you seem to like watching magical girl shows?" [Illya]—Mr. Jiang Qiao—noticing little Illya's somewhat oblivious state, remembered something, a corner of his mouth勾起, then casually handed her a disc:
"Here, this is for you."
"Eh..." Little Illya, having been exposed, blushed a little, but still took the disc curiously and looked at it. It seemed to be a magical girl anime too... Madoka Magica? A name she hadn't heard of, and it seemed... very simple?
Curious and expectant, little Illya was thus sent aside, holding the disc.
And [Illya] showed a 'smile' at this, then continued her 'magical workshop construction' game.
At the same time, he also sent out familiars woven from Uriel's Song, intending to investigate the situation in Fuyuki City and the other Masters.
Although he never had the conviction to win from the start, since he was participating, he should at least be a little serious. Holding this thought, Mr. Jiang Qiao was quite serious in this regard.
Waver Velvet and his Rider class Servant, Iskandar—a third-rate Master paired with... well, if given sufficient mana supply, the King of Conquerors was undoubtedly a Servant close to top-tier.
But unfortunately, [Illya] paid no attention to this pair.
Let alone himself—even if he didn't step in, little Illya could completely deal with this type of opponent. The Mystic Code Ruby had a significant advantage against the Great King's Ionioi Hetairoi. Infinite mana for mana burst... The peak multi-elemental Quintett Feuer was an EX-rank Anti-Unit Noble Phantasm, its output even surpassing Ea.
Although the current Illya only had Ruby, a single wand, and her output was reduced several times, with an infinite mana supply, even an A-rank Noble Phantasm, after adjusting its range to Anti-Army mode, was enough to contend with the Great King's Ionioi Hetairoi—just like a certain Saber Alter who wouldn't hesitate to use her EX-calibur, having a lot of mana means you can be willful!
However, Illya's mana advantage was only limited to bullying the Great King.
The three Knight classes all possessed high-rank Magic Resistance. Once pitted against them, Saber and Lancer could directly tank her bombardment and crush the elementary schooler.
Setting aside the cheat-like Goldie, Lancelot was also a formidable opponent. Although his Magic Resistance was reduced from B to E due to being a Berserker, his exaggerated stats alone were enough for him to take reduced damage and still beat little Illya in a frontal assault.
As for Caster (Gilles de Rais) and Hundred-Faced Hassan, the former was, much like little Illya, a disgrace to magi, a Caster who barely knew any magecraft—just a Prelati's Spellbook launcher. The latter was even less noteworthy.
The assessment was that Cursed Arm Hassan or Serenity Hassan could trade one for one. Hundred-Faced Hassan... as long as he was happy.
As for the seven he had added.
Besides his own Caster class elementary schooler, there was also Lancer class Enkidu... As for the other classes, because he hadn't interfered beyond adding them, he didn't know the details of the other five... Because he had deliberately kept it under wraps, even clairvoyance couldn't see the future... It didn't matter, he could still get results through normal intelligence gathering.
Not caring much, [Illya] casually completed the 'Temple Transformation' of the magical workshop, something normal magi wouldn't even dare to dream of, occasionally glancing at Illya's movements—
Hmm, she seemed to be watching happily.
"Eh..."
Noticing the movement from the familiars, [Illya] glanced over, showing a hint of surprise.
This man is...
"Kairi Sisigou..."
"He's also involved, huh... Not surprising, after all, there are all kinds of people."
"However, this Servant..."
"The Knight of Treachery, Mordred."
From a high vantage point, through the eyes of the familiar woven from Uriel's Song, Jiang Qiao saw the blonde girl in revealing outerwear, chatting and laughing with Kairi Sisigou beside him, and recognized her identity at a glance.
Considering that King Arthur was among the originally scheduled seven Servants for this Holy Grail War…
[Illya]'s perspective shifted to another familiar—this one was specifically assigned to watch Kiritsugu and Irisviel.
Although Irisviel hoped Kiritsugu could rest for a day or two, to lie low, after all, even with Enkidu's help, Mr. Kiritsugu, who had performed a high-difficulty dive from a crashing plane, was still quite injured.
But thanks to the healing capabilities of magecraft, after quickly recovering normal mobility, 'his' overly obsessed otou-san (father) seemed completely unwilling to let go of the opportunity of the first night.
However, perhaps it was out of guilt towards his wife.
Even after such an incident, he still selectively allowed his Servant to take Irisviel out for a stroll.
After all, for Irisviel, the Lesser Grail, this was already one of the few remaining times in her life.
However…
Watching the intersecting paths of Kairi Sisigou and Mordred, and Irisviel and Saber, on the 'magical sand table' he had built, modeled after Fuyuki City as a whole—
The azure intersecting lines were reflected in her ruby-like, translucent eyes. The girl watched this process with great interest.
"It seems... they're about to meet, hmm~"