Endless Path : Infinite Cosmos

While Rin went off to contact Luvia, Vahn went to see how Mordred and Sakura were getting along, followed by Artoria and Gray. It was quite surreal seeing the two girls standing side-by-side again, causing Vahn to have a thoughtful smile as they stepped out into the weakening winter storm. It wasn't exactly appropriate weather to play in but, so long as they were within the tall stone walls surrounding the chateau, it wasn't particularly dangerous. There were powerful magical defenses set up around the premises and, though it wasn't being used currently, it was possible to erect a barrier that could keep out the snow and wind entirely.

Vahn found Mordred and Sakura rolling up large snowballs together while Fenrir helped to compact them together with her ice magic. They had already made a surprising number of snowmen and, at least compared to before, Sakura seemed to be enjoying herself as she was charged with decorating each snowman using materials that had been provided by the staff. Though her nose was very red, to the point she was leaking a bit of snot, Sakura had a smile on her face as she wiggled a full-sized carrot into the position of a nose on their latest shared creation.

Though Fenrir was the first to notice her Master's arrival, it was Mordred who eventually shouted, "Ah, Chichiue, Hahaue! Check this out. We're making a whole family of snow people~!" This caused Sakura to turn around on the stepping stool she had been standing on, a less than stellar judgment call that resulted in her tumbling toward the ground face-first. Vahn had immediately moved to grab her but, seeing someone else would be in time, he used his Telekinesis to slow Sakura's tumble as Mordred easily caught her before plopping onto the snowy ground with a soft crunch. When Sakura regained her senses, the first thing she saw was Mordred's toothy grin as the latter said, "I got'cha~."

With the two girls covered in snow, Vahn had the group of attending Maids take them to the bath to warm their bodies, especially Sakura. After refusing to accompany them, as it wasn't really a habit he wanted to pick up again, Vahn entrusted the task to Artoria and Fenrir. While they were walking away, Mordred led Sakura by hand and, though she looked back at Vahn several times, she didn't try to break away as Artoria gently pushed their backs. This left Vahn and Gray alone to wander around the overstaffed chateau as, after the earlier meeting, Olga had also gone to take care of her luggage.

Though he was tempted to go see how the conversation with Luvia had gone, Vahn decided to use this as an opportunity to bond with Gray for a while. She had surprisingly accepted his hand a lot easier than expected, even going so far as to giggle when Vahn blinked in confusion. Afterward, Gray explained, "Sakura allowed me to use the Orb whenever I was feeling lonely..." This admission caused Gray to immediately flush slightly, quickly adding, "I didn't...I..." After that, she practically dragged Vahn to Sakura's room, sneaking the Orb from an enchanted wood box beneath the latter's pillow. Since she knew Vahn could synchronize with his Memory Fragment, Gray felt it would save her a lot of embarrassment if she just let him 'see' what they had done together...

After teasing Gray for a short while, Vahn went ahead and 'downloaded' the memories of his faux-self within the Space-Time Orb. What he obtained were a lot of memories between him and Sakura, mainly involving her education, playing around, and just spending time together. It caused Vahn to feel fluttery when he was able to re-experience these memories, both in reminiscence and for the first time. Even more touching than his time with Sakura, however, Gray would sometimes appear every day or two within the Orb, usually seeking him out for comfort.

It was clear that their time apart hadn't been easy for her and, though they didn't do anything 'too' intimate, Vahn got to experience all the time his faux-self spent just embracing her as they talked about the matter's weighing heavily on Gray's heart. Other than that, they would just spend time idling around the small cottage contained within the Orb, sometimes walking around the garden hand-in-hand, other times sitting atop the tall stone walls meant to keep Sakura safe, Gray resting her head on his shoulder as they stared out into oblivion together...

What Vahn found most curious was, while Sakura and Gray were very common presences within the Orb, Rin had only appeared a total of three times. The first moment was at the very beginning when Vahn had first taught her how to use the Orb, while the latter two instances were her explaining the things she had discussed with Luvia and asking if the Memory Fragment could heal the wound on her chest. It was clear that Rin was somewhat uncomfortable around his Memory Fragment, leading Vahn to intuit that she did her best to avoid interacting with him too much, perhaps in an attempt to prevent her 'real' memories from being tainted.

Once he had downloaded everything, Vahn 'refreshed' his Memory Fragment, as there was a good chance he would be using it to help in Sakura's education in the future. Though she would probably outgrow its use once they arrived at the castle, especially with the 'real' him around, that didn't mean it wasn't an extremely useful tool. Rin, Catherine, Fenrir, and Merlin were likely the only teachers that Sakura would ever need but, as the 'quality' of the lessons could heavily depend on the emotional bond between the Teacher and Student, Vahn figured Sakura would probably want to learn from him most of all. Since he would often be busy, perhaps even more so in the near future, she would have to either use the Space-Time Orb or, when he was on one of his breaks, be there to 'intercept' him, something Mordred had become fond of doing when she wanted to play...

While imagining his two adorable daughters trying to surprise attack him, Vahn's consciousness left the Space-Time Orb. He opened his eyes to see Gray looking closely at his face, a small smile visible on her face until she made eye contact with him, only just now noticing he was awake. Before she could say anything, Vahn took Gray's words away, smiling as he said, "When we get to Avalon, I'd like it if you accompanied me...I have my promise with Rin and Sakura, but there is a place I want to take you, just the two of us..." With that said, Vahn took Gray's hands into his own, kissing the top of her head to punctuate his statement. He knew that it was never the garden and the time atop the wall that Gray cared about and, even if he showed her the most wondrous sights in the world, it would mean little if he wasn't there to accompany her.

In response to Vahn's words, Gray titled her head back, looking up with her stark blue eyes as she whispered, "I'd like that..." Then, punctuating her own statement, Gray tip-toed to give Vahn a light peck on the lips before pulling away, a thin layer of moisture spreading across her eyes as an almost indiscernible blush crept up her neck. Seeing this, Vahn was extremely tempted to embrace Gray in a more 'meaningful' way but, considering where they were, he kept his senses, answering her kiss with one of his own. Afterward, they once again walked around the chateau together, taking the scenic route to the recreational study where Rin was already waiting...

The first thing that Rin said, almost as soon as Vahn entered the room, was, "Luvia is on her way. She will be here in less than an hour..." Hearing this, Vahn felt like the hairs on the back of his neck were going to stand, asking, "Is that a good idea? With everything you mentioned, I didn't think Luvia had any intentions of coming to Avalon with us..." Since it was clear that Luvia, and the Edelfelt family as a whole, was intending to take advantage of the current chaos, that would be impossible if she were exposed to be working together with them at this stage. It didn't seem like the Association Director was all that fond of him and, while it may be possible for Alaya to protect Luvia while the latter was at home, there was a 'very' good chance the monsters hiding in the shadows had the means to target her, regardless...

Rin just shrugged her shoulders in a somewhat exaggerated manner, answering, "With everything that has been going on, there is a good chance she just wants to 'confirm' whether or not you are worth all the trouble she is going through...Vahn, Luvia and I have known each other for well over a decade, almost two. Even if I don't exactly agree with her 'reasons', she really is serious about all of this..." Though Luvia had always been something of a 'busybody', she wasn't the type to 'invest' in things that had no chance to produce high yields in return. The fact she was sinking billions into Vahn after just two meetings showed that she had evaluated him 'extremely' highly.

Understanding that Luvia wasn't the pompous and spoiled noble that he had treated her as during their first meeting, Vahn could only give a dry laugh in response to Rin's 'warning'. It was very clear that she was making a 'power play' of sorts, risking her entire family while believing with full sincerity that he wouldn't let her down. This put a lot of pressure on Vahn but, compared to the other things he had to deal with these days, it was surprisingly negligible. Since it was an irrefutable truth that he would benefit greatly from cooperation with the Edelfelt family, as they had already done a lot for him and the people he cared about, this was a bullet Vahn didn't mind biting into...

While waiting for Luvia to arrive, Vahn explained what Mordred and Sakura had been up to, eliciting a relieved sigh from Rin. Sakura had become the 'center' of her life right now so she was genuinely concerned for her sister-turned-daughter's happiness. Children were always the best at dealing with other children so, as long as Sakura was able to get along with Mordred, both girls would be able to be happy in the future. To that end, Rin had Vahn explain everything he could about Mordred, filling in the massive gaps in information he had left out during their previous discussion.

As there wasn't all that much time before the girls finished their bath, Vahn gave a quick summary of who exactly Mordred was, how she had come to be, and his intentions for her in the future. To her credit, the story actually matched pretty closely with Rin's assumptions, including the fact that another historically male figure ended up being female. The two things that caught her by surprise was that Artoria had agreed to become Mordred's mother and the fact that the latter was apparently okay with this arrangement. Though it could just be Mordred playing a long-con, using the fact she was sealed to lower their guard, but this seemed impossible going by how she behaved, combined with what Vahn had said about her...

When Vahn had finished his prompt explanation, Rin followed up by crossing her arms and asking, "So, does this mean I'm one of your Empresses as well...?" As Vahn's explanation included the titles and ranks Artoria and Mordred had been assigned, Rin was curious about her own since Mordred already treated Sakura as her younger sister. In response, Vahn gave a lighthearted smile, answering, "If you're prepared for the responsibility, you can be 'the' Empress, Rin...not only were you the first person I had a genuine connection with in this world, but the last few months have really put into perspective how I felt about you..."

Towards the end of Vahn's words, Rin held up her hands, her face reddening as she said, "Wait, wait, wait! My heart isn't ready for something like this...!" It didn't take a genius to know what Vahn was about to say and, though it was something she had wanted to hear in the past, Rin began to panic when he was actually on the verge of saying it. At the same time, both Ereshkigal and Ishtar were egging her onward, the latter going so far as to say, ("If you won't do it, I will! Trade places with this Goddess~!") This was almost immediately followed by Ereshkigal adding, ("Together forever...even in death...")

Hearing the voices of her two occupants, Rin shouted, "You two stay out of this...!" in the real world, earning an amused smile from Vahn and a slightly confused look from Gray. This caused Rin's brow to twitch, followed by her pointing directly at Vahn's face and complaining, "You. Couldn't you have chosen a better moment for this? Luvia is on her way here and there is so much going on right now. Now I'm going to be freaking out over this for the next couple of days...haaaaa..." Since Vahn's words would practically amount to a proposal, Rin's heart was currently beating so fast that it made the burn on her chest throb painfully. She actually wanted Vahn to treat it soon but, remembering how he fixed her previous scar, Rin wanted to wait until the evening since it would likely evolve into something 'more'...

Finding Rin's 'tsundere' behavior rather refreshing, as he had started to miss their interactions quite a bit, Vahn had a genuine smile on his face, nodding in understanding. He expected that, once she calmed down, Rin would actually refuse to become his Empress outright. She was the type of person who hated things like politics and, once she was in an environment where she could research and train without interruption, it was likely Rin would throw herself into her studies completely. Since she had essentially grown up alone, Rin's 'baseline' was to do her best on her own, not proactively seek others out and engage in political games. It was this part of her that likely led to her accepted Luvia's 'ambition' as, a stark contrast to the somewhat anti-social Rin, the drill-haired woman was extremely social and excelled at most things, politics included...

Around the same time that Rin was beginning to settle down, the doors to the recreational study were opened, revealing a smiling Mordred who was rubbing the underside of her nose with her finger. The reason for this was, even though she would avoid wearing them in most other situations, Mordred was currently wearing her Tiger Pajamas while, trailing behind her with a ruddy blush, Sakura had a matching pair that was slightly too big for her. 'Unfortunately', Artoria was wearing her blue and white dress, earning Vahn a small glare when she saw the 'disappointment' in his eyes. She barely let Mordred get away with wearing such things in 'public', as the surrounding servants were not their own, so there was no way she would wear something so embarrassing.

Taking advantage of the stunned silence she had caused, Mordred held up both her hands in the shape of claws, shouting, "Sakura, pounce...!" Following this, Mordred leaped through the air, covering nearly 10m in an instant, headbutting Vahn's sternum as he caught her in his embrace. Then, after laughing in response to Vahn rubbing her head, Mordred looked back towards Sakura, gesturing toward the shy girl, urging her to take a few sheepish steps forward. She obviously lacked the physical ability to leap across the entire room so Sakura got within a few steps of Vahn before holding up her 'claws' and stammering, "O-otou-sama...r-r-rawr..." Then, thought she didn't even get more than fifteen centimeters of the ground, Sakura leaped towards Vahn with outstretched arms and a ruby-red face...

Vahn felt like his heart had fragmented into thousands of tiny pieces, each jumping around like oil on a skillet as he held the two tiger cubs, one in each arm. There was a rather silly smile on his face, earning him 'admonishing' headshakes from many of the other girls present, even though they also had smiles on their faces. The only exception amongst them was Fenrir who, for a brief moment, wondered if she should have worn Tiger Pajamas as well. She ultimately decided against it, as her 'duty' right now was to protect the two girls, not get pampered by her Master. Since even she found Mordred and Sakura cute, Fenrir just gave a small nod of approval before turning her attention to the nearby pool table and wondering how the game was played.

With the return of the 'children', the time for adult talk had come and gone, leaving Vahn to carry around Sakura while they watched Fenrir and Mordred learned how to play billiards. As for Artoria and Gray, they started a surprisingly intense game of five-card draw with Rin, the latter losing almost every hand while Artoria won more than 70% of the hands against Gray. Perhaps as a result of her ridiculously high luck, Artoria was surprisingly 'strong' when it came to gambling, to the point that her weakest hand was a three of a kind. Rin was the complete opposite and, every time she had a hand that 'couldn't lose', she inevitably lost to either Artoria or Gray, sometimes both...

As could be expected, Fenrir and Mordred were both 'extremely' good at billiards from the very start, to the point that the game was essentially decided by whoever got to go first. Games of 'skill' that were almost purely reliant on dexterity and judgment were almost a joke for people who could even run on water and swing through trees with the ease a normal person would walk on flat land. In an effort to make things more interesting, they came up with a rule that required you to bank the cue ball at least three times before trying to socket your target. This was after they tried to play darts, a game that was even easier as the only time they failed to get a bullseye was when the dart bounced off another dart already within the center circle...

While watching her older sister play games at a level that would cause 'professionals' to experience an existential crisis, Sakura muttered, "Onee-chan is amazing..." Vahn didn't refute this, nodding his head and earning a smile from Mordred as, even though she didn't look over, she had easily heard what Sakura had said. Then, though she didn't seem to believe his words outright, Vahn looked into Sakura's eyes and explained, "If you want, you can be just as amazing as your Onee-chan one day. You have an amazing amount of power sleeping inside you, Sakura. You don't have to make Magic your main focus...if you want to play with Fenrir and Mordred, you can start training to become a Magic Knight instead. Even your Okaa-chan can do amazing things like leaping over buildings if she wanted to..."

Hearing her Otou-sama's words, Sakura looked in the direction of her Okaa-chan, seeing the latter suffering constant defeats at the hand of Artoria and Gray. This caused her to develop a wry smile that wasn't befitting of a child before asking, "What about you, Otou-sama? What are you good at?" Since her mother was less than inspiring right now, Sakura felt it was better to look to her father for advice about the path she should decide for herself. In response to her inquiry, Vahn answered, "I'm best at trying to make people happy. Even if it is something others believe is impossible, I never let that prevent me from doing the things I 'need' to do. After you see our new home, you'll also begin to understand that there is no such thing as impossible...there is only what you are capable of doing, powered by your own comprehension..."

Since she only had the mind of six-year-old, Sakura furrowed her brows in confusion after hearing her Otou-sama's explanation. This caused him to chuckle as he lightly pinched her nose and said, "As you grow older, you will begin to understand. The only thing you need to understand right now is, no matter what path you choose to take, I will always support you, my little cherry blossom..." At the end of his words, Vahn gave Sakura a quick kiss on her cheek before pinching her nose one more time. This caused Sakura to wrap her tiny arms around his neck in response, followed by her planting a somewhat sloppy kiss on his cheek before she murmured, "I love you, Otou-sama..."

(A/N: Alternate Titles: 'Gray, kawaii...','Rin was not prepared (UwU)...','Just imagine someone petite like Circe, without a visible muscle on her entire body, just outrunning Usain Bolt while jogging backward xD...')