"That priest seems off."
After leaving the church, Shirou Emiya frowned. "I feel like he's hiding a lot of things..."
"Hmph, I think he's not the only one keeping secrets," Rin Tohsaka responded, crossing her arms with an obvious air of dissatisfaction.
Her attitude was clearly directed at Fang Mo. After all, back in the church, Fang Mo had made some shocking revelations, nearly exposing everything about Kirei Kotomine, to the point that Kotomine had to cut the conversation short and ask them to leave.
Rin understood the value of having a lot of information—being well-informed is always an advantage. But what truly irritated her was that her troublesome Archer had never shared any of these details with her. It meant he'd been investigating things behind her back.
That's what really bothered Rin. In her mind, weren't they supposed to be allies? Shouldn't they trust each other? Yet here was Archer, collecting so much crucial information on his own. Rin had thought he only cared about Europe, but it seemed he was quite invested in the Holy Grail War as well.
The information he had uncovered was indeed surprising. For example, Shirou Emiya's adoptive father had apparently won the previous Holy Grail War and had even fought against Kirei Kotomine. The great fire ten years ago had also been caused by the Grail.
Even Shirou was left shaken after hearing all this. Who knew how much more Archer could have revealed if Kotomine hadn't ended their meeting? It had only been a few days since Archer was summoned, and he had already uncovered so many secrets.
"You never asked me," Fang Mo said casually, clearly picking up on Rin's displeasure. "You can't expect me to share all my intel without being asked first."
"Why not?" Rin retorted. "Sharing information is critical—"
"Fine," Fang Mo interrupted, throwing his hands up. "The average length for Japanese males is about 13.56 cm, around 35,000 adult films are produced annually, and the most popular title right now is—"
"Shut up!" Rin's face turned bright red.
"Go ahead, use another Command Seal." Fang Mo taunted, pointing to his mouth and then to the German boy standing next to him, who was mimicking his gestures.
"I..." Rin groaned, rubbing her forehead. She had no idea what to do with this insufferable Archer of hers. While other Servants helped their Masters fight, hers seemed to exist just to give her a headache.
"Alright, alright, Tohsaka-san." Shirou tried to play the peacemaker. "Maybe Archer just recently gathered this information and didn't have a chance to tell you yet?"
"Indeed," Saber, surprisingly, chimed in to support Fang Mo. "Besides, it was you, Miss Tohsaka, who commanded Archer to keep quiet last night."
"He didn't keep quiet at all!" Rin exclaimed, pointing at the German boy beside Fang Mo. "Look! It didn't stop him from talking, did it?"
"I train with all my heart!" the German boy shouted proudly.
"..." Rin was on the verge of collapse, wishing she could just disappear.
The atmosphere was awkward, but at least the walk back to Shirou's house wasn't too long. After walking in silence for a bit, they soon arrived near the Emiya residence.
However, just as they reached the front gate, Fang Mo suddenly noticed two figures on his minimap.
He didn't quite recognize the girl with the short brown hair, but the other one, with long purple hair, was unmistakable—it was Sakura Matou.
"...Hmm?"
Fang Mo raised an eyebrow in surprise upon seeing her.
"What's wrong, Archer?" Shirou, now more attuned to his role as a mage, noticed Fang Mo's expression and asked, "Is there an enemy nearby?"
Before Fang Mo could answer, the gate to the Emiya residence opened, and a girl in a school uniform with purple hair peeked out, looking happy. But as soon as she saw the group outside, she froze. "...Eh?"
"Ah... Sakura?" Shirou stammered, equally surprised to see her.
"Well then, I guess we'll be heading out as well," Rin said with a sigh after Sakura left.
Since Taiga was an ordinary person, it would be difficult to discuss the Holy Grail War in front of her, so it was better to continue the conversation elsewhere.
However, just as she was about to leave, Fang Mo suddenly decided to go against the plan.
"I'm not going back. I'm going to stay here and have some tea."
"Ugh..." Rin felt her vision go dark. "I have tea at my house too."
"The water at your place isn't hot enough, and the tea tastes bad," Fang Mo replied, waving his hand dismissively. "I want to try someone else's tea. I heard they make tea with rice here in Japan. I want to try a couple bowls."
"You—" Rin bit her lip in frustration, but before she could say anything more, Taiga chimed in with a smile.
"Why don't you come inside and rest for a while? It's rude to send guests away, right, Shirou?"
"Ah, yes," Shirou nodded, still looking a bit confused.
And so, the group returned to the Emiya household once again.
"You're from Germany, right? Your Japanese is really good," Taiga said as they settled in. "It sounds just like a native speaker's."
"Oh, well, my main job is translating," Fang Mo said nonchalantly. "Even though I'm German, I'm fluent in both German and Japanese. I've also lived in China for over twenty years, so my Chinese is top-notch too."
"For that long?" Taiga looked surprised. "You must know a lot about China then."
"Pretty much," Fang Mo replied casually.
"You won't believe this, but I've always been curious about China," Taiga said, her eyes lighting up with interest. "I heard that in some parts of China, trains run through buildings. Is that true?"
"Oh, that's true in Chongqing," Fang Mo nodded.
"Wow, that's amazing!" Taiga exclaimed. "I'd love to see that for myself someday."
"That's nothing," Fang Mo said, waving his hand. "In America, not only do trains go through buildings—planes do too!"
"Eh?" Taiga froze in confusion.
"I..." Rin, on the other hand, could feel her blood pressure rising. She knew exactly what Fang Mo was implying, and she glanced down at the Command Seals on her hand, barely able to stop herself from using a second one.
Just then, Rin noticed a figure creeping up behind Taiga. It was the German boy that Fang Mo had summoned as his Servant. He was holding a strange red brick and slowly raising it over his head.
"Wait—!"
But it was too late. With a loud *thud*, Taiga collapsed onto the table.
"What are you doing?!" Rin couldn't contain her anger anymore. "Are you crazy, attacking a regular person?!"
"It's fine, it's just a sleeping aid," Fang Mo said calmly. "I just wanted her to take a nap so we can discuss our plans in peace. We still need to deal with the Matou family, don't we?"
"You call that a sleeping aid?!" Rin shouted.