Chapter 1-NWAIOM:

BGM

Germany, 1986.

The air outside is cold, crisp, with the feeling of being untouched, unlike the recycled air inside the jet. I can see heavy clouds above us.

As I step off the jet, the stewardess calls out: "Luggage will be delivered in section 12!"

Unthinkingly, I say "Take care of it, Mai-" before realizing again, how alone I was. It's like… missing my shadow. Still, no time to be off balance now- I cannot appear weak before the Einzberns.

Getting in a rental car, I look up the map to the site of Castle Einzbern. Mages are always paranoid - having their workshop/arcane fortress located in some remote, easily defensible location… a 3 hour drive.

I wonder what Natalia would think of her student – no, her son, these days…

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*3 hours, 58 minutes later*

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It is quite clammy, almost dank inside, although I'd gladly suffer this rather than the howling maelstrom of a snowstorm. I can feel truly enormous amounts of Prana running through the Castle, sealed in by the stone foundation.

An older mage, with white hair like a frozen waterfall and deep eye sockets is glaring at me. There are multiple homunculi - artificial beings, created by House Einzbern Thaumaturgy. They are presumably guards, standing at the sides of Einzbern Castle's Great Hall.

One of them, a pretty woman with long, silvery-white hair, and red eyes seems to be paying more attention to me than the others. Her beauty contrasts with her almost expressionless face.

"You're quite late." Jubstacheit von Einzbern, also known as Old-man Acht, current head of the Einzbern lineage pointed out every fault he could see. "We have no time for posturing."

"Well, someone had the brilliant idea of putting their workshop on top of a mountain… Inevitably snowstorms will occur… The signs were masked by drifts, I had to home in on your Bounded Field's emissions."

"I see. So, are you prepared to accept the Einzbern family's patronage?" His straightforwardness, so unlike average mages conduct, forces me to think for a second.

"If I were not interested, there would be no point in coming here in the first place- but, why should I fight in your war for you?"

I could not let them know I was interested only in the Grail itself- they had to believe I needed an outside motivation to fight for the Grail.

"You can't make demands of House Einzbern, mercenary killers like you are a dime-a-dozen, why, we have a list of over a dozen suitable candidates…"

I snorted, and used his own words against him. "Save the posturing for later, Jubstacheit- we both know why I'm here, why you asked to see me."

Nodding slowly, he responded: "Indeed. Your defeat of the Edelfelt was quite impressive- it was the talk of the Magus world for over a year- more importantly to our conversation, that Edelfelt was one of the siblings that managed not only to survive the Third Heaven's Feel, but was also the one that killed the Einzbern Champion."

Putting on a business smile, I replied: "Now that we are done patting ourselves on the back for being so smart… What terms are you prepared to offer me?"

"I see I was right to choose you… Irisviel! Bring the Talbot farm's special Darjeeling tea." As the woman I noticed bowed out and left, I raised an eyebrow at this… rude treatment of his...

Dismissively, he explained: "Homunculi are merely tools of the Einzbern. Like familiars, and Mystic Codes, they are objects without emotion…" He was wrong. I've met- and destroyed familiars with emotions.

Acht's eyes glinted as he tilted his head forward and continued. "We're prepared to offer official pardons for all the crimes you have committed from the Magus Association, membership in said Association, payment in hard bullion, the resources of the Einzbern Alchemical laboratories, although… I believe you have no interest in Thaumaturgical research whatsoever… plus, integration and official recognition of the Emiya Clan as a branch lineage of House Einzbern."

"What? What do you mean?"

Acht smiled, having predicted my confusion. "You will marry into Einzbern family, and produce an heir. Quite an elegant deal, isn't it?"

In a flash, I understood. My eyes widened. They would use my child against me as collateral, a hostage, really, to ensure I did not betray the Einzberns during the Fourth Holy Grail War. Still… I was confused and curious.

"The Einzbern family has no female descendants of reproductive age- in fact; there are no female members of the Einzbern lineage alive today… That I know of."

The female homunculi, Irisviel, returned with a tray, laden with two cups and a steaming pot of tea.

"Thank you." I murmured to her.

She didn't know how to respond, just staring at me.

Like a cat playing with a trapped mouse, Jubstacheit smiled again. "Oh, no, you are quite correct. You will be marrying one of our Homunculi." Seeing the expression on my face, he laughed- and put his hand on Irisviel's shoulder. "What? Is an Einzbern creation flawed? Is she not beautiful? What objections could one have?" Pulling out a manila folder, loaded with files I ascertained were, in fact documenting me, he continued.

"Your lineage, although a mere five generations old, has demonstrated remarkable tenacity and determination in its pursuit of the Mage's Quest- the Root of the Swirl, Akasha, managing to devise interesting, previously unexplored branches of Time Magic. You, Kiritsugu, are a nearly unique exemplar of cunning, ruthlessness, willpower, and ability to think outside the box. Your clan's Thaumaturgical circuits are quite potent; despite only possessing one-third of the original crest, you are able to perform incredible feats with them. If a mere one-tenth of these traits or even just the Crest alone were to be passed down to an Einzbern-related lineage, it would be more than worth the effort."

Although I had recomposed my expression, I could not tear my eyes off of Irisviel, while my mind raced ahead, attempting to formulate a coherent plan of action, or just an argument. Irisviel's face was a mixture of a childlike-blankness, curiosity, fear, and desire - but mostly a blank expression. I put my hand under her chin, turning it slightly, testing for a response. Her eyes widened for a split second. She was very warm - and my mind already reached a decision.

I had no choice, really. Even if she was undesirable (and she was quite the opposite) I have to achieve my dream. If I were to walk away from this, after all the bloodshed, all the lives I've taken, everything that I've destroyed, it would be an betrayal of my ideals, no, my very self.

For humanity, I had to go on.

Nodding, I announced: "I accept."

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*Approximately Midnight*

BGM

I sighed.

"WHAT? HOW COULD THIS… CONTRAPTION BE OF ANY USE?" Jubstacheit roared. He was raging quite hard, at my insistence that we modernize our base of operations, Fortress Einzbern. "THIS IS EVEN WORSE THAN THOSE… TELEPHONE THINGS!"

A few hours ago, when I began with phones, Acht was quite more than annoyed with the phone lines I had the homunculi begin installing. In fact, he vaporized a section of the Great Hall.

"IT WHIRRS AND MAKES AN ODD NOISE! IT'S A HUGE HUNK OF UGLY, MUNDANE METAL! DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON THIS- THIS 'MONITOR'!"

We managed to compromise on phones by using satellite phones- horrendously expensive and inefficient, but the Einzbern dynasty was practically swimming in money… And then I had to get the phone's shells changed to a Victorian-style appearance…

"HOW DOES ONE USE THIS- THIS THING? IT DOESN'T RESPOND TO ARCANE COMMANDS! WHY IS THE SCREEN BLUE NOW? A problem has been detected and Windows has been shut down to-"

I sighed again, mentally adding another few thousand dollars to the bill as Acht lifted the IBM up and chucked it across the room.

"WHY DOESN'T THIS WORK EITHER? I HAVE A CLEAR IMAGE IN MY HEAD!" Acht huffed, as he roundhouse kicked the printer/fax/photocopier. I'll have to get separate printer, fax machines, and photocopiers- reduces the loss when he trashes one of them.

"If you're done destroying things, I'm going to explain: Like the phone, the computer, photocopier, fax, and printer are designed to be operated manually. No using magic." I sighed, pointing at the wreck of my not-so-new-anymore IBM, and continued.

"Like the phone, the computer can communicate near-instantaneously across the world, allowing a user to connect to something known as the Internet. This network allows us to access the aggregate knowledge database of over a billion users- although, most of it is junk."

"While having a network of familiars to gather data, and using information acquired from contacts in the Clocktower can be useful, the sheer scale of the Internet has its own benefits as well… And our enemies are unlikely to be acquainted with it." Now pointing at the photocopier/fax/printer, I shrugged.

"Despite not being as important as the computer, this device serves its purpose well. You can't send your thoughts into it and expect a letter or image, but it does allow one to print out images nearly-perfectly from the Internet, another fax machine, and it allows one to send documents great distances at a much higher resolution than the standard Mage's Transcriber."

"Now that you've understood their purposes, I hope-"

"I AM NOT DONE RANTING YET! I'VE HARDLY BEGUN!"

Again, I sighed. It was going to be a long night.

Chapter 1 Fin.