Rin wasn't sure what Sylvester was up to when he decided to drag her to a 'family' picnic. A little informal thing where even unbaptized children wouldn't have to worry about being judged if they accidentally break etiquette.

It was just a small party for only the Archduke's family, their attendants and guards, their families, everyone's plus ones, and all of their attendants as well.

So around a quarter of the noble population of the noble district, around two hundred people.

What was sold to her as a small party turned into a massive social gathering.

Rin wished she could just leave and go back to her tests on the nature of Feystones and Feysap. As well as her tests on the nature of her own new mana, which allowed her consciousness to be transferred into this body. But no. The position of the Archduke's daughter had obligations, and if she made trouble for Sylvester, he might cut her funding.

She'd have to play along, even if it was a massive waste of time.

Those who approached her could be separated into three categories.

First were the children who were pressured by their parents to try to become Rin's retainer, who were few in number, due to said parents not having yet trained them to deal with Rin in particular. Not to mention that Wilfried was already named the heir, so most looking to secure a future were going to him instead.

The degree to which they bent over backwards trying to kiss that boy's ass strained the suspension of disbelief, as no matter what sort of game he decided to play, they would all purposely lose to him, even when they themselves were in their late teens or early twenties.

Seeing a five-year-old truly believing he had better sword skills than his knight was embarrassing. The only thing Wilfried had in spades was confidence.

The second type of people approaching Rin was the Florencia Faction.

They were basically the moderate faction, those from the Leisegang Faction that believed that the 'good old days' that the Faction talked about didn't exist, and while they didn't want to become a colony Duchy of Ahrensbach, they thought the best way of doing this was to become self-reliant, not to start a purge and try to force Bonefatius to accept the role of Aub.

The Florencia Faction loved Rin, as they assumed that since she, like Florencia herself, was from Fernbeltag, she was going to be a part of their Faction by default.

This wasn't necessarily a bad thing, as of all of the people in Ehrenfest, they were the most open to the idea of new industries. Problem was, while they wanted the industries, they didn't seem to have any interest in talking about them. They were just going to throw donations at Rin and expect her to do all of the leg work setting it up.

The fact that nobles were so disconnected from what it actually took to run a business was weird. They were used to just handing everything off to the merchants and expecting it to be organized and delivered to them, and they believed that Rin was doing the same, just throwing her influence behind a Merchant Company to claim their work as her own. They didn't seem to understand that at the time of creations, she HAD no influence to toss around.

Well, she wasn't going to turn away free money.

The final group was perhaps the most disturbing of all. The people who had seen Rin during the Spring Prayer and had heard of her feat of bringing an early Spring to the farthest northern territory.

They seemed to have convinced themselves that Rin was a god given Saint.

Rin supposed it was the natural conclusion to them. They were faced with an existence that was beyond their understanding. Naturally, those sort of existences are often categorized as holy or evil by the ignorant, and the people want Rin to be a Saint more than they want to admit the terrifying truth, that she was just a greedy and selfish human like the rest of them.

The idea that it was a human, rather than a benevolent god, that was the source of a power that could manipulate nature itself was not something they wanted to consider.

Rin wasn't sure whether it was safer to let them believe what they want in order to alleviate their fears, or if she should nip this in the bud before a cult starts and people try to appease her by oppressing or even killing her nonbelievers.

It seemed that some people had attempted to reproduce Rin's feat of bringing Spring using the stages, but despite having thrown a hundred nobles at the problem, they accomplished nothing but making themselves sick.

Which was the natural result.

They didn't understand anything about the magic tools or the requirements for activating them. Such as the fact that the offered mana had to come from a woman. But mixing men into the equation, they would never produce results, no matter how many people they threw at the problem.

The fact that no one, not even Rin, knew the incantation to activate it only made it more impossible. Rin herself had only been able to get around that by using her formula craft to decode a bypass for the incantation. Without a similar skill, they couldn't do it.

Of course, Rin couldn't explain any of this to them, making it seem like she had been chosen by the Gods to be the one to use it.

"Lady Tohsaka, is it true that you are going to be sent back to the Temple?" One of the women of the Veronica Faction asked as Rin sat at the ladies' table sipping tea.

It was good tea mind you. It had better be, considering Rin had to make the blend herself because she couldn't find anything that went with her food. She could do without the company though.

The woman's concerned voice was probably fake, and only meant to stir up trouble for Rin and the Archduke, for reasons that she didn't care to understand.

"In a way, though 'sent' is not the right word. I requested that Father allow me to return to the Temple." Rin said, lying in order so that Sylvester wouldn't have to listen to compliments about injustice whispered behind his back, and she wouldn't have to hear it either. They would only cause trouble. "He took some convincing, but he finally agreed to allow it, once he can find a worthy Knight to guard me there."

"You requested it?" Came the response of much more genuine surprise.

"I understand that the dignity of the Temple has been on the decline. Once it was a place where young royals would be educated, and it was considered an honor to be able to serve there. Now it houses only the unwanted children of the nobility, whose lives are an inconvenience for their house, and is a place that nobles would only ever visit if they are seeking flower offerings." Rin said, putting on a sad expression. "But now, with more than half of the Blue Robes that used to keep the Temple going gone, there are serious mana shortages, the ones that are leading to food shortages across the entire Duchy. If I can remedy that by going to the Temple, isn't it my moral obligation to?"

"...I don't see why it has to be you though. It is beneath a child of the Archduke."

"Then are you volunteering?" Rin asked, causing the woman to shut up. She then looked at everyone who had been listening in. "If anyone wishes to volunteer to take my place at the Temple and help the Duchy in this crisis, then please step forward."

Of course, no one did.

"I thought not." Rin said, returning to her tea as an awkward silence spread through the table.

Not that Rin wanted them to anyways. She'd lose some of her freedom at the Temple if it was populated by nobles instead of the walking corpses of noble children. If a Blue Priest spotted her breaking character and being friendly with the orphans, who cares? It wasn't like Blue Priests were nobles.

Honestly, she wanted to get out of the castle as soon as possible.

Even if she had set up all the wards she possibly could around her sleeping quarters, she didn't like being in a place with so many people. There were dozens of nobles around at all times, and hundreds of servants who worked for who knows who. She'd even found poison in her drink once already.

Not enough to kill her, just to make her feel a little sick. Likely just a test to see if she would be susceptible to poisons if a true need to kill her ever arose.

Being adopted by the Archduke was an annoyance, as while a Count who lived on the edge of the Duchy was important and had all the connections that Rin would need, the Archduke was TOO important.

It had been a given since the beginning that anyone who tried to adopt her would not do it out of the goodness of their hearts. Rin had learned just what adoption meant to these kinds of people during her previous life. She would be a tool, used for her mana, her research and to create powerful children. They would attempt to break her so that she would do whatever they asked, if she let them. They would bind her with contracts and force her to do whatever they said.

Rin's plan had been a simple one, get adopted, and then use her magecraft to manipulate the members of the household, brainwashing and binding them with contracts one-by-one until none of them could try to threaten her.

She wouldn't do anything unpleasant with them. Just stop them from taking advantage of her and force them to leave her be so that she could continue her research.

Unfortunately, with the Archduke's family, that was impossible.

Beyond the magic protections around them, they never went anywhere without guards. They didn't even sleep without a pair of nobles standing guard in front of the door to make sure nothing happened. Even if she did manage to get them alone, with so many people watching their every move, a sudden change in behavior wouldn't go unnoticed.

The constant supervision by people with magic was not something that Rin could stand, having grown men standing outside of her bedroom at night, making sure she didn't go anywhere. It was unnerving.

Right after setting up her secret room to act as her research study and putting up all of the layers of defenses one would expect of a magus's workshop, Rin started to 'accidentally' sleep in there. The first time she did it, Rihyarda scolded her. But by the third day, she just gave her a look of sad understanding. A look that didn't stop Rin from continuing to do it, or from asking that Rihyarda and Ottilie, her other attendant, sign contracts agreeing not to intentionally harm her before she would allow them to continue to dress and bathe her after that first day.

No matter what they looked like or how kind they acted, they were nobles, and ones who had lived in the political machine for years, with loyalties that Rin couldn't even begin to guess at. Even the fact that Sylvester and Florencia had been the ones to assign them to her meant that she couldn't trust them. She would have bound them with a stronger contract if she thought she could get away with it.

She wasn't happy with her castle guard knights either, but at least they never touched her. If they did, she would immediately flare her Od to protect herself for any binding spells and throw them. Still, she would be much happier if she could replace all of them with her own people, people whom she could trust.

People like Nicola, who didn't know how to lie and would never think of betraying her.

Unfortunately, no noble was like that. Not unless they were a natural born idiot.

A shout of panic caused many of the women at the table to jump, spilling their tea on their expensive dresses and drawing swears.

Rin turned her head with the rest of them to see what had happened, and found out what all the trouble was about. Though one look was enough to make her seriously concerned.

Three knights were holding a young child with bright blue hair against the ground, while Wilfried sat flat on his ass, crying and clutching at a bloody wound on his head.

His attendants were trying to heal him, but whenever they attempted to spell, he would scream out in even further pain and bat their schtoppes away from him. Realistically, they should have restrained him so that they could heal him, but none of them wanted to be the one to do that to the Archduke's son.

"Rihyarda." Rin said, holding her arms out to signal to the attendant to help her down from her sat in a more dignified manner than her just dropping down. After which Rin swiftly walked to where everyone was causing a mess. "Get out of my way." She said, pushing the much larger adults to the side, much to their shock.

Reaching out, she put a hand over Wilfried's, which was hovering over the wound on his head. A magic circle appeared around her palm as she mumbled in eld celtic.

"It doesn't hurt so bad now, does it?" Rin said in a soothing tone as she both hypnotized the boy and suppressed his pain receptors. Wilfried slowly stopped crying and looked into RIn's eyes. "That's right. Now be good and hold still for me while I take care of that little injury of yours."

A second and third circle were drawn with Rin's mana as she analyzed the injury and got to work repairing the damage.

It had been a hell of a wound, but luckily, the blow only peeled off a layer of skin, and the fracture to his skull hadn't resulted in any chunks in his brain. His concussion would be minor and not have lasting consequences after being healed, so Rin would leave him with the nausea. The rest of it she healed quickly, the pain resulting from the rapidly healing injury being surprised by her earlier spell.

"And done. Now we just need to clean you up, so close your eyes for a second." Rin said, this time using her ring and activating a silent prayer to the Goddess of Cleansing in order to wash away the blood.

Wilfried blinked in confusion as Rin released him from the hypnosis, his hand going up to his head to find that the injury was completely gone, along with the pain.

"Wilfried?" Florencia said, rushing over and checking on her baby boy. "Dear, are you alright?"

"He'll be fine. It really wasn't as bad as it looked. Injuries to the head always just bleed far more than others." Rin said, trying to downplay the injury as much as possible. "But it would probably be best for Wilfried to go and lie down for a bit."

"Right." Florencia said, quickly arranging for Wilfried to be taken back to his room.

Rin prayed internally that this would help to calm things down before turning to the REAL emergency, the child who had just accidentally injured the son of the Archduke in front of a quarter of the Ehrenfest nobility. A child who would likely be executed, long with their entire family, if Rin didn't do something to stop it.

But when Rin turned her head to try to confront this situation, she froze in surprise.

Rin couldn't help but to stare at the young girl who was currently pinned underneath the knights, her long aqua blue hair and eyes that looked like the water in a clear stream on a sunny day, her puzzled expression as she didn't even attempt to fight back against those who were restraining her, and a face that was very familiar to Rin.

"Saber?" Rin mumbled in surprise.

That face, it had the same fairy-like, elegant features as the Servant Saber's had, despite the girl only being nine or ten years old, the resemblance was so uncanny as to make Rin wonder if it was truly her for a few moments.

"Angelica! Oh child, how could you have done something like this!?" A man shouted in panic as he and what was presumably his wife came and threw themselves on the ground in front of the knights. "Please, please spare our daughter, she doesn't mean any harm."

"'Does not mean any harm'!? She attempted to assassinate Lord Wilfried!" One of the knights shouted angrily.

"Let's not blow this out of proportions." Sylvester said, letting his presence be known, having come over from his own social group as soon as he heard what had happened. "This was just children playing knights and accidentally getting hurt. It is unfortunate, but it happens."

"That is not the case, Milord." The knight objected. "This girl used body strengthening magic before she attacked Lord Wilfried."

"Did she?" Sylvester said in surprise, but more in an impressed way.

It was unusual for children to learn how to manipulate magic power before going to the Academy, as they were always wearing magic items to keep them from accumulating a dangerous amount of mana. It's why Rin being able to accurately control her magic power was considered so unbelievable in their society.

Angelica shouldn't have any experience using her mana at all, let alone get enough control over it to use body strengthening magic. Unless she risked her own safety by removing the magic items that stopped her mana from going wild in order to try to train by herself.

"Angelica, why? Why would you do that?" The girl's mother said miserably.

"But everyone said that, despite his age, Lord Wilfried was as strong as an adult knight. If I didn't give it all I had, I would lose in an instant." Angelica replied, not seeming to get what was going on. "Why did Lord Wilfried choose not to block my swing?"

…Wait, so someone other than Wilfried actually believed that nonsense that the boy's attendants had been spouting.

The attendants all accused the girl of lying, as no one could believe that a five-year-old was as strong as an adult knight. They were accusing the young lady of treason, causing her parents to pale further as they begged Sylvester to have pity on a simple child.

That was went Rin intervened.

"You are all shameless, attempting to blame this entire affair on a child in order to avoid your own punishment." Rin said, walking directly up to Wilfried's attendants and glaring at them. All eyes were on her once again, which was fine. She didn't get stage fright.

"Our punishment?" One of the attendants said.

"Of course. While Angelica holds some responsibility for performing the deed, her sin of childish ignorance is much less than that of the incompetence you have shown." Rin said, making sure her voice projected outwards. "You are Wilfried's guard knights, and yet you were unable to stop even a young child? Surely you were close enough to intervene and had more than enough warning by sensing the use of mana. If Angelica really was an assassin, holding a knife instead of a wooden stick, my brother would be dead. The lax way you handle the life of your master is unforgivable."

Murmurs and nods came from the surrounding nobles and the knights began to pale.

"Father, would you not agree that Angelica's punishment should not exceed that of these men?" Rin said, putting the man with all the power on the spot.

Rin's logic wasn't something he could deny in front of a crowd, nor could he seriously punish three Archknights who had been assigned to Wilfried by Veronica. So Angelica's life and those of her family were now safe.

Of course, Rin was now going to be on their shit list. The cost of doing a good deed.

Better than letting a child get executed and letting that rest on Wilfried's conscience. That someone died because he was being stupid while playing knight.

"It is true. You have allowed your charge to be injured and therefore there will need to be repercussions." Sylvester said in his Archduke voice. "We'll start with pay cuts and demotions. And you will also need to receive additional training to make sure that something like this does not happen again."

"Of course, Aub Ehrenfest." The three knights said, knowing full well that their professional lives were now hanging by a thread.

"How long are you planning on grabbing that young lady?" Rin said, cueing them to all get off of the child.

Angelica stood up, smiling as if nothing had happened and bowed towards Rin. "Thank you for everything, Lady Tohsaka."

"I only spoke the truth. Now, your dress is a mess. You should go and get yourself cleaned up."

Sylvester told the groveling mother and father that an appropriate punishment for Angelica would be discussed later and that they could go and they took their daughter and left as fast as they could.

Rin watched them go with a smile on her face. Angelica was an interesting individual, possessing both the diligence needed to learn magic on her own, and the obliviousness to walk directly through a minefield that could have gotten her and her entire family killed without batting an eye.

She would do nicely.

"Father, I think I have a suggestion for Angelica's punishment."