Ferdinand was tired. A tiredness that potions wouldn't help.

After the incident at the railroad meeting, Tohsaka had started to refuse to meet with him. She stopped assisting with the paperwork, other than what was her duties as the orphanage director, and she had dismissed Fran from her service.

Fran had returned to Ferdinand with a look of complete shame. Shocked at his sudden dismissal.

The girl was seriously mad at him, but Ferdinand wasn't sure what to do about it. He didn't exactly have good people skills. He'd avoided them the best he could his entire life.

Worse still, he knew for a fact that Tohsaka was fully capable of simply marching straight into his room as he slept and killing him, and wasn't entirely sure whether or not she would actually do it.

Well, not really.

Ferdinand could rationalize that his status as a trained Archduke Candidate and his high mana capacity made him valuable enough to the Duchy and by extension Tohsaka that she wouldn't kill him.

Funny, how both of them were convinced that the other would murder them if it weren't for the fact that they were so useful. It was still better than his relationship with Veronica, where they would each gladly murder the other if they could find a way to do it with enough deniability to get away with it.

At the very least, he had never had the courage to look at Veronica with such venomous eyes. He had to admire her bravery.

It wasn't until Rihyarda had beaten him over the head with it that Ferdinand realized that Tohsaka's position was much like his own when he was young. That she was more like him than Hirschur, and that all of the attributes that he had connected to his old professor were merely those that he had copied himself.

Her striving to get results in order to validate herself to those around her. Her showing off for attention. Her bright noble smile whenever anyone was watching, hiding her distrust. Even the way she preferred the Temple over the Castle paralleled how Ferdinand would hide at the Royal Academy year round in order to avoid Veronica and her people.

The only real difference was that if Ferdinand was a genius, Tohsaka was a monster.

She had too much magic power to be a mere Archnoble's daughter. Even royals rarely had so much. And her level of education shouldn't be possible at such a young age. And she knew things that no one else in the entire country knew. Ferdinand would accuse her of being older than she looked, but she looked like she was four, or maybe even three. Her reported age of just a week shy of six was already unbelievable based on her appearance.

There had to be an explanation, but Ferdinand wasn't seeing it.

Not unless she was like his mother, a princess from THAT country who managed to escape the secret palace somehow. But would they have sent such a young child? She wasn't going to be able to bear high mana children for at least another eight or nine years.

…Well, there was one other option. The daughter of the current king who had been kidnapped by rebels after the end of the Civil War would have been around Tohsaka's age. The daughter whose kidnapping and presumed murder had triggered the purge, the girl being used as a martyr by those on the winning side of the war to justify an absolute slaughter of the losers.

Her hair color didn't match up with either of the parents, but there could be reasons for that. But how would she have survived to end up at Ehrenfest?

"You look miserable." Sylvester's voice caught Ferdinand off guard and he looked up to see his half brother standing in front of his desk, along with Karstedt.

Ferdinand's Gray Priests were all standing and looked as though they might faint in fear as the Archduke stood casually in front of them.

"What are you doing here?" Ferdinand asked flatly.

"I came to deliver the blueprints and golden dust for Tohsaka's little project. I couldn't exactly entrust this much of the stuff to a servant." Sylvester said, holding up a large bag of the dust created from overcharged Feystones, which must have weighed twenty pounds.

It had only been a week since they agreed to start the project, but there was already so much?

"So do you mind telling me why Tohsaka came all the way up to the Castle to hand this to me to hand to you?" Sylvester asked with a raised eyebrow.

"...We aren't speaking." Ferdinand said. "She refuses my requests for meetings and ignores my summons."

"Hm… I can relate." Karstedt said, as his first wife had been cold to him for the last four years, barely willing to be in the same room as him.

"She's also stopped helping with the work coming from the castle." Ferdinand said, glaring at the giant stack of papers that he still had to go through.

"Well, that's not really her job anyways." Sylvester said, causing the death glare to move on to him. "...So where is she then?"

"Her secret room, most likely." Ferdinand said, just accepting that Sylvester's scholars weren't about to start doing their own damn work. "Though I suppose if she isn't, then the Orphanage Workshop would be the next best bet."

"The Orphanage Workshop huh?" Sylvester said, rubbing his chin. "You know, I've been meaning to take a look at it."

Ferdinand was about to remind his brother that the Archduke was not supposed to make casual house calls to the Temple, least of all the orphanage, before he realized that he hadn't seen it either.

He'd gotten reports of course, but never gone to the workshop in person. "I'll lead the way." Ferdinand said, getting up from his desk. "Arno, watch my office while I am gone."

"Yes, High Priest." Ferdinand's head attendant said as the nobles filed out and moved to the orphanage.

The walk to the workshop was a relatively short one, despite it being on the completely opposite side of the Temple grounds, leading to many people stopping and staring as the High Priest and the Archduke walked through the Temple on their way there.

"Is Tohsaka going to be taking part in the summer baptisms next week?" Sylvester asked as they walked.

"That would hardly be appropriate, considering she isn't even baptized herself. Strictly speaking, tradition shouldn't allow her in the Temple's main hall." Ferdinand replied. "Though she will be performing the baptisms for the orphanage, at her own request. She seems to think that it will stop some of the younger girls from catching the eyes of the Blue Priests and becoming mistresses at a young age."

"Is that so?" Sylvester said, surprised. "She really does care for them."

"...I suppose she does." Ferdinand said, not fully convinced.

But as they reached the door to the Orphanage Workshop, they heard a raised voice inside.

"'Why? Why would father choose my younger brother over me? I possess more mana and more elements. I have the support of the most Duchies.' The First Prince could not understand why it was that his father had chosen for the second prince to be named the next Zent over him, not understanding how his actions during his courtship of Lady Artillia had shown him to be too greedy and selfish to become King." Tohsaka's voice echoed from within the workshop, her putting on a fake gruff man voice for the spoken words of the 'First Prince'. "'If father cannot see that I should be his heir, then I will simply have to take the Grutrissheit for myself!'"

Tohsaka paused in her reading of the story to look up as Ferdinand and Sylvester entered the room to find her sitting on a tall stool in front of a group of children with a large book held in such a way that they could see the words and pictures inside of it. Among them was the girl's younger guard, sitting in the center of the group with her knees pulled up, listening to the story.

The picture of the 'First Prince' was that of a blistering nobleman with a ragged beard and sharp eyes, looking nothing like what the real thing had looked like, but like someone who was easily identifiable as the 'bad guy' of the story.

Seeing how Tohsaka looked up, others throughout the workshop noticed the nobles coming in and immediately moved to show their respect. Brigitte, who had been in a casual position as she watched the kids, stood at attention with a bead of sweat running down her neck as her boss walked into the room.

"Don't stop on our account. Please, continue." Sylvester said, walking over and standing right next to Brigitte, as a means of teasing.

Tohsaka paused for a moment before continuing the story, signaling to the adults in the room that they could continue to work as well.

Story was the tale of how the civil war had started.

The First Prince being removed from succession despite having gained so much support for himself, deciding to kill his younger brother and take the Grutrissheit, the copy of the Goddess of Wisdom's own scriptures, which acted both as the means for controlling the various magic tools that supported the country, and was the what marked one as being King.

Only, when the First Prince killed the Second Prince, he couldn't find the Grutrissheit. And so, he assumed that the Third Prince had somehow gotten his hands on it, and had attacked him as well, starting the first round of the Civil War.

A round the First Prince lost, because while he did have the most Duchy's supporting him, he didn't have the most powerful ones, and he had alienated himself by murdering his brother and losing the Grutrissheit.

But despite having lost the war and died, the First Prince's assassins finished what he started, poisoning the family of the Third Prince.

After that, the two sides which had supported the First and Third Princes had wanted to continue their war, and had forced the Fourth and FIfth Prince to become the new figure heads of the conflict, whether they wanted to be or not.

The subject matter had been dumbed down a bit, with the moral complexities ignored for what was the politically correct interpretation of history. That is, the ones who won in the end were the good guys.

Ferdinand was impressed by the story, though the large size of the writing was likely a huge waste of both paper and ink, as was the colored pictures.

Eventually, the story came to an end and the children clapped to show their appreciation.

"So all of it was the evil First Prince's fault! If he wasn't so stupid, none of those people would have had to die!" One of the children, heated up by the story, said.

Those in the orphanage had a basic understanding that the purge had caused the number of Blue Robes to decrease, which had more than halved the amount of food the orphanage had to go around. So they weren't as removed from the problem as many commoners, who only saw minor food shortages as a result of the Civil War.

"Maybe. That is one way of looking at it, but in reality, things are rarely that simple." Tohsaka said with a shake of her head. "The First Prince had been raised his whole life in order to ascend to the throne, and he had made a lot of powerful allies to support him. If he then didn't become King, it wouldn't just be him who suffered, but all of the people who supported him. Not to mention his family." Tohsaka told the child. "Think of it like this, what would you do if after all of the hard work that had been put into the Temple, someone else came in and stole everything that you all have made and left you to face a harsh Winter without the supplies that you had been counting on."

Having experienced the despair of starvation, the children look very unsure of themselves after that.

"There were reasons why the Second Prince should have been Zent and there were reasons why the First Prince should have. To dismiss either side as simply evil would be untrue, but in the end, the First Prince's actions had caused a massive amount of damage to the country. At the same time, if the previous Zent hadn't led both his sons on for so long, none of this would have happened." Tohsaka said with a shake of her head. "The sad fact is, those who caused all this are dead and the rest of us are the ones who have to suffer for it."

It was a slightly controversial statement, but not so much so as to get one in trouble.

"What happened to the Grutrissheit?" Another child asked.

"That is an excellent question." Tohsaka said with a smile. "The truthful answer is, we don't know. It seems as though it disappeared when the Second Prince failed to pass it on before he died. But if you look at history, there have been other Civil Wars, with crown princes dying, but the Grutrissheit was always maintained. So there has to be some way of recovering it."

"Wow, the book of the Goddess of Wisdom herself. I wonder what it is like." The children started to talk amongst each other as Tohsaka handed off the book to an attendant girl and was helped down from the tall stool.

"Good evening, Father, Sir Karstedt. To what do we owe the visit?" Rin asked, not acknowledging Ferdinand's presence.

"I had just come down here to see Ferdinand and thought I would drop in and look at this workshop I've heard so much about." Sylvester said, all smiles. "That was some story."

"Thank you very much. I had it made to help Angelica with her studies. Though if you would like to buy a copy for Wilfried and Charlotte, the current market ask is one small gold coin and one large silver." Rin said with a smile.

"One small gold? But don't books normally go for four or five large gold coins?" Sylvester asked, puzzled by the price.

"That is because of how limited they usually are, but with our current method, we can produce them very quickly and cheaply. Even the current asking price is only because the market hasn't readjusted yet. In just the last five days, the workshop has created three hundred copies of this particular book, as well as a few others." Rin said, gesturing towards a box full of books exactly like the one she had just been reading from.

Sylvester walked towards it, his eyes boggling as he took one and opened it, seeing how the imagines and letters were all exactly the same as the one before.

"...So then… How much will they go for once the market stabilizes?" Sylvester asked.

"Benno said that it would likely be around eight large silver coins, but that was before the introduction of the railroad and with only a few established workshops. With the cost of transporting raw materials and finished products drastically decreased and more places making paper on the way, I'd say your average book will probably be something like five small silver coins in a few years." Rin said, spitballing a number.

The three adults were shocked. "It is one thing to hear about it, but once you actually see it…" Ferdinand said as he watched one of the older Gray Robes operating the printing press.

It started to sink in for the group just how the cost of all common goods was about to go down drastically, which would mean that even commoners could afford what once were high class luxury goods. Books would soon be going for one thousandth of the price they used to go for.

The Gilberta Company wasn't becoming ridiculously wealthy for no reason.

"There aren't even enough people who know how to read for that to be reasonable." Karstedt said with a shake of his head.

"Accessibility will create more." Rin said, not worried about it. "Not to mention the market will increase as the number of Duchy's trading with us does."

"I am not looking forward to next year's Archducal Conference." Sylvester said, realizing he was going to have to somehow explain how over a millennium's worth of technological innovation happened in the course of a year to the other Duchies.

This was going to be a shit storm.

…Maybe he should just wait for those industries to become more settled in Ehrenfest, so that they can guarantee an edge in them. He'd wait long enough for Tohsaka to enter the academy so that she could deal with any of the questions.

Was pushing the responsibility onto the girl mature of him? No. But it was all her fault anyways. She could deal with the consequences.

"Is there anything you need to help you?" Sylvester asked.

"...I wouldn't say so, but there is something I would like to discuss." Rin said, causing Sylvester to close his eyes and start to pray to the gods for mercy. "It isn't anything to do with business or anything we will need to keep secret. I merely wish to discuss the pre-baptized children of the nobility. Those who are left to die in their rooms."

This got the nobles attention, as that was a subject that you just didn't talk about.

The simple fact was that raising a child who had magic to become a noble was expensive, costing around five small gold coins each. So poorer noble families couldn't exactly afford to raise every child they popped out. Making them Blue Priests was also expensive.

So most noble families simply left their unwanted children in their rooms to die of the Devouring. A brutal and horrible practice, but one that was seen as inevitable. And because it was treated as such, lots of noble families also purposely only kept only the best young male of the family alive, since having multiple possible heirs was an inconvenience, as boys didn't make for good marriage contracts.

"With the orphanage finances being taken care of, the cost of Blue Robes should decrease, should they not?" Rin asked the adults.

"...They would decrease, but not disappear." Karstedt pointed out. "It would still be too expensive for most poorer nobles."

"Is that so? You think that people would still just let their children die then?" Rin said, sounding disappointed. "If that is the case, please inform the noble families that I will be willing to become their guardian and see to their safety."

"You want to take responsibility for the unwanted noble children as well?" Ferdinand said with surprise.

"No one deserves to die the deaths that await them." Rin said, trying to seem as sympathetic as possible.

Really, her motives were less that she wanted to rescue the kids of the nobility, and more that she was wanting to raise a small army of individuals capable of handling basic magic tools, as well as train them to be her bloodhounds.

It was something she discovered with Shirou, that individuals who had higher magic power had a much more difficult time training their mage sense. So despite her being superior in almost every way as a magus, Rin's mage sense hadn't been able to hold a candle to Shirou's, as he had basically grown up with no magic power at all.

Now in her new body, she had a level of magic power so absurd that a Noble Phantasm could be fired off in front of her without her being able to properly sense it. Angelica and Brigitte were better, but still not good.

Rin wanted some fresh children who had embarrassingly low levels of magic power so that she could train them to sense magic power for her, as later on, they would be able to detect hidden enemies and track down Feybeasts for her.

"That will be expensive." Sylvester pointed out.

"I have the money. And if I don't, I'll find a way to make it." Rin said, not worried about the cost. Even if a hundred children showed up, she could still afford it. And it wasn't like there was a hundred noble children being allowed to slowly die at this very moment… right? I mean, there were only around three hundred noble families in all of Ehrenfest. How many unwanted children could they realistically produce?

God, if she got more than five or six kids she was going to be pissed.

Some people wanted to know a bit more about the Civil War and Purge from canon, so this is that.

The war was basically caused because the previous King had not decided on an heir until his two oldest sons were both in their forties and each had a massive backing developed. The First Prince decided to kill the Second to get the magic book and become King against his father's wishes and that is what caused everything to happen.

The purge not happening until a good time after the war, because the current King didn't want to kill his older brother, the loser of the war, and rebels who wanted to see the Fourth Prince freed and becoming the new King kidnapped the Fifth Prince's only daughter and the only child from his second wife (the one married for love instead of politics). The girl never makes an appearance or is mentioned in any other context for the story, so it is pretty safe to assume she is dead.