The Matou mansion was large, but Matou Sakura’s bedroom was small.
This room, less than thirty square meters, was her last home.
Apart from some basic furniture and a teddy bear on the bedside, the entire room had almost no other decorations.
The teddy bear was a gift from Matou Shinji, and it was Sakura’s favorite doll now.
If not for Zouken Matou, even if Sakura had been adopted into the Matou Family, her childhood would not have been so tragic.
“Cough, cough… cough…”
Matou Sakura lay on her bed. She didn't know how much time had passed until she coughed twice, a trace of dark red blood appearing at the corner of her mouth, and slowly regained consciousness.
Ever since the Crest Worms were implanted in her body, the intermittent sharp pain and the act of coughing up blood due to damaged internal organs had become something Sakura was used to.
Sakura’s magic attribute was Imaginary Numbers. In order to fit the Matou Family’s Magecraft and to allow Sakura to later bear offspring more suited to insect Magecraft, her Magic Circuits had been undergoing modification by Crest Worms for the year she had been there.
Day after day, she spent her time in the dim insect chamber.
For the first three days after Zouken Matou sent her into the insect chamber, she cried continuously. By the fourth day, her voice was hoarse and she couldn't even make a sound.
After realizing she had truly been abandoned by her parents, and that no one would come to save her, with everything beyond help, Sakura chose to seal off her heart, silently enduring the suffering that befell her.
As Sakura opened her eyes, her empty, dim gaze scanned the three people standing by her window.
She recognized the one in the lead; that was her uncle, Matou Kariya, who became her adoptive father in the Matou Family.
At this moment, his eyes shimmered with tears of joy, and he looked at her with a happy expression.
Seeing Sakura wake up, Matou Kariya gently wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth and held her in his arms, leaving Sakura utterly bewildered, not knowing what had happened.
Matou Kariya had never told Sakura about his desire to save her, so she had no idea what Kariya was doing when he ran out at night, let alone anything about the Holy Grail War.
So, in Matou Sakura’s eyes, this was a strange uncle who inexplicably came to the Matou Family, then inexplicably entered the insect chamber with her to be bitten by insects, accompanied her in the insect chamber for a year, which caused his face to become stiff and his muscles to necrotize, and his hair to turn white.
Matou Sakura was held uncomfortably by the excited Matou Kariya. She coughed twice again, found she couldn’t break free from Matou Kariya’s embrace, and could only raise her slender little hand herself to wipe away the blood from the corner of her mouth again. Then, with an empty, lifeless gaze, she looked at the two figures who had never appeared in the Matou Family before her and asked, “Who are you?”
“Of course, we are the ones who saved you. That old bug who abused you has already been killed by Darling.” Nyarlathotep looked Matou Sakura up and down. “Hmm… whether from a physiological or mystical perspective, that disgusting old bug has already been beaten to smithereens by my Darling. Not only is his body dead, but even his soul has been ‘scattered’ by Darling. Now, even if someone uses ‘Resurrection of the Dead’ type Magecraft, they can’t pull that disgusting old bug out of the underworld.”
Old bug, scattered soul, dead… several keywords flashed through Matou Sakura’s mind.
“Grandpa… is dead?”
Matou Sakura’s empty, lifeless eyes stared into Nyarlathotep’s pupils. Although her heart was practically leaping with excitement, her voice remained clear and cold.
The prolonged cruel torment had made Sakura almost forget joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness. The innocent girl who once frolicked like a puppy behind Rin was long gone.
Even with the greatest news before Sakura, her sealed heart prevented her from showing any excited or thrilled expression.
Looking at Sakura, who still had an empty, expressionless face, Chen Yu rubbed Matou Sakura’s small head and comforted her, “That’s right, the old guy who bullied you has been killed by me. I can guarantee that old bug won’t appear before you again, so Sakura doesn’t have to be afraid anymore…”
After hearing Chen Yu’s words, Matou Sakura looked at the black-haired young man.
A ripple finally appeared in her empty, lifeless eyes, and crystal tears slowly flowed from her dim pupils.
“Grandpa… Grandpa is dead… Does that mean Sakura won’t be bullied by bugs anymore?”
She thought her tears had dried up a year ago, but she hadn’t expected that upon hearing the news of the death of that “Grandpa whose orders absolutely could not be defied,” she could still squeeze so many tears from her dry tear ducts.
Matou Sakura finally understood why Uncle Kariya was so excited. Her voice began to tremble slightly, tears continuously flowed from her eyes, and she hugged Matou Kariya, crying loudly and uncontrollably.
Zouken Matou was dead, and the darkness that had pressed down on the Matou Family for hundreds of years finally dissipated.
Matou Sakura could also live a normal life. How could this not excite Matou Kariya?
Watching the tear-streaked uncle and niece, Chen Yu and Nyarlathotep left the room.
Ignoring Matou Tsuruno, who was lying on the tatami, drunkenly incoherent, and the seaweed-haired boy who was peeking at the hallway from behind the bedroom door, trembling, Chen Yu led Nyarlathotep to the Matou Family’s study.
The old bug’s study was filled with books, all handwritten unique copies passed down through generations within the Matou Family, and also the cornerstone of the Matou Family’s Magecraft revival.
Looking at the densely packed secret tomes unique to the Matou Family in the study, Chen Yu picked up a book and quickly flipped through it, not forgetting to use the system to take pictures and record the information in the book.
He was not interested in whether the Matou Family could revive in the magical world, but he was very interested in the Matou Family’s Magecraft.
The attribute of the Matou Family’s Magi through generations was water, and its characteristic was absorption.
As for the Crest Worms, they were merely Zouken Matou’s personal familiars.
Besides the breeding and cultivation of insects, the Matou Family’s secret texts mostly recorded how to seize Magecraft from others, or books on how to restrict an opponent’s actions by absorbing power.
On a small scale, the result of the Matou Family’s Magecraft was the Book of the False Attendant.
Consuming one Command Spell, it creates a Book of the False Attendant that allows a Master to transfer authority, and also allows the holder to cast some low-level Magecraft.
On a larger scale, it was the Command Spell system of the Holy Grail War. The entire Holy Grail War’s Command Spell system was invented and created by Zouken Matou based on his family’s Magecraft.
Nyarlathotep floated in the air, wrapping her arms around Chen Yu’s neck, rubbing his cheek as she said, “Darling, what do you plan to do with that girl named Sakura?”
Chen Yu turned a page of the book; Nyarlathotep’s embrace did not hinder his reading.
He patted Nyarlathotep’s small head and said, “I should let Sakura continue studying at the Matou Family. After all, with the old bug gone from the Matou Family, Sakura won’t suffer inhumane torment there anymore. Giving a person a fish is not as good as teaching them how to fish. Continuing to let Sakura learn Magecraft will also give her the power to protect herself.”
“Moreover, the worms inside Sakura are only temporarily stable. Although Sakura’s physical condition is much better than Matou Kariya’s, and her vital organs haven’t been replaced by worms, removing the worm in her heart still requires your help, Nyarlathotep…”
After checking Matou Sakura’s physical condition earlier, Chen Yu also breathed a sigh of relief.
Unlike Matou Kariya, who self-destructively enhanced his strength with his life force, Matou Sakura at this time had only been trained by Zouken Matou for a year. She did not have a large number of worms in her body like she would a few years later; currently, only her heart had a Crest Worm implanted.
As long as the Crest Worm was removed from Sakura’s heart, Sakura’s body would basically be fine.
It was precisely for this reason that Chen Yu needed Nyarlathotep’s x-ray vision and spatial power.
Chen Yu was explaining his reasoning to Nyarlathotep, but before he finished, he felt a slight tremor in the ground.
Looking at the slightly shaking bookshelf, Chen Yu was a little puzzled.
“Is this… an earthquake?”