Chapter 5: Einzberns (Part 1)
Well, what can I say? The Einzbern's Castle was truly a sight to behold. When we pulled up the place, there were already several maids there to greet us. Each one of them had a similar face and their facial features were also similar. They all had off-white hair and red eyes, though the most striking thing about this was that they were beautiful.
I had already kinda adjusted to the semi-anime nature of the world. One of the biggest things that I noticed was that the overall attractiveness of women in particular was exceptionally high. There really wasn't any 'average' looking women, only extremely attractive or very ugly. Even so, these homunculi were exceptionally attractive, however, I also noticed that they were all female.
We stepped out of the car while one of the maids took the keys from my father, acting as a chauffeur.
"Greetings, Lords and Lady Arcana. It has been too long." I heard a voice coming from behind the wall of maids. After a moment, the wall of white hair and ruby eyes parted to reveal an even more stunning woman.
"My! Iri! It's been forever! How have you been?" My mother said as she walked up to her and hugged her tightly.
"Hmm! Olvia, it's been almost six years, that's far too long! Us Einzberns don't like to wait on people you know! If you took any longer, I'd start to hate you." Irisviel stated playfully with puffed-up cheeks and a slight red blush.
'Ah! Sorry Sorry! My son was born about six years ago and his... gifts... are a bit much. We couldn't let him travel outside too much so supermom had to be his only friend." Mother said, coming up with a lame excuse.
"Oy!" I yelled.
Irisviel leaned over to her side looking past my mother to stare at me for a moment. For a few seconds, there was an awkward pause before Irisviel smiled brightly and nodded.
"Yup! I can see why you'd want to keep him to yourself. He's quite the looker!" Irisviel said, completely ignoring my complaints.
"Excuse me, my lady. the master is waiting inside." one of the homunculi maids said, drawing Irisviel's attention.
"Ah! That's right. It's not winter yet, but it's still chilly out here. Come in! Come in!"
I looked at my father who sighed exasperatedly. It seems not letting my mother socialize enough has led to her over-socializing when the opportunity arrived.
We were led through the hallways of the castle, being guided by two maids. My mother and Irisviel paired off and went to another room to discuss less important matters while my father and I were led to the main meeting hall.
"Please have a seat and relax. The master will be with you momentarily" The maid emotionlessly said as she exited the room. Another maid entered through a side door and brought tea and some kind of biscuit for us to nibble on while we wait.
"I see. That old fox got us good."
"What do you mean father?" I asked.
"Normally Jubstacheit is a rather prudent man. In all my years that I have known him, never once have I had to wait to meet with him, even if only for a moment. If that's the case, then he's probably got something planned for us, probably because he didn't know I would be bringing you along."
"I see..." I started but held my tongue as the door to the room opened.
An old man entered and walked over to us gracefully. My father and I both immediately got up from our seats to greet him. I did a little bow while my father shook his hand. Beside him was a child Illya, looking a bit stiff. I could see that her hair was still a bit wet and that her clothes were put on hastily, as the shirt she was wearing was wrinkled a bit and her skirt was slightly off-center. It appeared as though she was dressed and washed in a hurry.
"Lord Einzbern. It is a pleasure to meet you again. Thank you for hearing my request on such short notice." My father said in a courteous tone.
The old man smiled a bit, though it wasn't a genuine smile, but more of a smile that a businessman would give. "No no, Lord Arcana, the honor is all mine. A meeting with the Arcana Family is exceptionally rare. Even Lords of the Clock Tower are unable to meet you so often, so being able to see you again and in only a few years is truly a blessing."
'Wow dude, did you just call my family shut-in NEETs politely?' I thought. After a moment, I turned to look at Illya who was still fidgeting a bit. It seems my father saw me looking and decided now would be a good time to introduce us.
"Ah! Pardon me. This is my son, Anos Arcana. He is the heir to the Arcana family. Anos, this man is Jubstacheit von Einzburn and his grandneice Illyasviel von Einzbern." My father said, introducing us.
I did a slight bow. "It is my honor, Lord and Lady Einzbern," I said.
"The pleasure is ours," Jubstacheit stated while Ilya did a little curtsy. "Now the, shall we get down to business?"
"Indeed"
As we all took a seat, I saw that Illya was looking at me a lot more than normal. She didn't seem too fluster but seemed more curious and a bit judgemental. She was looking me up and down with a serious expression. It didn't take a genius to put two and two together and find out why.
Jubstacheit being late after noticing I was arriving with my parents, Irisviel stalling for time while talking to us outside, Illya's clothes that looked like they were put on in a rush, but also that suited her to make her look cute. Finally, with the conversation, I heard in the car about the last time my mother saw her 'friend' Irisviel being when Jubstacheit tried to pawn her off in an arranged marriage in order to bring in the Arcana family's magecraft.
'I see. So that old man probably told her I was one of her marriage candidates and had her quickly change into something to suit her, hoping to draw me in with a childhood crush. Not bad, old man.' i thought.
As if to prove my hypothesis, Jubstacheit then turned to Illya and me. "Why don't you two go and play together now? It's a rare opportunity for someone around Illya's age to visit and as the next head of the Einzbern family, making connection is important, right?" He asked, but it was more of a command.
My father was about to say something, but I put my hand on his leg and shook my head. "That is a fine idea. Let's go play, Lady Einzbern." I said as I got up from the couch and liked over to her.
I lightly grabbed her hand and led her outside the room, though it's not like she put up any resistance as she let me drag her out.
...
(POV Ventus Arcana)
I watched as my son calmly led that young Einzbern girl out the door. It always surprises me how mature and calm he is at almost all times. Even just now, I was about to lecture this old fart in front of me about trying to pawn off another one of his grandchildren to me before Anos stopped me.
I sighed a bit looking at the closed door before turning back to my old nemesis Jubstacheit von Einzbern. "That was dirty you know."
"There doesn't seem to be a problem. Your son seems to be a bit more quick-witted than you were at that age." He replied a bit sternly.
"Indeed, Anos is my pride and joy. He has already excelled in all of his studies and will soon surpass me in his knowledge of magecraft. it is almost time to pass on my family crest to him."
(A/N: Anos has already surpassed his father and the father knows this, he is just putting on a front to hide the true genius of his son to a stranger.)
"Hoo, then is it not time for him to find a partner then? Illya is a half-homunculus, so there would be no problems in having children later on, though it seems as though her body develops a bit slower than normal, there is nothing physically wrong with her in that regard." Jubstacheit replied.
"That's why I never liked you, you know. You treat everyone around you like toys or pawns in your game to get what you want." I replied with a bit of venom in my voice.
The old bastard simply smirked at me before taking a sip of tea. "That is why you of the Arcana family were never invited to the Holy Grail Wars despite your abnormally large mana pools making you ideal masters for servants and your magecraft being among the strongest in the Moonlit world. You're all too soft. We are magus' things like children are only useful as tools for our own ambitions and to pass on our Crests to if we fail to reach the ROOt before they mature. You'll never reach the ROOt that way."
"*tsk* The Arcana Family Magecraft is already at the pinnacle of what magecraft can achieve. We simply do not desire the ROOT as we know it is pointless."
"Is it now... well, enough of this boring conversation. If we don't cut off our conversation soon, we'll go around in circles for hours, just like we did in the lecture halls of the Clock Tower."
"Fine. I think you know why I called for you, or more specifically, why I wanted to arrange a meeting with the Einzberns." I replied, dropping the schemes of the old man for the moment.
"Indeed. You want a Homunculus. If I had to guess, you want one to protect your son and act as his assistant."
"Yeah. My family's specialty Metamorphosis Magecraft is capable of creating Homunculi as well, but none of us have the experience necessary to make one with the prowess of the Einzberns."
"Is that so? In that case, I'm assuming you want one without a personality then. Spirit Magecraft is capable of producing artificial egos to a much higher degree than the programming we have right?"
"Yeah. We can also do our own modifications on him or her, however, we need something to work on, a base if you will. the higher the quality of said base ingredients, the more we can modify." I replied. It bothered me to call a homunculus 'ingredients' but in the end, that's all that I really want. I'd rather not have to deal with modifying anything 'alive'.
"Ho? It's not like you to treat something that looks so human as nothing more than ingredients, even if that's what they really are. Your breaking character."
"can you prepare it or not?" i asked a bit impatient. The two of us looked at each other for a while before the old man sighed and took another sip of his tea.
"Very well, however, for the matter of payment-"
"How much are we talking for a top-of-the-line model without an ego, preferably an adult." I interrupted him.
"Hmph. We don't want money and don't worry, we aren't going to force your son to marry Illya either. there is something else I could use your skills for."
I narrowed my eyes. "What do you want then?"
"How much do you know about the Holy Grail War?"
"That ridiculous ritual in Fuyuki? I know all I need to-"
"Not that one." Jubstacheit interrupted me with a serious tone.
I also narrowed my eyes. "What do you mean?"
"Next year, there should be another cyclical Holy Grail War occurring in Fuyuki, as sixty years have already passed, however..." Jubstacheit reached over and gestured to the maid standing by the door.
She then proceeded to reach onto a table nearby and pick up a stack of documents. She walked over elegantly and handed them to Jubstacheit, who in turn, after checking the front page over for a bit to make sure this was the right document, handed them to me.
"What are these and what do they have to do with the Holy Grail War?" I asked as I began skimming the first few paragraphs.
It seemed to be the report from a certain spy.
"Someone has stolen the blueprints for the Holy Grail Ritual from the Matous. They are planning to conduct a ritual in Tokyo that is almost identical to our ritual in Fuyuki. From our reports, it will occur in the first half of the year, whereas the Fuyuki war is predicted to start around October or November." He explained.
"Then... this!" I started, a bit panicked.
"Yes. As the ritual was stolen, none of the original Holy Grail Families are able to interfere, however, if it's the Arcana family..."
"No! I won't participate in this bloodbath!"
"You don't have to. I simply wish for you to use your family's talents to disrupt the ritual and discover the culprit who stole the blueprints. I don't care what you do with them. Return them, burn them, keep them for your records, it doesn't matter. I know the Arcana family has no intention of reaching the ROOT. Since you don't I can trust you won't use it and close off the path that we Einzberns have been after for the last 200 years.
However, if someone is victorious in this 'Tokyo Holy Grail War', then all that our family has worked for since the time of Christ will be for naught, as no path to the ROOT can be tread twice. The cost of your materials is this."
"Even so, why would I ever accept a request like this? Especially from someone like you! A mere homunculus isn't worth my life!" I replied. there was no way I would ever accept a dangerous job like that when my child is so young.
"I said it before. Not even the Lords of the Clock Tower can easily get a meeting with you, however, when you asked for a meeting with me, another party whose goals align ith ours called in a favor" He replied with a smirk.
"Indeed, the old man is truly talented when it comes to playing all sides, ensuring everything is to his advantage." I heard a feminine voice from the now open doorway. A beautiful young woman, probably no older than her late teens entered. She had long brunet hair tied neatly in a bun, brown eyes, and a stern look on her face.
I grit my teeth a bit. It was the rising star of the Clock Tower and the Vice-Director of the Department of Policies.
"Lady Barthomeloi Lorelei..."
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Golden_Slime
Golden_Slime Part one of at least two.
How did you like my hook for the Tokyo Holy Grail War? Is it too much? Are you excited?
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