Chapter 331

The wives went to bathe, and Broly, this Scrubbing Master, came online as well; unsurprisingly, this drew another round of cursing from Karen, but seeing the boy's truly professional Scrubbing Master attitude as he scrubbed the others' bodies, Karen couldn't escape the fate of the Bathtub Bed either.

And for some reason, perhaps because her butt had been spanked, Broly discovered Karen's sensitive spots seemed to be on her buttocks.

By comparison, Rin Tohsaka's sensitive spots were on her long legs, especially the calf muscle just above her heels; a gentle rub there could make the girl look like she could barely take it.

"Pay more attention to keeping warm and exercising; if the Qi and Blood circulation in your legs were normal, you wouldn't have such a big reaction."

Regarding this situation, Broly, like an old master with many years of massage experience, made a sharp assessment of the girl's overly sensitive long legs.

Hearing this, Rin Tohsaka was somewhat speechless; it felt like seeing a doctor and receiving treatment, then listening to medical advice — the proper shy atmosphere was instantly gone.

After one bath, the four girls were dripping with fragrant sweat, and Broly also smoothly obtained 3 Happiness Value, plus 134 Happiness Points.

Adding today's Happiness Value gained from Ryougi Shiki's body, and the Happiness Points obtained from Sakura and the others who were already wives, it just barely balanced the Stay Fee with a surplus.

"Karen, what are you doing?"

After bathing and changing into new clothes, Sakura watched the Little Nun carry a basin into the bathroom and hurriedly asked.

"Washing clothes, of course; what else would I do?"

Karen looked at her somewhat strangely.

"Uh, hand wash?"

Sakura was a bit confused.

"What else?"

"Doesn't the Church have a washing machine?"

Rin Tohsaka leaned over to ask.

"What is that thing?"

Karen looked a bit doubtful, acting a bit unlike a modern person.

"Idiot, you don't even know a washing machine? It's a tool where you just put clothes in and it automatically washes them for you."

Illya mocked the Little Nun's ignorance from the side.

"Eh, there's such a convenient tool?"

The surprised expression on Karen's face wasn't fake.

"My Senior Brother is really unreliable."

Rin Tohsaka complained, but considering Kirei Kotomine's music-listening tool was still a vinyl record player from the previous generation, she felt it wasn't incomprehensible that Fuyuki Church lacked more modern machinery.

It's said some Magus Families, to maintain Mystery, are even willing to live an incredibly retro, secluded lifestyle.

"However, a washing machine can only wash outer clothes; as for close-fitting underwear, you still have to hand wash them yourself."

Sakura added a sentence, then noticed the fully dressed boy listening carefully nearby, looking interested in the washing machine.

"A washing machine needs electricity to run; Broly's home planet Wanpa Star probably doesn't have electricity, right?"

"Does lightning count?"

In a certain sense, Broly is more primitive than anyone; of the worlds he's been to so far, only two count as modernized.

One is the Type-Moon World, one is the Digital World; but the time he spent in the former, even including the time since returning to this world, totals only ten days as of today.

As for the latter, he mostly resided in the Digital World, so he didn't have much contact with modern appliances like washing machines.

In other words, his clothes were mostly hand-washed too; at most, there were many times when others were willing to help him wash.

The matter of washing clothes was settled as the two curious heads leaned close in front of the washing machine, watching Sakura skillfully operate it.

The small underwear were hand-washed; four girls, four pairs of small underwear, hung neatly in a row on the clothesline outside.

"Broly, where's your underwear?"

"I never wear underwear."

The boy answered Rin Tohsaka's question loudly.

"Because I have a tail, wearing underwear is uncomfortable."

He wagged his tail, explaining to the others that he had a legitimate reason for not wearing this thing.

"If there's underwear suitable for you, would you want it?"

Rin Tohsaka asked thoughtfully.

"Can try."

Broly was still quite willing to accept new things.

Night gradually deepened; it was time to sleep.

Five people entered the same room; when they closed the door, burrowed into the quilt, and prepared to sleep together, Rin Tohsaka had a strange feeling.

This differed somewhat from the scene she originally imagined of sleeping with the boy; in other words, what difference was there between this big-quilt communal sleeping in the current room and a student training camp during a school trip?

"Hey, are you all asleep?"

The girl spoke up to ask.

"No, what is it?"

This was Illya's voice.

"Then before we fall asleep, want to chat a bit?"

Rin Tohsaka proposed.

"Sure, but what about?"

Sakura agreed, immediately asking.

"Naturally our own affairs; something like sleeping in one room now, that naturally requires deepening mutual understanding and feelings."

Rin Tohsaka said as a matter of course, not waiting for the Little Nun at the other end to refuse, and a night chat session unfolded in the not-large room.

Since this was Rin Tohsaka's proposal, she took the lead to start; she spoke first about her own matters.

Where to start? Naturally from when she and her Younger Sister separated.

"My father was a rigid magus; to avoid wasting Little Sakura's talent, he adopted her out to the Matou Family, but in that family, Little Sakura did not live happily..."

"Not just unhappy — it was wretched to the extreme. I still remember what those worms looked like. Thankfully I met Brother Broly; he was the one who saved me."

Little Sakura interjected from the side to add to it; if she were still the Reserve Wife, her Happiness Value would definitely have risen by a dozen points or so right now.

"After the Holy Grail War, my father stopped forcing Little Sakura into another magus family and instead bought her a compatible magecraft inheritance.

Thinking back now, he did love Little Sakura, but alas, as a magus, he loved the opportunity to reach the Root even more. If not for the Holy Grail, perhaps we would still be sisters sharing a surname..."

Little Sakura neither affirmed nor denied her sister's words. As she grew older, she gained new insight into Tohsaka Tokiomi's past decision, but that did not mean she would be willing to forgive that man. By now she no longer bore the Tohsaka name, and that would not change in the future either.

"After graduating elementary school, the time I spent training magecraft gradually increased; it occupied almost all of my private time. Aside from normal school attendance, what I faced every day was a heavy load of magecraft training coursework.

In this regard, my father was a strict man; he hoped I would become accomplished, hoped I could take over the Tohsaka Family with the most outstanding posture.

Yet he overlooked that I am a person, so... I hated him very much..."

The pressure of the heavy magecraft coursework was the key factor in Rin Tohsaka's transformation from an obedient girl into a rebellious girl.

However, although she said she hated him, inside, Rin Tohsaka actually had some different thoughts.

As a father, Tohsaka Tokiomi certainly could not be called good.

But as a father among magi, he had already done everything possible.

Aside from Kiritsugu Emiya, such a father was rarely seen among magi.

Those who treat their children as tools — as instruments — are not nonexistent; in fact, that is the commonly seen attitude.

"Want me to go warn him for you?"

Broly asked; he was dedicated to beating up clueless old geezers.

"That won't be necessary. After he found out you returned, he didn't meddle with me much anymore."

Rin Tohsaka guessed this was because her own father was afraid of being beaten by the boy again.

Rin Tohsaka finished her topic.

The room fell into silence; for a while no one spoke.

"Come on, I shared my situation, yet you all stay silently mute — are you making me perform a one-man show?"

Rin Tohsaka complained.

"Then it's my turn next. I grew up living in a huge castle. Father and Mother accompanied me for a time, but after the Holy Grail War broke out, I lost them..."

Karen took up the thread and spoke of her own circumstances; in her life, ever since her parents left her side, things had become fraught with hardship.

Alone in a vast room, the Einzbern Family people did not care for her; they treated her as a tool.

And body modification ran through her entire childhood. Her only reliance was the Crystal Palace Panel; Karen treated it as a relic left by her parents.

Of course, later learning her father wasn't dead and had never thought of abandoning her — that was what made her feel joy.

"Afterward, when my dad rescued me, he took me on a journey to seek medical treatment. He was always worried I wouldn't grow up, always hoped I could grow up healthy like a normal person.

Truth is, although I kept comforting my dad that it didn't matter if I didn't grow, inside I also feared suddenly leaving this world one day.

I don't know what death is like; I simply fear parting from my family. There are maids who look after me at home, an obedient younger brother, Aunt Maiya who is like a mother to me, and Broly, Little Sakura, and you, Big Sister Rin — all of this makes me a little reluctant to let go.

Fortunately, I've swapped bodies now and have completely escaped my body's defects — though I may be stuck looking like this from now on."

Karen spoke of heavy matters in a light, cheerful voice, and her optimism made Rin Tohsaka unconsciously scoot over and hug her.

The Little Nun was somewhat silent. She was full of hostility toward Karen, but now, listening to the girl recount her past life, she found no place in her that could generate hostility.

That's right — her own father's disability might have been caused by the other girl's father, but what does that have to do with a girl who suffers a similarly afflicted body?

Karen felt confusion. Amid the confusion, Little Sakura then finished her own account — after the Holy Grail War, she was taken in by the Fujimura Family as an adoptive granddaughter, and she spoke of a somewhat ordinary person's life.

Although she practiced magecraft, it was only a superficial dabble; the purpose was not to cause trouble for those around her because of her own magical aptitude.

Likewise, she only wanted to share a common topic with her Big Sister, so that when Big Sister came over she could ask her about magecraft knowledge and let Rin Tohsaka gain a sense of accomplishment as an older sister.

Knowing this truth, Rin Tohsaka's evaluation of her Little Sister Sakura was a six — that's how much emotional value she had pulled.

It directly became the most important reason she persisted through the period in middle school when she hated magecraft training the most.

That's right; part of the reason Rin Tohsaka trained magecraft daily without cease was to better guide Little Sakura's magecraft level.

"Look, Big Sister is amazing, right!"

The motivation to practice magecraft brought by the identity package of "Big Sister" was even greater than that of the identity "Tohsaka Family Heir." The former stemmed from a fierce desire to maintain the image of 【Big Sister is a super amazing magus】 — a matter of self-esteem; the latter was a passive responsibility brought by identity.

Rin Tohsaka's current magecraft craft approaching a first-year Clock Tower level was entirely the result of the emotional value Little Sakura pulled; if even a little less emotional value had been provided, she would not have worked this hard to hone her abilities as a magus.

Of course, Rin Tohsaka's diligent magecraft practice wasn't only for these two reasons; there was also the fact that deep down she had always felt guilt over failing to protect her Little Sister during childhood. She didn't want such a thing to happen again, so she needed powerful strength and magecraft skill surpassing her own father's.

However, to circle back, after the Crystal Palace achieved cross-world communication, this tension eased, and now that Broly has returned, Rin Tohsaka has completely relaxed — because the matter of protecting her Little Sister no longer needs to rely on her alone; there is also the boy to depend on.

After Little Sakura finished speaking, the room fell into silence again. Just as Broly was preparing to open his mouth and tell his own otherworld transmigration story, Little Sakura spoke up and asked Karen to tell her story as well.

The late-night chat atmosphere was already in full swing. The Little Nun merely hesitated a moment, then began recounting her own life — and her life was also full of hardship.

When she had just turned one year old, her mother committed suicide; the purpose was merely to prove that her father (Kirei Kotomine) loved her.

"That was a pitiful woman. I heard my grandfather say that when she died, my father didn't shed a single tear for her."

"Thanks to her suicide, I could not receive the Church's baptism, because suicide violates doctrine; consequently, my very birth was deemed a sin."

"No, what does that have to do with you?"

In the dim room, the girls all widened their eyes, lying prone and turning their bodies toward Karen's direction to look.

"I don't know either, but that's just how it is. I lost my mother and was treated as a sinner, and because my father had to participate in the Holy Grail War, he handed me over to a monastery, where I was looked after by the nannies there.

And they really were quite good at 'looking after' people. From as far back as I can remember, I suffered who knows how many whip lashings, and alongside the other children I learned the abilities to wash clothes, cook, and care for people.

At age four, I suddenly learned I still had a father, was taken out of the monastery, came to this side of Fuyuki City, met my wheelchair-bound father and my smiling, seemingly kindly grandfather, and began a new life of caring for a cripple and an old man."

The Little Nun's sharp tongue was still in full play; she unceremoniously called her father a cripple and her already-deceased grandfather an old man.

But in the room, no one objected to her terms; on the contrary, the others were even more shocked by her life.

"Your father and grandfather — how could they treat you like that?"

Karen was quite indignant. Even she had experienced her parents' love for her; even after they left, being used as a tool by the Einzbern Family, she was still the one being cared for.

However, Karen had been the one taking care of others since she could remember; there was not a shred of parental love, and her life had been far more miserable than even Sakura's.

"I feel they treated me pretty well; at least, after being taken out of the monastery and returning to my father and grandfather, the only clothes I needed to wash were two pieces."

Karen didn't mind; happiness is something that requires comparison — compared to the situation in the monastery where she was often beaten, after being taken back to her father's side she wasn't beaten anymore; wasn't that a kind of happiness?

"Your father, my Senior Brother, he was far worse than my father."

Rin Tohsaka evaluated.

"I don't deny that point."

The Little Nun did not refute.

"Karen-chan, your father didn't take good care of you, but you still want to be hostile toward Ilya because of him?"

Little Sakura asked.

"I don't want to either, but he is my father after all, and Ilya's father crippled my father; their grudge has passed down to our generation — that's normal, isn't it?"

Karen said it against her true feelings; after learning about Ilya's life, she wasn't really hostile toward her anymore, but on the surface she definitely had to persist in being hostile.

"Wait, your father was crippled by her father, but you were taken out of the monastery precisely because your father was crippled and needed someone to take care of him, right?"

Rin Tohsaka discovered the blind spot and asked.

And her words directly made the Little Nun freeze in a daze.

Yeah, if her father wasn't crippled, how could she have been taken back?

If she wasn't taken back, wouldn't what awaited her still be the monastery's miserable life?

In other words, Ilya's father was the enemy who crippled her own father, but he was also the benefactor who let her break free from the monastery's sea of suffering.

"Ugh..."

In the dim room, Karen lying in the quilt wore a conflicted expression.

What does this count as; does she still need to avenge her father or not?

"Where is that monastery? I'll go solve them for you."

At this time, Broly spoke.

Note: Karen should have been adopted and raised by the Priest, then went to the monastery later, but here it was modified for the sake of the plot.