By the time Shinji woke up from his coma, it was already the afternoon of the next day.
The warm sunlight filtered through the half-open curtains, through the transparent glass, and fell on the delicate, non-human woman, giving the pure white woman a layer of sacred glow, making her look like the legendary saint who carried out God's will.
This was the first scene Shinji saw after he opened his eyes. The surprise and shock that went straight to the bottom of his heart instantly dispelled the haziness of his consciousness and the stiffness of his body.
"Good morning, no, good afternoon, Justisa." Shinji got out of bed and stretched lazily facing the sun.
"Good afternoon, Shinji."
Justisa closed the book in her hand. It was not a collection of books related to magic, nor was it a heavy tome. It was just an ordinary magazine. After leaving the Holy Grail system, the "Winter Saint" who had been isolated from the world for many years began to understand the world in her own way. Reading books and newspapers became her hobbies.
"How's the situation at home?" Shinji walked into the bathroom and asked while squeezing toothpaste.
"Nothing has changed since before." Justisa pushed open the window, and a breeze blew through, taking away the turbidity that had accumulated over the past dozen hours and bringing in fresh air. "Just as you planned, I have used hints to blur Sakura's memory of last night. No one except you, your father, and your uncle will know about Zang Yan's death."
"Thank you, you've worked hard." Shinji said vaguely while biting his toothbrush.
"No need to thank me, this is also part of the contract." Even though she has emotions and humanity, Justisa's style still tends to be cold.
"From my point of view, I still want to thank you. It's up to you whether you accept it or not." It has been quite some time since Shinji and Justisa signed the contract. He has long been accustomed to her coldness and doesn't care about it.
Justisa didn't care about Shinji's reaction and continued, "While you were resting, your father and uncle came to see you twice. They still have doubts about Zou Yan's death and hope you can give them an explanation."
"It's as expected. After all, the shadow that has shrouded the Matou family since birth is something that everyone would be afraid of. Without your help, even if I had obtained Perseus's Noble Phantasm and successfully destroyed Zouken's body and soul, I would still be uneasy. Even now, I want to confirm with you once more - is Zouken really dead?"
Even so, Shinji's face remained calm and terribly so.
From the first day he found out that he had traveled through time and space and became Shinji, he had been acting. In the early stage, it was to protect himself and not let Zonken see his secret. After meeting Yustiza, it was to prepare to kill Zonken.
Over the past few months, he forced himself to remain calm in the face of emergencies and to stay cool, and it gradually became an instinct.
"Dead." Justisa confirmed, "Machiri Zorgen, also known as Matou Zouken, has completely disappeared from this world."
"Really? That's good."
Shinji raised his head and looked at himself in the mirror and Yustisa in the mirror.
"He's dead, but the Matou family he founded will continue to develop, and it will be even busier than before."
Shinji said similar words again ten minutes later, to his father Matou Tsuruno and uncle Matou Kariya.
Matou Tsuruno, the nominal head of the Matou family, is like the original Shinji. He does not have any qualifications as a magician and has never been trained by Zōken. He is just a leader in name only, usually responsible for assistant-level clerical work, and the real power is still in the hands of Zōken.
However, this is not a bad thing for Tsuruno. Regardless of being a nominal leader or hating the magic, as long as he wants to get the assets of the Matou family and a carefree life, it is not a bad deal. It's just that sometimes the pressure is a bit great, and he often lives a life of drunkenness and dreams.
It is worth mentioning that there is no information about Shinji's mother either in Shinji's memory or in Tsuruno's life.
Perhaps that woman had already died, or perhaps Shinji's birth was just a deal manipulated by Zou Yan in order to give birth to a qualified heir to the family - this is also good, at least you don't have to worry about a woman appearing and asking you to call her mom.
Matou Kariya, the only member of Shinji's uncle's generation who has some qualities as a magician, was originally the current head of the Matou family chosen by Zouken. However, eleven years ago, Kariya resolutely broke free from the shackles of his family and left the home that was like purgatory to him because he could not agree with the ugly insect art and did not want to be Zouken's puppet.
Of course, Kariya's successful departure from home was also related to Zouken's indulgence. From Zouken's point of view, although Kariya's magic circuits were slightly better than Tsuruno's, it was not to the extent that he had to take away his free will to make him the next head of the family, and this incident became one of the reasons why Sakura was adopted into the Matou family.
Ironically, if the original world line continues to develop, Kariya will return to the home he has left for many years because Sakura enters the Matou family, and hopes to save Sakura who has fallen into the insect cave at the cost of sacrificing himself - after all, Sakura is the child of the only woman Kariya has loved in his life, and he loves her and loves her too.
However, this sacrifice ultimately gained nothing. Kariya died, and Sakura became Zōken's puppet, beginning a ten-year period of miserable life.
Fortunately, all this has changed. The biggest culprit, the root of all the blame, is dead.
The self-destruction of all the engraved bugs in the insect nest, the gradual failure of the magician's workshop built by Zōken, and the disappearance of the rotten smell that shrouded the house all pointed to the exhilarating fact of Zōken's death.
Shinji watched his father in a daze and his uncle going crazy for a while before he clapped his hands to calm them both down.
"No matter how you feel, Zōken is dead, but we have to continue to live. Thanks to Zōken's accumulation, the Matou family has an excellent platform. If we want to live well, the Matou family's platform cannot be wasted, so - father, uncle, I need your help."
"You/Shinji—?" It was not until this time that the two brothers focused their attention on Shinji and the woman behind Shinji who suddenly appeared in the Matou family.
The two brothers have been working in society for many years and are not fools. They naturally know that you get what you put in.
Being able to kill Zouken means that Shinji, no, that unknown woman, is as powerful as Zouken or even stronger than Zouken. What does such a person want from the Matou family? Can the Matou family afford to give Zouken after losing Zouken? Will they escape from the tiger's mouth and fall into the wolf's den again
At this moment, the brothers who had not seen each other for a long time forgot about the unfamiliarity, and forgot about the unpleasantness of last night and this morning (after all, Tsuruno was knocked down by Kariya before), and asked with an unprecedented solemn expression:
"What do you need us to do?"
PS: Shinji's mother comes from a family of inherited bacteria preservers, and there is not much information about her.
PS2: Inherited Bacteria Preservators - a magical property that has been passed down from the mythological era to the present, and is different from magic circuits. Rather than being inherited through bloodline, it is more like being engraved in one's own blood through the transmission of pathogens from generation to generation. The explanation of a certain researcher is more reliable - a family that can preserve a certain mysterious bloodline in the form of parasitic bacteria.