Chapter 23 – Holy Grail War.
When Rias and Issei finished eating sometime later, they were already preparing to leave, but Nahida stopped them.
"Before you leave, I want to ask you something," Nahida said to Rias.
"Hm?"
"Could you 'advertise' my hotel a bit? I need more customers. That would be of great help."
"We can tell our friends about the hotel, but I don't know if it will help much," Issei replied in Rias' place.
"That's good enough. Tell them that whoever comes under your referral will get a discount."
"Alright, I'll talk to a few people. Oh, and thanks a lot for letting me in. It was the only place around that seemed to be open."
"This is a hotel; I wouldn't stop you from going in. And be careful; you might end up hurting yourselves more seriously in the future." Nahida wanted to give them a warning. They would go through a lot together.
"I'll be careful." Rias and Issei left the hotel.
As they walked through the streets of an alternative Japan, Rias commented to Issei how nice Nahida was. However, he was unhappy with Rias complimenting Nahida's looks and personality.
"What? Are you jealous?" Rias sneered at Issei.
"Of course not!"
Issei quickened his steps, and Rias let out a sigh.
"He is a nice guy." She glanced at Issei's back and instinctively started comparing the two. "Issei should learn a bit from him." Issei was someone who got angry easily and was also quite impulsive. Unlike him, Nahida was calm, seemed mature, and always smiled.
Rias wanted to stay at his hotel again in the future. But she did not want to return to the hotel because of his appearance and personality.
'It felt like we were in another dimension inside that hotel. That hotel makes me very curious." Rias hadn't said anything about it to Issei, but she felt something strange in that hotel.
And she only realized there was something wrong when she was already leaving.
Inside that place, she lost total contact with her "servants".
Also, the enemy they faced stopped chasing them as if they had disappeared. More than just hiding inside a building was needed to fool those guys.
The hotel worked as a barrier that hid Rias. What was that man hiding?
Rias thought that as he walked alongside Issei toward Kuoh Academy.
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Shirou arrived that same afternoon but brought a girl along this time—a young woman with aqua eyes and long wavy brown hair in a two-side-up.
She wore a uniform and a big red coat. She carried a bag, unlike Shirou, who had left his bag at the academy that day. He was also wearing a uniform.
As soon as the two entered, Nahida greeted them.
"It's a pleasure to meet you. My name is Rin Tohsaka."
"Shirou told me about you."
"Huh?" Shirou had only said that a friend was coming to the hotel, he didn't say anything about Rin, so he was a little confused by Nahida's words.
"You can sit at one of the tables. Would you like some tea or coffee to drink? Or something to eat?"
"Don't worry about me; I'm only staying briefly. I came here because I needed to talk to Shirou. I should have come here yesterday, but I was busy." Rin sat down.
"Can I sit down and talk to her for a bit? I promise I'll clean up quickly after I finish this conversation. It's very important." Shirou asked Nahida.
"I don't mind. But you'll have to work hard after you're done." Nahida wanted to stay nearby to listen to them talk, but he thought it would be rude. So he entered the kitchen and asked Lucky to prepare tea for them.
Even if Rin didn't want to, he wanted to give them something to drink. And he also wanted to use that as an excuse to approach the table.
Lucky prepared the tea quickly, and Nahida returned to the table where the two were. Nahida approached slowly to hear as much of the conversation between the two as possible. And as he imagined, they were talking about the war.
Apparently, the holy grail war was about to begin. Shirou had even summoned Saber.
'And even though he's in the middle of this mess, he's coming here to work?' He's really strange. Nahida approached the table and served the tea to the two.
"Thank you." Rin smiled at Nahida. She was a pretty girl and had mature traces for her age. Nahida knew she could sometimes be childish, but she was also mature.
Especially because of the tragic history of her family.
'Speaking of which, is Sakura okay?' Nahida even thought that the friend Shirou would bring to the hotel was Sakura, but that wasn't the case.
Nahida went to the reception and sat down while Shirou and Rin seriously discussed the holy grail war. Nahida could hear some of the conversation. He realized they weren't as allied as he had thought and that the situation was tense.
Nahida wondered if Illya, Gilgamesh, or other characters would arrive at his hotel.
'Hearing all this... I'm looking forward to watching this war. It would be possible if I went to Shirou's world.' But Nahida could end up dead if he did something stupid. Still, he kept thinking about it.
He liked the Fate franchise and also Kara no Kyokai. He wasn't the biggest fan of both works, but visiting that world would be an amazing experience.
'I'll think about it more.' Nahida rested his chin on his hand and looked at his hotel door, waiting for new guests to arrive. And a few minutes later, the bell above the door jingled.
New customers had arrived. New customers and characters that Nahida liked a lot.