Shinji Matou at Your Service

Shinji was stunned.

Forget about Ciel for a moment; he had already guessed the situation. The problem lay with the other new member.

What did she say her name was? Caren Hortensia? Isn't that the name of the heroine from Fate/Hollow Ataraxia, the daughter of the infamous priest Kotomine Kirei?

That's right, the notorious tax evader (or pleasure seeker) was indeed married. The time was around 1985, when Kirei was still young, hadn't yet met Gilgamesh, and was grappling with a life devoid of normal human emotions. To change that, Kirei made a final effort: he chose to marry a woman.

This woman was Claudia Hortensia, an Italian who was terminally ill when she met Kirei, with only a few years left to live. Kirei chose her precisely because of this; if things didn't work out, he could easily withdraw. Despite this, Claudia, like a saint, loved Kirei deeply and bore him a daughter, Caren.

In both Japan and Italy, children typically take their father's surname. Caren's full name should have been Caren Kotomine. The reason she abandoned her father's surname and used her mother's, Hortensia, is because of something that happened when she was one year old.

Claudia and Kirei had been married for two years. During that time, Claudia tried every possible way to help Kirei experience normal human emotions but failed. In the end, the woman who loved Kirei so deeply chose to commit suicide in front of him, hoping that this extreme act would help him understand what sadness and love were.

However, this attempt also failed. Although his wife's death became the catalyst for Kirei to study magecraft, it didn't stir much emotion in him. He even regretted that she had taken her own life instead of dying by his hand.

Afterward, realizing he was beyond redemption, Kirei left Italy, leaving behind his one-year-old daughter, and never returned.

The young Caren was adopted by a priest, with whom she lived for eight years. The priest was not a good man. Although he kept her living expenses, he saved money by not sending her to school, fearing she would become too smart, and instead made her work as the church's assistant.

At the age of nine, stigmata appeared on Caren's body, and she was sent to a secluded Cistercian monastery, which was like both a castle and a prison. She was later discovered to possess the rare Masochistic Spiritualist Constitution and was kept by the church as a weapon in the monastery.

Because her mother had committed suicide, violating church doctrine, Caren's birth was considered sinful. The church never baptized her, denying her access to God's grace. Throughout her upbringing, she was discriminated against and eventually became an executor in name only, doing work that was no different from that of a prostitute.

Of course, it's not that the church stooped so low as to run a brothel. Rather, it was due to her peculiar constitution inherited from her mother, combined with the twisted mentality inherited from her father.

AMasochistic Spiritualist Constitution is someone who acts as a catalyst for spirit possession through suffering. In simple terms, when a person possessed by a demon exhibits abnormal symptoms, someone with this constitution will replicate those symptoms upon approaching the demon. For example, if the possessed person feels heavy, the medium will feel the same upon nearing them.

The church used her as a demon radar. The desires of those possessed by demons are amplified indefinitely, so when Caren discovered a demon, she was often assaulted by the possessed.

Caren wasn't violated by people but by demons, so the possessed bore no guilt. Although she knew her work was akin to that of a prostitute, she never found it painful or resisted it. Like her father, she was born emotionally damaged. Because of this, she could handle more work than an ordinary person and was ranked among the four fallen girls alongside Fujino, Sakura, and Kohaku.

Like the other three, Caren had poor combat abilities. Though she held the title of an executor, she was far from meeting the required standards. Her main job was to assist exorcists and act as bait. How could someone so weak be noticed by the Burial Agency, the church's ultimate combat unit? Was it purely because of her extraordinary endurance, making her a plaything for those sadistic monsters? But what about the throwing skills she demonstrated earlier? If she were just a toy, would they teach her such advanced techniques?

Shinji stared at Caren for a long while with a peculiar expression, but her face remained completely unmoved. Finally, Ciel broke the silence and asked, "What's wrong? Is there something strange about Karen?"

"No, nothing."

Snapping back to reality, Shinji quickly shook his head.

"It's just that the name sounds familiar. Miss Caren, do you happen to know someone named Kotomine Kirei? He is also from your church—"

Before he could finish, a dark, ominous aura burst forth from Caren, shrouding her in shadows. The ground beneath them withered and decayed under its influence.

Caren's pale skin, silver hair, and golden eyes were all tainted by this aura, giving her a twisted and deranged appearance. She asked in a hoarse, dry voice, unlike her previous tone:

"Where did you hear that name?"

"Well..."

Seeing Caren's ominous state, Shinji realized something must have happened—according to his memories from a previous life, Caren didn't harbor such deep hatred for her father.

"Tell me!!! Are you his accomplice?"

A moment of hesitation was like a fuse, completely igniting Caren's emotions. The dark aura enveloped her entirely, and tendrils as thick as thighs formed from the dispersed parts, reaching out to wrap around Shinji.

Shinji frowned, sitting still with a calm lower body. His left hand twitched, and he unsheathed the Divine FunBlade, cutting off one of the tentacles.

At the same time, Ciel pulled a red ribbon from her sleeve and wrapped it around the twisted girl.

"Caren, calm down."

Where the ribbon passed, the dark aura dissipated. Her skillful movements clearly showed she had dealt with similar situations many times. When the ribbon wrapped around Caren's chest, the ominous aura finally scattered.

From the earlier contact, Shinji had already deduced that the black aura Caren released came from a demon. And the red ribbon that restrained the demon—

"A sacred relic... I wonder which saint it belonged to."

"It's from Saint Mary Magdalene," Ciel replied.

Mary Magdalene, often associated with Mary of Bethany, was said to be the closest companion of Jesus, the disciple who most deeply understood His teachings, though she is often depicted in Christian legend as a repentant prostitute.

The stark contrast between the two, combined with Caren's experiences, evokes a sense of absurdity and irony.