Gilgamesh looked into the eyes of Saber, and those eyes were looking back. Ah, there was one other thing to be found within them: readiness. Above everything else he saw in the depths of her soul, there was a mighty willingness to push forward. Magnificent. Just like that, he remembered first seeing that face wear a different form of the same expression. Locked into competitive play in a video game, it was she who showed the ability to throw an entire team on her haunches and complete the most difficult tasks if necessary. In the end though, there was another who stood at her back just as now, equal in a way, and yet so far behind as he saw it. "My goblet, yes. All of this world's treasures belong to me. If it is treasure, then I shall obtain it," he explained as a matter of fact. Haughty though he was, there was a truth to the statement that even Gilgamesh himself could not know of, though the way he carried himself would betray that fact time and time again in the future. As for the idea that he had a wish he couldn't grant himself... it was almost a laughable truth, yet he would never rely on some cup to do what he wished. None of Saber's assertions were the truth, really. It was no point of redundancy, no desire to have a wish granted, no purposeful effort to stand in anyone's path forward. At its simplest, it was a decision to claim that which was his by law. "The floundering of mongrels is no concern of mine. Worms, dogs and otherwise are free to seek whatever glory and ascension they please, however I have given no one permission to lay claim to that which is mine."

It didn't make sense. That was pretty much Merlin in a nutshell, and far from the first time he'd heard such a thing in regards to an attraction towards him. The same could be said of Caster's reaction to his knowledge of something. Been there, done that. Merlin's hand ever so casually lowered, his finger trailing along the skin of her cheek as she talked. The goddess who cursed her was... Aphrodite, as he recalled. It was naught but another name attributed to Ishtar, who'd been a problem for the land in the sky for quite some time. She sought the grail to undo that curse. That made sense. What didn't make sense, was Caster's reprehension about attacking a moment of reprieve as it presented itself. "I wouldn't really say there are other ways to fix your problem. The grail could help, and I could help. Only one of those methods is magic. The other is more like... covering a tattoo with another. Why I would help you doesn't really matter, does it? Maybe I just saw you suffering over the years, and decided it was too cute to resist~♥"