A wish to the Holy Grail.
A desire.
It which burned her body, certainly, Elsa Saijou had one.
Her motive, if she could put it completely into words was a simple thing
She embraced it because she witnessed hell.
Her wish.
She embraced it because she was afraid of hell.
Her desire.
If she could easily express her very understanding, she might’ve become scared.
Last year.
In a certain country which she proceeded to after agreeing to do a favour for a friend as a camerawoman, right before her eyes at a time when a genocide by a regime――――were countless skulls, a pile of corpses which had been piled up without any regard to whether they were children or friends, a complete breakdown of common sense and morals, destruction, desecration, and the vestiges of a once called Oasis which was nowhere to be found too, with merciless violence, or by forced famine, with reasons that were said to be because of a certain race, with reasons that were said to be due to the intellectual elite, a million, 2 million, 3 million had died, there was death, death, death, and fear――――if she spoke frankly Elsa went mad.
Because she remembered it.
It was an event which woke her up, once.
It which must’ve been continuously sealed in the depths of her heart, had sprouted, the moment that she was in front of that hell which suddenly appeared on the soil of that foreign country.
Elsa herself couldn’t stop it, it was already, hopeless.
She didn’t want to see this kind of thing again.
She didn’t want to remember.
Death.
Loss.
The tragedy called losing your loved ones, was there in her own surroundings.
She wished.
She prayed.
To the point that she yearned for it.
And then, the Holy Grail that was sleeping in the Far East responded to Elsa.
By taking the form of her Master’s Degree that appeared on top of her right breast.
With her wish, now.
With her desire.
Elsa obeyed the Holy Grail.
She stood up as a friend to her desires, as light to her wish.
As a Magus who couldn’t possibly call herself a noble regardless of being a legitimate child of a family line that was falling into ruin, she announced her participation in the Holy Grail War which was a large scale magic ritual that involved the Clocktower which was the centre of the magic world――――
She obtained a catalyst for a great hero from West Asian legends after exhausting any and all means, and took out her prized Mystic Code that must’ve been only lying in obscurity together with her family line’s decline.
She was already close to her parents as a human more than a being called a Magus, she betrayed her parents who raised her with great attentive love, and she used all possible means to create her weapons with modern science which was not a mystery that must be avoided.
Guns.
Grenades.
That kind.
Just, to achieve her most ardent wish.
Since she just, witnessed hell, an event that she completely remembered――――in order to erase the trauma that continued to ache in her.
And then, she summoned him.
Her greatest power.
A being that was the manifestation of a legend
He was her trump card in the Holy Grail War.
She had completed Servant Archer’s summoning.
He――――
Right, he who must’ve been a Heroic Spirit who wasn’t a human, was a person beyond what she had imagined prior to this.
Elsa was greatly surprised.
However, she was also happy.
She had obtained relief and peace from Archer’s existence as she faced him from right in front of him, as a single person, as a woman, for herself who was about to become a person that was like mechanical device that was seeking a wish.
He was promptly frank, and it had become like they could have an amiable conversation.
However.
However, the rating of his Clairvoyance skill was rank A.
Those black eyes, could see through the ego that lurked on the other side of her smile, and her deep scars to the point that they were uncontrollable.
Her scars.
Her traumas.
It was so easy, to the point that it was not enough.
She drilled, dug out, and destroyed the personality called Elsa Saijou from her heart.
――――That’s why, I, have done this.
It had been 5 days since the opening battles in the Holy Grail War by Archer and Lancer.
3 days before, the decisive temple battle on top of Tokyo Bay.
At Mt. Okutama in the afternoon.
Elsa received the decisive moment alone.
Her reason for going to the mountain in winter that was full of cold weather was just one.
Since the start of the Holy Grail War, her external contact was the reason that she obtained information that almost completely informed her, of the magi clan who had a base somewhere on Mt. Okutama.
If there was someone in the aforementioned clan, in other words the Isemi Clan who was a Master that had Master Degrees, Elsa would immediately judge them, and start an act to strike their base together with Archer.
And then, she found it in those few hours.
It wasn’t a base.
The Isemi Servant, or rather the existence of another Master’s Servant that had entered the mountain in search of the Isemi Clan’s base like themselves.
And yet, they were perfectly alone.
She didn’t see a figure that was like a Master in the area.
Elsa: “Strike them, Archer.”
The deep green rugged mountains was his domain.
With a “this could work,” Elsa took a step.
Archer: “Right. Be careful of the Master over there.”
Elsa: “Of course.”
She had made enough methods of attack and defensive mystic codes.
Even if she had confronted one of the Clock tower’s most powerful magi who had received a rightful brand, by chance, she could manage to hold them off for a few minutes.
Even if it was naturally far away from perfect, she had carried out measures to the extent that she was able to do.
They could get away if it was for a few minutes.
Elsa could grasp that she herself wasn’t the best magus.
She thought that if she could just survive.
If they died, then there wouldn’t be any meaning to her wish.
It was, one of her plans that she had strongly decided on from the moment that she bought the airplane ticket to Tokyo.
Whether she could somehow run away, just depended on the enemy Master.
She waited and saw as she released on of her wind Formalcraft――――
Tatsumi: “…….I, want to stop the Holy Grail War.”
The figure of the boy with the mystic eye which she had met on the road to Akihabara a second time passed through her mind, but she shook it off.
The Holy Grail War couldn’t be stopped.
That’s why she was here, in order to achieve her wish.
She wouldn’t hesitate again.
If she met him again, she would kill that boy without hesitation.
――――That’s right.
I, mustn’t hesitate, ever again.
She thought as such.
She did hesitate for a point of a second.
At that time Elsa was moving through the centre of her thoughts and consciousness, about the things that were like the deep emotions in her exceptional combat actions, the things that must be carried out at the end of her thoughts.
She might’ve decided that it was something like fate, already, at this point in time.
She started mobilising with her awareness that was prepared for battle.
Elsa: 「よく澄み渡れ(ヘーズイン)」
*“Hazing” = Tentative translation until I find out whether this is a German word or not.
The layout of magical combat.
She had applied sight reinforcement magic to both her eyes.
Although it was similar to mere child’s play if she compared it to Archer’s clairvoyance, she couldn’t say that it was luxuriousness.
Besides, this situation must’ve been plenty enough.
The enemy Servant still hadn’t noticed Archer’s existence yet.
If there was a remote attack set in front of them, certainly, they would be firing their first shot here.
If the enemy is moving into the mountains while being vaguely cautious with their surroundings, then their case was different from them, who were searching the mountains and the summit where they had assumed opponent clearly existed.
Her awareness was concentrated on her vision.
Searching for the enemy.
No matter what it took she would find the other party!
A minute passed.
2 minutes passed.
Archer who was in a place that was separated more than 3 kilometres from her opened hostilities, at that moment, Elsa had clearly discovered the magus who was the enemy Master.
The other person was faster than she had realised.
Elsa: (Eh? A girl?)
She, had such――――a pretty girlish figure.
Quiet, and beautiful.
Innocent and pure.
She was completely different in age.
Even though she could see that the girl who was much younger than herself, was really different.
She was staring at the figure of the walking girl, she could hear her humming in the distance, their eyes met, and in that moment that was captured something in the depths of those transparent eyes, broke through completely scattering her sight reinforcement magic.
In exchange.
There was something forcibly rising in her field of vision.
Luca: “Mama, I love you”
On that day when they were returning home while holding hands, as they had gone to meet the non-regular administration of the day-care centre.
Luca: “Mama, I love you”
That day when she saw his beautiful figure, laughing seeming having fun holding the soccer ball.
Luca: “Mama, I love you”
That day when he said, as such, even though his body must’ve been in terrible pain by letting out his voice.
Elsa: “Ah……”
The smile that must’ve been hiding in the innermost depths of her heart.
She remembered the day that she witnessed hell, but, it was an important person that determined what she mustn’t remember in the middle of the Holy Grail War.
Her beloved companion.
That child.
There was no way she could forget him, her child which she loved more than anyone, she couldn’t forget him even if it was a scar that dug far into her chest.
Mama, I love you.
I love, Mama’s smiling face.
That child, who had died when he must’ve been 5 years old.
Elsa: “A, ah…….Ah……Luca…….”
Her heart’s scar.
It was, her wish and the source of her desire.
Her child.
The figure of love that she had lost on that distant day.
That’s why, Elsa couldn’t bear it even in that country.
So she wished.
She prayed.
Somehow, please, save all of the children and mothers!
Elsa: “Luca――――!”
It was, undoubtedly a scar.
It was, undoubtedly a hole.
Thus, this time――――Elsa had made a grave mistake.
Her cognisance was distorted, all of her thoughts and awareness was being twisted, she was caught by an honest something which was for sure an illusion that looked like madness.
The lovely girl who was walking like she was dancing beyond her gaze, was one of the causes of it as she used some sort of power on her.
In any case.
Elsa’s Holy Grail War had ended, here.
In front of the girl who was an enemy Master, Elsa, had thought, this.
Ah, how could this have happened?
That girl, is surely, a child who must’ve been loved that had gotten caught up in the Holy Grail War.
And…...
――――I’m sorry.
Archer.
I’m so, sorry.
I――――
With a fragment of her normal awareness which she had a bit remaining of.
She cried, and leaned her back against the thin tree.
While several drops of tears fell from her emerald eyes――――
The woman called Elsa Saijou, at this moment, fell into the hands of a demon who had the form of a young girl.
(To Be Continued)
Originally Posted by FSF 5, Chapter 14: Gold and Lions I
Though abandoned, forgotten, and scorned as out-of-date dolls, they continue to carry out their mission, unchanged from the time they were designed.
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