Chaldea's Case Files

[Comun]

Medb was an event boss today and Twitter seems to be doing a #MedbDay thing for whatever reason, so it's a nice day to get started on the Medb case.

Caged Girls part 1

On the rugged, rocky ground, there were corpses. One… Two people. Their hair and outfits indicated they’re women, but they barely had any flesh left to confirm this, probably thanks to the maggots. Signs of bleeding could be found under their bodies, but the blood was completely dried and darkened.


A girl with shoulder-length curly dark hair was crouched next to the two dead girls, seemingly examining the corpses. Next to her was Chaldea’s Master. Fujimaru Ritsuka.


After that, they disappeared, like paint diluted in water.


♢♢♢♢


Queen Medb woke up in a room that smelled like dirt and wood.


As she sat up from the hard bed, frowning with discomfort, a woman carrying water entered the room, presumably to check up on her. “Oh, she’s awake!” the woman gasped.


“Go call the chief, the second girl woke up. Did anyone inform the priest already?”


She yelled out of the door and then approached Medb’s bed. Many more people entered the room upon hearing what the woman had said, but there were no familiar faces among them. Medb couldn’t feel any traces of magical energy from them. They were ordinary villagers.


“You were passed out in the mountain. You don’t seem hurt, but…”


The woman wanted to say something but stopped herself.


No part of Medb's body was hurt, but her head was fuzzy. She couldn’t remember what happened to her. She didn’t even remember going up a mountain. The strange image of Ritsuka standing next to an unknown girl and some corpses popped in her head, but she couldn’t figure out if that was something that happened or the dream she just had.


She remembered that the Near-Future Observation Lens Sheba detected a small Singularity and that she rayshifted to it with her Master, Fujimaru Ritsuka. As far as she heard, a Singularity is defined as the result of magical energy of any kind distorting space and time, affecting only one specific region. Their mission should be to remove the cause of this phenomenon, "they" being herself, Ritsuka, and…


“Oh, right, Ritsuka! Hey, did you not find another girl? One about my age.”


Medb scanned the room, looking for people who knew what was happening, leading her to find Ritsuka herself sitting on the bed next to hers. She didn’t look injured. She was annoyingly carefree, blinking fast with her mouth half-open, like the idiot had just seen something unusual.


“What the hell, Ritsuka? If you’re here, say you are! You got me worried for a moment.”


“Reets-ka?”


Ritsuka replied with a mispronunciation of her own name, as if she never heard the word before. Medb stood up from the bed and tried to approach Ritsuka, but instinctively stopped. Ritsuka tilted her head.


“Oh, me? My name is Ritsuka?”


Before Medb could say “What kind of joke was that? Not funny.” (although her expression might've conveyed that well enough), Ritsuka closed her eyes apologetically.


“Uh… sorry. I think I got amnesia somehow?”


She timidly asked Medb for her name. Medb was speechless.


Ritsuka scratched her cheek and smiled in an attempt to hide her nervousness.


♢♢♢♢


Like Medb, Ritsuka was also found in the mountains. She had completely forgotten her name, her goals, and even what Chaldea was. Medb herself also couldn't remember how and why they went to the mountain, and what they did the previous night, but Ritsuka’s case was clearly a lot worse.


Ritsuka guessed they'd both hit their heads, and while that could explain her own case, it couldn’t explain Medb’s, a Servant’s. It’s hard to believe a hit to the head could disturb a Saint Graph enough to make her lose her memories. She didn't doubt the hypothesis that she and Ritsuka were hit together, but she had no doubts there was some kind of magical interference involved.


(That’s probably related to the cause of the Singularity. The difference between my memory loss and Ritsuka’s is due to our different levels of resistance to magecraft.)


“You forgot your name, miss? Did you drink God’s water?”


A curious little girl had been peeking at the entrance for a while now, and she'd gotten closer while the two weren’t looking.


Since Ritsuka wasn’t injured, she had already gotten out of the sheets and was sitting on the bed at this point. She leaned forward to get on eye level with the girl and answered her question with a question of her own.


“God’s water?”


“Hey, kid, don’t disturb them.”


The woman from before hurriedly pulled the child out of the room.


(I see the villagers know something about the reason we lost our memories. Thank goodness we won’t have to start with zero clues, I have many, many ways to make them talk. First priority is confirming our situation.)


The woman who took the little girl away came back bringing the village chief, a man past middle age. Medb wasted no time before asking her question.


“Hey, did you find anyone aside from me and her? One more person, maybe two. Someone wearing clothes different from yours?”


When her Master visits a Singularity she’s always followed by two or three Servants. The amount of Servants she can bring is often limited by their magical energy consumption, but Medb was convinced she couldn't be Ritsuka's only bodyguard here.


(I remember one more person came with us, but not who. Ugh, I hate this.)


The chief was slightly taken aback by how Medb, a helpless woman they found passed out, was acting like she was the queen of this place (note: that’s because she is a queen, even if not of this place), but answered without showing any hints of contempt.


“You two were the only people wearing strange… I mean, traveler’s clothes. And the only one collapsed next to you was Aisha from the village west from here.”


“A girl from another village?”


(Was she with us before we lost our memories?)


“I want to talk to her.”


“She woke up before you did, but she doesn’t seem to remember anything. Not even her own name… The same goes for the girl with you, no? Still, we know for sure she’s from that western village. You see, there’s a village on the other side of this mountain, about as big as ours. We don’t interact much due to the distance, but I’ve seen her at festivals. I already sent a messenger, so they should take her home tomorrow.”


(If a villager was with us, we probably decided to explore the mountains based on information we got on this western village. That area might have something we confidently judged to be the cause of the Singularity. This Aisha girl might have been our guide there, but there’s no way to confirm that now.)


That girl losing her memories along with them confirmed Medb's suspicion that the amnesia was caused by something in the Singularity, not by a failed Rayshift. Something happened to erase their memories after they properly rayshifted, probably somewhere in the mountain.


She knew that going to the western village and asking around there could give them valuable information, but she hadn’t decided on what to do. While thinking things through, she turned her eyes to Ritsuka sitting next to her.


Ritsuka looked uneasy and hadn't said anything the entire time, as if she was forbidding herself from interrupting the conversation.


(I can’t blame her, considering what happened. I have to appreciate she isn’t crying or freaking out, even. Still… when was the last time I’ve seen her with a face like this?)


Medb knew the utmost priority here was getting in touch with Chaldea, but her Master’s current state made her unsure of this decision. With her not knowing anything, Medb would have to explain what a Singularity is, what Chaldea is, and so on. That wasn’t worth the effort.


She wanted instructions, or at least advice from da Vinci, and Mash Kyrielight would be the best person to keep the amnesiac Ritsuka up to speed about everything that demanded an explanation. She seriously considered returning to Chaldea and then going back, but assuming this Singularity is the cause of the problem, she felt like leaving it without solving the problem was too big of a risk. They’d surely miss their chance to retrieve their memories.


“I need to go outside, breathe some fresh air. Come with me, Ritsuka.”


“Huh, oh, me? Me. Yes, ma’am!”


Ritsuka took forever to stand up, so Medb grabbed her by her wrist, forced her onto her feet, and was about to head out when the chief hastily stopped them.


“Wait! It’ll soon get dark. Beasts lurk in the night hours, so it’s dangerous for the two of you to leave alone. Don't stray too far away from the village.”


“We’ll be fine.”


Medb didn’t bother to turn around or explain, she just tilted her head back and made quick eye contact, her eyes filled with magical energy.


The chief’s mouth froze before he could argue back, and then he said “Have a nice trip.” with a bewitched look in his eyes.


Her confused memories seemed to be the only thing wrong with her. Her Saint Graph and magical energy levels were the same as always, and as she just tested, her Charm Skill was activating properly too.


♢♢♢♢


They passed through the simple fence surrounding the village, and after confirming they walked far enough to escape the sights of all villagers, Medb raised her voice to the empty air.


“Da Vinci! Can you hear me?”


Ritsuka looked confused. After a few seconds of silence, the air distorted, forming a floating blue screen. Ritsuka barely kept herself from screaming. Medb waited for it to connect, but things weren’t happening the way they usually do.


--Oh, you’re alive. Good. Ritsuk… Hello… The connection is not too go…--


The image had so much static she couldn’t tell who was talking to them and the audio cut off too much to be intelligible. She could barely make out that it was indeed da Vinci who had answered on the other side, despite the audio and video seeming ready to crash at any moment.


“Listen. Ritsuka and I lost some memories, and the third person is missing.”


--The connection is uns…ble. From what I can tell, a… cal energy… influencing… if… get rid of what’s causing it, the connection problem should be fi…--


The communications shut down, both audio and video, but right before it cut off she could hear a worried voice calling for her senpai. Ritsuka couldn’t tell that was about her, she was just astounded by what disappeared in front of her as suddenly as it appeared. Medb resisted the urge to click her tongue.


(The only information we got is that the mana jamming here blocks our connection. I wish I could’ve at least asked for the name of the other Servant I know rayshifted with us. In the best-case scenario, we could've searched for their magical energy signal, but the jamming on this land’s mana is stronger than I expected. Maybe the problem is just that we’re too close to the village, but I have no idea how much we’ll have to walk before we get a steady connection. Better not expect support from Chaldea, I guess. The other Servant probably also lost their memories. Let’s hope we can find them.)


“W-what was that? Don’t tell me, magic?”


“Uh, sure, close enough.”


(She forgot even that? There’s so much to explain. Do I have to do it? Sigh, I’m the only one who can.)


Medb resisted the urge to click her tongue for a second time.


“Ok, so your name is Fujimaru Ritsuka, and you’re my Master. We went up that mountain for some reason I can’t remember. Someone or something erased my memory, maybe. Now we gotta kick something’s ass to get out memories back. You’re my Master, memories or no memories, so work with me.”


“… … … … What?”


(She didn’t understand a thing, did she?)


“One more thing, my name is Medb. Queen Medb.”


She'd almost forgotten to tell the most important thing. Medb raised her chin with pride at the delivery of her own name.


After a 3 second pause, Ritsuka started applauding.


“… Why are you clapping? Though I'm not saying you shouldn’t.”


“I don’t know, you just looked awesome…”


(It's great that she doesn’t need her memories to know I demand constant praise, but that doesn’t help right now. Her Command Spells are still there, and I can feel her magical energy, but I can’t expect any combat support from her. If the other Servant doesn’t rejoin us before any battle, I’ll be effectively fighting alone.)


“But Medb, if you’re a queen, why am I the Master?” Ritsuka asked curiously. Before Medb could answer she heard a faint growl. She turned around to guard Ritsuka against what she assumed would be wild dogs, but she'd guessed wrong. Three wolves inquisitively watched them at a few meters distance.


(The chief did say there'd be beasts, but I wasn’t expecting this size… much less this miasma. These animals are magical, it might be an effect of the Singularity on the land. Are they being attracted by my magical energy? They can definitely feel my energy, because they’re watching carefully instead of immediately attacking their prey.)


“R-run.”


“Stay put.”


Medb manifested her signature whip out of thin air to quiet down Ritsuka, who was terrified even without being able to tell that these magic beasts weren't ordinary wild dogs.


♢♢♢♢


“They were no big deal.”


Despite their vicious appearance they turned out to be low-tier fodder she could beat with just one strike each, without any need to show off her Riding Skill or her Noble Phantasms.


(This Singularity will be pretty low-effort combat-wise if all magical beasts around here are on this level.)


“A-awesome! Amazing! Medb, you’re so strong!”


Ritsuka applauded her, starry-eyed. While Medb didn’t have any problems with genuine compliments, she immediately demanded she stopped. Ritsuka made a very basic mistake, and while her missing memories justified it, they didn’t exempt her from being corrected.


“You don’t compliment me by saying I’m good, you have to say I’m the best. Everyone in the entire world knows that.”


“M-Medb, you’re the best…?”


“Louder!”


(Wait, this is a waste of my time. Finding the cause of this and retrieving her memories will be faster than re-educating her from scratch.)


Medb put away her whip and headed back towards the village.


“They said we were passed out on this mountain, so there must be something out there. We’ll have to climb it to see what it is. If all monsters lurking on it are as pathetic as these beasts, it’ll be an easy job. But let’s get to the village first to gather some info.”


Ritsuka got nervous.


“Gathering information? From the villagers?”


“The chief seemed to know something. And the village girl mentioned something about God’s water, remember?”


“You think they’ll tell us?”


“Of course.”, Medb answered proudly. “I’m the one asking.”

[Rafflesiac]

Slay queen Medb, we have no choice but to stan. I'm curious if Gudako will be of use at all.

[mami-kouga]

Medb in a story as an ally without any of the other Celts for her to simp over huh, her turning Ritsuka into her cheerleader near the end was hilarious lol. I do wonder what 'God's water' is

[Comun]

Caged Girls part 2

“Any idea why we lost our memories?”

Medb questioned the village chief with her Charm. He answered immediately.


“It must have been the oblivion water. Deep into the mountain dividing the two villages… there’s a divine spring. We visit it to receive our share whenever we need the water to save us. For example, when we need to relieve a deathly ill villager from their misery.”


Medb and Ritsuka were sitting in the chief’s living room while he'd been standing the whole time. Medb sat stretching on the chair with her legs crossed, as opposed to Ritsuka, who nervously watched the other two with her hands on her knees.


“That girl said something to that effect, she was calling it God’s water. Is that something anyone can drink?”


The chief shook his head.


“The map of the mountain belongs to the priest. No one entering the mountain without permission would be able to reach the spring… It’s located in divine territory that can only be entered by the weak and those free from tarnish and desire. That’s why teenage girls are tasked with scooping up the water.”


(The idea that all young girls are free from tarnish and desire is laughable, but let's not get into that argument. The point here is that this god likes pure virgins. Eh, not an unusual story.)


“Then we were very lucky to be found. It doesn't sound like people normally enter the mountain…”,


Ritsuka voiced her very valid opinion. The two of them were found collapsed and unmoving right in the middle of the mountain. The people who found them assumed they ran out of stamina while climbing down. They could have woken up by themselves if no one found them, but the less time spent helplessly in a mountain the better.


“The villagers also climb it to get wood, but they all know they shouldn’t go more than halfway up the mountain. The path is blocked by ropes tied to the trees, and everything past there is forbidden territory. You two collapsed past the rope. Adult men cannot enter, so the men who found you returned to the village and called a lass to drag your bodies to this side of the rope. After that, the villagers all worked together to carry you here."


“That's a lot more cumbersome than it needed to be. Is there any reason to be this strict with the rule that only girls can enter?”


“One time, a man entered the mountain without permission and returned crippled and amnesiac… Since then, everyone follows this law. The priest living on the edge of the mountain can go past the rope, but he’s too elderly to have been of help.”


“Anyone other than girls and the priest who can enter?”


“The priest can go further than the villagers, but he can’t enter the spring. Only girls can take the water.”


(The villagers must have told us about the water before we lost our memories, leading us to assume it was the cause of the Singularity and climb the mountain. And then we all lost our memories. This all sounds so stupid.)


“Did anyone climb the mountain recently? I mean entering the forbidden zone, not just climbing for wood.”


“I don’t know about the western village, but from our village, three girls took water two months ago. Almost a month later… only one of them returned.”


“What about the other two?”


“Haven’t returned to this day.”


(Well this conversation took an unsettling turn. Two months, so it’s unlikely they’re alive. I can vaguely recall the image of two girls collapsed on a rock. Judging by their clothes, they should be from the village. Assuming they're the two missing girls, that means Ritsuka and I found their corpses before losing our memories. But I can’t remember anything before or after that. All that’s left is this contextless image, a vague piece of a memory.)


“Uh, what did the girl who came back say about the other two?”


“She returned from the mountain without her memories. Who knows what could have happened to the other two… It's customary for those who take water from the mountain to take a sip of the water they collected before climbing down, to make them forget what the divine territory looked like. I’m confident those girls followed the tradition.”


Medb took a peek at Ritsuka. Her face was stiff. She seemed to be doubtful whether the chief’s story was really possible. She wouldn’t be this scared if she still had her memories. Medb returned her gaze to the chief.


“Is girls not returning from the spring a common occurrence?”


“No, this was the first time. All other lasses returned unharmed, save for their missing memories. There were a few cases where they drank too much and forgot multiple days, instead of forgetting only their climbing day like they're supposed to.”


(Ok, so losing your memories of climbing the mountain in exchange for water is a normal and accepted rule in this village. If it were me I’d have some big problems with this system, but the chief here doesn’t even seem to question it.)


“Some villagers are suspecting God is angry with us. In response to our piety, He has graced us with our share of water for years, but He could also do the opposite… However, the lass who returned brought us the water, and no calamity fell upon our village afterward. Two people never returned, that’s all. I can’t understand why.”


The chief furrowed his brow, adding that he didn’t believe the villagers were losing their faith.


“The water was shared in response to your piety… You’re saying the spring wasn’t here since forever?”


“It’s been there since I was a child… It should have appeared at least 50 years ago.”


(This must have been when the Singularity formed in this land. The villagers assumed this was a happy blessing from a god and further deepened their faith. But now, for the first time, two girls had to disappear in exchange for this oblivion water. Are the villagers accepting this as their god’s will?)


“Excuse me, didn’t anyone try to look for those two disappeared girls? Their families or…”


The chief shook his head to Ritsuka’s question.


“No, because adults can’t climb the mountain. Those girls could have had an accident or could have been called to serve the mountain’s God. Anything that happens in the forbidden zone is beyond our reach. Everyone in the village is saying that they received the great honor of becoming servants to our God. The families of the disappeared girls accept that their daughters might be with God now and that they could come home at any moment.”


Medb knew that the two girls weren’t with the mountain god, but decided she didn’t need to tell him that.


(I still don’t know if those girls’ deaths have anything to do with the cause of the Singularity, but it doesn’t matter either way. Whatever this oblivion water of them might be, it should stop springing if we remove its mana source from there, and once that happens there won’t be any girls climbing the mountain anymore. Just focus on quickly retrieving the oblivion spring’s energy source – it should be Grail or a shard of one – to remove the mana jamming and hopefully get back in touch with Chaldea. I don’t know if we’ll need to, but we can easily solve those girls’ deaths by asking the detective in Chaldea. The villagers can’t climb to the forbidden part of the mountain so we won’t need to worry about anyone getting in our way.)


“Assemble the village men. All of them. I have something I want to ask.”


The chief left the room to do as he was told. The two of them could hear him yelling orders from the other side of the door. The village wasn’t big, so he didn’t need to gather more than 30 men.


“What are you going to ask?”


Ritsuka whispered, worried about what was happening outside.


“Those two girls who climbed the mountain are dead. I saw their bodies before I lost my memories. The culprit is probably human.”


The disturbing news clearly shocked Ritsuka, but she didn’t panic.


“You mean someone exploited the rule adults can’t go up the mountain to kill girls without getting caught by the village?”


“Yeah, pretty much. I was planning to ignore that since it’s not directly related to our goal, but I figured it’s better to listen to what they have to say, just in case.”


Ritsuka turned her eyes to the chief’s door, then back to Medb, and whispered “Why are we calling just the men?”


“Two girls died. Were murdered, rather. When the victim is a girl, the culprit is always a man, no?”


“I w-wonder… I don’t think that’s always the case.”


(It’s not always the case, but human history shows that male culprits are an overwhelming majority. And, much more importantly, my Charm Skill usually only works on men.)


Once all the village men were assembled Medb cast her Charm on them. The villagers with their complete lack of magecraft resistance instantly turned into a cult.


After enjoying a quick “Medb’s the best!” call-and-response session, Medb asked her question.


“Answer honestly. Do any of you know what happened to us?”


The men exchanged glances, then collectively shook their heads.


One man reasoned that they’re amnesiac because they drank oblivion water, but like the chief’s identical claim, this was just conjecture. No one claimed to know anything about when or how they drank it.


“Anyone know what happened to the girls who climbed the mountain?”


Same reaction. They shook their heads confused. This meant none of them was the culprit.


(Why? This should be every man in the village.)


“Tell me what happened that day. Did you see the three of them go up the mountain?”


(I need at least confirmation that those girls entered the mountain they never came back from. The corpses in my faint memory were lying on solid rock, not left on the grass below. I don’t know if that place is up the mountain or not.)


“I saw them”, a few men were quick to reply.


“Getting water is something of a ritual… The chief and girls’ families gather early at the base of the mountain and watch the priest lead them up to it. Normally, they’re all back half a day later. Except that day… the priest came back alone. He said the three entered the divine territory and didn’t return… Not even the priest can go in there… He sent the lasses in and waited for them to take the water, but they were taking forever. He called their names and they didn’t respond. He was so worried. He wanted to wait some more, so he took food and a lamp from his house… Meanwhile, the three girls’ worried parents climbed up to the forbidden area’s border. But the three didn’t return that day.”


After the village’s spokesperson finished talking, all other men nodded.


“On the next few days, the trio’s parents took turns climbing and waiting in front of the rope. The priest hiked that mountain every day despite his advanced age… We all had to intervene before he ruined his health, but he just felt too responsible. Still, we couldn’t find them… After we'd all given up, one of them came down.”


“Was anyone in the mountain beside the priest and the parents?”


“I think we had a lot of people grabbing wood and fruits, but no one climbs all the way up to the forbidden territory. Besides, even if anyone did go there, it’s hard to find the way to the spring without the priest’s map.”


(This counts as a weird kind of locked room murder, doesn’t it? Not that I know much about them aside from that enthusiastic conversation I overheard between Mash and Holmes.)


“The priest and parents were waiting on the halfway point, right? Wouldn't it be possible for the kids to sneak down the mountain from somewhere the adults weren’t looking? The opposite side of the mountain, maybe?”


“That’s not impossible… but it’s not an easy path to take, and it should be dangerous without a map. We have a track from the ropes to the base of the mountain. No one could get lost following that.”


(If the two girls were killed in the forbidden part of the mountain, it must have been on the day they went there. You wouldn’t need a map if you were secretly following them. Only girls can go in there, but that’s nothing more than a psychological restraint. There’s nothing physically stopping them. In that case, anyone who doesn’t fear divine punishment could have done it.)


“Was any villager missing while the priest and the three kids were climbing?”


As Medb expected, the villagers exchanged glances, made an effort to remember, and ultimately answered “I wasn’t paying attention”.


“The chief and the families were waiting in front of the priest’s hut until he came down… but as far as we can tell all the other villagers were doing their usual work.”


“The hut at the base? The chief and the families stayed there the entire time?”


(The base of the mountain was under watch. Ok, now I’m even more confident this counts as a locked room murder.)


“Do you know if anyone followed the priest and the girls up the mountain?”


“I don’t think anyone did.”


One of the fathers answered, and the chief verified his claim.


(The girls became untraceable the day they climbed the mountain, so their killer climbed the mountain that same day. That’s the only option that makes sense. The culprit is at risk of getting lost and never finding the divine spring if he lost sight of the children, so he must have been constantly following them from the closest distance they wouldn’t notice… But that would take all of the men off the suspect list. All villagers, even. That’d make the priest the only plausible suspect. The priest killed two of the girls, and the other one either ran away and stayed hidden for a month, or was locked up by the priest. Simple!)


Having reached her conclusion, Medb determined that this case was irrelevant to the Singularity and dismissed it as not worth pursuing.


“Did any of you kill them?”


She asked just in case. No one answered. This question would have hurt their feelings if they weren’t under the effect of her charm, but since they were, they just looked confused.


“Do any of you know who killed them?”


Unsurprisingly, no one answered.


♢♢♢♢


The village men didn’t have any information.


(The fact they knew nothing is a piece of information, but it's not much of a hint. I learned that the priest must've killed the girls, but that’s not directly connected to our lost memories. Assuming we lost them because of the oblivion water, where, when, and why did we drink it? If we don’t find out, we’re bound to keep falling into the same pitfalls. The fact we climbed the mountain with a village girl should mean we knew about the water, and we wouldn’t be stupid enough to drink water we knew was magical. Also, where did the other Servant that should be with us go?)


“If there’s a magical power making us forget, I guess thinking about it is a waste of time. It’s late. Get some rest, cause we’re climbing the mountain tomorrow.”


Medb didn’t need to rest, but Ritsuka did. After Medb freed the men from her spell the chief’s son offered the two his bedroom to spend the night. The chief’s 6- or 7-years old granddaughter brought them a change of clothes. She was the girl peeking when the two woke up. She stayed in the room after dropping the pajamas on the bed, so Medb asked her if she wanted anything. She locked her sparkling eyes with Medb's.


“Miss, you’re so pretty.”


“Yeah, I know.”


(Children are so honest. Let me lift some hair with the back of my hand to give her a better view of my good looks, she'll love it.)


“Can I be pretty like you when I grow up?”


“That’s dreaming too big, but you do have quite a lot of charm. You have a promising future ahead of you as long as you don’t be negligent.”


The girl left happy. The pajamas she delivered were too plain for Medb’s tastes, but she resigned to the only option she had.


(A different attire won't make me shine any less. A beauty is a beauty no matter what she wears!)


As a Servant, Medb didn’t need to change her clothes, but it would feel wrong not to. She didn’t need to sleep either, but since there’s nothing to do while Ritsuka is asleep, she decided to rest until the morning.


Medb turned around after changing, making eye contact with Ritsuka, who was putting on the same set of borrowed clothes. She'd just gotten her arm through one sleeve but stopped to look at Medb. Ritsuka had taken the bigger pajama, but the hem still didn’t fully cover her belly, leaving her scar visible. This startled Medb for a second, until she noticed Ritsuka was staring at her, panting. From her face, it was clear those were sighs of admiration.


“What’s wrong, can’t stop admiring me? Well, who could? They don’t call me easy on the eyes for nothing.”


“Yup. I was just thinking about how your hair, your shoulders, your fingers… every part of your body is so amazingly pretty.”


(With or without memory, she’s still her honest self. That’s her best feature. I’m more than used to people extolling my beauty, but it’s always good to hear it anyway.)


Ritsuka’s pajama hood was hanging down her neck, causing her fine, soft hair to curl into unkempt rings around it. Medb felt the urge to reach out and fix it but limited herself to pointing out Ritsuka’s hair looked like a bird’s nest. Ritsuka gave an embarrassed smile and started combing her hair with her hands, accompanied by some comments on how smooth Medb’s hair was.


“While I was changing my clothes, I noticed my body is full of scars. There’s this big one on my belly and many smaller ones everywhere else. I can’t remember what I was like, but it’s plain to see I wasn’t too ladylike. Don’t tell me that despite my looks I was some kind of seasoned war hero!”


“Good question… Looking at your experience and achievements in a vacuum… I’d say you technically qualify.”


Ritsuka pulled back her sleeves to look at the scars on her arms, somewhat convinced. The parts of her body usually hidden under her clothes don’t have suntans, making her scars stand out even more.


(She was always on the front lines despite being a Master and just an ordinary human. Her getting scars feels really obvious in hindsight. I don’t think I’ve ever stopped to think about it, and Ritsuka never brought the subject up before either. That means she was hiding them until she lost her memories. Learning about this while she’s amnesiac doesn’t feel fair, but I can’t unsee what I saw.)


“How stupid” Medb whispered. Ritsuka massaged the exposed scar on her shin.


“Ritsuka, why did you never tell any Caster in Chaldea about this? It wouldn’t be hard for them to fix it. You should talk to da Vinci, or… oh, Medea would be a good choice. She’ll get rid of your scars easy-peasy.”


“Kaldea?”


(She doesn't remember how or why she got each of those scars. And yet, when I talk to her, she feels like the same Ritsuka I always knew.)


“You saw them before. Your Servan… your magician friends. Many of them are really good that this kind of thing, so you gotta talk to them when we’re done here.”


“Really? They’ll all disappear?”


“They will. That’s why we gotta get this case over with and get you back to Chaldea.”


Medb lied down on her bed and covered herself with a thin blanket. She found the quality of the sheets as mediocre as the ones from yesterday. Noticing Ritsuka was a bit restless, she turned off the lamp next to her pillow. The room didn't go completely dark thanks to the light of the stars outside the window.


“Hey, are you really without any memories? No contextless fragmentary memories, nothing you remembered from talking to me…? Didn’t that voice you heard when the transmission cut sound any familiar to you?”


(Even if she didn’t remember anything else, I was expecting her to at least react to Mash’s voice. No signs of change though, I guess hearing only a glimpse of it wasn’t enough. Maybe she has some random pieces of memory, like how I can remember having found the girls’ bodies, hopefully.)


“Hmmm, I might have felt something deep inside me, but you know, not anything within my reach…”


After catching a glimpse of Ritsuka shaking her head, Medb yawned and turned face-down.


“Chaldea, Master, Human Order, Rayshift, Servant, Mash Kyrielight. Well? Anything clicked? Any other words crossed your mind? An association game could make you remember things.”


“I got nothing…”


Medb couldn’t see her face, but the tone in her voice was enough to tell she was hopelessly confused. No signs of her remembering anything. Medb closed her eyes, but right as she did she heard:


“Oh… uh… hm, Roman…?”


“…”


Ritsuka's voice had no confidence.


(I’m glad I'm not seeing Ritsuka's face right now. I’m glad I’m the only one who had to hear the name of that dead man. I know that when she’s with her memories, she- no, not only her, no one in Chaldea can casually say his name. They understand their loss on a rational level, and reality forces them to accept it, but they still decide to avoid mentioning him. Her scar… no, I shouldn’t be calling this loss a scar, it’s more like a still open hole. The wound is too fresh and too deep.)


“Whatever, I don’t care anymore… Focusing on our goal is a lot more practical than trying to force you to remember anything. I’m sure that eliminating the cause of this Singularity will bring back your memories. We’re lucky that your amnesia doesn’t affect your magical energy. You’re safe and sound with me, got it? The beasts we fought before were pathetic, and we didn’t get injured on the mountain, so we might solve this without getting into any big fight.”


Medb was being talkative to hide her agitation. Feeling an emotion she refused to acknowledge as frustration, Medb said “good night” and went silent.


Ritsuka quietly said “good night” back. Medb closed her eyes, not in the best of moods.


(I’m not telling anyone this… it’s for the best)

[Rafflesiac]

(Children are so honest. Let me lift some hair with the back of my hand to give her a better view of my good looks, she'll love it.)

LMAO based.

Guess wiping away/hiding trauma's a theme here.

[mami-kouga]

I'm getting increasingly interested in this mystery, though I doubt the priest killed those girls if only because Medb seems so assured. Still, Ritsuka only being able to remember Romani's name and even then only barely with none of the emotions tied to it got me...

[Comun]

Caged Girls part 3

Medb and Ritsuka left early in the morning to interrogate the priest living at the base of the mountain.

They were told the oblivion water's spring was deep into the mountain. The village chief had told them that following the road to the mountain would lead them straight to where the ropes were, and past them was a forbidden territory only girls and the priest were allowed to enter. Even further up was the divine territory, where not even the priest could enter, and no one knew what goes on over there. Going from the ropes to the divine area without getting lost required a map or a guide who knows the way, and the only map belonged to the priest.


The road took Medb and Ritsuka to the mountain, just like the chief said it would.


At the base, they found a small hut with its back to the mountain.


"There," Medb said, increasing her pace.


"Wait!"


She noticed someone calling her from behind.


Ritsuka stopped running and turned back. Medb quickly followed suit.


They could see a human silhouette quickly taking shape as the voice came closer. It was a girl running in their direction. A black-haired girl looking two or three years younger than Medb and Ritsuka.


"Thank God, I caught up to you... You're going to the mountain, aren't you?"


The girl gasped for air as she spoke, impacted by all the running she needed to do to reach them.


(I've seen this face before. Brown eyes and curly, shoulder-length hair. My memory is blurry and fragmented, but she's probably a girl I met yesterday or the day before.)


"Hey, everyone's telling me I was found collapsed in the mountain with you... I don't why I was there, though."


(Oh! The village chief had called her Aisha. She's the girl from the western village who was in the mountain with us. Did we stay at a house in that village? I decided to leave the village without seeing her because the chief said she was just as amnesiac as Ritsuka, so there'd be no point in asking her anything.)


She had learned that Medb and Ritsuka went to the mountain and ran after them alone.


(Her running speed not what I'd expect from a girl this cute and sweet, but exactly what I'd expect from someone raised in a mountain village. The chief said he already sent a messenger to get someone from her village to pick her up, but I guess she's not waiting for him. Someone will be going on a pointless trip.)


Aisha couldn't remember her own name. Understandably enough, this situation made her too anxious to wait, so she had an idea:


"Take me with you, please. None of us can remember anything, but I think we're better off sticking together... I'm trusting this hunch."


Ritsuka looked nervously at Medb, waiting for an answer to the girl's firm request.


"Don't you think it's dangerous?"


"I don't know if letting her come with us would be more or less dangerous than sending her back."


(It's still morning so I think she'll be fine, but yeah, beasts could still show up. I don't care about the village girl's life but Ritsuka does. It'd be a long walk back to the village, and if we try to keep her waiting in the priest's hut I'm worried that she'd sneak after us anyways. We're better off keeping her where we can see her.)


Medb told Aisha she couldn't vouch for her safety, and Aisha nodded with a serious expression.


♢♢♢♢


The priest lived alone in a hut on the foot of the mountain, praying every day to its god. He enjoyed the respect of both villages but lived in neither.


Medb knocked on the hut's door and opened it before receiving an answer.


The white-haired priest looked towards the entrance, startled by Medb's presence at his door.


It wasn't unusual for people from conservative villages to react poorly to people in revealing outfits. He repeatedly opened and closed his mouth, trying and failing to say something, until Medb activated her Charm Skill.


(Explaining things would be a waste of time.)


The priest immediately started to tear up and sing praise to Medb's beauty. After his praise hit a decent enough cutoff point, Medb said:


"Did you kill the girls who went to the mountain?"


A direct question.


The priest answered without moving his gaze away from Medb.


"No."


"What?"


(I wasn't counting on this. The priest led the three girls up the mountain and climbed down alone when the sun was setting. The girls wouldn't come back from the forbidden area or answer his calls... That's the story he told the villagers. A story impossible to prove. The idea that the priest was lying tied up all the loose ends. He's the only plausible suspect, the villagers just couldn't see it because they can't think of doubting the priest. Or at least that's what I thought, but on second thought this priest is so old that a young girl could knock him out for good in one punch. His little twig arms couldn't kill two girls with a sneak attack, let alone in a fair fight. I was off-mark. Though solving the mystery is not what I'm here for, I don't need to think about this. The girl murder is not the point here, I'm getting sidetracked.)


Medb regained her composure and returned to her conversation with the priest.


"We wanna go to the divine territory. We heard you have a map so lend it to me. Is that all we need to find our way to the spring?"


The moment Medb finished talking, he rushed to take an aged map from a locked drawer.


"The forbidden territory is past this mark. And past that... on this mark, there is a path leading to the spring. It goes on a straight line from this point, but the entrance is easy to overlook, so it would be best if you allowed me to guide you."


"We don't need you. Just hand me the map."


"Yes, my queen," said the priest, kneeling to offer up the map in his raised arms. Medb grabbed the map and walked away, with Ritsuka and Aisha following one pace behind her.


Aisha turned her head back, curious to see the strangely cooperative old man.


"What happened to the old man? He felt kinda bubbly."


"He was just enraptured by my beauty. He'll be back to his senses after some time away from me."


♢♢♢♢


The base of the mountain had a road starting right next to the priest's hut and going halfway up the mountain. Where it ended, as explained before, was a stretch of rope marking that the area was forbidden to enter. The three girls went past the ropes anyway.


"Quite the walk, huh... Since I heard the old grampa climbed here every day to look for the girls, I was expecting a lot less mountain than this."


Ritsuka said so with her face dripping with sweat. Despite her missing memories she still had the experience of crossing numerous Singularities, so a little mountain climbing wasn't enough to discourage her.


Aisha also followed them without complaint.


(The villagers were all used to the mountain, the priest included. The same goes for the killed girls, so even if the priest is tough for his age, I still doubt he killed the girls. More importantly, he wouldn't lie to me under Charm, so he can't be the culprit. All the village men are also off the suspect list. That leaves us with the culprit being a woman, but no one climbed the mountain in the time between the priest guiding the girls and climbing down alone... Or at least, the villagers waiting at the hut didn't see anyone do so. The road next to the priest's hut is the easiest way up the mountain but it isn't the only one. The road was the only path with any surveillance, so if someone came in from another side, from somewhere the villagers weren't looking, it's not impossible to climb the mountain off the beaten path. Another possibility is that the culprit climbed before the party and waited for them there. But would she be able to find the priest and follow him? Ugh, whatever, puzzle-solving is not within my interests, much less my fields of expertise. I just gotta get rid of the cause of the Singularity and say goodbye to this land. This long mountain climb is making me think about the most pointless things.)


After crossing the ropes into the forbidden area, the road continued into narrow spaces between dense growths of trees every now and then. The road was hidden by camouflage magecraft so that lost villagers, or invaders, wouldn't end up in the forbidden territory. It was a cheap, rubbish spell no mage could call a Bounded Field with a straight face, but it was enough to leave the regular villagers unable to follow the path.


(The priest guarding the divine territory must have set this. I guess he's a low-tier mage.)


The spell was so strained that even the amnesiac Ritsuka could tell it was off. Comparing the scenery to the map, the two could tell at a glance that the road led to their destination.


"Here it is. Let's go."


"Huh, but... the path is blocked."


Their eyes fell on a road stopping at an uncrossable pack of trees.


(I know she's not her usual self, but I didn't think she'd chicken out at going through some trees.)


Noticing that comparing the map to reality made Ritsuka confused, Medb grabbed her hand and pulled her, taking a step into what seemed to be a dead-end in their path.


Thanks to her Shielder's contributions, Ritsuka's hand was still soft and weak despite all the battlefields she crossed. It was a hand that had never held a weapon or punched anyone.


A hand not fit for that.


Even so, that hand had Command Spells.


As Medb pulled her hand, Ritsuka extended her other arm to Aisha. Ritsuka's hand was busy carrying her bag, so Aisha grabbed her wrist. With their hands linked together, the three crossed the shoddy Bounded Field.


The camouflage disappeared and the path became as was shown on the map. Medb continued forward, dragging the two startled and confused girls behind her.


"I can see why it was impossible to reach the place without a map or a guide.", said Ritsuka, holding Aisha's hand in one of her own and using the other hand to carry the bag she always used to collect Grails. "I wonder, last time we climbed, did we manage to reach the spring or did we collapse along the way?"


(Good question. I hadn't given it any thought before but now I'm curious. The map was in the priest's hut, meaning we didn't have it on our first climb. We didn't know that the map or a guide were required to reach the spring, probably. The people in the western village knew we needed it, so either no one told us or we climbed before we had the chance to talk to anyone... or, maybe, someone who knew the way was guiding us.)


At the end of the tunnel of trees was an open area. They could see the entrance to a cavern shortly after it.


The place's aura was enough to tell that that was the divine territory.


The Bounded Field placed on the road was nothing compared to the powerful magical energy they felt inside the cavern.


That said, they didn't feel the presence of any living being. They felt only raw, pure magical energy.


They cautiously proceeded through the cave that was as wide as they could see. It was impressively vast. The entrance was well lit, but the further they went into the cave, the darker it got. Before they had the time to wonder how far they needed to go, they noticed there was no floor a few meters in front of them. A wide natural well was open inside the cavern.


When Medb tried to approach the floor's cut-off point to take a better look the part she stepped on crumbled, widening the hole a little further.


"Inside this horizontal hole was... a vertical hole?"


The cave's roof was supported by two thin layers of rock with a big gap between them to allow the light to enter. It was a lot brighter in there than on the way here.


Feeling anxious about Medb being on crumbling rocks in high heels, Ritsuka slowly crawled to the big hole and took a look below.


The bottom of the cliff was quite low, over 10 meters below them.


Medb found a rope ladder pinned to the firmer ground. It led all the way to the bottom of the mortar-shaped room. The cave's environment looked completely natural at first glance, but with the ladder signaling that others had been there before, it became easy to assume that people had worked the stone to expand the hole and flatten the ground for easier access.


In the middle of the mortar was a small lake. The cracks in the roof were reflected on the water's surface.


"That's the spring of divine water?"


"I was expecting more."


"And... what's that?"


Ritsuka's eyes were fixed on something on the other side of the lake, but her tone was evasive.


Medb hadn't immediately noticed the person collapsed there due to the distance. She initially assumed it was a pile of clothes, but then she saw the hair and realized it was a corpse.


Medb had seen that corpse up close before. Her memory of it was fragmentary. She couldn't remember the last time she was here.


"I'll go down to check."


The moment Medb let Ritsuka know her intention, she quickly snatched the bag from Ritsuka's hands. Her Master wouldn't be able to go down the ladder with luggage to carry. She jumped down with the Grail-collecting bag in her hands.


Hearing Ritsuka and Aisha scream behind her, she softly kicked her heels on the rocky walls to slow down her fall, landing smoothly. She put the bag on the floor and looked up, seeing Ritsuka and Aisha's flabbergasted faces.


(Oh, right, Ritsuka doesn't know I'm a Servant. I mentioned it in the basic explanation, but she doesn't know what a Servant is. Looking from down here, this place really is pretty tall. Nothing for a Servant, but a normal human would hesitate to climb down even with a ladder. If the rope snaps somewhere along the way they're definitely not surviving that.)


Medb grabbed the rope ladder descending along the rocky wall with one hand and tugged at it. It was firm enough.


"It's fine. Get down here."


Medb turned away without saying another word.


Ritsuka advised Aisha not to take the risk, but Aisha said she's also going down.


(The rope snapping isn't the only risk. If someone up there pulled the ladder away, the people below are done for. Normal people can't climb that cliff.)


With that in mind, Medb turned back around to keep watch. Ritsuka was climbing down the ladder, not with the safest handle on it. Medb considered pulling the bottom with the heels of her boots to keep the rope stable, but decided things would be fine and that she should finish exploring before they got here.


The mortar was twice as wide as Chaldea's My Room. The first thing to come to Medb's attention was the pair of corpses she had mistaken for piles of clothes.


They had decayed to the point there was almost no flesh remaining, but Medb could recognize the girls' bodies from their size and clothes.


Two bodies lined up on the rugged, rocky ground. Medb had seen this image before.


(I knew it, we've been here on our last climb. No map, so we came with someone who knew the way. The villagers didn't say anything, so our guide wasn't one of them. That leaves us with the priest or someone from the west village. It might have been Aisha and she just doesn't remember because she lost all her memories.)


Medb looked around the edge of the cliff and found a ledge away from where the ladder was. Light came from it, indicating it was connected to the outside, but normal people couldn't climb all the way up there.


After seeing that Aisha safely climbed down the entire ladder, Ritsuka ran closer to Medb but stopped dead in her tracks, hesitant to approach the bodies. She could tell they used to be girls from the dirty and unruly hair and clothes and gripped her chest with a pained face.


Ritsuka had seen her fair share of corpses before, but she didn't have any memory of that fact. She had the expected reaction for a girl her age.


Though her grief for the girls would have been the same even if she did have her memories.


Someone took the lives of two girls close to Ritsuka's age. This is unquestionably tragic, but Ritsuka had already seen more unfair deaths in her journeys across multiple singularities than she could count.


On all of these occasions, Ritsuka never stopped moving forward. At the same, she never grew numb to tragedy.


Ritsuka always kept walking her path despite feeling the pain of others as if it were her own.


The sight of death never made her freeze or made her express the fear, sadness, and hopelessness she most certainly felt.


But Ritsuka was a teenage girl, memories or no memories.


Now, seeing her unable to bring herself to approach corpses and comparing her to how she was before losing her memories, Medb realized how fast Ritsuka was unwittingly forced to become an adult. But Medb was in no position to lament this.


Ritsuka was the Master chosen to restore Human Order and Medb was her Servant.


If she still had her memories, she would never show any signs of weakness in front of Medb, nor show any concern for the scars she got when fighting for Human Order.


Despite that, she still had a few points in common with who she was like before her amnesia. For example, the way she never doubted anything Medb said, following her all the way here even though she was practically a stranger at that point, and how she felt the need to take care of the younger Aisha. She was a naturally simple soul.


Another thing that didn't change was her pained expression, tightly biting her lip but never looking away from an unfair death, even if her eyes did tremble for a moment. That meant her essence hadn't been changed by everything she experienced. That was almost a miracle, in Medb's opinion.


"You don't need to come. We didn't come here to see dead bodies. Go find the source of the magical energy here. You don't need your memories to feel that, right?"


"Feel... That doesn't sound easy."


Aisha stood next to Ritsuka, scared, trying to stay away from the bodies. That was also the expected reaction for a girl her age, but Medb knew that was not how she was supposed to be. In the faint piece of memory she had left, Aisha was next to her, inspecting the corpses. She didn't feel any repulsion towards them then.


(Different people have different degrees of tolerance to corpses, so the problem is not that. It's that her reactions are way too different. Amnesia doesn't change someone's personally this hard. Was this Aisha intentionally going for the expected reaction for a child?)


"Is this the spring? It's so shallow."


"I wouldn't touch that water if I were you. It's weak, but I can feel the magical energy there."


Medb dashed before Ritsuka had the time to tell her she didn't need to come and positioned herself between Ritsuka and Aisha. Medb stopped Ritsuka from approaching what was ostensibly the spring water.


She talked to Ritsuka, paying close attention to Aisha's movements behind her.


Aisha from the western village being with them meant that they heard about the oblivion water before climbing the mountain. Therefore, they wouldn't have lost their memories without a reason.


(Aisha didn't tell us about the oblivion water? Sounds plausible. She could have even encouraged us to drink it, on top of that. I had assumed Aisha was our guide up the mountain, but a regular village girl couldn't fulfill this job. Even if she did enter the divine territory before, according to the chief, the girls drink the water before climbing down to forget the path. Not to mention the western village must have heard the story about the disappeared girls from the eastern village. Under normal circumstances, a girl Aisha's age would hesitate to climb. The villagers would try to stop her. That means Aisha might have followed us without the adults' permission, for whatever her goal is. In that case, did she run to us without waiting for the escort she knew was coming because she would be in trouble if the adults in the western village found out about her? If that's what it is, her actions don't make sense for a person with no memories. I know for a fact that we went in the divine territory before, so who guided us? If it was Aisha, for whatever reason, she was the exception to the rule of forgetting the path. How is she now? I heard Aisha was found collapsed with us, but the only reason we have to believe she's amnesiac is her own word. There's no way to check if she's really amnesiac or not right now. Asking "are you really amnesiac?" would only make everything more confusing.)


Medb knew caution was necessary, but escalating the situation while Aisha wasn't showing any clear signs of hostility would be a bad idea.


(I don't have the time to be looking for the girls' killer. Whatever Aisha is plotting doesn't matter, as long as she doesn't get in our way. If she does, I just have to get rid of her. I can't see her as a threat I need to prioritize.)


"We're not at a spring. This is just water accumulated in a rock depression."


Medb pointed to the fake spring and stated her conclusion. The faint magical energy indicated that it was oblivion water, but the source was somewhere else in the cave.


A cloth bag was on the floor next to the puddle.


Medb picked it up and checked the insides. Shriveled fruit, hardened bread, pieces of jerky. Food for one person.


"A lunch bag?" wondered Ritsuka. "There's something on the floor here, too."


Ritsuka crouched, noticing something. She extended her hand to it but trembled and pulled back.


"A knife...?"


"It has blood on it," Ritsuka whispered in a quiet, worried tone. She made sure Aisha wouldn't listen.


The moment they made eye contact, everything connected.


Three girls disappeared, and one month after the incident, one was set free.


A hole no one can climb out of on their own. Two corpses. One knife and food for one person.


Medb imagined the worst.


She reflectively looked at the girls' bodies but quickly averted her gaze.


(I'm not detective material. I don't care for pretending that I am.)


Medb knew that she would find knife wounds if she checked the girls' bodies, but confirming that wasn't her goal.


"I don't care what happened to these girls. Retrieving the Grail or the fragment or whatever comes first. As far as I can tell, it's not here. It's close, though," Medb said after checking her surroundings one more time. She couldn't see anything that looked like a source of magical energy, but she could feel it nearby.


Ritsuka could also feel it, despite her lack of memories. She would grip her chest, spread her arms, trying things until she gave up.


"Yeah, I can feel something hot and scary. Like a flame maybe...? What is that? It's also kinda... distant?"


She started walking around, putting her hand all over the floor and the walls.


(What is she, a metal detector? Well, magical energy can be felt by touch, and the palm is a sensitive part, so that's not necessarily a bad idea.)


"Relying on touch alone is, uh, not doing much. Isn't there any hint or mark anywhere? I don't know what I'm supposed to be looking for."


"You don't know what a spring is? Water coming out of the ground. There could be another tunnel or shaft in this cave. Let's look for water. Could be a lake, a river, anything."


(I don't know if it's a Grail or just a fragment, but if we're getting magical water here, what we're looking for is in the water.)


Ritsuka kept crouching and standing up to touch her palm everywhere until she eventually called Medb, pensive and unsure.


"I think it might be here..."


Medb could also feel it when she focused. It was on the other side of the wall. Close. Immediately behind it.


"Found it," said Medb. Ritsuka nodded, dazed.


"There's probably an open space on the opposite side of the wall. Let's climb back up and look for a way to..."


"Don't waste my time with that."


Medb told Ritsuka and Aisha to step back and moved away from the wall herself as well.


"Chariot My Love!"


An armored bull pulling a steel chariot appeared out of thin air in response to Medb's call. And without pause, it loudly rammed into the wall.


Its power was limited to adjust for the occasion, but it was still an Anti-Army Noble Phantasm. It shattered the rock, opening a large hole in the wall.


No debris flew in Ritsuka's and Aisha's direction, but the shock still caused Ritsuka to fall flat on her ass. Medb could hear incredulous whispers. "What? A bull? From where?"


The same went for Aisha, who looked at Medb with her mouth wide open. It would take a couple of minutes before those two were back on their feet.


(No matter what Aisha was planning, after seeing that, she might want to think twice before trying to hurt us.)


Noticing the sound of flowing water, Medb looked inside the hole and found a room a lot more spacious than she expected. Inside was the real spring. A thin river flowed between the rocks, extending outside the cavern, and light peeked from the rocky wall cracks.


The rocks piled up on top of each other, forming a staircase so convenient that Medb had to wonder if it was really natural. Climbing down to this place didn't require any rope ladder. This had to be where the village's water was taken from.


Taking a closer look at the spring, Medb could find a golden Grail sunk at the bottom. There was no mistaking it, that was the magical energy source. The energy flowed out of it as if the cup was melting into the water, causing the rippling water to look like it was emitting light.


Medb extended her hand but stopped before entering the water, just to be careful. Instead, she pulled the cup out of the water with the tip of her whip.


The Grail in Medb's hands shined brighter than it did underwater, scattering light like it was dust. The water, on the other hand, had lost its shine.


"Ritsuka! The bag!"


"Yes, ma'am!"


Medb went back through the hole and returned to the previous stone hall. She tossed the Grail to Ritsuka, who was watching from the other side of the wall.


Ritsuka quickly opened the bag to catch the Grail inside it.


Once the cup was secured its magical energy cut off, along with its glimmer.


"Are we done?"


"All that's left is taking this back to Chaldea. Don't drop it. The effect of the water should run out any moment now, so-"


Something sprinkled down on Medb's hair, causing her to frown. She saw that sand had fallen on her feet.


As she looked up to see where that fell from, two crags fell from the cracked ceiling one after the other. Medb felt a faint quake.


"What the...?"


"Didn't you cause that when you opened the hole in the wall, Medb?"


"That wasn't big enough to collapse the cave. It's probably because the Grail's energy was making this land a temporary leyline. Snatching that away disturbed the..."


During their conversation, huge cracks had opened on the stone walls, with their surface layer starting to fall off. The ceiling had already started to collapse, leaving long stretches where the sky was visible.


"Let's hurry out. We don't have any more business in..."


Before she could finish her sentence, more sand fell between Ritsuka and Aisha. Raising her eyes, Medb saw a large slab of rock hanging diagonally from the ceiling, about to drop.


Aisha was directly below it, blissfully unaware of what was happening.


Ritsuka ran, extending her hand to Aisha, almost on instinct.


(How can she do this without her Shielder here?)


"Wait...!"


(Idiot. I'm not fast enough to stop this.)


A stone rain poured. A shadow fell on top of Ritsuka.


"Chariot...!"


(Can I use it in time? I gotta hope I can.)


(Ritsuka's hand will reach Aisha, but the boulder will... I can't stop it. I'm not that fast.)


In the next instant, Medb felt the wind blowing.


The wind grazed past her and landed with a kick to the not yet collapsed wall behind her.


The falling rock hit the floor and shattered. Neither Ritsuka nor Aisha was under it.


Glossy locks of dark hair fluttered.


"I remembered everything. That was way too close for comfort. Must have sucked to have your bodyguard doing nothing the whole time, Master."


"Yan Qing!"


With her memories recovered, Ritsuka said his name.


She was saved from the falling rock by her Servant. He flashed a smile while still holding her in one arm.


Medb remembered everything.


(The three of us rayshifted. We heard about the spring in the western village, and Yan Qing borrowed the appearance of a girl we met there because only girls could enter the divine territory. We found the place we're in. We were caught off guard by the unexpected culprit's counterattack and got water on our faces, losing our memories... But, yeah, we don't have time to waste on a trip down memory lane.)


The cavern was well on its way to collapsing, starting from its ceiling. The floor and walls were shaking.


"Hop on!"


Medb jumped into her chariot and grabbed Ritsuka's arm as it ran, pulling her up. Yan Qing widened his grin to signal he was entrusting Ritsuka to Medb, casually kicked his way across the rocks, and took the shorter way out of the cave.


Inside the rain of sand from the crushed rocks, Medb's chariot jumped from the crumbled debris and flew off. Out of the open entrance, they could see the forest below them. Their hair fluttered in the wind.


"I'm the only woman actually allowed in here! This is a special exception."


Medb raised her voice so it wouldn't be drowned by the sound of the wind.


Holding tight to her seat on the flying chariot, Ritsuka let out something between a cheer and a scream. Her memories were back. Her starry-eyed face in these kinds of larger-than-life situations was the same as usual.


Her cheeks and forehead were covered in dust and her injuries will make new scars, but she was positively sparkling with sweat.


"Awesome. You're the best, Medb!"


"I know!"


(You're not bad either!)


♢♢♢♢


"Only one person can climb down the mountain. Discuss among yourselves, find a way, any way, to decide who is going. Once there's only one of you left, that one will be freed."


Saying this, the priest dropped enough food for one person. Despite saying men weren't allowed in the divine territory, the priest was there and had pulled up the ladder while they weren't looking.


After hearing about the divine territory on the western village, Ritsuka, Medb, and Yan Qing (borrowing Aisha's appearance) were guided up the mountain by the priest. Inside the mortar-shaped space, they looked up to see the priest and immediately realized what happened to the girls.


The two dead girls had stab wounds and there was a knife on the floor.


The priest wanted to watch from a prime seat as the trio fought over the food and ultimately killed each other.


However, the priest left to grab a Grail full of water in the next room to feed the survivor, and when he came back the three of them were outside the hole. They escaped from a 10-meter tall underground space without a ladder. This height is no trouble for a Servant running up while carrying their Master, but the priest didn't know that, so he was really confused.


In a panic, he tried to hide behind a rock until they left, then through the grass and trees as he made his escape to the middle parts of the mountain, but the trio was fully aware of his location through the water's magical energy. Resigned to the fact that he couldn't escape, the priest splashed the oblivion water at the party as a last resort.


Yan Qing had jumped in front of Ritsuka, taking a direct hit from the water, causing him to lose all memory of who he was. The same happened to Ritsuka, who didn't have a Servant's degree of magic resistance. Medb got away with relatively low damage, losing only her memories concerning the culprit and the circumstances that lead to their amnesia.


After being saved by the villagers, they ultimately climbed the mountain with the same team and repeated the same process. The priest was undoubtedly surprised by Medb's second visit, but since she didn't waste any time casting her Charm, the slave never had an opportunity to oppose her.


If back then Medb had asked if he knew what happened to the girls or who killed them, the effects of the Charm would have made him answer honestly. "I locked them in a stone cage they couldn't escape on their own and said only one would survive, causing them to kill each other."


Medb didn't know if the girls actively played the killing game or if they encouraged each other to survive together, starved, and the surviving girl put the other two out of their misery. Either way the priest didn't harm them directly, so his answer to "did you kill them?" was no.


There wasn't anything left of the cavern, but there was barely any damage to the forest around it. The walls and ceiling collapsed on the underground space and were all piled up inside the hole. The only effect it had on the village was that the spring was buried. Not that it mattered, since the oblivion water would be gone regardless.


Thanks to the Grail's energy being isolated, the communications with Chaldea were restored.


The group summarized the events and informed the Grail was collected but decided to wait before they returned because Ritsuka thought they needed to tell the villagers what the priest did.


Medb argued girls wouldn't climb the mountain for water anymore since the spring was unsalvageably buried, and that the priests' crimes would be exposed eventually, but Ritsuka insisted that they needed to at least say the spring was buried before there were any more victims.


A crowd was gathered at the bottom of the mountain when Ritsuka's group climbed down there. The village chief called them from the door to the priest's hut.


"Oh, I'm so glad you're safe."


Being out of Medb's range had freed him from the previous Charm.


(Great, this saves us the trouble of returning to the village.)


"We heard a huge noise in the mountain, so we got worried and ran all the way here."


"The cavern up there collapsed, completely burying the spring. We could escape because we were close to the entrance, but it's impossible to take more water now..."


"Really...? Maybe relying on memory-wiping water was wrong all along. At the very least, it was not something we should be sacrificing girls to get."


The chief closed his eyes, but other than that, he accepted the loss of the water surprisingly easily. He had been entertaining the possibility of letting go of it ever since the two girls disappeared. The other villagers agreed. "Yeah, that's a great opportunity to stop."


"Hey... I have something to tell..."


Ritsuka stopped talking. She couldn't find the right words. She realized what it meant to tell them what happened to the girls.


The surviving girl was still in the village. Revealing the truth meant exposing what she had to do to climb down the mountain alive.


She could just say that the priest held the two girls captive until their deaths without mentioning the part that concerns the survivor, but if they blamed the priest, he would reveal that the third girl was the one who did the stabbing.


Ritsuka shut her mouth, teary-eyed.


"Where's the priest? I don't see him anywhere."


Medb interjected, unintentionally bailing Ritsuka out of having to continue her story. The chief shifted his attention to her.


"As soon as he found out something happened in the mountain, he retired to his hut to offer prayers. Since we saw you coming down we were knocking on the door to inform him, but he's not responding."


(What an annoyance.)


Medb stepped forward and raised her heel to kick the door open, but Yan Qing predicted the outcome, jumped in front of the door and opened it normally.


And then Medb slowly put her foot back down.


The priest had tied a rope to a roof beam and hanged himself. A chair was collapsed next to his feet.


Being directly behind Yan Qing, Medb could see it, but from Ritsuka's position, with two Servants blocking the door, she couldn't clearly see inside. "What happened?" Ritsuka asked, trying to find a good angle to see inside, but Yan Qing closed the door before she could get a good look. He turned to her and shook his head.


"He's dead. Hung himself."


Medb's report made Ritsuka gulp. The villagers exchanged glances, startled.


The chief approached and opened the door very slightly to verify.


Turning back, he shook his head like Yan Qing did and told everyone Medb was telling the truth.


The villagers nodded as if that was what they expected to happen.


"Makes sense, the priest knew where the divine territory was. When he heard the cavern collapsing, he must have immediately realized the spring was buried," said the chief, quietly.


The villagers concurred. No one was in shock or denial.


"No one entered the hut after the priest did?"


The person closest to Medb answered her question. "I don't think anyone did." Unsure of his answer, he looked at the other villagers, silently asking for support.


"I wasn't looking the whole time, but I'd have noticed if someone tried to enter. We're all pretty close to each other."


"No doubts. No one came in. We can all attest to that."


"He must have felt responsible." "He lost what gave purpose to his life." "No, he did it to pacify the angry god." The villagers exchanged theories.


Medb took a second to look at the body of the priest hanging from the ceiling. It didn't look like the face of a tired man in despair from losing what gave purpose to his life. Medb couldn't see any resolve to appease a god, nor a sense of responsibility. Much less guilt.


All she saw was fear and agony.


He realized he'd lost the Grail, feared that the villagers would find out what he did, and ended his life before the dread consumed him.


"What were you going to tell us?" asked the chief. "It's nothing," answered Ritsuka, shaking her head.


She no longer had any need to tell them.


There wouldn't be any new victims.


Ritsuka turned away from the hut, exchanged glances with Yan Qing and Medb, and said "Let's go home."

[Comun]

Caged Girls part 4

Da Vinci, Holmes, Ritsuka, Medb, and Yan Qing sat around the table in da Vinci's workshop.

Da Vinci had suggested they should drink tea during the report, as a small gesture of compensation for how Ritsuka had to go straight from her medical check to the meeting. Mash politely refused the invitation to join and stayed in the operator room, even though they would have needed to bring extra tea from another room either way. Ritsuka would just have to tell her the whole story later.


Ritsuka and Yan Qing spent over half of their time in the Singularity following Medb around without memories, so naturally, Medb did the brunt of the reporting. Da Vinci listened to Medb's report as she poured a cup of tea from the set Holmes brought.


"Turns out this whole 'only girls can enter the divine territory, adults can't go past this rope' deal was just a bunch of rules the priest set for his own convenience. The men who entered unauthorized only lost their memories because the priest splashed water on them."


After finishing her summary, Medb took a cat tongue from the tea table and added:


"These dumb villagers just built a faith around a god the priest made up and obeyed his whims for decades."


The Grail was safely retrieved, but the girls' bodies were buried under rocks and the culprit died without saying a word. They didn't know how many girls he'd harmed over time. That conclusion left a bad taste in Ritsuka's mouth. She had a long face and Yan Qing stared silently at the maquette of the man hanging himself from the ceiling.


"The chief told you the oblivion water started springing 50 years ago. That must have been when the Grail appeared. The priest touched it by accident and it granted his wish, creating water he could use to wash away his misdeeds. The priest made good use of that, creating a whole narrative about a divine area and God's water to solidify his social status. He established himself as the only one who could guide the girls to the divine territory. All to appease his iniquitous desires."


Holmes had been listening to the story in silence the entire time. He brought his antique blue cup to his mouth, took a sip without making a sound, and then returned it to its saucer.


"For years, even decades, the priest continued to harm girls and return them to their villages without any memories of the fact, but when that became physically impossible to him, he chose to seek a new form of excitement instead of simply quitting. He came up with a new method to dominate the girls. And those three were the first victims."


Medb recalled the excavated shaft in the cavern. That was the priest's cage. Designed to lock and observe girls.


The priest climbed the mountain every day pretending to look for them and watched them from atop the hole.


The girls were confined until they lost their will and strength to resist, manipulated at the lowest of their capacity for discernment, and ultimately made to kill each other. All he had to do next is erase the survivor's memory by feeding or splashing the water, and return her to her village. After a month of being confined, the survivor would have drunk the water of their own volition if that guaranteed she would be freed.


"The priest was very skilled with his use of the water. He knew the right amount of water to erase the right amount of memories. He probably experimented on many villagers to learn that. I wonder how many suffered at his hands."


Ritsuka frowned at Holmes' words. She looked down to the tea in her cup, which she was holding with both hands. She wondered if the girls she saw in the village and the ones who grew up into women could properly remember their own families.


"Just remembered something. There was magical energy in the water, but it felt too weak for something with the power to erase memories. Any ideas how or why?"


"Probably because the power to erase memories didn't come from the water itself."


Da Vinci immediately answered Medb's question.


"Drinking or touching the water from the spring connected you to the Grail at the bottom, and that's when the priest's wish for amnesia actually triggered. Only the Grail itself was discharging the magical energy necessary for that. That's why everyone retrieved their memories when the Grail was collected and deactivated. The power source was plugged off."


Medb hadn't thought that far, but her policy to ignore the lost memories and go straight to collecting the Grail was the best choice possible, all things considered.


Almost immediately after Medb retrieved the Grail, the party's memories had returned.


"It helped a lot that Ritsuka didn't need her memories to obediently accept my words. I would've been stumped if the panic made her useless or if she decided not to trust me," said Medb. "Well, she has my charisma to thank for it."


Ritsuka smiled and nodded.


"I was amnesiac and didn't have anyone else to rely on... but even without my memories, I got a feeling you would always be on my side."


(She took a medical check first thing after returning to Chaldea. The scratches on her face completely disappeared with the treatment. But I don't know about the scars hidden under her clothes.)


Medb thought about Ritsuka's secret. A small secret she shouldn't have learned about. Her pain, not as a Master, but as a girl.


(Even if she was telling the truth about being proud of every scar, that doesn't make them hurt less.)


Her wounds went deeper than her skin, to somewhere the eyes can't see. More than a wound, she had a void deepened by loss. Ritsuka embraced it, allowing her to stand on her feet. And she will continue to do so.


Ritsuka returned Medb's gaze and smiled liked she knew what Medb was thinking. Her smile seemed more mature than usual, with softer eyes and a softer mouth.


"How cocky..."


"Why?!"


Medb whispered and turned away resting her cheek on her hand, causing Ritsuka to raise her voice, flustered. Medb was satisfied with the reaction.


Medb decided not to touch the subject, knowing Ritsuka wouldn't want to talk about it anyway.


Her plan at the moment was to drag Ritsuka to the Casters since she wouldn't do anything about the scars on her own.


(There's nothing I can do about the wounds that aren't physical, but I can at least stay by her side, as her Servant. I can't tell Ritsuka to stop hurting herself. No one can, even if we all want to. For the same reason why she never complains.)


Medb decided that if Ritsuka could no longer take all the pain and decided to run away she was willing to abduct her with the Chariot, but she kept that thought a secret.


"Oh yeah, Yan Qing, even when you were amnesiac and thinking you were a village girl, you still choose to follow us. You were a lifesaver for that! Without you, I'd be squished under a rock by now."


Since Medb was still facing the other way, Ritsuka turned to Yan Qing, who was sitting by the wall.


Medb agreed with her comment.


"Still, I know you were taking the form of a village girl when you lost memory, but how come you never realized you weren't actually a girl? Amnesia isn't supposed to confuse you about that."


Yan Qing, resting one leg on a wooden box instead of sitting on a chair, shrugged.


"I'm the kind of actor who gets really immersed in the character. I took the shower in a transformed state, while my ego was diluted, and when I woke up everyone told me I was a village girl. So I took a look at the reflection in the window and it checked out, I was a woman and that was my face. Oh well, things sorted themselves out when they needed to."


"Precisely when they needed to..."


(If Yan Qing hadn't recovered from his amnesia that at that exact moment, Chaldea's Master would be dead. He deserves some praise for recognizing the right way to deal with the danger in front of him the second he retrieved his memories.)


Ritsuka thanked him with a friendly smile before returning to staring at her cup with a sullen expression. She looked at the steam disappearing from the tea's surface, without ever taking a sip.


"After the cave collapsed, we looked for the two bodies, but... they were buried on the lowest part of a pile of solid rock. There's nothing we could have done. I wish we could have returned them to their families."


After their escape, Ritsuka tried to dig up the girls' bodies from the pile of debris that once was the cave. She eventually accepted it was impossible and climbed down the mountain, but she still regretted doing so.


"The villagers will dig them up with time. They already know where the girls are."


Da Vinci tried to console her.


Ritsuka's party didn't tell any villagers about the girls' deaths or their bodies being under the cavern. Ritsuka was confused by the claim for a moment, but soon figured it out and raised her voice.


"Oh, that's right. Because the third one... the survivor recovered her memories..."


Holmes nodded.


"The villagers weren't gathered at the foot of the mountain because they heard the cave collapse. The water's effect ran out, they learned of the priest's deed, and went after him."


(How did I not piece that out?)


The villagers didn't tell Medb and Ritsuka anything since they were outsiders to the village, but they didn't feel any surprise or grief when they found the priest hanged himself because they remembered what the priest had been doing to their girls.


"The third girl probably didn't tell anyone she had to kill two other girls to survive. She probably told them she simply watched the priest kill the other two. Many other girls and women there were previous victims of the priest. That was enough to expose his crimes."


Holmes eloquently stated the facts, with his elbows on the table and joining both hands by the fingertips.


After that, he gently stood up, grabbed the pot, poured tea in Medb's emptied cup, and sat back down.


"And knowing that he wouldn't be able to escape the angry villagers, he killed himself?"


Holmes answered Ritsuka's question by distinctly shaking his head.


"No, he was murdered."


"But there wasn't anyone inside the hut..."


If anyone entered the hut, someone else would have noticed. All villagers can verify each other's alibis, making the case a locked-room murder.


Despite many of them probably wanting the priest to pay with his life, everyone there has an alibi.


"You didn't confirm that the priest entered the hut on his own accord nor that he was the only one to enter, did you? The answer is so obvious I can't even call it a deduction," said Holmes, elegantly lifting his gold-rimmed cup.


"It couldn't be simpler. Everyone is complicit in the priest's murder. All villagers there arranged beforehand to tell the same story."

Kyouya Origami's afterword

I was second-guessing myself a lot about this idea of writing a story with only Medb and Ritsuka being major characters when FGO has so many other likable characters, but the editor kept saying that Medb's perspective on Ritsuka was lovely and encouraging me to write more of their close interactions, and that's what we got. Thank you very much.

[mami-kouga]

This was definitely the most interesting case so far. And huh, that "I'll take her and run far away" thing reminds me of Saito's v day scene

[Comun]

Malice or Romance - part 1

Ritsuka, you're about to face a great hardship. But if I got my calculations right, this long and hard-fought battle will be winnable with about 1000 Saint Quartz. Please forgive me. I'm giving you an unbelievably harsh trial. It might be a curse, in a sense. But seeing how you just escaped THE Orion's fierce advances, I can't stop myself from believing in your potential.

"Any ideas what this is?"

Sherlock Holmes slapped a note against Leonardo da Vinci's face.

"Can I have any context?"

Da Vinci gave a displeased shrug at the man who intruded on her atelier to ask her rude questions. Holmes didn't show any signs of guilt for his attitude.

"I found it in one of the empty rooms."

Hearing that, Da Vinci finally grabbed the note. The text startled her.

"I know what room you mean... This is definitely Romani's handwriting. Where's the next page?"

"Unfortunately, this is the only one I found. Either the other notes are missing, or they never existed to begin with... But what intrigued me wasn't the note itself."

Holmes pointed to one particular line on the note in Da Vinci's hands.

"The most charitable interpretation of this extract is that an incredible supply of 1000 Saint Quartz exists in Chaldea, and Romani Archaman is offering it to Master... I believe this is quite different from what happened in the documents I read."

"We never had that many."

Da Vinci replied short and blunt.

"You might not know since this was before you were here, but we never could afford stockpiling resources. We do have a long-term production line to give Master some Saint Quartz little by little, but that was done out of my initiative, with no input from Romani."

"So your claim is that you never saw this note before and never heard anything about it from Romani Archaman?"

"Yeah. Why?"

Da Vinci frowned.

"You seem to be hiding something."

"Heh? From who?"

"From Master and I."

Da Vinci silently glared at Holmes and eventually turned her back to him.

"I'm busy right now. The Mage's Association will be coming soon to inspect us. Save it for later."

"You sound like you're asking for time to plant false evidence... But I don't mind."

Holmes turned around to leave after these taunting words.

"If you'll excuse me, I'll be doing some interrogations. But be sure I'll be back here if I need to."

-

"Have some more, senpai."

Mash Kyrielight filled my cup with tea. I thanked her and took a big sip.

The cafeteria was almost empty on this early afternoon. I recalled hearing something about someone from the Mage's Association coming here to inspect us, but I was assured that this would have nothing to do with me.

"It's so... peaceful here."

"I agree. I'm glad to have this chance to enjoy some nice tea with you."

The first August after Human Order was fully restored was being very satisfactory to me, Fujimaru Ritsuka.

"So much happened in these past two years."

"You tell me..."

I was effectively under house arrest, but this was Heaven compared to how things were back when the Human Order was at constant risk of incineration. Whoever this Mage's Association inspector was, he had nothing on a Demon Pillar.

"Well, we only earned these vacations because those fighting days were intense."

Though we'd just fought a literally huge hero in Agartha the other day.

"By the way, Senpai... do you have any moment that you consider particularly memorable?"

"Oh, don't make me choose."

Everything had been memorable. Since my life had been normal up to this point, I've been through a constant series of days I can never forget. It couldn't possibly be more difficult to choose just one.

"But if had to pick just one... I guess I'd go with the moon-viewing incident."

Mash looked surprised.

"That was immediately before the 3rd Singularity, correct?”

Yes, it happened in September 2015. What confused Mash was probably the strength of the enemy back then.

"There's been many situations where we've been severely underpowered. I remember Gawain, Tiamat, and Goetia..."

"Those battles were so intense I can barely believe we're both still here, alive. Still, I feel like the moon-viewing incident was pretty mild compared to those."

"But that fight against Orion was the first time I seriously felt like our loss was inevitable."

"Oh, you mean the goddess-class Extra Match?"

Orion's Noble Phantasm, Tristar Amore Mio, was super effective against men, and even with class advantage, my Lancers couldn't survive it. Looking back now, I couldn't believe that the only female Lancer I had to save my bacon back them was Liz.

"It must have hurt, Senpai."

"I wasn't free to level my Servants however I wanted at the time, after all."

On the first two Singularities, I had to make do with just Tamamo Cat and Saber Lily, the two girls who had been here in Chaldea from the start.

"I remember now... At that time, it was difficult to get them past the first Ascension, let alone get them fully ascended."

"It was hard as heck to gather Embers and Ascension materials."

Although I understood the Class triangles well, Cat and Saber Lily were the only real decent options I had. I kept following this style until it eventually reached its first real roadblock in the moon-viewing event.

"I learned that there were things Cat and Lily simply couldn't defeat, even if I shot all three Command Spells. But I didn't know who I had to raise to win..."

"No? But I remember you did beat Orion. If I recall right, it was with the Cu Chulainns and..."

"You have a good memory, Mash. I did win, but it was with advice from the Doctor. He told me we had two Cu Chulainns and a Hassan of the Cursed Arm here. He suggested the strategy of neutralizing Orion's Noble Phantasm with their Protection from Arrows and Protection from the Wind."

Hearing that, she flashed a bright smile... that soon changed into a sad expression.

"But I couldn't count on our Embers and Pieces. I checked all of our resources, and there was no way to raise three whole Servants starting from level 1."

"We still hadn't developed the golden apples to restore AP, nor the Super-Level Quests on Chaldea Gate..."

I remembered that later on the Doctor provided the Super Quests and Da Vinci provided the apples, but that wasn't a thing at that time. It sounded unreal now, but that's what the early days of Chaldea were like.

"I didn't have many options back then. That's why I had to bust a Saint Quartz. A Quartz I picked up to summon that same Orion."

My wish to summon Orion was indubitably real. But I had to beat that other Orion to advance.

"I still remember the face you made when you did, Senpai. You looked like you had swallowed a bug."

Was my face really that bad?

Well, you can’t look good when you spend limited resources on an opponent you're not sure you can beat. I barely had any Quartz left after I'd used what I had to level everyone up to the Second Ascension cap.

"But luckily enough, the Protection Against Arrows tactic worked wonders. I'm still holding the Crystallized Lore I got from beating Orion dearly on its shelf."

"Why? Don't you think you're wasting your victory by not using it?"

I completely agreed with Mash's cold-blooded commentary, but the fact remained that the victory tasted too sweet for me to ever use it.

"Thinking back now, busting only one Quartz was a cheap price to beat that Orion. But I won that victory on my own power, and it's thanks to that I learned that if I make the right calls, there's nothing I can't defeat."

"Orion was Fujimaru Ritsuka's origin point as a Master. What an interesting story."

"My heart was racing because I used my last Quartz and the Command Spells weren't recharged either. That battle was literally all or nothing, so my feeling of accomplishment on that is bigger than it has any right to."

I tried to take a sip as I said this, only to notice my cup was empty. I drank it all without noticing.

"Do you want more, Senpai?"

Mash asked with the empty teapot in her hands. Seems like she brewed that tea just for me. Her posture was adorably shy. I was about to nod... when I remembered something.

"Oh... I was waiting for my AP to fill up."

I was less than 30 minutes away from a full AP gauge. Forgetting to check that was a tragic habit that had been consuming me these past two years.

"I see. Not now, then..."

Mash let go of the teapot, slightly disappointed. I'd never want to make my cutest kouhai sad, but such is a Master's fate. I'd just have to hang out with her when I'm done.

The moment I stood up from my chair, a gentleman called me.

"Hello there, my girl. Having fun?"

It was James Moriarty, a nice fifty-something I bonded with in Shinjuku a few months back.

He was very amiable to me and had a superb fatherly aura.

"Oh, Moriarty... I was just leaving for Ember dailies. Wanna come with me?"

Moriarty's level and Skills were already maxed, but I wanted to further my bond with him.

"Gladly."

Moriarty watched me closely while he answered.

"I know it's weird to bring it up now, but... It's hard to believe a girl like you managed to restore Human Order."

"Ahaha, I get that a lot."

Moriarty wasn't trying to tease me. On the contrary, he was genuinely impressed. Despite his constant quarrels with the Great Detective Sherlock Holmes, I couldn't see him as the evil villain he's famed to be.

"You had no professional experience with this before coming to Chaldea, right?"

"Yup. Naturally, I couldn't join the A-Team or the B-Team. I was pretty much selected just to fill a quota."

I mean, it made perfect sense. Everyone else was an elite candidate, while I was scouted by chance.

"So learning that humanity's fate was in my hands was complicated. To be completely honest, there were moments I thought what happened in August 2015 marked the end of Chaldea..."

I wasn't really expecting a smooth start, but I couldn't imagine the series of nightmarish accidents that happened to me either. Me being here today sometimes felt like an impossible chain of coincidences.

"And yet, all mages in the world have their eyes on you now. While I think the system that raised a complete amateur this far is magnificent... I can feel the malice of the system's designer."

Moriarty let out a deep sigh.

"I really feel this Chaldea system was created for the purpose of evolving you into a competent Master. Yet I'm not too sure that they factored in the fact they would lose the A-Team, along with all the other Masters who also had a high level of proficiency from the start."

Moriarty furrowed his brows.

"It's not that deep, Moriarty."

"Yes, Mr. Moriarty. They would never go this far."

Moriarty shook his head. His expression was a bit serious.

"Actually, Ritsuka, you remind me of an old interesting client of mine."

"Were they pretty?"

"More strong than pretty."

Strong... Well, I'll take it as a compliment.

"It's someone from your country I met back when I was alive, see... He was a black belt in your land's traditional karate. He gave me a demonstration for reference. The sight of his muscular limbs smashing bricks like they were pudding was stunning."

"Just imagining it is making my hands hurt," Mash scowled.

"You wouldn't believe it, Mash. His hands were very rough when I touched them. That was the first and last time I saw fully calloused hands."

"Callouses...that's something a young lady like me wants peeled off mine."

When I cross a Rayshift location entirely by foot, my feet always get a bit calloused. That's why I made it my secret mission to do thorough skincare once I'm back in Chaldea.

"So, what happened to your karate man?"

You're not insinuating that my hands are coarse, are you?

"Yes, that man was always punching the walls and the floor when he had nothing else to do. That looked like self-harm to me, so against my best judgment, I decided to ask. According to him, calloused skin goes soft again if left alone for a day. That's why he needs to spare an hour of his time to punch things every day."

"Bullshit, my legs don't get any softer without proper maintenance."

In fact, the callouses my legs developed in Agartha were still there.

"Calm down, calm down. That's just what he believed. Or perhaps that's actually the level of maintenance necessary for someone wanting to use their limbs as weapons. You can already see my point, can you? He took every chance he got to strengthen his limbs and you take a few hours of each day for Chaldea Gate training. I see you two as mirror images of each other."

"No way. We're nothing alike. Right, Mash?"

"Y-yes, Senpai."

Mash's answer was evasive.

"I'll ask just to be sure. Has the AP meter ever been full in these past two years?"

I puffed my chest with pride.

"Not once. No matter how sleepy or sick I am, my AP consumption never skips a day. My status as a Master never ever slips my mind!"

After I was done boasting, I noticed Mash and Moriarty had recoiled a little.

"Look. You don't need to keep always doing these Ember dailies anymore, you know? Same for the Training Grounds and Treasure Vault, honestly. You can sleep when you need to and don't need to force yourself when you're not feeling well. You're the Master who restored Human Order, no one in their right mind would call you a slacker and pull you back to work for just that."

"I must admit the same thought crosses my mind whenever I see Senpai's machine-like AP consumption routine..."

Ouch, that hurt! I didn't have to find out like this.

"But letting AP fill up is wasteful, you know?"

Moriarty raised a finger to my answer.

"Thanks for proving my point. In case you don't know, the word 'wasteful' is a binding curse... Seriously, I can feel the malice in the concept."

"Whatever! Some people have their work as their hobby. I mean it, this Master job is my calling!"

"Calling to what, now that Human Order is already restored?"

"Gh-."

Those words were my weak spot.

"I have to be prepared for the next threat, and the next next threat, and the next next next threat."

According to Da Vinci, things were being arranged to decommission all Servants still in Chaldea in 2017. Even so, I was still sporadically getting missions to restore Sub-Singularities, so I had to keep up the pace.

"Besides, I'm very calculating in how I process Super-level Quests."

"I see... You need 40 AP to take on a Super-level Quest. Considering 1 AP recharges in 5 minutes, you must consider it as worth 3 hours and 20 minutes. You can only do 7 Super Quests a day, and how do you process them makes a big difference to Chaldea's squad management."

"Back when I first became a Master I was constantly starving for more Pieces and Monuments, but before I knew it I had more than I needed."

I still wanted more Embers, but my priority now was the Treasure Vault, to get some Skill levels up. If I had to complain about something, it'd be the proportion of QP gained to QP spent. I often spent a whole day in the Treasure Vault and got out still under 10 million QP.

"Ritsuka, dear, it's perfectly clear why you don't want to let any AP go to waste."

"What else am I supposed to do? Back when I first became a Master, my AP gauge capped at a measly 20. I couldn't even dream of taking on Super Quests."

Though said Super Quests weren't even ready, to begin with. Well, even if I could do them back then, I couldn't have won them.

"I see. That's another reason... but don't dodge the point."

In a sleight of hand, Moriarty conjured one Saint Quartz out of thin air and ran it across his fingers to taunt me.

"You've been pushed into a mental state where you convert anything you see in terms of Saint Quartz value, wouldn't you say?"

"Gh-!"

Moriarty was right. Before I started getting Golden Apples, I used Saint Quartz to recover AP, and because of that, the mindset that AP is a precious resource I only get 288 of a day had stuck with me to this day. Skipping a whole day means flushing 2 Quartz worth of AP down the drain.

I wanted my Master's Level to get even higher, still.

But above all else, my eyes were lured by the Saint Quartz dancing on Moriarty's palm. Saint Quartz, a literal magic stone. Its versatility knew no bounds.

"Saint Quartz is a very convenient resource, being used not only to recover AP, but also re-engage combat, summon Heroic Spirits, and maybe more. But somewhere along your time in Chaldea, you started to let Saint Quartz control you."

"I mean. Saint Quartz can theoretically do anything, but if I can get away with not spending them, why would I do it? I want them for summons."

"Saint Quartz, what a wonderful name. But if I had invented the Quartz, I would have picked a name that avoids the pointed shape of the item, to conceal its wickedness."

"Wickedness? How could something so pretty and useful be any wicked?"

Moriarty sighed.

"That thing really stole your heart. I'll take it as confirmation of the creator's malice."

And in another sleight of hand, the Quartz disappeared from sight. I know he didn't throw it away, but if he didn't feel like holding it, he could have given it to me...

"Why do you still need to do Super Quests? Your army is more than well-equipped enough."

In these two years' time, I had properly leveled Servants of every Class. If a new Singularity were to appear, I wouldn't have to rush to level anyone.

"Is that something you truly need to ditch me and your partner Mash for?"

"Agreed! Dedicate more time to me, Senpai!"

You're making me sound like a monster for my iron will when dealing with Super Quests.

"You might have a point, Moriarty. I understand, but..."

I like going to bed thinking about how many days I'll take to level someone... I know how weird I sound, but that was my whole routine now.

"I don't have anything else to do. That's why it's so easy to put up with all this work..."

Mash gave me a loving stare.

"Senpai, you have me..."

"You got me at a good moment! I'll pamper you some. Consider me your papa!"

Mash's words were drowned out by Moriarty.

Oh, but what an alluring proposal. I wouldn't mind taking vacations with Moriarty and whoever else is in our pseudo-family.

"Baritsu!"

The next second, before I could react to the attack name, Moriarty had been sent flying. I saw Sherlock Holmes slowly lowering his leg after the kick.

Minor question, was there a rule saying you have to yell "Baritsu!" when you use a Baritsu move?

"Holmes... what happened?"

"My apologies. I was just trying to retrieve the precious item stolen from you by a filthy criminal."

Holmes picked the Saint Quartz up from the floor as he spoke. The Baritsu attack seemed to have made Moriarty drop it.

"Apologies? You're not sorry for anything!"

Moriarty stood up. Seeing he didn't complain about any damage to his hips, it wasn't a serious kick.

"You're just jealous of my relationship with Ritsuka."

"As if I don't know you're taking advantage of Miss Ritsuka's kindness to evade your forced dismissal."

"I wasn't thinking about that... too much."

So you were!

"Though I really mean it when I say I worry about Ritsuka. Her behavior is very unnatural for a youthful maiden. Some things need to be unlearned before it's too late."

"Your argument is sound, Professor."

"Holmes?"

It was really rare for Holmes to agree with Moriarty.

"I don't deny this man's every word on principle. If anything, his brain is comparable to mine. His only problem is everything else."

"Can you praise me without making it a stepping stool to praise yourself?"

A boomerang compliment, as I liked to call it.

"If, as this man says, my Master is being manipulated by a form of malice, then it's my duty as a Servant to unravel it, is it not?"

"Sure, but... I'm not being manipulated by anything."

Crap, I said exactly what a manipulated person would say.

"I can vouch for that, Mr. Holmes. It's a really long story, but it's nothing serious."

Holmes closed his eyes and gestured for Mash to stop, then pointed to a distant table.

"To be completely honest, I came here precisely to ask to hear your story from the start."

A half-drunk cup of coffee was atop the table. He wouldn't be called the Great Detective if his tricks to hide his presence weren't this crazy good.

"What are you doing to Ritsuka, Peeping Tom?"

Holmes shrugged unconcernedly.

"You see, I'm investigating a note left by Romani Archaman."

"By the Doctor?"

I snatched the note from Holmes's hands and read it.

"Hmm..."

"Anything on your mind, Senpai?"

"I'm wondering if there isn't more to this note."

The Doctor was clearly apologizing to me, but I don't remember him doing anything that would warrant an apology.

All I could confidently say is that judging from the mention of the Orion battle, it's highly likely that this was written in September 2015.

"That aside, the part about the 1000 Quartz intrigues me..."

"So you don't remember Romani Archaman ever handing you 1000 Quartz?"

Holmes asked just to be sure.

"No way! I mean, I regularly got Quartz from Da Vinci, but I don't recall ever getting a whole bunch of them at once, nor she ever telling me they were from the Doctor."

I might have received close to 1000 in total, but I think that's not what the note is talking about.

Moriarty asked me, nervously.

"What, you mean there is a stash of 1000 used Quartz hidden here in Chaldea?"

"Mr. Moriarty, you're drooling."

"Oops..."

Moriarty wiped his mouth, stabbed by Holmes's icy glare.

"It's less that I'm pursuing the mystery of the 1000 Saint Quartz and more that I want to prove the stash doesn't exist before our row of miscreants gets any wrong idea. That's also part of a detective's job."

"But can you really solve this mystery?"

"There's no mystery I can't solve. Still, considering where your talk with the Professor was going, I must also confirm whether or not Saint Quartz are as wicked as he says."

"How can you verify that?", Mash pondered, brimming with curiosity.

"It's not that difficult. After all, I already know something quite similar to it."

"What?"

"This particular shape of octahedron is known in Japan by the name 'star of Da Vinci'."

"We're suspecting Da Vinci?"

After a silent nod, Holmes started walking, implicitly commanding us to follow him. The three of us rushed after him. My AP gauge might get too full, but I had to see what Holmes is getting at.

[Quoren]

Typo: "You're argument is sound, Professor."

The writing on this one is definitely kinda weird. I get the idea of translating game mechanics to the workings of Chaldea, but the author could have taken a bit more time to try to make it a bit more "realistic" even if these stories don't actually represent canon.

[Rafflesiac]

Thanks for the memes. You should click next time you post from Google Docs to get rid of the extra spaces.

[Comun]

Fixed on both accounts, thanks.

[Comun]

Malice or Romance - part 2

Holmes headed exactly where anyone would expect, Da Vinci's atelier. But it turned out someone else was already there.

"Leonardo da Vinci. Keeping secrets only makes your position worse!"

His voice could be heard from outside, presumably because the door was slightly opened. I couldn't see who it was, but it should be the person from the Mage's Association. That's right, I did hear about the inspection today.

We didn't peek but did eavesdrop. This was about Chaldea's immediate future. We couldn't pretend we weren't interested.

"Have you not asked enough? As I explained three times already, we bear no malice."

Da Vinci remained courteous despite her tangible irritation.

"We suspect that the incineration of the Human Order by the King of Mages is drivel your organization made up."

"..."

"We're talking about a humanity-wide calamity! Even if you could indeed have predicted it, Chaldea preventing it alone would not be a rational decision. It's a lot more natural to believe that you tried to take over the world and failed, wouldn't you agree?"

I gritted my teeth at his unwillingness to listen, although his idea wasn't unreasonable considering his position.

"I understand. We simply don't have the personnel to give all of humanity the proper aftercare. Our hands are full with just restoring the Human Order."

"Humph, how undisciplined. Or are you trying to tell me that if even one of you failed, I wouldn't be able to stand here today?"

"You may not want to accept it, but these are the facts."

"Preposterous!"

"Not at all. As one of the very few called a Pioneer of the Stars, I assure you no one ever succeeded simply because they were bound to. If someone ever looks like they do, it's because they're taking pride in accomplishments smaller than their capacity."

"What do you mean?"

"You have all the right to suspect us. But I must tell you that the Restoration we accomplished was a challenge with no guarantee of success. That's why we'll inevitably be seen as reckless by your standards."

"Unbelievable!"

I heard heavy footsteps after the guest's yell.

"I'll see what's behind this door!"

"No objections. I don't have anything to hide."

Da Vinci's tone practically dared him to find anything. She was, in fact, the person who understood Chaldea the best. She would easily be able to hide anything she didn't want people to see.

Since the Mage's Association guest was out of the picture for a bit, we sneaked inside Da Vinci's workshop.

"Hi, what brings you here?"

Da Vinci greeted our uninvited party without a hint of displeasure.

"You were having an... issue, right?"

"Don't mind that. It's at a minor stalemate right now. I have some time to talk."

She spoke in earnest, but I could tell she wasn't in her best mood. Da Vinci's current work pace was as frantic as what the Doctor's used to be. Should we really be taking her precious time with just an assumption...?

"Holmes wants to talk to you."

Sorry, Da Vinci, but I honestly couldn't just turn back and leave now. The best thing to do was to not waste any time. Start with the essential question then back off.

"Heh, about what?"

Da Vinci looked intently at Holmes, without pulling her attention away from the guest behind the back door.

"Da Vinci, how much are you involved in the development of Chaldea's systems?"

"It's complicated..."

Mash looked intrigued at the slight agony with which Da Vinci reacted to Holmes's question.

"Is it? It's not something that can be summarized in one word, but I don't think it should be too difficult to answer the question."

Da Vinci stared at Holmes and Moriarty. I couldn't tell what her gaze was supposed to convey.

"That's not the point, Mash. I'm in charge of Chaldea now. Until the day I'm relieved from my responsibilities, I can't simply tell them everything."

Holmes, who was relatively central to Chaldea, still wasn't allowed in the control room, let alone Moriarty. That's where Da Vinci drew the line.

I couldn't imagine either Holmes or myself doing anything bad, but I agreed those were the bare minimum arrangements. You wouldn't hand someone your apartment keys just because you're friends.

"But I can give the answer Holmes wants. When I was summoned, Chaldea's systems were already pretty much in their current shape. My job these past years was just ironing any faults I found. Gradual improvements, simply put."

Thank you for all these improvements.

"Strange, the impression I get is that your eyes are still set on the future."

"Well, you're right about my busy engagement in preserving Chaldea, there's no denying the facts. I have to admit I'm emotionally attached."

With those words, Da Vinci set her eyes back to the door at the end of the room. Thanks to her insistent negotiations I was able to enjoy my freedom in Chaldea instead of being arrested by the Mage's Association.

"If everyone followed the proper procedures I'd have been designated for sealing. Even now, I'm still on thin ice. I'm really grateful to you, Da Vinci."

"But the end always comes without warning."

The frankness of her words made me shiver.

"Even so, we can still prepare ourselves for it. It might sound contradictory, but everything I do is done with my eyes set on the unforeseeable end."

I was curious to know what she meant by that, but it didn't feel like the right time to ask.

"Oh yeah, Da Vinci, was it you who developed the Saint Quartz?"

I thoughtlessly dropped the question Holmes was meaning to ask. Da Vinci responded with a smile resembling her most famous painting.

"Calling it development would be blowing things out of proportion, but your answer is technically yes."

"Technically. What's the caveat?"

"When I decided to settle in Chaldea after I was summoned, Romani asked me for a multipurpose resource. So I designed the Saint Quartz based on the star of Da Vinci. We reviewed and improved the summoning system together, and enabled it to be fueled by Saint Quartz. But the concept of a multipurpose resource is older, from the previous director's time."

"So I owe you one. If you hadn't developed the Saint Quartz for us, I don't think I'd have managed to restore Human Order..."

Now that I thought about it, Da Vinci had been regularly giving me Quartz for the past two years. Not much each time, but looking back it must have been a considerable total.

"Well, something close enough would have been developed even if I hadn't been summoned."

"Something like a Dark Quartz or an Evil Quartz, surely."

Moriarty whispered in my ear, but it seemed like everyone heard it. Da Vinci smirked almost imperceptibly.

"That reminds me. How is a Saint Quartz made?"

"Hm? I just take Chaldea's magical energy and electricity, among other resources, and shape them like that with my original recipe."

"Huh, so what's stopping you from making more on-demand?"

I didn't know all that much about Chaldea's resource management.

"I simply take from the resources I deem disposable and make an amount that won't be demanding on any area. It wouldn't be impossible to get an advancement on a month's quota, but handing them to you early isn't a good idea because I can't trust your impulse control."

"So true..."

Da Vinci's words reminded me of how I used our entire supply of Quartz to see Meltryllis again 4 months ago. I still wanted to get an advancement of next year's quota, but I kept my mouth shut because it was plain to see it'd inevitably go wrong.

"You can't summon without Quartz, but for all other purposes, they can be replaced by golden apples and Command Spells, right? And then there's the summon tickets we give you."

"I can't argue with that..."

I took a look at the Command Spells on the back of my hand.

"You know, sometimes I wish we could also do the opposite. Convert three Command Spells into Saint Quartz. They replenish daily anyways."

Da Vinci reacted to my nonsense with an awkward smile.

"I proposed something like that back in the day."

"Oh?"

Holmes expressed interest.

"The mechanism that recharges the Command Spells was already built by the time I was summoned. I proposed a way to take it a step further, but Romani said we couldn't afford to be out Command Spells when we needed them."

"Ugh, stop being right..."

Holmes looked at Da Vinci with eyes that suggested he already found the answer he was looking for.

"I did everything I could as our special consultant of honor for the tech division. For example, remember how I improved the energy efficiency so much that the summon that required 4 Quartz started requiring only 3?"

"That was the first time I saw the summoning system closed for maintenance. Phenomenal job with that one, honestly."

The jump from only 30 summons with 120 Quartz to 40 was huge. Thanks to that I managed to fill up my then-lackluster roster.

"May I ask something?" Moriarty raised his hand.

"What is it, professor?"

"Who built that many quests for the Chaldea Gate? Was it Marisbilly Animusphere or Romani Archaman?"

"I think mostly Romani. As you might have guessed, Chaldea's systems have a lot of inherent flaws stemming from the fact they weren't expected to stay in use for this long... We give these glitches the shape of hands and doors and defrag them by defeating them in combat. That cleans up the systems, gives us resources, and trains our Master. Three birds in one stone."

Was she referencing the thing I did in Chaldea's systems with Holmes and Moriarty the other day?

"Anything else you wanna know?"

"A lot. But I'd say I'm done with the questions I needed to ask immediately."

Holmes and Da Vinci's interactions felt tense. I wondered why. I didn't know if it was just because they hadn't known each other for long or if this kind of friction always happened between geniuses.

I wished Holmes didn't speak in riddles so much.

"Really? Then I'll return to our guest. If I leave him alone for too long he might get lost forever."

What fresh hell was behind her atelier door? Well, he wouldn't go too deep if he wasn't confident in his ability to explore...

"Da Vinci, feel free to slap the guy if you feel like it, ok?"

"Thanks, Ritsuka, but it takes a lot to get me angry. Besides, it'd be really rude to Romani if I made Chaldea go under."

"By the way, that burn you gave him was awesome."

The one about people who looked like they succeeded because they were bound to.

"I was just offending a dumb aristocrat to make him get a point. Don't praise me, it embarrasses me."

Da Vinci gave a shy smile.

"What makes it embarrassing?"

I asked without thinking because Da Vinci making that face was so rare. And her answer was not what I'd have expected.

"What I said there was... an old quote from Romani."

[All fictions]

So I designed the Saint Quartz based on the star of Da Vinci.

Does she mean the Star of David?

[Comun]

No, the star of da Vinci is addressed at the end of part 1.

Here's da Vinci's own sketch of the octahedron (or at least what Pacioli calls da Vinci's own sketch in Divina proportione:

[Comun]

Volume 1 complete.

Malice or Romance - part 3

We were back at the cafeteria.

"Judging from Da Vinci's testimony, Chaldea went through two major phases. The development phase, led by Director Marisbilly Animusphere and Romani Archaman, and the maintenance phase, led by Da Vinci and Romani."


Mash and I took seats at an empty table, but Holmes and Moriarty remained standing on their feet... I guess they were in the mood for a game of wits.


"But Holmes, can't we simply consider the system's general frameworks were already completed in Marisbilly's time?"


"That is what Da Vinci's wording implied. But what are you trying to get at, professor?"


"Oh... I'm simply more convinced than ever that Quartz summoning is a devilish system. The malice in it is unquestionable."


His assertiveness made me anxious, but I'd listen to what Moriarty had to say before drawing conclusions.


"Ritsuka, suppose an army invades Chaldea. Can you slaughter them all with only the Servants already summoned?"


"Yeah. As long as their numbers aren't on the tens of thousands, I think I can handle it."


Human armies had started to feel really underwhelming since the Tiamat battle.


Actually, I think Chaldea could hold out a pretty long time under siege from an army of millions... Now that Tamamo no Mae and Merlin are here, defensive battles are easy peasy.


"Exactly, you have more than enough forces on your hands... and yet, you still want to summon a lot more."


"I... do!"


No way to save face on this one. Obvious lies wouldn't do me any good.


"My point exactly. Power is addictive. Once you know what it tastes like, it will never feel enough. They get you started assembling your forces, and all they need to do next is wait for the automatic birth of a first-class warrior. That's my humble theory on the Master raising system devised by Marisbilly. What do you think, Ritsuka?"


"I can't deny it."


Moriarty nodded satisfied.


"And as things stand, I can also explain the meaning behind his mention of 1000 Quartz."


"Really?"


Mash asked Moriarty with a most intrigued expression.


"Really. Let's start with a question: if you draw a 1% chance lot 100 times, are you guaranteed to win? The answer is that 100 is the expected value for the number of times need to draw to win once, but you can fail all 100 draws. That means 100 is not a guaranteed number. Now, let's calculate the probability of winning within the expected value of rolls. The probability of winning a 1/n chance draw within k rolls is P_k. The expected number of rolls it takes to win is n, so P_n would be represented by


P_n=1-(1-¹⁄ₙ)ⁿ


Giving n an appropriate size, the results would converge to


P_n=1-¹⁄ₑ=0.63


e here is Euler's number. Its value is 2.718281828459045..."


"Stop! What's your point?"


The equations were making me dizzy. But Moriarty, completely unbothered, resumed the explanation.


"The point is that the probability of winning a 1% lot by drawing 100 times can be approximated by this converged value, and it's about 63%. It's above 50%, making it worth the gamble, but below 100, so not a reliable guarantee."


"So... 300 quartz isn't reliable?"


I knew that from personal experience.


"How many pulls does it take for a guarantee?"


"Considering P_2n and P_3n for the probability of winning the draw with double or triple the expected value,


P_2n=1-(1-¹⁄ₙ)²ⁿ
P_2n=1-¹⁄ₑ₂=0.86

P_3n=1-(1-¹⁄ₙ)³ⁿ
P_3n=1-¹⁄ₑ₃=0.95


Approximated to 86% and 95% respectively. 95% is a reliable probability, so we can conclude that a guaranteed win on a 1% lot requires triple the expected value, 300 pulls. With that in mind, "1000 quartz" is clearly not a number picked for no reason... The 1000 quartz Romani Archaman mentioned are an approximation of the necessary resources to call at minimum one Rank 5 Servant and, together with the unwanted side products, form a squadron that can guarantee your victory. Also... what was the chance for a solo rate-up on Chaldea's summoning system?"


"I remember Da Vinci saying it was 0.7%..."


Moriarty was content with Mash's answer.


"Then 430 pulls would be the reference standard to get the Heroic Spirit you want. About 1300 Quartz."


When Da Vinci tells me I might be able to summon a special Servant but only on a specific window of time, I just can't resist it. Thanks to that, I've been getting addicted to summoning.


"But that's not a bad thing, Moriarty. Because you came to see me in no time."


Thinking back, having Moriarty here, speaking face-to-face with me, makes me so happy. It's an encounter I'd definitely pay 1300 Quartz for.


"That's what I like to hear. Wanna give me a flying hug?"


"Baritsu!"


The familiar turn of events repeated itself, except this time Moriarty gracefully dodged it.


"Oopsie, you'd better not think your sham martial art will work all the time!"


"The professor's reasoning... is solid at first glance, but there is one part I'm doubting."


"Could you please not ignore my quip? Ah, never mind, I appreciate you following up on the reasoning."


Holmes continued without even looking at Moriarty's somewhat lonely face.


"You must consider Miss Ritsuka is a good person. Once the Human Order was restored, she could have taken over the world if she felt like it. If she did so, she could have been in a much better personal situation."


"T-this never occurred to me..."


"Senpai?"


I hadn't even considered that idea until Holmes pointed it out.


"Look at that, Sherlock. Your theory just lost a lot of its credibility all of a sudden."


Moriarty put on a hearty smile, but Holmes's expression was completely unchanged.


"I wonder. Can't you say the fact the idea didn't occur naturally to her is evidence of her good nature?"


"You got an answer for everything... What an irritating man."


Moriarty's face turned sour.


"Miss Ritsuka, would you say your goal in your multiple summon attempts is purely to fill up your forces?"


"Not really. That's an embarrassing thing to say in front of Moriarty, but... I just want to see them again."


I knew they weren't the same individuals I met in the Singularities, but I wanted to believe our connection was real, and wanted to test this belief.


"My conclusion here is that we can no longer know what Marisbilly Animusphere was thinking. He could have created his system with malicious intent, exactly as suggested by the criminal over there. But we can at the very least believe that Romani Archaman was thinking something else."


"Oh? But isn't Romani Archaman the man who established the quests on Chaldea Gate?"


"And it is a fact this daily training made Miss Ritsuka improve as a Master. I won't deny the possibility that Romani Archaman built a program to qualify Master candidates."


"Then you admit that I won?"


"By the way, professor, no one is more talented than you when it comes to manipulating people."


"Getting praise from my enemy is quite flustering."


Moriarty was enjoying what he heard more than I'd have expected. Holmes, however, shook his head.


"But that's why your thoughts are confined to your standards."


"WHAT?!"


"How much in life ever goes according to plan? Perhaps believing every moving part is controllable is a genius' hubris."


"Ugh, it's hard to argue back when you're praising me..."


"You can do it, Moriarty!"


Mash irresponsibly encouraged him. Moriarty opened his mouth without much confidence.


"Back when I was called the Napoleon of Crime, I started my crime plans by representing the motivations of every person of interest with numbers and considering countless branching routes. That's not something anyone could have done."


"And those plans worked exactly as intended because you took extreme measures to remove any element that went off-track. That's why I was the supernova that derailed everything."


"Can you stop with the self-promotion?"


"I was only making the point that the restoration of Human Order wasn't a process with set rules."


On the contrary, it was a bumpy road. Heck, I could even call it an unpaved road I had to trudge along for 17 months.


"Yes, I checked a lot of documents. From an outsider's perspective, the journey could have easily ended on the fourth or fifth Singularities. This is to be expected with how far from predictable the starting point was."


"You're blowing this way out of proportion."


"Naturally, it didn't happen because Miss Ritsuka's growth was fast beyond all estimates. What would have happened if the Chaldea Gate's Super-level Quests weren't unlocked, or if the golden apples weren't created?"


Thinking back to everything the Doctor and Da Vinci did for me, I see my troops wouldn't be prepared enough to win without them.


"I don't appreciate crude sentimentalism, but I'll say her strong will is what reeled in victory even when she wasn't prepared to claim it."


I recalled Da Vinci's words to the man from the Mage's Association.


"I assure you no one ever succeeded simply because they were bound to. I must tell you that the Restoration we accomplished was a challenge with no guarantee of success."


The Doctor must have agreed with the sentiment, since he was the first one to say it.


"Romani Archaman and Da Vinci unquestionably had the right mindset since before the restoration of Human Order started. But Miss Ritsuka took personal experience to arrive at this state of mind... Correct?"


An epiphany hit me. I nodded slowly.


"The Orion fight..."


I raised Cu Chulainn and Hassan of the Cursed Arm in tears to shove them against Orion.


"Two years ago, Romani Archaman most certainly couldn't have known whether you would become a Master competent enough to defeat the King of Mages or not. But seeing you try all you could to defeat Orion inspired him to give you a push in the right direction."


I vividly remembered the Doctor's passionate advice right when my inability to win was getting depressing.


"You experienced a small victory with minimal resources. That was your first step as a warrior, Master. Summoning isn't the only thing you could do with 1000 Quartz, is it?"


"You already found the answer, Mr. Holmes?"


"And I wouldn't be satisfied with my answer if you hadn't joined me in the investigation."


Holmes's nonchalant statement clearly frustrated Moriarty.


"The total AP of 1 day is worth 2 Quartz. That makes 1000 Quartz worth 500 days. Almost a perfect match for the time it took you to go from fighting Orion to restoring Human Order. My theory is that... Romani Archaman calculated that the time you need to become a first-class Master was the worth of 1000 Quartz in AP."


"Oh, that's true!"


The mystery of the 1000 Quartz... It all made sense when I thought back to the fact that the note was dated September 2015. His calculation could only have been done before gold apples were developed.


"And Romani Archaman and Da Vinci had been working relentlessly to improve Chaldea so you could get stronger. The malice the Professor kept mentioning played no part in that."


Having said everything he had to say, Holmes turned away and left.


"He always wants to have the last word, that egocentric man... Well, I'm not going to argue against his reasoning on this one."


Moriarty watched me with a pained smile. He's probably not arguing against Holmes's reasoning out of consideration for my feelings. I knew he was a softie.


"Shall we get going?"


"Oh, right."


Moriarty grinned.


The Human Order was already restored, but with this reminder of the Doctor, it'd feel more wasteful to let my AP gauge fill up.


Doctor, I'll keep getting stronger and stronger.


"Wait, I'll be joining you in the Ember Dailies and Treasure Vault!"


Feeling encouraged, Mash followed us to the Simulator.

Ritsuka, you're about to face a great hardship. But if I got my calculations right, this long and hard-fought battle will be winnable with about 1000 Saint Quartz. Please forgive me. I'm giving you an unbelievably harsh trial. It might be a curse, in a sense. But seeing how you just escaped THE Orion's fierce advances, I can't stop myself from believing in your potential.

It wouldn't hurt to pull a strong Servant to overcome this battle, but if you can consume the exact AP worth of 1000 Quartz going ahead, you'll be able to change from a frail girl into humanity's strongest Master. I need to prepare harder Quests for you, and I'm counting on Da Vinci's help for it.
I'm sorry for what I'm doing to you, but also thrilled.


I find the thought of a complete novice consuming vast amounts of AP to "master" their skills to be very romantic.

Van Madoy's afterword

It's been about 4 and a half years since FGO's launch, so I made Holmes and Moriarty have a silly trivial talk theorizing on the big questions of "What are Chaldea Gate's quests? What are Saint Quartz, even?" while recapping on the first two years. Do they contain malice or romance? Read to find out.

[Rafflesiac]

The real Saint Quartz was the friends we made along the way.

[mami-kouga]

Volume 1 complete.

Malice or Romance - part 3

We were back at the cafeteria.

"Judging from Da Vinci's testimony, Chaldea went through two major phases. The development phase, led by Director Marisbilly Animusphere and Romani Archaman, and the maintenance phase, led by Da Vinci and Romani."


Mash and I took seats at an empty table, but Holmes and Moriarty remained standing on their feet... I guess they were in the mood for a game of wits.


"But Holmes, can't we simply consider the system's general frameworks were already completed in Marisbilly's time?"


"That is what Da Vinci's wording implied. But what are you trying to get at, professor?"


"Oh... I'm simply more convinced than ever that Quartz summoning is a devilish system. The malice in it is unquestionable."


His assertiveness made me anxious, but I'd listen to what Moriarty had to say before drawing conclusions.


"Ritsuka, suppose an army invades Chaldea. Can you slaughter them all with only the Servants already summoned?"


"Yeah. As long as their numbers aren't on the tens of thousands, I think I can handle it."


Human armies had started to feel really underwhelming since the Tiamat battle.


Actually, I think Chaldea could hold out a pretty long time under siege from an army of millions... Now that Tamamo no Mae and Merlin are here, defensive battles are easy peasy.


"Exactly, you have more than enough forces on your hands... and yet, you still want to summon a lot more."


"I... do!"


No way to save face on this one. Obvious lies wouldn't do me any good.


"My point exactly. Power is addictive. Once you know what it tastes like, it will never feel enough. They get you started assembling your forces, and all they need to do next is wait for the automatic birth of a first-class warrior. That's my humble theory on the Master raising system devised by Marisbilly. What do you think, Ritsuka?"


"I can't deny it."


Moriarty nodded satisfied.


"And as things stand, I can also explain the meaning behind his mention of 1000 Quartz."


"Really?"


Mash asked Moriarty with a most intrigued expression.


"Really. Let's start with a question: if you draw a 1% chance lot 100 times, are you guaranteed to win? The answer is that 100 is the expected value for the number of times need to draw to win once, but you can fail all 100 draws. That means 100 is not a guaranteed number. Now, let's calculate the probability of winning within the expected value of rolls. The probability of winning a 1/n chance draw within k rolls is P_k. The expected number of rolls it takes to win is n, so P_n would be represented by


P_n=1-(1-¹⁄ₙ)ⁿ


Giving n an appropriate size, the results would converge to


P_n=1-¹⁄ₑ=0.63


e here is Euler's number. Its value is 2.718281828459045..."


"Stop! What's your point?"


The equations were making me dizzy. But Moriarty, completely unbothered, resumed the explanation.


"The point is that the probability of winning a 1% lot by drawing 100 times can be approximated by this converged value, and it's about 63%. It's above 50%, making it worth the gamble, but below 100, so not a reliable guarantee."


"So... 300 quartz isn't reliable?"


I knew that from personal experience.


"How many pulls does it take for a guarantee?"


"Considering P_2n and P_3n for the probability of winning the draw with double or triple the expected value,


P_2n=1-(1-¹⁄ₙ)²ⁿ
P_2n=1-¹⁄ₑ₂=0.86

P_3n=1-(1-¹⁄ₙ)³ⁿ
P_3n=1-¹⁄ₑ₃=0.95


Approximated to 86% and 95% respectively. 95% is a reliable probability, so we can conclude that a guaranteed win on a 1% lot requires triple the expected value, 300 pulls. With that in mind, "1000 quartz" is clearly not a number picked for no reason... The 1000 quartz Romani Archaman mentioned are an approximation of the necessary resources to call at minimum one Rank 5 Servant and, together with the unwanted side products, form a squadron that can guarantee your victory. Also... what was the chance for a solo rate-up on Chaldea's summoning system?"


"I remember Da Vinci saying it was 0.7%..."


Moriarty was content with Mash's answer.


"Then 430 pulls would be the reference standard to get the Heroic Spirit you want. About 1300 Quartz."


When Da Vinci tells me I might be able to summon a special Servant but only on a specific window of time, I just can't resist it. Thanks to that, I've been getting addicted to summoning.


"But that's not a bad thing, Moriarty. Because you came to see me in no time."


Thinking back, having Moriarty here, speaking face-to-face with me, makes me so happy. It's an encounter I'd definitely pay 1300 Quartz for.


"That's what I like to hear. Wanna give me a flying hug?"


"Baritsu!"


The familiar turn of events repeated itself, except this time Moriarty gracefully dodged it.


"Oopsie, you'd better not think your sham martial art will work all the time!"


"The professor's reasoning... is solid at first glance, but there is one part I'm doubting."


"Could you please not ignore my quip? Ah, never mind, I appreciate you following up on the reasoning."


Holmes continued without even looking at Moriarty's somewhat lonely face.


"You must consider Miss Ritsuka is a good person. Once the Human Order was restored, she could have taken over the world if she felt like it. If she did so, she could have been in a much better personal situation."


"T-this never occurred to me..."


"Senpai?"


I hadn't even considered that idea until Holmes pointed it out.


"Look at that, Sherlock. Your theory just lost a lot of its credibility all of a sudden."


Moriarty put on a hearty smile, but Holmes's expression was completely unchanged.


"I wonder. Can't you say the fact the idea didn't occur naturally to her is evidence of her good nature?"


"You got an answer for everything... What an irritating man."


Moriarty's face turned sour.


"Miss Ritsuka, would you say your goal in your multiple summon attempts is purely to fill up your forces?"


"Not really. That's an embarrassing thing to say in front of Moriarty, but... I just want to see them again."


I knew they weren't the same individuals I met in the Singularities, but I wanted to believe our connection was real, and wanted to test this belief.


"My conclusion here is that we can no longer know what Marisbilly Animusphere was thinking. He could have created his system with malicious intent, exactly as suggested by the criminal over there. But we can at the very least believe that Romani Archaman was thinking something else."


"Oh? But isn't Romani Archaman the man who established the quests on Chaldea Gate?"


"And it is a fact this daily training made Miss Ritsuka improve as a Master. I won't deny the possibility that Romani Archaman built a program to qualify Master candidates."


"Then you admit that I won?"


"By the way, professor, no one is more talented than you when it comes to manipulating people."


"Getting praise from my enemy is quite flustering."


Moriarty was enjoying what he heard more than I'd have expected. Holmes, however, shook his head.


"But that's why your thoughts are confined to your standards."


"WHAT?!"


"How much in life ever goes according to plan? Perhaps believing every moving part is controllable is a genius' hubris."


"Ugh, it's hard to argue back when you're praising me..."


"You can do it, Moriarty!"


Mash irresponsibly encouraged him. Moriarty opened his mouth without much confidence.


"Back when I was called the Napoleon of Crime, I started my crime plans by representing the motivations of every person of interest with numbers and considering countless branching routes. That's not something anyone could have done."


"And those plans worked exactly as intended because you took extreme measures to remove any element that went off-track. That's why I was the supernova that derailed everything."


"Can you stop with the self-promotion?"


"I was only making the point that the restoration of Human Order wasn't a process with set rules."


On the contrary, it was a bumpy road. Heck, I could even call it an unpaved road I had to trudge along for 17 months.


"Yes, I checked a lot of documents. From an outsider's perspective, the journey could have easily ended on the fourth or fifth Singularities. This is to be expected with how far from predictable the starting point was."


"You're blowing this way out of proportion."


"Naturally, it didn't happen because Miss Ritsuka's growth was fast beyond all estimates. What would have happened if the Chaldea Gate's Super-level Quests weren't unlocked, or if the golden apples weren't created?"


Thinking back to everything the Doctor and Da Vinci did for me, I see my troops wouldn't be prepared enough to win without them.


"I don't appreciate crude sentimentalism, but I'll say her strong will is what reeled in victory even when she wasn't prepared to claim it."


I recalled Da Vinci's words to the man from the Mage's Association.


"I assure you no one ever succeeded simply because they were bound to. I must tell you that the Restoration we accomplished was a challenge with no guarantee of success."


The Doctor must have agreed with the sentiment, since he was the first one to say it.


"Romani Archaman and Da Vinci unquestionably had the right mindset since before the restoration of Human Order started. But Miss Ritsuka took personal experience to arrive at this state of mind... Correct?"


An epiphany hit me. I nodded slowly.


"The Orion fight..."


I raised Cu Chulainn and Hassan of the Cursed Arm in tears to shove them against Orion.


"Two years ago, Romani Archaman most certainly couldn't have known whether you would become a Master competent enough to defeat the King of Mages or not. But seeing you try all you could to defeat Orion inspired him to give you a push in the right direction."


I vividly remembered the Doctor's passionate advice right when my inability to win was getting depressing.


"You experienced a small victory with minimal resources. That was your first step as a warrior, Master. Summoning isn't the only thing you could do with 1000 Quartz, is it?"


"You already found the answer, Mr. Holmes?"


"And I wouldn't be satisfied with my answer if you hadn't joined me in the investigation."


Holmes's nonchalant statement clearly frustrated Moriarty.


"The total AP of 1 day is worth 2 Quartz. That makes 1000 Quartz worth 500 days. Almost a perfect match for the time it took you to go from fighting Orion to restoring Human Order. My theory is that... Romani Archaman calculated that the time you need to become a first-class Master was the worth of 1000 Quartz in AP."


"Oh, that's true!"


The mystery of the 1000 Quartz... It all made sense when I thought back to the fact that the note was dated September 2015. His calculation could only have been done before gold apples were developed.


"And Romani Archaman and Da Vinci had been working relentlessly to improve Chaldea so you could get stronger. The malice the Professor kept mentioning played no part in that."


Having said everything he had to say, Holmes turned away and left.


"He always wants to have the last word, that egocentric man... Well, I'm not going to argue against his reasoning on this one."


Moriarty watched me with a pained smile. He's probably not arguing against Holmes's reasoning out of consideration for my feelings. I knew he was a softie.


"Shall we get going?"


"Oh, right."


Moriarty grinned.


The Human Order was already restored, but with this reminder of the Doctor, it'd feel more wasteful to let my AP gauge fill up.


Doctor, I'll keep getting stronger and stronger.


"Wait, I'll be joining you in the Ember Dailies and Treasure Vault!"


Feeling encouraged, Mash followed us to the Simulator.

Van Madoy's afterword

It's been about 4 and a half years since FGO's launch, so I made Holmes and Moriarty have a silly trivial talk theorizing on the big questions of "What are Chaldea Gate's quests? What are Saint Quartz, even?" while recapping on the first two years. Do they contain malice or romance? Read to find out.

Finally finished reading this. I won't pretend that I love the meta-ness of the story despite that being the main internet (I could Accept it in the Gudaguda anthology because it was all played for comedy) but I'm kind of soft towards any Romani story.

Volume 1 was mysteries written by non mystery writers right? If so it does show but I ultimately did enjoy this. My favourite of the bunch was the Medb story, though it had some parts I felt could have been a bit more polished. Thanks as always for your hard work Comun

[Comun]

Volume 1 was by writters of traditional mystery, while volume 2 was by writers of weirdo mystery like time loops, magic murder, or autopsy-centric investigation.