The following day
The next morning in Snowfield was so calm you could doubt that yesterday's tumult really happened.
Though that's only on a surface level.
New tumults ensued in the world outside the city.
X X
West United States, news broadcast
--Our special coverage continues today. The government stated the following interpretation regarding the river explosion in Washington D.C.: "Undetected asteroids collided, and the falling scraps carried discarded satellites with them as they dropped."--
--This is footage from the Arctic Circle, where the largest flying object has fallen. Take a close look. The object, believed to have been launched from the south, iced as it crossed the frontier between Alaska and Russia before landing on water. It traveled from the Chukchi Sea to the North Pole, opening a large crater on the sea ice! It's estimated that 500 thousand square kilometers of ice were lost. That's a block of ice the size of Spain, evaporated in minutes. Further examination...--
--If the one from the North Pole had fallen in an urban area... No, this problem would not have humanity's alone. If that thing had fallen anywhere other than the North Pole, it would have had an irreversible effect on Earth's rotation, causing...--
--Defective sensors misidentified the object fallen on the city's outskirts as man-made, temporarily raising tension between nations. The American and Russian governments will announce their projects to resolve the situation later at...--
--Next, a weather report. The large whirlwind designated as Hurricane Inanna advanced straight northeast, with multiple accounts of serious damage caused by its offshoot tornados. Inanna's temporary acceleration seems to have settled down for now, but it continues to intensify at alarming rates. Unbelievably enough, numerous giant sequoias grown about 70 meters tall in the Sequoia National Park were taken away by the winds. The experts are still analyzing what caused the hurricane to increase so much in scale in a matter of minutes. Many theories circulating online peg this as a consequence of the asteroid clash minutes before it, but the speculation surrounding it remains completely unsubstantiated. Beware of unreliable sources. Next, the government's statement: --
X X
4th morning, west Snowfield, forest area
The forest wriggled.
The winds were getting stronger due to the giant hurricane approaching Snowfield but the trees in the forest systematically warped their foliage to resist those winds.
The trees wriggled more and more systematically, forming a giant spiral spinning in the opposite direction to the wind when seen from above.
In the center of the forest, there was someone who simultaneously matched and mismatched the abundant nature.
While her appearance was an aggregate of Mother Nature's beauty, it was covered in high-brand fashion produced by modern society.
Next to her, there were a girl wearing an outfit too urban for forest camping and a restlessly squirming building-sized mechanical doll.
The dozens of meters tall puppet was surrounded by a floating circle of uniformly cut rocks and clay bisque-fired by her power, and the ground flattened by her steps was covered in stone paving as if manipulated by presumably her magical energy.
"But wow... The accomplishments with lightning showed up really prominently on you, girl.", said the woman in the high-brand outfit -Ishtar possessing Filia's body- looking at the mechanical doll-like Berserker. "Does she always get like this when she's summoned to this present era, I wonder? Or did you use anything weird as a catalyst to summon her, Haruri?"
"I d-did! Uh... I was planning on summoning Berserker Edison... so my catalyst was a Mazda lamp..."
"Hmm? Mazda as in Ahuramazda? Was that why...? No way, the system can't be that arbitrary. If it were..."
Ishtar/Filia gently touched Berserker's hand.
Just touching the surge of magical energy coming from her hand was enough to make Berserker's Master, Haruri, feel her mind being devoured.
(No, maybe this sensation is truer than I thought. Maybe it will really corrode and burn off my Magic Circuits when I'm not paying attention.)
The magical energy whirling inside the body of the Einzbern homunculus was dense enough to genuinely do so. Such is the overwhelming power of the ether from the Age of Gods.
Ishtar used her power for a simple search and returned from it with a most satisfied smile.
"Yeah, it was just what I thought. Your melammu got adjusted to this era. Now that humanity learned to control electricity and gunpowder and whatnot, their own civilization became a new form of calamity... if I'm understanding this right."
"Adjusted...?"
"She's a compilation of everything humans consider to be calamities. Well, she obviously can't reproduce everything since she's limited by the Servant container, but... once I reach my definitive form, I can take her off those awful shackles."
Shackles.
With a daring smile, Ishtar referred to the Berserker-classed Saint Graph currently manifesting the Heroic Spirit as nothing more than shackles.
"When my temple is complete, that will raise the level of the Divine Core in this body... When that happens, I'll be able to freely redesign this planet's removable floorboards. Oh, can you feel the dream coming true? I get to watch over humanity for as long as I want, and humanity gets to have me watching over them until the day they go extinct. A perfect win-win situation! This modern era came up with some really useful expressions! Loved this one!", Ishtar self-importantly nodded after speaking a term from either Filia's knowledge or knowledge drawn from the world itself.
"..."
But then she swiftly wiped that smile off her face and glared at the city with displeased eyes.
"I can feel the piece of junk looking in our direction... I wanna grind it until it becomes laterite dust and sprinkle it on the ocean, but I'm patient. I'll grant it some more time to live."
And then the goddess vestige inside Filia turned to the giant puppet laying the groundwork for her temple's construction.
"Though it's not looking at me, it's looking at you, its childhood friend.", she whispered.
"?"
Ignoring Haruri's doubts, Ishtar talked to Berserker in an attempt to get over her frustration.
"Are you still sentient? Is your consciousness completely gone... or is it just hidden?
Well, either way, the piece of junk will never cease its fruitless struggles."
X X
Crystal Hill, top floor
"Are you still there... Huwawa?"
Tine Chelc clearly heard Enkidu's whisper.
Not too long ago, the enemy Lancer returned to her hotel room.
Tine had felt their presence climb higher to the sky in their violent battle against whatever appeared last afternoon.
She didn't directly visualize the events since she was busy constantly using up magical energy to hold off the collapse of Gilgamesh's Saint Graph, but she knew from her followers' reactions that a series of extraordinary events occurred the previous day.
But even then, she didn't take a step away from Gilgamesh.
Even if the end of the world was visible from her window, nothing could free her from the feeling that she needed to stay in the room using magecraft on Gilgamesh.
Tine was almost at her limit when Lancer returned, but they extended her life by tying a magical energy connection between her and their Master, the silver wolf.
Their help brought her gratitude, humiliation, and most of all, shame of her powerlessness. Those were the emotions she was processing when she heard the whisper.
(Huwawa... The name of a monster King Gilgamesh defeated... !! That steel beast...?)
The dots start to connect in Tine's head.
The demonic beast pierced Gilgamesh's body with the rainbow-colored halo it wore.
Considering it was not one halo shining in seven colors but seven halos overlaid on each other, the candidate list for its identity was very limited.
All pieces would connect if it really is that beast.
Gilgamesh.
Blinded by the radiance of the Hero King, Tine forgot something.
There was a beast the king feared.
Huwawa.
The guardian of the cedar forest. Alternatively spelled Humbaba.
A monster that Gilgamesh and Enkidu only managed to defeat with god Shamash's assistance in the Epic.
"..."
Tine kept pouring magical energy into her recumbent Servant's Saint Graph. As she continues to send her energy into the humanoid husk of Gilgamesh, she reflected on her heedlessness.
(If I knew everything in advance... I could have readily provided a way to defeat that steel beast. How could I forget that King Gilgamesh didn't win every battle in the Epic alone?)
"Awoo."
The chimera sat next to Tine, sensing the shade in her heart. Enkidu's silver wolf Master abruptly raised its head and let out a concerned whine.
"Thank you... You saved my life."
Seeing the silver wolf's genuine concern for a weaker animal, Tine thought:
(That's right. I can't afford to let the misery get the better of me now. For as long as I'm alive, I'll fulfill my duties as the descendant of the keepers of the land. And also my duties as King Gilgamesh's follower...)
If said Gilgamesh was in a good state hearing this, he could have mocked the arrogance in the idea that she could handle his necessities as a side job. Perhaps he could even judge this insolence as a capital offense.
But strangely enough, Tine didn't fear that.
If the king sentenced her to death, she would have been at peace with her preordained fate.
(However...)
Tine knew she couldn't stay the way she was.
What Gilgamesh told her in this hotel's casino resurfaced in the young girl's head.
ーI do not mind you showing me deference. It is only natural. But do not put faith in me blindly. If your eyes can shine, use them to see your way. No, not only me. Be it ‘God,’ or this ‘Nature’s blessing’ you speak of, or the cherished wish of generations of ancestors, it makes no difference. Abandoning thought to revere or depend on something means letting your soul fall into decay.
These words repeated themselves in Tine's head time and time again, always stimulating her soul.
(Think. Continue to think. Never let your thoughts come to a halt.)
All she could do was send magical energy to Gilgamesh's Saint Graph at the cost of her life, and she could not allow herself to feel satisfied with only this.
She could not allow herself positive thoughts about her situation.
The time she could use for poor excuses such as "I did everything I could" is time that would be better spent continuously thinking about what a Master can do, what a mage can do, and what Tine Chelc can do.
Tine's nerves sharpened in their attempt to break out of their shells. Her Magic Circuits are progressively assimilated into the land.
The people of her tribe are absorbed by the land when they die.
Tine herself is also synchronized with the dragonvein for her whole life and is fated to eventually become part of it.
That's why she can tell.
Tine the keeper of the land can clearly sense it being majorly altered.
Her very land is being repainted a different color.
(It's not necessarily a malignant change. I can tell the land is... restoring an ancient time. But... should I accept it? What must I do?)
She was supposed to be furious, recognizing this in the same vein she does the invasion of her land by the foreign mages.
But indecision bred inside her.
Tine Chelc's hesitation came for one reason: she could feel the new power of the land, only ever slightly, flowing into Gilgamesh.
But it showed no signs of accumulating in Gilgamesh's Saint Graph.
Mysteriously enough, the power seemed to use Gilgamesh's corpse as a gate to some other dimension.
Or perhaps it dropped through him into a bottomless hollow pit.
X X
In a dream
Kuruoka Tsubaki was alone in the deep, deep darkness, hugging her knees in shadowy slumber.
She no longer dreams.
She no longer desires anything.
That's because she learned the price of her dreams coming true.
She would have felt better if everything was fake. If she could simply wake up at the end to learn it was all a dream.
But reality was cruel.
Unbeknown to her, many were sacrificed for her dream.
The young girl doesn't have a concrete understanding of everything that happened.
But there's one thing she's sure of.
She made many suffer.
She thought she became friends with the older men and women in black clothes, but then she learned she was inconveniencing them.
(I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.)
The longer she repeated those words, the less clear it was what she was apologizing for, until the apologies became just a meaningless deposit of self-rejection for the girl drifting in the void.
Under any other circumstances, she would have been immediately absorbed by the void, leaving no trace of her empty apologies or the shape of her soul. Nonetheless, Kuruoka Tsubaki's consciousness retains its form due to her heavily debilitated Servant. Because Pale Rider made a membrane out of its own Saint Graph to envelop and defend the girl.
However, the foundation of this Servant's existence is no other than this girl's soul.
If her mind continues to blend with the hollow world, she will be completely and irreparably gone. If that comes to pass, the Servant will lose the magical energy connection coming from the Command Spells and will be completely erased.
Rider didn't fear its own erasure.
It never had this kind of ego.
But due to either the Servant role granted to it by the Grail or influence from continuedly constructing of the world of Tsubaki's dreams, its Master protection program was still visibly active when nothing else was.
The protective membrane created by the Servant form of death itself looked like an egg, a symbol of life.
Tsubaki and her Servant were both bound to remain drifting in the hollow sea until they both vanished in a few days.
Except that didn't happen.
A minor phenomenon began to take shape around the girl and the Heroic Spirit.
Land appeared on the hollow sea that had no heaven or earth.
It started shapeless like mud or flowing sand.
When it eventually became firm soil, the Pale Rider egg containing Tsubaki slowly landed. The main difference between this place and the world of Tsubaki's creation was that here she was not the center of the world.
There was no light.
Tsubaki and Pale Rider were both yet to notice the change.
Pale Rider perhaps did notice the situation, but its ego is not developed enough for it to care.
And from there, time passed.
A blue lantern began to flicker in a place distant from the two.
The quiet light wandered the dark ground, eventually reaching Tsubaki and Pale Rider's egg.
That was when Pale Rider first reacted.
It stretched into a humanoid form blocking the blue light's path to protect Tsubaki.
But after confronting this blue lantern, Pale Rider seemingly decided it was not an enemy, returned to its previous Tsubaki-encasing form, and stopped moving.
Flickering with what seemed to be hesitation, the lantern slowly intensified its light and formed an
elongated cage around the egg. At first glance, it might seem made to incarcerate a sinner.
But without any signs of malice or hostility, the lantern continued to shine its warm light on Tsubaki.
The 'cage' gently surrounding Kuruoka Tsubaki was like a cradle tending to her scars.
X X
Snowfield's underground facility, Dumas's workshop
Under the police station, there is a web of underground tunnels connecting to several downtown facilities.
Further within it, 20 meters below the ground, there is the workshop of the Caster of the police force, Alexandre Dumas Pere.
Dumas was in the back of the room working on some project. The others beside him were Orlando Reeve, his Master and the Chief of the Snowfield Police, and his subordinate Vera Levitt, both in the center of the room.
Dumas's cheerful voice contrasted with Orlando's sullen face.
"Crystal Hill had some fine restaurants, I gotta tell ya. I had no idea a good bouillon's supernate could work as a frying oil. The inside of the meat was left in a prime state."
"I give up on complaining about your unauthorized excursions... Binding you here with a Command Spell would only make your work even slower."
"Hoh, I'm glad you're getting a better hang of how I roll, brother. C'mon, you look like you're about to roast me. Don't be like that. It's a miracle that the cop squad escaped that situation with no casualties at all. There was a mass murder going on around them, not to mention whatever was up with the dream world."
"..."
The chief silently thought about Dumas's words.
(Whatever appeared after Flat Escardos's death didn't attack the police. Does that confirm that that creature is Flat Escardos and that our truce is still in effect...? In that case, is it possible to stay in touch with him?), he examined his group's next course of action, careful not to get his hopes up too much.
"Kuruoka Tsubaki's biolevels are a stage lower, from what I can tell. The situation's looking highly unpredictable...", said Vera.
From the corner of his eyes, he could see her pair of eyes clouded by impatience as she spoke, which was unusual for someone who always carried herself like a cold blade.
"We received no further updates. My sister will be with her night and day, but she's unsure if the girl will last 3 more days."
"I see. If it comes to that, her Servant won't be able to maintain its Saint Graph after the Master's death. I'm sorry for your sister, but that thing can lock an immense amount of people and Heroic Spirits within its Reality Marble. After seeing that much power, I cannot approve of the idea of saving someone who endangers the city and its people."
"... Yes, sir."
"The most dangerous outcome here is that the Heroic Spirit forms a new contract with someone else... but a hero this powerful should disappear the instant its power supply is cut. Although we shouldn't lower our guards until we have confirmation."
Vera didn't argue against the chief practically telling her to abandon Tsubaki.
She was among the ones who personally experienced her Heroic Spirit's power.
Without Saber's help, she would have lost many allies, if not the whole squad.
To still want to save her knowing that meant abandoning everyone else in the whole city.
Nonetheless, thinking about how her sister clueless about the world of magecraft would risk her life to save this girl inevitably left her dreary.
This was not how a mage should think, but the chief taught her not to think like a mage, and she knew many others in the police force would think the same way.
In a sense, most of them were where they were precisely due to their inability to abandon normal human morals and philosophies as a mage ought to.
That aside, as someone who has been with Orlando for a long time, Vera knows this decision frustrates the chief more than it frustrates any officer.
Considering his logical mage mind and his position as the chief, the ideal answer for him would be not to abandon Tsubaki, but to actively eliminate her.
Or to promptly conclude the Holy Grail War to see if her health would improve by being released from the Command Spells.
(What am I even trying to get at here...?)
Pained by the naivete of the convenient delusions she was investing her hopes in, Vera tried to reorganize her thoughts discarding the emotional aspect completely.
Her attempt was interrupted by a soothing yet striking smell stimulating her heart by tickling her nasal cavities.
"...?"
When she lifted her head, she saw Dumas coming from the back of the room carrying a large tray.
The appetizing smell came from it. The chief next to her looked at Dumas with a raised eyebrow.
"Yo, it's done."
Ignoring the eyes in his direction, Duman placed the tray on the meeting table.
Strangely enough, the cheap work desk had its color and shape overwritten, turning into a luxurious dining table that could only be found in a noble castle or a very traditional restaurant.
The tablecloth fluttered with the breeze and the scene was softly illuminated by all the candlestands that appeared out of nowhere.
The contents of the tray were so finely decorated that Vera felt satisfied just looking at it.
The meat dish formed a model of a royal court garden with its pie crust, sauce, vegetables cut into specific shapes, and mousse. Even the thin slices of truffle served as a side dish contributed to the "landscape" constructed atop the plate.
Even disregarding the decorative vegetables, this was a product of technique polished by devoted study, far beyond the level that could be achieved by a gourmand who only consumed without creating.
It was practically a complete sculpture, but its rich aroma made the will to eat it as soon as possible overwhelm the feeling it would be a waste to eat this piece of art. The most vivid color in this piece was the color of flavor that stimulated the tongue and the stomach.
"What's this...?"
"Huh? It's the same thing I did to your weapons. Just
embellished the table's history a tiny bit. You know Projection magecraft? It's sorta like a variant of that. Your stuff will be back to normal once you finish your dish.", Dumas responded to Orlando's grumble.
"No, that's not what I meant... Did you prepare this meal?"
"Oh, yeah, there were some leftover weapons and some trinkets no one was using, so I rewrote them all into cooking utensils. No worries though, I wouldn't turn a venom dagger into a kitchen knife."
The Servant spoke without a shred of guilt, but the chief was more overcome by surprise than by anger or annoyance. He knew Dumas was so meticulous of a gourmand that he would personally hunt the meat he cooked, but his level of skill was several stages beyond his imagination.
"Did you use your magecraft for this meal?"
"Nope. My amateur magecraft ain't no reliable tool for someone trying to create flavor."
"I see... You view your cuisine above your Noble Phantasm's productions, and so you... No, I won't complete this sentence. I was wondering what you were doing back there, but I'd never have guessed you were cooking. Were you concealing the smell?"
"Wouldn't want you two stopping me halfway through. I found a good pheasant in town, so I couldn't let this chance slide."
Dumas remained always unrepentant.
Seeing the chief's exasperated sigh, Dumas opened a speech, turning the other way to ensure his saliva wouldn't fall into the dishes.
"At first, I was going to make galantine fond accompanying a Lucullus-based remix of something in Tete Noire's menu, but I didn't have the ingredients I wanted. I also wanted to try this era's pie crust while I'm still here, so I tried my hand at fowl breast with pie borders. Pheasant is by far the best-smelling bird to me, so I held back on the aromatic legumes for the sauce. But if pheasant is not your thing, I can give the recipe a quick fix, brother and miss. Not something I normally do, but I wanna serve you the very best on this special occasion."
Vera looked at the plate with even more surprise in reaction to Dumas's most fluent commentary yet.
"What a surprise. Your first order after your summon was hamburgers, so I didn't see you as the kind to cook this kind of food."
"Heheh. Is that something someone who read my novels, plays, or biographies would say, miss Vera? If you really wanna know me, you gotta read my writing about food. The Three Musketeers and La Comtesse de Salisbury are not the only places to find my essence. If anything, my cookbooks are where I'm at my most Dumas."
After this cheerful remark, Dumas returned to the back of the room and came back with three plates.
"Since the day of my summon, I've been eating everything, from those hard general store jellies and dollar hamburgers to high-class meals that practically took our whole war funds. I tried adapting myself to this era's table manners, and well, it's been a great time. Can't say I got no complaints, but that might be just me being antiquated, so I gave everything a fair shot."
Encouraging the two to sit down, Dumas cut the meal in three and took each slice to each plate.
Contrary to usual rusticness, Dumas's gestures on the dinner table were completely refined.
Vera and the chief looked at each other confused by this random development, but neither could bring themselves to say it was not the time for this.
There was a hidden meaning to Dumas's behavior.
His past attitude shows he was the kind to throw these kinds of hints, but much more importantly, the
gastronomic charm of the dish was enough to fill even the straight-laced Orlando and Vera with hunger.
Long story short, this dinner was unquestionably the absolute best Orlando and Vera have ever experienced.
After the meal, Dumas brought his full wine glass to his mouth with a burst of stifled laughter.
"Man, nothing beats the progress of history research. I got to learn that what I wrote back in the day about Chef Taillevent being Charles VII's cook is now seen as bullshit. It'd be fine if I said that in a novel or play because him working for Charles VII makes for a more interesting story, but of all things to get my facts wrong, I did it in a cookbook. Though the next advancement in that research might prove I was actually right, who knows?"
Dumas showed no signs of caring about his supposed mistake.
"But man, I feel blessed to learn culinary research is still making its breakthroughs. Can't fucking believe we already learned how to eat ox kidney in the present day. I can say with absolute confidence that cooking is one of the energy sources fueling humanity's evolution. Like, I know eating's one of our three major physical needs, but I really think this one is the most fundamental of them all."
Dumas's eyes were half-closed, but his eyelids couldn't hide the passionate glimmer in his pupils as he continued.
"We want to evolve today's dinner beyond yesterday's dinner. Evolve in what direction? Make it tastier? More digestible? Cheaper? Lighter? Healthier? Doesn't matter. As long as there's at least one man trying to take cooking to the next step, this culture will never see stagnation."
At this point, he quickly shrugged. The next part felt more like a self-reminder than something said to others.
"But don't get me wrong, dude. I'm no believer that newest is always best when it comes to food. The best sheep roast I ate in my life still beats anything you can with the latest big city stove. When I was visiting a ruin in Djem-Djem and got treated to a whole wood-roasted sheep. Real desert cuisine."
"Wood-roasted? Not what I would expect to be best."
"Just 'cause something is roasted under ash and dirt, it doesn't make it rustic or messy. The pre-cooking process is very meticulous and based on ages of history and experience. Even now I look back to it as better than any mutton I found in any European restaurant. Well, I don't know how things are looking now, though... Ah, now I wanna eat that again. Book us a ticket to Tunis, brother."
"Don't be ridiculous, we still haven't settled the matter preventing people from leaving the city."
The phenomenon presumed to have been caused by Kuruoka Tsubaki's Servant still hadn't fully stabilized.
They presumed the Servant only spread a "disease" of unusual qualities, without actively manipulating the infected.
The patients in the hospital already regained their sanities and were presumably freed from the dream world, yet they still feel pressured into not wanting to leave the city, and half of the people who did leave soon returned after experiencing bouts of terror and anxiety.
"By now, the mental domination should be considerably weaker, no? Pretty sure any mage with a half-decent Mystic Code should be able to escape the city."
"Wait, Caster... What do you know?"
Offput by Caster's wording, the chief switched mental channels, immediately eliminating the dinner's aftertaste.
"C'mon, you figured this was coming. Those meteorites or satellites or whatever that fell all over the world yesterday... Anyone can tell this city is ground zero, yet your mastermind buddies didn't even call to say hi. You came here 'cause you want answers. More exactly, you wanna go to a floor below here, to check if that sham Greater Grail of yours
was taken somewhere else."
"...Exactly."
"I got you, brother. After that much of an effect on the world, it's obvious you'd wanna know what your 'bosses' decided. Your goal is to regulate the ambient surrounding the Holy Grail War... the human society here. Screw up and everyone's dead. RIP. You don't want that, do you, brother?"
"Be concise. What do you know?"
For the longest time, Caster could gain information through a network that not even Orlando could identify.
Judging by his subordinates' accounts and general conjecture on Dumas's abilities, Dumas most likely modified stories about his computer, radio, and internet, elevating them into pseudo-Mystic Codes, objects with parameters lower than his usual Noble Phantasms.
The chief was certain of his speculation and thought today was the day to put it to the test, but just when the time was right for the big reveal, he came across a more important question he needed to ask first. What does Caster know?
The chief's question was more serious than ever. After averting his eyes for a moment, Dumas answered choosing his words carefully.
"The dudes said... Code 983 [Aurora fall]. You know what that means?"
"...! When will it be executed? How long do we still have left?"
"Oh, you ain't doubting me?"
"I don't know what that dinner was supposed to represent, but I can't imagine it being a build-up for a poor joke. No man is as faithful to cuisine as you are. Having tasted your cooking, I can tell!"
The chief's declaration erased all emotion from Dumas's face for an instant before refilling it with a delighted smile accompanied by a shrug.
"Man, you're a real square. That's fine. The order was issued at 16:23 if we're going by our timezone. To be executed 48 hours later. Miss Francesca and Faldeus should've already gotten the news."
"15 minutes ago...? Caster, you started cooking because you predicted this development?"
"My bad, that was just your typical Heroic Spirit self-indulgence. I had this prediction I was hoping would be off the mark, but I didn't tell you about it before the dinner 'cause I knew you wouldn't take your time to savor it if I did. 'sides, brother, I wasn't thinking your 'bosses' really were this messed up in the head."
"..."
Dumas reacted to the chief's silence by wiping his smile and asking a question.
"Brother, weren't you half-sure this was going to happen yourself?"
"Yes, I won't deny. That's why I assumed Francesca would be here hiding the Greater Grail... or is she planning to do it later?"
After hearing the two talk, Vera asked her chief a question with a raised eyebrow.
"Chief, pardon the intrusive question, but what is Code 983... [Aurora fall]?"
"It's the codename of an operation to erase everything in this city, including the land's magecraft foundation... by launching a
special warhead of the highest degree."
"...!"
"This 48 hours countdown is to give them time to prepare this event's concealment. It will have to go in history as a major calamity on a global scale... I believe the public news will say that a part of a planetoid fell directly on the city."
Vera was shocked from hearing the specifics.
She was warned this could happen.
She was ready for the worst if it came to it.
But hearing concrete confirmation that it would happen, Vera's heart grew tenser than ever before.
All in her mind were images of her fellow officers, the city's landscape, and her sister fighting day after day unaware of what was happening behind the scenes.
Vera's face remained expressionless but her body was drenched in sweat. Her chief made a dispassionate comment.
"If our internal treatment was ever deemed incapable of processing the situation, the city could be obliterated on Faldeus's command. That was Code 982... [Abyss rise]. This one is a program to overcharge the Grail and the dragonveins, triggering abnormal activities on the magma deposits to make the city's erasure look like an eruption. [Aurora fall], on the other hand, comes from outside... In other words, it's a device set in case our superiors deem the Holy Grail War to be unmanageable. To be used before a destructive seam is torn in the world."
"Can we request the operation to be canceled?"
"If we forcibly destroyed the Grail, Heroic Spirit activity will become almost impossible. The remaining Heroic Spirits' rampage is something we have a high chance of managing to keep under control. However..."
For this last part, the chief tried his best to keep a neutral face, but his voice betrayed his frustration.
"The problem is that
new variables besides the Heroic Spirits have been added."
"You mean Flat Escardos and... the Einzbern homunculus?"
"Both were initially included in the Holy Grail War system. Flat Escardos was one of the multiple mages chosen for the unspecified Master slots... and the Einzbern homunculus was lured here by Francesca to serve as
the Lesser Grail's vessel.
But now both of them had turned into something else entirely.
According to Francesca's and Faldeus's reports from the last few days, the Einzbern homunculus was possessed by something completely extraneous to her original personality. And whatever is possessing her (Francesca showed strong hints that she knows what it is) is stronger than a lower-grade Heroic Spirit.
"In a normal Holy Grail War, the energies of the Heroic Spirit who leave the competition are accumulated in the Lesser Grail... Does this mean whatever is inside the Lesser Grail homunculus will benefit from this power?"
Even with a fake Greater Grail that can't hope to reproduce Third Magic, the total amount of magical energy accumulated is enough for it to function as a wish-granting device without a hitch.
(When the Grail War reaches its last stages, the Lesser Grail shifts from human to vessel... Is this what's happening with her?)
If the power of the Grail accumulates in someone with free will and this someone leaves the city unrestrained, whatever she does will be extremely difficult to conceal.
Whatever used to be Flat Escardos demonstrated better than anyone why Orlando was worried about power being directed outside of the city.
Nations with shallower knowledge of magecraft are either buying the idea that asteroid fragments and space debris fell down or suspecting it was some other country's missiles exploding or an intentional destructive act.
But magecraft organizations, chiefly the Clock Tower, and the greater nations connected with those organizations already figured out the truth.
That destruction was caused by the power of an individual.
They could conceal the desert crater from the beginning of the Grail War by sacrificing a gas company, but there's nothing they can do beyond that.
(Things could have been so different if we had the Holy Church's full cooperation...)
The police chief recalled the face of the eyepatched priest.
In the past, his hometown was turned into hell overnight by high-grade vampires. A group of monsters of incalculable power: an Ancestor accompanied by superior Dead Apostles.
Every time something like this happens, the Holy Church manages to successfully cover it up with its connections and arcane knowledge. Despite its continued successful streak, they have been excluded from the Holy Grail War in Snowfield, being complete outsiders to the ritual.
That Hansa Cervantes was using the precedent of the Fuyuki's overseers to forcibly butt in, meaning it was hard to tell how willing to cooperate he was.
(That said, the arcane concealment is as major of a principle for them as it is for us. Shameless as it may sound, it might be worth it to invite him to fight alongside us. Although considering the Church's policies, his answer might be "48 hours is too long, explode the city in 3 hours"... That would be a huge gamble.)
"Hah... Nice eyes, brother. They show you haven't thrown the towel. You don't want to make my treat your last supper.", happily said Dumas.
"Of course not. If Faldeus is cutting us off from his group, then I won't care about him either. As a chief of police loyal to the United States of America, I'll act taking the safety of the citizens as my utmost priority.", replied Orlando.
"Are you sure? You might be getting other cities trampled by the monsters coming out of this one, y'know? Ain't that why the bigwigs are trying to quash them?"
"I won't allow that either. Not to mention that I don't believe that destroying the city and the Grail in it will disperse that mutated Flat Escardos or... as much as I hate to admit, that dangerous hurricane that's blatantly running in our direction."
"So knowing everything coming your way, you still plan to fight to the very end? Nice! You're a real brother! If you chose to quit and drown your sorrows, I'd have rewritten your whole life."
Dumas rose from his chair, grinning.
"Clan Calatin is about to get busy. But when it's their lunchtime, bring them to me. One by one if you need to. I wanna treat the whole team to the same dinner you just had."
"Does this act have any magecraft significance?"
"Nope. None. It's just that since you want the whole team to survive, I should give them something to remember me by."
Vera and Orlando were dumbfounded at this nonchalant confession.
"Remember you?"
"I told ya, it's just self-indulgence. The novels I wrote are now something anyone can have, and writing a new one just for them doesn't feel like enough of a gesture of gratitude. So I just thought I should hit the bunch with my cooking and one day get them to look back and say 'Ah, that food Dumas treated me to that day was the best I've ever had. No, I must prepare greater delicacies with my own hands! Run, to the peaks of flavor!'... That's my way of providing material support.", Dumas joked. But the next part of his line was far more genuine. "Did you know? The pheasant is a species that was introduced to Europe when Captain Jason's Argonauts brought them from Colchis to Greece. Doesn't that make it a great shot of energy for someone trying to be a hero? I could tell you more about it, but we're on a time limit. Go do your thing. If you have any Noble Phantasm you need, I can help you choose the right thing while the bouillon is boiling."
"Caster."
"What?"
The serious Orlando bowed to the humming Dumas to thank him.
"As a mage and a police officer, I'm under no obligation to humor your illogical sentimentality... but as a chief, I'm grateful for your appreciation of my subordinates."
Dumas saw his Master's face looking surly as ever, but this time he felt a tinge of honest optimism in it.
"I'll have less time to eat and sleep in the next two days, but I can't afford to collapse on the job. Please, make me something nourishing."
With these final words, Vera and the chief left. After watching them on the way out, Dumas monologued with a stifled burst of laughter.
"Shit man, today might be the last breather day with no clashes among Heroic Spirits, and here I am this busy. Well, we are walking the tightrope to see whether or not the city will be dead in 2 days... Depending on how things go, that might have actually been my last supper."
(I really wonder if we aren't biting more than we can chew. I don't have many cards left in my hand. I'm definitely getting to watch the interesting real story I initially wanted, but it sucks that those guys are so willing to sacrifice themselves in a blaze of glory.)
A deep sigh.
"I got a bit too attached to brother's team to stay purely a spectator... Am I losing my edge?", self-derisively spoke Dumas.
After cleaning up the dishes, Dumas felt like checking the collection of books lined up on a shelf in the corner of the workshop.
They took notice of the English version of his own The Three Musketeers which he bought in the local bookstore.
The shelf contained many books by other authors of his era, not only his own.
He took one of those.
An illustrated edition of
a fairytale written by an author he was friends with in life.
"Can't believe kids these days still read his books. The Tallow Candle. Ain't that one he chose not to put on sale? He made excuses that he was too immature back when he wrote this one, but it was honestly my favorite..."
He made comments to himself as he flipped the pages, but then his eyes stopped at an illustration of a girl lighting a match.
"Her memories are drawn inside the match's flames. I don't think that's what he envisioned, but this arrangement kinda resembles the way we Heroic Spirits work..."
With those self-derisive words, Dumas flipped the next page and...
"Hm?"
Noticing something wrong, he reread the page.
"Ah?"
The page he had open showed the final scene of the fairytale about the girl who sold matches.
He immediately realized what was wrong.
The ending was completely different from the original version of the fairytale he was familiar with.
The end where the girl freezes to death immersed in her beautiful memories was replaced by an ending where she was saved by a wealthy family and lived a happy life.
"Hey hey hey... Wait, wait, wait, is this shit for real?"
This picture book was one of the regionally published
versions that rewrite the tragic endings into happy endings.
"You... Godamnit..."
He rechecked the author's name in disbelief, and after doing so, his hand started trembling.
"Hahahaha...! Good Lord! How is this even allowed?"
He burst out in laughter.
"I thought the guy who genderbent Aramis in his version of my The Three Musketeers was onto something, but this is on a whole other level... They completely changed the core fundamentals of a masterpiece by the man with the most unremovable stick up his ass! They completely changed his very life!"
With stars in both eyes, he raised his fairytale anthology up high and continued yelling.
"No freaking way! One of my main jobs was adapting stuff into theater scripts, but I sure as hell never flipped an established narrative back on its head like this! Old Mr. Ducis's Shakespeare localizations got nothing on this! They just wanted to put that ending there, coherence be damned! I always thought things would turn out very different if were to write a story on the same themes... But then you just change the end and sell the thing keeping the original title and author's name! Unbelievable! Well played, modern publishers! This is hilarious! I'm dying to see the face he would make! What would I do to say 'But y'know dude, this happy ending surely took some people out of their dark places, and they'll be thanking you for it' right to his sullen face!"
It's hard to judge if he was on good or bad terms with the original from this long-winded cackling speech.
That is, until his smile turned considerably softer.
"Well, with this much provocation... he'll probably just insist this is the one story he'll never talk about... Of all potential new endings to include, they put one about being saved by a rich family. It's how the quote goes... Life is a series of ironies. Every man to take foot in this world is hideous, yet nonetheless beautiful are their fates!"
He closed the book with nostalgic eyes, reminiscing about his lifetime.
"And that's why you gotta read the books you buy instead of just letting the pile grow!"
Dumas closed his eyes. Not a hint of a previous melancholy. The moment of his summon was the only other time he ever felt this alive.
"Ok, now that
he got me motivated, let's put this brain to work."
The phone behind him rang.
He figured it was the police chief calling to inform him how many officers would come for dinner.
He headed to the phone, still devising the secret spices of his recipe, but while also redirecting part of his thoughts into plotting a new script.
"Time to devise a way to deck the faces of the dudes ignoring us before we freeze to death."
X X
Coalsman Special Corrections Center
"Should we not inform Orlando of the higher-ups' decision?"
"It's unnecessary. Cutting off Chief Orlando's line of command has always been part of the procedure for this case. The only worry here is Francesca doing something she shouldn't.", Faldeus indifferently answered the secretary named Aludra.
After receiving the notice that the city would be incinerated, Faldeus showed no noticeable signs of anxiety.
The Holy Grail War has been a series of complications, but this specific possibility was finally one he had considered before the start.
Therefore, the national staff's only source of concern was Francesca doing anything unnecessary.
She wouldn't be that big of a deal alone, but she was with her Servant.
Seeing the scale of the illusion they pulled off in the industrial district, it was possible for them to prevent the city's incineration entirely with their illusions.
Francesca's illusions may not be able to brush off a destructive effect engulfing the entire city, but they could easily deceive the bomb's sensor and the pilot to make them miss the landing spot.
"All we need her to do is use her illusions to take the Greater Grail system away... but she shows signs she's enjoying this whole complication. We never know what she can do if she starts feeling it would be regrettable to put an end to it."
"What will be our course of action?"
"We retreat tomorrow. The remains of Kuruoka Tsubaki's Servant's curse still haven't faded away, but in their current state, a regular Mystic Code can overcome them. This is actually playing to our benefit, as the unequipped civilians won't be able to escape from the city. We'll completely isolate Snowfield from the radio and internet in sync with the Hurricane's arrival. We won't have to worry about anyone inside that storm observing what will be happening in the sky."
"But the Hurricane is also being recognized as one of the abnormalities."
"Assuming the Hurricane was lured here by a Heroic Spirit's power or the Holy Grail's activity, we're speculating that it will lose intensity with the city's destruction. And well, our calculations tell we can still burn the city down even under the full force of the storm."
Feeling nothing about the sacrifice of innocent civilians, Faldeus headed to his workshop after giving Aludra some instructions.
After confirming no one was around, he talked to the darkness behind his reflection in the mirror.
"Are you listening, Assassin?"
The darkness intensified and Faldeus felt a faintly blinking presence deep inside it.
"...I have two concerning variables in mind. Flat Escardos is missing. It's possible he already left Snowfield... If that's the case, there's nothing we can do. We'll make the Clock Tower and the El-Melloi Classroom take responsibility for their student."
(That Lord's role is to be used when this sort of trouble occurs, from what I hear.)
He chose not to verbalize this snide remark because there was no point in telling Assassin that.
What mattered to Faldeus was the order he was about to issue.
"That's not the case for the other concern. Something is possessing Filia's body, which we brought to use as the Lesser Grail... We presume it's the remains or a curse of a Divine Spirit. This one is taking root on the land and currently working on altering its magical energy circulation... Assassin, I'd like to ask you to investigate them."
The darkness didn't respond. But Faldeus continued, certain that he was listening.
"With your most optimal class of Presence Concealment capabilities, you're probably the only one who can run a search on that Divine Spirit possessing Filia and escape alive. She's customizing the very land to suit her needs... In the worst-case scenario, the altered land will increase her power... to the point she can block an attack with enough firepower to erase the city."
Faldeus didn't tell Aludra, but his analysis marked Filia's daily magical energy increase as the greatest concern.
"I hope the approaching storm is caused by a Heroic Spirit or an effect of the land... but if the Divine Spirit is the one calling it here, things will get extremely bad. If the Lesser Grail is disconnected from the Greater Grail and the magical energy composing all Heroic Spirit, you included, flows into her... this world is bound to be seeing regional
gods once again."
"..."
The presence moved.
Having confirmed that he was listening, Faldeus erased his emotions and regarded himself as a puppet whose body and mind he could holistically manipulate.
This wasn't meant to deceive. What he was about to say were his honest feelings. He just thought that he shouldn't show any form of emotion when talking to Servants.
"If you want to end the ritual with you and I winning the Holy Grail War, you're on a two-days time limit. To overturn the upper echelon's decision, we'll need to at the very least exorcise the Divine Spirit's remains. Although I don't even know if that would be enough to overturn it."
"Thou needn't palliate thy words, contractor."
"!"
He thought he heard the darkness talking.
Faldeus separated his emotions from his body and waited for the next phrase without a sweat.
"Thy heart hath decided the time has come to spend my Saint Graph."
"Yes, exactly."
He could lose his life if he misspoke.
It'd make sense for a regular Heroic Spirit to kill him for that answer, but Faldeus's continued observation of Assassin revealed that he wouldn't do anything this short-sighted.
He went a step further.
"As your Master... I'm
sending you to die. But this is not an order to commit suicide. I'm only giving you a command with a high likelihood of death. After you're done with it, you're free to do whatever you want."
"..."
The Servant didn't display any form of emotion.
No hostility, no malice, no resignation.
The flickering shadow was waiting silent, certain that his Master had more to say.
"You don't need to return here after this last command. As the person in charge... and to stay true to that faith you spoke of, I'll never back down from my management position, but
I'm no longer a participant in the Holy Grail War."
X X
East snowfield, mansion in the marsh
"In the end... they didn't come back. Not Sigma, nor the Assassin girl."
Ayaka looked at the aged pendulum clock, reclining on the chair in the back of the room.
Anxiety rose in her heart, and her chest felt inescapably cramped.
(Normally it would be better to breathe the fresh air outside, but only a day after seeing someone get sniped, I can't bring myself to do it. "Only a day"? Yes, a whole day already passed. But yesterday... No, not only yesterday. Since I met Saber, everything felt so chaotic, unreal, and simultaneously stressful and calming. )
Saber said "I wish I could head to battle immediately but you must have spent a lot of magical energy, so your recovery comes first." and spent the whole day fortifying the mansion's defenses.
Saber himself probably also needed time to recover from his injuries in the battle against the golden Heroic Spirit.
Sigma told Ayaka before that most mage battles take place at night so she stayed alert the whole night, but ultimately morning came before anyone appeared to attack her.
Ayaka fell asleep when the sun rose. But upon noticing she was crashed until the evening, she finally had to accept that she was far more tired than she imagined.
(Should I be glad that I'm still alive?)
With this question in mind, she thought about what was coming later.
Ever since she became an official Master, she got the impression that her magical energy link to Saber increased somehow. Sometimes she could feel the pounding of an organ other than her heart deep inside, but she assumed it was Assassin deploying whatever Noble Phantasms she had and it had nothing to do with Saber.
(Wait... That means the Assassin girl is still alive...)
Ayaka sighed in relief over someone who almost killed her.
After several misunderstandings, they were now in a solid alliance.
They didn't know each other for long, but Ayaka could tell Assassin would never deceive or backstab anyone.
(That reminds me...)
She recalled her reencounter with Assassin in Enkidu's forest.
(She called Saber "fearsome"...)
This brought Saber's words from the previous day back to the surface of her brain.
ーI’m a Heroic Spirit—just a shadow burned into the world—so I don’t know the truth, but if there’s a heaven, then my soul must be... burning in purgatory until the day the human race comes to an end.
Words unsettling beyond belief.
Ayaka wasn't clear on what's the difference between hell and purgatory, but she figured it was still a harsh place of punishment.
At the very least, Saber's phrasing didn't make it sound fun.
(Saber felt so sure that was where he belonged... Yeah, I still don't know anything about what Saber did in history.)
This line of thought led Ayaka to realize how bad it was for a Master to remain always ignorant about her Servant.
She found a giant pile of books in the mansion.
She wasted no time, getting up to look around the room in search of a Western history book or an encyclopedia until...
She froze in her tracks.
A tiny figure clad in a red hood stood still in her line of sight.
"Ah..."
She gulped.
The phenomenon occurred in this house with no elevators. This meant that, as indicated by multiple portents, this phenomenon which she didn't know if it was a hallucination or a supernatural curse finally rose one step above.
However, strangely enough, she didn't feel as much fear as she usually did.
It never stopped being scary and she definitively didn't want to look at it if she could help it, but—perhaps due to her becoming Saber's Master or due to the words they exchanged in that building—the fear was no longer shutting her down.
ー
Good luck.
(I was in the building running towards Saber. Why would the hallucination... say that to me? No, wait, couldn't my brain have hallucinated those words too? Was I so on edge that I put convenient words in the hallucination's mouth? Amazingly shameless of me if true. I don't deserve those words... Because I... ... ...?)
"Huh...?"
Her head felt awfully heavy.
The moment she tried to remember the past, her thoughts became hazy and disconnected.
This never happened before.
(What's going on with me...? Is this another effect of becoming a Master? No. I have to remember... something... very important...)
The more she tried to think about her state, the foggier her head got.
Up to this point, she was only trying to repress her memories of the red-hooded girl out of fear.
But now her head would stop working properly every time she tried to confront the issue.
It was as if her whole body was against retrieving that memory.
(Is this also... an effect of the magecraft that Filia woman cast on me?)
A chill ran down Ayaka's spine as she remembered the beautiful woman who cast the hex that cursed her into coming to this city.
This lack of control over her own thoughts filled her with anxiety. An inescapable fear that this could grow into her soon being unable to remember the past few seconds or even lose her identity. What pulled her out of it was...
"Are you alright, Ayaka?"
"!"
Hearing Saber call her name, she felt her body return to reality.
"Y-yeah. I'm fine..."
"There's one thing I've been meaning to say for a long time... If you have any big problems, you can tell me about them. I mean, well, I guess our current situation is the biggest problem you could have..."
Ayaka tried to answer Saber's kind words with "It's fine, it happens all the time" but...
"It's fine, it happens all..."
"Do you really want things to stay the way they are?"
"..."
"It happens all the time? If something is constantly putting you through this much palpable distress, that only makes me more worried. I can agree if you say it's none of my business, but I believe that if I can offer any help, it's my duty as your Servant to do so."
"Saber..."
"It's not only for your sake. I know self-interest doesn't look good, but this is basically some internal administration I need to do to win the Grail War. I caused a lot of problems during my life... Mainly to my brother. That's why in this second life of mine, I absolutely don't want to step on the same pitfall."
Ayaka reflexively blinked, as she had never seen Saber this serious before.
(Right. Being a Master means that... it's no longer my problem alone. Saying he got nothing to do with this won't cut it anymore.)
With some hesitation, Ayaka decided to say everything she had to say about what troubled her.
"...thought you might say I'm making a huge fuzz over nothing."
"Yes, I can't promise I won't belittle your problem. I might! I don't have any excuse other than "that's who I am"! I'm sorry!"
"Is this really the time for brutal honesty?"
"Please, wait. Think about it the other way! Your problem being nothing to me means I'm confident I can solve it without breaking a sweat! You have nothing to lose telling me about it, no?", Saber puffed his chest with pride.
Ayaka needed a moment to think. And so...
"Good Lord, I'm so jealous of your optimism."
After some pained laughter, she finally opened up.
"The thing is... I sometimes hallucinate. I've been running away from this hallucination for the longest time."
"Yeah, that checks out with what I've seen."
"But it used to be only sometimes. Now I'm seeing her all the time. The girl with the red hood..."
A few minutes later.
"Not trying to doubt you, but I'm gonna need you to be more exact. Are you seeing this hallucination girl now? As we speak?", asked Saber, contemplatively scratching his chin as he finished hearing the whole story.
"Well, yeah. I was expecting her to disappear while we were talking, but she didn't."
Ayaka took a peek at the corner of the room.
She could see the red-hooded girl was standing there with her head down the whole time.
(I knew it. Since I came to this city, the hallucination has been growing gradually more real.)
Half taking it as a sign she was finally losing her mind for good, she timidly checked Saber's reaction.
Saber's response was asking a serious question.
"Where exactly?"
"Hm... There, in front of the leftmost shelf."
"Here?"
Saber walked to where Ayaka pointed and tried to pet a head he couldn't find.
Saber's hand overlapped with the red-hooded girl but naturally phased through it, to no reaction from either her or Saber.
"Your hand just passed through her head."
"That's where her head is? So short. She really is a kid."
"Well, yeah."
"...ue, is there anything... and... ?"
Saber started talking to someone too quietly for Ayaka to hear.
Probably one of those "Retinue" companions of his.
"Really? Gotcha. Thanks."
After thanking the void, he turned to Ayaka, still standing where he was.
"I asked a friend who is an expert in magecraft and she said she found no signs of anything arcane or residual thoughts here."
"So... that confirms I'm hallucinating because I'm sick in the head?"
"It's a possibility, but not the only one. It could also be that some hex or magecraft was cast inside you, or some form of spiritual possession."
"A ghost... Well, Saber is also a ghost, pretty much..."
Quite a few mages would have yelled at her for comparing residual thoughts to a Ghost Liner. After getting away with saying that out loud, Ayaka looked at the ceiling with a self-derisive smile.
"In the end, all I can do is find an exorcist or a psychiatrist."
(Exorcism...? Do I want that? That red-hooded girl... never did anything bad. It was all me getting scared without asking what she wanted. All me feeling guilty because I... Ah... I can't remember who she is.)
Feeling the fog in her head spread, Ayaka gave up on diving deeper into her memories and joked to herself.
"Hallucination or ghost, all I want is for her to be a problem I can solve by talking."
(Maybe having Saber by my side will give me the courage to get closer!)
When she returned her line of sight to Saber, he was doing something strange.
"Huh? Saber?"
Magecraft made several water orbs of different colors float around him, decorating the pointed location of the red-hooded girl with a fantastical pop style.
The rainbow-colored lights inside the water illuminated the place and Saber started playing a cheerful tune on an old string instrument he found somewhere.
It was the theme song of the movie Saber watched a few days ago in the show house.
Ayaka was momentarily impressed at how thoughtfully he could adapt a song he only heard once to the strings.
Momentarily because she immediately took notice of how random this situation was.
Flabbergasted at how the room suddenly became the set of a TV commercial, Ayaka addressed the elephant in the room.
"What are you doing...?"
"I mean, since you're scared of this Little Red Riding Hood no one else can see, I just thought you would feel better and get things sorted out if I surrounded the girl with ornaments to make her look funnier, cuter, and more approachable!", Saber firmly nodded as he played the melody with a sunny smile yet completely serious attitude.
Ayaka's jaw dropped at all the confidence Saber had in his idea.
"I appreciate you doing things for my sake but... Can I be blunt?"
"Absolutely! I can already imagine what you'll say, but hit me!"
"Are you stupid?! Seriously, thank you, but sorry, having this kind of idea is actually not that weird, but what kind of person goes ahead and tries it?!"
(It checks out, though. I've seen many crazy moments like this in the past few days. Saber is the kind of guy who hops atop a police car to give a speech...)
"Hahaha, I'm Richard of the Plantagenet dynasty... the one called Lionheart. There is no challenge I fear!"
"Please develop some fear! I'm begging you!"
After this yell, Ayaka held her head exhausted.
...and as she held her head, she noticed the fog dispersed completely when she wasn't looking.
"..."
Before she realized it, she could no longer find the red-hooded girl. Her anxiety was replaced with a question:
(Don't tell me she disappeared because she got embarrassed? No way, that can't have been it. Wait, no, it's not time to relax. Next time I see her... we'll have our talk. Though it won't be easy if I'm alone...)
Ayaka looked at Saber.
A smile formed on her face, although she didn't know why.
"What? Did the red-hooded girl start dancing to my music?"
"I wish she had."
As Saber approached Ayaka, she knocked on his chest with a pained smile.
"Well... thanks. I'm feeling better now."
"Really? That's great to hear."
Seeing Saber's confident yet nonetheless childish smile, Ayaka determined herself.
(I'll fight.)
Ayaka knew violent and chaotic battles were ahead of her.
She knew nothing of proper Master etiquette. She merely wanted to face her every personal challenge, down to last, with her eccentric partner by her side.
Her momentary respite came from ignorance.
Her sliver of happiness came from ignorance.
From ignorance to the fact this city was going to be wiped off the face of the world in 2 days.
From ignorance to what the secret inside her is
making her forget.
At that moment, Ayaka Sajou had the most human smile among all the Holy Grail War participants in Snowfield.
Originally Posted by Sandstorm77
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