Chapter 7: Preparation
"So, the Saber, Lancer and Archer classes are the three knight classes, and have a resistance to magic?" I ask.
"Yes, that's correct and-"
"Master," Berserker appears and says out of nowhere.
"What th-Berserker! Jeez, announce yourself first!" Cassie yelled in the servant's face. Isn't antagonizing a heroic spirit bad for your health, though? Well, if it is, Berserker didn't seem to get the memo. All he did is narrow his eyes slightly at his master before responding.
"My apologies, master." The words seemed like they were hard for him to get out. This is the third time he's appeared to check on us in the past two hours. What has he got to say this time? "I would like to know how your teaching of the child is going. Is he less of an imbecile?" That's what he has to say. Okay, that's it. Call me child all you want, but i'm drawing the line at imbecile.
"Hey, listen here, Casper the barbarian-"
"Okay then!" Cassie yelled, cutting me off. "How about we all chill out. Berserker, X?" She looked at us, awaiting an answer.
"Very well, master."
"Yeah, yeah, sure." I grumbled. "Well, he actually does have a point," I say, realizing something. "I think, at least. Him bugging us all the time, he's bored and annoyed. You're thinking, 'when are we gonna get out there,' right?" I ask the barbarian.
"Hmmm, he has a brain after all." Berserker muses. "Seems he is good for something." He turns toward Cassie. "Your protege is right. When are we going to go on the offensive?"
"When we're ready!" She responds. "X still hasn't summoned his servant yet. Once we do that, then we'll go looking for our final ally. We'll get him, and then work out a proper offensive strategy. Okay?" She looks hard at her servant.
"Very well, master. I know you wont change your mind. But know this, gaining too many allies can only mean an early end for you. And by extension, me." After the last word left his lips, he dematerialized. Too many allies? Doesn't he know...wait a minute.
"You didn't tell him about our plan, did you?" I ask Cassie. She looks over at me with a 'duh' look on her face.
"Duh." She says to me. "Why would I? Our plan isn't in his favor. He might kill you." Now that's news to me.
"What!? Why would he kill me? I thought servants were here to, well, serve? Can they even disobey?" I ask, thoroughly confused.
"Kid, servants are people. Dead people, sure, but people all the same. He wants the Grail as much as me. If he hears our plan, which makes it more likely he'll die just so our team will survive, he might kill you to get you out of the way."
"Wait, servants get a wish too?"
"Yep, if they're part of the winning team, they get the grail too. So that means you don't tell Berserker any of this if you value your life, okay?"
"Yeah, you got it. This life is kinda the most valuable thing I got," I quip.
"Ha ha," She fake laughs, "don't be a smartass, X. So, you ready?"
"Ready for what?" I ask.
"To summon your servant," She says casually. "I've got everything set up in the attic."
"Really? We're doing it now?" I say, confused by the change in plans.
"I was going to wait, but maybe you and Berserker are right. Time to get this over with. You're ready. Just read the incantation and flood the circle with your prana. Pour all of your feeling into it, and you'll do fine." I think about this for a moment. I did want to get this done already. The sooner we get my servant, the sooner we find Jon. Plus, she says i'm ready.
"Okay, lets do this," I say as I take a deep breath. "Lets do this."
We walk towards the stairs, and go up until we reach a hatch. Cassie pulls it down, and a ladder falls down, the bottom hitting the floor. As we begin to climb up it, something occurs to me. "Hey, Cassie?" I say.
"Yeah, X?" She responds.
"Aren't we going to be essentially tricking our servants, legendary heroes, out of a fair chance to get ultimate power? I mean, if anyone deserves it, it's probably the heroes. Not us." I say, struggling with the thought of going on with this underhanded plan.
"Look, kid," Cassie says, reaching out her hand, meeting mine, and helping me into the attic. "There's no 'fair' in the Holy Grail War. You win, or you lose. It doesn't matter what you do between point A and B."
"Nothing matters?" I ask. "If that was true, you probably would've killed me already."
"Probably?" She repeats, while moving some boxes around.
"Hey, I have a few tricks up my sleeve. You haven't even seen me fight yet. Don't underestimate me," I say with a with a smirk.
"Okay, fine, kid. Most things don't matter except for the grail. Jon's just part of the one percent that does," She states. A slightly awkward silence followed. I just kind of looked around for the next few minutes, while Cassie kept looking for something. After a few more minutes passed, I finally decided to say something. Something that had been on my mind for a while.
"So tell me, because I've been wondering..." I trail off.
"Yeah, what is it?" She asks from under a table, staring at the ground for some reason.
"Were you and Jon, like, a thing?" I ask. Right after I said it, her head bolted upwards in shock. She rammed against the bottom of the table.
"Now, where, where the, where the hell would you get that kinda idea from?" She stammers nervously.
"Wow. That was shockingly easy. So, you were a thing. How long?" I ask, curious about my teachers former partner.
"Now, that's none, none of your damn business, kid!" Cassie, now out from under the table, yells in my face.
"Jeez, no need to yell," I say back. "I guess it was kinda rude to pry. Sorry."
"Well, that's good. Good to hear. Now, lets get back to finding the circle, and by 'lets' I mean 'JUST ME, BECAUSE YOU'RE NOT DOING ANYTHING!'"
"Well, you never told me to do anything!"
"Yeah well, you could've asked to help!"
"I didn't know if I would be interrupting whatever you were doing or not!"
"Just get over her and HELP ME, DAMN IT!"
