It was odd to find the father of the person who destroyed the entire world sitting at a cafeteria table amongst the company of other servants and Chaldea employees. The most famous king of Israel, and the ancestor of Jesus Christ himself, sat at one of the tables with a carefree look on his face as he stared at a small tablet in his hand left hand, while munching on a loaf of bread in the other.
"That's the King of Israel? No offense, but he looks kind of plain and ordinary for a really important king." Kakashi said as he studied the king of Israel's manners. He wasn't wearing any expensive looking garments that benefitted a king, or a golden crown on his head. What did look like an important artifact was the ivory staff that was leaning on the wall next to him.
"Before he became a king, he was a shepherd. They weren't exactly the richest people, but David apparently enjoys the freedom he had so that's the form he decided to appear in." Gabby said with a shrug. She realized early on that all of the heroic spirits were quite quirky in their own ways. Some of them liked to party, others liked to meditate, and others often liked to indulge with new tech. It was kind of hard to believe, but all of them were still humans despite their status as servants, and they had their own wants and needs.
"All this staring is making me slightly uncomfortable." Naruto muttered as they walked past several tables, drawing the attention of servants and employees.
"They do this all the time with new servants. You know how curiosity is." Gabby said with an amused look.
"I would have thought that you would have been fine with this, Naruto. You always were one for seeking attention." Jiraiya said as he nudged Naruto playfully from behind, earning an irritated look.
"Good attention. This kind is just awkward."
"Focus you two. Try to at least make a good impression." Kakashi scolded, but even his tone lacked any form of seriousness as they approached the King of Israel. As they neared the table, the green haired man looked up from his tablet and smiled.
"Gabby! It has been a while since we've personally talked with each other. How have you been?" David asked with a smile, his teeth practically glinting and shining.
"I've been well. Can't say the same for you, though. I heard you and Liz got in a fight yesterday." Gabby said, earning a laugh from the king.
"Well what can I say? The little dragon girl needed to learn the basic etiquette of keeping to herself. Honestly, her singing reminds me of Goliath's voice! Very hard on the ears." David frowned as he remembered the late night singing of one of Chaldea's resident pop star. He shook his head to clear that little demon girl from his thoughts before smiling once again. "So what brings you to talk to me? Usually it's Gudao who would be approaching me so he can pay up the money he owes me."
"Well, we're here to ask you some questions. Namely concerning the threat of your son." Gabby said seriously. Immediately, the smile was wiped off of the king's face and he looked uncomfortable.
"Solomon? Well, there's not much I can say about him. He was a pretty weird child, but I thought I had left him in good hands. Somewhere along the way he fell off the tree and diverted from the path of God. Not much to say."
"He's a threat to the entire world. There's no way that's all you know about him." Naruto said as he took a seat in front of him, causing David to raise his eyebrows inquisitively as he finally noticed the unfamiliar looking faces.
"Who may all of you be? New servants?"
"Those two are." Naruto said as he gestured two Kakashi and Jiraiya. "As for me... You can just classify me as a being above heroic spirits."
David stared at him for a moment before his eyes narrowed. "A divine spirit? Figures. Only a being on your level could have caused this much panic in Chaldea. so there's not much I can do to really hide things from you." He grumbled as he laid back in his seat. "But tread lightly. I only serve one God, and you sure don't look anything like him."
"Sure, let's just go with that. Just tell us what we're expected to deal with." Naruto said with a deadpan look. Honestly, it's sometimes tiring being a god. Nobody appreciates how much he labors.
Seemingly satisfied with the answer, the king of Israel leaned back in his seat and took a sip of water from a nearby bottle. "My son was an odd person. He wasn't very sociable and preferred to stay by himself. He wouldn't even talk to me that often unless he actually needed something he couldn't get on his own." He frowned. "His personality was quite odd as well. He was normally quiet and composed, often speaking like a young adult. Other times he was snarky and annoying. I do not know the cause, however. Only he personally knows."
Naruto, Jiraiya, and Kakashi shared a small look. Anomalies were always dangerous. In their line of work, Shinobi who were calm and professional always had a pattern that you could exploit if you liked hard enough. Unstable and crazy targets were always the most dangerous, often only concerned with chaotic goals that can't be predicted by anyone.
"That's interesting, but not entirely useful. How about you tell us why he is called the King of Magic?" Jiraiya asked.
"Well that's an easy question to answer. Back in our day, magic and anything related to the supernatural weren't entirely open for many people. Often than not, they needed to meet several requirements to perform magecraft and the such. The reason why Solomon was called the King of Magic was that he created the modern form of magecraft that was used all the way up to the present time. Because of this, all forms of magecraft derived from him."
"Created the modern system of magecraft?" Kakashi frowned. "How exactly did he manage to do so?"
"I was dead when he received his powers, but you can find it in books and the Bible if you look hard enough, but I'm sure I can explain it." David shrugged. "Solomon was visited by God in a dream. I'm not talking about deities like the greek and Japanese pantheon, but the one from which all others derived from. In the dream, God told him that he would grant any wish he wanted at his request for free. Instead of wishing for wealth and power, however, Solomon wished for knowledge to rule more than anyone else. Pleased with his response, God granted him knowledge that allowed him to rule his kingdom and wealth and riches as a side gift."
"So he was granted absolute knowledge? Seems pretty cliche for a super villain." Naruto mumbled. He knew that knowledge was power, absolute knowledge even more so. But power corrupts people, and corrupt people inevitably lead to conflict.
"It wasn't absolute knowledge, but it was far above his own time." David said. "When he woke up, he found 10 gold rings on his fingers, symbolizing his status as the King of Israel. And with his newfound knowledge, revolutionized the kingdom of Israel into an untouchable utopia of peace. He never received another miracle from God, but it was better that he didn't. It was enough for the people to know that he was the chosen king of Israel, for another miracle could potentially cause fear or corruption amongst them."
His eyes darkened. "Solomon was a wise king. Incredibly wiser than any other person in history besides the son of God. However, wisdom didn't entirely mean that he was perfect. He had many wives from different religions and pantheons who seduced him when they arrived at his court to seek 'wisdom'." He scratched his head. "He soon fell out of favor with God and eventually died alone when he was forced to relinquish his title."
"So now he's decided to come back to enact his revenge." Jiraiya summarized.
"We can't say for sure." David said with a sigh. "He's above the human notion of understanding. We can't understand a person like him. If he really wanted to destroy humanity, he would have done it during his time and be through with it."
All of them remained quiet at that thought. It appeared that Solomon's plans were just like Madara's, which were comparable to that of an onion in the fact that they had lots and lots of layers.
"Well, enough with this depressing talk." Gabby said as she clapped her hands, getting everyone's attention. "We have a big day ahead of us so we better get our new guest settled in. Honestly, it's like you people just come in like copy paper. Come along you three."
"About time. I grow weary of talking about my son." David chuckled humorlessly as he stood up. "You three have a nice day. I'm going to go find Gudao and flush out that money he owes me. Chao!"
As the trio said their goodbyes, they began to follow after the female master as she exited the area.
"So how do you enjoy things so far?" Jeanne asked with an amused smile as Naruto took in the sights with a curious look on his face.
"It's quite amazing how far human engineering has come. We never could come up with such advances in an efficient manner. If only the shinobi had such things." Naruto mused as he ran his hand alongside the metal walls of the facility. After their little talk with David, Naruto ran back into Jeanne and the two of them decided to take this time to catch up and get himself acquainted with the facility.
"True, but it doesn't carry the same feeling as the old days." Jeanne said as she remembered the first day she was here. The cold white walls and robots that mulled around made it slightly uncomfortable for her. Luckily, it didn't take long for her to acclimate, but it was still very odd for her to see a small robot whizz by with a dinner tray in hand.
"You're telling me." Naruto sighed as he pulled away from the wall and smiled. "So how long have you been here? I find it hard that you were able to get things done without me by your side."
Jeanne pouted. "I was one of the first servants to be summoned, you know. And I can take care of myself!" Though her voice turned into a mutter. "Though things would have just been easier if you were there..."
"So I've heard." Naruto chuckled as he gave her a pat on the shoulder. "You've been getting out much? I've been told there are quite a few singularities that have been popping up every now and then."
"True, but they barely take any time to fix. Unless it's a huge singularity, I'm usually back here doing regular stuff. I also serve part time as a counselor for most of the servants who have any problems."
"A counselor? You?"
Jeanne giggled. "What? I can keep a secret. Plus, I was the one always taking care of my siblings when they were younger. Of course, people just say I'm easy to talk to."
"Well, you are. You do seem to be very in touch with people." Naruto said with a smile. "Perhaps you could introduce me to some of the servants?"
At this, Jeanne got an excited look on her face. "Yes! I'm sure they would be happy to meet you." She suddenly coughed and composed herself. "Er... I mean, yes. I'll gladly introduce you to them."
Naruto raised an eyebrow. "o-kay?"
He didn't bother to comment on that. When it came to women, it was best not to pry too deeply into their psyche lest you find yourself on the receiving end of a kick to the groin.
So he just continued to follow her around. Eventually, they came upon Marie de Salon, the place Jeanne had told him about as a central hub for servant activity on their days off.
Heading inside, they found that the area was pretty packed with mostly employees and a few servants. Some were there to socialize on the furniture strewn around while some others were busy getting drinks from the nearby bar.
"Jeanne!"
The two of them turned to find Marie running up to them in her usual casual clothes with a smile on her face. "You're just in time! Everyones getting together for a massive party! I kinda forgot to send you a notice, but I assumed the word got around pretty fast." She suddenly blinked as she noticed Naruto. "And whose he? A date perhaps?"
Jeanne's face turned scarlet red while Naruto simply blinked. "H-he's not a date, Marie! He's the person we picked up in our investigation!"
"Really? How quaint." Marie said with an amused tone as she turned to Naruto inspected him with a critical eye. "Hm... Nice build, good choice of clothes, whisker marks, blonde hair, wait..." Her eyes widened. "You wouldn't happen to be one of the divine spirits of Japan?"
"...That is true facts." Naruto confirmed with a sheepish look as he saw her face light up with excitement.
"Oh this is just wonderful! Jeanne has told me so many things about you! She told me that you totally manhandled several servants by yourself during a grail war!"
"I wouldn't exactly say I manhandled them." Naruto said, trying to downplay the situation. To be totally honest, he didn't really remember much about the last grail war, but manhandling seemed like the most logical choice of words to convey what he was doing there.
"And humble to boot! Oh Jeanne, you're lucky to get someone like him! I feel sorry for the rest of the servants, though. They're totally going to freak out when they see him." Marie sighed, sending Jeanne a small look of envy that made the saint sputter and fidget.
"Marie..." Jeanne whined. "Enough with the teasing already!"
Marie rolled her eyes, but her smile was still present on her face. "Fine. I'll stop." She suddenly leaned in and whispered. "Though, you better show him how you feel pretty soon. When it comes to people like him, the girls are going to throw themselves at him. Maybe some guys to. Do you really want that to happen?"
This was the part where any normal human being would lie to get themselves out of trouble, but Jeanne's voice died in her throat. For some reason, the scene Marie had painted up for her made her absolutely... livid.
What's with that? She had no problem with love. Love was an emotion that every other human being should be entitled to. But when she pictured Naruto spending time with other girls...
Marie just chuckled as she left Jeanne in a state of shock and thought before turning to Naruto. "Well, you're always welcome here. And don't mind her too much. She gets like this when she's thinking hard about life."
Naruto chuckled nervously, not sure what the hell was going on. "It's fine. By the way, is it normal for you guys to be throwing wild parties like these? I would have thought that you'd all be too busy for that."
Marie shrugged. "Well we all have to relax sometime, don't we? It's not healthy for our heavy hitters if they exhaust themselves to death and our masters know that." She gestured to several people who were laughing and smiling as they watched two people arm wrestle at a table. One of them was a man with blue hair dressed in a waiters suit and the other was a purple haired woman in a white sweatshirt and regular blue jeans.
He watched as, much to his surprise, the woman managed to overpower the blue haired man with an amused look on her face as she sent him crashing to the ground. Around them, the crowd roared with approval and excitement as they all began taking turns challenging the woman.
"They're a rowdy group, though I must admit that the Irish do know how to throw fun parties." She smiled at him. "Why don't you go join them? I'm sure they'd love to enjoy a drink."
"I don't drink much." Naruto shrugged. It's not like he was against it, but he soon found that the joys of alcohol weren't available to him. Unlike regular people, he couldn't get drunk no matter how many bottles he drank. The powerful chakra network inside of him filtered it out at such a rate that it practically didn't effect him.
Though drinking challenges were not uncommon in the Shinobi world, they could often last hours as the chakra effectively diluted the alcohol before it could effect them too badly. Thus, it would often take at least 10 bottles before anyone could even think about getting drunk.
That's probably why the sake industry always were busy.
"Then I guess I'm going to have to fill in."
Looking in surprise, they saw Kakashi walk past them in a leisurely pace with his Icha Icha book in hand. As he neared the group, one of the men, a huge hulking wall of muscle, noticed his approach and grinned.
"Not again..." Naruto groaned in an annoyed tone while Marie gave him a confused look.
"Hello there, new servant. Why have you come?" The man boomed, drawing everyones attention towards the masked shinobi.
Kakashi smiled underneath his mask and closed his book with an audible boom.
"I'm here for a drink."
"I cannot believe what I'm seeing."
Marie said these words with exasperation and bewilderment as she watched the originally rowdy crowd be reduced to a simple quiet mess as numerous unconscious sleeping males were sprawled out around the floor.
"This is why I banned you from doing any drinking challenges, Kakashi." Naruto muttered as he eyed the scarecrow sitting crosslegged on top of a table with a bottle of sake sitting in his lap. He seemed to be in a cheery mood, if the lines around his face were anything to go by.
"Come on, wheres the harm in a little game? Besides, I'm getting paid money for this. That counts for something, right?"
"Yeah, but you pulled that cheeky mask trick again!" Naruto accused, earning a confused look from Marie.
"Mask trick?" She questioned, throwing it at Kakashi.
"It's a neat little trick for winning these kinds of things." Kakashi said with a smirk, amusement clear in his voice. He ran his finger through the fabric of his mask. "This mask doesn't actually allow me to drink liquid. It actually absorbs it and gives me the appearance of drinking. Oldest trick in the book, but most people can't really tell the difference when they're half drunk."
Marie's eyebrows raised, and for a moment it would seem that she was prepared to launch into the regular speech of 'alcohol is bad and cheating is even worse', but she simply shrugged.
"Cool. That's a nice trick I suppose." Marie shrugged as she turned her attention back to Jeanne, who had fallen asleep over by the couch. The girl wasn't much of a partier so she just decided to sit back and watch everyone else. Last time someone managed to convince her to drink didn't end well so she refused to touch any of the liquid there besides water.
"You're not mad?"
"Why would I be? Someone needs to put them in their places once in a while." Marie said with a sigh. "Honestly, it's always about who can drink the most out of all of them. Off or on the field, that's all they ever think about."
"I'd thought you'd be a little bit more supportive of this. Weren't you a queen?" Kakashi questioned, earning a look of annoyance in his direction.
"I still am a queen. There's a difference between being a noble of high-class and a bunch of savage dogs like them. They need to learn some humility from time to time. Usually Scathach is there to reign them in, but even she can get pretty rowdy if she's left unchecked, When that happens, we'd have to get some of the more exceptional heroic spirits to subdue her."
"That's the Irish for you. They always were a rowdy bunch." Naruto muttered, scratching his head. "So what do we do with them? We can't just leave them here... can we?"
"Absolutely not. We have to move them to the medical ward. Let Jekyll and Roman handle this mess for once." Marie said as she grabbed the unconscious blue haired man and began easily dragging him off. Despite her thin frame and D-rank strength, she didn't seem to have any problem with dragging the man. Servants were beings far above humanity, after all. The ranking system classifies that even the most physically weakest servant could crush skulls and lift more than even the most physically fit human beings in the world.
It amazed him how far magecraft has come. To even summon a small fraction of a true heroic spirit was no easy task. It was comparable to that of a miracle that one would even be lucky to get a glimpse of.
They were beings of great strength that cannot be matched by any normal humans unless they went through heavy... modification. Everyone knows that runners aren't sprinters, sprinters weren't weight lifters, and weight lifters weren't pole vaulters. Human beings must sacrifice these things to gain a physique suited for only one purpose. However, even the weakest of servants could do all these things as they have already transcended humanity through their fame. Sure, 90 percent of them were still nowhere close to how they were in life, but it was incredible what these servant classes were able to do to the other 10 percent.
"You heard the lady, Kakashi." Naruto said with a sigh as he stood up. "Let's get them out of here. This is technically your fault to begin with."
"No, they would have knocked themselves out without me. I just made it happen a lot quicker." Kakashi said with a smirk as he kicked two Irish servants towards Naruto. "You take those two. I'll take the purple lady, Scathach I think she's called."
"Why do you get the lady?" Naruto grumbled as he grabbed the two snoring servant's feet.
"Because you're terrible with women." Kakashi said simply. "If Hinata wasn't such a sweetheart, you would have been killed way before you became Hokage." He picked up the unconscious purple woman and carried her gently. "Plus, I heard this woman was a god-killer. Supposedly, she's older than you too by a couple hundred years."
Naruto paled. "god killer? Oh hell no! I'm not touching one of those! Taking care of her my ass, you can deal with her!" And with that Naruto quickly rushed out of the room with the two men.
Kakashi just blinked and shook his head in amusement. It seems that Naruto has gotten smarter through the years. That was good. He didn't want another Sakura running around trying to kill him.
Man... he was getting too nostalgic.