Chapter 171

A pink petal lazily drifted onto Gray's nose, landing on the tip before sliding downwards towards her upper lip as she breathed, her nose twitching in response to the fragrance. It didn't take long before her sinuses started getting irritated, the scent growing stronger as she sharply inhaled and exhaled to release the itchy feeling in her nose, but it unintentionally sucked the petal right into her nose as well. The itch exploded into a full-blown urge to sneeze as her spine curved on reflex, her body sitting up instinctively. Her mouth opened wide to breath in air as she fired off a cannonball of a sneeze, loud enough for Flat walking outside in the hallway to hear it, and sending the flower petal flying off the bed.

Sniffing, Gray blinked and opened her eyes a couple of times in fatigue, sitting on the bed doing nothing. It took the snot slowly dribbling down her nose to finally kick her into action as she scrabbled around the bed stand for a tissue box, wiping away the clear liquid and sneezing away the rest of the itch.

She had barely finished sneezing when Flat burst into the room without knocking, zooming straight towards the bed and placing his hands on bed as he leaned forward, though she didn't feel it was too close.

"Gray! You missed out on an epic eat-off while you were sleeping! The Master of Berserker, the Illyasviel girl? You know, the ones that make homunculi? Yeah them, they came over here after saving Rin, and then asked for an alliance with us because they felt like the Holy Grail War was going in a weird direction, and then Berserker, the girl in the school uniform? The one who was swinging those lightsabers? Yeah her! She was with Illya, and Archer was there with Rin, and then-"

Unnoticed by either of them, El-Melloi walked into the room and placed a hand on Flat's shoulder.

"Let her rest for now. We still have business downstairs."

He had come up after wondering what was taking Flat so long, and after spotting the door of Gray's room ajar, it was obvious where he was.

"But-mph!"

Flat's mouth was covered by his master's hand as he dragged the boy away physically, though he had to use some effort as he left the bed, step by step.

"Gray, come down whenever you're ready. We'll introduce the newcomers to you."

With that, he closed the door, leaving Gray to her rest.

Gray just stared at the door blankly, her head still in the clouds after her sudden arousal from sleep. It was then that she remembered the wild ride of a dream she had just gone through. She leaned back down as the scenes flashed through her head, the sudden crash landing, stumbling across a lone ramen restaurant in a desert, fighting the bounty targets and then the old man sacrificing himself at the end. She didn't know how MHX had survived having her Saint Graph pierced through, but then again after seeing the Servants of the Servant-verse throwing attacks equivalent to a fusion bomb like it was nothing, she didn't doubt that MHX had some hidden trump card that allowed her to cheat death.

Staring at the ceiling, she was about to close her eyes and catch a few more minutes of sleep when a thought suddenly occurred to her, her mentor's words regarding the Servant and Master bond coming to her. He had talked about experiencing vivid dreams while in possession of a Servant contract, and that it was a two-way channel. He had told her that thought these dreams could tell her a lot about her Servant, but the Servant could also learn about her if they chose to sleep and conserve mana.

Opening the link to Assassin, she hesitated, remembering that she had been injured while fighting for her, then a quick glance at the clock told her that enough time had passed for her to have sufficiently recovered to at least hold a conversation. Summoning her courage, she let out a deep breath, then proceeded to contact Assassin mentally.

"MHX, did you sleep just now while healing?"

"No, I didn't."

The response was prompt, and a surge of relief appeared in Gray's heart. She wasn't too fond of people knowing about her past, even if it was her Servant. It often made people treat her...differently, was how she would describe it. Though MHX did know about the reason behind her looks and ability, the specifics of her history was unknown to the Servant, and she preferred to keep it that way, at least for now.

"Did you see something in your sleep Gray? Perhaps something about me?"

MHX picked up on the reason behind Gray's question as her keen intuition directed her towards it.

"Yes, I did."

"Oh really? What did you see?"

She didn't seem to be offended, judging by her passive tone, so Gray decided that it was probably safe to talk about it.

"You crash landed on a desert planet, and then fought against Sigurd and Brynhildr, or your Servant-verse version of them."

"Oohhh, that one, yeah I remember that one. It was one of the toughest battles of my life, and let me tell you there were quite a few experiences that all vie for that position. Besides that one, there was this one time in the Horsehead Nebula where I got sent a jar of pickles, and then…"

Instead of sleeping, Gray spent the next hour listening to MHX regale her with tales and stories from her past, lying on the bed while her Servant chattered away without input. It was relaxing in a way, and she enjoyed hearing them as well. Though it may not have been as vivid as seeing it for herself in a dream, MHX's passion imbued her words with life, and Gray felt like she could almost see the people, the land and the fights in front of her eyes as if she were there herself.