Fate's Way
Chapter 1 - The Fated Day
Blades…
A wasteland full of blades…
Artoria looked around, yet all she could see was a wasteland of scorched soil and blades that extends beyond the horizon
The sun stuck in the sky, unmoving and never setting
With her standing on a hill that is possibly the only landmark in this world
It was silent, with no other living being inhabiting it beside her
All she could hear was the sound of the wind occasionally blowing and the sound the gears in the sky made
Those mountain-sized gears in the sky were slowly rotating, even when none were connected
They were serving as cogs to a machine without shape
Though even after all that, she felt the place was safe
The sky, though full of smog, was unable to block the light of the bright sun
It was beautiful in its own way
Artoria looked around curiously, before finally setting her eye on a particular sword out of the infinite amount that lies in this world
It was a beautifully ornate golden sword, it was decorated as one would usually expect of a blade of a monarch of old.
Artoria felt as if it was calling for her, walking towards the blade she tries to pull it off
Grasping its hilt, a wave of nostalgia hits her as if she wielded it before, but such a thing is not possible
The sword started to illuminate, and golden flecks of light were starting to rise from the are around
This time, Artoria felt sure of herself, and finally pulls the blade from-
Gringgg! Gringgringgringgringgringgringgring-
A clenched fist was thrown towards the top of the alarm clock, silencing it once and for all. Cloudy jade green eyes that are hazy with mists and remnants of dreams, slowly blink open, squinting due to the dreadful assault of the fiery bright light emitted by the risen morning sun.
She moved her arms to protect her eyes from the bright star looming behind her opened(?) window.
Today she wasn't very energetic, not that she was much of an energetic person in the first place (besides food that is).
But today, it was even worse, arching her back, popping noises were heard by the inhabitants of the room, as her consciousness started to surface.
Her mouth open to yawn akin to a lion's roar, she rubs her eyes to rub off her sleepiness. Her mind was still disoriented, her entire body felt numb. Her arms raised, searching for her missing bolster.
Feeling a bolster sized item, she moved her body and hugged the "bolster", it was nice, soft, warm, with cloth akin to a comfortable shirt, and loose fur with the texture of hair and smells like soap… Huh weird, usually bolsters are fluffy and filled with cotton.'click click'
She ignored the background noises, as her last thought sent shockwaves throughout her body, as her brain startled to the revelation, her eyes blinks open in horror anticipation.
What greeted her was the face of a girl the same age as her, with a pale complexion and a blonde hair even paler, it was her childhood friend Guinevere nicknamed Gwen, both of them met whe-
Her thought halted, when her friend aroused, and awakened from her slumber.
"Oh… Arty, you're awake…" Gwen slowly spoke, still not fully grasping the situation yet.
"Y- yeah" Artoria stuttered nervously
Both of their faces were mere inches from each other, to an outsider the position both of them were in was scandalous, and that thought caused her cheeks to develop a pinkish tint
'It couldn't get any worse' Artoria thought, but how wrong she was
"So sleepyheads… It's not even breakfast yet and both of you are already this hungry?"
A teasing voice cuts any further thoughts she may have had
"Lancelot! I swear this isn't what it looks like!" She exclaimed this time her entire face starts to heat up, as her brother once again chuckles at her flustered state
"Oh really? Imagine if dad found out Art…"
A clicking sound was heard, as Lancelot turns his camera's screen facing towards Artoria and shows her.
It consists of several pictures of her and Gwen sleeping together, and one of her hugging Gwen.
'Damn him' was all she thought at that moment
She begins growling like Lion that is about to pounce on her prey, but to her brother, it looks more akin to a cat pouting, as she tries(fails) to wrestle the camera off of her brother's hands.
Meanwhile, as these shenanigans continued, Gwen finally collected her consciousness and sent a look of confusion towards the two, and when Lancelot explained the situation, she became flustered for a moment before laughing together with him.
Artoria gets even more embarrassed and upset due to Gwen's apparent betrayal by joining the enemy's side.
With a final effort to preserve her dignity, she feigns being heartbroken due to the betrayal of her best friend but considering her track record of lying, and the fact she never took acting class, it backfires miserably and causes the pair of two to further depths of amusement.
The day started off miserable for the girl named Artoria Pendragon.
...
After a while, everyone calmed down and went back to their normal morning duties.
This is how life in the Pendragon Family usually goes, Artoria lives with her father Gawain, older brother Lancelot and Kay, and her younger brother Bedivere.
Gawain also hired her a tutor, Nilrem who pops up every week, though unknown to her father and everyone else, Nilrem was a Magus and has been teaching her in the art of Magecraft for years.
This week is also a bit special as her best friend Gwen is having a sleepover at her house, but considering that there were only enough bedrooms for the family of 5, she convinced her father to let Gwen sleep with her in her room for the time being.
Her room… Is rather dull for a teenage girl, it contains all of the necessity to live, but nothing more than that, hardly any decoration aside from picture frames, and a shelf that holds up multiple stuffed animals(She couldn't help her inner desire), it was also a bit messy at the moment with game consoles and other forms of entertainment scattered throughout the floor of her bedroom.
Sitting in the corner was her katana, it was nothing special, simply a blade Nilrem gifted her, you would've expected the teacher to gift a Mystic Code of some kind, but no, other than something akin to a gem embedded on the blade, there was nothing special.
Anyway back on topic, after taking a shower, she finally calmed herself down. It was a Tuesday, so it's still going to be a long week, and hopefully less boring with a new addition in the house.
"Breakfast is ready!" Oh, that's the call. Artoria quickly tidies herself up, tying her hair into a crown and puts on her school uniform. Bringing her Katana downstairs she saw that everyone is sitting waiting for her.
Her family is unique, to say the least, her father Gawain is what you would expect of a perfect knight, or gentleman in this context, ever since their mother had died, he has been taking care of them alone, he takes everything seriously, and is protective of them.
That's why Artoria fears if he found that picture of them, as a lecture would be guaranteed to come, he also trains everyone to use a sword.
Meanwhile, Lancelot imitates many of the personality traits of their father, though the key difference is that Lancelot loves teasing his younger siblings, and when given the opportunity would humiliate them in some way (though privately of course, as she doesn't want to humiliate them too badly).
Lancelot is also an absolute beast with a sword, winning National Championships with a perfect record, and pairing with his attitude, Artoria would've called him a womanizer if she hadn't witnessed Nilrem's far worse machinations.
He was also capable of playing video games to a terrifying degree.
Artoria learned that fact the hard way when she asked to play Mortal Kombat (she bought it with her pocket money) with him, and with simply the experience of a different fighting game, he crushed her and being the sore loser she was, Artoria asked a rematch again and again until he took pity and let her win. She never asked to play fighting games with him ever again due to that single traumatic experience.
For Kay, he's what you would call a tsundere, he pretends to be cruel and uncaring, but his actions say otherwise. For example that one event many years ago when Artoria lost one of her Lion plushies and ended up being upset for days, he tried to cheer her up by crafting a wooden lion for her, though it ended up looking more like a dog,
Artoria still appreciates it and has kept it even until this day, though whenever she mentions it these days Kay would become embarrassed and deny everything.
He might also be a little violent, as whenever anyone insults or bullies his younger siblings. To say the least, he made sure they never ever forgot about his "advice".
Bedivere being her sweet younger brother, he likes complimenting Artoria (for some reason), and likes to play with her whenever he could, being obedient and cute, though he might be a little too concerned about her, which results in some awkward situations when he divulges in matters she would've liked to keep a secret,
After all, it was him that discovered her love towards stuffed animals when he visited her room without knocking and ended up divulging such (crucial) information to everyone. Artoria was therefore embarrassed by it for quite a while and refused to face anyone for the entire day, though eventually, she got over it.
For her friend Guinevere, she's one of those overly energetic types, and she has a silver tongue. Artoria befriended her in the first year of middle school when the teacher assigned them together for a group project. She felt a sort of deja vu feeling together with her, and just couldn't help but get to know her better, and then that developed into a near inseparable bond.
Then there was herself, a teenage girl with hardly anything to do besides practicing swordsmanship, school, playing games, and eating abnormal amounts. She also adopted a male speech pattern due to being the only female in her immediate family, and as such, she sticks out like a sore thumb when talking in public.
She was called a prodigy at the sword, but she herself doubts it considering how far she was from reaching her brother Lancelot's skill, as while she was barely able to keep up with a single sword, Lancelot is seemingly a master at every sword he ever sparred her with.
Huh, now that she thought about it she has an inferiority complex in many things involving her ever perfect older brother Lancelot.
Her other hobbies being playing games and eating, her daily consumption rivals a dozen full-grown adults, it's as if she has a bottomless pit in her stomach's place. She also plays video games whenever she's in a mood or bored, it's a surprisingly effective stress reliever and kills time, she could play for hours unend without ever noticing the time.
'Ah', she finally remembers what happened last night.
She and Gwen got carried away talking and playing and in the end didn't sleep until it was very late at night, which would certainly explain why her normally reliable mental clock failed to wake her. That goes to show you the combined terrifying might of a friend and video games-
"Art! Are you going to eat or not?"
A voice brought her back into reality.
"Oh! Right, sorry." She replied
What lies on the dining table was the usual breakfast prepared by her father, sausages, mashed potatoes, and scrambled eggs. The portions served were of the normal (humongous) amount.
As usual, Artoria immersed herself into eating like a starving lion, her family got used to her habits of eating, but when Gwen first witnessed her eating capability firsthand, she was stunned, and that was when she was given a warning already.
While eating, on the corner of her eye she saw her brother Lancelot whispering to her father, she didn't give much thought on to it.
"Art, what is this that I heard of you breaking your alarm clock?" Her father questioned sternly
Oh no... She forgot about that, recalling when she just woke up, she remembers slamming her hands on to the direction of her alarm clock
With fear in her eyes, she realizes what was coming. A lecture
"So you did break your clock again? Didn't I tell you before to treat your items more carefully?"
Her father proceeded to lecture her, as her brothers left to go to school, though not before sending a look of pity towards her, while Lancelot is inwardly chuckling at her inability to do anything though his expression doesn't betray any of his inner thoughts.
Damn him… She swore to pay him back twice the humiliation he caused her within the span of an hour.
Before long, the lecture finally ended. Artoria felt dead inside, finally grabbing her bag, she set forth on her way to school alongside Gwen.
On the way to school, they talked about many things, such as what they did last night and all the fun they had. What happened this morning, it was embarrassing at first, but in the end, they had their laughs. Though before long they shifted the conversation towards school.
"Arty, what do you think about Emiya" Guin asked casually,
Emiya, full name Shirou Emiya or with his title being the Fake Janitor was an odd student. He attended the same class as both of them, he always helped whenever he could, but doesn't ask for anything in return. He's good-natured, brutally honest and dense (not that she was any better), and she also heard and saw his skill in Archery when she visited the Archery club while he was still in it.
His red hair and golden eyes were also unusual considering he's Japanese (perhaps he has the blood of a foreigner), and from what Gwen told her in the underground rankings set by other girls, he would've been one of the top rankings in the "Love Love Boys" (she thought the idea was ludicrous) if not for his personality of being too kind, as he would immediately abandon his conversation partner if he saw or heard someone is in need of help.
Although there was something odd happening whenever he was in the same area as her, her mana always reacted oddly, as if it found something it recognises, she never knew why, and whenever she tried asking Nilrem, he just shrugs her off. It was frustrating, but she resigned to her fate and just ignored the sensation.
"Oh him? What about him" Artoria questioned, as the topic seems fairly random
"Nothing, it's just I never heard of your-" Gwen started before abruptly stopping
They were in an intersection, and when they were about to run left to their usual route to school, they saw a crowd blocking the way.
"Oh my, what's happening there?" Gwen mumbles
Both of us were curious as to what was happening for a large gathering to be happening, though once reaching the crowd, they weren't able to get anywhere closer, and was too short to look over.
So Artoria asked a man in front of her
"Excuse me, but what is happening here?" Artoria politely asked
"Oh, this? There was murder." The man replied before setting his attention back to the scene
"A murder? Things has been getting dangerous, there were an awful lot of gas leaks since not long ago" Gwen stated to no one in particular
'I guess it's getting dangerous recently.' Artoria thought to herself
"We should continue walking, school is going to start soon"
Wordlessly they continued their walk to school as their minds were occupied with other things
Entering the school building, both of them saw Emiya helping Issei in fixing some school equipment. The day has progressed normally so far, but when they reach the classroom, the school idol Tohsaka Rin is nowhere to be found, which was odd considering she has a perfect track record, though Artoria doesn't dwell on it for long, as they went to their seats, and prepares for homeroom.
The class is lively, everyone is chatting, as the bell has already rung, yet the teacher still has yet to arrive. This is a normal occurrence for them, as for the teacher is unlike others, eccentric… loud… and vicious…
In the hallway of the school, a tiger was rushing towards the class of 2C
"Late, late, late!" A roar was heard throughout the entire building
The class door is slammed open, with their teacher…. Taiga Fujimura arriving to the class
"All right, I made it! Good morning everyo-"
Fujimura Sensei falls over hitting her desk, effectively cutting off her sentence.
"..."
The classroom fell silent, contrasting the clamour from just a moment ago
Their teacher Fujimura is an expert at making everyone she knows to be awed at everything she does, whether it is that being the "Tiger" of Fuyuki, and wielding a genuine cursed shinai (as far as Artoria knows, only she knows that it was actually cursed, courtesy of her sometimes sparring with her teacher in Kendo, and being taught of the way of magecraft),
or being a human jet coaster changing the atmosphere at a moments notice.
But that crash seems to be pretty bad, though there's little doubt in her mind that her teacher could shrug it off with a little baiting... Maybe short term memory loss …
"...Hey, front row. Wake her up." A male classmate said
"...What? I don't want to. I'm scared she'll bite me if I go near her…"
"...She's not a Mimic or anything. She won't go that far."
"Hey, if you're saying that why don't you do it?"
As the others in the front row continues to bicker… Guinevere turned to Artoria
"Arty, cmon do your magic" She shamelessly asked
"What? No, not this tim-" Artoria was about to reject it, but looking at the brightness of the smile her friend was putting on, she couldn't finish her sentence without feeling guilty
Her friend Gwen is many things to Artoria, and being her weak spot is one of them.
Artoria straightened her back and contemplated for a moment, but with the smile looming on her side, she gave in.
Straightening her back, swallowing her nerves, and lowering her ahoge and tapping into her inner darkness, with an emotionless facade, she only knew a single way to wake up Fujimura-Sensei when in this state.
"Wake up, Tiger." Stated Artoria calmly
From the other student's perspective, the Lion has challenged the Tiger again. The student with the ancestry of a foreigner, with the stoic face that betrays nothing, the ever-confident tone of a knight, the nerves of steel that would brave any challenge.
Artoria Pendragon is regarded as a paragon of a Knight of Old, for she would accept tasks that no other would attempt, she wouldn't back down from a challenge which earned her other nickname being the "Lion" and is the reigning Kendo Captain that has earned the respect (and fear) of the men she led.
By the other girls, she's an example of how a man should be like (though whenever she was called as manly she would be inwardly exasperated), but it also brings the ire of some students, though her enemies aren't as numerous as the Tohsaka.
With that single name call. The teacher's body started twitching.
"It's working. Good work Arturia-san, that saves the trouble. C'mon, let's say it together this time." The student invited
"One, two…-" Everyone together started
Following Arturia's example without holding back they said together "-wake up, Tiger!"
And it is more than enough to awaken the beast
"GAAAAAAAH!"
"DON'T CALL ME TIGER!"
A roar of a true tiger
She stands there menacingly, ignoring the fact she fell.
"... Huh? What are you all doing? You can't stand up in the middle of homeroom." She stands there confusedly
'Yep, short term memory loss' Artoria mused at the thought
"Come on, sit down and I'll get started." She told everyone, though not before sending Artoria a glance (as she felt she missed something)
Fujimura Sensei stands in her usual manner, her memories faded of the event that happened before.
Everyone returns to their seat chatting, thankful how Fujimura Sensei didn't remember
Homeroom started soon, as usual, it went by fairly slowly, other than the new curfew at six, it seems nothing has changed.
"Well, that's it for today's homeroom." Fujimura Sensei concluded while shutting her eyes.
"We'll meet again in English class everyone!"
Afterwards, she leaves not before waving her hand.
That was our homeroom teacher. She's a great person, but maybe a little too energetic for Artoria's tastes, Gwen by her nature is energetic, but she reigned herself in whenever she may have caused headaches to her friends, but Fujimura Sensei knows not the word of stopping or giving up.
That nature of her sometimes scares her, after all, knowing someone like that is in the possession of a cursed weapon, and that you're sparring with that same person would terrify anyone.
Who enters the classroom next was our teacher for the first period, Soichirou Sensei
"We're starting class. Day monitor, the bows"
The classes end like it usually does, usually, she would go to the Kendo Club, but for today, she plans to go home early, and as such she transferred her responsibilities for today to the Vice-Captain who happens to be her cousin Mordred.
Mordred views Artoria as a big sister and admires her. Whenever Artoria asks her to do something or praise her, she would always react with a childish gleam. Artoria sometimes wonders why her cousin acts like that around her, but she never tried asking.
After packing her bags, she went home alone as Gwen was asked by the teacher to run some errands. It disappoints her a bit, but she shouldn't think like that, she should be happy that Gwen is getting extra credits, and besides she herself isn't a good conversational partner.
The walk back home was rather uneventful, as usual. It is days like this that made Artoria ponder about the most random things, the dream she had this morning happens to be the subject of her current pondering.
Once more she dreams of the world filled of swords.
She has been dreaming about it since a long time ago, but the frequency has increased drastically ever since last week, and that blade she paid attention to wasn't the first time.
Most of the time she would dream without paying attention to any particular sword
But that blade alongside another that is more simplistic design were the only one she ever took notice of, meanwhile the other blades quickly fade out of her memories.
But admittedly, it was a pleasant dream.
Her train of thoughts continues to wander until her house is finally within vision range.
Her home was a western-styled mansion, with a medium-sized garden, and a swimming pool. Aside from that, there is also a dojo, an archery range, and the toolshed.
To say her family is rich would be an understatement, her father owns a quite successful franchise, named "Cafe of the Round", Artoria never got around to asking her father why he settled in Japan though.
Upon reaching her home, she knocks on the door as usual.
But no one responded, it's probably that no one is home at the moment.
Entering her house and going up to her bedroom, she placed her bags and katana down and jumped to her bed face down.
Her bed is more comfortable than usual, but it's just due to her sleep deprivation.
Her thought wanders to a picture frame, it was of her and her family going to England, they tried many foods there, and visited many landmarks.
It was a month that was hard to forget, though when they walked through a particular forest, she felt another of the many deja vu moments she experienced throughout the trip, though the reaction on that particular location was stronger than the others.
Artoria finished her trip down memory lane and went ahead going to the tools shed.
Artoria repurposed the tools shed into her workshop, all of her training and experiments with magic were held there, though Nilrem sometimes tampered with it, not that she minded.
According to Merlin, she held a total of 25 magic circuits of A-rank quality, which individually granted her 50 Od points, which leads to the grand total of 1250 points. To say the least, it's abnormal considering her family wasn't even a magus one.
Though that's where her talent with magic mostly ended. She's a failure at most spells, while casting the basic ones weren't much of an issue, she couldn't grasp any of the intermediate ones or advanced ones, her one and only talent happen to be Reinforcement, with some guidance from Nilrem she managed to figure that spell out easily.
Reinforcement is the act of enhancing an object by filling it with magical energy, but if you fill too much, it would break. To do it, you would need to have a good grasp on the internal structure, as such talent in Structural Analysis is in the package, though most of that talent is directed to analysing her own body.
The types of things it can enhance… Is pretty much endless, if you reinforce a knife, it would be able to cut steel like butter, if you reinforce your clothes, you might as well be wearing a battle armour that is flexible and comfortable as hell. If you reinforce your food, it would fill you up quickly and tastes way better.
Though her talent in the craft of Structural Analysis, was directed to her own body, with more understanding of your own body structure and with more control over Reinforcement, the more efficient and effective the Reinforcement becomes.
She'd even willing to gamble that she's the greatest self-reinforcement practitioner out there, though Grasping an object that is not a body part is another matter.
Nilrem usually would just give her vague hints on what to do when discussing anything related to magecraft, so it resulted in many self-experiments once the basics are covered.
Since last year, she'd been developing her own spell. It was a step ahead of Reinforcement, when Reinforcement strengthens an object by filling it with magical energy and keeping it there. Her spell Mana Burst, insteads releases all of that stored up magical energy in a single burst similar to a jet stream.
It's quite risky to pull it off, as for the exchange of ultimate strengthening being that it's really unstable. She'd been able to manage to do it without breaking anything when in a controlled environment, but she never tested it outside of her workshop before.
There was also another problem with Mana Burst.
It costs an obscene amount of magical energy when compared to Reinforcement.
While she herself possesses large reserves, it still drains a noticeable amount when of continuous use.
"Artoria my dear, are you slacking off again?" A playful voice turned her attention back
It was Nilrem, a man wearing a robe made of the finest fabrics, with long white (depending on the lighting it could appear in different colours) hair, wielding a staff of what you'd expect of the wizards in the stories of old.
"No, I wasn't. I was merely pondering about new ways to improve my spell."
Artoria swiftly replied without hesitation
Accepting her answer with a nod, he moved on to a different subject
"Be careful my girl Artoria, in the corner looms a war that shalt change fates of many" Nilrem cryptically warned
It was odd, usually, Nilrem only speaks this way when something important is coming up, she wonders what this "War" he mentioned was all about, normally he would refuse to give more details, but it doesn't hurt her to try asking.
"What is this war about?"
Though surprisingly, this time he decides to explain further
"A war between the past, future, and present, orchestrated by an artifact of great strength, and played by the seven chosen ones." Nilrem once again states cryptically, but it was enough for her to get the gist of it.
"I understand, I shall be wary of what was to come" She determinedly spoke
"Then I shall take my leave." Nilrem turns his back, but not before giving her a final advice
"If you find yourself in the presence of another that threatens your life, escape with great haste to the location that grants you the most confidence" He went, vanishing from her sight
Artoria refocused back to her research, before leaving the shed to go to the dojo instead.
With her wooden sword, being one with her blade, she casted a mental image of her brother Lancelot as her opponent.
Activating her magic circuits, she visualized the sounds of blades clashing on a particular dream, she doesn't know why exactly, but whenever she recalls a certain dream of a war taking place, it would always cause her wariness and feel like an immense weight is placed upon her heart.
It happens to be a great enough mental trigger to start her circuits which was convenient.
Casting reinforcement on her body, she moved at inhuman speeds towards her imaginary opponent, taking advantage of her speed and strength she moves to cut her opponent's legs to lower his mobility
But from reading her movements alone, he has already moved and parried the blade, taking advantage of the split-second opening, he returns her with a blade towards her exposed side
Though she narrowly avoided it by bending her body forwards, letting the blade pass above her
She was about to attempt a counter-attack of her own before her instincts practically yelled at her incoming demise, as such she rolled to the side, and a blade was swung from above to where she was at
Not discouraged at her misassessment, nearly costing her match
She feigned an overhead slash, but at the last moment cancels her slash in favour of tackling him
Surprised by her course of action, her superior speed didn't allow him to correct his mistakes
He was sent back a few feet before regaining his footing, immediately moved to a defensive stance, blocking and parrying his enemy's blade
He feigned struggling to keep up before his enemy slashes with weak points he could exploit
Though it didn't take a moment for him to realize it was a trap, so instead grinning madly, he sidestepped it and asserting his dominance
His sudden change of pacing caused Artoria to panic and leaving mistakes that he punished dearly, she was sent reeling back due to a heavy punch towards her gut
The battle was shifting towards Lancelot's side, but she wouldn't-
"Artyyy! It's dinner, you can stop now!" her thought snapped back to reality, she has been immersing herself in a imaginary battle with an imaginary opponent, and she realizes the complications it could cause
Snapping back her attention, she looked around, to only sigh in relief that only Gwen witnessed her imaginary battle
"Ah… Sorry I wasn't paying attention, I'll go soon"
Gwen sends her a nod of understanding, before leaving her alone
Looking around, she didn't cause as much damage as she would've expected when constantly using reinforcement, her wooden training sword was damaged to some extent due to her gripping it harshly, but other than that everything seems to be fine.
Once more sighing in relief, she cleans everything up before going back to attend dinner.
...
Dinner arrived, we ate more mashed potatoes and some roasted chicken. After her exhausting training session, she ate like a glutton, hunger is the enemy after all.
The dinner table is quite lively, everyone is talking with each other, Lancelot, in particular, today caused a bit more trouble, by his womanizing ways effectively stole another boy's girlfriend (Perhaps she should deal with Lancelot to stop doing it) right under their thumb, and when a challenge was thrown, outclassed the boy in playing cards, to say the least, they were unhappy.
Dinner went by in a blink of an eye, and Artoria alongside with Guinevere went back upstairs to her room.
Guinevere decided it was a good chance to inquire Artoria about her previous borderline superhuman stunts.
"Artyyy, how did you do that when you were practicing?"
"Eh? Do what?" Artoria confusedly asked
"You know, jumping a good three meters, moving as fast as a car, and acrobatics that looks painful"
'Busted!' Artoria's mind started to work overdrive to create an excuse
"Eh… Ah... That…" Yet she was unable to come up with an answer, breaking off eye contact and facing away in shame
Seeing Artoria's reaction, Gwen concluded it was not something Artoria wants to talk about
"If you can't answer, then it's fine" She proceeds to switch the subject to make Artoria more comfortable, and the night continues onwards without a hitch.
…
With both of them lying down on the queen-sized bed, Artoria's thoughts began to wander around
Looking to her side, she saw that Gwen already fell asleep, her face being a peaceful one.
Her thoughts wander around to a few other things, before settling on today's events.
It was certainly far livelier than usual, maybe it's because of the addition of a temporary member to the household.
Not long after, Artoria slowly drifts into sleep.
She dreamt of a world of blades that reaches beyond the horizons.
Author's Note:
Right now I finally finished this chapter after spending two days. I also apologize if Artoria was OOC (i couldn't really tell), there's also another problem of writing this, as i'm writing in a female character's perspective for the first time, and i'm not a female myself, but hopefully my instincts of writing this are correct
I didn't think my story was going to get such a good reception, so i thank all of you who had favorited and followed, it would also be appreciated to leave reviews. At this point of time I'm just winging the story at the moment, i also haven't decided on the romance yet.
What do you guys think, should Artoria end up with Saber Shirou, or this world's Shirou? And yes, this world's Shirou will be playing a role in the story, there are several ways to proceed this, but i plan for this world's Shirou's abilities would be going in the direction of UBW, and perhaps a bit of HF.
Though if you do end up picking this world's Shirou, then don't worry about Saber Shirou, he'll get his good ending too.
Anyway, the total word count of the story was more or less 5600 words, sorry if the chapter feels like a filler, but it's more of an introduction to the world, and as a build up, as going straight to the action in the first chapter just doesn't feel right to me, but don't worry, the action will come soon in due time.
For the update schedule… I really have none to be honest, i guess just expect a chapter once a week, just its upload time isn't consistent.
Extra Notes (Added 3/5/21):
For the characters, this chapter should cover the side character that are going to pop out often well enough, and for Lancelot... his Eternal Arms Mastery [A+] is so great that it stuck to him even after going through the cycle of reincarnation, so perhaps it's an [A++] now?
*Author chuckling to himself in the background*
I had written several paragraphs long of a rant in this place, but i decided to not include it as it's just me talking about how people keeps saying Servants are weaker than their living counter-parts because Servants are only a fraction of them, when reality Servants are actually a fraction of their Heroic Spirits, while some humans may be stronger than Servants, for example the original Artoria, most of the time, even living heroes can't stand a chance against servants as most heroes gain their inhumane strength from their legends.
Artoria's reinforcement (self) is superior to Shirou's that's for sure, though reinforcing objects, she's more or less above average in that category. But that's still not even E rank in Servant Parameters, though it's a different case for her Mana Burst.
Artoria's Mana Burst is unique in this category as she created it herself from experimenting, due to that it's far suited for her and effectiveness and efficiency wise would be far superior than if she were to use normal Mana Burst, when pouring her magical energy to her Mana Burst to push it to its limits, she could reach the realms of C Rank in terms of Servant Parameters, though she can't really do that as due to lack of guidance, she's still figuring how to keep it more stable in higher outputs, as similar to reinforcement, if it fails or goes haywire, the user would experience death.
Though I haven't came up with a subspecies name yet, while i'm tempted to give her the light variant due to her past incarnation's numerous association with light, for example Caliburn and Excalibur both converts magical energy to heat and in association light. Though that's only for people related to holiness such as holy knights and the other, however Caliburn and Excalibur, while both are indeed holy swords in history, their concepts are directed towards [Victory], and if their wielder is corrupted, even Excalibur would be corrupted but nonetheless brings victory, for reference being Excalibur Morgan.
So for now I'll just keep calling it as Mana Burst.