Chapter 4
They would certainly make good time to Trifas, Shirou thought as he held onto Rider on the back of her horse.
They were currently dashing across the open plane between Sigisoara and Trifas, heading toward the later city at a breakneck pace. Rider had insisted that they travel by night, and on her horse, so as to avoid being seen and get there more quickly. A late-night storm over Sigisoara had delayed them one day, but it had cleared up by the next day and they had left shortly after it. They were staying away from the main roads, as they were sure to be monitored, and would later attempt to enter the city by stealth once they got close enough.
While Rider's plan certainly ensured his safety, it made no such guarantees about his comfort. Shirou was discovering that riding a horse was a distinctly uncomfortable affair, especially when you were moving at the speed they were. Shirou would have much rather preferred a car, but Rider did not seem in an arguing mood. It was the argument about where she would sleep all over again, only this time there was no alternative he could suggest.
So he was currently stuck on a horse. One moving much faster than he'd thought horses could, with all the discomfort that brought.
Rider was less concerned with comfort, and more focused on avoiding the battle she could feel was taking place about a mile away. She was following relatively close to the road as she didn't know where Trifas was, but was trying to avoid going directly down it. She charted their course by occasional views of the road, and by trusting that her instincts would get her there.
It would seem another Servant hadn't been so careful or confident, and was now clashing with one of the Servants of the Black as a result.
She could feel the waves of prana from the battle even from this far away, and while she was certain that she was a match for either of the servants she had no interest in drawing Shirou close to such a battle. Her instincts warned her that both of the Servants were incredibly dangerous, and she had no interest in engaging with them so early. It didn't even fall under their goal of scouting as the other Red Servant would be able to report back.
Though that did raise the question of what another Servant of the Red was doing out here. According to the priest there was only one Servant currently in Trifas, and he'd made no mention of sending any reinforcements. It seemed she and Shirou had been right not to trust him. It could have been the Saber already in Trifas, she supposed, but something told her that was wrong.
It was more than likely Lancer, Archer, or Assassin, sent to spy on her. Lancer or Archer more likely than Assassin, she hadn't got the same sense of raw power from Assassin that she was getting from the two Servants currently battling. The closest comparison she could make was to Gilgamesh or Heracles, either one of whom would fit in the Archer or Lancer class. A part of her hoped it wasn't either of them, she had no interest in dealing with Gilgamesh ever again, and while Heracles would be a worthy foe, she didn't want to have to fight him further down the line.
The priest mentioned their Lancer was strong, now that she thought about it, and she hadn't felt he was lying about that. A part of her wanted to veer closer to the road, to see if she could get a glimpse of the heroes fighting, to confirm her suspicions, but she quashed that quickly. Her first duty was to Shirou, not to engage in a pointless battle with other servants.
That was what had led to her failure last time, and that was something she had no intention of ever repeating again.
The fortress of Yggdmillenia was dark and somber looking from the outside, with imposing walls and an army of armed homunculi patrolling them. It was, however, much less imposing on the inside as those same homunculi worked to keep the castle clean and orderly. That most of the mages, to say nothing of the King, there would have refused to live in a castle kept in bad order was obvious. All of the rooms were kept clean and well lit, and the throne room where the King could regularly be found was kept especially well maintained.
Lancer, Archer, Rider and their respective masters were currently all gathered in that throne room watching a projection from an aerial familiar. The battle had ended last night with an overwhelming defeat for their scouts, but they were expendable, and they had gained some information about their enemy as a result. The assembled Servants and Masters were rewatching the projection to try and discern any more about the Servant as they waited for Gordes to return with Ruler.
"She truly is impressive, even for a Saber class servant." Celenike couldn't help but say. "Strength B+. Endurance A. Agility B. Prana B. Not a single stat other than luck under B. Add B rank riding and Magic Resistance and you really do see why it's called the strongest class."
"I'm more worried about the hidden parameters." Darnic replied. "With stats like that her Noble Phantasm is certain to be powerful, to say nothing of her skills."
Lancer may not have understood the exact nature of how servant stats worked but if Darnic was wary of this servant then he was more than willing to be cautious. Hidden information could often turn the tide of battle at a crucial moment, and it would do them no good if the Servant had a hidden class skill that gave them an advantage. It would do them no good to lose one of his captains in a way that could have easily been avoided had they known about it. He was distracted by his musings on the mysterious servant by a homunculus entering the room and delivering a message to him, bowing as he approached the throne before being waved up. He read it quickly before saying.
"Darnic. Switch to one of the familiars halfway along the forest path, the one to the Southwest."
Darnic, who had been watching intently since the homunculus' arrival, appeared surprised for a moment before nodding his agreement. It was the brusque tone he'd taken, Vlad suspected, Darnic was not used to having any he considered a superior and it showed in his ham-fisted attempts at flattery. Was that really what passed for words of fealty at the Clock Tower? If so the organization was even worse than Darnic had described.
Darnic's magic circuits glowed for a moment and the image changed to one of a wooded path under the pale moonlight. The forest was still for a moment, before a silver and blue blur flew by.
"A servant?" Celenike asked as Darnic continued switching familiars to try and keep up. The servant was moving far too fast for the familiars to capture a good image. The most they were able to make out was that the servant was mounted, and it also appeared to have its master riding with it, owing to the shock of red that accompanied it that did not seem to be a feature of the Servants armor.
"A Rider class then." Archer of Black said. "There's no point in trying to keep up. He'll have to slow up once they reach the city limits. I'd suggest watching there instead."
Darnic nodded again and switched to a view from a house on the outskirts of where the path would likely let them out. "My apologies, but even with reinforcement I still couldn't make out anything about the servant. Could either of you…?" He trailed off looking between Lancer and Archer.
Lancer was leaning forward now, focused on the image, but made no reply. Fortunately Archer was slightly more receptive. "No, the homunculi couldn't capture it quickly enough, we would need to be there in person to see anything. I suspect the alarm was triggered simply by the motion crossing one of their views."
"So that's my counterpart then?" Rider asked "She may be fast, but given that I can fly I have no doubt that I'm the better Rider!" he finished with a grin.
Archer looked like he was about to reply when the Servant reentered the image. It continued speeding forward, before stopping at the city limits. As they dismounted they were finally able to get a look at her and her master.
"That's a girl…right?" Fiore finally asked, putting a voice to the question most of the masters had. Ordinarily it would have been certain, even with the knightly armor, she could still only be either a girl or a very young boy. The major issue was their own Rider, who certainly confused things where gender was concerned. Astolfo was certainly a man, but you would be hard pressed to tell that from his appearance or at any distances.
The sideways glances all of the Masters were throwing Rider were broken as Archer said, "She looks like Saber."
"She does." Lancer replied.
"Mother and daughter, perhaps?" Fiore asked.
They contemplated that for a moment before Archer said, "I doubt it. There are few parent-child pairs famous enough to both be Heroic Spirits, and none of them were women. David and Solomon, Arthur and Mordred, and Lancelot and Galahad are the most prominent examples that come to mind. Perhaps one is a descendant of the other?"
"In the Third Holy Grail War Saber was summoned as two different aspects of himself." Darnic said, "One side was him as king, the other as a warrior. It was similar to how these two are, the king was dignified, the warrior wild. Their stats and skills are so similar that I'd be hard pressed to believe otherwise. Strength B+, Endurance B, Agility B++, Mana B, Luck A, Noble Phantasm C. Even the class skills would fit with Magic Resistance of C and Riding at A+. Any minor changes in Rank can be attributed to being summoned in a different class or having a different Master."
"And if the servant was hidden as a child that would explain why the skills are hidden on one but not the other." Lancer added.
"So the Saber would be her in her youth. While Rider would be her when she was older." Celenike summed up. "Either way she's clearly a knight of some kind. Rider she wouldn't be one of Charlemagne's paladins, would she?"
"Nope! I would've remembered someone like that. Besides she's got an air like when Charly himself would come around, she's definitely a royal of some kind."
"So someone of stature then." Darnic said, "Jeanne D'Arc, Boudica, and Hippolyta are the only women I can think of who fit that description and would have stats that are that high. There are problems with all of them, however. Maybe another of the Amazonian Queens would be a fit, or maybe one of our assumptions is wrong. We're guessing at too much." He paused for a moment before smiling and saying "At least her gender isn't in question anymore."
The Servant had dispelled her armor and changed back into normal clothes. Any confusion over her gender had been wiped away with that, as she had returned to wearing a blue skirt and buttoned shirt. Either she was indeed a she or he was very committed to his disguise. A homunculus was still following them as they tried to find lodgings, but they had returned the footage back to the moment when Rider of Red had dismounted and dismissed her horse.
"Should we send golems after them?" There's still an hour or two before the dawn, and we can get an idea of what they can do that way." Celenike asked.
Lancer was about to agree when Archer leaned forward slightly, smiling and raising his hand. "If you wouldn't mind, please allow me to engage her rather than the golems. There's a chance that they might scare her off instead and then we would learn nothing."
"You believe an engagement with you would reveal more than with the golems, Chiron?" Lancer asked.
"I do, your majesty. I trained many heroes during my life, and was able to see how they evolved and changed. No matter how they grew and certain fundaments of their styles remained the same, techniques they would fall back on when pressed. It will be no different with Rider and Saber if they are different versions of the same Servant. You, Saber, Rider and I could all press her enough to make her reveal herself, but I would still need to see her fight and there's no reason for the rest of you to go out and fight."
And plenty of reasons for us not to. Lancer couldn't help but think. He would be outside the range of Kazikli Bey and an extremely valuable target, Rider was likely to blab and reveal their secrets, and Saber had a fatal weakness that might be exposed. Chiron had none of those and his identity was better hidden. He couldn't help but smile at the thought of the quality of captains he now had.
"Go forth then, Chiron, and discover the truth of our foe. Fiore, you shall accompany him to draw the master away, and kill him if possible." Chiron bowed in reply, while Fiore did too after the shock wore off.
"Do we know anything about the Master?" She said looking at the image of him. He seemed unremarkable, in contrast to the other Red Master who had visited the other night. He wore a plain black jacket over a white shirt with jeans. The only remarkable thing about him was his messy red hair, and even that was only in comparison to how plain he otherwise was.
"He doesn't match the description of the other mercenaries that were hired, so I can only assume he's the Tohsaka representative, Shirou Emiya." Darnic replied. Despite their break with the Association there were still plenty of mages willing to play both sides and give up information about the Associations decisions. It would cost them almost nothing to reveal the information, and after word had spread of their Servant and the Grail there had been more than enough people willing to give information to them.
"Emiya!?" Celenike almost shouted. She took a second to compose herself before she hissed "The Magus Killer? The infamous mercenary who vanished after the 4th Holy Grail War and was never seen again? That Emiya!"
"I'd thought you were too young to have been around when he was active?" Darnic asked. "But regardless, yes that same last name. Although according to my source he wasn't trained and they found no trace of the Emiya crest in his circuits after they examined him. By his and the Tohsaka girls account he was never trained by his father, and participated in the 5th War by accident. He apparently made only minor contributions to its resolution."
He saw the stress that had accumulated on Fiore release as he finished. The girl really could be far too trusting sometimes. That the Tohsaka girl would chose him anyway despite what she'd said about him having no training meant he was special in some way. With any luck Fiore would be able to push him hard enough to reveal what it was. He still needed her alive, as she commanded a powerful servant and was part of his plans further down the line and so he added, "Caules, Berserker, and a squad of homunculi will be standing by nearby incase anything goes wrong."
"Thank you, Grandfather." She said with an audible sigh of relief.
"There is one more irritant that must be dealt with before all of this, however." Lancer cut in. "The other servants, to the East. If we attack Rider now they may interfere, and I will not lose so capable a captain to a scouting mission." The two servants had arrived yesterday, and were currently waiting in the forest to the East of the castle. One of them was sending out waves of killing intent almost every hour, as though to bait them into attacking. The other had shot down every homunculus that had tried to get close before it could even see them, they'd only gotten a glimpse before the first one had been shot down, which was how they even knew there were two servants.
"Then we just need to drive off the Archer and capture the other." Roche said as he and Caster entered the room. "We have enough homunculi for it at this point."
"Caster. I had thought you would be working on your core, or hunting down the missing homunculus."
"It took God until the fourth day to create Adam. Perfection requires patience. The core needs time to stabilize, and the search for the missing part continues. My apprentice suggested that your strategy session might be fruitful."
That the servant had referred to the master as his apprentice was not surprising to any in Yggdmillenia, Roche had hunted down a relic of Avicebron specifically, and had immediately put himself under his Servant's tutelage. Given his Servant's history as a Master of Golem creation it was obvious that he would want to learn as much as possible from his Servant.
"Your certain you can capture this servant, you believe it's Berserker?" Darnic asked. They had hoped to draw out Berserker, as it was the only servant that they felt they had a reasonable chance of tricking into their trap.
"I do. The golem we sent with Gordes and Saber was able to get a glimpse of the enemy Servant before it engaged Saber. He was of the Lancer class. We've seen Saber, and you've been watching Rider. I doubt the enemy would send their Assassin or Caster that close to our walls, even with Archer as an escort. That leaves one class, and one most likely to charge headlong into a battle."
"So the Association also targeted Ruler. How interesting." Darnic said. "Either way this is a clear opportunity, we will meet their Berserker and Archer with ours. Let's see how powerful the Associations Servants truly are, and then crush them beneath our might."
"Agreed." He pause before standing and declaring "Let us begin the opening conflict of the Great Grail War. Go forth, my captains and bring victory for the Servants of the Black."
Astolfo smoothed out his clothes as he walked back from a meeting with his Master a few hours later.
Astolfo was really beginning to dislike his Master. His sessions with her were starting to go longer and she seemed less satisfied each time. He supposed it was a side effect of bottling up all of her emotions for so long, but did she really need to take it out on him?
He supposed he should have been worried about that, but she had no real way of hurting him and for now they were merely annoyances. So the part of them that irritated him was quickly forgotten along with any distaste for his master. Such was the nature of Astolfo, Rider of the Black faction.
He had more important things to worry about any way, like the Homunculus he'd decided to save. Speaking of which...
"Helloohoo?" He said entering Archer's room. Archer himself was out, but the Homunculus was up and trying to walk around. At least that was what Astolfo thought, as the homunculus was currently on the ground. He seemed to be attempting to push himself up, and wasn't succeeding at it very well. It seemed like he'd had about as much success with walking.
"You really shouldn't fall if you can't get back up you know." He said as he helped pick the homunculus up.
"Trying...to...walk." The homunculus said in his hoarse voice.
"Well in that case I'll show you! It easy! You just put one foot in front of the other, like this! See, soon you'll be walking cross the floor."
Caules was walking through the garden towards his servant again after having spent every hour since he'd been told about his role in the upcoming battle doing research. He'd looked over information about the terrain and her schematics, and trying to form a plan. He'd already met her once and ascertained the power of her Noble Phantasm, but now he had to go and order her into action. He'd tried to avoid it by studying even more, but the sun was setting now, and he couldn't put it off any longer.
She had moved slightly from where he'd seen her last, though she was still picking flowers in the garden. He could see a few piles of shredded flowers but it looked like she was also making a bouquet. He still wasn't quite sure how to approach his servant, so he just settled for how he had last time. It seemed to have gone pretty well then.
"He-Hey."
She actually turned to face him this time, which he took as an improvement, maybe they were making some headway in their Master Servant relationship.
"Uuuu?"
"We've been summoned to fight. Darnic wants us and Saber to engage with the two Servants in the forest. Archer will be backing us up from a far. Our main goal is to separate them, and drive Berserker toward Lancer and Rider."
Saber had been added to the plan late at Gordes insistence. He'd claimed it was to have another strong frontline fighter, but Caules knew it had more to do with Gordes wounded pride. His failed effort to recover Ruler clearly grated on him and Darnic had eventually acquiesced.
There was some strategic wisdom to it, the earlier clash with Lancer had revealed Saber's invulnerability to all of the Masters of both sides, and so they would no longer have the element of surprise with it. As their main goal this time was to drive off the Servants, although defeating them would also certainly be a benefit, having an invincible wall on their side was only likely to dishearten the enemy.
"Uu..." Berserker moaned, drawing Caules out of his thoughts on Saber's strategic merit and back to the information Berserker wanted.
"They think it's Berserker and Archer. At least we can get rid of that sense of dread, huh?" That was the one good thing about the first battle. Every hour or so there had been a pulse of killing intent that had rippled throughout the castle. The servants didn't seem too affected by it, nor did some of the masters, but for Caules it was a constant unpleasant reminder of the war.
"Uu." She said grabbing the makeshift bouquet and standing up. It seemed it had been bothering her too. It wasn't quite time to go yet, but it felt like a waste to disregard her determination, and so he set off with her anyway. He felt her pull on his shoulder, before handing him the bouquet. It was better than the single flower from last time, so he supposed she felt their relationship was improving too.
Either way he set off feeling a bit more confident.
Jeanne was not having much luck when it came to finding shelter for the night. She had tried two of the other three hotels, and be been rejected from both. They were both filled up with Magi, and this one was much the same. Likely the magi of Yggdmillenia locking the town down. It was a strategy she could approve of, and it was better than just killing visitors.
Even if it did mean she was going to be rejected again.
"I'm sorry, miss but we're all booked up."
"It's fine, do you have any idea where else I could stay?"
"You can try the church. They offer shelter to travelers."
"Of course." That should have been the first place she checked, it was the modern knowledge that had confused her. Churches had always provided rooms for travelling pilgrims, and inns had been for those of greater means. It still held true, even in this time period.
She headed out after thanking him and getting directions, and felt several other mages following her. They should have been able to tell she was a Servant, but the casual clothes seemed to be throwing them off.
They knew where she would be staying anyway, so there wasn't much point in trying to hide it. They weren't much of a threat to her, and would know to leave the agents of the Church alone. Her only concern as she made her way there was to avoid the Servant she could sense at the market. It was a Servant of the Red, and she was worried about another attack after last night. It was a battle she had no desire to fight, Karna had been a truly incredible hero.
She reached the church without issue, and was warmly received by a Sister Alma. She agreed to let her stay for the few days, though she did warn her that she'd need to share the attic with another couple. She agreed to put up a modesty sheet, but only after she'd extracted a promise that nothing untoward would happen between her and the couple, and to prevent the couple from doing anything inappropriate.
The attic was small, and made even smaller by the curtain she hung to divide the room. Two mattresses had been laid out already, though she could only barely make it out past another curtain to divide their area. Her section had a bed, which the other two seemed to have given up so that both had similar levels of comfort. It made her happy to know that there were still couples willing to sacrifice for each other.
She had been so distracted that she didn't notice that Alma had been talking while she finished hanging the sheet. "- its uncanny really. Well now that that's done I'll let you settle in. We'll be having dinner in a bit, right after the other two get back from the market, would you like to join us?"
If it would be in bit she couldn't see a reason to say no, while her eating would likely be erratic, she did still need food. A lack of it wouldn't kill her, but it would hurt Laeticia if she didn't and eventually weaken her as well.
"Certainly, though if its possible I'd like to pray for a bit first."
"Oh! Of course! That is what a church is there for after all."
"Thank you. I'll unpack and then head to the chapel, please call me when dinner is ready."
"Of course I will... Oh! I just realized I never got your name."
"Please, call me Jeanne."
"Jeanne. What a lovely name. Well I'll see you later then, Jeanne." Jeanne smiled and waved as the girl left the room before turning to unpack her belongings. She hadn't been able to bring much but she did have a change of clothes to replace her current dirty ones. Modern clothes were not meant for long journeys through the Romanian country side
Once she'd finished unpacking and changing she went down to the altar in the chapel, and kneeled down to pray.
She didn't know any formal prayers, as a peasant she'd never learned how to read or write beyond her name, but she still was certain to pray every day. For her it was as easy and necessary as breathing. By doing so she could remove herself from the world, the war, and any other distractions and devote herself solely to God.
She wasn't sure how long she prayed for, she tended to lose track of time while praying, but she was drawn out of her prayer by Alma's voice.
"Jeanne?"
It had been longer than she had thought. The sun had fallen quite a bit and it would seem the sister had finally come to get her, though she did look quite apologetic about it.
"I'm sorry for interrupting."
"Oh, no-I tend to lose track of time when I'm praying. Sometimes I need someone to tell me when to leave, I wouldn't want to accidentally starve myself." It had been Giles who had taken that role for the most part, he was as pious as she was, but he seemed to understand moderation and holding himself back better than she had, and so had often come to collect her from her prayers.
"It's a good thing I came to get you then. Come on dinners ready, and it looks delicious. I was surprised that the boyfriend cooked it, but it looks delicious!"
It was as they were leaving the chapel that Jeanne felt it. Another Servant and Master pair, here in the Church. She wondered who it was for a moment, before realizing they were headed straight for them. The couple! She'd assumed they were innocent tourists, but the only time Trifas had ever had this many visitors was during the war. Of course there was a chance they would be a Master Servant pairing.
However, the panic faded away as she was overcome with a sense that they were not a threat. She had no doubt her Revelation would have warned her if they were. And so with the resolve to at least be friendly she opened the door to see her doppelganger staring back at her.
"See I told you that she looked like you! This is Shirou Emiya, and his girlfriend Irisviel von Einzbern."
It was uncanny how much their faces looked alike. The Servant, who she could now tell was King Arthur as a Rider class Servant, looked exactly like her. The only difference was in how they styled their hair. Their ages and body types further differentiated them, but looking from the shoulders up they were mirror images of each other.
"I see. How nice to meet both of you." She said with a genuine smile and warmth. The smile was returned by the red-haired man who was setting the table, but the Rider who looked so similar to her showed no change in her guarded demeanor.
"Come and sit both of you. Now then let's say grace and then we can eat."
The meal was surprisingly pleasant after that. Some of the tension seemed to leave Rider after she began to eat, and her Master seemed pleasant enough. He and Alma were able to keep conversation going easily and made dinner a much more joyful affair than she'd first expected.
It was after dinner, when Alma encouraged them to go up to the attic, after shutting down Shirou's attempt to help clean up, that the tension undeniably returned. They were at least able to contain it until they made into the attic, but after they had Rider turned to her with a cold look and asked "What servant are you, and from what faction?"
"I am Jeanne D'Arc, Servant Ruler. I have no faction, and am an arbiter of this War, King Arthur."
Jeanne could sense Rider's surprise, though she didn't let it show on her face. Her only reply was to ask "Then you will remain neutral throughout this war, you have no intent of targeting Shirou or I?"
"I will neither harm nor help you. My only goal is to ensure that The Great Grail War completes smoothly. Though we may be together I will offer you no aid in your battles with the Black Faction."
"I see." She said before moving toward their half of the room and beginning to pack her things.
"Sa-Rider what are you doing?" Her master asked incredulously.
"Packing. We cannot remain with another Servant like this."
It hurt to be distrusted, but she understood it on some level. Staying with another Servant, especially one targeted by her own side could be very dangerous. She had no Master and didn't have to be concerned about one, but if she had had a Master she was certain she wouldn't want any Servants anywhere near them.
"She just said she was harmless! Besides what are we going to tell Alma? I'm sorry we don't like our new roommate so we're leaving? We said it would be fine earlier. And where would we go, every hotel was full of enemy mages?"
They stared each other down, and for a moment Jeanne thought Rider might suggest going back and fighting their way into a hotel, but she relented with a sigh. "If you're sure that this is the right call I'll accept it. You will not be alone with her at any time, however."
"It's fine. We'll be out most times anyway." He said with a yawn. "I'm going to get a little sleep before nighttime, you should too."
"I will." She said. Though after she was certain her Master had fallen asleep she got up back up and sat facing Ruler as she did Laeticia's homework. Despite the glare that was continuously sent her way Ruler couldn't help but think that Rider wasn't so bad after all.
"Still nothing?" Mordred asked in an increasingly irritated voice asked for what Shishigou felt was the millionth time. Yggdmillenia hadn't attacked them when they'd gone out walking tonight, and there was no sign of anything else happening, so they'd returned to the crypt. Kairi had thought it might be part of larger plan on the priest's part, and had mentioned as much to his Servant.
That was a choice he was now regretting. Mordred had apparently taken it as a fact, and was bothering him every 15 minutes or so as he continued to work on the Hydra he'd obtained.
There was really nothing else to do but sigh and say "I don't think he's going to send anything tonight. It's probably best to just go to sleep for now and try again tomorrow night."
"Are you going to sleep?"
He almost said that he was going to stay awake and work on the daggers, before realizing she'd also likely stay up and keep questioning and bothering him the whole time. There was no point in tiring both of them out pointless and creating animosity. Especially with the Knight of Treachery, a bad relationship there could be fatal. "Yeah, there's no point to staying up if nothing's going on, it'll just burn energy."
"Alright. Don't worry Master, we'll find an enemy to get rid of tomorrow, this war can't stay boring forever." She said with a smile as she rolled over. Even Kairi couldn't help but smile at his servant's confidence, it was refreshing in a way. It had been a long time since he'd been with someone like that.
She was right though, the fighting would start soon, and they would doubtless come out on top.
Jeanne stood in the center of the church, observing the sphere of water in the shape of Trifas before her. It was one of the benefits of being the Ruler of the Holy Grail War, she could locate any Servant, at any range. She could only make out two servants in the town itself, the Rider above her, and another Servant of Red who was underground.
She wasn't concerned about Rider coming down, the Servant had been glued to her Master's side since he had fallen asleep. She also seemed to have no interest in waking him up now that night had fallen, although Jeanne couldn't really blame him, jetlag was rather unpleasant, and she hadn't come half as far as he had. If it was her choice she'd rather be asleep, but there was no such luck for the wars overseer.
Though that King Arthur was a girl who looked exactly like her was surprising, her True Name Discernment made her completely sure of that. It didn't stop it from surprising her though. But that was enough ruminating on her current roommates, there were other Servants in this war after all.
She expanded her search area, and was able to locate the 6 Servants of Black in the nearby castle, right where she thought they'd be. It seemed Rider and the other Red Servant were to act as scouts. But then why send two Servants? To support each other in case it turned into a fight?
"The forest...?" It wasn't a thought she had had, or a flash of Instinct, but a sudden change in what she knew. She could feel with certainty that there was something important there. Her search area moved as she said it and she found two more Red Servants to the East of the Castle.
So Rider wasn't a lone scout. There were too many Servants to be a simple scouting party, but not enough for an all out assault. So then what were they doing here...? And what was going on with the Red Faction in general?
Lancer had attacked her last night, and she'd assumed the Red Faction was hostile as a result. But Rider didn't seem to bear any kind of grudge, and had no interest in attacking her. Saber had also been strangely quiet and stationary, they'd gone on a few rounds earlier, but only once night had fallen, and not in any kind of search pattern. Were there internal divisions in the Red Faction, or was she just being lulled into a false sense of security?
She couldn't help but sigh, Giles had always been better at military matters than her, and it didn't seem like she would be receiving any revelations to help tonight. The questin of the Servants of the Red would have to wait for another night. The Servants of the Black were moving against the two in the forest, in what was likely to be the first real battle of the war. For the moment the war was functioning as it should, the Servants of Red and Black clashing. Any problems beyond that could wait for another day, in their mind and hers.
All she could do was her duty as a Ruler, and observe the Great Grail War. Shed walked outside before jumping to the tallest spire on the church and watched as the battle began in the forests near the Castle Yggdmillenia.
Fun Fact: Astolfo's reference to Charlemagne was actually written before he was announced as a Servant in the new Extella game, it's just a happy coincidence that this chapters release coincides with that announcement. Which brings us to how long it took me to write this chapter, a lenght of time know to most as: too damn long. Most of the reason this chapter took so long was because I wanted to get the next chapter of The Crossing out, and didn't just want to keep pumping out chapters of this. It didn't feel fair to readers of my other fic. Unfortunately, that chapter ended up taking much longer than it should have, and so this chapter got delayed.
Fortunately, however, the next chapter should be coming out much more quickly, mostly because it's almost already done. I wrote most of it when I was writing this chapter, thinking it was just one more major scene and a few wrap up scenes. That chapter is now currently longer than this one, and it isn't even finished yet. I decided to split them up to allow for the chapter to have a little room to breathe, and because it was getting disjointed. There was just too much happening to properly cover in one chapter. It's about 80% done, and after that all it will need is a proof read and then it can be uploaded. It'll hopefully be up sometime this weekend or early next week.
Moving on from the chronicle of my eternal schedule slippage there are a few things to say about the chapter. Namely that I'm not completely happy with how this chapter is written, I kept switching between view points and like how the novel is written, but it isn't a style I particularly like. I prefer writing how one character views a scene, like with Jeanne's encounter with Shirou and Rider, rather than switching between multiple viewpoints like in the Yggdmillenia scene. I'll discuss it more in the next chapter, along with a general note about a change I made with how communication works.
We also get to see more of Rider's new over protective side. She'll still yield to Shirou when she has to, but she'll take actions without him knowing to protect him when she thinks he needs it. It isn't exactly good for their relationship, but Rider is less concerned that and more with keeping Shirou alive. She knows there's something wrong with this plan to send them to, and so she's more on even more on guard than she normally would be.
There are a few small scenes to catch us up on what everyone is doing, as some of the less plot relevant characters don't have much to do. Unless an event is major or has been majorly changed I don't see much reason to retread the same ground. I'm guessing anyone reading this has watched or read Apocrypha, and some things are too similar to be worth covering here. Mordred, Kairi, Karna, and some of the Black Faction have this the worst right now, as Shirou's entry to the story hasn't had much of an effect on what they're doing. I'm trying to include some extra scenes to draw them in, and they'll definitely be involved later, but for now they just don't have much to do.
Well, that's really all I have to say about this Chapter. I'll have more next chapter, along with a Servant Stat sheet. The first real battle between the Red and Black factions is up next, along with the end of the First Volume.