I wanted to kill him.

Lancer and Saber were locked in combat. We had nowhere to run. We couldn't to anything ourselves unless we wanted to die, and this man was just sitting here, with a stupid smile on his face, watching it all like it was a god damn movie!

He was also recording it, and had apparently been recording everything else he'd seen and heard since the start.

…Why did we ever agree to this?! How could this dumbass ever be helpful to us?!

"Lancer, do you have an opening?"

"Sorry master, this wasn't what I was thinking when I hoped for a warm-up! I've seen plenty of things in my time as a knight, but this is something else entirely!"

"How long do you think you can keep it up?"

"Oh, I'm fine in that regard. So long as it doesn't get too much worse than this, that is. Just don't expect me to be able to assist Saber for… let's say a good while!"

Damn it! …Well, at least Lancer didn't seem to be in immediate danger. I wanted to avoid using command spells for as long as possible, though even using one here may not be enough. A glance at Johnathan was enough to tell me Saber seemed to be in a similar situation. I know he said that Saber wasn't exactly… well, that the Saber class wasn't his servant's most suited class. But still, I hadn't expected Rider to be able to match him so… readily.

"Oh damn! Look at that horse go" Nathan laughed, breaking my thought process. "Now Rider's actually using the open terrain to his advantage!"

He turned his head to look up at Johnathan.

"If Saber took one of these charges, would it just kill him outright? The force behind them must be ridiculous."

Johnathan didn't even seem to register the question. His attention was squarely on the fight between Saber and Rider. After a moment of no response, Nathan simply shrugged and returned his attention back to the fight as well.

…Clang! …Clang! …Clang! Clang!

Saber was stuck in the exact same situation as Lancer: he could only defend himself. He was simply at too much of a disadvantage to do otherwise, while Rider was on horseback.

"What do you think" I whispered to him, tapping his shoulder to get his attention.

"…If Saber pulled out his Noble Phantasm, escaping wouldn't be an issue" he whispered back. "Thing is, that's going to go and give his identity away, and there's no guarantee that we defeat Rider here with it. If we have to, I will, but… How is Lancer doing?"

"He says he can hold just fine, but not to expect him to be able to help anytime soon."

"I figured as much. Rider must have wanted to divide the two from the start."

"…Anything you can do with your talismans?"

"I thought about that, but… No; though they may not be proper servants, they're probably still too much for me to handle. Especially considering that I'd need to get all of them at once. If only mother-"

"If only mother what?"

Both Johnathan and I jumped in fright. Nathan was looking up at us, seemingly wanting an explanation.

"How did you even-"

"Whispering may not get picked up by the recording, but my ears are better than the camera's microphone" he laughed. "Also, you two are, like, less than a meter away from me. I've had to listen in on conversations under far more difficult circumstances."

…Gods, he was such a freak.

"Oh, come on and sit down you two" he sighed, looking over at Lancer and the assassins. "You walked into a trap with the intention to spring it. Even though you knew it existed, you didn't know what type it was, so of course it would still work, at least to some degree. No point worrying about it now; just relax and let it all play out."

"Easy for you to say, when you don't have anything at stake to lose here" I snapped at him. "Besides, you knowingly walked into this trap you, you know!"

"Indeed I did, but you don't see me all worked up, now do you? Also, I have my life at stake to lose here, just like the rest of you, thank you very much. Actually, no, scratch that; you two don't have a risk to your life, so long as you sit back and just watch."

"Bullshit! You think I trust Rider?"

"He's a respectable, civil man; don't see why you wouldn't. After all, if he wanted you dead, all it would take is like, what? One or two more assassins? That, or just charge at us instead? Not like Saber could really do anything to save all of us, judging by the looks of things. Not that I blame him, mind you; sword infantry versus cavalry never tends to end well for the infantry, but he's doing a remarkable job. Oh, he could also just peel a few assassins out of the encirclement on Lancer. Only eight or so of them are attacking at once, and I doubt you need all of the twelve extras just to maintain a strong enough encirclement, even if it is that loose a formation. Basically, we're alive because he has no desire to kill us, despite knowing that killing the master is highly beneficial, if not just the most meta, optimal play. If that's not a servant worthy of an enemy master's trust, at least when it comes to adherence to their own moral code, I don't know who would qualify then."

"How the hell do you call this civil?!"

"I mean, 'I' don't" Nathan laughed. "Rider does. Saber would call it honorable, I think, considering he mentioned honor before. Lancer would probably reference something to do with chivalry, or call it being chivalric, considering his status as a knight. Us modern day people would probably say its humane, as the best way to put it. Basically, they're all interchangeable here; we just have a different word for the same meaning on this. Rider's 'civil' is not out 'civil'; it's not a lack of physical conflict in favor of discourse. Its avoiding doing what you believe to be morally reprehensible, even if it would make achieving your goals easier. At least, that's what I'm getting. Who knows though? Not like I've had the chance to sit down with him and talk. Maybe he also believes in the present-day definition of civility; could even prefer it to something like 'honor' or 'chivalry'. Maybe he just finds it easier to use the one term 'civil', rather than switching between, say, 'civil' and 'honorable', depending on the situation. We cheat with words like that all the time in the present; part of the beauty of languages: so long as you understand the intent behind the message, the exact words used don't really matter."

"That… makes some sense…" Johnathan admitted.

…Not that I was going to say it, but it did make sense... because it was so fucking obvious! Which only made me more annoyed; he was talking down to us like we were little kids!

"Still though, to be so calm is just-" Johnathan tried to continue.

"It's nothing special, but also not that weird, when you really think about it. My victory condition is just different from yours, is all."

"…What the hell does that even mean" I asked him, just absolutely done with his weird shit and wanting to get this over with.

"We may all be playing the same game that is this Holy Grail War, but how we win is different. I don't want the grail; just to see all the beauty that I can. So, I don't care if I'm caught in a trap; I'm still getting what I need for me to win. For you two, it's different. You both want the grail, so losing your servant, or getting yourselves killed, is basically game over. You lose. So of course, getting caught on the backfoot in an opponent's trap has you worried."

Nathan looked away from Lancer's fight and up at the two of us.

"Something you two need to work on, actually. Getting all worried and worked up puts you at such a greater disadvantage than you already were in, because you lose the ability to reason things at any decent pace. For example, I bet you two weren't even thinking about this: servants always go with their masters to fight, in order to both keep them safe and receive their support if needed, right?"

"Yeah, generally" I huffed. "What's your point."

"Rider told us he supplies the mana for the assassin familiar things. I'm no expert, but I'd imagine familiars of that quality require a good amount of mana to maintain, no?"

"…Go on."

"Considering the number of assassin familiar things out on the field right now, one would think Rider would be drained rapidly of his own mana supply, and thus his energy to fight or maintain the manifestation of the assassins. Yet, here he is, maintaining both the assassins surrounding Lancer, and his pressure on Saber. So that tells you one of two things: either Rider has a very large mana pool and excellent self mana regen capabilities, or…"

"…Or Rider's master is supplying him the necessary mana" Johnathan concluded.

"Leaving him weakened and vulnerable, I'd imagine" Nathan nodded. "Also, Rider said something that still bugs me: 'It would seem I underestimated the amount of time it would take to traverse a city of this size'. Looking at how he can move now, do you really think he'd have trouble moving about the city rapidly?"

"No."

"So then, why do you think it took Rider a bit longer than he'd have liked to get here?"

"…He was ensuring the safety of his master first!"

"That's what I'm thinking too" Nathan nodded.

"That's great and all, but how does that help us" I demanded, slightly annoyed that Johnathan still seemed to be influenced by Nathan's words. "We can't just leave our servants!"

"I agree, but who doesn't have a servant here?"

The words hit me right in the face... He wasn't a magus, or even really a master. In almost every conventional way, he was simply dead weight. The fact he was recording the events of the war even made him a liability to keep around us. But-

"There are some things I can afford to do, that you two can't, because I'm not a proper master" Nathan seemed to read my mind. "So now, understanding all of that, is there anything you'd like to ask me?"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…Find Rider's master."

"Girl, I'm not your servant!"

"Ugh, fine! …Can you go find Rider's master… please…"

"That's better" Nathan smirked as he stood up and slung his backpack over his shoulder. "Thought you'd never ask, by the way."

"Huh?! Wait, if you go now-" Johnathan began to splutter out, though Nathan cut him off.

"As long as I don't attempt to harm or incapacitate Rider's master, I'm not interfering. Rider never said we had to stay here; Lancer told us to. Which is smart, for you two. Relax a bit and focus on your servants, kids, and let me worry about myself."

With a smug little grin on his face, Nathan took off walking down the tarmac, over towards the portables.

…Gods, I really hate like that egomaniacal, condescending freak…