'Thank you.' the twin-tailed Servant with light purple hair faked an innocent smile at the man she had tricked into carrying all if her and her Master's luggage for them.

'Everything for you, My Goddess.' the man said before being dismissed by the Servant.

'Merci.' the blonde woman waved him goodbye with a defeated look and faked a smile too.

'Men are so easy, thee-he.' the Servant chuckled.

'Arch-!' she snapped but then lowered her voice and coughed. 'Euryale!'

'Is something amiss, Master?' The twin-tail smiled back at her sheepishly 'It's only natural for humans to serve their goddess, isn't it?' the Servant asked while bending her head to the side.

'You could have at least helped him!'W the blonde woman chastised her Servant via their Mental link while getting into a cab.

When Cecilia performed the summoning ritual two weeks back, she would have never thought that a servant would actually answer her call, much less a bona fidei goddess, which shouldn't even be possible, to begin with. And yet, here she was, sitting next to Euryale, one of the Gorgon Sisters from Greek mythology, having to deal with her antics. And if she was completely honest, Cecilia would have actually expected someone… more snake~ish. However, the real problem with this, supposedly, ideal goddess wasn't that she was nothing like the Gorgon of legend, – although some of her ornaments did depict snakes – but that couldn't have been further from the benevolent goddess she pretended to be. Furthermore, Archer was essentially free to go on with her shenanigans due to having high ranked Independence skill.

To name one example of her Servant doing however she pleased, would be how Cecilia wasn't the one who supplied the clothes the girl was currently wearing, but rather random people she charmed using one of her skills, called 'Alluring Nightingale', rather than Cecilia herself as she had wanted it. If Cecilia had to describe her within a sentence, the term 'Wolf in a sheep's pet' would instantly spring to mind.

'Why would I help mortals with tasks as menial as these.' she replied in a tone that suggested that she honestly didn't understand why her Master made such a fuss about her not helping with her own, mostly unnecessary, luggage.

'Why would you even need all of that?! It's going to vanish the moment you have to fight anyway. Besides, who said you will spend enough time in your physical form to wear even half of that?!' Cecilia sighed.

'What a stupid thing to say, Master. How can I show people how adorable I am if they can't see me? After all, I am a goddess, it's only natural for people to worship me.'

'Cecilia just gave Archer a dumbfounded look, wondering what one thing had to do with her clothes bursting the moment she turned switched to her spirit dress. 'You really are impossible.' the half-french said while letting out a hearable sigh, much to Euryale's visible displeasure, which made the unaware driver wonder whether everything was fine between the two.

'I may not be the exactly the strongest heroic spirit there is, but summoning me – a goddess – is still a feat you wouldn't be able to accomplish without being highly compatible with me.' Euryale grinned at her with a taunting expression. 'In other words, deep down you and are pretty much the same.' she then pouted.

'The day I treat James the way you treat people is the day hell will freeze over!'

'Yeah, Yeah.' Euryale winked her off. 'You mean the same James, you are about to bring into a precarious situation by being a master?' she transmitted in a cheeky tone. 'I wonder if that still falls under neutral.'

'Just shut up and let me do the talking.' Cecilia warned.

'In other words, you don't want me to interrupt so you can sweet talk him into doing your bidding?' Archer's voice turned cheeky again and she gave her Master a wry smile. 'Quod erat demonstrandum, as the Romans would say.' Then she smiled a bit more. 'If you want to I can give you a few pointers on how to easily charm him.'

'Please just let me handle it…' The magi replied weakly while trying to keep the level of annoyances around her in check. However, in the end, she didn't have anything to refute the Servant's point. At least not for the moment.

Then, the car stopped in front of the church. While unbeknownst to her, that the church still felt haunted not too long ago, it looked almost new to her and had regained its former beauty. And while both of them were still able to pick up bad vibes from the old stone building, it would look completely normal to the average person. At most, they would think that the graveyard gave it an eerie vibe during nighttime. However, even the darker color they went with for the renovation managed to turn that natural ominousness into beauty.

While the building's exterior had been restored to its former glory, the inside left both with a feeling of awe, however not in a positive sense.

Most of the benches were never replaced after the fight that took place between the former mediator and one of the Servants, so a lot of them were broken while others looked as if they would break even when someone as light as Euryale would take a seat on them, and even the altar was in a clear state of disrepair.
If Cecilia had to guess, the only reason the knights outside allowed her to enter the building, with it being in this state, was her relationship with their commander. Had it not been for her engagement with James, they would probably have turned her away until they had managed to clean up that mess.

'Can you believe the impudence?' Archer complained with a sour expression. 'To let a deity, like myself, lay eyes on a place of worship, in such a rotten state?!' 'What kind deity allows their followers to be this negligent to begin with?!'

'It hasn't been in use for a long time, Archer. And frankly, that's no wonder considering what has happened here.'

'That's still no excuse!' Euryale fumed.

When they walked on towards Jame's study, they suddenly heard noises coming from the other side of the door, one of which Cecilia instantly identified as her future husband's.

'Seriously Caren, drop it!' They heard him shout through the door in a struggling voice that sounded as if he was struggling.
Cecilia tilted her head to the side and put on a confused face, before opening the door to the source of the commotion.

'Seriously Caren, drop it!' James fumed while he tried to fight her off without hurting her, which proofed exceedingly difficult with half his body already being bound by the Shroud of Magdalene, a holy shroud with the power to forcefully bind men.

'And what do you two think you are doing?!' A familiar voice echoed through the room from the door.

Both James and Caren froze in the spot, looking towards the new arrivals.

'This isn't what it looks like, Cecilia…' James said in a distressed tone, while his second arm got entangled too, due to him not trying to fight the shroud off.

Cecilia just crossed her arms, and repeatedly hit her elbow with her left pointer finger, while her expression clearly showed how mad she was at him right now. On the other hand, the person behind her just held her left hand in front of her mouth while looking rather amused.

James had to admit, that the scene must look everything but innocent to whoever would enter it right in the middle, and was glad that Caren was at least still wearing her robe, rather than her Uniform, as she had removed its skirt a long time ago. And despite James' best efforts to avoid it, Carens Holy Shroud had managed to tie him up pretty well, while, at the same time, his shirt was completely turned around and only still covered his left wrist. Meanwhile, Caren had already put her hands on the tattoo-like Command Spells on his back. The only thing he could hope for was that, for a change, Caren would keep her blunt trap shut until James could diffuse the misunderstanding.

'Obviously, it looks like a tie-up game, even a blind person could see that.' However, that's no-'

'Please just shut your trap.' James cut in with a huge sigh and had the urge to punch whoever invented the phrase 'Hope dies last.'

Even a few minutes after Cecilia and her Servant sat down, he could still feel the pressure in the air.
Cecilia put herself opposite directly opposite of him and has crossed both her arms and legs, while she still continued to show him just how mad she was by nervously tapping her elbow. Elseways, her Servant was resting her elbows on her legs in a Gendo-Pose, while watching the scene with visible amusement while also checking out the dozens of Command Spells which covered James' torso.

Caren, of course, sat there as if she were calmness impersonated, and kept staring at Cecilia with an almost emotionless expression as if she was completely innocent for the situation and just innocent bystander, watching James' and Cecilia's lover's quarrel.

James on the other hand, couldn't help but look at Cecilia's wrist that now featured three Command Spells shaped like Stargazer Lilies, her favorite flower, although she usually preferred the blue variants compared to the now red Command Spells.
Under normal circumstances, he would have given her his mind about them, but right now he was in no position to complain, thanks to his co-worker. Moreover, he wanted to avoid making their fight more serious than it already was with Caren around to make things worse as she had a talent for making precarious situations worse.

'And you honestly want to tell me that she had to tie you up to check on that myriad of Command Spells?! ' Cecilia snapped while making him feel as if she was sitting on an elevated throne. 'Do you think I'm dumb?!'

'That is exactly what happened though.' James answered with a stern face.

'There is no reason for you getting tied up and stripped for that though!' Cecilia gave him an extremely sharp and judging glance.

'That's beca-'

'He resisted, ' Caren interrupted bluntly. 'so I took things into my own hands.'

'Please...Caren… Just shut up…' James sighed defeated.

'I am merely stating facts. Even you should get that.'

'As you can see, Cecilia, this outrageous woman here is really that oblivious to the situation or simply doesn't care at all. 'James sighed again while pointing at Caren with an open hand. 'And in case you haven't noticed, that sash is special too, so even that frail-looking woman could bind someone such as Hercules with it.'

'I highly doubt that…' Euryale muttered but got ignored.

'So please Cece, can I put my shirt on again now?'

'Getting a cold is your punishment.' Cecilia kept going in an extremely mad tone. 'And you still haven't explained why you are covered in those.' she said while pointing at the approximately ninety-somewhat command steals all over his body, forming a large flame.

'There isn't much to say about it. They are almost all the Command Spells the church has gathered over the years.'

'Talk about painting a target on someone's back.' Archer noted and made an expression as if she had just said something really sly.

'Let them come… I'm ready.'

'Oh? What a confident mortal you have as a mate, Master.' the Servant ignored James and addressed Cecilia in a pure and benevolent sounding voice.

'Mortal'James thought.

''Anyhow, I actually just thought I'd be courteous enough to officially register. Cecilia said with a hint of impatience in her voice. 'However, now I'm not sure if I actually want to leave you alone with her.' she added while giving Caren a sharp look.

'Look, you got it all wrong… Besides, Lorelei is here too. I just let her rest for a change. Or do you suddenly have something against her too?' James said while getting up to get the book, a feather and a quill, then sat down and starting writing Cecilia's name into it. - All with one free hand as he was still bound by the shroud. 'Archer Class, going by the hint of ancient Greek, probably Greece. And while it's impossible to summon Divine Spirits I'll just note you down wit a potentially. So who do you claim to be? Themis, Artemis, Athen-?'

'Don't you dare comparing me to those fakers.' The Servant suddenly lost her cool for a moment, when James wanted to mention Athena, but quickly put up her cute-charade again. 'Unlike those poor excuses, I am a perfect goddess. And unlike my looser sister, also light and cute(*), just like a girl should be.' She then smiled. 'A bona fide ideal goddess.' she added with a mixture of pride and haughtiness while giving him a wink. 'Aren't I cute?'

'Whatever…' James answered due to a loss of words, causing the servant to look surprised for some reason, although James could have sworn she tried to use some kind of spell on him.

'Annoying, self-proclaimed pagan goddess it is.' Caren took the book away from James and actually wrote that in the name field.

'Why you little…' the Servant fumed and turned into her spirit dress, which turned out to be some white and black toga dress. 'You really want to pick a fight, do you now?'

'Did someone say something? I can't hear anything up here above the 140 cm mark.'

James deadpanned, 'You used to be rather small yourself, you know…' and then took the book back from her and sighed. 'Don't worry, it's magical, it will get her humor and just erase it. Besides, as much as I'd like to see someone shutting that big mouth of Caren's, I'll have to punish you if you start a fight in here.' James added with a tone that made it clear, he actually believed he could fight the Servant, then he turned back to his fiance. 'See? You know me how long now? Do you honestly think THAT is my type?!' And pointed at Caren with his thumb.

'If she didn't you wouldn't have to defend yourself.' Caren closed her eyes. 'It doesn't matter though, God will forgive her bad taste in men eventually.'

'Please...Just shut your infernal trap.' he resigned in an annoyed tone and then turned his eyes back at his fiance, to whom he spoke in a normal tone again. 'And you please Stop, Cecilia, you can't live here unless you yield those Command Seals of yours. - Although I'd prefer if you did that. - In any event, the moment that woman opens her mouth, no one would actually care enough anymore, so you don't have ANY reason to worry at all.'

'I'm still mad at you. End of story.' Cecilia finalized and then stood up, 'Archer, we are going!' and stomped out the room, not even waiting for her Servant to get up.

The Servant on the other hand just leaned forward and whispered with a sly smile. 'The sacrifice you make when asking for forgiveness better be expensive, thee-hee.'

'Have I seen you somewhere before?' James asked when he saw her face from a closer angle.

'Unless you were already alive several millennia ago, I doubt that.' And then whispered in a volume she thought no one could heat' Although, you'd have spent your life as a place for pigeons to rest then, thee-hee.'

'ARCHER!' Cecilia shouted from outside.

'My, my what a troublesome human to have as a master. Χαῖρε, mortal.' Archer sighed shortly before her physical form evaporated into a beautiful shimmer of golden particles.

Once he was sure the Servant had left, he turned his head into Caren's direction. 'Are you satisfied now?!'

'I have no reason to feel either guilty or satisfied. But if she leaves you, I can com-'

'NO!' James snapped at her, having a good idea what she was about to say. 'Don't get overconfident just because you've had a growth spurt. No sane man would actually fall for someone as wicked as you are.'

Caren, who was a few years older than him, actually used to be much smaller than she is now a few years back, and just grew taller comparably recently. While she was definitely out of her growing age when it happened, James attributed that to her general poor physical condition.'

'I am no more or less confident than I've been before. Even you should realize that.' Caren sighed.

'Anyway,' James took a deep breath to calm down, while he put on the priest robe that was conveniently waiting for him on. 'Anyway I'll keep going, otherwise, this building will never get cleansed. Meanwhile, you better stay out of my sight. I don't give a crap whether you feel guilty, this is one-hundred percent your fault. Go to bed or do whatever, I couldn't care less. Just stay the hell away from me. I have enough problems figuring out who this would-be divine spirit of an archer is, I don't need my fiance to start hating me too.'

At the end of the week, the church was finally ready to be reopened, in silence and all the dark energy was gone.

With things as they were, a silent opening was the better option. - Otherwise, people might actually get caught up in the Grail War. Besides, James didn't intend to stay afterwards, which would raise further suspicion on top of it suddenly re-opening, when – and he was sure it would happen – strange things were going on inside the city, due to the ongoing battle royal between the Servants.

With two more days of free time, until the Grail War starts, and his desire to be as far away from Caren as possible, on his hands, James decided to take a day off and walk through the city, wondering where all the Masters would hide or barricade themselves. And although he'd still prefer it if both of them would abandon this foolish death game, he also wondered where Emilia and Cecilia were staying.

While people would argue that the Grail war isn't a death game per se, it is pretty much always how it turns out. In fact, Assassins pretty much specialize in that, and cutting a Servant off their supply of Mana is easier than fighting them, so the Grail Wars endangering the Masters more than the Servants is actually a rather logical consequence.

As he kept thinking, he suddenly saw a Chinese restaurant and stopped while reading the board.

'Mna-Po tofu sounds like a good idea for launch…' he thought.

After a good meal in that restaurant, James continued his stroll through the area, occasionally taking a public transport. Suddenly, he stood in front of a mansion but quickly walked on after reading the plate, back towards the church on the other side of the city.

`James thought 'Right… Tohsaka… That's one of the names of the last war's surviving mages, if Caren is to be trusted. Which one was the one with the Servant again? Matou, or something like that… Let's hope they don't become a problem after all… Seeing this Mansion… Knowing Cecilia and Emilia they probably rented a house or a mansion too… At least I can't see either of them living in a cave.'

Then James stopped and turned around. All this thinking of caves, made him want to make one more stop before returning back to the base. Since he was already on this side of the town, he could as well check up on the magus generator under the temple mountain, known as the Holy Grail. It wasn't that he expected any trouble there, as the cave had been prepared in a way that made it impossible for anyone forbidden to enter to begin with. It was more an issue of peace of the mind.

Still, theoretically, at least two mages would be allowed to enter, although not until a certain point in time, three of the Einzbern's were still alive after all. Three families, all in decline, and yet they couldn't be locked out of this cave for some reason. Either that was influence within the Mage Association or had to do something with the cave itself – James had no idea and didn't really care for the reason either.

Once he arrived near the cave in the temple forest James carefully scanned his surroundings, to make sure no one saw him, as he wasn't exactly inconspicuous in his priest robes.

'Great it's bloody dark in there...' he thought out loud and pulled his phone from within his robes, activating the flashlight right afterwards.

Ah he walked deeper into the cave he observed the damage done during the final moments of the last Grail War, and was instantly happy that the mage association had repaired it back then. Furthermore, the Church decided to reinforce the cave to further stabilize it.

That moment it dawned on him. He could have just turned on the lights. He was so preoccupied before that he completely forgot about how the way up to the Grail's chamber could be lit with fire~colored torches from the entrance and the Grail's cavern. However, now it was too late, he was already too far in for it to make sense to turn around.

A few minutes later he was greeted by the sight of the golden sphere that was the magus generator embedded in its socket. Unlike, the demonic construct it had previously turned into, the restored grail was a majestic sphere, made from something James assumed to be obsidian with golden depictions of what seemed to be angels in its only opening.

However, he knew that he shouldn't have been surprised at all, considering that whatever evil had previously occupied it got, allegedly, purged from it before the sphere was carefully put back together. And yet, James couldn't help but have a bad feeling about the construct before him. Despite how this thing was supposed to work, the Masters were able to summon Anti Heroes even before it got corrupted, which, from in his understanding, lead to the Grail getting corrupted in the first place.

Moreover, other side effects still remained. As the ritual has never been properly completed, the generator in front of him was now active for way more than just two weeks, and also went into emergency mode, supporting 14 Servants instead of the usual seven.

'The moments when you wish you'd have a nuclear warhead on hand… Mediating this will be a real pain…' James sighed out loud while also getting one the Black Key, Caren insisted on him taking along, out of his pockets, forcing the blade to appear almost at the same time. Then, he raised his voice loud enough for it to echo through the entire chamber and spoke as if he was a medieval noble commanding one of his castellans to take action. 'Come out and identify yourself before I come get you.'