Chapter II

Ilya turned away from me, and headed towards some place else. I didn't know where. But I didn't care, either. I just meekly followed her. There was a part of me that didn't believe what was happening, even now. Walking through this castle, right behind her, behind Ilya, only made this all the more surreal. Even after everything, a part of me still thought this had to be a dream.

The maids… Sella and Leysritt. That's right, those were their names. I couldn't remember which was which yet, but at least that was a start. Anyway. They were at the top of the stairs, and when we reached it they each moved to stand right behind Ilya, as if I could do anything to hurt her. If I tried anything, she would just crush me like she was breaking paper. Maybe, even if I didn't try anything.

She leaded me to her room. The maids stayed at the door, looking at me with those empty, cold red eyes. They each had the same posture, too. It was… unsettling, and not just because I knew that they were killing machines. Well, Leysritt was, anyway. It didn't really get across at all with anime art, but right here, right now, in the flesh, anybody could tell at a glance that they weren't human. They… they just weren't right. The way they moved, looked, talked. I couldn't really explain, but, they didn't act like humans. It made me even more terrified that I was already.

Which, come to think of it, could be a big part of why I found them so unsettling.

"Sella, go make us some tea." Ilya said. Then one of them went away. The one with the maid uniform with purple colours, instead of black. Well. I at least had a way to identify them now. The one who remained right where she was had to be Leysritt. "Now, you," she said, turning towards me. Her tone was light and pleasant, but I didn't have any illusions as to how things stood. "Sit down."

Like a good boy, I sat down. Ilya sat in the chair in front of me. I noted that her legs couldn't even reach the floor. That made me wince. Her tragic back story was what had made her into an interesting and multifaceted character, but now, she was as real as me. So all I could think about was that I had a girl in front of me who had be robbed of her childhood, and her very life.

"What's with that sour look?" Ilya said, cupping her face with one hand. I avoided looking at her directly in the eyes, of course. Not like that would do me any good if things turned badly. "You should have thought things through, if you're regretting coming here."

"No, I'm not regretting it. Is just..." I bit my lip. Would she think of my feelings as condescending?

"What." she demanded.

"N-nothing."

"I asked you a question. Answer me."

"Is just..." I looked away. "I thought that is so unfair."

"What, exactly?"

"The life you had to live, and have to live."

There. I said it. But there was no response. After a few seconds, I allowed myself to look back at her. She was looking at me… uncertainly. As if she didn't know what to think of me anymore. We spend the short wait in silence. Sella came back, and put two cups of tea down in the table. I wasn't a tea sort of person, but I wasn't about to refuse it. I took a tentative sip of it. It was… quite good, actually. I could get used to this.

"How do you know those things?" Ilya asked, suddenly changing the subject. "Don't think you can lie to me. I'm asking you nicely, so I expect you to tell me truth like a good boy. Or I make you answer me."

"I, uh, well..." my mind was blank, as if had be poured out like water. I felt like an idiot for not even thinking of some kind of excuse while I was walking through that forest. "Because of the Kaleidoscope. I'm from a universe where this, the events of the Fifth Holy Grail War, is a work of fiction and, well. I'm a big fan of it."

"Uh..." she didn't even bat an eyelash. "You don't seem to be lying, so I will accept it. For now. Want do you want with me?"

"Help. I just… I'm just a normal human. I can't survive here by myself, so I just… I will give you everything I know about the War, in exchange for you letting me staying here while this is going on… Please?"

"If you know as much as you say you know about me, then what makes you think I will just accept your request?" that cold smile almost made jump out of the chair. "I can just force you to talk, kill you and dump you somewhere." she said, like it was nothing, in that same light tone of hers. It chilled me to the bone. "You either don't exist in this world or your alternate self does. Either way, nobody will miss you."

I look down.

"Is not… Is not just the information. Fourth of the seven masters are at Fuyuki's High School. I can get into the school with a bit of help, so I could kept track of them. Make things easier for you."

"Berserker is the strongest Servant. I don't need any help, let alone from a normal human."

"...No, he isn't."

"Explain."

"There's a single Servant stronger that him. Heracles could overcome him, maybe, but… his chances aren't that good. That Servant is not one of the ones in this war, but a leftover from the previous one."

I was revealing too many things. If she tried to kill Kirei, she would only get involved in a battle that she would definitively lose. But what else could I do?

"Did the Master kept it here, or was it incarnated?"

"He was incarnated, but he's still with his previous Master because he amuses him. The true name of that Servant is Gilgamesh. He was the Servant of Tohsaka Tokiomi, but he was more interested in the Master that Tokiomi had an alliance with. So he convinced said Master to indulge in his own twisted pleasures, and that ended up in Kirei Kotomine killing Tokiomi after Kirei lost his own Servant and them joining forces."

"Was it only the Fifth War?"

"W-what?"

"You heard me. And you know well what I meant."

"Y-yes. The events of the Fourth War were also… recorded."

"What happened to Kiritsugu and my mother?"

"Irisviel… what happens to all the Grail Vessels." I wasn't about to tell her that she had be kidnapped and killed by Kirei. Even if warned her about how she had died in the Unlimited Blade Works route, and she send Berserker to the church by himself, I couldn't be sure that even that could be enough to make him win. Gilgamesh was just too strong. "She just couldn't kept her human shape anymore. As for Kiritsugu, he destroyed the Grail because he found that as be contaminated by Angra Mainyu, All Evils Of The World, and could only cause destruction. However, the Grail cursed him. The Fuyuki Fire was produced because of the Grail's destruction, and he managed to rescue a boy from among the fire he himself had caused. Shirou. He spend his last years miserable, haunted by the curses, growing weaker and weaker, nothing more that the sell of a man broken by reality. He tried to get you back many times, but he had be weakened greatly by the curse, he wasn't..."

"Don't lie to me!" Ilya shouted, suddenly standing up.

"Please, I-I'm not lying."

"Look at me." I took a deep breath, and looked at her red eyes. I was entranced in an instant. Under her control, I repeated what happened to Kiritsugu. I added that in the original story, it had only be mentioned by Shirou that Kiritsugu regularly had gone on business trips, but everybody though it was like that and that the prequel had confirmed it. And I continued.

"He wasn't the Magus Killer anymore. He couldn't even fight. He had completely lost the ability to use magecraft, and his body was like that of an old man. His flesh grew weaker and weaker, his limbs had atrophied, and even his sight had begun to fade. So he could only beg Jubstacheit to lower the forest's bounded field. However, no matter how obstinately he repeated his visits, that man refused to let him see you again. He repeated such visits for five years. Then he understood that his efforts had be in vain, and simply let himself wait for his death. It didn't take long. A few weeks, one week, perhaps a few days."

"Stop." she said, looking down. Her long, white hair obscured her eyes.

I stopped. I felt in control of myself again. I had be terrifying, like my mind had be ripped from my body. I looked at her. I could see that tears were shining in the corner of her eyes. I tentatively extended my hand towards her.

"Ilya..."

"Don't call me so familiarly!" she screamed in a broken voice, and pushed me away. Tears were streaming down her face.

I couldn't move. I was too scared to move and just, I didn't know what to do.

"Sella, Leysritt." she said, trying to steady her voice. "Show him to his room. And I meant it. Don't hurt him, don't kill him, don't even threaten him."

I should have be happy because this meant I was safe, as safe as I could be, but I wasn't happy at all. The two maids leaded me out of the room. I looked over my shoulder at Ilya, standing with her head held down, her hands clenched into fists, lightly trembling. I couldn't take my eyes nor my mind off her.