Hey everyone! Saying "sorry for the delay" is almost a catchphrase of mine at this point. If you're in my discord server, you'll know that I've been struggling with this chapter quite a bit (on top of the stuff I had to deal with during the month of May), and so... here we are lol.

It really was like pulling teeth at a certain point though. I'm not sure if I've ever struggled so much to put a few thousand words on a page before.

Big thanks to everyone on my pa treon who voted for this chapter's illustration! Both the Spacebattles and Questionable Questing versions have it. For those viewing the chapter on ffn, you can either hop over to the SB version or check it out on my profile!

X

"Where did she go?"

"She couldn't have gotten far…"

I could hear the voices of the villagers, even from here. Admittedly, they weren't trying too hard to be discreet, but it was a testament to how close we still were to the clearly-upset mob.

My breaths were kept even. From the corner of my eye, I eyed the dead weight draped over my shoulder.

This girl still hadn't woken up. There was no way for us to know what was up with her or what compelled her to run through a forest at this hour, but it was easy enough to assume that she was the one being chased.

"Senpai. We shouldn't stay here."

Mash wasn't far from me. Her body stiffened in such a way that reminded me of a pointing dog.

She certainly had the right idea. I didn't doubt that she was just as confused as I was, but now wasn't the best time for us to stop and gather our thoughts. I'd rather not find myself on the wrong end of these people's ire unduly.

I hummed.

"Let's find somewhere out of the way."

"There's a cave not far from your location."

Hm?

I looked around for a moment before I realized that it was Doctor Romani's whispered voice coming from my communication module.

Was this the sort of information that Chaldea had readily available? I wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth, but…

"How do you know this?" I asked.

The doctor was more than happy to give me an answer.

"Well, you know how CHALDEAS can simulate our planet's structure in both past and present states? I don't know if anyone's explained SHEBA to you, but it lets us zero in on the finer details presented by–"

"Right, sorry. Magic computers. I forgot."

"It's not really–"

"Let's go," I said, looking at Mash. The girl nodded.

I allowed her to lead the way; we moved cautiously with our ears perked and our bodies as low to the ground as possible.

It was strange that we weren't able to wake her up, though, and I did hope that she'd wake up soon. The armour added a good amount of weight, and it was difficult for me to pretend that I wasn't struggling to carry her.

We found the cave that Romani was talking about without too much difficulty. At this point, we were far enough out of the way that we hadn't run across anyone that we'd want to avoid for a while. It was as if there were a boundary that they were insistent on not crossing; their village must've been near that end of the forest.

After taking a quick moment to make sure that the cave wasn't inhabited by any potentially violent wildlife, I was quick to set down my charge and lean her against the wall.

"…"

I stared at her face intently now that I had a spare moment. She looked somewhat familiar — it was like something nagging at the back of my head despite me knowing that we'd never met before -– but I couldn't quite place my finger on why that was.

Da Vinci's voice echoed through the tunnel.

"So, is now a good time? Is everything sorted out on your end?"

"Everything's–"

Mash spoke up behind me but quickly cut herself off for whatever reason. I turned away from the resting stranger to find the girl staring out the cave's entrance blankly.

"I think we should be fine here," I said in her place.

"Good," snapped the director. "Let's not waste any more time, then. Mash: establish visuals."

Without needing to be told twice, the girl lowered her giant shield to the ground face up. A beam shot up from its center and formed a holographic projection. The faces of Doctor Romani, Da Vinci, and the director all appeared in front of me.

Da Vinci leaned forward, taking up most of the room on the screen. The director didn't seem too happy to be pushed out of the center of the frame.

"Watch it! Sit properly!"

"Is this the girl you ran into?" Da Vinci asked, not paying any mind to the complaints of those beside her.

"Yeah, that's her. She's out cold. I tried to wake her up, but…"

"It's a start. Keep her nearby. If she was being chased around like that, there was probably a reason, and if there was a reason, then it's not out of the realm of possibility for that reason to be somehow tied to whatever it is that's causing this singularity. You two should go try to find out who–"

"Belay that!" shouted the director. "First things first: go find a leyline or something similar. We need to send Lancer to you before you go off and try anything stupid."

The odds of running into a servant were low, or at least, lower than what they were in Fuyuki. Back then, we'd been transported to a place and time during which a Holy Grail War was taking place. Now…

Well… I didn't think anything like that was going on around here.

Either way, though, it wouldn't hurt to have a proper servant of our own by our side. Besides, the added firepower would surely keep us head and shoulders above any adversity that we may face. If the director wanted to put such an emphasis on it, then I wouldn't complain.

"Understood," I complied. "We'll first find a mana source, then find a way to deal with this girl properly."

"Spellcaster. Da Vinci has the right idea asking you to stay with the girl, but I want both of you to abandon her immediately if you think she'll be a hindrance in any way. Your lives are more important than anything else right now."

I frowned at our boss' words. I understood that they were well-intentioned and were said with our best interests in mind, but abandoning someone –even if they were a complete stranger– wasn't something that I could do easily.

"I can't."

"Hah!? Are you daft? That wasn't a suggestion!"

She was being understandably cross with me. I really couldn't put what I felt into words without sounding like any more of an idiot than she already thought I was, so I stared into the display resolutely.

The director stared right back. I didn't know what she thought we were doing, but our exchange turned into some sort of bizarre staring contest.

Her cheeks began to redden and puff out. I felt embarrassed on her behalf and gave in.

"...Understood," I mumbled a second time. Though it lacked the forthcomingness of my previous reply, I stopped trying to go against what she was saying.

The white-haired woman did her best to not look as pleased with herself as she probably was.

Da Vinci leaned back into her seat and tapped the doctor on the shoulder. He seemed to snap out of whatever daze he was in.

I almost forgot he was there, actually.

"Doctor Romani. Are we picking up any unusual readings from that girl? Is there anything that would indicate that she would be a problem for them should she come to?"

He took a moment to sort through something that I couldn't make out on this side of the screen.

"Oh– uhm… no, not really. She's completely human, if nothing else. Physically, she's a totally ordinary girl. The only thing that throws me off is that strange armor of hers, but it wouldn't be wild to assume that she's some sort of… soldier or something? I don't know. Sorry."

Da Vinci hummed.

"Well there you have it."

"Mash," I started. The girl, who had been noticeably quiet until just now, started.

"Yes?"

"We'll spend the night here," I told her. "It's not much, but it's shelter. We'll go down to the village in the morning to gather supplies– and maybe find some clues as to what exactly is at the root of this supposed singularity."

While upsetting, a mob chasing around a young woman didn't seem like a world-ending phenomenon to me.

"Is that wise?" Da Vinci asked, ignoring the second half of what I said for what was presumably the part that was of most concern to her. "If you're going to bring that girl with you…"

"We'll be careful," was all that I could offer. "We don't have many other options."

That wasn't true. One of us could have stayed here to watch over her while the other went to the village to do what needed to be done, but it wasn't a responsibility that I was willing to impart on Mash.

Da Vinci wasn't given a chance to get another word in.

"Very well," Animusphere accepted. "Both of you, rest well, but stay vigilant. The girl might wake up some time during the night."

"Of course."

"Talk to you later, everyone," said Mash. She lifted her shield and the line of communication was instantly cut."

"Are you hungry?" I asked her a moment later. She shook her head.

"All right then. We can find something to eat in the morning. This won't be comfortable, but we're better off here than out somewhere in the woods. Good Night, Mash."

She stared at me searchingly for a moment.

An almost imperceptible smile pulled at her lips.

"Good night, Senpai."

We both dropped to the hard ground on opposite ends of the tunnel and leaned against the stone behind us. I made sure to position myself closer to the mysterious girl so that I could react quickly should she try to do anything in our moment of vulnerability.

I closed my eyes and waited.

"…"

An hour had passed, and Mash had finally fallen asleep. I could hear the way her breaths had lengthened and evened out. I was certainly surprised that she could fall asleep so deeply and quickly considering our circumstances. She was either very tired, or it was simply a virtue of her youth. Both, maybe.

My eyes opened.

My own ability to fall asleep was irrelevant since I wasn't planning on sleeping to begin with. I'd have to keep watch tonight; there was no way that staying out in the wilderness without anyone up and alert in case something snuck up on us was a good idea.

Of course, I didn't bring it up with Mash. I didn't want to argue over "taking turns" or why she shouldn't stay up at all. A restful sleep was important for the proper development of a girl her age.

And so my eyes stayed open until the sun rose.

X

"How did you sleep, Senpai?"

Mash seemed to be in a better mood once morning came. More talkative, too. I knew that things were patchy between us, but maybe time really did heal all wounds.

I wasn't stupid. It wasn't like I didn't know why she'd have reason to be upset with me.

I smiled at her.

"I slept great. I hope your night wasn't too rough."

The girl's smile wavered for a moment.

"I'm not made of glass. I can get by just fine."

My own smile didn't budge.

"Our charge hasn't woken up yet," I remarked, changing the topic. Honestly if I didn't know any better, I would have thought that she was dead. As it were, she was just sleeping. I'd keep operating under the assumption that she was just particularly tired for now, but that may change if her condition didn't improve.

Mash stared at her for a moment.

"I can carry her," she offered, not wasting any time.

"…"

I wasn't opposed to that necessarily, but…

"We'll need a way to bring her into town without letting her be seen," I said.

"I can cover her with my shield?" she suggested, unsure of the logistics of the matter.

I reached for the collar of my uniform. Before I could take it off and use it as a cover, however, the voice of Da Vinci butted in.

"Excuse me! Excuse me! I couldn't help but see that you aren't taking advantage of the supplies that we sent in with you!"

Huh? Supplies? Moreover, "Were you able to hear our conversation up 'till now?"

"We're always listening!" Romani's voice chirped. Somehow, it sounded a little sketchy coming from him. "Your mission is to resolve the singularity and our mission is to make sure that you do that without dying. We're monitoring you around the clock."

That was… reassuring? I wasn't quite sure.

"What was that you were saying about supplies?"

"…"

"…"

"Romani, didn't you tell–"

"Ah! I forgot! Sorry, the Rayshift happened so fast, so–"

Da Vinci sighed audibly.

"You're lucky that the Director isn't here right now. You'd be getting an earful."

"Tehe?"

That didn't sound cute at all coming from a grown man. I didn't know what he was thinking.

"Forget it," Da Vinci moaned defeatedly. "Mash. There should be a pack tied to the inside of your shield."

"Huh?"

The girl picked up the Noble Phantasm and turned it over. She blushed.

"I… I didn't notice…"

She was quick to unstrap what seemed to be an oversized fanny pack and held it in front of her.

"You have rations, medical supplies, covers, tools… you name it. Don't think too much about the size; it's all there."

Da Vinci's words were proven to be true. One after the other, Mash pulled out a plethora of items that were disproportionately large given the size of the container.

…It would have been nice to have had some of these things earlier, actually.

I picked out a stiff white tarp-looking thing and wrapped it around the unconscious woman.

"Will this be fine?" I asked Mash. She nodded and showed her back to me.

The charge was loaded onto her back and fastened with a set of straps. The cumbersomely shaped bundle wouldn't be jostling about now.

"Sorry about that!" Da Vinci apologised, presumably on Romani's behalf. "There should be some plain, unbranded cloaks in there too. If you don't want to stick out like sore thumbs, I'd suggest you cover up."

Right. Chaldea's uniform was strange enough, but who could tell how locals would react to Mash's oddly fashioned suit of armour.

"Thanks again–"

"Romani! Da Vinci! Enough chatter. We have work to do."

At the director's words, echoing through the transmission due to her distance from the microphone, the doctor and servant only had the chance to offer us apologetic smiles before the comms cut out abruptly.

I snorted.

"Might as well get going now. Let me know if you get tired."

Having the body of a servant didn't mean that she was infallible, after all."

"Of course!"

X

It was a strange realisation to come to: that we really were in the past.

This sort of thing –time travel– happened all the time in movies, so it was easy to assume that it would feel totally normal if it were to happen in real life as well.

Modern day humans knew so much about the past, through both studies and artefacts that had stood the test of time, that we've made innumerable reproductions of such artefacts in all forms, be it through digital media or actual physical structures.

And yet, seeing the real thing was an entirely different experience altogether .

This was France over five hundred years ago. The forest didn't give much away, but the village, the buildings, the people…

"Senpai. Let's move quickly."

Mash's words snapped me out of my dream-like trance. Honestly, I wasn't quite sure how she wasn't having the same reaction.

"Right."

We needed to find an inn or something. Driven by misconceptions or not, we were playing with fire carrying around the bundle of cloth on Mash's back, and it would be nice to have some sort of base to return to while we got ourselves sorted out.

…Ah. Were inns even a thing? How about currency?

I stopped myself before I could tap a passerby on the shoulder. I wouldn't be able to speak their language either, right?

Instead, I kept my eyes peeled for any sort of exchange of currency as we walked.

"…"

It wasn't as common as I'd hoped it would be, unfortunately. This wasn't exactly the age of consumerism. There was a woman passing a chicken off to a man, but I didn't see any–

There. A man had dropped a coin. It was only in sight for a fraction of a second before he picked it up, but…

I had traced it. My projection wouldn't be perfect, but it would do the job. I wouldn't be able to determine this coin value – much less its history – but it was definitely a start.

"Senpai. Over here."

Mash pointed towards something further down the street. It was a building much larger than the ones nearby – the size of a mansion almost – and a wooden sign was stood in front of it.

Hôtel, it read. It was a word that I was relatively familiar with, having seen its English counterpart a good number of times over the past few years.

I patted the demi-servant on the shoulder.

"Great job. I completely missed that."

She beamed at me.

We approached the establishment, and as we did so, I couldn't help but hesitate.

We had no way of actually talking to these people, did we?"

My worries only deepened once we stepped inside. The room that greeted us was not at all what I was expecting: it was more of a conglomeration of people walking about a communal room as opposed to the tavern-like atmosphere that I'd seen in video games.

Someone came up to us and said something that I couldn't understand. It wasn't even "French" as I knew the language to be, so there was no way for me to catch common turns of phrase. I flushed.

Mash in fairly well put together clothes stepped up. To my surprise, Mash answered the man In a clean dialect matching his own. I watched them conduct a short but cordial conversation.

A moment later, the demi-servant turned to me.

"We need five livres," she said.

I traced a replica of the coin I'd found earlier in my pocket so as to be as inconspicuous as possible. I didn't know how much it was worth, but there was only one way to find out. I handed it to the man and immediately put my hand back in my pocket. It was a gesture that could either be interpreted as an idle stance or me reaching to grab more coins.

The man's hand was still held out expectantly.

Cautiously, four more were dropped in his palm. That seemed to be the right amount, as he stepped away not long after.

He said something else that was unintelligible to me. Mash answered in kind and smiled gratefully.

"Let's go, Senpai."

I could only follow her lead at this point.

X

We found ourselves in a room that… wasn't quite a room.

Or rather, it wasn't quite a hotel room. It was an enclosed space, but there really wasn't much else here. With all the hay lying around, I would've thought it a stable had it been a little larger.

"Not quite what I was expecting," I admitted.

"It's not a 'hotel'" Mash was quick to inform me. "Or at least, not in the way that we understand the word to mean. Think of it more as a communal housing. That's how Mister Manager explained it to me."

That made sense.

The mortification that my own lack of knowledge gave me was ignored in favour of my next question.

"How did you speak to him anyway? I didn't know that you spoke French, let alone whatever forgotten, old variation of it they're speaking here."

A smile pursed her lips. She seemed awfully happy about something.

"I'm a demi-servant," she explained. "Language barriers won't be a problem as long as I'm around.

Right. I forgot.

I didn't respond verbally. Instead, I reached out my hand and grabbed at the white cloth that still weighed down on her person. She only hesitated for a moment before realising what I was doing and complied easily enough.

I unstrapped the bundle from Mash's back and helped her lower it to the ground. We slowly unwrapped it to reveal the still-sleeping face of the armoured girl.

Maybe we should have removed it?

…No, it would've been more comfortable, sure, but there would have been too many complications to deal with had we done that.

"…She's still not waking up," Mash remarked solemnly.

I was similarly concerned.

"Maybe she's sick?" I offered. "I don't think we'd be able to find any worthwhile medicine around here, though."

"I can be of help!"

"Da Vinci," I greeted evenly. I was starting to become accustomed to the random interjections.

"There are some thaumaturgical ingredients that should be quite easy for you to come by near your geographical location and time period. Use them as I tell you, and poof! You'll have yourself a mild concoction that will probably-maybe-hopefully snap that girl out of it."

How convenient.

"Great. I'll head out right now."

"Senpai, wouldn't it be best if I went instead?"

"…"

A short silence immediately followed her suggestion. Even Da Vinci, who I knew was still there, chose not to say anything.

Da Vinci was quite cunning. It was more than likely that the woman knew how I would respond.

"Stay here," I told her. "Watch over the girl. I'll be back soon."

"…Ah… Excuse…"

She all but dropped her jaw. She stared at me with incredulity obvious in her eyes.

"Is there a particular reason why I shouldn't go?" she uttered in a soft voice.

"Je… qui êtes…"

"It could be dangerous," was the borderline dismissive way that I answered.

As expected, she didn't take to that too kindly.

"Wha– how could you– any way you look at it, I'm the one who should be going, right? I'm the demi-servant here. I have more magical energy, I'm stronger, I– I can actually communicate with people here!"

"Ah. Right. I'll probably fix up a mystic code to solve that sometime later."

"Êtes vous… vous… d'entre vous…"

Da Vinci's inopportune intervention did nothing but rile up the poor girl even more. I couldn't help but think that it was done on purpose.

I closed my eyes regretfully but chose to end the discussion here. I started walking towards the door.

"I'm not a child!"

A hand was placed on my shoulder. It pulled me to the side.

My body was sent cartwheeling to the ground. The unexpected impact with the ground knocked the air right out of my lungs, and a pained wheeze escaped my lips. It took me a moment to gather myself.

A moment which I had been given.

I looked up to see Mash staring down at me. Her eyes were wide and her trembling hands were flexed open.

"I– I didn't mean to–"

"Haye! Ta yeule! Écoute 'cite, connards!"

…Huh?

We both turned to the third voice in the room that I'd somehow completely tuned out 'till now.

A dirt-covered figure with ashy blond hair sat up, lurched over. Her hands immediately shot up to clasp her mouth shut.

The mystery girl was awake.