By the Bonfire: Old Hatred

The Pillar of light shot into the sky a final time, the brightness briefly encompassed the room before gradually dying down. Ritsuka's eyes slowly trailed upwards, paling slightly as they did so. Mash to his left found herself tensing and ready to summon her shield.

The giant figure repositioned the club resting on their shoulder before taking a single step off the platform, their heavy footfall sent an echo around the summoning chamber as their shadow soon fell over the pair. Ritsuka swallowed the lump in his throat and attempted to put on a welcoming smile for them.

"W-welcome to Chaldea!" He exclaimed, perhaps a little too loudly, at the Servant. Who remained deathly silent as they started down at them. "I-I'm...Fujimaru...Ritsuka." he trailed off and leaned back, his words becoming little more than squeaks as their helmet loomed in closer to their face.

Mash was already preparing herself to move when they suddenly straightened themselves out again. Dismissing their giant club and shield, they simply stared at Ritsuka and then looked over to Mash, seemingly studying her for a few moments before they released a nearly imperceptible huff of amusement. Or as close as they could articulate.

"Ma...ge…?" They ground out, looking back at Ritsuka. The boy stared at the Servant for a few moments before replying.

"Are you asking if I'm a mage or not?" Ritsuka responded somewhat nervously. The Servant nodded once "W-well, technically I am-"

"Scum." He growled, then shouldered past the shocked boy and disappearing out of the room.

Ritsuka stood stock still for several moments, Mash sending a hurt look in his direction before scowling and looking off the way that the Servant disappeared through. The Master blinked once before he released a sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose and shaking his head. Soon turning to Mash and giving her a subdued smile "Is...Is this how Roman feels whenever he meets new Servants?"

"Yes." The intercom buzzed to life, the pair turned to see the man waving at them from behind a glass window in what looked like a small control chamber. His expression was resigned before he pressed the intercom button again "More importantly, Fujimaru-kun first impressions are a good thing to take note of when summoning Servants...yours apparently weren't that good."

"Well, I know that he doesn't like Mages." Ritsuka shrugged, still an uncomfortable look on his face "But I...well...I kinda hoped he might have given me the benefit of doubt."

"He was also said to be a Dragon Slayer." Romani frowned "Considering what Kiyohime is…"

Ritsuka cringed "We can try and hide her away from him but we wouldn't be able to do it forever…"

"True enough." Romani nodded, before a troubled thought came to him "What if he doesn't...well...calm down I guess?"

Ritsuka frowned, remaining silent for a few moments as he deliberated in his head before eventually replying "We'll cross that bridge when we get to it." he said slowly "Right now...I think we should try and give him some time to settle in and hopefully warm up to people...kind of. Or at least keep him calm enough that he doesn't try to do anything."

What Ritsuka was unaware of, was that Havel had already given him the benefit of the doubt. That being the only thing that had probably saved his life at the time. The moment he had been summoned, his already damaged mind was awash with even more confusion. However, when the information regarding the summoning of Heroic Spirits had filtered through to his head….

He had been less than pleased.

The murderous rage which had overtaken his body was very difficult to control, to the extent that he had almost lashed out the second he caught sight of the pair in front of him. More specifically on the boy, he could feel a link with the plan looking child immediately and knew that they were his summoner.

As for why he stopped himself, he remembered...something.

Flashes of a burning city he had never been to and a fight with a young knight wielding a tower shield. His mind was still trying to make sense of the memories but he doubted he would get more of them. Although some small part of him had been hoping the boy wasn't a mage, the fragmented images detailed a similar boy but they never appeared to cast a single sorcery.

That had made him ask the question of whether or not the boy was a mage.

A pity he had answered it as expected. He had told the boy exactly what he thought of him.

Scum.

Because he was, in Havels mind, scum. Mages and their ilk were all cowards, worse than that they were pompous arrogant bootlickers. He'd seen it before with how so many scrounged and scraped at Seath's feet to gain even a sliver of his knowledge.

Ignoring the atrocities the Paledrake had committed because they saw an opportunity to better themselves. Justice for the filthy wyrm's crimes would never come as long as those spell slinging rats continued to harbour their arrogant desires.

He had more cause than most to hate Seath, but that didn't make anything he believed any less true. Sorcerers were all of a piece, concerned only with how they could help themselves and damn anyone else for that matter. Even Gwyn was guilty of this, offering his own daughter to the foul snake. At least he had the sense to remove the abomination, hopefully he killed the thing in its crib.

It would be better for all involved and would be Gwyn's one smart move in relation to the Drake.

Havel stomped through the halls, the few staff members present instantly ducked out of the way of the giant armoured man. Then again, standing a little over two hundred and twenty centimetres meant he was easily the second tallest Servant Chaldea had summoned thus far, the Dragon Slayer Armour still having another fifty centimetres height over him.

He also had the intensity to go with it, his presence as a Berserker was a complete antithesis to the Armour. Whereas the Dragon Slayer armour had the stature of an intimidating force, they were quiet and daresay tranquil. It wasn't like a feeling of being uncomfortable or a present emotion of rage. The Dragon Slayer Armour could almost blend into the background their presence was that small, despite their enormous stature there had been repeated instances of the Armour seemingly materialising.

Havel was not like the Armour.

He permeated an ever flowing stream of anger, it was a directionless hatred which seemed to focus on anything that crossed his sight. The reason behind it being that Havel had quickly come to the conclusion that everyone here had some relation to mages in some capacity. Either being mages themselves or their associates. Not that any of the staff could know that Havel despised them purely because of what they were, even if they did. Most of the remaining staff would have simply written him off as a Luddite commoner.

If any of them had said that to his face, however, Havel would have begrudgingly given them a nod of respect for their courage…

And a painful death to match.

He rounded a corner just in time for something to collide with his chest-

"Ouch!" And bounce off him, he slowly looked down to see a pink haired young boy? Girl? He thought they were a boy but he wasn't so sure. The pink haired androgynous child was rubbing their forehead where a small red mark was present from running headlong into the Berserker "Who put that...wall…" the pink haired child grumbled to themselves, then slowly trailed off as they looked up, and up, and up, until they found themselves staring into the dark pits of Havel's eye ports.

"There…" He finished with a squeak, the pair remained silent for a few moments before Astolfo got back to his feet. Quickly dusting off his knee's and patting his backside which he had fallen on, he instantly sent a wide grin at Havel's direction "Yahoo! I'm Astolfo! Paladin of Charlemagne and the cutest Servant in Chaldea! I take it you're new?" he asked, then began laughing before Havel could even process the sentence "Of course you are!" the boy exclaimed, slapping himself on the forehead "I haven't seen you before so you must be new here! That means you were only just summoned right? Have you had the tour yet? No? Then let this little paladin be your guide!" he span around and started to skip down the hallway "Don't stand there too long big guy! Our adventure awaits!"

Havel remained still as he watched the Servant prance about the hallway. His brows slowly furrowed behind his helmet. This Astolfo was acting eerily similar to another individual he knew, although he was dubious as to whether or not Ledo could match the boy's enthusiasm even on his worst days. It wasn't that he bore Ledo any ill-will, in fact he was one of the few who Havel could still call a good friend before…

Well, Ledo was a good man. If a little eccentric at times. Although that did separate him from the others in a positive way.

Havel grumbled to himself, much like Ledo, Astolfo seemed to have a bizarre pull to him. As if the boy simply attracted chaos by walking around, if nothing else the boy didn't seem to be a mage. So that was already a positive in his books.

Although he would have to check.

"Boy…" Havel growled out as best he could, Astolfo paused and turned around to face the knight. Then frowned, cupping his chin and walking up to him.

"Your voice doesn't sound all that healthy. Maybe you should try some water first? Actually, would water even work on sore throats now that we are dead? Huh...now that's weird. What if I get a cold and need to drink something!?" His voice turned more panicked. Havel stared at him in complete silence.

"You...Ma...ge…?" He cut him off, the Paladin blinked in surprise before grinning.

"Not at all! I used to spend a lot of time under Charlemagne fighting evil Mages and stuff like that!" He boasted "They were always doing loads of weird stuff, although Bradamante always hated magi more than me, she seemed to have a weird grudge about it but I forgot what it was...the moon stole my sanity you know? But that's great because I hate thinking because if you think for something long enough you get sad and you might not do it an-"

Havel placed his hand over the boys mouth, the size of his palm easily covering half Astolfo's face. What Havel found disconcerting was that the boy didn't immediately stop talking, he could still hear mumblings from the pink haired child for a few seconds before the seemingly realised their predicament and went silent. Staring at Havel with somewhat confused eyes for a few moments before they seemed to light up with realisation.

Astolfo took a single step back, drawing in a deep breath before he spoke again "I was doing that thing where I keep talking for too long wasn't I?"

"...Y...es…" Havel replied.

"So anyway!" Astolfo clapped his hands together "I'm a Rider class Servant! What are you?"

"Ber...ser...ker…"

"Wow!" Astolfo gaped "You're really different from the other Berserker we have, she's less angry and more single minded." pausing for a few moments, he cupped his chin in thought and hummed "Although Kiyohime is a little weird, all that stuff in her legend but I suppose that's what happens when you turn yourself into a Dragon, you can't expect to keep all your marbles...or any of them."

"…"

"...What?"

"Dra...gon?" Havel asked in a quiet tone of voice, Astolfo mistook it more for confusion rather than for what it actually was.

"Huh? Yes, she's a Dragon." He admitted "Although she doesn't actually look like your normal dragon, she's really a tiny little girl with some horns...heh...she's actually smaller than me. Shame she's only got eyes for Master because she's actually kind of cute although there is some weird saying about 'don't stick your dick in crazy' which is nonsense because I'm mad but people always had the best sex with me!"

Havel had long since drowned out the insane ramblings of the boy, instead his mind was entirely focused on the earlier part of his sentence.

There was a Dragon here.

Mages consorting with Dragons yet again…

"-here was always the thing about whether who would top, but maybe that relates to it...If I'm crazy and I have sex with someone does it still count?" Astolfo pondered to himself, then turned to his conversing partner "What do you think?"

Then noticed he was alone in the hallway "Eh?" the Paladin looked around the room in slight confusion at the missing Servant before a frown came to his face "I knew he would be eager to explore Chaldea, but I wish he would have waited for me."

Havel stomped down the corridors, his rage simmering behind his armour. If one could see his face, they would have seen only a monstrous snarl as an expression. The logical part of his mind was trying to ascertain that perhaps the Dragons of this world were different, or at the very least they weren't all like Seath.

A pity that he was a Berserker, else the logical part of his mind would have had more say in his actions. As it stood, he had gifted the boy a small lifeline in that he granted him the benefit of the doubt so as to not immediately kill him on the spot. His fleeting kindness had been rewarded with news that the mage was no different to any of the others.

That showed him for being too soft.

He had no idea where he was going, but he was moving towards the area where he could detect the highest concentration of Servant signatures. Either the wyrm would be there of they wouldn't and he would have to continue his search elsewhere.

Kiyohime remained blank faced as she sampled the dish in front of her, humming to herself before looking up at Siegward "This is a desert?"

"Quite so." The man nodded with a smile "Used for large social gatherings and festivals, we call it a Sunrise cake."

"Sunrise?"

"Old wives tale." Siegward chuckled "Although it always makes me laugh...they original said that one of the cooks for the royal family of the Gods had been struggling to make a perfect desert for a wedding, although whose I couldn't tell you, but she had been working herself to the bone all through the night. However, she couldn't get the right inspiration and there was always some small mistake that she felt ruined the cake."

Kiyohime frowned "That does sound troubling, although the idea of someone else making a cake for mine and Anchin-sama's wedding troubles me more."

Siegward's smile turned slightly strained "Well...I assume not all in the Gods family were as diligent as you...or determined." he muttered before shaking his head "Anyway it was the day of the wedding and the poor girl was pale as a sheet, I imagine. But they say that in her despair, the first few rays of sunlight shone down upon her...and as if she were blessed by the divine Knowledge of the Lord of Sunlight himself, she went straight back to work and made the perfect cake...hence the name."

"Sounds…" Kiyohime searched for the right words "...quite far-fetched...but making a cake for Anchin-sama…" she giggled to herself.

"Far-fetched or not, it was apparently a very good cake." He shrugged, then paused as he considered something "Although now that I think about it...I am curious as to how the royal baker could keep continuously making mistakes all through the night."

"Maybe she kept eating the cakes." Cu pondered with a shrug "Or she was new or something."

"Could be." Arash admitted, then frowned "But I imagine that the cook of a God would be more skilled."

"Made worse when you realise Anor Londo was populated entirely by Lords." Ash offered his own contribution, a troubled expression playing on his face "It would technically mean she would have had decades, if not centuries of experience in the kitchen."

"What...like a God of cakes?" Beatrice squinted at him from above the ring of her mug, slightly intoxicated "What a shit thing to be God of...You'd probably keep eating them and get fat."

"I'm not so sure." Cu scratched his cheek as he replied "Apparently, according to my Teacher, a lot of the Gods had this weird habit of being blessed with perfect bodies. So they could stuff their faces or be as lazy as they wanted and their form would never change."

"Sounds good for them." Ash huffed "Although considering Gwyndolin has been around since the first Age of Fire I can believe it."

"Where is he anyway?" Arash asked "I haven't seen him since we got back."

"Not like he has much in common with us." Ash gestured to the table "Yorshka said he was Captain of the Darkmoon knights, although I doubt he actually did much fighting."

"I'd say he pulled his weight in Rome." Arash replied "So it's not like he's an amateur."

"You never saw his older brother fight though." Ash huffed, Cu nodding alongside him with a grin "Difference between the two is frightening."

"Was he that good?" Arash wondered, Cu nodded his head.

"I'm an honest guy, I like to think. I know which fights I can win and which I can't...I could probably take the guy…" He tapped his finger on the table for a few moments before nodding his head "Two times out of ten. That's without adding his big 'fuck off' dragon into the mix."

"I think it was a Drake." Siegward suddenly piped up "Dragons have arms don't they?" earning blank looks from everyone else on the table before he got a few nods in response. "Although he was more powerful than a normal Wyvern…"

"Stormdrake." Ash offered "Must have been more closely related to the Everlasting Archdragons than the Wyverns considering they had four wings rather than two."

"Your dragons had four wings?"

"Hmm." Ash nodded "Arms too. Midir was...I'd say bigger than the Dragon in France...probably more powerful too."

"Really?" Cu raised an eyebrow before squinting "Sure you aren't bigging yourself up?"

"Considering that Midir was an Archdragon and it normally took the likes of Faraam to slay one then yes, I'd say more powerful." Ash replied before a frown came to his face "Although I didn't fight Fafnir so I can't comment too greatly on it, only by what I saw."

"Take your word for it." Arash smiled at him "Still, Dragon Slaying is one heck of a skill to have. Anything else you killed?"

"A tree."

"...A lot of lumberjacks do that too."

"No, it was-" A horrible tearing sound brought the cafeteria into dead silence and their eyes snapping over to the door of the room as it was ripped from its hinges. It had gone through a similar experience that Ash had put Da Vinci's door through, likely for the same reason as the person being confused as to why a door would open upwards.

A large figure ducked underneath the doorframe and moved into the room.

Ash and Cu rapidly tensed themselves in recognition. Havel straightened themselves out, returning to their full height before looking down at the ruins of the door.

"We..ird…" Havel grunted in a mixture of annoyance and confusion before looking away from the door and towards the nearest concentration of Servants.

Whereupon his gaze fixed itself upon Kiyohime.

"Kiyohime." Ash whispered to her, earning a slightly confused look from the dragon girl as Ash materialised his helmet and tensed his sword arm "It might be best if you go for now, Beatrice go with her."

"Huh?" The pair looked at him in confusion, even Siegward and Arash sent them similar looks only to see the deadly serious expressions on Cu and Ash's faces.

"Now." Ash replied more fiercely before he stepped towards Havel, his left hand outstretched in a halting gesture "Bishop Havel...I realise there may be some disdain, but we are all allies here…"

Havel didn't reply, save continue to stare at Kiyohime as she and Beatrice were ushered away and towards the other side of the room.

The Berserker took a single step forwards.

"Bishop Havel." Ash spoke more sternly "It would not do for violence to break out amongst fellows. There is no need for-"

"She's...a...dragon…" Havel growled out, Ash stilled as the Servant materialised his club and shield "Enough...need…"

"Shit!" Ash cursed and moved in between Havel and pair as the Berserker charged forwards, swinging his club down. Ash brought his Onyx blade into existence and held it above his head with one hand at either end of the blade.

He was instantly brought to his knee's by the first strike, the sound echoing about the entire cafeteria and the force causing cracks to appear in the floor.

"Easy there big guy!" Havel stepped back, the sharp edge tip of a red spear glancing just past the joint of his arm. He turned away from Ash and found himself staring at Cu, the Servant wielding the red spear in his hands while Arash readied his bow behind him. Siegward had prioritised the safety of Beatrice and Kiyohime, standing protectively in front of the pair with his armour on and Stormruler in his grip.

Havel stared at the Lancer, then tilted his head to the side slightly "Not...cat...alyst…?"

"Huh?" Cu blinked at the man then nodded his head "Yeah, summoned as a Druid last we met. Hate that, I much prefer working with a spear." he flashed the Servant a deadly grin "Always happy to show someone why."

Havel growled at the challenge taking a single step towards the Lancer. The man tensed and lowered himself into a stance where he would be able to rush forwards instantly. The pair glared at eachother. The former Bishop looked just over Cu's shoulder to Arash, the normally jovial man held a stern expression with an arrow drawn back, aimed directly at him.

Ash's sword blitzed to life with black fire, earning a momentary jolt of surprise from Havel before his posture tightened considerably.

Havel had been there from the start of the War against the Dragons until its final days. He had been there when the pygmies forged their Dark into weapons and armour. He knew the taint of the Soul of Man, so he knew the perverse nature of the undead's flames. The stone knight growled, preparing himself to move-

"Havel." The giant froze on the spot. His simmering anger abated in place of something cold. The stone giant slowly turned their head towards the direction of the door.

Gwyndolin stood there, just past the ruins of the entrance and stared at him from behind his sun mask.

Havel stared at the Prince, his form giving away nothing as he took in the form of the boy.

Gwyndolin and Havel engaged in a pseudo staring contest for a few moments before the ex-Bishop grunted "Still...wor...king….with….dra….gons….?"

"Don't be stupid." Gwyndolin snapped back "The Dragon child is many things, the reincarnation of Seath she is not. More than that, doest thou think the amateur slinger of sorcery cowering behind her is of the ilk thee despised so greatly?"

"...Could...be…" Havel replied back, although he sounded somewhat unsure of himself.

"Need I remind thee of mine own talent in the art of Sorcery." Gwyndolin pointed out coldly "Wouldst thou declare me a vile practitioner and demand my head as well?"

Havel didn't say anything for a few moments before he grunted again "...No."

"No indeed." Gwyndolin huffed "Begone, thou hath embarrassed thyself enough for one afternoon."

"Don't...take...orders….from...you…" Havel pointed out, now sounding more angered than before "Gwyn...saw...to...tha...t…"

Gwyndolin didn't say anything for a few moments, his jaw was clenched "Need thee be reminded of thy agreement with the crow vixen?"

Havel stilled for a few moments before he slowly shook his head, his club and shield disappeared, causing the Servants to relax themselves somewhat. The Stone Bishop remained where he was for a few moments more, giving one last glare in Kiyohime and Beatrice's direction before he stomped back the way he came, moving past Gwyndolin but not before the Lord got one final word out.

"And do not allow thy temperament to kill the summoner. It would be most problematic for all involved."

Havel stopped, looking down at Gwyndolin for a few seconds "Ma...ge…" the man grunted, as if that was reason enough to avoid showing him any respect. Then he disappeared down the hallway.

Gwyndolin watched him leave before his lips curled into a slight frown, exhaling, the Lord turned and moved away.

"Thanks for the help pal." He paused, Cu's voice brought his slithering to a stop "A little disappointed I didn't get a rematch with him, but its all good I guess."

"Thou art most conceited, crossbreed." Gwyndolin replied back after a few moments, although his usage of the word was less of an insult and more of a title. "Even as he is, the Bishop Havel would have killed nearly all in this room with his strength alone."

"Not so sure about that." Cu replied dryly "Killed him once before-"

"Then thee caught him at a poor time…" He sighed "And he is without much of his former divinity...The Bishop who once could have challenged Ser Artorias in strength." he muttered lowly before he disappeared.

The room remained silent for a few moments before Cu scoffed, Gae Bolg disappearing "He seems like a bundle of laughs."

"We have bigger issues than the Lords temperament." Ash pointed out "Havel is now aware of certain individuals." his eyes slid over to Kiyohime and Beatrice, Cu and Arash followed his gaze before the pair grimaced.

"Think he'll cause problems?"

"For now?" Ash frowned "I'm not sure, Gwyndolin appears to have talked him down...but he's in the Class of Berserker, sound arguments will likely not hold sway on him for long."

"Best keep an eye on them for the meantime then." Arash pursed his lips "Although I'm all for giving someone the benefit of the doubt, might just be he needs time."

"Might...but I've met a few like him." Cu scowled "Guys who couldn't let go of grudges. Won't lie, they're not ones for changing their ways."

"I apologise for the scare, Lady Kiyohime." Siegward spoke in a quiet tone to the Dragon girl as he led them back to the table "I hope you were not too badly frightened?"

"Hmph." Kiyohime scoffed "As if, while I might not be the strongest of Berserkers and that one might have had the feel of a Dragon slayer, the power of love would have seen me through."

"...Quite so." Siegward mumbled to himself, then turned to Beatrice "And you?"

"A Bishop of Gwyn, the Lord of Sunlight, just walked into this room and wanted to crush my skull like a clay pot." Beatrice whimpered "...I'm not feeling too great right now."

Siegward pat her on the shoulder "Not to worry, I'm sure it was simply a case of poor first impressions. I imagine he is quite a swell fellow, once you get to know him!"

"Really?"

"Of course!"Siegward exclaimed with a wide smile, although if one looked carefully into his eyes they would have seen a trickling of doubt. He did genuinely believe that there might be a more friendly nature to the Berserker...he just wasn't so confident in it right now.

"So…" Ash rested his hand on the table, leaning on it as he directed a troubled gaze towards the broken remains of the door "...Who is going to tell Lady Da Vinci about the door?"

"Well you've already built up a repertoire with her!" Arash slapped him on the shoulder, giving him an encouraging grin "I'm sure you can soften the blow."

"Eh?"

"Not to worry pal." Cu reassured him "If anything goes wrong, just use some of that 'resurrection' you're always boasting about!"

Ash scrunched his face up with slight annoyance at the pair before turning back to stare at the door, a troubled expression came to his face before he sighed "Fine...I suppose I will at least be able to point out it was not me."

"Yeah." The Archer grinned at him "I'm sure that she will understand."

Despite their reassuring words, Ash was somewhat unsure that Da Vinci would be as accepting as they were letting on. Considering she seemed quite aggrieved about the last door. Although that might have been because it was her door specifically. His other concern was how Olga would react to news of more damage to Chaldea.

Havel's footfalls were considerably heavier, matching the level of irritation he currently felt at his predicament. Deep down, he knew that Gwyndolin had been correct but that didn't do much to alleviate his anger.

All he could see when he saw the crossbreed was Seath. The vile paledrake and then there was the witch. The woman was dressed in rags, which marked her as an outcast of the sorcerer schools. He very much doubted that the Crossbreed could match Seath's intelligence, but it was more of what she was than anything else.

His fists tightened considerably, almost to the point where he broke his own fingers. He paused as he moved past another room. The door was slightly ajar and he could hear grunts and laboured breathing coming from inside.

Ordinarily, he would have merely continued walking but he wanted something to take his mind off his earlier encounter. He stepped towards the open door, ducking down slightly so he could poke his head inside and get a better look.

The room itself was rather spacious, with over a dozen contraptions lining the walls or scattered about inside. Havel furrowed his brows as he saw what appeared to be solid lumps of steel forged into circles lining several metal racks. They were all of different sizes.

'Weights' He surmised to himself. He wasn't unfamiliar with the concept. Although the Silver Knights had used bags full on stone rather than steel. For starters, wasting good metal during the middle of a War would have been a very stupid thing to do.

He supposed this was some manner of training room, although it was quite a bit different to the ones he was used to. His eyes moved away from the equipment and towards the centre of the room. Standing with his arms crossed was a knight in bright silver armour. For a moment, Havel thought the Knight was looking at him before he realised that they simply had faces carved into their helmet.

An odd practice but if intimidation was an aim it was certainly an effective one.

"You can manage another ten, my Liege." The man barked out, raising their hand and gesturing to another spot "Squire Kyrielight is already on one hundred, you have barely passed fifteen."

Havel followed his finger and saw the small lilac haired girl from when he first arrived, she was doing push-ups and didn't look as if she was struggling that greatly. That and she was clad in…

Havel frowned.

'Where's the rest of the armour?' He pondered briefly, it covered her torso, her shins and her forearms...but that was it. Her thighs and upper biceps were well exposed, if he was going to attack her he'd do it there. Still, that didn't detract from her minor achievement of exercising in armour, although the Silver Knights did so in full plate.

Although she was presumably human, so there was that.

He turned his gaze back to where the knight had been originally looking, then squinted his eyes in confusion.

The black haired boy was doing push-ups of his own, although he wasn't wearing any sort of armour to hinder him. If he was being honest, the boy looked like he was dying with how heavily he was breathing. His face was growing red and there was almost a waterfall of sweat pouring down his face.

If Havel was being blunt. It was a pathetic display. Something more than that bothered him, most Sorcerers he knew didn't bother with physical labour, most didn't even touch a sword in their life.

So why was the boy bothering?

Havel silently watched as the boy struggled, he was approaching his twenty fifth push-up before he stopped. His arms visibly trembling as he struggled to maintain himself.

"Enough, my Liege." The Knight shook their head "Perhaps it was too much to expect for a beginner-"

"N-no…" The boy choked out, gasping for breath as they pushed their arms down a final time. Their chin kissed the floor before they took in a deep breath, then slowly began to rise as they used what little remained of their strength to force themselves back up into the starting position "T...twen….twenty...five…" the boy grit out through their teeth.

That was apparently all they could manage before they flopped onto their face like a dead fish.

Havel's face remained blank as he withdrew himself from the door. Just catching a glimpse of the girl rushing over to help him up. The fool had most certainly over-exerted himself in training, there was little doubt in that regards and he would probably be paying for it for the next few hours and probably into the next day.

Although he at least made the attempt, even if it cost him in the end. He finished his target. Havel guessed he probably would have given up because it was too hard, although he'd never met a mage who would exercise.

Havel's lips curled into a thoughtful frown. It was early days, the boy was still a mage at the end of it all. However, perhaps he had been too premature in his judgment. He would give the boy the benefit of the doubt for now, he'd make sure to watch him closely to see if he exhibited any of the signs of the mages he was more used to dealing with.

If he did, Havel lost nothing.

If he didn't? Well...That would be a first.

AN: Havel's here! And he's watching Ritsuka!

So yeah, first Servant who might be a little problematic purely because he is surrounded my things he hates. Yeah, so we'll be doing a few more of these, during which some more Servants will be summoned and then we'll move onto Artemis robbing Chaldea's food stores.