(An unexceptional village near Washington)

"I heard there was a massacre a few villages over," the woman told Jeanne in a hushed voice when asked about the rumored Brave. "The person who told me about it heard from a reliable source that people were seen lying scattered on the ground like chaff."

"Hmm, these 'reports' are all rather unreliable, I get why Helena wasn't inclined to take any action," Sasaku commented after the human was out of hearing range.

"You know how these things go, right?" Ruby commented from where it was sitting on her chest. Though apparently magical girl clothes were taken as yet another odd foreign fashion trend, no one would miss a floating wand for anything mundane, so the Kaledostick was disguised as a decorative piece on a necklace.

"I don't doubt that a single Servant could cause a 'massacre' but there would not much point militarily? Unless the goal is terrorizing the local population so they will capitulate?" Nobunaga suggested.

"It wouldn't be the first time," Gudako agreed. "But for that sort of operation, you just need some rumors. After all, the fake terrifying news will spread rapidly and even evolve while doing so. Besides, the war doesn't seem so bitter that either side would be targeting civilians. Then again, maybe that means the rumors wouldn't work. Hmm, it's hard to say."

"As Helena said, the Braves don't usually leave Medb's side. However, just one or two of them could have an outsized strategic impact if it makes the Americans spread out their defenses. Unfortunately, beating up on villages is the safest way to force that dilemma on them," d'Eon frowned. "Even though the Dictator thinks this is a possibility, he's decided that even in the worst case, losing the people is the less bad option."

"Compared to setting his forces up for some devastating defeats in detail by the Celts?" Artoria asked rhetorically.

"Basically. The situation is very different from the England-France Channel where the Queendom's navy failed to press though a landing against the Union's defensive fortification network set up by French Special Minister for Defense, Maginot. It's still a rather bold move to try and threaten the capital so directly right off the bat."

"I take it Medb has a taste for 'going for the throat' then," Marie suggested.

"Well, she's been very upset ever since they lost hopes of gains back on the continent. Though don't forget they have kept this multi-generational aspiration to reunify their lost American holdings alive even before she arrived."

l

(Several villages later, the next day...)

"Well, this was the place according to our actual first-hand witness," Nobunaga looked around the forest clearing which had clear signs of recent logging activity. "I don't see anything, perhaps this was a wild goose chase after all? At least there don't seem to be any bodies or mass graves. Wait, I see some movement over there..."

"Wait, stop ! We're here to help on orders of the Dictator !" d'Eon quickly rushed over to catch the particularly brave lumberjack who had not abandoned the camp or perhaps done so and then returned later on.

"Do you really not know what happened here?" he asked the group after being cajoled into providing his testimony.

"We heard there was a Queendom Brave in the area, and even a... mass casualty event," Artoria prompted him gently. "The Dictator wanted us to evaluate and handle the threat, but it doesn't seem like such a disaster actually took place?"

"Oh, but it was a disaster," the lumberjack replied, going pale from the memory of it. "People were lying scattered on the ground like chaff, but thankfully they were not assaulted further, so their lives were spared."

"Huh. That's interesting," Jeanne wondered from the back of the group.

"At first we thought it was a sort of traveling performance group, the sort that go along with merchant convoys to share protection and unlock market synergies. But actually, when their first singer stormed the stage..."

"I'm getting a bad feeling about this," Gudako muttered to Gudao. "This sounds way too familiar."

"We should have paid more attention to the fact they were armed with the traditional panoply of the Celts - a long sword and shield. And armor, though the Redcoats also wear that."

"I take it the Braves use such equipment because... they're summoned from the past," Gudao asked d'Eon, who simply shrugged.

"I don't see anyone here now, when did this happen?" Marie asked.

"A few days ago. It seems they didn't destroy anything and didn't return after leaving either."

"Thank you for the information, your cooperation with our investigation is appreciated," d'Eon dismissed the brave lumberjack.

"You're not thinking to pursue them, are you?" he asked in some surprise. "We may have simply been too far beneath them, but I doubt even a Brave would feel any reason to hold back against soldiers."

"... Artoria, if you would?" Marie suggested quietly to her friend.

"Hmm, well this would help out the Dictator I suppose." After thinking about it, the Saber took out her Sword of Assured Victory. "I take it you understand what this is."

"Ah, so the rumors from Washington were true."

"You know, we'll have a problem if anyone spots us armed," Scathach said as they left in the direction pointed out by the lumberjack before he returned to the nearest town to encourage his workmates to return to the logging site. "If using a spear or a sword is a known characteristic of Queendom Braves, it could cause even more rumors of Braves stalking the countryside."

"That's true - if we were traveling without any colors," Marie agreed with the Caster. "But we have a banner-carrier with us, right?"

"Huh, me?" Jeanne realized what the Rider was suggesting. "Oh that's right, it seems in this timeline the French Revolution didn't occur."

"Oh it did," d'Eon quickly corrected her. "But apparently the purges weren't that through, since Queen Marie from Austria eventually lead the Royalists in a takeover resulting in the current Personal Union. I suppose it helps that... well probably she was summoned in Austria and used their forces as a bargaining chip in the Celt-French conflict, then parlayed that into wider popular support."

"Wait, so you mean the revolutionaries had successfully killed the French royalty, which actually made it easier for her to create the Union?" Nobunaga seemed surprised by this.

"I assume they actually killed the human Marie too, presumably the one people think of as leading the Union was summoned by... given the current situation it could have been the Counter Force trying to balance Medb? Normally, she'd be weak to revolutionaries, but since they had already suffered in fighting against the Celts and welcomed Austrian support, it was too late for them by the time public opinion had started shifting back to the idea of a monarchy. She never really fought them, in that sense."

"So what's the government in France like now?" Artoria wondered aloud.

"Like I said, France is in a Personal Union with Austria, but there's no French aristocracy except for literally Queen Marie so they have all the structures of the post-Revolution republic, sans all the successors of revolutionaries who were largely 'turned upon' by the voters and replaced by more pro-monarchy politicians."

"Via the ballot box?" Artoria asked for clarification.

"Yes. Though less because of some non-existent tradition regarding peaceful transfer of power, as much as Marie specifically made it clear she had no interest in pursuing the past as long as the losers accepted the voting results. Unsurprisingly, with Austrian and French soldiers being pro-monarchy, and themselves lacking popular support, they were happy to 'listen to the will of the people'."

"They must have been sure they killed... me though? Actually just the time-frames involved -"

"Yes, well that's just part of the myth about Queen Marie now I suppose. I mean King Arthur returns in his country's time of need too, or in this case Queen Medb," d'Eon looked over at Artoria. "If, as I assume, the Marie out east was a Servant, they're probably not around any more since you're here. As a Rogue Servant it would seem she accomplished a lot by not getting involved in direct fighting."

"Economizing on her supply of magical energy," Gudao noted. "But if Medb manifested around the same time, wouldn't she be in the same situation?"

"Well, there's some ways around that, as we know..." Gudako shrugged.

"I never spoke with the, uh, second Marie (summoned in Austria) so you know," d'Eon added. "She seems to have sent word about me and Chaldea over to America before I was even summoned. Meanwhile I manifested with some letters of introduction from the Marie I spoke with on the Throne -"

"Right, I remember telling you to ask her for help."

"Hmm, they seem to be moving northwards parallel to the coast," d'Eon commented after the group encountered another village of somewhat frightened but unharmed farmers. "I wonder what that might mean."

"Maybe it's a diversion?" Nobunaga suggested. "Sure, on their own a single Servant could take on a fort of humans, but they would run out of energy and have to retreat. Unless they were a Caster who could set up something to siphon mana from the environment."

"Or take it from people directly," Artoria pointed out. "But since they simply left a large number of helpless villagers alone, that doesn't seem to be their strategy."

"There's not many defenses along the coast, actually." d'Eon informed Nobunaga. "When Medb started pivoting from the Continent over to the New World, Maginot sent a team of fortification engineers to advise the Senate on preparing to repel naval invasions but they didn't take him up on it. By all accounts they wanted an 'Atlantic Wall II' and didn't understand that even Maginot's successful defensive setup wouldn't satisfy their requirements."

"So, instead they just didn't have defenses and now they're getting invaded." Jeanne shook her head.

"It's understandable if they didn't think they had enough to put down on the table so to speak," Sasaku shrugged. "If I recall correctly the rule of thumb was one land cannon equals three naval ones, but a fleet has quite a lot of guns and can pick where to go pretty easily. Basically if you can't form up a decent phalanx it's better to go all-in on the other parts and never take a direct fight."

"There's only so many places with really good ports you could use to enable a large-scale invasion," d'Eon pointed out. "And since they have quite a lot of activity around them, keeping garrisons equipped and in good maintenance is quite cheap - which are the main costs. Maginot basically realized that if the enemy wanted to occupy a port they had to obviously be able to get troops ashore, and advocated using carronades and mortars as a way to make a port hard to take."

"Right... combined with rapid reaction forces, the attacker would have to pick between a long bombardment and no surprise, a close-in assault with high casualties and ship losses, or try to land in other less useful ports or areas, which would mean accepting a certain amount of logistical bottlenecking. All with the possibility of being caught out by the defender's mobile arms," Artoria realized. "That's quite a clever strategy."

"Well the Senate decided they rather try pushing up north instead for some quick territorial gains and lost a lot there. Since the Union wasn't interested in even pretending to try to invade the Queendom, it wasn't long before the red sails made their way all across the ocean and well, you know the rest."

"By the way," Scathach added suddenly, "Somewhere in that forest ahead might be one of the leyline nodes we've been looking for."

"That's great news," Gudao couldn't help but feel worried that the enemy Servant had apparently been headed essentially directly to it, though. "Let's not get careless though, there's all sorts of beasts in the wildernesses, and this is a Singularity on top of that."

"I for one can't wait to try hunting some of these famous animals I've been hearing about," Nobunaga already had her favorite arquebus out. "We can use some additional food supplies, right?"

(Approaching a small forest clearing)

"Wait. I sense two Servant-level signatures," Jeanne warned her fellows. "And obviously there might be others with Presence Concealment."

"Hmm." Gudako wasn't overly concerned by this report, since the Chaldeans were already in a combat formation. "Nobunaga, can you make out anything?"

"Sorry," the Archer apologized. "But while all this foliage wouldn't normally block my perception so much, there's something odd going on here."

"Can you tell if there's a Bounded Field nearby?" Sasaku asked Scathach. "It might be disguised, of course."

"If we're about to enter someone else's domain, breaking down their front gate wouldn't make for the most friendly first impression," the Caster murmured while switching out her wand for the druid's staff. "Let's see... hmm, well it does seem to be of a familiar magecraft type. Not the strongest, though I suppose they may have been prioritizing subtlety."

Gudao thought over the situation. "Well, we aren't definitely in conflict with the Brave, assuming they're one of the two. It's not likely they have more than a couple of Assassins hiding around, so we should be able to take them in the worst case."

"I agree," Gudako laid out their plan quickly. "Scathach, please be prepared to, if need be, dispel the Boundary Field from inside. Jeanne, besides the usual, try to disrupt the enemy Caster if they turn out to be an enemy. Artoria, Marie, Nobunaga, if they turn hostile, go all out. If they see what we're bringing and still want to take a fight with us, it would be foolish to hold back. Oh and we might be able to resupply from the node if we win, I guess."

"What about me?" Sasaku asked.

"You need to be the one to hold back and be attentive for reinforcements. Nobunaga, since your ranged capabilities are so flexible, keep an eye on her and switch to any new enemies that show up.

l

Notes:

If you're wondering how the French side of the Union was both voting and had ended up with a queen, it's fairly straightforward - basically enough Royalists got voted in that they were able to (with popular support) pass official recognition for Marie's status as explicitly the only viable French monarch. Since she has no heirs and the rest of the Austrian royalty/nobles were already excluded, the Union presumably ends whenever they decide to actually reveal that she isn't around anymore.

Also, the Union doesn't have contiguous land borders, and Austria is landlocked, so there wasn't as much inter-mingling of power structures or populations as one might first imagine, despite how literal armies were moving from Austria to France to help defend against the Queendom.