Hello everybody and welcome back to the start of chapter 25 of the story! January as come and go (with it being an absolute trainwreck for the fgo community) and let's hope that February brings better days for the game. Now with all said, let's start it!

DISCLAIMER: All the Nasuverse characters belong to Nasu and are property of Type-Moon, with the exception of the OC's that belong to me, the author.


"With all due respect, you should leave. Right now."

Ritsuka and the others from his group stood in shock as they heard the woman say those words so coldly. They couldn't comprehend for why the rudeness in the woman's words. Their territory had been annexed by the enemy, so why weren't they happy for being freed from them?

"W-what?" Mash said perplexed.

"You took the people who were protecting this village away from us." An old man stepped forward from the civillians group. "They'd supply us with food, water and whatnot. Now how will we manage to survive without those resources?"

"They were helping you?" Nala asked confused.

"Yes! And now you cut out our main way to survive!" A man said agressively to them.

"But wait! Aren't you part from the Roman Empire too? I tought you disliked to be under the control of someone else that wasn't your own homeland and emperor. Don't you guys like Nero as your emperor?" Peko talked to them, not understanding for such unhappiness that the people from the village were having. They all should be smiling and celebrating to have their hometown no longer at the hands of the enemy. But that wasn't the case here.

The woman frowned upon hearing Nero's name. "That jerk has left us to rot here alone for some time now!" The woman said in anger, trying to contain her tears. "The so called 'emperor' has prohibited other regions of the empire to make commercial trade with us and make our entire population slowly run out of food. The crops that we collect here can barely feed all of us!" The woman was now crying more intensily. "All because we didn't had enough money to pay for a stupid statue that Nero wanted to built in the center of our village!"

The Chaldea group just stood paralyzed as they watch the woman now fell down to her knees and sobbing even more. The image and revelation just hit them hard, not knowing exactly how to respond.

"Since we couldn't provide attention and devotion to her, Emperor Nero had deemed us worthless and useless, isolating us from the rest of the empire." The old man said sadly, trying to comfort the crying woman. "You're only here because Nero's enemy has occupied this territory and she felt threatned by it. And while they like to spread viscious lies and rumours about the enemy, they actually treated us very well and helped our village prosper during the time period of their control."

The previous Cleopatra's words resounded on Peko's mind, making the boy make a short gasp. "That's the mistake she was talking about?!"

"Hey, look. We didn't knew about that situation and didn't meant to jeopardize your village." Ritsuka tried to explain to the angry group of people. "I...was thinking we were doing the right thing."

"Save your excuses for later moron!" A person from the group shouted at Ritsuka, pointing it's finger at him. "You still came here with Nero's army and generals to destroy the people who actually cared about us! You even killed the previous emperor Caligula who looked out for us! And you're now trying to feign ignorance?!"

With Ritsuka being unable to respond to such accusation, Mash stepped forward to back him up. "We didn't do it out of spite or to harm you! We really didnt-ggh!" Mash's nerves went into action as the shielder felt her wounds behind her bandages, recoiling her body in pain.

Ritsuka immediatly grabbed her by the shoulder. "Mash! Are you okay?" He asked to his servant.

"You shouldn't move too much Mash! You still have to recover from your wounds." Nala said to the shielder, advising her to make slower moves with the body.

"You guys are Nero's scum! You only set us 'free' to put our village into isolation again!" another person from the group said. "You might as well try but we this time won't give up so easily! We'll fight you to death if necessary! I'd rather die than having to serve that little piece of shit that you call emperor!" All the others from the group agreed in unison.

"T-There's no need for us to fight! Please understand it!" Peko tried to convince the village's people to not engage and create more bloodshed. One thing was killing soldiers. Other thing was killing just mere people.

"What's this profanity that I'm hearing out there!?" A roman soldier appeard at the exit of the gates, walking to the civillians direction. "Are you telling us that you pretend to do a treason on the Emperor?! Even after she sent her army to rescue you?"

"Rescue us? Pfff, what a joke!" The woman snarled at the soldier. "You are nothing more but disposable to that emperor of yours! Same as us!"

The soldier draw out his sword and pointed at the woman. "Watch your tongue wench! Many soldiers and brothers in arms of mine have died yesterday just to free all of you ingrateful bastards!"

"Eh, they died as Nero's mindless puppets then." The woman coldly responded with no remorse in her words.

Incredibly outraged by what he heard, the roman soldier raised his sword. "You'll pay for what you said bitch!"

Seeing this, the Chaldea group tried to stop the act of homicide from happening. "NO! Dont do it!" Ritsuka shouted to the soldier, stretching his arm to him. "I can't let an innocent die! These people have done nothing wrong to deserve this!"

Before the soldier could swing his sword at the woman's neck, a knife was thrown between the two, stopping the soldier from killing the woman.

"Are you out of your damn mind?" Jing Ke appeard from the trees to their left, showing her face of discontent to the soldier. "Were you really going to kill an innocent that so many of our soldiers died trying to freed?"

"But general Jing Ke, this people aren't loyal to the emperor and were planning to rebel against the empire!" The soldier tried to explain himself. "They should be dealt with now before becoming a possible danger!"

"And I as the general will tell you to control your anger better and ignore their words. It's not worth the time. Killing them now would make all that battle and sacrifice meaningless! Do you understand me soldier?" Jing Ke asked to the soldier, looking at him in the eyes.

"...Yes, my general. Sorry for my brief moment of lack of control. I sware to better myself." The soldier apologized to Jing Ke, feeling with the head more in place now.

"Then forget about what these people are saying to you. Their words should bare no concern to a trained soldier's ears. Ignore them and go back to the inside of the camp were you can be more useful." Jing Ke ordered to the soldier who nodded and went back to the inside of the base, saying nothing. Jing Ke then turned her head to the civillians in front of her. "Now as for you..." Jing Ke looked sternly at them, before turning her gaze into a defeated glare and sigh. "We will leave as per your request. I and the others don't wish to cause any trouble to you. And if by leaving all of you alone avoids it, so be it."

"Are you saying that we did all that fighting to now just some couple of hours after leave them alone?" Nala said to Jing Ke, a bit frustrated. "I tought we were doing the right thing here!"

Jing Ke looked at Nala. "Some things are...difficult to define as right or wrong." She responded to the girl before changing her gaze to the civillians again. "We'll leave behind food and other resources for you to use it. It's the best we can do for you in all of this."

The old man and the rest however, didn't seemed to want it. "Nowdays all the food gets poisoned. What are the odds that Nero herself just want to get rid of us?" The old man rejected Jing Ke's offering alongside everybody else.

"Fine then. We'll just leave. But please give us time to collect our things and dismantle the base." Jing Ke told them.

"Three hours." The woman said by showing Jing Ke her three fingers. "You have three hours total starting from now to pack your things and leave from our sight. Any longer than that and we'll have no fear to resort to violence if it means to expel you."

"Understood. Thank you for at least negotiating." Jing Ke respectfully bowed to them and walked past the Chaldea group, about to enter inside the camp. "Come with me. These people don't want to see our faces here again."

"So we are leaving just like that?" Peko asked to Jing Ke.

"I guess it's the better option..." Ritsuka said. "These people are already angry as they are. We can't do more."

"I would call them ungrateful but hearing their side of things makes me feel a bit sad for them." Nala said, thinking about how her actions and efforts of yesterday resulted in this village's population discontent. "I wish we could have known before the battle..."

"The way they talked about Nero was so agressive and repugnant. I tought every citizen would always love their rulers."

"Unfortunately that's not the case Peko." Mash told the boy. "A reality were everyone is happy with their ruler is almost impossible."

The hologram of doctor Romani appeard as the group was walking inside the base who now would begin it's dismantling process. "I know those people have told you to leave and leave you by, but my monitors have sensed a leyline nearby from where you are."

"Where then?" Mash asked to the doctor.

"Inside the base just to your left. Better establish contact with it before the soldiers remove the entire base." Romani infromed them.

"Alright then. Let's go." Ritsuka instructed to the group as they walked to the leyline's location.


"Contact with existing Leyline established." Mash said as they finished doing the task and the shielder picked up her weapon. "All signals clear and vital, working at a great efficiency."

"Good job guys." Romani told them. "Now that we have some good amount of spare time before going, want to discuss about the fact that those civillians seemed extremely pissed?" The doctor brought up the previous subject.

"They sure liked the ones that were occupying the area before much more than us." Nala crossed her arms. "Altough I tought initially that our enemies were as evil as the Dragon Witch and her servants, it seems here that's not the case."

"The woman we were even fighting, Cleopatra I think, told to me and Nala we made a huge mistake by kicking them out of here under Nero's orders." Peko told to the group, lowering his head feeling a bit guilty. "Now I know why."

Ritsuka put an hand on his shoulder. "None of us had a way to know. If we did, we would try a different outcome."

Mash meanwhile tought back to Caligula's words before dying. "Now that I remember, in Caligula's final moments he was looking a bit more...sane? Even if it's a bit foggy to remember due to all the rush and adrenaline at the time, I've heard him say something along the lines of saving Rome. It's certain now that the collapse of the Roman Empire isn't our enemies main goal."

"Then does that mean we where on the wrong side here?" Nala questioned.

"But Nero is supposed to be the roman emperor during this era. It's how history goes correct? Siding with her should be the right thing." Ritsuka responded, putting a finger under his chin.

"But then again, seeing how she handles the pest problem at Rome and now this situation of the villagers...I don't know if she's an emperor that cares much about her people." Peko mentioned the past problem of the pest that he himseld had seen with his own eyes.

"Nero was indeed a very polemic figure at the time. She had supporters as well as people who despised her." Romani said, bringing Nero's historical side. "Some people tought she was unfit to rule the empire and didn't liked her leadership."

"She's also a bit narcissistic. Seneca told me that as an emperor, she loves to be the center of attention when it comes to be loved and liked by her people. He also told me that despite of what we saw of her and her attitudes, Nero was still a good girl that only wants to see her people smile and happy." Mash informed them. "But hearing how these villagers were ignored and isolated makes me a bit skeptical into believing that..."

As they were talking and chatting, another conversation by some soldiers at the back brought them a bit of their attention.

"Man, I can't believe we are being treated like this after fighting so hard last night."

"Yeah. But can I blame them? Those villagers really looked distraught for having their main source of food taken away from them."

"Do you think what we did was right?"

As the soldiers were debating with each other, Spartacus appeard walking torwards them with a smile on his face as always. "Now it's not the time for doubt my friends! We did a good job in taking down the opressor and I'm sure our comrades that died are all celebrating in the afterlife! Cheer up everyone!" He told to the soldiers before walking away.

"We aren't the only ones with doubts it seems." Romani told to the group.

"I think the best we can do now is to speak with Nero in person once we arrive at Rome." Ritsuka shared his tought. "For now we should rest both physically and mentally."

"You sure it will work well?" Nala asked him.

"We have to clear some questions that we are having now. And the only way to clear that is asking Nero. Plus if she refuses to answer Seneca might do it instead." Ritsuka told to the girl. "He's her advisor after all. What she knows he must also know."

"We better not accuse her right off the bat with all this cases. If we do that, she certainly won't give us any answers." Peko advised.

"Sure. We will do a passive approach. Nero is clearly the type of person that wouldn't like to be acccused by someone ruthlessly." Mash said. "We have to be cautious with the words that we pick."


As a whole day and a half went by, the Chaldea group had finally returned to Rome, with it's population receiving them with great applause and celebration. A clear contrast from the villagers back at Mount Etna. While majority of the soldiers saw nothing more on the faces of the capital's people other than happiness and joy, the Chaldea group tought to themselves if these people were really happy and celebrating in all honesty. If deep down they weren't doing this because they were forced to. That behind those smiles was sadness and trepidation. That they were doing this because if not Nero would deem them as traitors. With all this new perspective it was hard to see if the roman people on the city were genuinely happy or not. If they even knew about the pest situation that was starting to manifest or even the village situation at Mount Etna. Were they cheering in glee or in fear?

As for Nero herself, she welcomed the army with open arms and celebrating enthusiastically alongside Seneca who did the same.

"Well done umu! This victory will bring the great Rome closer to it's stability!" Nero declared as she drinked from her cup. "You know what? This call for a great dinner tongiht at the palace!" She looked at the Chaldea group. "And you of course will be there! You are the guests of honour after all! Seneca!" She turned around to her advisor. "Make sure the food will be the greatest that I've eaten in my all life and on theirs as well!"

"As you wish my Praetor." Seneca smiled warmly. "After all, these soldiers have now turned into heroes blessed by the gods. A grand banquet is no short of appropriated for them." As the senator said that, Nero went happily away to her room, humming in the way.

Seneca then looked at the Chaldea group and immediatly could tell what their eyes were saying. He wished that they would get out of there wihtout knowing, but it seemed that wasn't the case. The old man closed his eyes and let out a small breath. "So, you all know now?" Seneca didn't tried to fool them. That would be just a waste of time. The philosopher was aware that despite young, they were not dumb and gullible. Manipulating someone was a thing he swore to never do in his life. Not after what Nero's mother was doing with her own child. Instead, the sole senator admitted and confirmed what they heard and suspected.

Ritsuka apprehensively looked at the eyes of the old man. "Why?" Was the only thing that he asked to the person in front of him.

As much as he wanted, Seneca couldn't ignore that. Now that they discovered it, the questions wouldn't stop until the answers would be achieved. The old man's eyes hesitantly looked to Ritsuka. "I simply tought...the things would end up to getting better."

"But they aren't." Mash stepped in. "This empire is slowly dying from the inside. The United Roman Empire is the lesser of it's problems. Seneca-san, I know you want us to see Nero the same way you do. But after what we heard from the villagers..."

Seneca slowly grabbed his own right hand that was starting to shake a little from the nervousism. The philosopher was trying to keep his cool. "It has been some hard months for her lately. Please understand that the mantle of an emperor is a heavy one."

"That doesn't excuse starving an entire village because it doesn't have enough money to build a statue of her." Nala said, confronting the old man. "Does those people deserve to suffer because they don't have nearly the same wealth as her?"

Seneca looked to the side and cleenched his teeth.

"We just want to know if we can trust Nero, Seneca." Peko told him. "We'd like to see her the same way as you do. Just please, give us a justification and response to our questions, so that we can see that being at her side is actually the right thing to do.

"You don't know..." Seneca hissed to himself.

Ritsuka tried to reach out to him. "Seneca ple-"

"YOU DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT HER!" Seneca shouted in rage to them, shocking the entire group. Seeing such calm and composed figure like him act so agressively was completely out of character to him. Seneca tried to recompose himself. "Nero is still young. No ruler can be perfect and mistakes are bound to happen when a ruler is young and naive. That's why my whole purpose is to guide her. While perhaps she isn't making the best decisions now, she still wants to see the empire prosper and live under her reign. She also has doubts. She's also capable of feeling pain and sorrow! So don't speak as if you knew her like I do! The Nero I know isn't the beast that you are imagining now!"

"Then you would defend her always independently if the empire under her is doing good or not?" Ritsuka asked accusingly to Seneca.

"With every inch of my body! It's my duty as her advisor to make her happy and council her." Seneca responded immediatly, looking defiantly at the master of humanity.

"Even if it means making innocent people suffer just because they don't fit or don't please her?" Ritsuka asked again to Seneca.

"..." This time the philosopher had no response for that, being at a loss for words. Ritsuka had cornered him well with that question. A supposed wise and philosophical elder unable to respond to a question of a simple young man. It was a rare thing to see.

Feeling that Seneca would choose to ignore that question he just made, Ritsuka walked past him with the rest of the group doing the same. Before leaving the room, Ritsuka stopped at the door. "You know? I tought wise old men would always be open to hear others opinions. Guess I was wrong." Saying those words coldly, Ritsuka left the room, leaving Seneca to introspect himself in solitude.


The night had arrived and the dinner was ready with full plates on the long and wide table inside the palace. Sitting in it where the Nero, Seneca and the Chaldea group who obviously had to come and wanted to, but not for the reasons Nero ever imagined. The emperor herself was the only one enjoying and happily eating the fruit, while the Chaldea group and Seneca would eat it more moderatly, still resenteful from their talk hours ago.

"Hmm." Nala sadly frowned on her fork, looking dissapointed at the food on her front.

"What is it Nala? Isn't the food good?" Ritsuka asked her, wanting to know why the girl looked sad.

"...They don't have cake." Nala said monotonously, her hair overshadowing her eyes.

"Well in this era cakes weren't invented yet, so of course they wouldn't have it." Ritsuka sweated a bit and smiled.

Nero then stood up from her seat and lifted the cup in the air. "To Roma! To our ancestors and every child of the empire! But also, to me, its supreme ruler, umu!" The lack of immediate response caused Nero to find it strange. Looking at their faces, she saw they didn't look as eager as she was. "Something happened? Isn't the food to your liking?"

Saying nothing, Ritsuka looked at Mash and then Peko and Nala who also looked at him. They had to question Nero. Even if it would result into nothing. Ritsuka also looked at Seneca who stood silent, giving a small shrugging to him, as if he was saying to Ritsuka to ask it anyway. He couldn't stop them before and wouldn't try to do the same now. The old man could only watch.

Ritsuka took a deep breath and looked at the emperor, ready to confront her. "Emperor Nero?"

"What is it?" Nero asked, oblivious of the questions that were about to come.

"I don't want to be rude but, at Mount Etna, after the battle, the people from the local village were unhappy with the enemy's defeat. They said that you my emperor, has isolated them because they wouldn't built you a statue. Is that true?" Ritsuka asked to Nero, finally taking the words out of his mouth. And as expected, Nero's reaction wasn't a good one as her smile faded.

"Jealous people have always existed across the empire, no matter the emperor at the time. It's just normal hate. Pay them no mind. After all, if I didn't cared about them I wouldn't even send my army and generals there." Nero responded with bothersome and took a sip of her cup, trying to end the topic quickly.

"But they told us you did it not because you cared about them but because you didn't liked to feel threatned by the enemy getting closer to you." Peko told to Nero.

"Well that was another motive for me to take back the territory at Mount Etna too. It's natural that someone would want to take back what's been taken away from them. I just couldn't be okay with it. Still, I took back that territory because I love the people from there too. Any roman is a person deserving of my love." Nero said, forcing a smile on her face.

"What about that christian man when we arrived here?" Mash said. "Wasn't he a citizen from Rome too? Yet you ordered him to be killed because he had diferent beliefs from you."

Nero look away in frustration. What was supposed to be a good and fun night for her, was now turning into an annoying one. "...Those who don't worship the Roman Empire beliefs aren't roman. Simple as that. If the history of our empire is to be ignored and replaced by another's culture history, then those people never cared about the well being of the Roman Empire in the first place."

"And that's reason enough to kill someone? For having different beliefs that don't hurt no one?!" Nala said altough a bit more louldly than the rest of her group. "Or perhaps it hurts your ego." Nala accused.

"Nala calm down! You don't have to go that harsh too." Peko warned his sister. "We are in her residence after all."

"You like to be the center of everyone's attention. Being an emperor to you means that everyone should compliment and praise you no matter how bad your actions may be." Nala continued to criticize Nero and ignored Peko. "If they don't spend one second of their attention on you or don't have money to give you a tribute, their automatically traitors according to your mind. Talk about being a compulsive narcissistic."

"Hehehe,compulsive narcissistic." Nero laughed softly as she went back to take a bite of her plate, trying to ignore Nala's accusation. "That's funny..."

"Alright Nala you can calm down." Ritsuka told to the girl, seeing that she went more rutlessly on Nero. "We don't need to be that direct."

"I also would like to question the emperor if the rumours of a plague spreading in Rome are true." Peko questioned the emperor again who was still eating her food. "It's that when I went to the city to buy the paint, I wondered into a dark alley full of sick people that were calling the emperor's name to save them. Does the emperor have left them to rot there instead of finding a better solution? Does anyone else in Rome knows about this besides the emperor and Seneca?"

Nero suddenly stopped eating her food,and stared at her own plate. "Do we have a plague in here, Seneca?" She asked to her advisor, not even looking at him, acting like she never knew about the case in the first place.

Seneca looked at her for a brief moment. "...I think we do...my Praetor." He said defeated, uncertain if trying to pretend ignorance would really be able to fool the group from Chaldea.

"Trying to ignore a problem like that is very grave emperor." Mash tried to warn Nero. "If it spreads more and more without the people having at least a warning or aware of it, it will cause a huge calamity and the collapse of the Roman Empire. I beg you that the emperor should use it's influence and wealth to try and resolve this problem."

"And it's not even the only problem there is now. The United States Empire, the people's complaint of you and this plague. The empire is dying slowly emperor, and something needs to be done about it in order to not fall!" Ritsuka said to Nero as well as Seneca, trying to make the two akcnowledge and face the issues that the empire was having.

Nero however, seemed to have enough.

"Looks like my food feels spoiled as well." Nero grabbed her plate and among the room's silence, dropped it on the floor, much to everyone's anxiety. "Perhaps I need to get better cooks, umu." She said, taking her cup to her mouth, drinking the liquid again. "If the questions are over, allow me to do some too." Nero cleared her throat. "First of all, what do you think it's the most important aspect an emperor should have?" Nero pointed a knife at the group, asking them a question.

All the four tought for some seconds.

"To be benevolent." Ritsuka was the first to respond.

"Strenght to protect it's people." Nala was the second.

"Wisdom to know what choices to make." Peko said by third.

"Altruism to help anyone from it's land." Mash said lastly.

Nero smirked. "Those are all intresting traits I must say. Now another question. As any of you ever been an emperor?" She asked them.

The answer was clear and they knew it, but saying it would confirm a point Nero was trying to make.

"...No." Ritsuka responded shortly.

A loud punch on the table was made as Nero proceeded to look at them with an insane smile. "Then why the fuck do you talk like you knew what is like to be one?!" She said agressively, scaring Seneca a bit. Nero was losing control and that was bad. The old philosopher knew that better than anyone how bad Nero could be when loosing her cool.

"Please Nero, calm down yourself." He begged to his emperor.

"No no no Seneca. This people think they can go to my home, my empire, and tell me in THE FACE how I should rule as an emperor!" Nero got up from her chair and dragged the knife she was carrying alongside the table, walking torwards the Chaldea group. "Do you think it's easy?! That I haven't tried to do my job? It's just wishing for something to dissapear and everything is back to normal?"

Mash and Nala sneakly move their hands, ready to summon their weapons if Nero decided to attack them.

Ritsuka tried to calm the emperor. "No! We know being a leader of a nation is an heavy role but-"

"But! But but but but." Nero said crazily, still dragging the knife. "It's so easy to talk when you aren't in the other people shoes! I bet that if you became emperor for one month you wouldn't last a week!" Nero took the knife out of the table and started to walk behind their chairs. "You probably lived an easy life, with no one ever expecting something from you. No challenges or obstacles to overcome. You talk about me but I bet you are nothing more than a simpleton who never had to do an hard task in his life!" Nero shouted at Ritsuka.

"..." Ritsuka didn't confronted her nor replied back, instead looking down on his own hands, feeling his moral going a bit down. "An easy life eh?"

"That's not true!" Peko instinctively went to defend his freind. "Ritsuka is the leader of our team and as to save humanity as it's remaining master! Such hard task that if you were in his place, you wouldn't even survive the previous place we went. Ritsuka as went through a lot of difficulties such as the rest of us!"

"Yeah! You tell her Peko!" Nala said to her brother.

"Took some words out of my mouth." Mash said, happy for seeing Peko standing up to Ritsuka.

Even Ritsuka smiled a bit and looked at the boy. "Thank you Pe-"

"So what?! He's the leader of your nice little group and has to do someting out of the ordinary! Good for him!" Nero yelled at Peko, acting more insane. "But what about you?" She approached to Peko's seat. "What purpose do you serve in this little group of yours? Do you even know who you're speaking to kid?" Nero moved the knife closer to Peko.

Nala tighten her fist and was hardly controling herself in trying to not summon her sword to attack Nero. "If she hurts him I swear..!"

"Who are you? What are you? Do you even know what is like to rule?" Nero was bombarding the boy with questions, getting menancingly closer to him with the knife in hand.

"Hpm! I-I-I dont exactly-" Peko was having problem to respond, feeling a strong pressure of Nero on him.

"Are you an emperor?! A king?! A god?! A nation or kingdom to call home?! A family and parents to love?!" Nero was getting more relentless in her questions to Peko, who was feeling so pressure that he could feel some tears starting to form on his eyes. Having no rememberance of anything about one self was truly painful. That and the fact Nero was centimeters away to touch Peko's neck with the knife. "You are nothing more than a stupid and pathetic kid!"

Not supporting seeing Peko being pressured and disturbed like that, Mash immediatly went to try and separate Nero from him. "Hey! Leave him!"

Nala also followed Mash's moviment and was about to summon her sword. "That's i-"

"ENOUGH!" Seneca yelled loudly as he violently punched the table with both fists, causing everyone to stop and look at him. He hadn't talked or paticipated that much in the talking, making everyone forget he was even there in the first place. "Nero, put the knife down. Now!" Like an angry father, he ordered coldly for Nero to let go of the object and leave Peko. She might be the emperor, but Seneca was her right arm and an important one.

"Nero this. Nero that." The emperor carelessly threw the knife away on top of the table and started to walk away annoyed. "You're sounding like those fools from the senate Senaca. Must I start doubting you too?" She stared at him with a disdainful gaze, before grabbing the golden cup and walk away from the room. The night clearly didn't went out as she wanted to.

"Are you alright Peko?" Ritsuka asked to the boy, seeing if he wasn't hurt.

"I'm fine. The knife didn't touched me." The boy said as he touched hiw own neck.

Seneca got up from his seat. "I hope you are satisfied with the answers you craved for so much." The old man said in a emotionless tone and walked away too, leaving the Chaldea group alone.

"Something tells me that our alliance might have just went to dust." Nala said, feeling that the discussion they had with Nero would leave some serious damage to their allience.

"Hmm. Perhaps." Mash said shortly, thinking on the ways things were going. "We might had took a stepback here."


Some hours later, everyone went back to their bedrooms. Ritsuka was lying on his bed, being unable to sleep. The confrontation they had with Nero was bothering still bothering him, keeping Ritsuka away from sleep.

"You talk about me but I bet you are nothing more than a simpleton who never had to do an hard task in his life!"

Ritsuka closed his hand and stared at the ceilling. "These words shouldn't affect me. She doesn't know anything about my life. However, I also don't know much about her own life too." Ritsuka put a pillow above his bed, letting a frustrated grunt. Mash was asleep and he couldn't talk with her to spent time so he could sleep faster. Thankfully, someone else was available to talk.

"So how did the talk with Nero go?" Romani appeard in his hologram form to ask them how the talk with Nero went.

"Hurgh, terrible. I think she hates us now." Ritsuka said completely down.

"Really? Surprised that she didn't ordered you to be executed then." Romani scratched his head.

Ritsuka sat on his bed then. "Hey doc, are you on the right side here?" He asked to Romani. His mind questioning if what they were doing was right.

"Well, in our history Nero is the emperor and continued to be years after. I know that what she's doing isn't right but doing something like killing her would completely distort humanity's time history to a way that it would create a new parallel reality, no more being our own history. Nero has to live in this Singularity until the year of her actual death. If she dies, the Roman Empire collapses and the future of humanity is extinguished shortly after." Roman explained to Ritsuka, understanding that the position they where in now was a hard one.

"I know. I don't want to kill her. I just, want to stop her from mistreating her people. That is only making the empire collapse faster." Ritsuka laid his back to the wall. "I really don't know what to do Doctor. If we maintain her allience with her not. If those United Roman Empire guys are the threat here or not." Ritsuka put an hand on his forhead. "How can I be a leader if even I can't be sure of the decisions we are making are good or bad damnit!" Ritsuka felt he should do better as the team's leader, and having doubts was something that he saw as prejudice to be one.

"I think you shouldn't think of yourself like that Senpai!"

Ritsuka stared at Mash who was awake in front of him. "Mash? Were you hearing all this time?"

Ignoring the question, Mash walked torwards him. "Being someone who has to guide and lead is no easy task. But whatever what you and Nero might think, for someone who is supposed to be some random person, I think you've been doing your best master." Mash crouched down to look at him. "Peko and Nala must think the same too. The way Peko defended you shows that. We will always have your back. Remember you don't carry this task of saving humanity alone Senpai. You have all of us to help you."

Ritsuka looked to the side in apprehension. "But what if I end up making a bad choice?"

"We aren't asking you to be perfect." Mash smiled to him. "We just want you to try your best as possible."

"Sweet words Mash. You have a very gentle heart." Romani commented, smilling at her.

"Thanks doctor. I took after someone after all." Mash replied to Romani, who blushed a bit in embarassment.

Hearing Mash's words made Ritsuka realize that he was a normal human. And the rest of the group treated him like one. Whatever difficulty he may had, they would be there to help him. They didn't saw him as some kind of general, but as a friend. They believed in him as much as he believed in them. "You're right Mash. I forgot that I'm not doing this alone. Even if I am a normal person with no knowledge of magecraft, I'll do my best as a leader to make sure all of us have a future!"

"Hey Mash." Ritsuka called the shielder's attention. "Thank you for saying that. I think that I just needed to hear someone saying it."

"Always at your disposal master." Mash said happily.

Ritsuka closed his eyes and rised his head, thinking what they should do now. "Like Seneca said..." Altough he didn't want to think on the old man that much now due to also discussing with him and being Nero's right arm, there was something that the philosopher said that Ritsuka could agree with. "...I'm in charge of my own actions!" He opened his eyes and got up from the bed. "Mash. Doc. I've made up my mind." He told the two. "We are leaving this place and break the allience with Nero. We'll try to figure out what's causing trouble in this Singularity by ourselves."

"Hm. Altough that would mean we would lose the entire roman army as our support, I admit if we act independently, we may find the root of the problem faster." Mash told her opinion on Ritsuka's decision. "And what Nero is doing to her people is wrong and I can't stand working under people who make such things. So I agree with your decision master!"

"Well, that's the best option that doesn't involve harming or killing Nero." Romani said. "I think it's not a bad decision at all."

"Alright! Then let's go see Peko and Nala and ask for their opinion too!" Ritsuka walked torwards the bedroom's door to open it, only for it to open by itself and revealing to be Peko and Nala on the other side. "Okay, that was quick." He said to himself. "Why did you two came here?"

Peko and Nala looked at each other for some seconds, with Nala nodding to her brother who then looked at Ritsuka. "In our bedroom, we were talking about the incident we had with Nero and all the bad things that are happening in the empire. Se we both reached to the conclusion that we need to break our alliance with Nero and the empire." Peko told to Ritsuka.

"We can't approve of what she's doing to her people. We need to leave this place immediatly." Nala added. It was good to see that they where all on the same page. But saying this in a hallway of the emperor's palace was a dangerous thing to do, so Ritsuka immediatly grabbed the two kids and shoved them inside the room, proceeding to close the door.

"Guess what? Me and Mash were also thinking the same." Ritsuka said to the siblings.

"Great! Then we must leave while we still can." Nala said. "Something tells me Nero doesn't see us with a very positive light now after that dinner fiasco."

"Talking about that, Peko..." Ritsuka speaked torwards the boy's direction. "Thanks for speaking up for me at the dinner. But also, those thhings she said about you. They didn't affected you did they?"

"I'm fine Ritsuka, no need to worry." Peko responded with a smile. "Nero was trying to mess with me. Words like that don't bare actual meaning."

"She'll need to try harder than that to bring us down." Nala said.

"Okay, now that we are all here, does any of you knows a path that we can go without being spotted by the soldiers?" Mash asked to three who just stood silent and clueless. Even if they had been in the palace for a few days, they didn't bother to explore much of it. "You don't know, do you?" Mash asked with a nervous smile.

"Looks like I'll have to come to the rescue then." Romani sighed as he started typing on his keyboard. "I'll start doing a research and scan of the area and transform it into a map to guide you. It will take some minutes but-"

Suddenly, the door slowly opened. "Then that was your choice in the end." A voice said.

Everyone shifted into a battle position and summoned their weapons, aside from Ritsuka. If that person has heard them, then they had to make sure that their plan of abandoning Nero and the alliance should remain a secret.

From the door, Seneca appeard, looking at the group with stoic eyes as he closed the door.

"It is! And you won't stop us from doing it!" Ritsuka declared defiantly to the old man. The fact that was Seneca who catched up their conversation was bad. But at least wasn't Nero herself the one who heard them.

Seneca smirked in response. He had forgotten how lively young people could be. "Hphm. As if I could change the minds of someone so decided. I have no intention to fight you." Seneca approached the group who lowered their weapons and stare at him in confusion.

"What do you mean? Aren't you going to try and stop us or tell what you've heard to Nero?" Mash questioned him, not understanding the old man's intentions.

"No. Quite the opposite." The philosopher said. "I will help you to escape the palace."

Everyone got shocked and perplexed by what he had just said. The advisor,mentor and right arm of the emperor herself helping them escape?

"Do you really mean to help us?" Peko asked to Seneca confused.

"Yes I do." Seenca raised his hand, asking them to calm down. "Before any of you jump to hasty conclusions, allow me to explain." Seneca sat on a bed, being now looked by everyone of the Chaldea group.

"Explain then. And it better not be a trick." Ritsuka said, still suspecting of a possible trick that Seneca might try on them.

"To start, I'm a fool." Seneca said in scorn for himself. "Initially, when the problems started to appear on the empire some months ago, me and Nero tried to understand what was causing all of this to happen. At the time, her mental health was already deteriorating due to conspiracies of senators of trying to kill her so that they could achieve more power. Those attempts caused her to start a paranoia. Nero was always a very eccentric individual from the start, but also a cheerful and caring person for her people. She always had the population's best intrests at heart. Her mother, Agrippina, however, saw Nero as nothing more than a tool for her selfish and greedful purposes. She always influenced her child easily as a kid. She would be molded to suit her mother's intrests. But when I arrived to start mentoring the young emperor, Agrippina's influence on her started to weakened. So, in order to try and keep her strings on Nero, Agrippina would slowly poison her own child to make her easy to subdue." Seneca said the last part with sorrow, remembering of how cruel crime one could commit against it's own family.

"Wh-what kind of sick person would do that to her own child?" Nala said in shock. "That's not a mother! That's a monster!" She said revolted.

"Nala please calm down." Mash put an hand on the girl's shoulder. But she had to admit that hearing such thing would cause any justifiable anger. "Unfortunately that's how the history goes."

"I-Is it really?" Peko asked to Mash, in shock as well. He assumed that a mother was also like a father. Both were parents that should love and care for their children. So how could such terrible things like that be done by parents?

"It is Peko." Romani said to him. "Sometimes, children aren't fortunate enough to have actual decent parents to live with."

"But that's not every mother and father. Many still try their best and look out for their kids." Ritsuka said to Peko, trying to make the boy see that altough terrible parents existed, there was also good ones.

"You speak good words young man." Seneca told to Ritsuka, capturing everybodies attention again and wenting back to talk. "As I was saying, Agrippina would poison Nero in small quantaties to keep control on her. Whatever she ordered Nero to do, she would. Fortunately, I discovered it one day by caughting Agrippina poisoning Nero with my own eyes. Shortly after, we discovered of how much of a cruel and deplorable woman she was by using other people before to gain more power. She was immediatly sent to exile, mostly so on Nero's orders who had enough pity to not kill her own mother. She would die some years after, victim of her own schemes to try go back into power. Fitting end for such person if you ask me."

"Same here." Nala said, thinking that Nero's mother got the ending it deserved.

"After that, I tought the worst had already passed by. Oh, how wrong was I." Seneca shook his head. "Agrippina happened to also have acquaintances on the senate who also where in her organized scheme and wanted to dethrone Nero to claim the role of emperor for themselves. Almost everyday, assasstions would happen across the empire and many near Nero with some failed attempts being at her life. All of that because of men's greed. Despite that, she would still try to make her best and asure that everything was alright to the people while smiling. Eventually, we found out the conspirators among the senate and had them killed. But it was too late. Nero's paranoia had already started." Seneca said with a pain in his voice. "The senate was now smaller but with people of trust and good intention. However, if someone dared to critic Nero's flaws and way of ruling, she would believe they were also conspiring to kill her. And so, Nero would have them killed before they could kill her instead."

"The Roman Empire always had many assassinations throughout it's history. Nero must be living in that state of paranoia for quite some time now." Romani made that observation.

"Indeed. It came to a point where the remaning ones fled and never came back, afraid of Nero's lunacy. Only I remained. I couldn't bring myself to abandon her. I needed to be there to hold her back. But also because she would be lost wihtout no one to guide her. Nero is a happy and creative girl who's mind was corrupted by her own mother. She herself never wanted to cause all this harm. Now she loves the praise and attention that everyone in the empire gives her, because she sees it as a sign that people love her and are less suspicious to kill her. If one doesn't show support or love to Nero, she will assume that they plan to kill her. The constant fear of dying by someone close or be assassinated in her sleep drives her mad." Seneca explained. "And now that all these problems of christians, plague and United Roman Empire appeard, Nero's sanity is getting closer and closer to snap each day it passes. You might see her as a monster now and perhaps even after this. But for me, I see a girl that hasn't stopped being mentally tortured for years now."

"Then why are you deciding to help us now?" Ritsuka questioned the old man.

"Like I said before, I am a fool. When me and Nero saw the problem of the plague, we were trying to think on a solution until Nero proposed that we shouldn't worry about it too much. That it perhaps was just some normal disease. In reality, Nero didn't want to worry about two problems at the same time, since some people from Rome were starting to turn into christians, and Nero hated that since according to her, they wouldn't give her the attention she desperatly needs to feel safe. I went along because...my philosophy followed the path of being conformed with the pain. I tought, that it would eventually go away if I just learned how to live with it to the point of not bothering me anymore until it goes away. And also because I wanted to perserve Nero's sanity. Her mind with all of this can crack at any moment. Pressuring her isn't the best option. But during this last month, Nero has been growing more unhinged and her mental health gotten worse. The way she treats the civillians also has become more unhealthy. I'd blame that golden cup from speeding up the process. And this is the part that will probably catch your attention."

"What? The golden cup that she's always drinking on it? What that has to do with anything of this?" Mash asked to Seneca, wondering where the golden cup would fit in all of this.

Seneca made sure to answer that. "That golden cup that she's always holding in her hand and drinking, is actually the Holy Grail you are looking for."

By this time the group had been surprised and shocked a couple of times in a short time, and yet they were surprise and shocked once again.

"Now that explains that high signals of mana I was detecting when you've reached here for the first time! Nero detains the Holy Grail of this Singularity!" Romani exclaimed, thinking on how he himself didn't reached to that conclusion at the time.

"Listen Seneca! That grail is the cause for why the empire is like this!" Ritsuka explained to the old man. "It's problems and all of this chaos will be solved if we take it away from her and back to our time. Once we do that, everything in this specific time will go back to normal."

"Hm. I tought so." Seneca lowered his head. "The man who gave Nero the grail, is that mage you have been looking for. Lev Lainur was it? Some weeks before your arrival and shortly after the arrival of this plague, he appeard mysteriously at our doorstep, with the grail in hand. He told me and Nero that this grail contained huge power and magic to help us fight back our current situation. I myself was reluctant from believing in words of such equivocal stranger. Nero on the other hand, accepted almost in an instant, buying the man from the future's words. After that, he swore to help us fight an enemy from the United Roman Empire in the east and left us with the grail. Days after, she summoned the people that you call servants and formed into our army's generals"

"So you lied to us when you said you never met him." Peko said to Seneca with a dissapointed face.

"I wanted to believe that what the man was saying was truth. That the grail would indeed resolve all of this. Hence why me and Nero lied to you at the time. Now, I see that was a mistake. Nero's health has only went down ever since and the plague hasn't dissapeard. I acted more on my wish to see Nero happy than the overall happiness of Rome's people. Now I'm paying the price for it." Seneca then looked at Ritsuka and the group. "And it took me a couple of teens to admit that. I...want to change this situation while it's possible. You are people of good nature. I can feel that. You aren't like that Lev Lainur. You came here to help us." Seneca got up from the bed. "And so I'll help you in return."

Ritsuka smirked. "Glad to see that the wise man wasn't completely lost."

Seneca smiled back. "For a moment it was."

"Then why are we going to escape from Nero's palace if the grail is right here?" Nala asked. "We can resolve this Singularity already by going to grab it from her while she's sleeping now."

"I'm afraid that's not possible. Her bedroom is guarded by soldiers and those three servants you fight with at Mount Etna. Only I have permission to enter her bedroom and even then, she sleeps holding the grail tightly to her body. Trying to do that would be suicide." Seneca explained. "Those three if you know their stories, would never work under an emperor and yet they do for Nero. It's the grail that holds control on them and has long as Nero wields it, they'll obey her."

"So escaping the palace is really the only available option we have." Mash said.

"Then I better get back to work in order to scan this area's map." Romani told them.

"That won't be necessary my magic friend. I know a secret passage." Seneca told them as he went to open the door. "Follow me."


Believing that the old man was being truthful to them and really wanted to help the group, they followed him. Seneca guided them through some undeground tunnels underneath the palace, a place only the old philosopher knew about. After some minutes, they had finally exited just outside the palace and into a open field whith an unpaved road that would continue into the horizon, way far from Rome. Next to them, a carriage with two horses were waiting for them. Seneca helped them get inside the wodden carriage.

"These horses will get you out of Rome and lead you to a village near the sea. Once there, you must go to the port and get into a boat that you'll use it to reach Iberian Peninsula." Seneca instructed them.

"Iberian Peninsula?" Ritsuka asked confused, not remembering if he ever heard that place.

"The region where it's now modern day Spain and Portugal master." Mash explained to him. "But isn't that territory of the United Roman Empire?"

"Don't worry. The region has many empty areas with no presence of them. Make sure to stay in those areas and keep a low profile. Also, there you must find a woman named Boudica. She'll be a great first ally for you if you desire to solve this Singularity." Seneca told them, grabbing a scroll from his bag.

"Celeritas"

He threw the enchanted scroll at the two horses. "This will help you get to your destination more quickly."

"Wait. You aren't going with us too?" Peko asked to the old man, seeing that he hadn't got inside the carriage like the rest.

"I have to stay here. If I dissapear, Nero completely breaks and the city collapses all in the same day. I am what is holding all of this for now. My presence here is needed." Seneca said to the boy.

"Be careful then. If anything bad happens, try to tell us something." Nala told him.

"I will. I don't plan to die just yet despite of my age." The old man laugh. "But also, before you go, I want to tell you something Ritsuka."

"What is it?" He asked to Seneca, who immediatly grabbed the master of humanity's hand with both his hands.

"Thank you! Thank you so much for making me see how blinded I was until this moment!" Seneca said with guilt in his voice. "Throughout my whole life, I wanted to make sure to never act as an obtuse man. That I would serve it by teaching and educating the youngsters of the next generation. I always saw flaws in myself and everybody. My imperfect soul however, was too stubborn to admit this flaw that I had. In the end, I'm not a wise despite of what everyone says." Tears came to his eyes. "I'm nothing more than a senile who's moments of glory had already passed."

"And yet you still want to amend things." Ritsuka touched the old man's shoulder. "Not only that but you gave me good lessons that I want to value for life. Talking with you was a nice and expanding experience. A senile old man would have long lost it's ability to say such words and think in certain ways about life." Ritsuka smiled and comforted Seneca. "Doing mistakes is normal. You are just as human as I am, no matter the time or age. But that doesn't mean we can't still learn from each other. As a philosopher, you really deserve being called one!"

Seneca slowly cleaned the tears from his eyes and giggled. "An old man like me crying by a youngster's words. What a comedic scenario..." He then looked at Ritsuka with a friendly face and smile. "Thank you for appearing in my life. All of you. With such people like you, humanity's future is in good hands. Now head forth, my friends."

They all smiled to him. "I too enjoyed your company while it lasted, Seneca. Hope this can be a see you later instead." Ritsuka said goodbye to him like everyone else and the horses started to gallop into the horizon where the road lead. The moon was already hidding beneath one of the seven mounts of the city, welcoming a new day with a bright red-pink sky.

The Chaldea group now knew where the grail was and what they had to do. To clear this Singularity, they had to start a new quest now. Make new allies and let go of the old ones. To stop Nero's growing madness, the suffering from the empire and the restoration of this time period, they now had to go to the Iberian Peninsula, unknowing of what could await them there.

To be continued...


And that's it for chapter 25! And ups! I guess I make another long chapter hehe. (really now, I accidentally didn't expected to write this much, help!)

Now this is where my version of Septem completely diverges from the og Septem of the game. From here on, no more buddy-buddy with Nero since she is obviously the villain of this arc. Whether you like it or not, it's up to you. I myself think it would make more sense (but only within Septem). From here onwards the tables have changed. The servants that appeard in the Singularity will still appear, but now under different circumnstances for our heroes.

Anyway, that's all I wanted to say, and see you next time for chapter 26! Peace!

P.S: *Grabs gun and holds it at Lasengle's head* Now here me you pieces of money greed shit! I may forgive you for pulling out an entire dead month in January, but I sware if my bro and king of chads Camazotz never makes out of the NPC jail and becomes a playable servant, your body will transform into a swiss cheese! Kindly requested, Alas29 :3