72: It's always nice to see a familiar face
Naturally, I pass out from [Invisible Providence]'s penalty long before the world comes back into focus again. I wake up with a nasty headache and the taste of bile in my mouth. I can feel woven bed sheets covering my body, and an uneven mattress beneath me. Squinting, I open my eyes.
"...I don't recognize this ceiling." I mutter, and gingerly I sit up, giving an experimental roll of my shoulder. Quickly, I find myself wincing. "-Damn, it's still sore."
It's to be expected of a dislocation, and the less said about my fingers, the better - but I had hoped Prelati would have healed my pre-existing injuries as well as the ones he had been giving me while torturing me. If he hadn't, then…
"Was all of the torture an illusion? Or did he specifically leave this stuff unhealed to mess with my head?" I wonder aloud.
…Whatever. I don't ever want to understand that guy in the first place, so I'll give up on figuring this one out.
"Anyway, where the hell am I?" I ask, glancing around. It's clearly a small bedroom - judging from the architecture, it's definitely one of the buildings I've seen around the cities of France - maybe a nobleman's house? A low ranking one, though, nowhere near as gaudy as Roswaal's manor. A distinct sort of unease starts to set in, as my mind starts to stray - sure, I woke up in a pretty safe-seeming situation, but what about everyone else? "Hey, Director-"
Ah, the communicator is missing from my wrist.
"She's gonna be pissed…" I mutter - plan B it is. Hope I'm not interrupting anything… {Hey, Mordred, can you hear me?}
{Oh, Master, you're awake!} She responds, an easy tone in her voice, and I breathe a sigh of relief. {What's up?}
{Yeah, I just woke up. Where are we, anyway?} I ask, opening the door and glancing into the hallway. Part of the roof in here has caved in and there are cracks in the wall and debris littering the floor.
{Ah you really did just wake up, huh?} She says with a mixture of annoyance and amusement. {Sorry to say, we're in totally different spots right now. We got split up in that Reality Marble, and apparently got thrown out in pretty far apart places. The hell happened in there, anyway? You just disappeared in a puff of smoke and we wound up having to fight dragons til it broke down.}
…I inhale.
"PRELATIIIIII!" I shout, shaking my fist at the sky. {We're split up!? Start with that, dammit! Why are you acting so calm? And you were fighting dragons? Is everyone okay!?}
{It's fine, it's fine! We all got out alive - there was some kind of infighting going on between them.} She assures me. {Anyway, it's not like anyone's lost or anything - we've been able to keep in touch with the guys who picked you up using your wrist communicator, so now we just need to get to that Lion city. Shouldn't take more than a few days. Siegfried is about as strong as me, so you should be fine for now, right?}
Ah, so I didn't lose the communicator. The people who rescued me took it and have been using it to talk with the Director. Safe!
"Lion city… does she mean Lyon?" I mutter. "She must, she mentioned Siegfried, after all…"
I pause at the top of a staircase. "What the hell!? Isn't this really bad!?" Berserk Saber is on her way, and Fafnir can't be far behind! {Mordred, you guys are gonna need to pick up the pace - a few days isn't going to cut it.}
{Those premonitions of yours really don't let up, huh?} She grouses. {Fine, fine, I'll tell Marie to pick up the pace.}
{I guess that's all I can ask for.}
As I make my way downstairs, the faint whiff of something delicious teases my nose. Come to think of it, in the hours leading up to our deployment Meuniere had said something about this, right?
"By the way, I know Paris is all the rage, but Lyon is the real cuisine capital of France. So if you get a chance to go by my hometown, make sure you guys give the food a try!"
It's not like I can say no to-
A slightly different scent passes through my nose, and adrenaline surges through my veins as pure instinct takes over.
Charging through a lounge, through the dining room, I arrive in the kitchen! A blonde girl wearing an apron cries out in shock as I barge in, but I'm not even paying attention to her. The pure survival instinct of a butler working in the same kitchen as Ram has already taken over!
Desperately I scan the kitchen - that will do! Grabbing a towel from a hook on the wall, I snatch the cast-iron pan off the stove. Already I can feel the towel growing warm in my hand, but- "As if I'd let you! Emergency Reinforcement!"
Triumphantly, I place the pan upon a trivet, and examine the damage…
"Nooo! It burned anyway!" I mourn.
"Are you… really a hero from the future..?" The other occupant of the kitchen asks, and I turn my attention to her.
She's a blonde girl, maybe fourteen or fifteen years old, wearing a poorly fitting maid outfit. Her slightly greasy blonde hair is tied up in a bun, and in her mouth I can see the slight glint of razor sharp teeth. Combined with slightly oversized blue eyes…
"I've got it, you must be one of the relatives of Clodovech!" I shout, pointing at her.
"...Who?" She asks in utter bewilderment.
"...King Clovis I."
"I don't… think so?"
"Hm…" I mutter, stroking my chin. "Then… you must be Siegfried!"
"I'm a girl!" She protests.
"Didn't stop Arthur or Mordred…" I say. "Then - I've got it! Kiyohime! You've got to be Kiyohime!"
"What kind of weird foreign name even is that!?" She shouts in total confusion.
"It's Japanese. Shouldn't the Grail tell you this kind of thing..?" I ask her.
At that moment, a Servant materializes in the room - a gray-haired man with a familiar luminescent green emblem on his bare chest. "Master of Chaldea, I believe you've made a slight mistake. Merry is not a Servant at all."
"Eh?" I pause as my brain comes to a screeching halt. And then I notice it - emblazoned on her left hand, two crimson marks, and a third faded one.
"She is a Master."
The gray-haired man - Siegfried - explains things from there, with the occasional interjection from Olga Marie on the comm unit. He had mounted a desperate defense of the city, but ultimately was overwhelmed and grievously wounded. In desperation, he formed a contract with one of the survivors, allowing her to use command spells to allow him to fight through his injuries.
"However, my injury has yet to heal, even now - it seems that the false Jeanne d'Arc's fire was cursed. I'm sorry to inform you of this, but I'm afraid I'm useless." He concludes. "I can barely move my body in this state without the use of a command spell.
"Lord Siegfried, don't blame yourself." His master protests. "If I had been able to accomplish the summoning ritual for additional aid, then…"
"You tried to summon another Servant? Can you even handle the upkeep?" Olga Marie interjects. "You're a first-generation Magus, right?"
"That is one small boon we have had - Merry seems to have extremely high quality Magic Circuits. Even my E-Rank Luck will occasionally turn in my favor, it seems." Siegfried lets out a dry chuckle.
"But what does it matter?" The girl shouts. "We did the summoning, and…"
"No one came." Siegfried says with a sigh.
"...That sucks and all, but that implies there's a leyline near here, right?" I can't help but note.
"...Good call, Natsuki. There's no use in bemoaning past failures right now." Olga says. "Get to the Leyline and summon someone, immediately."
"We don't have a catalyst, though." I say.
"Idiot! Don't you have that holy shroud that Ruler gave you?" She counters.
"...Right, there was something like that, wasn't there?" I replay, and she sighs and pinches the bridge of her nose.
The leyline is in a nondescript part of town, just along the riverside. Merry guides me there through corpse-choked streets, eyes locked firmly on the ground, her shoulders shaking and her fists clenched with white knuckles.
She doesn't say anything. Not a word about the neighbors, friends, family she's doubtless lost over the past few days as this city was reduced to rubble. I wouldn't even know how to respond if she said something, so I suppose that's for the best.
As I set up the ritual, I can't help but reflect on the fact that I have no idea what's going to happen now. [Dispatch Troops] ought to guarantee Gareth is summoned, but it might not even be in effect anymore. Kongming had said it would only be good for a few loops, after all - have I already reached its limit?
"-come forth from the ring of restraint, protector of the holy balance!" I conclude, and light pours out of the magic circle on the ground.
I know, realistically, that there's every chance I won't see Gareth emerge from the magic circle. But even so, as the silhouette of a tall man with long hair begins to manifest, I can't help the surge of disappointment that runs through me.
However, as the light dims, and I catch sight of his face - I feel a rush of joy. A tangible feeling of relief - because, if he's here, it'll all be okay. The relief of a child when an adult enters the room, the relief of a student when his teacher steps forward to help him.
"Servant, Caster -" The familiar black-haired man says, taking a drag of his cigar.
He's a man of many names. I have no clue which one he plans to introduce himself with. But one, the one burned most deeply into my mind through repeated conversations with Flat Escardos, tumbles out of my lips unbidden.
"Great Big Ben London Star!?" I blurt out, and Professor Waver Velvet doubles over coughing as he swallows the cigar smoke. After a moment he stops, and with a wild eyed stare, shouts the most obvious response.
"WHY THAT NICKNAME!?"
A/N:
Surprise party split! Time for Siegfried to get his long-delayed heroic spotlight, and d'Eon to get their delayed villainous spotlight.
And then there's Merry. A local girl caught up in this mess with no last name, a first name that doesn't sound very French, too much mana for a random peasant, and the same fishy face that Chlodovech had going on. Nothing to see here, move along.
This isn't actually her first appearance on the story, she showed up in Dantes's first interlude - but that was two years ago, so I doubt people remember it super well at this point.
She is by far the story element I am most skeptical about including in this fic, but if I manage to pull it off right I think it'll be okay?
Also Waver's here. Story needed more Straight Man characters, so he's here to provide. Ganbatte, Waver.