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Chapter 442: Chapter 401

I was ready to respond with something similar myself, but I was rather preoccupied with something else.

"Fou, fou!" A certain furry animal jumped up to my shoulder, looking right at me inquisitively. I didn\'t even know it was here in the first place, and it suddenly just showed up!

"Oh, Fou! Where have you been? You disappeared as soon as we came." Mash cooed to the small animal.

I tried to ignore the dangerous Beast as best as I could, while it did its best to get me to not ignore it, with its little paw poking me constantly.

Everyone else seemingly didn\'t even care to acknowledge it.

....I envied them.

Olga bit her lip, looking pensive. "Does that mean the Book is dealt with? We don\'t have to worry about it?"

Medea shrugged. "I can\'t give a guaranteed answer unless I get a better look at it. It\'s not like that sort of thing follows the logic we\'re used to. Even compared to my time, it\'s something utterly incomprehensible."

"C\'est toujours quelque chose." Pierre rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Hope for the good, prepare for the bad, yes?"

"It\'s pointless to speculate." Medea frowned. "My Master is right. Best to assume that disgusting thing is still around. Regardless, I\'m not needed here, I\'m going to harvest some of those Wyvern corpses then get myself some of the meat the Soldiers are cooking." She began to walk away. "Tell the other Servants to eat some too, it\'s packed full of Magical Energy and should help relieve a bit of the burden on our Summoners. And it\'s pretty tasty."

"I think you\'re forgetting something." I commented.

Medea swung my staff over her shoulder. "Nope." She ignored me and walked away.

If I wasn\'t friends with the other Medea, I wouldn\'t have ignored it, but I know her enough that it won\'t be an issue to get it back when I did actually need it again.

"I\'m gonna follow her lead." Cu spoke up as well. "Haven\'t tasted Wyvern much even during my life."

"No problem, thanks for all your help so far, Caster." Samuel smiled.

"Just doing my job, Farm boy." Cu flicked his hand in a mock salute and also disappeared back towards the camp of the Soldiers.

"You all aren\'t able to take all those Wyvern\'s back, right?" I pondered for a moment.

"There\'s hundreds of them, even if we pieced them out perfectly, we wouldn\'t have enough room to store the materials, why?" Olga asked.

"I just wanted a few myself."

"Shall I go retrieve them for you, master?" Raikou questioned.

"If you wouldn\'t mind?"

"Leave it to me." Raikou smiled brightly, leaning over she gave me a quick kiss on the lips and trotted off towards the literal piles of Dragonkins.

Raikou was the best, always helping me when I needed it.

"....what?" I looked around as everyone was staring at me.

"You and your Servant, really?" Hinako snorted.

"Sorry, are you going to give me a hard time for that?"

"What\'s that supposed to mean!?" She pursed her lips.

"You know exactly what it means."

"It\'s not the same!"

"Literally the exact same."

"He was my husband!"

"And I\'ll most likely marry Raikou in the future." I countered.

Hinako harrumphed, crossing her arms. "Didn\'t you say something about Scáthach already? Caster wouldn\'t shut up about it. Then something about Saber, and now your Servant? You\'re just a horn dog."

"Bite me, Vampire girl."

"I am not a Vampire!" She hissed. "You stupid horny brat."

"You come from an era where the Emperor had like a bazillion concubines. A literal imperial Harem. Are you really giving me shit for having multiple women?" I raised a questioning eyebrow. "Huh, Concubine Yu?"

"I\'m just asking because she\'s a Servant." Hinako huffed.

"What\'s wrong with her being a Servant?"

"Servant\'s aren\'t exactly supposed to stick around long." Her tone dropped a bit.

Was she saying that because of me, or for herself? "According to who?"

"Pretty much every rule, both mundane, magical, and the world\'s." Da Vinci chimed in.

"....why is my love life so interesting?" I sighed.

"We haven\'t exactly covered Servant – Master relationships as a possibility to be honest." Da Vinci responded, humming to herself. "The Director dismissed them as something unlikely and unneeded."

"T-that is not what I said!" Olga grumbled. "But clearly I was wrong."

Well, that seems like a clear oversight then.

"Do you mind answering some questions? We have a severe lack of data on this point. Do you and your Servant –"

"Not the time, Caster!" Olga hissed.

"What? It\'s important. I was just going to ask about the conditions that led to them like this." The Caster Servant pouted on her projected screen.

I shook my head in exasperation. "Through the Dream Cycle, Raikou knows me better than anyone, just as I know her to the same degree. It\'s not strange that something would come out from that."

All my high points, all my low points. Raikou knew them all in vivid detail. Just as I knew all the good and bad across her own life. It was a relationship difficult to put into words, a trust that was beyond unbreakable at this point.

"Is it really weird?" Ritsuka asked. "Servants are people too."

"My parents raised me that as long as two people love each other, it aint no one else\'s business." Samuel also spoke up.

Maybe I should give them other lessons as well. Now that I think about it, they\'re basically in the same boat that Godou was....

".....maybe we should prepare for contingencies." Olga said quietly, glancing at the other Masters.

"You all seem like a fun group." The newly arrived Marie Antoinette just smiled happily as she and her companions stood nearby.

Olga quickly reorientated herself back to Director mode. "Thank you for coming to our aid. We are Finis Chaldea, an organization built to protect the continuation of the Human Order. We arrived in this Singularity recently to resolve the mess with this Dragon Witch."

"Singularity?" Marie tilted her head.

Olga nodded and continued. "A...consequence of interference in the normal flow of time. History was altered, the normal records have no mention of this Dragon Witch. The repercussions are far reaching, thus we are tasked with setting History correct."

"Oh my, that sounds horrible." Marie covered her mouth. "Of course, we\'ll help you as best as we can!"

"Wonderful." Olga brightened up. "We could use all the help we can get."

"Marie Antoinette will assist you in saving France!" The French Monarch declared. "And my friends will help!"

Saint George next to her chuckled. "It would be my honor to assist in such an honorable venture." He bowed his head slightly.

"Another Dragon Slayer is more than welcomed." Olga thanked him.

"Yes, we were able to glimpse the beast before it escaped. A terrible Foe, that I will gladly raise my sword to." The Holy Dragon Slayer patted his chest plate. "Speaking of swords, however." He glanced at me. "I am surprised to see that my sword made it to another\'s hands."

Everyone turned to look at me.

"How did you get your hands on a Noble Phantasm, Schweinorg?" Olga asked.

"I thought they were supposed to be impossible to exist in our Era!" Roman exclaimed. "There\'s only one Magus family that has a Noble Phantasm, and that\'s a whole can of worms. But for another one to exist in our time period, that\'s phenomenal."

"Well....it\'s sort of the other way around actually. It\'s not that I inherited his sword down the line, it\'s that he got his hands on mine." I revealed.

"Pardon?" Saint George blinked. "Forgive me if I am unclear, but your implication is that you come from a period in the future, far beyond when I have lived."

"That\'s correct. But my sword came from the person who collected all the prototypes of Noble Phantasms." I flicked my wrist, letting Ascalon appear once more. I handed it over to him to let him feel for himself. "Notice the difference?"

"I do, yes. I noticed it previously, I assumed it was due to...well..." He scratched his cheek awkwardly.

"My lack of faith?" I offered.

"I did not wish to be rude."

I waived it off. "You\'re right, more or less. But my sword is only An Anti-Dragon weapon. Your\'s gained the Holy Attributes it possesses is due to your nature as a Saint and when you were canonized by the Church."

Mine was a degree stronger, but his was holy. So it sort of evened out in the end.

"Anyways, we\'re getting off topic."

"Oh, I haven\'t introduced my other friend!" Marie clapped her hands.

"Allow me, your Majesty." The other man next to her gave an elegant bow. "Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, at your service."

"Mozart!?" Roman exclaimed. "But you\'re a Caster Servant?"

"That is correct. I did experiment a bit with Magecraft in my music." He chuckled. "I may not be a fighter, but please allow me to use my Music to aid you in your quest."

".....would it be rude if I asked you for an autograph?" I coughed into my fist. "I know someone who constantly regrets missing your last performance."

Mozart looked at me in surprise. "I would be delighted!"

Venelana was going to be so happy later. She mentioned before that she missed his last performance before his abrupt death. One of her favorite musicians.

"Later." Olga nudged me with a look of annoyance.

"Right, right." I cleared my throat. "The priority is the Dragon Witch, which may or may not be an alternate version of Jeanne D\'Arc. Still not entirely sure, but it\'s immaterial for now."

"Alas, we too are in the dark about this woman." Mozart sighed. "Until your arrival, we have been on the back foot, constantly moving to avoid detection by her many Servants."

"They\'re one down now, and we\'re three more up." Hinako noted. "We should easily be able to take the fight to them."

"And the Dragon?" Pierre asked. "Difficile d\'ignorer le grand dragon. We are ignoring the biggest problem."

"Oh, a fellow countryman!?" Marie\'s eyes lit up. "It\'s so nice to see one of my subjects helping protect France!"

Pierre actually blushed a little. "Je fais mon devoir, votre majesté. It is merely my job, your Majesty." Pierre awkwardly bowed.

Marie giggled, patting him on the head. "Oh, you\'re so cute."

"How is Siegfried, Ritsuka?" I asked.

"Uh, he\'s doing better. I can –"

"I am here." Siegfried materialized next to his master. "Apologies for not participating, I was assisting the soldiers and Caster with dissecting the Wyverns."

"It\'s no problem, Saber." Ritsuka smiled. "We just wanted to know how you\'re doing."

"I regret to say that I am still not fully recovered. The curse sunk deep into me, but I am getting better. If I am given a day or two, I believe I will be ready to fight my old foe once more." He earnestly replied.

"And what\'s your opinion on Fafnir?" Olga asked. "Coming from the expert, is there anything we should know?"

"My old foe is weaker than I remember." Siegfried replied.

"....weaker?" Samuel whispered. "How strong was he before then?"

"It is hard to describe. Perhaps, weaker is not the correct word. My old foe lacks the intelligence that made him truly dangerous. It feels as if his mind is clouded, and he only relies on instinct. During the fight when I was alive, Fafnir spoke and calculated his attacks. This one I do not believe is capable."

"Interesting. The dragon I fought did not speak to me at all. I believed it was capable, but it looked down upon me even until the end." Saint George rubbed his chin.

Siegfried turned to look at his apparent peer. "I am Siegfried, wandering Knight of the Netherlands." He tapped his armor with his fist.

"Georgios." He returned the same greeting. "I am hailed as a Saint after death, but I was a simple Knight seeking honor through faith."

They both seemed to silently evaluate one another before smiling warmly.

"I am confident then, if I am to fight alongside Saint George, and Sir Lancelot once more. I believe our combined experience facing Dragons will prevail." Siegfried stated.

"Then we\'ll leave it to you." Olga looked relieved.

"And where is Lancelot?" I looked at Hinako.

"Sulking somewhere. He\'s barely been speaking, and not because his Madness is back." Hinako replied.

....I should probably go talk to him at some point.

"That merely leaves the hordes of those other flying monsters, and the army of undead corpses." Mozart quipped.

"Undead?" Hinako furrowed her brow. "We haven\'t encountered any Necromancy so far."

"I\'ve heard mention by some people I\'ve passed about corpses walking around and attacking, but I also didn\'t see any when I went to Lyon." I added to what she said.

"Curious." Mozart tapped his cheek. "Perhaps the magics that held them together unraveled?"

"I find it unlikely that we would be so lucky." Olga snorted.

"Martha did let slip that the Dragon witch had become more erratic a few days ago, before I arrived at Lyon. Perhaps they were....recalled to Orleans?" That was the theory I was working under.

"So we\'re most likely going to have to get through hundreds if not thousands of Zombies to reach the Dragon Witch?" Samuel asked. "And do these \'Zombies\' have the same weakness that I\'m guessing?"

"Probably. Fire works well, Holy stuff is best. Do enough damage and the magics unravel easily. But a good hit to the noggin usually works best." Mundane people actually got it fairly accurate with most basic Zombies.

"Luckily, we have an army ourselves." Roman added.

"The Soldiers?" Olga frowned. "You want to use them?"

"They will participate regardless of your will." Marie proclaimed proudly. "They are proud children of France, they will not sit by while their home suffers. They will march. It is a matter of if they work with us or not."

She had a very bubbly personality.

Randomly, I think she and Jinn would get along well.

"...I don\'t like bringing in random people like this." Olga bit her thumb. "But dealing with a large swath of Zombies, that should be something they\'re capable of."

"We also have our own Jeanne D\'Arc, she can rally them herself.....um, where is she?" Roman blinked, looking around from behind his projection.

"I\'ll go find her." I volunteered, poking the highly dangerous beast off my shoulder.

Because I had a pretty good idea of what was going on.

[***]

I had to wander around a little bit, but I finally found her.

A little head of blonde hair peeking out above a large rock about a minute or so walk from camp.

"I knew my Jeanne senses were tingling."

"Will?" Jeanne looked up. She was sitting behind the rock, legs pulled up, staring out into the night sky.

"Figured you were hiding somewhere." I plopped down next to her.

"Wasn\'t hiding." Jeanne mumbled as she buried her head into her legs.

"Really?"

"En." She grunted.

"Then how come no one could find you?" I quirked a smile.

"If I was hiding, how did you find me?" She countered, looking rather amused at her own response.

"Touche." I acknowledged. "You should know, however, that I can sense a Jeanne within a hundred feet at any time."

"You\'re lying." She puffed up.

"Am I? Am I really?"

"Yes!"

"I miss when you were easy to fool."

"I was never easy to fool!"

"Do you really want to argue with me?" I raised an eyebrow. "I have examples."

"Neh!" She hit my shoulder lightly.

"Alright, alright." I nudged her with my shoulder. "Then why were you totally not hiding, but keeping your distance and not letting anyone see where you were?"

"....."

She looked away.

".....okay I was hiding." She said softly. "I\'m scared to see Gilles."

"That\'s normal."

"B-but, it\'s wrong! I\'m being a coward."

"You were going to talk to him eventually." I pointed out.

"How do you know?" She looked at me in confusion.

"Because you\'re Jeanne." I said simply. "I\'m not here to convince you to go talk to him. I\'m just here to support you."

".....I wish I was as confident as you."

"Confident?" I actually laughed. "Jeanne, you rode off to war as a teenager because a voice in your head told you to. Do you really think you\'re not a confident woman? There\'s a difference between being a coward and experiencing emotional turmoil."

"It wasn\'t a voice in my head." She puffed up again. "He really spoke to me." She said with a pout. "I know people don\'t believe me, but he did. I wouldn\'t have been as confident if he was there with me every step of the way."

"Huh, I thought it was more like directions and what to do. Did you really have conversations with Big G?"

"Conversations?" She repeated, looking thoughtful. "Not really. I guess we did a few times. But I could feel it when he was specifically looking at me. Sometimes he would say a word or two, sometimes I would just talk to him and I could feel him listening."

"Do you not feel or hear him anymore?" I asked.

"I don\'t have the same feeling anymore, no." She shook her head.

"Does that make you afraid?"

Jeanne seemed to ponder my question. "No. I know he\'s always listening.But It was nice, knowing that I was being watched so closely. Do you think it\'s because I did something wrong? She was just like me, Will. The Dragon Witch, everything about her was so similar."

"She\'s not you."

"How can you be sure?"

"Again, because you\'re Jeanne."

"That\'s not an answer!" She huffed adorably.

"I disagree."

"You\'re doing that thing again." She pouted.

"What thing?"

"Where you\'re being mean by being nice."

"I\'m being honest." Maybe only mildly teasing her. "I never told you about Artoria did I?"

"King Arthur?\' She looked at me.

"Yup. Her real name is Artoria Pendragon. My Grandfather\'s student, Rin Tohsaka and her teamed up in their own Grail War. They won, and she stuck around afterwards, accompanying Rin. I met her when I went to the Clock Tower at some point. I\'m not going to say I fell in love at first sight, but I admired her a lot. I asked her out pretty quickly, wanting to get to know her better. And, well, things just moved forward from there."

"That sounds sweet." Her expression softened.

"I love her very much." I could feel the warmness in my heart as I thought about her. "This is the Second Singularity we\'ve been to. The first one, there was no Dragon Witch. Instead, it was the Saber you\'ve seen earlier. A version of Artoria that held onto the Grail as the world burned around her."

"...what happened?" She whispered.

"I killed her." I said, looking up at the sky. "I wasn\'t left with any other choice, so I drove my blade through her heart. She wasn\'t my Artoria, I know that. Even still, she was so similar that it hurt either way."

"And you told me what came afterwards." She quietly added.

"Mm, the Demon, yeah." I nodded. "Not my finest moment."

"She\'s different than the one you know, right?

"Yeah." I didn\'t deny it. "If I had to guess, she\'s a fringe possibility. An Artoria that took a different path, and ended on bleaker terms."

"And you think the Dragon Witch is the same!?"

"Actually no." I bluntly denied.

"What...?"

"Jeanne, I genuinely don\'t think you\'re capable of being evil." I replied pointedly. "There was something significantly wrong with that pale copy of yours. I think the idea is similar, but she isn\'t you in the same sense."

"It makes me happy that you think so highly of me." Jeanne whispered, looking slightly red. "Have you talked to Saber yet?"

".....not exactly."

"Will." Jeanne looked at me with disappointment.

"Sorry miss \'hiding from Gilles\' are you going to lecture me?"

"Neh!" She puffed up once more.

I pulled on her braid, making her give a cute yelp.

"Meanie." She huffed. "...you should talk to her."

"I don\'t know what to say." I sighed. "I want to hug her and tell her that everything is fine, but she\'s not the Artoria I know. She\'s not my Artoria and she pretty much said just that. I just....want her to be happy." I smiled wryly.

What exactly was I supposed to say to her at this point?

Everytime we met, it was just awkward.

"You know what might help?"

"No." She didn\'t even hear me out before rejecting me.

"You don\'t even know what I was going to say."

"I can guess!" She wailed, hiding her face. "You have that same look and tone when you say something embarrassing!"

"It\'s not embarrassing."

"I don\'t believe you."

"Two words –"

"No!"

"Booty shorts!"

"Neeeeh!" She started slapping my shoulder again. "How is that supposed to help!?"

"Morale boost?" I offered. "I\'d be much more willing to march into battle if Jeanne D\'Arc was showing off her legs and butt."

"Stoppppppp!" She covered her reddening face. "I would die if they saw me wearing that."

"I have pictures."

"No, I forbid it!" She squeaked. "Why do you have pictures!?"

"Why wouldn\'t I?" I countered. "I think you don\'t realize how beautiful you are."

"W-what are you saying!?"

"Embarrassed Jeanne is cute Jeanne."

She made some more strange sounds, hiding her face further.

".....do you really think I look nice?" She asked, rather muffled from where she was hiding her head in her legs.

"I am many things, but a liar is not one of them." I replied.

"....later."

"Pardon?"

"W-when no one else is around, I....don\'t mind wearing those clothes later for you." She refused to look in my direction.

She was honestly adorable.

"Do you want a hug?" I offered.

"Yes, thank you." She nodded, leaning over as I wrapped my arms around her. "Thank you, again, Wilhelm. You\'re always helping me."

"Feeling better now?"

"Yes." She smiled brightly. "I\'m going to talk to Gilles. You were right, I was being silly. He\'s my friend, the truth is going to hurt, but it would hurt more if I didn\'t say anything. I can\'t help what Gilles turned into, but he will always be my friend."

"Do you want me to come with?" I knew the answer, but I wanted to offer regardless.

She shook her head. "This is something I need to do, but thank you." She stood up, looking a lot more resolved than before.

"Good luck." I said before she nodded my way with thanks, and moved towards the camp.

I stood up myself, brushing off the dirt I had gotten on me.

I was about to head back as well, until a Servant appeared in front of me from their astralized state.

Saber looked at me expressionlessly.

"....um, were you listening?" If so, it\'s going to be much more awkward now.

She held up her hand, her Darkened Excalibur Materialized and she pointed it right at me.

And now, I was confused.

[***]

A/N

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