140 Meeting The Chaldeans Again

Seth and Stheno did not talk much after that. They just took it easy while listening to the sound of the waves.

The black-haired man had taken advantage of his remaining time before meeting the others to create some more clothes for himself. After all, he only had his pants and boots on.

With a thought, fire started covering his upper body, giving Stheno quite the scare, although she calmed down once she realized it wasn't harming her. She still gave him the stink eye, though.

Seth was now adorning a black battle armor with small, golden outlines that covered his arms, a bit of his neck, and the side of his torso, leaving the front exposed. Now, only a few lines signifying his breaking vessel could be seen. Additionally, a white battle skirt with simple designs surrounded his legs, leaving the front part open as to not hinder movement.

(A/N: Just think of Poseidon's outfit from Record of Ragnarok/Shuumatsu No Valkyrie with the exception of the gloves and the aforementioned lower garments.)

After that, Seth continued walking with Stheno on his shoulders. She did ask to choose clothes for him when they got back, though. He just ignored it, knowing that nothing good could come out of that.

It wasn't long before the Egyptian God detected the others, who apparently were also waiting for him. David, Atalanta, and Medea were with them as well, so he and the Goddess were the only ones missing by the looks of things.

Everyone was sitting on small logs around each other, making small talk. It didn't take a genius to know the mood was a bit somber after the events that transpired with the Argonauts, but they still did their best not to lose their optimism, even if that was proving to be a difficult task.

They were quick to spot the approaching figures, turning their heads to them almost at the same time.

Seth's presence immediately brought a rollercoaster of emotions from them. Among those were happiness, relief, fear, guilt, and mistrust.

Fujimaru was the first to turn his head away from him. He was the one who felt guilt at seeing him. No matter what others say, the Japanese youth still considered himself at fault for what happened to Altera.

It was the same with Jeanne in Rome. That should have been the last time something like that happened, and still... Still, it happened again. However, this might be even worse.

Being honest with himself, he didn't want to face him and yet, at the same time, did. To others, it might seem odd, but he had this strange feeling of wanting to be blamed for the events that led to Altera's condition. As if by doing so, he would be at peace with himself. He didn't want something like last time to happen, where Seth just told him not to worry and that it wasn't his fault. Even so... Fujimaru had the certainty the situation was going to repeat itself—that Seth was not going to hold him accountable for what occurred.

A hand on his shoulders brought him out of his self-hate. His Kohai was looking at him with worry in her eyes. He must have put a troubled face if she was able to notice.

Fujimaru offered a smile that to anyone observant, it looked fake, but it managed to calm her down nonetheless.

He didn't want her to be concerned about him. The black-haired youth preferred to talk to Seth first before anything. He was in need of sorting out his emotions in the matter, and he felt that having a conversation with him was the answer. He just hoped it could go well and with just the two of them.

Although he didn't voice it out, he could tell the others didn't completely trust Seth yet. It wasn't at the level like when they found out his identity, but it wasn't at a point where they would easily let the God alone with him either.

Fujimaru internally sighed as he did his best not to show any of his inner thoughts on his face. For now, he would try to set up a meeting between the two of them. Hopefully, Seth agrees.

The man in question was observing them as much as he could with his limited vision, sensing every negative feeling in the air. It would be a lie to say he wasn't surprised by the intensity of those feelings. He had expected them to be more prominent and with more force. Instead, he was met with subtlety. They were there, just not with the depth he assumed.

'Something must have happened.' It was the only explanation. Though, in the end, it mattered little. His job would not change, his motivation would not change, everything was the same as before. No, maybe not exactly the same.

"Hello~ How have you been? I see that you met my favorite Huntress, that's great!" Artemis' cheerful greeting interrupted his thoughts, breaking the tense atmosphere. Oh yeah, he had forgotten those two were actually related.

Speaking of which, Atalanta was unusually quiet for someone who had met the Goddess of her worship. Well, knowing how Artemis acted, it must have been pretty shocking, in more ways than one.

'She is dead inside.' Seth tried to mitigate the shock before, although it didn't go smoothly. Atalanta practically didn't believe a word he said. He wouldn't say he expected more, though. It was normal to be in a state of denial for things like these.

You never know how a God truly is until you finally meet them.

That statement couldn't be more true. If people wanted an extreme example, then Artemis would be the one chosen. There wasn't a more contrasting nature between mythology and real-life than her.

"Eh... so-so. How about you? You seem a bit roughed up. And you are still giving people the shock of their lives without even meaning to, I see." There were some discernible bruises on her face and arms, but otherwise, she appeared fine.

The others observed the exchange silently. It was as if they were witnessing something that could only be described as historical. To most of them, meeting a God was something straight out of fantasy, and seeing two of them interact even more so. And yet... It looked kind of normal. They acted like average people you see every day. Although they couldn't say what sort of out-of-the-norm experience they were expecting. Especially when you take into account the fact they had already talked before, just that at that time they only knew one of them was a Deity.

"Hm? What do you mean?" She cluelessly asked, not understanding the meaning of his words. When did she do that?

Artemis obviously didn't look at the side to see Atalanta with dead eyes looking at the sky like she had given up on life. Otherwise, her thoughts would be different... maybe.

"...I see that you were able to beat Archer. But I must ask again, what is your standing in all of this? What reason do you have to help us?" Romani made his presence clear through their communicator. David's eyes flashed for a second before he adopted a relaxed posture, watching what his son was planning to do.

"My reasons are my own, Romani. It was like that before, and it still is the same now. Though, you don't have to worry about me going out of my way to harm any of you. If I wanted, I could have done it ages ago. Despite what you believe of me, I am not some demon who cuts babies in half, you know?" Dr. Roman flinched slightly. It couldn't be... He knew who he was? But that was impossible!

The Doctor shifted his gaze toward his father, who was smiling lightly with his eyes closed. He was definitely enjoying this...

...Wait.

He knew too?! How?! Pause, pause, pause. If that man was already aware of who he was, then it made sense that David did as well. But in that case, why hasn't he said anything to him yet? Aside from throwing insults at him indirectly, that is.

Despite his crazy thoughts, he managed to make a shaky laugh. "Ahahaha... That's good, that's good. Well, my coffee seems to be a bit cold, I am going to heat it up. Talk to you guys in a bit!"

Romani didn't wait for an answer and instantly cut off the transmission, leaving a baffled group of people, except for the ones who know of the real him. However, the most perceptive ones, mainly EMIYA and Zhuge Liang started to read between the lines. It wasn't enough to form something concrete yet, but they had a path to go now.

"Now that Mr. Failure is out of the way, shoot your questions, whatever you want to ask. Let's get this over with as quickly as possible as I have no desire to carry your asses when you make mistakes in the middle of a battle because of a problem between us. And please, don't ask about my appearance, I have been through that many times already."

Of the people present, only Zhuge Liang, Artemis, and Mash decided to voice their thoughts. Euryale, Sanson, and Asterios — who was now missing an arm — didn't have anything to say.

The Goddess and the Minotaur were comfortable in his presence, so there were no complaints on their part. As for Sanson, he hated Evil, but not Evil people. Out of every Servant that Seth had a contract with currently, Sanson might be the one who understood him the most, not as a person, but as someone with a similar job.

To cut Evil, he had to become Evil himself. He understood that God would do nothing, so it fell into his hands to liberate the people who had erred in their ways. In the end, both were born out of a necessity.

The others who didn't have anything to say were Fujimaru, Drake, and Orion. The Master wanted to talk in private, so he knew that now was not the time. As for Francis, she didn't want to think about stuff that was too complicated and preferred to enjoy life with an easy-going attitude instead. Orion... Well, Orion was in heaven, enjoying the view of the new female additions to the party. He was totally taking advantage of the situation to avoid being punished by Artemis.

"Are you going to become a pig or not?" Artemis was the first one to start, and as always, her question was met with bewilderment. What was that supposed to mean?

Seth did his best not to let his face twitch at her words. It didn't help that Stheno was trying so hard to stifle her laughter. Euryale also seemed to be following her sister's example.

'How stupid can this woman get? And it's a boar, not a pig. There is a difference...'

His thoughts aside, the black-haired man was quick to respond. "No. You don't have to fear that. I don't see me becoming a BOAR anytime soon." He made sure to emphasize the type of animal, as well as use the word 'fear' in his sentence.

Artemis was the one who was scared of him, although her fear was something innate. She didn't actively felt it. It was just hidden deep within herself, like an animal in the face of its natural predator. To add to that, her weird personality allowed her to act as if that fear wasn't even there.

"Thanks~✰ Now I can fully concentrate on spending time with my darling without having to watch my back!" As soon as she said that, Artemis hugged Orion tightly, interrupting his ogling.

Atalanta, who wasn't even paying attention to the conversation, felt the need to bash her head against the Calydonian Boar's skull. This... It was too much. It had to be a bad dream. Yes! That's right. She was just having a nightmare, everything would be okay once she woke up!

The way the Huntress twitched was so bad that Medea had to do her best to prevent the green-haired Archer from having a seizure there and then.

It was Zhuge Liang's turn to ask, and he went straight to the point. "We can assume that whatever your objective is, it aligns with ours of saving humanity, am I right?"

Seth gave a nod of confirmation. There was no point in explaining to them that his objective was the SAME as them. In their eyes, it would be like a terrorist saying he wanted to save people. They would just not believe him, so he wouldn't bother in doing it.

"With that in mind, will you 'discard' us when you don't need us anymore?" There was an obvious meaning in his words. Seth was portrayed in mythology as the vengeful, liar, and deceiving type, so that description is the one Caster went with to base his question.

Seth raised his eyebrows, unamused by the question. "Leaving aside your image of me, no, I don't plan to kill any of you, nor I have the interest in doing so. As I said to that magical-girl obsessed Doctor, if I wanted to kill you, I would have done so already. Our kind won't go out of their way to make complicated plans to deal with you, just the small use of our Authority will do. Artemis here can testify for me in that aspect."

The white-haired woman continued hugging Orion between her breasts while observing him with her head down, so the others couldn't see her expression. Although she was looking at the plushie, her eyes seemed to be traveling through a distant memory, one that brought sadness to her.

The only ones who noticed where Seth, with his capabilities of sensing negative emotions, and Orion, who was right below her. The Hunter stopped with his perverted actions and looked at her with concern. Their relationship might be complicated, but that didn't mean he didn't care for her. 'That's why I don't get along with Gods... They are so stupid and full of themselves they don't even care for the feelings of their own kind.' Orion could only sigh internally at the predicament of the Goddess of the Hunt.

"Though we both know that my answer does not matter and that you will still keep an eye out for me out of distrust, but that is fine." Seth decided to continue with his answer, knowing this was a hard subject for Artemis. After all, he was in the same situation, so he could understand her thoughts.

Zhuge Liang was satisfied enough with the response, so he passed the baton to Mash.

The lilac-haired girl took a deep breath before speaking. "This is not a question, but more of a request."

She closed her eyes, seemingly trying to find courage before opening them again. This time, they were full of resolution.

"Please, stay away from Senpai from now on."