[Part III]

Happy 6th Anniversary guys who played fate/grand order in the Japanese version!

Let's move on to our fate and now, also suggestion is always open!

-

"Diluc! Kaeya! Elaine!"

The three got pretty much startled as their father suddenly hugged them tightly.

"F-father?" Stuttered Elaine with a red face while the boys seemed to struggle about their Father's infamous hug that Kaeya jokingly said that it has the strength of a Lawachurls before which Diluc looked at him in weirdly about what makes this any different.

"I'm so proud of you guys that you three managed to make it into the second round especially you Elaine!" Boasted Crepus in joy while the three tried to break free from their father's clutches and Romani watched them from afar with a distant look on his face which Elaine noticed him.

"Dr Roman? What are you doing here?" Asked the Demi-Servant in curiosity which Diluc and Kaeya also looked at him with suspicion while the pink-haired man ruffled his own hair a little.

"Hahaha... I just have a conversation with your father a little bit." Answered Romani nervously, which made Elaine a little bit cautious around him and glanced to her father a bit who looked away from her.

'Suspicious. What are they hiding?' She narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms as they acting up early.

'Let's talk to Crepus later when we are alone. I don't think it would be good to confront both of them right here because I have a gut feeling that it's about us.'

'That's maybe true.' Elaine blinked herself in realization.

"You guys know each other?" Kaeya asked and looked at them while Diluc hugged her when he glared at the doctor who questionable looked at him then he turns a blind eye when he was going to introduce himself.

"Oh. Were are my manners. My name is Romani Archaman. The head doctor of the Medical department from the adventurer guild and the director of the small clinic called 'Jerusalem'."

'Did he just said Jerusalem? As in after that holy capital of Israel?' Asked the holy knight of the round table in disbelief, Elaine wasn't sure what to do as she also heard that name of it as Galahad told his journey and she DID read the bible, however...

'It's better not to jump to a conclusion right now, Sir Galahad. After all, the god of freedom is called Barbatos, the god of contracts is called Morax in Liyue, the goddess of eternity is called Baal in Inazuma and so on.'

Listed the grey-haired child the names of the Archons who were having the same name from Solomon's 72 demon gods which ended their conversation for now because it makes no sense to them anyway.

"Hold on the second..." Crepus gaped slightly and pointed at Romani while their children looked at their father weirdly, "Are you that Outlander doctor who saved ten heavily injured people in just 46 hours or something?"

Everyone blinked as they heard of it and eyed Romani who just gave a short laugh.

"Hahaha... I guess even the infamous Ragnvindr head must have heard of it. Well, that's true but the most important helper was Alice who invented the medical equipment that I needed to do it."

"To think that your such an incredible person, Romani." Commented Elaine in awe while Diluc and Kaeya were also impressed over the man's achievements which Romani just smiled softly, however, the grey-haired girl could swear that it almost looked like he was kind of sad.

"No. No. It's not incredible as you may think it is." The doctor paused a little which everyone was silent for the moment, "Sure. Saving people is a noble thing to do as a doctor, however, I also let people die because of my mistakes which I will not let ever happen again but I am a human. We make mistakes all the time after all."

"...A Doctor's life sure is hard, but why do people want to live with that job?" Asked Diluc quietly as he realized that Romani wasn't such a bad guy, but rather an honest man with his responsible job which he takes it seriously.

"It's really hard if someone died at any moment from our treatment. Some people can take it and some people perhaps quit their job as they are not mentally prepared enough for difficult discussion, but we humans want to live so we take the opportunity that humanity is living ahead to the undecided future." Romani then took something out from his coat and handed them some wrapped candies to cheer them up.

"Well, enough talking about this hard subject to you children. Take this as an apology for taking your time away for something like this."

"No. It's not!" Said Kaeya and they made eye contact with each other, "I must admit that this is the first time I heard of this but now I respect you for doing such remarkable things!"

"That's right. No matter we struggle, we always find meaning in our lives even we didn't notice yet." Said Elaine with a deep smile and gripped gently her sweets which Romani obverse her a little, he sighed and smiled as he looked at Crepus.

"You really raised them well, Crepus." He paused then Romani turned away from them and waved as he went in a different direction, "I'm looking forward to our appointment and your guys are all welcomed to my clinic, I also run checkups for free like everybody else."

As he parted ways of them, Elaine blinked her eyes and saw a man with long white hair which Galahad knew that person then it turned back to the pink-haired man with his white coat.

"Alright, kids... let's go home. Adelinde is still waiting for us." Crepus said and he lifted Diluc over his shoulder while Kaeya and Elaine took his hand.

The blue-haired boy eyed at the colourfully wrapped sweets on his hand then he looked up to his adopted sister who unwrapped her sweet and took it on her mouth which she suddenly her eyes widen at this new flavour.

"What kind of candy is this? It tasted so buttery sweet and it is also chewy!" Kaeya blinked at his sister then he does the same like Elaine did while Diluc does the same along with Crepus as he gave his father one too.

"Mmm! You're right though mine is a slightly bitter note though!" Exclaimed the blue-haired boy and chewed his sweets slowly while Diluc pouted a little.

"How come that you to have the same flavour? Mine is grape flavoured though!" He said and puffed his cheeks.

"I think he gave us different kinds of flavour so we can explore our taste a little." Said Elaine with a smile which Crepus patted her head in agreed.

"He sure is a strange man, but those things I believe that he made it himself since I never had those before and Mondstadt locals don't have in their store sadly."

Everyone sighed at this, however they also looking forward that they would visit Romani's clinic from time to time if they wanted to.

-

As they arrive at their home, Elaine quickly headed to her room to practised her magecraft a little although she rarely used it for her personal gain unlike a proper magus, she wasn't raised as a magus because she is a demi-servant which was no need for her however she likes to learn with curiosity and how it works.

'Heating gems is surely is hard to make without equipment...' Thought Elaine while struggling as she heated the colourless topaz with her light element which was really odd though but Light is a rare Element like Void and she discovered that her element can make heat so she thought that its a good practice to use one or two gem-like rubies and topaz.

She stopped her work as someone knocked on her door and placed down the heated topaz that turned into sky blue colour to her stone bowl.

"The door is open!" The grey-haired girl called out which her door open and revealed to be Crepus with a serious expression.

"Father? Do you have some business with me?" Asked Elaine in curiosity and offered him a seat which he gladly took it.

"Elaine..." Crepus called out her name which she listens patiently to him, "I think we need to discuss your..." The Ragnvindr head was thinking carefully about what he wanted to say which the demi servant knew what he wanted and sighed.

"Is it because of Galahad?" Elaine spoke quietly and secretly put the bounded field around them so that no one will hear their conversation.

"Mostly yes. That man, Romani Archaman was approaching me and wanted to secretly want to talk about you." The red-haired man paused and look closely at his daughter who was quietly listen to him, "He said something about your condition and told me that you don't have so much time or so he said to me."

'It seems that man knows about us even though it was between us...' Galahad narrowed his eyes a little as he solved the mystery about that man which Elaine also put it two together that Romani wasn't an ordinary man.

'I'm not so sure about that Sir Galahad however now we know that Romani came from our world, but I think he looking at me like as if I was another person. I believe that he is from another parallel world that differs from ours.'

Elaine rubbed her forehead a little because it's becoming more troublesome to her.

'That may open another possibility though... Elly, May I have permission to talk to him? I know you to tell your whole tale, but I want to explain to Crepus since you are my responsibility and my unofficial Master.'

She closed her eyes for a while to think while her father looked worried about her.

"Elaine? If you want we can talk about this for another time if that's okay for you." Said Crepus gently which the light-grey haired child shook her head that she disagreed with him.

"No. It's just... Galahad wants to take over for my stead since he has more information if it fine for you father."

"Oh? I don't really don't mind actually If he wants to talk to me, rather DO you want it since this is your own mind and body." Said Crepus straight which Elaine slightly coughed and let Galahad take control of her which her blue eyes changed to sandy gold.

"Whatever I am going to tell you. You must not tell anyone even your kids, your maids and your acquaintance because what I am going to tell you must not be told by people who might take it wrong or they would start an experiment on her right away." Warned Galahad to Crepus who was silent over his warnings then he pulled something out of his pocket that looked similar to Pyro Vision, but it has a different symbol than Diluc's vision which the knight took a glance at to this so-called eye of god which he and Elaine knew was a fake one.

"What is this?"

"Well... I think it would be better if I tell you something that even nobody in this household knows about considered it that I also tell you about my biggest secret... Even I am not such good man as you might think Elaine and Galahad."

Galahad slowly lidded his eye, "We actually know that Crepus. Every man has sinned in their life, this is the nature of a human being. Even I as a holy knight who was being chosen by the holy grail chase may have sinned for a long time ago, perhaps the word 'holy' is just a word that the people used for their own gain. Also, Elaine doesn't really mind that you hid this from them If you have good intention to use it which I agree with her."

"That's... good to hear that you two still trust me with that." Said Crepus in relief and wondered as Galahad mention something, "You were a knight?" He asked.

"Yes. I was, however unlike the knights of Favonius, I was served an ideal king who puts his people over hid country." The holy knight said with a nostalgic smile on Elaine's face then it turned back to his usual self, "Let me reintroduce one more time. My name is Galahad. I'm a heroic spirit, a mere shadow of the pan-human history from where Elaine originally came."

"...Heroic spirit? A shadow?"

"...To be honest it's actually difficult to explain it to you Crepus. Though the simple term would that people saw me as a hero who achieves great deeds which turned me into a 'Heroic Spirit' and the shadow that I said means 'past' which I think this would clear your mind."

Galahad received a nod coming from the red-haired man as he understood this simple explanation.

"...Let's move on to the next then. Crepus, you may have like this thought in your mind 'How is it possible that a person has two souls in here?' From the beginning, It's actually a slim chance that would ever happen, but since the [holy grail] has changed that the table has turned AND the fire wasn't an ordinary one."

"What exactly do you mean by that and what is a holy grail that you speak of?" Crepus blinked his eyes as he heard of this [Holy Grail].

"A holy grail is an object that humanity sought as it can grant your wishes, however, they could not grant true miracles without outside intervention however a group of [Magi] created for their own purpose to reach the root, thus created the [Holy Grail War] and their competition was hidden among the people who weren't aware of this competition as they are very secretive from what they are doing." Then Galahad placed some sort of a chessboard from Elaine's drawer and placed seven different figures to present Crepus, "Seven Magi who were chosen by the holy grail as Masters and, with support from the Grail, allowed to summon seven [Servant] to do the battle. We, the heroic spirit are the Servants who summon by the Masters who wanted to reach the root."

"Does that mean that Elaine participated in that holy grail war too?" Asked the red-haired man in shock, but was relieved that Galahad shook his head.

"No. It was 'after' the holy grail war and she was just a victim of that corrupted fire as you know when Elaine told you about it. She summoned me as a pure Heroic Spirit which was a miracle itself to that point and she was an ordinary human on that day. Elaine was almost at the death's door, so I took the risk to save her life even it was pointless because we were still surrounded by that fire." The holy knight paused himself and continued, "Then suddenly a strange man who has the ability to travel other worlds came upon us and sending us here in that world."

"...The rest was that I found her on that day." Crepus leaned on his chair to try to progress the information that Galahad gave to him sighed, "But what has to do with that doctor who knew about Elaine's condition, and who the hell is he? Is Romani also a 'magus' from your world or something and told me that she doesn't have a long life? A-and what exactly IS a magus?"

Galahad couldn't help but huff under his breath, "Oh man. You have so many questions which sound pretty much sense because you're a good man to make your children safe, aren't you? Unlike that douchebag of mine." He said in amuse and the last sentence was quieter to unable to hear it, "Well... To understand what a magus is it's difficult to explain to you as you are born and raised in this world. Also, one thing for sure is that Romani was half of it wrong about her condition and her life span."

"What did you just say?!"

'What did you just say Galahad?! Didn't you told me that my life span was cut short?!'

They both yelled at him that his hearing got temporary deaf in just a second which Galahad coughed his throat for a second and waited for them to quiet down for a bit, "You hear me right. I apologize because of this and I couldn't tell since I was unsure about it, after all, Elaine's life span is still unknown to me how long it would end if she overheats our saint graph even though she is a Demi-Servant, also Teyvat has an unspoken mystery that I know nothing about it and so it would be better that she needs to understand including also myself." He said and then Galahad returned to Elaine's mindscape which she got back her control over her body.

"Galahad? Oh, come on!"

Elaine was surely pissed that the heroic spirit went back to his slumber, but she remained calm as Crepus stared at her which her eyes are softened.

"...What do you think of me now, Father?" The grey-haired child asked softly and looked away from his gaze. "After all, I'm not really quite human as you might think I am."

He starred at his daughter for while then glanced to her desk and saw two gems of a different colour.

"I actually don't mind it at all," Crepus spoke softly which Elaine startled a little and stared at him wide-eyed. "It doesn't matter that you are different from the rest of the humans, you are still you which I don't stop loving you as a daughter."

"Papa..."

Tears fell from her eyes which she doesn't realize yet while Crepus hugged her.

"There... There... You're doing great from what you want to be, Elaine. My precious shining star... I know that that I will not always be for you but be strong, I'll have faith in you." Crepus encouraged her which she whipped her tears and smiled.

"Yes!" Said Elaine in confidence that Crepus smiled softly to her then he eyed her desk once again and pointed it at her.

"Come to think of it... What are you working at?"

The Demi-Servant blinked and turned over to her desk then she shrugged her shoulder, "Oh this? I was practised to heat the gems with my light element when is going to finish maybe I craft those into simple accessories such as earrings or brooch and give those to my big brothers."

He looked at her in surprise, "You have an unknown Element and also can use it without a vision?! How is that possible?" The red-haired man looking at her in amazement with a hint of envy while Elaine played her hair that was grown longer a little.

"Ahahaha... It's not really that special, to be honest. I bet the Mage's Association are more professional when it comes to their work as they are scholars of mysteries and one Element or two is what kind of Magecraft is good for me." She said with a light blush on her face which Crepus couldn't help chuckling a little.

"Well, I couldn't help but feel jealous because you have an Element even though you don't have a vision like Diluc has since I resolved to protect my family even though I made a deal with the devil itself," He sighed and tapped slightly her desk that Elaine take a look over this strange vision that Crepus showed her. "This is called a 'Delusion' that I received from an organisation called the Fatui which was created from the Cryo Archon in Snezhnaya."

"I see..." The grey-haired child inspected the Delusion for a while then gave it back to her father who put it in his fancy little box and hides it back to his coat again, "What now?" Asked Elaine curiosity which Crepus ruffled her hair softly.

"From now on. Let's make a happy moment together for our remaining time."

He said optimistic and Crepus returned to his office while Elaine decided to spend some time with her siblings as she went down to the living room with a book in her hand that contained about a mysterious kingdom beyond Teyvat called Avalon Le Fey which was really bugged the heroic spirit that he wanted take a look of this kingdom.

-

The next chapter will be about the tournament again.

I wonder who is going to fight Elaine? To be honest I need to take some notes for the upcoming chapter.

Anyways, Please write a comment about how you think about this chapter if you wanted to.

See you later~