Chapter 43

That same afternoon.

Adam heard an announcement on the PA system calling for both Masters, him and Ritsuko to Da Vinci's workshop.

At that moment, Adam is still in his room helping Alina and Sif to catch up to details they missed from the Singularity. Namely, the survival of Slaanesh in her reduced form and apparently joining his companionship.

"You two can be at ease and assured that she is under control." Adam stood up from his bed and headed towards the door before he stopped and turned his head back for a moment with a sigh after seeing Alina and Sif's not so pleased expression. "Don't go causing trouble too. Believe me that if I could, I would have killed her there and then."

Seeing the not so enthusiastic nod from his furry companion baring her fangs and his lover that he had yet to fully come to term yet mainly due to his inability to understand such thought and emotion that had become so estranged from him. Adam nodded with a small sigh and left his room for Da Vinci's workshop.

After tapping a button to command the door to slide open, Adam immediately came face to face to Slaanesh on the same spot from this morning as if she never left and her face painted with boredom immediately brightens up upon seeing him. However, instead of straight hostility. Adam stared at her with a face of confusion and the addition of exhaustion.

"What are you doing?" Adam said, after closing the door and befuddled by the sight in front of his eyes.

"Hmn? Waiting for you obviously, Master." Slaanesh replied flatly as if she was merely stating a fact and looked confused at his perplexed expression instead as if he was the one that acted weird.

"No… that is not what I meant. What with those clothes? What are you doing? Is this another one of your tricks to lower my guard? If it is, you succeeded."

Adam has to massage his head as the exhaustion becomes more apparent on his face. He simply couldn't understand what she was trying to achieve.

He couldn't sense any hostility, no tricks, no malice behind her actions. There's nothing. Her action felt genuine which threw him off the loop considering not long ago, they were both on each other's throat like mortal enemies.

"Tricks? I wouldn't dare." She shakes her head, looking shocked by the accusation. "I had asked around how I could better serve you and my role as a companion and considering there's nothing much I could do in battle with your prowess, I could instead excel in other ways. A very kind person suggested the role of a maid that was lacking." She answered very seriously before proudly displaying her 'proper' maid attire.

Without even needing to ask, he could already guess who this 'kind person' is judging from the clearly visible logo and name of a certain proud and prideful inventor on the uniform itself.

"Damnit, Da Vinci!" Adam wanted to yell but hold it in not to alert Alina and Sif especially not when Alina is still not mentally recovered yet from the Singularity despite her showing the opposite.

Da Vinci is the type of person that will try to understand something and someone with whatever means possible. However, when she can't get it the usual way. She will prodd and pick apart anything that caught her interest. That being him, a big enigma that intrigued her to no end, especially the Gene-Seed that she and Malcador are working on in their free time to not only help Olga to become a Psyker which had been her obsession since learning Psyker can tap into the Warp itself and also Mash with her disability due to the nature of her birth which most had yet to learn.

Knowing that trying to push her away will only cause Slaanesh to perform a more extreme act to gain his attention. Adam is grateful enough she isn't causing him problems. Yet. However, keep your ally close and your enemy closer is the relationship Adam is trying to maintain.

"Suit yourself."

Adam heaved a sigh. Can't imagine in a million years that Slaanesh of all beings would want to act as his maid of all things.

"You can go do something else. I have an important meeting to attend."

Adam dismissed her, not wanting to deal with her for another moment before turning to the right hallway and walking to Da Vinci's workshop.

A few dozen steps later, Adam stopped and turned to his back with a deadpan look on his face.

Slaanesh follows him a few steps behind with her hands held together in front of her apron as if she is trying to copy the etiquette of a proper maid but looks clumsy and stiff since she is still trying to learn. Diligently and genuinely trying which what disturbed him the most.

Perhaps she is too immersed in her own little world or she was pretending to. But she didn't seem to notice Adam was standing still in front of her and crashed into him.

"Ouch!"

She squeaked when she felt like she crashed against a solid wall only to realise the wall was Adam who stood tall almost twice her height.

"Oh! I am very sorry, A— Master. I truly didn't notice you had stopped." She bowed down without hesitation to apologize before lifting her body up and wondered if she did it properly.

"Why are you following me?" Adam asked without much expectations for her answer not being another excuse.

"I had nothing else to do." She answered plainly.

Adam would like to argue that but considering no one in Chaldea trusts her enough to let her get close to them or wander on her own to do, The Emperor knows what. There's really nothing Adam could use to retort.

Adam resisted the urge to heave another sigh and turn around before continuing his unfinished journey to Da Vinci's workshop. With Slaanesh in tow.

———

"Oh. You finally arrived, Adam. What took you so… long?"

Olga greeted when Adam entered Da Vinci's workshop. But when he walked towards an empty seat much larger than the others, no doubt prepared specially for him. Olga finally saw the one hidden behind his giant form.

Not just Olga. But Ritsuko, Mash and Romani also look surprised. Unsurprisingly, Malcador seems to know what is coming when he turns his head to give the chuckling Da Vinci a strange look.

Adam, who is seated, stared at Da Vinci with an unamused look. But not in the mood to talk about the 'advice' she gave Slaanesh.

"Oh, what's with the sour look? She looks amazing in it. Don't you agree?"

Da Vinci didn't seem to pick up the hint or she simply didn't care as she talked jovially and sang praises for the clothes she created for Slaanesh. But her attempt to pick on Adam was met with a heavy pressure weighing on everyone in the room enough to make them have slight difficulty breathing. Da Vinci finally took the hint and stopped. Or did she?

Da Vinci mumbled something about lacking appreciation for her masterpiece of a Mystic Code in the form of that maid outfit Slaanesh wore or whatever that meant.

Others didn't try to talk more about it seeing Adam's foul mood as Romani silently urging Da Vinci to get into the business they are gathered here for.

With a sigh, Da Vinci took out the Holy Grail recovered from Fuyuki and Orleans Singularity before Malcador placed the most recent one recovered from Septem Singularity and placed it on the desk.

"As you all had guessed. This matter is about the Holy Grail. Rather the uses I and Malcador had found for the Grail." She said and picked up the Fuyuki Grail in her right hand.

"As you all had already known, the Holy Grail is an omnipotent wish granting device. The real grail that is. However, the Holy Grail created for the ritual of the Holy Grail War conducted under the alliance of Tohsaka, Einzbern and Makiri family was a recreation or imitation of it with the power of limited wish granting with its true purpose as a device to reaching the Swirl of Root." Olga nodded since she is a Magus and quite well informed of the Holy Grail War due to her status and family which had greater access to the archives in the Clock Tower.

"However." Da Vinci suddenly changed her tone to that of excitement as she placed down the Grail back on the desk. "These Grails are definitely and without a doubt, a true Holy Grail. At least in terms of its ability as a wish granting device.

Ritsuko and Romani looks shocked at the revelation of the Grails ability. However, Adam and Olga didn't look so convinced or at least expecting a 'but' with their lack of reaction.

"So, which one is it you all want to hear first? The good news or the bad news?" Da Vinci spoked with her usual flair to keep her audience in suspense.

Eyes first turn to Adam for his choice since he had contributed the most in the recovery of the Holy Grail. But, Adam in turn looks towards Olga in respect to her position as the Director or Chaldea which fills her with much joy and gratitude since people in Chaldea had more or less seen Adam more of a leader despite him only claiming to be one on the field during their mission.

"The bad news first." Olga chose as her expression turned serious since this is the matter of their mission, the Chaldea's mission.

Da Vinci gives a nod before he continues.

"The bad news is the Grails no longer have sufficient Mana to grant a wish. Not to mention, one of them is corrupted." Da Vinci said before picking up the Grail from Septem Singularity as eyes immediately turned towards Slaanesh who was initially ignored. "But worry, not. According to Malcador, purifying the Grail is definitely possible although difficult."

Adam squinted his eyes and peer deeper at the Grail in Da Vinci's hand with his own Psychic ability. The grail itself looks no different in appearance to the other two grails. However, he could see from the aura surrounding the Grail like a thin mist, a purplish miasma hiding within which is no doubt the lingering power belonging to Slaanesh corrupting the Grail.

Adam dismissed his ability and turned to the attentive Slaanesh who in turn tilted her head towards him and immediately picked up the unasked question.

"There's no need to purify the Grail."

Slaanesh said as she stretched her hand out with an open palm before a wisp of her power left within the Grail flow out and fly into her open palm before she clenched her hand into a fist, absorbing the wisp of energy and grown at least twice stronger since the wisp of her power was from when she is still at the peak of her power.

Everyone looks concerned by the unexpected development. But Adam oddly didn't find it concerning. Perhaps because he knew for sure he could control her.

"Well, that fixed the issue with the corrupted Grail." Da Vinci said and continued her delivery of news. "Now, to the good news." She said and everyone focused their attention on her once again.

"The good news is, we have found many uses for the Grail. From enhancing Chaldea's facilities to strengthening Servants."

"Despite lacking the energy to grant wishes. The Grail is still capable of myriad other functions with it's limited capability for example when used on the power reactor, it can boost our power supply enough to sustain more Servants on the field. Which means the Masters can field more Servants during a mission in a Singularity. If used on the FATE Summoning System, it would be capable of handling summoning of powerful Servants or Servants from another universe." Da Vinci specially hinted to Adam about summoning natives from his previous universe which did catch his interest enough for him to sit straighter and focused on Da Vinci.

"However…" Da Vinci had yet to finish. "There is another application of the Holy Grail which I deemed the most important."

When Da Vinci said it like that, everyone perked up their ears to listen and stopped their own little discussions on which facilities should be given the Holy Grail.

"The Holy Grail can also strengthen a Servant by enhancing their Saint Graph."

As everyone in the room already knows. Saint Graph is basically the vessel of the soul that a Servant uses to tether between the Throne of Heroes and reality. Just like there are different types of Servants, Saint Graph have different types depending on their purpose such as Heroic Spirit being the normal Saint Graph, Divine Spirit have similar but slightly different Saint Graph due to them possessing Divine core and the Grand Servant Saint Graph.

To strengthen the Vessel means giving the Servant more leeway to draw upon their legends like giving a computer more computation power which means they will be able to draw out and display greater might and ability.

Besides strengthening a Servant Saint Graph, the Holy Grail also has several other benefits for a Servant namely more Mana and capability of independence from their Master's supply of Mana since even if the Holy Grail had lost most of its Mana, it is still capable of powering Chaldea indefinitely from the Mana it self generated not to mention a Servant.

(This is not canon although logical in my opinion.)

This is indeed a game changer for the Chaldean as stronger Servants mean higher chances of succeeding in resolving the Singularities. However, it does raise the question of which Servant should be given the Holy Grail.

Eyes that were focused on Da Vinci suddenly drifted over to Ritsuko and Adam who is indeed contemplating on the very question of which Servant should be given the Grail. Or rather, how should the three Grails be distributed.

Despite Olga being the Director, she didn't dare to make the choice since she isn't the field agent that is fighting in the Singularity and knows more what's more crucial and requires the Grail.

After a moment, Adam lifted his head up to address everyone around the desk.

"Without a doubt. The power reactor needs an upgrade since the capability to field and sustain more Servants is very important…" He said as Da Vinci set aside a Grail in response which left him with two Grails remaining.

Instead of continuing to answer. Adam turned his head to Rutsuko who had stayed strangely silent when she usually is the chipper one with many questions.

"Do you have any suggestions, Ritsuko?"

"Eh! Me? Uh…"

Ritsuko finds his question to be abrupt and hesitant to answer as she ponders deeper and more about her own personal suggestion.

"The FATE Summoning System? Without the Heroic Spirit you summoned from another universe or stronger Servants, we will be completely helpless if we were to encounter similar or stronger enemies." Ritsuko offers her a piece of mind which Adam agrees with a few nods following her words.

Olga looked hesitant to say something during that moment. Something about the Septem Singularity being an abnormal situation and a normal Singularity wouldn't have an Outer God and Beast of Humanity summoned simultaneously. But for some reason. Perhaps a hunch, she cannot deny that what Ritsuko said is possible to repeat again in the future Singularities. As ominous as it sounded.

When Da Vinci set another Grail aside for the FATE Summoning System, she asked for the usage of the final Grail.

Before anyone could offer their suggestions, Da Vinci suddenly interjected.

"Why don't we put the last Grail to use on a Servant? Not just for the sake of increasing their strength which is the main part of it . But we also need to know what benefits it would bring to a Servant." She suggested with Malcador nodding off on her side, agreeing with her since he is also curious how exactly would a Servant be enhanced by the Grail and if it possible to replicate the process without the need of a Grail.

Although Olga wanted to suggest enhancing the SHEBA system. She understands the need to explore the usage of the Grail on a Servant. Thus she agreed to Da Vinci's suggestion. The rest had no objections either which concluded this meeting.

Ritsuko left very quickly since she was eager to grab lunch. But when Adam is about to leave with Slaanesh following behind him like a duckling following its mother. Malcador stopped him as apparently they have another matter to discuss with him.

—————

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