Chapter: 22

"A meeting between both Factions? What kind of meth are higher-ups taking these days?"

Kairi massaged his head in annoyance.

He didn't understand the point of this meeting when he could, even without participating in it, tell the result of it.

There were only two possibilities; they will go their separate ways or join hands.

Kairi knew how futile and a waste of time it was. Joining hands? How laughable. What are they going to do after joining hands when the fight was still going to be an individual fight?

There are fourteen avatars on Gin's side, and 13 Servants on their side. No matter how he scaled it, they were at a disadvantage here.

'Now I cannot do anything to them but wait. And Saber is giving her all to fight only a single avatar.'

A sigh escaped his lips, his hand reaching for the back of his head and rubbing it.

'Just what is he really? He cannot be a human if he holds this much power, a demon maybe? Uhh… all this thinking is making my head hurt. Let's just wait for the result of the meeting and hope that Saber can defeat the avatar.'

Saber was of the strongest class. And even if she was having trouble defeating a single avatar, it was going to be even more difficult for others. Kairi could only wish that all avatars had the same type of beast with the same type of abilities.

At least they would be able to collect data and counter-attack the familiar during the fight.

1 

He picked up his cup and took a slight sniff of the aroma, the smell of nature filling his nostrils.

A content smile left his lips, and his body relaxed unconsciously; as if a habit developed with time.

"Really, this tea is the best, do you not think so too, Jeanne?" Gin asked as he took a sip out of his cup while staring at the woman sitting in front of him, her eyes glued on the holographic screen that played the fight between Saber and Second Avatar.

Her brows frowned slightly, clearly showing her displeasure while her eyes shone with brightness as if wishing for Saber to win.

"She is not bad." Gin also looked towards the screen and commented. "Sad that she is fighting my avatar. She had a chance to win the war, but such a chance is useless when it comes to me.."

"... Why are you doing this?" Finally, the saint looked back at the smiling silver-black head and inquired about the question that has been twirling within her mind since the start.

"Why?" Gin tilted his head as if not understanding her question before replying. "Obviously because I am a Merchant. Is that not a good enough reason?"

'Oh. I do have divinity now… Should I go with the God of Contract from now on?'

"Merchant…?" His answer only seemed to make her frown deeper. "What does that have anything to do with the current fight?"

"Say, Jeanne, what do you think a Merchant wants the most?"

"Profit?"

"Exactly." He nodded before slightly stirring his tea. "But you see, wanting to make a profit and making a profit are two different things. After knowing the effect of the Holy Grail and the powers of Servants, me not doing anything is formal. And the current situation is the latter. Do you understand, Jeanne? To make it simple, do you remember what 'I' said after announcing Grail as my property?"

"—!?" Abruptly, Jeanne's eyes widened. "It can't be… But how? Such a thing should not be possible! Powers of Servants is more like a crystallization of their legends and past. It is something intangible and conceptual. Not something that can be taken… Are you going to use Grail for it?!"

"Grail you say?" He started to laugh softly before looking at Jeanne, his eyes glowing azure as he commented. "I will be using Grail, but that definitely doesn't include taking powers from others. I call myself a Merchant for a reason, Jeanne, and I made such a deal for a reason too. I gave them a challenge, and they accepted it. And it is common sense that The Winner Takes It All."

"You devil…" The more Jeanne talked with Gin, the more she realized how he resembled the devil itself. Not that she believed otherwise, she was just affirming the fact that the person in front of her indeed sounded and acted as a devil would!

She looked back at the screen where Saber was fighting with the Second Avatar. No matter from which angle she looked, it was a lost fight for Saber.

"Is it really necessary for you to taunt her at every moment?"

"Yes. Because it is fun."

"..."

She felt like scolding herself for even asking something like that. Of course, he found it "fun". What better could she expect from a devil? Merciful? His conduct so far definitely portrayed exactly the opposite of what Jeanne would ever in her whole life describe as merciful.

She couldn't defeat him.

Saber can't defeat him.

And she was sure it was going to be the same for every other Servant. Basically, she could see the end of this whole War already. It made her indignant, yet she could only stay and pray to her lord. Only a miracle could salvage the current situation. Or she could only imagine what he would wish for the Grail.

2

"Did you know? The reason why Artoria didn't want you to be a King was not that she hated you, but because you aren't really a King in her eyes?"

The castle seemed to be on the verge of being completely destroyed; walls were broken, the ground was torn inside out, and most of the ceiling had fallen, yet the area around the throne remained untouched.

As if protected by some invisible power, it remained safe and undamaged.

The Second Avatar, Cor Tauri-Sucinum (Ichimaru Gin), sat there. His hand rested over his fist, and his elbow over the armrest; he stared down at the desperately fighting Servant and the burning familiar.

A touch of mockery flashed by his lips as he saw the concentration of the blond Servant break for a split second at his comment, causing her to get hit by the leg strike of the familiar; she turned into a flying blur and passed through whatever stood in her way before finally stopping at quite some distance away.

Though for Servants, crossing such a distance would be but a matter of seconds.

"Oh? Did my words hurt you by any chance? I must apologize if it does, I was just reading a tale, you see?" Gin raised his hand in which a book was held with a silly title like "BTS between Daddy and Son's beef". Ignoring the annoyance on Mordred's face, he opened it at a random page. "Ironically enough, King Arthur was "killed" by his own son. This definitely makes it a marvelous tale. Shakespeare must be having an orgasm reading it."

"SHUT UP!" Mordred shouted. "You have NO right to speak of the matter between me and MY Father! Keep your nose out of where it doesn't belong, you shitty face Merchant!"

"Is that so?" Gin stared down at her, his eyes giving a prominent azure glow. "Incidentally enough, I heard you wanted or want to become a King. The reason you are fighting for the Grail is so you can go back into the past and pull Caliburn out of the stone, is that right?"

"... And so what?" Mordred asked with annoyance. She spits at her side, a clog of blood.

"No, I just found this whole thing ironic and amusing."

"What did you say?" Mordred's eyes opened with fury at the fact that Gin just mocked her dream.

"Ah. Do not get me wrong, Mordred. By no means do I am mocking your dream, but I am amused at the fact that your wish contradicts the very wish of your Father."

"Huh?"

"Oh my, you didn't know?" The smile on Gin's lips stretched and his eyes narrowed slightly. "After you dealt a fatal wound to your Father, on her deathbed she made a deal with the world: in exchange for her service as a Heroic Spirit, she asked to be allowed to seek the Holy Grail. Mordred, did you know why she sought Holy Grail?"

Mordred remained silent. Her grip around her sword tighter than ever. Yet, she didn't turn her gaze away from Gin. As if waiting for him to finish.

"She wanted to wish that she never was a King. She wanted to stop her younger self from ever pulling that sword. Because, in Arotria Pendragon's eyes, she was a failure as a King. If not for her, her Kingdom might not have ended the way it ended. There wouldn't have been a scandalous rebellion due to Lancelot, there wouldn't have been a civil war by HER son if she wasn't a King. If only She never existed in history, then none of this would have ever happened. That, my dear, was and is the wish of your Father."

Silence regained in the illusionary world.

Gin didn't say anything further. With a smile stretched over his lips, he calmly observed the emotional tumor Mordred seemed to be going through. Even his Familiar tactically retreated beside his Master and stayed still, making sure to be ready for any unseen scenario.

"Take it back…."

"What? Sorry, but that was—"

"TAKE IT BACK!" She shouted, mana once again bursting out of her body. "Take back what you have said about my FATHER! TAKE IT BACK!"

"... It seems that you have lost all reason out there." Gin's smile finally vanished from his face as he stared down at Mordred. "Very well. If you don't believe me, maybe you will believe it if you hear it yourself?"

[I give up my ability to use Kira's Zanpakuto's ability for the duration of time Arotria Pendragon is summoned and bound to me in this world.]

His voice fell, and a magical circle bloomed below the throne.

After some time passed, a person stood there.

A young girl in her early-mid teens with a slender physique, soft skin, and green eyes. She had finely textured blonde hair that seemed "as if sprinkled with gold dust". Her face showed some signs of naivety and displayed elegance. She wore shining armor with an old-styled dress, made from old-fashioned blue cloth, underneath.

"Let me ask." She placed her sword vertically downward and her armor-clad hands over the tip of its hilt. She looked up at Gin and asked, her voice containing natural elegance and authority. "Are you my Master?"

"..." Mordred's whole body froze the moment it registered the voice she loved and hated the most. It was like a poison that she was willing to take, yet hated the fact that it killed her.

'Hearing her saying this in real life sure feels… awesome! I always felt jealous of that dude whose wife did Saber cosplay that cost her TWO years just because her husband was a big fan of Artoria. Man got an anime wife in real life for sure.'

"Though I would love to go through formalities, I didn't summon you to fight for a Holy Grail."

"What do you mean?" A frown instantly appeared over Artoria's face as she inquired. "Then for what reason have you summoned me?"

"That would be because I am way too soft and gentle, and I love to help people in trouble."

"Huh?"

The dumbfounded voice didn't come from Artoria, but from Mordred who had her mind enter void the moment she heard what Gin said.

"I just cannot see people in pain." Gin answered. "That's why I called upon you. Now go and solve the mess you created with your jizz."

Honestly, the only reason he spent so much time mentally fucking Mordred and enticing her was all because he wanted her to deal with Artoria and make her not wish for Grail.

After all, he wanted to take Artoria with him outside of this world, but her wish was quite problematic. And Gin definitely didn't find himself kind enough to explain to her how that wish would fuck the world historically.

So he decided to let Mordred deal with her.

Artoria thought she wasn't the good King, while Mordred thought Artoria was the perfect King; it was best to leave the matter to both of them. And if Mordred died, then he can only wish Artoria would learn from her death.

"You…!?" Artoria turned her head around and stared in the direction where Gin pointed at. Her body tensed and her heartbeat seemed to increase, yet her face hardened the next moment. "It has been a while, Mordred."

Mordred stared at her with a blank gaze before she shouted, "... While my ass! Was what that bastard, snake-faced Merchant said true? Did you really wish for Grail to remove you as the King of Knights from history?!"

Artoria remained quiet for a few seconds before she firmly replied.

"That's right. If not for my faulty rule, the rebellion would never have happened and Guinevere would never have had to suffer, same with Lancelot and my people. If I never was a King… You would never have been born, and the civil war would never have happened. Only because of me, so many innocent people died, so many lives were lost, just because of my incompe—"

"SHUT UP! SHUT THE FUCK UP!"

Mordred's sudden outburst made Artoria's hold over her sword tightened.

"Because of you, you say? Well, fuck yes! Everything has consequences! If you didn't become a King, then events would never have folded the way they did! But just because you were the King, that doesn't mean everything that goes wrong, every problem that occurs, and every fault that happens is because of YOU! IF YOU THINK YOU WERE A IMPERFECT KING, THEN FUCK IT! BUT DON'T YOU EVER ASSUME THAT YOUR SUBJECTS AND THE KNIGHTS AT THE ROUND TABLE THOUGHT THE SAME WAY!"

She took a deep breath and looked towards Artoria with pain-filled eyes.

"I didn't want to become King because I am your son, I want to become King because you, my Father, are a King that I dreamed of! I shall never tolerate you ever calling yourself imperfect King! On my name, Mordred, I shall kill ANYONE who ever claimed things to be that way! Even if it's you!"

Artoria seemed to be overwhelmed by the emotions Mordred threw at her, causing her to take a step backward. Of course she would be, Gin hasn't been enticing her emotionally and psychologically for the past hour for nothing. He would be really disappointed if Mordred didn't show any emotional outbursts.

After all, an emotional outburst is always the best way to make other people understand their PoV. Now the only thing that was missing was punching each other until no one could move. And he wasn't disappointed by Mordred.

"Fuck it! Imma beat your sorry ass until you get your mind on the right track! Prepare yourself, Father!"

The moment she finished, all hesitation over Artoria's face vanished as she pulled her stance. She wasn't given time to ruminate over what Mordred said, now suddenly thrown into a fight, it won't take her long to come up with a different answer.

'Ah… I am just too kind and gentle sometimes…'

…

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