Chapter 420: The Converging Storm in Sighişoara (Part 1)

"Is this enough?"

On the bustling streets of Sighişoara, Jeanne carried a handbag, blending in with the crowd of tourists while disguised as a student.

"Yes, this should be sufficient."

Standing about two body lengths away, a woman in a trench coat, sunglasses, and a wide-brimmed hat that completely covered her hair responded quietly. She was Reika Rikudou, the only member of the team besides Shinji with significant intelligence.

"I think the Red faction should have already detected your presence. This is their stronghold, and we are on the main thoroughfare."

Reika had disguised herself and, not being a magus, wouldn't attract the Red faction's attention, no matter how beautiful she was. Jeanne, on the other hand, couldn't dematerialize and carried the vast mana and presence unique to a Servant wherever she went. As long as the Red faction's Masters weren't idiots, they wouldn't ignore her presence.

Jeanne asked, "So, what do we do next?"

"It's simple—wait for the Red faction to act." Reika adjusted her sunglasses and glanced thoughtfully at the pigeons flying overhead. "The Red faction wanting to eliminate you means they have something they don't want you to know. Now that you've appeared in their stronghold, they can't ignore it. Once they move, we'll have our chance—by the way, have you sensed any presence of the Red faction's Servants?"

"No." Jeanne shook her head. From the moment she entered Sighişoara, she had maximized her perception. But so far, she hadn't detected anything, as if there were no Servants in the entire city.

"I see... what do you think are the possibilities?"

"Two possibilities: First, they've used a special method to isolate the presence and mana of their Servants. Second, they're not in Sighişoara at all."

"Do you have any other detection methods?"

"I do, but I can't use them in public."

Reika nodded and pointed towards the side of the street. "There's a café over there."

A few minutes later, Jeanne hid in a booth and used holy water she had prepared in advance to activate an ability Shinji called "Holy Water Radar."

Compared to mana sensing, "Holy Water Radar" couldn't pinpoint exact locations or even determine a Servant's class. It could only show the rough positions of the Servants from both factions as differently colored dots. However, its range was vast, easily covering the entire city.

The radar's results were shocking—

◇◇◇

"What? Nothing? How is that possible?"

Shinji, who had been lying on the ground in the training area catching his breath, suddenly sat up, his eyes full of confusion.

It couldn't be wrong. Both Jeanne's judgment and the intelligence he had indicated that the Red faction's base was in nearby Sighişoara. So why was there nothing? Could they have used some method to evade Jeanne's detection, like "Hades' Cloak"?

No, impossible. Noble Phantasms like "Hades' Cloak" are extremely rare; it's not something everyone can have. And given Jeanne and Reika's thorough approach, they wouldn't be so sure unless they were certain. Could it be that Amakusa Shirou or the Red Assassin Semiramis had anticipated Jeanne's arrival and evacuated in advance?

To avoid arousing Jeanne's suspicion, Shinji had only guided her step by step instead of prematurely revealing the existence of the mastermind, allowing for more speculation.

Excluding Amakusa himself and the independently acting Kairi Sisigou, the other five Masters had been controlled by Semiramis' poison, trapped in an illusion, dreaming all day of crushing the Black faction and annihilating the Yggdmillennia, achieving glory. Amakusa's goal was to use this method to obtain Command Seals from the five Masters.

Without the Masters' consent, extracting Command Seals would be extremely difficult, and neither Amakusa nor Semiramis had that capability. They could only use "inducement" and "deception" to make these top magi "willingly" hand over their Command Seals to Amakusa, the overseer of the Holy Grail War—retrieving Command Seals after the war was precisely the overseer's duty.

Having obtained these Command Seals and control over the other Red Servants, Amakusa would then be qualified to face Jeanne without worrying about her invoking the "God's Resolution" privilege to forcibly command all Servants to annihilate him. Inducing the Masters through illusions to give orders was still indirect and could take considerable time and might not even succeed. Amakusa was not a combat-type Servant; this amount of time would be more than enough for Karna or Achilles to kill him several times over.

Therefore, Amakusa would not appear before Jeanne until he had secured this control.

Knowing this, Shinji suggested Jeanne visit the Red faction's stronghold to see if she could discover anything. Although the chance of Jeanne capturing Amakusa, given his patience and cunning, was minimal, even the slightest trace would be enough to dispel all of Jeanne's doubts.

Unexpectedly, Amakusa retreated so decisively without any contact at all. Should it be said that a boss is a boss?

However, this was not the end, but just the beginning.

"Artoria, have Jeanne circle the city and then come back. Then, give her the cloak and take her into the city for another round."

Dare you not pluck the thorny white lily? Will you eat the lion's head delivered to your mouth?

Let's see how long you can endure!

Shinji secretly steeled himself and, in doing so, naturally tensed his body—which usually wasn't a problem, but now, with his whole body swollen... he gasped in pain.

"Hiss, this hurts like hell."

◇◇◇

"How lucky, if Ruler had come a day earlier, we might have been discovered."

Hearing the news from Semiramis, Shirou commented with a smile.

This time, it was merely a coincidence that the Red faction's Servants were not in Sighişoara. On the night before Jeanne's arrival, the Red faction had just moved their base from the mountain church to Semiramis' ace Noble Phantasm, the "Hanging Gardens of Babylon."

Otherwise, even if Shirou had known in advance that Jeanne was coming, they couldn't have retreated so cleanly. Not to mention others, Achilles, when angry, wouldn't even listen to his Master, let alone to Shirou as an "agent." If things went wrong, Jeanne might have really caught them, which is why Shirou sighed in relief.

"Why do I feel like you actually wanted to be discovered by Ruler?" Semiramis looked at her Master with a half-smile.

"Because while everything going according to the script is safe, it's also very boring. The longer the suppression, the more eager I am to stir up some trouble."

"You've been influenced by Caster," Semiramis complained as she played with the pigeon that brought the news.

"Perhaps." Shirou didn't deny it. "But a missed opportunity is a missed opportunity; lamenting it is useless."

At this moment, a faint thought was transmitted to Semiramis' mind from Sighişoara. Semiramis closed her eyes, synchronizing her vision with that of a distant familiar.

A few minutes later, she opened her eyes, puzzled. "What's going on? Not only Ruler, but even a Black faction Servant has arrived?"

"Black faction? Which one?" Shirou also showed a surprised expression.

"The only one without any intelligence."

"No intelligence, meaning Black Lancer? Interesting, very interesting." Shirou's eyes lit up.

"What do you plan to do, Master? Should we send someone to handle her? I just confirmed that Ruler has already left Sighişoara." Semiramis turned her palm up, the metal nails in her palm gleaming coldly.

"Hmm..." Shirou crossed his arms, one hand holding his chin. "This is indeed a good opportunity to eliminate Black Lancer, but we can't ignore the Ruler's side either. Just because she's left doesn't mean she won't come back..."

"So, are we just letting her go?"

"Of course not. How can we let go of the meat delivered to our mouths? Notify our 'companion'; they've taken so much information from us, it's time they paid a price."