Serious Situation?

Shigisoara.

In the vast hall, several figures were gathered together there and those figures were surprisingly servants of the Red Faction.

Karna leaned against the wall, holding his lancer, closing his eyes, and resting.

Achilles was also leaning on the pillar while whistling lightly, seemed to be bored.

Atalante held her bow and put a serious expression on her face.

In addition to those three servants, the Assassin of Red was also present with a mysterious temperament, and a smile like a poisonous flower appeared on her beautiful face.

Even if there were four servants in this hall, there was only one master present.

The overseer of the Holy Grail War and one of the masters of the Red Faction, Shirou Kotomine.

Shirou closed his eyes as if he was communicating with an invisible existence.

It wasn't until later that he opened his eyes.

"Hmm?"

All the servants immediately reacted and cast their eyes on Shirou Kotomine.

"How is it?"

Assassin directly asked her master.

Atalante also looked at Shirou.

However, Shirou was silent.

Seeing Shirou's reaction, the others also realized something.

"Failed?"

Achilles didn't feel disappointed but seemed to be gloating, he felt happy that Shirou's plan had failed.

"Even my Noble Phantasm didn't work on him?"

Atalante frowned.

Only Karna, still leaning against the wall, closed his eyes, and rested, ignoring all the presence and conversation within the hall.

Shirou raised his eyes and looked at everyone with a helpless expression before he told them about the news that he had received.

"Berserker has lost."

A simple sentence caused a shock to everyone in this hall!

The meaning of this sentence was clear and simple, and no one was dumb enough to not understand the news which was told by Shirou.

"Has Berserker been killed?" The gloat on Achilles's face disappeared, replaced by a shock, and asked Shirou, "Didn't you use a Command Spell to summon him back? Why has he been killed?"

"I did."

Shirou nodded truthfully, but there was still a helpless expression on his face, and replied, "But there might be a problem with the Command Spell or something."

"Problem?" Atalanta's brow furrowed deeper and deeper. In the end, she asked Shirou, "What's going on? What do you mean by a problem?"

"I don't know."

Shirou let out a long sigh and said, "But my best guess is that Berserker is being killed at a very fast speed before he is able to return."

"........"

Hearing Shirou's answer, all the servants turned in silence.

'Very fast speed?'

But then...

"But if he was very fast, why didn't he kill his Archer too?" The Assassin of Red asked with a frown.

"Hey! What do you mean by that?!" Achilles was furious.

Assassin snorted, ignored Achilles, and continued with her explanation.

"He is extremely fast, right? If so, then he should be able to kill Archer."

Shirou didn't answer Assassin's question but looked at Atalanta since it seemed that she had an idea.

"Do you know something, Archer?"

"Well, my guess might be wrong, but he might have a soft spot for a female or he might not be able to attack a female," Atalante said.

"Hmm?"

Hearing Atalante's words, everyone's presence turned their attention toward Atalante.

"In my case, when I fought him at that time, he had a chance to snap my neck, but he didn't do so," Atalanta said.

Shirou smiled and asked, "Interesting, but that isn't enough for you to make such a conclusion, right?"

"Not exactly." Atalante shook her head and said, "When he fought Assassin of Black at that time, he didn't fight beat up Assassin, but rather held her in a place without doing anything. By the way, the Assassin of Black is also a female."

"......."

Achilles frowned and asked, "Was Assassin of Black alright being held by him?"

Everyone's present also felt weird since they knew how cruel and ruthless the Assassin of Black was since they also knew the True Name of Assassin of Black was.

"It might be related to his ability. I am not sure what kind of ability that was, but his hand emitted a pink light before when he held Assassin of Black's shoulders," Atalante said.

"Pink light?"

Everyone's expression turned weird when they heard Atalante's report.

"But right now, we can guess that he's very merciful toward women, right?" Shirou asked.

"That's the case, probably, but it is better to kill him when you have a chance since he's dangerous," Atalante said with serious expression since someone who could escape from her Noble Phantasm wasn't someone normal.

'Still, pink light....?'

Everyone's present became curious about this ability since they could tell that this ability didn't hurt the opponent, but rather it gave an effect of something to the enemy.

"I forgot to mention it, but when Assassin of Black was held by that young man, she was smiling happily," Atalante said.

"......"

Not only them, but even Karna raised their eyebrows since what Atalante had told them was too unbelievable.

"The progress of Ruler isn't going as expected and there is this mysterious master with a strange ability."

The Assassin closed her eyes and laughed, feeling amused by everything, and said, "This time Holy Grail War is very unexpected."

"After all, the plan will never keep up with the changes." Shirou's face returned to his usual harmless and gentle smile, and said, "The loss of Berserker is really an unexpected situation, and the Ruler's strength is better than we have expected." He let out a long sigh and said, "It seems even God is not on my side."

"We're obviously at a disadvantage, but you don't seem to want to give up?" Assassin showed a smile and happy expression, then said, "Master, what are you going to do next?"

"I am not sure, we can only start to walk step by step."

Shirou didn't look at his servant but murmured as if looking further distance. "What should I do next?"

Such words came from Shirou's mouth.

Everyone knew that the current situation was very unfavorable to their faction.

It wasn't just the loss of Berserker, but in their faction, there were still a lot of problems.

For example, the Saber of Red didn't intend to work together with their side at all, but only acted alone, and even the whereabouts of Saber of Red and the master of this servant were also a mystery.

Then there was also the last attack of Karna against the Ruler, the Ruler was now tracking their location, and she was chasing after them so tightly.

According to Shirou, the Ruler owned a skill "Revelation" which made her able to search the headquarters of Red Faction to some extent, but Shirou wouldn't let the Ruler find their location so easily.

In addition, the situation of Caster of Red was very troublesome and they couldn't trust him to fight since he was too weak. The only thing that could be done by Caster of Red was hiding inside his room, without going out, and no one really knew what he was even doing there.

Compared to the Black Faction, where the Assassin was out of control, the situation of Red Faction was much worse.

"We have reached this point, is our master still planning to hide behind the scenes?"

Achilles looked directly at Shirou as if intending to see through all the secrets within Shirou's heart.

"No matter how cowardly they are, shouldn't they come out to command us at this moment?"

Achilles' words received approval from Atalanta and made Atalante look at Shirou.

Even Karna opened his eyes and looked at Shirou.

That's right.

The problem of the Red Faction wasn't only something which was mentioned above.

The masters of Red Faction refused to come out and all the servants of the Red Faction besides Assassin had never seen the face of their master since their master had been hiding behind the scenes all the time.

No matter how cowardly their master was, it was very weird that they didn't even appear in front of their servant at all in this Holy Grail War!

What is the reason for that?

Or maybe there are other problems?"

With such a question, the servants cast their eyes on Shirou.

On the other hand, Shirou didn't say anything, but his servant was the first one who spoke.

"Are the famous heroes all cowards who can't act without seeing their master?" Assassin asked with a coquettish smile. "It's like a baby bird."

Such ill-mannered words made both Achilles and Atalante look at Assassin and in their eyes, there was a dangerous light appear within.

Achilles and Atalante had never cared about Assassin who had always acted so haughty and arrogant in front of them, but when they were provoked it was different.

Only Karna looked at Assassin's eyes somewhat glint. He had a skill that made him capable of seeing through a lie and human's heart, perhaps at this moment, he noticed something.

"Is that so?"

However, at this moment, Shirou looked up as if he had learned some surprising news and immediately, he smiled slightly.

"It seems that the Black Faction has a more serious situation than ours."