Chapter 176

"Well, that was easier than I thought it would be." I said idly as we left the little domain that Assassin created around her Master's home.

"I was not expecting a child." Jeanne said honestly. "Should I have done something?" She asked, though I don't know if it was directed at me.

"At the end of the day, is the world worse off after what happened?" I replied. "I'm not one for killing people for the hell of it, but some people I don't care if they die and others I think shouldn't continue living." I've seen so much death in my existence – between both lives – that I'm very desensitized to it all. If something happens infront of me, I would do something obviously, but something happening out of my vicinity that has no bearing on me? I don't know if I could bring myself to action.

I'm no hero.

"They…..were still people." Jeanne said quietly.

"And that's why you're revered as a Saintess." I lightly patted her head.

She made a little noise in embarrassment. "Assassin though, should I have offered to purify their resentment? It wouldn't be technically against the rules, but it also isn't something I should meddle in."

"I am of the same mind." Raikou actually spoke up. "I do not believe that creature should have been made to exist in that continued state."

Well, that was rare for Raikou to even acknowledge her, for her to agree with Jeanne, maybe I've made the wrong decision? I would be lying if I said I didn't feel pity for both of them. Maybe I was projecting some of my own feelings onto the situation?

Entirely possible.

"She isn't out of control." I closed my eyes briefly, letting out a sigh. "And she's apparently capable of making rational decisions, I don't believe I'm in the position to judge what she is when she's no threat under normal circumstances."

"You're right." Jeanne smiled brightly. "The Lord shelters all of his children, regardless of their origin." She nodded happily.

Eh, if it cheered her up.

And I wonder if she would still repeat that if she knew what I was.

Would she despise me?

"But Wilhelm." She turned towards me. "I didn't push it because I did not wish to interfere with your talks, but I will stop you if you try to break the rules." The tone of her voice told me how serious she was.

"Technically –"

"Nu huh." She cut me off. "There's no in between, Wilhelm. I will stop you if I have to." She paused, as if realization dawned on her. "You said before that you hoped we wouldn't become enemies….."

I let out a sigh. "You're going to be unmoving on this, aren't you?"

"I take my duties seriously." She looked at me pointedly.

"I guess it'll be inevitable then." I frowned.

Jeanne pursed her lips. "I'm the Ruler of this War, and you're telling me you're going to break the rules." She sighed. "What am I going to do with you?"

"Well, you can't act unless I actually do something." I grinned, poking her.

She puffed up indignantly. "I'll just have to keep an extra eye on you then."

"You can watch all you want." I wiggled my eyebrows.

"Stop it!" She squeaked out. "I was being serious."

Heh, she was fun to tease. "Do what you need to do, Jeanne." I pat her shoulder. "Regardless, I'll win in the end." I smiled.

"We'll see." She pursed her lips again, looking like she didn't believe me.

"Got any other things you have to do today or are you just wandering around?" I decided to change the subject. Truthfully, I would really not like to fight her...I'd grown fond of this penniless Saintess.

"I've had a feeling pulling me somewhere, but it doesn't feel as urgent as this situation." She replied.

"So immediate threat versus something that may happen in time?" I hazarded a guess.

"That was my thought." She nodded her head. "This nagging feeling keeps pointing me in the direction of the Red Faction."

"By Red Faction, you mean the flying fortress that fell from the sky?"

"Yes, the massive fortress that lit up in the middle of the night when someone almost revealed magic to a large part of the country." Her eye twitched.

"Hmm, what Dashing Magus could have done such a thing?" I feigned ignorance. "Whoever he is, he must be extremely handsome and powerful."

She looked at me before letting out a laugh, a genuine one that brought a smile to my face. Seemingly, the tenseness of the previous conversation faded away. "Are you always so boastful?"

"Boastful?" I looked aghast. "I merely speak the truth." I turned to my quiet Servant. "Right Raikou?"

"Of course, Master." She smiled happily.

"See?" I turned back towards the Saintess.

"A clearly objective opinion, I'm sure." She said dryly.

I chuckled at her response. "So, nagging feeling telling you to get check out the Red Faction, is that because they stole the Grail?"

They attacked Jeanne, violating the rules, then stole the grail for a specific reason. It wasn't hard to put two and two together here. They're obviously up to something and can somehow manipulate the grail if they're going through the trouble. Hell, Medea pulled some Shenanigans with the Grail back home and she had a lot less resources than these people seemed to have.

"It intensified briefly, but I've had this feeling since I've manifested now." She shook her head in response. "I just have not had the opportunity to seek them out since, well…."

"Being attacked as soon as you got here?" I finished for her.

"Yes, that."

"Yeah, probably not a good idea to walk into the territory of people willing to break the rules and try to kill you." I couldn't fault her hesitance. Even with the Command Seals she possesses, things could happen. Her authority was not absolute, and neither were the commands she could issue. "Well, we'll be heading there come night, you're welcome to come along."

"You know I cannot offer aid?" She looked at me.

"That's fine, you make a good shield even if you just stand there." I gave her a thumbs up.

"I'm not a shield!"

"Saint Shield, my strongest Noble Phantasm."

"Noooo!" She whined. "You're not allowed to do that again." She puffed up.

"You know, I need to find the others, and I have no idea where they went." I grinned, looking right at her.

"No!" She squeaked out again.

"Raikou, prepare the rope."

"Fufufu~"

****

"Yo." I raised my hand up, greeting Mordred and Kairi as they came towards us.

"You find the Assassin?" Kairi pulled a chair at our table as we relaxed in the evening sun. His eyes landed on Ruler, but he focused on the more pressing issue apparently.

"Found, dealt with." I nodded.

"Kill him then? Was he strong?" Mordred also slid into a chair, propping her chin up. "We just wandered around for like two hours finding nothin." She seemed a little annoyed.

"Eh, not really." I began to explain. "Turns out it was a child and a Master who had no idea about our world in general. She had some extenuating circumstances."

"Wait, the Master is a Child?" Mordred looked surprised.

"No, No. The Servant – Jack the Ripper – was apparently a little girl or something"

"What do you mean 'or something'." Kairi wanted clarification.

"Basically –" How do I put this… "—She was a conglomeration of ghosts, forming a wraith, that fit into the vessel that is Jack the Ripper." Atleast as far as I could tell. "Since his identity was never known, she's probably not the only 'Jack the Ripper' that could be summoned."

Wasn't very hard to put the pieces together when I had a few moments to think about it.

"And they're dead…?"

"Nope." I shook my head. "Left them alone since they didn't want to fight. I gave them a means to keep their Assassin anchored without having to kill people, so they shouldn't be a problem again. I offered them an out at the end of the war if they didn't cause any issues, and they took it."

"Jeeze." Kairi rubbed his temples. "What am I supposed to tell my employers?"

"Tell them I can go have a talk with them personally if they're upset."

Kairi snorted, but I think he took that to heart.

Whatever.

"At the very least, one less Assassin that will try to stab us in the back." I offered as a consolation.

"Yeah, I hate dealing with those types, so its' fine with me. Sides, I don't want to have to kill a kid and a Master who didn't even know what she was doing in the first place." Mordred didn't seem to care.

"Alright, now that that's settled, introductions." I clapped my hands. "This is Ruler" I gestured towards Jeanne. "She's joining our team."

"I'm not." She said curtly.

"Ruler, this is Mordred, my son." I gestured towards the Knight of Rebellion.

"I'm not." Mordred gave an almost identical response.

"Good, now that's settled."

"Yeah, no." Mordred interjected.

"I should clarify I am not aiding you in the upcoming battle." Jeanne replied.

"Aren't Ruler's supposed to be neutral?" Mordred asked.

"We are." She nodded "I am merely spending my time idly." She explained. "Or until Wilhelm decides to start breaking the rules." She added on with a rather dry tone.

"Oh shit, does that mean I can fight her?" Mordred turned to me a little excited. "I want a real fight, that Berserker didn't really match up." She paused, giving Ruler a once over. "Hang on. Why does she kinda look like father?"

"Pardon?" Jeanne seemed confused.

"Yeah, now that I look at her, she does kind of look like Artoria." I rubbed my chin. "Curious."

"Hey, are they related? Are WE related?" Mordred asked me.

"Unlikely." I shook my head.

"How so? I mean…..she doesn't look that far off."

"She's French."

"Ah, got it." Mordred nodded as if it that was a good enough explanation.

"What's that supposed to mean!?" Jeanne huffed.

I snorted, holding back my laughter, even earning a small little chuckle from Mordred. Taking the piss out of the French, it was an English pass time. I may not be English myself, either now or in my past life, but I've lived there long enough to pick up certain things.

Taking a moment to settle down, I look towards Kairi. "Do you have any thoughts about tonight?"

Kairi, who had a small smile on his face watching us, took of his sunglasses and rubbed his eyes. "I'll be coming with." He stated. "I can't stay out of it forever, especially with what remains of that fortress. No idea if they'll be able to mess with our connection with that thing."

"That's a fair point." That flying fortress could have possibly interfered with the Master-Servant link depending on its ability If they went inside.

"Hell yeah." Mordred pumped her fist.

Well, she's certainly excited. "Any plans on how you want to go about it?"

He took a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket, lighting one up and taking a smoke. "Is there any point now?"

"Again, that's fair." I nodded. "By now, my capabilities are known, as are our servants in some regard. It's either going to be a scramble to get the Grail, or an all out fight to finish everything. Either way, this war will end tonight."

"Simplest method is usually the best." Kairi nodded. "We were just unlucky they got the Grail before us last night."

Yeah, I didn't think the Red faction would be after the Grail as well like that.

Oh well, nothing I could do at this point.

The best course of action would just be a direct attack.

"I can't say I'm not a little bit excited." I was sure I had a wide grin on my face.

****

Non-canon Omake – 'Get out of my Universe!' Doctor who.

I had the vague recollection that I wasn't supposed to come to this reality, but I couldn't quite remember why.

I looked around, and it was just a normal earth, with normal people walking around. No one even gave me a second glance as I stood to the side.

Strange.

Turning to the side, I noticed something that seemed to mess with my perception. It was easily enough to dismiss the passive filter it seemed to house around it, to see what laid beneath. "Is that a Police Box….? Do they even have those anymore?"

Almost immediately the door to it opened and someone jumped out, turning and staring right at me. "No." He declared pointing right at me. "No, no , no! Get out of my Universe!" He stomped over to me.

And I recalled why I didn't come here anymore in my past life. "Well, hey there big chin."

"Big Chin!?" He huffed. "My Chin isn't big!"

"It kinda is." A woman flanked him, a redhead. I think she's Scottish.

"Hey!" He sounded indignant. "My Chin is perfectly normal."

"It's not." I denied.

"Well, no one asked you." He turned his nose up. "Wait, stop distracting me. Get out of my Universe!"

"Your Universe?" I scoffed. "I don't see your name on it."

"Oh, how mature." He rolled his eyes.

"What, the guy dressed like he's going to go on sesame street is talking about maturity? You're like one of those hipsters that intentionally tries to dress like the quintessential 'dork'."

"Shows what you know." He pulled on his bowtie. "Bowties are cool."

"No, they aren't, old man." I crossed my arms.

"They really aren't." The girl beside him agreed.

I turned towards her. "Hello there." I gave a charming.

"Sup." She gave a smile.

"No, none of that!" He stepped between us. "Get out of my universe! You agreed to our deal. Shoo, shoo" He gestured for me to leave.

"I'm not Zelretch." I deadpanned. "I'm his Grandson."

"Oh, my mistake." He fixed his bowtie. "Nice to meet you. Now, get out of my universe!"

"Doctor, who is he?" She asked.

"Someone who doesn't belong here."

"Bitch, I'm more human than you are, how about you get off MY planet."

"Hey, language." He chided.

"I'm sorry, I forgot how much of a child you are." I retorted. "Ignoring him." I turned to his companion. "Nice to meet you, Wilhelm Henry Schweinorg, at your service." I introduced.

"Amelia Pond." She gave a smile. "So, who are you?"

"Just your average Dimensionally traveling Magician." I grinned.

"Pfft, like magic?" She laughed.

"Yes." It was the Doctor who answered.

"Wait, are you serious?" She snapped her head towards him.

"Unfortunately." He scowled.

"I thought magic was fake – like, sufficiently advanced technology or however that saying goes." She looked surprised.

"That's true, for this Universe." He perked up. "My people banished magic from the Universe at the Dawn of Creation." He sounded rather pleased with himself. "But that doesn't mean it can't come from...other places." He narrowed his eyes.

"True Magician over here." I waved towards her. "If you're interested, I wouldn't mind answering some questions over say --- dinner?"

"No, no no no!" The Doctor interjected. "Stop...that!"

"What, Flirting?" My lips curled up. "I'm sorry is it such a foreign concept to you? Am I offending your delicate sensibilities?"

"As if. I'll have you know I'm married." He looked rather proud.

"I don't believe you." I said immediately.

"Hah, you're just jealous." He straightened his bowtie again.

"Boys, are you really doing this?" Amelia tried to interject

"I have a Harem." I countered.

"....And that's an immediate 'no' to the dinner." She added.

"Yeah, well...I've kissed the Queen of England." He gave a smug smile.

"That's leave me with a lot of questions." She spoke to herself. "But keep ignoring me, I'll just sit here in my own little world."

"I fucked King Arthur." I declared.

"….."

"….."

"…."

"...What do I need to give you?" He finally said.

"Pardon?" I grinned at him.

"What." He punctuated. "Do I need to give you, to get you to leave for good?"

I couldn't help but widen my grin

***

"And that's how I got my hands on a Sonic Screwdriver." I held up the little device as it made a buzzing sound.

"Wilhelm." Zelretch clasped his hands on my shoulders. "I have never been so proud of you as I am right now."

***

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