Chapter Volume 2 Extra: Nothing Happened, but a Girl is Heavily Shaken
Inside a grand room of the "Crystal Hill" hotel skyscraper, decorated everywhere with brilliant treasures, the high-pitched, youthful cry of a young Master rang out.
Tine Chelc, the young dark-skinned girl and vassal, slapped her desk and stood up abruptly.
"You... you've got to be kidding me!?"
From her vantage point, looking out from the top floor with far-sight, she could see that towering, majestic Golden Dragon.
The dragon had swept across the sky with irresistible power, swallowing the radiance unleashed by the opponent, and then plummeted straight toward the ground. The King's "Might," which made everyone bow down, was beyond suspense. In other words—Victory!
Even the Saber of this fake Holy Grail War himself had a look of pure resignation on his face; how could it be anything but a win?
However, a beat later, Tine noticed an inconspicuous figure appear at the side of the struggling Saber.
She swung her sword—that was all—and then, the situation began to reverse in an impossible manner.
A brilliance far purer than Saber's easily robbed Tine of her ability to think. By the time the light dissipated, Tine noticed—the Great King had been humbled. His armor was shattered, and he lay on the ground.
"Ah, Lord Gilgamesh!"
Tine, of course, didn't think the Great King looked like a dead sea bream; that would be far too rude. So, this scene was mostly just Tine seeing things wrong, right?
Falling from fifty meters in the sky straight into a pile of Noble Phantasms... no one could react to such a sudden drop. Tine's small head almost ground to a halt.
During this time, the "Far-Listening" Noble Phantasm gifted to her by the King picked up several snatches of idle chatter.
"Don't worry, Richard the Lionheart. If we're talking about saying the wrong thing, you said more than enough last time."
They seemed to know each other. What did that mean? Was it implying that this was a pre-arranged conspiracy, and the King had been set up?
Tine's small head became even more confused for a moment. Hearing the two of them knock the King to the ground and still have the leisure to crack jokes, Tine's mouth hung open blankly.
'Who... who is she?'
Only then did Tine react, focusing her attention on that girl.
Fine blonde hair, tied at the ends. An ethereal temperament that seemed completely out of place in a world filled with the smoke of gunpowder.
The girl who appeared on the battlefield with such poise and indifference looked, in terms of physical age, not much older than Tine. However, in terms of the "Presence" she radiated, they were worlds apart. Tine was momentarily dazed.
"She is the one who appeared on the battlefield of the other Archer, besides the King—!?"
Tine remembered clearly.
Although the King's attention had been turned toward the Saber in front of him, Tine had looked a few extra times and knew there were two figures who had suddenly appeared on the battlefield.
At that time, there was a man standing very close to the girl. She held a golden sword, while the man held a bow and confronted the other Archer; there was indeed a faint scent of prana between them.
Strangely, that Archer left the scene immediately. The girl and the man did not pursue.
Tine had never heard of a camp formed by a male-female pair, and they clearly knew each other for more than just a day or two. Their movements were incredibly practiced, and they didn't look like Master and Servant at all; even their method of driving away the enemy Archer was masterfully executed. The King couldn't possibly lose, but the other Archer leaving was ultimately beneficial to the King, so Tine decided not to care.
Since they drove away another super-strong Archer, perhaps others would think it unsurprising that they could drive away the King as well. But Tine knew the King couldn't lose. Because the King couldn't lose, Tine couldn't worry for him.
'Wait, so why are they actually hitting the King too?'
If that was the case, it would have been better if they hadn't shown up at all, letting the King win in peace! Angering the King wouldn't do them any good either...
A self-contradictory error occurred in her internal logic; Tine was instantly stunned, her expression one of even more bewildered daze.
She really wanted to believe that this mysterious girl, whose apparent age was similar to hers, was a Heroic Spirit, but she had no way to confirm who she was.
Because she simply couldn't see the other party's parameters!
No matter how many times Tine focused her mind to gaze at her back then, the information on her was blank. There was nothing. The Holy Grail War system did not respond to Tine's thoughts.
If she were a summoned Heroic Spirit, shouldn't there be status values displayed?
As for that golden sword... though it had indeed manifested from an invisible state, Tine didn't recognize it. Or rather, while she could identify it as a Noble Phantasm, she couldn't identify which one. After all, the various ragtag groups on the streets were also holding a wide variety of Noble Phantasms.
Tine's life spanned little more than ten years; her experience was completely different from other Masters. The sight she was witnessing now immediately made Tine doubt every judgment she had made previously. The man accompanying her wasn't nearby and didn't even seem to be spectating the fight; the girl had entered the fray alone and truly challenged the King's status.
Tine's small mouth, which had inadvertently opened wide, couldn't return to its original shape.
Behind her, some of her clansmen who could use far-sight magecraft had already begun to whisper among themselves. After all, Tine's family had sought the help of that King specifically to expel the magi who were defiling this land with the Holy Grail War. While Tine truly saw herself as his vassal, the same could not be said for the schemers within her family.
Fortunately, most of their discussion was about Gilgamesh suddenly crashing to the ground. Furthermore, since only Tine held the Far-Listening Noble Phantasm, she didn't have to worry about them hearing the dialogue. Tine's attention was simply snatched away by the battle that followed.
Fierce.
Even though the King attacked two people simultaneously, there was no sign that either of them was about to be defeated. On the contrary, the sword held by the girl began to glow with increasing intensity. Saber shifted his formation, providing a barrier for the girl with a spreading ribbon of light. Their cooperation became even swifter from that point on.
Tine held her breath because the King suddenly, expressionlessly, brought out his strongest weapon.
Tine had only seen that thing once. It was the King's ultimate move, a Noble Phantasm representing his full effort—a cylindrical sword that made one's whole body tremble and had once carved a massive crater into a portion of the Snowfield desert.
"Is the opponent really that strong?" Tine murmured, her internal prana being drained violently.
It was as if a whirlpool had suddenly appeared in stagnant water; everything Tine knew suddenly became unfamiliar. Tine didn't even know where things had gone wrong, or where the source was.
'Will he win?'
Tine clenched her fists, her gaze quickly becoming firm:
"You will win, Lord Gilgamesh!"
At that exact same time, flat words jumped from the Far-Listening Noble Phantasm and reached Tine's ears.
"You're the one to break through the Sword of Rupture, Ea, and give him the final blow. Saber."
Tine knew instinctively that there were no words stranger than these. It was as if two people met on the street, and one of them suddenly blurted out the other's birthdate, age, and even the number of their Magic Circuits and the spells they used.
—She knew the King.
The problem was: if she had truly confronted the King before, even to the point of a life-and-death struggle... why was she still standing here?
Tine looked toward the King with hope, and what she saw was... the silhouette of the King silently and temporarily opening various "Gates" to support Ea.
A few seconds later, he laughed out loud. As if he had just been playing around, he canceled his stance of being the first to release Ea and, with his usual expression, picked up a Noble Phantasm for transport.
The King doing this... probably, maybe, definitely had his reasons. For instance, in rare cases, not being baited by the opponent's provocation. Or, once interested, completely agreeing to let the opponent keep their life.
However... Tine stood still on the highest floor of the building, the cold wind howling past the window.
Why was she sweating? Surely those were raindrops trickling down the side of Tine's face. All sorts of confusion swirled in Tine's heart, refusing to dissipate.
'Is there something wrong with this Holy Grail War?'
Nothing happened today, yet Tine was heavily shaken.
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