I’m alive!!
I’m alive, you bastards!!!
Aaaah!!
Clutching the arm that Lancelot had struck, I basked in the rush of adrenaline flooding my system.
Behind us, Lancelot was still sprinting like a rabid dog, but unlike when he was just chasing me, I was now riding with a superb ‘Rider’ at the reins.
Catch us if you can!
The forest I had originally intended to reach began to come into view.
Holy crap, it was further than I thought.
If Marie Antoinette and Amadeus hadn’t shown up, I would’ve kicked the bucket and reset back to the castle before I even got a glimpse of these trees—even if I had somehow survived that earlier attack.
At this rate, he wouldn’t catch up, but I wasn’t sure if we could lose him entirely.
The enemy had plenty of forces on their side, including Jalter.
I couldn’t afford to make an already tough situation even worse.
Using my wires to secure my legs to the horse as I had before, I leaned back and looked down at Lancelot.
“You don’t need to be in such a hurry.
Even at this pace, we’ll eventually lose him,” Amadeus said.
He wasn’t wrong.
In a contest of pure endurance, a Berserker with poor mana efficiency would eventually burn out.
My concern was that this rabid mutt would follow us all the way to Domrémy and make an already difficult situation impossible.
We were still desperately short on combat power; we needed every ally we could get.
They didn’t even have to be human—we just needed strength.
I was tired of being a punching bag for that damn dog.
I had to shake him off before we cleared this forest.
“There’s a place we have to go.
If he follows us there, the situation will become explosive.
And that explosion would be very bad for us.
…Sorry, I’m late with introductions.
I’m Rudolf Hawkeye.
Just call me Loop.”
“Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
For now, I’ve manifested as a Caster.”
“Marie Antoinette!
As you can see, I’ve manifested as a Rider.”
“Great!
We’ve already met, so let’s skip the awkward ‘getting to know you’ phase and start as best friends!!
First, we lose this damn dog!
Then, we head to Domrémy!”
“You’re quite talkative for someone whose injuries must be incredibly painful.”
That’s my specialty!
Even after getting thrashed by Saber, my mouth never stopped!
Some heroes kill with their eyes; I’ll fight with my mouth!
Because I can’t kill anything with strength!
Because my body is fragile!
Even a Caster or an Assassin swinging a playful fist could land a ‘clean hit’ that would end me!
Marie looked at me, hanging upside down, and spoke with an innocent face.
“But the Black Jeanne is currently near Domrémy.
Judging by her movements, she’ll arrive soon.
Do we really need to go there?
I think we should treat your wounds first.
Your complexion has looked terrible for a while now.”
I looked up at Marie for a moment.
…She was a kind person.
She was speaking with genuine concern for someone she had only just met.
I felt like I was being drawn into an inexplicable sense of enchantment by her voice.
Didn’t Marie have a skill related to her voice?
Right, ‘Alluring Nightingale.’ She probably wasn’t using it on purpose, but that beautiful voice felt like a passive effect that could steal one’s soul.
I was an easy man.
As if agreeing with Marie, the Director’s voice crackled through the comms.
Maybe people with similar hair colors just clicked?
Though their personalities were polar opposites.
[Marie Antoinette, the Rider is right.
The injuries from Lancelot are not light.
There’s no reason to force yourself to Domrémy.
Protecting your own life is the priority.]
“Wrong!
You’re wrong!!
Earlier, the Black Jeanne said she was going to catch a hypocrite!
Who else would that revenge-crazed woman mock as a hypocrite and hunt down!?
Servants can be summoned in various aspects!!
What if the person the Black Jeanne is hunting right now is the Saint, Jeanne d’Arc!?”
“…Ho, another Jeanne d’Arc?”
“We have to help her!
She holds the key to clearing this Singularity!
To complete my deduction!
Chaldea!
Quickly check for Servant signatures in Domrémy!
I’m the one running around on the ground, so what are you doing playing around!?
Get to work, you slackers!!”
[Why is he so angry?]
[Director, I think he’s still mad about where the Rayshift dropped him.]
[That wasn’t our fault, it was a Rayshift error.]
Oh, shut up!
I don’t want to hear your excuses!
I died once because of that!
Well, since the Director didn’t know I had died, her reaction wasn’t that strange.
Nothing I can do.
I’ll just have to steal the Doctor’s cake later to vent my frustration.
I looked back at Lancelot, who was still running.
That crazy dog really intended to follow us all the way to Domrémy.
I’ll keep saying it: if you had that much devotion, you should’ve treated your King better.
He was so lost in madness that he had no reason left; at least his King remained rational even after being blackened.
Which made her even scarier.
[Confirmed Servant signature in Domrémy.
There’s a signature that doesn’t seem to belong to the Black Jeanne’s group.]
“Whether it’s Jeanne or not, we can’t afford to throw away potential allies.
If it doesn’t work out, we’ll just run then.
…First, let me confirm something with you two!”
“Yes?”
“What is it?”
I already knew they were on our side, but it would be rude not to ask properly.
“Will you help me?”
I decided to be honest and direct.
Help me until we clear this Singularity!
If possible, I’d appreciate it if you came back to Chaldea with me!!
Marie and Amadeus blinked, looking at me with the same expression.
Was that look a yes?
Or a no?
You’ll help, right?
Right!
I won’t even ask you to come to Chaldea, just help me here in France!!
I had no doubt that our bonds would eventually lead to their summoning!!
Caster-bro and Charlotte will definitely come back next time too!
I was waiting at the door, I just failed because my ‘Luck’—also known as Saint Quartz—was insufficient!
Our bonds are the real deal!
“Heh, hehe….
I can hear a thick resonance of fear coming from you.
The fear of loss, the fear of pain, the fear of death, the fear of misfortune, the fear of hardship—all these negative resonances are ringing loudly.”
“I’m human!
Who doesn’t think about those things!”
“True, you’re right.
…Fine.
What I have to do doesn’t change anyway.
However, I am a bottom-tier Servant even among Casters.
Don’t expect much in combat.”
“You’re stronger than me!
You’re hired!!”
“Your hiring standards are incredibly loose.”
What do you expect from my body!
If you’re a Servant, you’re hired!
Even if you were an Avenger called the weakest of all, you’d be hired!!
I’m in no position to be picky right now, okay!?
Even if I were in a relaxed situation, why would I turn away someone willing to be an ally!
My body was so fragile that to fulfill my role as a Master, the more Servants, the better.
As Amadeus finished, Marie spoke with a radiant smile.
“I’ll help, of course.
I like children who try their hardest.
What should I do?”
“Prepare the dog meat soup.”
“Eh?
Ah?”
“Hahahaha!
Marie!
I’ve taken a liking to this boy!”
“It might be impossible right now, but I swear I’ll turn that rabid dog into soup soon!”
We were nearing the end of the forest.
Domrémy was just beyond the trees.
I wondered how long that bastard intended to keep this up.
From my brief fights in Fuyuki and here, I’d learned that even Servants don’t completely transcend the laws of physics or human common sense.
…Saber seemed to transcend them, but that’s because she wasn’t exactly ‘human.’ Regardless, they don’t just ignore the laws of the world entirely.
Unless they have a specific legend or ability for it.
For example, Saber is said to be able to walk on water.
If such a legend or myth is sublimated into a Noble Phantasm or Skill, then it’s possible.
But without something special like that, everyone is the same.
Even if my Transmutation attacks dealt zero damage, being pushed by a massive rock would still move them due to weight and mass, no matter how strong they were.
They might be able to escape or break it with strength, but if it hit, they were guaranteed to be pushed back.
“Arrrrr!!!”
“Marie!
To the left!!”
“Got it!”
Whoosh!!
That damn guy started throwing trees from the forest.
He seemed to be getting desperate.
I looked up at Amadeus.
There was a way to make him lag behind for sure, but it was a bit risky.
Amadeus’s Noble Phantasm was essentially a version of Medusa’s Mystic Eyes that used sound.
I needed it to lose him for good.
But if I acted like I knew about it, I might be suspected.
If he asked, ‘How do you know that?’ and I answered, ‘I reincarnated, and you’re actually game characters so I know everything,’ his affinity for me would plummet, and he might just drop me right here.
I had to naturally lead Amadeus into using his Noble Phantasm.
“Amadeus!
You were a musician, right!?
Since you don’t have combat abilities, is your song your Noble Phantasm!?
Do you have any debuffs or something!?”
“Hmm, I certainly do.
But it only slows them down; it won’t completely stop a Berserker’s movements.
Given the distance to Domrémy, he might catch up immediately.”
“That’s enough.
I need to give that damn dog a taste of his own medicine.”
“Fine, you must have a plan.
…Here I go.”
Amadeus’s Noble Phantasm, Requiem for Death: Funeral Dirge for the Reaper, determines success or failure based on the listener’s Magical Energy and Luck.
If successful, it was a brilliant debuff that forcibly lowered their stats.
Not only that, but it ignored armor and abilities to deal damage over time, making it a very useful Noble Phantasm despite Amadeus himself not being a strong Servant.
Even if the target resisted with their Mana and Luck, their stats would still decrease, just by a smaller amount.
“Ohhhhhhh!!!”
“It’s Da Vinci-chan’s special explosive!!”
Click.
An explosive ejected from my prosthetic leg and flew rapidly toward the Berserker.
Lancelot, momentarily staggered by Amadeus’s Noble Phantasm, had no choice but to take the explosive head-on.
The timing was perfect.
The impact wasn’t actually that strong.
Da Vinci-chan had said that against strong Servants, explosives like this wouldn’t deal much damage.
When I asked why she gave me an explosive function then, she said she judged this would be more necessary right now.
In other words, that explosive wasn’t made to kill or suppress the opponent.
It was made to blow the opponent far away, enough to make them dizzy.
Boom!!!
I flailed like a flag in the wind while hanging upside down.
Wait, this wind pressure…!?
Da Vinci-chan!
What did you put in my leg!?
It’s amazing, but if this glitches and explodes in my leg, my body will be torn to shreds!?
You can’t expect lethality against a Servant, but you can certainly expect it against me!!
I have to be careful with the distance when using this.
One mistake and it’s a retry.
“Marie!
Full speed to Domrémy, please!
I’ll pay you double!!”
“I don’t really get it, but let’s go!”
[It feels like we’re walking into hell.]
The Director spoke with a tense expression.
I smiled at her.
“You don’t understand.
It’s not a ‘feeling’ of walking into hell.
…We are going to hell.”
It’s not just a feeling; I’m literally entering it in real-time, okay?
Even from a distance, ominous magical energy seemed to reach the sky.
Man, I saw Fafnir earlier, and he was huge.
I think I heard somewhere that that lizard’s breath is stronger than Excalibur.
Even so, it’s not Excalibur; that’s good enough.
I mean, even if it’s stronger than Excalibur, it’s still not Excalibur.
Do you think I’m more afraid of Ea or Excalibur?
Excalibur!
I’ve never been hit by Ea!!
It’s the same thing!!
“Director, any sign of the Berserker?”
[Ah, since he was blown away by the blast, there’s no sign of him following.
It seems he lost sight of you.
…Have you met that Berserker before?
He was chasing you so passionately.
The other Servants just stayed put.]
It’s not because of me.
That damn Berserker probably just has bad eyesight and chased me blindly because my blonde hair looks like Saber’s.
…It’s definitely not because I taunted him.
I choose to believe that.
I released the leg restraints and pulled myself back up.
“That’s Domrémy over there.
Oh my.”
“It seems they’ve already arrived.”
Jalter’s wyvern swarm and the massive Fafnir were visible even from here.
…Wow, that’s super big.
I suddenly became incredibly terrified.
But if we lose Jeanne here, we might never get another chance at victory.
The keys to this French Singularity were Jeanne and Siegfried, who could face Fafnir.
I had to get those two on our side no matter what.
Thump!
The rising smoke told me that something—whether a battle or a massacre—had already begun.
Does she really do that to her own hometown!
Wait, does she not know because she has no memories?
Does she not even know it’s her hometown?
“This is bad.
I just imagined my head getting bitten off by a wyvern.”
“My, you were speaking so bravely earlier.”
“I hadn’t seen Fafnir earlier.
I’ve seen him now.”
“So, are you going to back down?”
At Amadeus’s question, I turned pale and let out a long breath.
…I calmed myself down, telling myself I didn’t necessarily have to fight.
My job right now was to rescue the genuine Jeanne in her moment of crisis.
I didn’t need to fight Jalter, Gilles de Rais, or the other monsters.
What we needed was a rescue, not a fight.
…I slowly produced wires from my hands and spoke quietly.
“I have to save her.
Fine.
Let’s go rescue the heroine in distress.”
“Then try to make a face like a hero.”
“Loop, your face is paler than mine was when I was being beheaded.”
Hey, shut up!!
Doing it is one thing!
Being scared is another!!
Are you telling me you’re not afraid of a dragon that looks like it could eat 20 people in one bite!?
Are you not scared!!
***
The Holy Maiden, Jeanne d’Arc, had been nothing but confused since her summoning.
The place she was summoned to was her own homeland, ‘France.’
She could tell this wasn’t a Holy Grail War, and perhaps because of that, many of the skills she possessed as a Ruler were restricted.
Her stats were significantly lower than they should have been, and her Ruler privileges—God’s Resolution and True Name Discernment—were blocked.
Furthermore, her Presence Detection had dropped to the level of an ordinary Servant, meaning she couldn’t detect anything until it was right upon her.
She had been enduring until now, observing the current state of France.
Another version of herself had been resurrected and was destroying the country.
…She didn’t have it.
…Or so she thought.
Jeanne d’Arc had thought that until the very moment of her death.
No resentment, no anger.
She only hoped that her death would not cause much sorrow and would instead be a stepping stone for the future.
Yet, another aspect of herself was speaking of anger and hatred, burning France to the ground.
Seeing that version of herself, so honest with those emotions and in a sense so ‘human,’ Jeanne couldn’t help but ask herself.
Did she really not have those feelings?
If, by some slim chance, those emotions truly didn’t exist within her, then who was the real one?
Perhaps the Black Jeanne d’Arc, who moved with the emotions a human should naturally have, was the real one.
Perhaps she herself was just a shell summoned as the ‘aspect of the Saint.’
“We finally meet, Jeanne d’Arc.”
Anger dwelled in those eyes, and hatred clung to that voice.
The Saint Jeanne d’Arc looked at the Avenger Jeanne d’Arc.
Her emotions were valid.
They were certainly valid and not wrong.
Being betrayed, suffering pain, and being abandoned by the existence to which she had devoted everything—those were emotions one should naturally have.
But even looking at the vengeful version of herself, Jeanne felt no emotion stir.
Not a single drop of anger or hatred leaked into her body like it did for the other.
She hadn’t resented until the end, and she hadn’t been angry until the end.
At least, that’s what the Jeanne d’Arc here believed.
But the existence that denied her thoughts was right before her.
Then, had she been angry?
Had she felt hatred?
While being betrayed by the motherland to which she had devoted her body, heart, and soul, had she fostered such negative emotions in her chest?
Had she been leaning on God and turning her eyes away from those feelings?
If so, then was she, who had none of those emotions, the ‘fake,’ and was the one trying to burn everything the ‘real’ one?
“Do you burn even this village, which you hadn’t attacked until now, without hesitation, Jeanne d’Arc?”
Domrémy.
It was Jeanne d’Arc’s hometown.
It was burning, and screams could be heard.
It was the sound of the maddened Heroic Spirits summoned by the Black Jeanne enjoying the slaughter.
At the same time, numerous wyverns were also carrying out attacks.
In front of Jeanne now were the Black Jeanne, Fafnir, and finally, Gilles de Rais.
In Gilles’s eyes, the Saint Jeanne d’Arc was no longer visible.
To Gilles, the current Jeanne was likely already over as a fake.
At Jeanne’s words, the Black Jeanne snorted dismissively and spoke with a smile filled with a malice that didn’t resemble her at all.
“I will burn everything.
I’m not burning this place because you’re here; it was just a rural village, so its priority was low.
Jeanne d’Arc, ah.
Saint Jeanne.
What a foolish, stupid person you are.
Are you not frustrated?
Was it not painful?
Have you forgotten the sensation of your flesh burning?
Even though you were abandoned despite sacrificing everything for your country!
How can you still!!
So calmly!!
Try to protect France!!
Try to protect people!!
Burn it!
Burn it!!
Burn it, I say!!
Now, you come to this side too!!
Burn France with me!!
You must have the same emotions as I do!!
You must have the same anger!
Even if you aren’t me, crazed with revenge, even as the Saint, there must be hatred clearly blooming in that chest!
Burn it with me!!”
The Black Jeanne was certain that Jeanne d’Arc had those emotions too.
She thought Jeanne was just turning her eyes away and ignoring them.
Jeanne didn’t deny that possibility either.
But Jeanne felt a small sense of dissonance in her conversation with the Black Jeanne just now.
…However, before she could properly grasp that dissonance, the Black Jeanne shouted with even more intensified emotion.
It was as if she were trying to make her own revenge even more solid by persuading Jeanne.
That must be it; she wasn’t just manifested as that aspect, she herself was carrying out the true revenge.
That would hold great meaning for the Black Jeanne as well.
“You have….
I have….
the right to do so.
Don’t look away, watch!
The tragedy that is about to unfold!!
If there is a God, I wonder what kind of reward or punishment He will give me!
This is a story of poetic justice!
A story only I can tell!!
If they try to erase this because the history is wrong, I will burn even that history!!
Now, Jeanne d’Arc!!
Come with me!
A blood-soaked revenge!!
Let’s turn France into ashes!!”
“…Looking at the current France, and seeing your actions as you live honestly with your emotions, I thought perhaps I was like that too.
That I was just deceiving myself, and that the seeds of the same emotions you have might have been in this chest.”
“Yes, make those seeds bloom.
I pity you, and I understand you.
We understand each other.
Throw away that filthy mask of a Saint and come with me.
I affirm you.
And you affirm me.
Don’t you?
Jeanne d’Arc.”
Jeanne d’Arc carefully raised herself.
Holding her flag, she lifted her head and looked at her other self.
The Black Jeanne could immediately understand what that gaze meant.
Distorted with a look close to loathing, the Black Jeanne spoke in disbelief.
“What hypocrisy!
Do you deny ‘me’ that much!
Are you going to cling to such hypocrisy rather than your honest emotions!
What Saint!
What Hero!
What Divine Revelation!
You fake, who can’t even save yourself!!”
“…I am sorry, I cannot affirm you.
Though I am still not certain myself.”
Before meeting the Black Jeanne, she had thought that.
That the Black Jeanne was right, and that she herself felt the same way.
But seeing her in person like this, she could be certain.
The emotion swirling inside Jeanne was definitely not a desire for revenge.
The spreading feeling of sadness remembered the pain of her hometown being destroyed.
No matter how much she was dismissed here, there were things she couldn’t do.
‘I cannot affirm another me here.
That is the one thing I must not do.’
That was Jeanne’s intuition—not a Divine Revelation, but a gut feeling Jeanne herself possessed.
Do not affirm the Black Jeanne, her soul whispered.
The Black Jeanne glared at her, unable to understand.
It was clear they were parallel lines that could never cross.
Jeanne simply wouldn’t completely deny her.
She wouldn’t deny the fact that a version of herself like her might exist.
…But the ‘Ruler’ Jeanne d’Arc here would not affirm her.
Even if this body were burned away and disappeared.
“Fafnir!!”
Following the command of the Dragon Witch, Jeanne d’Arc, the dragon swung its massive arm.
Boom!!
She tried to block it, but it was beyond her strength, and she was sent flying, crashing through a wall.
She was at an overwhelming disadvantage.
She had many restrictions, but on the contrary, the other Jeanne was in excellent condition.
As the Dragon Witch, she even commanded dragons, and she didn’t lack magical energy.
Her skills were likely even stronger versions of Jeanne’s own.
In contrast, Jeanne’s skills were sealed, and her stats had dropped.
This was a battle she was destined to lose.
But among the battles Jeanne had fought, there was never one she was guaranteed to win.
And at the same time, there was never one she was guaranteed to lose.
Bleeding, she looked up as Gilles de Rais, riding Fafnir alongside the Black Jeanne, shouted.
“Ah, how foolish!
Holy Maiden!
Holy Maiden!
Holy Maiden!!
Even after being so betrayed!
Even after burning to death so painfully!!
Still!!!
Still!!!
You do not wish for revenge!!
The mask you have worn must be incredibly thick!!
but do not worry!!
Together with you, who has cast off the mask!
We will surely destroy France!!
Even your share!!”
“Yes!
Hypocrite!
I, who have cast off that hypocrisy, will fulfill the true wish hidden in your heart!”
If it has come to this, I will use my Noble Phantasm.
It was an attack equivalent to self-destruction.
No matter how weakened she was, it would create unmeasurable destructive power.
It would only annihilate what Jeanne recognized as an enemy.
But if it failed, it would be a meaningless death.
Therefore, she would force her way into their embrace and use it.
If she did that, the Black Jeanne and Gilles de Rais might be dismissed.
She couldn’t be sure about Fafnir.
Even if she couldn’t kill them, she might be able to deal a blow close to incapacitation.
If she did that much, she had to believe that the other Servants protecting the Human Order would handle the rest.
La Pucelle: The Crimson Saint creates a holy sword that manifests flames through an incantation.
It was a type of Conceptual Armament, perhaps close to a Reality Marble.
By crystallizing her mental landscape into a sword, this sword was the Black Jeanne herself, and the moment the Noble Phantasm ended, Jeanne would end.
She would leave everything to the next person.
At least, she would take the most dangerous ones, the Black Jeanne and Gilles de Rais, with her….
Whish!
At the very moment she steeled her resolve, something suddenly began to wrap around her body.
“Eh?” A strange sound escaped her lips as she failed to grasp the situation.
If there had been hostility, she might have discerned it.
She might have torn it apart before it caught her.
But because she felt no murderous intent and couldn’t even detect hostility, Jeanne’s reaction was delayed.
It was the same for the Black Jeanne and Gilles de Rais on the opposite side.
Snap!
The sticky thread that bound Jeanne tightly pulled her straight up into the sky.
“Kyaaaaaa!!!”
Floating into the air so suddenly, Jeanne screamed despite herself.
And then, she felt a sudden thump, as if someone had caught her.
“Nice catch!
Is this what they call a ‘big haul’?”
“Hey, you guys!!
You have to help too!!”
The man shouted at the other two, sounding indignant that he had pulled Jeanne up alone.
“My physical strength is very weak.”
“I’m a Caster, you see.”
“I could die from a playful punch from you guys!!
Stop acting weak!
You’re Servants!!”
A man riding a horse made of transparent crystal was holding Jeanne.
The Black Jeanne below looked at the man’s face and frowned deeply.
Still half-embracing Jeanne, the man shouted down at the Black Jeanne.
“Sorry!
You made an approach, but I prefer this Jeanne d’Arc!!
Forget about me and live well!!”
“That man!!”
“What nonsense to say to Jeanne!!”
The man, whose face looked like he was having the time of his life mocking them, now looked at Jeanne and spoke.
“So, Miss Jeanne, I have a question.
We’re short on time, so answer quickly.”
The situation was changing rapidly.
She had been standing still in Domrémy when another version of herself suddenly appeared with a swarm of wyverns.
Just as she resolved to self-destruct to eliminate her, she was suddenly pulled upward and rescued by a fragile-looking man who seemed like he would break if poked.
Although Jeanne was currently being held like a piece of luggage, she could understand that he was trying to save her.
Therefore, as she listened to the man, he spoke with a playful smile.
“Which do you prefer: being dismissed here for no reason, or becoming the Servant of the man who just bound and kidnapped you?”
As the man reached out his hand, Jeanne stared at it blankly.
From the energy she felt, she could understand that he was proposing a ‘contract.’
Jeanne wondered if she could trust this man.
He had saved her, and she felt no ill will.
“I will trust you here and now!!”
Jeanne answered, loosening the restraints and taking the man’s hand.
Hummm….
The man’s Command Spells were forming a light.
Right here, she acknowledged this man as her Master.
Whether this was a brilliant move or a mistake, she didn’t know.
At the very least, Jeanne’s intuition told her she could trust him.
Seeing Jeanne take his hand without hesitation, the man smiled.
“Good answer!!
Then I must respond to that trust!
Especially when it comes to saving a beautiful woman who’s exactly my type—I’m all in!!”
“Hahaha, our Master really knows how to ride the mood.”
“Oh, dangerous!
Master, at this rate, they’ll catch up!”
If even Fafnir started flapping its wings in earnest, things would get troublesome.
The man put on a pair of sunglasses he had brought from somewhere and looked at the Black Jeanne and Gilles de Rais on Fafnir.
Toward the two of them, who were fuming with rage, the man shouted.
“Miss Holy Slut!!”
“It’s Holy Maiden!!”
“Oh, this one reacted?
I thought the other one would….
Anyway, we’ve already broken up, so don’t be so clingy!!”
The man looked surprised for a moment when the Jeanne here reacted.
But the other one was also fuming and already shouting something.
The man decided it didn’t matter since he had achieved his goal anyway, and pulled something from his inner pocket.
“Don’t look this way.”
As he said that, the man quickly and forcibly turned Jeanne’s head away.
The two other Servants behind them were already wearing sunglasses.
They were thoroughly prepared.
The man threw what he had taken from his pocket and spoke quietly.
“Allahu Akbar.”
Flash!!!
A light like the sun spread intensely in the air.
It was a flashbang.
But it was emitting many times the light of an ordinary flashbang.
Thanks to the man’s excellent…
no, his verbal skills, countless eyes, from the Black Jeanne and Gilles de Rais down, were fixed on him.
Not missing that chance, the man had thrown the flashbang.
Even if an attack without Mystery doesn’t work on a Servant, ignoring the laws of physics is not easy.
Especially the eyes, which were a difficult place to train.
Light several times stronger than normal was bound to blind even a Servant’s vision.
As a tactic for escaping rather than fighting, it was quite clever.
“Marie, run!
If we don’t run now, my heart’s going to explode!
I made eye contact with Fafnir!
Aaaah!!
I’ve got goosebumps!
Crazy!!!”
“We can’t have our Master’s heart exploding.
Going at full speed, hold on tight!!”
“Jeanne d’Arc!”
“Yes, don’t worry.
I’ll hold on properly!”
“No, hold me!
I don’t have the confidence to hold on!!”
“Our Master definitely has a talent for comedy.
If he had been alive in my time, he would have banished the boredom of daily life.”
“Pardon?” Jeanne was a bit dazed, but she held onto the man.
Vroom!!
They ran quickly through the air and then immediately dove low under the trees of the forest.
The enemies, not knowing where they had flown, might have felt they had suddenly vanished from sight.
If the Black Jeanne had the same skills as Jeanne, there was a possibility she could follow with Presence Detection.
He wanted to believe in the possibility that she wouldn’t follow, thinking it was just a futile struggle.
Since the Black Jeanne’s ultimate goal was not to settle things with them, but to destroy France.
Though Jeanne had joined this side to stop that….
“Ugh….
Between the tension and the motion sickness, I feel like I’m going to die….”
“Wait!
Wait!
You can’t throw up now!”
“We’ll have to find a place to hide quickly so the Master can rest.”
It was doubtful if the man collapsed in a half-faint was the same person who had just brilliantly counterattacked the enemy.
He had seemed courageous, if fragile, earlier, but now that courage felt like it was only sparkling in tiny fragments.
As the man trembled with a hiccup, Jeanne couldn’t help but think something she shouldn’t have.
‘Did I…
make this Servant contract too hastily?’