Joan of Arc, who was summoned as Ruler in this Holy Grail War, carefully inspected the part of the forest that served as the stage for the battle between Red Berserker, Black Berserker, and Rider in the second round, as well as the battle between Red Rider and Archer, Black Saber, Assassin, and Archer, and finally breathed a sigh of relief.
The only things that were damaged were the trees that were knocked down during the battle. And even this damage did not affect a large area of the forest. Of course, if the Red Lancer, the great hero who shines like the sun, Karna, had joined the battle, the forest might have been turned into a scorched earth long ago.
Jeanne did not witness the battle in person because she was late. Although her perception was dozens of times that of an ordinary Servant, the perception range of an ordinary Servant was only about a hundred meters, and dozens of times that was several kilometers. She was powerless at any distance and could only roughly detect it by spreading holy water.
When she noticed that three servants from the red side entered the castle and six servants from the black side left the castle to fight, she immediately left the church where she was staying and rushed to the suburbs. Unfortunately, the battle took place in the wilderness, and the saint, who had no means of transportation, could only rely on her own feet.
Although her A-level agility gave her a speed comparable to that of a sports car, her body would not be able to bear it if she ran at full speed before reaching her destination. Therefore, she could only move at a speed within her body's tolerance range. As a result, when she ran dozens of kilometers, the two sides had already ended the battle and returned to their respective nests. Jeanne was left with only two battlefields that did not need to be cleaned up.
Through the traces left at the scene and the perception analysis before arriving, Jeanne roughly restored the situation at that time. The main force of the black side blocked the red Berserker, and Saber and Assassin blocked the red Archer and Rider who came to support. In the end, the red Berserker was captured, and the other two riders retreated. This battle ended in the defeat of the red side.
"All in all, it was a pretty average fight."
Jeanne came to this conclusion. Although there were a large number of Servants, there was nothing suspicious at the scene.
Despite this, there was still a lingering cloud in her heart.
The Red Lancer Karna is a hero with a noble character. If he wants to take his own life, it can only be because his master gave the order.
Sure enough, the problem still lies with the red team's master, and we must find a way to contact them.
Unfortunately, the Masters of both sides did not show up in this battle. Needless to say, the Black side has been defending in the city of Mirenia, and the Red Masters who were supposed to launch the attack are nowhere to be seen. However, considering that this war is only in the prologue, the current situation is understandable. Most of the Masters of the Holy Grail War are magicians. Most magicians do not understand war and are more afraid of death than ordinary people. Perhaps they are hiding in a safe place to watch the battle like the Black side.
Anyway, tonight's battle is over - the moment she thought of this, she felt a little weak all over, and it seemed that she was "very sleepy" now.
To be precise, it wasn't Jeanne as the Ruler who felt sleepy. It was Leticia's body that really needed sleep. It was already late at night, and they had traveled dozens of kilometers. Although most of the actions were borne by the shell of "Joan of Arc", Jeanne was still attached to Leticia's body, so it was natural for her to feel sleepy.
Having said that, since servants do not have the ability to sleep, Jeanne actually feels a little fresh about this long-lost feeling. However, this fresh feeling cannot resist the body's desire for sleep.
"Oh, no... not yet..."
Reason told her that she should go back to the city, back to the church, and back to the bed in the attic room to sleep, but her eyelids were becoming heavier and heavier.
She stretched out her hands and pressed them against the trunk of the tree to support her body, but it was not enough. In desperation, she pinched her cheeks hard, and the pain finally made her consciousness a little clearer.
It's an inconvenient body. Because the summoning is incomplete, although it can be maintained for a long time, once it exceeds the limit, it will probably lose consciousness like a cut-off switch.
How to deal with this problem will be left for later consideration. For now, let's use holy water to check the location of the servant. If there is no problem, then we'll end it here for today.
The four black riders and the one red rider are inside the castle. The red rider should be a berserker, and it seems that he has successfully replaced the master. This is not a violation of the rules. It is quite common to exchange masters and servants. No, wait a minute.
"It seems that there are still two riders missing...?"
There should be six servants stationed in the castle, so where did the remaining two go
Continue to expand the search area -
Found it. In the opposite direction from me, two riders were moving together, perhaps on patrol.
At this moment, a small dot representing a servant appeared in the scattered holy water.
This is!
Black's seventh servant, yes, it's Black.
Are all the Black servants here
Having confirmed this, Jeanne threw all her sleepiness to the wind and went to meet the last Servant of the Black Side.
As a referee, it is necessary to collect the information of each servant. If you miss it today, it may not be so easy next time.
She took another step forward without knowing that her judgment was completely wrong. The two black riders were not patrolling, but fighting. The latest one to appear was Astolfo, who was running away with Sieg.
◇◇◇
With the help of the Hippogriff, Astolfo and Sieg's escape speed increased dozens of times. The distance that previously took them dozens of minutes to walk was now covered in the blink of an eye.
"Ah~~~~" Astolfo shouted excitedly after being summoned and flying freely in the air for the first time. "I've wanted to do this for a long time. How about it? My Hippogriff is great, what do you think?"
The "you" here naturally refers to Sieg, the android sitting behind Astolfo. The android, who had never seen such a vast world, was so shocked by the scene before him that he was speechless. He could only nod woodenly until his chin hit the back of Astolfo's neck. Then he came to his senses and said "hmm, ah" a few times.
Astolfo turned around, patted Sieg on the shoulder, and gave him his unique and brilliant smile:
"You can't be like this at all. You are already free. You will see more people and more beautiful scenery in the future. You should enjoy your life. Hmm - I remember that there seems to be a kind of transportation called airplane in this era. It seems that it can fly higher than my Hippogriff. You can take a ride on it if you have the chance."
"Plane...?"
There is indeed such a thing in the knowledge that is given, but it is limited to knowledge and has not been actually seen.
Can I really, really try to fly a plane? Zigg felt his mind was in a mess.
"Well, you can do it." Astolfo saw through Sieg's blank expression and encouraged him, "But before that, you should be stronger and more powerful - come and shout with me, ah~~~~~~~~"
"Ah--Hoo--" Sieg opened his mouth, trying to imitate Astolfo, but he could only make a weird exhalation sound.
"No way?" Astolfo turned his head and looked at Sieg's blushing face, and patted his shoulder helplessly, "Forget it, practice more in the future - here we are, Hippogriff."
Hearing its master's call, the Hippogriff let out a short cry, drew an arc in the air, and circled down.
"Hey." Astolfo jumped off the Hippogriff and picked up Sieg again. "I can only send you here. You have to walk the rest of the way by yourself. These two roads lead to two different villages. Since they are very remote, there shouldn't be any magicians there. The last road leads to a city called Sighisoara, which is much larger than Tolifas and is also a good choice. Oh, it seems that this fork in the road is the new fork in your life."
This is the border of the Tulifas region, dozens of kilometers away from the battlefield of Artoria and Siegfried. It cannot be sensed by servants, there is no detection barrier, and it cannot be seen by golems. It is a perfect location that Astolfo "secretly" found on the map in Shinji's room, well, secretly under the watchful eyes of Shinji and Chiron.
"Well, aren't you going with me?" Ziggs grabbed Astolfo's red cloak.
"No, I am a Servant and I must go back. When I go back, the Master will definitely force me to tell him your location, and he might even use Command Seals. Ah, this is so annoying. Why do I have such annoying things as Command Seals?"
Astolfo swung his pigtails wildly.
"Anyway, I have no way to disobey the Master's orders, so I can't take you to a safe place. I'm sorry."
"Why should you apologize? Rider did nothing wrong."
"Ahahaha, yeah."
One is innocent, the other is natural, and their relationship is simple.
"Although there shouldn't be any danger here, you must be careful on the road, maintain your physical strength and magic power, and be ready to use magic at any time."
"Yeah, okay."
"I'm still a little worried. How about I lend you a treasure? Let me take a look. 'Touch and Fall'; 'Magic Universal Strategy Book'; 'Hippogriff'; and -"
Astolfo muttered as he was about to manifest his own Noble Phantasm.
Sieg quickly stopped him, "No, that's not necessary. These are your treasures, you have to rely on them to fight, and I can't use them."
"Oh, yes. The sword I can give you has been given to Lancer. Next time, ask Assassin to make a few props. He seems to be very good at this. Oh, by the way, take this." Astolfo said and took out a shell from his pocket.
"This is-?"
"This is a tool made by Assassin. If you inject magic into it and break it open, it can send a message to us. When you find a safe base, be sure to tell us."
"Yeah! Thank you, Rider." Sieg nodded vigorously, "Is there anything I can do for you?"
Astolfo showed a slightly sad expression, then slowly shook his head.
"—No. You have been freed from this battle. You are free. Just live your life as you wish."
Astolfo smiled, covering his cheeks with his hands like a gentle girl. Then, as if deeply moved, he pulled Sieg's head over and gently brushed his hair.
After a while, Astolfo finally let him go.
"Okay, go ahead, I'll find a way to handle this matter here."
Hearing this urging to leave, Sieg nodded and stepped back step by step. Although the movement was slow, the distance between the two was gradually increasing. Astolfo waved to him reluctantly at first, but finally nodded as if he had made up his mind, jumped onto the back of the Hippogriff again, and slowly rose into the air.
"Rider! What should I do?"
Sieg called out to Astolfo, who was getting further and further off the ground.
Astolfo leaned forward and shouted with a big smile on his face:
"You can do anything! You can do anything now! You can go to the city where there are all kinds of people, like or dislike some people, and live a happy life of your own!"
So that's how it is, it's really a pleasant thing - Sieg thought. Although there was still a sense of disharmony in his heart, he tried his best to avoid thinking about it.
Astolfo breathed a sigh of relief.
Ah, that android can already walk on his own legs. Although his body is still very fragile, he will become a real man one day. That's all.
"But what should I do? I'm sure the Master will tie me up when I get back. Well, it doesn't matter. Let everything take its course."
Putting this "boring" thing behind him in an instant, Astolfo rode the Hippogriff back towards the city of Mirenia.
On the ground, Sieg walked forward slowly.
His feet stepped forward forcefully, leaving shallow footprints on the frozen ground. But even so, his pace seemed a little slow. With each step he took, he would look up at Astolfo, who was gradually moving away. Until the Hippogriff was no longer visible, his feet continued to move forward, stopping at one step and moving forward at a very slow pace.
"Well, why is that?"
I have clearly learned to walk, I have clearly decided to go to the village, and my body functions are clearly normal, so why am I still having difficulty moving my feet
"I should have asked the rider how to move my feet..."
When I said this—
The artificial man then remembered that he was alone again. At the same time, he also realized that he would never see Rider again.
"... Hmm."
His chest felt as if something was tightly tightening around him, causing him to feel a sharp pain. However, he tried to ignore the pain and stepped forward.
PS: Although the story of the traitor has been changed to a considerable extent in this chapter, Sieg's feelings in the last paragraph have not changed at all. See, the amazing Dongchu wrote this much, but in the end, Sieg and Afu broke up. Isn't this funny? You ruined the good royal route. You are really sick.
PS2: I saw that some book friends were unhappy with Sieg. There was nothing wrong with Sieg himself. There is no need to deny that he acted according to his survival instinct. I will help if I can. There is nothing wrong with the androids living an ordinary life. As for what happens later, I have my own plans.
PS3: Siegfried takes a plane.