-------------------------------------Go to the Forest, and look for the strange Einzberns.
That's it.
I'm too curious, and I can't hold it back any longer.
I exit the school and head into the forest where the Einzbern Castle sleeps, like a titanic beast.
The Forest is a good hour away from the house, but the school is a little bit closer, so I make relatively good time.
The trees around here sit in dense copses clustered together just close enough to make a forest.
In other words, it's a natural maze of wood and leaf.
Not many things live under the trees themselves, so the honeycombing trails here are actually closer to the them.
Still, I have some vague recollections from back when Aunt Ilya still lived in the castle, rather than at our house.
So I'm not quite lost.
The dappled light gives off a feeling of a bygone era, an era of heroes, outlaws and the wilderness.
I'm comfortable here in the modern day, but even I feel a slight pang of regret.
Back then, there were still places to explore that were accessible.
Even if it had been explored before, the chaos of nature would have changed everything within a couple decades.
There was adventure around every corner.
Now?...............
Well, I suppose there's a final frontier still somewhere.
I look up through a gap in the leaves, to the slowly reddening sky.
But it's too far.
Or rather, too expensive, as Arturia grumps.
I suppose it'll be some time before there's enough pressure to explore beyond these bounds.
Wasn't that the case in Medieval Europe, as well?
Without a force, nobody moves.
As long as there's still wild things in the shadows, people will always spend more energy rooting them out than they will escaping them.
The dissolution of Mysteries. The reason Magic becomes Magecraft, why Heroic Spirits are always from the past.
People seek out mystery.
The same drive to discover that led Columbus to the new world also led Einstein in his research, still drives the scientists of today.
People destroy mystery.
Just like we exploited the New World, people will exploit any mystery they can to make their lives better.
The world as a whole still has mysteries in it, so the pressure goes to filling those vacuums of knowledge, instead of breaking our container.
It's sad, in a way. But there's hope there.
The drive isn't gone. It's just in a different direction.
And as time goes on there's fewer places to fill, and eventually the pot will overflow into the next frontier.
And so it goes.
There's never an end to it. What will Sorcery be in the next century?
There's one thing I can't imagine happening.
A sorcery the greatest Caster in the world couldn't preform with the worlds resources at his fingertips.
The ability to make everyone happy.
To make everyone smile.
To save everybody, not just the innocent.
Yeah.
That's a Sorcery.
That's my wish.
If the Holy Grail is really omnipotent.
That's what I want it for.
I want everyone to be happy.
Even if it's only for a couple seconds.
I want everyone to know the happiness I've known with my family.
“Hey, kid.”
There's a ghost in my vision.
My sister is sitting in a tree with the ease of a cat, looking at me with devilish golden eyes.
Except it's not my sister.
Arturia doesn't have golden eyes, or a scar on her upper lip.
Even if she did, I would know it's fake. Arturia doesn't have that kind of balance.
It's an imposter. And I have a guess as to who it is.
“W-Who are you?”
“Isn't it obvious?”
She rolls of the branch and lands lightly, like a cat.
That branch is more than three times my height.
Any normal human falling from that..........
“Who are you?”
I ask again.
I wish I had thought to grab a weapon.
Any weapon.
Not that it would do very well against a Servant.
“I am Servant Assassin, of course. And you are the son of the Betrayer and his Children.”
Betrayer?
Does she mean........?
“My Father?”
“Yes. Emiya Shirou, adopted by Emiya Kiritsugu, another servant of the Einzberns. He was mundane, but effective, but when the time came to retrieve the Grail, as promised to the head of the family, he destroyed it instead.”
“.............!”
My Grandfather participated in the Holy Grail War?!
“Destroyed...........”
“Yes. Emiya Kiritsugu the Junior, your namesake destroyed the miracle he had been rightfully tasked to retrieve. He rejected his purpose, took his payment regardless, and vanished. But the Einzberns were merciful. We found him, and tracked him.”
“He begged us to let him see his daughter, but we knew, he would only poison her with further lies and betrayal. As has happened, when he passed this cancer on to his adopted son.”
Father?!
And his daughter would be................
“Ilyasviel von Einzbern. The White Grail of the Fifth Heavens Feel. Seduced and turned against her family by the poisons of Emiya Shirou. The blood of the Betrayer grows stronger, and subsumes more and more with every passing year.”
“So, I...........”
“I am your enemy in more ways than one, Emiya Kiritsugu the Junior. The Einzberns have long nursed the hole ripped in their lineage by the loss of their Vessel. Ilyasviel has been a loss we cannot accept. A blood feud has been declared, and all Einzberns have been tasked with the removal of your blood from this Earth. The Einzberns have declared their wish.”
To remove us?
They don't just want Father dead, but Arturia, me, Father....... Our whole family?
Is this what a blood feud is?
I have a far greater respect for Romeo and Juliet.
To imagine the Capulets utterly destroying the Montegues.....
And then to imagine yourself in their place........
“But you are lucky, Emiya, for we have a more important purpose, for the time being. The Einzberns have suspended their quest for the Holy Grail. There are pressing issues at hand.”
“Pressing issues? What do you mean?”
Assassin begins to circle me like a panther. I keep my eyes on her, but she ducks behind a tree.
All of the sudden, the young Einzbern girl steps out.
................. I don't understand.
Assassin was right there.
The Einzbern girl smiles at me like a tiger.
“There's machinations afoot. A emissary from the Church has asked us to assist her in hunting down a horror.”
“I thought the Einzberns were obsessed with the Holy Grail? Why hunt monsters in the middle of the war?”
This draws a laugh from the Einzbern girl.
She walks behind another tree, and Fujimura-sensei emerges.
I see.
She can change her shape.
.............!
That's scary!
She could be anyone, anywhere.......
This Assassin is dangerous.
She doesn't even have to raise her hand.
Simply allowing us to know her Noble Phantasm exists is a victory in the making.
There's no need to destroy your enemy if they destroy themselves.
And if they can't trust anyone.......
They will all die like flies to their own hands.
Paranoia.
That omnipresent fear.
Anyone could be Assassin.....
Anyone could have been Assassin!
How much does she know?
Fujimura-sensei smiles happily.
“They are, but this is different. It's not often a vampire seeks the Holy Grail.”
She puts her chin in her hands contemplatively.
“Well, it's not actually true to say that. The Matou clan have been led by a Dead Apostle for the past few centuries. But only of late have the attacks.... changed pace.”
Changed pace?
I ask Assassin what she means.
“You would have to ask the Church Woman about that. She is the one who tasked us with this. I was summoned afterward, and have not had much contact with the Church Woman since that time. As such, I know very little about the specifics.”
“In any case, Child of Emiya Shirou. You have more important things to worry about. Fight this Holy Grail War, and learn yourself. I want to face a skilled opponent, not two children and a small girl.”
Assassin – still in the form of Fujimura-sensei – Leaps into the treetops, vanishing in a rustle of verdant green.
“Do not worry about the vampire. We will deal with it alone. You must worry yourself, for the Master of Berserker makes ready. Be prepared, the Divine Winds shall not protect from him this time.”
“The Divine Winds?”
Who could she mean?
Assassin is gone, and I'm alone in the forest again.
I sigh.
This trip has raised more questions than answers.
Still, now we know the Einzberns are out of the picture temporarily.
Perhaps we can concentrate our energy elsewhere for the time being.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------Night
It's 9 PM, and the sky is dark.
It's not yet late enough to go to sleep, but Arturia is out patrolling with Saber.
There's nothing to do here but think, so I--------------
1) Think about Saber
2) Think about Archer
3) Think about Assassin4) Think about Berserker
Author
Topic: Fate / Lunar Sun (Read 26518 times)