February was a total throwaway. I didn't intend for it to be that way, but then again I can't say that I didn't think it could be a possibility. I'm getting settled in a totally new country and I haven't been able to even sit down in front of a computer (let alone get a moment of free time) until last week, about. For those of you on p atreon, I froze the upcoming month in an effort to sort of make up for it. I'll try to find a new system that works out for the next few months (everything should be back to normal some time in late may).

For those of you who ran commissions through me that I hadn't been able to get to before everything got thrown ass over backwards, I'm really sorry things ended up this way. They'll still get done, just much later than I would have liked. Writing fanfic as a pastime is one thing, but I don't like pushing things off this much when people are relying on me to fulfill my end of a commitment.

Anyway.

This is the first WHoC chapter in a while. I know. Honestly, if it were up to me I'd be updating literally anything else (I don't think this surprises anyone) but my server voted for an update and I'm definitely for sure not someone who would manipulate an entirely fair and democratic endeavour.

Big thanks to everyone on my p atreon for sticking with me through this mess and for voting for this chapter's illustration (available on my server, Questionable Questing and Space Battles) and big thanks to all of you for still reading this story through my Togashi-tier update consistency.

X

I had no idea what any of that meant.

From the scandalized look on the strange girl's face, however, I could only assume it was something bad… or rude. How bizarre. She seemed to regret whatever came out of her mouth pretty quickly.

I looked over to Mash.

"What was that?"

The demi-servant blushed.

"I…she wants our attention."

There was definitely more that was said, but it probably wasn't worth it to linger on the matter.

And so, Mash and I stared at the girl expectantly.

Our undivided attention was a bit too much for her; she had this scrunched-up expression on her face that was halfway between a scowl and a look of shock. A strange combination to be sure.

Her mouth kept breaking open and closed as though the words were fighting her on their way out.

…Well then. I wasn't a mind reader, and even years spent living under Rin's thumb couldn't change that. Hers was the state of someone whose thoughts were scattered and tumultuous, but for us, it just meant that the current topic of discussion would end here.

We should start over then.

"Mash. Could you ask for her name?"

The lavender-haired girl nodded. She crouched over so as to seem less threatening to the blonde.

"It's okay. We're not a danger to you. I'm Mash; this is Shirou. What's your name, Miss?"

However it was that speech worked for Servants was pretty enviable. Mash had said something that was completely unintelligible to me, and yet it was clear that whatever she had said had come out fluently.

We both waited patiently for a response.

"...Marie," mumbled the blonde. She shrunk in on herself and furrowed her brow.

She was a particularly bad liar. Even though she wasn't being truthful with us, it was reassuring in its own way.

Mash shot me a sidelong glance. She didn't buy it either; that's good.

"..."

The french girl said something again. Mash seemed to have caught it, but whatever it was, it wasn't good. Mash's eyes widened and reflexively looked to me for help

"What is it? What did she say?" I asked. The language barrier was proving itself to be quite the significant issue.

"She thanked us for looking after her, but now she's saying that she wants to leave."

"We can't let her do that," I remarked without needing to give it a second thought. Da Vinci was right: something about "Marie" just wasn't right. It was in our best interest to take her with us to the Ley Line. "Ask her if she's hungry; we can bring her out to get some water and bread and we can try to talk things through from there."

Mash tried to relay our thoughts, but—

"Non!"

Marie's exclamation was abrupt but not entirely unexpected. She didn't want to be seen in public; it only made sense considering she was being chased by an angry mob when we found her.

I stared Marie dead in the eye. My look seemed to unnerve the pouty girl

"Let us help you, then," I said, ignoring the fact that she wouldn't be able to understand me. She had a dumbfounded look on her face, though I didn't know if it was because of my tone or simply because my words were utter gibberish to her. "If you want to leave, you must know what you're going to do next, right? Leaving on your own would be suicide, otherwise. Tell her that, Mash."

After a moment's hesitation. My fellow time-traveller did as I asked, though not before shooting me one last look of discomfort as though she had bit into something sour. Perhaps our last argument had fed into Mash's rebellious streak.

I saw Marie's face flip through a series of different emotions; she seemed understandably conflicted. Good job, Mash.

"...Vous n'avez aucune raison d'm'aider," spoke Marie. Her voice was barely louder than a whisper.

A reason to aid. I could make out that much, I think. "What is your reason for helping me", maybe? Something along those lines.

Unfortunately, there were no words that would be able to properly convey my reasons here. Sure, Chaldea wanted to keep an eye on this girl, but it wasn't like I was going to let some kid get herself killed when I was in a position to stop it.

You don't need a reason to help someone in need.

It was a common enough turn of phrase that was of little value between strangers.

Instead, I gently reached out, grabbed Marie's hands and held them between mine. Understandably, my actions made the french girl stiffen and her eyes widened to the size of dinner plates.

"S-senpai!?"

Mash seemed equally scandalized.

I couldn't feel the girl's fingertips within my own; the cold metal gauntlet made sure of that. Still, I was confident that she would still be able to make out the steadiness of my grip.

Without saying anything unnecessary, I smiled reassuringly.

"Si j'vais à Rais," Marie started to say, her inflections showing her uncertainty, "je pense que…"

She trailed off. It did sound like she was starting to be cooperative, however. Maybe.

Mash tapped me on the shoulder.

"Senpai. She says she wants to go somewhere. 'Rais'. Do you know where that is?"

"It's to the west of France," Da Vinci interjected.

I had forgotten that Chaldea was still listening. Why were they quiet until now?

Marie jumped to her feet like a woman possessed. She flipped her head from left to right in an effort to figure out where the disembodied voice was coming from.

"Que se passe-t-il ici, bordel!? Mais qu'est-ce que—"

She cut herself off mid-exclamation and dropped back down to her knees. She buried her face in her hands and whimpered.

"..."

Both Mash and I could do nothing but stare at the strange display confusedly.

"Her behaviour is quite erratic, no?" observed Da Vinci. "The girl seems to be at war with herself. Over, what, exactly, I couldn't tell you."

The Director cleared her throat.

"Mash. Emiya. I've had Romani look into 'Rais'. It would seem that there's quite the significant ley line spanning through that area; it'll serve our purposes nicely. Figure out why this girl wants to go there."

"Right."

It didn't need to be explained to me that this girl wanting to go somewhere that was on top of a major ley line was unlikely to be a coincidence.

Mash knelt down next to the frightened woman and said something to her. She pointed at me and Marie's face started to relax a little. Was she explaining how our communications worked? It would make sense that our modern technology would be difficult for someone from five hundred years ago to wrap their head around, particularly if they were already this skittish.

I nodded to myself.

"Let's go, then."

Mash blinked.

"A-ah! Right."

The girl helped the Frenchwoman to her feet. She passed her the makeshift cloak that we used to carry her into the hostel without raising suspicions.

"Slow down a bit, Emiya," the director chastised me. "You don't even know where you're heading. Wait for—"

"Explain it to us on the way. We should move quickly," I argued, already checking to make sure we had all of our few belongings in order before making our exit.

"Are you thick? We're interested in the ley line, but we have to be careful when moving away from the anchor point. The singularity is in Orleans, not the Pays de Rais. Don't mess everything up because you want to rush through things."

Of course I wanted to rush through things. I needed to fix everything as soon as possible. I didn't want to be here in the first place and I still didn't like that I had to drag a sixteen-year-old girl along with me.

"Da Vinci. You can direct us, right?"

"Don't ignore me!"

"Of course."

"Da Vinci!?"

X

It didn't take us very long to make our way to Rouen, as close as it was.

It was much larger than the village that we had stopped at before; it was unfortunate that we couldn't stay here long enough to gather supplies. The people from around here had been after Marie and I didn't think that any of us would have wanted to test their memory on the matter.

We swiftly made our way through the streets of the town's center, Mash and I flanking Marie on each side. The girl had her head bowed, as though she were scared that her hood would not be enough to keep the eyes off of her.

I could understand her fears. There was something in the eyes of the townspeople here; it felt as though they had witnessed something horrible that they couldn't quite forget. They tried to live their lives as usual, but none of them could shake that lingering "feeling".

I could only assume it had something to do with the reason that they were chasing Marie.

She was a wanted woman. That much we knew for sure. What could she have possibly done to be so hated? For her to fear for her own life to this degree? Sure, she was a bit odd, but nothing about her seemed particularly villainous to me.

Nonetheless, we would do our best to get out of here without rousing anyone's suspicions. I didn't need to find out whether Marie was being paranoid, as difficult as it was to call her that after seeing her escape a mob lynching, or if the dislike for her was really so strong.

"Jeunhomme! Mademoiselles!"

We halted.

A man approached us with his hand raised in front of him in a clear motion asking us to stop. He wore what I could only describe as a 'uniform'. It wasn't quite a military habit, but something close. Was he a guard? We were pretty close to the edge of town.

I was tense, but I tried not to show it. Mash and Marie had a bit more difficult a time with that.

I glanced over at Mash; she knew what he was saying, though I was wary of her speaking on our behalf.

She stepped forward and they exchanged a few words. Mash seemed to relax a little so I figured there wouldn't be any issues.

Mash thanked the man and made her way past him. We followed suit.

"What was that?" I asked, looking back at the man over my shoulder as we crossed the town's border.

"He was a guard. He saw that we were dressed to leave so he wanted to give us a warning."

A warning?

My confusion must have been evident on my face. Mash elaborated.

"There are often caravans that pass through the town to get to larger cities. Apparently, the last few have been in pretty bad shape; they say that they were harassed by a dragon that lives in the forest."

A dragon? That's not—

"That's not possible," remarked the director. "This time period is long past the age during which phantasmal creatures like dragons would have roamed the earth. They likely mistook some sort of large animal for a more fantastic beast in the dead of night. These sorts of supernatural beliefs were quite prevalent until much later in human history."

Right. That made the most sense. No wonder Mash didn't seem too worried. It explained why Marie seemed pretty shaken, too; the girl was walking pretty robotically at our side, paranoia clear in her fidgety gait.

"Mash. Could you tell her that everything's fine? There won't be any dragons."

Marie shot me a suspicious look and whispered something to Mash before the girl could answer me. I blinked.

The demi-servant laughed sheepishly.

"She wants to know about the' strange language' that you're speaking. She's never heard it before."

Huh? It would be one thing if she didn't understand me, but to not know what language I was speaking at all?

I was communicating in English until now because I was working with an international organization. Could it be that she had never interacted with anyone outside of her region of France? I supposed it was possible.

Da Vinci was quick to explain that what I surmised was incorrect.

"The people of this time period would be more familiar with an anglo-Norman language than the English we speak in the modern day. Your words might as well be gibberish. A good thing too; we wouldn't want you to be mistaken for an Englishman right now. Ah! Though I suppose with your 'exotic' looks it wouldn't be too much of a worry. Regardless, it's not very important, but do remind me to explain the 'langues d'oïl' when you have a moment. It might come in handy to understand the linguistics of the era."

I probably would not be reminding her. What she did tell me was good to know, however.

I tried to tap Marie on the shoulder reassuringly. Before I could, the girl slapped my arm away with the look of a cornered animal on her face.

I winced. There was a sharp pain in my wrist. Reflexively, I grabbed it with my other hand and took a few steps back.

I wasn't expecting that. It's difficult to get a proper read on someone when you can't communicate properly; I misjudged her current state of mind.

Mash gasped.

"Senpai!"

The girl rushed toward me to make sure I was okay. What a sweet girl.

"I'm fine," I tried to reassure her. "This is from earlier. Marie didn't hit me that hard, I promise."

As I said it, I tried my best to keep my smile on the wide-eyed blonde. I didn't want to start a fight over this.

"Earlier…?" Mash repeated under her breath. Her lips thinned. "I didn't mean to—"

ROAAAR!

"..."

We were all still as statues.

Whatever had made that sound was behind me. Both Marie and Mash were looking up at something, slack-jawed.

"Hey. What's going on? Mash? Spellcaster? We're sensing a spike in magical energy near your location."

I tuned the director out, and looked over my shoulder.

My blood ran cold.

The creature was still, staring at us with a bowed head as though it were a lion eyeing its prey through the savannah grass.

"...Is that a dragon?" I asked, dumbfounded.

"Wha— turn on your camera feed!" Da Vinci yelled. I wasn't used to this tone of voice from her. "There's a switch under your collar!"

I quickly did as I was told.

The dragon was red and very, very large. Its wings were tucked into its sides but I could only imagine how much more imposing it would seem were it to stretch them out.

"That's not a dragon," Da Vinci concluded almost right away. How she was so sure, I didn't know.

"Huh?" exclaimed the director, her feelings matching my own.

"Ah. You see its wings? They exist in place of its arms, like a bird almost. Plus, its magical output is much—"

I couldn't hear the rest of what Da Vinci had to say. The sound of her voice was overtaken by the crushing wind pressure created by the drake suddenly deciding to flap its wings.

I almost lost my footing.

"Mash! Marie! Get back!" I shouted over my shoulder. The thought that Marie wouldn't be able to understand me didn't cross my mind at the moment. "I'll hold it off long enough for you to—"

Marie rushed straight past me.

She suddenly had an arming sword in hand, blackened as though covered in soot. The woman moved so quickly that it was as though the tattered pieces of her once bulky armour didn't weigh her down at all.

My brain caught up to the situation.

"What are you doing!? You're going to get yourself killed!"

I could do nothing but chase after her. From the corner of my eye, I saw Mash doing the same; I was in no position to argue with the girl right now.

Mash had her shield at the ready. My circuits hummed to life as I passed my od through them.

There was no need to worry.

The drake tried to swipe at Marie. It quickly lost the appendage in its entirety as the woman sliced through it as though it were a misshapen artichoke and not a gargantuan mass covered in rock-hard scales.

I wasn't sure how I was supposed to react to that. I turned my head over to Mash and she seemed about as stuck as I was.

Is she a servant?

"She's not," the director told me, sounding just as flabbergasted. "We're not getting any readings that would indicate that she's anything other than a human being."

I hadn't realized that I had said that out loud.

The drake shrieked, forcing all three of us to cover our ears. It was angry.

It tried to slam its remaining wing into us. Mash stepped forward and tried to tank the hit with her shield raised.

"...!"

A worried shout got caught in my throat. "Don't be stupid," I wanted to tell her. It all happened too quickly, however. The drake's attack landed, but to my surprise, Mash's defence didn't so much as budge.

The enemy was left defenceless.

It would be bad to not take advantage of the opening that Mash provided. I traced a giant black bow and a mystic code that I thought would be strong enough to pierce the hide of such a large enemy. The creature, its face now at eye level after having its thwarted attack, snarled at us with a kind of contempt that belied its simpleness of mind.

The bowstring slipped past my fingers and the drake's head was blown clean off of its neck a split instant later.

A drawn-out moment passed in silence as we all watched its body slowly crumple to the ground.

I kept an eye on Mash. The girl seemed fine, all things considered. Not too rattled by the sudden encounter.

Marie, on the other hand…

She was panting. Her eyes were wide. She didn't look scared, but… it was tough to tell what she was really thinking.

"Well… I couldn't begin to tell you why or how you ran into that thing, but let's chalk it up to an eccentricity of this singularity, shall we? Anyway, the bright side is that your little skirmish helped us scrounge a good number of Saint Quartz fragments. Great job, team. Fight! Fight! Fight!"

"Da Vinci! I told you to stop making up your own terminology on a whim. They're pseudo-spiritron—"

"What was that about gathering Saint Quartz?" I asked. "How does that work?"

"Don't talk over me!"

"You can thank the Fate system for that," Da Vinci explained. "It takes airborne mana samples from locations that are rich in 'mystery'—a legendary landmark or someplace where you could find a magical beast or something—and crystalizes those samples into a sort of 'fuel' that we can use. Once that crystalization is complete, we get SQ."

"You gave your fake word an acronym!?"

I nodded.

"Got it. I remember you mentioning that we can summon more servants this way, right?"

"Right. So keep on keeping on. Once you reach the ley line, things will get a lot easier for you."

I grimaced and turned away from the corpse of the drake.

"It might be difficult for us to make it that far as we are now. Marie and I can't even understand each other."

Someone on the other end of the line snapped their fingers.

"About that!" Da Vinci exclaimed. "I have a translation spell ready for you here, but since it's… well, here, and you're over there, I'm going to need you to adjust something on your mystic code so that we can run it through a proxy in the meantime. I'll install it properly before your next rayshift, but this should do for now."

I understood very little of that, but I'd been around smart people enough to know how to follow their instructions.

"Sure," I agreed. "What do I have to do?"

"Firstly, unclip the module on the left side of your collar. That's all of our comms, including the microphones, speakers and camera. Pinch it with your finger pressed against the button I had you push earlier and it should pop right off."

Sure enough, it did.

"And now?"

"Hand it over to Mash and point the camera toward you. I need to see what you're doing."

I nodded.

"Hey, Mash, could you help me out for a moment?"

The girl was lost in thought. She seemed startled when I called out to her.

"Oh! Sorry," she apologized. "What was that?"

I hid my frown.

"I'm speaking with Chaldea. They're helping me set up the translator, but I need you to hold my suit's camera pointed toward me for a second.

Her smile was thin.

"Of course! I'm happy you'll be able to get it sorted."

Marie seemed to have calmed down a little. She approached us, curious about what we were up to.

"Okay. There are three squiggly-line-looking things inside the magic circle inscribed onto the lining of your shirt collar. Do you see them?"

I wanted to sigh at such an unhelpful description. Nonetheless, I took off my jacket so that I could take a better look at it.

"These ones?" I asked.

"Bring it closer to the camera."

I did as I was told.

"Yes. Excellent. Now, you see how the first squiggly line has the least glyphs around it?"

Glyphs?

I tried to make out what she was describing.

"...Yeah. I think so."

"That means there are fewer functions plugged into that input. Channel magical energy through the first squiggly line until I tell you to stop."

Without thinking it over, I pressed my thumb against the first symbol and—

"Great! We're done here. Feel free to put the jacket back on now."

That quick?

Mash and I shared a look. I shrugged my shoulders and flipped the mystic code over my shoulder.

"... I don't feel any different," I admitted. "Does this thing work?"

Marie shrieked.

"You speak my dialect too!? You're making fun of me, aren't you!? Jerk! Bastard! I'll kill you!"

I was stunned.

Mash and I both stared at Marie wide-eyed.

Well, I could certainly understand what she was saying now.

Marie dropped down onto her hands and knees.

"I… I'm so— I said a bad thing again."

Wow. It really became apparent just how eccentric this girl was now that I actually knew what she was saying.

If nothing else, the language barrier was one less thing for us to worry about.

"Thanks, Da Vinci. Director—"

SHINK!

"Senpai!"

I stuck my leg out in front of Marie's face. The girl's constricted pupils were a hair's width away from the arrowhead that had stopped right before it could gore her.

I winced and glared at my pierced leg. The flesh was enough to stop the momentum of the projectile, thankfully.

"What was that? Did something happen?" the director asked worriedly. Mash was still holding in her hands the communications equipment that was supposed to be clipped to my neck; everything happened so quickly that it was probably disorienting for those trying to keep track of the situation from Chaldea.

Speaking of disorienting…

"Where did that come from?" Marie bit out, scrambling back to her feet. Her eyes were jolting frantically from side to side as she tried to locate the attackers. I could only assume that Mash would have done the same were she less worried about my own safety.

"Can you stand?" the demi-servant asked me with a serious look on her face. That serious look evaporated into one of fear when she saw me lean forward to pull out the arrow. "Wait, don't—"

Too late.

"I'm fine," I told her, tossing the arrow to the side and testing my footing.

The arrow must have nicked my bone; that was what stopped it. I could feel a bunch of tiny little blades in my leg knitting together in an effort to keep everything where it was supposed to be.

The trees were rustling. All three of us were on guard.

"You're walking that off pretty well! I'm impressed. A crossbow shot can take a man's leg clean off, you know."

It was the voice of a man. It was coming from—

Dozens of men and women, all armed from head to toe in boiled leathers, jumped down from the canopy.

An ambush?

If it weren't for the fact that we most definitely ran into the "dragon" that attacked the caravans, it would have been easy to assume that this was a "hunting ground" for this group to attack unsuspecting passersby. I had a tough time believing that they would be hanging around this place knowing there was such a dangerous beast on the loose, however.

"Who are you?" I asked. I was ready to activate the mystic codes of my combat uniform at any moment.

"Who are we?" one of them repeated. From the sound of his voice, it was the same man who first called out to us.

He stepped forward.

He was a tall man, shoulders broad and waist thin. I couldn't tell how good he was in a fight, but he certainly looked the part of an athlete.

"Who are you to be helping a witch?" the man countered.

A witch?

I heard a crunch at my side. I turned my head to see Marie taking a step back.

She looked scared.

"Are you the ones who were chasing her the other day?" I asked the man. I traced Kanshou and Bakuya behind my back. Seeing this, Mash raised her shield and dropped into a lower stance.

The time for conversation had ended, it would seem. The man's troupe levelled their crossbows at us.

"The dead should stay dead. Meet your end gracefully, Jeanne d'Arc."

Oh.

Marie looked furious. Her grip on her weapon was so tight that it was practically shaking. Her charred black attire looked like it could catch fire at any second, so intense was her glare.

…Oh.