I'm Not A Master, I'm A Director
Chapter 381: Operation: Landing on the Hanging Gardens
Leaving aside Enkidu's bizarrely domestic-violence-sounding remark, the aerial battle on the giant screen had already reached its most intense phase.
"Damn you, you country bumpkin! Don't get so full of yourself—!"
Semiramis gripped the armrests of her throne, pouring strength into her fingers as she prepared to unleash a decisive strike at Jeanne in the sky.
At the muzzle of the Hanging Gardens' main cannon, a dazzling, radiant light bloomed.
A transparent brilliance instantly flooded the night sky, turning it as blinding as the desert at high noon—so bright it was impossible to keep one's eyes open.
A deafening roar followed. The earth trembled. Everywhere the beam passed, everything was reduced to ash.
Facing the light of the floating fortress head-on, it felt as if even the surrounding air were melting like cheese left too close to a flame.
"Now you're out of tricks, aren't you?"
Semiramis sneered.
"I won't surrender!"
Jeanne declared without hesitation, urging the Phantasmal Beast beneath her to charge straight forward.
Boom!
A golden sphere of light collided violently with the scorching beam. The massive clash of magical power sent shockwaves rippling outward, pounding relentlessly at the hearts of the audience beyond the screen.
Crack
A fissure appeared on the golden sphere—then a second, a third…
"Is this the limit…?"
Jeanne let out a quiet sigh. The flagstaff in her hands, now covered in cracks and trembling violently, was telling her the truth.
This really was the limit.
"Mordred! Astolfo! Get ready!"
In the final second before her Noble Phantasm failed, Jeanne shouted her command.
Crack!
The golden sphere finally shattered under the strain, breaking apart like glass. At the same time, the flagstaff in Jeanne's hands met the same fate.
The powerful protective force gathered upon the banner exploded outward as a roaring whirlwind, dispersing in all directions in the blink of an eye.
It was supposed to be the legendary banner under which the armies of France were invincible, yet the way it vanished was heartbreakingly easy, heartbreakingly brief.
But Jeanne had no time to mourn her Noble Phantasm.
Stripped of its protection, she and the Hippogriff now had to face the terrifying main cannon of the Hanging Gardens head-on.
"Go, Hippogriff! I'm counting on your power now!"
The Hippogriff answered the saint's trust with a courageous neigh.
In the next instant, both the Hippogriff and the saint upon its back blurred into a hazy, indistinct form—so vague it was nearly impossible to perceive with the naked eye.
And just like that, the fortress's beam passed straight through them.
"What?!"
The Empress on her throne nearly sprang to her feet in shock, her icy eyes widening in disbelief.
The main cannon of her castle had undeniably struck the French village girl and the beast she rode, yet for a fleeting moment, they had vanished from reality itself, erased from "existence."
[Otherworldly Phantom Horse].
Just as Astolfo's Noble Phantasm that summoned the Hippogriff proclaimed. This eagle-headed, horse-bodied, winged creature was a fantastical being of myth and illusion, a creature whose very name carried the meaning of "an impossible existence."
And precisely because of that, the Hippogriff's existence itself was profoundly ambiguous—like Schrödinger's cat.
By grasping this trait of "existing and not existing at the same time," it could slip from reality into the realm of myth, erasing its "presence" from the real world.
Of course, Jeanne herself was not a fantasy, and the girl whose body she possessed was still flesh and blood.
So the moment she entered another dimension, she would immediately be rejected on a conceptual level and forced back into the present world.
However, even that brief instant was more than enough for a Phantasmal Beast like the Hippogriff to carry Jeanne beyond the main cannon's range.
"Tch, a dimensional jump, huh?!"
Semiramis, who possessed the aptitude of a Caster, instantly grasped what had happened.
"In that case—"
Semiramis prepared to rotate the cannon, intending to rake the sky with fire and capture the Hippogriff soaring through the night.
However—
"Clarent Blood Arthur!!"
Crimson lightning surged.
Crimson lightning roared.
Magical power, accelerated by lightning-aligned elements released from their restraints, transformed into a beam of red, crackling energy that challenged the white torrent head-on.
One red beam. One white beam.
They slammed into each other violently in midair.
"Impossible!"
Semiramis could hardly believe her eyes—the castle's main cannon was actually being blocked!
Even if Jeanne had stalled it for a moment, Mordred's Noble Phantasm alone shouldn't have been enough to—
"Was it reinforced by a Command Spell?!"
Semiramis slammed a fist hard against the armrest of her throne, her expression instantly darkening.
"That shot just now could be called a classic."
Facing the red-and-white beams colliding on the giant screen, Li Ri'ang couldn't help but shout his praise for Shinji's presentation of the scene.
He could tell at a glance that a tremendous amount of effort had gone into this aerial battle.
If this fight were happening in reality, it would be so dazzling that the human eye wouldn't be able to track it at all. Every object on screen was moving at extreme speed, especially the two fighter jets charging toward the castle and the Hippogriff. Li Ri'ang seriously doubted whether human vision could even catch them.
And yet, despite all that, Shinji Matou delivered the scene flawlessly.
Not only did the audience feel no sense of chaos, they could clearly distinguish the spatial positions of every unit in the sky during the fight.
This was thanks to Shinji's clever use of fast and slow motion, all anchored around Jeanne's point of view. It gave the audience the illusion that they themselves were riding alongside Jeanne in a high-speed dash through the air.
And now, this airborne race has entered its most critical, most thrilling, most climactic phase.
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"Hippogriff! Dash!"
Seizing the moment when the two beams were locked in a clash midair, Jeanne ordered the Hippogriff to launch a direct assault on the castle.
"Don't even think about it!"
Semiramis dared not retarget the main cannon at Jeanne, if she shifted its aim, the rebellious red knight's Noble Phantasm, strengthened by a Command Spell, would slam straight into the castle instead.
But the Hanging Gardens weren't short on defensive armaments.
The Tiamtum Umu, massive floating weapons modeled after the eleven beasts born from the legendary monster Tiamat.
Several had been shot down by missiles at the start of the battle, but the remaining coffins were more than enough to form a net of fire to block the Hippogriff carrying Jeanne.
There was a reason funnel-type weapons were iconic in so many mecha anime: attacks from all directions left the enemy with nowhere to run.
"Don't think a little dimensional jump will let you dodge this wave of attacks, you country bumpkin!"
With a cold laugh from the Empress, every floating weapon still on the battlefield opened fire at once.
"This ends it—what?!"
The scene she had anticipated—the Hippogriff riddled with holes, the saint falling helplessly from the sky—never came.
Her attack failed yet again!
The light rounds screamed in at supersonic speed, yet the Hippogriff completely ignored them, continuing its headlong charge.
They were clearly anti-army–class attacks, and yet not a single one managed to inflict any damage on the Hippogriff.
Because every shot was repelled by the fluttering pages that danced through the air like butterflies.
"Come! Come! The time has come! Though my heart trembles with fear on this moonless night, I shall not retreat a single step! Release—Casseur de Logistille!!"
Standing atop a fighter jet, Astolfo held an open grimoire in his hands. Its pages tore free one after another, scattering into the raging winds.
Those pages flew from Astolfo's position to Jeanne's side, intercepting the floating weapons attacks again and again.
Casseur de Logistille: Destruction Declaration—the magical tome bestowed upon Astolfo by the witch Logistilla, recording methods to shatter all forms of magecraft.
Once its True Name was released, as long as its pages remained unexhausted, it could negate any magic in the world.
Originally, this Noble Phantasm could only be applied to Astolfo himself. Fortunately, the Hippogriff—being Astolfo's mount-type Noble Phantasm—was also classified as an allied unit, making this protection possible.
But the real stroke of luck was that tonight was a new moon.
Due to Evaporation of Reason, Astolfo had completely forgotten the book's True Name, rendering him unable to release it at any time other than the night of the new moon.
Either way, Jeanne's side had finally gained the upper hand on the battlefield.
Amid sounds like steel shattering, light rounds continuously struck the pages orbiting Jeanne—only to be deflected and shattered, scattering into nothingness.
"This is the final sprint—go!"
Jeanne firmly patted the neck of the Hippogriff as it raced forward. As if sensing the girl's resolve, the Hippogriff let out a piercing neigh and accelerated even further.
"Not a chance!"
Sensing Jeanne's intentions, Semiramis intensified her assault, trying to intercept her before she could breach the Hanging Gardens!
"Don't underestimate me!"
Astolfo shouted at the top of his lungs. With one hand, he raised the grimoire to shield Jeanne, while with the other he gripped his lance and leapt straight off the fighter jet.
Boom!
The jet, now the sole focus of the floating weapons concentrated fire, exploded into a brilliant firework in the sky. Astolfo, however, paid no heed to the destruction of his airborne foothold.
At this stage, their objective was simple: get Jeanne into the Hanging Gardens.
As long as that was achieved—even if he could offer only the slightest bit of help—Astolfo was willing to wager everything he had.
"Gaaaaaahhhhh—!"
Turning himself into an arrow of light, Astolfo thrust forward in midair, successfully smashing one of the Semiramis's prized defensive systems—the Tiamtum Umu.
"Ugh… ngh…"
A pain like every bone in his body was about to shatter surged through him. Gritting his teeth, Astolfo planted his feet on the shattered remains of the weapon and kicked off hard, launching himself toward another.
One more time—just repeating what he had already done. That should be no problem!
Astolfo didn't know what would happen to him after this, but that didn't matter anymore.
No matter what, Jeanne, Mordred, and that mage uncle had all entrusted their hopes to this operation.
Compared to the Saint of France, the rebellious Knight of the Round Table, or the ruthless and venomous Empress, Astolfo was undeniably weak.
"But! I won't use my weakness as an excuse!"
That's right—he wasn't a child of God, not a saint destined to save a nation, and certainly not someone fit to be a king.
Even so, even someone as ordinary as him had things that demanded he give everything he had.
"Go, Jeanne! I'll clear the way for you!"
With a fearless roar, Astolfo launched another charge.
This time, as he leapt ahead of Jeanne, countless incoming light rounds locked onto him.
Casseur de Logistille scattered a storm of pages, knocking every attack aside.
"Come on!"
Using the debris as footholds, Astolfo traced a spiraling path through the air, charging straight toward the Tiamtum Umu serving as defensive weapons.
It was recklessness taken to the extreme, but at this moment, recklessness was all Astolfo had left.
Biting down hard, he steeled himself with the resolve to crash headlong into the weapons, even if it meant his own destruction.
At that instant, Astolfo—who had always thought of himself as unreliable—finally cast aside his past doubts and chose to believe in himself.
He could do this.
Because others believed in him.
"Go, Astolfo!"
Spurred on by Jeanne's encouragement, Astolfo finally shattered the last remaining floating weapon.
"I did it!!"
Suspended in midair, Astolfo pumped his fist with all his might.
'This is probably my most brilliant moment in the entire movie, right'
Watching himself on the screen as he shattered the Tiamtum Umu, Astolfo felt a swell of pride.
No—"a swell" didn't quite cover it. He was so pumped up that his breathing had actually grown a little ragged.
If someone compared Astolfo inside the screen with Astolfo outside of it, they'd notice an uncanny synchronicity—both wore the same over-the-top, adrenaline-fueled expression.
Especially the Astolfo slumped in his seat: the slightly hurried breathing and the little tongue peeking out gave people the bizarre illusion that he'd just orgasmed.
"Master really is amazing… Even if he nags a lot, he really does love me."
Astolfo muttered something extremely easy to misunderstand while collapsing back into his seat to recover.
That said, this was genuinely how he felt.
Astolfo had never been a particularly confident person. His life philosophy had always been "just get by."
Because he knew he wasn't exceptional, he never placed high expectations on himself.
When he first received the Fate/Apocrypha movie role, Astolfo had assumed he'd just be there as comic relief—a mascot at best.
But during filming, his Master had come to value him more and more, even going so far as to give him such a shining, spotlight-stealing moment.
That not only gave Astolfo confidence, it also made him admire his Master—Shinji—even more.
"If Master believes in me this much, then I have to live up to that trust! Just like me in the movie!"
Honestly, Astolfo's imagination wasn't entirely off-base.
After all, Shinji still planned to make money off this adorable little knight.
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On the big screen, Astolfo—now with no place left to land—fell from the sky.
Yet a smile spread across his face.
Because he saw it.
His Hippogriff had successfully carried Jeanne onto the Hanging Gardens.
"Thank you for everything."
Jeanne leapt down from the Hippogriff. Without even pausing to comfort the mount that had carried her this far, she raised her right hand.
"By the name of the Command Spell—Red Faction's Saber, Black Faction's Rider, come to my side!"
The crimson Command Spell vanished.
Just as the words implied, the immense magical power of the Command Spell forcibly pulled Mordred—still locked in a beam struggle—and the rapidly falling Astolfo from afar, dragging them straight to Jeanne's position.
Operation: Landing on the Hanging Gardens—Success!
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Tn: I updated the story once every 2 days, but if you want to see more chapter of this story ahead of time, please go to my Patreon.
Latest Chapter: Chapter 429: Another Poor Kid Who Gets Sold and Still Says Thanks[1]
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