Though it appeared she had options, in reality, she faced a single-choice question.
When Sakatsuki summoned Artoria, he hadn't concealed anything. Whether she liked it or not, Reika Rikudou had overheard the Servant's class and True Name—an unforgivable taboo for any Master-Servant pair.
Just as with little Jack, the moment Reika uttered a single "no," Sakatsuki would mercilessly kill her, along with her Servant.
Not to mention, she had already staked her very life to secure Sakatsuki's aid and healing.
By the time Reika belatedly realized all this, she had already signed a Self-Geis Scroll and received a crash course on the Holy Grail War.
"So, I'm the second Master of the Blue Faction, tasked with assisting you—the first Master and Servant of the Blue Faction—to win this Holy Grail War, correct?"
To better process the flood of information, Reika even pulled out a small notebook she carried and began jotting things down earnestly.
"Currently, the Holy Grail is in the hands of the Red Faction—the Yggdmillennia faction based in Romania. The Black Faction is the punitive force dispatched by the Mage's Association and the Holy Church. As for our Blue Faction..."
"After testing, Vlad III hasn't discovered my identity. He simply assumes I'm a mysterious Servant sent by the Mage's Association. In other words, due to our small numbers, the Holy Grail has concealed our faction's presence."
Sakatsuki snapped his fingers, explaining the situation not just to Reika but also to Artoria.
"It's like playing Werewolf. We're the wolves hiding among the villagers, while the villagers are too busy fighting each other to realize there are wolves in their midst."
"This isn't quite the same as Werewolf..." Artoria muttered under her breath. But then, she saw little Jack skipping over to her side, staring up at her with unblinking ice-blue eyes. Suddenly, Jack nodded as if in agreement, flashing a childishly innocent smile.
"Mommy."
"Ah, yes—" Artoria reflexively responded before jolting in alarm. "Wait, no! I-I'm not your mommy!"
"...Waaah." Hearing the flustered yet firm denial, Jack's lips trembled pitifully, her clear eyes welling up with tears.
Though she had already claimed Reika as her mother, for a wraith like Jack the Ripper, the more mommies, the better, right?
Unfortunately, her attempt to secure a second 'mommy' ended in failure. As for a third...
Jack sneaked a glance at Sakatsuki, only to find the young man already watching her with an amused smirk, his golden eyes reflecting a deadly rainbow gleam.
There weren't many ways to purify wraiths, but the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception was definitely one of them.
"Waaah! QAQ!"
Just from that one look, Jack burst into tears and fled back into the safety of Reika's soft embrace, refusing to lift her head no matter what.
"There, there~ Be good, Jack. These two are nice people. They won't hurt us~"
Reika didn't know whether to laugh or cry as she set down her pen and paper, gently comforting the wailing little Jack. Artoria initially thought she was the cause of this commotion and glanced guiltily at Sakatsuki, only to find him clutching his chest with a pensive expression.
"Master?"
"Nothing, I was just pondering other matters." Sakatsuki lightly touched his chest, feeling the warmth of his six Command Spells.
Command Spells weren't limited to appearing on the back of one's hand. In Nasu's earlier work, Fate/Prototype—the prototype of Fate/stay night—the renowned Root Princess Manaka Sajyou bore her Command Spells right in the center of her chest.
Not to mention Jeanne d'Arc, the legitimate Ruler of this war, whose Command Spells were branded across her back like the wings of a seraphim.
But why were his own Command Spells undergoing changes?
Suppressing this doubt, Sakatsuki raised his hand to signal for silence before addressing Reika.
"I've explained the basics of the Holy Grail War to you. There's no time to waste—let's begin preparations."
"Yes."
Having endured a revelation that shattered her worldview, Reika once again displayed her inhuman composure.
It wasn't just that she remained calm despite everything that had happened, even though she'd been an ordinary woman just a day ago. Nor was it merely that she'd accepted little Jack after only a brief moment of surprise upon learning her true identity as Jack the Ripper.
Even when Sakatsuki described the brutal battlefield where countless heroes would clash, Reika simply nodded quietly and waited patiently for their next move.
There was no instinctive self-preservation in the face of the unknown, nor any hesitation or anxiety about the future. Perhaps it was precisely these traits that had made her and Jack the most fearsome Master-Servant pair in the original timeline, unleashing a storm of bloodshed across Romania.
—This woman's temperament was perfectly suited for the Holy Grail War, more so than most Masters of the Yggdmillennia clan. With her as an ally, his own burden would be significantly lighter.
This was exactly why Sakatsuki had abandoned his initial intent to kill and chosen Reika, an ordinary woman, as his collaborator.
Removing the Cloak of Hades, he handed it to Artoria to wear. Reika accepted the card Sakatsuki gave her and softly uttered the activation phrase, "Install." Sakatsuki took the lead, activating his Presence Concealment skill, while little Jack summoned London's thick fog to obscure his features.
Once all preparations were complete, Sakatsuki activated the communication array Hyouma Sagara had inscribed in the room.
A luminous screen unfolded, and soon a response came—the image of a pitch-black throne room projected onto the whitewashed wall.
Flickering candlelight revealed two male figures who locked eyes with Sakatsuki's group.
"So your summoning is complete, Hyouma Sagara—no, you're not him."
Darnic Prestone Yggdmillennia, leader of the Black Faction and head of the Yggdmillennia clan, narrowed his eyes at the figures of Sakatsuki and Reika on the screen, his tone icy.
"If the communication spell has fallen into your hands, does that mean that fool Hyouma Sagara is dead?"
"Heh heh..." Sakatsuki's laughter perfectly mimicked the old man who had summoned him. "If you're referring to that blond pretty boy from the Sagara family, he was executed on the spot for trespassing into our clan's territory."
"Who are you?"
"Oh my, how forgetful the great ones can be, Darnic Prestone Yggdmillennia."
Even obscured by the dark mist, the person conversing with Darnic exuded an air of decrepitude—like a dying old man or a wild flame clawing its way up from hell.
"Was it not you, the great lord of Yggdmillennia, who slaughtered our former family head and drove the Osarei clan out of the Tree of a Thousand Realms?"
The Osarei clan.
This was the name of the black magic family Sakatsuki had learned about from the Clock Tower—the very family he had slaughtered to the last.
Naturally, Sakatsuki had obtained all the intelligence about this family, including their motives for participating in the Holy Grail War.
"Osarei, Osarei... It's you! I never imagined your clan would migrate to the Far East!"
As the man on the other end of the communication spell showed shifting expressions, Sakatsuki continued his charade now that Darnic had finally remembered.
"Keh keh keh, how distant you've become. If you wished to establish a new magecraft organization, why not inform this old one? Our Osarei clan would have been most willing to help Yggdmillennia triumph over the Clock Tower."
Spouting these ambiguous, eerie words, Sakatsuki cackled hoarsely, his mist-shrouded hand gesturing vaguely toward Artoria, who was draped in black robes.
"Let our Osarei Master and the Assassin she summoned come to your aid. What say you?"
***
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