"Senpai, what are we doing here?" Mash asked, looking at the dilapidated castle. What could possibly be so important that Mo Wang would leave the food festival in the city and drag her out to the middle of nowhere?
"Uh, nothing much. I just remembered we have two teammates who are about to die if we don't hurry up and save them," Mo Wang replied, a little sheepishly.
"Huh? D-die?" Mash was stunned. All our teammates are here, aren't they? Who's about to die?
"It's Siegfried and Saint George. I heard they've also arrived in France in this era," he explained.
"Saint George and Siegfried?! The famous dragon slayers from history?! They're in this singularity too?" Mash gasped. But then she realized something.
"Um, Senpai," she said, her eyes narrowing, "if I remember correctly, both of them are strong against dragons, right?"
"Y-yes, that's right."
"Then why are we only looking for them now?! We've already dealt with Fafnir!" she exclaimed. Siegfried, in particular, was a perfect counter to Fafnir. Why was her senpai only telling her this now, after Fafnir had already been turned into dinner?
"Well... I forgot," Mo Wang said matter-of-factly.
It was like finishing a game and only then remembering you had a special item that was super effective against the final boss. Not that it made much of a difference in the end, but Mash still felt the urge to complain.
The poor girl had gone from a shy introvert to a relentless tsukkomi machine after spending so much time with Mo Wang.
"Then what did you mean by 'they're about to die'?" she asked, a new worry dawning on her.
"Oh, Jalter found out the two dragon slayers had been summoned, so she sent a bunch of troops after them," Mo Wang said, his gaze wandering. "I'm guessing they're not in good shape..."
"Well, thank you so much for remembering, Senpai," Mash said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. He had forgotten that two of their key allies were being hunted down. This was a timed quest! If he weren't so ridiculously strong, they would have been stuck here forever!
"Senpai, are you sure Siegfried is still alive? And in a place like this?" she asked, looking at the castle with a sense of dread.
"I don't know. Should be, probably, maybe, still alive?" Mo Wang shrugged. It had been years since he had played the first chapter. He couldn't remember all the details. He had only managed to track Siegfried to this location through a series of inquiries. As for whether he was still breathing... he could only pray.
Mash had long known that her senpai was unreliable, but this was a new record.
...
Inside a secret room in the castle, a heavily wounded Siegfried was slumped against a wall. His body, once fortified by dragon's blood, was now covered in wounds. He had lost track of how many battles he had fought since his summoning. He was at the end of his rope.
"Senpai, are you sure Siegfried is here?"
"Yeah, probably. The trail is pretty obvious, isn't it?"
The voices from outside put Siegfried on high alert. Enemies... again? he thought, raising his sword. He held his breath, his muscles tensed. The footsteps grew closer.
The door opened, and he swung his greatsword with the last of his strength.
"Look out!" Mash cried.
But before his sword could land, he felt a sharp pain in his stomach. The seemingly nonchalant young man had moved with incredible speed and punched him in the gut.
Thud!
Siegfried flew back and slammed against the wall, coughing up blood.
"Oops, I think I just hit something," Mo Wang said, looking at his hand and then at Siegfried. "My, what a warm welcome. We came to save you, you know."
"Senpai! You hit him too hard!" Mash exclaimed, rushing to Siegfried's side.
"Ahaha... it was just a reflex," Mo Wang said, scratching his head.
Siegfried struggled to sit up, his eyes wary. "You're... not (Evil) Jeanne's men?"
"Of course not," Mo Wang said, squatting down to get a better look at the legendary dragon slayer. "We're here to help. Though we're a little late..."
"Please don't be alarmed," Mash said, helping Siegfried up. "We're the Master and Servant from Chaldea. My senpai is unreliable, but he really is here to save you."
Siegfried finally noticed the Chaldea emblem on her shield and uniform. He relaxed, and a wave of dizziness washed over him.
"Hey, hey, don't pass out!" Mo Wang said, grabbing him. "Don't you die on me! I'm warning you, if you die, I'll summon you to Chaldea and make you work overtime!"
Mash was speechless. Was that a threat?
"Senpai, I think if you keep shaking him like that, he really is going to die," she said. Siegfried was already foaming at the mouth.
"Don't worry, this guy's bathed in dragon's blood. He's got a long life ahead of him. I've already used a major healing spell on him. He won't die."
But he was still in bad shape. It seemed his terrible luck was acting up again. Among all the Servants, Siegfried's luck was near the bottom. He was strong, on par with a top-tier five-star like Karna, but his luck in the Holy Grail Wars he participated in was always terrible.
Just like his namesake father-in-law, who wasn't a Lancer but still had terrible luck. It was probably because of the curse of the Nibelungen treasure. He was the type of person who could grant others' wishes but never his own.
"Ahem, I'm sorry," Siegfried said, coughing up blood. "I've been on the run for so long... I attacked you by mistake. I'm glad you're alright."
"I think you're in worse shape than we are," Mash said, not knowing what to say.
"I-I'm fine. I'm invincible, after all," Siegfried said, trying to stand, but then he collapsed.
"Senpai, what's wrong with him now?" Mash asked, her face stiff.
"Oh, probably a lack of magical energy," Mo Wang said. "He may be invincible, but he's still a Servant. He passed out from not eating. I diagnose it as a case of long-term veganism."
"Ha, ha," Mash laughed weakly. But then she saw Mo Wang collecting Siegfried's blood in a bottle.
"Senpai! What are you doing?!"
"Oh, his body is similar to Fafnir's, so his blood probably has some dragon properties. It'd be a waste to just let it spill."
"You can't just collect someone's blood in a bottle!"
"Uh, you mean I should use a syringe?" he asked, pulling out a meter-long needle. "That doesn't seem right. He's already so badly injured. It'd be bad if he died."
Looking at the needle, Mash thought that even a real dragon would be drained dry by it.
"Don't worry, even if this blood is useless, I can still use it to summon him! So, no problem!" he said, making a funny face.
"Senpai, do you know that using someone's blood to summon someone else is something only a demon would do?" Mash said.
"Huh? When did you start thinking I wasn't a demon?" Mo Wang asked, wondering if he hadn't made it obvious enough.
Mash was speechless. She was glad that her senpai, at least, had a clear understanding of himself.
"So what do we do now? Just leave him here?" she asked, looking at the unconscious Siegfried.
"Well, I was going to look for WarGreymon, but since it's come to this, I guess we have to take him back with us," Mo Wang said.
"WarGreymon?" Mash asked, confused.
"Oh, that's Teacher Georgios. Saint George," he explained. The three-star dragon slayer was also known as Teacher Georgios in the game, but Mo Wang preferred to call him WarGreymon.
Though he was only a three-star, he was on par with some top-tier Servants. But this was the Nasuverse, where star ratings and power levels were often meaningless.
Unpopular characters were often given five-star ratings for no reason. Not that Mo Wang would mind having a team full of five-stars.
But then he remembered all the weirdos in the five-star pool: a scantily clad Sanzang, a moon goddess who was the shame of the five-stars and only thought about love, a crazy berserker nurse... He would rather kill himself than team up with them.
Compared to them, the unlucky Siegfried was an SSR.
And so, Siegfried, who had nearly starved to death in the castle, was carried back to the city by Mo Wang... where he discovered that their party had somehow acquired a whole new group of strange people.