"What the hell even happened our first night of the grail war and I almost died." Rudeus thought, they had already made it back to Luvia's house and she seemed to be sulking. I still can't fathom why she would keep pressing to attack so much. She never struck me as the person to be battle-hungry. I guess you really never know someone. "Caster," a voice sounded in the dark living room. The tone was not happy, nor was it sad.
Luvia sat on the couch contemplating the whole night. So much had happened that her head was in a jumble. She had seen Rin, watched Saber battle Lancer, and figured out the archer could conjure and fight with swords. And she and her servant were almost killed by another servant. She balled her fist tight, her knuckles turning white, as she slightly trembled with anger.
This had not gone as she thought it would. She felt a massive amount of humiliation. Someone as strong and dignified as her almost died to the first person that attacked her. But it was not her fault. Her servant is meant to protect her, to save her, and to battle other servants.
But he failed her. Ultimately, this whole situation disrespected all the ancestry of the Edelfelt family. "How did we lose?" The question came out weak. Even though she felt anger and embarrassment, she could not let it out. Her voice faltered in the moment where she should have spoken the loudest, just another failure.
Rudeus did not move nor speak. He just sat there. This was not a good situation to be in. His master was probably already doubting his strength. The reason he lost was because the whole situation had caught him off guard. First, he never even thought about using his noble phantasm throughout the entire fight for some reason. Then, his master was so battle-hungry for some reason. I had told her to dodge, but she went and pressed on the attack. That was really strange.
He was also so cowardly and he could not pinpoint why. Really, looking back on the fight, he had been so eager to leave when he should have pressed the attack. He had even frozen the enemy in an ice block, and it still took his master to remind him to attack.
But even so, he was still attacked. That was strange. Could the enemy duplicate themselves? But even so, he froze everything around them, so how was he not frozen? There were a lot of things in that battle that did not make sense to him. It was so short that he could not even really analyze it. One thing really bothered him, though everything about this felt so familiar, like he knew what it was. Even though it was on the tip of his tongue, he could not taste what it was. "We lost because we were ambushed by whoever that was. They played us really well. I can't even wrap my head around the whole situation myself."
Luvia sat in the dark with her legs tightly placed together. She had been thinking about what that servant had said to her before knocking her to the ground. "My master wanted you to die but ill save you as to repay favor, call yourself lucky." It really did not make any sense to her. When her servant had told her to run, her body wanted to continue the battle. In the end, she did not know who to really blame herself or him.
Luvia grabbed her face in frustration. Her mood and spirit were at an all-time low. "We can't fail again." With that, she got up and walked away without another glance towards Rudeus. "This is so troublesome." he grumbled, a figure walked into the living room. "Senpai, are you okay?" The soft voice of a girl rang out throughout the dark room. It entered the ears of Rudeus. He looked at where she was standing and walked over to her.
"You should just go back to sleep," Rudeus said while walking past her.
He did not want to get her mixed up in all this, unlike Luvia who wanted to use her. Before he could make it fully past her, she stopped him and held his arm. He felt the soft body of a young girl on his arm. He could feel her soft chest squeezing against him. He could not deny that it was a wonderful feeling. "Senpai... it's okay," she softly reassured him. She could feel the tension in the air. She did not know why, but she did not want the person who saved her to be sad.
She was indebted to him for life, and she would repay him in any way she could. "It's okay, Sakura. No need to worry. I'm fine." Rudeus looked down at the purple-haired girl grasping onto him. He rubbed her head and she let go. "You should go to sleep. Don't you have archery tomorrow?" With that, he left her standing there.
"Senpai, I will help you," she whispered to herself. She was going to save him like he saved her and make sure he can smile everyday.
"He's not here today?!" A loud roar was heard throughout the classroom. Rin Tohsaka was furious. She had thought she could bully Rudeus now that she had a servant, but since the war started, he has yet to show up to school. "Master, who is this Rudeus Greyrat you keep talking about?" Archer sounded through the mental link.
She sighed. "Don't worry about it, Archer. We have more important things to think about." She waved off his concern. Archer just hummed. She was clearly just dodging the question. But his curiosity for whoever this Rudeus guy was was at its peak. "If you say so, Master." He would ask her about it later.
Rin grumbled. She had come to school today even though she did not have to, and now it was a waste. She did not even know why she had expected him to be here. She just really hoped he would. "Master, I have intel." The Archer spoke up. "What is the intel, Archer?"
"It seems recently a large amount of people have gone missing, which is normal for the Grail War, as servants can gather mana from killing people. In the area these people were killed, I could sense rune magic was used." He finished. This new information made Rin think. While rune magic was rare in the modern age of mage craft, it was still used. And for so many people to go missing without even the news knowing was impressive. "It seems this Grail War really is going to be intense."
The city dimmed as time went on. Everyone went to their houses and tucked in for sleep. Slaughter could be heard if you listened closely. "Avenger, do you really have to commit such meaningless slaughter? How much mana do you even need? Covering up all of this is exhausting, even with my puppets." She sighed dramatically.
The servant did not immediately answer her. He kept slaughtering the groups of people they had gathered. He did not have to hold back because the woman had placed a runic bounded field over them. "These matters do not concern you. Just stay quiet," he said, his face not changing even an inch while killing these innocent souls.
Guess the mysterious servants master and ill drop two chapters that same day