"Lady Avaaaaa, I'm hungryyyyy!" The moment we find her, I whine, desperately asking for food.
"Master, you're hungry? Hmm, yeah, you have been sleeping since the afternoon. But is there even anything to eat here?" Lady Ava turns toward me while casually continuing to draw a magic circle on the floor.
"That is the problem. There is nothing in this castle, and in the first place, no one can even cook here," I complain.
Saber should basically never be allowed to enter a kitchen. As for Irisviel, I have never seen her make anything, but considering her personality and the fact that she has been confined in Germany her entire life, I know she definitely doesn't cook either.
"Can you cook, Lady Ava?" I ask hopefully.
"Nope! I don't need to eat in the first place. Plus, my food is a bit different from what ordinary humans eat~"
Oh, right. She is a half-succubus. Well, good for her, I guess...
"Ahhh, so what am I supposed to eat, then...?" Do we really need to go all the way back to the city just to get a meal?
Even if we decide to go to town, I have zero money to actually buy anything
"Should I use Suggestion magecraft to make them give me food?" I mutter to myself.
But the moment that thought enters my mind, I shake my head over and over again. "No, bad idea. If I do that, I will realize I can get away with it, and I will just keep doing it again and again."
"The only other option is going back to the orphanage. Maybe I can ask them for food." I turn toward the wall where an old clock is hanging, but unfortunately, the hands already show it is nine-fifteen at night.
That plan is already a failure. In the end, the only real way for me to get some food right now is by going to the Sajyou residence where Manaka is.
She is definitely still awake at this hour, but I feel kind of bad just showing up randomly to ask for food. Then again, I am just so incredibly starving right now.
"Artoria," I say, looking up at her since she is still holding me. "Can we go to my friend house? I think she-"
"To think my Master has been reduced to whining like a starving stray," a sharp, familiar voice cuts through what I want to say. "How utterly unsightly."
Right in front of us, bright golden particles begin to materialize out of thin air.
The glowing motes of light swirl together, quickly forming into the stunningly beautiful figure of Gilgamesh.
She stands there with her arms crossed, her eyes looking down at me with a mix of amusement and a strange, clear fondness.
"Gilgamesh!" My eyes go wide in surprise. "You're back!"
"Of course I am," she says, flipping her blonde hair over her shoulder. "Did you honestly believe I would let my Master wither away from something as trivial as hunger? You really lack proper caretakers if this is how they treat you."
Artoria's posture stiffens slightly at the insult to her caretaking, letting out a quiet, dignified sigh.
Even if she finds Gilgamesh's smug attitude frustrating, she doesn't argue, knowing full well that Gilgamesh is right about the lack of food.
While Lady Ava just chuckles from her spot near the magic circle on the floor, completely unbothered.
"I was out surveying the city," Gilgamesh continues, completely ignoring Saber's glare as a golden ripple of space opens in the air right next to her. "The modern era is full of mindless mongrels, but I suppose they have managed to create a few things barely passable for your palate."
She reaches into the glowing portal and pulls out beautifully wrapped, high-end takeout boxes.
The warm, delicious smell of actual, freshly cooked food instantly hits my nose. Plates of steak and sweet pastries are revealed, filling the entire room with an incredible aroma, and my mouth basically waters on the spot.
"A King does not let her treasures starve," Gilgamesh smirks, stepping closer and offering the warm food to me. "Eat up, Rikka. You have a lot of energy to recover."
"Wow!! You're the best, Gilgamesh!" I cheer.
"Of course I am," she says with a proud smirk.
But honestly, I am not even paying attention to her anymore because my eyes are completely locked onto the feast she just brought out.
Gilgamesh moves the beautifully arranged food containers onto the top of the large table in the room, while Artoria walks over and gently sets me down on the sofa right in front of it.
Now that the food is right in front of me, I can actually see what Gilgamesh brought.
This isn't just normal takeout. There is a perfectly seared A5 Wagyu beef steak resting on a bed of roasted garlic and herbs, buttered asparagus, and a delicate box filled with colorful French macarons and tiny strawberry tarts sprinkled with actual edible gold leaf.
If the smell is already this amazing, I can only imagine how it tastes!
I immediately grab a fork and start eating. No, instead of just eating, it is more like I am devouring everything I can see in these fancy bento boxes.
I stuff my cheeks, chewing happily as the incredibly tender steak basically melts in my mouth.
While I am completely lost in food heaven, I can hear Artoria and Lady Ava talking with each other nearby.
"Goodness..." Artoria murmurs, watching me with a mix of relief and slight worry. "She really was starving. Please slow down, Master, or you are going to choke."
Lady Ava just giggles from her spot near the magic circle. "Let her eat, Artoria~. She needs all those calories to replenish her physical energy and Od. Though, watching a tiny child demolish a steak that is almost the size of her own head is quite the funny sight."
"Let them stare," Gilgamesh chuckles, resting one hand gracefully on her hip as she watches my complete lack of table manners with high amusement. "Eat as much as you desire, Rikka. There is plenty more where that came from."
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"Dammit..." I mutter.
Looking at all this food at first, the older me from my previous life could have easily eaten all of this in half an hour. But now, I've only been eating for ten minutes and I'm already totally stuffed. I'm not even done with the steak yet, but I'm just completely full.
"Ughhh, I hate this body," I groan, softly dropping my face onto the table because I'm so full I can barely move.
"Are you full already?" Gilgamesh asks, looking between the remaining food and my face resting on the table.
"Yeah, sorry Gilgamesh. Seems like I'm getting hit with something called 'my eyes are bigger than my stomach'," I say. I can feel my stomach rumbling as it struggles to digest everything I just ate.
"That is fine. Honestly, it is more surprising that your tiny body can hold all the food you just stuffed into it." With a casual snap of her fingers, the remaining food on the table is instantly absorbed back into a golden portal, leaving the table completely spotless.
Must be nice having the Gate of Babylon. It's basically like your own video game inventory system.
If I had it, I could just throw random stuff in there and never need to manually carry anything again.
Right, speaking of the Gate of Babylon... tonight was supposed to be the night Caster summons his weird giant tentacle monster in the middle of the river, forcing the other Servants to team up and beat it.
Well, "team up" is a strong word-it was mostly just Artoria, Lancer, and Rider actually fighting it, while Gilgamesh watched from her fancy golden ship and Berserker just tried to kill Artoria.
"So, just to make sure... in this war, Berserker and Assassin are already dead, right?" I ask the room.
"Yes. Berserker died on the first night after Archer killed him while he was trapped and motionless inside your illusion," Artoria says, glancing over at Gilgamesh.
"And as for Assassin... Rider managed to deal with the majority of them, but Master, you were the one who killed the final copy," she adds.
"...Right. Somehow I got involved with the only two Servants that have died so far." I didn't even realize it until now. Do I technically have a higher kill count than the actual Servants in this war?
Rider technically has more kills since he wiped out so many Assassin clones, but well...
Also, thinking about the timeline, even though this feels like the third "night" of events, more actual days have passed.
In Fate Zero, not every single night involves a massive fight, so there's plenty of downtime in between the chaos.
"But that tentacle Caster doesn't even exist here, because Lady Ava replaced him," I murmur to myself.
I turn my gaze toward Lady Ava, who's still happily humming to herself as she works on the floor.
Looking closely at the complex design of her runes, it seems like she's beefing up the bounded field enchantments around the castle, probably just because I'm staying here now.
"So the only remaining Servants are Lancer and Rider. But with Gilgamesh, Artoria, and Lady Ava here with me..." I trail off, looking around the room.
"You know, we could honestly just finish this Holy Grail War tonight seeing how broken this team is."
"That is true. But Master, if we kill any more Servants, Irisviel's body will be destroyed," Artoria reminds me.
"I know about that... Hahhh, I just don't know how to fix it yet."
My proficiency with the Root is basically at its minimum in my current state. I can still pull information from it, but I need to access my Void Origin to actually use it properly, and I really don't think my small body can handle the full Origin right now.
I literally need to transform into my adult form just to use it for a few minutes, and even then, the process is incredibly unstable and risks breaking me completely.
"So for now, we can't kill any more Servants," I announce firmly. "Especially you, Gilgamesh! Please, no more killing Servants if you get angry at someone!"
"Heh. I don't know why you are so attached to that homunculus, but whatever you say. You're my Master, after all," Gilgamesh says with a smug, easy smile.
After that, no one really says anything else. It can't be helped. Even though there are three incredibly powerful Servants gathered here, they basically have no connection to each other whatsoever.
The only link keeping them in the same room right now is me. If I left, they'd probably just scatter and go do their own things.
It's really awkward right now, though...
Gilgamesh just stares at me like I'm so fascinating to her, and Artoria is also staring at me, though hers is more of a fierce, protective gaze. Meanwhile, Lady Ava is just doing whatever she wants on the floor over there.
Please, let something or anything happen. I'll take literally anything to stop this awkward silence.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
Fortunately, I can hear a faint knocking sound, making me stand up from the sofa. "Someone's knocking, I'm gonna check who it is!" I immediately run from the room toward the castle's front doors.
"Knocking?" is the last thing I hear Artoria say before I leave the room.
I hurriedly run toward the sound and arrive at the entryway, where the knocking is still repeating.
"I'm here, wait a second!" I call out, preparing myself to open the door.
But right as my hand grabs the handle, I suddenly realize something. 'Wait... isn't this place in the middle of a forest? It's like an eight-hour walk from Fuyuki, or a couple of hours by car.'
'Kiritsugu and Maiya are already here, so there shouldn't be anyone else coming, right?'
'Is it Lancer or Rider? Impossible, they probably wouldn't use the front door like this. Then who is this?'
Knock. Knock.
The knocking starts again because I haven't opened the door yet, even though I already said I'm here.
'Is it a ghost? No, that's impossible, ghosts don't exist.'
Still, it's really scary. It's nighttime, and I'm hearing a knock on the front door in the middle of a forest...
"Set. Material extraction. Projection On." I quietly chant, materializing a katana at my left waist. This is just for anticipation, just in case things go wrong.
I slowly pull the door open with my left hand, keeping my right hand firmly resting on the hilt of my katana.
Then, when the door is halfway open, I slam it the rest of the way and immediately draw my blade.
"Huh... Manaka?" I freeze, lowering my sword in confusion. It turns out the person standing at the front door is just her, not a ghost or an enemy Servant or anything scary.
"Hello, Rikka," she says to me, her face completely lit up with a bright, cheerful smile.