"See? I told you, it would be easier if I carried you flying."
He said sarcastically, while gently setting down Durandal, who he had been carrying in a princess carry.
To be honest, Durandal was very strong, but her body felt no different from an ordinary girl's.
Of course, this was when she wasn't tensing her body.
When Takatsuki held her, her muscles completely tensed up. Although her skin was still smooth as jade, fair and tender, it was incredibly firm.
"Relax, we've arrived."
This was her first time having such close contact with a male her age, and even Durandal instinctively reacted without realizing it.
"I... I wasn't nervous at all."
Durandal's mouth was as stubborn as her body.
"Alright, alright. But now, let's focus on the house in front of us."
Takatsuki looked at the arrow marked by the system. While in the sky, it pointed directly at this house, meaning Ryuunosuke Uryuu was here.
"Is he hiding in this house?"
Hearing Takatsuki's words, Durandal seemed to relax a bit, and she seriously looked at the two-story detached house in front of them.
"Yes, that's right. Follow me."
Durandal followed Takatsuki's footsteps. Without doing anything, she saw the iron gates blocking their way open one after another.
How did he do that?
She seemed to have seen something reach into the gate just now?
Durandal's eyes widened slightly, but that somewhat ethereal figure merely flashed and disappeared.
However, her attention was then drawn by the scent emanating from inside the gate.
The smell of blood!
Durandal smelled the blood coming from the room.
She suddenly looked at Takatsuki, who made a gesture to her, stopping her from rushing in.
Takatsuki was stronger than her. If she rushed in rashly, and if there were still living people inside, they might be taken hostage by the perpetrator.
Under Durandal's gaze, Takatsuki's figure disappeared again. She knew that Takatsuki had become invisible again.
Although she couldn't see Takatsuki's invisibility, that ethereal figure just now...
What was that?
While Durandal was still wondering, a scream, along with sounds of heavy impacts and heavy objects falling, came from inside the room.
"Alright, come in."
Hearing Takatsuki's voice, Durandal walked in, following the strong smell of blood into the inner bedroom. Upon entering the bedroom, a red-haired young man lay on the ground. On one side of the room was a disemboweled corpse. Takatsuki was kneeling in front of a child, tearing off the tape binding his hands and feet.
In the very center of the room was something like a bright red magic circle. Durandal recognized at a glance that it was drawn with human blood.
"That's the serial killer. Durandal, take that book, and let's go."
After wiping away the tears from the terrified, weeping child's face, Takatsuki comforted the frightened child, then said to Durandal.
"Book..."
There was an old, tattered book on the ground. Durandal picked it up and saw some strange things drawn on it.
"Alright, it's okay now. You're safe. Big brother has already called the police. Can you wait here alone for the police to arrive?"
The little boy, who had survived the ordeal, sobbed as he wiped the corners of his eyes and nodded vigorously.
"Very good, very good. Then big brother will leave."
Takatsuki stood up, took the ancestral magic book of Ryuunosuke Uryuu from Durandal's hand, and walked outside.
"Wait, are we just going to leave this child here?"
Leaving a child at a murder scene... that was simply too cruel.
"Goose, we're unregistered here with no identification. Do you think we can deal with the police?"
"Goose? What does that mean?"
"Hmph~"
Seeing Takatsuki walk out without answering, Durandal quickly chased after him: "Wait, what exactly does 'Goose' mean!"
In fact, Takatsuki could have directly used the magic circle drawn by Ryuunosuke Uryuu to summon a Servant, but it was made of human blood, and Takatsuki didn't want to use human blood for such things. As for Ryuunosuke Uryuu, a part of his brain had been destroyed by Takatsuki's fist combined with Supreme King Haki, so he probably wouldn't wake up, or if he did, he'd be an idiot.
Drawing a magic circle doesn't actually require human blood; the blood of other animals can also work.
Or something more suitable for storing magical power.
If the Gate of Babylon hadn't been sealed, Takatsuki would have even wanted to use the divine blood he had collected before to draw it, wondering what it would summon.
Unfortunately, the Gate of Babylon was sealed.
Takatsuki could only sell the gold and jewelry he had extracted at a low price at a shop, then buy a few live chickens. He then took Durandal to a hidden forest to prepare to summon a new Servant.
If the magic circle that summoned Durandal hadn't disappeared after the summoning, Takatsuki would have really wanted to try summoning with that magic circle to see what would happen.
"This magic circle is the same as the one in that room."
Durandal said, looking at the magic circle Takatsuki had drawn with chicken blood.
"Yes, this book is actually a grimoire containing necromantic magic, but it must have fallen into decline, and later generations forgot about it."
"Alright, I'll try first. If it doesn't work, Durandal, you can try."
He took out a piece of Golden Fleece from his inventory and placed it in the center of the magic circle.
"What is this?"
Looking at the Golden Fleece, Durandal felt her heart become somewhat calmer.
"This is the Golden Fleece. Have you heard its legend?"
Durandal shook her head. As a Valkyrie who had always focused on training, she hadn't heard many myths.
"Before the summoning, let me tell you about the Servant we're summoning this time. The Servant I plan to summon is Caster Medea."
"Medea?"
Hearing a familiar name, Durandal reacted.
"What, you've heard of her?"
Nodding, Durandal said somewhat wistfully, "Bishop Otto once told me the story of Jason and Medea when I was in the orphanage, and he said that if I ever met someone like that princess, I shouldn't pity her."
"Huh?"
Takatsuki was startled for a moment, then realized something: "Can you tell me what kind of story Otto told back then?"
Durandal nodded, without concealing anything, and directly narrated the story she had heard from Otto. In Otto's story, Medea was a person who, for love, went mad and killed countless people, only to be feared by her own beloved.
Takatsuki's expression became somewhat strange as he listened.
"As expected of Otto, he's been laying this groundwork for over a decade."
What Takatsuki heard in this story was not Medea's story, but... Otto's self-narration.