Chapter 61 – Idiot Pride

I stand near the doorway while Lancer gently lays Sola down on a makeshift bed inside the abandoned building they've been using as a base.

It is going to take a while for Sola to wake up because that love spot curse was digging deep into her brain, rewriting her thoughts, and forcing her into that intense obsession.

When I killed it, it was like pulling the plug on a machine running at full blast, meaning her mind is just crashing and trying to reset itself after all that rewiring so she needs a bit of time to recover before she opens her eyes again.

Lancer walks over to us and closes the door, leaving Sola to sleep alone as we stand outside the room in the quiet hallway.

"You know, even if I already killed the concept of the curse inside Sola, if she sees your face again that charm is just going to grab her all over again, right?" I say to Lancer while looking up at his face. "If you want, I can try to kill the curse on your face too."

Hearing that, Lancer doesn't say a single word and just stands there staring at me in complete silence for so long that my attention eventually wanders over to Artoria standing next to me.

"Hey, Saber," I whisper with my eyes practically sparkling. "Can I see Excalibur up close? Like, properly?"

Artoria gives me a warm, indulgent smile before nodding and raising her right hand, releasing a brief burst of Prana to fade away the swirling winds of Invisible Air and reveal the brilliant, golden holy sword.

I lean in close, totally mesmerized by the flawless craftsmanship since the only time I ever saw this weapon up close before was when it was darkened and corrupted during my fight against her Alter version. Seeing the real, untainted Excalibur shining right in front of me is incredible.

While I am geeking out over the sword, Lancer finally lets out a quiet, bittersweet breath.

I look back over at him just as he slowly reaches up to brush his fingers against the mole under his right eye-the very source of all his past tragedies and the exact same curse that just ruined Sola and Kayneth-while a faint, melancholic smile crosses his face.

"I thank you for such an astonishing offer, Rikka," Lancer says softly, shaking his head.

"The temptation to be free of this lifelong burden is strong, but a knight must bear the fate he is given."

He drops his hand back to his side with an expression completely at peace with his decision.

"This face, and the curse that comes with it, are mine alone to carry to the very end."

After hearing Lancer's reasoning about his knightly pride and why he is rejecting my offer, the only thing I can think about his character boils down to one simple conclusion.

"Are you an idiot?" I ask flatly.

"Eh?" Lancer's face suddenly freezes right as he is making that stupidly proud expression, and he stares at me in complete confusion.

"Before you misunderstand, what I mean by idiot is not about your honor or your knightly pride or something like that," I explain while waving my hand dismissively.

"What I mean is you yourself, as Diarmuid Ua Duibhne."

"Ho-how did you know my true name?" he asks, his voice completely losing its confident edge as he stands there looking totally stiff, clearly shocked since he never actually revealed his identity to us.

"Is that really the important part right now?" I sigh and shake my head before looking him right in the eyes. "Listen, Diarmuid, let's look at your actual track record here. Because you refused to do anything about that stupid curse on your face while you were alive, your lord's wife fell in love with you, which forced you to betray your own lord and run away while turning the rest of your life into a living hell."

He completely loses his composure, his shoulders dropping for a split second before he forces his back straight again, clearly not expecting me to casually recite the most painful part of his entire past right to his face, but I just keep going.

"And now history is literally repeating itself right in front of you with Sola and Kayneth, yet you want to keep the curse just because you think it's your grand fate to carry it," I continue, crossing my arms and giving him a deadpan look.

"Having knightly honor is fine, but you shouldn't mistake that as some convenient excuse to just be completely stubborn whenever you feel like it. Is a true knight really someone who purposely holds onto a curse that only ruins the lives of the people around him just to satisfy his own pride?"

After saying that, Lancer doesn't say anything back but I can see his entire body trembling slightly while his fists clench so tightly that his knuckles turn white.

I can tell he isn't actually mad at me, but rather his brain is desperately trying to find some kind of logic to object to my argument, yet he can't think of a single thing to say because he knows deep down that I am completely right.

This exact tragedy already happened in his past, and now he is forced to watch it happen all over again with Sola.

"Just think about what I said, Lancer, since we are going to be here at least until Sola wakes up," I tell him before turning toward Artoria and gesturing for her to follow me.

Both of us walk out of the room, leaving Lancer completely alone with his thoughts.

Arriving outside the abandoned warehouse, I just take a deep breath of the fresh air and exhale a few times to clear my head.

"I really hope this is the last time I have to explain something this long," I complain, realizing this is already the second time today I had to give a massive lecture to someone after dealing with Kiritsugu earlier.

"Anyway, let's go see what Lady Ava and Gilgamesh are doing."

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The sun shone brightly over Fuyuki City, reflecting off the calm water of the Mion River as normal citizens went about their day.

Waver Velvet groaned loudly under the weight of two massive shopping bags stuffed to the brim with newly released video games and historical encyclopedias, struggling to keep his balance while walking alongside his massive Servant down the street.

Iskandar, the King of Conquerors, casually strolled beside him wearing his signature white "Admiral Tactics" t-shirt, looking completely relaxed as he enjoyed a freshly made crepe.

"I still don't understand why you need to buy this many games at once," Waver complained while awkwardly adjusting his grip on the bags.

"To conquer new worlds, boy!" Iskandar laughed heartily, his booming voice easily overpowering the ambient noise of the city around them. "A king must always expand his horizons, and these little digital battlefields are perfect for testing modern tactics!"

Waver let out a long, exhausted sigh before his expression shifted into something much more anxious. "Leaving your digital tactics aside for a second, don't you think this whole situation is incredibly weird?"

Waver gets his head closer to whispering at Rider "It has already been four days since this Holy Grail War started, but so far, almost nothing has actually happened. Except for that massive fight on the first night and that strange drinking meeting you had with the other kings, no one is actually fighting each other."

"What are you so worried about, boy?" the King of Conquerors asked with a massive grin. "A true king knows how to enjoy a moment of peace! If the other heroes want to hide and wait, let them. It just gives us more time to gather resources and conquer this modern era!"

He patted Waver on the back hard enough to make the young magus stumble forward, completely ignoring his Master's annoyed shouting as they continued walking down the walkway.

However, before Waver could complain about his back hurting, Iskandar suddenly stopped dead in his tracks. His boisterous laughter instantly vanished and was completely replaced by a deeply serious expression.

Standing right in the middle of the path perfectly blocking their way, was a young girl wearing a pristine dress with a sweet, innocent smile on her face.

To the normal pedestrians walking past her she looked like nothing more than a lost child, but to a magus like Waver and a powerful Servant like Rider, the sheer suffocating density of raw Prana swirling around her small body felt like a natural disaster barely contained within human skin.

The bags slipped from Waver's fingers, sending his newly purchased loot crashing onto the walkway and spilling his video games across the ground, simply because the insane pressure radiating from the girl made it genuinely difficult for him to even breathe.

Waver wasn't a high-tier magus with elite sensory skills, but he didn't need any special training to feel this. The suffocating pressure pouring out of her felt like a physical wall trying to crush his lungs.

Iskandar didn't immediately draw his sword, instead choosing to maintain his usual boisterous attitude as he took a firm step forward to shield his Master from her view.

"Well now, this is quite the surprise!" the King of Conquerors boomed with a hearty laugh, resting his hands on his hips as he looked down at her. "I must ask for your name, little lady, and whether you happen to be the Master of Caster that has been hiding from the rest of us this entire time."

Manaka giggled, bringing a hand to her mouth as if Rider had just told a delightful joke, looking completely unfazed by his size or his loud voice.

"Oh, no, you have it all wrong," she replied with a bright, innocent smile that looked unsettling precisely because her eyes remained empty of any human empathy. "My name is Manaka Sajyou, and I am not a Master for this silly little Grail War at all."

She clasped her hands together behind her back and leaned forward playfully, swaying on her heels like a child asking for a favor while casually discussing their deaths.

"I am just here to gather lots and lots of Mana for my Grail," Manaka continued in that same cheerful, chatty tone, looking at Rider like he was nothing more than a convenient meal. "Since you are such a big, strong Servant, I figured you wouldn't mind letting me take yours until you disappear."

The casual cheerfulness in her voice finally made Iskandar's smile drop, his instincts recognizing that this girl lacked human boundaries and could not be reasoned with.

Instead of waiting for an answer, Manaka simply tilted her head, and a thick pool of pitch-black mud suddenly poured out from beneath her shoes, violently expanding across the paved walkway like a living tidal wave trying to swallow them.

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Iskandar didn't even hesitate, immediately grabbing Waver by the back of his collar and leaping backward in a massive bound that carried them several meters down the path.

The King of Conquerors landed gracefully just as the creeping shadow suddenly stopped moving.

Even though Manaka had already taken control of the Greater Grail and its endless supply of cursed mud, she was still physically restricted by the natural quantity limit of her own Magic Circuits.

Because she was directly connected to the corrupted Grail, her internal Od refilled instantly the second she used it, but the maximum volume of Mana she could physically push through her human body in a single burst meant the shadows could only reach a certain distance before she hit her limit.

The sudden appearance of a moving black puddle instantly drew the attention of the normal pedestrians walking nearby, causing several people to stop in their tracks and point at the strange phenomenon in total confusion.

Seeing regular citizens staring right at them, Waver completely lost his mind as his ingrained mindset as a magus screamed at him about the strict rules of secrecy.

"Are you completely insane?!" Waver yelled, his voice cracking in sheer panic as he frantically looked back and forth between the confused crowd and the terrifying girl. "You can't just attack us in the middle of the day with normal people watching! Do you have any idea what the Association will do if you expose this Grail War to the public?"

Manaka just stared at him with that same innocent, empty smile, entirely unfazed by his screaming because the rules of normal magi didn't mean a single thing to her.

"The public?" Manaka repeated cheerfully, placing a hand on her cheek with a genuinely puzzled smile as if Waver had just said something completely nonsensical.

"But they aren't important at all. If they accidentally melt into the mud, it just means they get to be a part of my Grail too. Isn't that nice of them?"

Waver's brain couldn't even process what he had just heard, because the way this girl named Manaka said something so horrific with such a purely innocent expression made his mind completely shut down.

Before Waver could stammer out another panicked scream, a large hand slammed down onto his shoulder to snap him out of his frozen trance.

"Save your breath, boy!" Iskandar barked, his voice loud, rough, and completely stripped of its usual playful warmth. "Look at her eyes. She isn't listening to a single word you're shouting, so we're wasting our time trying to talk to her."

He stepped fully in front of Waver to cut off Manaka's line of sight, purposefully putting his own massive body right between his Master and the creeping black mud.

With a sudden, violent surge of raw Prana, the air around Iskandar distorted like an intense heat shimmer, kicking up a harsh gust of wind that sent the scattered video games and trash tumbling down the sidewalk.

In a brief flash of light, his body rapidly restructured as his cheap white t-shirt and casual clothes dissolved away in an instant.

With the loud clatter of bronze and leather, his battle gear materialized over his frame just as his iconic crimson mantle caught the wind, his bronze breastplate gleaming under the afternoon sun while his hand locked firmly around the hilt of the sword at his hip.