Chapter 183: Chapter 175
{Master, why will you not let me cleanse this child?} Raikou's voice came over the links we shared. {Surely you can feel this disgusting feeling as well?}
{I can.} I said simply as my eyes were drawn to the back of the Assassin Servant. I wasn't like Raikou where I was so honed to the feeling of Resentment that I could sense it from long distances, but even here, I could practically taste the uncountable number of hate-filled emotions hidden deep inside this child. {Does this child seem strange to you?}
{Strange? Beyond being a conglomeration of ghosts the likes I've never seen before?}
{For such a creature – a wraith – she seems oddly.....rational.} I briefly thought about Sasaki Kojiro, but his situation was much different. {Frankly, she should be nothing but a mess of hate and death, yet she appeared and tried to scare us off.}
{It was obvious she did not think she could win.}
{Then why did she decide to attack instead of running away?} I countered. {An Assassin Servant is one who waits for the most opportune moments to strike considering their lower physical abilities.} Atleast for the most part. Once again, Sasaki Kojiro was an outlier in this regard.
Raikou looked a little surprised by my retort, her brow furrowed in through. {In her view it could have been an opportunity to remove a Master. She simply could have had confidence in her ability to escape under those circumstances.}
{We tracked her down easily enough, why wouldn't we be able to again if she failed?} I replied, shaking my head. {In my opinion, she just cared for the safety of someone else more than herself. You heard her words, and maybe you should give them the due consideration.}
{Her.....mother?} Raikou's mental voice went a bit quiet, and I'm pretty sure I poked a sore spot by pointing it out. While she didn't care about other people much due to her Madness, certain things could still strike a chord with her if they weren't blatantly involving other people infront of her. A story or a situation would perhaps have a great impact, if it was more ambiguous than actually seeing it.
I put a hand on her shoulder, giving her a smile. {Besides, if the worse comes to happen, you're here to protect me, right?}
Raikou perked up and that bright smile reappeared on her face {Of course! Mommy will protect you no matter what.}
The further the Servant led us, the more the creepy feeling emerged from the surroundings. If I didn't know any better, I'd suspect she was doing it on purpose. But frankly, her existence seems to be spilling out onto the surroundings. The one from before, the alley we initially found and purified, I could guess that she killed someone there, which was why it stood out even though she'd only been there for a brief moment.
I thought there weren't any murders in this part of the city, but I guess the police didn't investigate too far into this area or it had never been discovered. I didn't find the traces of a corpse anywhere either, only the lingering miasma.
Eventually, we came upon an apartment complex that was.....surprisingly 'clean' as opposed to most of the street.
Like she intentionally reeled herself in while here.
"If you hurt mommy, we won't forgive you." The Assassin shot us another look before pushing the door open.
The killing intent in her voice made me raise an eyebrow.
"I promise we will not harm your Master as long as we are not attacked." Jeanne spoke up again, reiterating her position. "You have my word as the Ruler of this war."
Jack gave her a long stare, and it was hard to guess her thoughts. "Un." She merely made a small noise in acknowledgement.
"Jackie, is that you?" We pushed open an apartment door behind the Assassin servant, walking inside to meet a woman sitting down at a table. Didn't look surprised to see us, most likely having been in mental contact with her Servant the entire time.
She was quite beautiful, a sensual charm that could probably entrap many.
"Mommy, we're back." The Assassin servant happily skipped into their Master's arms.
"I see that." Her Master smiled lightly at her Servant's antics. "You did good." She rubbed the Assassin's head. Before looking up at us. Her expression was one of forced calmness. I've dealt with people enough to know when they're nervous.
"You weren't the one who summoned her, were you?" I hazarded a guess, taking the initiative in this conversation. Her overall demeanor, her handling of this situation, it spoke of inexperience. She allowed us to walk right into her home, and it was obviously without any defenses.
No Magus would allow such a thing.
She reacted slightly, which told me all I needed to know.
"If I had to guess, you were completely unaware of this hidden world before whatever happened to land you as her Master." I continued on, and she didn't stop me.
She frowned, and there was a little bit of resentment flashing across her face. "Someone else thought I would be a good 'material' to summon her." She scoffed, a noticeable amount of anger and disgust in her voice.
Well, I can see she doesn't have the best impression of magic users at this point then. "I'm sorry you had to go through that." I replied with sincerity.
She crossed her arms. "You wanted to see me, what do you want?"
"I'm sure your Servant has told you about the war, yes?" I glanced at Jeanne, and I guess she was staying quiet because I was operating as a Master towards another Master. She would probably have words when we settled our own thing outside her purview.
"She told me enough."
"You drew a lot of attention to yourself with these killings." I began to explain. "The Mages Association that policies our hidden world, they know something's going on and sent people to investigate."
"Is this where you offer me a deal?" She scowled. "That look is the same as all my clients who looked down on me. Are you going to tell me to get on my knees too, like that bastard who tried to kill me?"
"You're making an awful lot of assumptions here."
"Hah." She blurted out an annoyed laugh. "I know your type, magic or not. You see me as beneath you and still come here wanting something." She eyed me up and down. "Silver spoon in your mouth, never having to want for anything and I'm just a damn prostitute."
She might not be the sanest at the moment. Well, her whole world had probably been turned upside down and she's just lashing out for the moment. I usually would be a bit understanding, but I was a little annoyed by her accusations. "My mother was a prostitute, and I hold no shame towards that." I said dryly, breaking her from that little triad she was going on. "I would ask that you stop making assumptions about my life. It's understandable that you're on edge, having entered this world recently. But if you continue as you are, you're going to get yourself killed."
"Don't threaten mommy." The Assassin practically exploded with killing intent directed on me.
I turned to her and let my Magical Energy leak out to match her, not backing down from her gaze. "I am not scared of you, Assassin. Even without my own Servant here, I would be confident in dealing with you." I made sure to make my stance known. "I'm here as a courtesy and if I had wanted to bring harm to your Master, she would not be alive right now."
"Jackie." Her Master put a hand on her Servant. "Let's hear him out."
"Okay Mommy." The assassin smiled brightly, like that little incident didn't happen.
I let out a sigh, atleast we're just talking. "If you had killed innocents, we wouldn't be having a discussion." I made sure to reveal just how much rope they were about to hang themselves with.
"You people care about 'innocents?" The Master asked with skepticism.
"Your information probably came entirely from your Servant and your experience with the one who tried to summon her. No doubt it's flawed and full of holes." I rubbed my eyes. "It's a good assumption to make that all Magi are people you don't want to cross and will do unspeakable things in the name of their research." I began explaining. "But not all of them are like that, but err on the side of caution."
"Now." I went back on topic. "The way I see it, you have three realistic options available to you on how you want to proceed with this War."
"Three options?" She repeated.
I nodded. "First, you simply fight by yourself, you and your Servant against 11 others. One having been killed so far."
"The Second." I continued. "Is you ally with someone. But at the end of the day, you're still going to have to fight until one Servant remains for the Wish.
"Third." I punctuated one last time. "I can offer you a way out of this war."
"Wilhelm." Ruler turned to me. "I hope you aren't going to break any rules." She narrowed her eyes.
"Yup." I smiled right at her.
"Don't tell me so blatantly!" Ruler huffed. "If you try, I'll have to stop you."
Well, she couldn't do anything until I actually broke them. "You can try, penniless saintess." I laughed, turning back to Assassin's master. "You can ignore me and I'll leave. But then you have to deal with Ruler and she won't let you go around killing people anymore to support your Servant."
Assassin's Master looked at me again, uncertainty clear on her face. "Do I have to fight?" She asked.
"No." I shook my head. "Sitting here, doing nothing is also an option. But the others will come eventually. The War won't end unless there is one servant remaining for the Wish." I sighed, seeing the contemplative look she had. "What are you even trying to do here? Do you want a wish?"
"I just want to live with Jackie." She said quietly. "I never cared before, always going through life with detachment. For the first time, when that Magus tried to kill me I thought – 'I want to live' and Jackie here saved me."
"Mommy." The Assassin reached for her Master with a hug.
The Master smiled, hugging her back. "If we fought, do you think we could win?"
"Not a chance." I was blunt.
She started to laugh, rubbing Assassins' head. "Then what will you do with me, if I take my 'out'?"
"I'll win the Grail, and can bring you two away so you won't have to deal with any of this again. If you want a quiet life somewhere, I can arrange that. If you want to start over completely....I can do that as well." It didn't seem like she had any attachments here, so bringing them to another world, away from all of this might be in their best interest.
"I thought you said only one Servant can remain. Are you going to kill my Jackie?" She looked at me darkly.
"That's for other people." I smiled. "My Grandfather helped create the Grail. I know a few things around such limitations. I can only ask that you trust me not to harm you in the end." I shrugged. There wasn't much else I could do.
"Trust?" She laughed. "It's basically blackmail."
"That's true." I nodded. "But at least it's not malicious."
"I can put more faith in you wanting less competition than actually wanting to help someone like me." She let out a long sigh. "What do we have to lose?"
"I never did ask your name." I stated.
"Reika Rikudou," She said bluntly.
"So you are Japanese as well." I muttered. "Wilhelm Henry Schweinorg." I introduced myself. "My family name has some weight in the Magus Community, if you run into any issues in the immediate time frame feel free to use it."
I took out a few Dust Crystal from my ring and set them on the table. "A peace offering, and something to set you at ease for now."
"What are these?" She reached over without hesitation and picked one up. I twitched involuntarily before I remembered she wasn't a Magus and lacked the same survival instincts to the unknown.
"Crystallized Magical Energy, your Servant should be able to run on them for awhile, so please don't go killing, otherwise other people won't sit still regardless of my input." I replied.
She set it down, probably not completely understanding except that it would be good for her Assassin. "Why?" She finally asked.
"Why what?"
"Why are you being so...helpful. I'm nobody." She looked down. "You said you don't care about Jackie, so why are you even going through the effort when no one else ever has?"
"You didn't ask for this." It really wasn't fair to her. "Is it hard to believe I can sympathize with you?" Maybe more that I should, I knew I was drawing parallels to my own upbringing, but I couldn't help it.
I turned to Ruler. "Do you have anything to add?"
She shook her head. "If it happens again, I will return, but I am content for now."
{Raikou?"} I asked through our link.
{I have nothing to say, Master. I do not believe it is wise to let this thing remain...but I am conflicted. As a mother, I wish this woman to have the same happiness that I do.}
Well, she was rationalizing it somehow. As long as she doesn't react violently, I'll leave it alone for now. "I'll come around when everything is settled." I said towards Reika.
The Assassin walked over, tugging on my sleeve. She looked up, smiling cutely. "If you lied to mommy, we'll cut you open and pull out your insides."
.....Well okay then.
***
The day before the final night is wrapping up. I should have the fighting settled by the end of this weekend over on my pat.reon.
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