I don't know, what did I do wrong last night? Did I drool on Irisviel's body or something while I was asleep?
Before I can even manage to fully get up she is already carrying my body and softly telling me to wake up.
She brings me straight to the bathroom and washes my face carefully, and she even brushes my teeth herself while I am still completely groggy from sleep.
After that we go back to the bedroom where my normal clothes from yesterday are still wet after being washed, at least until Saber steps up and uses her wind to immediately dry the fabric in seconds.
They help change my clothes and then we finally walk out of the castle, making our way through the dense forest while I am still being comfortably carried in Irisviel's arms.
Thankfully during all of this we didn't run into Kiritsugu or his assistant anywhere.
If I remember the plot correctly they are currently out hunting Lancer's Master right now after the heavy injuries Kiritsugu gave him last night.
As we are walking down the dirt pathway, Saber suddenly stops in her tracks and stares intently toward a specific direction deep in the woods.
"Weird..." Saber mutters quietly while her eyes carefully scan the quiet trees.
"What's wrong Saber?" Irisviel asks as she halts her steps.
"The residual mana in the air over there feels distorted" Saber explains while keeping a tight, defensive grip on her invisible sword.
"Should we go check what happened over there?" Irisviel asks with a slightly worried tone.
Saber immediately shakes her head and steps closer to us. "No, I would normally go investigate the source of this lingering magecraft, but my top priority right now is staying right here to protect both of you"
"I'm afraid of a repeat of last night when we thought the castle was safe but Assassin still managed to infiltrate and almost kidnapped Reina" Saber adds.
That really shouldn't happen again though, mainly because Assassin already died after being killed by Rider.
I actually didn't sense anything in the air like Saber did. I know her instincts are incredibly sharp, so it's normal that I didn't feel a single thing.
My real problem right now is a different one entirely.
"Where are we going??" I ask.
"It's a secret~" Irisviel replies with a playful smile.
And so we just keep walking until we finally get out of the forest to where the car is parked.
At least during this entire trip I don't need to walk, since she has been comfortably carrying me ever since I woke up.
That is exactly what I thought a few hours ago before we arrived at the mall... and now I am officially trapped.
I mean, I know from the anime that Irisviel loves modern shopping, but experiencing it firsthand is a complete nightmare.
"Saber helppp" I cry out desperately while stretching my right arm toward her, begging for salvation.
My other hand is securely locked in Irisviel's firm grip as she cheerfully drags me toward yet another brightly lit boutique.
"Hang in there Reina" Saber replies with a surprisingly sympathetic nod, though she can't actually do anything to save me because both of her arms are already buried under dozens of heavy shopping bags.
Saber looks more like a heavily burdened pack mule right now than a legendary hero, carefully balancing boxes of shoes and colorful paper bags so they don't hit the floor.
Meanwhile, I am being forced to play the role of a living dress-up doll.
The moment we step into a new store, Irisviel immediately grabs five different outfits and shoves me straight into the fitting room.
I don't even have time to catch my breath before she hands me the next pile of clothes.
"How about this one~ It makes you look so adorable Reina~" Irisviel chimes happily as she pulls the curtain back to inspect the results.
"It's great" I reply exhaustedly while staring at my reflection in the mirror.
I am currently wearing a bright pink dress with way too many frilly ruffles and a massive ribbon tied around my waist.
Even with my physical appearance as an eight-year-old, having thirty years of adult memories from my previous life makes it incredibly embarrassing to stand here wearing something this overwhelmingly cute and fluffy.
"Hmm, the color is nice but maybe we should try the blue one next~ Oh wait, we still need to find matching shoes for the skirts we bought at the last store!" Irisviel declares brightly before dragging me out of the fitting room again.
We move from store to store in a dizzying blur.
Every time I think we are finally done, Irisviel's eyes catch sight of another cute display window and the cycle begins all over again.
I am completely drained, and based on the stiff expression on Saber's face as she carries our growing mountain of purchases, she is starting to realize that surviving a Holy Grail War might be easier than surviving a trip to the mall with Irisviel.
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"I'm so dead, please Void switch with me!" I mentally cry out in defeat.
"Really? You want me to take over? I don't mind but are you sure?" Void's tone echoes in my mind full of teasing since she already explained to me before why she never actually takes over.
"No I was just joking, I don't want the universe chasing after me" I quickly reply because I remember Lady Ava explaining to me about Alaya and Gaia and how scary they are when they actually do their jobs.
'When' is the keyword there since they rarely ever do their jobs anyway, at least that is what Lady Ava told me.
It isn't until an entire hour later that Saber and I are finally free and can rest on the bench while Irisviel goes to buy something to drink for us.
"Hahh hahh I will never go shopping with Irisviel ever again..." I say while completely running out of breath.
"I understand that, during the first day of the Holy Grail War Irisviel also brought me here and spent two hours trying to find an outfit" Saber says as she sits down right beside me.
"But I must say, those clothes look really good and cute on you" she adds with a small smile.
"Stop it..." I grumble while looking down at the clothes I am forced to wear because this outfit simply stands out way too much.
During our entire shopping journey other people and even little kids kept stopping to look at me and whispering about how cute I am, which is incredibly embarrassing for someone with my actual mental age.
It is kinda weird with just the two of us sitting here since this is technically the very first time I am alone with Saber, because last night in the forest Lancer was there the whole time so it didn't really count.
"Hey Reina, there is something I want to ask" Saber suddenly asks me while I am still leaning heavily against the backrest of the bench.
"Yes?" I reply while tilting my head.
"Do... Do you... know about someone named Merlin?" Saber initially seems hesitant to ask me something but it turns out she is just asking about a person named Merlin.
The problem is that I honestly don't know who Merlin is so I just look at her in confusion.
"Merlin? Who is that? Do you have maybe a physical description of this Merlin or something?" I ask.
"Umm visually he is quite striking though he uses it entirely to his advantage, as he has long shimmering silver hair and purple eyes that always seem to be mocking you" Saber explains before letting out a small sigh.
"He wears elaborate white and lavender robes, and for reasons known only to his own vanity illusionary flowers bloom at his feet wherever he walks" she continues.
During the first half of that description I really have no idea who Saber is talking about, but after hearing the later half about the white robes and the illusionary flowers I immediately point my mind to one specific person.
"With that description are you talking about Lady Avalon?" I ask in realization.
"Lady... Avalon? No Reina you must have misheard me because Avalon is a utopian island of fairies and not a person" Saber immediately corrects me with a serious frown.
"And Merlin is unfortunately very much a man, and a deeply irritating man at that" she adds with a hint of annoyance in her voice.
"Utopian island? Ohh you are talking about the Garden of Avalon right?" I reply easily.
"You know about that!?" Saber asks in pure shock.
"Uhh yeah I often go there every night" I answer casually.
"You... you go there? Reina do you comprehend what you are saying because the Garden of Avalon is a utopian realm detached from the boundaries of human history!" Saber yells out in disbelief while her face looks so incredibly funny right now that I am trying really hard not to laugh directly at her.
Then she suddenly realizes that because of her loud yell everyone around us is now looking at our bench, probably wondering why a grown woman is screaming at a little kid like me.
"Cough, sorry about that" Saber mutters with a fake cough to compose herself, awkwardly waiting until the bystanders stop staring and finally continue on with their own business.
"Well for your information I don't really go to that place physically, because I actually go there through my dreams where the garden simply manifests in my mind instead of me traveling there directly" I explain to clear up her confusion.
"Yes that is exactly how Merlin usually did things back during my teachings to become a king" Saber adds thoughtfully.
"But my teacher is definitely not Merlin since her name is Lady Avalon, and I have never even heard of Merlin's name in the first place" I reply.
"I see so her name really is Lady Avalon, though unfortunately I don't think I ever met someone with that name before... Are you sure that this woman didn't just use an elaborate illusion to hide her actual gender?" Saber asks with narrowed eyes as she clearly still suspects her old teacher is behind this.
"No of course not, I have been her student for three whole years now so I definitely would know if she used some kind of magecraft to mask her appearance" I answer confidently, especially since my Mystic Eyes of Death Perception can easily see the fragile lines on any active magecraft.
"I see, I am still quite curious about this Lady Avalon but I think that is enough for now" Saber finally concedes with a small nod, and since our brief conversation only lasted a minute or two we quickly fall right back into a silence.
"Hey Saber do you mind if I ask a question this time" I ask because there is actually something I noticed from what she said earlier and from when I watched the anime that I am really curious about too.
"I don't mind since you already answered my question earlier... Even though that is just leaving me with more questions, but for now yes you can ask" Saber replies softly.
"Earlier you mentioned something about your teaching to become a king right?" I ask while looking up at her sitting beside me.
"Yes I did, what about it?" Saber replies while looking back at me with a slightly curious expression.
"Well I am just wondering what kind of king you were and what exactly you did during your reign" I explain honestly because I actually don't know much about her deep past since my previous life's knowledge is really just from that Fate Zero anime.
Saber seems to be surprised hearing my question as I can see her eyes widening just a little bit, and she stays silent for a long moment with her eyes dropping to the ground as she watches the people walking past our bench and takes her time to carefully gather her thoughts.
"You answered my questions about Lady Avalon with complete honesty so it is only fair that I repay that trust" Saber finally says with a heavy sigh as she leans back against the wooden backrest.
"I was a king who dedicated my entire existence to protecting my country from foreign invaders and ending the constant wars that plagued my land" she explains with a distant look in her eyes as if she is remembering her past battles.
"I believed that a king must be entirely fair and objective to lead properly, so I discarded my own human emotions and ruled purely through cold logic where any knight or citizen who broke the law was punished without a single shred of mercy" she adds while clenching her hands tightly into fists resting on her lap.
"During the brutal war against the Saxons our land was completely impoverished, so I sent small forces of my knights into our own villages to take their food and supplies to feed my main army, fully knowing that I was starving my own people to death just to ensure our survival" Saber continues as her voice trembles slightly with heavy guilt.
"Because of those cold sacrifices we managed to crush the Saxon forces so severely that it actually secured a peaceful era for Britain that lasted for twenty years, but even though the external threat was gone the internal trauma and the fear of my ruthless methods lingered deeply among my subjects" she explains with a heavy sigh.
"My people could never forget how I committed those cruel acts without showing a single tear or any sign of weakness, so they eventually began to fear me and my own knights truly believed that their king did not understand human hearts at all" Saber finishes quietly with a deeply painful look flashing across her eyes.
"Huh?" I accidentally let out a completely dumbfounded sound as I just stare blankly at her face.
Not gonna lie I was genuinely expecting to hear an epic story about a heroic king that sounded like something straight out of a fantasy novel or a manhwa I used to read, and definitely not a literal dark story about starving innocent people just to win a war.
But looking at her deeply pained expression while she is telling me all of this and noticing how tightly she is clenching her hands into fists, I can instantly tell that she truly and deeply regrets the ruthless way she ruled her kingdom.