The clash between [Martha] and Martha had already dragged the sky into dusk.
By now Adam and the others had covered more than half the remaining distance to the city where the three Servants waited.
Night had fallen completely.
They stood in the middle of a dense forest. In this era the only light came from the moon and stars above, but the thick canopy swallowed every ray, turning the woods into an inky blackness where you couldn't see your own hand in front of your face.
Pushing on wasn't smart.
Especially because…
Adam glanced sideways at Fujimaru Ritsuka.
Her stomach had already started sending out loud, hungry protests.
"I'm starving, Mash… I want your red-bean buns," she whined, voice weak, legs clearly done with walking.
Back at Chaldea, Olga Marie heard the complaint and quietly licked a smear of red-bean paste from the corner of her mouth.
Watching Ritsuka's misery, Adam rubbed his own stomach. He was hungry too.
Ever since they'd arrived in this Singularity, they'd done nothing but march—one foot in front of the other, all day long—with almost nothing to eat and barely any water.
It was definitely time to rest.
"Let's stop here for a bit," he said.
"Finally~" Ritsuka sighed in relief.
The group settled down right where they stood.
Fujimaru Ritsuka and Mash dug into the boxed meals Chaldea had sent over.
[Mash] pulled out the lunch she had carefully prepared earlier and shared it with Adam.
Mash watched the whole thing, then quickly jotted something down in her notebook.
Unfortunately, this was Chaldea's first time transferring food, so they had only sent the meals and completely forgotten the water. The next transfer was still on cooldown.
Ritsuka, eating too fast, promptly choked.
"Anyone thirsty? I'll go fetch some water," Mozart offered, noticing the problem.
Adam looked at Mozart, then at the pitch-black forest and the occasional distant roars of monsters. He also glanced at Metatron Jeanne on his back—she had already dozed off and was muttering in her sleep.
"Hehe… Master-seasoned potato chips really are the best…"
Whatever she was dreaming about, counting on her to clear out the monsters was probably a lost cause.
Adam turned back to Mozart. "Going alone isn't safe. Take someone with you."
Mozart thought it over and nodded. "Good point. Anyone want to come grab water with me?"
"I'll go with you, Mr. Mozart," Mash volunteered at once, still worried about how fast Ritsuka had been eating.
"Stay safe~" Marie waved cheerfully as the pair headed off.
After they left, Marie, Ritsuka, and Jeanne fell into easy conversation about modern things.
"Ritsuka, I still can't get the pronunciation right on that greeting you taught me," Marie said.
"It's such a shame—it's super cute."
She tried to remember the phrase Ritsuka had shown her: Ciallo～(∠?ω<)⌒★
"Yeah, where did that greeting even come from?" Jeanne asked, scratching her head. "I heard it once and now I can't get it out of my mind."
Ritsuka just gave them a mysterious little smile.
"That line comes from the greatest genre of games in the future."
Jeanne and Marie's eyes lit up with instant curiosity.
"The greatest genre?"
Seeing she had them hooked, Ritsuka grinned. "It's called gacha!"
"I'm telling you, I'm a total gacha god."
...
Adam, who had overheard everything: "..."
Ritsuka really had ascended to a higher plane—close to the divine, far from humanity.
He took another bite of [Mash]'s lunch, then glanced over at Kriemhild and Siegfried.
Siegfried's injuries had mostly healed thanks to [Martha]'s treatment. Adam had maxed out every Servant skill, after all.
Siegfried stepped forward and bowed deeply.
"I heard from [Martha] that your goal is to restore the Human Order. I am currently a Masterless Servant. If you'll have me, please allow me to serve as your Servant."
His tone was solemn and sincere; he clearly hoped Adam would accept.
From Adam's angle he had a perfect view of the glowing light on Siegfried's chest, which momentarily distracted him. (It really was the light on his chest, not anything else.)
Kriemhild stood nearby, biting the edge of her handkerchief with clear dissatisfaction, staring at Siegfried and her Master while her mind spun with who-knew-what thoughts. She said nothing, just kept glaring.
"Why do you keep staring at me?" Siegfried asked, confused and strangely uneasy.
Kriemhild didn't answer. She simply continued staring.
Yeah… these two were getting along great (totally).
Adam then looked toward Swimsuit Jeanne Alter and [Martha].
[Martha] had been chatting with the swimsuit Berserker; now she burst out laughing.
"Hahaha, so that's it—you can't even look at your past self anymore?"
"That won't do. You're going to regret it later, you know. That version of you was way too embarrassing…"
She patted Swimsuit Jeanne Alter's shoulder with a grin.
The swimsuit Berserker just turned bright red and couldn't find a single word to say.
Same old daily life as back at Chaldea…
[Mash] chewed her meal, still thinking about the city they had left behind. She turned to Adam with a hint of worry.
"Senpai, was it really okay to leave that city? What if Jeanne Alter goes back and starts destroying it again?"
Adam glanced at the swimsuit Jeanne Alter beside him and shook his head gently.
"Don't worry, [Mash]. No one knows Jeanne Alter better than I do."
"I was actually planning to leave a strong Servant behind to guard the place…"
"But now there's no need. She won't be returning to that city."
[Mash] blinked. "Huh? Why not?"
——————————
At the same time.
Jeanne Alter had ridden Fafnir back to the city where Adam had first found Siegfried.
Martha's Spirit Origin signature had vanished exactly here.
Looking at the battlefield scars all around, Jeanne Alter confirmed that Martha had run into Adam's group.
If the signature was gone, Martha was most likely finished.
"Tch. That idiot who went off on her own."
Jeanne Alter's expression was sour. Losing a combatant before the real fight had even started was not a good sign.
Still, she didn't dwell on it. Even without one Servant she still had six. If necessary she could just summon another.
The tracks around them, however, weren't enough to tell which way Adam's party had gone.
In other words, they had lost the trail.
It was night now. During the day they could scout from the air, but right now everything was pitch black.
While Jeanne Alter frowned over the problem, Carmilla's eyes began to gleam with a faint golden light. Nighttime always stirred something in the vampire.
She was far more excited after dark, and her thirst for virgin blood had grown almost unbearable.
"Master, searching at night will be twice as difficult. Since your goal is to destroy France, perhaps we should change our approach."
"Why don't we head back to the city you originally targeted?"
"Those troublesome people have already left. We could simply return and carry out the original plan—wipe out every last person there…"
"No."
Jeanne Alter cut her off sharply.
Carmilla flinched, then looked at her in confusion. "Why? Isn't this the perfect time to massacre the city?"
Jeanne Alter was becoming harder and harder for her to understand.
In Jeanne Alter's mind, the image of a certain girl named Isabel flashed by, stirring up complicated feelings. A flicker of hesitation crossed her face before vanishing.
She turned to the Servants behind her and gave a firm order.
"Cancel all city-destruction plans for now. Our priority is finding the enemy."
Carmilla was even more puzzled. "But Master, aren't you eliminating the enemy precisely to destroy France faster?"
"It's nighttime. We might spend the whole night without picking up their trail."
"Since they're no longer in that city, why don't we just—"
Jeanne Alter shot her a glare sharp enough to cut. "I said we find the enemy first. Are you deaf?"
"…Understood, Master."
Carmilla lowered her head after a brief silence and obeyed.
Jeanne Alter turned away so none of them could see the confusion in her eyes.
She refused to admit it, but something inside her was quietly shifting.
——————————
Adam finished the lunch [Mash] had given him and noticed that Mash and Mozart still hadn't returned. Their spots were empty.
"Why aren't Mash and Mozart back yet?"
[Mash] looked up, then suddenly stood. "Senpai, if I remember right, they should be running into some trouble right about now. I'll go help."
"Go ahead, [Mash]."
After she left, Adam figured any trouble over there was already solved. There was nothing a single Human Order Correction Cannon couldn't fix—and if there was, a second shot would do the trick.
Of course, the "trouble" [Mash] meant wasn't purely physical. A lot of it was emotional.
Meanwhile Adam opened his system and smiled at the twenty-thousand-plus Emotion Points he had saved up. Time to open the Emotion Summon pool.
Twenty thousand points was a fortune compared to before.
He used to do ten-pulls at a time. Now he was feeling bold—he went straight for a hundred-pull.
There was no way a hundred-pull wouldn't give him something good!
At the very least he should get a five-star Craft Essence, right?
Even two four-stars would be acceptable.
Adam tapped the hundred-pull button with high hopes.
A hundred glowing orbs appeared, spinning into a shining ring that spun faster and faster before collapsing inward, then exploding outward again into a hundred points of light.
One orb drifted to the center and revealed itself.
[Bronze Apple]
The next one followed.
[Bronze Apple]
"Ugh, this is taking forever." Impatient, Adam hit skip and jumped straight to the results screen.
[Golden Apple ×8]
[Silver Apple ×13]
[Bronze Apple ×34]
[1-Star Craft Essence ×30]
[2-Star Craft Essence ×12]
[3-Star Craft Essence ×3]
Adam: "..."
Where were his four-star and five-star Craft Essences?
A hundred-pull and not a single four-star or five-star?!!
You've got to be kidding me!
He checked his remaining Emotion Points.
Emotion Points – 5,620
Back to square one. What the hell had he even pulled?
No, impossible. His luck couldn't be that bad—he had pulled a five-star before!
He still didn't know what that five-star did, but a five-star was a five-star!
Adam was starting to get fired up. He refused to believe he couldn't pull a four- or five-star.
He would save up again and do another hundred-pull!
The only problem was that his freshly saved points were almost gone. He needed to gather more Emotion Points.
Let's see… who in the party could use a little… care?
Just as he was thinking that, a cheerful voice reached his ear.
"Ciallo～(∠?ω<)⌒★"
Adam slowly turned his gaze toward Marie Antoinette, who was still chatting happily with Ritsuka and the others.
The corner of his mouth curled upward.
He opened his Servant list, scrolled through it, and stopped on one name.
Marie Antoinette (Alter)
***
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