While spending peaceful days at home... I felt the gaze of a crimson spearman observing the surroundings.
Artoria was there, and seeing her, Cú Chulainn spoke.
"What is that? Those massive breasts... well, it doesn't matter. Where is Caster?"
"..."
Artoria couldn't bring herself to answer.
She couldn't bring herself to say that Caster had turned into a fox and was being petted by Akira.
'Why does the embarrassing part always fall to me?'
And Artoria hadn't skipped training even after her body changed.
She was used to the bouncing chest, so it didn't matter.
"Are you Lancer?"
"Heh? You don't look like a Servant. A power close to a Servant? I don't see a weapon, but are you a Saber?"
"Why do you think that?"
"Ha, my Master said there are many surviving Servants from the previous Holy Grail War. The Master must be amazing to consume mana just to maintain their bodies, but thinking about Diarmuid, whom I fought, I could confirm that he had incarnated."
"I see... Did he die fighting? Well, he had his pride, and he's from the same origin as you. Maybe he wanted to fight and die."
"Let's get to the main point. If you hand over this Caster to our side, we won't consider you an enemy. It was my Master's order that there's no need to shed blood needlessly. The guy I fought back then clearly died fighting as a warrior..."
"I'll speak directly... but I think the answer will be no."
"Haa? Do you intend to participate in the Holy Grail War?"
"No, our Master keeps Caster as a pet..."
Meanwhile, Bazett, who was listening while drinking coffee, choked and blushed.
"Cough, cough... my ears must be wrong, right?"
『Master... I heard it clearly too... Then again, that Caster had fox ears and a tail. Maybe being a pet is possible?』
"Lancer, don't just accept what the opponent says!"
"Negotiations have broken down, then? I can consider you an enemy, right?"
"..."
Meanwhile, Artoria finished her explanation and entered the mansion.
The door was open, as if to say, "invade if you want to invade this peaceful household."
Seeing this, Lancer looked exasperated, but he recognized that the robust structure of the mansion was quite dangerous. However, he had to wait for his Master's words.
"Master, this looks like a trap. Should I go in?"
『For now, let's retreat. He's the Master who won the Holy Grail War 10 years ago and the owner of the Grail... he must have prepared considerably. It would be better to ally with other Masters and fight.』
"Right, I have no choice but to retreat this time... It's not like the opponent invited me."
『Let's retreat for today, reorganize, and then contact other Masters.』
"Ha, things are getting interesting."
And so, Lancer moved away from the mansion and began to patrol the Einzbern territory.
On the way, he saw a boy presumed to be Rider's Master and a female Servant drinking tea inside the mansion, staring intently at Lancer. Lancer felt like his eyes met with the boy, Rider's Master, for a moment.
But thinking it was just his imagination due to the sound of hammering metal with incredible concentration, he left it as just a feeling and retreated. Next, he headed to the real Einzbern mansion.
There, unlike the homunculi made by the Einzberns, was a white-haired girl with pointed ears and purple eyes, and a massive giant.
『What on earth is that?』
Lancer's Master was horrified.
Berserker had a muscular body that looked like it came out of a myth, so tough that one would wonder if Lancer's weapon could even penetrate it, and his weapon was a giant axe, making him look even more terrifying.
"Master... that Berserker is scarier than Caster. That's not an opponent I can defeat alone."
『For now, retreat...』
"■■■■■■■■■!!!!"
The giant roared.
The giant raged.
The giant wept.
It was a roar that no one could understand.
"I'm scared... Berserker."
A girl closed her eyes.
Lancer looked terrified at Berserker's unbelievable agility as he rushed towards him.
"Tch!"
Lancer pointed his spear at Berserker. He came face to face with the giant axe.
BOOM!?
"Ugh!?"
With the impact felt on his spear and a tremendous sound in the forest, Lancer crashed into a tree, breaking it.
"What a monster!?"
"By my Command Spell, I order you. Please erase the madness. Stop killing... innocent lives."
And although the Madness Enhancement wasn't completely erased, it was weakened as much as possible. Despite that, Lancer had no confidence in winning against that berserker.
"Hahaha, what is this? Even I haven't experienced this."
『Lancer! Retreat quickly!』
"It's too late... It's impossible to run away from something like that!"
It felt like his ribs were broken from the impact just now, but Cú Chulainn hadn't given up on life or survival.
Looking at the Master's disposition, it seemed she hated killing.
I wanted to see the thoughts of the family that sent such a tender-hearted child to the battlefield.
Compared to that, if penalties were applied to such a Berserker, I thought he might be manageable, but the Berserker who regained his reason was beyond what he had imagined.
Yes, what should I call that?
Strongest in martial prowess, a giant who has experienced countless battlefields...?
And Berserker picked up a long tree branch and threw it.
Lancer dodged instinctively for survival, but the accuracy was close to an arrow shot by Archer, and he had to think the power was controlled.
The branch thrown by Berserker showed power that didn't penetrate the tree.
He had the foolish thought that maybe he had become weaker in exchange for regaining his reason, but thinking about what the girl said last, he thought she was a foolish Master of the type who didn't want to kill. However, against such an opponent, if that kid hadn't been there, he would have surely become a corpse in less than 10 seconds.
"Leave."
Berserker's single word was heavy.
It happened in an instant, but Bazett couldn't even use a Command Spell, and Lancer had no choice but to click his tongue and retreat.
From Lancer's perspective, it might have been fortunate that the Master was uniquely young and participated in the Holy Grail War with a half-hearted attitude.
"Does he get stronger when he stops being a Berserker..."
Lancer admired Berserker's skill, but he was close to a living weapon that could wipe out the battlefield alone even if all Servants attacked him.
Cú Chulainn returned, reorganized, and received treatment.
"Lancer... why did Berserker's Master participate in the Holy Grail War?"
Bazett felt like her own heart was becoming strange due to the girl's tender heart.
She hates murder. She hates killing intent. It was strange to say that a girl who hated the very concept of killing participated without knowing what the Holy Grail War was.
"Did the Einzberns make a mistake?"
Bazett didn't think the Einzberns had educated her wrong.
Or maybe she didn't accept the education itself... It might be that her innate nature hated even killing.
But leaving such a Servant alone posed a significant risk to their side.
"Hmm... I need to meet the winner of the 4th Holy Grail War. But first, could you scout the other Servants?"
"Yeah, well... will I meet a Heroic Spirit similar to that monster? If there's a Servant worse than that, well... the Holy Grail War will be a mess."
At Lancer's words, Bazett sighed deeply and said with apologetic feelings:
"Once the treatment is finished, could you scout the other Servants? If the other Servants are eliminated, we'll be too weak to deal with Berserker... So please minimize combat."
"Got it. I got it... I thought I could have a good fight... but this is like a raid."
As Lancer dematerialized and disappeared.
Bazett's worries weren't just this.
'I resent the Mage's Association for sending me to the Holy Grail War. Should I just quit and run away...'
Bazett felt dizzy in both head and heart about this Holy Grail War.
Meanwhile, as Lancer went to the Archer camp, twin swords and a spear crossed each other.
"You, what Heroic Spirit are you!"
"I'm an Archer?"
"An Archer fighting in close combat! Don't give me that nonsense!"
Lancer shattered the twin swords with his spear, but as the opponent brought out new weapons, surpassing about 20, even Lancer started to get annoyed.
"Are you really an Archer? I've smashed about 20 of those damn twin swords, and you still have more."
"Hmph, that aside, judging by your beast-like agility and the red spear, you must be Cú Chulainn, the Prince of Light of Ireland."
"Now even my True Name gets seen through... Am I too famous?"
Archer scoffed, bringing Lancer's mood down.
'By the way, was the flow like this?'
Archer felt a sense of incongruity, but he had no choice but to deal with Lancer.
"Tch... you make me lose the will to fight. Anyway, this is my Master's word. She asks if we can form a temporary alliance until we defeat Berserker."
At those words, Rin said with a dumbfounded expression:
"Haa? What temporary alliance?"
"That Berserker is a monster even with his Madness Enhancement lifted."
At Lancer's words, Archer's eyes widened.
'Berserker's Madness Enhancement is lifted? Then... how is this Holy Grail War going? Damn it, I can't know with just the information I have.'
Archer already knew well about the 5th Holy Grail War, but he could tell that this Holy Grail War was significantly twisted.
'But I have someone to vent my anger on... but how is the Shirou Emiya of this world?'
Archer just started to get curious about his own self in this world.
If he's an ally of justice, he'll just kill him. If not, it doesn't matter, but depending on the situation, he might kill him or just let him live, so Archer decided to observe the situation further.
"For now, the alliance is on hold. We know nothing about the current situation. We can't just ally indiscriminately, right?"
Lancer just nodded and let out a deep sigh as if annoyed.
Conversely, Bazett also agreed with those words and wanted to meet Berserker to gain an additional ally, but since nothing was going her way in this Holy Grail War, she felt a slight stomachache coming on.
"Understood. I'll be going now. My Master gets lonely if I leave her alone~"
『Who gets lonely! Just come back so I can hit you!』
Lancer decided to return leisurely to his Master, or so he said~
And so, Lancer dematerialized and disappeared, and Archer watched the vanished Lancer with a dumbfounded expression.