Fate in Denial (Patreon)
Content
Chapter 51
~~~~~~While Back~~~~~~
Waver Velvet's life wasn't the easiest. After coming back from Holy Grail War he ended up being part of the Nobles Faction even though he was nowhere near being a 'noble'.
His reason?
Kayneth El-Melloi Archibald
After the war, he was pulled aside for a 'talk'.
If not for Ren Ashwell his life would have ended long ago, or he would have been expelled. But the True Magic User spared his life and now he was the lackey of Lord Archibald.
"Mr Velvet, can you take this pile of documents to the library?" The blonde man asked with a barely hidden sneer. There was a massive pile of random stuff.
A sigh escaped from Waver's mouth as he just knew Kayneth did this randomly!
"Understood, Lord El-Melloi."
"Good, we will be discussing further objectives when you return. As you may know, I am a busy man, running Noble Faction for Lord Ashwell is a tall but honourable task." The man said with a proud tone.
'You mean you are his lackey?'
Waver was quite amused by the fact that someone his age is bossing around this proud magus from an ancient family.
After spending close to an hour carrying books, documents and other things the young Magus was back with Lord El-Melloi.
"Good, we will be seeing Lord Ashwell, he has some assignments for us."
The ex-Master of Rider nodded, as the pair proceeded to visit him.
~~~
"You know, time is a fascinating thing. You throw a rock in one direction and someone could pick it up thousands of years later and could use it to kill some warlord.
Just seeing that makes one see the world differently." Ren Ashwell said that as he was looking through the window into the road below.
'He can see time!? I thought he knew Denial of Nothingness!' Waver was caught by surprise.
"Does this mean you have something in mind? Small objectives which would impact the future in some way?" Kayneth said with a thoughtful tone. The Magus was not surprised to hear that Ren Ashwell can see the time.
"Exactly, Professor. I have a few simple objectives which I want you two to do. It's nothing major."
At that moment the Sorcerer handed over the paper with tasks.
These tasks are very random.
Like buying land in Africa, buying a car in Germany and selling it in Spain, buying a TV set in Japan…
None of this made sense.
Though Lord El-Melloi didn't look bothered.
"I understand, leave this with me. Follow me, Waver Velvet, we have things to do."
~~~
Then all these small tasks and random missions ended…
"Umm…excuse me? Do you know where Lord El-Melloi is?" Waver asked passing by Magus
"Hmm? You didn't hear it? He was found dead in his office." The Magus answered simply before continuing to walk.
"!!!"
"Wait! What?"
"Yeah, they already have a meeting to decide what will happen with Archibald's Family wealth."
'T-This…this came out of nowhere!'
Sure, Waver didn't like Kayneth much, but he did respect the man, he was a genius of Magecraft and quite respected in Clock Tower.
So his death came quite as a shock.
Not knowing what to do he decided to lean against the wall and think.
Some time later someone walked over and stood in front of him.
When he lifted his eyes he saw a young girl with blonde hair and blue eyes grinning at him like a devil.
"Waver Velvet?"
"Y-Yes? And who are you?"
"Reines El-Melloi Archisorte." As the girl said she brushed her hair with one of her hands. "I am the newly elected Lord El-Melloi, Kayneth was my older brother."
"Oh…"
"Oh indeed. You have been helping my brother, so you will help me. Lord Ashwell expects things from us."
"R-Right!"
"Good, then follow me, you will brief me what you have been doing for the Wizard Marshall."
"Yes."
~~~
Sure enough, he liked it or not, Waver Velvet got roped more than ever.
Since Reines was just 11 years old, yes she was crafty and smart but still just a small girl.
This means he will be doing more than before and she will be relying on him to do certain things. Much more than Kayneth ever asked him to do.
"So…why are we going to Lord Ashwell's place?"
"I was asked to come over to receive my Servant," Raines said with quite a smug tone.
"...S-Servant!?"
"Yes, for protection purposes, since my brother was assassinated in his office."
"Makes sense. But won't that be an issue? How can one sustain a Servant without a ritual like Holy Grail War?"
"No idea. Lord Ashwell said it won't be an issue."
After the blonde girl said that she knocked on the doors.
A few seconds later the one who opened it was—
"Saber?"
"You are Rider's Master…" Saber recognised him. Though this was quite strange, as for this Saber it was a while ago, and what Waver remembers is different as he remembers her changing into the Fallen version and using two swords.
"Yes, did you change back?"
Reines looked curious, as she could see confusion in his look.
"...Change back? Oh right, no, I am Saber from a different timeline."
"...different timeline? Does this mean you are not 'Inverted' King Arthur?"
"Yes, that. Now come in Master is waiting." Opened the doors wider and let them in.
Waver looked even more baffled, does this mean he has two Sabers now? Two Kings of Knights?
Sure enough, they saw another Saber, this one was dressed in black clothes and had paler skin, paler blonde hair and yellow eyes.
"Oh, it's you, I wouldn't mind if you bring your catalyst so that we could summon Rider again, he was an interesting foe."
"You had a chance to fight him properly?" Artoria asked the darker version of herself.
"We had, Master used Lancelot as well, it was us two versus his whole army, it was the best battle of that war!" Artoria Alter said with a bright tone.
For a second Artoria could not believe that this Alter thought alongside Lancelot who was insane and wanted to kill her no matter what.
That Berserker was insane in the most literal sense.
"How did this even work? He would lose any sense of control the moment he would see me." Saber mentioned that with a frown.
"Hmm? I think it was because Master and older sister did something to him. The last time I remember he was augmented into some sort of Fae Knight. His parameters became absurd as he took on me and Lancer at the same time."
After hearing that Saber remembered how different he looked when her Master summoned him to face her with that whole Caster debacle.
"I see…sadly for me none of that happened in my war."
"Of course not. Master wasn't there, I bet it was one stale war." Saber Alter said with a bored shrug.
That moment the King of Knights had a flashback, how Lancer committed suicide, the insane Caster who summoned some sort of sea monster, Lancelot and his reveal, Banquet of Kings where she got laughed at.
"Yes. It was one…stale war."
The way this King Arthur said it didn't buy the humans who were listening to their conversation but it did work on Saber Alter who didn't care or was bad at reading lies.
"Anyway, let's go, Master is almost done with his preparations, you little girl are lucky, having Gawain as Servant should be an honour. He was one of my best knights." Alter said with a proud tone.
"Gawain? The Knight of the Sun?" Raines exclaimed with some disbelief, she didn't expect to get a Saber! One of the best! That's one of greatest Knights to ever have lived, wielder of Holy Sword Excalibur Galatine!
"The same, he was one of my best knights."
"Our best knight." Saber Alter corrected her regular version.
"Right."
The pair of King of Knights took the pair of Magus to the basement.
It was quite wide with thick walls made from bricks. The flow of powerful mana could be felt by the pair, this felt like a workshop of a Magus. In this case workshop of a Sorcerer and an actual Dark Witch.
"You two are here, great, come over."
Ren Ashwell motioned for them to walk over.
"Morgan and I were working on a formula for how to help you have a Servant without worrying about upkeep. In the end, we decided to access Heaven's Feel via Holy Grail."
Just mentioning Holy Grail and Heaven's Feel made the pair gulp.
"Right so, Reines stand here." He motioned for the blonde girl to stand next to him.
The moment she did he lifted his hand and with blinding golden light the Holy Grail appeared above his palm.
"Show me your dominant hand's back."
"O-Okay."
The moment she did the Holy Grail moved and spilled its content on her hand. It was a drop of blood but it had a golden glow to it.
Upon contact with her hand, there was a glow and it turned into a tattoo, a command seal.
"This is a special edition of command seals, there are three of them, and they are linked with Heaven's Feel. As long as you have them you don't need to worry about upkeep for your Servant, it will be kept in optimal condition, in truth if you want you can channel your mana to buff your knight even more.
Though the downside is the moment you use all of them you will lose support from Heaven's Feel and the blunt support for the Servant will fall on you."
"I-I see, I will keep that in mind."
"The bright side is that you will regain those seals as long as you have at least one."
This made her feel relieved.
"Now time for the summoning."
As he said that he motioned with his hand and a circle simply appeared in front of them. On the ground, it was drawn from golden blood.
"Lift your hand, and make your mana flow, repeat after me."
She nodded at him.
"For this summoning Artoria will be a catalyst, so she has a chant as well."
"Right."
After doing all the prep work, the chant proceeded, the changes to it were obvious; it has no relation to the Holy Grail war or the Kaleidoscope, instead it was related to summoning and protecting.
This kind of summonings rarely works because Heroic Spirit won't just answer a call so randomly.
But, this is where Artoria comes into the play as this was the King of Knights' voice.
"Come forth Ser Gawain!"
With a burst of light in the golden circle a tall man was standing dressed in white armour, he was holding a large two-handed sword which was emitting heat.
He was quite similar to Artoria, with blue eyes and blonde hair.
Dressed in a cloak with a lion's mane.
"Servant Saber, Gawain from The Knights of Round Table has answered your summons."
The blonde introduced himself, he quickly scanned the surroundings, the moment he saw what he wanted to see, his eyes lit up as he saw his King—Kings…
"...My King—s?"
"It's good to see you Ser Gawain." Artoria was the first one to respond.
"Likewise." He then had a gaze which said 'Please explain! What is going on!?'
"This is here your Master. She is a Magus who is important to my Master." Artoria explained as she put her hands on Reines' shoulders she was standing behind her.
"Understood."
At that moment the blonde magus girl felt a contract being formed with her.
"So umm…" Once again the blonde knight looked at two Kings.
"Different timelines."
"Oh, makes sense."
This was enough for the Knight, he saw enough as a Servant to know what was going on.
"Right! Since the ritual is done, Master! Can we PLEASE have some fun now!" Saber Alter said that as she grabbed Waver for some reason.
"Fun in what way?" Ren asked curiously.
"A fight! This kid's Rider and Ser Gawain against us!" Saber Alter said as she walked over to her counterpart.
"...I suppose…"
…
…
…
Laughter spread through a desert as a massive army was matched to face two Kings.
"RIDER WHY DO I HAVE TO COME WITH YOU!!??"
For some reason, Waver once again was in the middle of all this.