“See? When we walk, we don’t get shot at.”

I’m not actually angry. The arrow broke the field, but we landed safely, none of us got hurt, and luckily, the street we landed on was empty. Changer assured me that his invisibility spell, or whatever it was, lasted till we landed, so no one should have seen us in the air, either.

All’s well that ends well, as they say. In the end, we watched that fight, gathered some information, and despite getting surprise attacked in the middle of the day, we didn’t really lose anything.

It worked well for us. There is no reason to scold Changer for too long.

“You are right, master. I apologize.”

Besides, when he looks at me like that and apologizes, I feel cruel.

When we got shot down, Changer and Sakura’s servant helped us land safely. Then, after a weird silence, we simply decided to walk the rest of the way. Now, we are back at my house.

“Can you use that again?”

Sakura’s servant asks Changer. Of course, they came with us too. That was the original plan, after all.

I momentarily see a glint in Changer’s eyes.

“If you’d like another ride, sure.”

“I wou-”

Sakura’s servant stops. It seems she decided not to say it.

“You liked it? Never flown before?”

Changer pushes forward.

“I…” a little pause. “I did. I love flying. And I love riding.” Her voice gets more and more excited. “But I love having my foot on the ground, ready to react whatever happens. That thing combined all of those! I lov…”

She realizes she said too much and stops.

“It was an enjoyable experience.”

Yeah, we gathered that.

“If you like, we can always go for a ride again. Alone. Somewhere we won’t be rudely interrupted by a passing Heracles.”

He is openly flirting with another servant. Men are like that, I suppose. Still, when I see him like that, I am reminded of a certain obnoxious person from school. A boy that has the same surname Sakura does.

And reminding people of Shinji is not nice.

I let out a deep sigh and make sure Changer notices this.

                *                             *                             *

“All right then, let’s start with what we know of enemies.”

I made tea for Sakura and myself, and now, we are in my living room. The servants are sitting on chairs by the table. Sakura’s servant initially looked like she would be fine standing up, in spirit form, but Changer acted all gentlemanly by holding a chair for her to sit, and she went with the flow.

I won’t be commenting any more about this.

“Mr. Sten is the Archer, right?”

“That is-”

“I am. I am Archer, and Archer is me. That servant we assume to be Heracles must be of some other class.”

I’ve been summoned in place of the archer class, master. Sorry for not telling before. I’ll explain when we are alone.

Wow. He sent me a telepathic message and spoke out loud practically simultaneously. I have no idea how he did that. I had a lot of trouble just understanding both.

But he got summoned in place of the archer class? Why didn’t he tell me about that? I just assumed… I actually didn’t really think about it. The story he told me about the reason for him being Changer sounded reasonable, so I just left it at that. Come to think about it, he can’t be an eight servant, so obviously he took the place of one of the base classes, right? And since one of his classes is archer…

“But, how can that be?”

“What is it, Sakura?”

“Well, Mr. Sten being Caster would be fitting, but if he is Archer, there is something wrong.”

Really?

“What is wrong?”

“You see, sister, every servant we saw today talked and seemed sane.”

“So, we haven’t seen Berserker yet.”

“Exactly. We saw three servants today. We already know Rider and Archer, and none of them was a berserker, so that leaves Saber, Lancer, Caster and Assassin. Do you see the problem?”

“What problem? None of them looked like Caster, but other three… If we say that the ones that fought were Lancer and Saber, that leaves Assassin. Sure, Heracles being an assassin is unexpected, but it is not unreasonable. He was supposedly very skilled. Who knows? Maybe he qualifies as an assassin.”

“What are you saying, sister? Only Hassan-i Sabbah can be Assassin.”

“What?”

“Grandpa said so. He said that, as the founder of the Hashashin, which in time turned to the word ‘assassin’, Hassan-i Sabbah is the only one that can be called to the assassin class, and apparently, that’s what happened in all previous grail wars.”

Really? Then, what, one of the servants we saw was Berserker or Caster? That is…

“Are you sure? Could it be that your grandfather was wrong? I can’t see any of the servants we saw as either a berserker or a caster. Or as Hassan-i Sabbah for that matter.”

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

“Yes, me neither. That is why I assumed Mr. Sten was Caster.”

Both of us look at Changer. He sits there, really calm.

I didn’t lie to you master. There can be no other Archer.

 I can’t really figure this out. We simply lack information.

“Then, it’s simple. One of those servants simply is not what he seems. We can’t really go further without knowing more.”

“You may be right, sister.”

There is a brief silence. I think a bit more, hoping I’ll realize something I previously missed.

It doesn’t happen. So I ask:

“Sakura, do you have any clues about the identities of any others?”

She’s been speaking clearly since we arrived here. Maybe, being in her old home, once again, had some effect on her mentality. It might be that she feels more at home, and therefore is calmer.

“I might have.”

“Really? About which one?”

“Well, not actually about a specific one. It’s just about something that happened before the war started; it might be important.”

“What happened?”

“You remember Uncle Kariya, sister?”

Uncle Kariya. Mixed feelings surface within me when I hear that name. I remember the fun times we had when we were little. Back when Sakura was still with me. Uncle Kariya would bring presents to us every time he visited. He was a kind man, and was like a real uncle to us.

Then he entered the previous Holy Grail War as an enemy of father. Kirei said that he was the one responsible for father’s death, and even mother’s condition.

I should feel hate, but hating someone that I remember fondly and that already died because of the words of an untrustworthy fake priest is hard.

“Yes, I remember.”

“Do you know that he was the Matou master in the previous Holy Grail War?

“Yes, I heard from Kirei.”

“The thing is, grandpa said that the relic from the last war that Uncle Kariya used was, well, stolen a short time ago. We don’t know who did it. But I think it would be safe to assume another master is responsible.”

“The relic was stolen?”

I instinctively turn to Rider. Well, the Matous didn’t win the last war. I guess trying another servant is understandable. Then, they found another relic to summon Rider? Damn, I didn’t have even one.

“Yes. We had assumed that the master responsible would use it to summon the servant, but none of the ones we’ve seen really looks like him.”

“Him? Whose relic was it? What was it?”

“I don’t actually know what exactly the relic was, but it was connected to the Knight Lancelot from the round table of King Arthur.”

What!?

I immediately turn to Changer. I think, for half a second there, he looked shocked, but it is quickly replaced by his usual calm expression. Then his head, still with his usual expression, slowly turns to me.

Was it you?

!!!!!!!!

I can’t even think properly. That was killing instinct. I’ve only felt such killing instinct near the end of that fight on top of the central building, when Lancer prepared to use his Noble Phantasm. But this time, it was far too sudden and far too concentrated. I feel a sudden surge of fear taking me captive.

“N-No.” I can barely squeeze out an answer.

Our eyes are locked. I hear someone saying something but it doesn’t register. Finally, after a few seconds that felt like a whole life, I am released.

Okay.

Changer turns away. His killing instinct vanishes completely, as if it was never even there.

“I win, master.”

He smiles broadly while looking at the other two.

“We had made a random bet, you see. I had guessed that someone had summoned a knight from the round table in the last war. What can I say? I am very lucky.”

He turns to me. He has his smile on. Those few seconds only feel like some bad dream now, but I can still feel the fear.

“I want that tea by tonight, master.”

Tea? Right, an explanation. I should- I should play along.

“He-heh! Very well. Never thought you’d guess it right.”

I turn to Sakura again, all ready and willing to leave this behind.

“Anyway, about that relic…”

Sakura glances at Changer before continuing.

“Yes, about that. Ehm, I was expecting Sir Lancelot to appear as Saber, but none of the servants we saw looked like him.”

“Yes, none of them was Lancelot.”

Changer comments. All of us turn to him.

“None of those wore plate mail, and that is what you’d expect of any middle age knight, right?”

Sakura continues:

“Yes, you are right. Although, come to think of it, I just assumed he’d be Saber. But grandpa said, in the previous war, he was summoned as Berserker. Maybe this time too.”

“Sir Lancelot, as Berserker? Then, there is still a chance that he was summoned?”

The broadest grin I have ever seen appears on his face. It is-it is creepy.

“I’d very much like to meet him.”