KyokaSuigetsu
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Chapter 37: Laeticia
🕑 Added 2025-05-07 10:17:23 +0000 UTCIn the blink of an eye, another week had passed. There were only about seven or eight days left before the official start of the Holy Grail War. The entire city of Fuyuki remained eerily calm, but there was one thing that particularly annoyed Takashi Kuroda—leaving the Matou household through the front gate had become much more troublesome lately.
The reason? Ever since Caster's summoning, surveillance familiars had begun appearing around the Matou residence. It wasn’t that he, as a Master, had been discovered, but rather that as the war drew closer, those involved—especially the participating Masters—had already started making their moves. As one of the Three Founding Families and a local powerhouse, the Matou and Tohsaka households were naturally the first to be placed under surveillance by various factions.
Because of this, to avoid exposing himself, Takashi had no choice but to resort to alternative methods when entering or leaving the Matou residence. He had even recently instructed Ryougi Shiki to refrain from practicing her assassination techniques outside, lest the familiars notice something amiss. This had left the little girl sulking for quite some time. It wasn’t until Semiramis converted the basement into a suitable training ground for assassination techniques that Ryougi finally cheered up.
Right now, Takashi was in his study, reviewing the intelligence Kotomine Kirei had secretly passed to him, assessing the current situation. So far, the Einzbern family had already summoned the King of Knights (Saber). As for Lord El-Melloi (Kayneth), there was no news yet. For some reason, Tohsaka Tokiomi had delayed summoning the oldest tyrant (Gilgamesh), seemingly still preparing something. Matou Kariya’s catalyst had just arrived today, and he would attempt the summoning soon. As for a certain Waver Velvet—Takashi had already spotted Iskandar showing off by summoning lightning on the Fuyuki Bridge yesterday.
Based on his judgment, Kayneth should be summoning his Servant soon. Once Kariya completed his summoning, the only one left would be Tokiomi. And once all Servants were summoned, the Holy Grail War would likely begin in earnest. If he remembered correctly, according to Tohsaka Tokiomi’s plan, Kotomine Kirei would first sacrifice one of Hassan’s clones to the golden tyrant before retreating into the shadows.
To be honest, Tokiomi’s arrangement seemed useful on the surface but was ultimately ineffective. Hassan never truly fulfilled his intended role and later ended up feeding experience to Iskandar. It could only be said that Tokiomi’s strategy was far too conservative. If a Heroic Spirit like Hassan had been given to someone like Emiya Kiritsugu—a man who would stop at nothing—the Holy Grail War would probably have been over in three days.
By the way, Takashi skimmed through the tourist records of those who had arrived in Fuyuki today. It seemed neither Irisviel nor Kiritsugu—not even Kayneth—had noticed the name on the list.
"Still, there really are a lot of foreigners coming in… Guy Corey… Dules Duke… Yawn… Nothing noteworthy in the male list. Let’s check the female list. Jenny… Angela… Laeticia… Eileen… Huh?" While reading through the names, Takashi suddenly paused at one that felt strangely familiar. He immediately backtracked and stared at it again.
"Laeticia… Laeticia!? Wait, what? It can’t be that Laeticia, can it?" Takashi stood up abruptly, his mind conjuring the image of a certain golden-haired village girl.
"This… This can’t be right. Maybe it’s just a coincidence? It’s one thing to have the same name, but to appear in a place like the Holy Grail War? No, I need to investigate. Tch, I was originally planning to have Kariya summon Lancelot later. Now I’ll have to hurry and check this out first." Without hesitation, Takashi rushed off to find Semiramis, who was currently using her familiars to remodel parts of the Matou residence.
Lately, being able to slip past the surveillance of the familiars relied heavily on Semiramis’ assistance. Of course, his own silent black mist and spider-sense—which allowed him to quickly detect the positions of those familiars—were also key factors in ensuring his safe passage.
"Going out again? Didn’t you just return from gathering intel? I thought you were planning to assist that man with his Servant summoning later?" Semiramis raised an eyebrow at his urgency but still cast a spell to help Takashi evade the familiars’ gaze.
"Oh, right. I almost forgot—I’ve already gathered all the materials you listed." Takashi opened his system inventory and pulled out bundles of wood, stone, minerals, plants, and some magical ingredients.
"Take a look. Are these the right things?"
"Sniff sniff… Mmm, these are indeed materials from my homeland. With this, I’ll be able to fully invoke my Noble Phantasm once the Holy Grail War begins. Heh, once the Hanging Gardens of Babylon is complete, victory will be firmly within our grasp." Semiramis smirked confidently.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever makes you happy." Takashi internally shrugged at her declaration. If the Gardens were truly as invincible as she claimed, she wouldn’t have lost to the Black Faction in the first place.
Besides, this war had the original tyrant king. Hers was just a "vanity" replica—who knew if he’d pull out the real deal? Although Takashi was curious—could something as massive as a structure-type Noble Phantasm even fit inside the Gate of Babylon?
As for the materials, they were all obtained through his system’s gacha pulls. It seemed his system was quite considerate, stuffing the general pool with exactly what he needed. Still, he had burned through 30 rolls (3,000 villain points) to gather enough. Fortunately, he had also managed to farm an additional 1,000 points, bringing his current total to 4,000 villain points.
And as for where those points came from… Well, he had a certain very cooperative Tohsaka wife to thank. Every time he saw Tohsaka Aoi sobbing, whispering, "Tokiomi… sob… I’m sorry…", it only made him want to—
No, focus.
Takashi had arrived near the bridge. It was still daytime, so he wouldn’t run into the "Prince and Princess" combo (Waver and Iskandar) just yet. Even if he did, he could just pretend to be a passerby and leave.
Right now, he needed to find Kotomine Kirei as soon as possible and have him investigate Laeticia’s whereabouts. He hoped his guess was wrong, but a bad feeling gnawed at him—she was likely exactly who he thought she was. And worse, she might have already been possessed by that saint.
After all, when Takashi assessed his current situation, he realized the script he was following was way too familiar.
More than seven Servants.
Controlling multiple Servants.
The era of the Fourth Holy Grail War.
Summoning Semiramis.
Acting as the hidden mastermind.
Powers suspiciously similar to the Third Magic.
Having ambiguous ties to the Holy Church.
So… who am I, exactly?
"Damn it, I’ve got Amakusa’s script! No wonder my last 30 pulls were full of Black Keys! Oh, you’re playing this game, huh?!" Takashi cursed inwardly.
Cars passed by as he waited at the crosswalk. But just as he was lost in thought, he felt a light tug on his sleeve.
"Um… Excuse me, sorry to bother you."
A voice—way too familiar—sent a jolt down Takashi’s spine. He turned stiffly, only to see a golden-haired foreign beauty with a long braid bowing apologetically.
"Hello, I was wondering if you could tell me where the church in this city is?"
"Holy shit, Jeanne?!" Takashi barely stopped himself from blurting it out. Instead, he forced a calm smile and nodded.
"What a coincidence. I’m actually heading to the church myself. We can go together."
"Eh? Really?"
"Really. As real as Jeanne herself." He quipped internally before nodding again. "If you don’t believe me, you can go on your own. Just cross this bridge, then—"
After giving her directions, the golden-haired girl nodded gratefully before suddenly backtracking.
"Ah, I didn’t mean to doubt you!"
"It’s fine. When you’re in a foreign place, it’s natural to be cautious." Takashi waved it off. "You’re a tourist, right? Where are you from?"
"Yes, I’m from France…" Perhaps because his words put her at ease, the girl relaxed and began chatting with him.
As the light turned green, the two walked toward the Fuyuki Church together, their conversation flowing smoothly. But even as he kept up the friendly exchange, Takashi’s mind was racing.
"I can’t believe I ran into her like this. No doubt about it—this is Laeticia, the vessel of Ruler Jeanne d’Arc."
"And if that’s the case… then the script I’m holding just got a whole lot more complicated."
