Place du Vieux Marché, Rouen
...Words of damnation came to her, like a melody from an infinitely distant country. She paid them little mind. It would be a lie to say that she was not in pain - but that was something she could endure.
She also had also little fear. Such emotions as disappointment and regret had been left behind from the moment she decided to fight. They would no longer find their way back to her.
She did not want to be dragged about, so she walked without a falter in her step. Unconsciously, she reached for her chest - but her cross had been taken from her. There was no longer anything to support her heart. For this, she felt some sadness.
Just as she realized this, an Englishman ran up to her and reverently held up a wooden cross that looked as though he had just fashioned it then and there. She quietly thanked the man as he knelt, tears streaming down his face. Among the condemnation, there were still those who would cry for her.
As damnation is like a melody from far-off countries, grief is like a mother's lullaby.
Her hands were tied to a tall wooden stake behind her - rather tightly, perhaps to remind her that there would be no reprieve. But what meaning is there to escape after having come all this way?
The priest completed the recitation of her final judgement and promptly threw a torch, which slowly began to burn below her feet. They believed that the loss of the flesh was the greatest of fears... To them, this was the cruellest punishment of all.
The flame burned her skin, scorched her flesh and charred her bones. Again and again, she spoke the name of the Lord and the Holy Mother.
...Your prayers were a lie.
They endlessly denounced her with their words of abuse. Yet she only found it strange... for a prayer can be neither false nor true. A prayer is simply that, nothing more. Its nature does not change based on who you pray to.
She wanted to tell this to them but no sounds came from her. Suddenly, the scene before her was one from the past. It was a rustic village... with an ordinary family. She saw herself, the fool who ran away and tossed all of that aside.
Yes... Perhaps she had been foolish. After all, she knew that it would end this way from the start. It was she herself who understood this fate better than any around her.
...Things would not have ended this way had you had simply turned away from it.
That was the truth. If she had just shut her ears from the voice and abandoned those soldiers to their lamentations - for what salvation could they possibly have? - she would have gone through her life, got married and lived with husband and child. It would only be natural. She knew that she once had such a future as well.
But she abandoned it in favor of pressing down a different path.
She chose to take up a sword, put on armor, raise a standard and mount a horse on the front line.
...Did you know that it would end this way?
Yes. Of course she did. She knew that as long as she fought on, this end would come to her. So of course, others would decry her for stupidity. However, she herself would never stoop to self-derision.
"There had still been lives that I saved... so it cannot have been a mistake to walk this path."
These images - of the past, of impossible futures, even of cruel reality - were meaningless before her prayers.
She simply prayed - and offered herself. Even if everybody were to condemn what she had done as wrong... at the very least, I will not betray myself.
She did not look back on the path she had not walked, or crave for a future to the one she had chosen... only wishing for silent rest.
Even in the midst of such brutal savagery, the only thing that stayed in her heart to the very end was a prayer - unblemished by regret, filled only with sincerity.
...O Lord, I give myself to You...
They were the words of the end. Her consciousness was ceased and she was released from all suffering.
The girl's dream ended in the face of reality. But it was not quite the end. Yes, the dream of the girl had ended... but the dream of La Pucelle was only just beginning.
SEARCH ...... BEGIN
SEARCH ...... COMPLETE
PERFECT MATCH.
PHYSICAL BUILD ...... COMPATIBLE
SPIRITUAL BUILD ...... COMPATIBLE
PERSONALITY ...... COMPATIBLE
PRANA ...... COMPATIBLE
BEGIN POSSESSION VIA PROVISIONAL SEALING OF FORMER PERSONALITY AND SPIRITUAL INSTALLATION OF HEROIC SPIRIT.
FORMER PERSONALITY CLEARANCE ...... RECEIVED
CROSS-DOMAIN BASE ANATOMY BACKUP ...... BEGIN
INSTALLATION COMPLETE.
BEGIN ADAPTATION OF PHYSICAL BUILD AND SPIRITUAL BUILD.
ASSIGNMENT OF CLASS SKILLS ...... BEGIN
BEGIN INSERTION OF DATA PERTAINING TO ALL HEROIC SPIRITS AND MODERN ERA AS REQUIRED.
BACKUP ...... COMPLETE
CLASS SKILL ASSIGNED. SKILL {SAINTHOOD} OPTION {HOLY SHROUD CREATION} CHOSEN.
INSERTION OF REQUIRED DATA COMPLETE.
ADAPTATION COMPLETE.
ALL CLEAR.
CLASS {RULER} SERVANT ACTUALIZATION COMPLETE.
She opened her eyes. The means by which she was summoned were so very unusual... There is no precedent for a summoning where the summoned is so weakly linked to the present world. Is it because this Great Holy Grail War is just so irregular?
The girl had somehow managed to take form in the world. There are no problems with her specifications, either... but this body is unmistakably that of a French girl's. What's more, she possessed the majority of her memories. Yet rather than having two personalities in one body - a so-called split personality - it would be more accurate to say both personalities have merged into one. Perhaps due to her own acuteness and deep conviction of faith, she has recognized and completely accepted 'La Pucelle' within her.
"...Please lend me your body for a while, Laeticia."
The girl said to the owner of the body.
Having decided on her first task, the girl greeted 'her' friend - moving to the other bed and shaking her. After some groaning, she woke up and rubbed her eyes, looking half-awake.
"Mmn... w-what...?"
She was so clearly drowsy that the girl felt bad for waking her, but she spoke clearly.
"I will be leaving here for some time."
Perhaps not understanding the seriousness of the girl's words, she fell back onto the bed while waving her hand in farewell - then flung away her sheets a few seconds later and shouted.
"What did you just say?!"
"I'm sorry for leaving so suddenly, but time is of the essence."
"What? What essence? What is this, all of a sudden - you just said 'Good night' and 'See you tomorrow'! What are you saying?!"
The girl looked at her bewildered - and loud - friend with earnest and told her three things:
'I'm going on a long trip.'
'I absolutely must go.'
'Don't worry.'
Her friend listened to those words with a blank expression, her mouth hanging open, but finally nodded in understanding.
"All right... There's no helping it if you absolutely must..."
"That's right. I will explain this to the teachers."
"Well, okay... Good night, then."
"Good night."
The girl did not use thaumaturgy to cast a suggestion on her friend. But as Servant Ruler, she has the ability to make others believe in her words.
She told her teachers and friends that she must go on a journey and made them understand that it was absolutely necessary. She was probably being more forceful than she should but there was no way around it - so she sighed and pushed away such idle concerns.
Luckily, the owner of this body lived in a student dormitory far removed from her parents. It was unlikely that they would notice even if she were gone for a month.
Packing a change of clothes, her passport and some textbooks into her bag, she left the dormitory. The owner of this body... Laeticia is still a student. S
he, on the other hand, came from the farmlands and never had the chance to learn to read and write - how strange it was to have been able to automatically acquire knowledge of modern languages, thanks to the Holy Grail.
"...Yet this is still all too strange."
She should have been summoned like any other Servant - actualized in the city where the battle would take place without needing to borrow the physical body of anyone else.
Nevertheless, she has been summoned this time via possession of another's flesh and what's more, she was summoned in her homeland - a France still with lingering vestiges of its past.
Besides, Ruler should have been the eighth Servant to be summoned - this time, she was the fifteenth Servant. Among all the Holy Grail Wars of the past, the scale of this one is most likely the largest. Perhaps there was some accident during last large-scale Holy Grail War...
In any case - having already been summoned - the girl is determined to surmount all difficulties in order to carry out her mission.
She is Jeanne d'Arc - the Master-less Servant of the Ruler class, and the absolute controller of the Holy Grail War.
---
Chapter 3-2
---
And so, Ruler headed straight to the airport via the night bus and took off for Bucharest, Romania. If she can only turn into Spirit Form ... but it seems that is also impossible for her. Left with no choice, she had to use her own money - or rather, Laeticia's - to buy a plane ticket. Perhaps I should make a request to the Church or the Association later, she thought, becoming somewhat gloomy.
On the plane, she sorted through the knowledge that she had been granted. She understood the place that would become the battlefield - the small city of Trifas in Romania. It is the Second Owner of that land, the Yggdmillennia, which arranged for this Great War. Standing against them are magi from the Clock Tower, which the Yggdmillennia seceded from. But the problem with the current situation is that it is not a free-for-all between seven Servants but a conflict of an unprecedented scale between two sides of seven.
It is hardly rare for a duel to the death between single Servants to leave surrounding buildings crushed in its aftermath. And this is seven against seven ... It is unnerving just to think about the kind of widespread destruction that a full confrontation between the two sides will bring about.
Is the scale of this conflict the reason why she was summoned as Ruler? Was she called by the Greater Grail, fearing the threat of an utter collapse in the Holy Grail War?
She does not know... and now is not the time to speculate.
First, she must reach Trifas - everything starts there.
It took her a day and a half to reach the Henri Coandă International Airport in Bucharest, including transfer and waiting times. It is just past noon - thick, black-gray clouds filled the sullen sky, as though it were on the verge of tears.
Although she had been granted knowledge of this airport, built with the newest construction techniques, it still came across as novel to her.
Her legs felt heavy, probably because she has been sitting the whole time. During the long air journey, she spent half her time thinking about the Great War, and used the other half praying for a safe journey. Thanks to her knowledge as a Servant, she fully understands what kind of transport a plane is. But that is different from actually going inside one. The fact is, she did not want to understand why this mass of metal can fly through the air... In truth, she was simply glad that they did not fall out of the sky.
The sight of such a defenceless-looking girl tottering about with a bag in her hands must seem like the easiest mark in the world to the low-lifes that hang around the airport... but it never even occurred to them to lay a hand on her. They were not so unruly as to drag mud into a pure pond.
Trifas lays to the north-east. She will have to use some form of transportation to get there, either taking a bus or hitchhiking...
"...Hmph."
The instant she stepped out of the airport, multiple lines of sight pierced Ruler.
However, she can detect no Servants within the limits of the detection boundary centred around her - a radius of ten kilometers.
Ruler can nullify even the Presence Concealment skill of Assassins. If she cannot sense any powerful detection abilities despite feeling others' gaze...
"...then it must be remote viewing, or familiars."
Generally, there are two methods where thaumaturgy can allow one to see far-off things. The first is remote viewing - using a crystal ball, a mirror or such to observe a distant location. As long as there is some form of medium you can observe the outside even from the safety of your own workshop. Hence, most magi have mastery of this type of thaumaturgy.
The other is by using a familiar - creating a pseudo-living being by modifying a small animal or organism. By joining the causal lines between master and familiar, one can share its five senses. This is also considered a basic type of thaumaturgy for most magi.
Scanning the grey skies, Ruler noticed innumerable doves looking at her direction. It would seem that they are familiars - but, try as she might, she could not see the light of intelligence in their eyes. Normally, by being granted the hair or blood of a magus, the creature that becomes a familiar gains a degree of intelligence. While it cannot quite speak, its intellect should be quite detectable.
Yet they look for all the world like simple doves, though it is unmistakable that they are observing her. Are they being controlled by hypnotic suggestions? That would be quite a roundabout method.
Ruler glared, first at the direction from which she is being observed from, then at the doves. Her gaze did not contain any sort of prana or power, but it made clear her thoughts.
The sensation of being observed disappeared, and the doves all flew off at once. Ruler sighed when she confirmed this.
In essence, a Ruler does not take part in the Holy Grail War... However, as the position demands that it brings judgment upon Servants and Masters that violate rules, a fitting amount of combat strength is required.
Not many have experienced the Holy Grail War twice or thrice and even amongst those, it is doubtful that any has ever taken part in one where a Ruler manifested. Perhaps they wanted to measure the power of such a Servant.
"More and more, it seems this war will require some difficult judgment on my part..."
This Great War presents only one great point in favor of Ruler - the fourteen Servants are evenly divided into two camps, Noir and Rouge. In other words, it avoids a scenario where fourteen Servants are all acting independently. It is nightmarish enough just imagining all those Servants rampaging about at will - at worst, they can destroy the entire city.
"Whatever the case, I must first head to Trifas..."
Murmuring to herself, Ruler started looking for a bus, only to find that none headed directly to Trifas. She will have to head to Sighișoara first and proceed from there. But it turns out that there will not be a bus to Sighișoara until tomorrow. Left with no choice, Ruler asked around to see if there was anyone heading to Trifas. In the end, a lean old man wearing glasses and a deerstalker said that he could bring her along.
"Yes, I'm heading to Trifas myself."
"So, can you...?"
"But Trifas isn't really a tourist spot, you know. They've got that great big castle - but, funnily enough, it's private ground and off limits. Sighișoara is much better if you're interested in the history, being the birthplace of Vlad Țepeș and all..."
"I have some relatives waiting for me in Trifas. Could you please help?"
"Well, all right, if that's the case. But I've got some fragile cargo that I have to keep in the passenger seat, so that's no good. You don't mind sitting on the bed, do you?"
"Not at all. Thank you for your generosity."
"Just pray to your God that it doesn't rain."
The old man laughed as she clambered onto the back of the truck.
"Yes, I shall do that."
Ruler replied in earnest. Certainly, she can do little but
pray when it comes to the weather.
After a series of banging noises, like what one would get from kicking an empty metal barrel, the truck settled and began to move. As it the truck rumbled on, Ruler watched scenes of Bucharest pass by.
The truck shook with a thud. Some black smoke began leaking out of the muffler.
"Yes... quite different from a horse."
There is a certain difference between the organic tremors of a horse and the repetitive shaking of a machine - perhaps, in exchange for speed and durability, they had to trade away a sense of comfort. She recalled the white horse that had once crossed the fields of battle with her. A good steed... but it went missing during the battle of Compiègne. Most likely it was killed, but perhaps it managed to find a new rider.
Fate/Apocrypha - Volume 1 Page 14
