The Dream

Diabetic people are strongly cautioned, too much sugar on the first half of the chapter.

On another note, we reached 1000 collections. I couldnt make it this far without you guys. Love you! (No Homo)

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After the battle was over, Jeanne could honestly say this was more exhausting on the mental side rather than the physical.

She thought that her new Master was just joking with her, that he would help her if she ever found herself in a pinch. That did not happen...

No matter if she fought against one, two, three or even more enemies at once. He just stood there sitting without a care in the world. 'Oh Lord, give me the strength to face this trial before me' She prayed to God in her mind.

Her Master's words brought her back to reality, "You did good. I can at least trust my back to you now." 'Well, not everything is bad, it would be better if he said it with a smile though...' She thought, at least her Master was thankful.

Mash, Fujimaru and Artoria had finished their battle a while ago. In the meantime, they watched how Jeanne was fighting the beastmen by herself. Mash wanted to help her but a quick look from Seth stopped her in her tracks. He wanted to observe how Jeanne moved, thought and acted in battle. He didn't want unnecessary distractions. Fortunately, she didn't disappoint.

Once the rest saw Jeanne defeat the last enemy, they approached her. "Are you tired Ms. Jeanne? Mash asked in concern.

"No, it's quite alright, Mash. Thanks for asking." She replied with a smile, she had faced many battles worse than this after all.

'Truly a Saint...' Was the thought on both Fujimaru's and Mash's head. 'On the other hand...' They looked at Seth like he was the Devil for letting Jeanne fight alone.

"I'm glad we decided to join hands, despite concentrating in my battle I could still see from time to time how effortlessly you defeated your enemies." She smiled before facing Artoria. "Especially you, Saber. Even if I'm not really an expert in sword fighting, I could tell your swordsmanship was beautiful" She praised her but all she got was a snort. Jeanne was left awkwardly smiling.

With an obviously fake cough, Jeanne spoke once more, "Anyway, even I have to face my other self, a witch, I won't be afraid because I have you four with me."

Seth got closer to Jeanne and flicked her forehead. "Ouch... Why did you do that Master?" She asked while rubbing her "wound", tears forming on the corner of her eyes.

"Stop speaking nonsense and let's keep searching for a place to set up a base." He said and started marching forward, making Jeanne a little depressed, but he continued in an almost inaudible tone that if she, Mash and Saber weren't Servants, they wouldn't have heard it. "also...you are not a witch."

Jeanne's mood did a 180 grades spin. "Yes, Master!" she replied with a smile. Mash was also happy, Saber just made a mental note to use his words to annoy him later while Fujimaru was confused as he didn't hear the last part.

"I agree with him, doing an attack on Orleans at the moment would be a bad idea, especially considering we don't know the extent of the other Jeanne's -let's call her Black Jeanne for now- powers." It was Romani who spoke this time.

Mash asked from the side, "Jeanne, can you detect any servants nearby?" It would be appreciated if they could gather more forces before facing the black Jeanne.

Shaking her head, she replied, "I'm sorry, as I'm now I can't detect the presence of any Servant, I'm no different than an ordinary one. I will only be able to detect them if they are close." She replied with a little blush of embarrassment.

"N-No! It's okay, you don't need to concern yourself!" She hurriedly shook her free hand to the side.

"If Ruler Servants can detect other Servants. Won't black Jeanne be able to do the same?" Fujimaru's voice came bringing realization to the three servants.

"I was careless. If another me was summoned then her class should be Ruler too! She may be aware of our location right now, we need to be cautious!" She felt stupid for not realizing that earlier.

"If possible, I would like to stay away from villages and towns as to minimize the damage. But without any clue about the situation, that would be a little impossible" She said after analyzing the situation a bit.

It was getting dark so they decided to make a temporary base. Fujimaru was human so he needed to sleep, after all.

After talking about their plans for a while they decided to rest. Fujimaru and Mash were sleeping on a bed they made out of leaves. Saber was resting with her eyes closed under a tree but Seth knew she would jump into action at the sight of an enemy attack. As for him, he rested his back against a tree, keeping an eye out for possible enemies.

While doing patrol duty, Jeanne came up to him. "Master, shouldn't you be resting? You are not a Servant." She asked him.

"I'm not exactly human either, you should know that. Rest is unnecessary." He replied while looking at the dark forest before him.

"Even so..." She insisted, trying to persuade him. Seth sighed, this girl was too stubborn.

"You are really persistent, aren't you?" He replied in exasperation. "I will stay here for a couple more hours and then go to sleep." Seeing him concede she smiled.

They stayed silent for a minute. Seeing as Jeanne had a worried expression, he decided to ask her about it. "Is there something you are not telling us? I don't want you to go into a daze in the middle of a fight."

Jeanne flinched a little at being found out but answered anyway. "Yeah...It may be because I died just a few days ago but...I feel like something is missing. I don't feel like a Servant at all, if anything, I feel like I'm heading to battle just like any other time and I'm afraid I will become a burden to you all." She replied with a sad voice.

"I already told you to stop speaking nonsense. You just need to do what you can do, we will do the rest. If you are having trouble then I, as your Master, will help you. As simple as that." He said without looking at her.

Jeanne seemed surprised but she now had a happy expression on her face. "Even if you don't look like it, you can be quite kind, Master."

"Beffiting of my kindness, tomorrow you will fight alone again. Now, go to sleep!" He shooed her away.

She now looked defeated but still complied with his orders and separated from him to find a place to rest.

Left alone, Seth thought back on his own words. 'You just need to do what you can do, huh...'

Shaking his head, he concentrated on his watch. They needed to be alert.

As Jeanne found a place to rest, she drifted off to sleep. However, not everything was perfect. Servants don't dream, that's a fact. What they can do, however, is see the memories their Masters had. Like it was some kind of film about their life, Masters had this "ability" too but what they saw was the life of their Servant/s. This is called the Dream Cylce, it was what she was experiencing right now.

She appeared in a gigantic room that looked even more impressive than the throne room of the deceased King of France, to her right there was a balcony where you could have a view that if she was to put into words, it would be breathtaking. Thousands of beautifully constructed houses with green everywhere, the water running through a lake that traced a curb in the city. Trees growing everywhere but they strangely weren't out of place. This city looked like the definition of an Utopia.

It wasn't all good though... She seemed to be in a castle of some sort as she could see what lied far from the city from her high point of view. How to say it... It was horrible, everything was buried in sand, the buildings, the trees, everything. She could see some tents set up, albeit with difficulty. That meant people lived in that zone of poverty. It looked like that was the "dark" to this city's "light".

It wasn't much different from now, she thought. The nobles get everything while the poor struggles to live.

She was cut short from her musing by incoming footsteps. A tan man with Brown hairs and and incredible size of two and a half meters entered the room. He was followed by people who walked respectfully behind him.

The big man sat on the throne that was located at the end of the room. They proceeded to talk about stuff Jeanne honestly didn't understand nor care about.

This situation was kept for ten minutes before the large man dismissed them all. She didn't understand what did this have to do with her Master but just then, a happy laughing voice came from the door. It was way younger but Jeanne could recognize it as her Master's voice.

A little kid opened the door like it was nothing, followed by a man that looked like his bodyguard. The man had dark hair and was tanned by the desert's Sun. He whore a white tunic and carried a gray staff that looked like it was made from a dead tree. The kid looked the same as his Master, just that now he didn't have arm pads and his chest was covered by a brown tunic.

The little boy got approached the throne were the giant man was seated. With a happy smile she spoke, "Father, father. I managed to win in a duel against my instructor. Isn't that great? Also I now can shoot awesome fireballs and make them go boom!" The kid said to his father while doing weird gestures with his hands. This brought a little chuckle from her mouth. Her Master now and the one in the past were totally different!

The giant man, without changing his expression, spoke. "Why are you happy for something that should be natural? And why are you doing those stupid gestures? If you are like that you will never accomplish anything." Far from praising his son, what came out from his mouth were harsh words.

Setting his gaze on the man behind his Master, he questioned with a cold voice. "You let him interrupt me for such trivial things? You are to be lashed with a thorny whip a thousand times." The man just knelt on the ground and accepted his punishment.

Seeing this the kid hurriedly spoke, "Please father, it was my fault! Let me take Anjed's punishment in his stead." The boy pleaded with a trembling voice, it seemed he would cry at any second.

Smirking, her Master's father nodded. "Very well, you shall take nine hundred out of the thousand your servant would take. However, you will be whipped by a whip covered in hot oil." Jeanne's eyes widened. How can someone be so cruel to a child?!

The boy, however, just gratefully accepted. "I thank father for his leniency."

The scene burned before revealing another sight. Her Master and his bodyguard were chained to the ground. Two men with whips on their hands hit their backs over and over again. Jeanne put hand on her mouth, terror on her face. Even though she experienced something similar. Seeing it happening to a child was completely different.

Tears formed at the corner of the kid's eyes. But it wasn't because of the pain, if one observed closely to his face, they would realize the guild contained in it. He felt guilt because due to his desire to be praised by his father, his bodyguard and above all, only friend, had to be punished. Even if he was whipped more times or harder than him, he kept saying sorry in an inaudible voice.

Anjed seeing Seth like this, gave him a reassessing smile, telling him I was fine and everything was going to be okay.

Jeanne observed all that happened with tears on her face. For here, this was just too cruel. No child from the Lord should endure something like this.

The scene changed again, in a dark room which didn't have much furniture. A crudely bandaged Anjed was doing his best to nurse Seth's wounds.

"I'm sorry. I promise I will be better, I'm going to be so strong that father won't ever want to punish me again. Will you forgive me?" The kid asked a little scared Anjed will be angry at him. Said man just smiled and flicked his forehead. "Don't speak such silly things. You just have to do what you can do, I will do the rest. If you are having trouble then I, as your Servant, will help you."

'Those words...!' They were similar to what her Master had said to her!

"Seen enough?" Just then, a deeper voice than the kid sounded behind her. Surprised, she turned around to find the figure of her Master looking at her.

"Master, I..." "Enough. It's time to wake up." With those words, Jeanne found herself returning to reality. Seth looked at the figure of Anjed one more time before also returning to the real world.