The Wish They Left Behind

At the moment, everyone was discussing their situation a little more in-depth. The blue sky already faded to give way for an orange one.

Luckily for Seth, after eating some food he could now stand up, something he did at the first chance. He had to conserve the little dignity he had left if there was any, to begin with.

"Well, let's review what we know so far. There seem to be Servants being summoned without a Master and now the number exceeds seven, meaning this is not a normal Holy Grail War anymore." Dr. Roman analyzed, gaining a nod from everyone.

"The other Jeanne is the one commanding the enemy Servants even if she is one herself. The rules were broken long ago." He said once more.

"Yeah...Although I'm not a complete Ruler, I noticed they were under Madness Enhancement." Jeanne said, adding her part.

"Regardless if they are right in the head or not... They are powerful. To top it off, they have a powerful Dragon with them, our best possibility would be to take them one by one." Seth said after thinking for a bit, he was strong against serpents, not dragons. As much as he hated it.

"Yeah...Vlad III and Elizabeth Bathory. They are certainly powerful foes, sadly we don't know much about the rest. The only clue we have is that Saber recognized Marie." Mash commented.

"I think she was Chevalier d'Eon. Unfortunately, I have no proof. She was born a couple of years before me and I only met her when she was an adult. I'm not really familiar with her younger version to say with certainty." Marie said while reminiscing a bit.

"The woman with blue hair was a Saint and by the look in her eyes, she kept her sanity even if not by much. That's the only information I could get in the little time our gazes met." Seth said bringing a bit more clarity in the situation.

"You knew she was a Saint with just a glance?" Jeanne said surprised causing him to roll his eyes.

"She was fighting with a cross and had a holy aura surrounding her even if it was a little...rough. What do you think?" He said as a matter of fact.

"I didn't know you could detect the presence of the Lord in humans, Master! Could it be you are his envoy?" She said with excitement on her voice.

'Stop it, please stop it. It's disgusting, so disgusting. Don't lump me with him please' He looked away from her with an expression like he just ate the worst thing in the world.

"Master? What's the matter? Are you still not feeling well?" She asked in concern...just to be totally ignored.

"We need to be careful, by the looks of it they already have the Grail. For all we know, the other Jeanne might be summoning more Servants now." He said before looking at Saber. "You once held the Grail, any ideas of what the black Jeanne might do with it?"

Artoria, who returned to her normal mood after Seth gave her some of his food, responded. "I don't know. As I told you before, I only used the Grail for one thing and I doubt that mad dog would use it for the same reason I did."

"Right...she seemed to be the type to want as much power as she can to crush her enemies. So the option of her summoning more Servants is the most viable and troublesome one." Romani backed up Saber deduction.

"There is also the possibility of other Servants being summoned like Marie and Amadeus were at least." Jeanne said entering the conversation once more.

"I appreciate the optimism but we can't rule out the possibility of those Servants being hostile." Amadeus said with an unsure expression.

"I agree with him but we still have to find them. We are going to need as much help as possible if we want to stand a chance in case we have to face all enemies at the same time. Jeanne is incapable of finding them at the moment so we are going to need your help, Romani." He said.

"B-But what happens if they turned to be enemies?" Mash asked.

"We kill them." Seth replied without hesitation.

"It seems being beaten up by the mad dog put you in a bad mood." Saber remarked from the side.

"It's not like that. In fact, I'm thankful. You could say she brought me back to earth." He said while scratching the back of his head. It was complicated to put it into words, after all.

"We can talk more tomorrow, it's getting pretty dark so it would be best if you could rest a bit." Romani said and no one had any objections.

===========================

After the majority of them decided to rest, Seth separated from the group to take a little walk. In the midst of it, he found a lake and decided to take a bath to clean off the dried blood he still had on his body.

Dematerializing his arm pads and lower garments he dived in it. He started swimming and cleaning the parts of his body that were dirty with blood.

Finishing, he decided to sit on top of a big rock at the side of the lake. With water drops falling from his head he looked at the sky, a beautiful full moon present on it.

'How long has it been since the last time I lost? To think I was defeated this early. Truly, don't flaunt what you don't have...' He thought with a self-mocking smile.

As he gazed upon the bright moon, three figures appeared one by one and disappeared as fast as they came. Two men and one 'monster'. Seeing them, Seth, for the first time in thousands of years, flashed a radiant smile. "I have to do what I can, right? It's fine if I lose, it's fine if I'm not the strongest, I just have to keep trying. Don't worry, I will do everything in my power to protect what you entrusted to me, to protect humanity."

At that moment, a God turned man found a new determination to keep going. Unfortunately, this sight was only immortalized by the moon that illuminated him as no human would be capable of doing so.

While Seth was in the lake, Fujimaru, as well as Artoria and Amadeus, were sleeping. Artoria needed to rest after exhausting a good chunk of her magical energy in the last battle and Amadeus was just lazy. Mash decided to patrol the area for possible enemy sightings.

Seeing as Jeanne was acting strange, Marie decided to chat with her. "What's wrong, Jeanne? You seem down. Are you perhaps tired? She asked a little concerned.

"No, I'm not tired. Thanks for your concern, Marie." Jeanne thanked her with a little smile.

"Oh? Then, what's the matter?" She asked again.

"It's just...seeing all the destruction caused by the hands of the other me saddens me." She said looking at the ground.

"I understand. As a Queen seeing this France makes my heart hurt. For you it might be even worse as you were from this era, right?" She said in a sympathetic tone.

"Yeah..." She affirmed, a little dispirited.

Seeing Jeanne this depressed, Marie suddenly got an idea. "That's right! We can have a little girl's talk." She said with a bright smile.

"...Sorry?" She asked for confirmation.

"Oh? Didn't girls in your time have chats like this?" Marie asked a little confused.

"No, it's not that—" She clarified just to be interrupted just as quickly. "Then it's fine! We got summoned as our young selves, well, you got summoned at the age you died, but that's not important! Girls our age should be talking about love and romance!" She happily exclaimed.

Seeing Marie's enthusiasm, she couldn't help but awkwardly say. "I'm sorry Marie, I don't have any experience with those."

"Hm? You've never fallen in love? But you seemed pretty intimate with your Master before, though." Marie said in genuine confusion.

"N-No! That's wrong, I was just taking care of my Master as any Servant would! Yes, that's right! I was just taking care of him." Jeanne embarrassingly tried to explain with a blush on her face.

Seeing her like that, Marie chuckled a bit. "Are you trying to convince me or yourself? There's nothing embarrassing about being in love, that's what youth is about, after all." She smiled at Jeanne.

"Please don't tease me like that, Marie! There is nothing going on between Master and me." She tried to explain again while her blush was even more apparent now.

"As you said before, you've never fallen in love so how can you tell if what you feel is love or not?" She asked with her ever-present smile.

"That is..." Seeing as she didn't have an answer to her question, she decided to change the topic. With a fake cough, she asked, "What about you, Marie? Have you ever fallen in love?"

Deciding to play along, for now. She replied. "Of course! Two times, first with a boy proposed at me when I was seven and then when I was fourteen with the King I married."

"Fourteen? At that age, all that was in my mind was working on the fields and playing with the other children." She said with surprise. For her, marrying at fourteen was kinda...

"For nobility, marrying at that age was not uncommon. Besides, I loved my husband so I didn't mind marrying that early." Marie explained.

"Ahaha...It's still difficult for me to understand." Jeanne said with a little laugh.

The Queen just smiled. "It's simple really...let me ask you something. Do you want to protect your Master?" she asked.

Jeanne gave her a confused look but answered nonetheless. "Yes, I do."

"Do you want to spend more time with him?" She asked again to which Jeanne nodded.

"Did you enjoy taking care of him when he was unconscious?"

"...Yes, I did." She replied, realizing where Marie was getting at.

"Lastly, do you want to see him leave behind that cold look and replace it with a bright smile?" She asked one last time making Jeanne slowly widen her eyes in surprise.

"I want you to promise me one thing. If by the time this is over you have an answer regarding if it is love or just a good friendship, be sure to tell me." Marie said while extending her pinky finger towards Jeanne.

The Saint looked at Marie for a second before giving her a smile, extending her own she nodded. "It's a promise."

Just as she finished talking they noticed multiple presences around them. Mash soon came from the foliage. "It's an enemy attack, I would go wake up Master. Jeanne, do you have any idea where Kuro-san is?" Mash asked and was answered sooner than she expected.

"I'm here." Seth's voice came from behind them, he rushed here as soon as he noticed signs of an enemy attack giving him no time to dry his hair which now glittered under the light of the moon, giving him an ethereal feeling. Remembering Marie's words, Jeanne quickly looked away from him.

"Let Fujimaru rest, he must be tired. It will be enough with us four." He continued.

"But who will give the orders if we all fight?" Mash asked, still unsure.

Seth raised an eyebrow at Mash's question. "Do you need someone telling you what to do just to fight? What's so difficult about making your own decisions?" He asked back.

"I-It's not like that..." She said in a low, embarrassed voice.

"Sigh...Fight. Attack. Defend if you are attacked. Evade if possible. Are these orders okay for you?" He rolled his eyes at the little girl.

"Yes..." She timidly said.

Seth blinked and the next second he had Marie's face centimeters from his. "You should encourage her and stop being so gloomy!" She said with a stern face.

"And you should respect personal space, Rider. But whatever, you saved my life so I at least should humor you." He said. Now he was ninety percent convinced he could distinguish friend from foe when it came to Servants. If it was a weirdo, there was a big chance for that Servant to become an ally!

Turning to look at Mash, this time he spoke less harshly. "You are worried about Fujimaru, right? Then you should let him have as much sleep as possible. They are not strong enemies so there's no need to wake him up, he will need all the energy he can for tomorrow."

"Y-Yes! I understand!" She exclaimed, this time surer than before.

"Let's take the fight a little further from the camp." Jeanne suggested and the rest approved.

The fight was easy as it was just a group of werewolves, they already got the hang of how to beat them.

"That was the last of them. Battle finished." Mash said in her usual robot-like fashion.

"...No, it's not over. A Servant is approaching." Seth said looking at the sky through the branches of the trees.

"He is right, I'm detecting the presence of a Servant. This time I fear we will have to wake up Fujimaru we like it or not." The hologram of Dr. Roman confirmed it.

"How much time until he or she gets here?" Marie asked. She didn't look worried if her smiley face was anything to go by.

"She is already here." True to Seth's words, a woman with blue hair and a white cross now stood before them.