[FDJ]Chapter 128: Permission

The lady in the red dress, with a smile on her face, stepped over the broken stump. She seemed to be in a good mood at the moment. Seeing Suzuki cautiously looking around, she casually pointed at the fallen city wall through which they had entered. "No need to worry, we have plenty of time tonight, as long as there are no accidents like last night."

Suzuki followed Eleanor's direction and saw a snake raising its head among the dark rubble, observing the two of them.

The initial shock was brief, and Suzuki quickly understood what his servant meant.

"Have we been granted permission to enter Tiberias City now?"

"Yes, I submitted the 'application' during the day." As always, Eleanor stood three meters away from Suzuki, responsible for his safety as his servant. In a certain sense, both Suzuki and she were very safe.

More than realizing they were being tracked by familiars, Suzuki felt for a moment that he was back in last night's nightmare, waking up to find Eleanor standing by his bed. His servant's beautiful smiling face appeared when she was happy, angry, successful in her schemes, and even when she was lost in sad memories. This smile was always directed specifically at Suzuki. He had never noticed Eleanor "loving to smile" at anyone else.

"You..."

In this eerie atmosphere, Suzuki was so scared that he could vaguely hear his quickening heartbeat. To his understanding, his servant's expression practically had the word "rebellion" written all over it.

"Did you think we could enter the city without a fight with the enemy's servants? Originally, many soldiers guarded and patrolled this place, but because we gave advance notice, they withdrew after dark, leaving only some of Caster's familiars on guard."

Although this made sense, Suzuki still felt afraid. He realized he had been completely treated as a subordinate by his servant, with their roles entirely reversed.

"I don't understand, which side are you trying to help?"

"My son doesn't need my help, and I am your servant, so of course, I am helping you. Saving humanity is quite interesting."

Eleanor's stance had never changed, but every time Suzuki heard it, he tasted it differently. Now he understood that Eleanor never believed he could stop Richard. Whether alone or together, they would never truly threaten Richard's real plan.

"From the beginning, you and your son had a tacit understanding?" Suzuki wisely followed Eleanor as she continued forward. Besides the three Command Seals, he had no means to restrain Eleanor, and the Command Seals probably wouldn't work. Moreover, his survival since arriving in this era was entirely due to Eleanor. Without his servant Eleanor, how would Richard and his servants deal with him? It's imaginable how an ordinary person without a servant would fare in the hands of a servant.

After Suzuki caught up, Eleanor quickened her pace slightly. She pointed to a collapsed house, where a piece of candle and a candlestick emerged from the rubble and fell into her open palm, igniting a flame. Simple magecraft was precise and effective in her hands.

"An unruly little girl needs a bit of a lesson. Why has she become so fond of showing off her magecraft? Master, do you know the reason?"

Eleanor was referring to her earlier "reminder" to Aphaf to restrain her use of magecraft. Yet, the smile illuminated by the candlelight remained unchanged, leaving her true intentions unclear.

"It seems that after acquiring the Berserker armor, she has reinterpreted the purpose of pursuing magecraft and is no longer as insecure as before," Suzuki shared his thoughts.

"Eh? Is that so? Master, your 'analysis' only works on servants." After Eleanor genuinely laughed, she restrained her expression and changed the topic again. The burning candle pointed to a section of ruins completely covered in rubble. Judging by the surrounding broken walls and debris, it seemed to have once been a narrow alley.

Eleanor stopped and signaled Suzuki to stay put, instructing him to take out the bronze mirror—a talisman of Jupiter. "Caster's familiars haven't noticed this place? That's strange. He should at least be able to use some magecraft and detect such obvious residual traces, shouldn't he?"

...

As the two of them focused on the area illuminated by the candlelight, a crow silently landed high up, over a hundred meters away, watching the master and servant standing in the ruins.

At this moment, two demons concealed their forms within the crow's line of sight. Neither had expected the ambiguous Rider, Eleanor, to bring Suzuki directly into Tiberias.

"That woman is so annoying. Her malice surpasses even that of Gemory," commented the female demon controlling the crow, expressing her disdain for Eleanor. The only things she admired were blades and brave warriors.

"But she's beautiful. Beautiful women can be forgiven for anything, as long as I can afford it," said Elligos, who was always ready to stir up trouble. He seemed only capable of finding peace when alone.

"And what about those who aren't beautiful?"

"Do ugly women have any value? Oh, they can still reproduce." After saying this, Elligos didn't forget to soothe his mount. The giant beast, with a head resembling a female upper body, swayed slightly before opening its massive mouth and swallowing the unidentified flesh Elligos had pulled from the void.

"Don't worry, you're very beautiful, my dear."

To demons, this horrifying scene was just normal feeding for their mounts, no different than humans feeding their beloved horses.

"Even twisted monsters?" Katina noticed what kind of flesh her companion had stored. She had originally thought it was the corpses of young humans, which hellish beasts usually favored.

"Occasionally, I need to give my mount a change of taste. Since this Holy Grail War lets us encounter unique monsters we usually don't see, it's a chance not to be wasted. Buckwheat noodles can be eaten a hundred times with different broths. You can be that frugal and choosy, but my precious beast can't." Elligos pulled out another monster, this time a soft, slime-like creature, and tossed it on the ground, where it was promptly devoured.

Katina rolled her eyes at her companion, refraining from drawing her sword to continue their earlier debate. Debates could be verbal clashes or physical ones, and she was open to one-on-one duels, except with those she couldn't defeat.

"Should we focus on the unknown cultist summoning an evil god tonight, or keep an eye on the little human?" Katina's eyes seemed to reflect numerous different perspectives from the crows under her command.

"I prefer the former option, but it's unlikely there will be any action tonight." Elligos patted the beast's head, signaling it to be quiet, but it still let out a low growl.

"Your darling says she wants more of those smooth monsters from earlier. Also, ghouls don't taste as good as humans; their meat is too sour. Maybe you should feed her a few more 'Shoggoths'?"

Katina briefly conveyed the meaning of the beast's words. Even high-grade demonic beasts from hell weren't necessarily smarter than ordinary animals. In contrast, the crows she loved were natural scouts, capable of completing many tasks without training.

"Being able to communicate with animals is so convenient. I can only guess based on intuition," Elligos said, kicking the giant beast under him with his combat boots, forcing it to obediently quiet down. He was the master of this beast, and everything had to go according to his commands.

...

Suzuki watched as Eleanor used simple magecraft to illuminate the rubble. He immediately felt a slight dizziness. Beneath the pile of stones, bloodstains were spread everywhere, which he hadn't noticed earlier with just the candlelight. It was somewhat similar to the unidentified flesh he had initially seen boxed in Saladin's palace, only causing mild discomfort. However, if Suzuki wasn't holding the bronze mirror at that moment, he probably couldn't have endured it for even a few seconds.

"The ritual took place here, didn't it? With this amount of blood, they most likely used a live sacrifice. I wonder if the actual summoner also became a victim," Eleanor said as she turned her body to block Suzuki's view. There were no terrifying corpses under the rubble, but the dried blood concealed a magical circle used for the summoning. Even Eleanor felt discomfort in her body when she looked directly at it. Despite Suzuki having the bronze mirror, he couldn't help but be affected.

After several minutes, Eleanor summoned back the stones she had illuminated and reburied the scene. "Master, does Chaldea have any information on monsters from other worlds?"

"No..." Suzuki thought for a moment, providing what he believed was an accurate answer. He recalled all his memories but found no related content, not even a clear understanding of the other worlds Eleanor mentioned. "Where do they come from? Why is it so unbearable just to look at them?"

"Looking directly at a dragon would also make you feel extremely uncomfortable. There's a natural intimidation that higher beings have over lower ones. But because these creatures are incompatible with this world, your sense of discomfort is greatly amplified. As for where they come from, I don't know either. With my limited knowledge of the occult, I only know that they don't belong to this world. Unlike demons or ghosts, they are inherently hostile to the living beings of our world," Eleanor enjoyed teaching Suzuki, which naturally reminded her of Richard, who used to love listening to her stories.

"Will they still appear after the Holy Grail War ends? And what about the 'bubbles' forming the evil god we saw?" Suzuki found it difficult to think about things unrelated to the Holy Grail War, as if his mind was veiled by a layer of sandpaper, making it hard to maintain the previous clarity. At times like these, he was easily influenced by clear instructions, often ignoring matters outside the Holy Grail War.

Eleanor gestured for Suzuki to continue following her. "I can't answer right now, but we'll know soon enough. Master, are you interested in them?"

"I simply dislike them. They're interfering with this Holy Grail War."

Hearing Suzuki's earnest reply, Eleanor couldn't help but almost laugh out loud. She liked children who were eager to learn, and she also liked those who were serious.