The sunlight was just right, and the clean, transparent glass perfectly cast the warm, bright radiance of day onto the tabletop. The juice glass left a clear gray shadow on the table.
The girl who had manifested under the name Archer, feeling slightly melancholy, wondered why she had manifested at all: Who am I? Where am I? What am I supposed to do? Those three philosophical questions struck straight at her heart. Distracted, she used the tiny fork that came with the fruit tart to send piece after piece of fruit into her mouth.
She should have been commanded by a far-sighted Master, gathering intelligence in secret, sniping Masters, and achieving astonishing results. But because of Tsukahara Meiji's power... sigh...
Of course, Archer was not blaming him, nor had she ever considered betraying him. She simply harbored a certain longing.
Sunlight spilled across the girl's lovely face, dividing it into starkly defined light and shadow. Instead, it made her delicate softness stand out even more. Her simple white tracksuit, paired with her exquisite features, gave off a minimalist sort of beauty.
This fully proved that the saying "clothes make the man" was clearly a lie spread by clothing merchants: beautiful people looked good in anything.
Especially compared to the man sitting across from her, who practically radiated nervousness and unreliability. The contrast only made everyone feel that Archer's beauty was astonishing.
That was the power of contrast. A rose might not seem all that beautiful on its own, but if it stood beside a clump of withered weeds, its crimson, full bloom would give people a sense of hope and vitality.
Archer remained perfectly composed beneath all those gazes focused on her. In a sense, this too was one of her weapons. With her breathtaking beauty, she could subtly promote herself among high-ranking officials and famous figures. Besides, being watched by countless people had always been her goal. This was better, if anything. Naturally, Archer did not dislike it.
"Master, are you done eating?"
Watching her Master silently stare at her with a straw in his mouth, Archer showed a helpless expression. Her face perfectly embodied the Chinese idiom "an undeserved disaster." Left with no choice, she had to remind her Master to pull himself out of his fantasies.
(Everyone else is one thing, but Master, could you at least try a little harder? Is it really okay for you to be bewitched by your own Servant?)
"Ah, ahhh!"
Only when she called him did Tsukahara Meiji come back to his senses. He hurriedly took several exaggerated sips, and the cold drink spread its refreshing chill through his mouth, finally making him feel a little clearer.
He had obviously been staring in a daze just now.
"S-Sorry! Ahaha."
"That's why I didn't want to show my face... Male Masters really are..."
Archer complained in a lowered voice as she popped the last blueberry into her mouth, chewing up the rest of her sentence along with it and swallowing it. Then she raised a hand to call over the waiter and ordered another fruit tart.
"Come to think of it... Master, why did you insist that I materialize and change clothes?"
After confirming that no one was nearby, Archer deliberately lowered her voice and asked.
As for changing clothes, Archer herself had devised a fairly rigorous battle plan from a strategic perspective. But Tsukahara Meiji clearly had not meant it that way.
That only made Archer more curious. Why had he been so insistent on taking her to change clothes?
According to Carl, the two of them were not well-funded. So why waste money in a place like this? Archer could not understand it at all.
At her question, a bashful flush quickly spread across Tsukahara Meiji's face, further confirming Archer's impression: men...
"Ahaha... Actually... I-I'm doing this for the first time..."
The red-faced boy explained in a halting voice.
"Whether it's... the Holy Grail War, or Servants, or familiars... it's my first time using any of them. Ahaha... So I'm not very used to communicating with spiritual bodies."
"Oh, that was understandable."
Archer nodded. Her Master was not a proper Master. His flow of magical energy was pitifully small, to the point that all of Archer's abilities currently hovered between D and E. A Master's lack of magical energy showed most directly in a Servant's parameters.
With that level of magecraft, he could probably only be called an amateur. If he had never summoned a familiar before, then it was understandable that he was not skilled at communicating with spiritual bodies.
"And... Robin—Archer also thought that having a physical body would make it easier to move around, right? Even if you're a Heroic Spirit, you were human when you were alive, weren't you? In the end, isn't it better to be human?"
"Huh?"
This novel perspective made Archer raise an eyebrow, finding it rather interesting.
While waiting for the next fruit tart, she propped her chin on one hand, letting her long brown hair—soft like chocolate and carrying a sweet air—spill over her white tracksuit. With that gesture alone, nearly every man in the shop drew in a breath, feeling as though their hearts had skipped several beats.
She gathered an expression that was uncertainly bitter or teasing and said, "A Servant is only a tool. It just happens to have a human form, so there's no need to care so much..."
"I don't think so!"
Tsukahara Meiji suddenly raised his voice. Fortunately, dessert shops like this were always gathering places for couples. Their quiet conversations blended into a noisy background, so Tsukahara Meiji's voice did not stand out. Since he did not make any particularly dramatic movements—like slamming the table—it did not draw too much attention.
"..."
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The sudden burst of intense emotion caught Archer off guard. The fleeting look of surprise quickly faded into interested curiosity, and she gestured with her eyes for him to continue.
"If you were just a tool, then fine, but you're clearly a human, aren't you? If you turn into a spiritual body, isn't that the same as rejecting communication with the outside world, with reality? Wouldn't that mean... even you had given up on yourself...?"
A fierce poison called loneliness suddenly erupted in Tsukahara Meiji's heart, flooding through his veins and filling his entire body with a restless impulse.
He could eat, but Archer had to remain in a spiritual state where no one would notice her. And because of the issue with magical energy, she could not even move freely...
Others might not know, but he himself knew best.
Though he stood in the middle of a bustling city, everything around him was loud and lively, filled with joyful colors. Yet he alone was black and white, without warmth or color, not even sure whether he truly existed...
Contrast was also the cruelest thing of all.
If Archer became a spiritual body, it meant that Archer too would have to move silently through a world where no one could notice her.
Others might not know, but as a street Magus who had fallen so low that he was worse off than a beggar, he knew best what kind of pain that was.
No matter how hard one forced a smile or comforted oneself, that bone-deep loneliness would hurt so badly it could drive a person mad.
If what Archer said was true, then Robin Hood was not one person. The one he had summoned with an oak branch should have been one of the people within Robin Hood. So why did it have to be this Archer?
Perhaps it was compatibility?
Like Archer, he had suffered deeply from loneliness. The livelier his surroundings became, the more piercing his own loneliness hurt. So...
Even if it was only for this Holy Grail War.
Even if it made espionage especially difficult...
Even if it caused a whole series of problems...
But...
Tsukahara Meiji desperately did not want to watch someone else suffer the same lonely pain he had endured.
He helped Carl partly because Carl had saved him...
But on the other hand, he also knew that Carl was someone just as lonely.
If even lonely people would not comfort one another, then those whose real lives were especially fulfilling would care even less.
When Tsukahara Meiji had been in his deepest pain, Carl had reached out a hand to him.
More than anyone, he understood how warm that outstretched hand had been.
So he wanted to become someone just as warm.
When Carl needed help, he had reached out his hand.
And now, he keenly noticed that the girl given the cold name Archer was lonely too.
So he reached out his hand once more, just as Carl had saved him back then.
Perhaps he was being presumptuous. Perhaps he was only dreaming. Perhaps Archer did not think that way at all...
But that was how Tsukahara Meiji felt.
He should not stand by and ignore someone who was lonely.
His words came in fits and starts, his sentences lacking any logical order. He simply conveyed what was in his heart to the girl across from him—calmly, trivially, chaotically, yet with complete sincerity.
"—I think... having a physical body is the first step. Only then can you take the first step toward communication. Maybe this is just my own self-righteous assumption... but please. Please remain materialized whenever possible."
His Master lowered his head.
Though he was the Master, he lowered his head.
Archer sighed and could not help saying, "How foolish. To treat a Servant, a tool, as a human being."
(And yet... this feeling isn't unpleasant. In fact, among the members of Robin Hood, although everyone had resolved to discard their names, there was still one person who would always call everyone by their individual names. As if he wanted to be the only one to remember all their names. Even if they themselves forgot, he would always remember.)
(That person was "Robin Hood." Or rather... the original Robin Hood. You could call him the prototype, or the initiator. The legendary Earl of Huntingdon...)
"Heh... very well. Since it is your command, Master, I will obey. Besides, there is no need for you to feel unnecessary guilt. If I materialize, there are battle plans suited to being materialized. In terms of results, remaining materialized will actually make patrols and investigations easier for us."
"Hehehe..."
Hearing that his highly personal proposal had accidentally turned out to help with patrols, Tsukahara Meiji gave an embarrassed smile.
"But thank you."
Archer smiled faintly, beautiful enough to topple a nation.
(To be willing to see a Servant... to see us Robin Hoods as independent individuals... What a kind Master, and one who makes me worry so much.)
"Mm."
"By the way, Master, at a time like this, the proper response is to pretend you didn't hear me and ask, 'What did you just say?'"
"Ehh?!"
Before you continue