Chapter 362

"That's not a curse," Gaia said. "It's the inherent power of the Noble Phantasm's laws. Unless someone wishes for a complete cure, there's really no way to heal it."

'Ah... this...' Li Pu was truly speechless. Even the wisest can make a mistake, and this one was a really big one.

"Alright, it won't be long. Let's treat the audience who've been watching all day," Gaia said. "I'm ready to answer your call anytime."

The angel returned to Li Pu's body, and his once-powerful divine power quickly diminished. However, the forest did not revert to its previous eerie state; instead, it seemed even more vibrant, tranquil yet with a touch of liveliness.

"Come out, you've been watching for so long," Li Pu shouted into the forest. "Even if you're watching a monkey show, you should come out and give a tip or cheer by now, shouldn't you?"

As soon as Li Pu finished speaking, a figure flashed out from the forest.

A burly, stern-faced man appeared before Li Pu. He bowed respectfully and said, "Your Goddess, you jest. I would never dare to treat this as a monkey show."

"Is that so? Mage Father... oh no, I misspoke, it's Kirei Kotomine." Li Pu deliberately mispronounced the name and then corrected himself, saying, "I don't care what you're doing here, nor do I care what role you're playing."

"Since you're here, that's perfect. Take those children home."

In the original story, this guy apparently came to capture the wife, but it seems that because of his presence, Saber and Lancer are currently locked in a passionate affair. Judging from the situation where this guy appeared here, the battle has already been decided, and he has no chance for the time being.

"As you command," Kirei Kotomine replied.

"Hmm." Li Pu planned to watch Kirei Kotomine leave from here. She didn't want to fly because of her injuries and the battle with Caster, and she wasn't in much better shape yet. So Li Pu didn't plan to fly but instead planned to rest for a while after Kirei Kotomine left.

But seeing that Kirei Kotomine hadn't left for a while Li Pu couldn't help but ask with some suspicion, "What are you waiting for?"

Could it be that this guy's target is me? Right, at this point, this guy should be allied with Golden Flash. If they're allied, then I really need to be careful.

"I just wanted to ask the Goddess about my fate," Kirei Kotomine asked in a flat, unreadable voice.

"I am not a prophet," Li Pu refused. "I am merely a weaver. Shouldn't you ask yourself about your own destiny?"

"Then can you grant the wish of a lowly human like me?" Kirei Kotomine asked again.

"No, I refuse." Li Pu refused without hesitation. Who knows how much she would have to pay to fulfill someone else's wish without the support of the God Race's Yugrashu system? She Li Pu, was not going to do it!

"Then..." Kirei Kotomine suddenly changed the subject, but before he could finish speaking...

"Belldandy!" "Foreigner"

Then the voices of the lady and Saber echoed through the forest.

Chapter Nineteen: Preparing for the Next Time

"Goodbye, please stay, I'm leaving."

Kirei Kotomine is a master of timing; whatever he intended to do to the Goddess, by the time Saber arrived, his chance was gone!

However, this person is not at all embarrassed and has a very good excuse for being here.

That is the church.

"I will obey the Goddess's request and safely send these children home." Kirei Kotomine again, and then he and the children slowly disappeared from the sight of the belated Saber and his wife.

Once he was sure that Kirei Kotomine had gone far away and there were no Assassins lying in ambush around, Li Pu finally couldn't hold on any longer and collapsed.

"Belldandy!" "Foreigner"

Saber and his wife rushed forward to help Li Pu up, and his wife asked with a worried look, "Belldandy, are you alright?"

"Of course... something happened." Li Pu said, panting. "The negative effects of the Gordian Rose have been temporarily suppressed by my power and won't cause any more wounds. However, the location of the injury is too fatal... it will affect my combat ability, but at least I'm still alive."

"Miscalculation..." Li Pu sighed. "I should have thought of that sooner. I actually forgot about defense."

With the angels around, we still have a fighting chance and won't suffer a crushing defeat because of this.

"Speaking of Saber," Li Pu said, "You fought Lancer?"

"Hmm." Saber raised her blood-stained right hand and said, "To my shame, I was so focused on Lancer's red spear that I ignored his yellow spear, and as a result, I got hit too."

'Ah... this...' Li Pu was really speechless. Is this the inertia of history?

However, on the other hand, Saber probably assumed that the Gáe Buidhe also had an armor-piercing effect, and she seems to have forgotten or didn't have time to explain the different effects of the two guns. If she had explained, she might have been able to avoid this.

"Foreigner, you have no way to cure him either?" Saber asked.

"There is a way," Li Pu said. "If Kiritsugu makes a wish, it will work. This is the power of the law. It cannot be healed by ordinary healing abilities. Only by using the power of the law in the same way can it be done."

"I see..." Saber hesitated upon hearing this.

A wish, of course, is possible if it's for healing injuries. But Kiritsugu can only make one wish; perhaps Kiritsugu's saving it for a crucial moment in the future to turn the tide of battle. Using it now...

"Is there any other way?" Saber asked again.

"Destroy the Gordian Rose," Li Pu said.

"Then let's find Lancer and fight him to the death." Saber chose the latter without hesitation.

"Speaking of which, how's the situation with Lancer?" Li Pu asked.

"Lancer's Master was defeated, and Lancer and I were fighting halfway when he turned back to rescue his Master," Saber said. "If it weren't for Kiritsugu's victory, I would very likely have lost."

Saber clenched her fist and said, "However, the wound has not healed. It seems that Lancer's Master has only failed temporarily and has not completely failed yet."

"Lancer's tragedy..." Li Pu sighed. "It's only just begun."

At this point, the director is about to be taken offline, and the woman who will soon be introduced Sola, is Lancer's master. However, it must be said that the tragedy of the Lancer duo is truly due to a variety of reasons.

The director's own personality was the problem; Sola was merely a victim of a political marriage. She didn't love the director, but she loved Lancer deeply.

Lancer mistakenly believes that this love is due to his own allure, and therefore chooses to reject it. But perhaps he also remembers the tragedy of the past and does not want it to be repeated, which is why he rejects it.

Perhaps I could meet Sola; hopefully, this woman would be easier to talk to than her fiancé.

"What's the situation with Caster?" Saber immediately asked Li Pu about Caster's condition.

"He must have had his Master use the power of Command Spell to pull him away," Li Pu said. "I originally thought we could just finish this guy off here, but never mind. He'll come back out sooner or later anyway."

It seems we still need to wait. When the sea monster arrives, we can let him break the Gordian Rose on his own.

"I feel..." Li Pu stood up and said, "We can take a short break now."

"Why?" Saber asked, "It feels like other Master might also launch a sneak attack, given the current situation."

"No," Li Pu shook his head and said, "The only ones truly keeping a close eye on us are Lancer and his Master. Rider and his Master are very strategic; they know we are strong and Kiritsugu has two Heroic Spirit on his side, so they won't attack easily before they figure out all our trump cards. As for Archer and his Master, it's hard to say about his Master, but Archer is very strong and arrogant. However, he treats the Holy Grail War like a game; all beings are just playthings."

"If the game progresses too quickly, it won't be interesting. He prefers to play slowly and enjoy the fun at his own pace."

"And Berserker and his Master," Li Pu continued, "Berserker won't come to us without his Master's orders, and his Master's real target isn't us."

After explaining the Servant and Master, Li Pu paused for a while. This was basically part of the plot, but he still had to make it clear to Saber.

"As for Caster," Li Pu said with a gloomy face, "We should pay more attention to his Master than to him. This guy will definitely not give up easily, but he certainly won't choose this method to attack. The next time will definitely be a full-scale battle, and they need to do more preparation before that."

"Prepare?" The lady thought for a moment and immediately understood what Li Pu was talking about. "You mean..."

"Yes, child," Li Pu said. "I haven't found Caster's Master yet, but they will definitely abduct more children. This Caster will definitely not come out without being fully prepared, and the peace we've been in lately is not peace at all."

"There will be more victims, and I think we should focus our attention on fighting Cater for the time being."

"Take the initiative and force them out."

Chapter Twenty: The Goddess's Lies

This is a major battle.

If the battle between Archer and Assassin of the Tohsaka Family marked the beginning of the Holy Grail War, then the battle at the docks was the first movement after that. The true grand finale, however, was the battle between the Einzbern and Cater.

The battles between Master, the battles between Servant, cooperation, betrayal, and scheming all unfold in a grand war.

Although it has come to a temporary end, it is not the end of the first major act; it is merely a break between acts.

Upon returning to Einzbern Castle, Li Pu quickly faced a crucial decision: find Caster or seek out Lancer first. Judging from the plot, Lancer's role after this battle seems minimal; he has rapidly fallen from a significant early character to a supporting one, beginning to relive his tragic fate. Caster, on the other hand, is a key character in the early to mid-stages.

In particular, Caster's summoning of the sea monster brought the atmosphere of the Holy Grail War to its peak, and at the same time, he used this opportunity to show the audience Saber's Noble Phantasm.

At this point, two of the three Kings of the Holy Grail have already revealed their trump cards.

'Have I overlooked a troublemaker?' Li Pu pondered carefully.

'Berserker!' It seemed to be the only discordant sound in this battle.

"What are you thinking about, Belldandy?" The lady asked curiously when she saw Li Pu lost in thought and silent as soon as he returned to the castle. "Are you worried about something? The children?"

"The church will probably send them all back."

"Children?" Li Pu asked instinctively, "Madam, can you find the children's personal information?"

"What does Belldandy need the children's information for?" the lady asked without thinking too much. "Shouldn't Belldandy know about the children? As Goddess, she should be able to tell at a glance."

"Of course I know." Realizing his mistake, Li Pu quickly added, "I just..."

"I want to find Caster's lair."

'Oh no! This lie doesn't seem to be holding up.' Li Pu felt a little panicked; she realized a very serious problem. The persona she had been trying so hard to maintain had become her own obstacle.

In order to maintain the mystery and the fact that he could recognize all the Heroic Spirit at a glance, he used the fact that the Goddess of Fate knew everything about everyone and everything as the reason.

It works very well against other Heroic Spirit, but it's useless against ordinary people.

Those children in the anime are purely plot devices. They don't need names, personalities, pasts, or futures. All they need are fear and death, because their purpose is to be tortured to death by Caster, showcasing Caster's madness and cruelty. If they have names, it's simply to further emphasize Caster's cruelty and prepare for the next event.

But...

But this is the real world. In reality, those children are not tools to portray a certain character; they have their own names, personalities, pasts, and futures.

If you don't go looking for them, that's fine, but if you do go looking for them, you need to have some information about them.

This is...

This is a bit troublesome. It seems she definitely can't ask Kiritsugu right now. Otherwise, it would shatter the persona she's built up, and that's the last thing she wants. This isn't like a celebrity whose persona collapses and someone else can defend them; the worst that can happen is she earns less money.

This is the Holy Grail War. If the persona you've painstakingly built up to this point collapses, the result is death!

Therefore, the last thing Li Pu can do right now is to ruin her public image, because ruining her public image is tantamount to courting death.

Finding the person you're looking for without ruining your image is really difficult. Whether you want to find Caster, Lancer, or Berserker, you need a lot of information. All three of them are currently in hiding. Heaven knows where they are.

Especially Caster, this guy seems to be a cunning fox with three burrows.

Although Waver found it once in the original story, it was just their abandoned lair, and it has probably been moved since then.

Why don't you try it with the animals?

While Li Pu was troubled, she suddenly heard a voice in her heart.

"It's Gaia." Li Pu wasn't panicked at all. After summoning Gaia, she felt like she had met an old friend. You can absolutely trust her; she would never betray you or deceive you.

"What do you mean by 'animal'?" Li Pu asked.

"It's one of the Goddess's abilities," Gaia explained. "You can communicate with those animals and understand what they're trying to convey. So why don't you use this ability, Li Pu?"

'As Goddess, you possess this ability.'

Gaia's voice seemed to carry a hint of amusement as she said, "However, if you want animals to help you, you'll have to pay a small price."

"What is the price?" Li Pu pressed.

"Food," Gaia explained. "For the animals, the price is food, because they give up the opportunity to forage for themselves in order to help us. Foraging for food is survival for animals, and finding enough food in the wild isn't easy. If we can provide them with enough food, the animals will be very happy to help us find people."

"Oh~" Li Pu exclaimed suddenly, "So you can play it like that!"

Food is no problem!

If you were to ask what human society has the least shortage of in modern times, it would undoubtedly be food! Well... actually, food is still somewhat scarce, but compared to developed countries, food is the one thing that is least lacking.

The developed agriculture and food industry have brought about a massive amount of food, which includes not only food for humans but also food for pets.

Li Pu quickly approached Kiritsugu and asked very directly, "Kiritsugu, can you buy mealworms?"

"The more the better!"

"Mealworms?" Kiritsugu paused, taken aback by the strange request. He stared at Li Pu for a long time before asking, as if to confirm, "Mealworms? You mean those yellow mealworms?"

"Yes, that's it." Li Pu nodded and said, "It's not a contraband item, you should be able to buy it in Fuyuki City, right?"

"I want lots! Lots! A huge number of mealworms."

"Mealworms?" Kiritsugu certainly knew about those things, but what puzzled him was what Li Pu wanted them for. Did she want to control those insects?

Controlling insects isn't unusual; the Matou Family, for example, does it. So it's not surprising that Li Pu wanted the insect Kiritsugu— after all, Goddess. She might even possess some strange Divine Art, so controlling insects isn't unusual, is it? But to control insects, you'd have to choose some decent ones, right? Like mealworms or something...

I've never seen Kiritsugu before.