Mission: 031 Traveling Together

Mission: 03-1 Companions

"Then, as a demon, what would my goal be?"

Mephisto shot back provocatively.

"Um... Miss Nero." Ritsuka carefully interrupted the two as they faced off, taking Nero's hand where it hung in the air. "Please trust Mephisto. She doesn't mean any harm."

"Shh—"

Before Nero could speak, Mephisto stopped Ritsuka from putting in a good word for her. The demon smiled and said, "Master, you mustn't let your guard down.

"If you trust my words too easily, you'll die a very miserable death."

Ritsuka hurriedly apologized to the demon. "Sorry. I'll be careful."

Nero looked at the two in front of her, momentarily unsure what their relationship was.

How strange.

"That's how it is." Mephisto shrugged and said, "I made a wager with her."

"Just like in the legends, with her soul as the stake?"

Faced with Nero's question, Mephisto smiled. "Exactly. With her soul as the stake."

Huh? Nero immediately turned to look at Ritsuka, wanting to know what she thought.

Ritsuka merely answered with confidence, "I'll win."

Was there really any need to bet that big?

Mephisto laid out the wager between the two of them. "Until this Singularity disappears, I will obey Master's commands. In return, Master must show me the most dazzling thing in the human heart. And if she cannot, when the contract ends, I will take her soul."

The wager did not sound very fair. But since Ritsuka was so firmly convinced she could do it, Nero seemed to have little room to say anything more.

After all, it was between her and Mephisto.

"Then let's go." Nero gave the two of them a long look, then turned and walked toward the town.

Ritsuka and Mephisto followed after her.

After all the commotion, it was already very late. Walking in front, Nero looked at the smear of afterglow on the horizon, then glanced back and asked, "By the way, have you thought about how you're going to spend the night in town?"

Ritsuka gave a rather awkward "Uh," then looked at Mephisto beside her.

The demon smiled cheerfully and said, "Master, as a demon, of course I can fulfill your wish."

"Then what's the price?"

"You may choose freely," the demon replied. "For example, I can make some passerby's money appear silently in your hands right now, and all you need to pay is your own—"

"Rejected."

The smile on Mephisto's face brightened a little. "Then perhaps you would like me to use magic to beguile the innkeeper? The price for that would be a little lower."

"Mm... Is there anything else?"

"Then allow me to—"

"Silence, you tempter of hearts."

A stern voice came from not far away, cutting off Mephisto's words. Nero and Ritsuka turned to look, and saw a figure dressed like a knight, clad in silver armor with a red cloak over her shoulders, standing with her back to the three of them as she rose from the ground and turned around.

She wore her long brown hair loose, and had the appearance of a spirited girl. Within her violet eyes dwelled a righteous radiance.

"My name is Georgios." She announced herself and walked toward them, reaching for the sword hilt at her waist as she spoke. "I never expected to encounter so many wicked things on my very first day in this place."

Behind her, several townspeople were gathered together. At the center was a child who had collapsed unconscious. Now the child had awakened and was looking around blankly in an adult's arms.

Hearing the name she gave, Fujimaru Ritsuka stepped forward in pleasant surprise and asked, "Georgios? Georgios the Dragon Slayer?"

Then, after seeing the other person's face clearly, she scratched at her own hair in some doubt. "Huh? A girl?"

Seeing that Ritsuka recognized her, Georgios let go of the hand on her sword. "I see. Since you know of us Heroic Spirits, you must be the Master from Chaldea. First Meeting. This body is the Saber-class Heroic Spirit, Georgios."

With that, her gaze moved away from Ritsuka's face and swept over Nero and Mephisto. "I simply had not expected that the evil presence I had sensed faintly before would actually be acting together with Master."

Nero sighed faintly in her heart. She did not flare up because the other party thought she was a demon, and merely asked, "You were treating someone?"

"It could hardly be called an illness. That child merely fainted from hunger."

Georgios turned her head slightly to glance behind her and said, "If it truly had been an illness... that would have been trouble."

As beings who transcended time, Heroic Spirits would usually receive some information about the current era when they descended. Clearly, Georgios knew very well that a massive plague had already broken out in Europe, and that its crossing the strait to reach England was only a matter of time.

After all, Ritsuka, following behind Nero, had seen plenty herself. She quickly recovered from the confusion caused by the Georgios before her not knowing her, and being female besides, and asked, "Doctor Giorgios, were you also summoned to repair the Singularity?"

"Doctor..." Georgios shook her head slightly, as if denying the title. "Indeed. Unfortunately, as for the enemy who created this Singularity, I still have no clue at all."

Then she looked directly at Ritsuka and said, "Since Master has also come here, act together with me. Leaving you together with these evil demons truly makes it difficult for me to be at ease."

"Calling us evil demons with every breath, are you?" Mephisto stood behind Ritsuka, her face maintaining a smile that did not reach her eyes. "As expected of a saint."

The demon looked at Nero and sowed discord. "Didn't you call yourself human? Being looked down on by her like this, don't you have anything to say?"

Nero knew she was trying to provoke her, and merely answered coldly, "Let her say what she wants. I don't care what others think. I'm only annoyed that you're treating me as the same kind as you."

The demon kept smiling.

Elsewhere, Ritsuka had already reached out a hand toward Giorgios. "I'm glad you're willing to help. I'm Fujimaru Ritsuka. These two are..."

Mephisto refused without hesitation. "I have no desire to have a saint know my name. It'll shorten my lifespan."

"I'm Nero."

Nero had no such concerns and nodded to her in greeting.

"I understand."

After a brief round of introductions, the group moved a little away from the crowd and came to a street corner to discuss matters. With Fujimaru Ritsuka taking the lead, they shared the deductions made by Chaldea's two strategists with Giorgios.

"That's how it is. By the way, Doctor Giorgios, have you seen Sphinx?" Ritsuka asked.

"No." She shook her head as she replied, "Since she is a heroic spirit of the Ruler class, she must know the locations of all of us who have been summoned. If she has not met with us, that means she does not wish to see us."