The Encounter

Puff...

Puff...

Groups of sturdy horses wandered across the endless grassland, searching for fresh grass to eat. Several hundred meters behind them stood a crowd of brightly dressed nobles and their loyal guards, watching the tall, handsome horses.

At the very front of the nobles stood an old aristocrat. He whispered instructions to the steward beside him, then nodded in satisfaction as he watched the herd of fine horses.

"Master Adel, the owner of the ranch!" After hearing his master's instructions, the noble's steward turned and called to the man standing a hundred meters away from the nobles.

"Yes... whew! Yes, Steward Sedra! What can I do for you? Whew?!" At the call, a lump of a man came rolling over as fast as he could, almost literally rolling. This human ball of flesh was the owner of this ranch: Adel.

Adel tucked in his already almost nonexistent neck and spoke obsequiously to Steward Sedra.

"My master is very pleased with the horses you've provided, so he has decided to buy half your warhorses for two hundred gold coins! What do you say?" Sedra held his head high and spoke to the fat man as if looking down his nose at him.

"Ha... Two hundred gold coins? Isn't that a little too little? I've spent my very best fodder raising these horses, and worked so hard... The least I could accept is two hundred and fifty gold coins!" Adel said in a voice that was almost tearful.

"Enough nonsense! My master is willing to pay you at all—that's already a favor! Don't forget your place, you commoner!" Sedra snorted haughtily. Then he turned to the knights accompanying the noble's carriage and called, "You there, hurry up and pick out half the horses to take away. And you, little one—the one called Artoria! You can deal with the fodder for the horses." Having issued his orders, Sedra swayed away without looking back.

His arrogant, contemptuous attitude left the knights fuming. But they couldn't do anything about it. Their master still thought highly of him.

The knights resigned themselves to their bad luck. One by one, they dismounted and walked toward the herd. Not one of them paid any attention to Artoria, the "little one" the steward had mentioned. The youth named Artoria seemed used to this sort of thing and silently turned toward the supply wagon behind her.

When she was sure no one could see her face, Artoria finally lifted her head, humiliation written across it. Her emerald-green eyes glimmered with tears, but she stubbornly refused to let them fall...

With red-rimmed eyes, Artoria climbed onto a wagon piled with hay and picked up a pitchfork, tossing the fodder around. Ever since she could remember, Artoria had wanted to become a knight.

Whenever she stood in a corner of the courtyard and saw the knights training hard, dressed in armor and carrying their own weapons, she felt nothing but longing and envy.

She hoped to join their ranks. She hoped to become an upright knight, someone people would respect. She had always trained hard, striving to become a great knight.

But Artoria had been raised in a noble household from childhood, and she could never become a knight. Though she had been brought up as a boy, she was now only a lowly servant, not even qualified to become a knight's squire.

Even so, Artoria never gave up on her dream of becoming a knight. She trained harder and harder, working herself to the bone. Even if there was only the faintest chance, she would seize it.

Failure wasn't frightening. What was frightening was having a chance and not taking it.

Artoria worked hard, lifting and turning the fodder with her pitchfork, one forkful at a time. Every so often, she straightened up on the wagon and looked enviously at the knights in the distance as they worked to herd the horses.

"If only... I could be one of them..." Artoria murmured, her voice tinged with bitterness. She wiped the sweat from her forehead with the sleeve of her rough hemp shirt, then went back to tossing the hay with her pitchfork.

Perhaps I'm still nowhere near good enough to become a knight. But if I work even harder—hard enough to earn my lord's approval—then maybe I really can... A faint smile appeared on Artoria's face. Then she went back to work.

Yet that very day, after driving the horses back to the noble's estate, Artoria received an order from the head of the household: she was to become a knight's attendant. The lord had made this decision so that the hardworking servant could become a capable assistant to his knightly son. (To become a knight, one needed a noble's recognition.)

The order struck Artoria like a blow. She had thought that if she worked hard enough—if she only worked a little harder—she might earn the head of the household's approval and become a knight. Now that dream had been shattered...

A knight's attendant. It sounded good, but in truth, the position was barely better than being a servant. If the knight was thirsty, she had to bring him water. If he was hungry, she had to prepare his food. At night, while the knight slept soundly, she would have to stand watch in the dark.

If she failed to serve well, and was unlucky enough to be saddled with a bad-tempered knight, she would be beaten. She might even be beaten to death, and no one would bother asking about it.

At last, a crystal-clear tear fell from Artoria's eye. She clenched the hem of her clothes, forcing herself to hold back the urge to punch the smug, smirking steward in front of her.

"I... I understand. I'll obey the head of the household's orders..." Artoria spoke through gritted teeth, forcing the words out.

"Heh... hehehe... Now that's how a proper servant should act. A lowly hand like you thinks you can become a noble knight? Hahahahaha! Don't make me laugh! You don't even know who your own father and mother are, you worthless wretch! Hahahahaha!" The steward, who seemed to have a serious taste for cruelty, pointed at Artoria and laughed uproariously.

The servants hurried past nearby, pretending they had seen and heard nothing. Every one of them felt sorry for the youth kneeling on the ground with her head lowered in humiliation and tears in her eyes. They wanted to help her, but better to pity her quietly than to offend the steward, who had recently earned the head of the household's favor. Helping her for real was out of the question.

"Hehe... Do you know why the head of the household gave you this order, Artoria?" The steward abruptly stopped laughing, bent down, and whispered in Artoria's ear.

"Because I talked him into it! And do you know why I did that to you? Because I want to see it... I want to see those beautiful eyes of yours, always so stubborn, earnest, and unwilling to give up, filled with despair and helplessness in the face of reality! I bet you'd look even more beautiful then! Hehe... hehehe, hahahaha!" The steward finished speaking and walked away, laughing loudly.

Artoria glared after him, her eyes spitting fire. She tightened her grip on the shears she had somehow found herself holding.

"Whew... whew..." Her breathing grew heavier and heavier, and the rage already consuming her mind left her increasingly exhausted. Gradually, she began to hear a voice in her head, roaring and screaming over and over, urging her to kill that despicable wretch!

"B-but... huh?!" Just as Artoria was about to snap, she raised her head and prepared to rush after the steward who had humiliated her so badly and kill him. But then she saw that the man who had been swaggering down the road was now standing with a sword thrust through his heart by a young man.

Squelch! The young man yanked the sword from the steward's heart, and a spray of bright red blood surged into the air along with it!

Whoosh! A flash of white, and another fountain of blood burst from the steward's neck, spattering across the sky. Artoria stared in shock at the strangely dressed young man who had just cut off the steward's head with a single stroke. Her wide emerald eyes were full of disbelief and confusion, but more than anything, they showed the satisfaction of seeing someone get what they deserved...

The steward's head rolled across the ground and stopped in front of Artoria. Even in death, the shock and fear on his face were still plain to see.

But Artoria couldn't be bothered to give it a glance. Her beautiful emerald-green eyes were fixed on the young man slowly walking toward her...

"Ah... ah! Murder! Someone's been murdered!"

"Quick, get the knights!"

"Tell the head of the household!"

"Ah!!!"

"Run! Stay away from them! We'll get dragged into it~!!!"

Clang, clatter, crash—crack! Only then did the servants recover from the shock of seeing the steward killed in an instant. They screamed and scattered in terror, afraid of being killed themselves—and even more afraid that the head of the household would take his anger out on them. Anxiety and fear spread through the crowd.

Click.

The blood-covered youth came to a stop in front of Artoria. The cold, merciless look on his face vanished the instant he saw her.

In its place was a warm smile. He slowly reached out his hand to the astonished girl sitting on the ground.

"Will you come with me? Let's go see the wider world beyond this place." The handsome young man smiled as he spoke.

Artoria stared blankly at the young man, then seemed to come to her senses and asked, "Who are you?"

The young man didn't answer. Instead, he bent down, reached out with both arms, and swept Artoria up into them. Then he smiled and said,

"My name is Drac. D. Xia. Be sure to remember it, Artoria."

"Why... do you know my name?" Artoria's eyes widened in surprise as she looked at the young man.

"Why...? Because I'm Heaven's chosen one! I've been sent from above to aid the newborn king, end this era of days 'as dark as night,' and prepare you for what's to come! The world will be watching you! King Arthur!"

Whoosh~~!

A gust of wind rose, and a leaf drifted down from the tree, blocking their view. When it had fallen and they looked again,

the two people who had been standing there had vanished. Only the disgusting head and an old, battered sword remained on the ground, proof that what had just happened was real...

"Artoria was born to inherit the throne. Because of her status, she had to be fostered in a noble household."

"One year after King Uther's death, the very year the girl named Artoria came of age, the great mage Merlin summoned the nobles and knights of the land to a tournament. Its purpose was to find a king who could draw the chosen king's sword, the Sword in the Stone."

"But according to the original course of history, Artoria was supposed to be a knight's attendant. When the knight forgot to bring his weapon for the tournament, he would send Artoria to fetch it.

"But Artoria couldn't find the sword the knight had left behind, and she was troubled by it. Then, by chance, she saw an old man in black sitting on a stone, with a magnificent sword stuck in a stone beside him.

"When Artoria tried to walk over and draw it, the old man in black slowly turned around and asked, 'If you can draw this sword, you will no longer be human. You will have to give up your human body and your emotions, and devote everything you have to your country.'

"Artoria paused at his words. Then she turned to look at the old man in the black wizard's robe before looking back at the Sword in the Stone, firmly lodged in the rock...

"Artoria slowly closed her eyes, as if thinking something over and weighing her options. At times she frowned, at times smiled, at times seemed about to cry, and at times seemed furious.

"When Artoria opened her eyes again, her expression had turned resolute. Her gaze was strong and fixed straight ahead, as though nothing could stand in the way of her vision or determination.

"Have you made up your mind?" The old man seemed to be trying to persuade Artoria to give up. "Even if you can draw this sword, I still hope you'll think it over carefully. After all... the fate of the one who draws it is bound to be tragic."

"No..." Artoria firmly shook her head. Then she placed both hands on the hilt of the Sword in the Stone.

"Many people are smiling... Many people are celebrating happily. So... I think the path I've chosen must be the right one!" Artoria said with a smile, the corners of her mouth lifting before she even realized it.

The old man turned away, seemingly troubled. Then he said, "Suit yourself..."

"...For my country! For these people who have suffered through war for so long! Answer me, Genesis Sword!" Artoria gripped the hilt tightly with both hands, then heaved it upward with all her strength!

Whoosh~!!

The Sword in the Stone came free in an instant, bursting into a dazzling golden light. Its radiance, bright enough to scatter the clouds in the sky, illuminated the entire grassland...

Clad in armor, Artoria stood on the grassland, holding the king's sword high above her head.

Not far in front of her, the knights drawn by the divine radiance lined up and knelt one after another. One hand rested behind their backs; the other lay across their chests. They offered their loyalty to their king, the king who would lead them out of hardship and toward victory.

But... that was only how history had originally gone.

From the very second Drac. D. Xia, an outsider, had intruded, the world's script had begun to change...

Xia had arrived in this world just as the steward had begun talking with Saber.

A side note:

One of the skills Alaya gave Xia to help him survive was

a powerful danger instinct.

The Fate storyline would begin in no more than three chapters. This was the catalyst.

Also, I haven't read anything about Fate. Everything here is based on my own settings.

So please forgive me if anything is inaccurate. I love Saber, so I have to follow my own script.

The basic setting won't change, but I'll decide the twists and turns along the way.