"...King?"
At Jeanne d'Arc's puzzled question, Darnic nodded and declared with a smile that put even her, a Servant, on guard:
"Indeed. Sovell, the White Dragon Prince of Britain, is my Servant-Black Lancer."
Under Darnic's guidance, Jeanne d'Arc entered a corridor with a stone floor. The servants passing along the way bowed in greeting, but their overly similar appearances and uniformly artificial Magic Circuits allowed Jeanne d'Arc to identify what they were.
Seeing Jeanne d'Arc frown, Darnic explained quietly:
"We believe it is best to involve as few humans as possible in the Holy Grail War."
"Homunculi are humans as well."
Jeanne d'Arc rebutted him without mercy.
"How compassionate you are, Holy Maiden. Do you cherish Artificial Lifeforms as well? Forgive my presumption, but they are merely products of Magecraft that can be mass-produced. Their lifespans are only two or three months. They are worlds apart from true humans..."
"But like humans, they bear God's likeness, souls, and selves. The brevity of their journeys through this world does not diminish the light the Lord has bestowed upon them."
"I do not dispute God's likeness or souls, but as for selves..."
Darnic was about to concede a little ground to mock the holy maiden before him.
But the instant his words had fully faded into the air, the figure of an Artificial Lifeform suddenly flashed through Darnic's mind-
It was the Artificial Lifeform who had chosen to flee out of fear of death.
"What is wrong with their selves?"
Jeanne d'Arc's voice sounded beside him. Darnic instinctively met her eyes, only to be cowed by the authority the saint who had saved her nation unconsciously exuded.
"...Their sense of self is deficient. They only obey their masters' commands."
"You are desecrating life! You are usurping the Lord's authority!"
"I do not