「 Alistair's Pov. 」
"buuuuuuuurrrrrrrrrr———"
Snapping my eyes open, I jerked forward. Gasping sharply, I desperately looked around, trying my best to find out where I was despite the sound of my heartbeat thumping in my ears.
Panting shallowly, my eyes slowly acclimated themselves to the darkness, allowing me to recognise that I was lying in bed in my new room.
Lowering my gaze, I noticed a set of arms that were snaked around my waist, causing me to look aside at the woman sleeping next to me.
Looking at Morgan's face, I noticed that she was still soundly asleep, or at least that's what her rhythmic breathing suggested.
Calming my rapid breathing and pulse, I took a few slow and deep breaths, before glancing at the old wall-mounted clock on the wall.
3 O'clock was early… really early, but I couldn't see myself going back to sleep anytime soon.
Looking back down at Morgan, I gave a small gentle smile, before slowly unlatching her hold on me and slipping out of the bed.
Groaning slightly at my stiff limbs, I moved over to the closet and slipped on some morning robes, before moving to the door. Glancing behind me, I double-checked that Morgan was asleep, before gently opening the door, slipping outside and silently closing it.
Walking down the manor's dimly lit halls, I moved to my office, and quickly entered it. Upon entering, my eyes locked onto a very knocked-out Altrouge, who had apparently still not woken up.
Looking at her, I started to mull over what to do.
I could easily ignore her and work, allowing her to have her beauty sleep. Hell, who knows, maybe it'll do her some good, and she'll grow an inch or two.
Or, I could wake her up, and have someone to talk to for the next four to five hours.
…
Fuck it.
"Altrouge!" I yelled while clapping my hands together.
Like clockwork, she almost bolted up, her hair and face looking equally frazzled. "Eh?"
With a flick of my finger, the lights came on, and I saw her hands slam into her eyes, causing her to smack herself to the floor. "AH! You BITCH!"
Looking at the 'all-powerful' vampire roll around on the floor while covering her eyes in a hangover-like daze was highly amusing.
"Morning," I said while walking straight past her, and seating myself in my office chair.
Altrouge only took a few seconds before she gathered herself, and managed to push herself off of the floor, and seat herself across from me.
"Fuck you," she grouched, pressing a hand to her forehead.
Frowning slightly, I scrutinized her a bit before raising my brows in surprise. "Wait, you are actually experiencing a hangover?" I asked in surprise, earning a begrudging nod from Altrouge.
"Hurts like a bitch, and I am trying to think if the hangover is worth the absolute bliss drinking your blood gave me," she explained, before removing her hand from her forehead, and closing her eyes in concentration.
Something within her seemed to shift, and a smirk graced her lips. "Time reversal works," she said smugly, before leaning backwards in her seat, placing her arms behind her head. "So it's totally worth it," she stated with a fake air of wisdom lacing her tone.
"Truly, the discovery of the century," I said sarcastically, earning a pout from the vampire.
"You could be nicer, you know?" She stated petulantly, before trying her best to put on her 'puppy dog eyes', which still somewhat worked with her 14-year-old body. "Your little prank really hurt, so can I get some more blood as an apology?" She punctuated her point by rapidly batting her eyelashes.
Giving her a blank look, I watched as she continued batting her eyelashes for a minute straight before cracking. "Fine," I grouched out, causing Altrouge's pitiful expression to crumble and be replaced with a smug one. "But, only because your face looked absolutely ridiculous."
Her smug face quickly turned ashen, but she still conjured a tendril of black blood, and used it to lift the glass she had used earlier, to place it on my desk.
Used to this by now, I opened a drawer and pulled out a small knife enchanted to heal wounds a minute after causing them.
Quickly nicking the lower part of my forearm, I placed the glass under the wound, allowing it to gather the blood.
Altrouge watched on in rapt attention, before giving a slight frown, as if trying to remember something. "Hmmm, why am I here again?" She asked aloud, though the question seemed to be for the both of us.
Giving her a funny look, I thought back to what Morgan's reason for entering my office was, and quickly grasped that she had likely been asked to do the same.
"I think you were meant to convince me to go to bed," I explained, causing the girl to bolt up, and slam her hands on the desk before removing a hand to point at me. "Yeah!" She affirmed excitedly, before widening her eyes.
Snapping her head to look at the wall-mounted clock, she almost physically recoiled at the number it displayed, before slowly looking back at me.
"Mission failed?" She asked in a tone that barely mimicked Ghost's intonation.
Shaking my head slightly, I thought I'd mess with her a bit. "Not really," I said before pointing at her. "I went to bed not much longer after you fell unconscious," I explained, causing her to puff up with pride.
"I knew I could do it," she said smugly.
"Not so much," I said, causing her face to stiffen, before slowly narrowing her eyes at me. "I thought you said you went to bed right after 'I went to bed', so how did I not have anything to do with it?" she asked, with her having used air quotes when mentioning her 'falling asleep', rather than saying that she drunkenly fell unconscious.
Feeling the cut on my arm close, I used a low level spell to move the rest of the blood dripping from my elbow to enter the glass before placing it on the table. "You see, Morgan dragged me into bed with her, and we slept together," I explained with a straight face.
The silence that followed my proclamation was deafening, before she snatched the glass and downed the contents in a single gulp. The effect was instant, causing her cheeks to flush, and her eyes to water.
Seeing her reaction, I quickly backpedaled. "Wait," I said while raising a hand to stop the upcoming pity fest. "It was a jo–" "Do you have any idea how hard it is to try and seduce someone that is not a pedophile!" She snapped, with a few tears spilling out of her eyes, before she covered her face.
"I'm nearly 1500 for FUCK'S sake!" She screeched, before letting out a sob. "But I can't even make it past puberty!" She bemoaned, before letting out a hiccup.
What the fuck did I do?
She's a Dead Apostle, a True Ancestor! She should barely have feelings, the fuck is with this sudden emotional baggage dump?!
Scrambling to my feet, I walked around the table to get closer to her, causing Altrouge to fling herself onto me, while bawling her eyes out.
"I've spent a decade together with you," she paused as there was a hitch in her voice. "Yet the second some other girl shows interest, you fully embrace her, and cast me aside!"
Patting her back, I tried to get a word in. "Altrouge, nothing happened, I didn—" "It's like if you don't even care about me!" She sobbed, before burying her face in my chest.
Seeing her catatonic state, I knew I needed to fix things ASAP.
"I'm sorry, it was a terrible joke, nothing happened," I said seriously, earning a slight sniffle from the distraught vampire. "Really?" She asked hopefully.
Gently caressing her back once more, I spoke up reassuringly. "Of course, and I'm sorry about the mean-spirited joke," I affirmed, causing her grip on me to tighten.
"It wasn't funny," she sniffed. "I don't want to be alone."
Humming slightly, I only tightened the embrace to make her feel a smidge better.
"Please don't leave me," she begged, and I could only numbly nod. "Of course," I affirmed, slightly adjusting her posture for her comfort.
…
Only to see the smuggest face imaginable stare right back up at me.
…
I… I think I've been had…
"Then I won't leave you either," she said in a tone full of smugness.
~~Fate/False Order~~
「 Morgan's Pov. 」
Walking down the snow-covered cobbled path, I felt the feeling of the surrounding Bounded Fields try their damnedest to affect or lock onto my person, only to crumble upon making contact with my body.
The Einzberns definitely knew that someone was not-so-subtly inviting themselves onto their turf, though they were quite helpless in sending for help, as I had set up my own countermeasures to stop anyone from learning of my little mission.
Just as I passed the forest line, I was met with a most impressive castle. It was several stories tall, had two large spires, along with a giant fortress gate in front. It was the spitting image of 'Neuschwanstein Castle', or according to Alistair it was more the other way around, but nonetheless, it was quite the sight.
Truth be told, I somewhat missed living in a castle, despite the many shortcomings of living in such a building. But it simply had its charm, and while far more convenient, living in a Manor like I do now, simply didn't hold the same level of charm for me.
I believe, according to Alistair's lingo, that it makes me a 'material girl', or something like that, though I like to think of it as me just having good taste.
My appreciation of the castle was cut short, as I saw multiple armed homunculi run from the castle's gate to my location.
Disgusting.
Just at a glance, I could see numerous mistakes in their construction.
The goal of homunculi creation is to create the perfect human, or at the very least to create a human clone. These met neither of those criteria.
Their anatomy was as clear as day to me, and calling them puppets sculpted with animal flesh and bones would be an… apt description.
Seeing and studying Irisviel seems to have raised my expectation of this era's level of sophistication. She was nearly human, with some minor discrepancies, but those could be discarded given the fact that she was meant to be a vessel for the Lesser Grail, rather than a proper Homunculus.
These however…
It was obvious that each extremity could be separated at any given moment, allowing them to be assembled like dolls, and when a 'part' was damaged, a new one could just be replaced with ease.
Jubstacheit had clearly gone spare, and had chosen to mix golem and homunculi creation principles to create these abominations.
In this age, they might be top-of-the-line creations, with high combat abilities due to the high muscles and tensile densities in each of them, along with artificial Magic Circuits to allow some to perform Magecraft… but they were so… inadequate for the material used to make them.
Not to mention the fact that since the Einzberns' ultimate wish is to one day obtain the Third Magic, they obviously started to create homunculi to study the formation of the Soul, and how to artificially adjust its growth, while ultimately creating a body to facilitate the guaranteed creation of a soul in a high plane of existence. However, despite that fact, they have created homunculi that are so soulless, that they will never gain a soul fragment, let alone a hint of a proper soul, ultimately stymying any proper progress to their goal.
It was truly pitiful.
Expanding my shadow, all of the guards rushing at me suddenly found themselves sinking into the shade, vanishing in an instant.
There was no need to kill them, after all, I'd need them to stand guard later to keep up the facade, and building any more of those third rate homunculi was beneath me.
Walking up the now guard free gate, I cast another spell to open the giant oak castle gates.
The second I entered the arched gate, another dozen guards lunged at me with halberds, along with a few spells being hurled in my direction.
In an instant, the shadows surrounding them grew tendrils, grabbing weapons, blocking spells and entangling all of the homunculi, bringing all of them to a halt, before dragging them into the shadow.
Walking through the now empty gateway, I entered the castle's courtyard. Giving the area a glance, I felt a slight scoff escape my lips. The whole point of a courtyard was for gatherings, or rather to show off, yet this one was so barren.
Utterly distasteful, and a waste of potential.
The castle seemed rather bare-bones, despite its excellent exterior. Jubstacheit clearly didn't deserve to live in a castle, nor understand the unwritten rules for the management of one.
Walking into the desolate courtyard, I finally decided to spread out my senses, as I was in the epicenter of the compound, allowing me to feel out the locations with the greatest concentration of Mana, Bounded Field Anchors, 'people' along with the person, or in this case, the thing tied to the Castle's Bounded Field array.
Smiling slightly, I felt a few locations which seemed to be the homunculus creation lab, workshop and who I can only assume to be Jubstacheit Von Einzbern, who had no life-signatures, and felt more akin to a golem.
Him being a golem made far more sense, as after seeing the botched garbage that were Einzbern Homunculi, I refused to believe that they could last for more than ten years, at most, let alone the near two hundred years Jubstacheit has been 'alive'.
"Intruder," reverberated a deep and cold male voice through the courtyard, along with the feeling of a scrying spell locking onto my person. "You are trespassing on Einzbern property," he stated before continuing. "Leave now, before I turn the full might of the Einzbern on you."
Smiling slightly, I felt as multiple Bounded Fields began to activate.
I needed him to activate as many as possible, as within the small window of all of them activating, the Fields all needed to key each other in with one another, so as to work optimally and not interfere with each effect, allowing me to key myself into them as well.
And with my superior knowledge, along with my Territory Creation skill being so high, I could easily connect myself with the owner of the Bounded Field, before snatching complete control of the compound's Bounded Fields, before cutting the owner's own connection to it.
Giving a theatrical curtsy, I smugly tilted my head up to the origin point of the scrying spell. "I am afraid I can't do that," I said with a mocking lilt to my voice. "You see, I am in need of a new base of operations after your son-in-law blew up my Workshop in Fuyuki."
There was a small pause, before the voice spoke up. "Are you Servant Caster?" The voice asked with suspicion, causing me to curtsy once more. "Medea of Colchis," I lied smoothly, and before I could continue with my little speech, I felt dozens of Bounded Fields spring up, some of them solely meant to suppress spiritual existence like Servants. Had I been a Servant, this could have been crippling, even for me, however, instead, this was the opportunity I had been waiting for.
In an instant, a giant pulse of Mana escaped me, and I felt an instant connection to the Wards, causing me to stop their activation. Narrowing in on my connection with them, I quickly scanned for the individual with an equal level of 'clearance' to the Fields' control, allowing me to feel the presence of another.
Now for the tricky part.
Focusing on the individual, who could only be Jubstacheit, I did a mass un-keying of all individuals that were still in the Castle, while flagging them as hostile, excluding me and Jubstacheit and the one who I believed to be Illyasviel. Trying to block him out immediately would be too difficult, as he has been linked to the Wards for nearly two hundred years, so there would be too much resistance. However, now the entire Ward Scheme is on Red-Alert, flagging hundreds of homunculi, overloading the system and confusing it.
The following small migraine that accompanied the feeling of the Wards pinging any and every person in the castle barely drew a reaction from me, but the subsequent feeling of someone trying to undo my work caused a smile to find its way onto my face.
Bounded Fields are inherently not sentient, however they have a sense of logic. So while un-keying a ton of people is 'normal', and logical, as this place produces and sells homunculi, so they would need to key-in and out their 'products' regularly. However, what is not 'logical', is to key-in a ton of individuals flagged as hostiles.
Him performing such a thing can be seen as 'hostile', or 'self-destructive' by the Wards, meaning I will get far less pushback in forcing him out of the Wards.
With a thought, another wave of Mana along with a healthy dose of my will was injected into the Castle's Bounded Fields, and almost instantly I felt Jubstacheit's connection vanish.
With a smirk, I turned the wards on him, initiating the restraining protocols, likely binding the man.
With a thought I appeared inside of a dimly lit workshop, filled with bookshelves and various tables with half-constructed homunculi. The room itself radiated intense gloom, which was only strengthened by the pile of discarded limbs by each workbench.
But amongst all of the useless knick-knacks, crumpled on the floor lay a decrepit old man.
Feeling the smile on my face grow, I glided towards him, using a quick spell to raise the fool from the floor, and have him hover in a way that made it look like he was standing.
Reaching in front of the old man, I curiously studied him. He had no pulse, no organic tissue throughout his body, and likely no soul. His exterior was well-crafted, he looked like an older version of a male Einzbern homunculus, except this one had grey eyes, and a small beard.
Looking at him, I noticed as he tried to speak, causing me to slightly slacken the hold on his bindings.
The golem's voice box gave a very human like croak, as I let go of the bindings limiting his speech. Staring at me, he spoke. "You are making a mistake," he stated, causing me to give an unladylike snort.
"You amuse me," I stated in a tone that matched my words. "But I hold very little interest in your opinion."
"Caster," he said neutrally. "An attack on the Einzbern will cause the Mage's Association to come down on you, and they will have far less mercy than myself."
His comment drew an involuntary cackle out of me, causing the golem to frown. "Oh," I said in between my cackling. "I seem to have been mistaken," I chuckled out, before calming down. "You are hilarious," I corrected, before quickly shifting my tone. "After all, the Mage's Association will soon happily sign off on your entire family's death."
The frown on his face became infinitely more pronounced at my comment. Seeing him open his mouth to speak up, I waved my hand and 'muzzled' him once more.
"You overestimate yourself and your words' value," I gently chastised him, while slowly curling around him. "You see, I am not very happy with you," I stated calmly.
Placing my hand on his head, I gave his cranium a gentle massage, trying to probe his alchemical makeup. "Your family has caused us some issues you see," I explained, before mentally bringing up a list. "Summoning an Evil God, corrupting the Grail, choosing a terrorist for an in-law, and letting him run loose like some rabid dog."
And of course, he was indirectly at fault for the reason why Alistair could no longer sleep properly, and for that, I'd make this hurt.
Having completed my scan of his composition, I positioned myself behind him while letting go of his head. "Luckily for you, I am a forgiving woman," I consoled, before placing both of my hands on his back, and ripping him open.
His back split vertically open, allowing me to see the inside of his structure, showing a skeletal structure consisting of silicone and various tubes of mana-infused natural oils running around his system.
The craftsmanship was decent, but the underlying idea was interesting to say the least, so maybe I'd revisit this one day, and make my very own, but much better Jubstacheit.
Ignoring the many odd 'organs' populating the inside of his chest, I focused in on what was clearly the golem's core, and quickly reached out and grasped it, which quickly caused the golem to writhe in panic.
While I knew that the old wretch couldn't feel any proper pain, as there was no reason to implement such functions into his build, but I had something in mind that would hopefully be the closest he could feel to pain.
After all, how would a proud 'genius' feel, if his mind was slowly corroded, a haze clouding his thoughts. Simple calculations that once took seconds now needed proper thought and minutes to calculate. Concepts and ideas that once felt simple would now be incoherent, and things that seemed to make sense no longer did.
A death of the mind, one which you could observe and feel as you slowly became less and less until you could no longer think.
An apt punishment for such garbage.
Slowly, dozens of small Fae runes etched themselves on his core, causing the golem to writhe and squirm against his restraints.
Smiling, I etched as many runes as I could on his core, before letting go of his core, and removing my hand from his torso while turning off the spell holding him upright. And like the sack of potatoes he was, he collapsed to the floor, while furiously twitching.
Walking up next to him, I looked down at him. "Worry not, you're still useful, so I'll let you live for now," I explained, though I saw no reaction indicating that he was happy due to my words.
After all, I needed him to reply to correspondence, if he gets any, and act in a way that is not suspicious, and more in line with someone isolating themselves to wait out a storm, rather than involve themselves.
It would likely wash away any lingering suspicion if Jubstacheit did it, rather than if some random homunculus kept up correspondence, so I'd keep him for now.
Smiling slightly, I moved away from the golem. "I'll let you enjoy your new 'mental facilities' for a little bit, while I go visit your 'granddaughter'," I said, once more not earning any reply from the twitching figure.
I could only give an internal sigh at the man's lack of reaction. Toying with golems was just as boring as I thought it would be. It's such a shame that he was unable to display a proper reaction.
Teleporting away, I returned in a flash inside a large room inside the castle's largest spire. The room was sparsely decorated, with no paintings, tapestries and the like hanging from the wall. Only two small half-full bookcases, a desk and chair along with a bed decorated the room.
But atop the bed sat a shivering little girl, hiding under the covers. Slowly walking up to her, I noticed as the shivering intensified, causing me to frown. With a thought I double-checked the wards, only to notice that she only keyed in as a guest, meaning she still felt some of the after effects of the 'high alert' settings, causing her to feel uneasy as incentive for her not to act out.
Quickly keying her in, I pulled off her quilt to get a good look at her, causing the girl to give a yelp of fear.
She had red eyes and long white hair, causing her to be the spitting image of her mother, albeit far younger.
"Wer…wer bist du?" She stuttered out, but the different language caught me slightly off guard.
I had been chauffeured by a few associates of my 'new' family, so the entire trip had been spoken in English, including Jubstacheit, so I had nearly forgotten that they spoke a different language here.
I clearly needed to get on that, as I assume few still spoke Frankish, Latin and Coptic in this day and age.
With a snap of my fingers, her eyes rolled to the back of her head, and she fell onto the bed unconscious.
Looking at her, I felt the urge to do something to her intensify, which forced me to clamp down on it.
While mutilating, or creating hidden illnesses in her would satiate some of my urges for claiming revenge against Kiritsugu, Alistair had pointedly said that it was for the best that she was in good health.
This was of course so that when the foul wretch came and picked up his daughter, that they could have a good life, until everything comes crumbling down on them later. But for that to work, she needs to be in good health, and that ungrateful man needs to have the opportunity to save his child.
Of course, there was the other part, where Alistair said that children were mostly innocent and shouldn't be blamed for their parents' deeds, which I found difficult to refute.
Regardless, I should be slightly mollified that she'll serve as a part of our revenge, unknowingly or not.
But for that to work, she'll need to be in pristine condition, so that none of the Emiyas will have a need to re-enter the Moonlit World, until it's time.
Looking down at the girl, I slightly squinted my eyes.
She was fine for the most part, but she could use some 'quality of life' adjustments to ensure the family would stay in their lane, though she would need a few operations to live comfortably.
Luckily, this place was brimming with spare parts.
---
A/N
Welcome back, my reader Overlords, please add this to your library and give me some comments, stones and reviews, as it would be much appreciated.
Now, a few things to cover here…
Remember Altrouge's little pity party? Yeah, she was fucking with him, as she for one would know if he had actually done the deed (dont ask, it's for your own good), as for two, she was venting to show that she is trying, but as well to level the playing field, as going to far with Morgan might make Altrouge cry and be mopey, which should hopefully (for her) slow down some of Morgan's progress, as Alistair would likely try to calm things down a bit before committing to something serious.
All in all, she still somewhat means what she said, but it is a bit of an act to stack things in her favour. AKA she is playing the field with dirty tricks… But can you truely judge her? A woman stuck in a 14 year olds body Vs a woman renowned as a peerless beauty of her time, and isnt stuck as a pre-teen? Hell, I'd continue to try and kill my competition if I were in her shoes.
Regardless of that little squabble, how was Germany? What did you all think of the Einzbern takeover? Did Morgan's tactics make sense to you?
Other than that, if you have any questions, post them here! And if not, have a great day, and I wish all those doing their exams good luck!
Hop onto my Discord Server, I'd love to have a chat: https://discord.gg/HAPhryp5M2
Now, hand over those Power Stones, can't you see they are lonely when not used? Give them to me, and allow them to socialize, it's for their best... I swear...