Book 2: Chapter 14: Fou’s Sumptuous Lunch
If Jeanne d’Arc Alter were a little smarter, she would know that a decisive battle would take place soon. Before knowing what Chen Heng’s Noble Phantasm was, her best option was to use the Holy Grail to generate a large number of wyverns and skeleton soldiers, then spread them out and proceed with long-range attacks.
After all, in the previous two battles, Chen Heng did not lay his gravity field over a vast area, just a small place.
The facts were as such. An ability like the gravity field drained mana significantly. If the gravity field were fully spread out, it might have some effect on the wyverns but not on the Servants, who had high combat prowess.
Even if Jeanne d’Arc Alter was stupid, she still had her “father,” Gilles de Rais. Although Gilles de Rais was a Berserk-Caster, he was still a holder of a Holy Grail; hence, he maintained his rationality reasonably well. Furthermore, Jeanne d’Arc Alter listened to him.
After Chen Heng asked Merlin, he verified that Jeanne d’Arc Alter was indeed using the Holy Grail to fill her ranks quickly, continuously summoning wyverns and skeleton soldiers.
However, things did not always go as planned. According to the current trajectory, they should be able to gather all the Servants by tonight and would probably start the decisive battle within the next two days.
Before the decisive battle, Chen Heng decided to get Merlin to provide support, and use Fujimaru Ritsuka’s Command Spells to cast a few Noble Phantasms—Justice from Heaven—at Jeanne d’Arc Alter’s stronghold.
Chen Heng raised this suggestion, and everyone unanimously agreed. After all, most Servants were not fools. Even the naive Jeanne d’Arc Alter was an excellent leader with plenty of experience. In reality, these Servants were all very cunning.
If Orléans still had some humans, saints like Jeanne and Georgios would disagree. However, how could there be any humans left alive? At best, there were just some animated corpses.
To get the citizens in the city to move away quickly, the Servants did their best to help, aside from Merlin. With Mash’s tacit permission, Chen Heng took Fou, which Mash handed over. Fou did not resist, as it knew that this was an ally (in the Merlin-must-die alliance). Fou was quite intelligent.
Chen Heng and Fou exchanged looks. Then, gaining a boost from Chen Heng, it launched a spinning kick at Merlin before climbing onto Merlin’s head to claw and bite him. Now, Merlin’s hair, which he had spent a lot of effort to style, looked like a dog had gnawed it.
“Ah! Ah! Ah! You damn beast! Wicked beast! Evil beast! My hair! I finally managed to do it up properly!” Merlin and Fou started fighting.
Smiling with satisfaction, Chen Heng viewed the various embarrassing photos of Merlin he placed in the chat group’s sharing space. Honestly speaking, he felt that the Dimension Administrators Association’s functions were extremely convenient.
After Merlin and Fou fought to a draw, Chen Heng picked up Fou and pulled out ten-odd strands of Merlin’s white hair. (Important, do remember this.)
Then, Chen Heng took out a piece of chocolate from his spatial storage to feed Fou. While dogs could not eat chocolate, Fou… Chen Heng had no idea what Fou was, but it was definitely not a dog, so Fou could eat chocolate. After all, an embodiment of comparison could not be defeated by chocolate, right? Fou seemed to like chocolate.
[TL Note: Fou is Beast IV. You can read more about the Beasts of the Counter Force and the embodiment of comparison here: /wiki/Beast.]
By noon, the Servants had successfully moved all the citizens out of Bordeaux. Next came lunch, which everyone held great anticipation for. However, Chen Heng excused himself from cooking. His reason was that he had used many of his abilities to help the citizens move and now had a headache. Hence, he went to find a house to sleep in. Before leaving, he set out the leftovers from the lavish breakfast he had made for Fou.
Fou! Fo! Fo! Fou felt very satisfied with this ally. Not only could it beat up Merlin with this ally, but this ally would also even cook delectable food for it.
Servants did not need to eat. The only ones who needed food were Fujimaru Ritsuka and Mash, a Demi-Servant. Fujimaru Ritsuka looked at the energy bar before her, then at the feast laid before Fou. The contrast was a great disappointment.
Fujimaru Ritsuka could not help entertaining improper thoughts.
Mash noticed her sempai’s attention continuously wavering between the energy bar and Fou’s lunch.
“Sempai, what are you looking at?”
“No-nothing. It’s just that Fou has a lot of food. I’m worried that it cannot finish the food.”
“Sempai! What are you thinking? That’s Fou’s lunch. How could you fight over food with Fou?!”
“Ah! Mash, don’t just look at me. Look at the other Servants! They are all staring at Fou’s lunch too. Why are you picking on me?” Fujimaru Ritsuka felt wronged. She was only looking and not planning to take action—at least, she thought so. Furthermore, she was not the only one eyeing Fou’s lunch. The others were looking too. Why was Mash only chiding her?
“How can that be? All the Servants here are people of great status, people who left their names in history. How could they be…” Mash’s voice trailed off until she stopped speaking. She discovered that aside from Georgios, who had not eaten Chen Heng’s cooking before, most of the Servants turned their faces away in shame.
“Ah! I can’t take it anymore! No more of this! Fou, shall we swap? I’m not looking down on you. Look at how delicious this energy bar is. Furthermore, you only need to eat one bar to fill your stomach, how convenient! Also, there are many different flavors!” Fujimaru Ritsuka rushed over to Fou and proffered her energy bar. Then, she stretched her other hand toward Fou’s lavish lunch.
Fou! Fah! Fuw! Fuw! Fou! (Go away! I won’t swap with you. I look down on you.) Fou used a paw to smack away the energy bar that Fujimaru Ritsuka extended. Then, it used another paw to pull its lavish lunch closer to itself.
Mash ran over and held one of Fujimaru Ritsuka’s hands, advising, “Sempai, how could you try to snatch the lunch that He Who Knows Fate specially prepared for Fou? Just endure it. You can eat it tonight.”
“This is not fair! Why does only Fou have the lunch that He Who Knows Fate cooked? It smells so good, and it is hot!”
“…”
Since advising did not work, Mash could only resort to force, dragging Fujimaru Ritsuka aside. How could Fujimaru Ritsuka, a human, match Mash, a Demi-Servant? Fujimaru Ritsuka’s eyes filled with tears as she went increasingly farther away from the lavish lunch.
Perhaps this embodied the saying, do not worry about scarcity but about uneven distribution.
A stupefied Georgios stared at the group of Servants thinking of snatching a pet’s lunch.
As a saint, Georgios suddenly wondered whether he had joined the wrong group.
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