Chapter 7

Location: Tbilisi. Time: 9:58PM. Date: 7th August 2008.

A letter had been delivered.

The time was simply a few minutes after Alyza had finished cleaning and repairing. To be exact it arrived when she had started the shower in the master bedroom.

Archer (Anne) had taken the liberty of personally delivering it to the final recipient.

"Oh master~"

"What in god's name!?!"

As one can probably guess, the action was not well appreciated.

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"Stupid. Pair of big boobs and she thinks she's superior to her master."

"I said I'm sorry~"

Alyza was seated at her desk. Piles of envelopes, empty ink bottles and a landline atop it. But she held something in her hand that seemed different from all else.

A bright red envelope.

Now such things weren't commonly used to send letters, most of the time they are just seen as a form of comedic surprise. But what Alyza had read from the letter within was truly shocking. If it was meant as a joke it was a truly terribly told one.

"...master..."

"Right... sorry Archer. I'll read you the contents."

Now the one to whom Alyza was addressing was indeed Archer, but her other half. The half that didn't make it a point to constantly look for new reasons to have her master on the verge of absolving the contract that bound them.

In case it wasn't clear, it's Mary Read. The silent white-haired girl that made it a new habit of tailing Alyza silently.

A sort of mutual affinity blossomed between these two. Not on the same level as that of the two halves of archer of course. But one somewhat respectful.

Now as for the contents of the letter.

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The terms and words used were excessive. 

Alyza therefore did her servant the favour of summarising it.

Kutaisi.

An important town to the East had been recaptured due to the efforts of the Georgian Army. And recently a request had been made via the association's overseeing representative to have a master positioned there to secure it.

Of course such a request wasn't without good reason.

The town was a central juntion town. Essentially important for resource distribution for the army and even the navy who had set up a base at Poti. West of Kutaisi and another prime target for enemy forces.

The Association's overseeing representative therefore had pit forward the name of the one master they just conveniently had on standby.

Alyza Lohmus.

The letter held instructions ordering Alyza to prepare her luggage and items to move base the following morning. An agreement had been done to have a convoy deployed from one of the army's nearby bases to pick her up and take her to Kutaisi.

The journey would be long and Alyza was advised to keep information of her departure as silent as possible. After all...

Conflicts between masters, between the factions of East and West; were set to officially begin the very next day.

8th August 2008.

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Alyza was a tad bit angered.

How could she not be? 

After cleaning the mess of a front door and the gate, she had sent a letter of her own to the overseeing representative. It was a report of the apparent attack to her safehouse.

She conveniently left out the bit where her servant decided to mess with her. But all the same, no letter came back.

Save for this red envelope, with very unreasonable orders.

"Become a guard dog...really?"

Needless to say Alyza felt like burning the envelope at once, set it off in a puff of smoke and forget it.

But she was a member of the Association, a student in the clock tower, and she only got her position because of her own teacher's position.

"Damn."

All through the reading of the letter, Mary Read listened to her master with apparent keenness but once it was through there was no change whatsoever.

To be truthful she hardly cared.

And that expression just enraged Alyza all the more.

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Location: Kutaisi. Time: 7:28AM. Date: 8th August 2008.

David Tserekeli was reading a report written by one of the captains within his unit.

A company of 46 soldiers within the Magic Frontal Unit, including their accompanying convoy of 4 tanks and 2 Anti-Servant Artillery Vehicles, had managed an advance from their departure point in Gori. They had moved as far as Tskhinvali.

Now what did this mean for the army?

Admittedly, a grand victory. After all, Tskhinvali had been one of the major key territories the war had been focused on when it begun.

Tskhinvali was within the area of South Ossetia, a region that had wished to be independent of Georgia for decades. But when the war had begun, this ideal had been abandoned.

Any and all Georgian representation within the area had been evicted without warning. Followed by rapid occupation by enemy forces within days.

The Army held a vendetta, simple as that.

Now then.

A question needed to be asked.

How exactly can a company of 46 soldiers, tanks or not, manage to advance so far into war-torn territory?. Frankly, it should be impossible. After all, the enemy was not weak by any standard.

A global superpower recognised as Russia. They were the main contributors to the 'enemy forces'.

The reason was simple.

A master. 

David Tserekeli was only aware after the incident was done with, but apparently a master and their servant 'offered' assistance.

The operation had been sanctioned a week ago, David was pressured into it by his own superiors. It was accomplished just the day before.

It was truly extraordinary. Gori wasn't heavily manpowered in any way. They simply had a presence there to prevent any sudden attack onto the capital, Tbilisi. Yet a master went out of their way to approach the camp, propose an eccentric operation, and had assisted till completion.

David was in awe.

"Scary..."

A single master and their servant showed skill akin to an army, power to accomplish something as outlandish as advancement through war-torn territory.

And today, David was going to meet one such individual.

He then proceeded to pick up a separate letter. One sent to him from the one who had assisted the Magic Frontal Unit with the designs for their Anti-Servant Artillery.

He had a pseudonym for privacy and the organisation he represented.

The Representative.

It wasn't one that struck fear into any heart, but, with The Representative's assistance the Georgian Army had managed a comeback to the one-sided massacre they had been facing against the enemy forces and the servants they had.

If not fear, the man was viewed with at least respect.

Now the letter that David Tserekeli held had tiny bits of information regarding the master being sent to his encampment that day.

They were a 'she'. Not that big of a deal. They were 19. Hmmmm, maybe a bit concerning. She was to be accorded the respect deserving one providing assistance. That was of course needless to point out.

And under no circumstance was any soldier to engage in 'harassment' of her.

She had a 'Exemplary short fuse'.

David suddenly found himself worried about his newfound master.

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Location: Kutaisi. Time: 7:58AM. Date: 8th August 2008.

What exactly could Alyza say.

The move had been nothing but smooth.

Here she was, in her new flat that had been provided to her. Some amenities were missing, which was truthfully a given since this town had only been recently 'recaptured', but Alyza hardly cared.

She only held a slight problem.

"There's a leyline here, but it's been weakened."

Alyza had sensed the presence of a leyline, which was a given since this was a town that had been occupied once.

But the leyline had been weakened, perhaps due to the damage caused by bombs, tanks, and whatnot. The post-effects of war.

But it was weird.

"There's a lot of grief here."

Mary Read had materialized beside her master who was drinking water from a glass.

"Grief?"

"Indeed. Many lives were lost within this area."

Alyza nodded.

The cause of grief was death. Death of the innocents that had once lived within this town and thrived. They had been massacred, without remorse, all just so the enemy could 'advance' further into the country. This had indirectly struck the leylines.

How many of such people cared for the war? How many found it unavoidable and justifiable? The answer was simple, almost none.

Alyza could do nothing about the grief of the dead, their cries of anguish and hatred for what had been done unto them. But just knowing they were there ticked her off a bit.

She set the glass down. 

At that moment a knock on the door could be heard.

"Pardon. My name is David Tserekeli. General and head of this encampment. May you be so kind as to allow me audience?"

Alyza frowned. At once, wordlessly, Mary Read faded away. Like dust in the wind, she dematerialized.

Alyza walked toward the door and opened it. There standing in the stone lobby was a man as tall as the very door she had opened. Dressed in green uniform and boots, and across his chest were medals as many as could fit there. 

He had hair as grey as her own and brushed back to appear sleek and intimidating. With eyes nearly just as so.

"Thank you miss Alyza. May I come in?"

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Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaammmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn. I legit do not know what to say. I am appalled. This chapter didn't necessarily take long to write, it's just that I was busy.

Busy with what I hear you not asking? FGO. More appropriately, information gathering.

I was playing around and came across some fun concepts I thought would be absolutely dope in a grail war. And so came to a dilemma.

It won't be apparent for some time, cause I plan on hiding it for as long as I need to but some day y'all will find out.

I haven't given up, I plan on being more active cause 7 chapters is starting to make me feel like incompetent. 

Thank you for taking your time to read these 7 chapters. I hope you're willing to still have faith in me to continue and write a story both of us can love.

Too much? I guess so.

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