[FDJ]Chapter 109: Different Purposes 

After Suzuki Yuki regained consciousness, he let her mind wander for more than ten minutes before he felt the remnants of knowledge settling in his mind. The majority of it was either useless, incomplete, or untranslatable content. It overwhelmed his mind solely with its quantity, and Suzuki Yuki had never encountered such a peculiar situation before.

"Where... am I?"

Stretching his sore limbs, Suzuki Yuki got out of bed and looked out of the wooden window at the 9 or 10 o'clock sun. Subconsciously, he took out his phone from his pocket, only to find that it was already out of battery.

He roughly recollected the events of the previous night, but many parts seemed blurry and confused, mixed with numerous memories from his past. It seemed that he lost consciousness during the retreat and witnessed a gigantic door being opened, from which an overwhelming number of bubbles emerged, blotting out the sky.

"Rider? Rider?" Suzuki Yuki tried to contact his Servant, Eleanor, directly through the command spell, but there was no response or appearance from him. The connection through the command spell was functioning normally.

Suzuki Yuki checked the items in his waist pouch and put back the copper mirror that he had previously placed on his chest. If it weren't for this Mystic Code given to him by Aetius, she might have perished on the spot when she first encountered the unidentified bubble monsters.

Leaving the wooden house, the guards outside did not obstruct Suzuki Yuki's exit. On the contrary, several nobles came over to greet him and inquire about his well-being. Relying on the temporary knowledge of Arabic gained during the Holy Grail War, Suzuki Yuki could roughly understand that they were ordered by the Sultan to take care of him. However, Eleanor did not allow them to disturb him, so they could only wait outside.

Suzuki Yuki willingly underwent their examination, regarding them as friendly doctors. Among them, there was even a magus who had some knowledge of magecraft. The examination revealed that Suzuki Yuki was only slightly fatigued and had no injuries.

They made many dietary and aromatherapy suggestions to the leading noble and proposed inviting a sufficiently high-ranking Imam to recite scriptures for Suzuki Yuki, cleansing his fatigue and contamination from battle.

Suzuki Yuki had no interest in this and left the residential area, once again arriving at a crossroads. He remembered that the last time he tried to walk towards the valley, he hadn't gone far before being stopped by his supposed ally, Aphaf, who took him to the palace of Sultan Saladin.

According to Aphaf, the valley's interior was filled with civilians from the surrounding areas who had been integrated and were responsible for part of the army's logistics. They were temporarily provided with proper accommodation and had their lives and some property guaranteed. However, if Saladin's army were to be defeated, they would all become sacrifices to hinder the pursuit of the Crusaders.

Suzuki Yuki didn't feel much about it. He knew that many people died in battles, so something abnormal like this didn't bother him. It had nothing to do with the Holy Grail War, so he didn't feel the need to pay much attention to it.

"Sacrifices?" Suzuki Yuki glanced a few more times at the mountain road leading to the valley's interior, but that was all. He wasn't a saint, and it was precisely a saint who issued this unreasonable order. It was unlikely that even the guarding soldiers would know how to deal with the civilians who couldn't be evacuated in the event of defeat. Informing the people would only cause chaos or make them capture it as enemy spies spreading rumors.

Walking towards the direction roughly leading to Saladin's palace, Suzuki Yuki soon encountered clusters of soldiers in training and busy weapon repair and equipment locations. The further he went, the more soldiers he encountered, and the more he could sense the smell of war. As he approached the palace area, he saw a neatly arranged cavalry unit preparing to go into battle. Inquiries revealed that small units had been engaging in skirmishes continuously, and it was this batch of cavalry's turn today to rotate into battle, launching a surprise attack on an outpost outside of Tabar-e. From their tone, the situation seemed to be favorable on this side.

Suzuki Yuki had no clear understanding of how battles were fought. He only thought that both armies were deadlocked, with only reconnaissance units collecting information, and that they were attacking each outpost one by one without a pause in the fighting on the battlefield.

"The Crusaders aren't sending their Servants to interfere?" Suzuki Yuki was somewhat puzzled, but soon a messenger from Saladin found him wandering around the camp.

Unlike the previous camps of Attila and Aetius, Suzuki Yuki always felt like he was being watched here. Although the soldiers were ordinary people unrelated to the mysterious side, he could still see several "advisors" who practiced magecraft within the camp, including the nobles he had previously encountered, half of whom were also practitioners of magecraft. It seemed that Saladin didn't reject magecraft at all. He even claimed to be skilled in divination, which contradicted the information Suzuki Yuki had obtained before traveling to this era. The Church of the Cross, which is different from Christianity, has a doctrinal opposition to magecraft, and the conflict between the Church and the Magic Association stems from their opposing beliefs. On the other hand, the Church completely denies the existence of magecraft and other mystical powers, considering them all as evil sorcery influenced by demons.

While walking with the soldiers toward the palace, Suzuki Yuki analyzed the information he currently knew about Saladin's camp. He vaguely understood Saladin's attitude towards magecraft, which could be described as relying on it. He even possessed extensive knowledge of large-scale magecraft involving sacrificing live humans for extreme purposes. It was understandable for a magus to be familiar with such knowledge and rely on magecraft, but Saladin was revered as a saint in later times, and Suzuki Yuki couldn't reconcile the image of the Saladin he had seen in the past few days with the depiction of a sage in the future data.

If he hadn't been certain that the Holy Grail was not in Saladin's hands and that the enemy who would trigger the singularity was Richard, who had arrived in the Holy City ahead of time, Suzuki Yuki would have been unwilling to cooperate with Saladin.

In Saladin's palace, Suzuki Yuki saw the weary Saladin. The already-aged Saladin seemed even more aged today. Rider Eleanor was not present.

"Please have a seat, young man. I'm getting old, thinking about you young people fighting on the battlefield, and I stayed up reading ancient texts for most of the night. My body can't handle it anymore." Although Saladin appeared tired, he still warmly stood up and invited Suzuki Yuki to sit down. Soldiers prepared drinks, dried fruits, and flatbread for Suzuki Yuki and Saladin.

"Rider..."

"Eleanor? She didn't tell you... Oh, you just woke up. She went to investigate the movements of the Crusaders." Saladin shamelessly chewed on the flatbread, seemingly as hungry as Suzuki Yuki.

"Last night... we encountered indescribable unknown monsters. They were shaped like countless bubbles. Just recalling them makes me feel uncomfortable." Suzuki Yuki spoke while observing Saladin's changing expression. He felt that Saladin was hiding many things from him, but if he confirmed that it had nothing to do with the Holy Grail War, he wouldn't interfere too much.

"Their true name is 'Yog.' What you saw were probably partial manifestations, utilizing the recorded pseudo-magic in Aphaf's Magecraft to attempt a forced descent. I urgently sent a warning to Aphaf last night, but it seems to have been in vain. Humans cannot defend against beings of higher existence," Saladin continued, stuffing food into his mouth and taking a large sip of an unidentified drink, offering Suzuki Yuki a sip as well.

Suzuki Yuki understood the information beyond their true name. After finishing the flatbread in his hand, he also had a dry sensation in his mouth, observing the brown drink closely, which emitted a strange scent reminiscent of wax. "Is this extracted from plants? It looks somewhat like coffee in color, but the aroma..."

Suzuki Yuki was hesitant to drink this cup of unknown beverage.

"Coffee? Is that the name of a preferred potion for future magus? No, the main ingredient is powdered minerals, mixed with some bone meal from rare beasts. It helps resist fatigue and restore magical energy. Besides being skilled in divination, I also have some knowledge of concocting potions. I've experimented with dozens of formulas for this drink, and its effects are more effective than the commonly used fatigue-reducing potions. Perhaps the taste is a bit forced," Saladin said, taking another large sip and revealing a satisfied expression, dissipating much of his weariness.

Suzuki Yuki took a skeptical sip, and the peculiar taste immediately flooded his mouth, rapidly changing until it became a bittersweet flavor. He couldn't say whether the drink Saladin offered was delicious, but it certainly had nothing to do with enjoyment.

"Not tasty," Suzuki Yuki honestly remarked.

A gleam flashed in Saladin's eyes. He set down the unfinished flatbread and scrutinized Suzuki Yuki once again. "It's almost noon. Your Servant, Eleanor, should be returning soon. Thanks to you last night, we managed to bring back the injured Aphaf."

In Suzuki Yuki's memory, Aphaf seemed to have suffered damage to her entire Magic Circuit and had her Mystic Eyes rendered useless after being controlled and opening the massive gate. She was in a critical condition.

"Just injured?" Suzuki Yuki found it abnormal to describe someone on the verge of death so casually.

"Oh, you don't know? Strictly speaking, 'injured' wouldn't be accurate. Aside from a few superficial cuts and bruises, she's unharmed. However, she is still in a comatose state and we don't know when she'll wake up," Saladin also seemed puzzled, seemingly unaware of what Aphaf had experienced last night.

"After being controlled by the 'Yog' monsters you mentioned for the second time last night, she used pseudo-magic at the cost of her body's limits to open the massive gate beneath the clouds. Her body was already on the brink of death, and her Magic Circuit and Mystic Eyes suffered severe injuries," Suzuki Yuki briefly explained what he knew, but instead of understanding, Saladin seemed shocked, as if what he witnessed was completely different.

"Impossible. When Eleanor brought her back, I examined her injuries. Her Magic Circuit was intact, and her Mystic Eyes were undamaged. She's unconscious but otherwise fine. Are you sure that when you were conscious, she sustained irreparable injuries?" Saladin questioned, shaking his head, deeming it impossible.

Just as both of them were perplexed and puzzled, Rider Eleanor, who had no contact with Suzuki Yuki, finally returned. After materializing from a spiritual form to a physical one, she immediately delivered a bombshell to the two.

"Berserker Godfrey has confirmed defeated at dawn."