[FDJ]Chapter 18: Sword of the Maiden

Timeline Confirmation: Gaul (France), A.D. 451 - Singularity F, Foundation Value: D

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Suzuki Yuki couldn't believe what he was seeing. He looked in panic at the back of his left hand, which now bore three red marks - Command Seals.

The other person glanced at Suzuki's raised left hand and nodded slightly in confirmation.

"Master, welcome to France... Is Gaul still under Roman rule?" The female swordsman smiled and effortlessly swung her sword, beheading the unfortunate cavalryman who had lost both hands. Killing ordinary people was as easy as crushing ants to her, and she decided whether to "bully" humans based on her whims.

Was this the legendary Jeanne d'Arc, who led the French army in the counterattack against England? Moreover, the historical Jeanne was not skilled in swordsmanship. The female swordsman standing before Suzuki now wore armor and a headpiece with a touch of Francian style. The sword that could easily sever a person's hands was no ordinary Noble Phantasm; it was forged by a master far beyond the capabilities of an ordinary craftsman.

"Should these Gauls who dare to threaten the Master be dealt with like this one on the ground?"

Jeanne's armor gleamed with bright gold, a stark contrast to the simple image of the historical saint. Suzuki wouldn't have believed that the Servant he had summoned was Jeanne d'Arc if he hadn't opened and examined Jeanne's profile panel.

"Gauls?" Suzuki was still unsure of the era he was in, but this slightly different Saber's unforgiving attitude towards the Gauls, combined with the mention of "Rome" he had heard from the cavalryman, and Jeanne's statement that "this place is still under Roman rule," confirmed that it was earlier than the 6th century AD. "Let them go. They're just ordinary people."

"There is no rule in the Holy Grail War to spare unrelated parties. But since the Master has decided, I let these few people go." Jeanne sheathed her still blood-dripping sword, and as the blade entered the scabbard, the blood on the blade instantly faded. This further confirmed Suzuki's speculation that the Noble Phantasm wielded by his summoned Servant was no ordinary sword.

The remaining six cavalrymen, upon hearing the words of the female swordsman who had suddenly appeared and killed one of their comrades, ceased their trembling and fled the wooden house in disarray. They were convinced that they had entered the territory of a sorcerer and had provoked a beautiful but undoubtedly monstrous being summoned by the sorcerer. The bloodthirsty smile she had displayed while killing just now had nearly scared them into wetting their pants.

After the six cavalrymen escaped, Jeanne pointed to the injured Hun soldier lying on the ground. "What about him? Is he your friend, Master?"

Suzuki did not doubt that this foreign soldier, who had experienced a life-and-death ordeal together with him, would be killed on the spot. Without hesitation, Suzuki nodded in acknowledgment. "Don't kill him. Without his help earlier, I might not have had a chance to summon you."

"Is that so?" Jeanne approached the Hun soldier, who was just as frightened as the cavalrymen and crouched down. With a single hand, she touched the soldier's injured shoulder and ribs. His flesh wounds quickly healed, and Suzuki could only ascertain that his Servant was not using magecraft, but he couldn't understand the principles behind it.

Although Suzuki remembered many memories of the Holy Grail War, today was the first time he had summoned a Servant and truly engaged in combat as a Master. The overwhelming joy he felt had affected his analytical abilities. Whether the Servant he had summoned was truly Jeanne d'Arc or not, the displayed strength had captivated Suzuki, surpassing most of the Servants he had known from his research.

"Where's the Chess piece?" Suzuki returned to the back door position and found no chess pieces or any trace of gold on the ground. It was as if the golden knight chess piece had been treated as a consumable and exchanged for a successful Servant summoning. He opened his waist pouch and indeed found six chess pieces inside. As expected, the missing one was the Saber chess piece.

Using the Saber chess piece summoned a Servant of the Saber class, and this inference made Suzuki even more delighted. It meant that he could still use the remaining six chess pieces for six more Servant summonings. However, he couldn't remember why he had six chess pieces in his waist pouch. He had sorted through his belongings before going to the control room, and they did not include these conspicuous pure gold chess pieces.

"Can you understand what I'm saying?"

"For humans, it may seem miraculous, but it is basic knowledge for us Servants when we descend."

Suzuki heard the conversation of the two people behind him. He was certain that he had never learned this peculiar language, but he understood it and felt that he could also use the language of that soldier. Today, there were already enough things that astonished and amazed Suzuki, and learning an ancient language wouldn't hurt.

"Thank you for saving me and healing my wounds. Are you the summoned spirit of that shaman? It's hard to imagine that an ancient summoned spirit can appear in the form of a beautiful swordsman."

The Hun soldier knelt to the ground, and if it weren't for Jeanne d'Arc stopping him, he would have bowed to her.

"I am not a shaman. I am just a traveler who happened to come to this village." Suzuki speculated that because he had summoned a Servant, he could also use the language of this era. He had a good impression of the foreign soldier who had guided him to take cover during the crisis. "I use this magecraft, or as you call it, sorcery, which requires some preparation time. So you have helped me."

"Sir Shaman, you are too polite. If you don't mind, I have some gold here. Please accept it." The Hun soldier said as he took out two small pieces of gold ore from his fur coat, which were probably impure gold. He did not realize that his actions displeased Jeanne d'Arc.

After declining, Suzuki unsuspectingly accepted the "gift." He wanted to appear ordinary, and using these low-purity gold pieces as magical materials might not be feasible.

The Hun soldier kept thanking Suzuki. Jeanne d'Arc, who had remained silent after Suzuki accepted the gold, might have grown tired of it and waved her hand to signal the Hun soldier to leave. She could see that the excited Hun soldier kneeling on the ground had no connection with her Master; they just happened to be captured together.

After the Hun soldier left the wooden house, Jeanne d'Arc looked at her Master with a slightly annoyed gaze. She had thought that the magus who summoned her was an extraordinary person, but it turned out that he was no different from an ordinary person. "Master seems to have a good understanding of the Holy Grail War, but when we fight together, please refrain from casually accepting other people's things."

"I was just captured with him. He even guided me to hide under the bed, and he didn't seem like a bad person. He had no ill intentions."

"Bad person? Does Master distinguish people in this way?" Jeanne couldn't help but laugh and pointed at the gold pieces in Suzuki's hand. "That man is a scout, and if my intuition is correct, he also holds a military rank. When I treated his wounds, I noticed his keen observation. When my hand moved towards the hilt of my sword, he immediately became alert and tried to distance himself from me. As for the gold pieces in your hand, they are just a survival tactic commonly used by scouts to win over irrelevant civilians on the outskirts of the battlefield. His performance was all part of the scout's routine. He was sincerely afraid of us and kept praising you as a shaman. I was sickened by it! All he wanted was for us to let him go."

Suzuki listened in a daze. He had never learned or thought about these details; he completely regarded the foreign soldier as a friendly local.

"Of course, if Master thinks we can let such a person go, then I will drive him away. Don't you trust that I am Jeanne d'Arc, who has experienced many battles and commanded the French army to defeat the English? Although I have never been a scout, I have learned this experience from the military."

Suzuki felt a little embarrassed. His knowledge and understanding were far inferior to his Servant's.

"Don't worry about these small matters. Leave the fighting to me, Master. First, let's talk about the information you have gathered about this Holy Grail War. Based on the feedback I received when I manifested, there have already been several Servants who arrived before me. We must determine the level of threat posed by these hostile Servants..."

Halfway through her sentence, Jeanne d'Arc could already tell from Suzuki's increasingly awkward expression that her Master did not know the other Masters and Servants.

Suzuki readily replied, "I woke up in a haystack in this village in the morning, and up until now, I haven't figured out which era or specific location I'm in. I only know that I'm in future France, around the 5th century AD."

"Well, that's alright. Yes, this is the future France, currently under the rule of the Western Roman Empire in the region of Gaul. The city of Orleans is located about 70 kilometers from here. Did you come from the future, Master? Let me tell you, it is the year 451 AD, the time when the Huns were invading westward. The six enemies you just let go were Gauls, and the one you let go earlier was a Hun."

"451 AD?" Suzuki vaguely recalled some related history, but this part of his memory was somewhat blurry. In his memory, the Chaldea organization mainly focused on modern battlefields for training and didn't delve too deeply into historical events, considering them only as supplementary information about heroic figures.

"Since you have no sources of information, we'll need to rely on the Hun scout we just let go." Jeanne pulled Suzuki along and hurried outside. "Finding the Hun king of this era will surely provide valuable information. After all, summoning Servants usually requires the involvement of a magus."

Regardless of whether the Servant he had summoned was the true Jeanne d'Arc, Suzuki felt reassured by her presence. With her experienced swordsmanship, she would certainly assist him in surviving this Holy Grail War and uncovering why he had been transported over 1,500 years into the past.

Historical records are written by later generations, and perhaps the true Jeanne d'Arc had no connection to the image of the saint propagated by Christianity.

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