168 167

In the end, Mashu accepted Medea's argument to stay in one place, but in the end, it only resulted in Mashu and Medea being left without a job in a city controlled by a completely passive Berserker.

If Mashu and Medea were to embark on a journey, however pointless, there would definitely be a long and important task for them to perform. Even if, in the end, it would all come down to having to move their feet in the right direction. But since they didn't even have such a task, the only activity for Mashu was, literally, communicating with the voice in her head.

And, as Mashu had learned from the books she had read, communicating with the voices in her head had never brought anyone to a happy ending.

Mashu could be sure that the voice in her head did not belong to an unspeakable god of terror from beyond existence, but simply a Servant who got into her head for some purpose of his own…

Actually, that's not much better, isn't it?

'Hey!' Summoned by her thoughts, the voice in her head, namely Galahad, resentfully delivered his complaints. 'I can hear all you here! And it's not my fault I'm in your head! Even more than that, I'd rather not be here at all! You have no idea how many creepy things I've seen in your mind! People don't bend the way you think they do in your fantasies!'

Ahem, anyway, Mashu pushed Galahad's muttering to the back of her mind, an ability Mashu had managed to learn during her time with Galahad, and returned to her thoughts.

The problem with staying in the city where nothing was happening was that Mashu was bored, and she couldn't find any entertainment for herself!

I mean, maybe socializing with Galahad really could have been something entertaining to her in some way, or maybe even for the purpose of training, but none of that was what Mashu was interested in. I mean, she didn't think Galahad was a bad person per se…

'Thank you at least for that!' An indignant thought flew on the edge of her mind, but Mashu brushed it aside.

But they were together twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, even when they slept and…

Mashu blinked.

And in the shower…

'I wasn't looking!' Galahad immediately tried to look away.

And even when Mashu was in the toi…

'Mashu, for the sake of our companionship and your psyche,' Galahad sighed the sigh of the damned. 'Please don't continue with that train of thought.'

And even when she, as an adult, a sexually mature person…

'I'M TELLING YOU, DON'T GO THERE!' Galahad's desperation to change the subject made Mashu shudder, 'And I'll say it again, even if Medb is a Servant, she physically couldn't bend that way!'

Mashu grasped her head, but instantly realized that all sorts of embarrassing thoughts and memories could burst back from the wilds of her memory to the forefront of her mind. And, even if Galahad had demonstrated incredible gentlemanly tact and really hadn't looked in the past…

'I wasn't looking! I was busy doing something else!' Galahad's voice now starting to sound suspicious. 'I was training inside your mind! Now stop trying to remember those kinds of things!'

The faint memory coming back into Mashu's mind right now would clearly make him see everything that Mashu did!

Momentarily realizing this and demonstrating wonders of mental stamina, before she succumbed to a fit of embarrassing thoughts that are tinged pink, Mashu still managed to shout for help. "Caster! This is urgent, distract me!"

Medea, who had been quietly pondering Ainz's abilities and trying to mentally recreate his method of teleportation, which she was not good at, even mentally, just blinked at this unexpected shout from Mashu. As far as Medea knows, she had been sitting quietly in the corner in the hotel room they had rented nearby, looking bored. Seeing nothing to it, and Mashu's disturbing expression, she just then decided to respond with a random fact. "Technically speaking, ice is a stone, and water is actually lava."

"What, really?" Mashu, who was desperate for a distraction, was momentarily taken aback by the unexpected trivia.

"Yes, well, based solely on the definition of what is a rock and lava, at least." Medea added, still perplexed, then shook her head, seeing the relieved expression on Mashu's face, making her even more confused. "But now, I've already done what you asked, I hope you have an explanation for your sudden need for a distraction?"

"Um…" Mashu looked down slightly, a bit embarrassed by her outburst, before she sighed. "I'm bored."

"Then, find your own entertainment," Medea replied briefly, without showing much sympathy for Mashu. "My role as a Servant does not include babysitting bored children."

"I'm not… " Mashu was about to say that she wasn't a child, but when she realized that such a thing was exactly what you'd expect from a child, she just sighed and frowned. "I'd love to, but I can't think of anything to do. It's going to be two days before the other Servants arrive, and I really don't know what to do."

Hearing Mashu's complaint, Medea turned, evidently already preparing to respond with some venomous remark, but she stopped in the end, looking at Mashu's expression.

Mashu's whole appearance certainly expressed her boredom. But it was not the boredom of a spoiled child who wanted to see the entire world dancing around them, no, instead it seemed as if boredom was the least of Mashu's symptoms.

Medea thought for a second, then straightened her face. It would be annoying and a waste of her time, but in the end, she sighed and made her decision nonetheless. Besides, if Ainz were to see that she couldn't handle dealing with Mashu, it would be a strain to any further cooperation between them.

Silently she stalked over to the bed, the only worthwhile thing in the rented hotel room, before taking a seat across from Mashu, making the latter a little nervous.

"Fine," Medea murmured, huh, old habits can be really hard to break sometimes. "What's been bothering you?"

Mashu blinked at Medea's words before she groaned, was she that obvious? "I don't know what I can do."

"Now?" Medea glanced at Mashu, "Or in this Singularity?"

Mashu blinked, clearly intending to tell Medea that it was definitely the former, that she was just bored and that there is nothing more… before she was interrupted.

'Take your time, think about it carefully.' Galahad's voice, though it was the last thing she wanted to hear right now, nevertheless sounded soothing, if not even commiserating, and Mashu, though she wanted to reflexively dismiss him, nevertheless gave in under his pressure and acquiesced.

"I…" Mashu tried to formulate her thoughts, but she found that she couldn't speak out, like a lump had formed in her throat. Still, she knows that she cannot stop here, and continues. "I just do not know what to do. I mean… I'm not a Servant, after all. Galahad is a Servant, I'm not, I have no outstanding qualities… just a useless burden."

Galahad could, of course, have made the joke that she had a couple of outstanding qualities that she preferred to hide in normal circumstances behind a baggy sweater and a T-shirt a couple sizes larger. But, understanding the limits of the acceptable and the mood of the situation, he chose to remain silent.

"Ainz had figured out the whole Singularity in twenty-four hours," Mashu sighed, "You, Tesla, Angrboda, and Nobunaga, all of you understood his thoughts instantly. Even if you didn't fully figure out his plan, I didn't understand anything about it at all…"

Mashu stopped to catch her breath, but Medea, showing a rare tactfulness for her, allowed her to silently collect her thoughts before continuing to speak. "And even in combat, too, something that was supposed to be my main strength, I mean, I can't fight. I can hold a shield, but that's all I can do. I can't fight Arthuria, or Cu Chulainn, or you, again. My function is simply to stand as a shield, covering other people."

"And that's not bad, no, nor do I find it objectionable." Mashu immediately shook her head, "Standing as a shield is as noble as any other job, but… Who do I have to protect? All the other Servants around me are all stronger than me, and if there were anyone they couldn't defeat, I would be useless. Against Solomon, for instance, I couldn't withstand even one of his spells, he was just playing with us, like kittens, disinterestedly waiting for Ainz…"

"I… " Mashu finally exhaled, "I just don't know what to do. All the other Servants are capable and strong, and I… I'm just standing around like decoration. What did I achieve in London? In this Singularity? There are a lot of strong and clever Servants around Ainz all the time, and he… it's like he takes me with him out of pity. It's like taking a lost puppy for a walk."

"I mean, if I'd stayed in Chaldea, I would have continued my training." Mashu smiled faintly, yet with a lot of bitterness, unnoticed in the middle of her monologue. "I should stop being so selfish, I have already known that I could not withstand the level of Singularities that Ainz was now in, and it would be much better for Senpai. I shouldn't be taking advantage of his kindness, I could definitely tell that even if I'm weak, no indulgences are made for me and yet, he's always placing me where I would be safest. Even so, I feel like I'm taking a place that Medusa or Drake or… any other Servant but me would be better suited to."

"It seems to me… " Mashu sighed, "That I'm just not needed."

Medea, listening to Mashu's monologue, could only lift a finger and rub the bridge of her nose.

This was absolutely not her line of work.

Medea was the last person one spills such heavy secrets to, especially when one expects it to be solved. And therefore, Mashu's situation was certainly not something that she could solve with a few words.

But once upon a time, a long time ago, in another life, as one might joke, Medea once had the great misfortune to be dragged along the whims of one leader.

After all, no one could call this leader an outstanding man. He was a mediocre warrior, a mediocre navigator, a mediocre leader, a mediocre king, and even in bed he was not outstanding, something that Medea had to seriously lie to him. Though she had no other experience in that matter back in those days, so she had nothing to compare it to anyway… it was still severely disappointing.

In any case, in those distant times, Medea had the misfortune to be led by a captain who was extremely mediocre at everything and was only outstanding for his stupidity. To this day, she still wonders what kind of curse Aphrodite had bestowed her to make her fall in love with that buffoon.

The kind of blatant and utterly idiotic stupidity that pushes people to do the stupidest, most dangerous and…

And great things.

Medea had boarded the captain's ship, mistaking his stupidity for something much more sublime, like 'heroism', although the captain was actually not brave either and met the captain's crew.

Among them was a great archer, whom no archer could beat, a great doctor that could raise even the dead, a great warrior who could fight an army alone, the greatest of heroes…

The most outstanding heroes under the leadership of the most unremarkable of captains.

And then, for the first time, Medea, not yet known as the Witch of Betrayal in those days, but the Princess of Colchis, saw that the captain knew this as well.

After all, he was not outstanding, and his intellect was also mediocre, but he was still not an idiot. He couldn't help seeing how mediocre he was, and how outstanding the people under his command were. And then Medea saw another side of the captain for the first time.

Doubt. The captain doubted, and doubted a lot.

Every day, as he looked at the great Heroes around him, the captain wondered again and again.

Should he remain a captain? Does he have the right to command everyone when he is so weak?

After all, if tomorrow the archer, or the warrior, or even the doctor were to take over, there would be nothing he could do against them. The captain doubted, every day he looked at his friends, at his crew, and wondered.

Had he taken the right place on his ship?

And then Medea told the captain…

"Does it make any difference?" The Princess of Colchis spoke differently, but even if Medea was no longer the princess from the captain's story, he was still Medea.

"Suppose Ainz picked you out of pity." Medea didn't spare Mashu's feelings, but she didn't want to hurt her either, combining both comfort and cruelty in her speech as she looked her in the eye, "What does it change? You'll realize that Ainz really just took you out of pity and… and then what? You would turn to Ainz and ask him to send you back to Chaldea and have another Servant take your place? Making everything moot? I doubt that Ainz would make such a mistake."

Judging by the fact that Mashu herself looked away confused and awkwardly, suddenly finding the unpolished planks in the walls far more interesting than Medea's gaze, Medea herself was right in her guess. Mashu had not thought anything through, concentrating solely on her weakness.

"Or do you think that Ainz took you to Singularity completely by accident, barely finding a reason to do so?" Medea smiled, looking at Mashu like the child that she is. "Maybe it was also completely by accident that he took me, knowing full well that I was a teacher of Olga-Marie, and I remind you that she is at the top of Ainz' list of potential wives, then completely accidentally paired me with you and left us two under Cu Chulainn Alter's side? Me, the only Servant who might really need your protection, and you, the only Servant who can easily survive my magic, even in its midst, and come out not even wounded? In a city ruled by Servants completely without magic, and therefore so vulnerable to me, but who possesses great physical strength that only you can protect against?"

Mashu, not quite sure whether Medea was being supportive or mocking now, looked at Medea uncertainly.

"I mean, in the end, no matter what Servants he brings with him, it doesn't matter at all." Medea added with a shrug of her shoulders. "Ainz doesn't need the help of the Servants to solve the Singularity, perhaps to solve some trivial matter. What matters is that he requires them to solve them with the least chance of causing any new problems. Even if he didn't take you because you have indispensable abilities, you're not jeopardizing the mission and shouldn't worry about it."

"For example," Medea sighed, about to do something that she finds vexing, but continued, "I am inferior to Da Vinci, both in the quality of my abilities and in the sheer power of their application. Even in intelligence, if Ainz needed the best, it made no sense to take me instead of Da Vinci, especially considering that I was engaged in training of Olga-Maria at the time… Ainz simply didn't need to take someone with abilities above my level." Medea grimaced involuntarily once more.

No, she was aware and understood that she, even as an outstanding Witch from the Age of the Gods, was not the most outstanding mage in Chaldea, inferior to both Ainz and Da Vinci. But it was still unpleasant to say it. "Simply because he does not need Da Vinci in my place. It's the same with you, even if Ainz took you here out of pity, you don't take another place, you take, in fact, an empty place that you could have taken. Ainz clearly knows the limits of your power, and if he has decided that you can participate in the Singularity, that means that your presence alone does not jeopardize the mission. And if the mission isn't in jeopardy, is there any point in worrying about it? On the contrary, you can breathe and enjoy the opportunity to be in Singularity, breathe the air of the Wild West and participate in taking down the passive berserker-king."

"Alternatively," Medea mentioned the second part of her argument, the one that she's sure to clinch it. "The place you occupy is really necessary, and Ainz had decided to put you in that place,"

Medea rubbed the bridge of her nose in frustration, having to say something obvious. Really, she has better things to spend her time one! "In that case, what are you fretting about your inabilities for? Maybe the Master thought I'd need your ability to be a shield. Or after analyzing your psychology, he realized that only you could fulfill some function that he had assigned to you, that your presence was necessary in this place."

"Two possibilities," Medea held up two fingers for emphasis. "Which, though different, boils down to one thing in the end, no point in worrying about the fact that you are somehow unsuited to the current situation. Do you still doubt his capabilities? If you're here, then it means that he absolutely wants you here, and at least you're not making anything worse, or Ainz wouldn't have taken you into Singularity. After all, he'd already time and time again demonstrated his intelligence and desire to deal with Singularities, and his ability to divine the most complex of mysteries."

"And if you don't like the idea of being weaker than the Servants around you," Medea sighed, "Then I have some sad news for you, you're just not the greatest of the Servants."

"That's just the truth of life," Medea shook her head, "Just as I am weaker compared to Da Vinci, Solomon, or Merlin, for example, so will you be weaker to some Servants. But it still doesn't mean that you're weak or worth less. It's easy to lose sight of your own worth in front of giants like Heracles or King Arthur," Medea hummed to herself as she remembered Hercules' towering mountain of muscle.

"Did you forget your own accomplishments? You killed Poseidon and brought a castle down on a Demon King's head," Medea grumbled, old memories of one such foolish and insecure Captain came flooding back to her.

"How many Servants can boast of such a thing? How many Servants can repeat such a feat? The Servants around you are outstanding figures, the crystallization of legends and the power of the ages, while you are a homunculus, handling the powers of a Servant, not the strongest one originally I might add, for only about a month." Galahad would have liked to add something in the middle of Medea's sentence, but chose not to ruin the moment by keeping his metaphysical tongue behind metaphysical teeth. "And you worry that you cannot beat the King of Knights in a duel?"

"My dear, almost no one can do that," Medea smiled again. "On one occasion… in a distant world where I was summoned to a Holy Grail War, neither me, nor Hassan, nor even, in the end, Gilgamesh could beat her." Medea sighed wistfully as she remembered a distant dream.

"Wishing to defeat such an enemy is normal, but trying to compare oneself to them is itself the height of folly." Medea smiled suddenly, sinking into the memory of a foolish captain who might have wished for such a thing. "Don't try to reach for the stars in vain, and be disappointed that you can only soar in the skies. You have your own powers that others dream of, you are already stronger than almost the entire population of Earth, stronger even than many of the Servants selected by the Throne of Heroes itself. You have achieved more than many of those stronger than you have."

"I'm not telling you to stop trying to get stronger, I'm just telling you not to try to compete with a mountain in height."

Mashu, who had been silent until then, suddenly smiled. "You really know how to ease a person's worry."

Hearing this, Medea, who only now realized that she was too deeply immersed in her memories and accidentally let out a smile that she usually tried not to show anyone, immediately erased all emotion from her face and rose suddenly. "I have to check something."

Before Mashu could react, Medea had already disappeared behind the small door leading outside the room, leaving Mashu alone with herself.

'Leave her alone.' And with Galahad surprising her, nearly making her jump from surprise, as she had forgotten his presence while talking to Medea.

"Why?" Nevertheless, she immediately asked a question.

'After every moment where a tsundere went dere-dere, the tsundere must be given a rest, or they will overheat from the influx of feelings and go out of order!' Mashu could feel Galahad raising his finger instructively in her head, broadcasting to the girl.

For a few seconds, Mashu tried to take what he said to her in a serious tone before she gave up. "What!?"

'To put it another way.' Galahad continued easily. 'Medea is obviously not used to showing friendly feelings to anyone, and she's just done that with you. So, right now, she's not quite sure how she needs to respond to that. Give her a couple of hours to come to an inner agreement with herself, and she'll be fine.'

Mashu, hearing this, hesitated for a few seconds before nodding. "Okay."

The thought that Medea, though not quite on purpose, was still taking care of Mashu warmed her soul and made her sigh. It was nice after all…

However, even after such a conversation, Mashu could not calmly accept that Ainz was carrying her around as a mere accessory.

Even if it was a sign of favoritism on Ainz's part, she was still bothered by such a thing.

'Um, speaking of which…' - Galahad's voice rang out again. 'Have you thought about the fact that you were the one that gave some information about Ainz to Solomon?'

The recollection of Mashu's own stupidity and naivety in suddenly making herself vulnerable in the middle of enemy territory made her momentarily sad, but Galahad quickly corrected herself. 'No, I didn't mean that in a bad way! I mean, if Medea was talking about how maybe Ainz knew your psychology, and he left you in this town… Could it be that Ainz had specifically passed information through you for Solomon to hear?'

Mashu blinked.

"You mean… " She turned to Galahad. "You think he took me into the Singularity on purpose, already knowing what would happen in it?"

Mashu blinked, isn't that exactly what Medea told her? Wasn't that just her overthinking things? Seeing plans, where it was only happenstances?

No, of course she knew that her Master was an outstanding Magus and a genius among geniuses, and Servants do possess a huge number of the most incredible abilities. Seeing the future was not a completely impossible ability for them, but even so it was not just a matter of precognition. Even Solomon could only see a glimpse of future developments, and those only in very general detail. And Solomon was the Grand Caster, literally a Mage of Mages.

If Ainz truly did, as Medea said, planned for everything that happened in the Singularities… what Ainz had accomplished in such a case, was not even within the framework of Servants or Divine Spirits. No, it came dangerously close to the very notion of omnipotence and omniscience, the powers of a god…

Mashu shook her head. No, of course she could understand that her Master was powerful and brilliant, but something like that was beyond her comprehension.

'No, I wouldn't discount such possibilities so quickly if I were you…' Galahad only shook his head, causing Mashu to sigh.

"Honestly, I don't really know what to think… I don't mind that you have faith in Ainz, but… don't you have too much faith for a Servant trapped in my body and seeing everything that happens exclusively through my eyes? You're limited in what you can see, after all."

At these words, Galahad was suddenly silent, then easily showed agreement. 'Yes, of course you're right.'

Such an abrupt change in Galahad's behavior made Mashu blink in surprise, after which she couldn't help but ask questions. "Okay, why the sudden change of tune, now I'm starting to get curious."

Galahad could have retorted something sarcastic at her words, of course, but the problem with existing in a body as a powerless spirit really was that Galahad couldn't hide from Mashu anywhere. She really didn't need the girl to get creative in torturing him if he were to say something that offends her.

Although he had lied a little before, saying that he couldn't do anything at all to Mashu, but…

'Anyway…' Galahad bulldozed ahead, from one dialogue to another. 'Remember when I told you about how I hadn't planned on showing up so openly before?'

"What does this have to do with the current situation?" Mashu was suddenly lost by Galahad's non-sequitur.

'Well about that…' Galahad sighed, he was clearly in for a very, very long story. 'What do you know about the Counter Guardians?'