Saber's Wish Chapter 6

"Say what?" Shirou and Rin were flabbergasted as Medea made her displeasure of Arturia's new appearance known. The Caster-servant grimaced as her gaze went up and down Saber's mature body with Kuzuki watching them with mild concern.

"Saber!" said the astonished Medea. "Why are you so- unsightly?!"

"Excuse me-?" Arturia looked at her in confusion while standing there stunned at Caster's response at first seeing her. Saber could not even bring herself to raise Excalibur as Medea looked her over frantically, even after the sorceress grabbed her face with both hands.

"Saber, your face!" Medea exclaimed while jerking Arturia's head side to side, looking at each side before going over her body again. "It's all wrong! You're so tall and lanky... how are you even able to stay upright?!"

"Huh?!" Arturia looked at Caster like she was talking crazy, and a blush started forming when she noticed Medea now staring at her breasts.

"And by Gods! What are THESE things?!"

"What are you-?! AH!"

Before Arturia could do anything, Medea suddenly started poking them with the spatula she had dropped previously, earning a yelp from the King of Knights.

"Oh, this is terrible!" Medea yelled somberly while feeling Arturia's breasts through the utensil she held. Saber was now completely stunned and blushing madly as Caster continued poking her while wailing and crying. "What happened to your youth and your... cuteness?!"

"(sigh) Medea..." Kuzuki said in disappointment as Shirou and Rin's eyes widened at the scene before them. Shirou for one thought Medea would be more enthusiastic towards the fact that Arturia now had a mature and even more beautiful form, given Medea had always complimented Saber's looks before. He had no reason to think that Caster would go ballistic and treat Arturia's new form so... negatively.

"I am so lost," Shirou lets out as he continued watching the absurd scene of Caster crying over Arturia's mature body. Rin, however, had gotten over her surprise and visibly contemplated as she said:

"I think Caster has the same views of womanly beauty as Rider. How curious..."

Hearing this made Shirou look at her curiously.

"What do you mean?"

"Medusa and Medea are of Ancient Greek origin," Rin explained to him as she recalled hers and Arturia's encounter with Rider earlier today. "It seems in that time and place, having a smaller body and chest were seen as more appealing."

"That's right!" Medea said to them, having overheard while still poking a distressed Arturia. "Saber was soooo cute before... and now she's not! What have you fools done to my little dress-up girl?!"

"Caster, enough!" Arturia exclaimed after having had enough of Medea's antics. "Get a hold of yourself!"

Saber banishes Excalibur and grabs Medea's wrists, pushing away her arms and by proxy, removing Caster's spatula off her bosom. Medea looks at her in astonishment as Arturia looks back with seriousness.

"This was nothing they did... it was the Grail."

Medea blinked and relaxed her hands as Arturia's words sunk in.

"The Grail?" Caster asks curiously.

"Yes," Arturia replies as she slowly released Medea's arms and then changed from her armor and into her casual clothes in a flash of light. Saber goes on to explain, "What you see is the accidental result of a wish, and if our friends see me like this, magecraft will be exposed to them, and then Enforcers will come to harm all of us. We need your help..."

Medea's arms slowly fell to her sides as she processed Arturia's words. Shirou, Rin, and Kuzuki watched as silence lingered until Caster at last composed herself.

"Oh really?" she asked rhetorically, willing to believe what she just heard from Saber. But of course, Caster could not help but ask, "Why would you even wish for this horrid abomination-?"

"Are you going to help us or not?" Arturia said curtly. By this point, she was fed up with Medea demonizing her new body, when it made Saber feel more beautiful than she previously was. Despite Medea's reasons for not favoring a shapely body like Arturia now has, the King of Knights was not going to stand for anyone insulting her over it.

It was wounding her pride for some reason...

Caster was briefly appalled Arturia cutting her off so adamantly, but eventually, Medea stood straight and declared resolutely:

"Fear not! I will do all in my power to fix this, no matter what it takes!"

Shirou and Rin watched Medea acting so determined, feeling surprised that it did not take much convincing on their part to get the Caster to cooperate. It seemed that Medea was willing to help them just to have a chance at returning Arturia back to how she was.

"Well, that was easy..." they both collectively said. Suddenly, Medea grabbed Arturia's arm and started pulling her, catching Saber off-guard.

"There's no time to waste!" said Caster. "Come with me!"

"Wha-?" Arturia let out as Medea led her out of the survery. In alarm, Shirou and Rin quickly followed them.

"Wait!" Shirou exclaims to Caster. "Where are you taking her?!"

"Somewhere you are not permitted in, boy," Medea said in all seriousness. "Where we're going is not for the weak willed..."

"That doesn't sound good..." Shirou said aloud while Arturia looked back at him as she was being pulled.

"Shirou... I don't like this..." Saber said nervously, not completely trusting Medea's intentions. Shirou was about to follow despite Medea's warning, but Rin put a hand on his shoulder, stopping him.

"I'll go with them, Emiya-kun," she tells Shirou. "Just in case..."

"Thanks, Tohsaka," Shirou lets Rin go on ahead while Kuzuki stood up and cautions to Caster:

"Don't get too carried away, Medea..."

Stopping to look back at her master, Medea cheerily replies:

"Of course, Kuzuki-sama!" After which, Medea's gaze narrows and she lowers her voice to then say to him, "But you and I will have words later about my pastries..."

"Hey! Those were my-!" Shirou starts to argue, but Caster quickly cuts him off with-

"Come, Saber!"

Medea pulls Arturia out of the room forcefully, prompting Saber to protest with:

"Don't pull so hard!"

"Hold on," Rin warned Medea as she and Arturia disappeared into the hallway, and the Tohsaka-mage hastily followed them. "You're not doing any funny business with Arturia whilst I'm here, witch..."

"I do not intend to, little girl," Medea curtly retorted as she led Arturia past multiple rooms that made up the dormitories, and Saber's face grew visibly apprehensive at thought of maybe being led to back to the dungeon where Medea had her strung up previously. "We need to know the full extent of what happened to Saber. And I know just the place to get those answers..."

"And where exactly is that, Caster?" Arturia asked as they suddenly stopped in front a sliding door with a sign on it that read "RESTRICTED." Arturia and Rin were visibly confused and nervous as Medea looked at them both and replied:

"My room."

Caster slid the door open and led the two girls inside, where they stopped dead in their tracks and stared in shock at the sight before them, with Rin even letting out:

"By the Root! Is this all...?!"

There they both were in Medea's bedroom, and both Arturia and Rin saw that it was filled with an ironing board, a sewing machine, and various objects ALL pertaining to-

"Me?!" Arturia exclaimed, as she saw shelves full of models and figurines that all look a lot like her younger self; in her armor, street clothes, maid outfits, swimsuit, you name it... it was there. Even more disturbing was the mannequins opposite of the shelves, which all had Arturia's younger face on them, and they were all wearing outfits that fit her previous size, including the white dress that Medea made her wear when she was captured, the blackened armor of Arturia's alter-form, and a dainty, white and silver variation of her armor that she did not recognize labelled "Lily." Arturia had no idea where Medea got that design from.

It seemed that Medea was more than a little fond of Saber's adolescent self. Now it was not much of a wonder to Arturia and Rin as to why Caster was so appalled upon seeing Saber's mature body.

Without a hint of shame, Medea turned to them and spoke.

"I'd be glad to show you both the magnificent work I've done here, but that can wait for the moment as we see the extent of your problem, Saber."

Arturia was still standing there speechless as Rin got over her shock and remarked:

""Magnificent" isn't how I'd describe this..."

Arturia's eyes continued scanning around the room with her mouth agape. Her gaze fell on a wall full of photos of her, whether at the Emiya Residence or out on a date with Shirou around Fuyuki City. Saber wondered where Caster got those until she spotted the crystal ball on the sewing table.

"Wait..." Arturia said accusingly. "Caster, have you been spying on-?!"

"Silence," Medea cut her off as she strode past Arturia and Rin and shut the door to her room. "We have serious work to do, so let's get down to business..."

Immediately after, Medea surveyed Arturia with all the magecraft at her disposal. She had Saber stand posed like a person being scanned with a metal-detector at an airport. After a tense and silent few minutes, Medea appeared feeling slightly perturbed, which to Rin did not seem like a good sign.

However, to Arturia... it was both concerning, and oddly relieving...

"So..." Medea eventually said. "That boy had you make a wish, and this morning you found yourself like this?"

"That's correct," Arturia answers as Medea slowly moved her glowing hand over Saber's body without touching her, as if she was scanning the sword-wielding Servant. Rin watches Caster intently, making sure Medea was not doing anything harmful to Arturia in any way. So far, it seemed Medea was being thorough in her assessment of Saber, if her horror at seeing Arturia's new figure was no exaggeration.

Eventually, Medea retracted her hands and visibly pondered. Arturia found herself growing nervous about what the Caster was thinking when it came to dealing with her predicament. While she could understand that hiding this new mature body of hers was imperative for the safety of Taiga and Shirou's friends, part of Arturia was hoping that Medea would end up unable to permanently reverse her wish. Saber was enjoying it too much at this point to want to get rid of it.

Looking beside her, Arturia could see Rin glancing at her with a modicum of worry. Arturia wondered if the Tohsaka-mage could tell what she was thinking and if Rin was opposed to Saber keeping her new body or not. They did not linger on each other for longer as Medea eventually broke the tense silence.

"It's a powerful enchantment alright," she stated with a hint of frustration. "I should have recalled the fact that your master lacks any magecraft capable of this horrid changeover let alone undoing it."

Arturia felt wounded by her body being labelled "horrid," but before she could give Medea a piece of her mind, Rin quickly responded:

"That's why we came to you," she reveals reluctantly. "I saw how drastic Saber's change was based on my go at reversing it."

"Oh, what's wrong?" Medea teased with a coy smile. "Your "baby magic" couldn't do anything, little girl?"

Rin huffed at Caster's little jab. With a barely restrained temper, Rin pointed a threatening finger at her.

"Watch it, hag... remember that this "little girl" gave you a taste of her kick, and I got more where that came from..."

Medea gritted her teeth with disgust at the memory. Arturia remembers that when Rin was cornered by Caster while she was captured, the Tohsaka-mage caught Medea off-guard with some modern martial arts; something Caster would never expect any mage to do. Her arrogance resulted in getting the wind knocked out of her by Rin.

"So barbaric..." Medea said under her breath. "Mages lack class these days..."

"Can we focus on the matter at hand, please?" Arturia cuts in, diffusing the tension between Medea and Rin. "And Caster, I cannot permit you to speak ill of my friends, lest you remember how well acquainted you are with my blade..."

Medea's eyes narrowed at Arturia, and she eventually waved Saber's threat off with a scoff before...

"Hmph... I missed when you were so submissive-"

Before Medea could finish, she was met with a glowing point barely one inch away from her face.

"Do not test me-," Arturia threatened Medea but stopped herself when she realized what she just did. She will admit, Caster bringing up the time she captured Arturia got on Saber's nerves. However, when Arturia wanted to silence her, she meant to summon Excalibur.

NOT Rhongomyniad...

Rin looked on with great worry when it seemed the tension boiled over, but she found her gaze was fixated on the sacred lance Arturia manifested. The initially startled Medea looked curiously at the weapon while Arturia still stared at it, shocked that Rhongo' answered her call instead of Excalibur.

"My, what have we here?" Medea said with an impressed tone as she moved around the lance and inspected it from the side. "It seems that a new body is not all you've gained from your wish."

"That's what led us to believe that the Grail was responsible for this," Rin revealed as Arturia was still fixated on the lance. "It messed with Arturia's spirit container and gave her a secondary class on top of being a Saber. She's dual-class with that of a Lancer."

"Fascinating..." Medea remarked. "And do you recognize this weapon, Saber?"

Arturia glanced at Medea and admitted to her:

"I do. It's Rhongomyniad, the sacred lance. I've only used it three times while I was alive. Once against Vortigern, the second at the battle of Mount Badon, and the third..."

Arturia hesitates as she looks over the weapon in her hand again. She sighs before finishing.

"...at Camlann."

Rin looks at Arturia with sympathy while Saber banishes Rhongomyniad in a cloud of glowing gold dust. Medea watches as Arturia steeled herself before explaining to her:

"As a Saber, it would normally be impossible for me to summon it, let alone use it in any capacity."

"Hmmm..." Medea lets out before she started pacing around her room. "I'd say your assumptions are sound. Nothing other than the Grail could bring about such a change on you."

"But why though?" Rin asked. "All Saber wished for was to have a mature body. Why did the Grail give her a second class?"

Medea continued pacing, thinking very carefully. Arturia watches anxiously as Caster stopped and shared her thoughts with the other two girls.

"I do have an educated guess as to why that happened," she said before directing her attention solely on Arturia. "You see... as the sole wielder of the famous sword in myth, that being Excalibur, your primary class is "Saber" naturally."

"That's what I've always thought..." Arturia affirms, not sure of where this was going as Medea went on explaining:

"But the thing about the Throne of Heroes, is that even though Saber is your most compatible Class, it would not be the only one you could be summoned as. That Herculean brute for example; the homunculi's Servant..."

"Berserker?" asked Arturia.

"Yes... believe it or not, he could also be summoned as an Archer."

"How?" Rin asked skeptically, which Medea was quick to take advantage of.

"You're not familiar with Greek mythology, are you?" she said condescendingly at the Tohsaka-mage, earning an unamused glare from Rin which went ignored. "If you've read his legend, then you would be aware that Heracles possessed arrows soaked with Hydra blood, which he then used to kill the Stymphalian Birds as one of his twelve labors."

"We didn't come here for a history lesson," Rin snaps impatiently, not appreciating how Medea was talking down to her. Caster merely crossed her arms nonchalantly.

"As usual, what you have in brashness, little girl, you lack in patience."

Arturia cuts in to stop Medea from pestering Rin any further.

"Pardon me, but how is this important exactly?"

"I'm getting there..." Medea assures Saber, annoyed that she was robbed of her fun. "But as you probably know, the act that led to his labors was Hera driving Heracles mad which resulted in the death of his family."

"Hence why he was summoned as a Berserker..." Arturia deduced, she and Rin having figured this out before Medea was done explaining. They both looked at Medea with growing urgency and silently prompted her to continue.

"What I'm getting at is that every hero recorded into the Throne is capable of being summoned into more than one class of Servant," Medea reveals. "The Throne records the life of one hero and determines multiple classes based on the events and deeds performed while the hero in question was alive."

Now Arturia found her interest piqued. Rin watches and listens with a reserved expression.

"So, in MY instance..." Saber ponders aloud. "Even though I've always used Excalibur, because I've also utilized Rhongomyniad..."

"Makes you a candidate for the Lancer class..." Medea finished for her. Arturia was mildly surprised, but Rin was not so convinced.

"Doesn't explain how this ties into Arturia's new body..." she points out. "She didn't wish to have another class to access."

"Perhaps that there lies the problem..." Medea said out of the blue, confusing both Rin and Arturia. Rin crosses her arms at Caster.

"Explain for us not in the know?" Rin asks skeptically, tired of Medea amusingly dancing around the issue just to annoy them. Medea knowingly smiles at the Tohsaka-mage before turning to Arturia.

"Saber, if you can recall for me what was going through your head when you made your wish, please?"

Arturia thought carefully, trying to remember what she was thinking before she ultimately made that wish. She recalled wanting the mature body she has now to feel more her age, become more confident in herself as a woman, and ultimately make living together with Shirou less stressful for them in the long term... and perhaps even to be more intimate with him, but Arturia denied that thought as Medea was eyeing her suspiciously, fearing ridicule. Whatever she thought of her reasons to make such a wish, Arturia would not deny it should have resulted in simply a more mature body, NOT a change to her spirit origin.

"I just wished to be mature," she eventually said to Caster. "I've wished of nothing else..."

"But you did not wish for how it would happen, didn't you?" Medea's question left Arturia flabbergasted and Rin completely beside herself.

"Okay, now you've lost me..." Rin said to Caster before demanding to know, "What do you mean "how it would happen"?"

Brushing off the girl's outburst, Medea casually explains:

"Wish magic is a fickle thing... if you don't wish for exactly what you want, what tends to happen is that wish itself could unintentionally get distorted."

"You mean sort of like a "monkey's paw"?" Arturia guessed, wanting to know more. Medea was quick to clarify for her.

"Not exactly... Because you were not specific with your wish, the Grail took a few... liberties in making it come true."

""Liberties"?" Both Arturia and Rin said at the same time, to which Medea nods.

"What most likely happened was the Grail thought that manifesting your alternate summoning form, that of Lancer, and merging it with your Saber self... was the easiest way of granting your wish."

Arturia was stunned, and as for Rin...

"Easiest?!" she said in disbelief. "Since when does a wish-granting cup care about what's easy?!"

Medea gave the Tohsaka mage an unamused sideways glance.

"The Grail has achieved sentience since it was first constructed... with freedom of choice comes freedom of preference..."

Rin stares at her with utter doubt; her belief of the Holy Grail being an inanimate, magical object shaken. All she could do with that revelation was cast her head down and say under her breath:

"Unbelievable..."

Arturia was hardly paying attention, as she was contemplating the fact that the Holy Grail apparently made a choice in giving her other consequence besides making Saber part-Lancer to grant her a mature body. She was more willing to believe that the Holy Grail had some kind of will of its own as the object itself eluded complete understanding by modern magecraft, yet it made her curious of something else.

Something that did not add up in her mind...

"Caster," she suddenly addressed Medea. "You said that the Grail gave me this form by making me part-Lancer. Does that mean...?"

"What?" Medea pestered when Arturia trailed off, cautious of the magnitude of the question she wanted to ask. Arturia was not even sure of how to even begin to approach it.

"That my Lancer form..." she starts before gesturing to herself. "-always looked like this?"

Medea thought carefully, and Rin watched as her friend seemed desperate to know something... whatever that was.

"It would seem so," Medea answers. "Unfortunately I might add..."

Arturia ignores Caster's jab at the Saber's busty figure and tries explaining her dilemma to her.

"But I don't understand... I've lived my life, and I can confidently say that I've never looked like this. Once I pulled Caliburn from the Stone, my body never aged beyond my adolescence. What you implied moments ago suggested that this version of me... was always a possibility; like Shirou..."

When Arturia trailed off, Rin, understanding where her friend was getting at, finished for her.

"And Archer..."

Arturia nods. From her understanding of what Medea explained about the nature of the Grail, she had difficulty accepting the fact that it was possible that her Servant container could (in theory) manifest as she was now; grown up, mature... womanly. Arturia did not believe it possible considering the circumstances in her time-period and legend. There was NO WAY she could pass as a king and yet present herself as a woman even after she pulled Caliburn from the Stone. Arturia was SO convinced that the people of Britain would not accept her for her that she gave up growing into a woman to instead pose as a boy, following the instruction of Merlin to the letter. Her legend would not have played out otherwise, and thus she would not have been recorded in the Throne of Heroes.

So how on Earth was there a version of herself where she had a body that was not young and small like Arturia worked so hard to keep? It made no sense to her.

Indeed, it was a conundrum that was hard for anyone to wrap their head around, but after carefully considering how to answer, Medea shares her thoughts with the confused Arturia.

"Saber," she starts in a tone that was surprisingly empathetic... at least for Medea. "Time is not as linear as we like to think. The life you've lived... could've been just one of many, when you made completely different choices, or maybe the same exact life save for just one crucial choice. Time is not just a constant, but a concept where a single decision or event can have massive repercussions, not just in the near future, but also in the far one, and in an entirely different place. Time is an ever-growing web of possibilities that could stretch infinitely both before now and after."

Arturia and Rin were silent with wonder, yet Saber's doubt still lingered. It should be impossible for her to have a body like the one she has now, considering...

"I just don't see how I could have lived my life as King of Britain if I made the choice to take up Rhongomyniad over Caliburn. My body would have developed into that of a woman, and nobody would have accepted me as leader of a nation..."

Medea merely shrugged and could only offer a possible guess at the probability of Arturia having a version of her where she had the body she desired and was still a king.

"Who knows? Maybe that's exactly what you did... and you made it work..."

Caster's answer left Arturia stunned and devastated, so much so that Saber's legs became heavy, and she was forced to sit down on the floor mat while the gravity of Medea's revelation sunk in.

Arturia could have grown up... pulled the Sword from the Stone... be the king her nation needed... and yet be accepted as a woman. No deception... no facade to hide behind. If Arturia could rule that way, by her heart... would the shortcomings in her current life had never have happened?

Would her Knights not have left?

Would Guinivere not have been persecuted for adultery?

Would Mordred not have rebelled?

Would thousands not have died at Camlann?

Would Morgan le Fay ever have been a threat at all? Okay, maybe that would have stayed the same regardless, Arturia thought. But other than that...

Would ALL those things have never happened if Arturia made a different choice from the very beginning?

The choice not to be something that was not human... a choice made on the fear that she could not be both a king and a woman?

And instead choose to just be honest with herself...

Arturia found herself overwhelmed just thinking about all of it... so much to the point that tears were forming in her eyes. All she'd suffered and fought to rectify...

Might had been needless...

"I..." her voice was breaking. "I don't believe it...!"

"Arturia..." Rin said with sympathy, could not help but feel sorry for her friend, who was probably reliving all the tragedies in her past life and was questioning the validity of it all. Arturia just had everything she thought she knew utterly shattered. The Tohsaka mage knelt and hesitantly put a hand on Saber's shoulder, making Arturia stiffen briefly on contact. Saber looked into her friend's eyes, finding some measure of comfort seeing Rin so concerned for her. The King of Knights knew how difficult it normally is for the prideful mage of the Tohsaka mage to show such care and vulnerability, but Arturia also knew that Rin by this point was aware of Arturia's regrets in her past as well as Shirou does and wanted to relieve her burden.

Arturia thought she was doing something right by wishing to undo her reign and give Britain a chance to prosper with a different leader. Thanks to Shirou and Rin, she had learned the error in her ways and accepted that no one could've done better than she did, and living in the present cemented that fact into Arturia. Britain endured... it had merely moved on... and so should Arturia. She would no longer regret the life she had lived.

To have revealed to her that in some parallel time... Arturia might have succeeded just because of a different choice she made at the start of her legend. But instead of further cementing that catharsis, it only made Arturia question why she was even a Servant in the first place. Why was she fighting when in some way her wish to save Britain was already rendered redundant?

After letting herself calm down enough to think about it... Arturia thought that maybe she was looking at that the wrong way. After all, had it not been for the events in her life that led to her wanting to be a Heroic Spirit, Arturia never would have met Rin, Sakura... or Shirou. People she'd come to cherish and make her feel at peace.

Staring into Rin's empathetic gaze made Arturia realize that thinking about all those possibilities... was pointless. The King of Knights gave her friend a hesitant, but reassuring smile, letting Rin know she was going to be okay.

Whatever could have happened in another life mattered not to Arturia anymore. She'd need only focus on what she has now.

Friends... Family. Love... Things she had shunned trying to be the best king she could possibly be.

And now she had them again, along with a body she felt comfortable in... the question Arturia should ask herself was simply...

What to do with it?

"You okay, Arty?" Rin asked with a smile, already knowing the answer as she gave Arturia an affectionate rub on her shoulder.

"Yes, Rin," Arturia replied sincerely. "It's just... a lot to process."

"Tell me about it," Rin joked. "Multiverses suck, don't they?"

Arturia almost laughs at that.

"Not how I'd put it... but they sure do..."

There was something she wanted to ask Rin, but before Arturia could say anything, the Tohsaka mage was a step ahead of her.

"I won't tell Emiya-kun," Rin whispered, knowing Arturia did not want to worry Shirou about her distress just moments ago. Arturia nodded in gratitude, alleviating any fear. Just then-

"I hate to interrupt," Medea suddenly spoke, having stood silent as the girls had their moment until now. "But there's still the matter you two wanted me to help you with..."

Both Arturia and Rin turn to her and refocus, remembering that they came here so that Caster could hide Arturia's body before Taiga, or Shirou's friends find out. Medea continues with a solemn expression:

"I've been doing the math in your ignorance, and I have concluded..."

Rin helps Arturia back on her feet, and Saber ultimately asked her former opponent of the Holy Grail War:

"That you can't lift the Grail's enchantment off me?"

The look on Medea's said it all, and it was not long until...

"Unfortunately, I cannot...!" Medea cried and sulked, burying her face in her hands and falling to her knees. "Oh Saber! I've failed to bring your cuteness back... now you're stuck as a gorilla! How can I call myself a proper witch after this? I'm such a disgrace! Forgive me, Aunt Circe!"

"Caster...!" Arturia said in astonishment at her exaggerated display. Saber may have felt somewhat relieved in the fact that her wish for her mature body was permanent, there was still the problem of hiding it from Taiga, Issei, and Ayako. "Calm yourself, please..."

Medea did not seem to be listening as she continued crying hysterically. Rin appeared dismayed as it seemed that she, Arturia, and Shirou had wasted their time coming to seek Caster's aid.

"Well, that's a shame," Rin let's out sarcastically before turning to Arturia. "NOW what are we going to do? There's no way we can hide that beach bod' of yours without Taiga getting sus-"

"Hide...?"

Arturia and Rin suddenly turned back to Medea, who had abruptly stopped crying.

"Hide! That's it!" Medea exclaimed ecstatically like she just had a eureka moment. Arturia and Rin looked on, utterly baffled as Medea quickly stood up with an overly determined expression.

"Fret not, Saber! We're not out of options just yet! I might have a way to conceal your unsightly body so that magecraft will remain a secret from your mundane friends!"

The girls stood stunned at Medea's newfound resolve. Arturia and Rin glanced at each other awkwardly, unsure what to make of this. On one hand, it seemed that Medea could solve their core issue with Saber's body after all. But on the other, Medea's enthusiasm gave them a sinking feeling that she was up to something.

They knew Caster was a cunning individual, and her obsession with Arturia was... unhealthy to say the least, if the contents of Medea's room was any indication.

Alas, Arturia supposed that as long as this plan of Medea's did not involve turning Saber into a figurine like the ones on Caster's shelves, then Arturia can go along with whatever that was if it meant keeping her new, mature body whilst not risking the exposure of magecraft.

"Ummm... alright..." Arturia starts hesitantly. "But can we let Shirou know about this too, first? He should be informed of our progress."

Medea nods at Arturia's request, and Rin breathes a sigh of relief now that it seemed Caster had a solution in hiding Saber's body. Arturia was not in a similar mood, as she had a feeling that what ever this bright idea of Medea's was, it was going to turn out troublesome. But what options did they have at this point? Arturia had no choice but to put her trust in the Witch of Betrayal.

A trust she could only hope would not be misplaced...