"To resolve a Singularity, the key is to seize the Holy Grail. And right now, the Grail is in the hands of Jeanne Alter..."
"Jeanne Alter?"
"What kind of strange title is that?"
Jeanne felt somewhat offended.
"Jeanne Alter is the 'black' Jeanne—or rather, the inverted version of you, the 'white' Jeanne. That's the theory, anyway."
Lin Qi glanced at Jeanne and continued.
Jeanne froze.
"So... you knew who I was all along?"
"Of course I did. Not only that, but I also know that even though you manifested as a Ruler, most of your Spirit Origin was stolen by Jeanne Alter. You don't even have the basic knowledge a Servant should possess."
"Mmm..."
Jeanne's face flushed red with embarrassment.
Lin Qi ignored her reaction.
"If I'm not mistaken, Jeanne Alter has probably already used the Holy Grail's power to summon a large number of Servants—including powerful figures like Vlad III, Martha, and Atalante."
"Wait! Martha? The Martha I know?"
Jeanne wondered if she had misheard.
"You heard right. That Martha—the Christian saint who subdued the evil dragon."
Lin Qi shattered her last hope.
Even Jeanne couldn't help but feel a twinge of despair.
With such a lineup on the enemy's side, how could the two of them possibly win?
With her, a freshly manifested Ruler with barely any power?
Or with Lin Qi, a rookie Master who just stumbled into this mess?
"Feeling hopeless, right? They've got an army of powerhouses, while we're a bunch of half-baked stragglers. If they pick us off one by one, we're done for."
"The only remotely good news is that Servants like Martha aren't actually 'inverted'—they've just been given Madness Enhancement. Their combat drive is weaker, so they might go easy on us."
Lin Qi's tone was self-deprecating.
There's that too?
Jeanne stared at Lin Qi's profile in surprise.
How does he know the enemy's situation so clearly?
"But 'going easy' is relative. Chaotic-aligned Servants will be even more brutal than usual. And the real problem isn't them—it's the dragon under Jeanne Alter's control: Fafnir."
"An extremely fearsome dragon. Even a group of regular Servants wouldn't stand a chance against it."
"Then what do we do?"
Jeanne's expression turned grave as she pressed for an answer.
"Siegfried. He's also in this Singularity. If we find him, this Singularity becomes a cakewalk."
"The famous dragon-slayer?"
Jeanne's eyes lit up.
Of course! With Siegfried on their side, not only Fafnir but even Martha could be dealt with easily!
Lin Qi had spent a long time figuring out why players in the game considered the early Singularities mere "warm-ups."
Because they all completed the main quest smoothly.
And what was the main quest of the first Singularity?
Finding Siegfried. With the invincible Siegfried, the Singularity could be cleared effortlessly.
"The problem is, Siegfried was ambushed by Jeanne Alter's forces the moment he manifested. He's probably half-dead by now, hiding somewhere—if he hasn't already disappeared."
Lin Qi had noticed something during his time in Singularity F: while he was preparing, Chaldea seemed frozen in a peculiar stasis, unaffected by the Singularity's time flow.
That was the only silver lining.
But after clearing Singularity F, that state ended.
And as everyone knew, Lin Qi had suffered severe burns after Singularity F. Even with his Servant-enhanced recovery, he spent a long time bedridden in Chaldea.
So even that small advantage slipped through his fingers.
Recalling this, Lin Qi's eyes dimmed.
"You know all this? That's amazing!"
Jeanne, however, wasn't dragged down by his mood. Her blue eyes sparkled, her voice brimming with admiration.
"Huh?"
Lin Qi was stunned. Thinking she hadn't understood, he repeated:
"Did you not hear me? Siegfried's missing! We're finished! FINISHED!"
"Then let's go find him. 'Missing' doesn't mean 'gone.' If we search hard enough, we'll find clues, right?"
Jeanne replied without hesitation.
She truly believed it.
"Maybe I wasn't clear enough. Even if we find him, he's under a curse—one that'll kill him if left untreated. We'd need two saints to perform a purification ritual!"
Lin Qi was starting to doubt Jeanne's intelligence.
Search? Do you really think Siegfried can last that long?
"I can perform the ritual. So we just need one more—Martha?"
Jeanne seized the key point, making a quick deduction.
"No! The other one is Georgios. He's also in this Singularity."
Lin Qi was now certain—Jeanne's brain was defective.
Who in their right mind would think of asking Martha for help with purification?
"You really are incredible! So sharp-minded—no wonder you're humanity's last Master!"
Jeanne's gaze grew even more admiring.
"Are you joking right now?"
Lin Qi couldn't comprehend her reaction.
"Did I say something wrong? You've analyzed the entire Singularity. All we need to do is find Siegfried and Georgios, perform the ritual, and everything will be fine."
"Right?"
Jeanne blinked, tilting her head.
Lin Qi fell silent.
Perhaps, amid all the chaos, he had forgotten just how powerful it was to have a script—even if only for reference.
"Even if we know all this, what's the point? Things never go as planned..."
Lin Qi turned back to the fire, his voice trailing off.
He wanted to stand up and say something inspiring, something heroic—it would be cool, wouldn't it?
But Lin Qi was afraid.
Afraid to start. Afraid to fail. Afraid of the countless possibilities ahead. Afraid his mistakes would lead to inevitable defeat.
It was this first step that had paralyzed him with fear.
Jeanne suddenly stood up. Startled, Lin Qi looked up at her—
—only to see her extending her hand toward him.
"Then form a contract with me!"
"You and me—an incomplete Servant and an incomplete Master. Let's do everything we can, together."
"I'll stay by your side, so don't worry—"
Lin Qi stared blankly at the girl before him. Bathed in the firelight, her smile was dazzling—brighter than the flames themselves.
His body moved on its own, his hand overlapping with her soft, pale one.
[I want to move forward with her—even if the end is failure.]
A red light flashed between their hands.
The contract was sealed.
Jeanne immediately felt stronger than before.
Even if Lin Qi was weak, he still carried traces of Cú Chulainn's power. For a half-baked Servant like her, this was a stroke of luck.
But her joy lasted only a moment.
She finally noticed the unnatural skin on the other side of Lin Qi's face—the side he'd been hiding.
"Your face...?"
The fire in Lin Qi's chest instantly cooled. He turned back to the flames, shielding the right side of his face.
"It's nothing. Just an old injury."
He rubbed the smooth, disfigured skin of his burned hand, his mood sinking.
He'd seen himself in the mirror. He knew how ugly it looked. That's why he always angled himself away.
Of course, he knew he couldn't hide it forever. But now that the moment had come, anxiety gripped him.
Will she think I'm disgusting...?
Then—
A warm, delicate hand touched his scarred cheek.
"It must have hurt so much..."
Jeanne's voice was tender, her touch careful as she traced the burns.
The scars covered nearly half of Lin Qi's right face. His eyebrow and parts of his hair follicles were permanently destroyed.
Further down, his neck and arms bore similar marks.
Those simple words made Lin Qi's nose sting.
"It's fine... It's mostly healed now..."
He fought back tears, but his eyes reddened, his voice hoarse.
Of course it hurt.
Even now, he could still feel a dull throbbing where the burns were.
"You're so stubborn. Don't forget—I was burned at the stake too. Do you really think I don't know how this feels?"
"Though... I don't remember much of the pain anymore."
Jeanne sighed, ruffling his hair.
"I'm not being stubborn. I'm not here to compete in suffering..."
Lin Qi ducked away from her hand.
Jeanne couldn't help but chuckle.
"Alright, alright. You're not stubborn. Happy?"
She wrapped an arm around his shoulders.
Before Lin Qi could react, she pulled him into a hug.
His nose filled with her sweet fragrance. His cheek pressed against something soft and warm. Half his body was flush against hers.
This warmth—this tenderness—was something Lin Qi had never experienced. His face burned red.
He wanted to pull away...
But his heart wouldn't let him.
"Be good~ Tell me about yourself first," Jeanne said softly, gently combing through Lin Qi's hair, her cheeks slightly flushed. After all, she too was an inexperienced maiden, and this level of intimacy with a male was entirely new to her.
"That tone... I'm not a child..." Lin Qi felt somewhat uncomfortable with Jeanne's manner.
"Not a child...?" Jeanne blinked, looking at the unburned, youthful half of his face. "Then how old are you?"
"Sixteen... Seventeen!"
"I heard that~ Just sixteen? That's even younger than I was."
"From Chaldea's records, you were about this age when you first went to battle."
"You even know that? But I wasn't alone then—I had comrades fighting alongside me." Jeanne's face grew warmer. "Wait, why are we talking about me? Weren't we discussing you?" she awkwardly changed the subject.
Lin Qi didn't dwell on her clumsy diversion. After hesitating, he began organizing his thoughts and recounting everything that had happened since arriving at Chaldea.