"Lia, are you really not coming with me?"
"That is the battlefield where you will reclaim your true self, and... after you go as an Assassin, won't both you and my main body still be here?"
Time is meaningless to the Throne of Heroes, but it still has meaning for the Heroic Spirits who live upon it and possess a concept of time.
Counting by the planet's days, it was seven days after the two returned from the Absolute Demonic Front that Guinevere heard the summons of a Servant from a certain point in time.
And judging from the summoning information, the summoner was a random summoning for a limited Class. So, for this summons to point here, it truly was fate.
So, why the Assassin Class? Or rather, why did Guinevere have the Assassin Class aptitude?
To put it simply, after the Absolute Demonic Front ended, First Hassan acknowledged that Guinevere could be called her disciple.
Yes, this acknowledgment alone allowed Guinevere to directly obtain the Assassin Class aptitude without knowing any Assassin techniques.
"Lia, I'll answer the summons then. I wonder which Holy Grail War I'm heading to this time."
Under the full moon, in the middle of the prairie, Guinevere kissed the King of Knights before responding. The next instant, she was still here, but in another parallel world, her Assassin-Class self had already responded to someone's summons.
"Ugh, this is..."
The familiar dizzying sensation was the Holy Grail instilling the knowledge required for a Servant into her mind.
By the time she shook her head and opened her eyes, the smoke in front of her had cleared, the brilliant Magic Circle had returned to a dim state, and her Summoner came into view.
A long purple robe, a hooded cloak of indigo and violet. The upper half of her face and eyes were hidden beneath the hood, yet the lower half of her face, exposed through the gaps of the hood and robe, was enough to call charming.
Tilting her head slightly, Guinevere suddenly felt amused. She had thought that after turning the Fourth Holy Grail War completely upside down, she would never experience something like this again.
However, she had come to the Fifth Holy Grail War in a parallel world, and she had even become the Servant summoned by the Caster-Class Medea.
"My lady, might you be my Master?"
Smiling, Guinevere toyed with a strand of hair by her ear, carefully tucking it behind.
During this, Guinevere also slightly sensed her body attributes and then quietly clicked her tongue after confirming them.
True Name: Guinevere Pendragon
Class: Assassin
Region: Camelot
Alignment: Lawful Good
Identity: Queen of the King of Knights
Base Stats:
Guinevere: Strength B, Endurance C, Agility C, Mana A, Luck A+, Noble Phantasms A.
Class Skills:
Presence Concealment E: Slightly conceals presence, slightly reducing the chance of being detected.
[ Boosted by the legend of her trysts with Lancelot; effectiveness increases when facing the King of Knights, and decreases when facing "Adultery-Catching Knights" like Mordred. ]
Personal Skills:
Femme Fatale A++: Increases Charm. High chance to Charm humans; effectiveness is increased against the Three Knight Classes.
Nun Who Kept Her Chastity B: After the death of King Arthur, she spent her final days in solitude at a certain convent. Resistance to all negative effects is increased.
Blessing of the First Hassan A: In the eyes of the First Hassan, your direct combat ability is beyond question. However, as an Assassin, your disguise abilities are nearly nonexistent.
With this ability, you can borrow First Hassan's disguise abilities to change your appearance, conceal your Noble Phantasms, and hide your True Name.
Note: Disguise automatically fails when in combat.
Note 2: This skill is automatically hidden and cannot be observed by anyone, including the Master, through any means.
Noble Phantasm:
Wicked Queen of Calamity A: Has a chance to control one of the Three Knight Classes. Guaranteed to hit Lancelot; increased chance against the King of Knights; slightly increased chance against Camelot Knights; ineffective against adultery-catching knights like Mordred and Agravain.
"My Lady, I will ask once more: Are you truly my Master?"
Medea, perhaps just like Guinevere, was also reviewing her attributes, and then she and Guinevere shared a moment of speechless exasperation.
Looking at the status sheet, Guinevere is not an Assassin in the slightest and is completely unfit for direct combat. Fortunately, the effect of the [ Wicked Queen of Calamity ] Noble Phantasm gave Medea a pleasant surprise.
In Guinevere's own mind, apart from the [ Blessing of First Hassan ], all of her attributes and skills should have been the ones originally belonging to Guinevere. This time, being summoned to this parallel world, she should have inherited the legend and True Name of the original Guinevere.
"Guinevere? The Queen of King Arthur who caused the Round Table to collapse and ultimately led to the fall of the Kingdom of Camelot?"
In the knowledge granted by the Holy Grail, Guinevere's story was truly devoid of any version where she was involved.
For the sake of a political marriage, Guinevere brought her dowry and a large number of knights when she married King Arthur, only to witness King Arthur's adultery with Morgan and lose all heart.
However, during her secret meetings with Lancelot, Guinevere never crossed the line with him. She treated Lancelot as a priest who could listen to her confessions.
After being caught in adultery, being sentenced to be burned at the stake, being rescued by Lancelot storming the city, and being destined to be the beginning of the Round Table's destruction, Guinevere was filled with remorse, just as the records said.
Also, years later, after learning that the King of Knights and Mordred died at Camlann Hill, she resolutely rejected Lancelot when he came to see her, and spent her final days in a convent, repenting in sorrow.
From Guinevere's story, she was a puppet of fate, a complete tragedy.
"Yes, it is I, Guinevere Pendragon, the Wicked Queen of Calamity you spoke of.
My lady, I am asking for the third time, are you my Master?"
For Medea, she had encountered an unworthy person once again. Fortunately, after tricking her original Master into using up his Command Spells, she successfully killed him.
But also because her former Master had used up his Command Spells, when she was found by the current Master and formed a contract with her, they naturally lacked the Command Spells, which were an important tool in the Holy Grail War.
Therefore, as a mage of the Age of Gods, the owner of the Golden Fleece, the Witch of Betrayal Medea, chose to summon her servant as a Caster.
And Guinevere's appearance was the successful result of this.
Without the need for Guinevere to ask, feeling the connection established between them, and looking at the three Command Spells on the back of her hand, Medea already knew the answer to the question.
"Yes, I am your Master."
Originally, Medea only wanted to summon a watchdog to compensate for her side's natural weakness, but Guinevere's Noble Phantasm, along with her attributes that made it seem impossible to fight directly, sparked a brainstorm for Medea, naturally generating the idea to change her next combat method.
However, before that, she still needed to continue accumulating mana, and wait for the appearance of all Three Knight Classes that could be controlled by Guinevere.
If this Noble Phantasm could only control one person, then of course the strongest and most suitable one should be chosen.
"Then, Master, the contract is now established."
In the night wind, the black nun's habit Guinevere wore alone rustled. She tilted her head and saw Souichirou Kuzuki, who belonged to Medea, beside her.
Looking at him, then at Medea, Guinevere curled her lips up again. She liked stories of pure love and didn't mind being used by them for a while.
After all, her journey this time was not for the Holy Grail.