"Impossible, I don't believe KING is that kind of person!" Unlike the Waver-Conqueror King duo who were perfectly compatible, Artoria was currently engaged in a heated debate with her Master in the Einzbern castle.
However, accurately speaking, this debate was one-sided on Artoria's part. Her Master, Kiritsugu, hadn't said a single word to her from start to finish.
If Kiritsugu had argued back a sentence or two, it would have been better. His complete treatment of Artoria as invisible hurt her deeply.
Compared to other Heroic Spirits, Artoria could be considered quite an obedient Servant, yet Kiritsugu didn't think so.
First, the King Arthur with such a glorious legend was actually a little girl. Yes, you heard right. Because King Arthur was female, Kiritsugu's favorability towards Artoria dropped.
Second, Kiritsugu was very disdainful and disrespectful of Artoria's chivalry. Then the question arises: before summoning Artoria, Kiritsugu should have thoroughly read King Arthur's history. Regardless of whether the gender was male or female, they would certainly adhere to the spirit of chivalry. Since he was so disdainful, why did Kiritsugu summon Artoria? Although the Einzbern family found Avalon as the catalyst for Kiritsugu, there are so many heroes in the world; it wasn't mandated that Kiritsugu must summon King Arthur.
Since he summoned her, constantly having conflicts with his own Servant was just asking for trouble. If you didn't want King Arthur, couldn't you summon a Servant with better compatibility?
It's only because Artoria adheres to chivalry and is relatively obedient. If it were another Servant like Goldie or Medea—the former would probably have fallen out with Kiritsugu the moment he didn't show the etiquette of a subject, and the latter... although Caster (Medea) would be very obedient at first, once she knew you planned to betray her, you'd just be waiting to be played to death.
Kiritsugu looked down on King Arthur's chivalry but enjoyed the convenience brought by King Arthur's adherence to it.
What an ironic fact.
Kiritsugu Emiya completely treated Servants as tools to be used, and in his perception, Artoria belonged to the category of not-so-easy-to-use tools. So when Artoria wanted to argue with him, he ignored her completely and walked away, leaving Artoria standing there alone with her head lowered.
"SABER... Kiritsugu didn't mean that." Irisviel looked at Artoria apologetically.
It was fortunate Kiritsugu had a good wife. Irisviel always played the role of the peacemaker, mediating to prevent the conflict between the two from escalating.
It was a dark and windy night. A nimble black shadow easily scaled the walls of the new Matou residence. At the same time, with swift and practiced speed, they evaded the various intricate magical traps designed within the Matou courtyard.
Subsequently, a figure slightly smaller than the first shadow also agilely leaped over the Matou family's wall, infiltrating the premises.
The first shadow quickly climbed a huge ancient tree in the courtyard, concealing their figure in the densest part of the foliage. Simultaneously, they opened a case beside them, took out a sniper rifle, and assembled it rapidly. After vigilantly checking that there were no abnormalities around, they spoke into the earpiece hanging by their ear:
"Maiya, everything is smooth here. How about you?"
"Preparation complete, everything is OK," Maiya Hisau replied concisely. Looking around the courtyard, Maiya Hisau's figure couldn't be found at all, but she had used the lighting to hide her body perfectly in the shadows. Like a venomous snake hiding in the dark, ready to attack at any moment.
A very seasoned approach, worthy of being the assistant to the professional Magus Killer, Kiritsugu Emiya.
Everything was ready; now they were just waiting for SABER and Irisviel to arrive.
This was Kiritsugu Emiya's method. Through investigation, he learned that Sakura Matou's Servant, KING, had some problem unknown to him—like the Servant he summoned, KING couldn't turn into spirit form and also needed food and sleep. So he and Maiya Hisau infiltrated the new Matou residence first.
For Kiritsugu Emiya, who was well-versed in magecraft, this was a very easy task. As long as he didn't attack, Kiritsugu was confident the other party wouldn't discover him.
Moreover, the new Matou residence was very spacious. Even if the opponent was a Heroic Spirit, it was impossible to detect him and Maiya from such a distance.
They just needed to lurk in the dark and wait for the best opportunity to appear.
Then it would be time for you to make your entrance.
"Is this the Matou house?" A black motorcycle sped up and stopped. Irisviel, dressed in leather, and Artoria, clad in steel armor, stepped out and stood before the gate of the Matou house. At the same time, Artoria released her Heroic Spirit aura without concealment.
This was Kiritsugu's second step: use SABER to attract the opponent's attention.
"King of Knights? Sorry for not coming out to welcome you sooner. But at such a late hour, what business brings you here? Did you miss me?" As expected by Kiritsugu Emiya, not long after Artoria arrived, Meruem, wearing white clothes that were very conspicuous in the night, appeared before the two.
"KING, you are too frivolous." Artoria spoke to Meruem following Kiritsugu's previous instructions. The gist was to ask if he was the criminal who committed the serial murders and stall him for a night. If reports of serial murders still appeared the next day, then it could be confirmed that Meruem was innocent. Yes, a fairly simple method to prove an alibi—brainless but practical.
At least Artoria believed Kiritsugu did this only to judge whether the other party was truly the culprit.
"So fast. Even with speed tripled, I still couldn't catch a trace of his movement. But, the goal has been achieved." Kiritsugu watched the figure that appeared at the Matou gate like teleportation and took a deep breath.
As expected, at such a late hour, he definitely wouldn't wake up and bring along his MASTER, that little girl from the Matou family.
So far so good, the plan continues.
While Artoria pins down the opponent, Maiya and I will infiltrate the mansion, find KING's MASTER, and force her to use a Command Spell to make KING commit suicide!
This was Kiritsugu Emiya's layout.
A very despicable method, not even sparing a child, but very simple and effective. In Kiritsugu Emiya's eyes, as long as the goal could be achieved, no matter how despicable the means, sacrificing a few people was nothing.
Because the pressure KING gave him was simply too great. Ever since Meruem appeared, Kiritsugu Emiya had felt abnormally uneasy. Kiritsugu judged that this combination of a little girl and a Servant posed an even greater threat to him than Kirei Kotomine! This Servant must be eliminated first.
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