An Archer's Promise

Chapter 4: Raid

Beta read by n1ch, Shigiya, Solitary heart and 8kagi

.

.

.

-Grünes Bergdorf-

(Early morning)

Ding~

Ding~

Ding~

It all happened abruptly.

In the early morning of Grünes Bergdorf, the church bell tolled at an unusual pace, followed by the shouts of guards and Knights of Ken.

"Everybody inside the church hall now!"

"Demon invasion! A group of a few dozen Orcs and imps spotted a few miles away!"

This created a wave of panic and terror among the villagers, as each man, woman, child and elderly scrambled over the main structure protected by a handful of the village guards. Some of them were already shaking as they had never faced orcs before in their lives, but had heard the stories of the terrible things that they can do, especially to the woman.

"How is it possible for them to show up here!? It never happened before!"

"Quick, hide the women first!"

It was nothing short of an absolute mess. There was no coordination from any of the guards of Knights. The former was too scared to do anything, with the exception of a few who struggled to handle the crowd all by themselves. The Knights had already joined the front line, their swords drawn—ready to face the enemy.

While this all happened, Archer was watching the entire scene with an impassive face. Looking neither bothered nor worried about the incoming threat. He decided this was the perfect opportunity to gouge out the enemy's strength and witness how capable the people of this world were as well.  

He passively thought about how the recently met Shirou Emiya would have reacted if he was here, instead of him. Probably aiding the town's forces to successfully organize a proper evacuation or join the Knights in defending the people. Ready to toss his life at any given moment for any random passerby. With little to no care of his own, he would have fought bravely against the orcs—probably summoning one or two Noble Phantasms as a trump card. He would do his very best to save everyone, his obsessive desire to always help someone…

'Such hypocrisy can not save anything.'

But Archer was not the old Shirou Emiya anymore. He could be calm and collected when he needs to be, not letting his emotions dictate his actions—with being cruel a necessity when working under Alaya. His approach to any given conflict was far more calculated and planned to the smallest details.

He no longer cared for the general populace–only focusing on his mission and nothing else.

"I killed many people to act on my ideals. I killed so many that I stopped caring about innocent people and I saved a thousand times more as I killed the few." He wondered once again how Rin will be able to keep her end of the promise with that fool, whose ideals were still strongly ingrained into his being.

At the corner of his eye, he caught the familiar figure of the captain Knight, Brynn Deliha, if he remembered correctly, rushing over the front gates with her own squad, determination and apprehension on her face.

"I still can't fathom how those girls will be able to stop a demon raid with those… things. They belong in a hentai if nothing else." He muttered to himself, shaking his head seeing their so-called outfits once again. He absolutely refused to call those three pieces of metal and a pair of vambraces, armor. They didn't belong anywhere near the battlefield unless they wanted to die a quick death, if they were lucky. Maybe there was a blessing or a spell native to this world that he couldn't sense?