A Different Fate - [Rewrite]

Chapter 8:Arguments

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Some weeks later, during the usual morning lessons, the two girls had just gone through a particularly difficult part of a new magic book they had read together. Arturia had decided they could take a short break to allow Illya to have a snack. Gilgamesh was in his usual spot, lounging on the sofa, and seemed slightly more bored than other days.

The little girl was eating the slices of an apple that the King of Knights was peeling and seemed to be lost in her thoughts.

Out of the blue, she looked at the woman and said, "Arturia, would you tell me a bit more about the other Servants from the war, please?"

Arturia paused in her peeling of the fruit and noticed Gilgamesh leaning up a bit to listen more intently. That was quite a difficult question to answer.

She slowly asked, "The specific Servants of this war, or the Servants' classes?"

Illya replied, "The specific Servants… I know about the classes."

Arturia nodded, and finished peeling an apple slice before handing it all to the little girl.

"Well, the Archer-class Servant is currently there on the couch, while the Saber-class Servant was me. Then Assassin… he was a dangerous one, because he had several bodies and therefore tricked the other contestants by faking his death more than once. Caster… he was a very sick person. He disregarded human life entirely, and was only happy when he could do horrible things to innocent people."

She carefully avoided mentioning all the atrocities he had committed because Illya, even if unusually bright for her age, was still a young child.

"Berserker…" Arturia couldn't help hesitating, and knew that Gilgamesh had noticed it. She internally cursed his ever-growing perceptiveness when it came to her. "He had no control over his actions, becoming a slave of his madness and randomly trying to kill. He was, in life,… my most loyal and trusted knight, Lancelot, who had fallen under the curse of insanity."

She had to pause for a second, but immediately continued. She had made something close to peace with her demons inside the Grail, she would not allow them to control her any longer. "Rider was Iskandar, the powerful King of Macedonia. Even if not a very… courteous person, he was a truly valuable leader and a skilled fighter."

Arturia paused in order to divide the next apple slice into two parts and give one of them to Illya, while she unhurriedly swallowed the second one.

The little girl asked, "And what about Lancer?"

Arturia almost smiled, and didn't notice Gilgamesh's eyes narrowing at her expression.

"He was… different from other Heroic Spirits, I believe. He was… truly chivalrous. I would have actually liked to meet him outside the Holy Grail War's battlefield, because he was someone I respected and could even come to trust."

Illya was curious, but before she could say anything, a scoff from the King of Heroes made her jump. He was usually so silent around them that she often forgot he was even there.

Gilgamesh seemed strangely irritated. Gaze fixated on Arturia, he said, "That mongrel was not even a King, and yet you deem someone like him worthy of your time? I am appalled at you, King of Knights."

Arturia, however, wasn't fazed. She returned his irritated gaze with a challenging one of her own.

"I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to fight side by side with Lancer during the war… and I would have been honoured to call him a fellow knight of mine. He was a just and loyal person, and I wish for his sake that his destiny had been different."