Fate: Hammer Time

Chapter 40: Wrap It Up With a Bowtie

"Well, that was easy."

Those were the first words spoken once the group had reassembled, and rather unsurprisingly, they were spoken by Flat.

Most of the people involved in the purge were present at the scene. Shirou was there, and so was Lord El-Melloi, as were Lady Barthomeloi and Lady Montmorency, as well as Grey, Reines, Svin, Flat, Lehrman, Caren, Bazett, and even Sisigou and Adashino, though there were several others present too.

They were currently standing together, in a rough circle, inside the Department of Mineralogy, the Department that had once belonged to the Archibald, had then been taken by the Meluastea, and was now once more reclaimed by the Archibald, or by Waver Velvet at least, in the name of the Archibald.

It had been barely two hours since the Department of Archaeology had been conquered completely, and already, most of Mineralogy had been taken as well. As Flat had said, it had been very easy.

There were several reasons for this.

The first was of course because Shirou and Lady Barthomeloi had led the charge again. Bounded Fields and other defences were worthless before them, and it wasn't long before they had destroyed all resistance.

The second reason was that Reines knew the lay-out of the Department like the back of her hand, having lived there for the first seven years of her life, and as such, was able to lead them around quickly and decisively, which helped speed up the conquest even more.

The third reason was that Mineralogy was less than half the size of Archaeology, both in surface area and in number of people, meaning that there was simply less to conquer in the first place.

The last reason, and perhaps the most important one of them all, was that most members of the Department of Mineralogy actually hated the Meluastea.

Shirou did not know the precise numbers, but he did know that a good two-thirds of the families involved with Mineralogy had outright refused to fight for the Meluastea when the attack had begun, and many of them had even actively fought against them once the opportunity presented itself.

Once he and Lady Barthomeloi had gotten through the first defensive line of Meluastea-supporters, they had been surprised to find that virtually no resistance remained. The members of the Department of Mineralogy who were loyal to the Archibald had already dealt with them.

It seemed that the Archibald had been kinder masters than the Meluastea, or if not kinder, than at least preferable in some other way, as Lord El-Melloi and Reines had been received with hopeful looks and even some cheers once they'd entered the Department.

Reines ate it all up of course, happily waving to everyone who was cheering for her, while Lord El-Melloi had to cover his cheeks to hide his blush, something Svin and Flat were only delighted to tease him about.

Even now, many of the people working for Mineralogy were going around, happily removing every trace of the Meluastea and their flunkies, some of them even whistling a joyful tune while they were at it.

Shirou watched as the seal of the Meluastea-family was removed everywhere and replaced with that of the Archibald, monuments and statues that had been built in honour of the Meluastea were destroyed, and every bit of research that the flunkies of that family had participated in was either delivered to the Enforcers or burned on the spot.

It was quite the sight, and though Shirou knew many of them, if not all, only preferred the Archibald out of selfish reasons, he was still happy to see that even most Magi could not abide the Meluastea.

It wasn't much, but it was something.

As Mineralogy was now largely cleared and there was no longer any threat, the large group quickly fell apart into multiple smaller groups, and before long, Shirou found himself standing together with Lord El-Melloi, Lady Barthomeloi, Reines, Grey, and the snake-lady whom Lord El-Melloi had introduced as 'Adashino'.