Fate Apocrypha Volume 3

Chapter 1.1

His mouth was filled with the sweet, metallic taste of blood.

Although he was not severely wounded, some healing was certainly required. This was beyond his body's natural regeneration.

The homunculus, for whom 'life' had once meant floating inside a prana provision tank, now possessed his own name – Sieg – and had become a unique existence, neither human nor homunculus nor Heroic Spirit.

He glanced at his left palm. Normally, a Command Spell once used would become a faint bruise and disappear. However, that was not the case here; his Command Spells became somewhat indistinct, but they were still very much present. In fact, a blackish mark was present where the Command Spell had been – an aftereffect of its usage, Sieg assumed.

His body felt strangely heavy. Just as he began to stretch and turn his neck and arms, he found Rider glaring at him darkly.

"Isn't there something you should to be saying to me...?"

Sieg did not even need to think about his reply.

"I'm sorry."

"Yes. Yes, you are. What do you think I worked so hard for?!"

Rider wrapped both hands around Sieg's shoulders and shook the homunculus back and forth, on the verge of tears.

"Mordred ran you through! You were dead! And then you were alive again! And then you turned into a Servant, but now you're back! What is going on here?!"

"I... don't really know myself, actually. How did I come back to life?"

"And how does asking me help? You know I'm not smart enough to know things like that! Stupid! Stupid! Aaaagh!"

Rider shouted and shouted, then suddenly butted Sieg in the chest with his head. Facing towards the ground, Rider murmured.

"Thank goodness you're still alive... but not again, do you understand? Don't do what you just did, ever again. All right?"

Rider looked up at Sieg with blurred eyes. Sieg coolly replied.

"I can't promise that."

"Bwh..."

Rider blinked several times before puffing up his cheeks.

"And what's that supposed to mean?! Normal people would say 'yes' to that! They say 'sorry' and 'I won't do that again' and they cry and they realize their mistake and I'll be the mature one who forgives them and pets them on the head!"

"I came back precisely so I can do things like that again... I really want to save them, Rider... all my brothers and sisters. I want to pay them back for the compassion they showed me then."

"But..."

"I know that it's something beyond me. Like you said... I should have gone on living without ever turning back. My life would have been happier that way."

However, he could not. He could not live on pretending they never existed. Rider listened to Sieg's appeal and sighed theatrically.

"Oh, you... you... you're just... just so..."

Scratching and tearing at his own hair, Rider suddenly leapt into the air. Sieg prepared himself, thinking that he must be furious – but when Rider stopped, he turned to Sieg with a face full of joy and zest.

"...just so brilliant! I knew... I knew this is who you are! Even though no one would judge you for leaving all this behind – you would still challenge yourself! Thanks to you, I've made up my mind as well – I can say for sure now that they need to be saved! We'll save them all from that foul, dreadful place!"