Fate/Outside Experience

Chapter 2: Draconic Remnants

FATE/OUTSIDE EXPERIENCE

Part I: Blood Thread

Chapter 2: Draconic Remnants

Connla and Gilles continued south along the Gironde for about half an hour. As Da Vinci suggested to her, she kept a fair distance behind him as he rode on his horse. He kept shifting his eyes back and forth between what was in front of him and the apprehensive look in his unusual companion's expression.

He wanted to try talking to her, so he wondered, "What seems to be the matter?"

"Hm?" Connla looked up at him.

"You've been averting your gaze from me for some time. Was there something I said that offended you?"

"No, not at all. I appreciate you showing me the way."

"Then is there something else on your mind? I'd be happy to listen, if you so wish."

"Well... I'm often thinking about one thing or another. I guess you could say I always look like this."

"Oh, my. That's not good for you," Gilles frowned. "A young lady like you shouldn't be so pensive all the time. It would ruin your complexion."

Da Vinci whispered under her breath, "You're one to talk..."

"Ahem!" Connla coughed to drown out the insult. "Anyway, you don't need to worry about me, Sir Gilles. I might not look it to you, but I'm perfectly fine."

"Is that so? Then I shall not pry any further," the knight replied and returned his attention to the road.

She sighed lightly and thought, It's so weird, knowing how a good person like him will eventually change into one of history's most despicable criminals. But there's nothing I can do about it. One of the most important rules in Chaldea is to never influence how the locals will live out their lives. Our job is to correct external threats to humanity's overall timeline while preserving the proper foundations, even if it means allowing history's worst villains to be born.

It was a conundrum that she didn't like at all, but she understood the dangers of trying to warp the world's history into something of her own fashioning. Such efforts would inevitably turn her down a path of evil that she never wanted to tread. It went against common sense, yet the wisdom behind leaving things well alone was perfectly sound in the long run. That was why Connla made no attempt to tell Gilles anything about what was in store for him in the future.

As the pair continued along the river's edge, that was when they noticed something unusual happening up ahead. Gilles commanded his horse to stop with a yell, and Connla asked, "What's wrong?"

He dismounted and glared ahead with a fierce look in his narrow eyes. "There appears to be a caravan that is under attack."

Just as he claimed, about 300 meters ahead was a skirmish between merchants and their families versus a gang of thugs wearing leather and fur pelts. The bandits were especially merciless as they struck down the unarmed men with their swords, and restrained the women and children to force them inside cages with wheels.

"Damn them!" Gilles seethed, his tired eyes suddenly bulging wide like saucers. "Miss Connla, please remain here! I shall dispatch of these fiends immediately!"

"W-Wait!" the little girl protested, but he was already out of earshot.

"This isn't good," Da Vinci frowned hard. "He may be strong, but I don't think he is able to fend off an entire horde of brigands by himself."