The Thirsty Girl's Guide To Summoning (Fate/Isekai)

Chapter 31

Ren huddled in the kitchen next to the hearth, drinking the tea Hyde had prepared. Despite his threats, he'd added sugar instead of poison, but it was still hot and sharp and refreshing to her scattered wits.

Everything since she'd gone to bed the night before still felt like a bad dream only barely remembered. But they were all gone, every Servant she'd summoned save for Hyde, and Ritsu as well. It was enough that she wanted to believe this was the bad dream. But she knew the difference.

Artoria Alter stood in the kitchen, watching her. She looked exactly as she had when she'd held Ren by the hair in the Sovereign camp, and the empty coldness of her gaze was more than a little frightening. But she seemed to still be functioning as Tora's Servant, pursuing Tora's goals—and that was currently the protection of the existing children and herself.

Hyde crouched in the corner of the kitchen, behind Ren, but she could feel his intent gaze fixed on her. Her skin prickled under it, and even though he'd placed himself out of reach, she kept expecting to once again feel his arms sliding around her. His previous embrace had been both stressful and exhilarating—and all the more so when he'd released her on his own, despite all Jekyll's warnings. But it was a distraction she didn't need, all the same.

She finished her tea, and Hyde growled, "More? Or can we get this fucking show on the road?"

Ren exhaled. "Is this going to work? Is there any real chance I can save them?"

"No," said Artoria Alter bluntly. "You're Red Riding Hood walking into the woods with the Wolf."

"How about if you came too?" asked Ren tentatively, because she had to ask. But when Artoria shook her head, Ren felt only relief.

"I won't do that. Protecting the remaining children was my Master's last command."

Ren stood up. Her body ached with bruises and muscle strain that hadn't been there the night before: yet another sign that something worse than a dream had occurred. "Well... Is there anything else I can do? Other than acting out a fairy tale?"

Icily, Artoria Alter said, "You already know the answer to that."

Hyde bounded to his feet. "Yes, let's go, let's go!"

And so they went.

The Sovereign campsite beyond the walls of the Summoner's Castle had been kicked apart, with supplies unloaded from the dragon and the kirin tumbled this way and that. Ren's fragmented memories only covered parts of the previous night's conflict taking place within the castle walls, but it looked like the Sovereign champions had at least tried to fight back against whatever had taken them.

Deep shadows still cloaked the forest, even the scar left by Artoria Alter's intial greeting. As Ren eyed it apprehensively, Hyde tugged her in a different direction, more to the north of the Castle. "This way!"

He led her to a narrow trail into the underbrush, and shoved her ahead of him, retaining a hold on her top. "You first."

"Wouldn't it be better the other way around?" Ren protested. "You're the one who knows where we're going."

Hyde snorted. "It's a trail. The trick isn't finding the thing, it's getting inside. Nah, much better if you go first. That way nothing can snatch you away when I'm not looking." And he grinned to make sure she understood that he would definitely be looking.

Ren squashed down ordinary feelings. In a fairy tale or a nightmare, what did they matter? Into the woods with the Wolf behind her she went.

They walked along the trail for a while, and the only sound was their footsteps and the occasional hitch in Hyde's breathing. She heard no birds, no insects, and barely any wind. The fresh clean scent of the forest gradually shifted, until it was musty and... hard, somehow. Not alive, not rotten, but dry, like the rooms of the keep nobody had entered for years.