「 Ciel's Pov. 」
Walking up to the Pendragon's house, I tightly clutched my briefcase in nervousness while moving closer to the house.
I could feel my unease grow as I inched closer, so I chose to give a mental checklist to get my mind off matters, and to hopefully cheer me up. After all, I had done a good job these past few hours.
I had made a near‑perfect draft of the report for my observations of the Grail War, which I dare say was written in a very objective manner. I had also backtracked Morgan's words, found Caster's base at Ryuudou Temple, mapped out the crater where the Grail War ended, and even checked out the Worm Apostle's house.
I had so much going in my favor!
Hopefully enough to outweigh the fact that I found the presumed corpses of a crushed Kiritsugu Emiya along with his homunculus wife, and the 'maybe' lower half of Kirei Kotomine, who was dissolving in the creepy 'Grail Mud' thing.
I mean, it's not my fault they are dead, especially when you consider that it was the earthquake that Lord Pendragon somehow made which probably crushed them all to death.
…Maybe it's not smart to lay blame on the guy who has the Church, and likely myself, figuratively bent over a barrel, meaning it's likely much smarter to just shut up and take the blame for it if he mentions it…
Before I could spiral deeper into that line of thought, I noticed that the front door of the Pendragon's house opened by itself, revealing an empty hallway.
Ah.
It would seem they had noticed me.
Adjusting my grip on the briefcase, I gave the slightly ominous invite inside a cursory glance, before steeling my resolve, quickly bridging the gap between myself and the house, and entering through the open front door.
No one greeted me as I entered, but I still soldiered on, as I could only assume I was being invited back into the office with Morgan, as the odds of the door opening by itself were simply far too low… wait, that sounded a whole lot like jinxing myself…
Please don't tell me I just broke into the Pendragon's house…
Before I could overthink my 'maybe' trespassing, I had arrived in front of the office door which I had been in last time.
Hesitantly, I knocked on the door before lowering my hand, as I knew that I couldn't do much else in this situation.
After a few seconds of silence, the door slowly creaked open, revealing a dimly lit office room, just like before, but this time someone else was occupying the room.
Seated behind the desk was a handsome man with pale blond hair, cold, hollow yellow eyes, and with skin paler than some apostles. He wore a neat black suit, with a dark and striped shirt under his blazer.
All that was nice and good, but Alistair Pendragon had green eyes, wheatlike‑coloured hair, and a far healthier complexion, not whatever the hell I was currently looking at.
Morgan hadn't mentioned any of this.
Stupid magus, how can she just ignore such a huge change without mentioning it once— "You may be seated," he stated without hurry, causing my train of thought to come to a crawling halt.
He was calmly writing something, and he didn't even bother to raise his head to look up at me, after telling me to sit down.
Hesitating slightly, I first tried to do the polite thing, and close the door, but his voice beat me to it. "I said you may be seated," he repeated in a more firm tone, causing me to stop my action, and quickly moved to the chair in front of the desk and sat down, placing the briefcase on my lap.
The newly christened Pendragon Lord didn't seem to show any sign that he noticed I had complied with his order, for it was certainly no request, and continued patiently writing without further issue.
Pursing my lips, I didn't speak up, as it seemed to be clear that he was in the middle of something, and didn't care for my presence at the moment, rather tolerating it for some reason instead of throwing me out.
As the minutes passed by, I felt myself start to fidget more and more, until I heard the rhythmic clanking of high heels from the hall behind me. It wasn't long before a familiar woman with long silver hair entered the room, and smoothly walked past me to occupy the seat next to her husband.
As she sat down, Alistair finally wrenched his gaze away from his work to look at Morgan, and even flashed her a small smile.
A smile which vanished the second his head turned to look at me.
Slowly, he placed his pen down, and moved the document he had been working on aside, seemingly giving me his full attention.
"Executor Ciel," he began in a dry tone, causing me to straighten up in my seat. "Might I inquire as to your reason for visiting?"
Wetting my lips slightly I put on my 'Church Executor' mask, and tried to seem as nonplussed as possible. "I am here in regard to the commission your wife had assigned to me," I explained, causing him to nod, before abruptly stopping his action, and fixing me with a hard look.
"You wouldn't happen to be French, would you?" he asked in a tired tone.
His question caused me to blink for a moment, as I have no idea how he managed to guess my nationality, as I was fairly sure that my English should have been flawless, but I nodded nonetheless.
The gesture caused him to give a disappointed hum, before dismissively waving his hand. "Regardless of your unfortunate upbringing," fucking bastard, "you may show us the fruits of your labour," he stated, and I could only sigh, while inwardly fuming.
Damn English pig, why did he have to sound so disappointed at my French heritage? I swear to God, I even saw a flash of pity in his eyes when I confirmed I was French, what the hell is up with his attitude.
'Unfortunate upbringing' my ass, I'm not some God damn charity case!
Trying my best not to show my newly minted opinion of the Pendragon Lord, I tapped my briefcase before starting. "I have been backtracking Morgan's statements, and have therefore been all around the city," I explained, before continuing.
"I started at Tohsaka Manor, to see the evidence of the staged fight between Assassin and Archer, where I dis—"
"An impressive feat, I am sure," Morgan cut in, causing me to snap my jaw shut. "But as we do not have all day, and I'd rather not have my narration of the War told back to me, so I'd like it if you could give the highlights of your observations, and then fill us in if there was anything else of note."
Pursing my lips, I could only internally grumble at the blatant disregard of all my hard work, in favor of not pissing the scary as fuck woman off.
Lifting the briefcase off my lap, I gently placed it on the desk, earning a disapproving look from Morgan, in contrast to the Pendragon Lord's clear dismissiveness. "For the most part, I confirmed the things that could still be confirmed," I started, before tapping my briefcase, causing the two to look at it.
"But there are a few things I should probably mention," I said in a far less confident tone than I wanted, before opening the briefcase and shoving my hand inside it.
"I found this when I was making my way to the Civic Center," I explained, as my hand almost instantly found the handle of the pistol, and I lightly gripped it, before slowly pulling it out, as I did not want them to take it the wrong way.
"I think this is the pistol of Ki—"
Before I could finish, I felt my hold on the pistol completely vanish, just as it suddenly appeared in Alistair's hand.
What. The. Hell.
Is this an application of Kaleidoscope? Is he a Magician?
It would explain his lack of interest in the Grail if he already possessed a True Magic.
No… I've read his docket, it didn't mention him mentoring under the Second Magician.
…Though it didn't mention him being married, nor did it describe his capabilities being a tenth, no, a hundredth of what I have learned. The Church's information on him is clearly way out of date.
But, shit, I… Fuck….
Maybe he's not a Magician…?
I think there was a German‑sounding Magus family that dealt in… Displacement Magecraft, I think, though they haven't garnered a high‑threat assessment, so I find that unlikely.
No, maybe I'm looking at this all wrong, maybe he was just really fast… yeah, fast enough to evade my perception…
That's not much better, is it?
No, fuck that's like way worse… maybe… I don't know anymore…
"Where did you find this?" came the now icy tone of Lord Pendragon, and I felt myself slightly clam up. Looking at his expression, I could practically feel the malice ooze out of his eyes, which caused me to gulp.
"I‑I found it in a crushed car, w‑with two corpses, incredibly close to an underground garage by ground zero," I quickly rattled off, and I could see his eyes squint with dissatisfaction at my answer.
Slowly he opened a drawer, and lowered the pistol into it. Seeing it I could only barely bite back the instinct to demand it back… Looks like he'll be keeping it as a keepsake, or something like that…
"Did you confirm that it was Emiya?" he asked in an extremely pointed manner, and I could only regretfully shake my head, before pulling out the two vials.
"The bodies were practically carbonized, all I could do was find some hair and burnt skin samples—"
Before I could finish, the two vials were in his hands, in the same instant teleportation technique, that hopefully wasn't True Magic.
He turned to look at Morgan, who easily grabbed the vials and popped off their corks, clearly showing that the two were on the same wavelength.
But as Morgan opened the two vials, the unpleasant feeling of the 'Grail Mud' started to permeate from the now open vial, causing her to frown. "The sample is heavily contaminated," she stated with disappointment, before glancing my direction with a scowl. "Was this the best you could salvage, and is there more?"
I drew a blank, before quickly stammering out a response. "I‑I think so… but I think this is the best you'll get, as the place was crawling with the 'Mud'," I explained, causing the woman to click her tongue, before looking at her husband.
"I don't think the scrying spell would work," she explained, before corking the vials. "The taint is simply too overpowering, and corrosive, so I won't even be able to separate the two," she said with a sigh.
The two's moods seemed to take a swan dive at the conclusion, and I could see the clear disappointment on the two's faces.
With a flick of the Pendragon Lord's fingers, the vials reappeared in front of me, causing me to hesitantly pick them up, before placing them back into the briefcase. It was for the best to ignore the capital 'M' magic he was flexing, as my mental health was already on the rapid decline.
Looking at the two, I felt slightly hesitant before asking a question. "Why do you want to scry for them?"
The two slowly turned to look at me, Morgan looked like she was looking at a slow child, while Lord Pendragon gave me the look one would give someone when looking at a disappointing person doing something disappointing.
"I'd like to scry for their location, which would tell me if they were the two corpses you found, or we'd find them some other place," she explained in a near belittling tone, before sighing.
"Just tell us, do you believe that the corpses were Kiritsugu Emiya and Irisviel von Einzbern?" she asked heavily, causing me to purse my lips, and slowly nod.
"It looked like they were trying to drive away, only for a boulder to crush them, followed by the car burning thanks to the fire," I explained, before slightly tilting my head. "Though, I was going to see if the Church had any DNA to compare the samples to, as a form of confirmation," I added.
There was a beat of silence, before Lord Pendragon broke it. "Is there anything else worth mentioning?"
At this, I gave a slight pause, before fishing out a small silver cross, and placing it on the table. "I think I found the remains of Kirei Kotomine, though I couldn't confirm, as the only part left was his lower half, and that too was in the midst of dissolving," I said calmly.
The Pendragon Lord picked up the cross, and gave it a slow once‑over. "Yes, this is certainly one of the Church's Mystic Codes, so I don't find your conclusion unreasonable," he remarked with disinterest, before tossing it back onto the desk.
It's a relic… not a Mystic Code…
I was brought out of my musings by the sound of Lord Pendragon rhythmically tapping his finger on the desk, while pointedly looking at me.
"If you don't have anything else to show, I think it's time we went over what's going to happen," he stated, causing me to feel some ominous feeling.
"We're not going to talk about my report?" I asked, while slowly fishing the document I had been working on out of the briefcase, only for him to shake his head.
"No, you see, right now, we are in a situation where we have no one to use as a scapegoat," he stated blandly, before continuing. "Tokiomi is dead, Risei is dead, Kirei is dead, and of course Kiritsugu is presumed dead," he said, the last name with clear contempt.
"So, neither the Church, nor the Mage's Association will be able to cleanly distance themselves from this, by offering up one or more of the aforementioned people as the mastermind of the breaching of the neutrality agreement for the Church in the Grail Wars," he added, before frowning.
"Heads will roll, but whose heads are still up for debate," he said with certainty.
I gave him a slightly confused look, before pointing at myself. "I understand that, but what do I have to do with this?" I asked with more meekness than I probably wanted to convey.
"You see, you and Morgan will have a talk, where you will discuss priests and cardinals that are 'suspicious', or whatever criteria Morgan will use, then she and I will have a talk, and after that I'll talk to you about my suspicions on who is responsible for green‑lighting Kotomine's plan from the Church's side of things," he said with a smile, that certainly wasn't a smile.
"B‑But, how am I supposed to be objective if I am to ignore this blatant attempt at framing someone!" I exclaimed, while slamming a hand on my chest. "I don't want to accidentally break the Geass Contract due to listening to the two of you!" I nearly yelled, only for the Pendragon Lord to fix me with a bemused look.
"What does you and Morgan talking about priests and cardinals have to do with this past Grail War?" he said with a tilt of his head. "I'd even argue that adding it to your report is neither objective nor proper, as it is strictly about the War, and not anything that happened afterwards, like a talk between colleagues," he said in an eerily neutral tone, while looking me dead in the eyes, clearly daring me to talk back to him on the topic.
After a tense minute of silence, Lord Pendragon broke eye contact, and casually leaned into his chair, with a look of mild amusement on his face.
"However, my input on who I think is suspicious from my own investigation is certainly worth looking into," he said with mirth. "I'd even argue that it's important enough for both the Association and the Church to look into my suspicions, so as to ensure that we can clear out this hiccup, and ensure the future cooperation of the two."
He then fixed me with a smile. "Of course, trying to ignore my suggestions would likely be seen as 'sabotage', as I am adding valuable insight for the report, and excluding it would certainly be a biased choice on your part as a Church representative," he added with the most evil smile I had seen in a while.
The bastard obviously knows that I have to be as unbiased as possible, so him phrasing it as such is forcing me to acquiesce to his demands, as that is clearly what this is… and calling it sabotage is just adding salt to the wound…
"I–I see," I muttered while lowering my head, not wanting to look the bastard in the eyes.
Magi only use people as tools, and believing that either wouldn't do the same was foolish on my part.
"Good, then I'll leave you two to it," he said, and I could see him turn to look at his wife, from the corner of my eyes.
"I'll be with Sakura, I'll see you when I see you," he said in a far kinder tone, before vanishing from the spot.
Fucking magician.
"Now, Ciel," came the voice of Morgan, though she didn't sound as cold as she did earlier. Either way, I raised my head to look at her.
She gave me a mischievous smile as our eyes met. "You now have a once in a lifetime opportunity," she stated, causing me to give her a confused look, which she seemingly quickly picked up on.
"If you have any grievances with people in the Church, then you can now pass their name along to us," she explained, but her words caused me to widen my eyes in surprise.
Seeing my reaction, she raised a brow before continuing. "Of course, I'd still like other names first, specifically of Church members who are shady, and ideally in direct opposition to the Mage's Association, as without them, the names you give would likely be quickly cleared as not suspicious. But if Alistair and I spin it correctly, you'll have fewer adversaries in the Church," she explained, and I slowly nodded my head.
Seeing my reaction, she gave a small smile. "See? This doesn't need to be a painful experience," she soothed, before giving a closed‑eye smile.
"Now, names please."
~~Fate/False Order~~
「 Alistair's Pov. 」
Looking at the image of Ciel slowly making her way towards a bus stop a few blocks away, Morgan dismissively flicked her hand, causing the smoke inside to fog up the image.
"Do you think it'll work?" I prodded, causing Morgan to look up from the newly doctored report Ciel and she had been working on for the past hour.
"I think so," she stated, before pursing her lips. "I think with your backing, both the Church and Mage's Association would be willing to use members from both sides to do an independent investigation of the names we've written down," she said, before giving a small shrug. "Even if nothing comes from it, it'll take some of the heat off yourself, along with making you look competent, and on top of things."
Her assurance made me give a shrug in return.
It was a fair reason, along with a better plan than the one I had come up with, and it even controlled the narrative in a far more pleasant way.
I'd need to take a lesson or two from her in scheming, or whatever she called it. Clearly it was a class I needed, if it turned out to be as useful as it was turning out to be.
Pushing myself up from the couch, I noticed as Morgan quickly discarded the report on the table, and started standing up, only for me to wave her concerns away.
Slowly, I made my way to the dining table and sat down.
Moments later, Morgan slid into the seat next to me and gave me a worried look. "Are you doing alright?" she asked, causing me to shake my head with a sigh. "Want to talk about it?"
"Not right now," I said, before propping my elbow on the table, and leaning my head on my knuckles. "I'm just tired, and am not looking forward to tonight's return flight," I explained.
She gave me a slightly worried look before gently cupping my other hand. "It's alright, we can stay a few more days if you need the extra time," she soothed, and I only shook my head. "Time is not on our side right now, and Amelia can't hold the fort on her own, especially now that she can't use the vested power my Mother had given her, now that I am the new Lord."
"Documents need to be signed, arrangements need to be made, and a funeral needs to be held as soon as possible," I explained with a bitter sigh. "If I delay for too long, then we'll be dealing with the government, Mage's Association and Church all at once, which is not something I'd like to do," I added, earning a squeeze from Morgan's hand.
There was a pregnant pause for a moment, before Morgan spoke up. "How did you notice that Ciel was French?" she asked, in a very not so subtle way of steering the conversation away from the former topic.
Grateful for the change, I turned to look at her. "The way she pronounced 'commission', especially the last part, was pronounced far more like its French counterpart," I explained, causing Morgan to give me a confused look.
"I thought you couldn't speak French," she stated in a surprised tone, causing me to give an unimpressed huff. "Of course I don't speak French, that is far beneath me, but I made sure to note every French loan word in the English language."
My explanation caused her to give me a dry look. "So you're telling me that you don't speak French, but you can speak every French‑'English' word there is?" she asked flatly, causing me to nod. "So you speak botched French," she stated, which caused me to frown.
"Don't mistake those words as French," I said with a dismissive wave. "Think of them, as you'd think of any of the many wonders in the British Museum," I explained, causing her to look slightly confused. "As they were appropriated by the British, meaning they are now British, and not from whichever shithole we found them in," I explained sagely.
"I see," she stated with equal dryness as before, and I gave a nod. "Good, it's quite simple really." I added.
"Of course."
The dry tone she used caused me to give her a raised brow, before giving a dismissive shake of my head. "You are simply not prejudiced enough against the French," I said with some sadness. "Give it some time, everyone that lives in Europe will get there eventually."
"What are the French?" came a confused voice from the living‑room door, causing the two of us to look at the somewhat sleepy‑looking girl.
Before I could educate the girl on the many virtues of looking down on the French, Morgan spoke up. "It's just a name for the people living in France," she explained, before slightly pinching my side, sending the clear message to not contradict her on the topic.
Can't even be racist anymore, what has the world come to… this must be the famed third ring of marriage… the suffering…
Not that I knew that I was 'married' before today, and I totally skipped the engagement ring and wedding ring, but the saying seemingly still rings true.
Morgan moved from her spot, and walked up to Sakura, before kneeling in front of her, while placing her hands on her shoulders. "Sakura, remember how I asked you if there was anything you wanted back from your old homes?" she asked, and I could see the girl get a bit more nervous about the mention of her former 'homes'.
"Mhm," she mumbled, while nodding meekly. Not commenting on her meekness, Morgan pressed on. "Well, this is the last call, we'll be leaving in an hour or so, so now is your last chance to pick something up," she explained.
Seeing her lack of reaction, Morgan sighed, before patting her on the back and standing up. "If there is nothing you want to pick up, how about we go out and buy you something to remind you of where you were born?" she asked, which finally seemed to get a reaction from the little girl.
"Can we?" she probed, and Morgan only nodded.
Seeing the two get along, I pulled out my wallet and tossed Morgan my card, which she deftly caught. "Go out and have fun, I'll see you two in a bit, as I'll need to call Amelia to hammer a few things out, so have fun in the meantime," I said, causing the two to look at me.
Morgan gave the card a dubious look, raising an eyebrow at it before nodding in my direction. "I'll see you in a bit then," she said with a small smile, before patting Sakura on the back. "Say thanks, and goodbye," she added, causing the little girl to bow her head.
"Thank you… and bye?" she added the last part with some doubt, even looking up at Morgan to confirm that she did it right. Morgan only nodded with some amusement, before patting the girl on the shoulder.
"I'll see you in an hour, dear~," she said with a hint of allure, before slipping out of the room along with Sakura.
Ah… Altrouge is going to kill me.
———
A/N
Welcome back, my reader Overlords, please add this to your library and give me some comments, stones and reviews, as it would be much appreciated.
Hope you all have been enjoying the Easter Holidays! I sure have!
Now, before I give the normal spiel, know that I'll be offline for a bit, as I'll be heading to a party right after this. So I'll be offline for the day, and likely most of tomorrow, as I'll likely have a hangover, and I'll be taking the plane back home, so don't expect me to answer much today!
Alright, let's get on with it! Morgan and Alistair are muddying the water while they have the chance, and throwing anyone that might be 'responsible' in the deep end, so as to give Alistair some breathing room, along with setting a standard for what is to be expected of those who cross him. So, it's more of a way to scare anyone from doing anything stupid, while hopefully culling some 'undesirables' from the Clock Tower.
So, it's a two birds, one stone situation…. Or a 'three birds, one stone' if you include the Church members that might be implicated by the whole ordeal, but that is closer to a few people getting hit by a stray shot, as Alistair doesn't really care. Seeing as it would be suspicious if they didn't implicate the Church, so they simply threw them into the deep end with them to make it work.
Now, any questions? (Note that I might be late on the whole answering part!)
Hop onto my Discord Server, I'd love to have a chat: https://discord.gg/HAPhryp5M2
Now, hand over those Power Stones, can't you see they are lonely when not used? Give them to me, and allow them to socialize, it's for their best... I swear...