Shinji Matou At Your Service

Chapter 443: The Converging Storm in Sighişoara (Part 17 )

Undoubtedly, this was an order from Shinji.

It wasn't that he was defeated by Mordred and had to retreat, but rather that some unforeseen events had occurred on Fiore's side.

Let's rewind to a few minutes earlier when Kairi successfully used a poisonous mist to disrupt Fiore's vision and finally launched a deadly strike with a dagger made from the corpse of a juvenile Hydra. With the Hydra's venom, merely touching Fiore's body would be enough to claim her life, without even needing to pierce the skin.

Fiore, in turn, used her secret Mystic Code—a bracelet sealing an evil spirit.

The Forvedge family is renowned for their spirit summoning magecraft, excelling at either possessing spirits or sealing them in objects to be released when needed. Every member of the Forvedge family, after mastering their summoning skills, creates a bracelet that seals a spirit as their first Mystic Code. Fiore and her brother Caules were no exceptions.

Caules sealed a cheetah spirit, his loyal companion for many years, in his bracelet. Fiore, who had greater expertise in summoning magecraft, sealed an evil spirit. While an evil spirit isn't as tame or obedient as an animal spirit, its combat abilities far surpass those of most animal spirits. Moreover, the evil spirit Fiore sealed was of a high level. Without prior preparation, even Fiore would be severely injured by it, let alone Kairi, who wasn't a summoner.

In other words, both Fiore and Kairi launched attacks capable of instantly killing the enemy, almost entirely abandoning their defenses. If nothing unexpected happened, this round of confrontation would undoubtedly result in mutual destruction or even both parties perishing.

Surprisingly, neither Fiore nor Kairi was injured, let alone perished together. Just before the Hydra dagger touched the "EIHWAZ" rune, and at the moment the long-sealed evil spirit broke free from Fiore's bracelet, a dark shadow intervened between the two.

Immediately following, Kairi, over 180 cm tall with bulging muscles, was forcefully knocked to the ground, rolling back into the still lingering poisonous mist.

Fiore's condition was slightly better. Supported by her final metal arm, she didn't fall but was pushed back in a sweeping arc.

More troubles followed. With Kairi knocked away, the released evil spirit, having lost its "food," lunged at Fiore—being an evil spirit, it didn't care if its target was its master. Whoever was closest, it would attack.

Fortunately, Fiore's other three metal arms had already reacted, ready to reduce the evil spirit to ashes with a few volleys—being the strongest summoner of the Forvedge family, Fiore had plenty of means to deal with evil spirits.

However, before Fiore could release any light bullets, two cold glints flashed, and the snarling evil spirit was instantly sliced into several pieces.

At this moment, Fiore finally saw the true identity of the shadow that interrupted their duel.

It was a cute girl, looking two to three years younger than the Red Saber. She had short, messy silver hair and innocent, glowing eyes. She wore an unremarkable cloak, and through its gaps, one could glimpse a leather top and a sheath at her waist.

The only thing marring her image was the weapon in her hands—two blackish-red knives.

Flat-bladed, wooden-handled, each no more than thirty centimeters long and twenty centimeters wide... Uh, if Fiore's perception wasn't mistaken, they were two kitchen knives.

And it was with these two kitchen knives that she dismembered Fiore's strongest sealed evil spirit into pieces.

Then—

She grabbed the pieces with her small, white hands and stuffed them into her mouth one by one.

Yes.

You didn't misread.

She ate it!

She ate the evil spirit!

Throughout her life and years of studying summoning magecraft, this was the first time Fiore had seen someone eat an evil spirit. Were evil spirits even edible by humans? And she ate it with such relish as if enjoying some gourmet delicacy.

Is the world crazy, or am I?

The girl devoured the evil spirit at an astonishing speed. Before Fiore could even react, the girl had swallowed all eight pieces, let out a cute burp, and contentedly said:

"Delicious, just as good as the hamburg steak mom makes. Hey, hey, is there more?"

The girl turned her head, looking at Fiore with expectant eyes, making Fiore's sense of dissonance grow even stronger.

Where did this girl come from? And why did she intervene in the duel between Kairi and me? What's with her ability to eat evil spirits?

The more questions Fiore had, the less she dared to act rashly.

Seeing that Fiore didn't answer, the girl dashed over, staring at Fiore with eager eyes.

"Hey, hey."

Suddenly, the girl's eyes lit up, and she sniffed the air like a little pet.

"Ah, this is... you're also Mama."

"Mama!" Fiore was shocked by this sudden title. She had never imagined being called "Mama."

Below, the girl had already started hugging her arm, shaking it and acting cute.

"Hey, hey, unknown-name Mama, do you have more of that tasty stuff? We haven't had enough."

"Ah, oh, there is..." Fiore stammered, "No, I'm not your Mama."

Hearing this, the girl seemed visibly unhappy and instinctively touched her two kitchen knives. But she quickly remembered something, sheathed the knives, and pouted, saying unhappily:

"You have Papa's scent, so you must be Mama."

"Papa's scent? But..." Fiore was getting more and more confused.

How could there be a scent? Each member of the Yggdmillennia clan's outfit is alchemically treated to leave no trace that could be tracked, including scent—where did this "Papa's scent" come from?

Well, to be fair, Fiore was overthinking it. The scent wasn't a physical smell but referred to magical energy. No matter how effective the clothing's enchantments were, as long as she bore Shinji's runes, she couldn't escape Jack's extraordinarily keen sense of smell or magical perception.

Of course, this misunderstanding was compounded by Jack's sudden intervention, separating the two, dismembering the evil spirit, and then calling "Mama," all of which left Fiore bewildered. She hadn't realized that the girl in front of her wasn't an ordinary human but a Servant.

Kairi, sitting in the poisonous mist, did realize this. But precisely because he understood, he dared not act rashly. Although this little girl had no class designations and her attributes seemed weak, Servants couldn't be judged by common sense. If she teamed up with Fiore, he would be in real trouble. At this moment, the necromancer was out of resources, except for a few "finger bullets" and a Hydra dagger.

While he was contemplating how to retreat, the poisonous mist dispersed.