Okay since I didn't update yesterday I'll add extras.
....
The flames spewing from the dragon's fanged mouth engulfed the entire village of Domremy in an instant.
In the blink of an eye, the villagers who had been going about their various tasks were swallowed up by the scarlet inferno.
They struggled in the fire that fell from the sky, letting out heartbreaking screams that sent shivers down the spine.
It was a scene like that of purgatory, and just one glance was enough to potentially cause nightmares.
And after doing all this, the dragon soared into the sky again and disappeared into the distance.
But—
Faced with this terrifying scene, Ian found that his heart didn't feel even a sliver of sympathy.
Speaking from the bottom of his heart, the man thoroughly detested Domremy Village.
To be more specific, he loathed the utterly disgraceful betrayal that had been nurtured here.
He was no saint, and he had the likes and dislikes of an ordinary person.
He felt it was unfair.
Why could those who had betrayed Jeanne live such free lives, while his kind younger sister had to hide and even couldn't reveal her name in the end?
Therefore—
Good riddance!
If possible, Ian even wished that some of those flames had originated from his own hands.
The moment the flames fell like shooting stars, he suddenly felt a sense of vengeful pleasure, and the blood all over his body seemed to boil along with them.
This might have been somewhat morbid.
But it was enough to comfort him for the past.
Standing on the hillside, the man looked towards Domremy Village, which had fallen into a sea of fire, and a hint of undisguised hatred appeared in his eyes.
However—
Completely contrary to the man's state of wholehearted enjoyment.
The pink-haired girl, Mashu, felt her kind heart clench with anxiety after seeing this purgatory on earth.
"Senpai... the village ahead is on fire!" she exclaimed, her voice filled with worry.
"..." Looking at Mashu's worried appearance, Ian's mind broke free from the pleasure of revenge and became much clearer.
He gazed at the distant, fiercely burning village, frowned slightly, and then said,
"It's too late."
"It's still quite a distance from here to Domremy Village... even if we wanted to save people, we probably wouldn't be able to save many," Ian stated, his voice matter-of-fact.
Ian was telling the truth.
But Mashu didn't seem to want to accept such an answer.
"So there's still a chance, right?!" she exclaimed, her violet eyes filled with determination.
"We can save at least one person!" she declared firmly.
After saying these words, Mashu took a deep breath and then tightly gripped her massive round shield.
"Senpai—"
"I'm going!" she announced, her voice resolute.
Following the thoughts in her heart, the pink-haired girl utilized the physical advantages she gained after becoming a Servant, rushing towards Domremy Village, which was engulfed in flames, at top speed.
"..." Watching the girl's determined figure receding into the distance, Ian hesitated again and again, but finally chose to follow her.
It wasn't that he wanted to save those who had betrayed him and Jeanne.
He was purely worried about what might happen if someone like Mashu went alone.
Soon, Mashu and Ian arrived at the burning Domremy Village one after the other.
The once peaceful village had now turned into a purgatory on earth.
The black smoke emitted when wood doesn't burn completely intertwined in a strange way with the scent of burnt flesh.
It was a nauseating smell, and even Ian, who had experienced countless things, couldn't help but feel a bit sick to his stomach.
But—
Despite the terrible situation in the village, Mashu had no intention of giving up.
Her figure constantly moved through the scorching environment, her lips opening and closing in the dry air, expressing her feelings at this moment.
"Is anyone there?! Can anyone hear me?! I'm here to help!" Mashu called out, her voice echoing through the flames.
Mashu was very simple and direct.
At this moment, her mind was completely free of unnecessary thoughts, only hoping to rescue people from this sea of fire.
This scene, even for Ian who had just been enjoying the pleasure of revenge, was somewhat touching.
He sighed, and then, like Mashu, began to call out for survivors.
"Senpai..." Mashu said, her voice filled with urgency.
"Don't talk, just hurry and search, it's not safe here," Ian replied, his brow furrowed with concern.
Ian didn't want to help these betrayers—they didn't deserve to be saved.
He simply didn't want to see Mashu's efforts go to waste.
That was something far more precious than the lives of these people.
Two people working together were stronger than one.
One;
Two;
Three;
People were constantly being helped out of the fire by Ian and Mashu.
Of course.
The number was far smaller than imagined—the dragon's flames were still quite dangerous for humans.
Besides this.
Those who were rescued also seemed to have fallen into a kind of trance.
"It's her!"
"It's her!"
"She's back! She's back!"
"Huh?" Mashu completely didn't expect things to suddenly turn out like this.
Who was she?!
Who had returned?!
Realizing that something was wrong, the girl quickly called Ian over.
"Senpai... they've become so strange," she said, her voice filled with worry.
"..." Hearing Mashu's anxious words, Ian walked over with Fou.
But at this moment, something even more unexpected happened.
The moment the man walked up to these survivors, they began to scream, appearing frantic and deranged.
"He's back too!"
"They're all back!"
"Retribution! This is retribution from the Lord!"
After saying these words filled with terror, these people fainted one after another.
Mashu completely didn't expect this situation and panicked all at once.
Ian, on the other hand, could guess some of the reasons for this.
In this era, he was the elder brother of Saint Jeanne d'Arc, and he had already been sentenced to the heinous burning at the stake by the English along with her in that trial.
In their eyes, he was already a dead man, but now he suddenly appeared here.
Anyone would be somewhat surprised, and then regard all of this as "retribution from the Lord," which was perfectly normal.
However—
What Ian cared about wasn't this, but the previous sentence.
"They're all back."
Hmm?
Analyzing from this tone, he didn't seem to be the first "retribution."
Thinking this way—
Could it be that Jeanne had returned here?!
Could she be nearby?!
Ian found that he seemed to have learned some incredible information.
"Senpai?"
"Senpai?!"
"Senpai!!!"
Mashu's three consecutive calls finally pulled Ian back from his thoughts.
"Sorry... I spaced out," the man apologized, coming back to his senses.
"Don't apologize yet!" Mashu pointed anxiously at the villagers on the ground. "They've all fainted!"
"What should we do?" she asked, her violet eyes filled with concern.
"..." Ian looked at the still fiercely burning village, then glanced at the villagers who had fainted on the ground.
"It's okay," he said calmly, trying to reassure her.
"They're just simply exhausted... they'll recover after resting for a while," he explained.
"Is that so?" Although she felt that the situation wasn't that simple, hearing Ian's explanation, Mashu no longer doubted it.
However, her expression didn't relax.
On the contrary, the pink-haired girl looked even more self-reproachful.
Her eyes reflected the figure of the village that had completely fallen into the flames.
"...Ah."
"Sigh... if only I had been faster," she murmured, her voice filled with regret.
"That way, I could have definitely saved more people," she added, her violet eyes downcast.
"..." Hearing these words, Ian gently patted her shoulder, comforting her.
"This isn't your fault," he said gently, his gaze soft.
"After all, no one expected a dragon to suddenly attack this village," he reminded her.
"And—" Ian glanced at the villagers who had fainted on the ground, temporarily suppressing his hatred.
"If it weren't for you, they would have died inside now," he pointed out, his voice calm.
"..." Mashu knew that Ian was comforting her and nodded silently.
And the man understood that this was not a feeling that could be reversed in a short time, so he didn't say anything more, just silently hugged her.
This was the warmest companionship.
Quite some time passed.
The girl's emotions finally stabilized a bit.
She looked at the ruins of Domremy Village, which had gradually cooled down, and began to speak.
"Senpai... the dragons in this era don't seem very friendly," she said softly, her violet eyes looking at the devastation.
"..." Ian stroked her hair and asked softly,
"Why do you think so?"
"Because—" Mashu's voice lowered a bit.
"The dragon suddenly attacked here, right... without any warning, it just suddenly spewed out powerful flames," she explained, her voice filled with a hint of fear.
"That feeling was as if it wanted to destroy the entire village," she added, her gaze troubled.
"Do they... hate humans?" she asked, her violet eyes looking at him with concern.
"..." Mashu's words made Ian fall into thought again.
Everything needed a reason.
Dragons certainly wouldn't attack Domremy Village for no reason.
This meant that they had taken such action for some reason.
If he considered it from this perspective—
Perhaps they were being driven (or rather, ordered) by someone, and that's why they appeared here.
Since they wanted to destroy the village, it meant that person harbored hatred towards this place.
And who was most likely to harbor such strong hatred towards Domremy Village—the best answers were obviously him and Jeanne.
But in that case, new questions arose again.
That was that neither of them actually had the conditions to accomplish such a thing.
The reason was simple.
He, who had some dealings with dragons, did not exist in this time period, so naturally, there was no possibility of him giving orders.
And Jeanne, who existed in this time period, had no way to deal with dragons, so of course, she couldn't command them either.
In addition, and more importantly.
That was that Jeanne was very unlikely to do such a thing.
She was far too kind.
Until the moment she separated from him, she, who had suffered so much deception because of her kindness, had never mentioned anything about revenge.
In that case—
He had to consider the third possibility.
There was someone who both knew how to deal with dragons and harbored strong hostility towards Domremy Village, so they drove the dragons to commit such an act.
This could explain everything.
So—
Could this person be English?
No.
If it were the English, then it was unlikely that they would hold so-called hatred towards Domremy Village—because this was the place where Saint Jeanne d'Arc was captured.
Not to mention gratitude, but at least they shouldn't hold any hostility.
So what exactly was the situation...
Ian's mind fell into extremely complicated thoughts once again.
Mashu, looking at him like this, wisely kept silent and gently took his arm.
Fou, looking at the harmonious pair, had a hint of secret joy in its purple eyes.
"Fou... Fou Fou (Seriously... they're getting more and more like a couple, aren't they?)."
As it said this in Fou language, its ears twitched at this moment.
The little creature suddenly turned its head and then screamed at the sky.
"Fou—!"
Fou's scream made Mashu and Ian look up at the sky at the same time.
They saw that the dragon that had just flown away had now turned back, looking as if it was checking if Domremy Village had been completely burned.
And after discovering the two people on the ground, it immediately launched an attack.
Whoosh—!
The sound of wind whistling echoed in the sky.
Powerful magical power instantly turned into scarlet flames, spewing from the dragon's mouth and sweeping towards the two people on the ground.
"Senpai, be careful!" Mashu shouted, then directly stood in front of Ian.
She raised her round shield, aiming it at the flames rushing towards them.
"Noble Phantasm Deployment—!"
Responding to the girl's call, complex magic circuits instantly spread across the entire shield.
Boom—!
The dragon's flames poured onto Mashu's shield.
But just like the last time she blocked the black Artoria's Excalibur Morgan.
The pink-haired girl successfully blocked the seemingly powerful dragon flames this time as well, protecting Ian.
And the man, having reacted, didn't hesitate.
He immediately used his "Memory Projection" ability.
A black sword blade instantly appeared in the man's hand—this was the memory he had obtained when he met Artoria in Singularity F.
Although he wasn't sure how much power it could exert at this moment.
But he couldn't just surrender!
"Excalibur Morgan!"
Ian, who had flashed out, pointed his projection towards the sky where the dragon was.
A black light shot straight up from the ground, piercing through the monster in the sky.
The huge body began to fall towards the ground, drawing a straight line.
Thump! The dragon crashed to the ground, raising a huge cloud of dust.
Seeing this, Ian knew his attack had worked.
But just at this moment, the sound of applause was heard.
Clap—
Clap—
Clap—
A figure clapped as it slowly walked towards the two of them.
It had an almost identical appearance to Jeanne... no, not almost, it was exactly the same appearance.
However, compared to the light and white attire of the Jeanne in his memory, the Jeanne in front of him seemed to prefer the black that accompanied evil.
She slightly parted her thin lips and spoke in a rather appreciative tone.
"To think you could shoot down a dragon with a single blow."
"It seems you're no ordinary person."
"I've decided—"
"You... come and become my Servant."
"Jeanne" pointed at the man in front of her and said so.