Book 2: Chapter 8: More Reasons to Find a Ley Line

Book 2: Chapter 8: More Reasons to Find a Ley Line

“Sesame bun? Doctor, I prepared that for Sempai...never mind. Doctor, carry on eating.” Mash wanted to scold Doctor Roman, but she retracted her words when she saw the feast before her.

“Mash, you have grown into an understanding child...Nom! Nom!” Doctor Roman gorged himself on food in anger out of his grief at missing out.

“I did not expect Mister He Who Knows Fate’s cooking to be so delicious! If cooking skills appeared as a personal skill, it would at least be a B. This is the first time I have experienced the deliciousness of Chinese food!” Mash marveled at the food.

“This is the first time I have eaten such delicious Chinese food. The Chinese food I previously had in Japan was not even half as delicious as this.”

“Yes! Yes! It is indeed delicious! Only, we seemed to have lost control earlier.” Jeanne d’Arc grew up in a village and usually ate things like black bread. How could she get to taste something so delicious? That was why Jeanne d’Arc had kept her head lowered and frantically shoveled food into her mouth. She had eaten at least four bowls of rice.

[TL Note: Black bread is a simple rye bread made using sourdough starter and rye meal. It was the staple during the Middle Ages, often eaten by the masses due to its low cost and filling nature. Due to how it is made, it tends to be pretty hard and has a long shelf life. You can read more about it in this Wikipedia entry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rye_bread#Straight.]

Fou...! Fou...! Fou...!

“Even Fou thinks that the food is delicious?” Mash extended her hand to pet Fou.

“I would like to taste what Mash classified as B-ranked cooking,” Doctor Roman moaned in the distant Chaldea.

“Doctor, just wait for next time. We can send items when we find a ley line. I’ll cook more the next time and send some over.” Without a ley line, Chen Heng could not set up a summoning ritual. Without a summoning ritual, he could not summon Merlin. Hence, Chen Heng offered them an incentive to find a ley line.

[TL Note: According to Fate/Grand Order’s lore: A ley line is magical energy flowing through the earth, the heartbeat of life.]

“Perhaps my Servant summoning is not complete yet, or perhaps the original me just died a few days ago... How do I put it? It feels like I’m a novice Servant.”

“A novice?” Mash found this strange, as Doctor Roman said there was no concept of past and future in the Throne of Heroes.

[TL Note: The Throne of Heroes is a place existing outside of both the World and the time axis. Heroic Spirits are taken out of the cycle of reincarnation and sent there.]

“Indeed. There is no past and future in the Throne of Heroes. However, my current self is not even qualified to access its records. Hence, you could say that I am an incompetent Servant. This is simply like my first time in a battle when I was alive.”

“Come along, then. This is good timing. Mash alone cannot make me use my full power. This will allow you to adjust to fighting earlier.” Chen Heng did not refuse. Rather, having one more was even better.

“Go train, then. I’ll deal with the dishes.” Fujimaru Ritsuka was quite understanding, offering to deal with the dishes alone.

Chen Heng led the two to an open space to avoid affecting their campsite.

“How about this? The two of you fight each other first. That will let me see your current standards.” Chen Heng wanted to see their levels first so that he could teach them according to their aptitude.

This instruction surprised the two. In the current situation, Jeanne d’Arc was responsible for offense, while Mash was responsible for defense. However, Jeanne d’Arc launched the first attack after that. Jeanne d’Arc thrust the flag she held forward, but Mash easily blocked with the shield. After that, they took turns attacking.

After the two fought for a while, Chen Heng stopped them.

“Alright, alright! Stop! I roughly understand your levels now! Actually, your combat techniques are pretty good. You only lack practical experience. Now, I’ll use my ability to control flying swords to attack you. These flying swords are of average quality. As long as you continuously attack the middle of these flying swords, it will be easy to break them after a while. When you can break these three flying swords, we can...”