Chapter 63

After a brief and lighthearted little interlude, the camp was filled with a cheerful air.

Fujimaru Ritsuka quickly got to know everyone, though for this normal version of Artoria before her eyes, she felt a faint, subtle regret deep in her heart—

Because the one she knew best, was closest with, and could even call a good female friend was…

…not this one before her, but that reversed Alter Knight King.

During their time in the Shinjuku Subspecies Singularity, she had truly been indebted to the other's care and companionship, and a deeper bond and friendship had formed between them. By comparison, other versions of Artoria seemed relatively unfamiliar.

However…

It didn't matter; Fujimaru Ritsuka maintained an optimistic and open-minded mindset, after all, it was just a different form of someone familiar.

Even if the other had no memories related to her, just looking at the other's figure was already reassuring.

After all, even Alter Artoria had shown unparalleled reliability and trustworthiness, so normal Artoria surely possessed equally high reliability, presumably being ninety percent or even ninety-nine percent reliable!

As for Miss Meng…

Fujimaru Ritsuka subconsciously sized up the other golden-haired girl.

Although this one looked like twin sisters with Artoria, their relationship obviously had some subtle tension; at a glance one could see they would not yield to each other and could not get along harmoniously.

And from the sharp exchanges in their words, intense hostility seemed to be revealed—

Could it be because… they viewed each other as love rivals?

If so, was Xia Zhi's situation being awkwardly caught in the middle, or maneuvering freely between them…

Based on a scene she had seen not long ago, Fujimaru Ritsuka thought about this with sound reasoning, probably because this matter was somewhat shocking, causing the gossip fire in the girl's heart to burn uncontrollably.

As a result, she didn't think in the direction of some possibility at all, such as the two actually being sisters.

She just subconsciously believed the introduction from Opposite Side, believed Miss Meng was a Paradise Fairy, and based on her half-understood intelligence, reasonably speculated that Miss Meng was very likely that Savior who was active in the Fairy Calendar…

As for why this Savior looked exactly like Artoria, that didn't seem strange at all; Fujimaru Ritsuka didn't find it abrupt. After all, in her cognition, Jeanne, Nero, and even Mordred all shared the same appearance…

—emmmmm, it really does seem suspicious.

—Indeed, there exists a separate category of "Artoria Servants"…

In short, because she had seen many similar situations, Fujimaru Ritsuka paid no extra attention to this; being used to it, she didn't notice that this seemingly normal phenomenon was precisely the most key and obvious clue.

"Alright alright, everyone quiet down, everyone's basically acquainted now, let's welcome our new team member to the team…" Noticing Fujimaru Ritsuka looking at the two with a thoughtful air, the youth quickly forced the topic to change.

Vivian and Artoria couldn't be allowed to keep confronting each other like this.

After all, if this continued, if one of them lost control of their emotions and the confrontation escalated further, it might very well cause certain secrets that shouldn't be revealed at this moment to blurt out, which would be troublesome.

"Yes, welcome Miss Ritsuka… from now on, please take care of me." Alice immediately understood, her face bearing a warm smile that couldn't be dispelled, and she gently clapped.

Melusine, though not yet fully understanding the situation, cleverly imitated her. Then, this sudden clapping action by the Silver-haired Dragon Loli quickly infected Index and Tetelot beside her, causing them to subconsciously join in as well.

Next, Medea also smiled and joined in; in an instant, the applause gathered into an enthusiastic wave of sound.

Facing this scene, Vivian and Artoria couldn't continue to confront each other with sharp gazes; although their expressions couldn't immediately turn friendly, they could only each snort softly, turn their faces away, and gently clap along with everyone.

Overall, the team atmosphere was still quite good…

As a member warmly accepted, Fujimaru Ritsuka smiled somewhat embarrassedly while feeling slightly relieved… thinking about it, these two probably just found each other a bit displeasing, but surely wouldn't fight.

"We'll discuss the celebration later, because we're about to set off; Ritsuka, your carriage is this one, please go with Rider… Index, come here, continue guiding Melusine's language learning…"

Xia Zhi took advantage of the situation, cleverly using the departure as a pretext to naturally arrange the team members' division of labor and have them each go prepare.

Simply put, it was to separate that pair of sisters, so they wouldn't habitually argue again during conversation…

Everyone had no objections; the two sisters looked at each other, turned, and left.

Due to the significant increase in manpower, the number of carriages also increased, so this team finally had the appearance of a proper merchant caravan…

This was also Xia Zhi's decision: to temporarily shelve the activation of the Vimana Ship of Light, with the core purpose of hiding key trump cards. This was not only to avoid Fujimaru Ritsuka's investigation, but also to maintain an intelligence advantage over the Britain Fairies.

For now, the situation is undecided; means such as air superiority and rapid movement indeed don't need to be directly exposed to the enemy.

And there is one extremely important consideration: for subsequent action plans, slightly slowing the pace and making slight adjustments in attitude is not a bad thing; in fact, the benefits outweigh the drawbacks, and can even be said to be all benefit and no harm.

After all, they rushed day and night, in urgent haste to suppress the Calamity and rescue the Fairies—

versus slowly and leisurely suppressing the Calamity, slowly and leisurely rescuing the Fairies—

These two strategies have no essential difference in outcome, because no matter what, the Fairies would not feel gratitude toward their benefactors, and might even repay kindness with betrayal. Killing benefactors, tormenting benefactors—that is their usual method, determined by their vile nature deep in their souls.

Since that's the case, there's absolutely no need to put any pressure or deadlines on ourselves.

Appropriately slowing the pace, letting the Fairies suffer heavier losses, actually helps reduce possible resistance when ringing the bell. Especially the more Fairies are killed or injured, the easier it will be to deal with their backlash afterward.

Also, if one wants to erase certain history, taking some measures is indispensable—

They neither want to cooperate nor are willing to die.

Between this dilemma, Xia Zhi had to make a decision for them, who suffered from choice difficulty.

Only by making the Fairies die as fast and as many as possible can the conditions for altering history be ensured.

Otherwise, although on the surface a planning cycle of three or four thousand years seems quite long, for the Immortal Species Fairies, as long as their goals remain unchanged, they can keep living… such a situation is naturally very unfavorable to the plan's progress.

Only by logically and cruelly eliminating individuals who know the inside story—best to let them die before they can even produce the next generation—when the knowers pass away one by one, the truth will naturally be buried deep in history.

Next, as long as over the long years, carefully altered "facts" are spread at appropriate times, and even personally performed during one Pilgrimage Journey after another, acting out a few more plays, leaving different narrative versions…

Over time, history will naturally be successfully erased.

This can be considered killing two birds with one stone… the Fairies' deaths have never been so valuable.

————

————

Not long after.

The entire caravan finally bid farewell to the lakeside where they had stayed for quite a while, and slowly set out on their journey.

"Speaking of which, what's the general situation of the Mirror Clan; do we need to prepare for war in advance?"

Inside the carriage, Xia Zhi took the initiative to ask this question.

He recalled for a moment and found that intelligence on the Mirror Clan was relatively scarce, while he knew at least a little about the other clans.

For example, the Earth Clan is similar to dwarves, skilled in craftsmanship, mastering metal casting, and having relatively high resistance to iron poison; another example, the Fang Clan resembles beastmen, possessing extremely strong combat power, and having relatively greater tolerance to Moss poison...

The Wind Clan and Wing Clan are also understood, but only this Mirror Clan seems rather mysterious, and Vivian hasn't mentioned it much.

Probably still bothered by what just happened, Vivian hadn't spoken much to him since getting in the car and setting off; now hearing him actively ask about this matter, she turned her gaze toward him.

"The Mirror Clan and Rain Clan are actually quite similar, able to recognize their own sins, but neither has any good outcome, and both were eventually exterminated."

The girl shifted her gaze away again, calmly speaking.

"They probably won't become resistance, because the Mirror Clan is a fairy race possessing prophetic ability; they can foresee the future, and will also accept that future..."

After all—

The fairies of the entire clan are all of that personality: knowing clearly they will perish, they will only do the work they should do, then silently accept the arrival of the ending.

(Chapter End)