Fate/Bastard

"A grimoire made of human skin?" Hearing such a description, Ian couldn't help but gasp.

Of course.

It wasn't that he was afraid of such a thing, but he simply found it extremely bizarre that Gilles de Rais would possess such a grimoire.

After all—

He was essentially human, and not a "Servant" from another time period.

This also meant he didn't have a so-called Noble Phantasm!

This was a genuine grimoire made of human skin!

"That's right." Atalante's two cat ears drooped slightly, and her tail no longer swayed from side to side as it had before.

It was clear that the human skin grimoire had left a certain psychological impact on her.

"How could Caster have something like that?" Ian wondered aloud, his brow furrowed in thought.

"Could this... be his Noble Phantasm?"

"..." Looking at Atalante's puzzled appearance, Ian couldn't help but feel a little hesitant.

He felt that she deserved to know more.

After careful consideration, the man made a certain decision and said,

"Atalante, can I trust you?"

"Eh?" Suddenly asked a strange question, Atalante initially wanted to ask him back.

But she quickly noticed Ian's serious and earnest gaze—this was often his reaction before announcing something important.

As the man's most understanding pet, the cat girl naturally understood this principle.

Without the slightest hesitation, she nodded directly.

"Of course, you can."

"You... are my Master, after all!" Atalante declared, her golden eyes looking at Ian with unwavering loyalty.

After expressing her loyalty like this, Atalante lowered her head.

Actively admitting that a man was her Master was just too embarrassing.

But—

It wasn't entirely unacceptable.

After all, Ian was already more like her Master than her actual Master.

And she had also felt immense pleasure in this process.

The only thing that could possibly hurt her now was if he refused to acknowledge this relationship.

"..." Watching Atalante willingly express her loyalty in such an embarrassing way, Ian knew he had nothing to hesitate about.

He said directly,

"Atalante... this is what's going on."

In the next few minutes, Ian told the cat girl before him what he had discovered.

Of course.

The so-called discovery here refers to the man's strong speculation about Gilles de Rais.

He believed that Atalante indeed deserved to know these things.

"What?" The cat girl's tail stood up straight.

"Are you saying... Gilles de Rais is human... and not a Servant?" Atalante asked, her golden eyes wide with disbelief.

"And he might even be the one who summoned Master?!" she exclaimed, her voice filled with shock.

Ian nodded.

"That's pretty much it."

"At least based on what I know so far... it should be about eighty or ninety percent accurate."

"..." The cat girl's expression looked quite surprised, mixed with a few complex thoughts.

Clearly, she didn't doubt what Ian had said.

But at the same time, she felt that such a thing was too absurd—this was saying that there was another Master above her Master!

And the moment she realized this, Atalante suddenly thought of a question.

"Eh, wait!"

"Then what's Gilles de Rais's reason for doing this? What meaning does it have for him...?" Atalante asked, her brow furrowed in confusion.

As a Servant of the Archer class, Atalante was quite meticulous in observing things.

She had noticed the noteworthy points in Ian's words.

And the man didn't beat around the bush.

"That's the problem."

"Why would he do such a thing?"

"And——"

"Where did that human skin grimoire in his hand come from?"

"These are all things we still don't know."

"Atalante," Ian held the cat girl's hand. "I need your help."

"..." Atalante turned her face away, but the tail behind her wagged even more violently than before.

"Why are you saying these things..." Atalante muttered, her cheeks slightly flushed.

"Master helped me save so many children—of course, I won't stand idly by when he needs my help," she declared, her golden eyes looking at Ian with determination.

"However~" The little cat girl licked her lips.

"That reward..."

"You'll have it," Ian leaned close to the cat girl's ear and whispered softly.

"I'll make sure you'll be so satisfied you won't be able to get out of bed," he promised, a mischievous glint in his eyes.

"But before that..."

"I understand!" Atalante, having received the promise, had already turned into a completely tame pet cat.

"Let's figure all this out first!"

"Yeah." The two reached a consensus at this moment.

Night, in a certain room of the castle.

The Black Jeanne was still endlessly demanding the source of magical energy from Ian.

For her, it seemed like no matter how many times they did it, she could never feel satisfied.

However—

Ian was still thinking about Gilles de Rais.

So after a simple kiss, he put his arms around the Black Jeanne's waist and made her stop temporarily.

"What's wrong?" The Dragon Witch, whose deadly rhythm had been interrupted, didn't look too happy.

"Why did you suddenly stop?" she asked, her red eyes narrowed in displeasure.

"Aren't we married now?"

"You—are completely mine now, hurry up and continue!" The Black Jeanne commanded, her arms tightening around Ian.

Although at first glance, this sounded like a violent statement befitting the Dragon Witch's personality, Ian knew that she didn't fully understand the true meaning of these concepts.

She had simply discovered that she could derive some pleasure from it, and then she just did it.

As for whether there were any real feelings involved, Ian didn't know.

However—

He felt that there were.

After all, most of the time, the Black Jeanne's standards of conduct did incorporate some of her personal emotions.

This made her look very much like a savage and lustful girlfriend.

"Can we stop for a little while?" Ian asked in a coaxing tone, looking at the Black Jeanne sitting on top of him.

"There's something I want to ask you."

"..." Although she preferred doing things that released her nature rather than being asked questions.

But hearing Ian say this, the Black Jeanne actually stopped.

She pouted, looking like a little girlfriend who had been bullied, and said to the man before her,

"Hurry up and ask!"

"After you're done asking, you'd better stand up properly for me!"

"..." Ian didn't panic because of the Black Jeanne's anger.

He knew what he wanted to ask.

"You——"

"You said last time that Gilles de Rais was already there before you appeared, right?" Ian asked, his gaze serious.

"Yeah," the Black Jeanne mumbled, pouting.

"Is it necessary to ask about this again?"

"Don't be angry with me," the man gently stroked the Black Jeanne's head, trying to make her more docile in this way.

And in fact, it was very effective.

The Black Jeanne, whose head was being stroked, became less irritable—this was one of the few things she shared in common with Jeanne.

"Are you done asking?" the Dragon Witch whispered. "I really want to do that kind of thing now..."

"Almost." Ian soothed her emotions while continuing to ask.

"I just want to know... the detailed situation back then."

"Detailed situation?" The Black Jeanne didn't quite understand the meaning of this word.

"What do you mean by detailed situation?"

"I mean, did he make any requests to you or anything like that... after all, it's impossible to just give you the Holy Grail for no reason, right?" Ian explained, his gaze fixed on her.

"..." The Black Jeanne, probably understanding what Ian meant, began to recall seriously.

The man had originally thought that she would give some of the series of requests that Gilles de Rais had made at that time.

In this way, it could be explained why this man would summon the Black Jeanne and then offer her the Holy Grail in an equivalent exchange.

In a sense, this was quite consistent with the Holy Grail's function of granting wishes.

However—

After recalling for quite a while, the Black Jeanne finally shook her head at Ian.

"He didn't make any requests."

"..." Ian couldn't quite believe what he had just heard.

"He didn't make any requests?"

"Yeah," the Black Jeanne nodded.

"However——"

"However what?" Ian pressed.

"However, when he first saw me, he looked very excited."

"It was like... a wish had come true."

"Oh right, he was also shouting things like, 'Yes, indeed, this method works!'"

"..." This was something Ian hadn't anticipated.

He had originally thought that Gilles de Rais's offering of the Holy Grail to the Black Jeanne must have been for some ulterior motive.

But now it seemed—

That wasn't the case at all.

Just seeing "her" who resembled Jeanne seemed to have given him immense satisfaction.

How could this be?

The Black Jeanne didn't notice the change in Ian's mood.

She only felt that she had fulfilled his request.

"Alright~" The witch put her arms around the man's neck.

"My task is complete——"

"It's your turn to show your stuff, isn't it?"

"...Yeah." The Dragon Witch's panting sounded in the room once again.

She seemed to have become deeply addicted to this kind of life.

However—

The investigation didn't stop because of the Black Jeanne's words.

He couldn't really get any useful information from the Dragon Witch's side.

But Ian knew he still had the very reliable Atalante.

The man believed that this Archer would definitely be able to provide him with enough opportunities to clarify the problem.

On the top floor of the castle.

Under the pretense of practice, Ian sparred with the Servants summoned by the Black Jeanne—he wanted to take this opportunity to understand their strengths, just in case.

And the situation was indeed developing as the man had expected.

He roughly figured out the strength levels of these Servants.

Vlad III should be the most powerful of these Servants.

After all, during their sparring, Ian could clearly feel how terrifying the abilities of this Duke who claimed to dislike drinking blood were.

Even with the premise of stopping before causing serious harm, he brought considerable pressure.

And the strengths of Chevalier d'Eon and Charles-Henri Sanson should be about the same.

But there seemed to be some kind of unrevealed grudge between them.

As for Lancelot——

Ian felt that his strength was probably only second to Vlad III.

The reason he said probably was because Lancelot didn't seem interested in fighting, and Ian could only make a rough ranking based on his memory.

Thinking this way——

Atalante, as an Archer, was actually the weakest in close combat among the Servants.

However, this was also easy to understand—after all, she was an archer.

Just as Ian secretly finished ranking their strengths, Atalante appeared before him.

Following the previously agreed-upon code.

The cat girl put on a very dignified attitude and said,

"Ian, Master sent me to find you."

The man also understood and immediately gave the prepared excuse.

"Excuse me, everyone."

After arriving at a place where no other eyes would notice, Ian immediately said;

"Did you find anything?"

"It's not exactly finding anything," Atalante replied somewhat awkwardly.

"Caster goes out at this time every day, and I was wondering if we should now..." The cat girl was good at adapting to the situation.

If she couldn't find suitable clues, she would provide places where there might be clues.

Ian completely understood what she meant—go into Gilles de Rais's room.

"I see."

"Wait for me."

"Eh?!" The cat girl's tail stood up straight.

"Are you going alone?"

"Isn't that obvious?" Ian hugged Atalante and gently stroked her head.

"This kind of risky thing, I wouldn't bear to let you do it with me."

"..." The blushing cat girl didn't respond to Ian, but just nodded silently.

Her heart still seemed to hold the thought of solving the problem for him.

After some time.

Following the information Atalante had scouted, Ian entered Gilles de Rais's room after confirming that no one was watching him.

As soon as he entered, the man gasped.

Because the concentration of magical power in the room was too high, even reaching a suffocating level.

In addition to this, Ian also saw many strange props in the room—they seemed to be related to alchemy.

However, he didn't have the mind to pay attention to these things at the moment.

He only wanted to know what exactly was causing such a strong magical power.

And the answer was quickly revealed.

Ian saw the human skin grimoire that Atalante had mentioned at a glance.

It was lying quietly on the table.

At the same time, he also confirmed one thing—this belonged to François Prelati!

He felt magical power fluctuations on it that were almost identical to those on the day of Jeanne's execution by fire.

This also meant that Gilles de Rais had obtained this thing from François Prelati.

So he could pretend to be a Caster because of this.

But how were they connected?

Ian realized that the Singularity under his feet might already be tightly intertwined with the memories he had obtained.

He had to figure out what was going on quickly.

But just at this moment——

Ian, who was focused on studying the human skin grimoire, completely didn't notice the door behind him opening.

Immediately afterwards, Gilles de Rais's figure appeared there.

He looked at the scene before him and said in a hoarse voice:

"Ian?"

"What... are you doing here?"