Chapter 114

——The bell rang at this moment.

“Saber!!!”

When Fujimaru Ritsuka rushed out of the chessboard, her clothes had changed from the Magic Association uniform to a white queen dress more suitable for the queen's coronation. As her voice broke through the chessboard and reached the outside world, Charlemagne and Mash, who had just rushed here, caught Fujimaru Ritsuka who rushed out.

"Mashu!" With the help of Charlemagne and Mashu, Fujimaru Ritsuka managed to stop his steps that were still rushing forward, and smiled in surprise, but soon stopped smiling again, "By the way, which group of the Black Camp has left?"

"You have no right to criticize me for trusting my teammates too much." Kirshtalia walked up to Fujimaru Ritsuka with a smile and exhaled deeply. "The Phantom of the Theater was ordered to commit suicide by his master using a Command Seal - therefore, the Assassin team of the Black Faction has lost the qualification to continue to participate in the Holy Grail War."

"You were the absolute elites of Chaldea before the human arson incident. If you can be dismissed at this level, I have to doubt whether the evaluation standards of Director Marisbury and the deputy director are normal." Fujimaru Ritsuka looked at Kirshtalia and sighed softly, "I want to go back and call everyone for a meeting first. What do you think?"

"Then go back."

The time goes back to an earlier time, shortly after the six o'clock bell rang in the morning - the members of the original Group A unanimously handed over today's personnel arrangements to Tai Gongwang.

"Since the purpose of this operation is to delay time rather than to win—" Tai Gong Wang dragged out his voice, his eyes swept across the faces of the people in front of him, "then let's assign personnel according to the strength of the servants in the conventional sense. Saber, one of the three knights, stayed in the area where Ritsuka was last night, so the Archer team and the Lancer team will support the Saber team."

"Of course, Mashu, as Ritsuka's Servant, will go there too."

"so--"

"Mr. Tai Gongwang, can you take charge of Samson for the time being?" Mash had obviously understood more of Tai Gongwang's unspoken arrangements, and took the initiative to propose the transfer of Samson's command. "Since I am acting with the three knights as a Servant, the task of disrupting the battlefield and delaying time should obviously be handed over to the Rider team, the Caster team, and the Assassin team."

"And leaving behind the Berserker team, who are the least likely to be chosen as the remaining position—"

"That's right, and our Berserker team is the Overlord of Western Chu and Yu Meiren." Tai Gong Wang smiled as if everything was under control. "As long as we don't face a dangerous guy like Ultra from the Seventh Abnormal Zone, even if there is only one of them, it will be enough to win the battle."

"That is to say, the trump card that can directly determine the outcome must be saved until the end." Akujinko nodded, acknowledging Tai Gongwang's arrangement. "Then, after Ritsuka leaves the chessboard, how should our actions change? Should we continue until night as planned now, or..."

"It depends on what Ritsuka chooses." Kirshtalia smiled confidently, "But I guess her arrangement will definitely be--"

"First, call everyone back to the guest room for a meeting."

Time goes back to the present, when Fujimaru Ritsuka no longer needs Mashu and Charlemagne to stop him, Ophelia smiled and told Fujimaru Ritsuka what Kirshtalia said before leaving.

"Senior Kirshtalia!" The moment Mash and Charlemagne let go, Fujimaru Ritsuka immediately raised his head and glared at Kirshtalia, "You know very well that I still have a lot of things that I haven't told everyone - aren't you bullying Senior Ophelia and the others by relying on your knowledge?"

"You can't say that." Ophelia raised her hand and touched Fujimaru Ritsuka's hair, turned her face away and cleared her throat, "After all, everyone knows that you still have a lot of things to hide - but everyone just thought that you would just take Mashu to solve the problem like when you had a fever, and didn't investigate further..."

"No, there are still some very important things I need to tell you." Fujimaru Ritsuka winked at Ophelia, but added with a guilty conscience, "Although...if nothing unexpected happens, I will be the only one present when the Holy Grail is finally recovered - well, if this is the special point, Mash must also leave early."

Thanks to the brief chaos caused by the sudden ringing of the bell representing the birth of the new queen, the three groups responsible for entering the battlefield directly to delay time immediately left the battlefield after receiving the notice given by Kirshtalia in the communication, and quickly rushed back to the guest room that served as the base.

"Mr. Hanae!?"

Even though Fujimaru Ritsuka had a preliminary understanding of what happened during her attack on the giant chessboard on the way back - she was still shocked when she actually saw Ashiya Hanae and Hinamichi, the survivors of the Crimson Camp civil war, who were pulled into the guest room for protection.

"Looking at it this way, if nothing unexpected happens, the Black Faction will also decide the winner within the camp today."

"Why do you say that, Ritsuka?"

"First, let's start with how to enter this anomaly. Charlemagne, Mr. Hanae and Hinaberry are in your care." Fujimaru Ritsuka pushed Ashiya Hanae, who was holding Hinaberry, to Charlemagne, and then closed the door of the reception room to isolate the Servants from the people of the other world. "I think you should have seen the records other than the anomalies and subspecies anomalies created by Gaetia."

"Then you should know one thing. No matter which world or gender Fujimaru Ritsuka is from, he has experienced falling into a special point in his dream." Fujimaru Ritsuka drank a cup of black tea to moisten his throat that had not had a drop of water for almost a day. "And almost every area here is closely related to the story of Alice in Wonderland."

"And both Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass are just dreams."

"And speaking of dreams—"

"Dreams are a reflection of the human subconscious." Mashu looked at Fujimaru Ritsuka, paused for a moment, and continued, "And speaking of the collective subconscious of humanity, it is Alaya, one of the two major restraining forces - and it also represents the 'human' part of our blueprint for rebuilding the world. So..."

"This peculiarity was born out of someone's dream." Fujimaru Ritsuka calmly revealed the answer to everyone.

"And if it was before the tuning, Ritsuka would probably be the only one among us who would appear here." Kirshtalia looked at Fujimaru Ritsuka and figured out the truth of why all of them appeared here together. "Although the tuning has not been completely completed, Ritsuka has already come closer to the real 'Alaya' before the other two characters."

"That's why I dragged you in here." Fujimaru Ritsuka threw up his hands helplessly. "If it was just the state after the tuning, maybe only Kirshtalia and the deputy director would follow me - but after I changed further towards Alaya, my consciousness was not only linked to the other two, but also established a connection with all the remaining people in our world."

"In short, the connection between Ritsuka and us is the closest, so we were brought into the same dream by her - and our Servants also retained the memories of Chaldea." Kirshtalia summarized Fujimaru Ritsuka's words and pointed out the difference between their Servants and the Servants of the Black Faction, "Because the vast majority of Heroic Spirits belong to Alaya."

"It is an absolute unique case that the consciousness of Gaia, which belongs to another world, is engraved on the Throne of Heroes in his own world, as Lord did."

Kadoc: "Then this Holy Grail War that took place in a dream—"

"About this point..." Fujimaru Ritsuka subconsciously glanced at the closed door behind him, "Before heading to the chessboard area, Senior Kirshtalia and I went to the basement where we found a doll that looked exactly like the one that left. In addition to seeing the newly added dolls there, we also found something else."

"We got the information about the rose girls of the Crimson Camp at the very beginning. They were dolls given souls and lives by the puppeteer, the Rose Mother." Kirshtalia noticed Fujimaru Ritsuka's gaze and took over the topic. "However, among the five magics, except for the third magic which is related to the soul, the other four magics do not mention the soul."

"And the third magic is to shape the body according to the soul - it is different from the Rose Girl's route of first having a body and then giving it a soul."

"Or to put it more clearly, there is no power in our world that can create souls out of thin air - and the puppeteer who created the Rose Girl is obviously from another world." Kirshtalia paused, recalling the contents of the puppeteer's diary that he heard from Fujimaru Ritsuka a day ago. "Even if such a power really exists, it is not something that a puppeteer from another world can master."

"I saw the diary of the puppeteer who made the Rose Girl in the basement. But since this is just a dream, I can't refer to the details except for the content above." Fujimaru Ritsuka closed his eyes. "It records the method of the puppeteer to give the Rose Girl a soul."

——The puppeteer divided his soul into seven parts and gave them to his beloved daughters.

The battle between the Rose Girls, the Alice Game - is a ritual to bring the seven-part soul back together.

"By the way, Ritsuka." Peperoncino showed a serious look, "I remember you said before that you have confirmed that the fifth doll, Shinku, is the holder of the Holy Grail..."

"Didn't Mr. Hanae give Iwanaga Kotoko's judgment in the news he brought?" Fujimaru Ritsuka took a deep breath, "The fifth puppet, Shinku, has become the winner of the Alice game, and then split the Rose Mother and returned it to her sisters - this is the premise for the existence of the Red Camp, and also the premise for the existence of this dream."

"Shinku became the winner, but her dream was different from the puppeteer's ideal of pursuing a perfect girl - so she split the Rose Mother again, and fell into an endless sleep."