I'm Shenji, what are you doing?

Snap.

The scene after the switch is a physical hell. The dark stone room was filled with a foul stench. In the center is a luxurious bed, and on the table next to it are countless cut-out children's heads. The ground was filled with countless carcasses that originally belonged to them. While half was fresh, the other half was starting to rot. But the fact that he bleeds and dies with an expression of despair is the same.

Jeanne clenched her fists. Joan of Arc doesn't know this kind of hell. However, she was impressed with her knowledge. That is something that is absolutely unavoidable when discussing yourself as a person.

"...This is Tiforz City, right?"

"You're right. It's the residence of that Hellboy, Gil de Rais."

Gilles de Rais. They were the followers of Joan of Arc who stood up to save the motherland and were one of the contributors to the liberation of Orleans. A great hero who made many meritorious deeds in the Hundred Years' War and finally became a field marshal - and then.

At the same time, he was also a serial murderer who indulged in teenage love and black magic in his own territory, tortured and killed hundreds of teenagers.

Joan of Arc didn't know. She knows nothing but Gil, who fights beside her on the battlefield as her guardian. Of course, she was a Servant after all, and she still had some knowledge of Gil de Rais's cruel and violent behavior.

but--

"Knowledge and reality are two different things, right?"

Jeanne looked at the pile of corpses of the boy with a stiff expression. It was truly a gruesome sight. It is quite common for corpses to be exposed in the wilderness on the battlefield. But the entities in front of Joan of Arc were all short in stature, and their limbs were as thin as dead branches - corpses that were rarely seen on the battlefield where adults were fighting each other.

Although it was a dizzying and blasphemous scene, it only slightly shook Jeanne's heart. The past is the past after all, and that is a fact that cannot be overturned.

Their deaths, even if they are the scenery of a stage play, must be remembered.

But at the same time, she held a negative attitude towards judging her life as a regret based on this alone.

Joan's will is firm and her honest heart will never waver.

"Even so, I won't be swayed."

"Probably. Even if you see the corpses of boys you don't know, you will only feel sympathy at most. There is no weakness that can make your heart give in."

With a creaking sound, the wooden door was opened. Jeanne looked back reflexively, with a look of astonishment on her face. With his thin cheeks and eyes shining with brilliant madness, the bravery of the past was gone, replaced by an appearance full of despair and hatred.

That was not the Gilles de Rais that Joan was familiar with——

It's the legendary monster called "Bluebeard" who is feared by people.

"Oh, isn't this Joan of Arc? What's the matter, why do you come to a place like this?"

Gil greeted Jeanne calmly and calmly. His hands held something tightly wrapped in a cloth stained with discolored blood as if he were caring about it.

Calm down, this is just an illusion - Jeanne convinced herself in her heart. The unpleasant feeling was like biting into pieces of rusty iron, and the chill was like a cold mist wrapping around the whole body. That thing wrapped in cloth - no, I absolutely couldn't imagine what it was. That must be the most fatal thing for Jeanne d'Arc.

"...That's enough. End this scene now. It's a pity that he started to behave badly because of my death. But, I——"

"Let me tell you a good thing. This Gill is not like those troupe puppets just now who can only say the lines I specified. Gilles de Rais is someone who can think with his own will and corrode with his own will. The hero who came to this world is the Servant summoned by me, the Red Caster."

Ruler said with a look of astonishment:

"Servant...that's ridiculous! You are obviously a Servant, how can you still summon a Servant?"

"As long as he is the owner of this garden, there is no problem at all. But even so, he is not a being who has been given a job. Since you are a Ruler, you should understand, right? He just reproduces the soul of Gil de Rais , the shell is just a fragile old man."

Joan of Arc stared hard at Shakespeare. Such a summons was an insult to the hero Gilles de Rais.

"Red Caster, what is your purpose in doing such a thing——!"

"You just have to ask him about that. Baron, you must have something to say, right?"

Hearing what Shakespeare said, Gil smiled wildly:

"Yes. Joan of Arc, I have something I want you to take a look at. I have cut off the heads of countless children so far, and every time I feel extremely excited..."

The cloth was slowly peeled away. Is the slow flow of time due to horror? Jeanne opened her mouth and whispered in a hoarse voice:

"...Stop it, stop it, Jill!"

Jill didn't stop. Joan of Arc knew it intellectually, and Gill always cut off the heads of the boys she loved and loved them endlessly. Stop it, Jill. He killed the boy and cut his body open, then dug out his intestines to enjoy the divine touch————

"Please look at it, Jeanne! This head."

The ripped cloth. Head, you can see a head. This head was—a face he was familiar with, a young man named Matou Shinji.

"And this, and these are-"

The head keeps switching, sometimes transforming into Arturia, sometimes into Little Jack, sometimes into Sixth Director Lingxia, each one of them is a person whom Jeanne feels close to.

"You also know my nickname! The notorious 'Bluebeard'. In order to defy the god who betrayed the saint, I have done almost all kinds of evil deeds! Do you want to hear it? Those children's Screams! The despairing groans of the gods!"

"...No...that, is not possible...!"

The saint finally let out a scream. She didn't want to see this miserable scene, and she didn't want to see the fall of her most trusted comrade and partner.

She instinctively wanted to cover her eyes, but - another force was stopping her hand, which was the other half of what the owner of the first head said before the war started.

——If you don't kill him in time and let him activate the Noble Phantasm, then you will face a torture, a torture of your life. It will reveal what has happened in your life, what has not happened, and the weakest parts of your subconscious, and then tear it apart.

There is only one way to fight it - firmly believe that you are right, believe in our partners, and never waver no matter what you see. Because of your faith, your friends will never let you down.

Having said that, if it were me, I probably wouldn't be able to survive it. But I believe you can do it. No matter how much suffering you suffer, you can persevere, because this is the kind of person you are. It has nothing to do with the saint, it is just the nature of a girl named Jeanne Darc.

How unfair fate is, making you bear such a heavy burden and experience so much pain. What's even more sad is that you won't complain and sigh. But it is precisely because of this that you are so beautiful and admired by so many people, even though you never think of yourself as a saint.

Face everything bravely and say what you really think. In this way, even if what you see is hell, as long as your belief does not change, it will become heaven.

His face was pale, the holy flag fell on the "stage", his hands were trembling...

The closed world is surrounded by the most terrifying scenes.

That's it. I didn't understand what he was talking about at first, but only after seeing it with my own eyes did I realize that it was an unimaginable hell.

Targeting the weakest point in people's hearts and delivering the most brutal blows, if I were the only one, I might really be defeated.

But, Red Caster, you are wrong about one thing. I am not alone.

My friends are here, they have always been there, they are supporting me, they are waiting for me, and the same is true for "him" in front of me.

So, so—

His hands were still shaking and his face was still ugly, but his wavering eyes were clear again.

"Stop it, Gil."

Not a cry, not a beg, not an escape, but an unquestionable voice, just like when she commanded the entire French army and gave orders. Although she never puts on a condescending air, she has an aura that cannot be violated.

"Joan of Arc...?" Gilles de Rais's body trembled and he lowered his head subconsciously.

"I feel very sad about your fall. It is undeniable that there is indeed my reason for this. But Gil, I want to tell you, I have wanted to tell you since I knew you became 'Bluebeard' - you are wrong . It has nothing to do with gods, saints, or anything else. I just want to tell you as your friend and as a human being that you are wrong and have made an irreparable mistake. If I were still here at that time, I would definitely I'll stop you, but——"

"But you are no longer here. The country you saved, the people you saved, that damn king. Even the god you believed in - he led you on such a path, but gave you such an ending. God He's not compassionate at all, he's just playing with your life, he's just playing with human beings."

Gilles de Rais's eyes seemed to be burning, but there was no expression on his face at all. This was completely different from the excitement he had shown before.

"Look around, look at these corpses, look at these heads. I have committed the most vicious and serious blasphemy that can be done in this world. But no matter how I kill or how much I blaspheme, I By the time I noticed it, I had been pursuing evil for eight years. The wails and cries of thousands of young children had all disappeared into the darkness of nothingness. ! It was not God who destroyed me in the end, but humans who had endless desires like me. The church and the king found me guilty and arrested and executed me. They just took a fancy to my wealth and territory and wanted to occupy it. It was nothing more than a treacherous plot set up for their own benefit. Their actions were not so much to punish my evil as to naked plunder! It was at this time that I realized what a bad existence God is, and he will not punish me. Human beings only play with human beings.”

Joan of Arc shook her head slowly: "No, you are wrong, Jill, God is not what you think?"

"Then how should you explain what happened to you? You were slandered as a heretic, a witch, and burned at the stake? See the reality clearly, Joan of Arc."

"It's you who should see the reality clearly, Jill! I have never been a saint, I am a sinner, a sinner who has robbed countless lives, a sinner like you!"

From the first time she went to the battlefield, from the first time she killed someone, Joan of Arc knew that she was a sinner, so she never lamented her fate.

"That's my sin, something that only belongs to me. It's the same for you, Jill. Your sin is something that only belongs to you. Even if you can't atone for it, this kind of despair is still something that only belongs to you."

Jeanne grabbed his chest and put her face close to him. Jill froze immediately.

So beautiful, he thought. The girl who looked at him with anger was so beautiful that it sent chills down one's spine.

At the same time, he also realized his mistake.

For this saint who does not regard herself as a saint, no matter whether she is in purgatory, hell, or even in heaven, she will probably not change in any way. As if she had no extra time to worry, she was always running around, dedicating her life to certain things——

"It's wrong to express your anger at God and shift the responsibility to others. You and I are both sinners, and there is no way to atone for the sins of those who became victims! Face your sins, Jill. We can only embrace this forever. This kind of distress and despair cannot be repeated all over again. The only thing we can do is to lend our shoulders to the living, and that is the meaning of our heroic spirits’ existence.”

Gil shed tears and fell to his knees. He held Joan's hand tightly and begged:

"—I, will we never be forgiven?"

"God will definitely forgive everything, but the children you killed and the soldiers killed by me will definitely not forgive us. This sin, this guilt, that is a punishment that must be endured forever... It doesn't matter Yes, I will lend you my shoulder."

Sins will never be erased.

Although they hate themselves as sinners, they still save the world as heroic spirits - that is the punishment they were given, and it is also their salvation.

"I understand, Joan of Arc. Although it is only a short period of time, I feel extremely happy to be able to talk to you again."

Evil deeds will not be forgiven.

Atonement never has an end.

Even though the saint herself announced all this, Jill's voice seemed quite calm.

In fact, this is a very simple fact.

He loved this girl deeply. She is neither a saint nor a girl who saves the country, she just likes Jeanne Darc. His love for this girl who was like warm sunshine was so deep that he immediately went crazy when she was killed.