"Run quickly!"
"Ha... Ha... Ha..."
In the vast forest, Astolfo ran as fast as he could together with the homunculus that he had rescued from the tank in the basement.
For the homunculus, running was something very hard to do since he had just woken up from his slumber and almost all of his life energy was being absorbed to supply all the servants on the Black Faction.
If only Astolfo would carry the homunculus in his arms since even if Astolfo was one of the weakest servants, carrying a thin homunculus should be easy for him, but neither Astolfo nor the homunculus thought such a thing and in their minds, they needed to get away from this place as soon as possible.
The homunculus felt that his entire body was very heavy, his lungs were screaming, his body was very hot, before long he stopped and vomited his blood on the ground, and he could feel that he might die soon.
However, Astolfo kept urging the homunculus.
"Hurry up! It will be dangerous if someone notices us! If someone notices us then you might be killed and I will be punished!"
Hearing Astolfo's words, the homunculus gritted his teeth and forced himself to run.
It wasn't easy to escape from the Fortress of Millennia.
The fortress, after all, was a basecamp of the Yggdmillennia clan, and there were many Magus within the fortress.
During the Holy Grail War, the defense of the fortress could be said to be at the highest level of all time.
Even if someone could escape from the eyes of the patrol such as golem, Magus, and homunculus, they might not able to escape from various enhancements and traps which were created by Magecraft.
Not to mention the Fortress of Millennia, even the entire Trifas was under the surveillance of the Yggdmillennia clan.
To escape in such a situation may not be difficult for a servant, but it is extremely difficult not to be found by the people of the Yggdmillennia clan.
Fortunately, all the masters in the Yggmillennia clan have been attracted to the battle in Bucharest since this battle would be the first confrontation between Black Faction and Red Faction, except when Haru directly came to visit the home of Red Faction before.
Therefore, Astolfo was able to escape with the homunculus.
"Listen well! You must never let go of my hand, alright? You mustn't, alright?!"
Astolfo kept repeating those words.
In the surrounding area, there were enhancements and traps made by Magecraft of the Yggdmillennia clan. If the homunculus released Astolfo's hand then it would trigger all of them in an instant, alerting everyone in Fortress of Millennia.
"Fortunately I have this!"
Astolfo was holding a book with a triumphant expression.
Casseur de Logistille.
It is a thick magic-binding leather book that is given by and inherited from a witch, Logistilla.
It contains records of the means to shatter any Magecraft, granting its owner the passive ability to deal with Magecraft of A-Rank and below.
Though Astolfo's Magic Resistance is normally D Rank, it is greatly elevated to A-Rank, effectively making him immune to all modern Magecraft.
When its True Name is released and the book is read, it becomes possible to break all Magecraft close to High-Thaumaturgy excluding Reality Marbles.
Now, by holding the book, Astolfo exerted fully the ability of this book, directly ignoring various barriers, traps, enhancements, and various things which were made by Magecraft that was set by the Yggmillennia clan. If the homunculus released Astolfo's hand, then it would definitely trigger everything in their surroundings.
In addition, all the eyes of the Yggmillennia clan were on Bucharest which was a very perfect situation for both Astolfo and the homunculus to escape.
Astolfo kept dragging the homunculus, but in the end, the homunculus didn't run anymore.
Astolfo could see the homunculus situation wasn't good and thought that it was a very good idea.
"Let me carry you so we can run faster!"
The homunculus probably wanted to ask why Astolfo didn't do that in the first place, but he didn't say so since as a homunculus, his body wasn't fully developed and he couldn't speak much, so he could only give up to say something.
However, as of this moment, the homunculus felt that there was something wrong.
Even if his mind and body were weak, a homunculus was instilled with a certain amount of knowledge and still had little judgment about a situation around his surroundings.
Logically, based on the physical ability of the servant, they should be able to escape from the forest at this moment, however, they hadn't even seen the edge of the forest and the homunculus felt weird.
When the homunculus thought so, Astolfo suddenly stopped and immediately turned his head, showing a very cute smile to the homunculus.
"We got lost~~"
"...."
Looking at Astolfo's cute smile, the homunculus wasn't sure how to describe his feelings at this moment.
Fortunately, the homunculus understanding of his emotion was inadequate, otherwise, he would give a complaint or two to Astolfo.
Unfortunately, their elope might have ended sooner than they had expected.
The sound of footsteps was heard, a tall figure appeared in front of two of them, and blocked their way.
At this moment, the homunculus felt a strong existence that couldn't be compared to Astolfo.
"Ah..."
The homunculus let out noise from his mouth, feeling amazed then he was in a daze, but he wasn't sure how to describe his emotion since he was as black as a white paper.
On the other hand, Astolfo was startled and his eyes were wide open!
"Saber!"
The one who came to catch the two of them was Siegfried.
Looking at Astolfo who was holding the homunculus, Siegfried came forward calmly, approaching them.
instantly, the homunculus understood the man in front of him was coming to catch them.
Their elope incident had been discovered, even Astolfo, who didn't have a common sense also understood the current situation wasn't good.
After all, Siegfried's master, the fat man whose name was Gordes, was a Magus who created a homunculus and the one who developed a method to divert the Magic Power to a group of the homunculus.
When one of the homunculi had escaped, Gordes knew about it instantly, became furious, and ordered his servant to catch both Astolfo and the homunculus directly.
"Wait, Saber!"
Astolfo hugged the homunculus, backed away, and shouted to Siegfried, "Let's go of this child! This child is innocent! He has never done anything wrong! If you want to punish someone, then punish me! I will come with you!"
However, Astolfo's words didn't slow down Siegfried's movement.
Siegfried was like a machine who executed the order of his master, and he didn't understand Astolfo's words since he was only doing what was ordered by his master.
As such, it made Astolfo furious.
"Can someone like you be called a hero?!"
Hero.
That one word made Siegfried stop, on his expressionless face, started to form confusion. As a hero, was it normal to understand the situation in front of him?
However, Siegfried didn't understand that the Dragon-Blooded Knight and the "Dragon Slayer" who defeated the evil dragon Fafnir with the holy sword Balmung in hand, his gaze slowly turned toward the homunculus.
Even though the homunculus was very tired and couldn't walk anymore, Siegfried could see something in the homunculus's eyes that was seen by Astolfo before, and that was...
Hope.