Having finally finished their lunch, Jean and Barbara made their way towards the trash can to take care of their trays.
"Over here."
Turning towards the voice, Jean noticed a dark-skinned man pointing towards a massive stack of trays situated on a rather small cart with wheels.
"Just give me your trays."
"Ah, thank you."
"Hmph."
Without so much as a glance towards the two newcomers, the man chucked the tray up onto the top of the stack.
"Alter."
"On it."
Barbara gasped as a thickly-built creature stepped out of the shadows, pushing another identical rolling cart in front of him.
"Oh. Newbies. Welcome I guess."
With a small nod in their direction, the creature then grabbed the other cart and pulled it towards the shadows they had came from.
Jean paused for a second, gathering her thoughts, before turning towards the man from before.
"If I may ask, where is...he?...taking them?"
"Oh right. Newcomers. Probably don't know much. To put it simply, we're on trash duty."
Nodding, Barbara asked, "Oh ok. Um, who are you? And who is he?"
"..."
Blinking at the two, the man waited a bit before replying.
"Archer class. I don't really have a name anymore, but Servants here call me Demiya. The guy you just saw is Berserker class. Cú Chulainn Alter. Too long? Keep it short. Cú Alter."
"Your names...seem strangely similar to-"
"Stop."
Stepping out of the shadows again, Cú Alter had returned with an empty cart.
"If you aren't stayin' here for too long, don't think to hard about things. Hell, if you two end up meeting little miss Artoria over there, you'll figure it out eventually. Now shoo."
Nodding in agreement, Demiya leaned against the wall and stared expectantly at the two. Understanding this as a cue to leave, Jean and Barbara bowed before saying,
"Then we'll take our leave, Mr.Demiya and Mr. Cú Alter."
"See you later, Misters."
"Hah. Don't bother with names. I won't remember yours anyway."
"Whatever. Just go. I wanna get this work over with fast."
Turning around, Barbara and Jean briskly walked back towards their table with normal Cú and Scáthach.
"Ah, saw you two met up with the alters over there. Don't worry too much. They're always like that. If you want an in-depth explanation...well...I ain't interested in giving one and I don't think Emiya is either."
"I see....."
"Ok...."
"Well, since we're all done with lunch, why don't you come with me, Barbara? I'll take you to meet some nicer Servants."
"You're comin' with me, Jean. I'm takin' ya to go meet Artoria. Up for it?"
"Ok, Ms.Scáthach."
"Let's go, Cú."
~Break~
I know this was a short chapter but that's because it's more or less for setting up the next couple chapters.
From here on out, I'll be updating with two chapters every week until the end(or idk, whenever).
Think about it like routes.
The first chapter will always be Jean's and her scenario.
The second chapter will always be Barbara's and her scenario.
You can tell whose is whose by the title.
It may arguably be easier to read one route completely before reading the other one, but whatever. It's your choice anyway.
I'll try to keep things consistent, but please understand that I've never tried this before and so I'll probably end up making a lot of mistakes.
Thanks y'all!
And enjoy the following weeks!