The first thing that caught my attention was the unusual lilac coloring of the short hair of the person meters in front of us. Although the enormous black shield she held in front of her is what really should have caught my eye.
I stopped to observe the situation but could not prevent my glance from going down her back and falling on the sight of her beautiful round ass appearing underneath the revealing black armor, which looked more like a mini-dress.
I have nothing to complain about, on the contrary, I would be grateful every day for those provocative looks if my current situation lasted, but at that moment, I let out a deep sigh and tried to focus again on the situation I had been put in.
I ignored the erection about to form in my pants once again and paid more attention to what was happening further ahead than the beautiful sight of Mash's hips.
Since she had her back to us, she didn't noticed our arrival in the corridor and seemed to be talking to someone else, but I could not see this person. Maybe she was at the turn of the next corridor or even behind the big shield Mash was carrying. The sound of the sirens also prevented me from hearing and identifying their voices and what they were saying, just as she had not heard our arrival, even with Artoria's heels making considerable noise with each new step.
Speaking of her, I stood still long enough to cause her some strangeness or curiosity, for what drew me out of that observation were the touches of her hand on my shoulder and her breasts touching my back, her sweet, concerned voice coming up beside my face the next instant.
"Master... Has something happened?"
I turned my head to face her distressed expression, trying a gentle half-smile. Ruler seemed more concerned about the whole situation than I was. Even though she had just been summoned, she was the one who initially wanted to rush us to figure out what was going on, even though she wasn't sure what it was either.
Maybe it was her sense of duty as a heroic spirit or just being a great person. Either way, she encouraged me to actually do something.
So I gave her a reassuring smile and realized it would not be suitable to keep analyzing the situation. Mash would not be an enemy, and the most important thing was to know what was going on.
"It's all right, Artoria. We seem to have found other people..." My gaze led back to the girl with the lilac hair, who still had her back to us, talking to someone. I couldn't tell if it was more than one person or even what they were doing there in that hallway. The only way was to get closer.
I caressed Artoria's face briefly, which brought an expression of surprise and a reddish blush to her face. And without another word, I took the remaining steps until I was close enough to make my voice noticed by Mash and whoever else was with her, but it was her name that I called.
"Mash?"
Instinctively she looked back in a way that she was ready to defend herself, expecting an attack. But her position softened when she looked at me, and a serene smile appeared on her lips.
Looking at the girl from the front, she was charming indeed, with her bangs of unusual lilac strands falling over her face, covering some of her eyes of her also peculiar lavender coloring. The pale skin showed where the black armor did not cover it, and the silhouette of the armor itself highlighted her curves, especially her round breasts.
Her look went from me to the one coming up behind me, the Ruler servant girl that was accompanying me. Mash nodded briefly to Artoria and then back to me. I expected her to call me Master, or even Senpai, as she used to refer to Gudao, but instead:
"Thorn, we lost contact with you a few hours ago. Where have you been? Is everything okay?" Her voice sounded serious but concerned.
So that was my name? Thorn? The tattoo of thorns on my arm made a little sense now. But didn't calling me by name mean that I was not her Master? I felt like pulling my smartphone out of my pocket and test something, but something else happened before I could think whether I should or not.
A head appeared behind Mash's large black shield. A head with black hair, bangs, and some large flower ornaments in its hair. Her face lit up when she saw me, flashing a happy smile on her small, delicate lips. It didn't take long before she came out from behind the shield and practically flew toward me.
"Lord Master!"
Hokusai's arms wrapped around my waist and her Japanese kimono fluttered as she reached me, it was open at the top and showed off her shoulders and cleavage.
Her breasts pressed against one side of my torso while her thin little arms squeezed me tightly. She was so happy to see me that she moved subtly, rubbing her body against mine while having a cute little smile on her face as she looked up.
All that rubbing made my cock rise once again. That situation was a great endurance test, and if there weren't something bigger going on, nothing would stop me from taking those three back to my room right now.
Another deep sigh, I passed my arm around Hokusai's bare shoulders, the feel of her skin was soft and silky, and my fingers tightened a little on her shoulder, which made her shudder, glued to me.
I first directed my attention to her.
"Did you miss me? I had a little accident, Mash, in a control room and was unconscious for a while. Luckily Artoria was by my side." I turned my gaze from Hokusai to Shielder and then looked at Ruler, who gave a gentle smile in response to my words." We didn't meet anyone else on our way, and I'm sorry to say my memory isn't the best, something fell on my head, and when I woke up, I couldn't remember much."
"Really?" Mash looked worried, whether by me or by the situation, I didn't really know.
I also found it strange that she didn't call me Master. In that way it looked like how she treated Fujimaru. Did that mean that I was not her Master? I remember seeing Shielder among my servants, and I didn't believe there was another one.
"If you can tell me what's going on. A summary, preferably." I gave a half smile after that request. With Hokusai still rubbing off on me, I didn't have much patience for paying attention to complicated explanations.
"Something happened in the Chaldea room and caused an earthquake. I wasn't at the scene at the time, but when I got there I realized that some people and servants who were supposed to be in that place were gone, including Red Master." As he informed me of this, Mash's expression went cloudy, saddening.
I felt like comforting her, but I didn't know if I could leave with Hokusai still clinging to me.
However, something in her speech made me wonder. Did she say Red Master? Who was she referring to?
"They weren't anywhere?" I asked, managing to walk closer as I brought the girl close to me by the shoulder. She just seemed happy to be in my presence, ignoring what she was talking about earlier with Mash or the situation in general.
"Most likely Rayshift sent them to some singularity, Thorn. I couldn't find anyone outside Hokusai and some other servants, they are helping to search for the others.... I tried to get close to Chaldea, but then something emerged..."
Before she could continue, a loud noise caught our attention, coming from a few corridors ahead.
Mash immediately put herself on guard, and I gently pulled Hokusai away from my body to stand next to Shielder, behind her vast shield.
Before long, we heard footsteps. They were strange sounds, like bones hitting the floorboards and forming hollow noises, one after the other, in a dragging walk. Then it was a silhouette around a worn cloth that had left its red color behind many years ago.
Under the old cloths, skeletons holding swords and scimitars. One after another, they appeared in the turn of the corridor coming to the one we were in.
Mash seemed to tremble at that sight. Artoria and Hokusai also placed themselves behind the shield, the latter holding my shirt in the back, hiding behind my larger body.
For me, all that fear made no sense. Skeletons were weak enemies, my biggest concern was why they appeared there, which shouldn't happen, but the more I underestimated what I was seeing, the more they appeared.