(From now on, Ritsuko no longer addresses Adam with senpai behind. It starts to get annoying to write. Also the release would be once a week for the foreseeable future.)
After meeting Emperor Nero and securing a cooperation, everyone followed Nero to the capital and later her palace to settle down for the night. She also organized a banquet to celebrate their victory and the Chaldean for being her new allies.
In the palace, the Chaldean are given several guest rooms to accommodate them.
"Did you notice? The palace looks rather empty. I expected there to be at least some servants but there's very few of them." Romani murmured on his own through the wristband that is part of Ritsuko's Mystic Code.
"Now that you mentioned it, Romani. The palace looks very empty and silent." Ritsuko agreed as she looked around the empty hallway with only one soldier leading them to their room.
"There is actually a reason for that." The kind sounded soldier said with his head turned slightly to look at the group. "When the United Empire formed, many of the former Roman Empire broke off and joined them. That includes the people and soldiers. Due to that, we are severely understaffed that even us soldiers have to take on tasks outside of our intended duty like maintaining the palace." The soldier said with a regrettable sigh.
"So, it was actually in that bad of a state, huh?" Adam said while his eyes looked out from the window in the hallway and looked at the city outside the palace and saw very little life in the street when usually a capital city would be much more lively.
There are simply too few people left in the capital. During the victory parade after the battle, they walked through the city and Adam observed that most of the people left were either the sick, old, women, children or merchants. Most of the young able men are already soldiers, which tells the state of desperation of Rome. But even so, he can see the reverie and trust in the people towards Nero. The most visible one is the fact soldiers willingly took on the role of servants to maintain and run the palace where most would disdain such work since they are elite soldiers trained to fight not to do the job of servants.
After a few more minutes, the soldier stopped before the external wing of the palace where the guest rooms are located.
"Here are your rooms. It may be a little dusty but I hope for your forgiveness that we are simply incapable of dispatching anyone to clean it up in time since most servants are preparing for the banquet." The soldier apologized but mainly to Adam.
"I don't mind it. I understand the difficulty of Emperor Nero to provide the hospitality. We are grateful enough to have a place to rest." Adam didn't take offense and refused the apology since there's nothing to apologize for.
"Yes. We are grateful enough to be provided a place to sleep." Mash nodded with Ritsuko.
"I see, thank you for your understanding. When the banquet is ready, there will be someone that come to inform." The soldier gives his salutation before departing since he still has other tasks to do.
After the soldier left, the Chaldean and Adam with his group gathered in one room to mainly discuss the information they obtained with Romani and Olga.
While Adam and the others are sitting down to talk, Alina excuses herself to clean up the place where Adam will rest. She left along with Sif to select a bed.
"Good work, everyone. So far, we managed to achieve a lot. From gathering information about the Singularity and securing cooperation with the locals." Olga congratulated them first.
"It is all thanks to Adam. He played a big role in everything." Ritsuko also commended Adam and the others did too.
"Indeed. No need to overpraise me. You played a wonderful role too in leading Servants in battle." He praised Ritsuko too, afraid that if he overshadowed her too much, it could affect her heart even if she didn't show it visibly since human emotions are a complicated thing.
"Alright. Let's discuss the information then. Romani." Olga gives the helm to Romani since he is the one handing the information.
"Yes. So, from what Emperor Nero said. The source of the distortion is very possibly the United Empire. From what but and pieces of information we learn, the one leading the United Empire was past Emperors of Rome as we heard from the Berserker Servant, Emperor Caligula. It is already confirmed by Caligula that we will be facing Servants in the form of past Roman Emperors." Romani summarized the collected information.
"Romulus…" Emiya mutters with a frown.
A Servant of Heroic Spirit's strength is decided by their infamy. The more popular a Servant is and the more widespread their influence is, the stronger the Servant would be. So, a Heroic Spirit like Romulus that is almost venerated like God by the Roman people and a demigod himself is bound to be powerful and a formidable opponent for the Chaldean.
"Well, why do you people look that worried? Did you all forget how powerful Master is? Someone like Romulus wouldn't be an issue for him, am I right, Master?" Jeanne Alter made an attempt to change the mood considering everyone is in such a sullen mood because she can't stand those moping.
"Alter is right. Not to mention we have six Servants fighting together." Jeanne joined in and gratefully hugged Jalter for trying to improve the mood but she reacted by pushing Jeanne away, not comfortable with her overly friendly and sisterly act.
While the others didn't have much trust with Jalter yet, they do give her the benefit of doubt and chance to redeem herself after what she did in France. After all, she is created for the purpose of evil even if it's not her own will. But the older Servants like Emiya and Arroria knew how good Adam is with reading a person's character and so far, he had yet to ever say anything negative about Jalter.
"Well aside from that, remember to find a leyline to establish proper contact back to Chaldea. From my reading here, the closest leyline is Mount Etna." Romani gave his reminder about the secondary objectives on the Singularity.
"Alright." Ritsuko replied and Adam nodded.
After that, they were interrupted by a knock on the door which reminded them that the banquet was ready for them. They didn't dawdle and followed the soldier who came to guide them.
———
In the extravagant banquet hall, a few rows of tables are filled with food and wine. Although the Chaldean noticed that the selection of food is quite poor for a typical royal banquet.
"Umu! Welcome, Chaldean. Please take a seat." Nero directs them to the row of tables on the right side of the hall while Nero herself is in the middle and additionally Adam is closer to her rather than sitting with the Chaldean group.
Nero also noticed the strange but not rude, more of an apprehension look at what served for their banquet.
"I am sorry that I couldn't match up to an appropriate dish for the banquet. But ever since the emergence of the United Empire, most of the trade routes to the capital have been cut off and due to that, there is a lack of merchants entering the capital causing the usual commodities like meat and spices to be unavailable." Nero was apologetic for her lack of hospitality to offer.
"No, it's alright, Emperor Nero. We are simply grateful to have food to eat." Ritsuko said while trying not to look at the famished Artoria inhaling food with royal grace somehow since they hadn't eaten since arriving at the Singularity for the past 10 or so hours.
"Umu, you people are quite humble which I am grateful for. But fret not, when we finally defeat the United Empire, I promise you all Chaldean a proper feast." Nero lifted up her beautifully engraved silver goblet filled with wine for a toast.
Throughout the banquet, Nero made no effort to talk about any matter aside from their victory. Mostly boasting about the earlier fight and also asking her various curiosity about Chaldean.
"Umu. I see, you people came from the future to resolve these historical distortions. Then perhaps your arrival is due to the Gods and the divine ancestors answered my prayers." Nero drank another cup of wine, looking rather red on her face.
Nero then suddenly winces and is assailed by a headache which looks very out of the ordinary. Once the pain subsided, she cut the banquet short and decided to retire for the night. But she encourages the Chaldean to continue if they wish or perhaps take a bath in the imperial bath house within the palace which she suggested they give a try.
Adam's eyes linger on Nero's retreating figure. He had to admit that he grew fond of her in such a brief moment. Not romantically but a sense of camaraderie bore from their similarity. Like a senior to a junior type of fondness.
Out of his curiosity, he decided to learn more about Nero's history and how she was branded a tyrant in her later life which he found odd since her personality indicated she would never act that way unless something is affecting her too. Not to mention he felt an odd tingling feeling about Nero when she winced in pain. One that he couldn't describe because he never felt such sensation before and couldn't pinpoint the reason. But he can definitely link it towards great evil. An extreme one akin to what a certain Chaos God of Excess represents.
While the Chaldean decided to retreat to their room and rest for the night. Adam decided to investigate this feeling he felt. That led him to seek Nero.
Using his Psychic Sense to follow her soul. Adam eventually found Nero on a hallway without any escorts, seemingly recovered from her headache and is on her way back to her room.
"Umu. Are you looking for me?" She spoke casually.
"Yes. I had something that I am curious about and hoped Emperor Nero would agree to cooperate." Adam revealed his purpose with a tone close to commanding but he managed to change it in time so as to not sound forceful like when he usually performs an inquisitorial job.
Nero frowned a little but she agreed since she placed a great deal of trust on him despite Adam being a stranger and she invited him into her personal chamber. Adam agreed to follow because he thought he would need some privacy lest someone encountered him in his investigation and thought he was doing something bad towards their Emperor.
Inside her personal chamber which was as large as a normal house that screams of extravagance with a large luxurious looking bed, lounging area with a balcony and great view of the city and various other personal belongings like musical instruments, strange art pieces, etc.
"Umu, so what do I need to do?" She turns around after entering the room and looks at Adam.
"For a start, it was about the headache just now. Was it some kind of sickness?" Adam asked.
"Oh, that. Quite kind of you to care. But it is something that I had experienced since forever and I couldn't recall since when I had it or why. Perhaps it is indeed a sickness. Sometimes the migraine caused me to act not myself. None of the physicians I sought out for or the Court Mage could help alleviate it." She readily talks about her headache issue but for some reason, she is quite uncertain about what she said too.
Adam took note of them and offered to check up on Nero to try identify the cause of her migraine since he had a suspicion that he couldn't confirm by simply reading about her history.
He placed his hand on Nero's head and gently flowed his Psychic power into her body. From his initial observation, biologically speaking. Neither her brain or body show any sign that can cause a migraine. That would mean it's cause wasn't a natural reaction by her body. But instead, it was caused by something else which he managed to locate on her soul.
The thing he sensed felt vile, repulsing and evil that is closely resembling the Dark God of Excess. When Adam tried to probe it. The thing reacted rather violently to attack the strand of his psychic energy before his flow of psychic energy was cut off and his probing cut short by Nero who reacted physically to push him away while she retired and clutched her lowered head.
Adam can sense for a split second, the hostility and fear directed at him which vanished when she suddenly moaned and whimpered in pain while clutching her head harder.
Adam immediately approached her and placed his hand on her head again before using his Psychic power to help alleviate her pain.
"Oh, thank you. That felt wonderful." She sighed and thanked Adam. "So, how was it? Could you cure my headache?"
Adam is hesitant to answer. During his probe, he determined that it was a curse. A particularly nasty one that she has since birth apparently and thus, had long integrated to be part of her soul. The only way to fix it is to remove the curse which was deeply embedded in her soul is to pry it out. That means gouging the curse out which is a very painful procedure like when he forcefully extracting Martha's memories assuming she wouldn't die having her soul damaged. It's not something he can do without consulting Nero.
So, Adam explained everything to Nero. He said how he could treat her and also the incredibly high risk of the procedure. He would expect her to reject the treatment but he is surprised by her answer.
"Umu. Is that so? Then can you wait until I resolve the matter with the traitors? I cannot take any risk before the Empire is stabilized. Especially not when my presence is needed by my people." She is very grateful for the help and wishes to postpone it for now.
"Of course." Adam agreed to do it once the Singularity was resolved. He can do at least that much for her.
With nothing else more to talk, Adam excuses himself and leaves Nero's room and returns to his yandere but at least understanding lover before she starts suspecting anything due to his long absence.
—————
If you enjoy my fic and wanted me to support my work and effort, feel free to support me on Patreon. Advance chapters available starting from $1.
patreon.com/DaoistKittyKat