Fate/Apocrypha Volume 1 Chapter 3.1

— "Kindness, Humility, Honesty, Purity, Faith – the Maid's heart carried only these things and nothing else."

Place du Vieux Marché, Rouen

…Words of damnation came to her, like a melody from an infinitely distant country. She paid them little mind. It would be a lie to say that she was not in pain – but that was something she could endure.

She also had also little fear. Such emotions as disappointment and regret had been left behind from the moment she decided to fight. They would no longer find their way back to her.

She did not want to be dragged about, so she walked without a falter in her step. Unconsciously, she reached for her chest – but her cross had been taken from her. There was no longer anything to support her heart. For this, she felt some sadness.

Just as she realized this, an Englishman ran up to her and reverently held up a wooden cross that looked as though he had just fashioned it then and there. She quietly thanked the man as he knelt, tears streaming down his face. Among the condemnation, there were still those who would cry for her.

As damnation is like a melody from far-off countries, grief is like a mother's lullaby.

Her hands were tied to a tall wooden stake behind her – rather tightly, perhaps to remind her that there would be no reprieve. But what meaning is there to escape after having come all this way?

The priest completed the recitation of her final judgement and promptly threw a torch, which slowly began to burn below her feet. They believed that the loss of the flesh was the greatest of fears… To them, this was the cruellest punishment of all.

The flame burned her skin, scorched her flesh and charred her bones. Again and again, she spoke the name of the Lord and the Holy Mother.

…Your prayers were a lie.

They endlessly denounced her with their words of abuse. Yet she only found it strange… for a prayer can be neither false nor true. A prayer is simply that, nothing more. Its nature does not change based on who you pray to.

She wanted to tell this to them but no sounds came from her. Suddenly, the scene before her was one from the past. It was a rustic village… with an ordinary family. She saw herself, the fool who ran away and tossed all of that aside.

Yes… Perhaps she had been foolish. After all, she knew that it would end this way from the start. It was she herself who understood this fate better than any around her.

…Things would not have ended this way had you had simply turned away from it.

That was the truth. If she had just shut her ears from the voice and abandoned those soldiers to their lamentations – for what salvation could they possibly have? – she would have gone through her life, got married and lived with husband and child. It would only be natural. She knew that she once had such a future as well.

But she abandoned it in favor of pressing down a different path.

She chose to take up a sword, put on armor, raise a standard and mount a horse on the front line.

…Did you know that it would end this way?

Yes. Of course she did. She knew that as long as she fought on, this end would come to her. So of course, others would decry her for stupidity. However, she herself would never stoop to self-derision.

"There had still been lives that I saved… so it cannot have been a mistake to walk this path."

These images – of the past, of impossible futures, even of cruel reality – were meaningless before her prayers.

She simply prayed – and offered herself. Even if everybody were to condemn what she had done as wrong… at the very least, I will not betray myself.

She did not look back on the path she had not walked, or crave for a future to the one she had chosen… only wishing for silent rest.

Even in the midst of such brutal savagery, the only thing that stayed in her heart to the very end was a prayer – unblemished by regret, filled only with sincerity.

…O Lord, I give myself to You…

They were the words of the end. Her consciousness was ceased and she was released from all suffering.

The girl's dream ended in the face of reality. But it was not quite the end. Yes, the dream of the girl had ended… but the dream of La Pucelle was only just beginning.

SEARCH …… BEGIN

SEARCH …… COMPLETE

PERFECT MATCH.

PHYSICAL BUILD …… COMPATIBLE

SPIRITUAL BUILD …… COMPATIBLE

PERSONALITY …… COMPATIBLE

PRANA …… COMPATIBLE

BEGIN POSSESSION VIA PROVISIONAL SEALING OF FORMER PERSONALITY AND SPIRITUAL INSTALLATION OF HEROIC SPIRIT.

FORMER PERSONALITY CLEARANCE …… RECEIVED

CROSS-DOMAIN BASE ANATOMY BACKUP …… BEGIN

INSTALLATION COMPLETE.

BEGIN ADAPTATION OF PHYSICAL BUILD AND SPIRITUAL BUILD.

ASSIGNMENT OF CLASS SKILLS …… BEGIN

BEGIN INSERTION OF DATA PERTAINING TO ALL HEROIC SPIRITS AND MODERN ERA AS REQUIRED.

BACKUP …… COMPLETE

CLASS SKILL ASSIGNED. SKILL {SAINTHOOD} OPTION {HOLY SHROUD CREATION} CHOSEN.

INSERTION OF REQUIRED DATA COMPLETE.

ADAPTATION COMPLETE.

ALL CLEAR.

CLASS {RULER} SERVANT ACTUALIZATION COMPLETE.

She opened her eyes. The means by which she was summoned were so very unusual… There is no precedent for a summoning where the summoned is so weakly linked to the present world. Is it because this Great Holy Grail War is just so irregular?

The girl had somehow managed to take form in the world. There are no problems with her specifications, either… but this body is unmistakably that of a French girl's. What's more, she possessed the majority of her memories. Yet rather than having two personalities in one body – a so-called split personality – it would be more accurate to say both personalities have merged into one. Perhaps due to her own acuteness and deep conviction of faith, she has recognized and completely accepted 'La Pucelle' within her.

"…Please lend me your body for a while, Laeticia."

The girl said to the owner of the body.

Having decided on her first task, the girl greeted 'her' friend – moving to the other bed and shaking her. After some groaning, she woke up and rubbed her eyes, looking half-awake.

"Mmn… w-what…?"

She was so clearly drowsy that the girl felt bad for waking her, but she spoke clearly.

"I will be leaving here for some time."

Perhaps not understanding the seriousness of the girl's words, she fell back onto the bed while waving her hand in farewell – then flung away her sheets a few seconds later and shouted.

"What did you just say?!"

"I'm sorry for leaving so suddenly, but time is of the essence."

"What? What essence? What is this, all of a sudden – you just said 'Good night' and 'See you tomorrow'! What are you saying?!"

The girl looked at her bewildered – and loud – friend with earnest and told her three things:

'I'm going on a long trip.'

'I absolutely must go.'

'Don't worry.'

Her friend listened to those words with a blank expression, her mouth hanging open, but finally nodded in understanding.

"All right… There's no helping it if you absolutely must…"

"That's right. I will explain this to the teachers."

"Well, okay… Good night, then."

"Good night."

The girl did not use thaumaturgy to cast a suggestion on her friend. But as Servant Ruler, she has the ability to make others believe in her words.

She told her teachers and friends that she must go on a journey and made them understand that it was absolutely necessary. She was probably being more forceful than she should but there was no way around it – so she sighed and pushed away such idle concerns.

Luckily, the owner of this body lived in a student dormitory far removed from her parents. It was unlikely that they would notice even if she were gone for a month.

Packing a change of clothes, her passport and some textbooks into her bag, she left the dormitory. The owner of this body… Laeticia is still a student. She, on the other hand, came from the farmlands and never had the chance to learn to read and write – how strange it was to have been able to automatically acquire knowledge of modern languages, thanks to the Holy Grail.

"…Yet this is still all too strange."

She should have been summoned like any other Servant – actualized in the city where the battle would take place without needing to borrow the physical body of anyone else.

Nevertheless, she has been summoned this time via possession of another's flesh and what's more, she was summoned in her homeland – a France still with lingering vestiges of its past.

Besides, Ruler should have been the eighth Servant to be summoned – this time, she was the fifteenth Servant. Among all the Holy Grail Wars of the past, the scale of this one is most likely the largest. Perhaps there was some accident during last large-scale Holy Grail War…

In any case – having already been summoned – the girl is determined to surmount all difficulties in order to carry out her mission.

She is Jeanne d'Arc – the Master-less Servant of the Ruler class, and the absolute controller of the Holy Grail War.