The Eternal Sanctum (Holy Knight Headquarters)

[Apollymi]

Martha was shocked, for several reasons not the least of which was apparently the idea that Astolfo thought she was blaming his horse for being an enemy. She had a quick look at the horse wondering if it was male or female, and upon making her discovery she only had this to say. "I know the relationship between people and their mounts are none of my business but if you honestly think I see a horse as an enemy you might think I'm as crazy as you are," she said. Given the random assortment of people in this group the only old faces were Charles and Astolfo. And of that pair only Charles was problematic, as far as she was concerned everyone could have simply been coerced into making this trip or didn't know the truth of the lad. It wasn't in their nature to harm any who didn't mean harm in the first place.

Moving on, Charles spoke of arming himself to fight her on even terms which made the woman look a bit embarrassed. She thought she was going to actually get to fight. She snapped as if she'd just barely missed an opportunity. "Shoot, I never get to have fun anymore," she grumbled as if it was a perfectly normal thing to do. At the same time, he claimed that he could stop Siegfried he just wouldn't like to and tossed her something she recognized and caught after flailing about sightly. "Oi oi, I don't know what you think Siegfried is but... This is a Holy Grail. We haven't seen a new one in ages! Where the hell did you get this? And if you won it, why did you come here? You'd have been better off trying King Gilgamesh or the Pharoahs or hell at this point even the trial by combat that would have come with appearing in Albion," she said. Well half of those people were currently missing, but why he chose to appear where people wanted him dead was not the most brilliant thing that could have been done.

"Oh, there are Holy Grails plural?" this was a question of Yume. "Hai hai, we found out yesterday that they are supposed to spawn in regular intervals and be fought over on the lower world so that people can lift their kingdoms, countries or themselves to this level, and interact with the Nexus. But the person in charge of Aincrad had been... taking the grails while they were in more manageable forms and hoarding them. So Charlie's that he won from the Labyrinth is probably a bit of shocking news. His having it also gives him the right to be up here so..." she murmured to her friend to keep her up to date on natural situations. At the same time, Sakura was quite impressed at this tactic had worked and that Anais had managed to retain such information the previous day while being in an obviously distressed state.

[Bloodedge]

"Oi!" Astolfo yelled immediately. "I don't know what you see as an enemy! As far as I know, gorillas and horses just don't get along," he continued, offering a rather pointed jab at the intimidating physical capacity of Martha. Bending at the waist, he took himself to eye-level with her posterior, an extended forefinger on a path toward it. "Really soft for a gorilla, though. Like really soft! What sort of troop did you come from?"

Martha had every reason to recognize a Holy Grail, and it seemed she even recognized it as different to the one Jeanne once possessed. The topic of Siegfried aside, Charlemagne could move on without an additional explanation. Good. It was for the best that he move on to the more important parts. "I got it in Aincrad. I thought it was given to me by Father An when I was coronated as Holy Emperor, but it apparently belonged to me since I cleared the Labyrinth," he explained. "Which he did by himself!" Astolfo added proudly. "Y-... yeah. Anyway, you're targeting the wrong guy. You're probably thinking I'm the guy who's lying to people about what happened to Jeanne, but I was one of the people being misled. The Father is the problem here. I saw Jeanne a little while ago, by the way. She's fine; she and some others apparently got trapped somewhere. I didn't get a lot of the details. I came here for help. Being An's 'second sacrifice' got me dropped out of Aincrad, so I need to find it again. I've got people still there, and a bone to pick with the Father after he tried to hijack my soul yesterday morning."

[Apollymi]

Astolfo's logic or lack thereof, served to make him the actual target of any aggression real or playful. At the mention of the term gorilla a small vein above Martha's left brow began to twitch gently. That staff she hed was planted in the ground rather swiftly thereafter. And by the time Astolfo was aiming to poke her bottom and question what kind of troop she came from, she was aiming to twist her knuckles against the side of his head after pulling him into an aptly ordained headlock. She would remain rapping against his brain for the foreseeable future while Charles explained about how his grail was obtained.

According to his own words, he'd been misled as well. Astolfo chimed in to mention that he'd cleared the Labyrinth by himself which caused another question from Yume. "Is that a big deal?" she asked seeing how proud Astolfo seemed to be about that fact. "Hai, the Labyrinth is a super hard dungeon it takes a lot of different skill types to get all the way though it. The only other person in the history of the Labyrinth to clear it alone was Jeanne d'Arc. But given the whole of Aincrad was told she was a heretic it was assumed that it wasn't actually meant to be possible to clear it alone and that she could only do so by colluding with demons. I was attempting it on my own and I'd only gotten to floor 70," she explained of the situation. "But groups began clearing it a while ago... most by 'any means necessary'." she finished that explanation to Yume who could only frown. "Is this world demon racist?" she asked quickly. "Until yesterday, it was assumed that anyone with a demonic presence was evil... those things were innately synonymous. But there are exceptions to everything, a few in our group give off those kinds of vibrations but aren't bad," Anais explained.

All the while, Martha had stopped moving and heard out Charles story. How was she meant to react? The lad had nearly gotten his soul broken, she'd never heard of that happening before, but it didn't sound good. Even so, she wasn't sure how much she should actually feel for him. The whole thing felt a bit suspicious regardless of his circumstances. He'd even claimed to have seen Jeanne recently and that she and some others had gone missing but they were trapped no details. "You realize that story is a bit too convenient right? You happened to be misled for over a thousand years, despite being from the other side and having the extra knowledge you went along with it. You happen to be the secondary person to get tossed out and didn't see it coming. You get put back together again and happen to see Jeanne after, she's gone missing form here. And now you just happen to be looking to get your friends out of that same horrid place and you're seeking our help? Beyond it being overly convenient as an explanation for both your absence and your continued connection to a corrupt organization, we don't have any way to corroborate that you've actually seen Jeanne nor do we have any proof that you weren't the one doing the things. You get it right? You know how this looks?" At the end of Martha's speech Sakura gave a firm nod. She liked this woman, her thoughts were rooted in logic and all the information she listed was solidly what happened regardless of the extra details. "I mean that is a logical assertion but it isn't really fair to Charlie, he was looking into what happened to Jeanne, several in our group were helping with it," that was Anais's stance on the matter.

[Bloodedge]

Eventually, Astolfo would always land himself in some sort of headlock. One might consider that at a certain point, he considered it an acceptable greeting from some of the women he knew. The lad was a giggling mess even while having Martha's knuckles ground into his head, even as she kept up a conversation with Charlemagne. As for that conversation, of course Martha didn't believe a word Charlemagne said. He expected as much. "Of course it sounds too convenient. That's how evil mastermind plans work," was his initial rebuttal.

There were many things to take into consideration regarding this story. Of it all, there was one particular part he needed to debunk. Yes, he was from the other world where many of these things were part of history. On the other hand, however, he knew how skewed history became when this magical world was involved. "King Arthur is a woman who lives during the same time period as King Gilgamesh, Charlemagne, and the pharaohs Ramesses and Nitocris. Anseis de Carthage is the deer girl right over there," he said, pointing a thumb over his shoulder toward Anais. Next, he pointed at the grail still in Martha's hand. "The Holy Grail? You're holding one of at least several hundred right now. Don't start preaching to me about how I should have expectations based on a history that isn't anywhere near the same as what our world thinks. I've been through a lot of things, dealt with this crazy world for a long time, and a whole millennium doesn't compare to what I've had to go through in the past 48 hours, so don't tell me I should have seen anything coming!"

Charlemagne was getting a bit riled-up. Didn't he have every reason to, though? Something was very annoying here, and he hadn't yet realized what it was in the midst of a paused rant. Many people from their world came to realize historical figures were living their lives on this side, or even were those figures themselves. Some, however, came to realize in a very direct manner how very different the stories were. Moving on, he'd yet to address the other alleged inconsistencies of the story. "And I didn't just randomly stumble upon Jeanne. I used the grail and spoke to her within the Nexus. She even burned the hell out of me before we could have a conversation. But... ignore that. Ignore all of that, because I've got one big problem right now. You know the Jeanne that appeared after she was killed. You probably know the story of how it happened. So tell me, what part of that story mentions me at all? Because here's the fun part: I was in the middle of a war with the fucking Saxons while it all happened! Check your history on that!" Ah, Charlemagne understood what the annoyance was now. Three of the six people in this group were from Aincrad, yet he was the sole target. Why? He'd easily take the blame for negligence in the aftermath ─ he'd even take it for ignorance. He would not, however, let a belief that he directly did anything to Jeanne d'Arc stand.

[Apollymi]

Apparently the convenience of his appearance and all of that was to be attributed to an evil mastermind sort of plan. That may be the truth but even if it was the case, then he still hadn't been conscious enough of multiple aspects of this situation. What was more a tirade was on the way which would bring a slight end to the rapping of knuckles over the head of Astolfo. He took issue with the inconsistencies of history and this world, given the time span and several other things. She disagreed with that point but could understand the confusion. From what she'd seen in a technical sense, the overlap of these people was mostly concerned with extended human lifetimes and nothing else. But... logic wasn't going to work here and she was sure of that by the time the lad restarted. She took issue with different things the lad said at this point including the idea that the organization he was with had hundreds of holy grails but not nearly that number of king worthy candidates among them. It simply wasn't possible truly. But a real show of emotions didn't a lot of things and firstly it made this whole situation a lot less staged then it could have been. Martha's eyes hadn't left the lad and she was busy hearing him out. He'd obviously been sitting on whatever emotions he had going so she'd let him finish. Sometimes people needed to vent, and given he wasn't armed she'd allow it.

Anais looked over at Charles and realized that he'd been bottling that up for a bit. She'd warned him about his invasive thoughts, but she supposed this woman seemed well trained enough to handle his potential emotional breakdown. At the same time, Yume had to question something but as the lad was on a tirade she didn't want to interrupt. "You've been through something traumatic, obviously and I am not unsympathetic," she clarified. This was of course the truth, Martha held a healthy skepticism for all who didn't return after the death of Jeanne d'Arc and very few would above such criticism. Even so, the Jeanne who returned was very different but still very much herself. "The Jeanne who came back had taken are more pragmatic approach, but she was still herself, you've seen her so you know what I mean. I am aware of the work of a certain man named Charles against the Saxons, but I think you are also forgetting that the lower world broke apart. As for Jeanne's story, she mentioned directly that 'Father' person and Gilles being directly enemies, still she didn't know who else as in on it and all from Aincrad were to be treated as hostiles until their alignment was determined. The only exception to that is whoever Angelica is, she saw her as another victim..." Martha mentioned all these things were logical. "I would also have you know that people from Aincrad periodically attack Holy Knights including the Sanctum itself," Martha clarified. Given the more visceral emotional response she was willing to believe Charles didn't directly have anything to do with what happened to Jeanne, but him not understanding the hostility seemed a bit off.

[Bloodedge]

A moment of mentioned sympathy came from Martha, but Charlemagne paid no mind to it. He'd been watching her all along, and there was no outright agreement in the woman's face. He wondered what would pass her lips next. Apparently, she wouldn't immediately attribute the name 'Charles' to him when speaking of the man who fought the Saxons. How ridiculous. "So while you're talking about expectations based on history, you're not going to believe it was Charles Martel who fought the Saxons? Right," he griped. As for Jeanne insisting that all from Aincrad were to be treated as hostile, apart from someone named Angelica, Charlemagne had a few more words to offer. "Angelica is my wife, whom I'll be going to break out of Aincrad whenever I can get the point across to you and everyone else here."

Apparently, members of Aincrad often attacked the Eternal Sanctum. Why that was a point worth mentioning, he didn't know. "If you expect me to know about that, you're wasting your time. I spend way too much time being sent out on missions to know the comings and goings of anyone outside my own group," he stated plainly. "But if that's supposed to be a point toward me being sketchy, I raise you the fact that our first move upon arrival was disarming ourselves. Anyway, this isn't going anywhere. Nothing I say outright is going to prove anything to you, and nothing you say is going to suddenly make me a bad guy. So, you tell me what gets the point across before Siegfried comes down ripping the mountain apart just to listen even less than you are. Our weapons are on the ground, you're holding my grail, and the closest thing to an attack we've tried was Astolfo molesting you. What else do you want?"

[Apollymi]

Charles was beyond upset, maybe even more upset than he seemed to be initially. But, strangely Martha had become quite used to dealing with these random changes in mood and emotion, she could navigate it easily enough though Charles himself seemed to be cross with her directly. "First off, everyone fights the Saxons. Secondly, I said Charles, I don't know which one, it's far from an uncommon name around here, Charles Martel, Charles Henri Sasson, Charles of Aberdeen, are all Charles I have met, that doesn't count any number that do or don't exist presently..." perhaps she was getting a bit too worked up about this whole thing. She wanted to believe Charles, but they were already on edge. No one was going to accuse her of not doing what she was supposed to in the face of a potential threat.

Beyond this point apparently Angelica was Charles's wife, that was odd. The lad didn't seem the type to ever be anything other than star struck by the kinds of girls he'd have interest in. Maybe she was pushy? That was likely. He claimed there was no middle ground to be reached her because he wouldn't suddenly become the bad guy and they wouldn't suddenly believe him. It was obvious he was under pressure here, if he acknowledged Aincrad as an enemy then his wife and his people were in enemy territory, she could sympathize and she might even want to help but... things were too complicated for that kind of trust to be extended currently. They were at a bit of an impasse but there were others around others to break tension and start conversations that might actually help. "This is confusing," Sakura finally stated. "Char-kun expected a bad reception but is somehow upset that he is getting one..." she started. "And this lady seems logically skeptical as expected," she considered. "With both sides having clear reasons for their current distrust and clearly understanding the issues at hand I don't understand why things have escalated," she explained.

Ah, that was true enough but Sakura's almost alien nature made it easy to forget the part of being human that was so perfectly normal to the others present. Yume had been quiet for a while and she'd be able to help out in her... invasive sort of way. "Oh? That's easy... human emotion," she concluded. "This one was lightly disappointed that she wasn't going to get to fight someone and the whole group is on edge because their leader is missing. No one wants to be the reason something bad happens while she is gone," she concluded. "And he feels angry by the implications that he had anything to do with the bad things that happened to Jeanne d'Arc. Actually his heart is practically shouting that point," she concluded. "Plans don't account for human emotion, it's almost unpredictable," she explained in the moment. "How you do that?" asked Anais. "I can read hearts... strong emotions are really easy to interpret," she explained. "Sou ka, arigatou gouzaimasu~" Sakura shared with Yume, she'd gained some understanding. Humans were too driven by their own emotional states, they couldn't consider just the logical portions of these sorts of endeavors. "Box it. Charlie can you prove you've seen Jeanne? Their last orders say those from Aincrad are enemies, with no proof that Jeanne approves they can't be agreeable. At this point she's only doing her duty," Anais offered her opinion after hearing everything. Though Martha didn't know what else to ask for, good faith was all fine but without Jeanne they could only work based on their previous orders.

[Bloodedge]

Everyone fights the Saxons. That was a rather true statement, but few had ever fought them as he did. To hell with the others named Charles This or Charles That; where was there a Charles who would have fought that war? "Uh-huh. And I'm guessing all of those guys also have a light attribute that was able to purify them? Or did you think baptism was an innuendo? Last I checked, Sanson can't do that. Maybe that other Charles could have done that while also dividing the land? Hell, maybe it was a whole group of guys named Charles working themselves to the bone just to send TEN THOUSAND Saxons packing across the continent!"

This conversation was going nowhere fast. Worse still, Martha wasn't giving him an answer. No, it was Anais who spoke instead. Perhaps he could provide some form of proof that he'd met with Jeanne. Yes, that would certainly work, all for someone to claim that still wasn't proof that she held no animosity toward him. "Proof, huh? Yeah, that's a good idea. Maybe the burn marks on my back that definitely happened before we came to terms? That totally proves we didn't have a fight to the death, right?" he asked rhetorically. "That might work. And you're right; she's just following orders." The longer this conversation went on, the more annoyed Charlemagne was becoming. When planning their arrival, there was one thing he decided he wouldn't do. Alas, it was seeming more likely by the moment. If the problem was following orders, there was one very easy thing he could do. "Or maybe we can just skip all the pointless back-and-forth and just go with a new order?"

Just then, that overbearing surge of power made its appearance again. A shadow was cast over the group, belonging to a large pair of black wings eclipsing the sun. Those wings collapsed and vanished, just before a smaller figure became clear in the sky above. Ah, Siegfried was here after all. Eyes that were normally forest-green boasted an amber glow as that tall male came crashing down with a massive greatsword drawn. Just as Charlemagne expected within moments of their arrival, this one would not stop for an exchange. As such, Charlemagne had to leap away from an encroaching downward slash of that monstrous weapon. That leap landed Charlemagne right beside his own sword, which was quickly pulled from the ground. "And step four: throw away the plan," he grumbled.

[Apollymi]

Apparently the feats of those fights against the Saxons were ones which should have alerted people to the Charles it was who did the thing. He could say that, but that was completely unreasonable. It wasn't as if anyone knew a single man caused all that, sure if that was information known that might have led to a specific outcome of thought but it didn't. As far as anyone knew, the only people who could turn back an entire army alone like that were Jeanne d'Arc and Artoria Pendragon. She could have pointed out in this moment that the details of that were not really out and about given that it happened around the time Jeanne d'Arc was missing the first time, but he wasn't really hearing her anyway.

When the elafia girl spoke again she thought offering proof that he'd seen the woman. This was a reasonable enough thought, there were quite a few things that would work as actual proof. Charles even went on a little tirade about the burns on his body that happened before they came to terms. "Actually..." Martha started only for the lad to go on being particularly snarky with everyone. In truth, the fact that he was still alive after being burned would indeed mean he wasn't seen as an enemy. Jeanne had the Authority of Vengeance, so even if she died he wouldn't have survived the ordeal either. Therefore if he was burned by her and still breathing she'd changed her mind, it would have indeed offered proof. But with his mood already established as bad he wasn't about to listen to her... and there was a different problem on the horizon. "You said you didn't want to do that," mentioned Sakura as she seemed to understand what he meant. At the same time, Anais seemed to be in motion, because her silent protector felt the threat coming long before she saw that looming shadow. She grabbed the back of Sakura and Yume and moved them both behind herself as a giant shadow loomed overhead. And by the time it landed she was standing in front of both of them. "Are you doing this by yourself or should I be armed too?" that was the question wasn't it.

Martha had also felt him coming and gently tossed Astolfo from his headlock while pulling up her staff and flipping out of the way. "Sieg, we talked about this, you should let me handle this sort of thing..." she offered. Knowing his eyes were already golden which meant he was nowhere near calm enough. She was trying to avoid this sort of combat for the most part. It was mostly a matter of emotion and she understood that no one would be ruined by Jeanne being missing as Siegfried. "You're fast," Sakura noted. "Sumimasen, I don't know if you're actually squishy, I just reacted." Anais offered those words but it would be Yume who looked a bit stunned. "I am squishy, I went full mage, my physical stats are abysmal. But that guy is so angry I can't tell what I am feeling... it's like prickling across my skin!" she said seemingly amazed that anyone could be so upset. She'd been spiteful earlier but this kind of emotion seemed inhuman.

[Bloodedge]

Whatever the conversation was about to lead toward, it wouldn't be happening now. Charlemagne officially had the Dragon Knight to deal with. Luckily for him, his own attitude was at the perfect point to do so. While he prepared himself, there were words from Sakura. He did indeed say this was not what he wanted to do. "No, I didn't. But how many times has it mattered what I want lately?" was his response. Siegried charged without a word spoken. With the other man's strength and the weight of that blade, Charlemagne could only manage a parry with both hands if he meant to do so in a reasonable time. As blades clashed, he offered his response to Anais. "Just stay back!" he yelled.

Meanwhile, Siegfried had taken to slamming his sword down upon the smaller male repeatedly. Each strike was parried even as the clashing sent ripples through the air. This wasn't a situation he could let Martha handle by any means. "I'm not entertaining the words of a traitor!" the large man growled. Charlemagne took the slightest moment of distraction to slip beyond Siegfried's sword, taking a full offensive which resulted in numerous slashes finding the man's legs, torso and arms. Visually, he was out for blood... but he knew Siegfried. "Do I really have to bring you down just for your ears to open?" Charlemagne wondered.

Astolfo had been released, but he didn't stray very far at all. The pink-haired lad stood between Martha and the others, observing the battle as if it were a source of entertainment. "Oooh! I always wanted to see this fight! Back in the day, it could have been a nice scandal! Annie, get the camera!" he said excitedly. He didn't know if anyone else was worried about the ongoing kerfuffle, but he certainly wasn't ─ even though Siegfried's energy was becoming less 'human' by the second.