An Archer's Promise

Beta read by n1ch, Shigiya, Solitary heart and 8kagi

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-Grünes Bergdorf--

Archer arrived early at the outer gates of the village. The sun hadn't even come up yet and the sky was still dark. It had just been a few hours since he had the dispute between him and Maia. After being 'given' the order to leave the village, he immediately returned to his room afterwards and prepared his meagre luggage.

Sniff

Someone came alongside him to share a final goodbye.

"Mu-Must you really leave?" Alice said while sobbing, tears streaming down her cheeks. When she heard the news about Archer leaving, she nearly had a panic attack right then and there. Her life was going smoothly ever since he came into her life, no longer was she dragging her family's business to the ground. Having someone close to talk to and lean against like when her parents were still around.

He was the pillar of support and her mentor? Teacher? Friend? She didn't know. What she did know was that her life would never be the same or as joyful if he stepped out of the village's gates.

"I-I can try to talk with Maia-sama, I can reason with her for you to stay longer!" Despite her social ineptitude, Alice was still willing to face the Princess Knight for him, even if it meant facing her greatest weakness and fear—talking to people. She was certain that with enough begging and pleading that the Queen of Mercenaries would have pity on her and let him stay.

"Heh," Archer smirked at her words. "The little girl who couldn't even have a conversation with a stranger wants to face Maia herself, Queen of the Mercenaries? How bold you've gotten Alice. I hope you didn't get some of my bad habits."

He joked around and ruffled her hairline, but unlike before, the young girl didn't push him away or create a tantrum—as this might be the last head pat she would get from him. So she cherished the feeling of his hand and warmth inside her heart, never forgetting the feeling of safety and confidence he would inspire in her persona.

"This was an inevitable outcome, Alice. From the beginning, I've been nothing but a foreigner, a stranger in this village. It was bound for me to leave this place at some point to continue my travels. I have many things I have to accomplish, a job I can't ignore."

"Then…," She whispered, nearly making Archer use his reinforcement on his ears to hear her next words. "Can't I come with you? I can be helpful! I can carry your bags, take care of your chores and make your journey more pleasant!"

Flick!

"Ouch! Archer-san!?" She held onto her forehead while pouting cutely at her assaulter.

"Are you willing to give up everything your late family had built through blood, sweat and tears, just to follow me?" At that Alice dropped her head down in shame, she couldn't do such a thing. "Not to mention my journey is dangerous, it's not uncommon for me to get involved in a life and death battle every so often—so you would be more of a liability than any sort of help… unless you've secretly been a power combatant all this time; which I highly doubt. You can't even kill a rat if your life depended on it."

The silence from Alice was all the answer Archer needed.

He smirked, "Take care of yourself, don't overwork yourself to an early grave. Take breaks and hire people you trust to help out. Jint may be a blacksmith, but he's been spending his entire day drinking rather than working—I'm sure you can make better use of his time by making him work as a receptionist."

"But I don't have enough money…" She was already broke before Archer first came to the village and was sinking deeper into debt by trying to keep the Inn alive. Thanks to him she did manage to pay everything back, but it also didn't leave her with something sufficient enough to hire people.

"Here," Archer said as he threw a small leather bag clattering with metal sound inside. "This is for you, it should be enough to last a few months."

Curious about what the gift might be, Alice opened the bag.

"—!?"

And nearly dropped it to the ground in shock after discovering the contents of the bag.

"G-G-G-G-G—" She stuttered continuously in shock, until a coin hit her head and fell inside the bag.

"—Gold coins, yes, don't start screaming to the world. We don't want you to be mugged, do we?" Archer tried calming her down. Just like he'd expected, the main form of currency around her was metal coins made from bronze, silver, and gold—with some exception of natural forming metal imbued with certain amounts of magic known as orichalcum. Of course, this was what the books described at least. But those were extremely rare, being only used by the richest of nobles.

The value generally went like this. A hundred copper would equal a single silver, while a hundred silver coins would equal a single gold coin. Orichalcum on the other hand didn't have a fixed price point, it depended on how much the holder wanted to sell for and how much magical energy was actually stored inside it. Archer had theorised that these were just naturally occurring alloy veins formed near a Ley lines nexus. It would explain how they held any amount of magical energy in the first place.

Anyways, a single loaf of bread would cost two copper coins or one, if it was becoming stale. A night's stay in the Emerald Inn cost about ten copper coins.

So what Archer had given to Alice was a bag of a dozen gold coins which was enough for her to get by for more than a decade, if she stayed in the village at least. The cost of living in the capital would be much higher.

How did he get them?

Because they were fake, mere creations of Projection. He had retrieved a single coin from Maia without her knowing and duplicated it with his magecraft. On earth, normal projection used to create such items by regular mages wouldn't be everlasting, as it is recognized by the world as unatural, one that doesn't belong in the natural world and they would slowly fade away with time.

But his projection was unique in itself, again, in the world he used to live in, they would be everlasting as he tricked the world into thinking them as natural materials.

But this world was weird and Archer wasn't completely sure if they would last here forever, as that would imply that he just performed a feat of pure magic. On Earth, they counted as permanently stable items, but still not the real deal. He couldn't create real gold out of nothing, this was nothing but a magical construct. But since Alaya and Gaia didn't have that much of an influence in this world and that the rules were very different here; he was sure that they would last long enough.

With this, he had given everything Alice needed to live a comfortable and safe life.

Why was he doing this?

Maybe because he didn't want to have another regret in the future; he already had enough.

"Will you stay in touch with me?" Alice asked, hoping to keep some form of contact with him, bringing the bag close to her chest.

"If I can, I'll send you a letter. Don't expect something soon, I'm travelling somewhere very far away…" The dark territory of Olga was wrought with danger and uncertainties, there was no guarantee he would find anyone who could travel to Eostia for simple mail delivery. He prevented himself from groaning out loud at the sad look she was giving him after the answer. Not wanting to leave things as they are, he decided to do what he does best.

With his luck, even if he got a pigeon to fly to this village; the pigeon would likely die before it got to its location.

"You should probably get yourself a custom bra or something to help with all that extra weight on your chest." Commented Archer, a smirk growing on his face, "Pretty sure, you already broke several things because of them."

"Shut up, you ass!" Alice screamed, throwing a punch at him. Archer grabbed her by the wrist, not wanting her to hurt herself again, and stopped her attack.

But it did cause her 'extra weight' to bounce around from the sudden stop. It made him laugh a bit at the comedic timing, making Alice put even more force behind her arm.

Lowering himself a bit, he brought his face close to her hand and gave a gentle peck to her knuckles; whilst giving her his iconic smirk.

Alice looked as red as a tomato, so Archer had to stop himself from laughing at her face.

He didn't want to rile her up too much… who was he kidding, he just wanted to mess with her one last time. It is easier for one person to forget their fear and insecurities when they are drowning in embarrassment and anger. Alice may be meek and shy at times, but she did have a short temper when joking about her appearance.

After doing what he could to get the young woman out of her funk, it was time for him to head out.

"I should go… we'll meet again in the future." Archer stepped out of the village gates, but couldn't move further as he felt Alice tug his sleeves. Looking backwards, the girl gave him a hope-filled gaze, her blush nearly gone.

"Promise?"

Another promise.

Should he say it? He could easily lie and just never come back in the future. The girl would most likely get over this small period of her life, storing the time of his stay in the back of her mind, and slowly forget about him. He had no obligations or sense of morals to uphold his words, but he just couldn't find it in him to deceive her.

"I promise." He made another promise before this to try his best, so this was the perfect opportunity to continue acting on that.

She let go of him and shared one last look and exchanged their goodbyes; he left Grünes Bergdorf.

{Break}

(A few hours later)

Morning had arrived

The light of dawn seeped onto the vast land of Eostia, shining on the forest in a dance of orange and green hue of colours. The chorus of birds singing drifted all across the fauna, creating a gentle atmosphere of serenity and peace.

On the dirt road that led towards the outer reaches of the Kingdom of Ken, Archer could be found knelt scribbling on the sand below with motes of magical energy glowing at his fingertips.

"There, this should work," Emiya said as he finished creating the final details and preparations of his bounded field. He engraved the final magic sigils across the interior of the field to the established boundary line, this will limit the range of the powers of the Bounded Field, "They should pass by here at any moment, let's see if it'll work."

This type of magecraft had the original purpose for the creation of safe-havens, the effects that could be set within a Bounded Field are in their majority those whose aim is to protect the caster. It was something basic though to all new apprentices and a prerequisite to be considered an official Magus as well.

Before he embarked on his journey across the Middle East, Emiya had spent a few years inside the Clocktower studying runes and other crafts—so even with his limited talent, he could still create a basic field. Sometimes he wondered… Would things still be the same if Kiritsugu had taken his role as a teacher in the arts of magecraft seriously? Would he have trained him to become another assassin just like him? If so, then the Emiya who came out from that reality probably wouldn't have walked his path.

Broken he would still be, but a fool was not a guarantee.

"These 'What if' questions are pointless, it'll only dampen my mood the longer I think about it." He shook his head and continued to focus on his work. The smallest imperfection and mistake would render everything he had done these last few hours useless and would possibly cost him lots of information.

The one he created didn't serve any offensive needs and only focused on the defensive aspect. With the ability to misdirect normal people from their set path without them noticing. It was the most basic and simple bounded field he could create without straining himself too much.

Even with the countless years of expertise working in the field, Archer was still below average on other types of magecraft that did not conform to his origin.

The reason he was doing this was because of two things.

First, he wanted to know more about this 'blessing' given to the Shields by the Goddess Reborn. Aside from enhanced strength, did it also grant Maia—and potentially the other Princess Knights—protection from physical and magical attacks? That is a piece of important information he needed to know. He couldn't test it out back then as he had more pressing matters to deal with and there were too many people around—Alice had basically become his second shadow at the time.

Secondly, even if she had such protections, that didn't mean that the Kuroinu mercenaries that were following her would have the same. The best-case scenario, he hoped that a few of them would get lost and separate from the main group. That's when he would capture them and extract everything they might know about Vault, any secret plans, and even the inner hierarchy of their army. If Vault was the leader, then who was the second in command? Was there any information hidden from the public and so on…

"Hm?"

Thump

Thump

Thump

The sound of galloping horses came from the road he came from. With his enhanced vision, Archer saw a large group of mercenaries and Knights led by none other than Maia.

"Well, she certainly doesn't look to be in a good mood. At least I found someone who can match Rin's scowl." Guess his talk last night still lingered in her head. "Oh well, nothing I can do about it."

Everything was set in place, he only needed to hide somewhere and not get spotted. The place was filled with large oak trees and rocks. He didn't need to trace a Noble Phantasm to help him blend in with the environment. Not everything required the aid of a mystery or one of his traced constructs.

{Break}

After waiting for half an hour, Archer felt the earth beneath him slightly shake from the approaching horses. Though this shaking slowly stopped and disappeared completely. "They've slowed down." He waited longer.

"—!"

A tingling sensation was felt in his senses, this was the signal he set to his bounded field when it senses someone encroaching on the previously set perimeter.

Jumping on top of the tree, he carefully observed the entire scene down below. First of all, Maia was indeed not affected by his bounded field's effect and neither were the Knights as they continued advancing as if nothing happened.

Truth be told, he wasn't surprised by this result, it was a weak effect in the first place and would even have difficulties against the most inept of Magus. Even those who were born inside a Magus family and didn't even practice magecraft would suspect something.

Archer wasn't someone like Medea who could create what was basically another separate world and even artificial reality marbles in his eyes. The simple re-creation of the Fuyuki Bridge, with a foggy interior, was proof enough of her genius. Though she did use the lingering traces of the previous war's Caster's summoned Horrors to create it; but it was still extremely impressive nonetheless. That witch would have actual living beings, created by herself, inside that world which was unbelievable in itself.

"Seems like it wasn't a complete failure." From the very back of the group, three lagging horsemen started to derive from the original path. To Archer's relief, none of the people in front even noticed their disappearance and continued advancing till they reached the end of his bounded field's border and left for Ken soon after.

"Now… how should I proceed?"

{Break}

The trio who got separated from their group didn't even notice the change. To their senses, they could still hear the galloping of their fellow Kuroinu brothers and even see slight traces of them beyond the trees.

Since they had no affinity with the magical aspect of the world whatsoever, they were the easiest target for the spell to work its tricks on them.

The youngest of the group was a teenage kid who barely looked like he was in his late puberty stage. With black hair, black eyes, and tanned skin just like the rest due to the long hours spent on the field, sighed in disappointment.

"Maaaaaan, that innkeeper back there was a total hottie, don't you think so, Kaur?" He asked his close friend riding beside him. An older man in his middle ages with a bald head and a fat belly.

"Hahahaha! Indeed, she was!" Laughing out loud and showing off some of his blackened teeth, the man just exuded a disgusting feeling for those around him; especially when he showed his perverted expression. "Did you see those tits!? They were huge! I spent all day imagining what they would look like wrapped around my cock, instead of drinking. I'm absolutely certain that they could rival Celestine herself. That is not something I say often, Ganj"

"Right!? I've never seen someone as huge as her, even in my village. Her face was cute, I really wanted to eat her up when I heard her cute little stutters." The youth was no stranger to a woman's touch, having slept with many whores using the money got from his work, Ganj slowly got bored of them. He began desiring someone more… fresh and pure.

"Lad, you have good taste. From my experience, I can say for certain that the girl is definitely a screamer and one of those types who are secretly a huge freak on the inside. You just need to… push them a bit, that's all. I wouldn't mind doing it, hehehehe." A sinister glint flashed across his eyes, his tongue licking his lips as he couldn't help but imagine what he would do to the girl if he had gotten his hands on her.

"The boss told us to lay low for a while." Ganj carefully reminded the older man of Vault's orders.

"Fuck that guy!" Kaur exploded in anger, his teeth clenching hard. "Why should we get blue balled while that fucker gets tons of pussy daily. That guy could call up Maia at any time and fuck her all he wants!"

The orders passed down from Vault and spread by his right-hand man, Kin, were for them to lay low for a while and not cause any trouble whatsoever. Anything out of line will be punished by their heads being cut off by the big man himself.

Basically means that they couldn't just take the girls they found interesting from the streets as they would no longer have their asses covered in case they get caught.

"You two better shut up if you don't want any problems with Vault." The third person leading the group was another middle-aged man with a bulking physique and numerous scars across his body. Having military-cut black hair and a full beard, he was the most threatening looking of the three, as well as the strongest.

"Oi Freed, why would you care? No one is listening to our conversation aside from the fucking birds. Not like they can snitch on us or something." Ganj retorted sarcastically, followed by Kaur's mocking voice.

"And besides, don't you have a hate boner against Maia? Quite ironic you got drafted into her legion after what happened with your wif—"

"Shut up!" Freed roared in rage as he brought up his great axe and swung behind, nearly taking out the head of the disgusting bald bastard; sadly, said fat bastard dodged it in time.

"Woah there! You just tried to murder me, you fucker!" He hollered, who quickly backed away from the seething man, "It was just a joke! Don't go killing me over something so trivial!" Even with Ganj by his side, Kaur didn't dare go against this giant brute. The man was rumoured to be just as strong as the bossman himself, the only difference being he lacked the skills and combat experience to match Vault's years on the battlefield. Though underestimating him would be a mistake, as that didn't change the fact that he used to be a powerful Templar.

"NEVER, talk about her in front of me ever again… got it!? Or else, I'll have both of your heads up on a spike and Vault can go fuck himself for all I care." The going from his great axe and the amount of bloodlust rolling off of the guy was enough to shut the two up quickly.

Ganj already heard of Freed's story from the other Kuroinu members.

Freed used to be a valiant Templar working for the church alongside the Knights. He was famous for his strength on the battlefield and strategic mind, having fought and even killed an orc all by himself. He lived handsomely in a house he bought in the Kingdom of Thorne.

So what happened to the guy to change him to this extent?

Well, his wife got raped while he was on duty.

From the rumours, it was apparently a noble who had done the deed, but this was never confirmed. Even so, Freed had stormed his way inside the noble's estate and nearly got to the main room; if he wasn't intercepted by Maia herself.p

The Queen of Mercenaries vouched for the man's innocence but was ignored by him. They battled against each other, and according to the staff and his brethren—it was a complete one-sided slaughter. He was beaten and defeated, being in a half-dead state he was granted mercy by the Princess Knight and locked up in jail.

For the next few days during his trials, he was granted a pardon after taking into account the many years he served the church and was even given a second chance by Maia who attended the trial.

But things got worse for him later on.

His wife had hung herself when he returned home. Apparently, knowing that the man who had defiled her would be safe and sound while her husband was imprisoned drove her over the board and she broke.

Ganj knew Freed well, the latter had trained him for some time and they shared some details between them. Freed only wanted one thing, and that was revenge on the Princess Knight and the noble who ruined his life. He joined the Kuroinu, to stay away from the system he once served once under and found it better to work for Vault.

That is the reason why Kaur mocked him before because he was drafted under Maia's army and if that wasn't the biggest joke he had ever heard then the teen didn't know what was.

Speaking of Kaur, the man had suddenly gone quiet all of a sudden.

"Hey, guys… " He was looking around the forest as if trying to figure out something, as they continued to trek through the forest, "Where… where are we?"

Confused by his question, both Ganj and Freed looked around them to see what Kaur was talking about and noticed something worrying.

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There was no sign of their comrades nearby and the surrounding scene had completely changed—they were no longer trotting on the first path. But instead, they found themselves deep into the dark woods where a large part of the sun was blocked off by the foliage of the trees.

"—!?"

"What the fuck happened!? Did we lose the group? I was sure that we were just behind them." The young boy said.

Freed immediately went on guard, something didn't feel right here. "Even if we strayed from the path, we would have noticed it… it's almost as if our surroundings changed instead."

"Oi, Oi, Oi, don't tell me that we're trapped, this ain't cool man!" Even Kaur was beginning to lose his cool, fighting demons by themselves was the worst-case scenario! It must have been those Orcs who 'apparently' tried invading the village. "Those fucking whores lied to us! The Orcs are still alive!"

His hysterical shouting was disrupted by Freed, "Calm down you fool! This is most likely a spell, Orcs aren't capable of doing something like this." The only thing those monsters were capable of was physical combat. It must be something else… or even someone else. "Let's head back, we might find our way back."

"You got it—AAAARRGGHH" The boy had suddenly cried out in pain and fell off his horse.

"Ganj!"

"Kid!"

Both men ran to his side, "What happened?" Freed asked while supporting him in his arms.

The teenager was crying in pain, tears streaming down his face. With his shaking hands, he pointed at his foot. When Kaur and Freed looked at his left foot, they were shocked to find a single bloody arrow sticking out. Covered in a strange green light, it felt both vile and nauseating.

"Enemy atta—Heurg!" Kaur's shout was interrupted by the sound of a heavy blunt object impacting his head.

Freed didn't have time to react when he saw a red figure appear before him before he felt pain like never before in his skull and slowly lost consciousness; falling to the ground next to an equally knocked out Kaur and a still conscious Ganj who had urinated his pants in fear as he looked up to the man in red.

"P-please, do-don't kill me…"

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"Sure."

Bam!

Archer kicked the boy's head while holding back enough as to not kill him.

Now all three men were on the ground blacked out.

"Depending on if you know anything."

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The next 5 chapters of Snafu and Fate are already available on my P@treon. With 4 more Broly chapters at /NimtheWriter.