Chaldea and Staff: If Freud was a Servant (249)

Karna silently observed the approaching spear aimed at his head before dodging, moving his head slightly aside. Of course, a strike of this level couldn't pierce his armor – or rather, his skin that essentially was his armor fused with his body. However, during this sparring match, he had to pretend he didn't have his protection. Theoretically speaking, if he chose to ignore his opponent's attack and just take it, she could punish him for such a mistake. 

Not kill him outright, meaning Karna could recover from any injury inflicted later, of course, but such a thing went against the nature of a sparring match. The last thing Karna wanted to do was to upset his opponent by violating the terms of their ‘match’.

The fact that Karna himself completely disagreed with the sparring and was generally involved in it against his will meant too little for the ‘hero of the poor’ to even mention it.

The spear whistled again near Karna's face, before going for a downward slash, a rather rare maneuver for a spear. When the spear’s blade crashed against Karna's own, a sharp press on the long lever arm raised the spear tip upward, the blade now directed at Karna's throat. 

Another moment, and the tip of the blade now rests against his Adam’s apple, a deadly strike… If the spear could pierce in the first place, of course. 

In this spar, however, such a thing didn’t matter, and Scáthach, the owner of the spear that had been trying to ‘kill’ Karna ever since the spar had begun, spoke as such a moment later.

"You've lost."

Karna only nodded silently in affirmation, acknowledging their truth – though truth wasn't necessarily required for Karna to acknowledge their rightness… Scáthach, somewhat aggrieved by Karna’s meek reply, moved her spear slightly to ‘scratch’ the Hero of Charity’s neck, to no injury of course, before stepping back. Karna, with the same placid tone of voice before, thanked Scáthach for the spar.

"Thank you very much for the match."

To these words, Scáthach withdrew her spear, looking at Karna's neck that wasn't even wounded by the spear's movement, and examined him with appraising eyes. "You're an extremely strong opponent."

Karna only nodded slightly, accepting them as a fact rather than praise. If he could help someone else, even if it was just something as simple as a spar, Karna found it as time well spent. He had a lot of those, after all – free time, that is.

In truth, he originally thought that he would be departing for the new Singularity alongside Ainz. It was a perfectly logical thought – stating things as they are, without self-aggrandizement, Karna is strong. That was why he was expecting to be chosen, especially considering this Singularity was officially declared the most challenging yet, requiring the presence of the strongest Servants in Ainz's ranks, and Karna by general consensus was among these ‘strongest’. 

And while Karna would never presume to know all the factors influencing Ainz's decisions better than Ainz himself, he had thought he would be one of those heading to the Babylonia Singularity. 

However, contrary to his thoughts – this hadn’t been the case.

Which, generally speaking, suited Karna perfectly fine. Not in the sense that he preferred idleness to action – on the contrary, as a Servant, his very purpose was to follow his Master's orders and fulfill their tasks. But if his Master chose to disregard his Servant, well, that too was in some sense an order that Karna had to execute with all due diligence and zeal.

However, Karna himself had fallen into spending his free time, meditation, and contemplation after Ainz's departure about how he exactly should act while in Chaldea. That is, whether his help was needed by another Servant or normal human both, and if he should proactively offer it or if such forwardness might be viewed negatively. 

It was then, while he was doing just that, contemplating things, Scáthach had appeared in front of his room’s door, declaring her desire to spar with him. Karna, as usual, found no reason to refuse her this request. 

And now after the third hour straight of combat, Karna still continued crossing spears with Scatchach, as one master of the spear with another.

To be entirely honest, Karna saw no significant meaning in these clashes, except that Scáthach enjoyed crossing weapons with him, but he wasn't about to mention this fact either. Perhaps he was simply too foolish to see the hidden meaning of their spar? Or perhaps he would offend Scáthach with his questions?

That was why he chose to remain silent, simply acceding to Scatchach’s request, time, and time again.

Wordlessly he continued raising his spear again and again, such that when Scáthach stepped back after another round, no longer raising her spear, Karna didn't immediately notice it.

"Good enough," Scáthach exhaled, swinging her spear a couple of times before striking its shaft sharply against the ground near her boot. "Ten to zero, not bad."

Karna, pausing for a moment in thought, nodded in agreement with Scáthach's words. After all, Karna was considered one of the strongest Lancers in the Throne of Heroes overall, so defeating him even once was a real achievement. Achieving a ‘ten to zero’, ten being Scáthach’s number of victories, was unthinkable for any other Servant…

Though it was worth considering that Karna himself wasn't fighting at full strength, acknowledging defeats from Scáthach purely in technique, ignoring his skin-fused armor or his main power, his Noble Phantasms. On the other hand, Scáthach didn't use her full arsenal of available abilities either, like her runic magic and her Noble Phantasms, which meant that Karna lost ten sparring matches to Scáthach, meaning exactly that and nothing more.

And that's precisely why, stopping after Scáthach's attack, Karna didn't know what the point of the spar was – just to compare their mastery of the spear against each other? In that case, Scáthach should have said so from the beginning, as the answer would be obvious.

Scáthach, of course, as the Eternal Witch of Dun Scaith, who has faced countless horrors, is better with the spear than Karna. 

Karna wasn't about to speak out; however, as the Hero of Charity, he doesn’t need any particular reason to grant someone’s request, even a pointless one. Someone else, however, didn’t have the tact that Karna does. 

"What’s the point of all that?"

Hearing the voice, Scáthach winced, as if from a toothache, but Karna didn't let her reaction influence his perception too much, since Scáthach's relationship with that person was complex to say the least. It was not something that Karna should color his personal perceptions of the person with. 

"Nobunaga, I don't remember asking you to watch my sparring match with Karna," Scáthach, letting her spear dissipate into motes of Mana, crossed her arms over her chest, as she looked at the imposing figure of a tall red-haired woman. 

Demon King Nobunaga, another unique Servant born essentially from a parallel history of humanity's, and another outstandingly powerful Servant in Chaldea’s coterie. Karna had generally gotten used to the fact that words like ‘outstanding, powerful, unique’ in relation to Servants in Chaldea needed to be used constantly, while words like ‘ordinary, unremarkable, and second-rate’ were very much in short supply.

In fact, only Hector seems to come to mind, which is unique in and of itself.

"And I don't remember you answering my question about why you didn't ask me to spar with you earlier, instead running off after Karna. And since we both suffer from memory problems, as we can see, I think you should repeat your answer." Nobunaga crossed her arms over her chest, and Scáthach winced again at the question. 

It would be easy to think at first glance that both girls were not on the best terms – they would be mistaken, of course. Even Karna, who definitely wasn't the most socially adept, couldn't miss how behind the caustic remarks of the two girls lay a friendship. In their false insults, not crossing the line into real conflict.

"Until this moment, you didn't need a reason for us to spar – are you getting old and now looking for an excuse to refuse?" Scáthach looked at Nobunaga patronizingly as she answered, already forgetting that just a second ago, she was clashing spears with Karna. It helps that Karna quickly moved slightly aside so as not to block Scáthach and Nobunaga's view of each other.

Nobunaga just snorted, not even dignifying them with a response, before continuing to speak. "If you just decided to gather an army of followers to overthrow Ainz, you definitely did it too late… However, even if you had done it earlier, the end result would still be the same."

The phrase thrown seemingly at random by Nobunaga unexpectedly made Scáthach's cheek twitch slightly, showing that the Servant had accidentally been much more accurate in her judgment than one might have thought initially. However, not too much, allowing Scáthach to instantly compose herself and raise her chin up, demonstrating with her whole appearance how indifferent she was to Nobunaga's statement. 

Even if Karna, not at all being an expert in human psychology, could see that this wasn't the case, 

"Not at all. You’re mistaken."

"Oh? It looked like you were doing just that, my apologies." Nobunaga didn't even try to say witty comments, instead looking at Scáthach and then, as if only now remembering Karna's existence, turned to him and nodded sideways, "You can go."

"Since when did you start understanding my thoughts and plans better than I do myself, to send away people I brought with me?" Scáthach made a face, but, surprisingly to Karna, didn't contradict Nobunaga's order and when Karna, testing the waters, took a step towards the door, didn't stop him.

A quick glance at Scáthach's face also informed Karna that she rather agreed with Nobunaga than not, however, as usual, couldn't just admit it. Therefore, Karna, bowing to the two girls, headed away and quickly disappeared behind the door. Once again convinced of the strange relationship between the two girls, but still not getting an answer as to why exactly, he ended up unexpectedly at the sparring ground against Scáthach. 

However, the answer to this question was unexpectedly spoken by Nobunaga instead when Karna was not around to hear it.

"Arthuria, Mordred, Medea, Hector, Karna… The list of your 'sparring partners' keeps growing and growing," Nobunaga stretched the phrase with a thick hint of subtle circumstances, to which Scáthach only responded a bit more sharply than she should have. 

"I don't understand what you’re implying."

"But I think you do," Nobunaga raised her eyebrow, before attempting to achieve the impossible feat of taking control of her own character and speaking with sincere sympathy. "Are you really so afr…"

‘Afraid of Ainz…’ But Nobunaga could not say that. Even hinting that Scáthach feared something would be insulting, both to Scáthach and whatever it is that is being spoken of. 

Not much honor in being feared by a coward. 

However, Nobunaga couldn't find any other way to describe Scáthach’s current state without it just triggering her into being aggressive. So Nobunaga simply stopped speaking, though Scáthach understood Nobunaga’s unspoken words without their utterance. Understood and was not at all pleased by that, baring her teeth like a wild beast in response.

At least that is what Nobunaga expected to happen.

However, instead of simply trying to dismiss Nobunaga's words, Scáthach just snorted and turned away, before sighing and replying aggressively, but still not breaking off the dialogue entirely. "And what business is it of yours?"

Indeed, Scáthach definitely loved battles, so normally there would be no point in seeking an answer to the question ‘why did Scáthach decide to arrange sparring matches with multiple strong opponents?’ She wanted to and did it, just because. After all, Cu Chulainn learned his love of battle from his teacher, who initially embarked on the path of destroying the inhabitants of the Land of Shadows. This was not done out of a sense of duty, but simply from a desire to kill as many worthy enemies as possible when all other opponents ceased to pose any significant danger to her in the world of humans.

However, as usually happened when Ainz was involved in something even slightly, it became significantly more complicated.

In this particular case, Scáthach's usual desire for battle had nothing to do with its series of spars. Scáthach had cycled through various available opponents too quickly, for it to be a simple desire for a spar. 

Following several spars, with them ending in her victory, as could quite well be expected given her nature and abilities. The fact of the matter is, none of the Servants fought with their full strength, for quite understandable reasons of not destroying Chaldea. Their spars were exclusively about experience and mastery. 

And in that, Scáthach was simply unstoppable. 

But recently, her spars were less about honing her abilities, or even just as a way for her to sate her love for battle, Scáthach almost seemed… Panicked. Unlike in her usual spars, where she would create minute changes in her spear play, after studying her spar opponents, honing her skill to counter more enemies. It just didn’t… happen.

To be more precise, desperately cycling through one battle after another not for the sake of battle itself, which would be completely normal for Scáthach, but for the sake of ending them. For victories. Easy victories in large quantities.

In other words, Scáthach strived to defeat multiple opponents at once – and as for the reason… 

Well, while it was hard to apply any particular reason for the normally taciturn woman’s actions, Nobunaga has a more personal view of things. 

Scáthach was… Trying to prove herself at others' expense.

With her rather personal perspective, figuring that Ainz was somehow responsible for Scáthach’s current state of being, wasn't difficult. If Scáthach, an immortal being and a god-slayer to boot, for some reason suddenly found the need to prove herself – then this was absolutely connected to Ainz. 

Not to mention that Ainz was somehow connected to every event happening in Chaldea or with the Servants. 

Still, only Ainz would have the power and motivation to strike at Scáthach's psyche – and therefore the assumption that Scáthach was gripped by fear wasn't groundless.

But not quite correct, either. 

Scáthach, turning to Nobunaga, only snorted, not even pretending for that moment that she was seriously contradicting Nobunaga. "If only it were that simple…"

Yes, without delving into small details and nuances, Scáthach would never agree with anyone implying that she feared Ainz. At least because any apprehension, or logical awareness of the need to destroy a target, or determining its danger could somehow be called fear. Scáthach would not be trembling when face to face with Ainz, she was not going to clutch her spear as if it was her only lifeline. 

Instead, it would be more accurate to say that Scáthach was wary of Ainz… If only especially so. 

And if after her summoning she feared his power, then her attempts to approach solving Ainz's mystery, to find his weakness, only convinced her that perhaps not even direct power was the most dangerous part of Ainz – but his mind.

It of course didn’t help matters that her encounters with the monsters of the Singularities hadn’t given a wound, a scratch really, to her previously infallible confidence. As Humanity's defender against the monsters of the Shadow Lands, many of which would be only too happy to take advantage of the seeds of doubt sown in Scáthach's mind - no matter what form they would have to take. Having any chink in her confidence was unacceptable.

Scáthach's realization of this fact led to her feeling anger and loss of her concentration, which even affected her combat skills. She was still the best of the best, of course, but if previously she could win a match, ninety-nine times of a hundred, now she could only win ninety-eight of a hundred bouts.

It was a very slight drop in her capabilities, but it was still a drop nonetheless. Her rage following this realization began to corrode her thinking abilities, turning her into a rabid dog, which differed only from a guard dog only by which leash it needed to be kept on. Adding to this the fact that Scáthach was never a leader of men or a commander, her royal title defunct when the darkness swallowed her island. While Ainz not only guided other Servants but through his own masquerade created around himself, an aura of a wise man and a ruler focused on saving humanity. 

It was such a sad comparison that…

That Scáthach found the need to prove to herself that she still had a chance. 

That she, as Humanity's defender, hadn't lost to Ainz in intelligence, power, or charisma and leadership. That in her desperate attempt to find a way to kill Ainz not only had an acceptable outcome with his death, but had meaning – that she wouldn't be torn to pieces after this event, and that she herself wouldn't find a reason to abandon her plans in the end. 

Scáthach simply needed to find a way to regain faith in herself, and she had thought that she had found this method by proving her supremacy in the field of battle… Or at least the closest thing to it, spars. 

It was already a regular enough thing for Scáthach to do, pretty much her only hobby and pastime while in Chaldea, no one would find it weird that she had simply increased the numbers of bouts she had. 

"But it's not working, is it?" Nobunaga's voice, which usually made Scáthach's blood boil, this time seemed to pour a bucket of cold water over her face. "The more you win, the less it means to you. The more you try to prove to yourself that everything is normal, the more clearly you understand that it is not."

Scáthach almost grabbed her spear to drive it into Nobunaga's body, but her eyes quickly met her smug smirk, indicating that no action by Scáthach could change Nobunaga's thoughts anymore, Even if Scáthach were to actually resort to actual violence. On the contrary, if she now rushes at Nobunaga in blind rage, she would only be proving to Nobunaga as she already knew – her outrage instead becoming clear and undeniable proof instead. 

Therefore, instead of attacking, Scáthach only spun her spear and struck downward with the shaft, breaking the floor under her feet, before staring at Nobunaga and speaking, glaring at her hatefully, while slowly slipping words through clenched teeth. "Easy for you to say when you've already sold your soul to the monster."

Nobunaga crossed her arms over her chest at the rebuttal, clearly unwilling to simply accept the insult thrown at her, yet unable to find a way to object directly. Instead, she chose to stare into Scáthach's eyes, waiting for her to continue. She didn't have to wait long, as Scáthach, sensing weakness, narrowed her eyes to slits and spoke again. 

"After all, Ainz had defeated you in the past, and instead of trying to get revenge, for Humanity's sake or your own pride, you chose to simply roll over for him… Like a domesticated dog."

As expected, Nobunaga couldn't take such an insult calmly and rows upon rows of rifles materialized from thin air, firing simultaneously, each projective aimed to pierce through Scáthach's. The Witch of Dun Scaith was not going to make it easy for the Warlord, however. 

In a flash, Gáe Bolg flew in a dance of unerring accuracy, and the hundreds of projectiles were dispersed. The bullets were either deflected away, or even towards each other, but at the end none reached their target, the red spear protecting Scáthach’s totally. So perfectly that it allowed the God-Slayer to look leisurely at Nobunaga’s eyes, at the flame still burning behind them.

A smirk found its way to her lips if Nobunaga still found disagreement with her words, if the light of hatred still burns within her, the Scáthach could still rely on her support. That there would be another Servant that would fight by her side against Ainz.

Sadly, despite her hope, even if she would never put it into words, the words that slipped through Nobunaga’s lips later, snuffed it out. 

"I won't say that 'everything's not so bad' or that I'm absolutely certain that after all Singularities are resolved, Ainz won't harm anyone, I'll even confidently say that that's probably not the case at all… But going against Ainz is the worst option." Nobunaga looked at Scáthach, then tried to control her boiling emotions demanding release, now is the moment to talk, not for combat. Even if the two could sound the same, sometimes. 

"I know you know that I also survived a battle with Ainz… But I don't think you know exactly how that duel went… Though, calling it a duel would be too biased in my favor, and even Ainz made special note that it wasn't a proper duel between us."

A tinge of bitterness could be heard in Nobunaga’s speech, one that Scáthach would never miss.

"So you don't even hide the fact that he defeated you, terribly, but instead of seeking revenge you're ready to wag your tail at his command!" Scáthach tightened her grip on her spear, and under normal circumstances such a reaction would be excessive, an achievement for her opponent. Not many people could claim that they have made the Witch frustrated.

But right now Scáthach's mind was too wounded and exhausted to maintain the cold mask on her face, especially considering how false it would appear at this moment. "You're a disgrace to the name of ‘Servant’."

Looking at the mocking smirk on Nonbunaga’s face, Scáthach feared that she would have crushed her spear with how hard she was gripping it in frustration.

"Hah! Is there something special about being a ‘Servant’? Some expectations of righteousness and Heroism!? That is the first time I have heard of such a thing! Interesting to hear this considering the fact that among the Servants there are murderers, maniacs, demons, and the cause of humanity's destruction. All of them are also Servants, the last one a Grand Servant at that! One who should have been the most powerful and exemplary of Servants, the best, and last line of defense for Humanity – and here he is, scorching them to ash." 

Even with gritted teeth, and a mocking lash of the tongue, Nobunaga still couldn’t hide just how much she hated Scáthach’s insult at that moment. She had even almost lost control of herself and  attacked again, managing to restrain herself from activating her Noble Phantasm only at the last moment. And if such a thing could prove anything, it definitely showed that despite all the squabbling, Nobunaga was reacting to Scáthach with much more warmth than an outside observer might assume. She is actually taking her words into account rather than just ignoring them after all. 

"You want to hear my opinion? Fine, my opinion is this – you're just bothered by the fact that your whole life might be a lie."

Even if right now, with the hurtful words both sides had said to each other, the two looked more like mortal enemies rather than friends.

"W-what?" Scáthach stumbled over her own voice after such a shocking accusation and stared intently at Nobunaga, momentarily losing her surge of hatred from the shock alone.

Seeing that her words had reached their intended result, Nobunaga continued speaking.

"Your whole life is built on killing monsters, isn't it? Protecting Humanity – what a perfect excuse for every action, nothing could be more noble after all, and most importantly, no need to think about it further. If you're the one protecting Humanity, then it follows that anyone standing against you automatically becomes an enemy of all Humanity and must be destroyed. Isn’t that convenient?" Nobunaga couldn't control her emotions any longer and unleashed them at Scáthach, her words laced with as much venom as they were truths. 

"But Ainz showed you time and time again that such a thing isn't true. He saves Humanity, he wins the love of other Servants, he defeats the enemies that stand in his way – and here you are, left with nothing. Worse, never mind the fact that you cannot stand up to him, doing so would mean the destruction of Humanity, now your title of 'humanity's protector' means nothing. Considering that you already failed to protect it, while your enemy, absolute evil in your eyes, is now saving the very humanity that you couldn't save. And so you envy him – and can't do anything except that."

Looking down on Scáthach with her most contemptuous smirk, Nobunaga, with her hands on her hips, as if triumphantly looking down at a defeated opponent. It took a moment before Nobunaga realized who she was talking with, and how Scáthach would react to such an outright disrespect, and changed her triumphant smirk to awkward nervousness.

However, Nobunaga didn't get a chance to try to fix her words, as Scáthach, who looked bewildered by the assault of words, broke the silence first. "I see…"

Despite her expectation of an immediate activation of a Noble Phantasm, rather than murderous, Scáthach's expression was thoughtful and slightly confused, but unexpectedly not angry at all. Too… Human, perhaps.

"I see," Scáthach released a breath, and tension that she was unknowingly holding, then looked at Nobunaga with a slight annoyance, but far less anger than one might expect from her given all the circumstances. 

Before Nobunaga could speak again, perhaps to apologize or just to throw more shade at the defeated Scáthach, the spear woman brushed past her.

"In that case… Perhaps I should take a walk…"

***

Roman, a doctor by occupation and head of the medical wing and, recently, deputy director of Chaldea under Olga-Marie Animusphere. That last part was a very recent addition, though perhaps not too recent as it had happened three months ago, since the catastrophe in Chaldea. 

Really, after the disaster, he had found himself spending more time outside of the medical wing, doing his actual job, than in it. Mostly he was busy providing his medical knowledge to the capsule technicians, or reading and updating the various reports about the physical condition of the Masters, which usually ended with the word ‘perfect’. Just the same as the many times he did the report in the past. 

However, in recent weeks, Roman had been working not only in his direct specialization but also in a related field he had never studied. 

After all, Roman was a doctor, not a psychoanalyst, never mind as a psychologist – but since there were no other medical personnel that could do it in Chaldea – he was the de facto person in charge of anything medical. Since the only other person that might be able to help in medical matters was Da Vinci, nobody was in any hurry to relieve him of his position. 

And given the fact that outstanding heroes of humanity rarely fit into the concept of ‘normal people’, Roman had a lot of work on his hands.

First it was Kiyohime, then Serenity, then Mordred, Artoria, Semiramis…

And right now, as a persistent knock on his door, brought Roman out of enjoying his concerts, Roman could only sight before pausing his slice of heaven. It seems that once again, another patient was going to be needing his not-at-all qualified help.

An assumption proved completely true, when opening the door he met the scarlet eyes of Scáthach, an angry one. However, Roman had stopped fearing imminent death from powerful heroes of humanity after his very first session. Therefore, he only stepped aside, letting the warrior in, who, slightly unaccustomed to ordinary people ignoring her threatening legend trailing behind her like a cloak, walked inside.

Roman, after looking over Scáthach’s tense figure, raised his hand, pointing to a small couch and closed the door behind him. It was something that is becoming an old hand for him. "Come in, have a seat… Tell me, what exactly is bothering you today?"

Scáthach, who had just stepped inside, looked over Roman up and down, as if assessing a danger, before settling down on the couch and crossing her arms over her chest. Soon, perhaps it was just the atmosphere, or there was just something about the couch, she started speaking, "I feel… That my work is meaningless."

To these words, Roman only shook his head, taking several steps toward his notes in a large notebook, quickly flipping to a clean page and starting writing… Something that would probably get him killed should any of the Heroes that needed his ‘help’ see it. 

‘Scáthach – Professional burnout?’ Before closing it for a moment and trying to smile at the girl, sitting down at his empty desk chair.

Roman's gaze involuntarily slid over the notes of his previous ‘patient’ – ‘Nobunaga, needs help with emotional control’…

Roman sighed, looking at Scáthach once again, then tried to smile. "You shouldn't worry about this, it's absolutely normal, burnout can occur after three to five months of working in one place, let alone a millennium of protecting humanity."

The clock counting behind his back struck twelve noon, Scáthach still had almost two hours, and then he had another meeting with Semiramis…

Solving the problems of a thousand-year-old witch couldn't be done so simply, Roman knew this, but while Ainz was resolving conflicts in the Singularities, Chaldea also gradually moved forward with its own life. And considering how ‘vigorous’ the reaction of these Servants could be if Roman said the wrong phrase…

Figuring out who exactly was more involved in saving humanity at the moment, Ainz or Roman, wasn't so simple.