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King Hassan left behind that abrupt, cryptic remark and stepped out of visibility.
In the space of a second, Trifas City registered as Black faction territory on the map. The capture point flipped.
Maverick, Danny, Mozart, and MHX stood in the city gate area and looked at each other.
None of them had a clear read on what had just happened or what it meant going forward.
[Chat]:
[Impressed]: is this what Grand Servant presence actually looks like?
[Admitting_It]: okay. his dramatic exit beats mine. I'll accept that.
[Questions]: what does he actually want? and how is he still active without a Master? that shouldn't be possible.
[All_Four_Faces]: the expression shared by all four of them right now is "I have no idea what is happening."
[Sympathizing]: if I were standing there I'd look exactly the same
[Silver_Lining]: think about it practically — two Red faction Servants eliminated in less than an hour, and both cost the Black side nothing. that's a massive early advantage.
[Counterpoint]: hard to say. I just came from another streamer's channel. Red side has already summoned a big daddy over by the Mine.
[Which_Daddy]: which daddy?
[THE_Daddy]: the one everyone always talks about.
[Oh_No]:
Max took a sip of water and addressed the elephant in the chat.
"King Hassan — why he's still active without a Master. Short answer: EX-rank Battle Continuation. As long as he doesn't choose to die, he literally cannot die. The skill at that rank functions as a standalone survival mechanism independent of the Master contract."
He paused, scrolling through the feed.
"As for what he wants—" a small shrug, "—my best read is that he's protecting the city. Or the people in it. Maverick's group was out there holding the line against a Noble Phantasm that would have leveled Trifas, and King Hassan was watching all of that. He let them in. He acted in their favor. That's probably the connection."
[Chat]:
[The_Girl]: the blind girl. the sugar cube. he accepted the down payment.
[Max_Response]: ...that's also a reasonable interpretation, yes.
[Both_True]: maybe both things are true at once
[Moving_On]: what's happening at the other capture points?
Battles elsewhere on the Romania map had already begun. Max switched the focus accordingly.
He clicked into the streamer called Little Cat's channel.
The scene that loaded was not easy to describe concisely.
"Hahahahahaha!" The golden figure lounging across the summoning chamber looked down at the person kneeling in front of him with the expression of someone being entertained against their better judgment. "Mongrel — your performance has no refinement whatsoever. But as a clown act, it's sufficient. I'll reward you. Name what you want."
The little cat pressed her forehead to the floor.
"I wouldn't dare ask for anything. I don't want anything, Dad. Do whatever you want to do — just leave me alive. That's all."
Gilgamesh stared at her.
The silence lasted several seconds.
Even someone as comprehensively self-centered as the King of Heroes found it difficult to formulate a response to this level of preemptive surrender.
[Chat]:
[Speechless]: she kneeled before he even finished the summoning animation
[Gilgamesh_Expression]: he looks like a man who prepared a very good speech and now has nowhere to put it
[Strategy]: is this... actually genius? if you can't fight him, become his entertainment?
[Max_Lore]: Gilgamesh responds to honesty and novelty. she's giving him both simultaneously.
[Little_Cat_Lore]: someone explain why she immediately called him "Dad"
Max could explain. The little cat's history with Holy Grail War was well-documented by this point — anyone who'd watched the Streamer League could trace the arc.
She'd gone in the first time with real confidence. Her account ran Irisviel as a character — access to healing magic and metal-form manipulation, a combination that should have been a decisive advantage. Irisviel's healing meant her Servants could sustain through multiple serious engagements instead of having to play conservatively to protect their limbs. In theory, the little cat had a support-role advantage that most players couldn't replicate.
In practice, she kept getting betrayed.
First: Grigori Rasputin. Caster-class, and for reasons nobody could fully articulate, the man bore an unsettling resemblance to Kotomine Kirei. He'd given her what she described afterward as a very sincere speech before her screen went black.
She'd written it off as a one-time incident.
Then: Columbus. Objectively the weakest Servant she'd ever summoned. He liked beautiful women. She was running Irisviel's appearance. The chemistry had been genuinely pleasant for the first half of the run — and then, after countless hardships, just as victory was within reach, he'd shot her.
Then: Count Alessandro di Cagliostro. Charming, witty, the kind of man who made conversation feel like a gift. He'd even intervened on her behalf against an opposing Hassan, at significant personal cost. The little cat had been genuinely moved. She'd let her guard down completely.
Then Diarmuid happened. "This is a necessary sacrifice."
She'd been out before she could process the sentence.
Four times. Four betrayals. Four screens going dark at the worst possible moment.
After the fourth one, she'd opened Holy Grail War, done an immediate summon, seen a new Servant beginning to materialize, and without waiting for a greeting, a name, or a single word — had spent a Command Seal ordering him to commit suicide and simultaneously cut her own throat with a steel wire she'd prepared in advance specifically for this contingency.
Ashiya Doman had barely existed for thirty seconds.
The little cat had the fastest elimination record in Holy Grail War history for two consecutive deaths in under a minute combined.
[Chat]:
[Respecting_It]: that Ashiya Doman speedrun is genuinely impressive
[Traumatized]: she didn't even give him time to introduce himself
[Ashiya_Doman]: somewhere out there Ashiya Doman is in the hall of heroes going "I was summoned and killed without speaking a word" and no one will ever believe him
[Little_Cat_Defense]: honestly? after four betrayals? I would also commit preemptive Servant murder on sight.
[Pattern_Recognition]: she's developed a Pavlovian response to summoning circles
So when the FA Chapter organizers had reached out with the invitation, the little cat's first instinct had been that someone wanted a streamer to perform tragedy content for an audience. She wasn't wrong. But money was money, and she'd joined.
She'd done her summoning near the Mine capture point on the Romania map. Standard procedure. The golden light had appeared in the summoning circle, and she'd recognized it before the figure was even fully formed.
She hadn't waited.
Both knees hit the ground. Head down. Full prostration.
"Dad."
[Chat]:
[Gilgamesh_Already_Summoned]: she recognized him from the particle color and went straight to the floor
[Fastest_Kowtow]: the speed of that kowtow broke sound
[Gilgamesh_Reaction]: and now he's sitting there with an entertained frown because she called him Dad before he could establish dominance
[Understanding_Now]: the "Dad" is a pre-emptive survival strategy. she's making herself too pathetic to bother eliminating.
[Genius_Or_Insanity]: there's no meaningful difference at this point
And Gilgamesh, for his part, had called her performance tasteless and her presentation that of a clown.
And then offered to reward her.
Which meant, on some level, it was working.
The little cat kept her forehead to the ground and waited.
[Chat — Little Cat's Stream]:
[Watching]: she hasn't moved
[Gilgamesh_Watch]: he's looking at her like she's a puzzle he didn't expect
[Dad_Count]: she's said "Dad" three times in ninety seconds. that's a sustained commitment to the bit.
[Real_Talk]: after four betrayals this woman has completely restructured her entire survival strategy around maximum submission and I respect the evolution
[Lore_Question]: does Gilgamesh actually respond to this? historically?
[Max_Elsewhere]: Max is watching from his stream and has not commented yet
[Reading_Max_Face]: his expression is the same as when he watches something he knows is going to be hilarious but hasn't gotten there yet
The golden figure leaned forward slightly, chin resting in one hand, regarding the kneeling figure below him with something that had moved from speechless to something closer to consideration.
"...Stand up, mongrel."
The little cat stood up very carefully.
"You truly are a strange specimen." Gilgamesh studied her with the intensity of a collector who'd just found something that didn't fit any of his existing categories. "Calling a king 'Dad' without hesitation, prostrating before the summoning even completed — you either have no dignity whatsoever, or you have more of it than anyone I've encountered in this contest."
The little cat said nothing.
This was also a strategy. When in doubt: silence.
Gilgamesh's mouth curved.
"Hmph. I'll decide later which one it is." He rose from where he'd been lounging, Gate of Babylon glinting behind him. "Walk with me, mongrel. You want to hold the Mine? Then we hold it."
[Chat — Little Cat's Stream]:
[SCREAMING]: HE SAID WE
[He_Said_WE]: "walk with me" — he's treating her like a retainer
[Little_Cat_Survival]: she summoned the most dangerous Heroic Spirit in the game and is currently the safest person on the entire Romania map
[Genius]: it was the "Dad" that did it. I'm convinced.
[Dad_Theory]: Gilgamesh has no father figure in his mythology. the dynamic was genuinely novel to him.
[Respecting_The_Craft]: the little cat did not come to play. she came to survive. and she's winning.
[End of Chapter 162]
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