"According to what you're saying, then our opponents this time are going to be Servants and Masters who participated in the Holy Grail War ten years ago.
"Putting aside how the same people and the same Heroic Spirits can even exist in the same time and space… if all of our enemies really are participants from the Holy Grail War ten years ago, wouldn't that actually be a huge advantage for us?"
The one who raised this question was Ren Kuroda, who had been standing off to the side in silence until now.
To be honest, Ren himself hadn't expected that the Red faction he'd been puzzling over all this time would turn out to be the participants of the Holy Grail War from a decade ago.
But if that was the case, then another issue naturally arose.
When it came to the Holy Grail War ten years ago, everyone sitting here—aside from Medea and Kuzuki Sōichirō—should be quite familiar with it.
Whether it was the Servants who appeared or their Masters, people like Tōsaka Rin had long since heard all about them. In a Holy Grail War, once a Servant's True Name was exposed, their chances of victory dropped dramatically.
And the Fourth Holy Grail War had been fought by their parents' generation. Both the Masters involved and the True Names of the Servants were things Tōsaka Rin and the others knew like the back of their hands.
More importantly—
If Servants who had appeared in the Fourth Holy Grail War were being summoned again in this one, how was that supposed to work?
Thinking that far, Ren turned his head and glanced at the blonde girl standing behind Emiya Shirō—the ahoge-wielding King of Knights, Saber.
If he remembered correctly, the Servant summoned by Emiya Shirō's father back then had also been Saber.
So if the Red faction's Servants really were from the Holy Grail War ten years ago…
Would that mean two Artorias appearing at the same time?
Even allowing for parallel worlds, where Masters could appear in the same era through different points in time, Heroic Spirits shouldn't be able to do that.
After all, Servants were summoned through the power of the Holy Grail from the Throne of Heroes. No matter how you looked at it, having two identical Heroic Spirits existing simultaneously was simply absurd.
"The Holy Grail War is fair," Kotomine Kirei said calmly. "Just as we currently know the True Names and Masters of the Red faction's Servants.
"Once the Holy Grail War officially begins, the Grail will likewise disclose your Servants' information to the Red faction, in the name of fairness."
"Of course," he continued, "your Servants' True Names will only be known to members of the Red faction. Within the Blue faction itself, that information will remain unknown.
"If you have the ability to obtain the True Names of other Servants from the Red faction, then that is simply a matter of your own skill.
"Or perhaps, for the sake of better cooperation, you would all be willing to speak openly now and exchange information?"
Unfortunately, Kotomine Kirei's proposal was met with nothing but silence.
It was obvious that no one present was foolish. Setting aside whether Kotomine's rules were even true, even if they were, no one was stupid enough to reveal their own Servant's True Name so casually.
Seeing the silent crowd, Kotomine showed no surprise whatsoever. This reaction was exactly what he had expected.
"Since you all intend to keep your Servants' identities secret, then at the very least, you should disclose your Classes.
"Otherwise, this gathering will have been entirely meaningless."
"Additionally, I would advise everyone to act together for the time being. At the very least, you shouldn't stay too far apart.
"If you scatter, you'll only make it easier for the enemy to defeat you one by one."
"Since this is a faction-based war, you should make proper use of cooperation between Servant Classes.
"For example, have a Caster use their Class Skill to establish territory, use an Assassin's concealment to gather intelligence, use an Archer's vision for reconnaissance—methods like these."
Objectively speaking, Kotomine Kirei's words were quite constructive.
After all, this Holy Grail War was a faction war, not an individual free-for-all. If everyone continued fighting on their own like before, victory would be extremely difficult.
Unfortunately, no matter whether it was Tōsaka Rin or Matō Sakura, after hearing Kotomine's words, they both silently stood up—and then turned to leave without looking back.
Rin didn't particularly dislike the idea of cooperating with others.
But for some reason, every time she dealt with Kotomine Kirei, she felt an indescribable sense of discomfort.
Logically speaking, given Kotomine's relationship with her father, even if they weren't close, she shouldn't feel this kind of aversion.
And yet, for reasons she couldn't explain, Rin felt certain that cooperating with Kotomine Kirei would lead to nothing good.
She didn't leave alone either—before going, she grabbed Matō Sakura by the wrist and dragged her along.
With Rin and Sakura gone, most of the "harem" had already dispersed, so Emiya Shirō hurriedly followed after them.
As for Illyasviel, upon hearing that Emiya Kiritsugu would be participating in this Holy Grail War, she had already been barely containing her excitement. Now that the meeting had broken up, she naturally left as well, taking Berserker with her.
Illya had never been particularly interested in the Holy Grail itself.
Her original reason for entering the war had been to take revenge on Emiya Shirō.
But now that the real target—Emiya Kiritsugu—was going to appear, her focus had completely shifted.
As for cooperating with other Masters and Servants?
Illya saw no need for it whatsoever.
Her Berserker was invincible.
Even without anyone else's help, she believed she could capture Emiya Kiritsugu on her own.
And so, the so-called strategy meeting ended on an unpleasant note.
Watching everyone leave, Kotomine Kirei maintained his usual expressionless demeanor and shifted his gaze to the only ones still present—Kuzuki Sōichirō, and Medea's magically controlled puppet.
"Since no one else seems interested in cooperation, then we'll take our leave as well," Medea said.
"After all, with only three Master–Servant pairs left here, even if we wanted to form an alliance, we'd stand no chance against seven enemy pairs.
"Rather than cooperating and becoming the enemy's primary target, it's better for everyone to fight independently.
"Besides," she added lightly, "there's a bit of history between your Servant and mine."
The one speaking wasn't Kuzuki Sōichirō, the Master—but Medea standing behind him.
She had never intended to work with the other Servants to begin with. Now that everyone else had run off, instead of exhausting herself rebuilding territory from scratch, it was far better to return to her own stronghold.
For Medea, this Holy Grail War was actually the most disadvantageous one imaginable.
The other Masters and Servants clearly had extensive knowledge of the Holy Grail War ten years ago—while she herself knew nothing about it.
If everyone had been willing to cooperate, she might have been able to obtain some basic information.
But now that everyone had left, and given that she had no intention of cooperating with Lancer's Master, Medea didn't expect them to generously share any intelligence with her.
Even so, she wasn't particularly bothered.
Not knowing the True Names of the Servants from the Fourth Holy Grail War wasn't a big problem.
After all, she had a cheater on her side—someone capable of seeing through other Servants' True Names.
As long as Ren Kuroda made even brief contact with the Red faction's Servants, they could uncover their identities just the same.
And besides, attending this meeting hadn't been a complete waste.
"Saber is the legendary King of Knights of Britain.
"Lancer is the Child of Light from Ireland—the Hound of Culann.
"Rider is the youngest of the Gorgon sisters, the monster known as the Gorgon—Medusa.
"And Berserker… is the great hero of Greek mythology—Heracles!"
On the way back to Ryūdō Temple, Medea listened as Ren calmly recounted the Servants whose identities he had seen through during the meeting.
Her expression shifted again and again as she listened.
And when she finally heard the name Heracles, Medea visibly faltered.
That reaction was only natural.
As someone who also belonged to Greek mythology, Heracles was simply too dazzling a figure.
It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that in that era, he was the most brilliant existence of all.
A legendary hero who left behind countless myths—someone who even accomplished the Twelve Labors, feats said to be beyond the reach of the gods themselves.
They had lived in the same age.
She, the witch reviled and hunted by all.
He, the great hero revered by the world.
The gap between their statuses was like heaven and earth. More than that, Heracles was practically the natural enemy of people like Medea.
Even now, reduced to a mindless Berserker, the name alone was enough to shake her.
"…Wait," Medea suddenly said. "You named four Servants just now. Including the two of us, that still leaves one unaccounted for.
"What about Archer? What's his True Name?"
After recovering from the shock of Berserker's identity, Medea realized Ren hadn't mentioned Archer at all.
"That's exactly what I was about to get to," Ren replied.
"Heracles is famous, sure—but as a Berserker without reason, he's not impossible to deal with.
"The truly troublesome one is Archer.
"Don't be fooled by his parameters—they're among the lowest of this war's Servants. But his abilities are extremely annoying.
"As for his name… even if I told you, I doubt you'd recognize it.
"He's a special kind of Servant from the future.
"All you need to know is this—he's even more dangerous than Heracles."
"…So they're all monsters," Medea muttered.
"Yes," Ren said. "Our opponents are overwhelmingly strong.
"But that also means we should feel fortunate.
"Until the faction war ends, those demi-gods, monsters, and kings are technically our allies.
"The stronger the Blue faction is, the more advantageous it becomes for us."
Ren wasn't exaggerating.
If what Kotomine Kirei had said was true, then the Servants summoned in this Fifth Holy Grail War were indeed far stronger than those from the Fourth.
Most of the Servants in the Fourth Holy Grail War had been historical heroes.
This time, however, the majority were figures from ancient myth and legend—and more than half of them possessed high levels of Divinity.
That wasn't to say the Fourth Holy Grail War's Servants were weak.
After all, just one ancient Hero King like Gilgamesh—the glittering King of Heroes—was enough to singlehandedly narrow the gap in power between entire factions.