Tonight.

She had once again made a visit to the overseer, once again asking if they could just properly [i]start[/i] this. No doubt most of the other Masters were already in place, so what good was it to hold off on starting? Yet she had been insistent they hold off and wait--what if this war were to be abnormal? What if killing a Servant early somehow lead to another manifesting? To make sure everything remained as secretive as required, the Church forbade taking any action... 

Having to listen to the church was galling, yet it was unfortunately necessary. Even with a Servant by her side, taking on the Church was hardly a good move--and it would allow them to focus all of the Masters on herself at once.

Astariel drummed her fingers on the rough handle of the stone blade. As if that would have been a [i]problem[/i] if the old man had listened, and allowed her to use this as a catalyst once more. What were the chances that a second war would have stood a chance against Heracles? Controlling him would still have been no problem, and if he was that averse to repeating a failed attempt then they could have used any container [i]but[/i] Berserker. But he had been the one with the potential catalyst and insistent on trying something new.

At least Saber wasn't weak. Or, she assumed so; it was hard to imagine summoning a [i]weak[/i] Saber, especially one that could so greedily draw on her own vast mana reserves. That, without catalyst, she [i]hadn't[/i] summoned something from the Nibelunglied had been quite the surprise; as the owners of the Rheingold, it was almost the only obvious choice for their family to summon without influencing the results somehow. Yet, this blonde had been summoned instead of Siegfried, it was quite unusual.

But, her visit had paid off. Either the last Servants had been summoned, or enough, or the church had some premonition. Finally, the war would be allowed to begin. But that was tonight.

First... first, she would have her maids make her a cup of tea. And draw a bath. Then, maybe, there would still be time to visit one of those little bakeries she had seen? Obviously, the maids could make anything she asked for, but that required knowledge of what it [i]was...[/i] and it would be more efficient if she wanted to try lots of things...

[hr]

At the church, the war's overseer seemed... bored. As it turned out, being the overseer of the war demanded little time and attention--and unlike prior overseers, she had almost no parochial obligations, having only come to Japan for the sake of acting as the church's main representative in this war. Many of the Masters had already been through for one reason or another--the Einzbern being particularly demanding and impatient--and now it seemed that the start of the war was imminent.

Maybe having to actually maintain secrecy would be more exciting? It would no doubt be more interesting than furthering her Japanese lessons, given that it seemed nearly [i]all[/i] of the Masters were foreign and would rather that she spoke something else instead.

Hopefully the last one wouldn't give her any funny looks. Yes, a nun was in charge this time rather than anyone of higher rank. Yes, her hair was silver. No, she wasn't albino, or a homunculus, or anything other than a human. Could they stop asking?