Summer's Here! 1

All right, this is the room listed as the Clothiers headquarters.

I believe it used to just be Mordred's room, but...

Please, come in.

That sounded like

Hi, Master. It's about time you got here. What took you so long?

Moriarty!?

Oh shit, he's actually here. I can't believe it.

See? I told you he would come.

Um, what are you doing here, Moriarty?

Me? I'm a member of Mordred's club, Clothiers, and this room is the base of operations we told the alliance about.

Why WOULDN'T I be here?

？！

Hmm.

The truth is, I made a prophecy to Mordred that you would be paying a visit.

And lo and behold, here you are. Now do you believe me, Mordred!?

Fine, fine. What can I say now that your prediction hit the nail on the head?

I'm still not entirely sure what it is you're all talking about here, but never mind that for now.

What I want to know is, what kind of book are you guys trying to make, anyway?

A cosplay photo collection, with Mordred as the model.

Huh!?

？！

Hmph!

C'mon, what other choice do I got? I already promised I would!

Ugh, this freaking sucks!

So, you're using Mordred as an Altria look-alike to make a photo collection...

(Wait. What kind of photos are we talking about? They don't mean racy ones, do they!?)

A-anyway, this kind of project is the last thing I would've expected from you guys. How did you decide on it?

Well...

...All right, you pass. Every nook and cranny has been cleaned meticulously.

On behalf of the Normalization Committee, I commend your skills as the manager of the Shelton Hotel, Jekyll.

Thank you for the kind words.

...

ServantFes MUST go off without a hitch, so we're counting on hotel staff like you to do your part.

We must all ensure the safety and security of the attendees, uphold the rules, and stay true to our ideals.

So I'm asking you to continue to work hard in order to help make the Normalization Committee's desired finale a reality. Will you?

Yeah, yeah, sure thing.

Saber.

I know, okay!? I'll do my job well! I always do!

I'm glad to hear that. Take care.

Shit! I swear, there's something about that bitch I just can't stand!

I know. But she's not wrong.

Besides, you and I aren't part of a club. As she said, our job as hotel staff is to help support everyone else who's here for ServantFes.

So let's just buckle down and focus on doing our jobs.

Ugh, you're always so damn serious. But, I guess it suits you.

All right, Bean Sprout. I know you're the manager, so here, that makes you my boss.

Yup. And I'm counting on you to do your part, Mordred. Anyway, I'm going to head back to my office now.

...Counting on me, huh. That ain't bad.

That ain't bad, but...

...something about the committee just doesn't sit right with me.

Ah man, I really wanna rebel...

Good, good. You're just the kind of person I thought you were.

Huh?

Hi there, Mordred, Knight of Treachery.

Oh, it's you. What're you up to, Moriarty?

Scheming? Plotting? Skullduggery?

Aren't those all essentially the same thing?

At any rate, I'm not my decrepit elderly self. I'm merely here to recruit you.

Let me get right to the point: you should join Clothiers!

Huh? Are you nuts? My job's here at this hotel.

I don't got any interest in running the race out west or drawing a doujin.

That's fine. You don't need to draw a single line. All you have to do is get dressed up.

Clothiers is making a cosplay photo collection, and I want you to model for it.

...Heh. Hahahaha!

So what, you want me to put on a cute little dress and be all "Ooh, look at me, I'm so pretty"?

Well tough shit. I ain't no one's dress-up doll. Now scram before I exorcise your ass for good.

Oh my, what a waste. I didn't think you would be one to pass up a precious opportunity to rebel.

Quite frankly, I'm surprised to find out you were actually a peace-loving knight who would never even dream of rebelling.

...What was that?

The Anti-ServantFes Alliance. You do know about them, yes?

That's what you're talking about? Ha, what a joke. They're just a bunch of drunkards running their mouths about the good old days.

What about those losers made you think "Now those are some rebels worth throwing your lot in with"!?

Especially Jeanne Alter in all her piss-poor former sainthood!?

Indeed. And the situation is not much different for Clothiers, either.

We were originally going to put out a cosplay photo collection featuring Vlad III, but we were banned from publishing it due to it falling outside of accepted genres.

Thanks to that, the other members all lost their will to create, and the club is now all but disbanded.

Haha, old man Vlad, doing cosplay? I'd pay good money to see that!

...Oh, wait. On second thought, I can totally see him being way into it...

It would have been an exceptionally high-quality book, but I digress.

What matters now is what we know for sure is going to happen in the future.

The future...?

In the near future, after oneno, two more cycles, things are going to change around here.

In two more cycles, Master will arrive from Chaldea and shake things up on Hawaltria in a major fashion.

All manner of abnormalities will break out, and discontent with the Normalization Committee will reach a fever pitch.

When it does, that will be the time for rebellion. A time when a great battle between normals and rebels will begin in earnest.

Whoa, whoa! How can you be so sure about that? You're talking like you've already seen it happen.

That's it, you're definitely up to something, aren't you? All right, it's Clarent time.

Wait, wait. I'm not going to cause any trouble myself.

This is just a prediction for the future derived from highly advanced calculations.

I could explain how I arrived at it, including the formulas I used, but doing so would take about ten hours.

Yeah, don't bother. Long story short is you're making a prophecy, yeah?

If there's one thing history's shown, it's that nothing good ever comes of getting mixed up with prophecies.

So you still don't believe me? Fine then, how about just a provisional contract for now?

Join Clothiers, and you won't have to do a thing to help.

If you ever feel like it won't benefit you, you can leave at any time for any reason.

Hmm... Yeah, all right, I guess I can go along with that.

However! No harm shall come to this hotel, understand?

Of course. Believe me, I have no desire to spend this vacation without a roof over my head either.

Oh, one last thing.

As the leader of the future rebel army, would you mind if we used your name to represent our club?

Our original representative is all but useless right now, you see.

Yeah, sure, whatever.

Oh, but don't tell Bean Sprout about this, yeah? I don't need him knowing I'm working a side job.

Understood. Then we have a deal.

I hope you'll look forward to the time when my predictions are proven right!

And now, that time has come. Wouldn't you agree, Mordred?

Man, it's frigging scary how far ahead you foresee things. All right, fine. I'll believe you from now on.

Wonderful. Now Clothiers can officially begin working on our Mordred cosplay photo collection!

Um, Moriarty, can I ask you something?

By all means.

Are you sure Mordred will qualify for the committee's specified Altria genre?

Of course. Remember what Yaraändoo said about qualifying for Altria?

Altria's just so great. Especially her face.

She's pure, upright, bold, and daring all at once. She may seem timid and demure, but she has the heart of a lion.

She has all the cherubic innocence of a young woman, and the beauty of a young man. She has slender, hardworking shoulders, and competitive, unyielding eyes!

Now, let's see if we can't get at the essence of what it means to be Altria from those words, shall we?

First, there's bold and daring!

Uh-huh.

The heart of a lion!

Uh-huh, uh-huh.

Competitive!

Hell yeah! I hate losing so much I don't even admit when I have!

You see? If Mordred doesn't qualify for the Altria genre, then no one does.

I ain't actually Altria, though! But, as her heir, I guess I am kinda the same thing!

(Hmm. I think I'm starting to see what all those stories I heard about Mordred were talking about.)

Okay, but are you really sure about this? You'd think the Knight of Rebellion would be disqualified automatically, no matter how much they might look alike.

I'm sure. I was concerned about that as well, but to my surprise, my proposal was accepted without any pushback.

Well, I suppose the committee head looked less than pleased, but the chairperson agreed right away.

At any rate, now that that's settled, I'm going to take Mordred to Clothiers' workspace.

You and your compatriots should come too, Master.

I'd like to introduce you to the rest of our crazedI mean, crazy cool members.

This is...Miss Crane's atelier.

She made this workspace for us with her magecraft. She said it's best to have it look familiar.

Everyone! Stop what you're doing for a moment. Master and his friends are paying us a visit.

Oh, hello there. Thank you so much for coming.

Hey, come on in! So we've got not just Mash, but Fujimaru and Altria Caster too, huh?

That's great! The more the merrier!

I had a feeling I might see you two here, given what your club is called.

Was it that obvious? Yes, I used to be this club's representative. Oh, and this is our other member

Master. What a pleasant surprise.

Hello, Vlad. I didn't know you were interested in things like ServantFes.

Indeed. It just goes to show one never knows what fate has in store.

Our original plan was to make a cosplay photo collection featuring Count Vlad.

We were going to make all kinds of dashing contemporary suits and have him model them for us in his own inimitable style.

(Sigh) It would have made for an amazing book.

But then we were told anything that wasn't Altria related was off-limits, and that was that!

I don't know who this AAA person leading the Normalization Committee is, but they're way overstepping if you ask me.

I see. So that's why a club made up of so many Goody Two-shoes like yourselves...

...decided to join the Anti-ServantFes Alliance despite their...lack of motivation.

"Anti-ServantFes Alliance"? What's that?

Huh? I mean, you ARE boycotting ServantFes along with Blackbeard and Jeanne Alter's group, right?

We are!? That does sound like fun, but I had no idea about it! Did you, Crane?

No. This is the first I'm hearing of it as well.

Okay, so it's not just me then. I mean, we HAVE just been working in here all this time, but still.

Anyway, we've been making a whole bunch of cosplay outfits here for all the regular attendees.

For the attendees?

It was my idea.

I simply could not let these two spend the summer squandering their talent and passion.

So I talked to some people I believed would be interested and asked them if they would like to enjoy ServantFes wearing some of the finest outfits ever created.

You're far too kind, Count Vlad. I can't even begin to tell you how deeply moved I am.

Crane's always coming up with outfit ideas whenever she sees people around Chaldea...

...so now, we're gonna make those outfits into cosplay and give them away as presents!

Thanks to Count Vlad, we were all set to make outfits for many different Servants, like Charlemagne.

So we've been holed up in here ever since making clothes and having the time of our lives.

And I'm afraid I really don't know anything about this Anti-ServantFes Alliance.

I see. Looks like they've been completely cleared of suspicion then. Must be nice to be a Proper Human History fairy with such a pure heart...

How about you, Moriarty? I trust you haven't been sitting around twiddling your thumbs.

Of course not. I've returned with good news. Everyone, Clothiers is now ready to resume operations!

Our goal is to achieve victory in a doujin battle with the ServantFes Normalization Committee.

And we're going to do that by making an Altria cosplay photo collection with our new model!

Ah, Moriarty. That's very kind of you, and I truly appreciate it.

But we're perfectly satisfied. Making outfits alongside my closest friends is already more than I could ask for.

So I'm already greatly enjoying ServantFes, even without creating the kind of doujin I'd dreamed of.

That's very modest of you, Miss Crane. I would expect nothing less.

But while you may be okay with that, I am not. So I'm going to go ahead with this project no matter what.

I want to prove that my organizational theories are correct, and I'm going to do so by leading all of you towards completing a doujin.

Besides, I have a feeling seeing our new model will change your mind.

Come on in, Mordred!

You got it!

Whoa!

Hey, Crane.

Eep! Y-your face... It's so close!

Mordred just pinned Miss Crane against the wall!

Oh gosh, oh gosh, oh gosh...

Make me some clothes.

N-n-now you're whispering in my ear!? Am I dreaming!? ...Non! C'est la réalité!

Okay?

G-g-g...gladlyyy!

...Is that what you wanted, Moriarty? When you said to pin her against the wall, you didn't want me to knock her through it or anything, right?

Not at all! Well done, Mordred.

Everything from your speed, your angle, to your choice of target, was absolutely perfect.

Gotcha... All right, no more thinking for me.

That should have convinced Miss Crane. How about you, Habetrot?

...

Hup!

Wah!

Your hair! Your eyes! Your skin! It's all beautiful! What a find!

This is love at first sight! I definitely wanna make clothes for you!

Okay, okay, I got it! Now get off my head already!

Our tailors have had their morale buoyed. How wonderful.

What about you, Count Vlad? Will you continue to lend us your support as well?

Of course. If anything, I have been waiting for a time such as this.

I knew you to be a devious, cunning man, so I was also certain you would come up with an idea.

Hmm. I suppose I'll take that as a sign of trust in my capabilities.

As for me, I too had every faith that you would keep Miss Crane and Habetrot motivated in my absence.

Hmm. It would seem that inadvertently, we have been acting in concert.

All right! Now that all of our members are on board, it's time to finally get to work.

Well, Master, as you can see, this is where Clothiers currently stands.

We have refined technique, endless passion, and me overseeing every phase of the project.

Everyone, rest assured that our success is all but guaranteed.

Ahh, I swear, my perfect calculations never fail to amaze even me!

And so, Bad-Bad Moriarty, extremely confident in his club's chances, declared a preemptive victory.

But no one foresaw the predicament they would find themselves in several days later.