[X] Sakura was interested in the Museum, she did want to start thinking of what sort of Heroic Spirit to summon.
"Guess the Museum makes the most sense, see what's on offer" Sakura said, but hesitated for a second, "It's a lot to think about though, what Servant I'll summon. I mean, they're supposed to be the greatest people who ever lived, I just… don't want to disappoint them."
"The Star-Cell is programmed to assign fitting Servants to fitting Masters, but still, it can't hurt to have an idea of what sort of Heroic Spirit you'd like to summon," Beryl said, before she admitted, "And to be honest, a maid like me was worried about the same thing."
"The same thing? But, you're not a potential Master?" Sakura asked, a brow twitching.
"Oh, not with a Servant. More with, well, what sort of player I'd be assigned to for the prelims," Beryl said, "The Star-Cell's less meticulous with our assignments than with Servants, expectedly. Fortunately, it looks like I got a quite reasonable mistress".
"Really, you think that?" Sakura had to blush, before she slowly said, "That's one of the nicest things anyone's said about me. Well, by default. I get told I'm a disappointment a lot."
"Really, whatever for?" Beryl stepped back.
"For, well, they say they expect some grand, mysterious heiress or something, only to get some mousy recluse. Sounds silly, but I got picked on a lot for that back in school," Sakura said and shrunk back as she did.
Beryl neither laughed nor moved in to comfort her mistress, but instead cocked her head. "Mistress Tohsaka… you're sure those are your memories, right? Forgive me, it's not my intent to be rude, it's just… players getting their memories mixed up with their avatars was an issue in the Grail War prior."
Sakura did not how to respond to that. Easy to see, I'd have been even more stumped for what to say. But eventually respond she did with, "I guess that… even if those memories did or didn't happen, it still kinda hurts to think about them. So, they are real, in one sense at last."
Beryl smiled, "A most informed insight, mistress." Sakura now couldn't tell though if Beryl meant that or was just required to compliment her being her maid. This was before Beryl added, "And I suppose if I did end up assigned someone awful, I could always get in contact with Jeeves to fix matters."
"Jeeves?" Sakura asked.
"Oh, how to explain," Beryl began, "On top of Master-summoned Servants, there are also Servants the Star-Cell has called forth on its own to handle administrative duties. The Assassin-class Jeeves is the one tasked with overseeing all us maids and valets."
"Assassin?" Sakura had to flinch, but then asked, "So, you mean the guy from the, er, Wodehouse stories, right?"
"…Yes and no," Beryl muttered, "While more than enough literature has been uploaded into the Star-cell that manifesting wholly fictitious Servants is now possible, Jeeves is… not that one Jeeves exactly. He's more a concept than anything, what everyone thinks of when they hear the word 'butler'."
Sakura nodded along with that, though the idea of someone who was now more concept than anything else was, well, hard to process. Literally, given VR.
Beryl then showed Sakura back inside and into the Aquarius' Museum, only separated from the foyer by a side-door. Sakura tensed a little on stepping in, she had expected more than a few relics, but nowhere near the cavalcade that was in front of her, all connected by a long and winding walkway.
"Quite a lot to take in, huh?" Beryl eased her in, "As it should be, really. Before it was decided to run the Grail War again, the Star-Cell created the Ennigaldi Museum to preserve of all of humanity's artifacts. Same with our Library and its records."
Not like that helped Sakura being completely spoiled for choice. She did have to notice that, for being a 'safeguard for humanity's artifacts', all the description plates had been blurred out, probably since doing so would wreck everything by revealing all the potential Servants right away. Still, that sort of thing can come off as rude.
There were four artifacts that did stick in her mind in the end. One was sheet listing a long series of calculations for a rocket orbit, Sakura being something of a mathematician herself and, with Ciel telling her to pay attention to the word 'Aquarius'. Space was on her mind.
The second was a lottery ticket, which she couldn't help but find amusing since it would've felt like she was in a lottery already. I imagine so, it's a common feeling for us Masters. A surprisingly ornate lottery ticket too, much more than you'd get at a newsagent, if those were even still around.
The third was a… certainly striking painting. It mostly depicted a bleak, barren hillside, but with a group of people all scrunched in at the bottom-right corner, which for sure drew the eye. The last was a copy of a hefty tome with its title, of course, blurred out, though she could tell it was written in Chinese and was opened to Chapter 90.
However, it wasn't just relics she found in the museum. Turning around, she suddenly bumped into a black-haired boy who immediately glared at her, though it looked like his face was just naturally in a glare the whole time. He was dressed largely in black and red, having donned a leather jacket, ripped jeans, and a series of chains.
"I'm sorry, I really should've been watching-" Sakura began, but got cut off.
"How feeble," he said, "Unlike you casuals, I don't apologise for nothing. You could never understand me anyway, what it's like to have your heart tainted black. Like my soul." Much as that last sentence made sense.
I would've just backed off myself, but Sakura then glared right back and spoke out, "W-what? You, you jerk! I've got just as much right to be here as you!"
That made this other player groan and back off, simply saying goodbye with a "Whatever". Sakura noticed he didn't have a valet anywhere around, though it was easy to imagine this guy going 'Valet? Pfft, only weaklings need valets'.
As this guy walked out, Sakura's eyes widened she noticed something about him she really should've before, but had been overshadowed by his attitude. The guy seriously had wolf ears and a tail poking out of him.
"What we call an A-Ray, most likely," Beryl remarked, "While it's generalising and inaccurate to say A-Rays are beast-human hybrids, that is how they're typically thought of."
For some reason, hearing the word 'A-Ray' also triggered the word 'Liner' in Sakura's head, though she couldn't tell why. Felt like those two words just fit together, for some strange reason…
Right, at this point she really ought to be getting to her room. But from this trip to the museum, Sakura would say the relic that made the most of an impression on her was:
[ ] Those rocket orbit calculations.
[ ] That fancy lottery ticket.
[ ] The dark and unusual painting.
[ ] That Chinese doorstopper tome.
[ ] Oh yeah, she remembered another one. Dust and sand from a Syrian cave, odd choice for a museum.
