This is a story as long as the one Shirou went through.
When the white light lit up everything, Paul was unknowingly moved by the Great Transfer to a strange place.
Because he was out with his daughter Norn at the time, the two of them were moved together.
Although it was a confusing situation, Paul's strength as an S-class adventurer allowed him to react quickly and deal with whatever came his way.
He quickly took Norn back to the Asura Kingdom.
But when he returned to the Fittoa region, he found that the entire region had vanished.
The sight of such despair shocked Paul's brain, making him feel like it was all just a dream.
But he quickly realized that it was not a dream.
The Fittoa region, Buena Village, the Greyrat family…
All gone.
When Paul was at his most confused, even desperate, his daughter Norn's presence made him strong again. He realized that even if his whole family was gone, he had to pull himself together and protect his daughter.
So Paul quickly took action, contacting the people he used to know.
He was lucky to find that most of the Boreas family, with whom he had good relations, had survived.
He remembered Shirou, who had been sent to the Boreas family to learn swordsmanship. He had hoped to meet Shirou again, but learned that Shirou and Eris, the Boreas family's young lady, had disappeared together during the transfer.
Paul was hit with a second blow.
And the Boreas family had to take responsibility for the loss of the region.
The head of the family, Sauros, was thrown into prison, and Philip also lost his power and status, ending up in a situation that was no different from being locked up.
Paul realized that the Boreas family could not help him. After thinking about it, he decided to look for his former adventurer companions and his wife Zenith's family, the Holy Kingdom of Milis.
After some effort, Paul quickly used his reputation from his adventurer days to put together an investigation team to search for those who had been separated during the Great Transfer.
At the same time, Zenith's family was very concerned about her disappearance and gave Paul a lot of help, even allowing him to gain a foothold in the Milis continent.
Everything got off to a good start.
Paul even mistakenly thought that everything would go smoothly, that he would find his family and get back everything that was his.
But he soon found out how unfair fate could be.
A year after forming the investigation team, Paul found many ordinary people from the Fittoa region who had disappeared after the Great Transfer. His reputation grew, attracting a large number of followers.
Many people admired Paul's savior-like behavior and volunteered to join him.
However, Paul was not happy at all.
Because he still hadn't found any of the family members he wanted to find.
Whether it was Zenith, Lilia, Aisha, or even Shirou and Rudeus, he had heard absolutely nothing about any of them.
Especially Rudeus.
He thought that Rudeus would be studying at the magic university and would not be affected by the transfer, so he sent him a letter, hoping that he could come and help.
But the letter seemed to have fallen into water, with no response.
Paul didn't have time to confirm the situation at the magic university, so he decided to leave it for now.
As for the others, he had searched desperately for them, but still hadn't found any trace of them.
In this situation, Paul became more and more stubborn. He would do anything to find his family, and in order to keep the investigation team going, he had to force himself to search for every member of the Fittoa region, even committing crimes to get them back.
But he still couldn't find any clues.
In the end, he could only keep going with the help of alcohol, drinking from morning to night, never being able to stay sober.
Although he knew that he couldn't keep going like this, he couldn't control himself when he was sober.
He couldn't help but imagine that his family might already be dead.
He knew that Shirou's strength should be stronger than his own, and he could still remember Shirou killing the Red Dragon, but if he was transferred to the Demon Continent or other dangerous places, he could still run into an unbeatable opponent.
The hope in Paul's heart grew fainter and fainter.
He began to suspect that he had made the wrong choices, that because of his mistakes, he had lost his closest family members, and his most important things had been cruelly taken away.
The more he thought about it, the more he could only use alcohol to numb himself.
The bad news wasn't just for him. Because the search had gone on for so long, the search team had found a large number of missing people, who all wanted to return to their hometown.
Most of the search team members were also unable to handle the heavy workload and were starting to think about stopping the search.
Paul didn't want it to end like this, but it was difficult for him to change most people's minds on his own.
In the end, he hadn't even found a single family member.
What a useless man.
He could never become a mature adult, no matter how long he lived.
In the end, he could only drink even more to drown his sorrows, which led even the team members to keep their distance from him. Only his daughter Norn was willing to be around him.
It was thanks to Norn being by his side that he had been able to get this far.
Because he had to take care of his daughter, he hadn't completely given up on himself.
Otherwise, Paul even suspected that he might die drunk by the side of the road at any time.
It was also at this time that Paul heard that a Sword Saint had come.
Although the enemy was a Sword Saint, Paul was not worried, as he was an advanced user of three fighting styles.
Most importantly, he heard that the opponent was a young man, so young and reckless that his combat experience would definitely be very poor. He confidently went to face him.
In the end, this unexpected reunion between father and son happened.
…
In the bar.
The Paul Greyrat he hadn't seen in a long time had completely changed.
His cheeks were thin and sunken, with dark circles under his eyes, unshaven beard, messy hair, and a breath that reeked of alcohol. He looked like a complete wreck.
Completely different from the Paul he remembered.
But Shirou was no stranger to this kind of person. In fact, he was very familiar with it.
Because that was what Emiya Kiritsugu had been like, both the Emiya Kiritsugu in his memories and the Emiya Kiritsugu in Servant Emiya's memories.
A state of complete ruin and self-abandonment, because there was a huge obsession in his heart, but he couldn't achieve his goal no matter what.
That was why Shirou didn't feel much repugnance for the changed Paul. Instead, he felt even more recognition for him.
After all, the reason why he was acting this way was probably because he cared too much about his family.
Looking at it that way, Shirou felt that he wasn't doing as well as Paul.
Even though so much time had passed, he hadn't done anything useful.
Paul was doing much better than him.
While Shirou was thinking, Paul seemed to be examining Shirou as well. His drunken attitude had become slightly more sober.
But because of various reasons, he couldn't speak smoothly for a moment, and could only hesitate and say, "Hey… Shirou, you're Shirou, right?"
"What's wrong, Paul?"
"No, you've changed too much."
In Paul's eyes, Shirou had grown up a lot.
When he left Buena Village, Shirou was still just a boy, but now he had completely turned into a young man.
Almost no different from how he looked before he was transferred.
Plus, he had the strength of a Sword Saint.
That was why Paul was so hesitant.
Shirou, on the other hand, gradually understood the situation after a brief moment of confusion. He realized that the kidnapping he had encountered was not a kidnapping, but that Paul and his team were rescuing the victims of the Great Transfer.
The Somar from earlier must have been a poor person who had been enslaved after being caught in the transfer, and was rescued by Paul and his team through kidnapping.
Shirou naturally no longer considered any of this to be evil behavior.
He wasn't narrow-minded enough to think that following the law was the only form of justice.
He sincerely approved of Paul's actions.
"Paul, you've done well."
Shirou praised Paul from the bottom of his heart.
"This…"
Paul looked surprised at Shirou's words, and then even showed a pathetic expression, as if he was about to cry.
As in the past, although the two were nominally father and son, Shirou was actually the one who often educated Paul.
Now, after so many years, the role reversal had become even more pronounced.
"By the way, Shirou, where have you been all these years? How come I haven't been able to find you?"
Paul asked about Shirou's situation.
Shirou didn't hesitate and quietly explained everything he had been through.
Paul was both surprised and shocked to hear Shirou's words.
He didn't expect that he had gone to the dangerous Demon Continent, and had even survived in that dangerous place and returned safely.
Although Shirou hadn't established channels for searching for his family on the Demon Continent like Paul had, it was indeed too difficult to do so in that very dangerous land.
Paul wouldn't force him to do too much.
"You've been through a lot."
After listening to Shirou's story, Paul took a deep breath. He couldn't imagine whether he would have done better than Shirou if he had ended up on the Demon Continent.
He realized even more that his son was more outstanding than he had thought.
Therefore, Paul opened his mouth with an almost pleading tone: "Shirou, if it's you, you'll definitely be able to find Zenith and the others. Join my investigation team!"
"What?"
"With a Sword Saint like you joining, our investigation team can go further to search more dangerous places, whether it's the Demon Continent or the Begaritt Continent. Yeah, maybe like that we can really find Zenith and the others!"
"This…"
Shirou hesitated at Paul's rambling.
He didn't know how to respond to his expectations.
After all, joining the investigation team meant that he wouldn't be able to send Eris home.
He wouldn't be able to fulfill his promise to Eris.
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