"..."
Shirou drew in a sharp breath.
He asked a few passersby and was startled to discover one fact.
The story of King Arthur in this world was far more legendary than the version he knew.
The Shining Path: The Legend of King Arthur was not entirely an overpowered-protagonist novel. Rather, it was a famous work of art whose contents were somewhat exaggerated, yet completely aligned with the image of the King of Knights in people's minds.
To make a comparison, it was like Zhuge Kongming in Romance of the Three Kingdoms, so brilliant that he was nearly supernatural...
As if!
In what world's version of Romance of the Three Kingdoms does Zhuge Liang unify the Three Kingdoms and then defeat the King of the Moon who descended from space?!
In any case, the Arthur of this world. Or should it be Artoria?
She was not the tragic hero whose curtain fell on the Hill of the Sword, but a Britannian superhuman who had beaten down every enemy in heaven and earth.
Her rank as a Heroic Spirit could rival Gilgamesh... no, without question, it far surpassed even the oldest King of Heroes.
"Though it has nothing to do with me... what a headache."
Even if Shirou did not want to admit he was King Arthur, as a Servant manifested in this world, he could not decide what armaments he used.
If he released Excalibur's True Name, he would inevitably be taken for King Arthur...
The thought that this world's Artoria, someone he had never even met, might suffer damage to her reputation because of him made Shirou feel terribly guilty.
What should he do?
Shirou thought long and hard, then came up with a good solution.
A perfect explanation for why he had been summoned by the sword's scabbard, and why he could use the Holy Sword.
In this world, King Arthur was the greatest hero in human history.
Even with the scabbard of the Holy Sword as a Catalyst, a hero of that rank would have great difficulty descending into a Holy Grail War.
It was the same principle as Divine Spirits being unable to participate in the Holy Grail War.
Therefore, what Manaka Sajyou had summoned was actually an existence similar to, yet different from, the original King of Knights.
For ancient royalty, to whom assassination and war were everyday matters, such an existence would naturally be necessary.
That's right. I am actually Artoria's substitute, her shadow warrior. The Black Knight, Artorius!
Shirou was extremely satisfied. Good, let's go with that setting!
But would that not be strange?
He looked nothing like Artoria herself, yet he was supposed to be the king's substitute. Surely someone would ask that.
But a substitute did not refer only to appearance, especially in ancient times, when there were no photographs and things were much more flexible.
Modern people all believed King Arthur was a bearded old man, yet she was a beautiful blonde girl. That proved physical resemblance meant nothing at all.
Shirou felt that human history must have no shortage of similar cases.
Mm, for example, the King of Heroes and the King of Conquerors.
And so, Shirou settled on his Servant setting.
Faker, Artorius.
For now, he thought, it was better not to explain this to Manaka Sajyou yet.
…
…
In a cemetery in Romania's capital, the final Servant of the "Red" faction was successfully summoned.
"So, you're my Master?"
The small knight, whose entire body was covered in steel, spoke.
Although the voice came from behind a helmet, it rang out clearly and distinctly.
The Necromancer, Kairi Sisigou, nodded and held out his hand to the knight.
"I'm your Master, Kairi Sisigou. I look forward to working with you."
"...This is a graveyard? You really picked a disgusting place to Summon me."
Kairi Sisigou's friendly handshake was ignored, leaving him to scratch the back of his head awkwardly.
"No, that's a little unfair... I mean, to me, this place is basically home turf."
After explaining that he was a Necromancer, he asked the knight,
"You're Saber... right? Can you tell me your True Name? Also, I'm your Master, so why can't I see some of your parameters?"
"It's probably because of Mother's helmet."
The red knight snorted and removed the vicious-looking helmet.
When Saber's face was revealed, Kairi Sisigou's mouth fell open.
"A woman...?"
The next instant, the sword in the knight's hand drew an arc through the air, slicing past the Magus's nose.
"Don't say that again."
Saber spoke in an icy voice filled with murderous intent. "Call me a woman one more time, and I'll kill you."
Kairi Sisigou's instincts told him she meant it.
"...Sorry. My bad. I won't say it again."
The Magus raised both hands and apologized honestly.
Saber's beautiful face was still twisted in anger, but she seemed to calm down a little because of that.
She took a deep breath and muttered with a slightly displeased expression.
"I forgive you. Now open your ears and listen carefully. My name is Mordred, the one and only rightful heir of the King of Knights, Arthur Pendragon."
Kairi Sisigou stared with his mouth agape.
The Catalyst he had prepared was a fragment of the Round Table. Normally, it should have called forth the Knight of the Round Table most compatible with him.
He had not expected it to be Mordred, King Arthur's most beloved daughter.
She had just called herself King Arthur's one and only rightful heir, but...
"Didn't you rebel?"
The Magus's pointed remark made Saber's cheeks flush as she muttered,
"Yes, that's right. I did rebel. That king never acknowledged my abilities, not even at the very end. Whether in military affairs or politics, I was his finest child. But he refused to entrust Britannia to me, and instead let my younger sister... Artoria inherit the throne."
That cold voice did not mean her anger had faded. On the contrary, rage and hatred strong enough to make the girl's whole body tremble were hidden inside her.
Mordred's mother was the Fairy Queen Morgan. Even by birth, she was nobler than her younger sister.
Yet even so, the king refused to acknowledge her abilities.
It had been a lie from the beginning. In truth, the king had always favored Artoria more.
"So I ended everything through rebellion. After that king and Mother went to Avalon, I destroyed everything they had poured their hearts into building. I wanted to make that king understand that his life had no meaning."
Yes, according to legend.
Soon after Arthur and Morgan vanished and were believed to have gone to the Fairy Realm, Mordred launched a rebellion.
The once-powerful kingdom rapidly declined in the civil war.
Several years later, Mordred and Artoria fought their final duel at the Hill of the Sword.
In the end, the Knight of Rebellion was pierced by the Holy Lance, while the Queen likewise took a blow from the magic sword. The sisters perished together.
The legacy left behind by the King of Knights and the Fairy Queen, Britannia, the last Age of Gods kingdom on earth, was destroyed.
"Mm. In that case, Saber, is your wish to become king?"
For Mordred, who had been denied the right to inherit the throne, becoming king must surely be the wish she wanted to fulfill with the power of the Holy Grail.
But Mordred answered Kairi Sisigou's question with arrogance.
"No, that's wrong. I have no intention of becoming king through the power of the Holy Grail. Even if I became king that way, that king would never acknowledge me. My wish is to challenge The Sword of Selection. That is all."
Kairi Sisigou was left speechless.
After a long while, he asked with a dry throat, "What if the Holy Grail grants your wish, but you can't pull the Sword in the Stone?"
That was right. If she challenged The Sword of Selection, then of course there was a chance she might fail to draw it. After all, it was the sword that had defeated every man in Britannia.
Even Mordred, who had inherited the bloodline of kings, was not guaranteed to succeed.
"Master, that is a truly stupid question."
Mordred proudly puffed out her chest and said, "Because there's no way I wouldn't be able to pull it out!"
The pressure in her voice truly carried the dignity of a king.
If it were her, she might really be able to pull that sword out with ease.
Kairi Sisigou could not help thinking that the King of Knights may have been a great king, but he certainly had no eye for people.
…
…
On the third day after meeting the young Father who served as the Supervisor of the "Red" faction.
The time was now midnight.
Shirou and Manaka Sajyou had left Sighișoara in the evening and headed for Trifas, where the Greater Grail was located.
This was the stronghold of the "Black" faction.
As soon as they entered the city, Shirou saw its landmark: Fortress of Millennia.
The fortress had stood for a thousand years, surviving even the bombardments of two world wars without falling. It was the main stronghold of the Yggdmillennia Clan.
"Manaka, from this point on, we're in Yggdmillennia territory. Enemies could appear at any moment, and enemy Servants may attack as well... don't leave my side."
"Okay, Saber."
Manaka Sajyou nodded obediently and happily moved closer to Shirou.
The instant her small shoulder touched Shirou's arm, her face flushed red again, and she hurriedly pulled back a little.
It was late at night. The streets of this small town, which had only twenty or thirty thousand residents and an extremely slow pace of life, were completely empty.
In other words, from the moment Shirou and Manaka Sajyou stepped into Trifas, they had already been locked onto by the enemy.
It was a blatant provocation.
And the purpose of Shirou and Manaka Sajyou's visit was equally clear: they had come to declare war on the Yggdmillennia Clan.
Manaka Sajyou had killed Hyouma Sagara in Japan and seized the Command Spells that had originally belonged to Yggdmillennia.
From the very beginning, there had been no option for the two sides to coexist.
On top of that, the Holy Grail currently in Yggdmillennia's possession was Shirou's target as well.
Recover the Holy Grail as quickly as possible, then go home and find Iri and Illya!
"Manaka."
"...Mm."
Manaka Sajyou set aside the carefree, outing-like mood she had shown earlier and nodded. She had also sensed the enemy approaching.
But the number of footsteps drawing near exceeded what they had expected.
There were multiple sets of agile footsteps moving to surround them, along with the heavy strides of more than a dozen units that sounded like heavy machinery.
"Mm."
Just as Shirou had guessed, Yggdmillennia had an army under its command.
It was obvious with a little thought.
The head of the Yggdmillennia Clan had personally witnessed the power of an army during the Third Holy Grail War. There was no way he would obediently settle for a simple seven-on-seven battle between Heroic Spirits.
"..."
With his expression calm and unchanged, Shirou drew the wind-wrapped Holy Sword from the void and warily looked around.
What appeared there was a group of expressionless young men and women.
They wore matching white uniforms and carried bows or enormous halberds. At a rough estimate, there were at least twenty to thirty of them.
Aside from them, there were also several gigantic humanoid Golems, each over three meters tall.
"Yggdmillennia... doesn't look very friendly."
...
Meanwhile, inside the Fortress of Millennia.
Magnificent and grand, solemn and imposing.
Even if one piled up a hundred words of praise, they would not be enough to describe the sight.
The six Servants of the "Black" faction, everyone except "That One" who had been summoned in Shinjuku, had now gathered in this Audience Hall.
"My King, these are the enemies who have invaded your territory."
A man in formal mage attire stepped before the throne.
Though he appeared young, he was the head of the Yggdmillennia Clan, a man who had lived for more than a century.
Darnic Preston Yggdmillennia knelt before the white-haired, aristocratic man seated upon the throne.
His posture was exactly that of a vassal paying respect to his monarch, and indeed, he addressed the other party as "King."
This king was the strongest trump card Darnic had prepared for the Great Holy Grail War: the "Black" Lancer, Vlad III.
To Romania, he was Transylvania's greatest hero. Turkish soldiers, fearing him, called him the Impaler.
And across the world, his fearsome name as the vampire Count Dracula was known to all.
As long as this was Romania, his fame stood at its peak, enough to rival Heracles in Greece.
"To think they would dare set foot in my territory alone."
The "Black" Lancer gazed at the boy and girl who had entered his domain without permission, and his dignified voice echoed through the Audience Hall.
"Either they possess absolute confidence in their own strength, or they are fools incapable of understanding the gap in strength between themselves and their enemy. Whichever it may be, it suits me just fine. This is an excellent chance to test our forces. Send out the Alchemy Corps and the Golems according to plan. If possible, you may also consider annihilating them. Is that understood, Darnic?"
"As you command. I shall obey Your Majesty's will."
"Speaking of which... which of those two is the Servant, and which is the Master?"
Because Shirou was wearing the modern clothes he had bought before leaving Japan, and because both he and Manaka were young people under twenty, Vlad III found himself uncertain.
"Darnic, as a Master, you should be able to tell which one is the Servant, should you not?"
The Magus frowned. "Hmm... perhaps the other party is using some special Skill or Noble Phantasm, making it impossible to confirm their Status Parameters. As for which of them is the Servant... can any of you confirm it?"
Darnic asked the other Masters of the Yggdmillennia family.
"No, Uncle... we tried observing them as well, but we cannot confirm which one is the Servant."
As if speaking on behalf of everyone, the girl seated in a wheelchair, Fiore, with tea-colored hair and gentle features, answered their leader, Darnic.
"Hm? Berserker? What are you staring at on the screen? Is there someone you're interested in?"
The bespectacled boy beside her, Caules, who gave off a somewhat timid impression, spoke to the girl next to him.
Although the girl was called Berserker, she wore a dress resembling a bridal gown.
"Hmm~? Eh... ah..."
The pink-haired girl shook her head absentmindedly, her eyes still fixed on the screen.
To be precise, she was staring at the red-haired boy.
...