Chapter 181: Idiots

Upon his arrival, the sleepy Castoria lazily pointed out randomly before fluctuations started to appear.

Bzzt-!

A miniature golden sword was summoned in Castoria's hand. It emitted the same aura as the [Excalibur] that Artoria wielded, but it is much more complete than it.

Yawning, she spun the sword while she rubbed her eyes using her right hand.

Seeing Castoria play with Excalibur that she "casually" brought out, Zelretch couldn't help but let out a small laugh. He instantly understood that it is her way of warning him, though he must say that it is an interesting way of doing so.

Meanwhile, Shiro thought that it is very cute. A destructive weapon being small-sized and is played by a cute girl... His destructive instincts are going out once more.

"It's been a while since our last meeting, eh?" He said.

"Well, relatively."

"Hm... Did you know what Roman is up to these days?"

"..."

Hearing this, Zelretch fell silent. As one of Solomon's students thousands of years ago, he carried the duty of passing down his magecraft to the modern humans.

With Solomon having predicted the Age of Man, he knew that magecraft might become extinct for humans. Thus, he gave this task to Zelretch, the one who became a Magician later on. He pioneered Jewel Magecraft and passed it to the Tohsaka Family, and he is also responsible for holding the Clocktower.

The point here is that... he knew what his teacher has been doing these days.

First of all, he is being catfished by a Grand candidate in Avalon. Worse, he's simping for him!

There's also his otaku tendencies, all of which he witnessed with his [Kaleidoscope].

Lastly, he caught wind that Roman is building his "magical girl army".

Any one of these is enough to bring the dignified King Solomon's reputation to mud, let alone three of them. Hence, he's feeling complicated right now.

At one side, he wanted to make fun of Roman with those deeds. In the other side, he wanted to just stay silent and retain his teacher's dignity. His "fun" side and his "serious" side is clashing right now...

In the end, only one side remained.

"He's managing Chaldea well."

Hearing this, Shiro knew that Zelretch chose to preserve their dignity! Truly, it is an unexpected choice.

"Oh, I see." He replied.

"Seeing that there's nothing wrong here, I'll be going first."

Right after he said it, his figure turned into jewels that dissipated into air. Castoria recalled her Excalibur at this time, all the while her sleepiness got removed.

"...Shiro."

"Yes?"

"You're planning on eating that guy, right?"

Shiro's expression turned serious as he nodded affirmatively.

"It wasn't possible before, but now that I've recovered..." His eyes sported a nostalgic look as he remembered his past. Those times of him cautiously preparing for his ascension but it turned out extremely smooth in the end is something to look back.

"...It's time to be a god again."

*****

Under the starry sky, Sayaka felt the cold breeze go past her. She's currently wearing a pair of blue pajamas and is sitting on the roof, contemplating her own future.

'What should I do now?'

Earlier, she had a talk with her mentor. The latter pointed out that she hasn't thought of what she would do after this fiasco. Yes, she can follow him, but he explicitly told her that she should settle the loose ends in her world.

Only by doing that would she truly be free of everything as small doubts kept appearing in her mind. If not for the fact that Fenrir rewrote reality and removed Grief Seeds, hers would've been corrupted at a huge margin with those doubts.

'I want to enact justice. Save more people. But... I can't keep them hanging.'

The ones that she thought were her parents and friends. Also, Kyousuke is included in this as she wanted to form a closure with him. That wish messed up his mind and prompted him to 'love' her, so she's feeling a bit guilty even though she knew how bad of a person he is.

Tap-!

Tap-!

Sayaka heard footsteps coming from below which interrupted her musings. By the time she used her sensory skill, she recognized him as Emiya Shirou. He was just standing still, seemingly occupied with something.

Knock-! Knock-!

"Ah?"

Hearing the knocks in the ceiling, Shiro thought that it is a stray cat and looked at the roof, only to see a familiar acquaintance sitting there.

"Miki-san?"

"It's already late at night. Your circuits are already fixed, so you're occupied with other things?"

After hearing it, Shirou's mouth twitched. Back in the past, it is natural for him to stay up to 11PM just to complete his arduous magecraft training. Though, he can finish it earlier due to the lengthiest task, the switching on of his circuits, was shortened from an hour to a few seconds.

This enabled him to practice [Projection], [Reinforcement], and even [Alteration] more. With his experience in [Reinforcement], the other two became way easier than he had thought.

'You should be the done sleeping early...' He thought inwardly. "It's nothing... I'm just thinking about something."

"You're not thinking about being a hero of justice, aren't you?" She asked.

"Eh..."

"...Why haven't I thought of this?"

It's been a few days since the battle in Homuhara occurred. As usual, she trained Shirou every morning, with them having a casual talks every now and then.

One of the things that they talked about is his desire to help others regardless of himself.

"What did you get in that breakfast, really?"

That morning, she also ate the divine curry that her mentor and Shirou cooked. Through that, she gained a miracle. Her mana capacity transformed into an infinitely evolving one, increasing her capacity every second. This increase is not constant since the stronger she gets, the greater the constant increase.

Thus, her units of mana jumped to nearly 5,000 units straight.

With that, she can lie down and become stronger...

"How do I explain this..?" Shirou muttered as he organized his thoughts. "I got the ability to... live as myself in different worlds."

Just like Rin, Shirou's ability is also related to parallel worlds. While the former's allowed her to form a quasi-chat group with her parallel selves, the latter's ability enabled him to live as "him" in other worlds. In every night, he stays in that world for a day, immersed in his "role".

This is the reason why he could vividly recall his thoughts and memories at that time—he felt that it is "his", yet not his.

At one time, he lived the life of "Emiya Shirou" had done everything for a single girl. He was taught how to use his circuits properly by Kiritsugu, though he possessed an ideal that clashed Shirou's.

In another world, he lived as "EMIYA" who protected the world by removing world-ending threats. He was exhausted in the end and unable to hold onto his belief of justice.

With these contrasting experience, he couldn't bear it and started to have some doubts with his belief.

Is it the world or his loved ones?

Is it worth holding into or not?

Is his belief a worthless struggle?

Seeing his contemplative look, Sayaka shook her head.

"You're doubting your choices?"

"?!"

She silently stared at him before looking at the stars. That look of his reminded Sayaka of her idiocy, so she couldn't help but say:

"We're both idiots."