"That's right."
Bedivere was a little agitated, "You really did see it, which means the King, she…"
"Very regrettably."
Shirou said regretfully, "The King is still the Lion King, not King Arthur."
To the point of hiding under the blankets and refusing to come out.
If not, he wouldn't have come to find Fujimaru Ritsuka.
"How could it be like this?"
Bedivere's shock, disappointment, dejection, pain, and guilt all mixed together, incomparably complicated.
He said painfully, "'The Sword of Promised Victory,' is a holy sword only the King can wield."
The silver arm was gripped tightly, "If even with that the King hasn't returned, then I…"
"Don't panic, Sir Bedivere."
Shirou comforted him, "Maybe we saw wrong, perhaps the Lion King wasn't using the Sword of Promised Victory but rather the Sword in the Stone."
"Yeah."
Fujimaru Ritsuka also said, "The Sword in the Stone is also King Arthur's sword."
"But wasn't the Sword in the Stone already broken in the legends of King Arthur?"
Mash tactlessly explained.
"That's not necessarily true, Mash."
Da Vinci corrected, "Heroic Spirits themselves are the embodiment of legends, not to mention the Lion King's status has already surpassed the concept of a Heroic Spirit."
["Indeed."]
Roman's voice came from the communicator, ["If you go by the legend where the Sword in the Stone was broken, then King Arthur also has the legend of returning the Sword of the Lake."]
"That's right," Mash then recalled, "Sir Bedivere, you were the Knight of the Round Table who accompanied King Arthur until her death, weren't you?"
Shirou's eyelid twitched slightly.
'What a brutal follow-up. Didn't she see Bedivere's face had already gone pale enough to faint?'
["Speaking of which…",] Olga Marie pondered, ["According to King Arthur's legend, after Bedivere returned the holy sword, he personally witnessed King Arthur board a ship to Paradise (Avalon)… something like that."]
["But, if King Arthur returned to Avalon, then what's going on with the Lion King now?"]
"—Are you alright, Sir Bedivere?", Finally, Fujimaru Ritsuka noticed Bedivere, cold sweat streaming down his face.
"No, I… I'm fine," Bedivere's lips squirmed, and after a long while he squeezed out those words, though his expression was still terrible.
"Since preparations have been made, I can't let guilt shackle me anymore."
Shirou had no intention of comforting him, but still said, "Sir Bedivere. Truth be told, I should hate you…"
If he had returned the sword in time, Saber wouldn't have ended up like this… He couldn't have not thought of it.
"But rather than hating others, I think it's better for me to just work harder myself. Because hating others, in a certain sense, is really just venting frustration at my own helplessness."
Shirou said as such, "I will save Saber… no matter what the cost, I'll stand before her again."
"I understand."
Bedivere took a deep breath to calm his feelings, regaining his usual delicate mind, "Thank you, Mr. Shirou. But there's still one doubt in my heart I need you to answer."
"What is it?", Shirou asked.
"It's…"
Just as Bedivere was about to speak, from the sides of the narrow path wedged between two valleys, a group of people appeared and surrounded them.
At the lead was a man wearing a skull mask who barked, "Stop here, foreigners… and knights?"
"Could it be you've come to seize our last hope?"
That skull-masked man spoke tensely.
Shirou raised a brow, his muscles tensing slightly.
He actually hadn't noticed their presence until now.
He had grown careless, his confidence in his current strength swelling too much… he needed to reflect.
"This is…"
Roman was slightly shocked, ["A Servant! And an Assassin, I didn't detect him at all!"]
"Be careful, Master."
Mash at once shielded Fujimaru Ritsuka.
Bedivere stepped forward politely, "We have no such intent, we were only fleeing and came here."
"Hmph!"
Hassan of the Cursed Arm snorted coldly, "You still needed to say such a thing? From the moment you stepped into the mountains, I've been watching you."
If not for their obvious motives, he really didn't want to show himself.
Especially since among them was a true god of slaughter.
Thinking back to the events in Singularity F, the burning Fuyuki City, Hassan of the Cursed Arm wanted to kill himself.
For the so-called Old Man of the Mountain to fail at assassinating humans, not only that but be mocked by them too.
Now he no longer had the face to meet the First Hassan.
Feeling deeply ashamed, he said with no pleasant tone, "We've already grasped information about you."
"The secret report says so, doesn't it? The red-haired hungry ghost saved our companions and caused a great uproar in the Holy Capital."
"First defeating among the Knights of the Round Table the one called the Knight of the Sun, Gawain, then consecutively beating the rebel knight Mordred and the child of sorrow Tristan."
"If not for the Lion King personally stepping in, it's said all the Knights of the Round Table would have died at his hands."
Hassan of the Cursed Arm said coldly, "I remember, the Lion King skewered that red-haired hungry ghost with a single spear, blowing him clear through the city walls, flying a kilometer into the desert outside the Holy Capital. Then she passed down judgment, easily altering the terrain and scorching the desert into a thousand miles of wasteland."
"Yet unexpectedly, that red-haired hungry ghost not only didn't die under the Lion King's judgment, but appeared here a day later!"
After Hassan of the Cursed Arm's explanation.
Fujimaru Ritsuka and the others fell silent for a moment, then all turned their eyes to Shirou.
Shirou said, "This is too much, how can they just randomly give people nicknames? What if someone mistakes me and Fujimaru, don't you think so, Fujimaru?"
He asked as if it had nothing to do with him.
"Yeah, way too much," Fujimaru Ritsuka gazed at him for quite a while before sighing, "Emiya-senpai, you only defeated Gawain?"
"Was it just luck?", Mash added another cutting remark.
"Consecutively defeating three Knights of the Round Table… and even withstanding our King's own judgment?", Bedivere stared at Shirou in shock.
The meaning was clear, 'Just who exactly are you?'
"Hahaha…"
Shirou raised his head naturally, expression composed, "The weather's really nice today."
"Indeed it is," Da Vinci laughed warmly, "Even Gawain wouldn't be able to see the sun now, right?"
"That's true," Shirou smiled without warmth, then looked at Hassan of the Cursed Arm, and his tone shifted suddenly, like the King himself reborn, "Hassan, you've grown lazy! Present your head!"
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