You call this a projection?

Is this an illusion?

By now, it wasn’t just Darnic and the others, who had been watching this scene through the image transmitted by their familiar, who felt it might be a hallucination. Even Kairi Shishigou himself, the person directly involved, felt a flicker of doubt the moment he regained consciousness: Was what just happened merely a delusion? Or had he fallen victim to some kind of illusion magecraft cast by Shirou Emiya?

But very quickly, Shirou Emiya’s voice followed: ”Alright, the experiment is complete.”

”If you discover later, Kairi Shishigou, that the curse upon you has truly been lifted, you don’t actually need to thank me too much.”

After all, unless the Magic Crest inside Kairi Shishigou’s body were to be transplanted again, Shirou Emiya’s original hypothesis—that the curse rooted in the Shishigou family would vanish upon Kairi’s death—remained just a hypothesis.

Of course, there was another reason...

”Because the reward I wanted, I have already obtained from you.”

[Crazy Diamond]!!

As he said this, the [Crazy Diamond] Stand beside Shirou Emiya—which had just used its ability to perform emergency life-saving surgery on Kairi Shishigou, who had been in a state of mortal injury and was moments away from death—moved its hands once again. It reached out to touch the back of Shirou Emiya’s hand, activating its Stand ability to restore everything.

Using its ability to ”restore,” it had not only been punching Kairi Shishigou but had effectively ”punched out” the Command Spell from the back of Kairi’s hand. Now, under Shirou Emiya’s direction, it was repairing that displaced Command Spell onto the back of Shirou’s own hand, integrating it into his original Command Spell system.

This was not because Shirou Emiya was greedy for Kairi Shishigou’s Command Spells. One look at the three perfectly complete Command Spells on the back of Shirou’s hand would confirm that.

Unlike the Shirou Emiya in the original work, this Shirou Emiya possessed the memories of his past life—effectively having a ”walkthrough” for the game. Furthermore, after using his system to travel to other worlds and project weapons and abilities from them, he was truly capable of clearing the Holy Grail War single-handedly.

The existence of a Servant, for Shirou Emiya, was truly just a ”credential” that allowed him to participate in the Holy Grail War.

Therefore, Shirou Emiya taking the Command Spell from Kairi Shishigou wasn’t because he needed it to boost his combat power. Instead, he was exploiting the link between the

Command Spell in Kairi’s hand and the Greater Grail of Romania. Much like Matou Zouken—one of the original Three Families—he was utilizing the loopholes they left behind in the magical ritual of the Holy Grail War to steal the qualification to participate.

The Einzbern family, also one of the Three Families, actually had a better method. Since the leylines of Fuyuki City were assimilated with the Magic Circuits of the Maiden of Winter, and the Greater Grail accumulated magical energy via those leylines—a connection also formed by the Maiden of Winter herself—the Einzbern homunculi could do more than just peer into the memories of the land of Fuyuki through their similarity to her. They could conversely use the leylines to influence the Greater Grail, granting themselves the qualification to participate in the Holy Grail War.

However, after Darnic moved the Greater Grail from Fuyuki City to Romania, this ”cheat” method could no longer be used.

Fortunately, the other methods were not significantly affected. Having projected Acht’s formal wear and peered into those technologies, Shirou Emiya only needed this one proof to allow the Greater Grail to supply magical energy to Saber.

”Phew.”

The magical burden of supporting a Servant’s manifestation vanished instantly. Shirou Emiya now felt like a driver who had finally exited a traffic jam; even his mood brightened along with the clearing of those magical circuits.

”So, what comes next...”

Looking at Kairi Shishigou, who was frantically checking the number of Command Spells on his own hand after seeing the four now displayed on the back of Shirou’s, Shirou Emiya continued: ”Since I was able to take this one Command Spell from you, I could have completely taken the one you have remaining just now.”

”And if you had lost your Command Spells, you naturally would have lost the qualification to be a Master.”

”Not only you, but Mordred, as the Red Saber, would have also returned to the Throne of Heroes due to the lack of magical supply.”

Yes, Shirou Emiya was right.

When Kairi Shishigou realized what Shirou Emiya had just done, even though his mind had long since been tempered to be exceptionally resilient and calm on those battlefields in the Middle East, he couldn’t help but feel a lingering fear.

And doubt.

’Why didn’t Shirou Emiya do that?’

”Why not? Or rather, it’s very simple...” Seeming to read Kairi Shishigou’s thoughts, Shirou Emiya said, ”If I had chosen to take all of your Command Spells just now, then neither you nor I would have been able to stop the process of Mordred returning to the Throne of Heroes.”

”And that outcome, for my Saber, would likely be very difficult to accept.”

”With the help of this Holy Grail War, my Saber still has many things she wants to ask your Red Saber.”

Glancing at Mordred, who had abandoned the fight and rushed to Kairi Shishigou’s side the moment she sensed something was wrong, Shirou Emiya quickly withdrew his gaze. He turned his head to look at Saber, who had also come to his side after Mordred disengaged from the battle.

”Saber, go and ask.”

”Whether you want to ask why Mordred rebelled in the past, or why Mordred—who personally destroyed Britain—responded to the summons of the Holy Grail War and wanted to entrust the Grail with the wish to return to that day, the Day of Election?”

”Saber, you should also want to know the answers to these questions, right?”

Although Shirou Emiya, with his memories of a past life, could tell Saber the answers right now, compared to just being told the answer directly, Saber probably wanted to know from Mordred—the daughter (son?) who was once one of her Knights of the Round Table—why she would do such a thing.

After all, Saber, who held herself to the standards of a saint, would rather blame herself for the fall of Britain than attribute the fault entirely to Mordred.

’Was it because I didn’t do a good job back then that Mordred rebelled?’

Saber was just that kind of person.

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