I'm Not A Master, I'm A Director
Chapter 393: An Ordinary Day Begins with the Morning Sun
Thud
After Amakusa said, "I've lost," Ruler—Jeanne—finally relaxed, and Laeticia's body collapsed to the floor.
"Hey, kid. You okay?"
Shishigou rushed to her side. After checking her over and confirming there were no external injuries—only exhaustion—he let out a breath of relief.
"What happened to her?" Amakusa asked quietly.
Cradling the girl gently in his arms, Shishigou replied, "No wounds. She just pushed herself too far and passed out."
"Is that so? To think she tried to deliver a final blow in that condition… She's just an ordinary girl. Human obsession truly is terrifying."
"You're one to talk," Shishigou shot back. "You spent sixty years chasing your own obsession."
"Haha… I suppose that's true."
Leaning against the steps, Amakusa let out a self-mocking chuckle.
Shishigou watched the priest who had bowed his head in defeat and sighed softly.
In his battle against the saint, the priest had won. He had protected the Greater Grail and even sent the interfering saint back to the Throne of Heroes.
But when it came to what mattered most to him—his grand plan to save humanity—Amakusa Shirou Tokisada had utterly failed.
His body was already counting down its final moments.
He would never live to see the day the Greater Grail gathered enough magical energy to activate the ritual again.
In other words, tactical success could not conceal strategic defeat.
Thus, the Great Holy Grail War ended with the downfall of Amakusa Shirou Tokisada.
Of course, he could gamble. He could bet that one day the Greater Grail would restore its mana, and someone would summon him again to resume his salvation of humanity.
But he refused.
If such a person existed, the odds were far higher that they would use the Grail for their own selfish desires.
Amakusa would never allow the Greater Grail to be misused. In the wrong hands, it could very well bring about humanity's destruction.
There was only one choice.
"By the power of my Command Seal, Assassin, send them safely to the surface."
For the first time in this Holy Grail War, Amakusa used one of his Command Seals on his own Servant.
"Master!"
Semiramis couldn't hide the disbelief in her voice.
Even Shishigou stared back at Amakusa in shock.
But Amakusa remained firm.
"This hanging garden is about to collapse. If you stay here, you'll die. I may not be able to save everyone… but at least I can save you."
"Hey, Kotomine—"
"—Sorry about that, Uncle Shishigou~"
Amakusa flashed a playful grin. "You may be the winner of this Holy Grail War, but I can't let you obtain the Grail. I'll destroy it here."
Shishigou snorted. "Like I'd want that thing."
Though she clearly wanted to drag down the ones who had ruined her Master's plan, Semiramis obeyed. With a transfer spell, she sent Shishigou, Laeticia, and Astolfo away from the chamber.
"I sent them to the escape vessel at the base. With Rider's Riding skill, they should make it back to the surface alive."
Clutching her wound, Semiramis lowered herself to sit beside Amakusa.
"What… Your castle even has something like that?"
She smiled smugly. "Of course. Regretting not asking me to save you too?"
"No. Even if I left… I wouldn't survive."
At his carefree answer, she let out a soft laugh.
Gently, she drew his head into her lap.
"Well, I'm not long for this world either," she murmured. "So let two dying souls comfort each other in their final moments."
A ray of sunlight streamed through the window, scattering across her long black hair.
Before they realized it, dawn had come.
The endless night was finally over. Morning had arrived.
"What a pity… this isn't humanity's dawn."
Amakusa whispered.
Semiramis sighed. "You… Even now, all you feel is regret?"
There was a trace of jealousy in her tone.
Amakusa blinked in brief surprise, then broke into a bright, unrestrained smile.
"After all… I love humanity the most."
"Oh yes. Humanity's savior."
Semiramis emphasized the title deliberately, her voice edged with mock resentment.
Amakusa gently traced his fingers over the Empress's wound and let out a quiet sigh.
"Between you and me… which one do you think will die first?"
"That makes no difference."
"It does to me," Amakusa replied softly. "Because the one left behind will surely be sadder than the one who goes first."
His words drew a tender smile from the Empress. She reached up and brushed his cheek with her fingertips.
"I like that answer. Hmm… since this is such a rare opportunity, how about I give you a reward?"
"…A reward?"
As if hearing the word for the first time, Amakusa tilted his head in confusion.
From the moment he had set foot on the path of saving humanity, he had never acted in pursuit of compensation.
"There's no need, is there?"
"Accept it. This is the only reward you'll ever receive."
Semiramis had witnessed the thorn-covered path this man had walked.
If she didn't acknowledge him—this man who had given everything for humanity, yet received not a single word of affirmation—wouldn't that be too cruel?
So, without giving him a second chance to refuse, she pressed her lips firmly against his.
It lasted only an instant.
When she lifted her head, the Empress looked down at the utterly stunned Amakusa, her smile cold and triumphant.
"Well? Is that reward sufficient?"
"If you dare say you're dissatisfied, I'll poison you."
Her childish pout made him laugh.
"No… It's the best reward I've ever received. Thank you, Semiramis. I'm truly glad I met you."
With those final words, Amakusa Shirou Tokisada closed his eyes.
"Ah… So you've already gone…"
Holding his now lifeless body carefully in her arms, Semiramis moved as though afraid of waking him.
"What a pity… truly."
For once, she had wanted to pursue a man. Yet the time during which their feelings aligned had been no more than a fleeting moment.
It was far too short.
And yet, that fleeting instant was the most fulfilled she had ever felt.
"…I think I understand that girl now. It's because life is so brief that we learn to cherish it."
Gazing blankly at the rising sun beyond the window, Semiramis smiled faintly.
"Good morning, Shirou."
And with that, she vanished as well.
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"Love, huh…"
A trace of envy flickered through Jeanne d'Arc's eyes.
"What, you… thinking about romance now?"
Shinji barely stopped himself from blurting out something far less polite.
'Seriously. After hanging around Mordred and the others for so long, I can't even manage a normal flirt anymore. I need to brush up on my skills when we get back…'
"Honestly, Master. I'm still a maiden, you know?"
Unaware of his inner monologue, Jeanne protested from the perspective of a proper young girl.
"I spent my life thinking about my country. I never had the chance to fall in love. And now that I don't have to shoulder a nation's fate—or save the world like in some movie—of course I'd want to pursue a little happiness of my own~"
"In that case, how about we grab a coffee after the movie ends?"
Jeanne immediately shook her head.
"Master, you only want to invite me for that 5 a.m. coffee to watch the sunrise together, don't you? That's not allowed. We're not at that stage yet."
"Is that so…"
Her refusal left Shinji slightly dejected.
But then he quickly realized that even if this countryside girl from France agreed to "have coffee" with him, he probably wouldn't be able to do anything anyway.
There was a mountain of promotional work waiting tomorrow, and it was already terribly late tonight.
Even if he managed to ask her out, they'd really just end up watching the sunrise with a cup of coffee in hand.
'So… did I just waste a perfectly good opportunity or not?'
Shinji sighed inwardly.
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"Hey, kid! Wake up!"
Hearing someone calling out to her, Laeticia slowly opened her eyes.
She found herself leaning against a rock. In the distance, the Hanging Gardens were falling from the sky.
"…Did we win?"
Her memory cut off midway. Seeing Shishigou and Astolfo nearby, confusion flickered across her face.
"Of course we did."
Shishigou let out a hearty laugh as he plopped down onto the ground, basking comfortably in the gentle light of dawn.
"…Is that so…"
Laeticia gazed at the slowly rising sun, her expression tinged with uncertainty.
The past few days had been far too surreal, far beyond what an ordinary high school girl like her could possibly handle.
A Holy Grail War. Heroic Spirits. A saint. A priest. A floating castle in the sky.
Every single one of them belonged in fantasy stories, not reality.
"If I told everyone about this… they'd definitely laugh at me, right?"
She scratched her cheek awkwardly.
Her clothes were completely tattered. How on earth was she supposed to explain this to her family?
Seeing the troubled look on her face, Shishigou scratched his head. After a moment's hesitation, he pulled a small box from his coat and held it out to her.
"I remember you like this kind of chocolate. Go on, have one. Let's call it a celebratory drink for our victory."
"Huh? New Master, you've got alcohol?"
Astolfo, who had been staring up at the falling castle, immediately perked up and dashed over.
"Don't crowd me!" Shishigou shoved him away in annoyance. "I don't have booze! Just chocolate!"
"Thank you."
Laeticia smiled and accepted the box. She unwrapped one and placed it in her mouth.
Truth be told, she didn't actually like Ferrero Rocher. It was far too sweet for her taste.
The one who loved this flavor… was Jeanne. That saint had an almost unreasonable devotion to sweets.
But—
"…I think I might come to like this chocolate."
Carefully savoring the sweetness spreading across her tongue, Laeticia smiled from the bottom of her heart.
"Because it carries her memories of this world."
The castle fell.
The morning sun rose.
A new day began, unchanged, as if nothing at all had happened.
The strange incident in a small Romanian town drew massive outside attention.
But with the intervention of the Clock Tower, the enormous crater in the town was officially classified as a gas explosion. The battle in the Hanging Gardens was dismissed as the work of a small terrorist group.
Thanks to Amakusa's deliberate restraint, the Holy Grail War had resulted in remarkably few civilian casualties. The relevant authorities could finally breathe a sigh of relief.
In the end, the war involving fourteen Heroic Spirits—seven of Red and seven of Black—was reduced to a series of "accidents" and "coincidences."
No one knew what kind of fierce battle had unfolded in the sky that night.
No one knew that human civilization had nearly come to a standstill.
Countless people welcomed the new day filled with hopes, dreams, and emotions—never realizing their very fate had teetered on the brink.
Naturally, no one would know of the saint who fought for them, nor of her companions.
But perhaps… that ignorance was the best possible outcome for her.
Because it meant her struggle and sacrifice had not been in vain.
There was nothing better than that.
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"A classic, straight-down-the-middle ending!"
That was the verdict given by Robert Iger, CEO of The Walt Disney Company, after watching Fate/Apocrypha.
The good guys defeated the bad guys. The world returned to peace.
As the head of a film company, Iger understood perfectly well that a commercial story aimed at mass audiences needed a heroic, orthodox conclusion. Otherwise, it simply wouldn't sell.
Personally, he would have loved to see a story where the world was truly destroyed.
But he knew such an ending was unlikely in a production of this scale.
That said, cliché or not, Fate/Apocrypha still managed to surprise him.
Unlike many films that obsess over romance between the male and female leads, there was no love story between Amakusa and Jeanne, only a pure clash of ideals.
And yet, that purity had held his attention from beginning to end.
It wasn't until the Empress kissed Amakusa that he suddenly remembered—oh right, romance exists.
After all, not a single classic Disney animation was without a love story. In many of them, the romance between prince and princess was the very backbone of the plot.
As such, Iger had always been highly sensitive to romantic subplots.
But in Fate/Apocrypha, it was surprisingly difficult to find one at all.
The love between Semiramis and Amakusa was undeniably tragic.
But their feelings had already been established before the film even began.
There was nothing particularly unusual about that setup. What truly surprised Robert Iger was something else entirely—
That Shinji Matou had managed to make him forget about romance altogether and focus solely on the story itself.
'Looks like that Matou kid really is an exceptional storyteller. His control over pacing is excellent. The consistent success of his films isn't a coincidence.'
Iger silently assessed Shinji's abilities, recalculating the value of both Shinji himself and Type-Moon as a whole.
The smiling Mickey Mouse had not yet abandoned his acquisition plans.
Unlike this calculating executive, most of the audience in the theater were still immersed in the afterglow of the film.
They didn't care about directorial pacing, market value, or business strategy.
What captivated them were the scenes—the spectacle, the effects, the sheer visual grandeur.
Especially the Hanging Gardens soaring across the night sky.
To most viewers, it was a breathtaking architectural marvel, dazzling and magnificent.
"Man… I really want to visit the Hanging Gardens now," Fujita sighed dreamily. "I'm so jealous of those lucky tourists who won the visitation lottery at the start of the year."
If he could confess to a cute girl on one of those floating platforms… maybe he'd finally escape singlehood?
Fortunately, he kept that thought to himself. Otherwise, his friends would have instantly roasted him with, "You really think the problem is the location?"
"By the way, do you think Apocrypha will have a post-credit scene?" Shibamatsu asked, recalling Shinji's previous works.
"Just wait and see," Li Ri'ang replied with a shrug. "Post-credit scene or not, we're staying until the very end. The staff are coming up for the curtain call. This is a premiere, you know. You're not actually thinking about leaving early, are you?"
That reasoning convinced Shibamatsu to stay put.
Thankfully, the wait wasn't in vain.
After the credits finished rolling, the giant screen lit up once more.
However, instead of the anticipated post-credit scene, what appeared was a trailer.
A trailer for The Garden of Sinners.
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Tn: I updated the story once every 2 days, but if you want to see more chapter of this story ahead of time, please go to my Patreon.
Latest Chapter: Chapter 429: Another Poor Kid Who Gets Sold and Still Says Thanks[1]
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