"Shirou, I..."
Hearing Shirou's words, Paul's face turned dark, as if some emotion was about to burst. In the end, he didn't say anything, only tears kept flowing from the corners of his eyes. "I'm sorry, Shirou, I, I really wanted to see you. I couldn't find anyone... I thought, maybe everyone was dead... Later, I saw you... I saw how you looked..."
Paul was in pain, his face twisted.
A grown man was crying and sobbing in an unmanly way.
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, Shirou."
Seeing Paul's reaction, tears also appeared in the corners of Shirou's eyes.
He didn't react much, just patted Paul's shoulder and drank with him.
The two of them drank and chatted all morning.
They didn't talk about anything important, just general small talk.
Paul told Shirou about the current situation in the Fitoa Territory.
After Shirou went to the Boreas family, Paul continued to be the lord of Buena Village, and often taught Rudeus swordsmanship, even though the latter obviously lacked talent.
During this time, Sylphy often came to learn magic with Rudeus, and healing magic with Zenith.
Over time, Sylphy naturally became very familiar with the Greyrat family. Even the newborn Norn and Aisha were very fond of Sylphy.
However, this relationship changed several years after Shirou left, when Rudeus and Sylphy both turned ten.
Because Rudeus showed too much magical talent, he gradually became famous. To the point that Ranoa Magic Academy personally sent him an invitation to study magic at the academy.
Paul naturally refused at first, feeling that this should wait two more years, until Rudeus was twelve years old.
But because he knew that talent was unpredictable, Paul finally allowed Rudeus to go to magic academy under pressure from all sides.
Rudeus seemed to want to invite Sylphy to go with him.
But Sylphy was too young, didn't have money for tuition, and also for various reasons in her heart, she finally refused Rudeus and stayed in Buena Village.
Next was the Great Teleport Incident.
According to Paul, almost all objects in the Fitoa Territory were destroyed.
Small things like pens and ink bottles, to large things like houses and bridges, everything disappeared without a trace.
After the Great Teleport Incident, Paul went through many difficulties to return to his homeland, only to be greeted by such ruins.
He originally thought that Shirou would be safe after hearing that the Boreas family had survived, but when he heard that Shirou had disappeared with the Boreas family's young lady, he was completely despaired.
Because of this, he directly refused Philip's request for help, and left the Asura Kingdom without looking back, searching for his family's clues around the world.
To the point that he now completely doesn't know the situation in the royal capital.
"So that's how it is..."
Knowing Paul's experiences, Shirou once again felt moved by the hardships the other had gone through over the years.
Although he himself hadn't had it easy, at least he had Eris by his side, and Ruijerd, a master, was helping him, so he basically hadn't encountered particularly difficult things.
Paul was different. Not only did he not have reinforcements, but he also needed to take care of Norn, his newborn daughter. It was simply a complete drain on his life, directly turning him into the decadent state he was in now.
Looking at Paul now, Shirou couldn't help but connect him with the former Emiya Kiritsugu.
Both were so tired and so bitter.
But the former himself didn't have the ability to help his foster father.
At least now, he wanted to help Paul.
Shirou secretly made up his mind, he didn't want to repeat the same mistakes.
Then, Paul also asked about Shirou's experiences over the years.
Shirou was also about to tell, to prepare for his next topic.
He clearly and in detail told everything that happened after he went to Boreas Castle, but he deliberately skipped two parts: forging weapons as the blacksmith Muramasa, and fighting the Water God as Servant Emiya, almost killing Minister Darius.
These things were his own secrets, and because they were too exaggerated, he couldn't easily tell others.
Even with Paul, Shirou had to be prepared before he could tell him.
"Sorry, Shirou, I couldn't see you on your birthday."
For the people of the Asura Kingdom, fifteen years old is one of the turning points in life, and also a very important birthday.
Paul was busy with Rudeus's affairs during that time, and the sudden beast tide, so he didn't have time to come to Boreas Castle, causing him to miss it.
He felt deeply regretful for this.
"It's okay, the people of the Boreas family celebrated it well for me."
"Is that so, what gifts did you get?"
"This sword, a copy of the magic sword Finger Break, the magic sword Wind Break."
"A copy of a magic sword? I heard that Finger Break is one of the forty-eight holy magic swords, right? When I was young, I also wanted to get that level of weapon, but I didn't get it. Instead, I picked up this pretty good magic sword on the side of the road, and I've been using it ever since."
Paul said, patting the sword on his right side.
As a swordsman, he had two swords, and both were good magic swords, with strange effects. But both weapons couldn't be considered famous, and were accidentally obtained during his time as an adventurer.
As a swordsman, Paul also seemed to care about swords, murmuring: "I also thought about getting famous swords, but finding top blacksmiths is too expensive. Even if I spent all my savings, I wouldn't necessarily be able to get a holy magic sword. And besides finding blacksmiths, there are too few normal ways to get famous swords. I heard that the Sword God of the Sword God Style has a habit of collecting famous swords, and will provide them to talented disciples, but in the end, I'm not even a Sword Saint..."
"Is that so."
Unexpectedly, Paul himself brought up this topic, Shirou realized that he didn't need to further change the subject, and immediately said: "Paul, since you are interested in holy magic swords, you should also know famous blacksmiths who forge weapons, right?"
"I guess, although I've been too busy these years and haven't learned much, but I basically know all the famous blacksmiths who have appeared before."
Paul said, showing a reminiscing look, "Especially in the few years before the Great Teleport Incident, I remember there was a very powerful human blacksmith in the capital, I think his name was Muramasa. He caused a worldwide sensation, and many important figures were fighting to participate in his weapon forging auctions."
Paul knew about Muramasa.
Shirou wasn't surprised by this.
Although Buena Village was a small place, news wasn't blocked. Many sensational things could still spread there.
And since the other party knew about it, Shirou didn't need to hide it anymore. He first looked around to make sure that no one was eavesdropping, and took a deep breath, after making up his mind, he voluntarily said: "Paul, I have something to tell you, actually, I am the blacksmith Muramasa."
"What? You said you are the blacksmith Muramasa?"
Hearing Shirou's words, Paul was slightly stunned, then he burst into ridiculous laughter, "Ahahaha, I didn't expect you to learn to joke with me after so long, Shirou! If you say you're the blacksmith Muramasa, I'd say I'm the current Sword God!"
Paul really didn't believe it.
Shirou had expected this, so he didn't explain much, just placed the broken Sword of Promised Victory and the Avalon that had lost its energy on the table.
"Actions speak louder than words, Paul, let me be clear, both of these weapons were forged by me."
"Shirou, you..."
Paul was stunned on the spot after hearing Shirou's words.
He first lowered his head and carefully looked at the broken Sword of Promised Victory and Avalon. He didn't see anything special at first, but the more he looked, the more he felt the extraordinary nature of these two weapons.
Paul had seen many magic swords or powerful magic tools before, but none of those things were as special as the two things Shirou had taken out.
It was as if the weapons themselves had souls.
Even though the Sword of Promised Victory was broken, it was still the same.
But Paul still couldn't easily believe it, he suspected that Shirou had accidentally obtained these two things and was fooling him with other people's works.
Shirou had no choice, so he simply took out his trump card.
He took out the supreme-level gold card that he had obtained in the Asura Kingdom.
This was a card that only big customers with savings of over a million could have, far from what Paul had gotten for him, the black card, after Shirou killed the Red Dragon.
The black card only had a few thousand gold coins, but this gold card had millions in assets.
If this weren't the Holy Kingdom of Milis, not the Asura Kingdom, Shirou could take out astronomical figures from this card at any time, and easily get materials to complete the restoration of his holy sword.
Seeing such shocking facts, after carefully confirming the authenticity of the gold card, Paul finally couldn't deceive himself anymore.
He stared blankly at Shirou, as if doubting whether all this was a dream, murmuring: "Shirou, you mean, that you, as my son, not only became a Sword Saint at a young age, but also the world-famous blacksmith Muramasa, possessing forging skills that even the Sword God is captivated by, and is a world-famous Craft God?"
"This... although you might be very surprised, but this is indeed the truth."
Shirou said quietly.
He hadn't told the story of his deeds as Servant Emiya, otherwise the fact that he had fought the Water God Reida head-on, defeated the immortal Demon King Atofe, and obtained the title of hero, would be enough to scare Paul so much that he wouldn't be able to eat for days.
For Paul's health, he should keep these secrets well.
However, even if he didn't talk about Servant Emiya, the identity of the blacksmith Muramasa alone was enough to shock Paul to the point where his brain crashed.
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