Chapter 32 Are There Other Masters?
On the silent rooftop, where the steel frames, the parapet walls, and the splattered dark-red rust seemed frozen in time, a scraping sound of grinding pebbles broke the stillness. The sound of footsteps hitting the ground finally shattered the stagnation of the air.
"..."
The leader of Faldeus's squad leaned against a steel frame, clutching his chest and panting. After catching his breath and forcing himself to stand, his field of vision took in the crisscrossing streets in the distance.
Static leaked from his communication device. Noticing this, the squad leader turned his head, picked up the device with one hand, and spoke with a grim expression.
"Faldeus, let me ask you a question."
To Faldeus, who had utterly failed to grasp the gravity of the situation, the squad leader spoke bluntly: "Did you intend to send us here to die from the start?"
"?"
"Who told you firearms could deal with a magus? Before you sent us out, did it ever occur to you that provoking certain entities with guns is a death wish?"
"??"
"Why provoke someone you can't afford to provoke, like that brat? Whatever, I'm just giving you a piece of advice. I was only temporarily reassigned to follow your lead; once I apply for a transfer back, this is no longer my business."
The "brat" hadn't asked the squad leader to do anything for him, but simply to prevent his superiors from being stupid again, there were some warnings he felt he had to deliver on the boy's behalf. From the other end of the line came the sound of someone choking and stumbling back two steps, followed by the thud of a head hitting a chair.
The distorted voice of the young man replied weakly: "Calm down..."
"Heh, I am very calm. If you're so capable, come face that guy yourself, Faldeus," the squad leader said with a laugh.
The young man went silent. Through the device, the sound of him wiping cold sweat was almost audible: "...What exactly happened?"
"Good question. Do you have any idea? If that man hadn't stayed his hand, all thirty-plus of us, including the reinforcements, wouldn't be coming back. You have the nerve to ask me what happened?"
"Did the enemy Servant block the attack in time and strike you?"
"No, the one shooting the arrows was the man himself! Faldeus, you're a real piece of work—haven't you figured it out yet?"
The other end of the line went silent again. The squad leader sat down, staring at the distant buildings. Then his expression turned strange; he realized he had missed another important detail.
"Arrows? A man? Okay, I don't understand any of this. Let me start with the basics..."
.
.
.
At the same time, another person had a similar expression upon hearing their radio crackle.
"—I didn't send reinforcements?"
"I didn't send any reinforcements to your position."
The Faldeus squad leader stiffly looked toward the building where the extra gunshots had originated earlier. There, a similarly soot-covered man was staring back at him with an equally rigid expression.
"Buddy... are you one of Bazdilot's guys?"
"Buddy... are you with Faldeus?"
Bazdilot's squad leader: "......"
Faldeus's squad leader: "......"
'Buddy?'
"..."
Bazdilot's squad leader almost instantly raised a rifle that was longer than he was tall.
"I couldn't kill Shirou Emiya, but killing one of Faldeus's men to make up for my failure works too! Be a stepping stone for my survival, you bastard!" he roared.
"...What is even happening?"
The Faldeus squad leader leaned his head back, resting his face in his hand as if he had lost all strength. To snap the obsessed opposition back to reality, his subordinates quickly began to return fire, but to the squad leader, that was a distant matter he no longer cared to manage.
Bang bang bang bang bang!
Bullets flew wildly, and gunshots rang out once again. The residents of the United States, forced to endure such noise in the middle of the afternoon, wore hollow expressions and habitually pulled their curtains tight.
The sound reached the original alleyway once more. Unfortunately, the parties involved were already far away from this farce. In a corner with no one to watch, everyone had tacitly ignored the original target to fight their own "final battle" among themselves.
The primary subject of this incident was currently strolling leisurely, chatting with the young girl walking beside him.
"Sigma... that person was indeed not simple. But unexpectedly, he's a good person."
"Yeah."
"I'm sorry. Because I'm being targeted, you have to walk with me like this to confirm we're safe before we can go back. And I'm still rambling about all this."
"It's fine. In fact, I think this is quite nice."
Shirou gave a wry smile, while Saber walked with light, graceful steps, responding serenely. A gentle breeze brushed through their hair.
Feeling a strong sense of comfort, Shirou relaxed and asked casually, "What did you think of him?"
Saber thought for a moment and replied, "I think he is very pure."
'Pure.'
That was Saber's description. From simply living to searching for something without any impurities. Most heroes possess the insight to judge others, and a person like Sigma is rare even from a hero's perspective.
He does not believe in gods. Nor does he believe in the choices gods make for him.
"In other words, like a mirror, he reflects the images of thousands of people, yet never lets them leave a mark." Perhaps this unconscious persistence would continue until he found the thing he was searching for that truly belonged to him.
Saber continued to listen quietly to his thoughts, suddenly smiling as if something had made her happy.
"Saber, what is it?"
"It's rare. I feel that person and Shirou get along quite well."
"...I suppose you're right," Shirou muttered awkwardly, but Saber wouldn't let him off.
"As far as I know, there aren't many people Shirou truly gets along with."
That was natural. After all, a human like Shirou, who busies himself with incomprehensible things, is a bit distant for ordinary people.
If one doesn't see Shirou's deeply persistent side, it's not easy to form a deep bond.
Shirou himself didn't care about this, nor did he care about others' evaluations, but that was more or less the truth of it.
"Wait... isn't that a bit wrong? I remember I'm on good terms with—"
He was cut off. Saber raised a dissatisfied brow.
"If possible, I hope you establish more good and healthy relationships with men like him."
'Girls don't count'
Miss Saber issued a mandatory yellow card.
Her eyes said, "Loving the house (Shirou) for the sake of the crow (the ideal) doesn't count." Miss Saber dropped a bombshell, effectively dismissing "getting along" with girls in one fell swoop.
Her scrutiny standards were strict enough to make a soccer referee tremble. Under the reminder of her cold gaze, Shirou obediently shut his mouth.
A man who doesn't read the room might die in a "shura field."
However, Shirou did have several male friends; he was even friends with Flat, the Master Rin had met. But it was best not to mention that out of turn.
"Getting along or not, I'll have to meet Sigma again later. Saber, have you thought about when would be a good time to see him?"
'Topic-switching technique: Activated.'
Saber closed one eye and let Shirou off the hook. "Today is the first day of the Holy Grail War. If the goal is information, I believe we could meet tomorrow during the day if he is willing. On one hand, the sooner the better; on the other, we must avoid potential interference from Servants."
"I see." Shirou nodded in agreement.
Just as he was about to say something, a sudden headwind blew toward them. The wind brought something with it.
"Saber, did you hear that too?" Shirou asked in a low voice.
Saber nodded silently and judged: "Footsteps. One... no, two. One of them is far too rhythmic; it's unlikely to be an ordinary person."
As fellow martial artists who had been together for a long time, the result was that both could hear and interpret the same information simultaneously. The road opened up into a narrow stretch of sky.
It's worth mentioning that their current location was still an "alleyway" area. However, it wasn't the place where they had fought the gunmen earlier, but another zone they had entered after leaving to prevent being followed.
'We're avoiding being followed; what are you avoiding? Do all sorts of weirdos just love ducking into alleys? Is everyone a cat? Do they all like narrow spaces?'
Shirou was utterly baffled.
The last time there were footsteps, it was Sigma. So this time...
A powerful premonition rang out. Shirou stared unblinkingly at the other end of the alley. Finally, he noticed a golden, unidentified figure showing half of himself. He and the person he was protecting behind him were looking around the corner from the adjacent space, as if they had just happened to be hiding right next to Shirou's group.
...It was also possible that Shirou and Saber had accidentally stumbled into their hiding spot.
No way... are there other masters here?!
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