Fate: I Will Eventually Become the Hero of Justice

"So she sent spies after all," Shirou raised an eyebrow.

Having anticipated Mordred's actions, he had set up counterintelligence beforehand. Thus, before her spies began their activities, he already knew their identities.

He didn't eliminate the spies, but corralled them instead. He carefully arranged where they operated, letting them convey false information back to Mordred.

In ancient times, with no other means of transmitting information, the only way to learn about the internal affairs of an opponent's country was through firsthand observation and oral reports from spies.

Shirou took advantage of these spies to feed Mordred false information. He also carried out counterintelligence activities, imprisoning those spies who wanted to impeach and smear his generals and ministers one by one.

Such counterintelligence efforts caused the spies who had infiltrated his country to become docile. They did not dare act rashly, only conveying the information that he wanted Mordred to receive back to her.

The information he allowed the spies to transmit back was simple propaganda: praise for his rapid development, the good living conditions of his citizens, and the might of his army.

Unfortunately, his efforts were in vain. Mordred had long been wary of his tricks. Whenever she met with the spies, she saw them alone, keeping the information to herself. After each spy returned from meeting her, she imprisoned them and sent a replacement to his country.

She didn't give him any chance to create domestic public pressure.

What's more, she tried to threaten and entice his spies to convey false information back to him. However, she was always one step behind.

Due to the territorial differences, she was consistently slower to react than him, causing her to set up counterintelligence mechanisms more slowly. This allowed the first batch of spies to infiltrate her kingdom without her knowing their names.

Most importantly, after her initial crackdowns, the survivors of the first spy batch were all laying low. This left her somewhat vexed.

In fact, she could control this illusion and turn the situation more in her favor. That is to say, she could "cheat."

But in this game of king, especially when facing Shirou, she would never allow herself to cheat. Even if she won that way, there would be no sense of accomplishment, only a feeling of complete inferiority.

This was something Mordred absolutely could not tolerate.

When facing Shirou, she had an extremely strong competitive mentality. However, now she also felt somewhat frustrated for impulsively choosing Arthur's side earlier.

As the parties involved, Shirou, Saber, and later Mordred after reading the history books, all knew clearly whether Vortigern or Arthur was stronger.

Because he had provoked her earlier, she had chosen Arthur's side in a fit of anger, undoubtedly handing over the advantage.

In fact, as long as he operated properly back then, Vortigern could have turned the tables even if Shirou had divine help.

Likewise, in this situation, as long as Shirou prudently managed things without showing any flaws, no matter how hard Mordred's side tried, their national power would still be unable to catch up to the speed of Shirou's accumulation due to the advantage of his territory.

In the contest between countries, military power is only the most superficial manifestation. What is truly competing is the underlying national power.

National power relates to policy, human capital, land, and productivity. In this regard, the side with the advantage was undoubtedly Vortigern's, with its vast lands and large population - now controlled by Shirou.

Mordred was frustrated that she had angrily relinquished this good advantage to him earlier, but she did not regret it. After all, wouldn't regret be tantamount to admitting defeat? Neither "regret" nor "admitting defeat" existed in her dictionary.

She tried brainwashing Shirou's spies to convey false information back to him. But unfortunately, this was Shirou's own trick, so naturally he wouldn't fall for it.

When Shirou first became king, he knew nothing. He could only rely on studying examples of monarchs he knew, absorbing classic cases from ancient to modern times. He added his own understanding and practice, integrating and assimilating them to form his own wisdom and ideology.

If Mordred was the crystallization of Camelot, then Shirou was the crystallization of the ancient and modern, domestic and foreign monarchs, leaders, and generals of the world before his transmigration.

And this was perhaps why he was called the Eternal King by the Heroic Spirits.

Mordred liked crooked ways, while Shirou only liked the upright royal path. The royal path was simply and openly crushing the opponent, just as Archer always talked about during the 4th Holy Grail War. But this didn't mean Shirou was unfamiliar with crooked means. After all, adaptability was his core ideology.

Shirou didn't know Mordred's actions, but he didn't underestimate her either. When those spies returned, he didn't believe their messages, instead utilizing them a second time to continue conveying false information to Mordred.

However, Mordred was very cautious. Even for spies she had brainwashed, she wouldn't fully trust them. When facing Shirou, she was extremely wary, suspecting everything.

Watching both sides' actions, Sisigou felt really bored and said to Saber: "Don't you feel bored, Saber?"

"No. Please don't disturb me," Saber replied without even turning her head.

Sisigou sighed helplessly, sat down, and simply stopped watching them. Instead he focused on preparing his own Mystic Codes.

Meanwhile, Saber didn't stop recording the actions of both sides.

To be honest, she didn't quite understand their spy games. In her mindset, the contest between countries was war - the conquest mentality prevalent in the savage ancient times. 

Simple, crude, and straightforward!

But neither Mordred nor Shirou did this. Instead, while actively improving domestic infrastructure on one hand, they interfered with each other on the other. Yet they didn't engage in open war.

This made Saber a little impatient. If it were her, being harassed like this by Mordred or Shirou, she would have sent troops to attack long ago. But both sides endured and countered each other's moves instead.

Saber understood there must be some deeper strategy she didn't grasp, so she decided to record everything first and comprehend it slowly later.

In principle, as King Arthur, she shouldn't have acted so improperly. But the subjects of her observation were just too special - Mordred, who had easily crushed her, and Shirou, who achieved her long-held wish of being an ideal king.

To achieve her own aspirations, and understand where exactly she had fallen short, Saber recorded things she felt were worth documenting.

...

Shirou built trade routes and allocated domestic resources efficiently. Additionally, he sent envoys to the two countries that had previously invaded Scotland, establishing friendly neighborly relations and opening trade with them.

In reality, he had been in contact with the kings of those countries before. Due to the limitations of this illusion, their horizons were not as broad as their real-life counterparts, failing to see through Shirou's true intentions.

That's right - this was Shirou's specialty, economic invasion! 

Just like in reality, he utilized economic means to control these two countries. And because the current Shirou had long integrated various methods, and this was just an illusion, the speed and efficiency of the invasion was increased countless times compared to back then.

Shirou economically controlled these two countries, grasping their economic lifelines and becoming their suzerain.

He also wanted to economically invade Mordred's territory, hoping to gently end this game. But unfortunately, Mordred saw through it immediately and rejected trade route interconnectivity, instead sabotaging his strategy.

Shirou sighed regretfully. Just as Mordred had complex feelings towards him, his feelings towards her were also complex. Without doubt, he now just wanted to take Mordred into his arms and stroke her head, ending this meaningless game. But it didn't seem so easy anymore.

Through the two controlled countries, Shirou began controlling the north of Ireland step by step.

Mordred sensed the crisis. Due to choosing Arthur's territory in anger initially, she was one step behind from the start, and kept falling further behind.

Aside from spies, Mordred had tried many other ploys - harassing with small detachments, recruiting barbarian troops, spreading rumors and gossip to bog Shirou down.

But he resolved them one by one.

Watching Shirou create chaos in Ireland through economic aggression, Mordred felt extremely anxious. Her own development was good, but missing that first opportunity meant she was always led by Shirou.

He didn't give her any chance to overtake or gain an advantage. Letting her take the lead at the beginning was clearly just a lie to placate a child.

Left with no choice, Mordred came up with an unorthodox tactic - religious propagation.

Shirou's economic invasion was like a virus. If the underlying invasive intent behind the prosperous trade went unnoticed, it was easy to fall victim. Once he controlled the economic lifeline, the invasion would be considered successful.

To dismantle this, Mordred chose religion. Religion was perhaps the most powerful invasive force - intangible, unblockable, an invisible, deadly ideological weapon.

No, not a weapon - a virus. 

An extremely infectious cultural virus with no cure!