I Don’t Want to Be a Heroic Spirit

Artoria pondered over many things but had no intention of sharing them with others.

After all, these thoughts involved her own secrets and were difficult to explain, much of it being mere conjecture.

"I'll speak with the Masters of the Red Faction."

For now, most of the Red Masters were likely under the control of Amakusa Shirou Tokisada. That would explain why Karna attacked her without hesitation—he was acting under Amakusa's orders.

Artoria was curious. If Amakusa learned of her thoughts, that she had no intention of interfering with his plans, how would he respond?

Would he cease hostilities against her? After all, his main enemies were the Black Faction, and Artoria's strength, no less than Karna's, was not something he could afford to overlook. If possible, he would surely prefer to have fewer adversaries.

Of course, that was only on the surface. Just as one would remain wary of a gun even with its safety on, Amakusa would undoubtedly keep his guard up against her as well.

Seeing that Artoria seemed to have made her decision, Darnic and the others refrained from further questioning her need for assistance, offering only their blessings.

Whether these blessings were sincere… well, no one cared to find out.

Artoria nodded toward Vlad III and turned to leave.

"Ruler, I have one more question for you. I hope you can answer it."

Having taken only two steps, Artoria paused and turned back at Vlad III's words.

"Do you… have a wish you'd entrust to the Holy Grail?"

Vlad III's gaze bore into her, his deeply hollowed eyes making his expression all the more haunting.

If a naive young girl had been in Artoria's place, meeting Vlad's gaze might have been enough to scare her into bleeding from her orifices or even cause her body to explode.

But Artoria, of course, wasn't fazed by something as trivial as a piercing stare.

"No."

There was no hesitation, no doubt. It was as though her answer was the most natural thing in the world.

"If your question is whether I have a 'wish to entrust to the Holy Grail,' then I can answer with absolute certainty—no."

After all, she already carried a Holy Grail within her. To her, the Grail, something so coveted by others, held little appeal.

"However, if your question is whether I have a 'wish I want to fulfill'… then my answer would be yes."

"I do have a wish I want to fulfill. Although I can no longer remember it clearly… I do know that, as a person, not as a god, I once held a wish."

"But that wish… it's something the Grail cannot grant. Of that, I'm certain."

With that, Artoria offered no further explanation, turning and leaving the hall without a backward glance. Chiron followed, pushing his Master's wheelchair to arrange a room for her.

Vlad III made no move to stop her, having obtained the answer he sought.

After Artoria and Chiron's departure, the remaining individuals in the room did not disperse but instead moved on to the next topic.

"Caules," Darnic called.

"Present!" Caules stepped forward at once, showing no trace of intimidation even under the scrutiny of nearly everyone in the room.

"Since you were the one who brought Ruler back, let's hear your observations."

"Understood!"

The Yggdmillennia family, as the rulers of this land, had monitored Artoria and Karna's battle.

They had also detected Ruler's arrival earlier than the Red Faction, allowing them to meet her before the Red Servants could.

They had attempted to analyze every detail of the battlefield to gather more information. However, observing Servant-level combat was nearly impossible for mages, as most of their monitoring methods were insufficient to capture such high-level clashes. As a result, they had to rely on the firsthand account of the only witness present at the time.

Thus, Caules recounted his encounter with Artoria in detail—describing their meeting, the course of the battle, the conversation they had, and her behavior.

He paid particular attention to Artoria's earlier statement that only Saber and Lancer from the Black Faction could match Karna, emphasizing this point and presenting his own speculation.

"The ability to see the future…" Caules's conjecture was nothing short of shocking.

If it were true, then Artoria, as an enemy, would be among the most formidable adversaries imaginable, heightening everyone's wariness of her.

"But… I've never heard of King Arthur having the ability to see the future," Gordes muttered, wiping his face, his expression sour. "If it were Merlin—the court mage, the mage among mages—possessing such an ability would make perfect sense. But King Arthur? There's no legend to support such claims!"

"I think my guess is plausible," Caules countered. "After all, we're not facing the true King Arthur. This is King Arthur elevated to divinity through the Holy Lance Rhongomyniad. If she's a divine spirit, it wouldn't be unreasonable for her to see things beyond the mortal realm."

During their journey here, Caules had thought long and hard about this, and his willingness to share his theory stemmed from a strong belief in its validity.

"If Ruler can indeed see the future, that would also explain how she knew why the Red Faction suddenly attacked her… because she saw it firsthand."

Gordes wanted to refute this claim. Rationally and emotionally, he couldn't bring himself to accept such a possibility. Yet, he couldn't come up with a sound argument to disprove it, leaving him with no choice but to scowl at Darnic, who stood beside Vlad III.

Perhaps he believed that Darnic, as the most knowledgeable mage present, would have the most credible opinion. To Gordes, Caules was just a novice, someone unworthy of consideration.

In truth, Gordes had little regard for anyone but himself, except for Darnic, the family patriarch. His self-importance stemmed from his mastery of homunculus creation, learned from the Einzberns. Nearly all the homunculi outside were his handiwork, securing him a status second only to Darnic within Yggdmillennia.

Moreover, he had summoned the Saber-class Servant Siegfried, a legendary dragon-slaying hero. This achievement had inflated his confidence to the point of arrogance, making him believe that victory in this Holy Grail War was assured.

What Gordes didn't realize was that his thoughts were entirely transparent to Darnic.

However, Darnic didn't care. To him, fools like Gordes—unable to conceal their inner thoughts—were the easiest to manipulate and the simplest to eliminate.

Even if that fool had summoned the strongest Saber-class Servant, it made no difference.

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