A dimensional journey starting from the Dragon Clan

"Yeah……"

While smiling, Irisviel answered ambiguously.

Glory...that's the problem.

Irisviel recalled her husband's words in her mind. Kiritsugu's true intention of taking separate actions with Saber.

"The two of you will become the flowers of the battlefield. You will not hide or escape, you will be aboveboard, and no one will be able to take their eyes off Servant Saber. Looking at Saber means the same thing as exposing your back to me. .”

...Kiritsugu had no intention of leaving the battle to Irisviel and Saber. It should be said that he intends to use his methods to actively change the situation of the war - he is an assassin who sneaks up behind the enemy.

Saber's duty was just to act as a bait to make the trap work.

Although Irisviel was emphasized not to leak secrets, once the battle started, Kiritsugu's actions would probably be self-defeating. After that, what on earth will this aloof and just knight think... Just thinking about it now makes Irisviel feel heavy.

"Irisviel, you deeply understand your husband Kiritsugu and trust him, right?"

Unaware of Irisviel's melancholy, Saber looked at the father and daughter living happily outside the window and said.

"Looking at it this way, I just feel that you and your wife have gained the happiness of being an ordinary family. Just like this, Kiritsugu also thinks that I should have the happiness of being an ordinary person, not as a king... But no matter which side, it is equally futile. wish."

"...If you think about it this way, don't you hate Kiritsugu?"

"Of course."

Looking at Saber's handsome face as she nodded, Irisviel felt even more guilty about betraying this Servant.

"But - Irisviel, is this okay? Talk to me here."

"Why?"

When Saber faced Irisviel who asked the question in return, she looked away somewhat unspeakably.

"That is to say - shouldn't you say goodbye to your daughter like Kiritsugu did? Tomorrow... you will go to the country called Japan where the Holy Grail appeared, right?"

"Ah, this matter - it doesn't matter. There is no need to say goodbye between me and that child."

Irisviel smiled quietly. It was an expression of gratitude for Saber's concern, but it was more than that. A lonely and empty smile that makes people feel uneasy.

"Even if I disappear as Irisviel, it doesn't mean that I will disappear. When she grows up, she will definitely understand. Because that child is an Einzbern woman just like me."

"..."

Although she couldn't understand Irisviel's enigmatic words, Saber still sensed the ominous meaning hidden in them, and her expression became stiff.

"Irisviel, you will definitely survive. Bet on the glory of this sword. I will protect you until the end."

Accepting the knight's solemn declaration, Irisviel nodded with a cheerful smile.

"Saber, go and get the Holy Grail. For you and your Master. Then Einzbern will have fulfilled his thousand-year wish, and my daughter and I will be liberated from our fate—it all depends on you, Artoria. "

At this time, Saber still couldn't understand the meaning of Irisviel's smile.

With her silver hair shining like snow and exquisite beauty, she is filled with warm love and kindness. What kind of fate was she born under? The knight knows all the truth. It was a long time later.

············

As a result of the fair competition, the winter bud looking for walnuts ended with Illyasviel's victory, and the champion stopped a three-game losing streak. In addition, there are no wild walnuts found in the Einzbern Forest.

After the game, the two people walked leisurely side by side on the way back. Because they had reached the depths of the forest, the majesty of Einzbern City was as hazy as a shadow on the other side of the thick fog.

"Next time, we have to wait until Kiritsugu comes back from Japan."

Illyasviel, who had successfully avenged her shame, looked up at her father with a smile on her face. Kiritsugu tried to pretend to be calm and looked at the face that no one could look directly at.

"Yeah...next time. Dad will definitely not lose."

"Haha, if you don't work hard, the gap will be 100, right?"

The proud smile on the face of the beloved daughter is too cruel and heavy for a man who is burdened with too many things.\\n

How can I confess to her that this may be the last memory I have with my daughter?

Kiritsugu did not underestimate the death battle that awaited him later. But he must definitely win. For this, even if it means sacrificing his own life.

So - even if I make an appointment with my daughter to play a game in this winter forest next time, we can only wait until we win.

Save everything. Throw everything away for this.

As a man who has made such an oath, love is nothing but a thorn.

Once Emiya Kiritsugu falls in love with someone, he will be cursed with the knowledge that he will lose that love in his heart. That was the fate he bore that was equivalent to his ideal. Love only punished him, never healed him.

But why - Kiritsugu asked himself as he looked at the cold white sky and the earth.

Why did he fall so deeply in love with a woman and a child with his own blood flowing through him?

"How long will Kiritsugu and Mom's work take? When will you be back?"

Illyasviel asked in a cheerful voice, unaware of her father's troubles.

"Dad, he'll be back in about two weeks - Mom, it might take a long time..."

"Yes. Ilia also heard about it from her mother. She said it was an eternal separation or something."

His daughter's answer without any hint of sin put Kiritsugu's final pressure on him, which could be said to be fatal. My knees suddenly lost strength while walking on the snow track.

My wife has become enlightened. And it also brought the same awareness to my daughter.

Emiya Kiritsugu will face the reality of taking his mother away from this young girl.

"My mother told Ilia before going to bed last night that even if she never sees Ilia again, she will always stay by Ilia's side. So Ilia will not feel lonely, so Ilia will also be there in the future. Always with my mother."

"……Yeah……"

At that time, Kiritsugu realized that his hands were covered in bright red blood.

He had lost count of his filthy arms that had killed so many people. It would never be allowed to use this arm to hug his child like an ordinary father - he warned himself.

But that warning is just an escape, isn’t it?

Soon.\\nThis child will never be hugged by his mother again. If Kiritsugu, as a father, gives up his responsibility... who will embrace Illyasviel in the future?

"——Now, Ilia."

Kiritsugu called his daughter, who was walking beside him, and knelt down to hug the girl from behind.

"…Kiritsugu?"

For eight years.\\nEvery time he hugged this petite body like this, Kiritsugu had been doubting the fatherhood in his heart. He was disgusted by the deception of acting like a father, but he also sneered at himself for not being able to help himself.

But that too is over. Compared with that, as the unique father of this child, he should accept the warmth in this arm. No escaping. Nothing false.

"Can Ilia wait any longer? Until dad comes back, can I endure the loneliness?"

"Yeah! Illya will be patient. She will wait for Kiritsugu with her mother."

Illyasviel, I plan to end this day of memories with joy until the end. That cheerful and bright voice had nothing to do with lament.

"...Then. Dad also made an appointment with you. I won't keep Ilia waiting. Dad will definitely come back soon."

Emiya Kiritsugu was burdened with another heavy burden.

While tensing up his whole body to endure the thorns called love, he kept holding his child tightly.

············

Although Ryunosuke Uyu doesn't like bloody and violent movies, he can also understand the necessity of that kind of entertainment.

Not just horror movies. There are also war movies, disaster movies, and even simple adventure movies and TV series. Why do these fictional entertainment programs always go to such trouble to depict "human death"?

This may be because the audience can peer into these fictional "deaths" from a safe angle, minimizing this fear.

Human beings are proud of their "wisdom" and full of fear of the "unknown". But no matter how terrifying the object is, as long as you have "experienced" it and "understood" it, you can conquer terror with this rational understanding.

However, there is only such thing as "death"... which cannot be experienced while alive. It is impossible to truly understand. Therefore, humans who have no choice but to rely on observing other people's deaths try to understand the nature of death and have simulated experiences.

As expected of a civilized society, human life is respected, so death can only be experienced through fictional content. However, in a war-torn place where bomb attacks can kill people around you at any time during meals, no one would want to watch a horror movie.

Likewise, fictional entertainment can work for all misfortunes in life, whether physical pain or mental stress. If it takes a lot of risk for us to experience those things ourselves, then we rely on observing others to gain understanding, thereby overcoming fear and eliminating that uneasiness - so movie screens and TV screens are full of lamentations, sighs and anguish. tears.

This is good. I can understand that. Ryunosuke was once like these people, full of fear of "death". If you can mentally conquer the fear of death by watching these "old-fashioned deaths" that perfectly reproduce the horrific corpses and splashing pink blood with realistic acting skills, then Ryunosuke should also become a horror figure. Movie lovers.

But for Ryunosuke, he seems to have an extraordinary ability to distinguish between the true and false of "death". To him these imaginary horrors seemed a little ridiculous. Whether it's the plot or the pictures, everything is childish. From these things, the so-called "essence of death" cannot be experienced at all.

Although it is often seen that fictional depictions of violence will have a bad influence on young people, for Ryunosuke Ubui, these are just ridiculous jokes. If the blood and screams in horror movies were more realistic, he might not be the murderer he is now.

These are nothing but the results of that urgent curiosity. Ryunosuke wants to know what the so-called "death" is like no matter what. The color of blood spurting from an artery, and the temperature of an organ in the abdominal cavity when touched with the hand. Pull these out by the handful.

The pain the victim felt before death and the desperate cry before death. Nothing could be more true than this.

People think that killing someone is a crime. But we'd better think about it. There are more than five billion people living on this earth. What an astonishing number. Ryunosuke understands this very well. When he was little, he used to count the gravel in the sand in the park. He will never forget the frustration he felt when he counted to ten thousand and still had too many to count. And human life is half a million times that. And it is said that tens of thousands of people are still alternating between life and death every day. So how important are the people killed by Ryunosuke's hands?

And when Ryunosuke kills a person, he completely makes that person realize all about death. Sometimes it can even allow a person to experience the process of "from dying to death" for more than half a day. The information, stimulation and experience brought by this person's death are more meaningful than prolonging a worthless life. Considering this, it is more appropriate to say that Ryunosuke is performing an act of creation rather than killing people.

With this belief in mind, Ryunosuke traveled to various places while killing people continuously. This back and forth was not because he was afraid of being punished by the law. In fact, the feeling of being handcuffed and imprisoned - after seeing many similar situations - he has "understood" it to the extent that he doesn't find it scary at all, whether it is the gallows or the electric chair, No matter which method of death, it has been completely "observed". So the reason why he evaded the pursuit of the judicial authorities is just because before he gave up his life and freedom, he would not get anything even if he went to prison. Compared with going to prison, he thought that the unrestrained, happy and positive life A healthy life is the correct lifestyle for a person.

He was completely intoxicated by the joy of drawing out the vitality, nostalgia for life, anger and persistence of the objects he killed. The various behaviors of the victims before they died can be said to be a microcosm of their lives and have profound significance.

Those who seem to be ordinary people behave very strangely when they die, and on the contrary, those who feel very strange behave very ordinary when they die - Ryunosuke, who has observed many such human behaviors, By exploring death and gaining a deeper understanding of death, we also have a deeper understanding of life, the opposite of death. The more people he kills, the deeper his understanding of life becomes.