When night fell, Shirou Emiya dragged his slightly tired body, opened the door of his room, and walked into the room. Because night is the most active time of the Holy Grail War, Shirou Emiya did not expend all his energy during the day. He only needed to rest for a short while to recover all his strength. But as soon as he entered the room, Shirou Emiya felt an extremely abnormal aura. Rather, it was not that Emiya directly sensed the unusual aura, but the current state of the entire room would make people cautious no matter what. All the lights were off, the howling wind blew the curtains and hit the walls, and only the faint moonlight shone through the window onto Emiya's bed. But before Emiya could project his weapon, a gentle, elegant and extremely young voice was heard. "excuse me." I saw a figure appear in the depths of the room. A young man dressed as a priest turned around and gave Emiya Shirou an extremely gentle smile. "The clergyman of the Eighth Mystery Society of the Holy Church, Kotomine Shiro." "Please forgive me for coming here without saying hello."
Kotomine Shiro revealed his identity to Emiya Shirou who walked into the room and expressed his apologies. Shirou did not sense any hostility from the young man in front of him, as if they were not two opposing camps. After learning that Shirou Emiya had lost his Servant, the Knight King, they gave up monitoring Shirou Emiya in order to gain his trust. Danic also knew that Shirou Emiya knew that he had been monitoring him, but the two of them just kept it a secret. Now, in order to win over a fighter like Shirou Emiya, the surveillance was naturally withdrawn. "Kotomine?" The moment Emiya Shirou heard Kotomine's last name, he fell into deep thought. I remembered that there was a church in Fuyuki City where I lived, and the priest's surname was Kotomine. If we follow the correspondence between parallel universes, the priest in my city should probably be one of the staff members of the Cathedral Church he mentioned. It's just - Shirou? This combination makes Emiya always feel that this is the name given to him after he was adopted by Father Kotomine. "So, is there any reason why you came to the Black's base camp to see me?" Shirou Emiya learned from Danic at the very beginning that the Templar Church was on the red side in this Holy Grail War. There is also a master from the red camp. And that master must be the one in front of him, Kotomine Shiro. "There are two reasons. The first is that I want to see what kind of person the Master who can defeat Archer head-on is. The second is that I want to invite you to join the Red Camp." Kotomine Shirou's voice was extremely sincere, and Emiya Shirou could not hear even the slightest conspiracy in it. His every word and action is full of kindness that makes people let down their guard. Even Emiya felt as if he were basking in the spring breeze.
"why?" Emiya Shirou didn't understand. Not only did he not understand why the man wanted to extend an olive branch to him, he also didn't understand why he could appear in the black team's base so confidently. "It must be the right choice to come here and see you." Kotomine Shirou nodded with a gentle smile on his lips. Under Emiya Shirou's puzzled gaze, he walked in front of him and stretched out his hand. And looked at Emiya Shirou with extremely sincere eyes. "From the first moment I saw you, I knew that you and I are the same kind of people!" "similar----" Emiya's eyes were a little confused. He looked at the man in front of him who was a little dark but had an extremely gentle smile, and unconsciously held the hand he extended. A red light flashed the moment the two hands were clasped, and magic power blended at that moment. The moment Emiya held his hand, he seemed to see something, saw what was behind him, and saw what he had experienced. It was a scene where a general holding a katana thrust his weapon into the ground, then grasped the flag in front of him tightly, knelt on the ground, and begged desperately to the gods. How desperate and heartbreaking it was. I saw the white-haired young man kneeling under the flag, kneeling in a pool of blood, looking at the flag in front of him that had been soaked in blood, and constantly talking. "My flag, please listen to me." "If they are guilty, their only sin is believing in me and following me." "I would gladly give my life." "So please tell me how to redeem them." "But if there is no redemption." "If their lives are needed at the end of this battle" "Then I will give up saving people, and I will save all mankind." "Whether good or evil, whether weak or strong, I will save all mankind." The white-haired boy stretched out his thin hand towards his own flag, as if begging, or as if offering himself. His tone contained pleading, assent, and determination. It was such a complicated expression. What a great wish to save all mankind. At this moment, Emiya felt how heavy this wish was and how difficult it was to achieve. With a flash of silver light, the white-haired boy's head fell to the ground. In his eyes, Emiya only saw endless pity. The picture also shattered and dissipated in front of Emiya. This brief dream describes the life of a certain heroic spirit. This kind of dream-like experience was not unfamiliar to Emiya. On the night he made the contract with Arthur, Emiya dreamed of everything about Arthur.
After he woke up, he talked to Arthur about the dream he had seen, but Arthur had long since let go of his past and had no taboos about talking about his experiences. Not only did it answer Emiya's questions, but it also gave him a deeper understanding of the legend of King Arthur. "protector?" For some reason, Kotomine Shirou stared at Emiya Shirou blankly and uttered these words. The fusion of magic power is mutual. Shirou Emiya understood him, and Shirou Kotomine also detected something unusual from the magic power exuding from Emiya. Normally, when He signs a contract with someone, He will also give them some power. It is not just that He simply signs a document with them without providing any help. Such energy will also be reflected in various aspects, whether it is the improvement of physical fitness or the maturity of the use of magic power, these are the manifestations after the contract. Although, it seemed, as if, the contract did not give Shirou Emiya any improvement, it still left a mark on his body. The general meaning is that Emiya is the one who has signed the contract, and no other existence can take it away. As for Mine Shirou, it was from Emiya Shirou's magic that he felt the traces left by him. He looked at the red-haired boy in front of him who was covering his head with great confusion. As a former Ruler, he also received many messages from the Holy Grail, one of which was about the knowledge of the so-called Guardians. But the young man in front of him had no spiritual foundation and could not possibly be a heroic spirit, nor could he be the guardian sent out by Him. Suddenly, Kotomine Shiro seemed to think of a possibility. His eyes also began to look different. The young man in front of him may have signed a contract with Him, but he has not died yet and has not become an official guardian under Him. Chapter 157 The Holy Grail War officially begins! "Save all mankind!" Emiya stared at Kotomine Shiro in front of him without revealing any expression. He didn't know how to make any comment on such a wish. "Well, have you made up your mind, Master of the Knight King?" An extremely pure smile appeared on Kotomine Shirou's face, and his eyes met Emiya Shirou's directly. The two of them stared at each other in silence in such a dim room. "Your wish is truly great, so great that I admire you immensely." Emiya also did not hide his inner thoughts and expressed his admiration for Kotomine Shiro. With such a grand wish and such dedication, Shirou Emiya admires him from the bottom of his heart. Having such thoughts and taking actions to implement them is enough to make one a saint. Saving others and helping them to be redeemed is what Shirou Emiya has always done. But there are some differences between Emiya Shirou and Kotomine Shirou. Emiya Shirou saves people one by one, while Kotomine Shirou intends to save the "human" race.
Listening to Emiya Shirou expressing his admiration sincerely, Kotomine Shirou smiled knowingly and extended his hand once again. But this time, Emiya didn't hold it. "But I refuse—" Kotomine Shiro's hand froze in the air, and the smile on his lips froze. “Do humans really need to be saved?” Shirou Emiya has no idea how Kotomine Shirou plans to save humanity, nor does he know what he will look like after he saves humanity. He wanted to know, but he didn't want to know. Shirou Emiya did not feel that there was anything wrong with Kotomine Shirou's words or actions. He also didn't receive any strange message that made him feel strange about Kotomine Shiro's wish. Shirou Emiya simply thought from the bottom of his heart, can the word "salvation" really apply to humans? Has humanity really reached the point where it needs to be saved? "Why don't we need to be saved? War? Crime? Struggle for power? Using any means to achieve the goal! Killing your own compatriots at will! Humans have so many bad qualities that have plunged countless people into dire straits. Why don't humans need to be saved? Why must these evils exist in the world?" Kotomine Shiro looked at the person who could clearly understand him but still responded to him like this, and his tone became agitated. We are obviously the same kind of people, why, why don’t you understand me, why don’t you understand what I do. During the Shimabara Rebellion, he saw how mean, lowly, and cruel humans could become. They were like this even when facing people of the same race. If they were of different skin colors and cultures, how much more would the cruelty of humans be accelerated? In addition, the past sixty years have made him more aware of the nature of human beings, and he has become more disgusted with and more fond of human beings. "But, it is precisely because of these despicable evils of human beings that human beings can continue like this, right?" Human beings are dualistic creatures. They feel fear when encountering terrible things, feel angry when encountering unfair things, and become greedy when encountering things they like. Even Shirou Emiya himself couldn't resist these things. For example, he didn't like plum kelp tea and still wouldn't accept it. When you are in a bad mood, you like to do high jumping, archery, or do something that can make you concentrate and forget about time. This is actually a greedy behavior. These good and bad things make up who we are today, and it is precisely because of the existence of evil that the quality of good appears more noble. If I lose evil, will I still be myself? Will I still have my own consciousness? These are all unforeseen things. Emiya had seen a lot of evil in the Empire, he had experienced it before, it would be great if he could eradicate the evil from the world. But he knew that this was impossible. Esdeath, the imperial general who loved to slaughter his enemies, was extremely gentle and tolerant towards his subordinates and his people. In order to resist the corruption of the empire, Leone, who was short of funds for a night attack, deceived a young boy who just came out of a small village. If they hadn't happened to be on a mission to save him, the young man would probably have died in grief and would not have been able to avenge his friend. Because of desire, humans began to fight constantly, and because of desire, humans were able to progress to where they are today. "If we lose these evils, will humanity be unable to develop? Will humanity be unable to continue?"
"I do not know." Emiya shook his head. It was not that Emiya answered Kotomine Shiro's question, but that he did not know the answers to these two questions. He didn't know whether humans could survive without the existence of evil. Shirou Emiya had never seen such a world, and he had no way of knowing whether humans would be happy in a world without evil.