Fate: How About a New Savior?

"It hurts, it hurts..."

Shiomi knelt on the ground, rubbing his aching waist.

"Everyone—did you all see that? Even a warrior comparable to a Heroic Spirit can get this exhausted after training with 500 men!"

Leonidas I stood beside him, addressing both the onlookers and the soldiers sprawled on the field, panting heavily.

"When you're enveloped by fatigue and exhaustion, what matters is how you persevere on the battlefield! Learn from him!"

"Ooooh, ooooh, ooooh!!!" The soldiers of Uruk erupted in cheers.

With that, today's training session concluded. The mission to investigate the Tablet of Destinies in Kutha was confirmed, but there were still tasks that only Shiomi could handle—like hand-to-hand endurance drills with the northern troops.

Shiomi was skilled at charging—facing an army, he could charge through them like a ghost among the ranks. But these soldiers weren't enemies; they were Uruk's key defensive force. And they were ordinary men without special abilities—he couldn't train them with lethal intensity.

One by one, he worked them through the drills. Training 500 soldiers in a day meant the hours slipped away faster than he'd expected. Leonidas I had assigned this task simply because Shiomi was still in Uruk, but it mattered—so Shiomi agreed without hesitation.

Still, he couldn't replicate the brutal training from the Land of Shadows, and the workload weighed on him more than he thought it would.

"Master, you've worked hard. The mission to train the 500 soldiers, as requested by General Leonidas, is now complete," Artoria said kindly, helping Shiomi to his feet and guiding him to a bench at the edge of the training ground.

"No... it's fine," Shiomi managed a wry smile. He simply had a sore back—not from the training with five hundred men, but from last night's passionate embrace, then straight into this marathon of drills. After waking and breakfast, Leonidas had already summoned him to train the troops. Even without the embrace, the workload alone would leave him stiff.

Caren appeared with a sheep-skin water bag.

"With training this intense, you should rest in Uruk tomorrow."

"I'll be fine. I'm not desperately training around the clock like I did in the Land of Shadows, so this isn't too much," Shiomi said, massaging his sore neck and shoulders before taking a long gulp of water.

Caren gently massaged his shoulders, her touch considerate.

"It's kind of terrifying that you actually went one-on-one against five hundred men," Olga Marie said, equal parts awed and shocked. "Seeing those soldiers knocked down—it really looked like a battlefield."

"If you want to talk about a battlefield filled with corpses, you've seen that before," Shiomi replied. The siege of Camelot ended in victory, but countless allied soldiers died in the fighting.

Back at Chaldea, the girls had undergone Romani's psychological evaluations and thankfully showed no signs of severe PTSD. As for the rest—Magi typically have tough worldviews, so Shiomi wasn't too worried. And Ritsuka Fujimaru, as one of the two youngest Rayshifters, proved remarkably resilient as well.

The northern defense line was no different. Though the death rate had dropped to its lowest thanks to Chaldea's arrival, Shiomi knew it was only a temporary reprieve. Once the Three Goddess Alliance ramped up their assault and the final battle began, casualties would surely spike again.

"But if we can't even handle this, then what awaits us is the world outside—still burning," Olga Marie said quietly. "No matter what, we have to make it through. We can't let sensei face everything alone."

"Then please lead everyone well. The reason we're able to conduct investigations outside is because Uruk, our rear base, has a strong enough defense to keep everyone reassured," Shiomi said with encouragement.

"But it's already getting dark. Isn't it about dinner time?" he asked, and right on cue, his stomach growled.

The others couldn't help but laugh.

Just then, Tomoe Gozen arrived at the camp to remind them it was time to return to the city of Uruk.

Olga Marie and Caren went to prepare the carriages, leaving only Artoria behind with Shiomi.

"The girls of Chaldea are really strong," Artoria said.

"Surprising, isn't it? If you had seen them back then, maybe you would've given up on your plan a bit sooner," Shiomi said, wiping the sweat from his brow.

Artoria, sitting beside him, shook her head. "No. Back then, even if I had seen them, I still would've carried out the 'Holy Selection'—judging whether their souls were worthy of reaching the end."

"I figured…"

"That's why my plan failed," Artoria said with a faint smile, as if it no longer mattered.

Her actions had not been wrong. But even the right path came with its share of sins.

Responding to the summoning at the Seventh Singularity was her way of atoning for humanity.

"Let's focus on what lies ahead," Shiomi said, raising the canteen and taking a drink.

Artoria watched his profile, sweat trickling down his cheek and tracing a line along his sharply defined jaw and neck.

Without thinking, she leaned in a little, startling Shiomi.

"What are you doing…"

"Your scent is really strong, Master," she whispered.

"...Please don't say stuff like that, King of Knights." Shiomi leaned back slightly. "Right now, I probably just smell like sweat, and you sniffing me like that is kind of weird…"

Realizing how odd her behavior was, Artoria straightened up and turned slightly red. "I lost my composure."

"Now that I think about it, back when we attacked Camelot, your Knights of the Round Table kept saying I couldn't be allowed to meet you… Said someone like me would corrupt the king," he said. "They all fought like mad to stop me from getting anywhere near your throne."

Artoria blinked, then let out a quiet laugh, her shoulders trembling.

She remembered it now—how Agravain and the others had acted so strangely back then, like they had something they wanted to say but didn't dare voice.

Now that she understood, it was both amusing and made her feel a little guilty toward her loyal knights.

"Maybe I really was swayed by my Master. Otherwise, I wouldn't be sitting here like this."

"…Yeah, maybe you were…"

...

(100 Chapters Ahead)

[email protected]/PinkSnake