Shirou Emiya is challenging FGO

Chapter 86 Altria Caster (7K! Please give me a monthly ticket! Please subscribe automatically!)
84. Once Upon a Time, the Savior of the Demon

"Digital Heroic Spirit Summoning Technique: El-Melloi Style"

Although it is quite different from the traditional Heroic Spirit Summoning Technique, some aspects of the technique are still retained.

For example: Digital Heroic Spirits, like Heroic Servants, will be given the basic knowledge and information necessary for the current era when they manifest into the world.

The "classic line" for completing the contract - "May I ask, are you my Master?" was also naturally given.

In other words, the black Altria's behavior of reversing the Tiangang just now was definitely not an accident or a mistake, but she did it knowingly - on purpose!

Shirou: "."

Then again, Altria——King Arthur (Knight King)——is this the kind of person!?

Shirou had heard from Kiritsugu about the information about the Knight King who had partnered with him in the Fourth Holy Grail War. But no matter how he looked at it, that Knight King was completely different from the Altria he summoned before him.

The Altria summoned by Shirou gave people a feeling of... uh, 'a little girl who gave up on herself after going through a lot of things? '

"Are you really the Knight King Altria Pendragon?" Shirou frowned, "Aren't you a subspecies of Mordred?"

The black Altria tilted her head and said, "Knight King? Who is that? As you can see, I am not a knight, but a magician. As for Altria, it is a nostalgic name. I seem to have been called that a long time ago. However, after being driven out of my home and being wanted by the whole of Britain, I gave up that name a long time ago."

She pointed at herself:

"I am a nameless wandering mercenary magician (Caster). You can just call me 'Caster'."

Shirou: “.” What the hell?!
This script is wrong!

King Arthur - Isn't Altria, known as the King of Knights, the son of prophecy and the king of destiny? Is he bound to pull out the sword in the stone, become the King of Britain, and then fight against the invading foreign races and become the guardian hero of Britain?

In some ancient versions, she even has the identity of a Christian guardian knight!

"How did you become a wandering mercenary magician and be wanted?" Shirou couldn't help but ask.

"? My identity as the child of prophecy has been exposed - to be more precise, those guys have determined that I am the child of prophecy, so they plan to sell me to the damn Queen Morgan." Caster thought Shirou's question was very strange, "It's that simple, what else?"

Why is this guy still swearing?!

Shirou: ".Something has gone wrong since the Child of Prophecy! Where's your Sword in the Stone? And where's the Sword of Promised Victory that Merlin led you to find? Where's your Scabbard of Avalon?"

Custer was even more confused. "The Sword in the Stone? What is that? And what is the scabbard? Isn't Avalon a legendary place? I had a bastard liar teacher who called himself Merlin, but I killed him."

When mentioning the 'bastard liar teacher', Caster's eyes dimmed for a moment.

But that was all. She immediately cheered up and said, "Okay, I won't joke anymore. I'm just going to be your servant, right? I've completed my mission. After I die, I'll be pulled up and used as a slave. I'm used to it. Anyway, nothing good has ever happened to me in my life."

Caster paused, not knowing what he had gone through to become this kind of person. He then gave Shirou a doubtful look:
"Come to think of it, after I became your 'Digital Heroic Servant', I seem to have a body that doesn't need to eat but only needs mana? Oh my god! Are you one of those bastard British shitty slave owners who would use you to death as long as you can't die?!

Do you provide meals? No!? If you don’t provide meals, I will be passive and lazy! At worst, you can kill me and let me go back to lie dead! "

Shirou covered his face because he was too speechless.

Rin and Sakura are not with Shirou at the moment. Because they are worried that they might interfere with each other and cause problems with the ceremony, they are now holding the ceremony in different places.

Shirou couldn't even ask his own encyclopedia of Toosaka Rin.

Shinji in the friend list in the upper right corner of his vision immediately sent a text message to ask Shirou what Digital Heroic Spirit he had summoned - because in 2004 in the celestial world, people's daily lives were highly internet-based, and everyone had something like a "game system panel" in their brains, which was convenient.

If Shinji had only asked this, Shirou would not mind answering, but Shinji then tentatively asked Shirou, "When will my permission to summon a Digital Heroic Spirit be approved?"

Shirou didn't know how to answer this question, because this technology was still in the verification stage and he didn't know when it would be promoted, so he simply played dumb and pretended not to have seen the text message sent by Shinji.

[(Additional judgment: In these ten years, has Shinji defeated Miss Gamesh in the game and turned back into a man?)]

[(1. It has changed back)]

[(2. Not yet defeated)]

[(3. Although he won and got a bottle of magic potion, Shinji thought, "Compared to those, it's better to keep this thing to save my life, right?" So he didn't use it, but gave it to Shirou instead. "Shirou, you have to remember that I am bribing you. If I want to use this favor to ask for your help in the future, you are not allowed to refuse")]

【（1D3=3）】

This is probably the case with Shinji.

By the way, the reason why she calls Shirou by his first name 'Shirou' instead of his last name 'Emiya' is, in her own words, "Kirara and Sakura both have the last name Emiya now, there are too many Emiyas to remember, and we are so familiar with each other, like brothers, what's the problem with calling him by his first name?"

Miss Sakura was furious—angry for a moment.

The two sisters (?) fought over this matter and even dueled because of it, and then Sakura was defeated miserably by Shinji - how did she lose?

Their way of dueling is, well, playing card battle games.

Soul player Miss Sakura was defeated miserably by Shinji, a strength-conscious player who only respects victory.

Far away.

Shirou, who was feeling a headache, could only comfort Altria, who seemed to be wary of everything around her and always viewed others from a "malicious" perspective. Oh no, should I call her Caster?

"Your current job is not Caster, but Berserker." Shirou sighed, "Wait, don't run around - you can watch TV or play games first, I'll cook for you. What do you want to eat?"

Custer's eyes widened. "How could I be a Berserker? I'm clearly a magician—Huh!? Really a Berserker? Why? Do I look crazy?!"

However, her attention quickly shifted to the second half of Shirou's words:
"Barbecue! I want to eat barbecue!" She drooled and shouted, "It would be better if there were more spices!"

Look how hungry this child is!

What kind of life did you lead before this?

Shirou sighed: "I don't quite understand whether your food requirements are high or low. It's not healthy to eat only meat. I'll give you some vegetables."

"Hmm, vegetables?" Custer curled his lips. "Boss, you're pulling a dead man like me up to work overtime and feed me grass? I'm tired of eating the weeds on the roadside."

"What kind of life have you been through in the past!?"

Shirou! Angry!

"Look how skinny you are - how did your teacher 'Merlin' teach you?!"

"He taught me how to break into the warehouse and steal things," Custer blurted out, "and how to distinguish which wild vegetables are edible, and which mushrooms are poisonous but I can tolerate the toxicity and can fill my stomach in an emergency."

".What kind of garbage Merlin did you meet?"

Shirou was completely furious! He felt that as a chef—Gilgamesh-certified Uruk-level chef—he couldn't stand it!

"Just wait! Today I will make you eat so happily that you will ascend to heaven!"

Custer immediately became alert after hearing this: "What? You're going to put drugs in my food? Boss, this is too inhumane! I was only given hallucinogens that can make people excited and fearless for a short period of time before I became a mercenary and went to war - are you going to take me out to fight now? So soon?
Is there an enemy outside? No! Your house is not well defended, I will dig some traps and bury some explosives for you!"

"What kind of life did you lead before this?!" Shirou was stunned.

Custer tilted his head: "?"

He seemed to have no idea that there was anything wrong with his remarks.

It doesn't seem like he was intentionally trying to gain Shirou's sympathy by playing the victim.

She is probably the kind of person who would be delighted if someone told her, "You can sell blood and we'll give you money, but it's reasonable income, so you have to pay taxes," and would think it's a welfare benefit.

Shirou dialed Shinji's number and ignored the other party's tentative question "When can I summon my Digital Heroic Partner?" and asked her to take Caster to play games online, so as to prevent Miss Caster, the "Berserker", from having a brain attack and digging a trench in Shirou's house.

In a sense, there is nothing wrong with Miss Custer's Berserker class.

"Take her to play cards to kill time." Shirou said to Shinji.

Shinji was very interested in the Digital Heroic Spirits and was happy to take on this temporary job: "So Shirou, please ask for me."

"I'm going to go cook for her first - for the Digital Heroic Spirits that Rin and Sakura will summon later!" Shirou hung up the phone.

While cooking, Shirou also called Waver who had been waiting for a long time on the other side and reported the situation he encountered.

“This is really interesting.”

Weber was silent for a while:
"Shirou, you know, in order to promote it smoothly in the future, we have intentionally removed the setting in the program of the 'Digital Heroic Spirit Summoning Technique' that can narrow the range of summon targets through holy relics."

Shirou nodded, chopping the cabbage without a pause. "I know. This is due to restrictions on the rich, right? Rich people can get good relics, and can summon stronger servants. In the end, a new class will be formed. It's better for everyone to summon randomly."

Weber: "That's right, but even so, it will still have an impact on space-time intelligence -

Digital Heroic Spirits are different from real Heroic Spirits. We do not summon gravity from the 'Throne of Heroes', but interfere with the intelligence of infinite parallel worlds through the Sea of Data and the Sea of Imaginary Numbers - in other words, Digital Heroic Spirits are summoned randomly from the 'Data Storm'.

And the information is related, the cause and effect connection still exists, and you in other infinite parallel worlds - other Shirou Emiya, perhaps they have all experienced the experience of "summoning Altria as their Servant".

These will also affect you, so in the absence of any holy relics, most of the extraction options you see are related to various Altria options. Only Minamoto no Raikou is considered to be suitable for you in terms of compatibility. "

"I don't have any special feelings about this." Shirou shook his head, "Strength is something that is best controlled by oneself. I was just planning to summon a sparring partner at the beginning.

And you said that Digital Heroic Spirits are different from normal Heroic Spirit Servants. Because they are freed from the support and constraints of the Throne of Heroes, Digital Heroic Spirits have the "growth potential" that real Heroic Spirits do not have.

However, the price is that the Digital Heroic Spirits cannot get the support of the Throne of Heroes, which is different from the situation where real Heroic Spirit Servants naturally reach maximum level after manifesting and are only limited by the amount of magic power of their Master.

Digital Heroic Spirits can replenish mana more easily, but they are only at level 1 at the beginning, so they need to slowly absorb data and then upgrade and evolve, right?"

Weber: "Yes, this aspect of the design is to reduce the difficulty of summoning, to ensure that everyone can have their own Digital Heroic Spirit partner, and on the other hand, it is also to allow the Master and the partner to enhance the bond through 'leveling up'. Is there something wrong with the design of this mechanism?"

"No, but I encountered something even stranger." Shirou said.

"Oh?" Weber's voice sounded nervous.

Shirou put the processed meat into the oven, and then began to think about what kind of vegetable dishes would be acceptable to Caster, while explaining his experience to Waver:
"Professor, according to the manual you gave me, a Digital Heroic Spirit is a digital life form formed by randomly extracting data from a data storm. In essence, it can be considered a Digimon that uses a Heroic Spirit template.

Because of this, Digital Heroic Spirits are not real Heroic Spirits, not real heroes that existed in history.

Instead, it is a 'new life' that is born after a real hero is randomly mixed with various elements.

Even if two people summon the same Digital Heroic Spirit, these two Digital Heroic Spirits are two completely different lives, and as they upgrade, grow, and evolve, their different experiences will make the difference even greater.

Not only will the strength be different, but the personality will also grow into a different posture.

The Digital Heroic Spirits only have vague memories of their historical prototypes at best. In most cases, they are more like artificial humans with basic personalities injected into them, much like newborn babies."

"That's right," Waver explained. "This is also for 'coexistence and growth'. I hope that in the future, humans will be born with their own Digital Heroic Spirit partner. Ideally, babies will summon their own Digital Heroic Spirit in baby form, and then grow up together as a family. Any questions?"

"That's strange, Professor," Shirou sighed, "I don't know if my situation is a special case, but Caster - the Digital Heroic Spirit partner I summoned - she doesn't look like someone with a personality as simple as a blank sheet of paper, with only vague and ambiguous memories of her original prototype.

She remembered it very clearly, and even felt that she had died and was resurrected and summoned by me. ”

Waver was silent. When Shirou finished cooking, Waver gave his thoughts:

".'Data storm', the key is the randomness of the data storm after the sea of data and the sea of imaginary numbers are connected."

Shirou: "What do you mean?"

"This is my guess. Shirou, the situation you encountered should be a 'special case'."

"What kind of special law is this?"

"Your partner, Custer, must have died in her own world, but her soul did not follow the normal process of reincarnation, but accidentally fell into the abyss - into the imaginary space!"

"wait"

Shirou looked up at Caster, who was enthusiastically playing a card duel with Shinji online, and asked, "Caster! Did you fall into the abyss or the imaginary realm when you died?"

"Yes!" Custer looked very happy and didn't even turn his head. "You are right. Boss, you picked up my fragments from the abyss and put them together again, didn't you?"

Shirou replied to Waver: "It is exactly what you said."

"That's right." Waver felt a headache. "How come the first time I tested this technique, I encountered an unexpected special case? What about this Digital Heroic Spirit you met?

Her situation cannot be considered a special case of Digital Heroic Spirits. Rather, she died and disintegrated in her own world, falling into the Sea of Imaginary Numbers. Her fragments, unable to be reincarnated, accidentally crossed time and space and combined with the technique on your side.

She was originally dead, but now she has a new body as a Digital Heroic Spirit.
A simple and crude understanding is that you resurrected her and she was reincarnated as your Digital Heroic Partner, right?

Although it cannot be considered a common practice, it is a good thing for you, right? You don't need to teach her. Her memory is complete. As long as she upgrades her level, she can directly serve as a qualified combat force."

It turned out to be the case.

Shirou's confusion was finally resolved.

That is to say-

"If you don't have to take care of children and educate them, it would be easier, right?" Weber said half-jokingly.

Shirou thought about the impression Caster made on him.

Instead, I felt a bit of a headache: "It's hard to say, she gives me the feeling of a hot girl in her rebellious period."

Waver: "? What are you talking about? Didn't you summon the Knight King?"

all in all--

Just think of it as having a younger sister who needs care.

Although Shirou plans to become a 'guard' of the digital world, because the relevant Heroic Spirit police agency has not yet been established, his current identity is temporarily a 'special consultant to the alliance' - a position similar to that of a 'consultant detective', responsible for handling various complex and difficult abnormal cases.

It has been a tradition since ancient times for detectives to have assistants, so let Custer start by learning how to be his own assistant.

During this time of waiting for Toosaka Rin and Emiya Sakura to bring their 'Digital Heroic Partners'.

Shirou also explained to Caster what he knew about the story of the 'King of Knights/King Arthur Altria', hoping to get more information about her past from Caster.

After listening to this, Custer immediately showed this expression↓

Blackcaster: "You mean, in other world lines?"

"King Uther is really my real father"

"Merlin was the teacher he arranged for me, not someone I met by accident."

"I was destined to pull out the sword from the stone"

"Become King of Britain"

"Morgan is my sister, and I have an illegitimate son, Mordred, with her."

"I was loved by the people and fairies, and founded the Knights of the Round Table"

"There are a lot of Morgan's sons, including Gawain"

"I did not die after defeating the humble king Vortigern"

"With the help of the fairies, the ideal city of Camelot was built"

"But because I looked down on Mordred's illegitimate status, she hated me."

"In the end, I was cheated on by my wife and stabbed to death by my child?"

Shirou nodded seriously.

"Impossible! Absolutely impossible!"

Custer got angry on the spot!

"Merlin gave me an elite education? Fuck! How could that be possible?! He was the one who taught me this crude, often looked down upon country accent!
And then you said that shit Morgan is my sister and I had an illegitimate child with her?

Bullshit! It's complete bullshit!
We are both women, how can we have children!

Even if there really is such a man-made child, am I mentally ill to treat her badly? Wasn't she loyal to me and willing to die if I asked her to? !

Wasn't I alone when I fought Vortigern? And I survived after the fight?
The most! ridiculous! thing! is! "

Blackcaster looked at Shirou with a 'are you kidding me?' expression: "Being loved by the people and fairies? You must be kidding! I'm going to throw up!"

Shirou couldn't remember how many times he had held his forehead with his hand. "So what on earth have you been through? Your life seems to have been terrible from the beginning to the end. If that's the case, why do you still want to save the world?"

Custer curled his lips: "My life? The world I live in?

Everyone else is so scary, and society is so disgusting. Even if I were asked to save the world, I would not be interested at all. But if I disobey those who want me to save the world, I will be beaten. If I run away from them, I will be captured by Queen Morgan's minions and refined.

I can’t die or be freed before I complete my mission, so I can only work hard as a savior.”

Shirou: ".What kind of shitty world did you live in before!?"

Shirou couldn't help himself and was led astray by Caster's swearing!

Look how miserable the child is!

To this Shirou could only say: ".It's over. I won't let your future turn out like that."

Custer looked at Shirou doubtfully, "Are you saying that the boss won't beat me, scold me, or ask me to go to the battlefield and fight monsters?"

Shirou nodded. "If you don't plan on fighting, you can stay home or just follow me to the work site to clock in."

Custer continued to ask: "Boss, will you provide me with food for the rest of my life? Can you let me have my own room, soft blankets instead of sleeping in a stable, and eat meat once a week?"

"Eat! You can eat anything!" Shirou waved his hand, "There's meat every day!"

Custer's eyes lit up: "Boss, the contract between us is a lifetime contract, right? You won't kick me out halfway because you don't want to pay me, or make promises to me and send me to a dangerous battlefield where I will die, right?"

"No! It's fine if you don't work! I don't have any special expectations on your fighting ability anyway! It's fine if you don't level up and just stay here to eat and drink for free!"

Caster took Shirou's hands, his eyes seemed to really glow: "Boss, you will make me happy for the rest of my life, right?"

"Of course!"

Custer looked overjoyed: "I recorded it! I wrote it down! It's settled! I want to eat meat every meal!"

Shirou added, "You have to eat vegetables, too."

Custer was happy though.

But Shirou knew that all of this was just a pretense. Her hard life had made her not believe in anything, not believe in the kindness of others, and not believe that society would be kind to her.

Custer's current liveliness and joy are actually all disguises.

It is a mental self-protection mechanism used by a self-destructive madman (berserker) to endure pain and survive in a bad world.

look.

She was obviously very hungry and kept clamoring for food, but after Shirou really picked it up, she kept asking questions and talking nonsense.

She was being cautious; she didn't believe Shirou's unwarranted kindness and suspected there was something wrong with the food.

But it doesn’t matter.

take it easy.

Soften her heart and gain her trust.

(It feels like I am raising a rebellious daughter)

Shirou couldn't help but think so.

"Come, eat." Shirou kindly gave her a knife and fork, "You can learn how to use chopsticks later. They are very convenient to use."

Blackcaster forced herself to smile, wore a thick mask, and disguised herself as a 'cheerful bad girl'.

Under Shirou's gaze, Caster, pretending to eat voraciously but actually ready to spit it out if he sensed something was wrong, put the first piece of fried pork cutlet into his mouth, chewed it carefully, and swallowed it -

['Difficulty' of gaining Custer's trust: 120 (Due to past encounters, even Shirou's delicacies are very difficult to break)]

[Shirou's 'cooking': 1D100=100]

[Super Chef Level Correction: 1D100=71]

[Total: 171]

Shirou said: "In our world, because the world itself is highly digitalized, the research and development of spirit magic has become extremely easy, but I am not good at the research and development of magic. However, in terms of cooking, I want to make people happy through food. In the process of hard work, I unknowingly gained the ability that can be called 'cooking magic'.

My cooking can provide benefits and convey emotions. I hope you can know my good intentions, and I hope you trust me. "

Shirou said to Caster:
"I don't need you to trust me and tell me your entire past right away, but at least, I hope you believe in my promise to you."

Shirou looked into Caster's eyes sincerely and seriously:
“Castartoria, you deserve happiness and gratitude.

You no longer have to fight."

←to be continue!

(End of this chapter)