I'm really not a top magician

She was born to pull out the King's Sword.

She didn't know what her real parents looked like.

The king and the magician have the goal of becoming the ideal king, and they are the ones who were designed and born for that goal.

In fact, she couldn't empathize with things like her late father's regret or wishes.

I don't feel any special sense of mission or emotion towards the magician's teachings.

What has constantly inspired her during these fifteen years is the ordinary days with her adoptive father Hector and brother Kai, as well as the laughter and playfulness of the people living in the town.

It's different from longing or love.

But, in her eyes, such things seemed to be good deeds.

She had no desire to become part of the town, or to participate in it. She had no such desire. Even though she sometimes imagined such a scenario in her mind, she calmly kept it under wraps.

Is it because she knows deep down that if she does that, she will lose everything?

Although she was not very smart, she worked very hard since she was young, so she told herself that this was the only thing she could not do.

Just like how a person is born as a human being.

Dragons also have responsibilities that are entrusted to them.

She understands what kind of person is a king, and she can put it into practice.

She received such an education and was endowed with such qualities as much as possible.

Even so—what a miscalculation that was.

Until the very end, she couldn't hold on to the feeling that she was "that way".

Her driving force is something different from that of the previous king Uther.

It is not the desire for domination as a human being, nor the sense of obligation held by a leader, nor the intoxication stemming from faith.

Her motivation is just a very trivial matter.

Fifteen years of life, unable to live as a human, was all she wished for.

There is only one reason to take up the sword.

Just watching people live their lives gives me strength and motivation to move forward. I can confirm what I really want to do even without saying it out loud.

That was the answer the king sought, nurtured by a girl named Altria, full of humanity.

She quietly placed her hand on the hilt of her sword.

The voices of brave cavalrymen were heard in the distance.

The noise of the knights was far away, and there was no one around the rock.

And that was very similar to the feeling of watching a festival from a distance.

That didn't start now.

She has always been outside the festival.

So it doesn’t seem like something that’s so difficult.

The hilt fits the hand surprisingly well.

Something that had been difficult to handle until now, churning in my body and seemed to be bursting from the inside, was sucked into the sword, and my body felt lighter and lighter.

Next, just retract your hand and the sword will be pulled out.

She was so sure that she was about to take a breath.

"It's better to think carefully before picking up that thing."

When I came to my senses, there was an unfamiliar magician standing behind me.

The magician spoke to her with the same attitude he had always maintained: "I won't harm you, so don't do it. Once you take up that sword, you will no longer be human. Not only that, once you take up this sword, you will be hated by all humans and meet a tragic death."

Her expression was contorted with fear.

Of course, because the magician didn't speak words, but images, making her see in her mind a picture of the future that would actually become like that.

That is not advice but prophecy.

If she took up the sword, no matter how hard she struggled, she would face the reality of a lonely and tragic death.

"---No"

Altria made the final decision.

"Is that okay?" the magician questioned her.

There was no answer, Altria just nodded vigorously.

No matter how many times she will be alienated, feared, or even betrayed, her heart will not change.

Live for people,

To live with people,

To leave a future for people.

That is the matter of being entrusted to the country.

It became the most important thing to her.

"A lot of people were laughing. I thought, it must be right."

Such a resolution,

A girl named Altria drew out the Sword of Selection.

Altria suddenly woke up and saw that she was still using her last strength to try to resist the final attack.

"Oh my god, why did I have such a dream?"

"I dreamed about Saber's past."

"I dreamed about that, another me..."

That's right,

Altria Caster is different from Saber. She did not choose to draw the Sword of Selection, but was chosen by the Rod of Selection.

Because of this result, she became an if in the world history line.

It is precisely because of this small difference that her experience and Saber's experience are completely different.

She became Merlin's disciple and practiced in Avalon.

Saber became the king of Great Britain and resolutely faced the end of Britain.

"Yeah....I've actually been longing for her for so many years."

She has always admired Saber.

It's not the other side's heroic fighting posture,

It's Saber's determination to do something even though she knows it's impossible.

"Really? I've lived for so many years, and yet a 15-year-old girl can't see it clearly."

Artoria looked up and looked forward.

The black flames had already broken several holes in the shield, and countless flames spewed out from the gaps, spraying behind her like magma, and even a lot of them hit her.

pain,

This is one of the few feelings that Altria has.

"Even that regretful king persevered in the end."

The king who chose to draw his sword for the sake of all people,

Isn't it another self?

So at this moment,

What reason is there to give up?

"I....am also Artoria Pendragon!"

Altria, who was half-kneeling, suddenly stood up.

The black-armored female knight in the distance also looked surprised: "Strange, doesn't she have no magic power?"

But she soon figured it out: "Did he stand up by will alone?"

Just as the black-armored female knight said, with her extraordinary willpower, Artoria, who should have left due to her complete depletion of magic power, stood up again with her shield.

"I haven't lost yet!"

"There's someone waiting behind me!"

As Altria stood up, she felt a familiar magical power coming from her body.

"don't want...."

"Don't give up...Altria..."

Aika Sajo's weak voice came from my ears.

Under the power of Artoria's treasure just now, Aika Sajo miraculously regained consciousness from her coma for a moment. Although she didn't understand the situation yet, she still believed in Artoria, so she quickly transferred all the remaining magic power in her body to Artoria.

Feeling the magic power flowing in, Altria smiled with joy:

"Since my Master has spoken."

"Then I absolutely cannot lose!"

In a flash,

The shield that should have shattered into pieces suddenly grew larger, standing in front of the black-armored female knight and the evil dragon Fafnir like a city gate that could block a large army.

2:30 AM in Fuyuki City,

There was a strange smell in the air.

Suddenly there was a bang!

A deep black beam of light passed through the sky above the Fuyuki Civic Hall and then disappeared straight into the distant sky.

at the same time,

United States, Colorado Springs, three hundred meters underground in Cheyenne Mountain, in the North American Aerospace Defense Command Center, NMD System Control Room, the person in charge, Redel, has finally adapted to the work here.

As a newly transferred staff member,

His goal is to manage the huge astronomical telescope on the big screen in front of him.

Hubble Space Telescope

This space telescope, named after the famous astronomer Edwin Hubble, is located in Earth orbit and transmits its observation data back to Earth via radio. Because it is located in the Earth's atmosphere, it has advantages that ground-based telescopes do not have: the image is not disturbed by atmospheric turbulence, the visual angle is excellent, there is no background light caused by atmospheric scattering, and it can observe ultraviolet rays that are absorbed by the ozone layer. Since its launch in 1990, it has become the most important instrument in the history of astronomy.

And Redel himself became the helmsman of the most important instrument in the world's astronomy.

This statement made Redel feel inexplicably funny.

As a black man, he grew up in the slums like other black people in the United States. However, his father attached great importance to his studies, and Redel himself was quite hardworking, so Redel was finally admitted to the University of California, Berkeley.

After graduation, he engaged in research in astronomy.

However, recently he has gradually felt the pressure brought by his race. As a compatriot, he has been criticized in recent years just because he is black, and sometimes he has even been subjected to violent law enforcement by the police. However, in the end, because of his identity as a scientific researcher, the matter ended quickly.

Redel could hardly imagine that if this kind of thing happened to his compatriots, it would probably not be so easy to solve.

Of course, this is not Redl's own delusion.

After all, there are many cases of black people being shot and killed by white police officers in the country.

Redel wanted to do something for his compatriots, but as someone who worked within the system, he was powerless. It wasn't just about his compatriots; as a researcher concerned with the future of humanity, he felt indifferent to many things.

Some time ago, he read a book by the famous Chinese writer Lu Xun. There was a passage in the preface that he strongly agreed with:

"Suppose there is an iron house without any windows and it is impossible to break it down. There are many people sleeping soundly inside. They will soon suffocate to death, but they will die from sleep and will not feel the sorrow of dying. Now you shout loudly and wake up a few people who are more awake, causing these unfortunate few to suffer the pain of irreparable death. Do you think you are doing them justice?"

Yes, there is still hope for this writer, but what about myself?

Taking advantage of the gap when they left at the same time, Redl quickly retrieved the data from the Hubble Telescope.

The information contained a photo of his girlfriend.