When Shirou's victory was announced, the high-ranking nobles of the Asura Kingdom showed completely different expressions.
The nobles of Ariel's group cheered and celebrated.
The nobles of Gravel's group looked like they had lost their parents.
The middle and lower-ranking nobles looked at each other, and then rushed to congratulate Ariel...
Human nature was clearly displayed on the faces of the nobles, enough to show how ugly the so-called politicians really are.
Paul faced all of this with a cold look. He had given up everything, given up the right to inherit the Notos family, and left the royal capital precisely because he hated these so-called nobles and such fake relationships.
Therefore, he didn't care at all about the expressions of the nobles around him. He didn't even glance at his younger brother Pilemon, who looked desperate and seemed ten years older, in the distance.
Among the many nobles, Paul stood out like a crane in a flock of chickens.
At the same time, compared to Paul's honest and hateful look, Ariel, as a princess, obviously wouldn't express her emotions so directly on her face, and even less would she reject the nobles around her.
But she still had her subordinates block the other nobles, while she focused all her attention on Shirou in the center of the battlefield.
If it weren't for her status as a princess, she would probably have rushed to Shirou's side immediately to check on his condition and injuries.
Although Ariel didn't do this, Eris rushed to Shirou's side immediately.
The red-haired girl anxiously wanted to check Shirou's condition, but Shirou politely declined, shaking his head calmly and comforting her, "I'm fine, just a little tired."
"How can you be fine? Let's go see a doctor quickly!"
Eris wanted to forcibly take Shirou to get treatment.
But Shirou stubbornly shook his head and silently let go of Eris's hand.
On the other side, the many nobles at the scene looked at the Water God Reida, who was lying on the ground dying, with complex expressions. After all, no matter what the Water God had done, she was the Asura Kingdom's guardian deity, the strongest person in this country in the past, and the one who maintained Asura Kingdom's pride and dignity.
Most people couldn't hate such a Water God, but because she had protected Darius's actions, it was also difficult to forgive her sins.
So, everyone's eyes turned to Ariel, waiting for the princess to make the final decision on the Water God Reida.
Ariel herself seemed to find the Water God's decision difficult, and silently looked at Shirou, as if wanting Shirou, who had personally defeated the Water God, to decide the Water God's final fate.
Shirou was a little surprised by this sudden responsibility, but he quickly showed an expression of understanding, looking at the Water God Reida lying on the ground.
He didn't announce the conclusion directly, but slowly said to the old woman lying on the ground:
"You lost, Water God."
"Yes, I lost..."
"Even now, do you still not regret everything you've done? You should know that under your protection, Darius killed so many innocent people."
"I don't regret it."
Even in such a desperate situation, the Water God still didn't have the slightest change in her beliefs. Shirou hesitated and said, "I don't think you're an evil person, but I can't see any sense of justice in you either. I can now understand that different people have completely different ideas of justice, and justice itself isn't an objective and unchanging concept, but I still can't understand, what is your idea of justice?"
"You've asked a really interesting question, Shirou boy..."
The dying old woman coughed up blood while smiling and said, "Justice? When I first held a sword, I also had such fantasies, imagining that I could use the sword in my hand to protect every weak person and eliminate all sources of evil, but in reality, that was just a childish fantasy. After growing up a little, most people will understand the falseness of this fantasy, because most of the time there is no real justice in this world, only different points of view."
"…."
Shirou fell silent at the Water God's words.
After all, he knew very well what the consequences of this childish idea would be.
Having walked the path of Servant Emiya, even after becoming an adult, he still hadn't given up the fantasy of becoming an ally of justice, and had walked this twisted path to the end, but had paid a huge price for it.
Of course, he didn't agree with the Water God's view that there was only perspective and no justice in the world.
Although the concept of justice changes with the situation, there is still the fact that objective justice exists in this world.
Otherwise, human civilization would have no basis for existence.
While Shirou continued to analyze the concept of justice in his heart, the Water God seemed to be recalling the past like a slideshow.
"However, I gave up the idea of justice and became a realistic person earlier than most people. It was when I was a young girl. At the time, because I was very talented in swordsmanship, I was praised by the world as a genius, so I became smug and arrogant, and even beat the other young nobles in the dojo to a pulp because I was confident and arrogant in my abilities..."
"Naturally, I was retaliated against for doing so. That noble young man spent money to hire a group of thugs, who surrounded me when I was alone in an alley. Although I was very talented in swordsmanship, at the time I was just an ordinary intermediate Water God Style user. I was outnumbered and beaten half to death in no time."
"The noble young man was very jealous of my talent and planned to have his men cut off my hands, which were a Swordsman's life. At that moment, someone stepped in to save me, a noble young man with a higher status than that noble. Heh, I think you should also know who that person is, that Darius."
"Although he is in this disgusting state now, Darius at the time wasn't ugly, just unremarkable. He even had a greater sense of justice than ordinary people. I was very grateful after being rescued, but because of the difference in status, I couldn't see him again."
"Later, I learned my lesson, stopped fighting with people, and worked hard to immerse myself in swordsmanship, constantly breaking through the bottlenecks of swordsmanship and successfully becoming the Water King. It was also at that time that I was promoted to the Asura Kingdom's Knights' swordmanship instructor, with a status equal to that of a high-ranking noble, and I had the opportunity to see Darius."
"When I met him, I wanted to take the opportunity to thank him for what happened back then, but he had already turned into a fat raccoon like he is now, not only was his personality twisted, but he didn't even remember me. I was really disappointed at that time, after all, the reason I became so strong was somewhat because I wanted to see that guy again. If I could meet that person again, I would...I even thought about such girlish things."
"It can be said that almost at that moment, I lost the emotions that ordinary people should have and became the old woman I am today., After all, what Darius ended wasn't just a girl's first love, but also the firm heart of justice that should have existed."
"Humans ultimately need a belief to live. My former belief was brought to me by Darius who saved me. For me, he was my role model at the time, but later, he became like that, which was equivalent to destroying my belief with his own hands and freezing my heart of justice, which should have been burning brightly, directly."
The Water God's words resonated with Shirou.
After all, Shirou had once regarded Emiya Kiritsugu as a role model, until he faced the same choice himself, he realized what kind of obsession the other party had fallen into, and thus came out of his confusion.
The Water God was affected by Darius, but didn't receive the corresponding salvation, so naturally she had been trapped in a cycle of pain.
But Shirou didn't accept the Water God's explanation because of this, but continued to ask, "You chose to side with Darius because your heart of justice cooled down? I still don't think that's a sufficient reason."
"Not a sufficient reason? You're really sharp, Shirou boy."
Reida Reia showed a bitter smile, "Indeed, as you said, even if I'm disappointed, I still have the same sense of good and evil as normal people, and I can't let Darius do such evil things and remain indifferent. So, after learning that Darius had become like this, I originally cut ties with him completely and didn't want to have any contact with him, let alone protect his safety."
"But almost halfway through my life, one day in a dream, I suddenly dreamed of a special god, who called himself Hitogami, who was going to give me revelations and guidance. Heh, that sounds unbelievable, like a joke, but I did believe that dream, believed that joke, because I had a strong intuition, firmly believing that it was indeed a god, not a title like Water God or Sword God, but a real god."
"That Hitogami told me that he looked at my life from a god's perspective and found that I had done many things right and many things wrong. My life was basically a result of neither merit nor fault. Even if I died on the spot, I could go to heaven without regret. However, there was still a stain on my life. I had made a huge mistake, which was forgetting one very important thing - not repaying Darius's kindness."
"Hitogami said that everything in this world has cause and effect, and everyone has their karma. If it weren't for Darius's actions back then, I wouldn't have become the Water God. I would have been deprived of my hands in that dark alley, losing my qualification to become a Swordsman, and even becoming a slave. This was the kindness Darius gave me, an unerasable karma."
"Since karma already exists, there must be a corresponding return. Otherwise, there would be no reason in the world, and it would be difficult for people to maintain contact with each other. Although it sounds like simple preaching, I suddenly understood at the time. After carefully recalling my past, putting aside the relationship, and thinking carefully with a new perspective, I indeed had never repaid such important kindness."
"If I enjoy pure benefits without returning important karma, it does violate the essence of being a person. From this point of view alone, I think the existence that made this suggestion to me was indeed Hitogami, our human god. Therefore, I returned to the Asura Kingdom, training my juniors as the Water God, while protecting Darius's safety, using this last time to repay the karma of my youth."
"…"
The Water God silently told everything, and in the end, she told the whole truth.
And hearing the Water God's words, everyone at the scene fell silent.
Most people didn't understand the existence of the so-called Hitogami, so they were confused, but they understood the Water God's reasons for protecting Darius to some extent.
Only Shirou, at the moment he heard the word Hitogami from the Water God's mouth, suddenly realized something.
His back almost went cold, feeling some kind of extreme terror spreading little by little, but he didn't understand what that terror was.
While he was thinking, the Water God had already slowly sat up from the ground.
She seemed to have prepared herself to face some kind of awakening, slowly raised her head, and looked at a certain direction in the distance.
At the end of the distant horizon, a figure suddenly appeared.
Seeing the figure slowly walking over, the Water God Reida showed an expression of calmly facing death and murmured, "...Looks like he's here."
"Here? Who?"
No one at the scene could understand the Water God's words.
Shirou couldn't understand either.
But based on instinct, he looked in the direction the Water God was looking, and relying on his Clairvoyance, he saw the figure walking from afar faster than anyone else.
It was a figure wearing knight's armor, the whole person shrouded in armor. He walked towards the execution ground step by step, seemingly very slowly, but in the blink of an eye, he crossed the long distance and almost instantly arrived at the scene of the execution.
Faced with this unfamiliar existence, most people showed confusion.
Only the Water God had a knowing look and silently said, "It's been a while, are you here to guide this old woman who is running out of time to the next world?"
"That's right, because you are Hitogami's apostle."
The armored figure spoke silently, in a heavy man's voice, one that Shirou was extremely familiar with, but couldn't immediately connect.
"An apostle...is that why you let me escape the last time we fought, because I wasn't an apostle then?"
"Yes, you were only fighting me to prove your strength at the time, but now you have completely become Hitogami's pawn."
"Heh, I wouldn't call it a pawn, I'm just following his advice."
"Hitogami won't give correct advice. All the advice he gives is only to satisfy his own purposes."
The armored man said, slowly walking to Water God Reida's front.
Faced with this suddenly appearing man, the nobles at the scene were extremely confused, and some knights, in a belated reaction, immediately went forward to stop him.
But these knights hardly accomplished their mission, and were instantly knocked down by the other party before they could even get close to the armored man.
The armored man just walked step by step, easily arriving in front of Water God Reida, and slowly raised his hand, wanting to end the old woman's life.
"Stop!"
Just as Water God was about to die, Isolte suddenly rushed out. She couldn't stand by and watch her master and grandmother be killed, and burst out with all the power of a Water King in her urgency!
"Boom!"
Seemingly because it was beyond the armored man's expectations, Isolte's full blow not only interrupted his actions but also directly blew off the armor on the man's head.
As a result, his true face was exposed in front of everyone.
"Eek!"
Everyone at the scene felt fear after seeing that figure.
Some lost control of their bladder, some fell to the ground, and some held hostility towards him.
However, almost everyone had the same thought in their hearts - everyone will die.
Only two people at the scene weren't scared by the man's true face, Shirou and Rudeus.
Not to mention Rudeus, who was completely confused and didn't know what was happening, Shirou's eyes suddenly widened the moment he saw the other party's true form.
Because when he saw the appearance of the person who came, he suddenly realized that the other party's true identity was none other than the current Dragon God, Orsted!