At Emperor's request, Shirou followed him and Yith as they left together.
They got into a Penguin Logistics car, with Yith driving. The passenger seat was empty, while Shirou and Emperor both sat in the back.
Emperor reached into what looked like an insulated compartment, took out a bottle of red wine, and opened it.
Without even asking Shirou, he poured himself a glass and started drinking.
He knew that this oddball in Penguin Logistics did not drink alcohol, so there was no point asking.
Even Sora would have an occasional drink, but this one would not touch it at all and aside from using the bare minimum in cooking he basically avoided it entirely.
Considering Shirou's outstanding abilities, Emperor let it slide.
"Phew… kid, why did you not notify Yith immediately? We had to find out through other channels that Old Wei had his eyes on you."
After downing the glass of red wine in one go, Emperor asked.
"Uh… I did not think too much about it."
Faced with the question, Shirou thought for a moment and answered honestly.
"Heh, I think you just forgot, did you not? Whatever, that fits your personality. You do not cause trouble often, but when you do, it is always something big!"
Seeing Shirou's expression, Emperor immediately understood.
This was not "not thinking too much"...he had clearly forgotten.
At that moment, Emperor felt like a babysitter. He had thought that bringing someone in to manage the four of them would let him relax, but it turned out the one in charge had plenty of issues too.
Still, there were not many situations that required his involvement, it was just that when something did happen, it was always serious.
The others' troubles were at most things like street racing, explosions, illegal stalls, or idol management issues…
As for Shirou? Helping people in the slums was one thing, at least he had not stepped on that certain rat's tail but now he was practically dancing right in front of a certain old dragon.
In just a few days, he had already clashed with Wei Yenwu twice. Who could understand his suffering?
Depressing!
"Haha…"
Being roasted by his boss like that, Shirou could only laugh awkwardly.
This time, it really was not his fault. It was simply that the other party was too suspicious, which led to everything that followed.
"Enough laughing. What is the deal with the person Wei Yenwu mentioned?"
Hearing Shirou's awkward laugh Emperor skipped past the previous topic. It was just a bit of complaining anyway.
At least Shirou had a sense of his own situation, which was somewhat reassuring.
But that "Red Devil of Ursus" Wei Yenwu mentioned earlier… there were too many suspicious points.
A person who had disappeared more than three years ago, and Shirou, who had suddenly fallen from the sky a few months ago and both of them using exactly the same weapons and fighting style. If not for differences in physical data proving they were not the same person, Emperor would have suspected he had dug up a super Originium bomb.
Although Shirou's performance was impressive, that other one had real recorded achievements.
He had fought multiple Emperor Blades alone and retreated unscathed and had even repelled an Ursus army single-handedly.
It was simply outrageous.
Wei Yenwu had held back from asking further questions because Emperor was present and he could only confirm that Shirou had no connection to that "Black Snake" before letting him go.
But Emperor could not let it go.
Leaving aside that he was the boss of Penguin Logistics, a logistics and intelligence company—Shirou was his employee.
As a boss, caring about an employee's situation was perfectly reasonable.
"Hmm… it is a bit complicated. But the Noble Phantasms in those images match up, so maybe it really is him? Even I do not know why he would be there."
After thinking for a moment, Shirou answered.
However, he did not dump everything out at once, if he did no one would believe him.
A transmigrator from another world, a version of himself from the future… who would believe that?
There was no solid proof for those claims but the projected Noble Phantasms were clear evidence, so Shirou did not hide that part.
"If you do not know, then forget it. As for Noble Phantasms…is that what you call the weapons you usually use? Fine, who you knew in the past is not my concern but if you can recall that person, does that mean your memory has started to recover?"
Hearing Shirou say he did not know why that person was there, Emperor dropped that line of questioning.
Rather than suspect Shirou of lying, it was more worthwhile to think about the new terms he had brought up and the matter of his memories.
If Shirou were capable of lying convincingly, Emperor would happily eat three extra meals in celebration.
"I have remembered part of my memories."
Shirou replied.
"Oh? Then do you remember why you fell from the sky?"
That was the topic Emperor was truly interested in.
"This… sorry, that is part I have not remembered yet."
Seeing his boss's interest, Shirou wanted to answer but he simply could not.
He really had not remembered!
Although he had other fragments that suggested it might be related to the Holy Grail War, he still did not know the exact cause.
It could not have been that the Holy Grail literally hit him in the face and sent him here, right?
"Sigh… fine. If you have not remembered, then you have not remembered."
After learning that the thing he wanted to know still fell under "not yet remembered," Emperor did not feel discouraged.
After all, it was just curiosity. He was not like a certain scheming "dragon" who had to worry about so many things.
"Ahem… Shirou, I am quite interested in what you mentioned earlier. Send me all that again later, preferably with images. And if possible, it would be even better if I could handle them myself."
Seeing that the two in the back seat had reached a pause in their conversation, Yith, who was driving, joined in.
"…I will send the images. As for the rest, we will talk about it later."
Shirou only agreed to the first half of Yith's request. As for letting him examine things hands-on, he firmly refused.
If Yith got curious, it would not end in less than half a day.
Shirou did not have the same amount of free time as before to indulge his curiosity, so he could only decline.
"Fine. Images are good enough."
Yith was not particularly demanding. Even with his broad experience, the only place he had seen so many unusual weapons 'Noble Phantasms' was with Shirou.
He did not have many hobbies; only strange and unique things could catch his attention.
"Tsk tsk, kid, you are done for."
Seeing Yith's reaction, Emperor knew he was genuinely interested this time.
From now on, if Shirou ever wanted to ask Yith for help, it would probably come with conditions tied to this matter.
That said, it was not a bad thing. Shirou had often made Yith work overtime on matters unrelated to Penguin Logistics and it was about time he paid something in return.
"Speaking of which…Shirou I heard your food expenses have been pretty high lately?"
When it came to matters outside Penguin Logistics, Emperor suddenly remembered that he had not checked the food expense flow for quite some time.
It had gone from frugal spending at the beginning, to normal consumption and recently to large expenditures.
The Emperor was wondering what Shirou had gone through to change like this.
What he could confirm was that Shirou had not used company money for personal matters. He knew that the expenses in the slums all came from Shirou's own salary.
He also felt that the members of Penguin Logistics had been getting noticeably "rounder." Fortunately, Sora was currently in rehearsal, otherwise she might not even fit into her idol outfit this time.
For others, that was a good thing but for Sora, it might mean missing out on a huge opportunity.
Of course, as the boss, this was great news for him.
"Ah? Well… that is just… necessary spending!"
Caught off guard by his boss hitting the key point, Shirou began to stammer.
"What 'necessary spending'?"
The Emperor, who had been in a good mood, immediately questioned him after seeing his reaction.
As expected, this kid's intention to hide something was practically written all over his face. That was why Emperor was never worried about him lying.
He would just keep pressing!
"Well, it is…"
Shirou was desperately organizing his words, trying to frame it as building good relations with the Guard Department.
He just needed to make it sound better.
"I know about this. Recently, Shirou has gotten along quite well with Officer Ch'en, Officer Hoshiguma, and Officer Swire. It is all thanks to those lunchboxes he makes with his cooking. The money is probably spent on that."
As someone tasked by the boss to keep an eye on Shirou, Yith naturally knew what kind of "storm" Shirou had stirred in the Guard Department.
First, his superb marksmanship impressed the snipers so much that they all competed to get guidance from him and he actually managed to teach them quite a bit.
Then, the three big figures would always gather at lunchtime to pick up lunchboxes from him. It was said that Ch'en initially refused, but was eventually persuaded by Hoshiguma and Swire.
Apparently, the two convinced her with: "If you do not eat it, it would be such a waste and then I will take it instead."
Absolutely ridiculous.
But also understandable. Not having to think about what to eat, having everything prepared for you, even customized to your taste… just imagining it was enviable.
Moreover, it was not like they did not pay. Shirou received cash, then used it to replenish ingredient costs, though not much.
Also, according to a certain unnamed Lupo, Shirou had been spending more time in the kitchen lately and the fridge had more desserts and cold dishes than before.
She expressed some concern about Shirou's condition and the health of her two teammates.
"…Kid, are you using my money to flirt with girls?"
Hearing all this, Emperor froze and then turned to Shirou and threw out that question directly.
It left Shirou stunned, and even Yith in the front seat was caught off guard.
"The steering wheel! Watch the wheel!"
The moving car nearly scraped against a nearby wall. It was only thanks to Shirou's urgent reminder that nothing happened.
This car was one of the boss's prized vehicles and it was very expensive. Expensive enough to make Yith work overtime for months to pay it off.
"…Phew. No, boss, I am not. I am just building work relationships. How did it turn into that in your mind?"
Seeing the car return to its proper path, Shirou finally relaxed and explained.
He had no idea what he had just experienced.
"Building work relationships? What is the difference?"
Even behind his sunglasses, Shirou could tell from Emperor's tone that he was probably squinting at him suspiciously.
"Well, Penguin Logistics often deals with the Guard Department, right? So I thought it would be good to build better relations. Not for them to never arrest us, but at least not to treat us too harshly."
Shirou finally voiced the explanation he had been thinking about for a while… or rather, his defense.
"Hm… it is a nice idea, but you are being a bit too optimistic. The other two might be fine, but Old Wei's niece is just as stubborn as he is. Your effort will probably go to waste."
After listening to Shirou's explanation, and seeing Yith nod in agreement from the front seat, Emperor decided not to pursue the matter further.
Using his money for proper purposes was fine but if it were for something else, he would definitely lose his temper.
Sure, he made money easily, but that did not mean it should be spent like this.
"Oh… I was just giving it a try anyway."
Hearing his boss's words, Shirou did not argue.
The boss was always right.
Although… his boss had just casually dropped a rather shocking piece of information, had he not?
Officer Ch'en was actually Wei Yenwu's niece?
But the two of them did not seem to have any kind of friendly familial interaction at all.
Well, it was someone else's family matter, there was no need for him to dig into it.
It was better to just pretend he had not heard anything.
"Alright, alright. As long as I know where the money is going, that is enough. We can send him back to the Guard Department now."
The Emperor waved his hand, then poured himself another glass of red wine and continued drinking.
The car drove on for a while longer.
Earlier, they had taken a slight detour because Emperor wanted to talk to Shirou. Now that they were done it was time to send him back to work.
It was around noon, and many people were out buying lunch, so the roads were a bit congested.
After thinking for a while, Shirou suddenly spoke:
"Boss, what did you mean by what you said to Officer Wei earlier?"
"Which part? The 'playing the good guy' line? I was just mocking Wei Yenwu, nothing more."
Caught off guard by the question, Emperor shifted his gaze from the window to Shirou.
In his view, Shirou should have had many questions but definitely not about that one.
It was just something he said to jab at Wei Yenwu, that scheming guy who saw everyone as a villain. After all, no normal person would see someone who constantly did good deeds as a bad person.
"I see."
Hearing the answer, Shirou froze for a moment and then relaxed.
"What is it? Did that strike a nerve? I am not to lecture you but young people should not get caught up in this kind of brooding nonsense. Try to be more open-minded."
Seeing Shirou's reaction, Emperor guessed that he might have heard something similar before or that the words had resonated with him.
He leaned toward the latter. Otherwise, Shirou would not have shown that kind of melancholic expression.
Shirou was usually not very expressive, but it was rare for him to look like that.
Still, giving psychological advice was not something Emperor was good at.
What he was good at was making money and rapping not being a therapist.
"No… it is nothing. I just happened to think of something."
Faced with Emperor's concern, Shirou shook his head slightly, indicating he was fine.
He had simply been reminded of something.
About someone who had spent his entire life trying to do good… yet ended up with a less-than-ideal fate.