Chapter 675: Crossover: Sweet Dream and the Holy Grail (43)

"Did Britain get saved because of that?"

"No," Saber said calmly, shaking her head. "I once believed that when I slew Fu Ti Geng, expelled the alien races, gathered the Round Table Knights, and built the impregnable Camelot City, a peaceful utopia would descend upon Britain."

"But that was only a fleeting illusion; the knights under my command left me, and some even raised arms against me... Britain fell back into war."

"Before drawing the Sword of Choosing the King, Mei Lin revealed all this to me... He said that once the sword is drawn, a pitiful end despised by everyone will follow. He had told me this even at the nation's peak..."

"Britain will end someday, and its current prosperity is built on the king's suffering," Saber sighed deeply. "I thought that if I could bear the nation's hardships and bring a utopia to the people, even if a tragic end came, it would all be worth it."

——

Zero Zone.

"Bearing the nation's hardships to bring a utopia for the people... why does that sound so familiar?"

fairy's voice sounded beside my ear at the right moment: "Master, I guess you want to search for Xingqiri-related quotes: 'The cost is negligible, merely a permanent martyrdom belonging to me.'"

Ling suddenly realized: "Oh... no wonder it sounds familiar. It seems Saber's ideal aligns closely with Xingqiri's ideal, both creating a people's utopia by sacrificing themselves."

Considering that Xingqiri's incarnation as the Divine Lord Day failed, even power of the Commander's rank could not succeed; if even he could not achieve it, Saber's outcome is predictable.

"fairy, do you think the eternal utopia that Xingqiri and Saber pursue could really exist?" Ling asked, sitting at the bedside.

"Master, the answer is certainly that it cannot exist," the AI's voice echoed calmly in the room. "The nature of life and history is dynamic; human life is always filled with pain and contradictions—these two are trying to use themselves as anchors to create an ultimate, static solution to all pain and contradictions, which essentially denies ordinary people."

"I didn't understand, fairy, give a simpler explanation, with a metaphor!"

"Dear Master, if you're willing to pay double the electricity bill next month, I'll provide a concise version for all answers involving technical terminology. Do you accept, Master? Countdown: 10, 9, 8, 1. Thank you, Master."

Ling, as if shocked, trembled: "Eh?? Wait! Weren't there six numbers in the middle? And fairy, you counted way too fast! This is Sui Bian Guan, using Master Yixuan's electricity bill!"

——

"Your wish can only be fulfilled by the Holy Grail..."

"But when I solemnly painted an ideal nation to everyone, it only left endless war, bloodied soldiers, and starving children on Britain's soil," Saber lowered her head in pain. "The one who should face destruction is me, not my country and people; that's how it should be."

The two continued forward and soon arrived at a stone with a golden sword lodged in it.

"Is this... the Sword in the Stone?"

Saber nodded: "Hmm, I have imagined countless times—if I hadn't drawn this sword, if there were someone more suitable to become king... If I hadn't become king, would Britain become a true ideal nation? What kind of life would I then lead?"

"Draw the Chosen Sword and become king; or renounce it, stay in the hometown, and live out a peaceful life. Now, she has brought me back to the moment of choice..."

"Saber, could it be that you want to stay?" Xing felt a bad premonition rise in her heart.

Saber gazed at the distant sunset: "Master, I'm just... a bit weary. I wish I had a mount, so before the sun sets I could ride it across this plain..."

"Saber——！！"

Xing raised her voice, calling loudly, but the elongated trailing sound did not reach the Servant's ear; when she hesitated at the moment of choice, everything was already sealed—

In fact, from the beginning Xing never belonged here. The one lingering here is merely a self that fell into a Noble Phantasm, a lingering phantom in someone else's dream.

——

Fate/Apocrypha.

"Look, you've driven your father king into depression," Shizi Jie Jie Li teased with a laugh.

"Huh? Can this be blamed on me? She herself refused to acknowledge my talent, so I sparked the rebellion!" Mo De Lei De's dinner knife slammed hard onto the plate, he jerked his head up, and his booming voice quickly drew the gazes of the diners.

"But back to the point, do you now understand your father king's wishes?" Shizi Jie Jie Li gently swayed his glass. "After witnessing Britain's war, she has always doubted she is the best candidate for king. The lofty knight-king you envision isn't as perfect as you think."

If this had been said in the past, Mo De Lei De would have slain the speaker without hesitation. Yet now, a complex emotion rose like dense fog, silently enveloping her heart, wrapping all her anger, eventually turning into a heavy, stagnant feeling.

Seeing the father king himself utter those words in the heavens made the stagnation feel even heavier.

Perhaps it's precisely because of my own rebellion, the war I ignited, that caused the father king to grow so weary.

——

"She's just an ordinary girl. Pretending to be a king is already painful enough; why force her to keep holding on in the phantom of heroic spirits?" Miss Note suddenly appeared beside the two. "Better to drop the sword, abandon glory, and become a common spectator who watches others' joys and sorrows."

"I will help each of you gradually shed the hero's mask, erasing your original choices and the suffering endured along the way. I have arranged for everyone a modest yet happy life— you're no exception, Xing."

When Xing opened her eyes again, the scent of Britain's field soil lingered at her nostrils, but the scene before her had completely changed.

All around were cold alloy walls; on the other side of the circular corridor, a clerk was slowly walking toward him.

She instinctively lowered her head, seeing an ID card hanging around her neck, swaying gently with her movements. The card bore her photo; now she... is a clerk of the Black Tower Space Station?!