The final dawn of the Holy Grail War.
Not yet five o'clock, Shirou slowly opened his eyes.
On the luxurious bed, Irisviel was fast asleep with him wrapped in her arms.
Last night's replenishing magical energy, breastfeeding, had gone on until well past midnight.
Shirou had gained a full reserve of magical energy, but the price was a massive drain on Irisviel's own reserves, along with considerable physical and mental exhaustion.
Looking back on it now, even Shirou felt unbearably embarrassed, so for Irisviel as a woman, it had to be even worse.
Even if it had all been for the sake of final victory, making her sacrifice herself to that extent left him feeling deeply guilty.
"Thanks for last night, Irisviel."
Shirou reached out and gently rubbed Irisviel's head. Still wearing a blissful sleeping smile, she murmured in her dreams.
"Mmm♡... Shirou really is just like a baby... do you love Mommy's breasts that much...? ♡"
"Hehe♡... no need to drink so greedily. No one is going to take them from you... Mommy, and Mommy's breasts, will always belong only to you forever♡"
Shirou: "......"
What kind of dream is she even having?
But then again...
Shirou glanced at the impressive white swell visible through the neckline of her nightgown and involuntarily swallowed.
This is bad. I think I have turned into Pavlov's dog.
Shirou had the feeling that for a while, every time he caught sight of Irisviel's chest, his mouth would automatically start filling with saliva.
After lying there a few more minutes, he gave up on trying to fall asleep.
Carefully freeing himself from the silver-haired Homunculus's soft embrace, he quietly got dressed.
When he stepped out of the inn room, he was surprised to find Sella and Leysritt silently standing guard outside the door.
The two maids must have arrived sometime after midnight.
At the time, Shirou had been busy burying his face in their lady's chest and had not noticed anything outside, which meant the two of them had been left waiting out there all night.
The way Sella looked at Shirou was a little strange, and he immediately had a bad feeling.
Could it be she heard the strange noises Irisviel made last night?
If she got the wrong idea and thought we were doing something indecent in there, that would be bad. Though to be fair, it really was something indecent.
Just as Shirou was about to explain, Leysritt spoke first.
"Shirou, I would like to prepare breakfast for madam. Does this inn have a kitchen?"
"It is an inn, so there is no self-service kitchen. And they serve breakfast anyway."
"How could that possibly do! Shirou, what are you thinking? How can you let madam eat commoner food!"
Sella scolded him loudly right there in the hallway, and Shirou hurriedly raised a finger to his lips.
"Shh. Shh."
Was it just his imagination?
Sella seemed especially harsh toward him today. She really must have heard something last night.
"All right, all right, I got it. Then we just will not eat the breakfast the inn provides, okay? I will make breakfast for Irisviel myself."
"...You, Shirou?"
Sella gave him a deeply contemptuous look.
Yeah... Shirou was sure of it now. She really was holding a grudge against him.
After much coaxing, he finally convinced Sella, let the two maids into the room, and then made a trip to a twenty-four-hour convenience store.
First Shirou bought instant cereal. Then he hesitated in front of the dairy section, but in the end still bought milk.
The rest were basic ingredients, including sandwich bread, ham, tomatoes, lettuce, and salad.
Considering that the Einzbern girls might not be able to adjust to Japanese food right away, breakfast today would be sandwiches.
It was a perfect food that could be made without a kitchen or open flame. Shirou was astonished by his own culinary genius.
By the time he returned to the inn carrying all those shopping bags, Irisviel was already awake.
Shirou quickly finished making breakfast, then went next door and called Hassan of the Hundred Faces and the little one over to eat with them.
Even though they were just simple sandwiches thrown together from convenience store ingredients, Shirou still made them taste amazing.
Irisviel looked like she was almost about to cry as she ate with obvious delight.
"So good...! Shirou's sandwiches are so delicious! It is just lettuce and ham, and yet it tastes like this! They are incredibly good, Shirou! Please give me another one!"
"I want more too," Little Hassan said, holding her bowl of cereal and milk.
"Shirou, you are good at cooking too." Leysritt looked genuinely moved.
"Heh."
Shirou smugly rubbed the tip of his nose, then turned to look at Sella.
While he had been making breakfast earlier, she had hovered beside him the whole time chanting, "Shirou, are you really planning to make madam eat this kind of thing?"
Sella wore an expression of utter humiliation, but her mouth still never stopped.
The final breakfast passed in an easy, relaxed atmosphere.
[Honestly, Avalon-nee-san, why not just undo your spirit form and eat with us?]
[I am the mastermind-type heroine, so a face reveal is not allowed~]
[Got it. I will develop a Magecraft that puts black censor bars over the area around your eyes.]
[That is awful in every possible sense, so please do not.]
Shirou casually placed a piece of sandwich onto the plate on the table.
A moment later, that piece of sandwich disappeared.
...
...
Morning.
As originally planned, everyone spent the time at the inn taking it easy and conserving their strength for tonight's final battle.
"Assassin, what is this?"
Hassan of the Hundred Faces had taken out a bundle.
"It is the Holy Shroud I got from Risei Kotomine. I thought it might be useful to you."
"Yeah, if you had not said anything, I would have forgotten all about it... Thanks."
To be honest, Shirou did not think a Mystic Code of this level would have much effect against Archer and Saber.
Still, he took off his outer clothes and started wrapping the Holy Shroud around himself from the stomach upward, layer by layer.
For an adult, it would only be enough to wrap around both arms. But for an eight-year-old child, it could cover the entire upper body.
Shirou looked at himself in the mirror with satisfaction.
Yeah, this should keep me from getting bisected.
"Ahem... Shirou, I have something to give you too."
Irisviel beckoned him over, then drew a golden scabbard out from her chest.
"Avalon...?"
Shirou froze for a moment. Had not she already handed it over to Saber for safekeeping? Why was it inside her body?
Irisviel briefly explained what had happened.
At the time, she had felt unwell after Rider's defeat, and Saber had half-forcibly pushed the scabbard of the Holy Sword into her body.
As a result, that seemingly casual act had allowed Saber to leave behind her strongest Noble Phantasm before she was taken away.
"I see. So we are not completely without luck after all."
"Shirou, shall I help put Avalon inside your body?"
"No, there is no need for that."
"What do you mean?"
"Let Irisviel keep the scabbard. The one who should be protected by the sheath is you."
Shirou said, "If Saber were still here, I am sure she would think the same."
At that, Irisviel bit her lip.
"But... without the scabbard, how are you going to fight Archer and Saber?"
"To be honest, the fact that Saber is now my enemy and does not have the scabbard anymore is already the biggest gain we could ask for."
Even with [Dead Count Shapeshifter] activated, Shirou was not confident he could defeat Saber if she had both Avalon and magical energy supplied by the Holy Grail.
The strongest defensive Noble Phantasm in the world, combined with an infinite-mana Holy Sword artillery platform... just imagining it made a chill run down Shirou's spine.
The scabbard really should stay behind to protect Irisviel.
The real problem was how to fight the King of Heroes and the King of Knights one after another without using the scabbard as a means of recovery.
Shirou had a feeling that his final battle with Archer would be decided very quickly.
That man was unquestionably the strongest, but he was not a true warrior. If Shirou landed a single hit, he could kill him.
Gilgamesh did cunningly scatter autonomous defensive Noble Phantasms around himself in battle, but after their brief clash the last time, Shirou had already more or less figured out the logic behind how those defensive Noble Phantasms worked.
He would expend one use of [Dead Count Shapeshifter] on Archer and send His Majesty the King of Heroes back to the Throne of Heroes.
The remaining one would be used against Saber.
To be honest... in Shirou's eyes, Saber with magical energy supplied by the Holy Grail was even harder to deal with than Archer.
He could already picture her fighting style.
Endless consecutive blasts from the Holy Sword, taking the truth of "simple is best" to its absolute extreme.
No matter how he thought about it, the only real option was to resort to dirty tricks.
Back in Fairy Kingdom, before Shirou had grown into the strongest knight, he had dealt with troublesome enemies using plenty of underhanded methods.
For the sake of final victory, he had never cared that much about the means.
But this time...
[I know days like these cannot last forever. In the end, only one side can claim the Holy Grail.
Even if Shirou says he has no interest in the Holy Grail, I have no intention of shamelessly letting that child give it up for nothing.
Once the other Magus and Servants have all withdrawn... when that time comes, I will formally challenge Shirou to a duel.
Whether that child wants to claim the Holy Grail or abandon it, he will have to ask my sword first.]
He remembered the words he had overheard in the bath that day.
Saber longed for a fair and proper duel with Shirou.
Shirou felt the same.
It was her wish, and his as well.
"All right..."
Shirou took a deep breath and made his decision.
But then came the problem.
After using up half my magical energy on the King of Heroes, can I really face her head-on?
Imagining an endless barrage of Excalibur, Shirou let out a wry smile.
It had been a long time since he had felt this kind of shiver, the kind that made every hair on his body stand on end.
He ran through tactics in his head and imagined what would happen when those tactics were broken.
Ten, twenty. In an instant he came up with countless strategies, discarded them one by one, pared them down to five, then three, and kept refining them until he arrived at the most workable plan.
For Shirou, this came naturally.
As the Nameless King who had conquered the Fairy Kingdom, making decisions on the fly was simply part of who he was.
It did not take him long to settle on his overall strategy for tonight.
Just then, his communicator rang.
The name shown on the channel was Waver Velvet.
Ah... right, I did give him a communicator during that joint operation.
[It is me, Waver. Shinji, you are still alive, right?]
[What kind of stupid question is that? Did we not see each other just last night?]
[True enough. You are not the kind of guy who dies that easily.]
A sigh came from the other end of the communicator.
[Honestly, that Rider... he made such a big show of promising me he would definitely come back!]
Shirou had no idea how to comfort him.
If it had been a girl, that would have been one thing. He did not have much experience comforting boys.
[Idiot! Do you think I called because I wanted your comfort? I am not depressed at all!]
Waver shouted loudly, sounding as if he were trying to convince himself as much as Shirou.
[Rider lived out his kingly path to the very end! As his Master, I am completely satisfied!
I have no regrets about this Holy Grail War! Ah, now I can finally go back to the Clock Tower in peace! Hahahaha!]
Waver laughed for quite a while, then fell silent.
At that moment, Shirou suddenly said, [Rider's battle is over, but Waver... your battle is not.]
[Huh?]
Shirou said, [Why do you think Archer spared your life?]
Waver replied, [W-well... obviously because he was overwhelmed by my incredible genius aura, right?]
[Fool. If Rider's Master had not been you, he might actually have won.]
[Shinji, you bastard, you actually said it! Aaaaaah! That is the one thing you are absolutely never supposed to say out loud! Aaaaaah!]
Waver let out a shrill scream. Shirou ignored it and continued.
[You were not able to help Rider in any way, and even so, he still brought you to the battlefield where it would all end.
Because Rider wanted you to witness everything. He wanted you to learn something from it.
The reason Archer spared you was also for Rider's sake. He tacitly allowed the King of Conquerors' final wish.]
Shirou said calmly, [Waver, keep doing your best.
One day, become a Magus worthy of being called the Master of Iskandar, the King of Conquerors.]
[...]
Silence answered him from the other side of the communicator.
After a while, he heard the sound of the boy sniffling.
[Y-you idiot... I would have done that even if you did not say it...]
After crying for a good while, Waver hurriedly ended the call, saying he had to catch his flight back to London.
Incidentally, the kidnapped Mackenzie couple had also been returned, probably on the King of Heroes' orders.
[Well then, goodbye. If you ever come to London, make sure to say hello.]
[And one more thing... after lecturing me so high and mighty, do not go and lose at the very end, Shinji.]
After ending the call, Shirou looked out the window. It was already evening.
"All right... time to go."
Shirou brought Irisviel and Hassan of the Hundred Faces to the door.
"Madam, please be careful... and Shirou as well."
Sella and Leysritt bowed deeply, while Little Hassan waved her small hand.
Shirou gave them a nod, then turned and walked into the twilight.