Scheherazade Appears / Shirou versus Charlemagne

"Hoo hoo hoo, don't rush, don't rush, I'm looking forward to your performance." The Dense Forest Witch smiled mysteriously and teleported away instantly.

"Wait! Don't Run!" Shirou shouted.

But the Dense Forest Witch ignored him, simply smiled, and vanished.

Shirou could only continue forward and enter Charlemagne's city. It seemed that because the Black Veil Army had all been dispatched, the patrolling soldiers were no longer as fierce as when he had fled.

It was more like a hypnotized, half-asleep, half-awake state.

However, taking advantage of this opportunity, Shirou successfully sneaked into the castle's dungeon and, as expected, saw the red-haired twin-tailed girl lying in a cage.

"Sita! I'm coming to save you right now!"

The door was engraved with an inscription. "A cage for one person at a time, an inscription that only the purest righteous can pass through." It seemed to be Magecraft, and Shirou understood it at a glance.

But Shirou still went inside, Sita up, and placed her hand on his shoulder.

"I'm sorry... Shirou, I've been defeated," the red-haired girl said weakly.

"It's alright! Focus on healing now," Shirou said softly to the girl.

"Shirou, you understand, don't you? If you were to meet the white god according to the idea of Counter Force, what would happen to you?"

"How will you know if you don't try!" Shirou retorted.

"If you do that, there are only two possibilities for your future. Either you will be devoured and assimilated by the white life form, losing your own will; or you will be considered a superfluous existence and destroyed. With your meager strength, how could you possibly fight against such a behemoth?" said the Dense Forest Witch.

"So you can just stay here. Everything happened because I, the witch, framed you. It wasn't because you stood by and watched me die, so you don't need to feel guilty."

"Human beings cannot be changed at will. You are an incarnation of the White God, and your life will be much, much longer than you imagine. Even after your family, your sister, has a face full of wrinkles and dies of old age, you will still be alive."

Until everyone you know is gone, I think you will eventually become like a white god. Human thoughts change frequently; your thoughts at ten years old are completely different from your thoughts at twenty.

The you of a hundred years from now will be completely different from the you of today. I won't let you meet the gods now. Perhaps one day in the future your thoughts will change, and then I can send you out. But until then, you'll stay here."

"Hehehe!" The Dense Forest Witch laughed as she left the secret chamber.

"Don't go! Witch!" Shirou shouted, gripping the iron bars of the cell door.

"Shirou... you should understand, right? That god can't actually see you. How could a god who has no desires have human desires? Subconsciously, that god has already given up on you. If you were in the same relationship as the other clones, the moment I cut off your connection, he would have sent powerful henchmen to destroy me."

But now? Nothing has happened. Yes, you are the one who has been forgotten, and I will not let the white god remember you.

"The Counter Force is something that only serves its own purpose; the subconscious mind merely makes you sacrifice yourself for its own ends."

"You can stay in this world, it's alright, everything will be over soon." The witch whispered eerily as she walked away, her voice soft yet echoing in the boy's heart like a curse.

In the dark void, the Dense Forest Witch murmured to herself, "If that's the case, then I can also accomplish my goal."

Chapter 325 Scheherazade Appears

The Dense Forest Witch's curse was very effective; the exit was automatically sealed the moment he entered the cage. At the exit stood rows of thin, black iron pillars, neatly arranged from left to right, with gaps between them just wide enough for a hand to extend vertically.

Each thin iron pillar is a complete strip, as if there had never been a doorway here in the first place.

The cage was made of thin iron bars. Shirou Mana Burst to the maximum and used all his strength, but he couldn't budge the cage in the slightest.

Shirou Projection the Holy Sword Durandal, which transformed into a silver streak and slashed down at the thin iron pillar. When the blade touched the pillar, it passed right through it, just as a human would touch a ghost.

When he reached out to touch it, it turned into a solid, thin iron pillar.

Shirou once again Projection the golden Caliburn, unleashing magical energy. A golden, straight Beam Cannon towards the right side of the cage, piercing right through it once more.

"Damn it!" Shirou slammed his fist against the iron bars of the cage, making a piercing sound.

"Ugh..." The red-haired girl lying on the stone bed let out a muffled groan and woke up in pain.

Sita was severely injured, her face, hands, and body covered in bruises and severe abrasions. Her body looked as if it had been struck by a colossal creature, with countless broken bones. Only someone with a body of Servant caliber like her could barely survive.

Shirou silently Projection the healing-functional Holy Shroud onto the girl's wounds.

"I'm sorry, Shirou, I've dragged you into this," Sita said weakly.

Shirou shook his head and said, "It's alright, Sita, it's not your fault, and the witch doesn't seem to be planning to hurt me. You should get some sleep."

"Thank you..." Sita was really weak and soon fell into a deep sleep again.

Shirou watched the red-haired girl, and only when he heard her soft, steady breathing did he feel relieved.

The boy looked around and could see the iron bars of the cage. It was dark outside, with only one small window offering a view of the pitch blackness. Apart from the girl's breathing, there was no other sound.

The words of the Dense Forest Witch echoed in his mind once again.

Shirou clenched his fists, glaring angrily at the empty darkness, becoming extremely agitated. In the end, he could only sit down cross-legged in despair.

The reason he was so angry was probably because the witch had guessed his inner thoughts. It was precisely because he didn't want to admit it that he was so furious. Shirou lowered his voice and said resentfully, mostly angry at himself.

"What do you mean, 'I'm destined to either be absorbed by the gods or be destroyed'? Don't arbitrarily curse other people's future!"

"What else do you mean, 'I'll just stay here, it's not my fault at all!' You locked me up here, and I should thank you?"

"I won't become that god-like being in the future!"

Judging from the witch's tone, she wasn't deceiving him. It seemed that because of the white god, he would live a very long life. And the witch seemed to want him to stay in the cage forever.

'I have to find a way out,' Shirou thought.

Shirou calmed down and took out the scissors he had obtained from the Dense Forest Witch. As long as he held the scissors, he could see lines of different colors and shapes, which seemed to represent all sorts of meanings.

There was also a pale blue line connecting him and Sita, seemingly representing their friendship. A stern Red Thread, entwined with tangled black threads, passed through the cage, seemingly representing the girl's cursed love.

This is a tool that can sever the bonds between people. The Dense Forest Witch used this to cut off his connection with his other self, who had become a god.

After an unknown amount of time, a crescent moon could be seen hanging high in the sky outside the window, indicating that it was already late at night. At this moment, a blurry Black Shadow appeared in the space outside the dungeon. In the moonlight, it could only be seen that it was the silhouette of a graceful woman. She was carrying a tray with two plates of bread, two bowls of meat soup, and cheese.

"I felt something was off about this place from the start. So you were the one pulling the strings behind the scenes, Scheherazade!" Shirou recognized the brown-skinned woman who had suddenly appeared. Only a writer-type Servant like her could influence Servant's Spirit Origin and the structure of the world.

"It's not really mischief; I was just completing a task assigned to me by the witch. This is dinner; please eat and talk," Scheherazade said.

"You didn't come here just to bring us food, did you? Is this some kind of mission? You don't seem like the type to obediently follow your Master at all," Shirou said indifferently.

"Yes, I don't deny that. As long as I can survive, I'm willing to do anything, regardless of who I'm serving." The brown-skinned woman made no attempt to hide her demeanor.

"If you're helping the witch guard me, then why are you helping me here? Now that I'm trapped, what can I do to help you?" Shirou asked the woman with dark brown skin, puzzled.

The brown-skinned woman said, "Right now, the witch and Charlemagne have the upper hand, but I still hope to help you get through this. In any case, you will still meet the white god. Your connection with the white god cannot be completely severed by a Demon God's Scissors. I hope that at that time you can fulfill my wish."

"A wish?" Shirou looked at the woman in surprise.

Scheherazade continued unhurriedly:

"My goals are ultimately different from those of the Forest Witch. Although I don't disagree with her ideas—after all, you are Shirou Emiya, so you must have had the same thoughts as that god, right?"

The Scheherazade behind the scenes can't really be called Dense Forest Witch; they just happened to achieve their respective desires along the way.

Because her initial wish was simply to no longer experience the fear of death, and the white god, having severed the Counter Force and denied Hall of Heroes, could, if he succeeded in changing all the worlds, then her wish to escape Hall of Heroes would also be fulfilled.

However, instead of trapping Shirou with the Dense Forest Witch, it would be more efficient to negotiate directly with the gods. If they follow the witch's approach, she might lose her usefulness before then and be disposed of by the witch.

A useless familiar only wastes magical energy, and Scheherazade doesn't believe the Dense Forest Witch will let her stay. Once she loses her magical energy supply, she will simply disappear, severing all ties with this world, and her original form in the Throne of Heroes will still find no release.

"Death is the only option! I absolutely refuse!" Scheherazade declared resolutely.

"But if we're talking about death, you're Servant, you're already dead," Shirou said.

"That's why I don't want to die again!" Scheherazade said, trembling.

"So you're helping me so you can survive?" Shirou asked.

Scheherazade shook her head and said, "It's not just that. Have you ever felt disappointed in humanity, or dissatisfied with society as a whole? Have you ever felt that 'the rules of this world are indeed wrong and must be changed,' or that 'the existence of the Counter Force and the Throne of Heroes only brings misfortune,' and things like that?"

Shirou said, "No, although I don't like the Guardians' ruthless mechanism either, and there may be beings in the Throne of Heroes who are unwilling to survive, there are also many Servant I know who hold onto hope."

"And in other worlds, I too have been summoned by humans as Servant, and I have never regretted my encounters with them."

"Is that so... But you just experienced pain and confusion, didn't you? I can see that. It's because of these encounters that you've started to fear death. No one understands the fear of death better than me."

Justice? Emotion? These are all burdens to me. I thought everything would eventually end, but after I died, I became Servant. The Throne of Heroes is a superfluous burden! The greatest burden! Immortality is the greatest pain!"Scheherazade said.

"..." Shirou looked at the woman, never expecting her to be like this.

Legend has it that she was a noble woman and the storyteller of One Thousand and One Nights, also known as One Thousand and One Nights. Stories such as Aladdin and the Magic Lamp, Sinbad the Adventurer, and Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves all originated from her and were recorded and passed down through generations.

She told these stories not as literary works like those of Andersen, nor as folk tales collected for academic research like those of the Brothers Grimm; they were simply for survival.

Legend has it that in the border region between China and India, there was a country called Sassanid. King Shahryar was cruel and jealous by nature. After discovering that his queen had behaved improperly, he killed her and began to hate all women.

After that, the King would marry a beautiful young woman every day, and then kill her at sunrise the next day as revenge.

Scheherazade, the vizier's daughter, is the brown-skinned woman before us. To save other innocent women, she voluntarily married the King, then captivated King with her stories, stopping at the most exciting part each night.

When it was just dawn, the King, wanting to know the rest of the story, spared her life and allowed her to continue telling it the following night.

And so Scheherazade's story continued for a thousand and one nights until the King was finally moved, and they lived happily ever after.

This is an ending like the children's version of Snow White or Cinderella, but that's not actually the case.

The earliest known manuscript version of One Thousand and One Nights dates back to the 8th to 9th centuries, a period of great prosperity for the Arabian Empire, when folk tales were collected and compiled into a book.

It is filled with the atmosphere of Arab life and romantic ideals, containing a myriad of things, a desire to explore land, an adventurous spirit to acquire treasures, and merchants who risked everything to trade with China, whether by trekking through deserts or crossing seas.

It contains heroism in the fight against bandits, as well as exploitation by the upper class and the impoverished lives of the poor. Therefore, it was called by Gorky the most magnificent monument of folk literature.

The stories within mostly take place in Central Asia, the Indian subcontinent, and Egypt in Africa, spanning from the Persian Empire to the Arabian Empire, covering the entire Arabian Empire from its inception to its rise. Indelible in its rich tapestry of Islam culture is another key element.

Scheherazade was born in the country of Sassanid, which is also an Islam country.

Although the Prophet Muhammad advocated that people should honor their mothers, he looked down on his wife. In the home, the man was the head of the household, while the woman was treated as personal property like cattle, horses, and mules. She had to cover her face with a veil, hide her hair, and was not allowed to go out in public or be seen by other men.

Women are also not allowed to enter mosques for prayer, as they are considered unlucky.

Even in later generations, believers in some Islam countries can still legally marry multiple wives, although it is not encouraged.

In that cruel era, for King to kill his own wife was no different from slaughtering his own cattle or sheep. Although killing other women would require paying compensation, killing one's own wife was a family matter. Although everyone knew it was wrong, legally, no one could hold the King accountable for it.

Scheherazade faced the tyrant alone in such times, constantly in danger of being killed, like offering himself to a tiger. Day after day, he waited for nightfall in his palace, then told stories to the tyrant in hopes of survival.

However, of the stories said to be from One Thousand and One Nights, less than two hundred have survived. The endings in the books were ultimately added by later generations, and the heroines who tell the stories may never have met their final fate.

"For me, death is the only thing I absolutely do not want!" Scheherazade looked at the boy and said once again with unwavering resolve.

"I believe you on that point, but what can I do for you?" Shirou said.

"I hope you won't rush when you do it. To show my sincerity, please take a look at these first, and I will explain everything to you," Scheherazade said.

She opened her arms and released her magic; the staff floated up, and the wisps of smoke it emitted transformed into the shape of a scroll made of ancient Arabic papyrus.

Amidst the ethereal smoke, the scroll gradually materialized and unfurled, revealing illusory images of two girls bound inside a gigantic machine.

"Artoria? Jeanne d'Arc? Have they been captured? Where are they?" Shirou asked anxiously.

Scheherazade explained, "Don't worry, at least they're not in any danger. They're just being used by Charlemagne to absorb energy."

That's the outside world, ruled by witches. This is the other world, a blend of epic tales and heroic biographies I wrote, ruled by Charlemagne.

Some are real, some are fictional. The same goes for the paladin Roland you meet outside and the giant Ferrau, the warrior of the Arabian Empire.

Chapter 326 Shirou vs. Charlemagne

"Charlemagne needs to gather an enormous amount of magical power for his Noble Phantasm, and these two who possess the Holy Grail are the ideal choices," Scheherazade explained to Shirou.

"Noble Phantasm that requires two Holy Grails to power? What exactly does that emperor want to do?" Shirou asked, conjuring up the image of the towering emperor.

"To be precise, there are three. The one that escaped from your body, Shirou, was also lent to Charlemagne by the witch. For her, as long as she can achieve her goal, it's worth sacrificing the Holy Grail," Scheherazade said.

"Charlemagne needed powerful warriors to fight each other. Even disregarding the Holy Grail, King of Knights and Jeanne d'Arc's Alter were undoubtedly very powerful Servant. By borrowing their Spirit Origin, the most suitable Servant for this place were brought to this world. For the two women lying inside, this world was indeed a dream. However, for the two fighting at this moment, this world was undoubtedly real."

The scroll then shifts to a pre-medieval battlefield, where Roland, with the face of Artoria, and an Arab warrior with the face of Jeanne d'Arc have already defeated the Black Veil Army, but the two are now locked in combat.

The silver-haired girl brandished two Damascus sabers and charged towards the golden-haired female knight.

The golden-haired female knight parried each blow with her holy sword, deflecting the exquisite sabers. Although they were weapons crafted by master artisans, they were still a grade below the indestructible holy sword. Both of the silver-haired girl's curved swords inevitably developed nicks.

"Damn it! You heretic don't deserve that holy sword at all! Give it to me!"

"This won't do! This was given to me by Shirou; it's filled with our love!"

"You son of a bitch, I'm definitely going to take the Holy Sword! The Holy Sword is mine! Shirou is mine too!"

The blonde girl's gaze turned cold as she glared at him and said, "Ha! It seems you really can't understand human language. You're the damned heretic!"

"Ha! You heretic bandit! I'll kill you right now! This is Allah's land!" The silver-haired girl gripped her twin swords tightly, glaring back as she roared.

"Look, they're still alive and kicking in this world, just like Charlemagne needs," Scheherazade said, looking at Shirou and shrugging with a smile.