Has the Grail Been Corrupted? It Wasn't a Good Thing?

(Heartfelt thanks to 'Yuchen Lei,' 'Invincible Origin,' 'Oath of Praise,' and 'I Used to Be Innocent' for their donations!)

So-called parallel worlds were worlds that were the same, yet differed in certain ways.

Like the two sides of a mirror, parallel worlds existed as though they were reflecting one another from separate parallel lines—able only to face each other, never to intersect.

The difference was that, with an ordinary mirror, what lay inside and outside it would be identical.

Parallel worlds, however, differed in certain respects.

Archer was one such example.

He had clearly existed in this era while alive, yet this era contained no version of Archer from his lifetime.

That could only mean that Archer had not lived in this era of this world, but in this era of another parallel world. After the passage of long years, he had accomplished great deeds and ascended into a Heroic Spirit.

"It is practically certain that I do not exist in this world. At the very least, I have not found myself in this world." There was both complexity and relief in Archer's voice.

"Perhaps that is a good thing."

"A good thing?" Rin Tohsaka asked almost instinctively.

"Why?"

"What do you mean, why?" Archer said mockingly.

"Everyone has things they are dissatisfied with about their past selves. Unfortunately, there is no such divine medicine as a cure for regret in any world. My dissatisfaction is simply greater—great enough that I think it would be better if I did not exist."

Noah immediately fell silent.

Setting aside whether Archer was right or wrong.

Noah felt that, in any world, there were indeed quite a few people with pasts too painful to look back on.

The Servant before him, whose class was Archer, was clearly one of them.

Rin Tohsaka stared