Shirou's Grand Heroic Saga

"Ruler, do you have a problem with that?"

"Oh, no. It's just that when the car was heading toward Trifas, I seem to recall someone taking forever to save people."

"Shut up!"

Just then, the door opened again.

A burly giant of a man—

He braced the door open and walked in.

"You sure have a troublesome way of entering," Shirou couldn't help commenting.

"There was no helping it." Heracles scratched his head helplessly. "By the way, I've obtained some information about creating homunculi. Want to hear it?"

Chapter 17: Observations of Gord

I think, therefore I am.

Humans were human because they thought, possessed self-awareness, could influence reality, and in turn be influenced by reality.

At least, that was what Shirou believed.

Homunculi without self-awareness were merely tools, but if they possessed consciousness similar to that of humans, then Shirou considered them human.

Homunculi were created—some had excellent Magic Circuits and were used as batteries, while others possessed superior physical abilities and became things like combat robots from movies.

But creating homunculi who looked human and were almost indistinguishable from humans was itself a violation of ethics.

Only mad scientists who trampled on human values, or—mages, could do such things.

Shirou had never thought highly of mages, especially after hearing Irisviel's stories about Kiritsugu's father and how Kiritsugu had embarked on the path of justice.

Those mages with warped values were basically things wearing human skin, their insides no longer human at all. They were even stranger "people" than homunculi.

Fortunately, the mages Shirou had encountered so far were all fairly unusual among mages. Otherwise, perhaps he would have already picked up a butcher's knife.

"Hey, Saber's Master." Shirou greeted the rather fat Gord.

—And Gord was the one who had provided the homunculus technology.

Gord's expression stiffened somewhat