Chapter 10

"Oh! I swear, if you use that awkward, translated accent to disgust me again, I'll use Piercing Greatsword's Noble Phantasm to 'kick' your butt!"

Chapter 020: It's about everyone's fun, you won't complain, will you? (4/4)

"Your name?"

"Sampo Koski, friend. Could we find a place out of the wind first? Old Sampo here is already feeling the cold wind seeping into his clothes."

"Cold?"

Mr. Emiya looked at his companions beside him. They all shook their heads collectively. Mr. Emiya then looked at old Sampo with 'displeasure' and said, "A grown man like you, feeling ashamed? Those two little girls are out here with bare legs and they aren't complaining. Endure it."

"Brothers and sisters, don't mess with me anymore. If you keep this up, my body temperature really can't handle it… Achoo…"

[Emotional Value from Sampo +13]

Old Sampo was already regretting his actions. He had originally been searching for useful supplies in this snowfield when he suddenly saw a flying machine descend from the sky. Thus, he decided to hide along the path the visitors would take to observe them.

Who would have thought…

As soon as the group reached the snowdrift where he was hiding, one of them, as if pulling a radish, unceremoniously yanked him out of his hiding spot and even tried to use him as a means of transportation.

"He looks a bit pitiful. Stop messing with him, Emiya."

"Little March, do you know who you're sympathizing with?"

"Huh? What do you mean?"

Mr. Emiya smiled and took out a mask from his personal storage. The moment he saw the mask, old Sampo's expression became incredibly vivid. Like a duck with its neck being squeezed, his face turned red.

"You, you…"

[Emotional Value from Sampo +42]

"Why did he suddenly become like this? Teacher Dan Heng, take a quick look, is he really going to have a problem?"

"Calm down, March. That mask is likely the Masked Fool's mask, one of the relics of the 'Joy' believers."

The cold-faced young Azure Dragon understood Mr. Emiya's meaning and explained to March 7th, "'Joy' believers often disguise themselves as ordinary people, secretly pushing events forward from behind the scenes to make things more troublesome. In their words, it's to make events more dramatic, but in essence, they're just looking for fun."

"Mr. Emiya means that this Mr. Sampo is probably one of the Masked Fools, and his sudden change in expression is just because Mr. Emiya is toying with him as a source of amusement beforehand."

"I see… I was actually worried for a moment."

Hearing Teacher Dan Heng's thoughtful explanation, the little pink-haired girl's sympathy vanished without a trace. She even felt like stepping on him a few times. If she hadn't discovered his identity beforehand, wouldn't she have been fooled by him as well, treated as a plaything?

"However, hearing Teacher Dan Heng explain it like this makes me so angry… Emiya, since he said he's uncomfortable with the cold wind getting into his clothes, let's just take off the rest of his clothes. That way, the cold wind won't get in and make him uncomfortable."

"Excellent! You're too excellent, March 7th."

Mr. Emiya offered his heartfelt praise. Teacher Dan Heng seemed unable to watch any longer and was about to intervene when Asta suddenly spoke up, "No, taking it all off isn't appropriate."

"…That's true."

Little March's belated sympathy returned. After a moment of thought, she decided to symbolically remove just one piece of Sampo's clothing to teach him a lesson. However, Miss Asta's next words made her entire cerebellum shrink.

"Just leave him with his underwear. If you take it all off, it'll make March look desperate."

"Desperate for what?"

Miss Asta's light golden eyes gazed at her good friend. For the first time, a peculiar smile appeared on her usually indifferent little face, a smile that made March 7th want to punch her. She parted her lips slightly, and out came, "Man's…"

"Aaaahhhhhh! Don't say it!!!"

A sound like a boiling kettle echoed across the entire snowfield. Mr. Emiya looked at Miss Asta in silence. Although children imitate those around them, where did she learn such vulgar jokes?

First, let's rule out the train crew…

Then, that leaves the Stellaron Hunters from my old workplace.

Asta seems to be the product of inheriting the genes of four people.

If she inherited anything…

First, we must exclude Arjen. That cool guy would never make vulgar jokes.

Secondly, Kafka is the type who doesn't joke around.

Sam himself is even purer than Miss Asta.

So…

There seems to be only one culprit left.

"You are a grave sinner, Wolf Cub."

Sampo's clothes were not ultimately removed. Teacher Dan Heng was too kind. He forcibly dragged old Sampo through the snow, asking about the planet's situation along the way.

Sampo seemed to have lost some of his enthusiasm after Mr. Emiya revealed the mask, so he didn't hide much and told them everything they wanted to know.

For example, this planet does have a Stellaron, which has been causing harm for hundreds or thousands of years; the cold waves are brought by the Stellaron.

Another example: only one last city remains as a human settlement, named "Belobog," meaning the land protected by Klippers. The highest leader governing this place is the Supreme Guardian, a manager integrating military and political power. The Supreme Guardian, who holds ownership of the only army, the Silvermane Guards, has seen their power extend to all areas of the city through generations of power transitions.

He who has strong soldiers and horses shall rule.

The Supreme Guardian of Belobog is, in reality, the last "King" on this planet.

If these outsiders want to do anything on this planet, they must first deal with this King.

"What's the current Supreme Guardian's reputation like?"

"Her achievements are good, but a few years ago, she sealed off the mining areas and confined a large number of miners to Belobog's lower levels, which caused some public outcry. Now, Belobog's lower city is completely separated from the surface. Later, the miners' families erupted in protests and clashed with the Silvermane Guards. It seems because of this situation, the Supreme Guardian has completely cut off the possibility of the lower city returning to the surface and has deployed heavy troops to guard all traffic routes."

Upon hearing this, Shirou Emiya's eyes lit up, and he quickly said, "Great, I'll go to the lower city and call a few foxes to bark! We'll go to the lower city, support the administrators there, and then directly march on the capital to take her Supreme Guardian's bird's nest!"

"We don't have foxes here anymore."

Old Sampo said weakly, as if he had aged decades, "Besides, isn't your goal the Stellaron? Why not just collect the Stellaron and leave?"

"Brother, I'm also a Masked Fool."

Hearing Shirou Emiya say this with such righteous indignation, old Sampo cried with tears, "Big brother, isn't the profession of Nameless Traveler glorious enough? Please, don't mess around in my old Sampo's district."

[Emotional Value from Sampo +25]

Seeing the emotional value entering the prompt box again, Mr. Emiya looked at old Sampo with even greater affection and gave him his most enthusiastic response, "Do one job, love one job. Since the great Aha has personally appointed me as this Masked Fool, how can I fail to live up to His trust?"

"Brother Sampo, for the sake of everyone at the tavern, I can only trouble you."

"It's about everyone's fun, you won't complain, right?"

Chapter 021: Words cannot move others; a baseball bat is more effective. (1/4)

"Shirou, you're not actually planning to support a rebellion, are you?"

"It's something to consider."

Walking on the small road towards Belobog, March 7th leaned closer to Shirou Emiya and asked cautiously, "Won't that cause a lot of deaths?"

"Whether it's an armed coup or a palace coup, the transfer of power has never occurred throughout history without bloodshed and sacrifice."

"I understand that too, but..."

"You mean it's not good for us to instigate it?"

"...Yes."

"Then, if we don't instigate it, who will fire the first shot? If no one ever fires the first shot, how long will the current situation continue? How many more people will die during that time? How much longer will we be blocked here by the Stellaron? You can call me reckless... but sometimes, when you want to do something, you don't need to care too much about what others think, as long as you believe it's the right thing to do."

Shirou Emiya looked at March 7th, his light golden eyes showing a rare seriousness.

"With only one city left, the planet's resource situation is imaginable. The arable land is extremely limited, and staple foods like grains must be scarce. As for meat... it's likely to be primarily farmed types. If nothing else, we might even be able to drink soups made from earthworms and silkworms here."

"And under these conditions, confining a large number of miners in the mining areas without any supplies is, Little March... we often call this burying them alive."

"Moreover, the miners there were originally from the surface city. Due to a single order from the Supreme Guardian, many families have inevitably been torn apart. If there were elderly people at home, or even if their parents had already passed away, the lower levels would have no way of knowing."

"If that Supreme Guardian truly has no 'crucial' reason, then her actions can basically be labeled as those of a foolish and tyrannical ruler."

He naturally understood Cocolia's situation; being bewitched by the Stellaron, she had essentially become its puppet.

But even so, The decrees were personally issued by her, and those innocent victims were almost sent to hell by her own hands.

From her perspective as a victim, some might forgive her, like Bronya, or perhaps Serval. But... from the perspective of the innocent victims, if their Supreme Guardian were not to die, the public's anger would never be appeased.

"Of course, this is just my personal opinion for now. You might find me a bit radical, but I'm just expressing a thought. We're not sure yet if the Supreme Guardian will become an obstacle for us. If she turns out to be a wise ruler with justifiable reasons and is willing to cooperate with us to solve the Stellaron problem, then that would be a happy outcome for everyone."

But...

Mr. Emiya knew it was impossible because that woman had almost completely become a puppet.

Although ensuring Bronya's smooth succession to power was also a suitable plan, as a member of the beneficiary group, Bronya essentially lacked the qualification to empathize with the people of the lower city, even with the later forced addition of a setting about her being from a lower-city orphanage.

However, Such a setting only showed the legitimacy of her succession at best.

In Mr. Emiya's view, this setting was pure perfunctory. Bronya in this world obtained the position of Supreme Guardian for free without doing anything, making it seem too natural.

Having already decided to oppose the Supreme Guardian, he actually went to the person herself to inquire, only to be almost brainwashed and swayed by her.

Incomplete betrayal is complete non-betrayal.

If Li Yuan had such a simple and good second son back then, he would have been laughing in his dreams.

"There's no need to overthink it now, March. This is also your Trailblaze Journey. Observe everything with your own eyes and make the choices you believe are right. You don't have to force yourself to agree with others, and even I won't demand that you follow my ideology."

"However, if in the end, you stick to your own ideas and are unable to effectively complete that action, you may call my name."

"At that time, if I can approve of your ideals, I will do everything in my power to help you."

Gazing at Shirou Emiya's promise, a flicker of unusual light briefly flashed in March 7th's eyes before she cheerfully laughed again.

"Who knows, maybe you'll be begging me to step in then? If that Supreme Guardian really is a bad guy, I'll sneakily shoot her an arrow and take revenge for all those she's bullied."

Shirou smiled and said no more.

After traversing the vast snowfield, they looked down from a precipice and finally saw a silver fortress nestled within the ice and snow. This was the last and only surviving settlement of human civilization on the planet Jarilo-VI.

Belobog.

This name had represented the native civilization for centuries. The planet's original name, recognized by interstellar civilizations, had long since disappeared from conventional records.

The reason? A tiny Stellaron.

This was why it was called the "Cancer of All Worlds."

"If you big brothers and sisters are planning to enter Belobog, why don't I, old Sampo, go ahead and greet them for you, and get some temporary identification?"

Belobog hadn't seen any visitors from beyond the stars for hundreds of years. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to call it a purely indigenous civilization now. There were no other human settlements outside the city, and any stranger wanting to enter Belobog would inevitably be scrutinized.

"I suggest we go directly to the lower city."

Shirou gazed at the city in the ice and snow from afar. His clairvoyance allowed him to clearly see many middle-class citizens enjoying their leisurely lives on the city streets.

"Dealing with the official authorities in the upper city of Belobog will be very troublesome. The Silvermane Guards, as an organization combining military and police, answer directly to the Supreme Guardian. If we barge into this city, we'll likely be sent to prison or brought before the Supreme Guardian immediately."

"There's a possibility that unfamiliar visitors from beyond the stars could be detained for a year or two. Just the phrase 'confirming our potential threat' would be enough to get us locked up."