One question kept lingering in Tomoe Gozen's mind.
Why is Kotori so hostile towards Gilgamesh?
Those words spoken in the temple were definitely not just simple rebellion or loose tongue.
That hostility was real.
There must be some specific reason for this.
Tomoe Gozen wasn't the type to keep her questions to herself.
One evening.
The two people were having dinner at the stone table.
Tonight's dinner is stewed meat and wheat pancakes.
Kotori is eating a barley cake.
Tomoe Gozen put down her chopsticks.
" Kotori."
"Um?"
Can I ask you a question?
Kotori took a bite of the barley cake and gave a mumbled reply.
Why do you hate Wang so much?
Kotori paused for a moment while chewing the barley cake.
She swallowed what was in her mouth.
There was a few seconds of silence.
Why are you asking this?
"I just want to know."
Tomoe Gozen looked at Kotori.
"What you said in the temple that day didn't sound like something you said casually."
So I want to know why.
Kotori lowered her head, looking at the stewed meat on the stone table.
The room remained quiet for a while.
Then Kotori spoke.
"In a future Holy Grail War."
Gilgamesh killed someone.
"A silver-haired girl."
"Her name is Illya."
Tomoe Gozen's expression changed slightly.
"So what if you killed him?"
"No."
Kotori raised her head.
His crimson eyes held only coldness.
He blinded the child with his sword.
"Then."
"They took her heart out."
The sound from the Kotori was flat.
But Tomoe Gozen could sense what lay beneath that calm.
That's why Kotori Itsuka could never forgive Gilgamesh.
The room fell silent again.
Tomoe Gozen looked at Kotori.
She doesn't seem to be lying.
" Gilgamesh... would he do something so cruel?"
She imagined the blond man sitting high on the throne.
Pride and conceit are indeed characteristics of his personality.
But to do that to a little girl.
"This..."
Tomoe Gozen found it hard to believe.
But Kotori's expression didn't seem like she was lying.
"I'm not sure if the king I met would do such a thing."
"But what Kotori said is true."
That's indeed hard to forgive.
Kotori didn't respond.
He simply picked up the half-eaten tortilla.
Keep eating.
That concludes this topic.
Not long after.
Tomoe Gozen found an opportunity.
During her break between shifts, she left the post alone.
They walked toward the temple in the center of Uruk.
She was going to ask Gilgamesh himself.
Was what Kotori said true or false?
The temple doors were open.
Gilgamesh sat on the throne.
Before them lay mountains of mud slabs.
Merlin and Siduri are not here.
It seems I was called away for something else.
Tomoe Gozen entered the shrine.
They stopped a dozen or so steps away from the throne.
"King."
What is it?
Gilgamesh did not look up.
His hands didn't stop moving.
He is reading the inscription on a stone slab.
I want to ask Wang something.
"Explain."
Tomoe Gozen took a deep breath.
"The King in a future Holy Grail War."
Did you kill a silver-haired girl Illya Ilya?
Gilgamesh stopped reading the stone tablet.
He didn't look up.
But Tomoe Gozen could see his profile.
His expression changed in an instant.
It was as if he had been asked a question he himself didn't want to face.
The temple was silent for a few seconds.
Then Gilgamesh put down the clay tablet he was holding.
He finally raised his head.
He looked at Tomoe Gozen.
Who told you that?
" Kotori."
"..."
Gilgamesh's lips pressed into a thin line.
Tomoe Gozen noticed the change in the king's expression.
From astonishment.
Silence.
Then his expression turned ugly.
It felt like a wound that had been touched.
It's true.
Gilgamesh spoke.
Tomoe Gozen's eyes widened slightly.
She had assumed the king would deny it.
They might say, "How could I, the king, do such a thing?"
But she didn't expect it.
Gilgamesh readily admitted it.
"In the future Holy Grail War."
"Someone has summoned me."
"But the one summoned was not the current me."
"But rather, it was me during the tyrannical era."
"During that Holy Grail War, he was corrupted by that pool of Black Mud and, after his flesh was absorbed, remained in the mortal world for ten years."
"Ten years."
"That 'King' has utterly degenerated into a tyrant who only knows how to despise humanity."
When he said this, a clear sense of disgust appeared in his tone.
"In a subsequent Holy Grail War."
"That tyrant encountered a homunculus girl Illyasviel von Einzbern."
"She is the Lesser Grail made by the Einzbern Family."
"He is also the Master of the Berserker Heracles."
"Then."
"That's what she told you."
The temple was completely silent.
"Only the king of that era."
"Only someone would do something so stupid."
Gilgamesh withdrew his gaze from the dome.
I looked at Tomoe Gozen again.
" Tomoe Gozen."
Do you know why I'm saying these things?
"... have no idea."
Because that's something for the future.
"It was that tyrant who did it."
"It wasn't done by the current King."
"But."
Gilgamesh stood up.
"That girl hated more than just her past self during the tyrannical era."
"But rather, they hate the existence of ' Gilgamesh '."
There was something subtle in his tone when he said this.
It seems like a sense of helplessness.
"So what does the king plan to do?"
Tomoe Gozen asked a question.
Gilgamesh sat back on his throne.
He picked up a new clay tablet.
"Do nothing."
Why should I explain anything to a Berserker who ran away from me the moment he was summoned?
His tone returned to normal.
It was as if that conversation had never happened.
A few more days have passed since then.
Kotori thought these boring days would continue indefinitely.
Every morning I wake up, eat breakfast, watch Tomoe Gozen go out to fight monsters, eat dinner, and go to sleep.
repeat.
Until one day...
"Woo--woo--woo--woo--"
An urgent horn sounded with a rapid rhythm throughout Uruk.
Kotori was sitting on the steps outside Tomoe Gozen's house, basking in the sun.
The moment she heard the bugle call, her eyes opened.
Within the city limits.
Large numbers of Uruk soldiers are running toward the northern front.
It was a city-wide mobilization.
"... What's wrong?"
Kotori stood up.
She saw Tomoe Gozen's figure moving at full speed from the garrison towards the northern route.
Ushiwakamaru and Benkei followed closely behind.
Leonidas had already reached the top of the city wall.
Even Fuuma Kotarou and Amakusa Shirou have joined the effort.
Six Servant.
All personnel are to assemble on the northern front.
Kotori paused for a moment.
From the time she arrived here until now.
There has never been a situation where all six Servants were deployed at the same Servant.
Normally, there are only three to four riders stationed on the northern route at any given time.
The rest of the people were resting or handling other tasks.
All six riders were mobilized.
This indicates that the enemy this time is no ordinary one.
Kotori thought for a moment.
Then her Astral Dress unfolded and she rose into the air.
It flew towards the northern route.