Chapter 27: Following Closely
The sun in the west was dipping further, and the clouds on the horizon were dyed golden, marking the arrival of dusk.
After returning home, Shirou asked Karna if anything had happened today.
Karna immediately informed Shirou about Emiya Kiritsugu's arrival today.
"It is a pity that there were people around at the time. I was worried about causing too much commotion and deliberately held back my power, only for him to escape... I apologize, Master."
Karna couldn't help but lower his head.
Since Shirou's command was to protect the home, Karna did not pursue the opponent after the first attack was dodged.
"You don't need to apologize. I instructed you to protect the home, and as long as the house is safe, you have fulfilled your duty."
Shirou continued, "Night is approaching soon. I'm going out for a bit. You continue to guard the house."
Karna nodded at the words.
"Please be careful, Master. If you encounter danger, you must use a Command Spell to summon me."
"Mhm, I know."
Having agreed, Shirou left the house.
Walking down the street bathed in the glow of the sunset, Shirou narrowed his eyes.
"Given Emiya Kiritsugu's personality, he probably won't be acting with Irisviel and Saber. If that's the case, he should only have one base of operations."
In fact, he didn't need much deduction; Shirou, who was familiar with the plot, soon arrived at a business hotel.
"If I remember correctly, it should be here."
This hotel only had a lobby and a reception desk that looked somewhat decent. At best, it was a cheap inn equivalent to a business hotel.
From travelers with families to people having one-night stands, the guests here were varied, and precisely because of this, it was the best place for Emiya Kiritsugu to hide his identity.
Entering as a child might be troublesome, so Shirou used his prana to alter his appearance, transforming into that of a young man.
With a significant increase in height, the view Shirou perceived also became slightly different.
"Even though this form is illusory, I really don't want to revert back..."
Muttering this, Shirou walked through the lobby and took the elevator up to the seventh floor.
In front of the door to Room 703, Shirou paused.
Opening a locked door was not difficult for him now.
Bang!
The lock fell to the floor with a clang.
Shirou pushed the door open and stepped into the room.
The facilities inside the room were typical of a simple hotel layout.
Shirou first inspected the surroundings of the room but did not find any items related to Magi.
Only by the desk did Shirou see a few photographs, and also an A4 sheet of paper.
Several Servant Classes were written on it, and Shirou's name was among them, circled in red pen.
"After failing here with me, what will you do next, Emiya Kiritsugu..."
Shirou picked up one of the photos and saw that it depicted the Hyatt Hotel.
"Kayneth, huh..."
This Magus, who had not appeared yet, seemed to have been targeted by Emiya Kiritsugu.
"I'll go check it out."
Although he couldn't claim to fully grasp what would happen next, he had to go and see for himself.
Without hesitation, Shirou immediately set off for the Hyatt Hotel.
.
.
.
The Hyatt Hotel was undoubtedly the most luxurious hotel in Shintō.
Given Kayneth's personality, although he wouldn't highly regard the hotel, he wouldn't settle for any lesser, inadequate hotel either.
Choosing this particular hotel was practically a foregone conclusion based on his character.
The facts were as Shirou predicted: Kayneth was indeed staying in the luxurious penthouse suite on the top floor of the Hyatt Hotel.
Kayneth had already formed a contract with Caster, but the compatibility between Kayneth and Caster was extremely poor, to the extent that Kayneth didn't even know what Caster was secretly doing.
Of course, if he knew, he would never continue his alliance with Caster.
Kayneth had now made the Hyatt Hotel his base of operations, and he had thoroughly modified it.
This modification wasn't physical but referred to magical enhancements.
In this building, which reached a height of over one hundred and fifty meters, twenty-four floors were covered by Kayneth's bounded fields.
This place could even be called a magical fortress.
Furthermore, there were three prana generators dedicated to Kayneth and dozens of evil spirits and chimera summoned to replace guard dogs. He even made sure to dimensionalize the space of the sewers.
Under such complete defenses, no matter who came here, Kayneth was confident he would make them fully experience true horror and torment.
Just as Kayneth was thinking this, a fierce explosion followed.
Boom—!
If he hadn't also arranged defensive magic circles in the room, even if Kayneth himself were fine, his fiancée Sola might have already been swallowed by the explosion.
"To use modern military weapons, despite being a Magus..."
There was disdain in Kayneth's words.
As a magical prodigy raised in the traditions of nobility since childhood, he held a contemptuous attitude toward modern weaponry.
In his opinion, anyone capable of participating in the Holy Grail War should possess magical lineage and knowledge. Yet, this enemy had abandoned the required identity of a Magus and chosen to use modern weapons to attack.
While he wasn't particularly knowledgeable about these military weapons, this didn't prevent Kayneth from scoffing at them.
"Has he degenerated to this extent? How pathetic."
The bomber who used such extremely despicable means to destroy his workshop was currently hiding somewhere outside the hotel.
Killing intent surged in Kayneth's heart. He was impatient to eliminate this enemy targeting him.
Kayneth wasn't incapable of using magecraft to locate the enemy; although it wasn't his most practiced skill, his level was still far superior to most Magi.
"I'll find you soon, you fool!"
.
.
.
"The hotel, the hotel collapsed!"
The high-rise hotel, with a total height of over 150 meters, remained upright but collapsed as if being sucked into the ground.
Because all the exterior walls fell inward, not a single fragment scattered outside. Only the dust generated by the collapse spread onto the surrounding streets.
The panic of the guests who were roused from sleep by the fire alarm and evacuated to the outdoor parking lot, the inconvenience of being interrupted in their pajamas, and the cold of the night intertwined with the fear of the explosion at the Hyatt Hotel.
Everyone's faces were filled with terror and fright.
Emiya Kiritsugu, standing at the back of the crowd, watched the scene calmly.
Suddenly, the sound of a little girl crying from within the crowd drew Emiya Kiritsugu's attention away from the smoke rising from the top of the hotel.
The girl's mother, holding her child who was crying hysterically out of fear, walked past Emiya Kiritsugu.
Both the mother and daughter were only wearing pajamas and were covered in white dust, looking quite pitiful.
Emiya Kiritsugu watched the backs of the mother and daughter with a complicated gaze, only snapping back to attention when his finger was burned by the lit cigarette.
The pain from his fingertip caused Emiya Kiritsugu an unexplained irritation. He threw the half-smoked cigarette to the ground and stomped it out.
Emiya Kiritsugu felt somewhat confused. Sentimentalism was absolutely forbidden for him; such soft emotions would only slow down the speed at which he pulled the trigger.
Yet, even though he didn't want to admit it, Emiya Kiritsugu knew clearly that when he saw the fleeing mother and daughter just now, he saw shadows of Illya and Irisviel in them.
For Emiya Kiritsugu, who held the lofty ideal of "saving the world," all lives were of equal value. Every life sacrificed was the same; under this judgment, the lives of women and children would not receive special treatment.
He upheld absolute fairness and absolute equality for every life, so if a choice had to be made, he only needed to choose the path with the fewest sacrifices.
If he used the Holy Grail, he could save the world and fulfill his long-standing ideal.
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