Snow rained from the sky. The occasional gusts of wind were ice-cold and sharp as blades.
In their party traveling to the village, a very young boy had a flushed red face. He would periodically lift his palms to mouth, breathing out mist as he rubbed his little hands to gain some warmth.
While Gelda was very proactive, cheerful and dazzling, Shirou was not one to focus on just a single person. He paid attention to everyone.
Seeing the boy's actions, he looked around and noticed all the villagers, Gelda included, only wore thin white shirts in this land of ice and snow. Clothes this thin had basically no heat retention. Even if the giants didn't kill them, these howling winds could freeze them to death.
Yet not one of them seemed to care. Or rather, they had long become indifferent to their own lives.
Shirou projected some cold weather gear and had the villagers put it on, earning their gratitude.
Passing through the steel forest, they soon saw in the distance a small, dilapidated village sitting alone amidst the ice and snow. Undoubtedly, that was Gelda's Village 23.
Led by Gelda and the others, Shirou and Salter arrived at Village 23. Rather than happiness and cheers at the group's return though, the villagers were filled with panic and screams.
The village chief was young and his face was filled with fear. He looked at Gelda's group and stammered, "Why...why have you come back? Did the giants not accept you as sacrifices?"
"Oh no! Is the village going to be destroyed?"
"Is the foretold doomsday going to arrive?"
The villagers panicked, their faces showing no smiles or joy - only fear.
At least, that was what Salter saw.
What Shirou saw in their eyes was not fear, but numbness.
Salter frowned. She was no fool. Although her alterization made her more cruel-minded, she still immediately understood the truth behind Gelda and the others being caught by giants.
In that case...it was likely not an accident, but the villagers directly offering them as sacrificial pawns.
In old Britain, there were similarly primitive customs of sacrificing maidens or youths to the gods, praying for good harvests in the coming year.
And such primitive, disgusting customs grew increasingly severe during the later years of Salter's rule over Britain. As the Age of Gods faded and harvests became scarce, they only intensified.
She had wanted to stop the practice, but was unable to do so.
Witnessing such a scene again now, Salter naturally couldn't tolerate it. The righteous heart of a knight within her refused to accept such unsightly customs. As she stepped forward to say something, Shirou suddenly grabbed a handful of her braided hair.
"Mmgh!" It hurt!
She whipped her head around, golden eyes glaring at him like an angry lion getting its tail pulled. In a low, indignant voice she asked, "What are you doing?"
"Don't make a ruckus," he murmured back.
She didn't understand. Shouldn't they at least say something, even if they could do nothing about this custom?
Yet he told her not to make a scene.
Although confused, she had always understood one clear truth - in the grand legend of King Arthur, she was the failure while Shirou was the success. So she held her tongue. Despite her doubts, she didn't question him now, only watching to see what he would do.
The village chief and villagers wore the same fearful expressions as when Shirou had rescued the caged villagers from the giants.
Gelda and the others began recounting their experiences, introducing Shirou and Salter. Although they chattered noisily, each telling their own parts of the story and opinion, they eventually got the full account across amidst the chaos.
When Gelda and the others introduced Shirou and Salter to the villagers as divine envoys, the village chief and villagers' eyes lit up.
They surrounded the pair as they entered the village.
"I wonder why the divine envoys have come to Village 23," said the village chief. "Is there something you want us to do? Has the Allfather issued new commands? Of course, we will absolutely obey the Allfather's will."
Shirou narrowed his eyes slightly. The Allfather? Is it Odin...or the Scáthach-Skadi he knew from FGO?
He smiled and answered, "Allfather sent us to inspect and see if you have properly carried out his will."
"Of course we have," the village chief replied with a neutral expression. "Please set your minds at ease, honored envoys."
Shirou had spoken ambiguously, following their train of thought. Unless they were suspicious from the start, there was no way they would doubt him.
Clearly, the village chief didn't harbor any suspicions.
Shirou planned to stay in the village for a while to investigate the situation with this Scandinavian Connection Point.
Of course, with his current firepower, he was extremely strong. But just because he was strong didn't mean he would act recklessly or arrogantly. That was not a show of might, but stupidity and arrogance.
In any battle or war, strength was the core. But what truly decided victory or defeat was one's intelligence.
The 4th Holy Grail War, Forest of Einnashe, Vortigern, Altrouge, the War of the Kings, Crimson Moon, Beasts, and Angra Mainyu...Shirou had walked many roads. But when he thought about it, he had only blundered once at Crimson Moon's hands, and lost a friend to her because he lacked intelligence.
And it was because of this that he placed even more importance on obtaining intelligence than ever before.
Shirou was very confident, but not arrogant.
He knew Eternal King was powerful, OP even, but would never say he was invincible.
Modest and prudent, not arrogant, clear-headed; other than slightly worse luck, he was as steady as a rock – that described him perfectly.
After leaving the village chief's residence and letting the villagers handle their affairs, Shirou walked through the village, observing with his eyes.
Salter followed along.
Shirou stopped and turned to look at her. "Since you're following me, is there something you want to ask?"
She nodded. Glancing at the buildings around them, her gold eyes fell back on him. "Eternal King, why did you stop me from speaking earlier? This village...it has problems! Gelda and the others were forced to become sacrifices to the giants by these people, right? If not for us taking the role of the so-called divine envoys, Gelda and the rest would have been thrown out again as offerings!"
"But didn't things turn out well in the end?"
She frowned. "Are you a consequentialist?"
"Hmm, yes I am."
She furrowed her brows tightly.
"Then come observe this village properly with your own eyes," Shirou said with a smile, patting her shoulder as he turned to leave.
"What do you mean?"
He sighed. "Don't tell me you really don't understand what I mean?"
"Yes, I don't understand," she nodded, her expression solemn and serious like a disciple seeking wisdom. "Please be sure to tell me what you...I mean, what Your Majesty means. And explain it clearly - I'm not being modest, but my comprehension is... quite low."
Being able to state your own flaws with a straight face - as expected of Artoria.
Shirou felt both amused and helpless. "You were once a king yourself. You should understand that to understand a group, we have to get out there and see things firsthand to obtain the information we need, instead of judging from a distance and rejecting them outright."
She furrowed her brows. "If it's just information, we can directly ask the villagers and village chief."
He laughed, like a sly old fox who had experienced life's ups and downs hearing the naive words of a young fox on the ways of the world.
Truly, he felt Salter was rather naive at times. Although she had been king, when he thought about it, most of the people she had met and experienced things with - other than Vortigern - were fanatics, or rather twisted fanatics.
Quite ridiculous. Perhaps in Salter's eyes Vortigern was a frightening opponent and villain, but in his eyes Vortigern was quite a cute fellow.
The truly frightening people were often not the openly defiant ones like Vortigern, but those villainous masters of disguise who used righteousness as a cloak.
Frankly, Shirou felt that if he ever turned villainous, he could easily trick both the original Artoria and the Salter before him into his bed and have his way with them. Fortunately, while skilled at deceiving, his heart was pure.
"What are you laughing about? Thinking of something happy again?" Salter asked.
He shook his head, smiling. "I was just thinking, it's fortunate the people you've met so far don't really count as true villains. Otherwise, they could sell you off and you'd still be happily counting the money for them, blissfully unaware."
She frowned, "What do you mean?"
Shirou lightly tapped her forehead and smiled. "Believing whatever people tell you without question is foolish. The best way to obtain intelligence is to see things with your own eyes, watch carefully, think critically, and then judge using your own mind."
Salter was startled.
"Anyway, that's enough lecturing for now. Let's go explore this world and see what we can discover in this Connection Point."
Staring at his smile, Salter tightly clenched her fists. As expected, this guy's title as the Eternal King was clearly well-earned and not groundless. Behind his casual demeanor lay true wisdom!
...
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