A dark, cold hallway. The sharp stink of cheap disinfectant and the damp smell of mold.
That was the oldest scene from my childhood that I could remember.
"Director, he's standing over there again. He's creepy..."
"Tch, don't go near him. If you make eye contact, your luck will turn rotten. That child is clearly cursed."
In a cramped corner room of the orphanage, I always crouched like a shadow.
It wasn't as if I had done anything terribly wrong.
I had only tried to clear away the trays after meals, and only tried to walk up to a child who had fallen and scraped their knee so I could hand them a bandage.
But whenever I approached, the children screamed and ran as if they were having a fit, and the adults glared at me with the same disgust they'd show if they had stepped in filth on the roadside.
I wanted to help.
I wanted to say something kind.
But every bit of goodwill I reached out with cut through empty air, and the hatred and violence that came back only grew thicker by the day.
My very existence, simply breathing and standing beside them, was for some people an unbearable disaster.
"Why was something like you even born? Please, just disappear from in front of us."
Hatred and rejection.
That was the only judgment the world had ever passed on me.
Maybe I could have been crushed under those cursed stares and destroyed myself, or become a villain who cursed the world in return.
But I didn't want to break.
If the world insisted on defining me as evil, if the world treated me like some loathsome monster—
Then I swore I would hold fast to myself precisely by refusing to become what they wanted me to be.
Even if I saved someone from drowning and got slapped for it, even if I was pelted with stones while helping people.
I told myself that one day, I would keep walking in silence until I was acknowledged as a better person.
That was how I endured: forcing my fragile emotions down deep inside, while hardening my exterior until no one could wound me anymore.
As the agony of my [Magic Circuits] opening felt like every blood vessel in my body was being torn apart, I swallowed a soundless scream and remembered that desperate vow once more.
In a dark abyss where no one ever recognized my efforts, I chewed down my suffocating isolation and endured the pain.
But then—
"──Husband. Husband."
From beyond that distant darkness, I heard a sorrowful voice calling for me.
The searing pain that felt like it was burning my flesh slowly faded, and in its place came a sensation so soft and warm it was hard to believe.
I slowly lifted my heavy eyelids.
The first thing I saw was not the ash-colored sky of burning Fuyuki.
It was a cool, gentle hand carefully brushing back my sweat-soaked bangs, as delicately as if handling a fragile glass ornament.
And above that, Shuten's reddened eyes looking down at me.
"...Ah."
A cracked breath slipped from between my lips. My head was resting on her soft thighs.
A lap pillow.
Her body heat wrapped warmly around the back of my neck.
"You're awake, husband."
Shuten's voice had lost its usual sultry tone and was trembling instead. Wet tear tracks were clear at the corners of her eyes as she looked down at me.
While I had been unconscious, writhing in pain, she had cried. Only a little, but still.
Shuten doing that was hard to imagine. Bond 15, was it?
So she really could change this much. Or rather, did that mean I had become that precious to her?
"Shuten..."
"Ahh, thank goodness. Thank goodness, truly."
At my call, she lowered her head and rubbed her cheek against my forehead. The sweet scent of alcohol lingered around my nose, along with the weight of blind affection that wrapped itself wholly around me.
It was a fierce devotion I had never once received from another human being.
Even knowing how distorted this situation was, I let myself lean into the cheek touching my forehead for just a moment and breathed out deeply.
But soon I steadied myself and slowly pushed my upper body upright.
"Sorry for worrying you. I'm really fine now."
"I thought something terrible had happened to you, and my heart just dropped. Don't ever collapse like that in front of me again. Understand?"
I lightly stroked Shuten's hair as she whispered in a sulking tone. I might look expressionless and detached, but in my own way, I wanted to return some of her warmth, and that feeling showed gently at my fingertips.
My body felt light as a feather. I could clearly feel an unknown energy, mana, flowing through my veins. It seemed the forcibly opened [Magic Circuits] had settled into place.
I checked the inventory in the system window floating over my vision.
[Held Item: [Heroic Spirit summoning ticket] (Evil alignment guaranteed) x1]
I needed strength if I was going to move forward. Without hesitation, I pressed the summon button in the system window.
[Commencing Heroic Spirit summoning. Your trait [Seeker of Evil] has responded, guaranteeing the summoning of a Servant of the corresponding alignment.]
A summoning circle tinged with blue light rapidly unfolded in the air before me.
[Searching for bonds engraved upon your soul.... Bond level with the corresponding Heroic Spirit has reached its limit. Bond Level 10 (Max) data synchronization complete.]
The spinning silver rings released a dazzling flash, and a harsh wind swirled out, sweeping away the ash around us.
When the light finally faded, a single man stood there.
"Servant, Assassin. Sasaki Kojiro."
After declaring his True Name, Kojiro looked down at me and smiled with his usual easygoing expression.
But his eyes were not those of someone seeing a stranger for the first time. There was an overwhelming familiarity in them.
"I answered your call and came. Judging by the look of it, this is quite a brutal battlefield... It's been a while, Master. Those indifferent yet gentle eyes of yours haven't changed a bit."
I flinched in surprise at Kojiro's familiar casual tone and widened my eyes.
"You... know me?"
"Of course."
Kojiro gave a light shrug and casually rested a hand on the hilt of his sword.
"Even if you do not remember me, the Spirit Origin dwelling in my blade and the bond tied to it remember perfectly well the countless hours we spent together. It is an honor to guard your back once more, Master."
The Servants summoned through the system were not merely characters from the game I knew in my previous life.
Most likely, the time and bonds I had poured into them in that game had been carved directly into their souls.
And those deep ties, which even I could no longer fully remember, were being returned to me as absolute trust and affection.
Of course, even those memories of my previous life were vague. I had only become aware of that past after arriving here, and they were so faint I couldn't even remember my old name.
"What are you staring at, swordsman?"
At that moment, Shuten, who had been pressed close at my side, frowned in open displeasure and showed her hostility without restraint. Her pupils narrowed into vertical slits, and demonic energy flashed in her eyes.
"Haha, well now. The possessiveness of this fearsome little monster is just the same as when we were in Chaldea."
Even in the face of Shuten's murderous aura, Kojiro didn't so much as blink and only answered with a sly grin.
"Rest easy, Shuten-Douji. I merely greeted my lord after seeing him again for the first time in a while. Besides, I'm only interested in the act of cutting things down. Beyond that, I have very few desires."
Shuten and Kojiro. Even the Servants remembered one another clearly.
In this isolated hell where the whole world rejected me, it felt as though a camp that existed for me alone, and looked only at me, had finally been formed.
"Let's go. We've already lost enough time."
I let my coat flare behind me and stepped forward first.
"Our destination is Ryuudou Temple. We're going to put an end to this ruined hell."
"Hehe, if you lead the way, husband, then I'd jump right into hellfire for you."
"A fine spirit. Then I shall guide us. That place is the one I know best."
Shuten walked close at my side, while Kojiro took the lead with relaxed steps.
But this was the road to Ryuudou Temple, cutting across a burning city.
"...Master, you'd do well to stop. We have unwelcome guests ahead."
Kojiro warned me in a low, serious voice as he gripped his sword hilt. Shuten clicked her tongue and stepped in front of me as well.
The mana flowing through my body also sensed a strange disturbance approaching from ahead.
Footsteps came from beyond the acrid gray haze. As the smoke thinned, two silhouettes emerged.
"Found them! An unidentified magical energy reaction in the Singularity! Those Servants... and a human?!"
A woman with silver hair braided into twin plaits. And in front of her, standing protectively with a massive cross-shaped shield, a girl with pale violet hair.
They were Olga Marie Animusphere, director of Chaldea, and Mash Kyrielight.
The moment I saw their faces, my heart sank heavily.
Even through the gaps in my memory, I could still clearly recall Mash's contemptuous expression as she politely, cruelly told me not to come near her.
And right on cue, the curse placed on me activated.
[Trait [Rejection of the World] (Curse) is strongly affecting the target.]
"...!!"
The instant our eyes met, Olga Marie's face twisted with absolute fear and disgust.
Her eyes flew wide as if she had just seen the most horrifying and revolting filth in the world, and then she staggered and dropped to her knees on the spot.
"Urk, blegh...! Wh-what is that horrible... disgusting presence...?! I'm going to be sick... ugh, bleegh!"
Olga Marie clutched at her throat with both hands as if trying to tear it open and retched onto the ground.
The look in her eyes as she stared at me, crushed by sheer instinctive revulsion and streaming tears and snot, perfectly matched the cruel hatred I had faced my entire life.
"Director?! A-are you all right?! You people, what did you do to her...?!"
Mash hurriedly supported Olga Marie and raised her massive shield toward me.
A guardian of good and order. The shield that safeguarded Human Order.
Her violet eyes turned toward me. Mash's expression, glaring at me from behind the shield, had gone cold and hard.
It wasn't simple caution toward an unknown enemy.
It was instinctive disgust, sharpened by the conviction that the being before her had to be the source of every disaster.
"You... are you the one responsible for destroying Chaldea's control room? That foul, evil presence... You're the mastermind controlling those black Servants!"
Mash's trembling voice rang through the burning street. That unwavering gaze branded me as a terrorist, as evil that had to be put down.
A familiar pain tore through my chest.
The fact that I had come all this way to help them and save this world meant nothing to them.
Because to them, my very existence was perfect proof of nauseating evil.
"Husband..."
A thick killing intent exploded behind me. Shuten stepped in front of me, staring coldly at the Chaldea group.
"How dare those filthy girls run their mouths at you. Just give the word, husband. I'll rip their mouths open and tear their tongues right out."
"My, so this time they're enemies? Well, that is life, I suppose. If you command it, I'll cut them down whenever you wish."
Kojiro, too, let the easy smile fade from his face and firmly gripped the shaft of Monohoshizao. My Servants were ready to slaughter them at any moment.
But I slowly shook my head.
"Sheathe the sword, Kojiro. Shuten, step back too."
At my calm, gentle command, both Servants hesitated, then withdrew the killing intent pouring from them.
I lightly patted Shuten's shoulder, still tense with bloodlust, to reassure her, then slowly took a step toward Mash and Olga Marie.
Olga Marie trembled in fear at the sight of me, and Mash tightened her grip on the shield.
Even before that razor-edged hostility, I opened my mouth and put what little warmth I could into my voice.
Even if the world branded me evil. Even if it hurled stones at me and pointed blades my way.
The conviction I had chosen to walk by would not break. I would not bow to that petty, miserable hatred and carve myself down into a beast.
"Sorry for the misunderstanding, but I'm not the one who destroyed Chaldea, and I'm not the mastermind controlling those shadow monsters either. I'm just someone who wants to resolve this."
I may have looked expressionless and detached, but within me was an unshakable will of steel and a straight, unwavering belief in reaching out to others.
"I don't care how you see me. I'm not going to beg you to believe me, either. I'll just do things my own way."
I met Mash's violet eyes calmly as she kept her shield raised and declared it plainly.
"I'm beyond used to looks like that. I'm sick of them."
Even if the whole world called me a monster, even if it wanted me to become one, I would never abandon my humanity.
Because I didn't want to become the monster they wanted.
"...I do not understand your true intentions. There is too much about you that is suspicious. Why someone like you is in Fuyuki, and how someone like you formed contracts with Heroic Spirits, both require an explanation. If you cannot explain yourself, then from our perspective, we have no choice but to regard you as the terrorist who murdered the people of Chaldea and—"
"You bitch!"
At that moment, while Mash was speaking in a sharp, hostile voice with a vicious expression, Shuten lunged from beside me and kicked her away on the spot.
The director behind her yelped and fell backward, while Mash slammed into a concrete wall and pitched forward.
"...Shuten."
"Sorry. But I can't stand anyone talking trash about you, husband."
"...Yeah. Thanks for getting angry for my sake."
What was I supposed to say? Someone had gotten angry for me. I couldn't exactly scold her for that.
And somehow, I felt a little relieved myself.
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