I Don’t Want to Be a Heroic Spirit

This is a path leading to ruin.

Before drawing the holy sword and donning the crown, I had already witnessed the end of this kingdom.

I saw the pristine white city crumble to dust.

I saw knights clad in glory fall into discord.

I saw the golden sun plummet, staining the hills with blood.

And I knew I would perish alongside this kingdom.

It was with full awareness of this destined conclusion that I bore the name of king.

If the fate of destruction cannot be altered, then I shall accept it willingly.

However, before that end arrives...

I saw golden fields of wheat.

I saw the radiant glow of hope.

I saw people surrounding me, their faces alight with smiles full of expectation for the future.

If guiding this land toward that vision is my mission, then I will embrace it wholeheartedly.

---

"I hope you'll reconsider."

My teacher, my friend, my guide, the person I admired most, stood before me on the verdant plains, beneath the twilight sky, and said those words.

"Once you take up that sword, you will no longer be human. You will be hated by everyone and will eventually face a tragic death."

Perhaps.

Perhaps I will lose myself after wearing the crown.

Perhaps I will make many mistakes after drawing the holy sword.

Perhaps I will be isolated, despised, and betrayed by all, and meet my destined end in the depths of despair.

Perhaps. But...

"I can see it—the faces of so many people smiling."

The wind swept across the green plains, gently tousling the golden strands of the young girl's hair, shimmering like spun gold.

"So I believe this path must have meaning."

---

The night was tranquil.

The flawless full moon hung silently in the sky, casting silver-white moonlight upon the earth.

A tall woman stood at the edge of a cliff, her feet hovering above the ground, bathed in that pale luminescence.

Her figure resembled that of a goddess—no, she was a goddess.

Her golden hair shimmered brilliantly under the moonlight. She wore an ornate silver-white gown, adorned with silver armguards and greaves. The semi-transparent hem of her dress seemed to embody the moonlight itself. Behind her, two radiant halos formed from countless golden light particles floated in resplendence.

Artoria lowered her gaze slightly, her emerald eyes as beautiful as jewels, but devoid of any warmth.

Before her, a light screen materialized:

---

Artoria PendragonClass: Ruler

Level: 92

Skills:

Royal Bunny A

Royal Card B+

The Knight of the Lion A+

Class Skills:

Magic Resistance A

Territory Creation B

True Name Revelation B

Parameters:

Strength: C

Endurance: A+

Agility: B

Mana: A

Luck: B

Noble Phantasm: A+

Noble Phantasm: Bright Ehangwen. Shine Brilliantly, Radiant Hall of Mine

---

"So, being the Ruler of this game, they gave me the 'True Name Revelation' skill?" Artoria commented flatly, with a dismissive wave of her hand. "Though I doubt I'll have much use for it."

"No Command Spells on me… It seems those must be with the other Ruler."

As the adjudicator of the Holy Grail War, the Ruler class Servant possesses two absolute commands over every Servant—akin to two Command Spells each. In this peculiar Holy Grail War, there were not seven but fourteen Servants, meaning the Ruler was granted a total of twenty-eight Command Spells.

But Artoria didn't care about those spells—or rather, she didn't seem to care much about anything at all.

"This Spirit Origin has a stronger influence on me than I expected," she mused.

Artoria could feel it—her emotional responses were far less pronounced than when she had been Baobhan Sith or Okita Souji. Her perspective was gradually shifting from an individual viewpoint to one that encompassed humanity as a whole.

"...Is this due to the influence of divinity?"

Attempting to fathom the thoughts of a god was the height of folly for humans, for the perspectives and reasoning of gods and men were inherently different.

The final boss of the Sixth Singularity, the Lion King, had been born from a similar deviation. When Bedivere failed to return the holy sword, Artoria was unable to die, eventually becoming a wandering wraith king. Over the years, the divine attributes of the holy spear Rhongomyniad suppressed her humanity, culminating in her transformation into the goddess Rhongomyniad, who stood before Chaldea as the Lion King.

Of course, when Bedivere finally returned the sword, the Sixth Singularity was corrected, and the Lion King disappeared, leaving no record behind. The Lancer-class Artoria in the game merely wielded the holy spear as the King of Knights; she was not the goddess Rhongomyniad.

Similarly, though Ruler Artoria referred to herself as "Swimsuit Lion King," she was merely a variant Spirit Origin of the Lancer-class Artoria. She had no connection to the Lion King.

Even so, the divine essence of the holy spear still lingered in her.

This was her first time becoming a Servant with divinity, and its effects were inevitable. With experience, she believed she would handle it better when she transformed into other divine Servants in the future.

Especially since some Servants weren't merely divine—they were gods themselves. If she wasn't careful, her identity as Fenhuan Yu might be entirely suppressed.

"Da Vinci… Da Vinci… Can you hear me?" Artoria called out emotionlessly. Normally, Da Vinci would respond immediately, but this time, there was silence.

"As expected," Artoria murmured, unfazed.

She began to recall the events that had brought her to this world.

In previous worlds, her communication with Da Vinci had been sparse.

That was because Chaldea had identified their original world—the so-called "Nasuverse."

The Nasuverse was uniquely dangerous among all worlds they had encountered, its Counter Force interfering with the world's progression far too frequently.

In many "infinite worlds" novels, the Nasuverse was considered one of the most perilous for outsiders, reincarnators, or transmigrators.

Even though Chaldea belonged to the Nasuverse, its Counter Force did not welcome them. Da Vinci had gone to negotiate with it, wary not of Chaldea itself but of Artoria—or rather, Fenhuan Yu.

After all, with her ability to assume the forms of all Servants recorded in Chaldea's Spirit Origin Index, there was always the risk that she might become a Beast someday. And should that happen in the Nasuverse, even the Counter Force would have no recourse but despair.

---

T/N: (morax millionaire has been reuploaded under the title of Contracts Beyond Realms: The Geo Archon's Journey id appreciate it if you can put it in your collections again pwetty please)

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