Emiya Shirou doesn't want to work overtime

He still couldn't imagine how his friend could have turned out like this, such a scumbag whom he found utterly repulsive.

Although in this world, Matou Shinji genuinely wanted to remind Matou Sakura about the archery club, and had no other intentions.

"Huh? Our sibling matters are none of your business—"

Before Shinji Matou could finish speaking, he seemed to remember something. He covered his face with one hand and put the other hand on the ground, looking at Sakura Matou next to Shirou Emiya with a very puzzled expression.

At that moment, Shirou Emiya sensed that something seemed to have changed about Shinji Matou.

"No! No!"

Shinji Matou, who was kneeling on the ground, slowly got up, looking at Sakura Matou while shaking his head.

"Wait—!"

Then, ignoring Shirou Emiya beside him, she looked at Sakura Matou again with a scrutinizing gaze, scanning her from head to toe.

He covered his head, his face showing an extremely unpleasant expression.

"Sister? Sister? I don't think... I don't have a sister, right? Although I've always wanted a sister, I don't think I have one—"

Shinji Matou, who was standing still, no longer had any intention of attacking Shirou Emiya. Instead, he kept muttering to himself.

Emiya Shirou's expression turned puzzled as he looked at Shinji.

How could there be no younger sister?

Then he looked at Sakura beside him.

The worry that had been on Sakura's face vanished completely, leaving only a mechanical indifference. As if she had been prepared for Shinji's reaction, she didn't show any strange expression at all.

At this moment, Shirou Emiya realized that Sakura in front of him was now just an AI with almost no self-awareness.

"Ughh ...

At the same moment that Shirou Emiya looked at Sakura beside him, Shinji Matou let out an extremely painful howl, which felt even more intense than when Shirou Emiya twisted his arm.

He scratched his head anxiously, as if he had remembered something, but couldn't quite recall it.

"How strange! So strange! This intense sense of incongruity, and you—!!!!"

Shinji Matou's eyes were bloodshot at this moment. He frantically scratched his head and ran towards the corridor behind him.

Behind him, beside the steps, stood a boy with short black hair wearing a school uniform.

The moment Shirou Emiya saw him, the boy retreated in terror and disappeared down the corridor.

Perhaps it was because he and Sakura had spent so much time on the same day that Shirou Emiya had begun to accept the sense of incongruity and emptiness emanating from the academy.

He didn't immediately realize what Shinji was feeling.

That was how I felt when I first came to this school.

And the end of this sense of incongruity is at the end of the first-floor corridor.

He had long since discovered where this sense of unease was headed, but Shirou Emiya himself did not possess the mindset of a magician, nor did he know the rules of the Holy Grail War here.

I never imagined that the end of the corridor was a place where I could summon Servants.

"Shinji, is he also a magician?"

Emiya Shirou looked in the direction Shinji had left with a sense of understanding. Was this the preliminary selection method that Sakura had mentioned?

If Shinji hadn't suddenly felt something was off and started behaving strangely, Shirou Emiya would never have guessed that Shinji Matou wasn't an NPC but a magician.

"Is he one too?"

Emiya Shirou looked in the direction the black-haired boy in the school uniform had gone.

He, who was originally flustered, is now openly following a person whose wealth and noble temperament can be felt just by looking at his back, exuding a perfect and unique aura.

For some reason, when I saw the back of that blond-haired young man, I felt a sense of familiarity, as if I had seen someone who looked very similar to him before.

But Shirou Emiya didn't remember it at the moment.

The young man seemed completely unaware of the black-haired boy's presence, and walked forward with remarkable elegance.

The black-haired boy, Pi, followed closely behind him.

Their destination seemed to be the end of the corridor. Seeing this, Shirou Emiya also slowed down and followed behind the black-haired boy.

However, Shirou Emiya did not notice that on the second floor, a girl with bright red hair had seen everything and was secretly following behind him.

To be precise, it wasn't done secretly; just as the black-haired boy followed behind the blond boy, the red-haired girl followed Shirou Emiya openly.

Like the blond boy, Emiya Shirou was completely unaware of the anomaly behind him.

Sakura looked at the four people lined up in the corridor in front of her with a puzzled expression, but no one noticed the unusual people behind her.

Chapter 534 The Unusual Chestnut-Haired Girl

"This world is really well done. It's not just the details, even the air feels incredibly real."

"If I had to put it in perspective, this place is even more realistic than reality itself—"

The blond-haired boy seemed to be having a conversation with someone, speaking slowly and gently in a soft tone.

"Life here isn't bad. Although I've heard about it, I've never been to a school before."

"In that sense, I had a rather interesting experience—"

Beside him, Shirou Emiya felt no strangeness unique to this world. Rather, he felt comfortable with his gentle words and the emotions they conveyed.

What Shirou Emiya received was that this boy, a magician, was genuinely enjoying the false school life that the world gave him.

It was as if he was sharing with someone he knew. Even though Shirou Emiya had his back to him, he could sense that Shirou was wearing a faint smile that did not arouse any hostility.

It is the kind of being whose soul radiance can be sensed simply by meeting them once.

"But that's all. This isn't the place for me."

"A fork in the road is still a fork in the road; the time to return to the original road will always come."

With a mix of regret and感慨, the blond-haired boy simply changed the subject, abandoning his school life and turning his attention to a greater cause.

However, before the short-haired blond boy could finish speaking, Wei Miangong Shirou quickly looked behind him.

The red-haired girl clearly hadn't realized what was happening, and continued to walk slowly forward, approaching Emiya Shirou.

She desperately wanted to know what was happening ahead, and the incessant chatter turned into incredibly intense noise in her vision.

A strong sense of unease constantly surrounded her.

However, she did not expect that because she was too close, she would be discovered by Shirou Emiya very easily.

This was the first time she had ever tried to stalk someone, and the first time she had been discovered.

When the red-haired girl saw Shirou Emiya, she immediately panicked and tried to back away as she slowly walked forward.

His steps quickly became extremely unsteady, and he tumbled to the side.

"!"

With lightning-fast reflexes, Shirou Emiya held his breath, lowered his pace, and strode towards the girl who was falling to the ground, intending to grab her hand and pull her up.

But seeing her extremely flustered face and rapidly parting lips due to the unexpected situation...

Emiya Shirou's movements changed rapidly in that short time. One hand tightly covered her mouth, while the other hand slid across her waist and caught her steadily.

"Goodbye—"

At that moment, the blond boy seemed to be saying goodbye, and slowly spoke to the wall in front of him.

Then, without the slightest hesitation, he walked resolutely forward into the direction where there was no longer any path.

The black-haired boy following behind him was startled and picked up his feet to catch up.

Just as the blond boy was about to touch the wall, he suddenly stopped, as if he had remembered something, and spoke slowly again.

"No, I made a mistake. I said the wrong thing when I said goodbye."

"Although I don't understand the reason right now, I feel that we will meet again, so I should say 'see you next time' instead!"

"Well then, I'll take my leave first. Good luck to you all!"

After saying his final goodbye, the blond-haired boy slowly disappeared into the wall.

He seemed to have noticed, yet also seemed not to have noticed, the two people following behind them.

The black-haired boy who followed closely behind was also somewhat surprised. He took a few steps back, placed his hand on the wall, and slowly disappeared.

"Waaaaaahh ...

The girl struggled desperately in Shirou Emiya's arms, her eyes filled with fear as she tried to escape.

But her strength was no match for that of Shirou Emiya, who had trained for who knows how long. She had almost no way to break free from Shirou Emiya's grasp.

"sorry--!"

Seeing the two disappear, Shirou Emiya breathed a sigh of relief and quickly let go of their hands. Looking at the red-haired girl in front of him with extremely flustered eyes, Shirou Emiya hurriedly apologized.

Although it was because I was following her, I subconsciously told her to keep quiet.

However, from any perspective, Shirou Emiya needs to apologize for treating a woman this way.

"No, I'm fine. And thank you—"

The red-haired girl covered her head, and her expression softened when she saw that Shirou Emiya didn't seem to have any hostility and even apologized for what had happened earlier.

Ultimately, it was because he was the one who was followed that he was discovered. And if Shirou Emiya hadn't caught him at that moment, he might have fallen to the ground in a terrible way and been discovered by the two people in front of him.

She also felt grateful to Emiya Shirou.

However, at the moment when Shirou Emiya held her in his arms, she also saw her two classmates disappear into the wall.

The static-like noise in front of his eyes, like snow on a television screen, grew increasingly intense. A voice from the depths of his heart, seemingly from nowhere, kept telling him to search for the truth behind this incredibly incongruous situation.

Are you a magician?

Seeing that the girl didn't seem to care about what had happened earlier, Shirou Emiya slowly asked her, since no one but a magician who sensed something was amiss would do something like stalking her.

Moreover, it seems that because he arrived on the moon through a special path rather than through Earth's servers like those magicians, he doesn't have a corresponding identity in this virtual world.

Unless you speak up and interact with them, most NPCs will not consider you a real person.