Unlimited Blade Works of the Raging Dimension 33

Title: Lover

“This is truly mesmerizing.”

Gazing at the figure she wanted to look at, Esdeath couldn’t help but narrow her eyes and speak to Shirou.

“Hm?”

“What is the name of this sword?”

“Its name is Caliburn (Golden Sword of the Victorious).”

Holding the golden sword in his hand, Shirou couldn’t help but think of that blue figure, and a meaningful smile appeared on his face.

Esdeath stared at the smile on his face, and her face suddenly turned red, as if she was thinking of something.

“Huh? What’s wrong with you?”

“Nothing, nothing at all.” Esdeath looked at him, a slightly flirtatious expression appearing on her face, but she quickly returned to normal. “I truly lost this time. What do you want to do with me?”

“Hmm?” Shirou looked at her with a teasing expression on his face. “Why? Didn’t you say that nothing could make you surrender? That you would only live according to your own will, and no one could change you? Now you’ve changed your mind and want to become my maid?”

“Of course not.” Esdeath rolled her eyes at him and said, “I just want to hear your opinion. After all, I also need to think about my future.”

“Don’t worry, I’m not interested in you.” As he spoke, Shirou put away his sword, took out Esdeath’s headpiece from her body, and returned it to her, “I’ll return this to you. After all, it’s useless to me now.”

After saying that, he didn’t care about Esdeath’s reaction and immediately canceled the Reality Marble.

❂❂❂❂❂

At the place where Shirou and Esdeath fought, many soldiers arrived.

The clothing and appearance of these soldiers were very different from the garrison soldiers of the imperial capital. They were all royal guards protecting the imperial palace and were the most elite soldiers in the imperial capital.

The leader of the group was a burly middle-aged man wearing armor. He was one of the strongest men in the empire—General Budo.

“This... Esdeath?” Budo carefully observed the traces left at the scene.

A large amount of ice was scattered across the battlefield, and there were also many traces of explosions. The most eye-catching was the huge crater several hundred meters wide in the center of the battlefield, which was also the reason he had come here.

The sound caused by Shirou’s attack on the Ice Knight was so loud that even many people in the imperial capital saw the mushroom cloud rising. In Shirou’s original world, due to the existence of the Counter Force, the impact of the Holy Grail War was minimized. For example, at the end of the Fifth Holy Grail War, the battle between Saber and Gilgamesh, the interaction between the Anti-City and Anti-World Noble Phantasms was heavily suppressed, but not a single temple was destroyed. Without the Counter Force, this would have been impossible.

However, in this world, without the Counter Force, the power of the Noble Phantasm was revealed unconditionally. This power even made General Budo, who was guarding the imperial capital, worried. Concerned about the safety of the imperial capital, he personally went to investigate the situation, but this investigation surprised him.

‘It seems Esdeath was fighting someone. With her strength, no one should be able to stand against her. However, judging from the situation at the scene, Esdeath might have been at a disadvantage.’

Budo carefully observed the traces at the scene, his face gradually becoming serious. He was very clear about Esdeath’s strength. Although they were both the strongest in the empire, he knew that if they really fought, the odds of winning between them were 4:6. Esdeath was far stronger than him. However, he felt even more pressured.

‘Judging from the traces of the attack, Esdeath’s attacks were concentrated in a small area. In other words, her enemies were very few, or perhaps even just one?’

His eyebrows furrowed. Years of battle had given him immense strength, but also eyes that matched his power. Through observation, the general situation of the battle gradually became clear in his mind.

‘This is troublesome, is this Night Raid? No, Night Raid doesn’t have such power, and Esdeath had very few enemies, possibly less than two people with such strength...’

‘The most urgent task is to first strengthen the palace’s defenses, then find Esdeath, so we can understand what happened.’

After making a decision, Budo raised his head and gave instructions to the person beside him: “Return and immediately report that the number of guards in the palace must be doubled, and all guards in the inner palace must cancel their leave. Also, send someone to find General Esdeath—who’s there!”

As he spoke, Budo suddenly stopped and turned to the side to be on guard. In his perception, two auras suddenly appeared a few meters away from them.

“Oh? Are there people here?”

What reached his ears was a calm voice, a very young voice, probably less than thirty years old.

Following the direction of the voice, Budo saw the face of the person coming.

His hair and even eyebrows were pale, his skin slightly dark, and he wore black and red clothing, his style not resembling someone from the imperial capital.

Budo saw this and was about to ask the other party, but his eyes moved downward, his expression immediately changed, and he exclaimed: “General Esdeath?!”

At the feet of the man lay a woman with a beautiful body and long blue hair. However, the woman was not in good condition at the moment. Her clothes were torn in many places, and bright red blood was seeping out of her clothes. Budo recognized this woman, Esdeath. However, that was why he was shocked. Esdeath, who was the strongest person in the empire, was in such a sorry state at that moment. It seemed she had no strength to resist.

“Are you from Night Raid?”

Budo stared at Shirou and asked in a serious tone, while his body quietly became alert. Initially, he thought Esdeath had just retreated after being defeated by her opponent, but now it seemed the difficulty of the enemy was even greater than he had expected. The enemy had actually captured Esdeath alive, this was a problem.

In his opinion, the strongest resistance organization around the imperial capital was only the Night Raid group, so he had this doubt. After all, all members of Night Raid were Imperial Arms users, right?

“Hmm?” Sensing Budo’s hostility, Shirou couldn’t help but raise his eyebrows. He glanced at Esdeath at his feet and immediately understood the situation.

‘It seems Budo considers me an enemy? Forget it, I’ll hand Esdeath over to him and leave. After all, there’s nothing to do in the imperial capital.’

“Why? Don’t you want to say it or just admit it?”

Budo, who was on guard against Shirou, saw his attentive gaze and thought that he had quietly accepted the identity of Night Raid. He immediately raised his right hand, ready to order the soldiers around him to help him capture the other party, but at this moment, a voice sounded.

“Wait a minute, Budo, since when do you have the right to attack my lover?!”

“Huh!”

Shirou, who was about to take action, was shocked when he heard this. Not only him, even Budo changed his expression. The guards around them also reacted the same. They all looked in the direction of the person who made the sound—the strongest person in the empire, Esdeath.