Emiya Shirou Doesn't Want to Work Overtime [231]

“......”

Shirou Emiya genuinely didn’t know how to explain this to her. After all, Projection Magecraft wasn’t exactly easy to put into words, especially considering what Fiore had once told him:

Your Projection Magecraft is fundamentally different from normal Projection Magecraft. Don’t show it to other magi unless absolutely necessary.

Ah, right—he’d completely forgotten about her warning. Still, since he wasn’t currently in his own world, maybe it wasn’t such a big deal after all.

Thinking along these lines, Shirou began carefully choosing his words, wondering how exactly he should explain this to her.

“It’s… well, it’s… using the Power of Existence, and then through that energy, performing a kind of, um, a kind of…”

Shirou Emiya at least had a basic grasp of what the “Power of Existence” was. He’d been treating it as analogous to the magical energy within his own body. The differences didn’t seem particularly great, at least from his experience in battle—both were essentially pools of mana.

“An Unrestricted Spell?”

“Ah, right! Exactly, an Unrestricted Spell!”

Shirou immediately seized upon her words. Just as magic cast with magical energy was called Magecraft, perhaps spells using the Power of Existence were termed Unrestricted Spells—that was Shirou’s best guess.

Anyway, it was just specialized terminology. Whether or not he truly understood it wasn’t actually important.

“Don’t just casually brush me off like that!! How could there be such an Unrestricted Spell!?”

The girl was practically losing her mind. It was obviously not something any simple Unrestricted Spell could achieve. And besides, as far as she could tell, Shirou Emiya didn’t even seem capable of using Power of Existence—let alone a spell based upon it.

“Well, uh, yeah! Something along those lines—”

Shirou could only keep brushing it off like this. He really didn’t want to explain magecraft to her. Honestly, he himself barely understood magecraft well enough, much less trying to explain it to someone else. For Shirou Emiya, that was practically hell-level difficulty.

“Anyway, could you tell me a little more about that ‘Hunter’ you mentioned earlier?”

Shirou quickly changed the topic. If they continued lingering on Projection Magecraft, things would probably just grow even more awkward between them.

Besides, Shirou truly wanted to learn more about those beings devouring humans. He especially wanted to know what exactly lurked in the shadows of this world.

“Eliminating Crimson Lords is the responsibility of Flame Hazes. Humans like you should just focus on living your lives peacefully. These things aren’t for you to know.”

She fixed Shirou with eyes that brimmed with intense resolve, her young face utterly serious. Clearly, such matters genuinely weren’t something ordinary humans were meant to know.

Surprisingly, Shirou didn’t feel any particular anger at being told that humans shouldn’t know about these things.

After all, even in his own world, magi kept themselves hidden in the shadows. Ordinary people going about their daily lives generally had no knowledge of magecraft or magi.

Besides, what good would it do even if ordinary humans knew about such existences? Inside that crimson space, they'd remain utterly powerless, incapable of resistance. Knowing would only cause unnecessary panic.

“But that Crimson Lord you mentioned has already targeted me. Wouldn’t it be better if I at least knew a bit more?”

“Protecting humans is also a Flame Haze’s duty. You don’t need to worry about it.”

“But you didn’t exactly show up immediately when I was attacked, did you?”

Shirou wasn’t trying to accuse her. He understood deeply how difficult it was to arrive precisely at the moment of need—he had experienced that firsthand.

Back in Fuyuki City, before Shirou had finally resolved himself to clear out those delinquents, he'd often arrived only after they'd already begun attacking students.

Afterward, some students even blamed him. Even so, Shirou never gave up trying to help them. Instead, he resolved to completely uproot the delinquents from that area.

As for those places beyond his reach—well, a single person’s strength was limited. Shirou knew very well the extent of what he could achieve.

What Shirou wanted this girl to understand was simple: since he’d already become involved and couldn’t extricate himself, he at least deserved to know precisely what he was dealing with.

“Tell him,” a calm, steady voice spoke from the pendant around the girl’s neck. “That Hunter targeted him first, anyway. Besides, the Reiji Maigo isn’t even the only Treasure Tool he possesses. No matter what, he won’t be able to escape the attention of the Crimson Denizens.”

Compared to the girl, this voice clearly took a broader view of the situation. Moreover, humans assisting Flame Hazes weren’t rare, so these details weren’t secrets that necessarily needed to remain hidden.

“Hmph! If even Alastor says so…”

The girl looked profoundly reluctant, but still began explaining some basics about Crimson Denizens and Flame Hazes.

Simply put, there existed beings above humans who needed Power of Existence to survive.

But it wasn’t that humans’ Power of Existence was strictly necessary; it was just the easiest and quickest to harvest.

Thus, these beings were divided into three factions:

One faction preyed directly upon humans.
Another aided humans in resisting the predators.
And the third faction remained neutral—neither preying on humans nor aiding them.

“So, Alastor—you’re also a Crimson Lord?”

“Indeed,” the pendant at the girl’s chest flashed gently, confirming Shirou’s question.

From their conversation, Shirou also learned the name of the existence dwelling within the girl’s pendant.

“They’re like those ‘demons,’ then.”

After hearing her explanation, Shirou quietly muttered to himself.

To humanity, those Crimson Denizens devouring the Power of Existence were indeed very much like the demons of Demon Slayer.

For ordinary humans, resistance was impossible. Without the Demon Slayer Corps, those demons could easily massacre an entire village overnight.

And Crimson Lords could effortlessly annihilate an entire city.

Though there was certainly a vast gap in sheer strength between demons and Crimson Lords, humanity’s position beneath both was frighteningly similar.

“I just realized—I still don’t know your name.”

After talking for so long, Shirou suddenly remembered he hadn’t even asked this girl’s name. He even knew the name of the pendant around her neck but had no clue about hers.

The girl paused abruptly, stopping in her tracks. Shirou, walking beside her, quickly halted as well, turning to look back at her.

“I—don’t have a name,” she replied softly. “Just call me the ‘Flame-Haired, Blazing-Eyed Hunter.’”

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This is a fan translation of 卫宫士郎不想加班 by 此世无存. All rights to the original work belong to the creator. Please support them by exploring their original work or sharing it with others if you can. Thank you for reading and supporting my efforts to bring this story to a wider audience!