Emiya Shirou Doesn't Want to Work Overtime [230]

“Ugh—!”

A final groan echoed across the crimson space, clearly the sound of someone grievously injured. Immediately afterward, the vivid scarlet world rapidly began collapsing around them.

Because the battle had taken place inside the city, Shirou Emiya couldn't risk harming innocent residents by firing more powerful sword-arrows—he definitely couldn't afford to use a Broken Phantasm here.

Thus, the arrows Shirou Emiya had fired were ordinary ones, plain blades without special properties beyond being somewhat sturdier.

As the Fūzetsu collapsed, Shirou swiftly returned to his workplace, smoothly resuming the actions he'd been performing moments before the barrier had activated.

With Shirou Emiya's reflexes, the plate he'd previously dropped was easily caught: a quick kick upward before it hit the ground, neatly catching every single drop of coffee and every piece of dessert perfectly.

Customers nearby spontaneously erupted into applause, marveling at this incredible feat.

Just like watching Spider-Man catch scattered groceries—it was simply astonishing.

Quickly completing his current tasks, Shirou politely asked the boss for permission to leave early.

Though it was just Shirou’s first day, the boss didn’t make things difficult for him. After all, Shirou Emiya alone had handled the workload of several people during the morning shift.

Watching Shirou's absurd efficiency, even the boss felt slightly bewildered.

“Is this how you waste your time, doing meaningless work?”

Just after stepping through the shop door, an extremely familiar voice sounded from beside Shirou Emiya.

He turned calmly toward the source of the voice.

Exactly as Shirou Emiya expected, the speaker perfectly matched that voice—standing before him was a young girl who appeared only thirteen or fourteen years old.

She was very petite.

She wore a pitch-black coat.

Aside from her previously vivid flaming hair now turned into smooth black strands, everything about her matched the fiery figure he'd seen from behind earlier.

In the Fūzetsu, Shirou had never clearly seen her face—only her striking back.

Yet now this imposing, fiercely proud girl stood right in front of him, head tilted upward, her childish yet stern face tensed tightly. Her burning, flame-like eyes stared unwaveringly into Shirou Emiya's.

“You can't exactly call it meaningless work,” Shirou answered with a wry smile. Though he had displayed formidable power earlier, it naturally came with a heavy cost; tonight’s dinner expenses were going to be quite large.

He'd somehow become quite the big eater without noticing.

“How can you move freely within a Fūzetsu?” the girl bluntly demanded. Though she'd blocked those flying cards aimed at Shirou Emiya earlier, she hadn't immediately noticed his presence.

A Fūzetsu was an Unrestricted Spell capable of severing causality between two spaces, freezing the interior in time as though the entire world had stopped moving.

Within this barrier, only two beings could freely move:

Flame Hazes, and Crimson Denizens.

Beyond those, only beings with extremely special abilities—such as unique Unrestricted Spells, or servants like Rinne—could still act freely.

Yet the girl had sensed no trace of an Unrestricted Spell on Shirou Emiya, so she'd naturally dismissed him at first—until Friagne’s voice alerted her otherwise.

Only then had she noticed the human behind her could indeed move freely within the barrier.

“Fūzetsu?” Shirou paused, thinking briefly, before quickly understanding the girl’s meaning.

It must be the specific term for that crimson space—similar to how the magic he'd suddenly conjured weapons with was called "Projection Magecraft." A specialized name.

“Being able to move within that space… it’s probably due to this.”

Previously, Shirou Emiya hadn't been able to move freely in such a frozen world. Only after projecting this particular item could he move within it unhindered. The logical explanation had to be that object itself.

Besides, Shirou held considerable goodwill toward this girl who opposed beings devouring humans.

Thus, Shirou took out the pendant hanging from his chest, letting its faint blue glow shimmer gently in front of her.

“Reiji Maigo!” gasped the pendant hanging around the girl’s own neck, speaking with astonishment.

Though it hadn’t seen the artifact personally before, it had certainly heard of it and was familiar enough to recognize it at first glance.

No matter how much Power of Existence was consumed, it would restore completely at midnight—an artifact of unimaginable consequences if it ever fell into a Crimson Denizen’s hands.

Whoever possessed such a Treasure Tool could, in a sense, command infinite Power of Existence. Even doing nothing but passively extracting existence daily would greatly impact the world.

“Hand it over. It’s far too dangerous for a human to keep this,” the girl said, her expression once again turning grim. Had it been some weak Treasure Tool, she wouldn’t have insisted—after all, such minor artifacts posed minimal threat even in Denizen hands.

If this human refused, she might let it be. But Reiji Maigo was different; as a Flame Haze who directly used Power of Existence, she knew exactly how valuable an artifact that restored existence completely at midnight was to Denizens.

Even without her pendant’s reminder, she understood clearly the devastating impact if this fell into the wrong hands.

But then something completely outside her expectations occurred.

“Alright.” Shirou Emiya calmly removed the pendant from his neck without hesitation and placed it into the girl’s palm.

“Eh!?”

Holding the Reiji Maigo, the girl felt incredibly unreal—had she just casually received the Reiji Maigo?

It was just as unbelievable as personally witnessing Friagne's death mere moments ago, completely unreal—like a bizarre dream.

Such a precious Treasure Tool—this human handed it over so casually, without a shred of reluctance.

She had fully expected to engage in a long debate before obtaining this pendant, possibly even having to offer something valuable in exchange. How could things have gone this smoothly?

But before she could recover from her surprise, a sudden burst of light shone from Shirou Emiya’s right hand, and another Reiji Maigo appeared.

Without any attempt at concealment, Shirou casually hung the new Reiji Maigo back around his own neck.

In front of him, the girl instantly lost her composure.

“WHY DO YOU HAVE TWO REIJI MAIGO!!!!!”

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T/N: BROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO EMIYA STOP TROLLING

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!