IBHJ Chapter 844

As Shirou and Artoria stepped into the Fujimaru family residence, they were greeted by a scene of neglect and decay.

The house location was pretty remote, so it had managed to escape the worst of the mud tide, leaving its structure relatively intact. However, the interior told a different story. A thick blanket of dust coated the floor, and the moment they opened the door, a musty cloud flew everywhere, filling the air with a stale, pungent odor.

The television screen had a gaping hole in it, as if someone had put their fist through it in a fit of rage. The sofa was in tatters, with springs and stuffing poking out. The walls were peeling, and moss and cobwebs had taken over. It looked like no one had set foot in the place for years, and there didn't seem to be anything valuable or helpful left behind.

Just then, Artoria called out from the hallway, "My king, come take a look at this."

Curious, he walked over to where she was standing, and saw a staircase leading up to the second floor and down to the basement.

"Wait, there's a basement here?" Shirou raised his eyebrows in surprise. He turned to Artoria and said, "Artie, let's check out the basement first. Maybe we'll find some clues down there."

"Understood," she nodded.

Taking the lead, he confidently stepped towards the pitch-black basement, where he couldn't even see his hand in front of his face.

"Huh?" He suddenly stopped in his tracks.

"What's wrong, my king?" she asked.

"Oh, nothing. I just didn't expect there to be so many cobwebs down here."

He grabbed a few strands of cobwebs from his hair, a helpless expression on his face.

Seeing him picking the cobwebs out of his hair, she couldn't help but smile faintly, her pretty face lighting up. "You can be a bit reckless sometimes, Shirou."

"Hm?" He stopped what he was doing and turned to look at her.

"Wh-what is it?" she touched her face, suddenly self-conscious. "Do I have cobwebs on my face too?"

"No, that's not it. It's just... I've been telling you to call me Shirou for a while now, but you never do. So... I'm just a bit surprised, that's all."

"Oh! I'm so sorry, that was really rude of me! Here, let me help you with those cobwebs!"

She stepped in front of him, gently reaching out to help remove the cobwebs from his hair.

"You don't need to apologize," he said, staying still as he felt her gentle touch. A faint fragrance wafted into his nose, and having her so close, he couldn't help but let out a warm smile. "Now that I think about it, this feels kind of familiar..."

Her eyes sparkled with amusement as she recalled the memory. "Don't you remember? You and Kay went exploring in a cave once and found a basement just like this. You rushed in without thinking and came out covered in dust and dirt..."

Hearing this, he looked puzzled. "Did that really happen?"

She smiled, "It was back at the manor."

"Oh, right! Now I remember!"

Suddenly, it all came rushing back to him. "Kay told me he'd found a dragon nest and took me on an adventure. Turns out, it was just a wyvern nest, and I even fell into the hatchling room, which made the wyverns go crazy. If your father hadn't shown up when he did, Kay would've been in real trouble. I remember being covered in cobwebs then too, just like now, and the one who cleaned me up that time was also..."

"Yes. It was me..." she said with a smile.

"No wonder it feels familiar..." he chuckled. "You know, even though I wanted to go home so badly back then, I was still really happy. We didn't have any big enemies to face or messy problems to deal with. It was just carefree time spent hanging out with friends..."

"Mm..." she nodded gently, then softly said, "There, you're all clean now, my king."

"Thanks, Artie."

"You don't need to thank me. As your knight, it's my duty to look after you," she said, her expression serious. "Well then, should we keep going, or should I head upstairs to speed up our search?"

As she said this, she glanced towards the staircase entrance. At that moment, she felt a warm hand on hers.

Turning her head, she looked at him, confusion in her eyes. "What is it, my king?"

"I think..." he paused for a moment, then continued, "I don't know what the Council is planning. It's safer if we stick together."

Hearing this, she nodded, her expression turning serious. "Yes! I'll follow your orders!"

"You don't need to do that. The era of Camelot is long gone," he shook his head.

"But you'll always be my king," she said, her voice full of sincerity.

Shirou didn't respond. That was just how Artoria was. Even though she was gentler than Salter, at her core, they were the same. Soft on the outside, strong on the inside!

The basement was just as messy as the first floor.

But there was one glaring difference...

Looking at the rusty firearms and weapons scattered about, Shirou couldn't help but frown. Was this really a home, or was it an armory?

"My king! Come look at this!"

Artoria suddenly pointed at something on the ground in the distance, calling out to him. He quickly made his way over to take a closer look, and immediately, his brow furrowed. "Is that...!"

There, drawn on the ground, was a faint six-pointed star magic circle, nearly erased by the passage of time.

[Hint: You have discovered an old magic circle. With high luck, you may make some discoveries. Your luck is 1, and you need to roll 85 or higher to possibly find some clues.]

[Time to roll the dice, please wait——]

Shirou ignored this shitty game, turned his attention away from the automated prompt, and looked at Artoria. "Artie, why don't you take a closer look?"

"Alright," she nodded, stepping in front of him to examine the six-pointed star circle. As she did so, the TRPG rules left by Abigail began to roll automatically.

[Hint: You have discovered an old magic circle. With high luck, you may make some discoveries. Your luck is 8, and you need to roll 10 or higher to possibly find some clues.]

[Time to roll the dice, please wait——]

[And the result is... 79! Skill check successful, you have obtained some clues...]

Shirou looked at her with envy. As expected of someone with A+ rank luck, the required roll was reduced to a mere 10!

"Did you find anything? Any clues?"

"This game is a bit confusing, even more complicated than the ones Mordred plays... But according to the virtual text, this appears to be a summoning circle."

"A summoning circle?" he examined the magic circle more closely, then crossed his arms and frowned. Turning to Artoria, he asked, "Artie, have you ever seen a magic circle like this before?"

"No," she shook her head. "I'm afraid I don't have much knowledge about magecraft, my king. As for summoning circles, I've only seen the one used by Chaldea to summon Servants, and it looks quite different from this one."

"You're right," he nodded in agreement.

Having been a Master himself, he was naturally familiar with the magic circle used for summoning Servants. However, if he was being honest, the design of the six-pointed star summoning circle before them was vastly different from the Servant summoning circle he knew. The foundations were simply not the same.

"It's a shame Morrigan isn't a Heroic Spirit. It would've been convenient to summon her using my Noble Phantasm," he sighed.

"Summon Morrigan with your Noble Phantasm?" she turned to him, confusion written on her face. "My king, I thought your Noble Phantasm could only summon your subjects. Miss Morrigan isn't even from our land, so how could you possibly summon her?"

He looked at her, a hint of surprise in his eyes. "Wait, you haven't realized it yet?"

"Realized what?" she asked, her expression completely blank.