Otherwise, you can find another savior.

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"Thank you, Master. For coming all this way to comfort me," tide Jian said.

“Given your personality, even if no one minds, you’ll still feel sorry for what you did.” Scáthach grabbed his hand. “Cheer up, don’t act like an old man.”

Shiomi also took Scáthach's hand, turned around to look at her, and frowned with some sadness: "I have lived in the fairy kingdom of Britain for six thousand years. I have really become a disciple who is older than my master."

"It doesn't sound bad."

Scáthach could see the changes in Shiomi, and she could also see the parts of him that hadn't changed, so that was enough.

“Indeed, a younger master doesn’t sound bad.” Shio smiled, pursing her lips, and touched Scáthach’s cheek, leaning down to kiss her.

For Scáthach, it was only a few months, but for him, it spanned 6000 years. Shiomi couldn't help but want to use this method to confirm something that was about to become a memory and be forgotten.

Just as Scáthach quietly tilted her head back to await her lips, Morgan's voice interrupted the situation.

"After finally getting all this over, the first thing you think of is running away, Scáthach?"

She had barely recovered enough to get out of bed and was helped onto the deck by Artoria Pendragon.

"This..." Shiomi was a little embarrassed, so he quickly changed the subject and took over the task of supporting her from Artoria. "You are the one. Has your overloaded magic circuit cooled down yet? When we were fighting Oberon on the deck, you suddenly communicated with me telepathically, asking me to help you observe the opponent's situation. I was quite startled."

Morgan leaned into his arms, but stared smugly at Scáthach and Artoria: "It's just a matter of distinguishing between the real and the fake. This little pain is nothing."

"Hmm..." tide Jian felt much more at ease.

“But then again, my husband and I have been husband and wife for six thousand years, you can’t compare,” Morgan said, putting her arm around his waist.

Artoria stroked her chin: "But we were separated for 2000 years because of the war."

“Um…” Morgan was speechless.

“This is the first time I’ve ever seen a war waged so relentlessly to torment its subjects.” Scáthach rubbed her temples. “But after hearing my beloved disciple’s account of the past from the Knight King… I can understand.”

“But in the end, Britain in the Lostbelt was still destroyed.” Shiomi sighed silently. “I thought I could free Britain from the severing of events and one day integrate it into the pan-human history.”

“How could that be… the fairies on the island could never get along with humans,” Morgan said in a muffled voice.

tide Jian hugged her tightly: "But you can never go back to that hometown... The only place you can go back to is the Starry Sea."

“Home is where my heart is,” Morgan said in his arms.

Then, Shiomi found himself being embraced by his master and Artoria, with the three of them surrounding him.

Shiomi originally wanted to enjoy the breeze on the deck, but now it's not cold at all.

"Well, it's fine if it's in the room... but here outside, what if everyone—"

Before he finished speaking, the door to the deck suddenly opened, and Scáthach and Artoria loosened their grip on him slightly and stood aside.

Only Morgan remained nestled in his arms, showing no intention of getting up.

Running out of the hatch were her companions who had escaped from Chaldea in Antarctica together. They followed Sakura and Kallen, who were jogging, and walked towards Shiomi.

Seeing this, Morgan reluctantly got up, letting Artoria help him, to make room for the two children.

With a thud, Sakura and Karen bumped into Shiomi's arms, heads down and silent, only their shoulders trembling slightly.

Without saying goodbye, he disappeared from everyone's sight for three months without a trace. When they met again, he was in a deep sleep.

Everyone in Chaldea was extremely worried, let alone Sakura and Kallen.

"Alright, alright, you're such a grown-up, why are you still crying? You're making a fool of yourself in front of everyone," tide Jian said gently, trying to comfort her.

But these words had no effect at all; instead, they made Sakura and Kallen burst into tears.

"No matter what, although we still don't understand what Britain and the Lostbelt are all about, at least our teacher is back safe and sound, which is great news for us." Olga Marie really wanted to rush over, but she couldn't bring herself to do it, so she could only force herself to remain calm and make a welcoming declaration.

Romani rubbed the back of his neck: "Something big has happened on Earth, and I think you've seen it all. To be honest, without you, we wouldn't be so confident in facing the challenges ahead."

“Actually, even without me, everyone can definitely…” Shiomi shook her head and said modestly.

However, this was not what people wanted to hear, and he knew very well what he should say.

Shiomi stroked Sakura and Kallen's hair, a confident smile on her face:

"I'm sorry to have kept everyone worried for so long, I'm back."

Epilogue: A Lazy Daily Life

"To be honest, the magic circuit overload isn't that serious, is it?"

Scáthach lay on her side on the bed, watching Shiomi sit peeling an orange, with Morgan leaning against her in her arms, looking very relaxed.

In the days since leaving the Lostbelt, Morgan has been using the excuse of "overloading his magic circuits and feeling unwell" to hog Shiomi's attention every day except when he's sleeping. He's been snuggling in Shiomi's arms and being lazy, and Shiomi has been taking care of everything for him, from eating and sleeping to bathing.

Even Scáthach couldn't stand Morgan's "powerlessness" and couldn't help but criticize her attitude.

"I'm a little weak in my arms and legs, so I'll have to trouble you to take care of me, my husband." Morgan rested his head on Shio's chest with a contented look on his face, reading a book in his hand.

"I just can't do anything with you." tide Jian laughed as she adjusted her posture to make Morgan more comfortable.

As someone destined to return to Chaldea sooner or later, Storm Border has a specially prepared room for him, with furnishings and arrangements almost identical to his Chaldea room in Antarctica.

After leaving the strange world of Britain, he naturally moved into this room that belonged to him.

Shiomi originally planned to compile a report on the British Lostbelts and give everyone a detailed explanation, but this was rejected by Director Olga Marie.

Instead, Bavan Shi explained the history of the British Lostbelt to Chaldea. This story had been going on for three days, and the entire Chaldea listened with great interest. As a result, Storm Border did not immediately return to the Wandering Sea or prepare to go to the next Lostbelt, but simply stayed on the blank Earth.

"Thinking back on it carefully, it's really quite subtle." Shiomi rested her chin on Morgan's head, feeding her an orange. "The divergence between Pan-Human History and Lostbelts actually depends on whether the original six fairies ever got lazy and caused the Holy Sword to never be forged..."

“Or we could make this assumption: although they are almost identical beings, there are subtle differences between the six fairies of Pan-Human History and the six fairies of Lostbelt,” Morgan said. “That is, the fairies of Lostbelt just happen to be the more malevolent kind.”

Scáthach lifted her foot, placed it on Shiomi's shoulder, and flicked his ear with her toes:

"That's a reasonable explanation. The very existence or non-existence of something is precisely what determines the outcome of the planet's history at crucial moments."

"Master, it's quite itchy." tide Jian pleaded, but didn't try to escape at all. "But... it's a very strange feeling. If the original six fairies hadn't made a mistake, Morgan and I would never have met."

"This is called 'fate'."

Enjoying Shiomi's feeding, Morgan asserted their relationship in this way.

"But if I had to say, if it weren't for the so-called alien god's attempt to whitewash human history, Morgan's history of survival would have long since disappeared as a predetermined event."

Artoria emerged from the bathroom wrapped only in a towel that barely covered her body, her hair still damp with moisture.

“…You really know how to talk.” Morgan glared at the other person with displeasure.

"So what exactly is the alien god, and why is it able to uncover phenomena that have already been predetermined by the universe and take root on this planet in the form of Lostbelts?" Scáthach immediately fell into thought.

Even she couldn't grasp the unknown; she could only speculate based on the existing information.

“Alien…outer universe…” Artoria leaned against Shiomi, not even noticing that her towel had come undone, muttering a certain word to herself, “Could it be that the alien god, like the star predator, is an invader from outer space…”

“No, the aliens didn’t come from outer space, but were born on this planet, a system called ‘Different Planets’,” Morgan suddenly said, denying Artoria’s guess. “And the answer lies in the sealed Chaldea in Antarctica.”

“You know what?” Scáthach asked, surprised.

tide Jian pondered for a moment and said, "After examining the structure of the Imaginary Tree, Morgan should have learned a lot of things that he didn't know before."

“It wasn’t that complicated.” Morgan shook his head. “I understood the principle back then, and then I knew how to apply it to my own situation. The accompanying information was actually quite ambiguous to me at the time. If the ‘loop’ hadn’t been completed in the end, I probably would never have been able to understand the rest of the content.”

"So the Imaginary Tree isn't a creation of the universe, but something born on this planet." Shiojian stroked her chin. "If that's the case, then who, and for what purpose, initiated the 'whitewashing of human reason,' a process comparable to the burning of human reason?"

“Returning directly to Antarctica might be feasible now, but that would attract the attention of other Lostbelt Hidden Ones, who might even come out to interfere,” Morgan said.

Scáthach chuckled, "Whatever the reason, just to make Pan-Human History return, we must deal with the remaining Lostbelts. Otherwise, even if we can face the alien gods, the Lostbelts rooted in the planets will become obstacles to Pan-Human History's return."

At that moment, Shiomi noticed that Artoria had turned around and was rummaging through the cushions and clothes. He stared at her buttocks for a while and couldn't help but pat her.

Artoria blushed and sat back down, realizing that the towel was too short and that she had just exposed herself quite thoroughly.

She held a Storm Border communication terminal in her hand, which was a modified version of Chaldea's equipment.

During the three months that Shio was away, she and Scáthach became familiar with and took over many of the tasks that originally belonged to him.

"This is the ship's internal communication from this morning. We'll have a combat meeting after dinner to determine the next steps." Artoria pulled up the email and showed it to Shiomi. "The situation in the Britannia Lostbelt is developing too rapidly. The Storm Border is still well-supplied, so we can proceed directly to the next Lostbelt without returning to the Wandering Sea."

"The closest Lostbelts to Britain are Greece and Northern Europe," Scáthach said, looking at the map on her computer screen. "Should we tackle one of the Lostbelts that's closest to us?"

“No, let’s go to the Russian Lostbelt first.” Shiomi offered the opposite opinion. “The disappearance of the British Lostbelt must have been noticed by Kirshtalia and the others. They will definitely be on high alert in both places… So, why not use Imaginary Number Submarine to catch them off guard?”

“But why choose the Russian Lostbelt?” Artoria asked.

“That’s obvious, of course it’s because there’s a score to settle with the people there,” Scáthach explained.

"Furthermore, during the battle at Chaldea in Antarctica, that Caster called Kirei Kotomine 'Rasputin,' and Kotomine also referred to her as 'Princess,'" Shiomi said. "Therefore, the people who led those soldiers to attack Chaldea were most likely from the Russian Lostbelt."

"So... the next target, the Lostbelt, has been identified."

Morgan responded softly.

Epilogue II: The Hidden Ones Meeting

Greek Lostbelt.

Three months have passed since the Imaginary Tree took root and completed filtering of anomalous historical phenomena. Kirshtalia, having observed a major event, convened a meeting of the Hidden Ones.

The former Chaldea Class A Masters, who are also the current Masters, located in various Lostbelts, cannot freely travel between Lostbelts. Therefore, they use special magical methods to communicate, projecting themselves into the meeting rooms of their respective Lostbelts to conduct meetings in a sense of face-to-face.

“Just now, Koyanskaya, who is working with us, sent a report that the British Lostbelt disappeared from the blank earth five days ago,” Kirshtalia said.

“However, there were no Hidden Ones in that Lostbelt to begin with, so there’s no point in worrying about it,” Peperoncino said first.

"In the end, if there are only six Hidden Ones, why are there seven Lostbelts?" Ophelia asked. "Lady Kirshtalia, do you know the reason for this arrangement?"

“Originally, all seven Masters in our Group A were supposed to become Hidden Ones, but one of them escaped from that incident,” Kirshtalia said.

The other five hidden figures fell silent; they knew who Kirshtalia was referring to.

“However, according to Koyanskaya’s report, Shiomi-sensei arrived in the British Lostbelt by some means after that, and there, he carried out the work of the Hidden Ones in his own way,” Kirshtalia said.

As the oldest and most senior magician among the Masters of Group A, most members of Group A respectfully address Shiomi as "Teacher."

"So, the observation that the Storm Wall of the British Lostbelt disappeared and was replaced by the Wall of Light was also his doing?" Debit asked.

That wall of light was most likely of the nature of a tower at the end, which truly surprised everyone.

"That's probably it. During Koyanskaya's brief investigation of the Britannic Lostbelt, she discovered that Shiomi-sensei had become the God-King of that Lostbelt and was waging war against the original Lostbelt King," Kirshtaria said. "After that, Koyanskaya left the Britannic Lostbelt—"

"So, now that the Lostbelts of Britain have disappeared, do you think it's because Chaldea or someone else killed that man and the Lostbelt King, and cut off the Imaginary Tree?" Hinako Akuta asked again.

Kirshtalia's report came as a complete surprise to them.

Originally, everyone thought that the Britannian Lostbelt, without any Hidden Ones, would be the easiest Lostbelt to deal with, and that they could wait until they destroyed Chaldea and defeated the other Lostbelts before dealing with it.

Now that the Lostbelt has disappeared from the blank Earth first, the Hidden Ones have no choice but to take it seriously and investigate the reasons behind it.

“That’s also a possibility. If that’s the case, we need to consider the actual combat capabilities of the Chaldea survivors and rethink the situation from scratch,” Kirshtalia said.

At this moment, Kadoc, who had been silent all along, spoke up: "According to the results of Rasputin's investigation in Antarctica Chaldea beforehand, after Chaldea lost other Masters in that accident, it added several more Masters from its existing personnel, all of whom are directly related to Shiomi-sensei."

They had all seen those girls.

Sakura, Karen, Gray.

The three magicians have very different styles, among whom Sakura is the most famous. She is a rare imaginary number magician, even in the Clock Tower.

“But if it were those girls who entered the British Lostbelt, would they really be able to kill Mr. Shiomi?” Peperoncino said. “They are all very kind girls; they wouldn’t be able to kill someone they love.”

Debit suddenly said, "If we look at it the other way around, Mr. Shiomi didn't die; instead, he dismantled the Lostbelt from within, helping Chaldea quickly resolve the problem in Britain—"

"Has that person returned to Chaldea?" Kadoc's face was immediately filled with pressure.

Because Shiomi is the practical instructor for the Chaldea Masters, he is in charge of everything, including magic, physical skills, and survival techniques.

As a prestigious magic school, Group A has also had a one-on-one sparring session with Shiomi.

Among all the elite members of Group A, Kadoc was the weakest. Just thinking about that training period made him break out in a cold sweat.

It wasn't that Shio was particularly strict, but rather that he realized the difference in strength between everyone.

If Shiomi were an enemy instead of an ally, she would be an exceptionally terrifying magician.

The former designated executor of the seal, who killed the Clock Tower Monarch.

Compared to herself, who comes from a family of magicians, Shiomi, who has no background whatsoever, is far more dazzling.

Kadoc estimated that of the six hidden ones, if they were to fight Shiomi at full strength, only Kirshtalia and Debit might survive.

"Don't be so nervous. Even if Chaldea wants to continue conquering our Lostbelts, their priority should be Ophelia or Captain Kirshtalia, who are closest to Britain," Peperoncino gently reassured Kadoc.

“Is it really that obvious?” Kadoc looked at the other Hidden Ones.

Even if we become rivals in the future, we are still partners now.

Is it about trusting your companion's judgment, or...?