All forms of divination were generally believed to have had their roots in the magecraft of the Age of Gods. The imagery used in divination usually took the form of objects from that ancient era. He knew this for a fact because Scathach had already explained it to him.
Among the items Mother of Mifune had left behind after her death, besides her will, there had been a custom-made tarot card featuring a giant. There had also been silver bullets that the forensic doctor had extracted from her body, the very bullets that had taken her life. Of course, those bullets were clues for the police to track down her killer and had nothing to do with him. The only thing he could do then was to search for any information connected to "giants" in order to unravel the mystery that was devouring him.
Giants appeared in mythologies and legends from various regions, whether it was Western Europe, the Mayan civilization, or Japan in Asia. Their mythologies and legends all featured these colossal beings. It was actually quite mind-boggling. Even though the regions and ethnicities were different, the civilizations and races that emerged in each area had surprisingly consistent elements, both in terms of ancestral traits and mythology. However, his focus eventually narrowed down to Western European mythology, since tarot cards had their origins in Western European mysticism.
Despite being pushed to the brink of insanity by the relentless feeling of being watched, his mind still clung to reason and clarity. In fact, the closer he felt to the edge of madness, the calmer he became.
Unfortunately, Greek mythology didn't provide the answers he was looking for. But if he was being honest with himself, he wasn't even sure what he was hoping to find. He was just anxious and panicking.
He felt compelled to take action, to scour through mythologies, perhaps just to keep himself busy, to distract himself from the anxiety and the suffocating feeling of being watched.
After exhausting his search through Greek mythology, he turned his attention to Norse mythology, which had a strong connection to giants. He threw himself into his research, keeping his mind fully engaged. However, instead of calming him down, it only intensified his anxiety, even triggering hallucinations. He could have sworn he heard someone calling his name!
...
He was completely baffled. Even though his contract with his teacher was still intact, he had used up all his Command Spells during the Fourth Holy Grail War. And unlike the Command Spells in Chaldea, which could regenerate, the ones from the Fourth Holy Grail War were gone for good once they were spent. So where did this Command Spell on the back of his hand come from?
But most importantly, despite trying countless times, he couldn't get this Command Spell to work. This confirmed one thing - this Command Spell didn't come from his contract with Scathach!
This Command Spell belonged to a contract with someone else. But who had he formed a contract with? Who was he connected to? And what was the deal with this Command Spell?
The bizarre dreams, Mother of Mifune's mismatched time of death, the suffocating feeling of being watched, his teacher being instructed by someone else to approach him, the mysterious Eternal King pulling the strings behind the scenes, and now this Command Spell that appeared out of nowhere...
He felt like an ant trapped on a Mobius strip, endlessly crawling, never able to escape, forever imprisoned in some dark prison, while a pair of malevolent eyes lurked outside the Mobius strip, hidden in the shadows, watching his every move with malicious intention.
(Note: A Mobius strip is a surface with only one side and one boundary curve. It can be created by taking a strip of paper, giving it a half-twist, and then joining the ends of the strip together to form a loop. If an ant were to crawl along the surface of a Mobius strip, it would traverse the entire length of the strip before returning to its starting point, seemingly forever trapped in an endless loop.)
Who could possibly understand this feeling? This anxiety that couldn't be put into words or shared with anyone else? No one could comprehend it, so of course, it drove him to the brink of insanity. And this realization only pushed him further over the edge.
In the eyes of others, he had finally lost his mind, and Scathach couldn't help but notice his strange behavior. Maybe she had noticed long ago but didn't know how to approach him about it. This time, she was finally willing to reach out, trying to use tenderness to ease his inner anxiety and unease, hoping to encourage him to open up his heart. However, he could no longer bring himself to look her in the eye. Instead, he rejected her kindness and hoarsely questioned her about Eternal King's true identity and her real purpose for approaching him and entering his dreams in the first place.
Maybe he had completely lost his grip on himself, exposing his most repulsive and ugly side to her. But he could no longer control or manage his emotions. His mental stress had reached a breaking point and he had driven himself into a corner with no way out.
However, his teacher's answer left him dumbfounded, causing him to collapse.
To be honest, she had known all along that he was the Eternal King, and that was the whole reason she had approached him in the first place. The matter itself wasn't a big deal, but unexpectedly, it was something that had caused him immense mental stress. She revealed that when he was around twelve years old, he would travel to the past through the Root, going back to Britain over 1500 years ago. There, he commanded the Knights of the Round Table, including her and Artoria, becoming the legendary Eternal King.
But in reality, he had safely celebrated his 12th birthday and gone on to become a regular high school student at 16. She and Merlin had concluded that some pivotal change must have taken place in his life, and they wanted to make him aware of this.
He couldn't wrap his head around it. Him? The Eternal King? It was absolutely inconceivable because Eternal King was supposed to be King Arthur. In Earth's history before the transmigration, the title King Arthur were synonymous with Eternal King. There was no duality.
But then it dawned on him that Earth's history and the Type Moon's Arthur were different, since Artoria also existed as the King of Knights, meaning duality was indeed possible. Still, how could he possibly be the Eternal King? His mind was reeling. He was already entangled in a web of riddles that had placed an immense mental burden on him. And now, yet another perplexing piece had been added to the puzzle.
The most crucial point was that he had not, in fact, traveled back to Britain over 1500 years ago when he was around twelve. If that was the case, hadn't history already diverged significantly? How, then, did the current reality, with its legend of the "Eternal King," come to be?
At this realization, the concept of Lostbelts from Type-Moon sprang to his mind. Could it be that this world he had transmigrated into was a Lostbelt in Type-Moon terms - a doomed parallel world destined to perish? The thought only intensified his mental stress even more.
At that moment, his teacher pulled him into a hug. "Shirou, don't put so much pressure on yourself. I don't know what happened to you or what's going through your mind. But the reason I want to help you, the reason I stood by your side in the Fourth Holy Grail War, isn't because you're the Eternal King. It's because you're Fujimaru Shirou, the kid who always acted spoiled around me."
His teacher held him close, gazing into his eyes with sincerity and earnestness. And in that moment, he could feel his teacher's genuine desire to help him.
So, he finally let his walls down and opened up about everything that had been bothering him. All the troubles, all the worries, they just poured out. And as he spoke, he felt a weight lifting off his shoulders. Because he realized that no matter what challenges he faced or what he was going through, his teacher would always be there to support him. She cared about him for who he was, not because of some Eternal King. It also dawned on him that all his doubts about his teacher had just been him being jealous of himself. The thought made him want to sigh at how ridiculous it all seemed now.