Although Artoria was in a dying state, she was indeed not dead yet.
Even if she gave up participating in the Holy Grail War and returned to the time when she was severely injured, she would still have enough time to make her final arrangements, including having Bedivere return her sword to the Lady of the Lake before she passed away.
That much time would be enough for proper rescue work to save her life, and then she could lead the knights who still followed her to clean up the mess in the country. Although Britain was already in chaos at that time, King Arthur's forces still held an absolute advantage in strength. If she wished, she could completely pacify Britain again.
Artoria did not want to do this because she had doubts about herself. She believed she was not a qualified king, which was why the Knights of the Round Table completely split and Britain fell into chaos.
Ethan, however, did not care about Artoria's feelings. He directly and bluntly stated these facts in simple terms.
This was like having someone tear open your scar in front of you and then having everyone gather to watch. That feeling was definitely not good. If Artoria had not known deep down that what he said was not wrong and had not suppressed the urge to strike, she would probably have drawn her sword and attacked him like many others would have.
Perhaps seeing the awkwardness on Artoria's face, Shirou proactively helped her change the subject, preventing everyone from dwelling too much on the question, "Why would you rather trust a cup than trust yourself and the knights who still follow you?"
"You just said Britain is fine... what do you mean?"
"Britain is a place. You know where it is. Do you think they are doing very badly now?"
"Uh..."
Shirou understood Ethan's meaning. For the region of Britain, it seemed to make little difference who ruled. The people living there were doing quite well now, so there was no need for King Arthur to worry about saving them.
One could even say directly that no great monarch is irreplaceable.
"Besides, there's the concept of parallel worlds."
"You understand what parallel worlds are, right?"
Shirou nodded. The theory of parallel worlds often appeared in various anime and films. Even a normal person would have a sufficient understanding of this theory, so he naturally knew what parallel worlds were.
"Emiya... that is, the one from the future who became a Counter Guardian... What is a Counter Guardian? We will talk about that later... He is the future you, but not necessarily your future."
Ethan finally stopped fiddling with the orange peel, then tapped his hands lightly. A blue stick figure appeared on the table around which everyone was gathered.
"Suppose this is you. You are talking to us now. Later, you might encounter a few choices. You want to make a hearty dinner, but you do not have some ingredients at home. You choose to go out and buy vegetables, or you use other existing ingredients as a substitute."
As Ethan moved, the little figure split into two. One remained still, while the other looked like it was walking, making his meaning clear to everyone.
"Maybe you want to buy a fish, or maybe you want to buy a chicken. Every time you make a choice, a parallel world might appear."
"You mean, Emiya is the future I became after making some choices, but I might have other futures because of different choices?"
"That is the idea... Actually, it is already impossible for you to become Emiya."
When Ethan appeared, this world line already became a brand new world line. Moreover, even in the original plot, although Shirou had countless choices within the story, the outcome of none of those choices would lead him to become Emiya.
In other words, Emiya himself was Shirou from another world line and was not within the many possible futures that the Shirou standing before them could branch into.
"So that is how it is."
"So... the future is still in your hands. What kind of person, or existence, you will become in the future still depends on yourself."
Ethan's words were not just explaining parallel worlds to Shirou. They were also meant for Artoria and Illya.
"It is the same for you."
Artoria still did not speak. Her mind was a bit confused. Compared to her, Illya had already understood these principles, but she was just momentarily unsure what her future should be, which led to her confusion.
"It is okay if you cannot figure it out right away. You still have plenty of time anyway."
Seeing what was troubling Illya, Ethan offered a brief comfort, then lowered his head and continued to tinker with the orange peel in his hands.
The dining table fell into silence. After hesitating for a while, Artoria finally spoke again.
"You said there are countless parallel worlds... is it possible that there also exists one..."
"...a world where you did not become king?"
"Yes."
Artoria's self-doubt had reached its peak. She believed she was not suitable to be a king, and everything that happened to the Knights of the Round Table and Britain was simply because she was unqualified.
From this perspective, Artoria was indeed just a young girl, and an inexperienced one at that.
"You should know about the rise and fall of countless dynasties throughout history, right? Did that knowledge not teach you anything?"
Artoria did not answer. Ethan realized this was a very stubborn young girl. She was already seriously doubting herself, and anything said now would be futile.
"The world you are talking about also exists. In many worlds, there is no King Arthur, and not even the Knights of the Round Table."
Although King Arthur is a famous figure, whether he actually existed cannot be definitively determined. In some more realistic worlds, King Arthur is just a legendary figure.
"How is Britain?"
"Britain is fine, no need for you to worry excessively."
It was the same sentence, but what Artoria was thinking was that she was indeed not an excellent king. The country under her rule was no different compared to a world without her.
"Your thinking is too pessimistic."
At this point, some more impactful scenes were needed to dispel her self-doubt.
"Actually, worlds where King Arthur led Britain to prosperity and strength also exist."
Seeing Artoria's expression of "I am indeed a useless king," Shirou had been worried whether she might do something drastic, like suicide or something similar.
Just as he was thinking about how to comfort her, Ethan happened to mention such a world, and he immediately became encouraging.
"That is great! So such worlds do exist after all. SABER can definitely do it too, right?"
"Of course, if she wants to."
Given the situation in Britain at the time, with Artoria's personal strength and the support of the remaining Knights of the Round Table, pacifying Britain again was truly not a difficult task.
The key was whether Artoria was willing to do these things.
"Does such a world really exist?"
"Of course."
If only talking about this Type-Moon universe, Ethan was not really sure if there was a world where King Arthur did not fall but instead reached higher peaks.
However, he himself had helped cultivate a rather special King Arthur. The Britain under that King Arthur's rule was very powerful now, definitely surpassing the Britain under Artoria's control.
"If you do not believe me, I can take you to see."
"This... I am afraid that might not be possible?"
Artoria's situation was very special. She did not even know what her current body was like and was not sure if she could follow Ethan to a parallel world.
"Nothing is impossible... Uh, your situation probably requires figuring out first if this is your main body or a clone, and if it is the main body, what mechanism created it."
However, whether it was the main body or a clone, after Ethan took some time to figure out the situation, there would not be any problems.
Even for the other Heroic Spirits whose main bodies were on the Throne of Heroes, Ethan could take them out to play. If he wanted to, he could directly summon the main bodies of these Heroic Spirits from the Throne of Heroes.
The reason was simple. When he returned to this world, Madeline casually threw something to him. He did not pay much attention at first, but just now he discovered it was actually the ownership of this world.
When he was sitting there with his head down playing with the orange peel, he was studying what this ownership thing was.
He finally found out it was various rules and authorities of the entire Type-Moon world. However, because he had just obtained ownership of this world, his current authority was not very large.
Since this world was not created by him, and his understanding of the world's rules was not deep enough, simply put, Ethan only had the title of owner and nothing particularly special beyond that.
However, summoning Heroic Spirits from the Throne of Heroes was something he could do. In this regard, the entire Throne of Heroes had become his private collection room.
This was the only benefit at the moment. The rest would probably have to wait until he thoroughly understood the rule structure of this world and completely mastered all the authorities.
From another perspective, it seemed Emiya, the Counter Guardian, had also become the subordinate of his subordinate? However, he had not completely controlled this world yet, and he did not know if Alaya would give him face and hand Emiya over.
"Huh? The chef problem is solved?"
In a daze, Ethan realized that the chef he had been thinking about for so long was now solved. Even if Emiya could not report for duty temporarily, there was still an excellent chef right in front of him.
Shirou had not gone out to buy groceries. Cú Chulainn brought back quite a bit when he returned, and Miss Sakura Matou, who often came to help Shirou cook, also brought a lot of ingredients. It seemed she knew that Shirou's house had a lot of guests recently and specially came to help.
"Senpai has a lot of guests at home recently!"
"Yeah, but it is livelier with more people... With so many people, how about we have hotpot!"
(To be continued.)