Chapter 85: Shirou Emiya, you are truly a man that even the gods cannot fathom!
Under the guidance of the goddess of beauty, Ishtar, Shirou stepped into the base of the Ishtar Familia. It was a massive palace, somewhat reminiscent of the Tower of Babel in design.
The central hall soared high up into the upper levels, and on each floor, elegant courtesans could be seen linking arms with male clients, leading them to various places.
Although it couldn't be said he had fully anticipated it, after seeing the appearance of Ishtar's followers earlier, Shirou had already basically concluded that this Familia was, in essence, just a glorified brothel.
As for the profession of a courtesan, while Shirou didn't exactly look down on it, he couldn't view it with a completely neutral gaze either—he had to forcibly compose himself.
"You look really nervous," Ishtar noticed Shirou's reaction and couldn't help but smile. "Could it be that you're still a virgin, my savior?"
Since her words struck directly at the truth, Shirou had no way to refute her.
He could only change the subject: "Ahem... I don't think you need to keep calling me 'savior.' I just gave you a small hand, not even sure if it really counts as help."
Now that he knew she was the goddess Ishtar, Shirou already regretted stepping in to help earlier.
After all, since the other party was a goddess—on par with Freya—she likely possessed some charm-based divine power. A little effort on her part would've been more than enough to deal with those thugs.
"No, you did help a lot," Ishtar denied Shirou's thoughts. "My power is different from Freya's. I hate to admit it, but my charm ability isn't as broadly applicable as hers. Mine only works on men who feel desire toward my body."
"Is that so?"
"Yes. Those thugs were probably gamblers who had lost everything at the casino, even gotten deep into debt, and in their desperation to make money, they went insane. They'd already lost interest in sex." Ishtar waved her hand. "Humans, for all their primal urges, still prioritize the will to survive above all else."
Shirou nodded slightly at her explanation.
He didn't quite understand why Ishtar was explaining her divine powers to him, but since she was willing to offer information, he was willing to listen seriously.
After all, up until now, he had already clashed with two gods—Ishtar might end up being the third. So understanding her abilities beforehand was certainly worthwhile.
While Shirou was deep in thought, Ishtar had already brought him to the deepest part of the palace.
"Wait here for a bit," Ishtar instructed Shirou to stay outside the door.
After a moment, she opened the door again, now dressed in a different outfit.
One could say that this Ishtar now truly embodied the presence of a goddess of beauty.
She wore a provocative outfit that seemed designed to accentuate her figure and skin. Coupled with her noble aura, she immediately evoked the image of a queen.
Although it might sound crude, Shirou's body instinctively experienced a surge of sexual arousal the moment he saw her.
The sensation was highly unnatural—like a conceptual force was acting directly on the brain, forcibly triggering a flood of hormones and other sex-related responses.
If the one standing there hadn't been Shirou, but any other man, he likely would've lost all reason on the spot, turning into a lust-driven beast.
Of course, precisely because it was Shirou, he forcibly restrained the impulse.
Despite the repeated assaults on his brain, he managed to maintain his sense of self and resisted Ishtar's charm ability.
"As expected... it doesn't work," Ishtar seemed unsurprised by Shirou's calm demeanor. "I heard you once resisted Soma's divine wine and overcame Freya's power as well. I was hoping maybe mine would work on you—then I could claim to have surpassed Freya. But it looks like I was overthinking it."
With that, Ishtar withdrew her charm ability and returned to her normal state.
Though her beauty still exuded an almost demonic allure, that was merely due to her appearance and figure—not divine influence.
"Why did you bring me here?"
Faced with Ishtar's seemingly non-hostile attitude, Shirou slightly lowered his guard.
He had originally assumed she brought him to the Ishtar Familia's base to eliminate him and was even prepared for hundreds of armed guards to jump out.
But unexpectedly, she didn't seem to intend any harm.
It was clearly suspicious.
If Ishtar was part of the dark faction and knew who he was, there's no way she would allow him to walk away alive.
After all, Shirou's defeat of the Apollo Familia had dealt a significant blow to the dark faction.
In response to his doubts, Ishtar silently pulled out a long-stemmed pipe and took a puff. "I know what you're thinking. But don't worry—I'm not that close to those dark faction bastards. At most, we're just using each other, so I have no reason to come after you."
"Using each other? How so?"
Whether or not what Ishtar said was true, Shirou just wanted to extract as much information from her as possible.
Ishtar didn't seem to want to hide anything and calmly began, "I want to take down the Freya Familia. So I need the dark faction's support.
And they need the Ishtar Familia's cooperation on certain matters. So we've entered a mutually beneficial arrangement.
You can think of our relationship as similar to that of the Apollo Familia—just slightly deeper in terms of connections with the dark faction."
"Then... why are you telling me all this?"
"Because you were sent by Freya to investigate us, weren't you?" Ishtar spoke as if she had seen right through him. "As a top-tier Familia, gathering necessary intel is only natural. So I've known for a while—you came to our Familia under Freya's orders to find the missing Heith Velvet."
Ishtar's words rendered Shirou speechless.
He never imagined that she'd lay everything out like this.
But the issue was that her attitude was overly friendly—something just didn't sit right.
If Ishtar knew he was sent by Freya to investigate, shouldn't she have attacked immediately? Was this some kind of feint before the strike?
Multiple thoughts flashed through Shirou's mind, but he kept his emotions in check and calmly asked, "If you already know all this, why are you talking to me instead of having your men restrain me?"
"Normally, that is what I'd do," Ishtar nodded. "But right now, I'm very interested in you."
"Interested?"
"To put it bluntly—you've earned my favor. So I'm willing to give you a little reward. I could even let you go."
Ishtar's directness caught Shirou off guard.
All he could think was: the gods of this world really are all strange.
After all, who goes around saying things like 'favorability' out loud?
"So what exactly do you plan to do with me?" Since she was giving him an opportunity, Shirou decided to take it. "I don't think I'm of any real value to you."
"Who says you don't have value? As a man, you're quite valuable, aren't you?"
Ishtar glanced down at Shirou's lower half.
"!!!"
Her gaze was so bold that Shirou started feeling uncomfortable.
"Pfft—haha..." Ishtar laughed, covering her mouth. "You really are as amusing as the rumors say, Emiya Shirou. Don't worry, I won't force myself on you. Hmm... at least not for now."
Although Ishtar's words were meant to be comforting, they clearly couldn't dispel Shirou's unease.
To regain the initiative, Shirou could only take a deep breath and speak quietly, "What do you want me to do? Since you're willing to communicate with me, that means you see some kind of value in me, right?"
"That's right." Ishtar didn't hide her desire in the slightest and spoke directly, "To put it simply, I want to recruit you into my Familia, to fight alongside me against Freya."
"You think something like that is possible?"
Shirou showed a doubtful expression.
He thought Ishtar was joking—anyone could see that it was impossible for him to betray and side with Ishtar.
After all, Shirou's goal was to destroy the Dark Factions, and the Ishtar Familia clearly had deep ties to those factions. How could he ever trust her?
As for his skepticism, Ishtar had clearly anticipated it.
She calmly said, "I know what you're thinking, but I can give you a reason to side with me."
"A reason?"
"I believe the Freya Familia is the one deeply connected to the Dark Factions."
"What did you say?"
Shirou looked at Ishtar suspiciously, instinctively feeling that she was trying to deceive him.
But Ishtar's expression remained calm as she said, "I know you won't believe it. That's normal. After all, I've got one foot in the pit of the Dark Factions myself. I haven't fully fallen in, but I'm certainly not clean. However, I can tell you frankly—Freya, that woman, is definitely not clean either."
"Why? Do you have any evidence?"
"Of course." Ishtar nodded silently. "My relationship with Freya is terrible—you should be aware of that, right?"
"Yes."
Ishtar and Freya were both goddesses of beauty, and had been enemies since their time in the heavens.
After descending to Genkai, they became openly hostile, almost to the point of mutual destruction.
"As they say, your greatest enemy often understands you best. I've been fighting Freya for a long, long time. The darkness within her Familia—only I've been watching it unfold."
Ishtar's expression turned deep and solemn. "I can clearly sense that there are many unreasonable aspects within the Freya Familia. Its rapid growth can't be explained by any information the Guild provides."
"Moreover, that woman Freya has always been indifferent toward the Dark Factions. Despite being a main deity on the side of order, she's always turned a blind eye to them. Isn't that suspicious? No god could ignore the pests hiding under their own bed, especially not a goddess of beauty with a compulsive need for cleanliness."
Shirou neither accepted nor denied Ishtar's words.
He himself didn't fully trust Freya either.
It was just that, as a deity on the side of order, she had been the one he chose to trust. But in truth, Shirou had always kept his guard up and never placed full trust in Freya.
"If that's the case, then how do you explain Miss Heith's disappearance?" Shirou asked back. "If Freya is connected to the Dark Factions, why would she deliberately allow one of her own Familia members to go missing?"
"Heh, who knows? Maybe it was to frame me, a carefully laid trap."
Ishtar responded with a conspiratorial tone, casting suspicion on Freya.
But such baseless words couldn't prove anything.
However, when Shirou heard what Ishtar said, he suddenly had a sense of déjà vu. He recalled that when Freya mentioned Heith's disappearance earlier, she too instinctively blamed Ishtar.
The hatred between the two goddesses was so intense that they had both abandoned logical thinking and rushed to accuse each other.
If only one of them was lying, it might be one thing. But if it was all the work of a third party deliberately manipulating things, then the whole situation became far more intriguing.
"Besides, I can even provide evidence that Heith didn't really go missing," Ishtar concluded with a definitive statement. "On the day Heith Velvet disappeared in Pleasure Street, there was no report of any combat in that area—not even the slightest unusual activity."
"No unusual activity at all?"
"Most of Orario's streets are equipped with special surveillance eyes that detect magic fluctuations.
The Guild uses these distributed surveillance tools to ensure the city's safety. Because of its particular nature, Pleasure Street has even more of these eyes installed to protect the courtesans.
Yet on that day, almost none of the surveillance eyes in Pleasure Street showed any reaction. This indicates that nothing abnormal happened there at all."
Ishtar spoke coldly, "I can give you the authority to investigate everything I've just said. Then you'll naturally see that it's all true.
Heith is a level 4 adventurer—there's no way she could disappear from Pleasure Street without a trace unless she evaporated into thin air.
Therefore, the Freya Familia is definitely lying. Everything Freya did was just to frame me and tarnish the name of the Ishtar Familia."
As Ishtar's words fell, Shirou's expression grew complicated.
He had never expected that what started as an investigation into a missing Familia member would turn into something this convoluted.
Based on the intelligence he had gathered so far, Ishtar and Freya had provided completely contradictory testimonies.
This meant that one of the two goddesses of beauty had to be lying.
But… was it really that simple?
Was this merely a case of two goddesses using a fabricated event to attack each other?
As Shirou's mind raced with countless thoughts, Ishtar finished the tobacco in her pipe and spoke with a distant gaze:
"I acknowledge your sense of justice, Emiya Shirou.
You're one of the very few men in the Lower World I've met who I can truly respect.
That's why I've told you all of this—and why I'm inviting you to fight alongside me against the Freya Familia.
Now, you have two choices:
One, believe me, and join forces with me against Freya.
Or two, reject my words.
I won't stop you from leaving—but from then on, I'll consider you an enemy who must be defeated. So, go ahead—make your choice."
Ishtar gave Shirou the power to choose, and even gave him a path to leave, rather than forcing him to stay.
Because of that attitude, Shirou didn't feel that Ishtar was lying.
But at the same time, he couldn't easily suspect Freya either.
He pieced together everything both Freya and Ishtar had told him, threading the clues together, unraveling the strands of truth.
Finally, he came to his conclusion.
"Goddess Ishtar, what you're asking is for me to choose between believing you and believing Freya, right?"
Shirou looked straight into Ishtar's eyes, showing his resolve.
"That's right."
Ishtar met his gaze fearlessly. Her calm demeanor seemed to affirm that not a single word she had said was a lie.
Faced with such a candid goddess, Shirou's instincts told him there was no falsehood in her words—he was willing to trust Ishtar's sincerity.
But at the same time, he didn't believe Freya would deceive him about something this important.
After all, Freya's concern for Heith had been clearly genuine, and she had even used up a favor from Shirou for it. If she had any hidden motive, she could have saved that favor for something more critical.
With that, the conclusion was clear.
"I think both you and Freya are telling the truth," Shirou said quietly, locking eyes with Ishtar's astonished expression. "The disappearance of Miss Heith was deliberately orchestrated by a third-party force, meant to ignite a conflict between your two Familias."
"You really believe that?"
"I trust my instincts—and I believe neither of you goddesses is lying," Shirou explained his reasoning. "So, can you give me a chance? I'll find a way to uncover the truth and bring back the missing Heith. That way, your Familias won't fall into further conflict, and the one behind all this won't get what they want."
"..."
Ishtar was silent for a long time.
She clearly didn't want to compromise with the Freya Familia, and certainly didn't want to extend even a sliver of trust to Freya.
However, perhaps Shirou's sincerity moved her. In the end, Ishtar quietly said:
"Emiya Shirou… You really are just like the rumors say—a man even the gods can't predict. Fine, I'll give you this chance."