"Are you sure you don't need more time to prepare?" The King asked as he stood in front of the castle to see Shirou off, many men around them preparing the carriages and loading the mountain of supplies that were to be sent with them.

Shirou questioned the necessity of all of these, as well as the small Knights' Order that was being sent with him, until he found out that he was to be accompanied by Princess Yuriko and Princess Menea. After that, he had no reason to object.

Though he was confused as to why they were going with him. Yuriko made sense, since she was possibly being targeted by Demons, so having her close to a man who could kill them was logical. But why Menea?

"Being fully prepared before you march is a virtue, but one seldom possible in times of war. If I wait, I might be able to be more prepared for what I need to do, only to find that the time to do it has already passed." Shirou said with a shake of his head. "I am confident in my own abilities to the point where haste is the greater virtue."

"...You already speak like a Hero." The King said before nodding his head. "Please, kneel."

Shirou blinked before doing as he was told and kneeling before the king.

The man started a long chant, indicating the magic of this world, finishing with the command phrase 'Assign Rank'.

A soft layer of magic flowed over Shirou and into the Earth, producing no effect that Shirou could determine at first.

"Take this." The King said, handing Shirou a golden plaque. "It will identify you as an Earl of our country. Show it to anyone and it should make things proceed more easily for you. Normally, this would be announced first at a noble gathering, but that will have to wait."

"...I suppose hoping I won't need it would be foolish." Shirou sighed before taking the plaque. "Just don't invite me to any more gatherings than is absolutely necessary."

"We'll see." The King said, a bit uncomfortable about Shirou's reaction, or lack thereof.

He probably shouldn't tell him that being an Earl will come with territory, taken from a family whose head and heirs died during the demon attack. He'll just have to assign some people to handle that until their hero was no longer busy.

…Well, the only reason he did it now was to make a spectacle, since everyone who was packing their things would have seen it and would tell their friends. Let people know that the hero stood with their country.

"His Majesty sure is eager to create a connection between him and the new Hero-sama." An elderly woman who was dressed like a librarian said with a chuckle, Emma and Emmy standing behind her with traveling bags.

"High Priestess." The King said, not sounding too pleased to see her.

"So, this is the boy who went against the Goddess's oracles, saving a land believed to be doomed. I see why the twins fancy you so much. You are a handsome lad."

"High Priestess!?" The twins said together, blushing red at the statement. "It… it isn't like that." "It's just that, he has so much knowledge about things from another world…" "...We just want to learn all about it." "That's all."

The old woman laughed, not appearing to be buying their excuse, or minding that she was being incredibly disrespectful in front of the king.

"You don't leave the Temple often, High Priestess. Is there something you want?"

"No. No. I am just seeing off my girls. Since Hero-sama seems so keen on researching the current state of the world, it would be better if he had those who are used to research close at hand. Since he is already well acquainted with Emma and Emmy, they are the perfect choice to be his guides on his holy quest."

"I wouldn't call it a holy quest, but I will not turn away help from those familiar with this world's styles of magic. While our caravan has plenty of swords and servants, it is harder to get a hold of scholars on such short notice." Shirou said.

While young, the twins were the tops of their classes when it came to magical theory. Despite learning giving significantly less experience than killing monsters, the girls had studied enough to reach level 22 through learning alone, making them a higher level than most of the city guards.

It was little wonder that they had been selected to become royal tutors, though part of that may have been because the little princesses they were assigned to had been twins themselves.

"I suppose you are going to be favoring the Goddess of Wisdom then." The king said, not too happy, but letting it go. "Come. I'll see you as far as the city gates. You know how to ride a horse?"

"So long as it doesn't have wings."

Shirou knew that the monarch wanted his people to see him beside the Hero, as Heroes were meant to be seen, but he didn't fight it. It wouldn't hurt to raise morale a bit.

"Hero-sama, what is that you've been fiddling with?" Menea asked as she sat across from Shirou along with her Aunt in the back of a carriage, the twin priestesses on either side of him.

After getting out of the city, he had been let to ride inside of the carriage, with the excuse that it was unbecoming of a man of his status to be riding on a horse outside the city.

Not that he minded much. It was hard to work with your hands while on the back of a horse.

Shirou looked up from his work to see the women eyeing him with interest.

"It isn't anything fancy. Just a small prism inside of a box with a tinted lens. A handy tool for determining what something is made out of." Shirou explained as he showed them the object. "You see, when different spectrums of light enter a glass prism at an angle, they refract to a different degree, allowing you to separate the light into its different components. A natural example of this is a rainbow, with the light of the sun being split apart by droplets of water. Metals when heated will give off light, and you can use that light to determine what the composition of an alloy is, with each type of metal used having a unique signature, like a fingerprint. People have also used it to measure the composition of things like the sun, letting them know what types of elements it is made of and in what percentages."

"You can do something like that?" "Amazing." Emma and Emmy said, looking at the small tool with starry eyes. "Can we try it?"

Shirou chuckled before handing it to them, letting them test it out. The girls shifted about in the small space, climbing over Shirou so that they could get to the window together, letting the light of the sun into the tool through a slot at one end and looking at the different bars of light that showed up.

The pair asked Shirou dozens of questions about how it all worked and what they were seeing.

"Otherworld magic is amazing." Emma said.

"It isn't magic. There is no magical energy used in this, just simple physics. Most people from my world learn about this kind of thing at public schools when they are around twelve." Shirou said dismissively.

"I see… twelve." Yuriko said, blushing slightly, as she had died too young to have learned about it in school.

She was still nervous around Shirou, and scared by the idea of marrying him, but her curiosity was greater than her fear at this moment.

"It's really interesting, but why exactly are you making this?" Menea asked.

"Because you can tell a lot about someone or something's magic signature by doing the same thing with the light from their magic." Shirou said before pulling out the magic stone of the Greater Demon he had killed, a dark red stone with hints of purple. "This kind of thing is outside of my normal expertise, so I can't analyze it with magic, so I am going to fall back on more mundane means of testing."

Shirou took back the prism, closing the curtains to block out other forms of light, before applying a simple magic circle to the stone, causing it to give off a pale purple light.

They all squeezed together on one side of the carriage to look at the strip that showed the stone's color spectrum.

"Interesting. It looks like it doesn't actually give off violet light, but instead it is the effect of scarlet and cyan light layered on top of each other." Shirou said, scratching his chin.

"You can read this?" Emmy asked as she looked at the different colored lines.

"The thick red strip is unrefined or primal magic power, not uncommon in monsters. This cluster of darker lines right here is from the miasma. This bit of green and dark yellow indicates a mixture of wind and fire elements that make up the inferno element." Shirou said, pointing out the really common ones that he had already been expecting because of his mage sense, before moving on to the stuff he was really interested in. "…This cluster of blue lines is an odd structure of spiritons, commonly seen in homunculus, which would indicate that the Demon was not a naturally occurring creature. Whether that is the case for all demons or just this one will require more data."

"And… And what about that light blue line?" Yuriko asked nervously.

The line was well defined and extremely bright, if not as thick as some of the others.

"...I actually don't know. It isn't part of any of the other complex signatures, nor is it an element I am familiar with." Shirou admitted, humming slightly. "I'll need to look into this. It could be something that is part of this demon in particular, but if it is something they have and need as a species, then it might be a weakness."

"A weakness?" The girls all said together, not just the twins.

"But if it is an element the demon has…" "Why would it be weak to it?" Emma and Emmy asked together.

"Haven't you ever heard of fighting fire with fire?" Shirou asked them. "If you take a process that the body needs to survive and amplify it, then the body will rapidly consume itself. If we disrupt the equilibrium of the Demon's magic core, it might just die on its own. This could be useful in the creation of anti-demon magic tools."

"Amazing." The twins said, deeply impressed, as they took out note pads and started to write this down.

"Azure light." Menea hummed absent-mindedly. "Don't the Holy Sword that the Heroes of Parion use give off an azure light?" Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned their heads to look at the younger princess. "Wh…What? Why are you all looking at me like that!?"

The girl had no idea the landmine she had just stepped on.

"How are you holding up?" Shirou asked the twins as he proceeded over a cooking fire, adding herbs he had modified using alchemy in order to make curry powder, producing a wonderful smell.

Reaching the labyrinth city of Horrin was going to take three days, and they were camping out for the night.

"Well, I suppose." Emma said with a shrug.

"The idea that there might be a connection between the Goddess of Righteousness and the Demons wasn't expected, but…" Emmy said softly, so that they wouldn't be overheard by the escort knights.

"This isn't the first thing like this. After all, the Gods created wild monsters in order to discourage wars. The idea that they are creating Demons for some reason isn't that out there." Emma finished for her sister.

"Fits what I know about Gods from my world too. If I had to take a guess, they are using the pressure on humanity created by the Demon Lords in order to harvest prayers." Shirou stated.

"The Goddess of Righteousness creates the Demon Lords and then…" "...Creates a Hero to fight them." "And everyone gives thanks to her for saving them…" "...Offering up prayers that make her stronger." The twins nodded their heads, making sense of it all.

"We don't know for sure yet. It's just a theory. Though I'll be able to tell once we come across a Holy Weapon of this world." Shirou said, moving the pot of curry off of the fire and checking on his rice and chicken.

"Well, not like it matters either way." Emma said, edging closer to the pot to check out what was making the smell.

"No matter the cause of the Demon Lord Seasons, we need Heroes wielding Holy Weapons in order to survive them." Emmy agreed as she joined her sister.

The pair reached towards the spoon together, but Shirou gently brushed their hands away. "You'll burn your mouths. Let it cool for another minute." Shirou said as they pouted at him. "Are you two sure you are devout Priestesses? You are taking this way too well."

The girls were too analytical to be horrified by the knowledge that the Gods they worshiped might be evil, despite being Priestesses.

"We didn't join the Temple because we wanted to commune with the Gods." "We just wanted to get out of getting married." "The Goddess of Wisdom was just the Goddess who didn't require much actual worship, letting us continue to study magic." "Plus, we liked the outfits." Emma and Emmy explained in that way they had.

"Priestesses can't get married?"

"That's right." "Our parents were going to have us married to two different Barons, from two different territories." "But since we didn't want to get split up…" "...We decided to run away to the Temple instead." The girls said, before blushing slightly. "But we could still get married if we left the Temple." "We said we would, if there was a guy we both liked."

"Ah. I see." Shirou said, trying his best not to judge. "I'm guessing polygamy is common among nobles?"

"That's right. Most members of high nobility have at least three wives." Emma nods her head.

"His Majesty has eight, and will likely have more later." Emmy informs him. "In fact… as an Earl, you will need to get married within a year."

"Excuse me?" Shirou said, shocked.

"It is the duty of the high nobility to produce heirs, since if a territory goes uninherited, it can cause a lot of problems." Emma explained. "So the law states that, until you produce an heir, you must marry at least one woman every year."

The twins went on, enlightening their Hero to the politics of marriage in this world.

It was… interesting, in a way.

What was most interesting is that the women didn't resent being used for political marriages and ending up with five or more women to one man. While it was confusing to Shirou, it seemed that they viewed their situation as better than most men, and all low and mid-rank noble born men, other than the heir, are basically kicked from their families the moment they turn fifteen. They lose their noble status and have to find their own way in the world, more often than not getting tricked into slavery because they lack any sort of street smarts needed to survive.

Women might end up as mere political pawns, but at least they get to keep their noble status and continue to live in relative comfort. Though if they can't attract a husband or run off to a Temple quickly enough, they could easily be sold into slavery by their parents. Because of this, most single noble women are pretty eager to attract a high status husband, regardless of how many wives the man might have already.

Shirou groaned and palmed his eyes as he realized just what he was in for in the future.

While magi tended towards molygamy, simply because having lots of wives and children was tedious and unhelpful, they didn't exactly have a moral code about it. They didn't have a moral code about just about anything. Things like societal norms were things that they didn't care to think about.

Polygamy did exist among magi, just not widely practiced because of the inconvenience of it. Shirou's own marriage had been… complicated, with Sakura, Rin and Rider. Only he and Sakura had been married, but it was undeniable that Rider often ended up in bed with them anyway, in order to recharge. Then there had been the routine magic rituals Rin would lead in order to suppress the damage done to Shirou and Sakura's souls during the Grail War, from Archer's arm and Avenger's possession.

Even if they all claimed that it was strictly necessary, there were other ways to reach those ends. Even after Rin disappeared, Sakura and Shirou could still perform the treatment themselves, and they had always gone further than the rituals required. It had started out as a necessity, and then the girls just found adultery kinkier than being open about it.

Even so, they were all people who held a special place in Shirou's heart. He didn't want to be swarmed by complete strangers looking for an easy life.

"So this is where that wonderful smell was coming from." Menea said in her usual confident tone as she strolled right up to them. Hiding behind her was Yuriko, looking like a younger girl hiding behind her older sister, despite being two decades older than Menea. "Tell me, Hero-sama, what have you made this time?"

"Nothing much. Just chicken curry and rice. Would you like some?" Shirou said, starting to prepare the plates.

"C…Curry!?" Yuriko squeaked, her eyes wide as she peeked out from behind her niece. "You… You actually made curry!? But where did you get the spices!?"

"Most organic matter has basically the same components. Turning grass into spices isn't so hard with even basic alchemy. You just need to know what you need to make." Shirou explained.

Actually, Shirou had been surprised how easy it had become for him. It seemed that leveling up had caused him to gain some kind of intuition based skill for alchemy, amplifying his abilities with it. This, along with an increase in the speed of his thoughts made basic alchemy easy for him, even if he was still nowhere near Illya's level.

"Is curry something good?" Menea asked, glancing back over her shoulder at Yuriko.

"It was a very popular dish in Japan that used a lot of spices." Yuriko explained. "...It… It isn't TOO spicy, is it? My mom only ever gave me the mild kind."

She died while still in elementary school, and had the taste buds of a child. She'd never experienced truly spicy curry or coffee the way an adult would, after having lost the taste buds that would overreact to bitter things.

"Is that so? Don't worry, it isn't too spicy. I made it for beginners, since it is something of an acquired taste." Shirou said with a kind smile that caused Yuriko to blush and once again hide behind Menea.

"Aunt Yuriko." Menea said with faked exasperation, while smiling at her Aunt's cute behavior.

Shirou couldn't help but to smile. The girl was like a shier version of Rin.

"Come on. Before it gets cold."