Shinji Matou at Your Service-Chapter 997: Romani Archaman

"What's your name again?"

It was only natural for Shinji to be dumbfounded. The name Roman held a very special significance in the Type-Moon universe.

He was King Solomon, the man who had made outstanding contributions to human history, taking on a new name for his second life.

After acquiring this new name, he voluntarily gave up all his powers, wanting to live as an ordinary person and experience the happiness and fulfillment of simply being human.

However, fate did not afford him this chance. This king, who could see both the past and the future, saw humanity's end and the incineration of human history right before he lost his powers.

This future once again stripped him of his freedom.

He could have ignored this uncertain future and continued to enjoy his second life as a free, ordinary person.

But he didn't. Even though he had lost his powers and his highest-level Clairvoyance, becoming an ordinary man, his essence remained unchanged. He was still the King Solomon who had made great contributions to human history in his previous life.

As an ordinary doctor, he worked tirelessly, struggling and preparing with all his might for the end that could come at any moment, never letting his guard down for a second.

In the end, he succeeded. He saved all of humanity and the entirety of human history.

However, he never received the treatment a hero should. He couldn't even fulfill a simple promise like eating cake together after he returned. Because the price of this salvation was everything — his life, his achievements, his very existence. He offered up everything he had in exchange for the continuation of humanity.

This was Roman, a hero greater than King Solomon in his previous life, and also an ordinary man who made everyone feel both sympathy and regret.

Shinji had thought a lot about this person.

He had thought about going back before 2015 to deal with a guy named Lev Lainur Flauros, completely preventing the incineration of human history.

He had thought about asking the Old Man of the Jewels to take him to another timeline to meet that man and have a cup of afternoon tea together.

He had even thought about, after obtaining the Mooncell's core royal authority, using its power to directly erase the culprit from all the timelines that the Eye of the Moon could observe.

But... he had never thought he would hear this name in this world, nor see that iconic pink hair tied into a ponytail.

Hearing Shinji's question, the man awkwardly replied, "I'm Roman. Is there a problem?"

"Roman? As in 'romance' Roman?"

Shinji confirmed again.

"Oh, oh, you know it! Pretty cool, right?"

Roman seemed quite pleased.

"Yeah... it's pretty good," Shinji replied, his voice a little dry.

The clues were too overwhelming. Overwhelming to the point that he couldn't deny it even if he wanted to.

The name and its origin, the appearance, the slightly irritating attitude, and most importantly — the class. The Master's privilege confirmed that this Servant's class was Caster.

There was no mistaking it. It had to be him, the strongest Caster among all heroic spirits.

With that confirmation, a flood of questions rushed into Shinji's mind.

First of all, why was he here?

Solomon's existence was special and couldn't be summoned through Fuyuki's Grail system. The only known summoning of Solomon was by Marisbury Animusphere through Chaldea's summoning system.

But that happened in the Fate/Grand Order timeline. In this world, Chaldea didn't even exist — if it did, the Mage's Association's Department of Policies couldn't possibly be unaware. So how was Solomon summoned here?

Secondly, who was his Master?

Solomon's relic, one of God's Ten Commandments, was in Marisbury's possession. But Marisbury had been in London for quite some time and hadn't left at all — this information came directly from Kenneth, and the two Lords were on good terms.

Then, why did he appear in this form?

If Shinji's memory was correct, Solomon only took on the appearance of Roman after winning the Holy Grail War in the Fate/Grand Order timeline and making a wish upon the Grail. Even if someone got incredibly lucky and managed to summon an impossible Servant, it should have been the majestic King Solomon, not Roman.

There was also a theory that after Solomon sacrificed himself, he ascended to the Throne of Heroes again due to his merit in saving humanity. Since the Throne of Heroes transcends all parallel worlds and timelines, Roman could be summoned in 2004 as a Servant.

But setting aside whether this theory was even plausible, it couldn't be true in Shinji's timeline because of the existence of the Quantum Time-Locks, which are the foundation of the Throne of Heroes and something that no Heroic Spirit can surpass.

These time locks act like nails anchoring the timeline, fixing key events in history that can't be altered. While Heroic Spirits can return to the past, they cannot change the predetermined outcomes. Shinji could change others' fates because he stood at the front of the timeline, altering events before they were locked in.

From this perspective, the current baseline of human history was the year 2004, while Solomon's self-sacrifice took place at the end of 2016, a point not yet locked by the Quantum Timelines. Although everything related to Solomon was erased after his sacrifice, this erasure only applied to the recorded timeline. What had not yet occurred couldn't be erased.

In other words, at this time, Solomon still existed on the Throne of Heroes and hadn't yet sacrificed himself.

The Servant standing here couldn't be Roman; he could only be Solomon.

To confirm his theory, Shinji asked another question: "Uh, Roman — is that your given name or family name?"

"It's my given name. I only recently chose it for myself."

That settled it. This person wasn't the Roman who saved humanity. Roman was just a shortened version of his full name, which should be—

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"In modern society, it's inconvenient to only have a given name — how about splitting 'Roman' into 'Romani Archaman'? Roman can be your nickname."

Upon hearing this full name, Roman exaggeratedly let out two "ohs" and praised, "What a great name! I love it, thank you, uh—"

"Matou Shinji," Shinji promptly introduced himself. He didn't want to play mind games in front of King Solomon; that would be insulting to such a king.

"Can I call you Shinji? You can just call me Roman," Roman said in his usual friendly manner.

"Sure," Shinji agreed without hesitation.

"So, Roman, why did you come looking for me?"

PS: This part might be a bit hard to understand, so to simplify: there's a sequence to the events tied to the Throne of Heroes. After the doctor self-destructs, history locks in place, erasing his existence. But before that, Solomon still exists.

PS2: Based on the Quantum Time-Lock setting, the ending where Red Archer returns to kill Shirou has already been fixed. No matter what he does, he can't escape his predetermined fate.