Hope.
It is just such a single and simple emotion.
Compared to the various ugly emotions from people that Siegfried had seen in his entire life, this emotion was so small and so fragile that it could be destroyed anytime.
However, such an emotion moved his heart.
Siegfried had seen various emotions from people. He had seen jealousy, hatred, anger, etc, which were very amazing on their own, and compared to the emotion that was shown by the homunculus, there was a very big difference and couldn't be compared, because the homunculus only wished to stay alive.
It touched him, and even Astolfo, who was known as a hero who lacked common sense, wanted to help the homunculus.
"I want to help him!"
Astolfo spoke loudly to Siegfried with a serious expression that he had never shown before.
"This child must be saved!
"I want to help him! You're a hero too, right? Even if this child didn't ask you for help, you should help him since you're a hero too!"
Such words were passed onto Siegfried's ears clearly which caused his heart to shake and tremble.
"Even if he didn't ask for help..."
Siegfried was such an existence, he didn't help people because they asked him, but because it was his own wishes to help people from the bottom of his heart. It was also the reason why he was summoned in this Holy Grail War and that was because he wanted to help people once again.
That was Siegfried's wish, but...
"Master..."
His master also owned his own wish, and that wish conflicted with the small wish in front of him.
There were two wishes, but he could only grant one of them.
In that case...
"I should realize my master's wish."
After all, Siegfried knew from a long time ago, no matter how strong or great he was, he couldn't save everyone so he decided to grant the wish of his master and ignored the homunculus in front of him.
It was because of such a decision that he had become a hero that would grant the wishes of people who ask him.
It's the same now.
If Haru was here, he could only say that Siegfried's thought of mind was crazy and he couldn't understand his way of thought to sacrifice his own lives for a stranger that had never been known, however, Siegfried was such an existence.
Siegfried couldn't grant everyone's wishes, he could only grant the wish who asked him, that was the matter of course, however...
"Do you want to turn a blind eye to the weak?"
Astolfo shouted those words directly to Siegfried. "Ignore those who need help, is that how you become a hero?!"
Siegfried felt his heart trembling and he was shocked, starting to doubt himself. Ignoring the one who was in need of help in front of him, and only extending his hand to people who ask for his help?
Siegfried realized how failed he was as a hero and how ugly his heart was.
"I see..."
At that moment, Siegfried understood. He was wondering why he didn't realize this matter earlier. Maybe he couldn't save everyone, and you could only save some people, but that wasn't wrong, however, it was wrong to ignore those who were in need, especially the homunculus in front of him because the homunculus didn't ask him for help.
'Isn't this the reason why you're summoned to this world?'
Siegfried thought and knew that if he ignored the homunculus in front of him, he would be the same as before. He quickly lowered his head and started to have self-loathing in his mind.
The reason Siegfried responded to the call of the Holy Grail War and to be summoned in this world wasn't that he had a wish that wanted to be granted, his wish after all was very small and that was to help people. He participated in the Holy Grail War for such a simple thing.
There is nothing else.
However, under the command of his master, he almost walked back to the path that he had regretted in the past. He realized how stupid he was...
"Saber...?"
Feeling the change on Siegfried, Astolfo was quite surprised, wondering whether his words had reached this hero.
"Cough! Cough! Cough!"
When the two heroes were in silence, the homunculus on Astolfo's arms suddenly coughed up blood.
Astolfo panicked and asked, "Hey, are you okay?
On the other hand, Siegfried understood at a glance what had happened to the homunculus.
The body of the homunculus had reached his limit and in his state, if he wasn't saved in time, then he might die sooner or later, but even if he was saved, he wouldn't live that long, after all, the existence of homunculus wasn't made to live for a long time and they had only a life span up to three years.
There was only one ending of the homunculus and that was death.
"Hey! You can't get sick! You can't die yet! You want to stay alive, right?"
Astolfo hurriedly placed the homunculus on his arms to the ground, and when he saw the homunculus kept coughing up blood, he was crying and panicked, didn't know what to do.
"You have to stay alive! You can't give up! I will definitely save you!"
Even though Astolfo was quite a weird hero, he was a hero after all and he would help anyone who was in need. The homunculus in front of him had asked for his help and so he was going to help him!
When Astolfo was confused and tried to help the homunculus as much as he could, he didn't realize how dazzling his existence was in Siegfried's eyes.
Astolfo might be weaker than Siegfried, very weak, that it was easy for Siegfried to defeat him, but Siegfried didn't understand why he started to admire Astolfo at this moment, and in this mind, he felt that Astolfo was a real hero.
Even if Astolfo lacked common sense, very weak, he wouldn't turn a blind eye toward those people in need.
Such a thought wasn't naive or childish, if Astolfo was such a person, he would save all the humanity in this world, but he understood how weak he was and understood that his power was limited.
If he could save someone, Astolfo would do it without hesitation, well, since he had been summoned into this world, he thought to save this homunculus even if he had to give up his life since, in this Holy Grail War, he didn't have any wishes that wanted to be grated by the Holy Grail.
Astolfo was only following his heart, and Siegfried also thought to do the same thing as Astolfo.
Siegfried closed his eyes, but when he opened it again, everyone could see a chance on him. From a machine that would follow any order, he had become more humane. He looked at Astolfo and said, "Perhaps, I can help him."
Probably only Astolfo and the homunculus knew how Siegfried was going to help the homunculus.
However, one thing was certain that tonight, Saber of Black had retired from the Holy Grail War, and lastly, Astolfo had left Trifas with the homunculus while being branded as a traitor.