Chapter 31: The [Chariot] Symbolizing Victory and Plunder
My name is Jean Pierre Polnareff.
I am an avenger.
In order to find the enemy who once insulted and murdered his younger sister—a man said to possess two right hands—he chose to embark on this path of revenge, searching for a single person across the entire world.
It was just last year.
While scurrying through various countries across the globe,
He encountered a bewitching blonde man who appeared before him as if he had known all along that Polnareff would arrive there.
That blonde man not only saw through his inner thoughts at a single glance,
But also seemed to know where the object of his revenge was located, speaking words of promise to help him achieve his vengeance.
However, that blonde man had one condition.
The blonde man would help him with his revenge.
But in exchange, he had to help the blonde man accomplish certain things.
An equivalent exchange.
The viewpoint mentioned by the Englishman Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations—the idea that the person who understands you best is your enemy—was not unfamiliar to Polnareff, a Frenchman whose nation held a centuries-old feud with England.
And so, under the influence of a vampire flesh bud that had been implanted into his brain by that blonde man at some unknown point,
A guided and brainwashed Polnareff fully accepted the blonde man's condition—
He would help the blonde man kill the carriers of the Joestar bloodline; he would kill Jotaro Kujo and the others.
Originally, this condition
Was on the verge of being realized by Polnareff before this.
Rather, the fact that it had turned into the current situation—requiring Shirou Emiya to charge recklessly,
Where they could only compete to see whether the fire-spraying speed of [Pseudo-Magician's Red] was faster or the blade-launching speed of [Silver Chariot] was faster, and who would be the first to strike down the other—
Was itself the result of Polnareff subconsciously holding back.
If Polnareff truly wanted to be cold-blooded and ruthless,
With him being in a concealed state at the time, he absolutely had the chance to annihilate Jotaro Kujo and the others. Even Shirou Emiya and Joseph, who maintained constant Ripple breathing, would likely have been injured in such a sudden ambush.
In the end, however, constrained by the chivalry in his heart,
The situation suddenly shifted to him being the one trapped in this desperate predicament.
Even if part of the reason was that Shirou Emiya, drawing upon memories of a past life, successfully exploited Polnareff's chivalry to turn the original contest into this current race between life and death.
But in the midst of this,
Has Polnareff ever felt regret?
.
.
.
Raging flames were clearly reflected in Polnareff's pupils.
Even at this distance, he could still feel Shirou Emiya—who was like a descending Sun God—using the power of [Pseudo-Magician's Red] to plunder all the moisture that had previously been everywhere.
It made every breath he took feel like swallowing fire.
And amidst this dryness, his physical strength was being continuously drained under the strain of intense movement...
That's right, Polnareff was running.
At this moment, the roles between him and Shirou Emiya had completely reversed.
It was no longer Shirou Emiya sprinting toward his position.
Instead, after reaching a radius of fifteen meters,
Shirou Emiya had stopped his advance, choosing instead to utilize the turret-like attributes of [Pseudo-Magician's Red] as an elemental-type Stand. On one hand, he used life-detecting flames to lock onto Polnareff's position;
On the other, he controlled the flames to carry out a frantic bombardment of Polnareff's location.
In this kind of situation, if Polnareff did not want to be a passive target until his last ounce of strength was exhausted in this heat and firestorm, he had to close the distance between himself and Shirou Emiya.
But this fact was understood not only by Polnareff, but by Shirou Emiya as well.
Therefore, the life-detecting flames of [Pseudo-Magician's Red] remained firmly locked onto Polnareff's body, making it consistently difficult for Polnareff to get close.
—'It's completely useless.'
—'If I want to get close to this person, I must have a reaction speed that surpasses those flames.'
The previous several attempts, though all in vain,
Had allowed a swordsmanship master like Polnareff—who had trained a "blank slate" Stand like [Silver Chariot] to the point where it could fight on equal terms with [King Crimson], a Stand possessing the "cheat" abilities of epitaph and time erasure—
To gain some understanding of the mechanisms of [Pseudo-Magician's Red] through these many probes.
—'It's just like mosquitoes that frequently escape from human hands; once they fly in front of a frog, they only end up becoming the frog's buffet.'
—'If I continue to increase the speed of [Silver Chariot], can it truly be faster than the capture of those flames? Faster than the reaction speed of that fire?'
Polnareff was uncertain.
However, there was one point that Polnareff could be sure of!
—'...No, it should be put this way! You, who cannot keep up with the speed of [Silver Chariot], are actually highly reliant on the reactions of those flames, letting the fire drive your body to provide feedback!'
—'In that case, things become very simple...'
These thoughts flashing through his mind
Quickly turned into Polnareff's new, loud cry.
"—[Silver Chariot]!!"
This caused [Silver Chariot], looking like a silver Western knight, to appear immediately by his side.
And in synchronization with Polnareff's movement of sweeping a leg across the ground beneath his feet—kicking up and scattering the dirt to use as a smokescreen to obscure Shirou Emiya's vision—
[Silver Chariot] also thrust its rapier into the ground, flicking up all the rapier blades that had been prepared in advance by [Judgment] and were now exposed without the covering of soil, sending them all flying toward the front of Shirou Emiya!
.
..
.
Returning to the previous question.
Does Polnareff have any regrets about this?
The answer is... No!
He never felt that utilizing one's own advantages was an unfair duel.
Naturally, he would not feel regret over the fact that it was originally Shirou Emiya challenging him, only for it to turn into him challenging Shirou Emiya.
Rather, if Shirou Emiya could utilize the flames and this long-range advantage,
Could it be that Polnareff wouldn't know how to use the environmental advantages around him to reverse this disadvantage?
He is, after all, the [Chariot] that symbolizes victory and plunder!
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