Reprimand

In the Moon World, during Britain's ancient age of the King of Knights, the funniest thing was that Gawain had also been quite a good candidate for kingship.

A tiny Britain had produced two people with the makings of kings. Artoria becoming the King of Knights could be said to have been ordained by fate. So the question was, why did this Britain, which had at least two potential kings, still perish in accordance with history?

"The problem wasn't just with you, Artoria. You were the king chosen by everyone, just as you had borne the will of fate at the time when you drew the Sword in the Stone."

Mo Li chose his words carefully. "The governance of an entire nation has never depended solely on the king at the top. It also requires unity from top to bottom. Only when all the nation's ministers work together can things improve. Rebelling against you because you were too perfect a king—those rebels were truly ridiculous. A nation's downfall may seem like the fault of an incompetent king, but in reality, it means that most of the nation's rulers were incompetent. Only then would a country become too burdened to recover. Your country's problem was even greater. As its founding monarch, your nation actually perished alongside you."

That statement successfully enraged Artoria. "Enough! My country was not that pathetic!"

Mo Li retorted, "Then why did you, during the founding era, lose your country so quickly?"

"..." Artoria fell silent, and her clenched fists gradually loosened without her realizing it.

Waver Velvet quietly said from the side, "This Mo Li is way too bold. He's calling most of the people in a founding monarch's country, from top to bottom, incompetent right in front of her..."

Iskandar responded just as quietly, "Rather than saying he's bold, it would be more accurate to say he's angry. He's angry on behalf of that King of Knights."

"I know you're unconvinced, but let me give you a few examples. Take Huaxia's ancient Qin Dynasty, Han Dynasty, Tang Dynasty, and Ming Dynasty. If we're comparing which was worse, I could even use the Song Dynasty as an example."

Mo Li began explaining the examples he had brought up, though honestly, using Huaxia's history to educate Britain was rather like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

How many years had Artoria's kingdom lasted before it perished? She, the founding monarch, and founding pillars like Lancelot were all still alive, yet the nation fell while they were still there. Was a civil war that led to national ruin truly Artoria's own fault? Obviously not.

As long as Huaxia's dynasties were not living through chaotic times, which one could not remain stable? Even the Yuan Dynasty had been in a better situation than Britain had been at the time.

The Moon World had followed history and allowed Artoria's country to perish. That could only mean that the people of that time had truly rotted to the extreme. Artoria, the Knights of the Round Table, and the like were all the brightest lights of Britain's era—but what about everyone beneath them?

In Mordred's story, there had been British soldiers who defected. Before Mordred killed them, the reason they gave was, "Artoria is too perfect a king."

That was right. Because she was too perfect, the people of that country rebelled!

Put a perfect king in Huaxia, and who knew how many ministers and commoners would laugh themselves mad with joy? A golden age would inevitably descend. But put one in Britain? Sorry, the people of Britain would not accept it!

A perfect king, get out of Britain!

What dynasty had never faced natural disasters or human-caused calamities? So why did Artoria's country perish while the people who had founded it were still alive? Could the Knights of the Round Table's rebellion, which plunged the entire country into civil strife until its destruction, truly be blamed on Artoria? Obviously not.

Mo Li shook his head slightly. "A country's development requires the efforts of everyone. But your country... heh. There was no problem at the top, but the middle and lower levels were rotten to the core. If everyone from top to bottom had supported you, what could the Knights of the Round Table have done even if they rebelled? Their soldiers would never have caused much of a stir. Without the soldiers' support, if fighters at the level of the Knights of the Round Table took the field, could you really not defeat them? If you had truly united as one, what trouble could Morgan and Mordred have caused?"

"You could even say that the serious lack of ability in governing your country stemmed from your way of thinking. Guinevere, Lancelot... well, I won't repeat their story. Governing the entire nation should have been the highest priority, so what were you people at the top doing? What were the people in the middle and lower ranks doing? If your country had been destroyed by invaders, you could at least say your military strength was insufficient. But you were destroyed by internal strife, and not even by an uprising—just plain internal strife..."

Artoria instinctively objected, "If I had been capable enough, these problems would never have happened!"

"As Britain's king, you were already capable enough, Artoria!" Mo Li seized Artoria by the shoulders and said with greater emphasis, "Do you know what I think your greatest failure was?"

Mo Li's grip hurt her shoulders. Artoria asked, "What was it?"

Mo Li said solemnly, "You never said to Morgan, 'Morgan, I like you. I need your help. Govern this country with me!' If you had said that even a little earlier, I guarantee nothing would have happened to your country!"

Mo Li's words were like a bolt from the blue, leaving everyone stunned senseless.

Lancelot, Iskandar, Medea, Kiritsugu Emiya, Irisviel, Waver Velvet, Ritsuka Fujimaru, Mash Kyrielight—all of them wore blank expressions.

Did Mo Li really know what he was saying?

"Y-you, do you know what you're saying?!" Caught completely off guard, Artoria spoke in a panic. "You should understand what those words mean, shouldn't you? And you should know what Morgan is to me! I wanted to govern the country—how could I possibly do that?!"

"What do you know? Artoria, you don't understand people's hearts!" Mo Li said disdainfully. "Do you truly understand Morgan? And do you want to govern the country, or do you want to care about that pointless crap?"

"You... I... I want to govern the country." Artoria barely managed to form a complete sentence.

Mo Li said, "Then that settles it. You should know just how absurdly capable Morgan is. But what were you doing? Why leave Morgan unused? If others gossiped, then let Morgan get things done and use the facts to slap their faces to pieces!"

"But that was still..."

Mo Li's expression turned cold. "Still what? Artoria, let me tell you what Morgan had been doing for the hundreds of years after your death!"

Artoria froze. "What? Morgan was still alive? What was she doing?"

Mo Li said, "Her? She spent hundreds of years planning to revive you. You definitely didn't know about the schemes she laid over those centuries. Gray nearly became a sacrifice in that plan as well. Artoria, tell me—if you hated someone, would you painstakingly try every possible method to revive your enemy?"

"Is... is that true?" Artoria suddenly felt that she did not truly understand the complicated woman from her memories. If what Mo Li said was true, then she...

Mo Li said, "Where am I supposed to go and drag Morgan over here to tell you the truth? But I know what she did. Tell me, Artoria, how many high-level fighters did she send you? And how much did those people help you?"

"This..." Artoria could not speak.

Mo Li said, "She sent people like Gawain and Agravain to your side, claiming they were supposed to find an opportunity to assassinate you. But did she not know how powerful and charismatic you were? Of course she knew, yet she still did it. The result was that all of them became loyal knights and completely cast her orders aside."

"Morgan only put on a symbolic display of anger over it. She took no further action, and she did not even tell them to leave your side. Then there was Mordred. She was the daughter Morgan created using your bloodline, and she too was sent to your side to become your knight. Although Mordred later rebelled, she was still loyal to you. She merely wanted to prove herself."

Mo Li concluded, "After doing all that, was Morgan weak? Did she not love you? She was merely twisted, waiting for you to invite her. Wasn't she still helping you in her own way? If I were in your position, Artoria, I would have publicly announced my marriage to Morgan."

Artoria fell completely silent. Recalling everything from the past, she could not help beginning to doubt herself from another angle.

Ritsuka Fujimaru felt as though his worldview had suffered a devastating blow. Curious yet somewhat frightened, he asked, "Senior Mo, did that Morgan really love King of Knights Artoria?"

Mo Li said, "She did. Her love had become twisted. But for the world, Artoria had to die. Coincidentally, Artoria herself had not noticed the problem and lost the ability to break the deadlock. If Morgan could have been persuaded, things would not have reached such a tragic conclusion. Morgan loved Artoria, yet she had no choice but to eliminate Artoria. That was the relationship between the two of them."

It had already been written very clearly in Garden of Avalon.

Ritsuka Fujimaru looked at Mo Li in shock. "Th-this... Senior, it feels like you just revealed some incredible information!"

Artoria also stared directly at Mo Li. "You... what do you mean? Was there some kind of conspiracy behind what you just said?!"

"If we're talking about a conspiracy, there really was one."

Mo Li's expression became solemn. "The place and era Artoria and the others lived in were rather special. The Age of Gods had already ended on the European continent, but because Britain was an island, it was still at the end of the Age of Gods. Yet it would sooner or later face the decline of the Age of Gods as well. The people on the island of Britain were destined to be destroyed."

"According to the original fate, the one that would destroy the island of Britain was the dragon Vortigern. It was the embodiment of the island of Britain, and with one breath of fire, it would burn the entire island to ashes."

"But Artoria's father, Uther Pendragon, did not follow the script. He colluded with Merlin and, through all sorts of underhanded maneuvers, produced two children. He intended to choose one of them to inherit the throne and save Britain. The other one was naturally Morgan."