The Way to Fulfill Their Loyalty
"----"
After who knew how long, everything finally settled down.
The battlefield had become a wreck, with heat-like smoke drifting everywhere, telling anyone who saw it just how fierce the battle had been.
"Clang..."
Amid the faint metallic ringing, Artoria〔Alter〕finally lowered the holy sword in her hand, allowing the storm of magical energy surging around her to subside.
No one could see Artoria〔Alter〕's expression, because she had her back turned to everyone present.
Even so, people could still detect a trace of loneliness in that back—a sense of a hero in her twilight years.
For some reason, seeing Artoria〔Alter〕like this made everyone feel a pang of sympathy.
Lancelot in particular had watched from the sidelines the entire time. Seeing two of his comrades depart, he closed his eyes.
His face was filled with heaviness.
Grief radiated from him.
It was obvious that this First Knight of the Round Table had not been completely unaffected by Mordred and Tristan's departure.
Yet even so, Lancelot had never intervened in Artoria〔Alter〕's judgment. He had simply watched it all unfold.
That finally drew everyone's attention to the only survivor among them.
"What? Does it hurt?" Joan of Arc〔Alter〕was the first to break the silence, saying sarcastically, "If so, why didn't you help them just now?"
Although Lancelot had been struck in the Spirit Core, it had clearly only been shaken and not damaged. Otherwise, he would have shown signs of trouble long ago.
Since Lancelot could still stand and mourn his comrades, that proved he was not completely exhausted. If he wanted to, he could still have intervened.
But Lancelot had not acted from beginning to end.
The reason was simple.
"That was their way of fulfilling their loyalty. I had no right to interfere."
Lancelot spoke in