The Fairy Forest

Clip-clop...

Clip-clop-clop...

Across a vast grassland, four galloping warhorses carried armed knights as they raced after two distant specks.

"Hyah!"

"Hyah!"

"Hyah! I see them! They're just ahead!" one knight shouted excitedly, gripping a longsword.

Urged on by their riders' whips, the warhorses charged even faster across the broad grassland toward their targets. The knights watched excitedly as the distance closed on the two people fleeing in haste. They could already picture capturing the wanted murderers who had killed the chief steward, binding them together, and handing them over to their noble master for a generous reward.

"Flander! The little blond one is mine! Hahaha!" A warhorse suddenly surged past the knight with the longsword, who had been called Flander, and sped toward the two specks ahead.

"Damn it! Deran, don't get so full of yourself!" Flander shouted angrily at the knight who had clearly tried to steal the credit. Then he whipped his horse even harder, urging it to run faster.

"Tch... Deran and Flander, those bastards. They only became knights a year before me, and they're already acting so high and mighty. They'll get the credit for this one too! Damn it!... Say something, Bedivere! Tell me I'm right!" one of the two knights lagging far behind said, glaring angrily at the figures that had already ridden out of sight before turning to his companion.

"Mm," the knight called Bedivere replied coldly, then fell silent.

"Tch... What are you, a mute?" The other knight spat in frustration.

Meanwhile...

I ran for my life, holding Artoria's hand in one of mine. I'd killed the steward for the brief satisfaction of it, then taken Artoria, who had yet to become the Knight King.

But I'd forgotten that I was just an ordinary human with no power to speak of. The only thing I could rely on was my almost cursed sensitivity to danger.

"Pant... pant... Xia... pant... ah..." Artoria, who had been running at full speed while I held her little hand, finally ran out of strength and called to me in exhaustion.

"Artoria?!" I looked back and saw her almost deathly pale face, gasping for breath as she staggered. I understood at once that she was about to collapse from exhaustion.

Damn it! If we keep going like this...! I'd been far too impulsive back there! I spun around and caught Artoria as she slowly crumpled, holding her slender body in my arms as panic surged through me.

If... if I'd been a little calmer, things wouldn't have gotten this complicated! Damn it! I quickly lifted Artoria onto my back and kept running. When I looked back at the knights still in hot pursuit, fury flared in my chest.

Power... I need enough power to turn the whole world upside down! Power to protect Artoria's smile forever! Why am I so weak...? This pathetic state is humiliating! I ran on, tears of helplessness streaming down my cheeks.

"Don't think you can get away!!! You two are my prey! Hahahahaha!"

Hearing the voices behind me draw closer, I felt as though my heart might stop. But I knew that if the knights caught us and dragged us back for a reward, I didn't care whether I lived or died. But Artoria...!

Kill him! Turn around and kill him! Take his horse! The thought flashed through my mind, but I crushed it almost as soon as it came.

Are you telling me to ram my body into a charging warhorse?! I thought wearily.

"Hyah! Hyah! Deran! Don't think you can keep all the credit to yourself!" Another voice suddenly called out, meaning there was yet another pursuer close behind me.

Clip-clop...

At the sound, I gritted my teeth and ran even harder. The force of my passage sent the surrounding grass bending in every direction.

"Tch! That kid's a monster! He's running way too fast! Keep after him!" Deran and Flander said together, watching me accelerate again.

Then they both swung their whips and chased after me.

"A forest?! There's a forest out here on the grassland?!" As I kept running for my life, I suddenly saw a forest ahead—a vast, densely wooded stretch.

I gritted my teeth and looked back at the pursuers racing after me through the dust, then turned to face the mysterious forest ahead, where danger and survival awaited together...

Slowly, the panic vanished from my expression. I turned and looked gently at the golden-haired girl on my back. I'm sorry, Artoria. Because of my immaturity, you've been exposed to a danger you never should have faced. But I promise... this will be the only time in my life that my actions put you in danger. So... please forgive me. Let me take this risk to escape this threat!

When I raised my head to face the forest again, my expression was resolute.

I drove my legs forward with a sudden burst of strength. In an instant, I went from running at sixteen meters per second to thirty. More than doubling my speed, I tore toward the forest like a gust of wind.

"Hyah! Hyah! Damn it, there's a forest ahead! Where did a forest come from in the middle of a grassland?!" The pursuers behind me had also spotted me charging toward the trees. Though they were astonished to see a forest appear out of nowhere on the grassland, they cared more about the money and titles they expected to earn.

They whipped their horses even harder, hoping to catch me before I reached the forest. But I was running with a desperate burst of strength, as if spending my very life force. It wasn't until a minute after I carried Artoria into the forest that they finally reached its edge.

"Damn it! We're just going to let him get away?" Deran said, angrily snapping his whip.

"Should we go in after them?" Flander suggested.

"...No. It's too dangerous to go in at this hour, especially into a forest this mysterious... I've lived around here for twenty-five years, and I've never heard of a forest here! This is insane!" Deran said, turning his horse around and riding away.

Flander looked up at the sun, which was already close to setting, then nodded in agreement. He, too, turned his horse around and followed.

Not long after they left, the forest rippled strangely, then suddenly vanished from its original location. The grassland it had concealed appeared once more, revealing what had always been there.

An endless green grassland...

If they had still been out on that grassland, Xia and Artoria surely would have been caught...

"Pwah...!" I'd been running at top speed, so worried that the two knights might follow us into the forest that I'd forgotten to watch the ground. I tripped over a raised tree root.

Just as I was about to fall, I reacted in an instant, turning around and clutching Artoria tightly to my chest so my back would take the impact.

"Urgh...!" The force of the impact was proportional to the speed I'd been running. I groaned in pain as I slammed into the ground.

Even so, I clenched my teeth and held Artoria tightly, refusing to let her suffer the slightest injury.

I've already put the person who means as much to me as my own soul in mortal danger once. If even this little thing hurts her, then I really ought to stab myself... Ngh...! The impact kept me sliding across the ground even after I fell. Every second, the burning pain in my back tortured my nerves.

Thud!!!

"Gah!" I slammed hard into a large tree with my back and finally spat out a mouthful of blood.

"Cough... cough... cough..." Fighting through the intense pain, I managed to open my eyes and look at Artoria. Apart from looking a little disheveled from our escape, she appeared to be merely unconscious from exhaustion, with no other injuries. Relieved, I smiled... Then, unable to resist the exhaustion from pushing myself past my limits, I leaned against the tree, still holding Artoria tightly, and fell into a deep sleep...

As I slept... it seemed that I passed through layer after layer of mist in a dream and arrived in a city engulfed in the flames of war. At a tower in that war-torn city...

Whoosh!

A sword swung through the air... Its swift movement sent a gust of wind howling.

Clang!

The sharp ring of steel rang out as the swords collided...

Swish!

A blue figure and a gray one crossed paths...

"Why?! Why won't you pass the throne to me, King Arthur?!" The figure in gray knight's armor swung a sword at the figure in a blue knight's dress and shouted.

"That's because you lack the qualities of a king, Mordred." King Arthur blocked the strike without hesitation, then counterattacked with a thrust.

"Don't joke with me!! You didn't even give me a chance before deciding I wasn't fit to be king! What gives you the right?!" The man called Mordred shouted in fury, then swung his sword at King Arthur even more wildly.

"You asked for this the moment you raised your blade against me, Mordred!" King Arthur seemed to have grown angry as well. Her low voice answered his question, and she broke through his swordplay with even greater skill.

"Don't joke with me!!! You're a king without even a shred of humanity!!! I'm the one better suited for the throne!" His furious words made King Arthur's relentless swordsmanship falter for an instant.

This was his chance!

Mordred ignored the attack still coming at him and swung at King Arthur's head, aiming for the momentary opening.

"...It seems you lack not only the qualities of a king, but also the strength to be one." Her quiet words shattered Mordred's attempt to take her head.

Clang!!! The swords rang out.

Whirr, whirr, whirr... Thunk! A sword spun through the air, then fell from above and plunged into the ground.

"You have lost, Mordred. The king's judgment awaits you." King Arthur rested her sword against Mordred's neck and spoke slowly.

"Heh... So what if I've lost? Someone like you becoming king was a mistake! No humanity! No feelings! Even if your kingdom survives, it'll only crumble in an instant! You're the one who's truly lost, King Arthur!" Mordred sneered at King Arthur, the man he called his father.

"Say whatever you like..." King Arthur replied coldly.

Then she raised her sword, ready to bring it down.

Stab! A blade pierced flesh...

Blood sprayed into the air. King Arthur held the Holy Sword in a downward strike, staring in shock at the blade that had pierced through her chest.

"Hahahaha!! Hahahahaha!!! In the end, you let your guard down, King Arthur!! Hah... cough... cough, cough!!"

Though the Holy Sword had pierced Mordred's heart as well, he laughed as if he didn't care.

"Urgh...!" King Arthur endured the pain and pulled the sword from her chest, coldly watching the skin around the wound rapidly turn black.

"You cursed it... Do you hate me that much, Mordred?" King Arthur said, her face paling slightly.

"Cough... cough... It's your fault, Father... If you'd... given me... the throne... I..." Mordred struggled to utter a few unfinished words after his heart was pierced, then stopped breathing and died, kneeling on the ground...

King Arthur slowly removed her helmet, letting her brilliant golden hair fall loose. Her sorrowful expression, once hidden in shadow, was revealed beneath the sunlight... Then... she slowly collapsed, striking the ground hard...

Unable to bear watching any longer, I plunged down from the sky and reached out to King Arthur, lying there and bleeding heavily. "Artoria!!"

Whoosh!! A sharp gust of wind rang out.

As if time had reversed, I was yanked back into the sky in an instant, swept along the way I'd come and through the layers of mist once more.

"Get out of my way! Artoria's still there!!!!" I shouted furiously in desperation.

I sprang up from the roots beneath me.

Tap...

"Huh?!" Only after my feet hit the ground did I realize that everything just now had been nothing but a dream...

I looked up at the sun, already high in the sky, and let out a faint sigh of relief...

Thank goodness it was only a dream...

When I turned to check whether Artoria had woken up too,

I suddenly realized...

"Artoria!! Where are you?!?!?!!!"