Dim.
Blood-red.
Here.
A hell of carnage.
The golden-haired girl.
Alone.
All by herself.
She stood atop a hill built from corpses.
Ten years of life-and-death combat.
Twelve invitations from the Grim Reaper.
Not a single defeat.
"No matter where I am, one day I'll break through the barriers of time and space and return to your side."
A voice from the depths of her memories echoed in her mind.
But whenever she tried to understand more, to draw closer, it was always like flowers reflected in a mirror or the moon's reflection in water... An illusion that vanished without a trace.
Her eyes opened, revealing a trace of confusion and anger.
She shook her head, no longer dwelling on the strange memories buried deep in her mind.
She donned her silver armor, the Holy Sword hanging at her waist.
She reached out, lifted the tent flap, and strode forward with firm, stubborn steps.
From the moment the golden-haired girl left the tent,
she was no longer the person called "Artoria."
Instead, she was—
"Glory to our king! Hail the god-king!"
The thunderous roar of a hundred thousand soldiers!
Their voices soared to the clouds, tearing apart the gloomy sky!
Their morale towered like a mountain, crushing the blood-red earth!
The grotesque hell of carnage was shattered at that moment by the arrival of that girl!
"The cause of our undefeated victories in battle?!"
"A king like a dragon!"
"The source of our sweeping triumphs on the battlefield?!"
"A king like the God of War!"
"What is our king's name?!"
"King Arthur!!"
The green eyes that had slowly closed opened once more.
The memory of that earth-shattering roar still seemed to echo before her eyes.
Her gaze swept around.
The three kings awaiting her answer stood on either side, each raising a cup of wine to drink.
Only one person was the exception...
{Drake D. Xia. That is the name of the man who will follow you forever! Remember that!}
When she saw the black-haired youth sitting not far beside her, those words surfaced in her mind unbidden.
Was she afraid to face him? Or was she worrying about how to answer?
She wanted to laugh at him, but somehow couldn't manage it.
"Miracles come at a price. What you give in exchange must be the thing most precious to you."
Merlin's prophecy still echoed in her ears.
She had thought that the most precious thing would be the people's trust and the knights' loyalty.
But...
No, wasn't that just a way I'd forced myself to think?
I didn't want to lose the person I relied on, so I'd forced myself to keep my composure.
I didn't want to lose the sight of the youth standing before me, so I'd kept striving all this time.
The people's trust and the knights' loyalty—
Perhaps they were nothing but excuses to help me escape reality.
I didn't want to face it. I was afraid to face it.
I knew this was fitting for a king, and that it was something a ruler should never do.
But...
"Artoria wants it! So I'm willing to give everything for it!"
The youth's stubborn, unwavering voice rang in her mind again, echoing endlessly...
What about me?
Her smile opened like a fruit shedding its ugly exterior.
Within lay a pure, unblemished fruit.
"My wish is to use the power of the Holy Grail to return to the past and atone for my mistakes! To choose a true king anew for the Empire of Britannia!"
"This is my one and only wish as the king of Britannia."
The words slipped out without her even stopping to think.
She saw the Hero King's mocking grin and heard the Conqueror King's half-sighing, half-amazed remark.
And the youth's face, suddenly pale as if sentenced to death...
The starlight in the night sky had begun to dim.
The cloud-wreathed immortal mountains floating in the sky had also begun to tremble for some reason, as if they might crumble at any moment.
Crack.
Crack...
The sound of glass about to shatter rang throughout the world.
"Is this guy about to fall apart?" the Hero King and the Conqueror King thought at the same time, their faces lined with worry. What a fragile fellow!
"But that is the wish of the king of Britannia! It is not the wish of the person named Artoria!"
The girl's next words brought a little color back to the youth's deathly pale face.
The stars in the night sky began to shine again.
The immortal mountains floating in the sky once more trembled as they drifted upward.
The youth raised his head, heavy as a thousand pounds, and looked into the girl's green eyes with a trace of hope and a hint of worry.
The girl slowly walked over and knelt before him, gently laying both hands against his slightly pale face.
"In the past, I cursed the world I lived in many times."
"Why was I born into a race of slaves? Why did my parents cruelly abandon their child and never look back? I never found an answer.
I was one of a noble's possessions. I could neither resist nor find salvation.
Every day passed in numbness beneath the whip. Every day I lived in resentment and despair.
I cursed the injustice of this world, and I cursed the father and mother I had never met.
But..."
As she spoke, the girl straightened up, spread her arms, and slowly embraced the youth, resting her head on his shoulder.
She felt his warmth, his familiar scent, and his heart beating faster.
"Now, I'm grateful to this world, and I'm grateful to the parents who cruelly abandoned me.
I'm grateful to them for bringing you to my side.
And thank you, Xia.
Thank you for saving me..."
The girl's words set the youth's heart ablaze.
The worry in his eyes had vanished, replaced by a brilliant gleam!
The stars in the night sky shone so brightly that they could have turned the night into day!
The trembling immortal mountains now stood steadily in the sky.
And somehow, they were accompanied by the resounding, sonorous music of the immortals!
Cranes danced through the clouds, and rainbow bridges linked one floating island to another!
This was a true paradise on earth.
As the girl finished speaking, a cage deep in her memories, bound by several battered iron chains, clicked open.
All her memories of the past came flooding back, one after another.
The face of the youth she had once been able to see, feel, and hear, yet had never been able to meet, finally appeared before her.
"So it really was you, Xia..."
She looked at the face that had kept her from sleeping peacefully so many times, then reached out and touched the face that had made her suffer for a "lifetime."
Her sigh expressed not only relief, but also the deep satisfaction of having the thing she trusted most answer her with all it had.
"Xia, there's one more thing I want to tell you. But it's not something King Arthur wants to say—it's something the girl named Artoria wants to tell you."
"What is it?" Xia replied cheerfully, still savoring his happiness.
The pink lips that had drawn close to Xia's ear parted slightly.
The lover-like whisper made Xia's blissful expression freeze in an instant.
Then his eyes rolled back, and he fainted in his chair, foaming at the mouth...
He kept spitting foam as he muttered,
"Too... too... urp... ex... urp... citing... ugh!"
The Hero King and the Conqueror King were both startled to see Xia suddenly turn out like this.
What could she have said to turn someone whose heart had been blooming with happiness just moments ago into someone who looked close to death?
The two kings looked suspiciously at the Knight King, who stood nearby with a flushed face.
"I don't know!"
The Knight King's answer left the two kings helplessly looking at each other.
Then they went back to drinking and eating, ignoring this troublesome pair of royal "lovers."
Only Artoria helplessly knelt beside Xia, cradled his head in her lap, and gently wiped his face with a damp tissue.
As Artoria gazed at Xia's face, his eyes still rolled back and foam still spilling from his mouth,
she couldn't help smiling.
"Fool..."
Hero King: Hey, hey! Why did the Conqueror King and I barely appear at all in this chapter?!
Conqueror King: Exactly!
Jiutian Palace: Shut up! You're just cannon fodder who'll get taken out by Xia sooner or later! If you've got a problem, go complain to "Mirror Flower, Water Moon"! He said he couldn't feel the love, so I went and wrote this special chapter!
Mirror Flower, Water Moon: I posted my own thread! My opinions! My freedom!
Gates of Babylon!
Army of the King!
A group brawl began...~~
{I had to go to all that trouble because of you...}
Next chapter! The prelude to the big brawl!
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