The Blessing of a Mother

"Blessing?"

Scathach gazed deeply at Leon.

Merlin rarely got to hear Leon talk about his past, especially when it involved family, and immediately perked up. "Who was the king's mother?"

At the mention of his mother, Leon's expression softened. "My mother was a lion. She was probably a spirit, a Fairy, or some kind of phantasmal beast. When she found me in the forest, I was still a baby. She fed me, raised me, and taught me to hunt so I could survive on my own in this world."

Lancelot thought back to what Leon had just said. The mention of his mother "leaving" troubled him. "I wonder how the king's mother is now..."

"When I was eight, she left me and went underground."

Leon's tone was unchanged, but Lancelot, whose feelings were sincere, trembled inside. He realized he'd said the wrong thing and touched on Leon's grief.

"...Please accept my condolences, my king."

Merlin put on a sorrowful expression too, his voice gentle. "Ah, my king, please accept my condolences..."

"What are you two talking about?"

Leon stared at them in confusion, as if he'd just awakened The Almighty. For a moment, he couldn't figure out what had gotten into them.

Thinking back over what he'd said, he quickly realized they'd misunderstood him.

"I think you two have the wrong idea. When I said my mother went underground, I meant she went beneath the surface—to what people call the reverse side of the world, the Inner Sea of the Planet."

They were now in an echo of the Age of Gods, and in that era, "underground" often meant the underworld. Merlin and Lancelot had both immediately assumed Leon's mother was dead.

But Leon had meant literally beneath the earth. He remembered a dragon in Britain that planned to dig through the layers of the earth and return to the Inner Sea of the Planet. That dragon had also given birth to a female Fairy named... Me... Melusine...

Looking at the Knight of the Lake before him, Leon suddenly remembered: that Fairy's name had also been Lancelot!

The moment Lancelot realized that his words had made it sound as if the king's mother had died, he dropped to one knee, filled with remorse. "Please punish me, my king. I misunderstood your words and spoke so treasonously."

"There's no need for that, Sir Lancelot. This was my fault too. I didn't explain myself clearly."

Leon helped Lancelot up and repeatedly tried to reassure him.

Lancelot was good in every way, except that he was so sincere he seemed almost too good to be true. As the saying went, great virtue could look like hypocrisy, and great loyalty like treachery—much like Elysia.

Merlin chimed in from the side. "That's right, that's right. It was the king's fault. He didn't explain himself clearly."

Leon knew Merlin was trying to help, but hearing him say that still left him oddly irritated. He glared at him.

"Merlin, I wish you had even a tenth of Sir Lancelot's sincerity."

"Haha, haha."

Merlin scratched his head and laughed awkwardly.

Scathach had stayed quiet. After studying Leon carefully for a while, she said with a strange look, "That's odd. I don't see any blessing on you at all, Leon."

"?"

Leon looked himself over. He couldn't use Magecraft and couldn't see anything, but he still questioned Scathach with certainty.

"Teacher, abilities like Clairvoyance can't see my past or future. You shouldn't be able to see anything at all."

Leon remembered that Scathach's Wisdom of the Abyss was similar to Clairvoyance. Even Merlin's highest-grade Clairvoyance couldn't see him, and neither should Scathach's.

Scathach shook her head. "That's one thing, and this is another. Clairvoyance simply can't observe your existence. But you're standing right in front of me now, so that's different. I still can't observe your future, but I can see you in the present with my own eyes."

Leon looked over at Merlin, who nodded.

"She's right."

When Leon was standing before him, Merlin could see what he looked like, the style of his clothes, his hair and eyes, and even his posture. He could see it all clearly.

As a mage, the first thing Merlin noticed when looking at someone was their condition: whether they were cursed or blessed, whether a magical nightmare clung to them... Their appearance came much later. It was instinctive for any mage.

When Leon had spoken, Merlin had noticed something strange too. But he hadn't said anything. Now that Scathach had brought it up, he could only admit it and nod at Leon's doubts.

"But that doesn't make sense. I saw my mother bless me with my own eyes. She wouldn't lie to me. How could it have disappeared now?"

Even now, Leon could clearly remember his mother, her whole body glowing with golden light as she blessed him.

Before meeting Artoria, he'd thought he was in the Warhammer World. He might have been a clueless fan, but what else could a talking lion that glowed golden and raised him have been in the Warhammer World?

Only after meeting Artoria had Leon learned he was in the Nasuverse. He still couldn't quite shake his lingering doubts, but for the most part, he believed it.

If this was the Nasuverse, then his mother was probably a Fairy, spirit, or phantasmal beast from the forest. Leon could also guess that she'd left because she couldn't adapt to the end of the Age of Gods and had chosen to go to the Inner Sea of the Planet to survive.

"My king, it's probably because your mother went to the Inner Sea of the Planet. The present world is the physical world. Though it shares the same planet, it is still a different world. And while this era is an echo of the Age of Gods, mystery is still declining. Perhaps the blessing on you disappeared along with it."

"Oh."

Leon nodded, lost in thought.

Though it wasn't a matter of life and death, his mother had still left him. That blessing had been something he could cherish as a reminder of her.

Now that it was gone, he couldn't help feeling a little hollow inside.

"I suppose that must be it."

He'd lived with his mother in the forest for eight years, never leaving it during that time.

Leon didn't think he was bad with directions. Even in a dangerous forest, he shouldn't have gotten lost for eight years.

As soon as his mother left, he walked out of the forest and met his father, Luther.

Luther was a good man and a worthy father. He treated Leon well, raised him, and made sure he studied and trained in martial arts.

His elder brother Joe was good to him too, always looking out for him and treating him as his own little brother.

His current wife, Morgan, was good to him too. So was Merlin, who aided him; Lancelot, whose loyalty was sincere; even Scathach, his new teacher... And his unborn child...

He'd drawn the Sword in the Stone and swept across Britain... Everything was good, perfectly to his liking.

As if he were a puppet in a play that had been rehearsed in advance.

...How irritating!

...Kill!

Leon was so irritated he wanted to destroy everything before him, to kill everyone on the planet—his father, brother, wife, ministers, soldiers, everyone.

Not one left alive.

But... his mother had raised him, after all.

His father and brother had used him to gain wealth and power, but their care and affection for him had been genuine.

His wife had wanted to kill him and take control of Britain, but he'd also coveted Morgan's beauty. Their political marriage served both their interests, and now his wife was carrying their child.

Merlin feared him and kept watch over him, but he also loyally supported him. Lancelot served him out of gratitude, while Scathach taught him in pursuit of her own desires...

This was the human world. Some relationships were driven by self-interest, others by sincere affection, and the two were tangled together until they were impossible to tell apart.

"I suppose that must be it."

Because Leon understood that what they wanted him to do was also what he himself wanted to do.

After this battle, Ireland had no strength left to resist, and Leon now had complete control over all three lands of Britain.

Before returning home, Leon received the fishermen who'd been conscripted and rewarded them generously.

During the crossing, Britain's fishermen had fought bravely, defeated Ireland's interception, and secured the first victory in the reconquest of Ireland.

Taking this opportunity, Leon officially authorized the formation of the British Navy, separate from the army. At first, it would have two thousand-man units. The most deserving fishermen would become noncommissioned officers, and young, able-bodied men would be selected from among the fishermen to fill the ranks.

Once all this was done, Leon didn't linger. He returned to his loyal Camelot.