Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

King Arthur returned to his throne. At his side stood the king's steward, Sir Bedivere, while Merlin the wizard sat nearby on a small stool, a wand in his hand.

Gawain was somewhat baffled by the sight. Though he had never seen Merlin cast a spell, common sense suggested that a great wizard of Merlin's caliber could cast magic with ease even without a wand. There was no need for magical combat at a courtly banquet, was there?

"Mr. Merlin, why did you bring your wand?"

Gawain could not help asking. Though he did not understand what was happening, his instincts told him that Merlin bringing his wand was clearly important.

"His Majesty's Knights of the Round Table may attend this banquet in armor and carry their own swords. As a wizard, my wand is no different from a weapon. Since the Knights of the Round Table may carry weapons, why should I surrender my own rights? Or do you think my status is beneath theirs?"

Merlin explained with a smile. His reasoning was perfectly clear, yet Gawain still felt that something was off.

The words were logical and beyond rebuttal. King Arthur had no objection to them either, making Gawain's question entirely unnecessary. Yet he knew very well what position Merlin held in Arthur's and the Round Table knights' hearts. Whether Merlin carried a wand or not would never affect that position, so there was no need for him to make a point of it to assert his status.

"Arthur, the performances may begin."

Sir Kay, King Arthur's Keeper of the Seal and chief minister, approached them. Clad in armor, Sir Kay was tall and powerfully built. From a distance, he looked like a bear. Dressed like that at a court banquet, he looked less like an attendee and more like a man on the battlefield.

When he came before King Arthur, Gawain saw a weathered face. This was a man with many stories to tell.

Sir Kay was Sir Ector's biological son, King Arthur's foster brother, and the Kingdom of Camelot's chief minister—the Lord Chancellor.

In the Merovingian Dynasty of the contemporary Kingdom of the Franks, a Lord Chancellor could reach the point of withholding the crown from kings, monopolizing power, and eventually usurping the throne. But Sir Kay's office had become little more than a title because King Arthur governed through the knightly order.

All major military and political affairs in the Kingdom of Camelot were discussed and decided at the Round Table Council. That meant neither the king nor the Lord Chancellor could monopolize power.

Though Sir Kay theoretically possessed authority second only to the king as Lord Chancellor, he was merely one member among the Knights of the Round Table. The knights had their own internal logic of power, and although Sir Kay ranked near the top among them, his standing was not particularly high compared to his ministerial office.

"I would like to hear the epic of our ancestor Brutus, of how he came to Britain and fought his way through the wilderness!"

King Arthur looked toward a blind bard. The white-haired old man sat on a stool, plucking at a lute, while a young girl beside him clutched the collar of her grandfather's clothes.

The old man was ready. The moment Sir Kay gave the order, he could begin playing.

Sir Kay's expression darkened. He looked at Bedivere beside King Arthur and saw him give a slight nod. He immediately understood and felt a little annoyed. Still, in a petulant tone, he said, "You are the king. Your word goes!"

The bard had originally been meant to sing the story of Alexander and Philip, a tale laden with admonition. Yet Arthur, as though he had foreseen it, wanted to change the subject midway.

"Sir, please sing us Brutus's epic!"

Sir Kay sat down in his seat in irritation. He had already decided that, no matter what, he would not speak to Arthur today. Bedivere was a traitor too.

King Arthur smiled helplessly. Queen Guinevere seemed accustomed to Sir Kay's temperament and merely smiled as well. At that moment, the bard began his song.

As the bard plucked his strings, a beautiful melody rose from his lips—a glorious and great history.

After Achilles, the great hero of Greece, slew Hector, commander of Troy, the outcome of the war seemed obvious. Even though Paris, another prince of Troy, killed Achilles, it did not restore Troy's victory in the war.

The great city of Troy was breached by the Greek coalition, and blood filled the entire city.

Thus, a great kingdom fell.

Yet the spark of that great kingdom was not extinguished.

Aeneas, the great Trojan hero and son of the mortal Anchises I and the goddess Aphrodite, escaped the city of Troy with the help of his divine mother Aphrodite.

Aeneas led Troy's surviving people in wandering across the land and established a new city-state in Italy called Lavinium. This was the predecessor of Rome, and Aeneas was the ancestor of the Romans.

As Gawain listened to the bard's song, the more he listened, the more wrong it sounded.

Aeneas was a prince of Trojan blood. In the age of the Greek city-states, kings usually had several sons. If a younger prince could not inherit the throne, he would often lead his people to a new land and establish a new city-state.

The Aeneid was a famous poem by the Roman poet Virgil. Its purpose was chiefly to praise Rome's glory and the hardships endured by its early kings in founding their state.

Brutus was Aeneas's grandson. Having committed patricide, he had no choice but to lead his brothers to a new land and found a nation. They came to the island of Albion, where all the inhabitants were savage giants.

The giants resisted these humans. Brutus fought and dueled them, eventually defeating them and establishing the Kingdom of Britain.

As Gawain listened to the bard recount the tale, he realized that the story of Troy and Aeneas was merely background. The true protagonist had been Trojan Brutus from the very beginning.

The more Gawain listened, the more horrified he became. A monstrous storm had already risen within his heart.

Gawain did not know much about King Arthur. His deepest impression came from an anime produced by some island nation, which portrayed King Arthur with the nickname "Blanket King."

Because of that anime's influence, even Gawain vaguely knew some of King Arthur's deeds, though not much.

King Arthur was a fictional figure in history—or more precisely, a figure from Celtic mythology who had been recorded as a historical person due to the political needs of British dynasties.

Mythological figures becoming historical ones for political reasons was not uncommon in world history.

Although King Arthur was fictional, the figure of "King Arthur" had prototypes.

Some said King Arthur was a Celt who resisted the Saxon invasion, modeled after the ancient Celtic queen Boudica.

Others claimed that King Arthur was modeled after Ambrosius, the "last Roman," a Roman general of British blood. This was the Roman-origin theory.

Likewise, there were also theories linking him to Charlemagne or Alfred the Great.

The various versions gave differing accounts of King Arthur's origins and the Kingdom of Camelot.

However, the most widely known version, one recognized by the British royal family and one Gawain had vaguely heard of in his previous life, was that King Arthur was a direct descendant of Jesus Christ.

In 1533, Henry VIII of England wished to divorce his queen and sire a prince. When he failed to obtain the Roman Pope's approval for the divorce, he directly declared a break with the Church.

"By divers sundry old authentic histories and chronicles, it is manifestly declared and expressed that this realm of England is an empire."

Henry VIII unearthed evidence from ancient documents and promulgated the Act in Restraint of Appeals, declaring that England, a Catholic nation, had separated from the Christian empire and become a new empire. He also founded the Anglican Church.

His reasoning was that, according to the legend of King Arthur, Arthur had once decisively defeated the Roman Emperor Lucius, fought all the way to Rome, and received investiture from the Roman Senate. He was proclaimed Emperor of Britain. Henry VIII used this as historical proof to declare, "England is an empire."

The king had no superior beneath God. As a descendant of King Arthur—and Jesus—the Roman Church had even less right to dictate terms to him.

An emperor was not merely a religious concept, but a theological one. The Roman Emperor was not only the sovereign of the Roman Empire, but also the ruler of the world.

The Roman Empire was a universal empire, and corresponding to the concept of a universal empire was that of universal ecclesiastical authority. It was for this reason that the Anglican Church possessed equal status with the Roman Church.

This was a rather famous historical event. Gawain had received quite an education on it from an anime about the scientific side and the magical side. It was also for this reason that he vaguely guessed what world he was in.

It was neither the most widespread version of Arthurian legend, compiled and written by Thomas Malory in Le Morte d'Arthur, nor the Camelot history of Type-Moon. It was one of the oldest versions.

Some traced King Arthur's ancestors to King Lear, others to David and King Solomon, and still others to Jesus Christ. Yet for Europeans obsessed with Rome, both England and France had once traced their origins back to Troy.

Why were King Arthur and Queen Guinevere so aged? Why was the brave and fearless Sir Lancelot absent from court at precisely this time? Because all of it was meant to highlight the true protagonist.

At King Arthur's New Year court banquet, Gawain's mother did not attend.

Why did Gawain have no other brothers? Why had King Arthur's nephew been him alone from beginning to end?

Gawain suddenly understood everything.

If the world of Arthurian legend were compared to the Marvel universe, King Arthur was the figure who linked together the legends of the various Round Table knights.

King Arthur was, of course, the unquestioned absolute protagonist of his own legend.

He was naturally one of the unquestioned protagonists in the main story of the Knights of the Round Table as well. Yet when it came to the stories centered on other Round Table knights, King Arthur had no choice but to serve as a supporting extra, like a figure who connected all the superheroes into one shared universe.

This was my world—Gawain's world—the world of the English alliterative poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. In this world, even King Arthur and knights like Lancelot had to make way for him.

So this was why Gawain was so weak.

Gawain parted his lips slightly and gave a bitter smile.

In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, although Gawain was one of the most important knights by King Arthur's side, the poem never emphasized his martial prowess. Instead, it emphasized that he was a fine knight, a knight of renown, honest and upright.

Put plainly, Gawain was King Arthur's nephew. He sat beside the king and queen, was honest and upright, handsome and renowned. Yet such a Gawain was not skilled in combat, nor did he possess the legendary might of the Sun Knight.

In legend, the Sun Knight Gawain possessed triple his fighting power whenever he basked in sunlight. Yet Gawain in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight did not have that ability.

In fact, in Gawain's legends, he often appeared as a Prince Charming figure, emphasizing his romantic love affairs with noble ladies rather than his combat ability.