Chapter 60: The Broken Pendragon -1-
From the darkness came the sound of trudging, stumbling footsteps.
It was Princess Knight Lily, clad in pure white dress armor. Her green eyes flickered wildly between Merlin’s parrot and Gareth, as if she could hardly believe what she was hearing.
“Big Brother has… really come back from another world?”
[Oops. This is awkward.]
“Ah. We’ve been found out, haven’t we?”
Merlin’s parrot and Gareth glanced at each other in panic, then sighed and cleared their throats in resignation.
Lily let Caliburn slip from her grasp to clatter against the floor, then, her face as pale as death, strode up to them.
“Answer me!! Is it true that Big Brother really has come back?! And… Gareth. You killed the messenger? To stop the news of Brother’s return… is any of this true?!”
The Lily who was usually polite and gentle had vanished. Her voice was a tortured rasp, trembling with fury and bitterness as if she were coughing up blood.
Gareth averted her eyes and scratched her head awkwardly.
“Ehehe… well, if you’ve found out, there’s no help for it. Yes, it’s true. Merlin told me to do it, so I killed him. Lily, don’t be so mad~ It’s all for the sake of Britain, right?”
[Ahem! Lily, calm yourself. Yes, it’s true that Kay has come back. But we cannot let Artoria learn of his existence just yet.]
Merlin brazenly spoke through the parrot’s mouth. Lily clenched her teeth so hard her lip split and bled under the force of her rising anger.
“Why on earth…?! Do you bear some grudge against Sister Artoria?! You know how hellish the time has been since we lost Big Brother… How could you do this!”
[A grudge? Perish the thought. I cherish and depend on the King more than anyone. It is true that Artoria has been disappointingly weak of late—but still!]
The parrot hopped briskly along its perch and declared firmly, [Logres will soon be formally established as a kingdom, and the great capital of Camelot is on the verge of completion. At such a crucial moment, imagine if Kay appeared. Artoria might just fling aside her holy sword, ignore her crown, and dash into Kay’s arms. We must absolutely not allow that.]
They intended to stall for a few more days, keeping Kay’s existence secret until Camelot and the systems of Logres could bind Artoria in the unbreakable chains of a monarch’s duty.
It was a shallow and cruel calculation: once she was firmly entrenched on the throne, even if Kay did appear, Artoria would be unable to relinquish her crown.
[But if you truly wish to see your brother, then let us set conditions.]
Merlin, having been discovered, decided to cut the tail to save the dog—preventing Lily from informing Artoria by placating her. Or rather, "co-opting" her would be more accurate.
Of course, if he were to literally cut Artoria's tail, the phrase would be fitting.
Purple mana shimmered in midair, and a magical contract scroll—a Self-Geass Scroll—fell neatly before Lily’s eyes.
[Sign this Geass. There are two conditions: First, you shall reveal nothing of Kay’s return or whereabouts to Artoria or any of Arthur’s knights. Second, even if you meet Kay, you must remain utterly silent about the desperate state of Arthur’s army and the fact that I intercepted the messenger.]
“…So this is how far you’ll go, just to buy time.”
Lily gazed down at the Geass Scroll lying at her feet.
A flicker of intense turmoil crossed her eyes. The moment she signed this contract, she would be completely betraying her elder sister—the only one who had stood by her side through life and death for five long years.
But…
“Very well. I will sign.”
Without a moment’s hesitation, Lily seized the pen and wrote her name across the scroll. Her decision came so swiftly and blindly that even Merlin was visibly taken aback.
[Wait, Lily. Isn’t this too fast? You care for Artoria more than anyone. Are you really going to betray your sister so easily… all for that one man?]
“Yes. I… I’m just tired of it all now.”
Lily managed a hollow, sorrowful smile that rang utterly empty.
“Five years. For five years, I’ve done whatever it took behind my sister’s back, spattering my hands with blood I never wanted—haven’t I done enough? Anyway, in a few days, the news of Brother’s return will reach her ears. Just a few days… surely I can at least be the first to meet him, to be held in his arms and find solace? Honestly, I’m exhausted from staying here. What kind of 'Holy Capital' is this, when the inside is a rotten hell?”
The voice Lily used to rationalize her actions no longer belonged to a sane mind.
The five-year void had long since corrupted the pure lily into a broken, obsessive shell, consumed by a pathological fixation on Kay.
Gareth blinked innocently and asked,
“Lady Lily… do you perhaps regret staying here instead of leaving with the army to search for Sir Kay, like the other sisters did?”
Feeling the crimson chains of the Geass magic entwine around her, Lily answered hollowly,
“…A little. No, an awful lot. Even if I hadn’t found him, I would have suffered far less.”
[…Ruthless. Very well, the contract stands. Kay is at the North Wales keep—or rather, he’ll be returning there shortly. If you leave now, you should arrive just in time.]
“North Wales…!”
Upon hearing her destination, Lily didn’t glance back. She had no intention of returning to the barracks to bid farewell to Artoria or gather her belongings.
If she tried to say goodbye and Artoria caught her, she might trigger the curse of the Geass.
Lily ran straight to the stables, mounted her white steed, and, driven by nothing but her obsessive desperation to reach Kay, plunged into the pitch-black northern night without any escort.
The next morning, Arthur’s camp was thrown into turmoil.
“Your Majesty!! It’s terrible! Lady Lily… Lady Lily is missing! Her white steed has vanished from the stables!”
Goplet, his face ashen, burst into Artoria’s tent to report.
“…What do you mean? Lily has vanished? She wasn’t out on patrol?”
Artoria, hollow-eyed from a sleepless night after last evening’s "stone-powder mashed potato" incident, looked at Goplet in bewilderment.
“We’ve searched every inch, but there’s no sign of her. Her things are still here in the tent—only her horse is gone. By all indications, she deserted the camp during the night.”
Desertion.
The word struck Artoria like a thunderclap.
“Lily… ran away, leaving me behind?”
Artoria stared blankly into the empty air.
When Kay had gone missing, the other sisters had each chosen their own paths, but Lily was the sole pillar who had remained at her side, the only one supporting her. And yet, even Lily could not endure this living hell and had finally abandoned her.
“Ha… hahaha… Puhahahahaha!!!”
A hollow, broken laugh escaped Artoria’s lips, sounding like a puppet with its strings cut.
The last flicker of vitality in her eyes vanished completely. The sound of her psyche fracturing echoed through the camp.
“Your Majesty! Your Majesty?! Are you alright?!”
Goplet and the knights shouted in panic, but Artoria merely stared into the void with empty pupils, laughing hysterically.
The mind of the great King Arthur was now falling into an irreversible abyss of collapse.
At the same time.
Having completed all their missions in Ireland, Kay and his party were flying through the sky once more.
“Phew~ This should be enough to get us to North Wales without any problems.”
Thanks to the overnight efforts of Caster and the servant Tamamo, the buoyancy device and deck of the Ehangwen—which had been smashed by Grandotte’s lightning—had been roughly repaired.
The Ehangwen turned its bow toward North Wales, crossing the Celtic Sea.
On the deck of the Ehangwen,
Kay stood side-by-side with Britomart, feeling the cool sea breeze.
“I will disembark briefly when the Ehangwen stops at North Wales, and then I shall return immediately to Cleopolis, the Fairy Kingdom where my liege, Queen Gloriana, resides.”
She looked up at Kay with a gaze full of sincerity.
“Sir Kay. And everyone else. You are great benefactors who helped me with my mission and saved Ireland. Please, once you have returned to North Wales and finished your preparations… would you consider visiting our Fairy Kingdom, Cleopolis?”
“An invitation to the Fairy Kingdom?”
“Yes. The Queen also loves welcoming heroes. I wish to report the full details to her personally and arrange a proper reward and banquet befitting your achievements.”
At Britomart’s polite invitation, Kay stroked his chin, lost in thought.
In truth, he had absolutely no interest in rewards like gold, jewels, or fame. However, one word flashed vividly in his mind.
'The Fairy Kingdom… It must be piled high with mysterious and fantastic unknown ingredients that don't exist in Britain, right?'
Kay’s eyes began to gleam with gluttony and curiosity. As a chef, he could not miss the opportunity to explore a new world of gastronomy.
“Alright. A banquet in the Fairy Kingdom sounds very tempting. Once I arrive in North Wales and unpack, I’ll definitely make a visit soon.”
“Really?! The Queen will surely be delighted!”
Britomart’s face lit up.
“Though associating with fairies isn't exactly a great choice,” Medusa remarked, knowing all too well the nature of fairies. Caster, who shared that knowledge, gave an awkward laugh.
“He’s hitting on women again.”
“Eh? Was that flirting?!”
“Man, it’s like looking at my younger self. That man flirts as naturally as he breathes. Look at him—even his expression is seductive.”
“He is certainly hot, though.”
Kay could hear every word of the conversation between Jeanne d’Arc Alter and Artoria X, and he let out a quiet sigh in his heart.
Comments (0)
Please log in to leave a comment. Login or Register