The moment he emerged from the spacetime tunnel leading back to the present world, what stung Arthur's nose was not dense mana.
It was the reek of despair and blood, thick enough to taste.
"Arthur...!"
In the underground corridor of Eden's royal castle, the first to come running at the sound of the door opening was Morgan.
The cool, dignified witch she usually was had vanished without a trace. Bloody tears streamed endlessly from her eyes, and her snow-white cheeks had gone deathly pale.
Almost like a beast, Morgan burrowed into Arthur's arms and clung to him tightly. Her slender body was trembling like an aspen leaf.
"S-Sister? What's wrong? What happened...?"
As Arthur, flustered, tried to soothe her, Merlin, who had been standing behind them, approached with every trace of her usual smile erased from her face.
Merlin too was anxiously fidgeting with her staff while muttering an incantation Arthur did not recognize.
"Thank goodness you're safe, Arthur. Thank goodness, truly."
Merlin came up behind Arthur as well and wrapped him in a deep embrace. At the abnormal obsession and relief shown by the two women, Arthur instinctively understood.
'If I'd died in the Land of Shadows, or failed to come back... the world really would have been completely fucked. The weight of my life feels even heavier now.'
Arthur patted Morgan's trembling back and calmed her down.
"I'm back."
Then Merlin murmured softly with her face buried against Arthur's chest.
"The seal... the red dragon seal I placed on you has come undone."
Merlin lifted her head and looked up at the far denser mana now filling Arthur.
"Did you undo it through a new bond you found in there? So in the end, you chose that path, Arthur?"
That path meant abandoning the peaceful restraints of being human and stepping onto the road of a monster that surpassed even divine and demonic beings.
"I hate half-measures. Whether it's power, desire, or the things I have to protect. If I wanted to seize them for certain, this was the only way."
At Arthur's proud answer, Merlin let out a small sigh, then soon showed her usual irritating smile.
"Haa... that really is just like you. You little tyrant king."
Meanwhile, the breathing of Morgan, still in Arthur's arms, began to grow ragged.
Black demonic energy slowly rose from her body, and the tips of her beautiful hair were turning an ominous ash-gray.
"Kh... Arthur..."
Her only stabilizer, Arthur, had vanished before her eyes beyond an unknown door, and this was not Britain. Because of that, the curse within her, the process of turning into a fairy revenant, had begun advancing rapidly.
"Breathe, Sister."
Without hesitation, Arthur cupped Morgan's cheeks and kissed her cold lips deeply.
It was not merely an expression of affection. With the seal undone, he could now perfectly control the vast, warm yang energy of the red dragon, and this was a direct supply of mana into her body through saliva as the medium.
"Mm... ah..."
As the red dragon's mana flowed through her blood vessels, Morgan's rough breathing gradually steadied. The hair that had been turning gray returned to its dazzling silver, and the bloody tears at the corners of her eyes stopped as well.
When he pulled his lips away, Arthur firmly caught her as her strength gave out and she nearly collapsed.
"This won't be easy. I'll have to tear this problem out by the root soon enough too."
Making that firm vow inwardly, Arthur raised the spoils he had brought back from the Land of Shadows with his other hand.
It was Grandote's grotesque severed head, blood still dripping from it.
"All right, that's enough of this tearful reunion. Shall we go finish this boring conquest of Ireland already?"
When Arthur came up from underground and threw Grandote's severed head out beyond the terrace of Eden's royal castle, the course of the war ended in an instant.
The gigantic beast Twrch Trwyth had already been slain by the combined assault of Barghest, Britomart, and Talos.
Having lost both their mighty backing and their leader at once, the remnants under Grandote threw down their weapons in despair and surrendered.
After declaring the conquest of the Kingdom of Eden, Arthur left administration and postwar cleanup to Merlin, Oda Nobunaga, and Stheno, then immediately moved on to his next action.
"I don't want to waste time unifying some barren island nation like this. I need to finish quickly and get back to Artoria in Britain, so I'll do this in the most direct and fastest way possible."
Arthur's war of conquest was, in every sense, like a storm.
First, he struck the inland great power that had openly declared its hostility: the Kingdom of Mide.
Instead of leading an army into a siege, Arthur used the red dragon's [Mana Burst] and [Shukuchi] to tear through the barrier of Mide's royal castle alone and force his way inside.
Then he took the heads of King Lugaid and his close attendants in a single stroke while they sat upon the throne.
Once the king's and the leadership's severed heads were displayed before the castle gates, the army of the Kingdom of Mide declared surrender without even managing to fight.
This overwhelming and brutal display of force planted immense terror throughout all of Ireland.
The youthful king who had killed Rience, made the Kingdom of Munster a vassal state, occupied the Kingdom of Eden, and erased the leadership of the Kingdom of Mide in a single night.
Upon hearing those rumors, Ulster in the north and the Kingdom of Leinster in the east hurriedly sent envoys and chose unconditional peaceful submission.
Only the Kingdom of Connacht in the west tried to preserve its last shred of pride by organizing a resistance force, but when Arthur sent Ushiwakamaru and Barghest at the forefront and butchered their main army in a single day, they too finally tucked their tails and stamped their seal onto the surrender document.
"So the only thing left is the Kingdom of Dál Riata, holding the northeastern coast and western Pictland."
Arthur thoroughly ravaged only Dál Riata's territory located in Ireland.
Their vaunted supreme naval fleet was reduced to ashes and sank beneath the sea before the golden lightning of Chrysaor wielded by Arthur and the mana bombardment of Morgan and Medea.
"As for the remnants of Dál Riata attached to the main island of Britain, I'll deal with them later when I return, together with the Picts."
After forcing all of Ireland to its knees, Arthur summoned every representative and soldier of every nation to the grand square of the Kingdom of Mide.
He did not do anything so naive as showing mercy just because they had declared surrender.
Through Morgan's fairy eyes, Arthur rooted out the false surrenderers who outwardly submitted while inwardly plotting rebellion.
"Drag them out."
At that single cold command from Arthur, hundreds of nobles and generals were beheaded on the spot, and their heads were hung up.
There was no mercy, and no such thing as chivalry. The honor of enemy commanders? Those who stood in the way of a new age could go on preserving their convictions in the land of the dead.
The square shook with the stench of blood, and only those whose spirits were completely broken, who truly prostrated themselves, were allowed to keep their lives.
And then Arthur announced the ultimate coercive measure that would drive the final wedge into his rule over Ireland.
"From this day forward, every regular military force in Erin, and every person who bears arms, will enter into a geis."
A geis.
In Celtic mythology, an oath and curse of absolute binding force.
The terms of the geis Arthur imposed were extremely simple and clear.
[If one commits malicious hostile acts against Arthur Pendragon, or attempts rebellion under the pretext of righteousness or any other cause, it shall be deemed a violation of the geis.]
This oath, engraved upon the level of soul and concept, was terrifyingly precise.
If someone merely harbored hostile feelings toward Arthur or slandered him, a few fingers would be paralyzed, leaving them unable to hold a weapon. If they tried to make a concrete attempt at rebellion, their arms and legs would be crippled.
And the moment they actually took up arms to rise in rebellion, the curse of the geis would activate, causing their heart to burst on the spot and killing them instantly.
It was not a physical curse, but a conceptual one.
Arthur roughly judged it to be something similar to Angra Mainyu's [Verg Avesta].
"Impossible...! To do something this devilish...!"
"This is the same as making us eternal slaves!"
At the compulsory demand for a geis, anxiety and dissatisfaction erupted among the soldiers and nobles.
Standing on the platform, Arthur gave a derisive snort.
"Why? It's a curse that won't even activate unless you rebel, so what exactly are you so unhappy about? Were you all planning to stab me in the back whenever the chance came? Are all of you counterrevolutionaries?"
At Arthur's icy question, the square fell silent as if cold water had been thrown over it.
"If you hate swearing it that much, then take off your uniform right now and stop being soldiers. Whether you farm or trade, I'll gladly arrange plenty of other work for you. But if you're going to hold a weapon and take wages under me, then this geis is not a choice. It's an obligation."
At that resolute declaration, everyone became speechless.
In the end, the soldiers, forced to face reality, accepted the geis one by one, while some laid down their weapons and returned to their hometowns to avoid the oath.
Of course, there was one sole exception to this harsh collective geis: the Kingdom of Munster, which had been the first to send envoys and voluntarily declare itself a vassal state.
"See? In this world, being good at choosing which side to stand on is a talent too. Munster was simply wise, and so it doesn't have to pay the price."
With that, Ireland was placed completely under Arthur's control.
Once all matters had been concluded and they were preparing to board Prydwen again, Merlin casually asked,
"Arthur. Even if it was for the sake of control, engraving a geis onto people's souls will leave you recorded in later ages as a rather vicious tyrant, you know? The moral backlash will be severe too."
"Backlash? If some bastard starts backlashing, that bastard is a counterrevolutionary, so I just root him out and kill him."
As he packed his things, Arthur answered without batting an eye.
"A rebellion has to be trampled out while it's still a sprout. I'm not going to end up like the French, getting my head chopped off on a guillotine in the name of revolution. If they rise up crying revolution, then all that'll happen is everything gets drowned in blood."
"...France? Revolution? What are you talking about?"
Merlin tilted her head, unable to know the future knowledge Arthur possessed, but instead of answering, Arthur only grinned.
"It's simple. Sterilize the seeds of rebellion from the outset with overwhelming power and fear, and in exchange, fill the people's bellies with benevolent administration and overwhelming welfare. Then the people themselves will start thinking, 'In a country this excellent and this full, the bastards trying to start a rebellion are treacherous dogs who deserve to be beaten to death.'"
A ruthlessly practical imperial mindset, combining violent military control with populism.
"That old man Iskandar was the same. He was endlessly generous to those who surrendered of their own accord, but the cities of those who stubbornly resisted to the end out of pride, he burned them all down and massacred them. Human history proves that's the most efficient kingly path for a conqueror."
That was how Iskandar, called the King of Conquerors, and Genghis Khan built their empires, forcing countless nations and peoples into submission.
It was not easy to call that method righteous, but at the same time, it was undeniably an efficient way to uproot and erase those who challenged royal authority.
And Arthur, even if he called himself little different from a tyrant, was also someone who valued people and would treat those under him well, feeding them until they were full.
Of course, anyone who started entertaining other thoughts or began to grow corrupt would be crushed.
Human history had already proven countless times how nations were ruined by corrupt officials. Even the chaos of the Three Kingdoms had begun with the corruption of officials.
"Haa... honestly, you're only a child on the outside. Inside, you're basically an old demon king."
As Merlin shrugged, Arthur stepped onto the deck of Prydwen and looked across the sea toward Britain.
"All right, the work is done. Time to return home, where my lovely little sister is waiting."
The golden sail swelled wide as it drank in the sea wind.
The incarnation of the red dragon had finally raised anchor for his return to Britain.
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