The deepest, warmest room in Nogares Castle.
Outside, winter winds still howled in the cold, but Artoria's bedchamber was filled with gentle warmth.
"Here, Artoria. One more bite. You need to eat plenty of seaweed soup. It clears the blood and helps the milk come in well."
I lifted the spoon myself and carefully fed Artoria the seaweed soup that had been simmered down nice and rich.
"Mm... it's delicious, Brother. But it's a little embarrassing when you feed me yourself every time, as if I don't have hands."
Artoria mumbled with her cheeks flushed pink.
"What's there to be embarrassed about? You just accomplished the greatest thing in the world. It's only natural for you to rest and be taken care of."
I gently brushed back Artoria's disheveled blond hair, then turned toward Mordred, sleeping softly in her cradle.
Just looking at her sleeping there, smacking her tiny lips, made all my stress melt away like snow, and a foolish smile kept slipping out.
Just then, the door opened and Morgan and Merlin entered the room.
"Honestly, it's an astonishing sight every time I see it."
With her arms folded, Morgan let out a short laugh as she looked back and forth between the soup bowl in my hand and the cradle.
"I understand cherishing your child, but you are the king of a nation. To cast aside your duties as king and devote yourself only to raising an infant and tending your wife after childbirth... Shouldn't you leave childcare to the attendants and wet nurses and return to the throne to handle affairs of state?"
At her reproach, I set down the soup bowl and snorted.
"Before I'm a king, I'm this child's father and the head of this household. The moment I start acting proud about juggling state affairs and childcare, that means even a single second gets taken away from the time I should be giving my wife and child. I won't allow that."
I gave Morgan a flat, chilly look.
"And how much care did you put into raising your own children, exactly, to be saying that?"
"...I left them to the attendants."
Having been struck right in the sore spot, Morgan's face flushed bright red. Back when she had not been in her right mind, she had all but neglected her children as they were raised.
She had found stability now by my side, but that did not mean I could praise the way she had raised them in the past.
Even so, Morgan did not back down and instead lifted her chin stiffly.
"Th-that is simply how royal custom works! Leaving royal children to attendants is common sense not only in Britain, but in every royal house on the continent!"
Merlin, standing beside her, nodded and joined in.
"Morgan's right about that, Arthur. You're the unusual case here. For royalty, strict duty as king and heir comes before parental affection. A king who changes diapers himself and cooks soup to feed his family like you? There probably hasn't been another one in all of human history."
Faced with the two women teaming up on me, I let out a laugh of disbelief.
"And that's exactly why those glorious royal bastards ruin their children and drive entire kingdoms into the ground."
I stood with my back to the cradle and rebuked them coldly.
"Do you think history only has one or two kings who got stabbed in the back and murdered by their own children? Or countries that burned to ashes in civil war over succession? It all happens because parents throw the love and education their children should rightfully receive onto attendants and raise them half-assedly from the surface. So what if they're great heroes and kings? If they can't even manage their own family, their own children, and their house gets smashed to pieces, how the hell are they supposed to rule the world?"
Look at Emperor Wen of Sui, the man who unified the Sui dynasty. He pacified a chaotic age, yet failed to see through the psychopathic nature of his own son and ended up murdered by that very son in his old age.
And that son drained the strength of the unified empire trying to crush another country, Goguryeo, got utterly wrecked, and brought the whole nation to ruin. No matter how great a king is, if he fails at raising his children, everything goes to shit in an instant.
The history of Joseon was no different.
Even King Sejong ultimately failed to properly shape Sejo's character. Sejo showed ambition as early as King Munjong's reign, to the point rumors spread that he had intended for Munjong to die of illness, and in the end it gave birth to the bloody tragedy of him killing his young nephew Danjong and usurping the throne.
The more royal the bloodline, the more they need endless parental attention, discipline, and overwhelming love. Even the great King Sejong had regrets when it came to raising his children.
Of course, part of the problem was that Sejo took after his grandfather, but even Taejong had never done anything that insane.
Morgan and Merlin did not argue any further. Morgan looked at Mordred, who was also her child, with complicated eyes, held Mordred's hand for a moment, and then left.
After that, I held a grand festival and banquet to celebrate Mordred's birth, and declared the day she was born a national holiday.
"Hehe... Brother, you dote on Mordred so much I'm starting to get jealous myself."
Though Artoria felt a little wistful inside that all attention had gone to our daughter, she was looking at Mordred with a happier expression than anyone else in the world.
"Jealous of what? You'll always be my number one."
I lightly kissed Artoria on the forehead, and at the time I truly believed those peaceful, warm days would last forever.
Then one day, while we were raising Mordred like a precious jewel—
A heavy, chilling tension settled over the audience chamber of peaceful Nogares Castle.
Elder druids and high-ranking magi gathered from all across North Wales, along with ministers who should have been discussing matters of state, were kneeling before me.
At the very front stood Merlin, wearing an extremely troubled expression.
"Your Majesty... please quell your anger and hear the words of the gods!"
The white-haired archdruid struck his forehead against the floor and spoke in a trembling voice.
"Princess Mordred, born of Your Majesty's bloodline... most lamentably, she was born under a star that defies heaven itself! The course of the stars and the leylines of Magecraft both point to a single tragedy. One day, that child will kill the king and bring Britain to ruin. She is the seed of treason!"
The air in the audience chamber froze cold.
My eyes sank into a bleak stillness. Displeasure boiled up from the pit of my stomach.
"Did you just say that... about my daughter?"
At my low, growling voice, the ministers shrank like leaves trembling in the wind. But they did not retreat, and instead turned pleading eyes toward Merlin.
Scratching her head awkwardly, Merlin stepped forward.
"Ahaha... sorry, Arthur. At first I thought it was just the old men's senility too. But when I used astrology to read the causal threads of the future... Mordred's inborn fate really does end in Britain's destruction and the king's death."
Once even Merlin gave a definite answer, the ministers grew bolder still.
"Your Majesty! For the safety of Britain, you must make a decision at once! You must not let private affection bind you and leave a future catastrophe unchecked!"
Listening to the ministers' chorus, I slowly lowered my head and let out a deep sigh.
"Haa......"
I had never imagined the retainers I trusted enough to entrust with a pillar of the kingdom could be this stupid and foolish.
"Do any of you know Oedipus, king of Greece?"
Silence spread through the audience chamber at my abrupt question. I continued in a low voice so cold it chilled the bone.
"Oedipus, the wise hero who solved the Sphinx's riddle, and a great king. Yet he struggled desperately to escape a prophecy of ruin. But every decision he made, every action he took to avoid that prophecy, became another cog that perfectly fulfilled it. In the end, he gouged out his own eyes and met a miserable end."
I glared at the kneeling ministers one by one.
"History and myth are overflowing with cases like that. You want to stop a prophecy? Because of that pitiful prophecy, are you telling me to cut off the head of my own daughter, who's still nursing in her cradle, or cast her away?"
"Y-Your Majesty! Th-that is true loyalty for Britain's sake! Sacrifice is unavoidable..."
Crack!!
The archdruid had not even finished speaking.
The massive throne I sat upon began to split with a hideous crack.
"...Loyalty?"
As I slowly rose from my seat, a vast blood-red shadow tore through space and surged up behind me.
The shape of a red dragon.
The overwhelming wave of mana and murderous intent that seemed ready to stop their breathing swallowed the audience chamber—no, the entire royal castle—like a tidal wave.
"Kgh...! Hhk...!!"
"Aaaagh...!"
No one could breathe.
The ministers crawled across the floor, coughing up blood as if their lungs were being crushed, and even Merlin had gone pale, bracing herself on her staff just to remain standing. It was the manifestation of Mystery so overwhelming that it crushed everything in its path.
"Must I truly tear your limbs to pieces and exterminate your three clans—no, your nine clans—down to the last seed before you stop spouting this kind of bullshit?"
My voice was no longer human. It was the voice of a demon king pronouncing the end of the world, mixed with a dragon's roar.
"Do I need to drag in every one of your neighbors and relatives, fry them to death in boiling oil, and lay curses on your bloodline for generations before you understand what I'm saying?!"
The marble floor of the audience chamber shattered under the pressure of my mana.
"Before I am Britain's king, I am Mordred's father. Do you want me to kick aside this damned throne right now and become a butcher who slaughters every last one of you?!"
Under that savage pressure, not one of them dared open their mouth. They could only press their heads to the floor and tremble in terror.
"Under the excuse of some pathetic prophecy, do you not know what horrific ruin befell King Conchobar of old Ulster when he tried to prevent Deirdre's prophecy? Have you forgotten how Cronus swallowed his own children to avoid the prophecy that they would take his throne, only to be cut down in the end by Zeus?"
I raised my hand as if drawing a sword.
"Even gods met destruction trying to escape such pitiful prophecies, and you dare advise me to kill my child over a few stars in the sky and call that loyalty?!"
As my killing intent reached its peak, the pillars of the audience chamber began to scream.
"My mercy ends here."
Suppressing the red dragon's aura by the slightest degree, I pronounced judgment in an icy voice.
"For today, I will spare your lives for Merlin's sake alone. But remember this well."
My reddened eyes drove into the crowns of the prostrate ministers' heads.
"If, from this day forward, even one person in this kingdom dares slander my daughter Mordred as a seed of treason or put such ominous prophecies into words... I will not search for the one who spread the rumor. I will hold all of you here responsible for failing to stop it, and I will exterminate every member of your families without leaving a single one alive."
The ministers' hearts dropped.
"You want to prevent the prophecy from being fulfilled? Then make sure Mordred never harbors a treasonous heart. You yourselves will step forward, uphold that child as the most noble and praised sage king in this world, and protect her. Your lifelines now depend on my daughter's reputation."
The king's absolute threat.
"Does it feel unfair? This is the disaster and curse you brought upon yourselves. It is the result of what you chose, so accept it. If you cannot, then try raising rebellion against me yourselves. Unlike Erin, you have no geas binding you. If you have the confidence, then do it. Every last one who takes part will have their nine clans exterminated and be erased from history."
The ministers had now become shields who, if they wished to survive, would have no choice but to voluntarily defend Mordred's existence and desperately protect her from every slander in the world.
"Get out."
At my single word, the ministers, pale as death, crawled away and fled the audience chamber.
Heavy silence fell over the hall.
I steadied my rough breathing and leaned back against the throne once more. The phantom of the red dragon writhing behind me slowly faded away as well.
"Hoo......"
With a gesture, I shut the doors firmly, then jerked my head toward Merlin, who was standing there blankly.
"Merlin. Come here."
Merlin crept toward me hesitantly, watching my mood. Even the succubus who was usually so relaxed and overflowing with ease looked visibly tense before the pure, unfiltered killing intent of the red dragon I had just unleashed.
Without a word, I raised my hand and flicked a finger at Merlin's white forehead.
Flick!
"Ow!"
Clutching her forehead with both hands, Merlin looked up at me with tears welling in her eyes.
"Don't ever say that kind of nonsense about my daughter again."
I relaxed my stiff expression, returned to my usual tone, and gave her a light warning.
"Prophecy? Fate? I'll cut all that shit down myself. You just stay by my side and do your job properly as my kingmaker and wife."
"Ugh... okay, I'm sorry, Arthur."
Rubbing her reddened forehead, Merlin meekly backed down.
"Seriously... for a moment there, I thought you were really going to turn all of Britain into ashes. That's the first time I've ever seen you release killing intent that sincerely."
"Anyone who messes with my family doesn't get a pass, not even from a god."
I let out a faint laugh and rose from my seat.
No matter what fate or prophecy this world might hold, I would never allow Mordred to become the miserable traitor of the original history.
I will protect my family.
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