By the time we came into southern Wales by land, our party finally found itself facing familiar walls. It was the Kingdom of Cameliard.
"This truly stirs the heart, my lord."
At the front, Ushiwakamaru rode her horse Usumidori and looked up at the walls with a faint smile.
"It feels like only yesterday that we were cutting down King Rience's army and taking the heads of beasts here, yet the season has already turned and snow is falling."
"It really has. Time moves fast."
I nodded as my breath fogged in the air.
Britomart, who had been looking around at our surroundings, spoke with visible curiosity.
"So this is Cameliard? For a country that suffered such a dreadful attack before, it looks lively and peaceful. That must be thanks to Your Highness saving it."
Just as she said, the moment we passed through the gates, the people of the city welcomed us with thunderous cheers.
At the return of the hero who had subjugated the rebel king Rience and even conquered Ireland, the people's eyes were filled with blind admiration and awe.
Inside the gate, King Leodegrance himself came out leading his royal guard to welcome me.
"Oh...! King Arthur! You have truly become Britain's great sun!"
King Leodegrance seized both my hands, his eyes glistening with emotional tears.
"To think you conquered Ireland! Surely even Uther in Annwn is shedding tears of joy as he witnesses Your Highness's achievements!"
Why should I care whether a man I've never even seen is happy or not? That inhuman bastard probably wouldn't be interested anyway.
That was what I thought inwardly, but on the outside I merely nodded with the smile of a noble king.
"Thank you, King Leodegrance. I am glad to see that you also appear to be in good health."
At that moment, Artoria, who had been standing behind me, stepped forward with Mordred wrapped in swaddling cloth in her arms.
"Oh, my! I had heard Uther's grandchild had already been born, but to think the bloodline would be this radiant."
King Leodegrance carefully peered at Mordred's face and smiled kindly.
"I never imagined this old man would live to see Britain's true peace with his own eyes. Time truly flies."
We exchanged warm conversation as we headed toward the center of the castle.
As if pouring out not only his welcome, but also the part he had been unable to properly offer in the past because of Rience's invasion, King Leodegrance held a magnificent banquet that night.
The banquet hall was filled with nobles and renowned knights gathered from all across Cameliard.
Sir Cleodalis, Cameliard's commander-in-chief whom I had met before, Sir Guiomar and Sir Sinados, Guinevere's cousins, and also Sir Garo and Sir Guy approached and paid their respects with courtesy.
"We have long awaited the day we might become Your Highness's sword."
Among them was also Sir Bertole, one of Cameliard's elite, bowing deeply before me.
I raised my cup to each noble and knight in turn, guiding the banquet into a warm and genial mood.
And then at last, the great doors of the banquet hall opened, and a woman in a splendid dress walked in. At her dazzling appearance, the hall fell quiet.
"King Arthur. This is the daughter you have so long awaited, Guinevere. Ever since that day, she has counted the days until she could meet you again."
King Leodegrance took the woman's hand and stood her before me.
Then, in a ringing voice loud enough for everyone in the hall to hear, he cried out:
"Great King Arthur! Please take my daughter Guinevere as your wife, as Britain's queen! As her dowry, I offer Your Highness the Round Table that the late King Uther once entrusted to me, along with one hundred of Cameliard's finest knights, including Sir Bertole!"
As though declaring that he would enter as a vassal state, he now used unmistakably formal deference instead of the ambiguous courtesy from before.
At that declaration, a hundred knights dropped to one knee all at once and laid their swords on the floor.
"We, one hundred knights, from this day forth swear our loyalty to Your Highness Arthur, the true master of Britain!"
A solemn and stirring rite of oath.
At its center, the woman standing there blushed shyly and offered me an elegant greeting.
"I have waited only for this moment, to see you again, Your Highness."
She looked up at me with moist eyes and whispered in a soft voice.
"From that fateful day when Your Highness saved me and Cameliard... there has not been a single moment when my heart did not long for you."
At the sight of a beautiful princess confessing a fated love, every noble and knight in the banquet hall was already wearing warm smiles, ready to applaud.
I too smiled gently and slowly stretched out my hand toward her.
She extended her slender hand to take mine. She must have expected me to kiss the back of it, or draw her into an embrace around the waist.
But.
The hand I reached out slid past hers and clamped hard around her slender neck.
"...?!”
With the strength of the hand gripping her throat alone, I lifted her body straight up into the air.
"Ghk...! Kkh...!!"
The woman, choking, kicked both feet helplessly in the air as her eyes rolled back.
At the grotesque and violent scene that had unfolded without warning, the banquet hall froze as if drenched in cold water.
"K-King Arthur?! Wh-what are you doing right now...!"
King Leodegrance screamed in shock, and the knights reflexively rose with their hands reaching for their sword hilts.
But not one of them could take a single step.
The horrifying bloodlust pouring out from the red dragon's furnace heart, carrying actual physical pressure with it, crushed the entire banquet hall under its weight.
The knights gasped for breath and froze where they stood like statues.
Looking coldly up at the woman struggling in midair, I asked in a grave, chilling voice,
"Who are you?"
"Khk... ngh... I-I am Guinevere... kkh... why are you doing this...."
With her face drenched in tears, she forced out the hoarse words.
I sneered.
"Did you think you could deceive me? The time I spent with the real Guinevere was only a fleeting moment, but there was never any greed or disgusting lust like yours in her eyes. The real Guinevere is not a vulgar whore like you."
The strength in my hand tightened until it felt as though her bones might break.
"Where is the real Guinevere? I'll give you three seconds. If you don't speak, I'll tear your neck off right here. Even if you die, there are plenty of ways for me to find her."
Only then did she realize it. The young king before her was not bluffing or threatening by even a single inch.
The instant she met the eyes of a murderous fiend that truly intended to rip her throat out, her fear reached its peak.
"Hiiik...!"
Yellow urine streamed down between the folds of her splendid dress and soaked the marble floor. Faced with the terror of death, she had pissed herself.
At that moment, Morgan, who had been idly swirling a wineglass behind my back, spoke in a cool voice.
"Arthur. There are a few more rats in this banquet hall who are in league with that whore. My Fairy Eyes cannot be deceived."
Morgan lightly snapped her fingers.
Crunch!!
"Aaaagh!!"
A crushing Magecraft fell upon several of Cameliard's knights, including Sir Bertole, who had sworn loyalty to me just moments earlier. As if trampled by an invisible giant, they were smashed to the floor and coughed up blood.
"Those men are the traitors who helped enthrone the fake and dispose of the real one."
At Morgan's sentence, King Leodegrance collapsed to the floor in shock.
I glared at her again and growled,
"I asked where she is."
"O-outside the castle... in an abandoned... underground prison... deep in the forest... khk!"
As she trembled and spat out the real Guinevere's location, I hurled her to the floor as if throwing away garbage.
"Khk! Ggh...!"
Leaving the fake princess gagging and clutching her throat, I let out a sharp whistle into the air.
Crash!!
At that instant, the banquet hall's massive stained-glass window shattered, and a giant black horse burst through the shower of glass.
It was my beloved steed, Llamrei.
In a single motion, I leapt onto Llamrei's saddle.
Then Artoria, beside me, called for the white horse that had been waiting outside, Dun Stallion, and mounted up as well.
"I'm coming too, Brother!"
Morgan jerked her chin toward Medea.
"Medea, follow after them. Merlin, you'll stay with me and help clean up this wreck of a banquet hall."
"It looks fun, so there's no way I can sit this one out!"
Nobu's eyes sparkled as she climbed onto her matchlock, and Ushiwakamaru too immediately made ready to follow behind me like a loyal hound.
I yanked hard on the reins.
"Llamrei, run!!"
In an instant, Artoria, the Heroic Spirits, and I shot out through the shattered window and began racing fiercely toward the forest.
The banquet hall was left in ruins, as if a storm had swept through it.
On the floor, the fake princess who had pissed herself lay face-down and weeping, while off to one side knights crushed by Morgan's Magecraft sprawled there coughing blood.
And in the middle of that chaos.
"...Huh?"
There stood one man awkwardly holding the swaddling cloth in both hands.
It was Kay, Arthur's sworn brother.
A civil administrator with little to do with battle, he had suddenly been left behind alone after being handed the baby Artoria had been holding just moments earlier.
"Waaahhh!! Uwaaaahhh!!"
Startled by the sudden commotion and the unfamiliar arms holding her, Mordred broke into breathless, wailing cries.
"N-no! Wait a second! You crazy bastards! What do you mean you all run off like this after dumping the baby on me?!"
With his face gone pale, Kay began awkwardly wiggling his hips and frantically rocking his body to soothe the crying infant.
"There, there, Mordred, hush! It's your uncle, your uncle! Seriously, that insane king bastard! I said I'd be the godfather, but what the hell am I supposed to do if you just toss her at me and leave?!"
In the very middle of a banquet hall where tragic court intrigue and a blood-soaked revenge drama ought to have been unfolding, the only thing echoing strangely through the air, along with beads of sweat, was the mournful lullaby of a man trying to calm a baby.
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