Chapter 71: Guinevere -3-

Several days passed.

In the sunniest room of Cameliard Castle,

Guinevere sat propped against the bed, her complexion not yet fully restored, but her expression far more at ease.

"Come on, open your mouth. You need to eat it before it gets cold."

I scooped up a spoonful of beef and vegetable porridge I had carefully prepared, blew on it, and brought it to her lips.

It was a special porridge made to restore Mana, prepared for her while her stomach had yet to fully recover.

"Ah... thank you, Arthur. For you to do this yourself every single time..."

Guinevere blushed as if she felt sorry, but obediently opened her mouth and accepted the porridge. Even her gaunt cheeks were slowly beginning to regain some warmth.

"Don't hold back. Your top priority right now is putting some weight back on. Whatever I give you, don't leave a bite behind. Finish it all."

I set down the empty bowl and wiped the corner of her mouth with a towel. Even that small bit of care seemed enough to bring tears to Guinevere's eyes.

A little later, the tightly shut door opened, and King Leodegrance entered in a haggard state. In just a few days, he looked as though he had aged decades.

"King Arthur..."

He approached the bedside, then threw away all royal dignity and dropped to his knees.

"This old fool was blind and committed a truly horrible sin. I failed to recognize the daughter of my own blood, whom I cherished for decades, and nearly sent a fake to marry you... I am unfit both as a king and as a father."

His hoarse voice was steeped in deep self-loathing and regret.

Right after the incident, with Morgan's fairy eyes and Gendievre's confession, every rebel hidden within Cameliard Castle had been rooted out.

The traitor knights, including Sir Bertole, who had helped replace the real princess with the fake, had already vanished beneath the executioner's blade. Imprisoning the legitimate daughter and deceiving the royal house naturally merited a gruesome death.

"All of this... is the original sin born from the foolish passion of my youth."

Leodegrance bowed his head and wept bitterly.

"Is it not true that Gendievre became such a horrible monster in the end because I fathered her as a bastard and forced her to live in hiding? That sin came back like a boomerang and tightened itself around my legitimate daughter's throat... What am I supposed to do with this pathetic wreck of a man?"

I looked down at the old king with cold, sunken eyes.

"To be honest, I am disappointed in you, King Leodegrance."

At my blunt rebuke, he flinched and his shoulders trembled.

"Of course I understand your guilt. The resentment and inferiority of bastards have produced countless tragedies throughout history. But if you are a father, shouldn't you at least recognize the true look in the eyes of the daughter standing right beside you?"

I spoke firmly, my arms folded.

"From now on, no matter what you do, the fate of Cameliard will be in my hands. I fully intend to exact compensation for this matter, so prepare yourself."

"Understood...! Whatever it is King Arthur desires, I will support it with everything Cameliard has!"

He swore it, pressing his forehead to the floor.

I stared at him for a moment, then took Guinevere's hand where she lay beside me and spoke.

"Princess Guinevere and I have already settled this matter. As promised, I will take the princess as my wife... but there will be no place for her as the second queen, nor any high rank that was originally under discussion. Among my queens, she will be the lowest-ranked."

At those words, Leodegrance's shoulders twitched.

Privately, he had hoped to place Guinevere in the second position, or at the very least the third, to uphold Cameliard's standing.

But after such a fatal discourtesy and a crisis of treason, he had completely lost the right to ask for that.

"I know this is hard to accept, but accept it. Compared to the humiliation and suffering your daughter endured because of this, rank means nothing."

"I understand... I understand, King Arthur. It is more than enough that you would overlook this old man's sin, save my daughter, and take her in. For that alone, I am deeply grateful."

He nodded repeatedly with his head lowered. Even if she was to be the lowest-ranked queen, the fact remained that she would become the wife of the emperor who would unify Britain. For Cameliard, that was the only lifeline left.

"Now then, let's get to the main point."

At my gesture, Ushiwakamaru, who had been waiting outside the door, dragged in a prisoner bound in ropes like a sack of cargo and threw her onto the floor.

"Ugh...!"

Gendievre, who had once worn splendid dresses and coveted the place of queen. Now her hair was disheveled, and she trembled in a shabby prisoner's garb.

Guinevere, leaning against the bed, painfully raised herself up. Her gaze was not weak in the slightest. It carried the dignity of a true princess.

"Gendievre."

At Guinevere's quiet call, the fake's body jerked violently.

"The crime you committed is an atrocity that would outrage heaven and earth. You deceived the royal house, corrupted countless knights, and tried to usurp my place. Even if your head were to roll dozens of times, it would still not be enough to pay for such sins."

Gendievre kept her head bowed and could not offer a single excuse. Now that every plan had come to nothing, she thought only a miserable death remained for her.

"But..."

Guinevere's voice trembled faintly.

"The reason you fell into such a deep and dark swamp of corruption... must be because, as a bastard, you could never come into the light, and had to spend your whole life holding your breath in a shadow that should never have existed."

"......!"

At Guinevere's words, which pierced straight through her dark abyss, Gendievre slowly raised her head.

"In that cold darkness of the prison, I thought about it over and over again."

A single tear rolled down Guinevere's cheek.

"I was an only child, so deep down I always longed for siblings who shared my blood. What if, instead of envying me and deceiving me, you had simply come to me honestly and called yourself my sister? Even if you were a bastard, if I had protected you and stepped into the world hand in hand with you... I wondered whether we might have become loving sisters like the Pendragon siblings."

At Guinevere's sincere tears and lament, the poison-filled eyes of Gendievre gradually began to waver.

"I... will not sentence you to death."

Guinevere delivered her final judgment.

"Instead, you will never again be allowed to claim royal blood. From this day forward, you are no longer Gendievre, but must live your entire life in atonement as the personal maid of me, Guinevere."

"P-Princess Guinevere..."

Such nobility, showing mercy to the enemy who had tried to starve her to death. Before that overwhelming, radiant compassion, Gendievre's wickedly twisted heart collapsed in ruin, like spring snow melting away.

"Hhk... sob... aaaah...!"

Gendievre slammed her forehead to the floor and wailed like a beast as she begged forgiveness.

Watching the scene, I clicked my tongue with my arms folded.

"Even thinking about it again, that's far too soft a sentence. A maid's post for a traitor?"

I pulled a parchment scroll from my robe and tossed it at Gendievre's feet.

"Still, we need a proper safety measure in place. Pick it up, Gendievre."

It was a self-geas scroll.

[I, Gendievre, shall live my entire life for Guinevere and swear absolute loyalty to her. I shall never harm her, nor harbor any rebellious will to defy her, and I vow to serve only as her faithful vassal.]

A very simple, very clear, and utterly absolute shackle on the soul.

The moment she harbored even the slightest rebellious thought, the curse would stop her heart amid the agony of her body being torn apart.

"Don't feel wronged. This is the bare minimum collar for paying the price of your sins. It's a curse that will never activate as long as you don't betray Guinevere."

When I coldly snapped that out, Gendievre signed the geas scroll without hesitation and accepted the oath. I could see the shining chains of Mana being firmly branded into her soul.

"Please... from now on, try to get along as sisters, Gendievre."

Guinevere reached out and gently patted the shoulder of the woman prostrated on the floor.

Watching that scene of forgiveness, I found myself caught in a tangle of emotions.

Family really is a vicious thing.

I turned my head slightly and glanced toward Morgan, who stood in the corner of the room with her arms folded, quietly gazing out the window.

She had once cursed my parents and my house and dreamed of usurpation. But now she had become the most dependable ally at my side, and family besides.

Was that simply the bond of blood, that even a bloodline like an enemy's in the end still gets embraced?

I felt as though I could understand, just a little, the heart behind Guinevere's absurd mercy.

"Well, I suppose that is how family matters are."

As if she had read my thoughts, Ushiwakamaru came to my side and whispered softly.

"Even if they were enemies who crossed blades with their lives on the line... if they are family bound by blood, one wishes to tie that knot together somehow, rather than cut it apart."

"I suppose so."

In any case, one fatal trigger that had nearly brought about Britain's ruin had now been completely dismantled.

The heavy tension, tears, and commotion that had filled the room gradually subsided.

King Leodegrance and the knights left the room, and Gendievre, now Guinevere's maid with the fresh geas shackle upon her, went out with them. The quick-witted Heroic Spirits and Morgan also gave us space and firmly closed the door behind them.

In the sunlit room, only Guinevere and I remained.

As warm winter sunlight poured over the bed, I pulled a chair close and sat right beside her.

Quietly wrapping my hand around hers, still thin but now peaceful again, I gazed into her eyes for a long while.

"Guinevere."

"Yes, Arthur."

In a low voice, I asked,

"Do you truly love me?"

Not as a tool for power or for Cameliard's safety, but whether she truly loved Arthur Pendragon, the man himself.

At my blunt question, Guinevere smiled softly without a trace of hesitation.

"From that fateful moment when Your Highness saved me from Rience's blade... there has never been a single time when my heart did not love you."

A truthful confession, without the slightest lie mixed into it.

But before I could be glad, I had no choice but to lay out the heavy wall of reality between us.

"From the moment I drew Caliburn from the stone, my body became immortal and ageless."

At my words, Guinevere nodded.

"From here on, I will live through eternal ages without aging or falling ill. But not you. As an ordinary human, while you remain with me, your face will slowly crease with wrinkles, your hair will turn white, and in the end you will grow old. And at the end of that, death will naturally be waiting for you."

I tightened my grip on her hand a little more.

"To be bound to me means enduring the cruelty of time while you alone grow old. Does that... not frighten you?"

I expected a long silence. The alienation and fear of aging that a mortal must endure beside an immortal are not things an ordinary human mind can easily bear.

But Guinevere only smiled brightly, like a spring breeze.

"Why should it frighten me? It is simply the natural order of humankind."

"The natural order?"

"If there is a beginning, there is an end, and if there is a meeting, there must surely be a parting. Your Highness, even the Age of Gods, which seemed so great and eternal, came to an end in the end, did it not? How then could I, born merely human, dare try to reject the order of life?"

Guinevere placed a hand over her chest and whispered softly.

"A life is something that ends one day. Such is the pilgrimage of living things. But Arthur, that does not mean it is only pain and sorrow. Nor is it only a tale of death and separation."

In her eyes dwelled a conviction more noble and steadfast than that of any hero.

"Because humans have an end set before them, they are able to live each moment brilliantly and without regret until that end draws near, doing their utmost. To share warmth with those they love, to watch their will safely carried on into the next generation... and only then to close their eyes in peace. I believe that is the most beautiful blessing a human being can enjoy."

Guinevere reached out with her other hand and gently caressed my cheek.

"And... even if the day comes when I grow old, fall ill, and no longer exist in this world, if you remember me forever, then I will never truly disappear."

At her complete and radiant love, I felt a dull ache in one corner of my chest.

Rather, in her clear eyes there was a deep pity directed toward me.

"What frightens me is not my own death. What frightens me is the sense of loss you will suffer after sending me off first and being left behind."

"My sense of loss...?"

"Yes. Arthur, you may be a mighty, overwhelming demon king stronger than anyone else in Britain... but at the same time, in the deepest part of your heart, you are someone more deeply consumed by love than anyone else."

She had seen straight through my true nature. My fierce attachment and obsession, the part of me that could do anything for my family and for those who were mine.

"After sending away someone you love first, I fear that the Arthur left behind will suffer while longing for the days gone by.... More than my own situation, that is what worries me most. Of course, there will still be those who continue living by your side."

I let out a hollow laugh in disbelief.

"Ha, honestly. What kind of woman in all the world worries about her immortal husband being left alone, when her own life is the one that will end in age and sickness?"

"This kind."

She smiled back at me playfully.

I lowered my head and pressed a deep kiss to her thin palm as it caressed my cheek.

"Don't worry. There will never be a single moment, for all eternity, when I forget you."

At my firm vow, Guinevere's eyes grew moist.

"Thank you. Then no matter when, no matter where, I will always remain by your side."

With tears in her eyes, she gave the most beautiful smile and added earnestly,

"But Arthur. Even if, one day, I leave your side first, please do not long for me too deeply. Because of love, I would never wish to see you bound by the ghosts of the past and unable to move forward. You must always remain the radiant present and future."

Such fleeting, yet utterly noble consideration, soothing even the heart of the man who would be left behind after her death.

Only now could I truly understand, down to my bones, why this woman had been praised in the original legend as the most perfect queen to lead Britain.

Seriously, the French are the problem.

Quietly, but with absolute firmness, I took both of Guinevere's hands in mine.

"As I thought... you're far too good a woman for me."

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