Someone she missed…?
At the moment she heard this, it was as if something dawned on Artoria. Her gaze locked intensely onto Merlin's eyes.
A long silence.
Artoria's lips parted slightly, and after a brief quiet, her voice—cold enough to chill the bones,echoed softly within the room.
"…Impossible."
She said this, yet her eyes never once strayed from Merlin.
Artoria found it hard to even imagine—if one day, a transmigrator not only defiled the dead, but the one being defiled… was that White Dragon who once silently protected the Camelot Empire.
What kind of reaction she would have upon learning of it, even she herself didn't know.
But just imagining the possibility, flames of fury seemed to flicker faintly within Artoria's eyes.
"…At this point, why bring him up again?!"
Facing Artoria's questioning, Merlin kept his gentle smile. His warm, calm voice echoed beside the golden-haired woman's ears.
"My king, ever since his death… have you not come to hate everything, including this nation?"
Artoria's elegant brows furrowed slightly. "What exactly are you trying to say?"
"You should know what my Clairvoyance is."
Merlin spoke slowly: "I can deduce the future based on existing information. So from the moment I first saw you, I already knew—you would be the future king of the Camelot Empire."
"But during the sword-drawing ceremony, the one who could pull the sword from the stone… wasn't just you alone."
This time, Artoria was stunned for a long while, unable to speak.
"…What do you mean?"
"To pull the sword from the stone means one's appearance will forever remain at that moment in time. And the one who holds the sword from the stone shall become the future Arthur King of the Empire. Alvin does not belong to this history, so he was never destined to draw that sword."
Merlin said softly, "But back then… even he once caused the sword in the stone to loosen."
"Have you never found it strange—why your body, which was supposed to remain forever at the age of sixteen, has continued growing year after year?"
Merlin continued speaking, but Artoria could no longer hear a single word.
She held her forehead with one hand, staring blankly at the floor, yet her thoughts seemed to drift back to that afternoon a few years ago—the day of the sword-drawing ceremony.
The early summer sunlight, the lively crowd, the noisy voices, and the boys and girls sitting under the tree, feeling the gentle summer breeze.
A boy named Alvin looked at the sword in the stone, then leaned over to the girl's ear and told her a world-shaking "secret."
"Lily, let me tell you something in secret—if you pull out the sword in the stone, it means you'll never grow up again. Your appearance will remain forever at sixteen… Doesn't that sound wonderful?"
For a girl, having an eternal youthful appearance is definitely a great attraction.
However, the girl only gently furrowed her brow and said softly, "What's so wonderful about that? I don't want to stay sixteen forever… Didn't we promise to grow up together?"
"Besides, if I can never grow up, I'll never catch up to Sister Morgan, will I…"
The girl lowered her head and looked at her utterly flat chest. Then, recalling the stunningly beautiful Morgan le Fay, she couldn't help but feel a bit worried.
"So, you do want to grow up, right?"
Just then, the boy's gentle voice suddenly rang in her ear.
"Of course…"
As she spoke, Artoria slightly lowered her eyelids, her eyes dim.
"But if I pull out the sword in the stone—"
A warm hand gently rested on her head. Sunlight filtered through the gaps in the leaves, softly falling on the boy's body, along with that incredibly reassuring, warm smile.
"Don't worry…"
In the dazzling sunlight of that afternoon, the boy quietly gazed at the sword in the stone that symbolized the "king."
"I'll help you."
The room remained silent for a long time.
It wasn't until much, much later that Artoria finally returned from those distant memories.
She slowly raised her head, but her voice carried a faint sense of suppressed emotion. "You're saying… he had actually pulled out that sword back then?"
"Strictly speaking, not pulled out,
But even making the Sword in the Stone loosen just a little is enough for its 'curse' to transfer to him."
Merlin spoke with a sigh, "I just didn't expect that brute force alone nearly allowed him to pull the sword out… Before he even inherited the power of the White Dragon, that guy was already an unreasonable, violent creature."
Staring at Merlin's face, recalling all that he had just said, Artoria was dazed for a moment
No wonder…
No wonder so much time had passed since the sword-drawing ceremony, and she had grown so much, yet Alvin hadn't changed at all.
She had once thought he had simply stopped developing.
But if Merlin wasn't lying…
Thump, thump.
All of a sudden, her heart, which seemed to have been frozen for so long, began to beat softly, as if echoing deep within her soul.
Artoria's beautiful eyes slowly widened.
Despite her efforts to remain calm, flashes of past memories surged uncontrollably in that moment.
How annoying… He had left without a word, and yet, suddenly, she began seeing traces of him again, left behind in unexpected places.
Suddenly, a strong feeling of sadness and bitterness surged into her nose, and the calmness that she had maintained for a long time was finally broken.
She lowered her head to look at the Sword in the Stone in her hand, the symbol of the "king," and tears spilled uncontrollably. Her grip on the sword tightened unconsciously.
"Now that things have come to this... why are you saying all this?"
Until after a long silence, her voice, as if she was suppressing her emotions, rang out in the room.
"I just thought you had the right to know the truth," Merlin replied calmly.
"My king, if Alvin were still here, how do you think he would've dealt with these transmigrators?"
"If it were him, maybe he would've found a better solution. Likewise… back then, he only hoped you'd be a little more confident in yourself. He never wanted you to go to extremes."
"In the end, if one of these travelers now… happened to be Alvin—would you still choose to throw him into the interrogation chamber without mercy?"
"Alvin"—that name was like a forbidden word.
The moment Artoria jerked her head up, for just an instant, Merlin thought he saw a surge of fury flash through her eyes.
"Merlin—"
"Forget it."
But just then, a third voice echoed through the room.
The moment she heard it, Artoria's expression froze.
Then, like a puppet, she stiffly turned her head toward the edge of the window.
At some point, Merlin's illusion had already faded.
A boy was sitting on the windowsill, looking at her. Then, he raised a hand and smiled.
"Lily… long time no see."