Chapter 444: [444] King Arthur and Mordred Passing Each Other By
Before Mordred, who was resting with her sword serving as a staff, King Arthur appeared.
Her serene expression remained unchanged—devoid of pity, devoid of hatred. Staring at that emotionless face, Mordred visibly grew agitated.
On the battlefield where no one else remained, Mordred spread her arms and roared with unrestrained passion:
"How about it?! How about it, King Arthur?! Your kingdom is finished! It’s about to fall! I’ve finally surpassed you—now, at last, everything is ruined!"
The king, whose face bore an uncanny resemblance to Mordred’s, looking almost like a youth, silently endured her words. Faced with Mordred’s furious cries, she remained utterly unmoved, not even deigning to respond. Instead, she mechanically raised her sword in stance.
To Mordred, this was the response she could least tolerate. With a furious roar, the Knight of Treachery swung her blade down.
King Arthur met her strike with her own, sparks scattering from the clash of their holy swords. They fought for victory, but the outcome would not change. As Mordred had said, no matter who won, the kingdom would swiftly fall.
"You should have known this would happen from the start! You knew it all along! If only you had yielded the throne to me, none of this would have come to pass...!"
Mordred’s sword showed no sign of relenting as she screamed with abandon, her voice filled with rage, joy, and indescribable emotion.
Born as a child of sin, Mordred had once admired her father—only to be rejected, her very existence denied. And now, the two faced each other in battle.
—I hate you, I hate you! How I loathe you, you perfect king! How I despise you, you who refused to acknowledge my existence! I would have been content to be your shadow, yet you never once turned to look at me!
—So this is your rightful punishment, King Arthur. I will destroy everything—your kingdom, your ideals, all that you are!
"Do you hate me?! Do you despise me?! Do you loathe me, this cursed child?! Answer me... answer me, King Arthur!"
At last, King Arthur responded to her cry. In a voice devoid of any discernible emotion, the king delivered her verdict.
"Because you lacked the qualities of a king."
A brutally cold answer—one that merely analyzed Mordred’s actions and mercilessly dismissed her as unworthy of the throne.
With those decisive words, the holy spear Rhongomyniad pierced Mordred’s chest.
No steel, no matter how unyielding, could withstand that spear. Mordred’s helmet split apart, revealing the face of the girl.
Though blood still dripped from her lips, Mordred reached out toward King Arthur before her.
"...Father... my king."
Ignoring the dying girl’s gesture, King Arthur, having secured victory in the battle, turned away without a word.
After this, King Arthur, led by the knight Bedivere, threw the sword back into the lake. Some legends say King Arthur died then, while others claim she went to Avalon to heal.
Thus, the legend of King Arthur came to a close.
Kairi Sisigou didn’t even glance at the departing King Arthur, instead fixing his gaze on the fallen Mordred. Then, he let out a deep sigh.
"...Damn it, what an unpleasant dream."
The dream had been so vivid, so real, that he could almost smell the blood. Mordred’s eyes were utterly lifeless, like an empty husk devoid of a soul, sitting there in a daze.
Yes, whether in the past or now, the real Mordred was already a corpse—one that would eventually rot and be devoured by worms and insects.
King Arthur became a legend, while Mordred became the knight who tarnished that legend.
Her passion, her agonizing wish, could linger nowhere, scattering to the wind. Until the very end, not even her own kin showed her any affection.
"—Tch, the Servant I summoned is nothing but trouble."
Kairi thought that the similarities between them should have their limits. After all, a Servant was merely a heroic spirit from another world. Though the spiritual connection between them was important, getting too entangled was another matter—because once the Holy Grail was obtained, their relationship would end.
In other words, even if Kairi wanted to change something, he was powerless to do so.
So, this was nothing more than a dream deliberately designed to unsettle him. For Kairi, there was no theme more discomforting than "a child seeking a father’s love."
As he waited to wake up, Kairi sat down beside Mordred’s corpse. Then, he simply stared blankly at the dying kingdom and its crumbling people.
No matter the era, no matter the country, the final scene was always the same—
When dawn came, the first thing Kairi said to Red Saber with a scowl was:
"Seriously, don’t make me dream such weird dreams."
"...I don’t really get what you’re saying, but is that my fault?"
Hearing this unreasonable complaint, Mordred, who had been playing with a cat, widened her eyes in surprise.
The two weren’t staying in the underground catacombs of Trifas but had spent the night at a small inn in Sighișoara. Just to be safe, they had used a suggestion spell to occupy someone else’s room.
It was said that in one Holy Grail War, someone had blown up an entire hotel to kill their opponent, causing unimaginable destruction and loss. So, it was better to err on the side of caution.
"Then, why did we come here?"
"By the priest’s orders. According to the young man we saw at the church, a Servant from the Red Faction appeared here."
Under the crisp autumn sky, the mismatched pair sat at an outdoor café, sipping afternoon tea. Mordred glanced at the ancient buildings, unchanged from her past life, and turned away with a displeased expression. Meanwhile, Kairi silently studied a local newspaper’s map, gathering information about the area.
"Damn it... this boring place is so uncomfortable, no different from my era at all!" Mordred was utterly bored, finding amusement only in chasing after stray cats on the roadside with agility rivaling theirs, even making intimidating expressions with mischievous intent, like an oversized feline.
"In that case, I won’t rest until I’ve fought an enemy Servant to my heart’s content!"
"Cheer up, Saber. If the priest’s intel is correct, the Black Faction’s Servants have already arrived here. Once night falls, the battles and slaughter will begin, right?"
"Oh!" Mordred’s excitement flared as she clashed her fists together. "I can’t wait! My first Servant battle—who will my enemy be?"
The jubilantly shouting Mordred didn’t notice a group of four passing through the street. Among them, a slender figure in a black robe lifted their head and cast a quiet glance her way.
"What’s wrong, my king?" The young man, whose appearance seemed ordinary after disguise but whose demeanor and aura were anything but, smiled. "Seeing your child—what are your thoughts?"
"Please correct your phrasing, Sakatsuki," Artoria retracted her gaze, hiding her expression beneath the black robe. "Sir Mordred is a Knight of the Round Table, and that is all."
Truly the same words as the one from Chaldea... Sakatsuki mused inwardly. Beside them, Reika Rikudou, holding the hand of a silver-haired little girl, chuckled. "So that’s Miss Artoria’s child? They look so alike."
"Reika!" Artoria sounded displeased and was about to say something when she suddenly bumped into Sakatsuki’s back.
The replicated Cloak of Hades that Sakatsuki had projected concealed her appearance but also limited her vision. Rubbing her nose in pain, the ahoge pouted and looked up at the young man who had stopped abruptly.
"...Sakatsuki, why did you stop all of a sudden?"
"Look." Sakatsuki gestured toward a roadside stall with his chin. Following his gaze, they saw a small mask vendor.
"Though we have the task of recruiting Mordred today, before nightfall, we still have plenty of time to rest."
As he spoke, Sakatsuki glanced at the ahoge hidden beneath the black robe and smiled faintly.
"And I can’t have you hiding like this the whole time, unable to even relax properly."
Without giving Artoria a chance to protest, Sakatsuki stepped forward, exchanged a few words with the vendor, and returned with a small lion mask, handing it to the ahoge.
Whether in Carnival Phantasm or Fate/hollow ataraxia, it had been mentioned more than once that Artoria, having once raised a lion cub, held a special regard for lions, seeing them as symbols of strength.
"Um..." Yet faced with Sakatsuki’s overly straightforward gesture, Artoria grew bashful. "Um, Sakatsuki, you must be mistaken. I am a king, after all. Why would I wear something so cute—no, so childish... right?"
Unfortunately, the one before her wasn’t Sakatsuki’s true self but his Assassin-mode incarnation.
"Is that so?" Sakatsuki responded noncommittally before reaching out and pulling off Artoria’s cloak without warning.
The ahoge that had been suppressed for too long stood up high, and amidst her disheveled golden hair, Artoria’s breathtakingly beautiful face couldn’t conceal her surprise.
"Lord Sakatsuki?!"
"My King, it would be best not to speak now." Sakatsuki spoke while casually moving closer to Artoria, personally fastening the small lion mask onto her face and tying the strings for her. "You wouldn’t want Mordred to hear you, would you?"
"You clearly want me to go and subdue her..." Artoria muttered unhappily, while Sakatsuki smiled without responding. After securing the mask, he took a step back to examine Artoria’s current appearance and nodded in satisfaction.
"Perfect, now we don’t have to worry about exposure."
Reika watched the man and woman who addressed each other as king and knight yet unconsciously displayed intimacy, unable to suppress a light chuckle behind her hand.
"What’s wrong, Mommy?" Little Jack, innocent and unaware of matters of love, blinked her pure, wide eyes as she observed the interaction between her two ’mothers.’
"Nothing, I just find it quite amusing."
A woman who had been treated as a living sacrifice, teetering on the edge of death, now found herself traveling alongside numerous heroes, witnessing their interactions no different from ordinary people, and even gaining such an adorable daughter...
Being alive truly was wonderful.
Filled with gratitude, Reika continued forward, while Artoria, after a brief moment of awkwardness, gradually began to enjoy the pleasures of shopping.
Having spent who knows how long in the monotonous flower fields of Avalon, she had finally returned to bustling streets. Moreover, shopping was one of the joys of womanhood—for Artoria, such an experience was exceedingly rare and precious.
"Lord Sakatsuki, I’ve discovered that masks are truly useful!"
"Oh?"
"As long as you wear one, no one can tell where you’re looking!"
As if she had uncovered some incredible truth, Artoria excitedly shared her newfound insight.
"Is that so?" Sakatsuki smiled without further comment.
At that moment, their party of four happened to pass by a food stall, and the ahoge-wearing girl in the small lion mask suddenly came to a halt...
My King, do you really think I don’t know what you’re looking at?