When did those two get so close…?
Morgana narrowed her eyes as she scrutinized Bedivere and Arthur, whose expressions were unreadable.
Beside her, Raon fidgeted nervously, biting and releasing his lips before finally squeezing his eyes shut.
With the air of someone steeling themselves for a grand confession, he blurted out dramatically.
“M-My lady, don’t be shocked, but I really had to say this… Those two, you see—!”
“I’m actually Pendragon’s illegitimate child, Lady Morgana.”
Arthur’s calm voice cut over Raon’s sweat-drenched, grandiose introduction.
Despite uttering the long-taboo family name in Britannia, his expression, demeanor, and tone remained perfectly composed.
He openly gestured to Bedivere standing beside him.
“He was a knight of their house. So, it seems we’ll have a lengthy conversation.”
“Oh, I see…!”
Though she already knew, Morgana let out a brief sigh as if hearing it for the first time. Her short, blunt remark cast a momentary silence over the first floor of the shop.
It seemed Arthur and Bedivere had recognized each other.
In the original story, this happened much later, but since they eventually ended up together anyway, it wasn’t strange.
Raon, perhaps dissatisfied with the underwhelming reactions, flailed his hands awkwardly in the air and stammered out an explanation.
“No, I told you not to be shocked, but this is the kind of thing that should make your jaw drop, my lady!”
“I am very shocked right now!”
“This is like, the top-tier of birth secrets, you know? Information like this is worth a fortune!”
“But you wouldn’t sell him out, would you, Raon?”
“Of course not! After all the time we’ve spent together, how could I just— Wait, no. Why is everyone reacting like this?!”
His frantic foot-stomping made him look even more out of place, and Raon scowled in frustration.
It made sense—Herzel had lived in a temple and then secluded herself in the mountains, so she was clueless about Britain’s politics.
Olivia, being from Avalon, had no idea either.
Even Morgana acted indifferent, leaving Raon as the only one making a fuss over what should’ve been a bombshell revelation.
When she casually took the puppy from Arthur’s arms, Raon shook his head and pressed his hands against the table.
“You’ve all lost your minds.”
💫
The mansion that greeted her upon her return was different from the very entrance.
Sturdy, towering walls.
A wrought-iron main gate so finely crafted that Morgana’s hand could barely slip through.
The garden showed signs of recent planting, yet it was arranged no less elegantly than those of noble estates.
“Is this… my home?”
Morgana blinked at the drastically changed exterior.
For a moment, she wondered if she was seeing things and closed her eyes before opening them again.
The mansion’s appearance was neater than before, but it was still the one she remembered.
Between the ornamental trees, a gardener peeked out and raised his head.
“Ah, Lady Morgana! You’ve arrived!”
It was one of the gardeners from Duke Fay’s estate—one of those who had stayed behind when most, including Olivia, had left.
“What happened here?”
“Well, the young lady told us to stay at the Britannia mansion, but sitting idle didn’t sit right with me.”
The elderly gardener chuckled, fiddling with the wide brim of his straw hat.
“She said we could tidy up the place, so as soon as we arrived from Avalon, we got to work.”
Morgana couldn’t keep all those who had left Duke Fay’s estate indefinitely.
Many of those who had lived and worked at the mansion had nowhere else to go. So while she was at the temple, she had Olivia relay the address of the Britain mansion to them.
She had told them to rest, but it seemed they had taken it upon themselves to make improvements in the meantime.
Though Morgana had purchased the mansion and decorated it to her taste, doing it all alone had its limits.
‘And after that, I was too busy serving as a palace maid to properly maintain it…’
The mercenaries standing guard spotted Morgana and cheered, welcoming her enthusiastically.
“Whoa, my lady! I heard you drew your sword? Does that mean you’re not just a lady anymore?”
“Hey, you should address her as ‘Your Highness’ now. ‘My lady’ sounds so provincial.”
“Such an honored guest in such an honored place! Please, do come in.”
Jayden playfully bowed with exaggerated politeness, even going so far as to courteously open the mansion’s front gate.
It was a harmless, pure-hearted gesture of hospitality.
As the gate opened, and they stepped inside, Percival came running toward them.
“Lady Morgan!”
“Have you been well?”
They say children grow up fast, don’t they?
Percival seemed a little taller since she last saw him, and Morgan gently patted his head. He nodded with a bright smile.
“Yes! Did you meet Mother? She’s been waiting at the shop for days.”
“Yeah. She said she stayed in the capital too long and went back to the mountains. Since she couldn’t send herbs for a while, the shop had to close temporarily.”
Though he had asked the question, Percival’s eyes were fixed on the puppy in Morgan’s arms.
The puppy bared its teeth at him just as fiercely as it had at the others.
“Grr… ruff!”
“Oh, sorry! I won’t look.”
Thinking the puppy barked because he was staring, Percival quickly averted his gaze. Behind him, the maid and servants she had seen in Fay Mansion came out to greet her.
“Miss, you’re back?”
That question felt strange.
Before the possession, she had always been alone. When she came home, she was met with empty space instead of welcoming faces.
If she collapsed from exhaustion after work, she would lie down and wait for tomorrow, then wake up and work again. Her life had been about saving money just to see her mother again someday.
The very idea of someone waiting for her and greeting her was unfamiliar.
A faint warmth stirred in a corner of Morgana’s heart.
“Yeah, I’m back.”
Even if they were just hired hands. With a bright smile, Morgana stepped into the mansion—familiar yet strange—as if she belonged.
Behind her, the knight and Percival trailed along.
Jayden, looking at the puppy in her arms, asked, “Miss, what’s that?”
“I’m keeping it.”
“Oh, what’s its name?”
Only then did Morgan realize she hadn’t even given the divine beast a name.
‘I can’t just call it ‘divine beast’…’
Since it wouldn’t do for this puppy to go around being called a divine beast everywhere, it seemed necessary to give it a proper name.
Morgana groaned in thought, muttering to herself.
“I haven’t named it yet…”
“Oh, why not pick something sleek?”
“Fine. Let’s go with Mangeum!”
“Huh?”
“What?”
In response to Morgana’s answer, Jayden, the mercenaries, the servants, and even Percival took turns voicing their confusion.
Morgana turned to look at them as if asking what the problem was.
“Why?”
“Wait, Mangeum as in ‘ten thousand gold’?”
“Yeah. It’s cute and nice, isn’t it? I named it after my favorite thing.”
Morgana loved money more than anything in the world.
So, giving the puppy this name was no different than bestowing the most precious title upon it.
Jayden tilted his head, still not quite understanding.
“But usually, names like Mungchi, Coco, or Elizabeth the Second are more common, no?”
Morgana defiantly cradled Mangeum and cooed, as if to prove a point.
“Mangeum, you like your name, don’t you?”
“Woof!”
“See? He likes it. The puppy himself approved, so it’s Mangeum.”
Panting happily, Mangeum stuck out his tongue and grinned, making the onlookers reluctantly hold their tongues.
Morgana headed toward her room, giving orders to the servants.
“Mangeum hasn’t been eating properly. Is there anything good for him?”
“I’ll inform the chef right away to prepare something.”
At the mention of food, Mangeum bared his teeth again.
“Grrr…”
While disliking people was one thing, showing hostility toward food was strange.
‘Don’t ordinary puppies come running at the mere mention of treats?’
Was a divine beast just different in that regard?
When a servant tried to head to the kitchen, Mangeum barked as if to stop them.
“Woof woof! Woof!”
Morgana tried to soothe him, but the frown between Mangeum’s brows refused to ease.
‘Come to think of it, he didn’t eat well at the temple either…’
She recalled how Gawain had struggled to feed him bread.
It had been a long time since Morgana heard that even the mansion in the Caledonian Forest lacked proper food.
Though she had healed him with her power, it was strange that he had regained enough strength to bark like this after starving for so long.
‘If he’s a divine beast…’
Just in case, Morgana placed her hand on Mangeum’s back. As she channeled a bit of divine power into him, his expression gradually brightened.
“Woof woof!”
From his wagging tail, as if begging for more, to his lively black eyes—
“So you grow by consuming divine power…?”
Only then did Morgana realize why the priests in the Caledonian Forest had been raising him.
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