The conditions written on the stone tablet—all their locations had been identified.
The tower, the garden fountain, the edge of the temple roof.
The problem was…
“Where exactly is the center…?”
Morgana came to a halt, lost. Behind her, a holy knight tilted his head in confusion.
“What’s the matter, Lady Morgana?”
With trembling hands, Morgana gripped the hilt of Excalibur tightly.
Height, distance, position—everything was different.
It was nearly impossible to find a center as precise as if measured by a ruler.
And she couldn’t measure it directly from here anyway.
The sun began to sink, and in an instant, the sky turned red with dusk.
As night approached, noise stirred at the entrance to the temple. Even the high priests came out and bowed their heads.
“Inquisitor, you’ve arrived.”
“I didn’t expect to come here so suddenly for something like this.”
A middle-aged man with a stern expression walked in through the priests. He stopped in front of Morgana as he crossed the vast temple garden.
The people trailing behind him like a tail also stopped and looked at her.
“Are you the wielder of the holy sword?”
“Yes, I am Morgana Le Fay.”
His sharp right eye scanned Morgana.
A large scar ran across his face, keeping his left eye shut.
Unlike ordinary priests who wore flowing sleeves, his tightly buttoned collar up to his neck made him seem even more rigid.
After examining the sword, he gave a brief nod.
“I am Sentere, the inquisitor who will conduct the heresy trial.”
Though he used formal language, his firm voice, like clanging steel, felt anything but gentle.
Morgana tilted her head slightly at the unfamiliar face.
“This is my first time seeing you. I don’t recall seeing you even during the festival.”
“There was no need for an inquisitor to perform his duties, so I was off traveling far away.”
At the mention of ‘performing his duties,’ his tone grew firmer. She couldn’t quite understand what he meant by ‘traveling,’ either.
He acted as if he had grown tired of the Holy Kingdom and didn’t want to come back.
“The inquisition will be held tomorrow morning. I heard on the way that the Saint collapsed while with you.”
Morgana didn’t bother to respond. It hadn’t been a question in the first place.
Sentere’s green right eye met her gaze.
“You must attend as well, Lady Morgana.”
“Am I also being summoned to the trial?”
“Well, if you’re guilty of something, then yes, you will be.”
With that, he finished his greeting and walked off toward the building where Nimue was, as if he had no further business with her.
“What about the Saint?”
“Still unconscious. The priests are gathering divine power, but it seems her body isn’t accepting it.”
“Hmph.”
Sentere answered the high priest’s question with nothing but a dry scoff and simply kept walking.
With Sentere’s arrival, the Holy Kingdom fell into even deeper silence.
Whether out of fear of being wrongly accused by the inquisitor, or just overly cautious, most people fixed their eyes straight ahead and walked with purposeful speed, as if trying to look busy even when they weren’t.
As night fell, the lights in the buildings around the temple gradually began to turn on.
Since the Caledonian Forest surrounded the Holy Kingdom, the temple’s nights were darker than anywhere else.
“I have to find it before it gets even darker. During the banquet, it was pitch black here.”
Morgana wandered around what she guessed might be the center.
The floor was made of fist-sized stones embedded into the ground, with nothing particularly notable about it.
Of all places, there were no statues, no buildings, not even a bench or decorative flowers nearby—just an empty space.
Morgana glanced around cautiously.
Most people had gathered around to care for Nimue, and aside from the occasional guard, there was barely anyone else around.
Cold sweat trickled down Morgana’s back as she glanced about nervously.
“Don’t tell me… the ‘center’ is just… empty air…?”
Since the locations were all different, if one were to calculate the center mechanically, it would indeed fall in empty air.
Morgana glanced sideways at the silent sword in her hand. Gulping, she suddenly tossed the sword upward.
The blade traced an arc through the air… and then fell with a clatter.
‘Nothing happened.’
Instead, she only drew strange looks from those around her.
Morgana awkwardly laughed as she picked up the sword.
“Haha, I don’t know why it just flew out like that!”
‘Damn it. So it’s not the air.’
As she bent down to pick up the sword, something out of place caught her eye on the ground.
“Why is there a hole here?”
It was a narrow, diamond-shaped hole, just a little longer than her index finger.
At a glance, it looked like a scratch, or maybe a space left by a poorly placed stone.
Visually, there was nothing particularly suspicious about it.
Morgana scraped at it with her foot, rubbing at the area.
Even though there was a gap, the stones didn’t budge, as if rooted in place. She felt like she’d seen this shape somewhere before.
“This kind of looks like the time I pulled the sword from the stone…”
Holding the sword, Morgana narrowed her eyes and measured the length. Then, holding Excalibur upright, she inserted it into the hole.
With a soft click, the sword slid in—as if it had been made for it.
When about half of the blade had gone in, a rumble echoed from the sky.
Dark clouds gathered over the temple, casting a shadow.
In an instant, the Holy Kingdom was plunged into dimness.
“Don’t tell me this is because of that…?”
Panicking, Morgana grabbed the sword’s hilt and tried to pull it back out, but unlike how smoothly it had gone in, it was now jammed tight and wouldn’t budge.
As she struggled and tugged at the hilt with a strained groan, the clouds above her began to swirl with thunder.
Sensing something was wrong, priests and holy knights rushed out of the buildings.
“What’s going on with the weather all of a sudden?”
“Looks like it’s about to rain. It was so clear just a moment ago…”
Some clasped their hands tightly and closed their eyes in prayer.
Sentere was among them. His brightly glowing eyes stared at Morgana in shock.
“This totally looks like I’m causing it!”
Morgana glanced at Excalibur with a panicked expression.
Up in the sky, the swirling clouds sparked dangerously with a flash of light, like an electric spark.
Sensing danger, Morgana instinctively stepped back just as a loud crack rang out.
The sky, sparking on the edge of breaking—
Boom—
With a tremendous roar, a bolt of light struck down from the center of the clouds.
A thunderbolt fell straight and true, striking the sword precisely.
The deafening sound made Morgana cover her ears and huddle back in fear.
When she opened her eyes again—The clouds that had just been gathering overhead faded away like ripples spreading out.
The sky cleared. And then…
— Whoa, I almost went to meet God just now.
A familiar voice echoed in her head again.
Morgana blinked, still not understanding what had just happened.
The cheeky voice continued grumbling at her.
— What the heck is this cramped little space? Did you shove me back in here again? Seriously, Master, isn’t that a bit much? I lose consciousness for a moment, and you thrust me back to the ground?
“Excal!”
— Yeah, that’s right! I’m Excalibur!
Overcome with relief, Morgana rushed toward the sword in one swift motion.
Unlike before, when she grabbed the hilt, this time, it came out smoothly.
“You scared me! I thought you were turning into a hammer!”
With lightning and all, she really thought it was transforming.
For a moment, she thought the whole genre was about to shift.
Excalibur, clearly upset about having been silent all this time, started chattering rapidly.
— With this majestic, sleek body, you thought what? A hammer? While I was swimming in that stupid sea of unconsciousness, that’s what you were thinking? How could you? Was all the friendship we shared just a lie?
…It was a bit too much talking. Way too much.
Still, after not hearing it for so long, even that was a little comforting.
Morgana shook her head and gently patted the blade as if to soothe it.
“If you knew how much hell I went through trying to save you, you wouldn’t be saying that. What were you even doing all this time?”
— I don’t know. It felt like something sucked me in, and then I just lost my mind and got lost.
It seemed Excalibur hadn’t managed to merge with Nimue. That was lucky.
At that moment, voices of priests came rushing from the temple.
“L-Lady Nimue has awakened!”
Morgana turned her head toward the sound. Where everyone else was looking at the priest who brought the news,
Sentere stood firmly, staring only at Morgana. His face was so stern it was hard to read his expression.
He gave a small, brief nod.
“Was that a greeting?”
The movement was so subtle, she wasn’t sure.
Morgana tried to return the gesture, but he turned his head away even faster.
“What are you all doing? We have a trial to prepare for tomorrow.”
“Yes, Inquisitor!”
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