The atmosphere in the office grew heavy.
Morgana couldn’t simply brush it off lightly as usual, since she, too, had her own lingering doubts.
‘How did Igraine know?’
In the original story as well as in Morgana’s memories, she had been an ordinary person.
‘She never even had a chance to enter the royal palace.’
While anyone could enter the temple, the Britannia royal palace was a different matter.
For commoners to enter the palace, the only opportunities were watching from afar on special days like the martial arts tournament or working as a maid.
For Igraine, who had lived her entire life as a commoner, the chance to meet Mordred or Merlin would have been extremely rare.
As she stared past Guinevere and organized her thoughts, a suddenly listless face abruptly entered her field of vision.
“Master, what are you doing?”
Because of his tilted head, his long straight hair tickled the back of Morgana’s hand resting on her thigh.
Though his appearance was purely Nimue’s, his speech was familiar due to having merged with Excalibur.
“Ni-Nimue. When did you come in…?”
“Just now? You left me behind in the room, so I came by myself.”
“I see!”
When she smiled awkwardly and avoided his gaze, his eyes narrowed.
“Why are you speaking like that?”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“Your reaction is a bit different from before.”
Within his calm eyes, his sharp pupils seemed to probe into Morgana’s inner thoughts. She still couldn’t get used to him in Nimue’s form, even if she had grown accustomed to him as a sword.
The gap between his decadent appearance and his confident attitude was too awkward to accept.
Morgana roughly pushed his shoulder.
“Anyone would be surprised if you suddenly entered the office without knocking!”
Pushed by Morgana’s hand, Nimue plopped down casually beside her.
He too seemed unused to his newly regained body, as he sulkily waved the dangling sleeves in front of his eyes.
“Is that so. Does the High Priestess always have to wear these cumbersome clothes? When I was a sword, I could just go around as I was. It’s uncomfortable.”
“You must wear them. Absolutely wear them. If you do anything weird, you’re in big trouble, got it?”
Morgana pointed at him with her index finger, emphasizing each point like a stern warning.
Since Excalibur had always casually lain on other people’s beds, she couldn’t help but worry.
Guinevere, who had only heard about it, watched his behavior with a crooked expression before letting out a hollow laugh.
“How can a person change that much…? Is he really the holy sword?”
“Humans are so skeptical. You can’t even worship this great Excalibur’s beautiful appearance.”
“Wow…”
Instead of replying, Guinevere scrunched up her face to express her emotions.
Since he was the High Priest and the holy sword, she seemed to be holding back any curses. Worried that Nimue might start arguing with Guinevere, Morgana quickly changed the subject.
“How’s your body? Isn’t it uncomfortable switching freely between sword and human form?”
Nimue, who had arrogantly crossed his legs and draped one arm over the sofa backrest, let out a snort.
“That much is like drinking cold soup for this great Excalibur. I adapted in one second.”
“I see…”
As long as he was fine with it. Though she was a little concerned that now the whole world could hear his nonsense, Morgana gave a half-hearted smile.
Taking it as praise, he continued boastfully.
“So, you’re curious about how that human called Igraine knew about the curse?”
“What? You were listening the whole time?”
When Morgana glanced at him sideways, Nimue shrugged the shoulder not resting on the sofa.
“Of course. Master and I are connected by heart, aren’t we? We even slept together.”
At his completely casual answer, Guinevere subtly straightened her posture.
“What? What do you mean? What’s going on between you two?”
“When he was a sword, we could hear each other’s inner thoughts. That’s why he’s like this. Don’t misunderstand.”
When Morgana firmly drew the line, he simply looked around the office with an indifferent expression as if asking what the problem was.
Before, when others couldn’t hear Excalibur, she could just ignore him, but now it seemed she would have more things to explain.
Feeling a headache coming on, Morgana groaned and continued while pressing a hand to her forehead.
“Anyway. Continue what you were saying. Stop acting distracted.”
“Hmm. She’s the human who gave birth to Master. If she lived in the same era, the answer’s obvious, isn’t it?”
Guinevere’s mouth fell open in shock at Nimue’s crude, unrefined choice of words.
“G-gave birth…?!”
She was shocked because she didn’t know that Igraine was Morgana’s mother.
“Wait, hold on. Oh my, am I crazy? Did I say something wrong?”
While Guinevere covered her mouth with her hand, Nimue lightly tapped Morgana’s shoulder with his index finger. When she turned her head, he smiled slyly and whispered in a low, listless voice.
“She got cursed, and then it was lifted. There’s a Master right here with Authority. The answer’s obvious, right?”
It was true that the weapon shop owner, Lennon, had also mentioned that Igraine’s condition had been strange for a while.
“She did act a bit strangely a few months before she died. She wasn’t suddenly out of her mind, but she wouldn’t answer even when called.”
Everyone who had been cursed and then freed remembered the situation from that time.
Even Sir Caradoc had said he had nightmares against his will.
If that was true…
‘Igraine must have known that Merlin cast the curse.’
The arrogant Merlin of that time probably never imagined that someone had lifted the curse.
There was also a good chance that Mordred’s name had come up in a conversation he had let his guard down during.
It seemed that Igraine had accidentally had her curse lifted while living with Morgana, who was growing up without even knowing she had Authority.
Even though Excalibur was cheeky, he didn’t say the wrong things, so she believed him.
At the same time, Morgana’s heart felt complicated.
‘When you think about it, he’s someone I’ve never even met directly…’
The original Morgana, who grew up with her, was one thing, but to her, Igraine was only a person from memories.
But perhaps because she shared those memories.
‘It feels… a little bitter.’
An unknown emotion made her mouth feel dry.
Because Igraine had truly loved Morgana. Because it was a love she herself had never experienced. Because that emotion remained fully intact in her memories, it affected her even more.
It would have been better if she had just ignored the curse and lived quietly.
‘Aren’t you going to the temple to pray these days?’
‘It turned out that way. By the way, Morgana. It’s better if you come home early for a while.’
‘Why? We have to gather herbs to make a living. Mom sometimes suddenly looks so bright.’
‘I’m worried. Okay?’
‘There are mercenaries all over the streets, what’s there to worry about? If a fight breaks out, everyone rushes in to stop it.’
‘Still. Mom wants the area around my daughter to be a little warmer. I’m sorry for raising you so harshly.’
In her memories, Igraine had simply patted her head with worried words and comforted her.
Unconditional affection was an unknown emotion to Morgana. It was scary and frightening. That was affection toward the original Morgana.
It wasn’t hers.
Morgana let out a light sigh, covered one ear with her hand, and slightly leaned back as she answered him.
“Can’t you talk while staying a bit further away?”
Nimue twitched his eyebrows and muttered.
“Ah, it’s hard to please Master. You told me to speak quietly before, and now you want me to stay away. What am I supposed to do?”
At his grumbling, Morgana simply smiled brightly and laughed.
💫
“Arthur! Arthur!”
Urgent footsteps rushed toward a corner of the training grounds.
With Caradoc and Lancelot, who usually led the training, absent, the royal knight order’s training ground was rather quiet.
Arthur, who had been cleaning his weapon among the apprentice knights, lifted his head at the voice calling him.
It was one of the knights who was quite close to the Equator County.
He was the fourth son of some family, but since Arthur didn’t pay much attention to others, only a vague impression remained in his memory.
The knight, panting heavily with his breath caught up to his chin, could barely speak properly.
“Just now, just now the Elder, Elder Council… ended, it ended…”
“The commander will be coming soon, then.”
It seemed it was about time to start training again.
At Arthur’s calm reply, the knight caught his irregular breathing and waved his hands.
“No, no. That’s not it! The Elder Council just ended!”
So the meeting was finally over.
Arthur thought as he looked at his own reflection on the blade of his sword.
‘Lady Morgana will be finishing up and coming out soon, too.’
He didn’t know the exact reason, but the recent rumors circulating in the palace about Guinevere and Lancelot had unintentionally planted a desire in him.
He knew they were false rumors.
The Lancelot he had experienced was someone who acted infinitely lighthearted but actually carried great weight.
From what he had heard, Lancelot was good enough that it was believable he had liked Morgana when she was a maid.
That was why he even hoped that Lancelot would end up with Princess Guinevere.
If, while the marriage was delayed like that, his own family was restored…
‘Maybe I could confess my true feelings.’
That he had liked her for a very long time.
That she was the first person he had ever longed for, when his only goal in life had been to survive without wanting anything.
That even though he knew he was lacking in many ways, he wanted to stand by her side.
The knight, who had finally caught his breath, wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand and cut off Arthur’s thoughts.
He continued speaking rapidly.
“I overheard the Grand Commander and Commander Lancelot talking, and… the Pendragon family…!”
The following words didn’t properly register in Arthur’s mind and just buzzed around. He jerked his head up, his blue eyes shaking.
“What…?”
Comments (0)