The wait wasn’t long.
Around the time Nimue had nearly finished an entire plate of cookies.
Knock, knock…
The door opened again with a knock.
Elaine and Morgause, familiar yet not particularly welcome faces, entered the reception room in a more subdued manner than expected.
Their gazes turned openly and rudely toward Nimue, who was half-lying on the sofa with one hand supporting his head.
He merely glanced over the sisters half-heartedly and turned his head away as if uninterested.
Morgana also didn’t bother asking for his understanding.
Despite coming after requesting an audience, none of them spoke first for a short while.
Crunch, crunch…
While absentmindedly listening to Nimue’s blatant cookie-chewing sounds.
Elaine, standing in front of the door, spoke first.
“I heard the succession ceremony was today, so I waited near the palace since morning.”
They had never had a friendly conversation before. While she hadn’t clashed directly with Morgause as much, discomfort was evident between them.
Mangeum, seeing the unfamiliar pair, bared his teeth and expressed his displeasure.
“Grrrr…”
Elaine and Morgause flinched, a hint of fear flashing across their faces.
When Morgana slowly stroked his head, he blinked his pitch-black eyes innocently as if nothing had happened and tilted his head.
Elaine began speaking rapidly, as if trying to ease the awkwardness.
“I was prepared to wait for days since I didn’t know when you’d arrive, but I didn’t expect you to come this quickly.”
“Your tone is quite casual.”
Crunch!
Nimue, who had roughly broken a cookie in half and put it in his mouth, pointed out in a displeased low voice.
Morgana lifted her teacup, took a sip, and agreed with him.
“If you know enough to be aware of the succession ceremony, then you should know who the person sitting in front of you is.”
Morgause’s face behind her turned bright red.
It was as if she had received a tremendous insult.
Morgana deliberately avoided looking at the half-sisters. She simply stared at the teacup, which resembled the one she had seen in the Magicians’ Street.
This was also something Kellive had prepared.
‘He must have remembered what I said I wanted.’
It had been a passing remark.
Of course, she had genuinely coveted it at the time, but it wasn’t strong enough greed to wait for someday.
It was a small but noticeable consideration.
While she was quietly examining the teacup, Elaine suddenly bowed her head at a sharp right angle.
Morgause, apparently not expecting this, stepped back in surprise and didn’t know what to do.
Then Elaine pulled her arm, forcing her into an awkward posture where she neither ran nor properly bowed.
Only then did Morgana turn her head toward them.
Elaine continued with her head bowed.
“Your Majesty, Morgana. Please treat my father.”
“Sister… Ah, seriously.”
Morgause stomped her feet, wanting to escape the situation. Her reddened eyes looked like they would burst into tears at any moment.
But Elaine calmly continued.
“It’s shameless of us regarding the past, but we apologize like this.”
When Morgana set down her teacup with a clink, Elaine’s voice grew urgent as if afraid of rejection.
“I’ve reflected a lot during this time. I didn’t consider the difficult days you spent in Britain. I didn’t fully understand the pain when your mother passed away either. But the living must go on, right?”
“So you want me to treat Duke Fay…”
When Morgana muttered indifferently as if to herself, Elaine finally lifted her head.
“He hasn’t been able to sleep properly for several days. Please, I only ask for treatment.”
Morgana let out a short, wry laugh.
At the same time, a thread of hope rose in the sisters’ eyes.
However, Morgana’s next question shattered even that shallow expectation.
“If I didn’t have healing power, would you have apologized?”
Morgana’s lips clearly drew a beautiful curve.
If someone asked about her expression, they would say she was smiling beautifully and purely. But the words coming out of her mouth were sharp in contrast.
“If I hadn’t become King of Britain, would you have bowed your heads?”
At that question, Elaine’s fists trembled.
It seemed she had suppressed her pride with great effort to bow.
Morgana hadn’t held even the slightest expectation from the beginning.
Duke Fay may have shared blood with her, but to Morgana, he was no different from a stranger with no good memories.
The same went for the two sisters.
“This doesn’t feel like a very sincere time for an apology.”
Morgana leaned back on the sofa and smiled comfortably.
Elaine’s face flushed and paled as she tried to hold back her anger.
The dignity of the Fay ducal young ladies that had been maintained until now collapsed instantly.
“We apologized! What more do you want here?! Don’t you remember throwing a fork at me and grabbing my hair?!”
“Ah, that’s right. I did.”
Even though it was something the previous Morgana, not her, had done.
Morgana calmly acknowledged her words.
“That’s why I didn’t expect anything more from you sisters. But now you two are demanding something from me.”
“I knew it from the moment you poisoned Father’s tea. You planned to wipe out our entire family from the start, didn’t you?!”
It was the first time anyone had seen Elaine raise her voice like this. Even Morgause, who usually made the biggest fuss, looked more flustered.
She tried to pull Elaine’s arm, but it wasn’t enough to stop Elaine, who was already filled with resentment and rage.
“See? We’re not family.”
Elaine was clearly distinguishing between Morgana and “the Fay people.”
Every word and action subtly revealed it.
Morgana had no lingering feelings from the start. She had simply been curious about what they would say.
Morgana smiled brightly and nodded as if teasing the sisters.
“You’re exactly like Duke Fay, who only tried to use me the moment he learned I had power. No wonder you’re family.”
“What…?”
“You both came because you need my power, right?”
“How can you interpret it that way after I even bowed my head!”
Elaine screamed as if shrieking.
What was a mere bow anyway?
Bowing one’s head was the easiest thing in the world with nothing to lose.
As the noise grew louder, the knights standing guard outside entered.
They looked flustered at the highly agitated Elaine and glanced at Morgana. They seemed to be waiting for her permission.
When Morgana nodded, the knights dragged the two sisters out without hesitation.
“Let go!”
Elaine struggled fiercely, but the knights forcibly removed them.
Morgana looked at the sisters being dragged away and sincerely gave her final answer.
“Think carefully about whether there was any sincerity in the apology you just made.”
With those words, bang! The door slammed shut.
“Aaaagh!”
Elaine’s furious scream could be heard from outside.
It felt like she had seen the rawest side of the one she thought was the most refined among the Fay family.
“Even when she acts like that, she really is from the Lake Fairy family.”
Nimue, who had been watching indifferently, shrugged and added as if he had the same thought.
In a way, it felt refreshing.
Morgana leaned back roughly on the sofa and let out a sigh.
“Even though they fight all the time, they really are family to each other.”
Seeing them swallow their pride and come to bow their heads. She deliberately swallowed the rest of her words, but it didn’t work on Nimue.
He arrogantly placed a hand on his chest and lifted his head high.
“What about me?”
“You’re a sword.”
“Hey, Master. I may be a sword, but am I just a sword? You’re brushing off the great Excalibur with such a simple statement?”
“What the…”
Morgana gave a not-unfond glance at him, still intoxicated with his own beauty.
Well. He didn’t age and would become her ally whenever she called.
Morgana smiled very faintly.
It was genuine, not false.
💫
Around the time Mangeum, hanging from Nimue’s sleeve, had been playing for a while, Kellive returned.
Beside him was Aide, whose eyes sparkled with a strange, manic gleam for some reason.
“I want to go too.”
As soon as he entered, Aide spoke without even greeting.
Morgana moved only her eyes to look at Kellive standing beside her. He smiled leisurely and answered.
“It’s not my opinion. It’s the Tower Master’s arbitrary decision.”
“It’s the Holy Grail, right? Can I destroy it?”
Morgana remembered seeing those manic eyes of Aide’s before.
He had looked the same when they first met at the British royal palace, and also during the celebratory banquet with the delegation in Avalon.
Comments (0)