‘Blood will tell, they say. For a young boy to possess such strength…’
Morgana glanced at Cadric, who was still small in stature.
“Will he grow to be as large as Caradoc…?”
Suppressing her curiosity, Morgana dashed toward the stairs.
Unlike climbing up, descending was much faster. Cadric, running ahead, pushed aside the knights who were coming up, clearing the way.
“Sorry! But I didn’t cut anyone!”
He didn’t forget to apologize properly.
Since most of the knights had chased Morgana upstairs, the entrance was now empty.
“Let’s get out of the main palace, follow me!”
The sound of the knights hastily chasing after them echoed irregularly from behind.
Morgana quickly exited the main palace and ran down the path paved with white bricks. It was a route one had to take to reach other palaces, connecting major buildings like the Prince’s Palace, the Princess’s Palace, and others.
It was a place with a lot of foot traffic.
The wide path, wide enough for two carriages to pass, was lined with knights standing in formation.
At the front stood Melwas, fuming with anger. His clothes were torn in places, and his face was bruised and bloodied, likely from a confrontation with Guinevere.
“She really gave him a good beating.”
Despite his condition, he was still able to speak clearly.
“Caught you, you painting thief…!”
“Let’s be clear! You’re the thief! You copied Alex’s painting and passed it off as your own!”
Morgana jumped up in indignation.
Seeing the royal knights standing behind him made it all too clear that King Vortigern was behind this.
Clomp, clomp—
The sound of steady footsteps approached, and the knights blocking the way parted like the sea.
From between them, King Vortigern emerged. His expression was as dry and emotionless as ever.
With a slight frown, he spoke sternly.
“This is the traitor who has thrown Britain into chaos. See that she is thrown to the monsters so she cannot be buried in this land.”
Cadric, standing beside her, trembled and stepped forward to protest, but Morgana stopped him with an arm.
Looking around, Morgana pointed at herself with wide eyes.
“Me? No way!”
“How shameless! Why aren’t you seizing this criminal at once?
Before King Vortigern could finish his words, a light, melodious voice flowed from behind him.
“Here comes the criminal, Your Majesty!”
King Vortigern frowned deeply and turned his head.
With a swish of his pink hair, Lancelot, smiling brightly, walked over leisurely, waving his hand.
Behind him, members of the First Knight Order were escorting a line of unfamiliar figures dressed in black, all bound and restrained.
Even amid the tense situation, Lancelot extended one hand gracefully, as if dancing at a banquet, and placed the other over his chest, bowing elegantly.
“Lancelot, Captain of the First Knight Order. Acting on Miss Morgana’s tip, we apprehended the group that infiltrated the Prince’s Palace.”
Calmly raising his head, he kicked the back of an assassin’s knee with a thud.
As the assassin groaned and knelt, Lancelot continued with a hint of shyness.
“On my way back after escorting the Princess to the priest, I saw something strange. Light burst from the painting, and suddenly, this suspicious group appeared.”
His tone was light, as if he had just returned from a banquet.
For a moment, even a subtle sense of amusement could be felt.
King Vortigern, who had just been reprimanding Morgana, clenched his lips tightly for some reason.
Lancelot’s blue eyes turned toward Melwas, who stood behind the king.
“That painting was a gift from Viscount Melwas Aestiva to Her Highness Guinevere, wasn’t it?”
Melwas snorted arrogantly and raised his head.
Confident in his position, his words grew even bolder.
“Do you have proof? If something came out of a painting I bought, that’s the painter’s fault. I’m clearly the victim here, swindled by a fraud.”
“The same group in black emerged from portals in three paintings hung in the Prince’s Palace. All of them were gifts from you, Viscount. Isn’t that right, young Duke Cadric?”
Lancelot subtly turned his head to make eye contact with Cadric over the knights.
Finally, Cadric stepped forward, standing stiffly at attention, and declared in a formal tone.
“On behalf of my father, Caradoc Equator, I relay this message: The knights under my father, the Chief Knight Commander, have captured the intruders in the Prince’s Palace and are preparing to escort them!”
Unauthorized individuals had entered the royal palace armed.
To anyone, the traitors were clear, but Melwas flailed his arms in the air and argued stubbornly.
“Maybe it was Galehaut’s plan. The important fact is that this maid plotted treason, disrupted the main palace, and defied Your Majesty’s orders.”
No one believed his half-hearted rebuttal. The royal knights were only acting on the king’s command.
Their faces betrayed their shock and confusion, their eyes darting around as they struggled to comprehend the situation.
Morgana, looking as though she were the most wronged person in the world, let her eyes droop wearily.
“I even reported the suspicious painting to Sir Caradoc and Sir Lancelot, the royal knight commanders. Look at this painting, too.”
She held up a fragment of the shattered painting, as if to show it off.
“This was hanging in Your Majesty’s office. Wouldn’t it be a disaster if intruders made it all the way into the main palace?”
“Hey, maid. That painting isn’t the one I gifted to Princess Guinevere. So, this has nothing to do with me.”
“Oh, really?”
Morgana blinked her eyes as if hearing this for the first time. She had anticipated this response.
Casually twisting her body, she subtly gestured toward the mercenaries walking slowly behind her, carrying a letter.
At the front, Raon was carefully guiding a woman.
As she drew closer, Melwas’s facial features contorted in shock.
“L-L-Lily…?”
Raon bowed respectfully to King Vortigern from a distance, then frowned as he held up the letter.
“Miss, I told you not to draw pictures in the letters. What is this mess?”
He waved the letter with its squiggly drawing, voicing his displeasure.
“Is this the woman? The maid who was fired from the Count Aestiva’s household not long ago.”
“Yes, that’s her! You found her so quickly?”
“Quickly? I had to ask around from people fleeing the area.”
“Was it dangerous on the way here?”
“We hunt monsters. What kind of mercenaries would we be if we were afraid of mere humans?”
He grinned and shrugged his shoulders.
Lily, who had been nervously standing among the mercenaries, looked around and, upon seeing Melwas, tightly clutched her skirt with both hands.
Morgana pointed to her politely and addressed Melwas.
“I heard she was recently dismissed, so I hired mercenaries to bring her here.”
King Vortigern, observing Lily trembling in fear, finally spoke.
“What does this maid have to do with this matter?”
Lily, sensing the tension, dropped to her knees and confessed loudly.
“Forgive me, Your Majesty. I am the maid who delivered the 12 paintings that Viscount Melwas ordered to be gifted to the Princess.”
“The matter of the 12 paintings has already been addressed with Galehaut.”
At King Vortigern’s calm response, Lily shakily raised her head. Her eyes, filled with guilt and fear, stared straight ahead.
“There were 13 paintings in total. The Viscount instructed me to deliver the gift of the 13th forgery to Your Majesty. When I refused, I was expelled from the Count’s household.”
The man who had claimed no involvement had ordered a forgery to be hung in the king’s office.
And now, assassins had emerged from portals in the paintings hung in other palaces. The 13th forgery, a number associated with demons across the continent.
This single fact alone would make it difficult to keep one’s life.
Morgana held up the painting fragment with a flourish and asked innocently,
“So, who’s the traitor now?”
Lancelot’s knights clanked their spears, blocking Melwas from moving.
If the order was given, his head could roll right here. Faced with the obvious answer, King Vortigern chose silence.
Morgana knew that this was a plan orchestrated by both him and Melwas.
Until she saw it for herself, she had naturally assumed King Vortigern was the mastermind behind this cursed incident.
‘Why does King Vortigern also act like someone under a curse?’
It was as if he couldn’t see the situation clearly, issuing no commands and letting the standoff continue.
Due to the tournament, many people had visited the arena, and some nobles, hearing the commotion, had fled to the palace.
The nobles from the venue had turned into spectators, whispering among themselves from a distance.
“They’ve caught the traitor, so why isn’t there any punishment?”
“It’s strange… It’s so clear-cut, there’s no reason to hesitate.”
From what she had observed so far, there was only one culprit behind this cursed incident: Melwas.
He had even cursed the king and planned the entire affair.
‘King Vortigern was anxious about losing his authority, so Melwas must have exploited that.’
Morgana shouted loudly, as if to ensure the spectators could hear. She had already experienced this kind of curse before.
And she had seen how third parties could manipulate curses to their advantage.
“Your Majesty, if you do not punish this crime now, everyone may begin to take the royal authority lightly!”
At this, King Vortigern, who had been silent until now, twitched his hand.
“To hang such a sinister painting in Your Majesty’s office… Shouldn’t you make an example of this?”
King Vortigern’s gaze turned to the painting, and soon a dry command followed.
“Arrest the traitor Melwas, his family, and all those connected to him.”
➺ Updated Mellowart’s name as Melwas
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