"Oh my, oh my. Before you grasp that thing, you'd better think it through carefully."
A familiar voice. The most respected court Magician of this country, Merlin, was looking at her.
Her memory was a bit hazy. Artoria looked doubtfully at Merlin and the sword in the stone plunged into the rock before her.
"In that case, I'll give up."
To Merlin's shock, Artoria withdrew her hand and walked away without looking back toward the knights fighting on horseback.
Merlin: "???"
"Wait, are you sure..."
Before he could finish, Artoria had already walked far away. Merlin looked at her departing figure in confusion, unable to understand what had gone wrong.
The king who would pull out the sword in the stone as prophesied did not appear. Ultimately, the knights decided on a new king of Britain through mounted combat.
A new king was born.
He was a very capable knight.
However, he did not have the ability to pull out the sword in the stone. Consequently, rumors began to circulate one after another among the people. A few years later, Artoria became a knight under that king's command.
To protect her homeland, Artoria was active on the front lines against the pagans. However, the new king who had not pulled out the sword in the stone was, in the end, only human.
Although he could offer effective resistance against the pagan offensive, it was only that much. In contrast, the knights led by Artoria advanced triumphantly on the battlefield, showing signs of overshadowing the monarch's prestige.
This caused the new King of Britain to harbor resentment.
Thus, he sent Artoria to lead every dangerous battle, but Artoria returned in triumph every single time.
Ten years on the battlefield, twelve major wars—all concluded with her victory.
Although the young girl was no longer king, she still achieved this feat. The name of the Knight of the Red Dragon gradually spread through the army.
After the pagans were completely expelled from Britain, the King of Britain immediately grew dissatisfied with Artoria. He first exiled her to a remote territory, then favored newly promoted knights, and had people spread negative rumors about Artoria among the populace.
Even so, Artoria had no complaints. She believed the current King of Britain was more suited to being king than herself.
However, after the pagans and the Usurper King Vortigern were eliminated, the King of Britain continued to conscript soldiers and increase taxes, seemingly planning to continue the war against Rome.
While Artoria was governing her territory, an unbelievable piece of news came from the capital of Britain: the King of Britain was dead.
A person named Morgan le Fay claimed to be the legitimate heir of King Uther and proved her status as the Lord of the Island before many Magicians, gaining the support of most Magicians in the Kingdom of Britain.
Morgan declared that the old King of Britain was a despicable villain who had stolen the legitimate throne, and she summoned Artoria back to the capital as a knight.
Unlike the history where Artoria became the King of Britain, this time Morgan truly became the King of Britain. As the representative of the side of mystery, Morgan completely controlled the lives of all British people through magecraft.
She connected herself to the people of the country with great magecraft, drawing magical energy directly from their bodies when power was needed to cast great magecraft that would otherwise be impossible.
After Morgan became the King of Britain, magecraft was planted within the bodies of all the people, and after that, high walls rose along the borders of Britain.
To preserve mystery and prevent the end of mystery in Britain, King Morgan gathered all the Magicians within the country to plan a great boundary, locking down all mystery within Britain. Any deficiency was supplemented by invading other countries to maintain the mystery that was about to dissipate.
The Age of Gods was coming to an end. The mystery within Britain, located at the end of the Age of Gods, was suddenly locked down. Morgan found ways to maintain it, but her actions caught the attention of the counter force.
the counter force was perplexed.
Britain's development did not follow the path of fate; instead, it went in the opposite direction. Mystery did not dissipate but grew even denser through Morgan's efforts, to the point where it could exert a faint influence on the counter force.
Over time, Britain attracted the attention of the whole world.
Some said there was an elixir of immortality within Britain.
Others said Britain was filled with gold.
Still others said the King of Britain was the child of a god and a devil.
The people within Britain were dissatisfied with Morgan's tyrannical rule.
Morgan was not the prophesied king; she had not pulled out the sword in the stone.
The resistance used this to recruit a group of knights dissatisfied with Morgan's rule. However, as long as Morgan lived, she controlled everything in Britain with absolute power.
The resistance lasted only a few days before internal strife broke out, and they were eventually wiped out by the knights sent by Morgan.
At this moment, it seemed no one could curb Morgan's ambition.
Because the course of history was different, Britain did not fall but grew stronger. Therefore, the Holy Grail War was not held, and magecraft and mystery disappeared everywhere except Britain... The illusion ended.
Saber looked at Akatsuki with a bitter expression.
"Do you still not want to give up? Do you want to try a few more times?"
With Akatsuki's computing power, she could simulate the development of a planet using magical energy and then project an individual's consciousness into the simulation to calculate the optimal solution to a problem.
This was a privilege of a person from the "Real World" (self-proclaimed). Only after becoming the true King of Earth did she have the basic power to activate this authority.
Akatsuki looked at Artoria. She could feel Artoria's saint graph changing; the Avenger saint graph was gradually transforming into a Saber saint graph.
Her pitch-black armor was gradually returning to its original state. The ahoge (self-proclaimed) on her head, symbolizing the king's glory that no one could touch, also became more upright.
"It seems there's no need for me to simulate anymore."
Akatsuki nodded with satisfaction. To make an old stubborn person like Artoria—who only had a bit of femininity in the Fate route—realize reality, she had to let her experience the world she desired once.
Raising her hand to pat Artoria's head, Akatsuki handed a wallet to her.
"This is?"
"Some identification documents, a passport, and a bank card. Living in this era without these is very inconvenient. When I went to the Clock Tower to find Lord El-Melloi II, although I didn't find him, I spoke a bit with the Lord of the Department of Law and commissioned that fellow to help process some documents."
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