From the darkness came the sound of trudging, stumbling footsteps.
It was Princess Knight Lily, clad in pure white dress armor. Her green eyes flickered wildly between Merlin's parrot and Gareth, as if she could hardly believe what she was hearing.
"Big Brother has… really come back from another world?"
"Oops… we've been found out."
"Ah. I've been found out, haven't I?"
Merlin's parrot and Gareth glanced at each other in panic, then sighed and cleared their throats in resignation.
Lily let [Caliburn] slip from her grasp to clatter against the floor, then, her face as pale as death, strode up to them.
"Answer me!! Is it true that Big Brother really has come back to life?! And… Gareth. You killed the messenger? To stop the news of Brother's return… is any of this true?!"
The Lily who was usually polite and gentle had vanished. Her voice was a tortured rasp, trembling with fury and bitterness as if she were coughing up blood.
Gareth averted his eyes and scratched his head awkwardly.
"Ehehe… well, if you've found out, there's no help for it. Yes, it's true. Merlin told me to do it, so I killed him. Lily, don't be so mad~ It's all for the sake of Britain, right?"
"Ahem! Lily, calm yourself. Yes, it's true that Kay has come back. But we cannot let Artoria learn of his existence just yet."
Merlin brazenly spoke through the parrot's mouth. Lily clenched her teeth so hard her lip split and bled under the force of her rising anger.
"Why on earth…?! Does she bear some grudge against Sister Artoria?! You know how hellish the time has been since we lost Big Brother… How could you do this!"
"A grudge, you say? Nonsense. I cherish and depend on the king more than anyone. Yes, Artoria has been disappointingly weak of late— but still!"
The parrot hopped briskly along its perch and declared firmly, "Logres will soon be formally established as a kingdom, and the great capital of Camelot is on the verge of completion. At such a crucial moment, imagine Kay appearing—Artoria might just fling aside her holy sword, ignore her crown, and dash into Kay's arms. We must absolutely not allow that."
They intended to stall for a few more days, keeping Kay's existence secret until Camelot and the Logres system could bind Artoria in the unbreakable chains of a monarch's duty.
Their cruel, cynical calculation was that once she was firmly entrenched on the throne, even if Kay did appear, Artoria would be unable to relinquish her crown.
"But if you truly wish to see your brother, then let us set conditions."
Merlin, having been discovered, decided to cut off Lily's tail—to prevent her from informing Artoria—by placating her instead. Then again, perhaps "placate" was more accurate than "cut off the tail." (Though literally, cutting off Artoria's tail would be a fitting metaphor.)
Purple mana shimmered in midair, and a magical contract scroll—the [Self-Geass Scroll]—fell neatly before Lily's eyes.
"Sign this [Geass]. There are two conditions: First, you shall reveal nothing of Kay's return or whereabouts to Artoria or any of Arthur's knights. Second, even if you meet Kay, you must remain utterly silent about Arthur's desperate state and my role in intercepting the messenger."
"…So this is how far you'll go, just to buy time."
Lily gazed down at the [Self-Geass Scroll] lying at her feet.
A flicker of intense turmoil crossed her eyes. The moment she signed this contract, she would be betraying her elder sister—who had stood by her side through life and death for five long years—without reservation.
But…
"Very well. I will sign."
Without a moment's hesitation, Lily seized the quill and wrote her name across the scroll. Her decision came so swiftly and blindly that even Merlin was visibly taken aback.
"Wait, Lily. Isn't this too fast? You care for Artoria more than anyone. Are you really going to betray your sister so easily… all for that one man?"
"Yes. I… I'm just tired of it all now."
Lily managed a hollow, sorrowful smile that rang utterly empty.
"Five years. I've done whatever it took behind my sister's back, spattered my hands with blood I never wanted—haven't I earned a break? Anyway, in a few days the news of Brother's return will reach her ears. A few days—surely I can at least be the first to meet him, to rest in his arms and find solace? Honestly, I'm exhausted from staying here. What kind of holy capital is this, when it's a rotten hell on the inside?"
The voice Lily used to rationalize her actions no longer belonged to a sane mind.
The five-year void had long since corrupted her pure lily soul into a mental wreck gripped by a pathological obsession with Kay.
Gareth blinked innocently and asked,
"Lady Lily… do you perhaps regret staying here instead of leaving with Arthur's army to search for Sir Kay, like the other sisters did?"
Feeling the crimson chains of the [Geass] magic entwine around her, Lily answered hollowly,
"…A little. No, an awful lot. Even if I hadn't stayed, at least I'd have spared myself some of this pain."
"…Ruthless. Very well, the contract stands. Kay is at the North Wales keep—he'll be returning any moment now. If you leave immediately, you'll make it just in time."
"North Wales…!"
Upon hearing her destination, Lily didn't glance back. She had no intention of returning to the barracks to bid farewell to Artoria or gather her belongings.
She didn't dare risk encountering Artoria—lest the Geass's curse activate at the slightest slip.
Lily ran straight to the stables, mounted her white steed, and, driven by nothing but her obsessive desperation to reach Kay, plunged into the pitch-black northern night without any escort.
The next morning, Arthur's camp was thrown into turmoil.
"Your Majesty!! It's terrible! Lady Lily… Lady Lily is missing! Her white steed is gone from the stables without a trace!"
Gareth, his face ashen, burst into Artoria's tent to report.
"…What do you mean? Lily has vanished? She wasn't out on patrol?"
Artoria, hollow-eyed from a sleepless night after last evening's mashed potato feast, looked at Gareth in bewilderment.
"We've searched every inch, but there's no sign of her. Her things are still here in the tent—only she is gone. By all indications, she deserted the camp last night."
The word 'desertion' struck Artoria like a thunderclap.
"She… she ran away, leaving me behind?"
Artoria stared blankly into the empty air.
When Kay had gone missing, the other sisters had each chosen their own path, but Lily was the sole pillar who remained at her side, supporting them both—and yet even she could not endure this living hell and, in the end, chose to abandon her.
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