Chapter 407
King Arthur is dead.
Yu-hyun and Seo Sumin had the same thought at the same time, as if their minds were in sync.
They had just gotten involved in a very troublesome matter.
“This is serious.”
“What do you think we should do? Should we explain ourselves first?”
“No. I think it’s better to stay quiet for now.”
If they were suspected, they wouldn’t have been brought to the Round Table meeting on purpose.
Rather, from the fact that they were allowed to attend the meeting, they could tell that they were not blamed, but hoped for help.
Yu-hyun’s guess was right, as none of the knights of the Round Table looked at him and Seo Sumin with accusing eyes.They all had grim expressions on their faces, but they had no hostility towards them.
“Gawain. Tell us what happened in detail.”
Kay’s tone, which had been frivolous all along, sank coldly.
Gawain brushed his red hair roughly and calmly explained what he had seen.
“First of all, I finished patrolling inside Camelot as usual, and went to report to the king.”
“Patrolling? You’re still doing that yourself instead of delegating it to the lower ones?”
“A knight must be an example for others. We can’t neglect these trivial matters just because we have higher rank and status.”
“You’re as stubborn as ever.”
Kay urged him to continue.
“When I knocked on the door to report directly to the king, there was no sign or response from inside. So I thought the king had left for a while, and asked a passing maid if she knew where the king had gone.”
“And then?”
“The maid said that the king had not come out of his room all day, and had no reason to go anywhere. As soon as I heard that, I realized that something was wrong, and opened the king’s door by force. It was a rude act, but I couldn’t help it with my loyalty to my lord. And what I saw was…”
Gawain bit his lip for a moment as if recalling that moment, and continued.
“The inside of the room was full of traces of a battle that had swept through. And there were bloodstains everywhere, which were disappearing quickly as they turned into mana.”
“What?”
The other knights of the Round Table reacted strongly, as if they had heard something unbelievable.
Especially Kay did not bother to hide his displeasure.
“Gawain. Don’t you think something is wrong with what you just said?”
“I know. But I can confidently say that I answered truthfully what I saw with my knight’s honor.”
“Well, fine. You don’t seem like someone who would lie about that. You’re the one who has served the king most loyally and earned the most honorable title of knight among us.”
“Thank you for your compliment.”
“Don’t thank me, you bastard. It’s not a compliment. Anyway, if what you say is true, there are too many strange things.”
Kay leaned forward and raised a finger.
“First. It doesn’t make sense that no one knew about such a fierce fight in the palace.”
“What if they blocked the signs with magic?”
“How many people do you think can use such precise magic? Even Merlin couldn’t do that. No, let’s say they did use such magic secretly. But there were traces of a fight, right? How do you explain that? How could Merlin not know about that?”
“That…”
“That’s the second strange thing. Have you forgotten what kind of being our king is? He’s the undisputed strongest of the Round Table. Someone broke into his room and killed him without anyone noticing? There were traces of a fight, which means the king resisted too. But how could he lose? I don’t believe it.”
“What if there were many enemies?”
“I thought about that too. But how could a group of unknown people sneak into Camelot without anyone’s suspicion and fight in the king’s room? Does that make sense to you? If they were strong enough to defeat the king in a single blow, and fast enough to end the fight without anyone noticing, they would have to bring a first-generation spirit.”
King Arthur’s strength was enough to fight against a second-generation spirit.
Especially his greatest strength was his holy sword Excalibur.
King Arthur with Excalibur, a mythical weapon, was estimated to be able to fight even against Magni.
“The hypothesis is nonsense. They have to be many, unnoticed by anyone, secretly moving without our knights noticing, and overpowering our king by force.”
“But how do you explain that scene?”
“I don’t know either. I have to see it for myself first. Anyway, I get the situation. So you summoned the Round Table meeting as the king’s proxy.”
“That’s right. Looking back, I think I was too emotional. But I had to consider the worst possibility.”
“The worst possibility being that the king is dead?”
“…Yes.”
Gawain nodded his head, grinding his teeth as if he couldn’t accept that.
Kay scoffed at him.
“You’re stupid. You’re worrying about something that hasn’t been proven yet. Or maybe, are you thinking of something else?”
“Something else?”
“You have something you’re most worried about.”
Kay uttered the names as if he knew what Gawain was thinking.
“Lancelot.”
“…!”
As soon as the name Lancelot came out, Gawain’s face twisted with rage.
Gareth, who had been quietly listening to their conversation, became speechless, and the other knights also made a sound of displeasure.
The long-haired young man, Percival, who had been sitting quietly, stepped forward.
“Sir Kay. I think that’s too much, even for you.”
“I agree.”
Tristan was the one who agreed with Percival and stepped forward.
He was the only knight of the Round Table who used a bow, and he looked like a lively country boy.
He argued that it was absurd to even mention the existence of Lancelot, the knight of betrayal.
“Lancelot didn’t come back to Camelot because he couldn’t bear his guilt. Why would he suddenly sneak in here again?”
“He did it once, he could do it twice.”
Gawain muttered with a voice full of hatred.
Tristan shook his head as if he couldn’t stop him.
“Sir Gawain. We all know that you have a grudge against Lancelot. But that’s already a thing of the past, so why don’t you let it go? The person involved, Gareth, is quiet, so why do you keep bringing it up?”
“Uh, uh?”
Gareth flinched and showed his confusion when his name was mentioned.
Lancelot was a name that put him in a strange situation.
He used to admire him more than anyone else, and he still respected him, but Gareth had met his end at Lancelot’s hand. He knew that Lancelot didn’t do it on purpose, but it was an undeniable fact.
That was why Gawain hated Lancelot.
Before they received the grace of the stars and became spirits, they had all experienced death.
Gawain loved his brother Gareth terribly, and went berserk when he heard the news that Lancelot had killed Gareth.
He ignored even the king’s order and tried to kill Lancelot.
His hatred was still the same even after becoming a spirit, and Lancelot’s name was almost taboo.
“And, if you want to mention them, there are others too.”
Kay quickly intervened and changed the atmosphere.
“Others?”
“Mordred, Agravain.”
Neither of them had a good name in the Round Table.
Mordred was the son of the king who rebelled against him, and Agravain was the culprit who triggered all this conflict.
That’s why there were always three empty seats in the Round Table.
Lancelot, Mordred, Agravain.
They existed somewhere in Mabinogion’s territory, but they never set foot in Camelot.
“Let me say something.”
Then one of the knights sitting next to Gawain opened his mouth.
He was a young man with thin silver hair.
His voice was so thin that it was hard to tell if he was a man or a woman.
His most distinctive feature was that he was one-armed.
“Sir Bedivere.”
“They certainly committed unforgivable sins in the past. But that’s all over now, and more importantly, our king showed them kindness by sending them letters several times and asking them to join us again.”
That was an undeniable truth that everyone agreed with in silence.
Bedivere continued.
“The king wanted to break the chain of stories that had been going on since the past. The knight of betrayal or the traitor, he wanted to be with them again and restore the old glory of the Round Table. But it was us who couldn’t accept the king’s kindness. Especially Lancelot, who regretted his sins so much that he vowed to spend his life in atonement.”
“Hmm.”
Even Gawain couldn’t deny that part and just sighed. Bedivere’s words were that accurate.
“I don’t think they would sneak into the palace and assassinate the king.”
“Then what?”
“We have to see for ourselves first.”
Kay answered.
It was far from enough to judge the situation with only Gawain’s testimony.
“Then what about those two…”
They had been ignoring Yu-hyun and Seo Sumin until now, but Tristan couldn’t contain his curiosity and asked.
“They’re going to help me with our work for a while.”
Kay said that and no one dared to argue.
Seo Sumin tried to say something at Kay’s sudden remark, but Yu-hyun quickly stopped her.
‘What are you doing?’
‘We have to stay quiet. Kay is doing us a favor.’
‘What?’
While they were talking, the meeting proceeded quickly.
The first priority was to check the scene of the incident and look for clues or evidence.
“Then let’s get moving.”
“We can’t ignore the worst case scenario either.”
Everyone got up from their seats and headed for where the king’s room was.
Yu-hyun and Seo Sumin followed them at the end, and Kay came up to them quietly.
“Sorry for dragging you into this.”
“No. I get the situation.”
They tried to say something only they knew, but Seo Sumin interrupted them with an annoyed expression.
“What is it? Tell me too.”
“Miss Sumin. Do you know why we attended this meeting?”
“Well, because the king invited us…”
“But it wasn’t the king. It was practically Gawain’s order. Why did Gawain call us, and why did Kay help us attend the meeting?”
“…To prove our alibi?”
“That’s part of it, but they also did us a favor. If we hadn’t attended the meeting there, we would have been the first ones to be suspected.”
“You know well.”
Kay nodded and added some more explanation.
“First of all, it’s clear that you’re not the culprit. You just met me and we moved together, and the lady stayed in her room and never came out.”
“What if I moved secretly?”
“Are you overestimating yourself? Or are you underestimating us?”
“…Fine. I take back what I said.”
“Anyway, in this situation, making two people who are guests suspicious is… something that goes against the knight’s code for Gawain or the other knights.”
“What about your position?”
“I just made a rational choice rather than following the knight’s code. I don’t want anyone else to be suspected and make the case more complicated.”
So he deliberately let them attend the meeting to indirectly show that they had no suspicion.
This way, even if the rumor of the king’s disappearance spread, Yu-hyun and Seo Sumin would be less likely to be suspected.
They were vouched by the knights of the Round Table.
“Thank you for your consideration. But still, you had another intention, right?”
“You caught me.”
Kay decided to be honest.
“I think we need your help.”
“Our help?”
“I haven’t seen the scene yet, but the king is gone for sure. And it happened in our Camelot palace. No matter how optimistic I try to be, I can’t help but feel uneasy. Maybe there’s some involvement from outside forces.”
If that was true, it would be an unprecedented crisis for Camelot and Mabinogion.
They had to prevent the situation from getting worse.
“You need our power.”
Yu-hyun understood what Kay meant.
Yu-hyun had the title of Lord of Books and his power had reached almost the level of a first-generation spirit.
What about Seo Sumin?
She was the human who entered the territory of Hell Realm alone and turned it upside down, and drove away the Demon King.
Their power was enough to laugh at any ordinary spirit army.
“That’s right.”
“Then let’s make it quick and clean.”
“What?”
“How are you going to reward us?”
Kay looked like a pigeon shot by a gun at Yu-hyun’s words.
“…Really? You want compensation? Hey, are you kidding?”
“Do I look like I’m joking?”
“Ah…”
Kay scratched his head with a blank face and then sighed deeply.
“…I’ll give you enough.”
“On behalf of Great Army?”
“Are you trying to take everything from me?”
Yu-hyun shrugged his shoulders.
It was better to get what he could while he could.
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