"Hold my hand and kiss it!"
Hearing such bold words, Su Ya, who had been single his entire life and was quite conservative, looked up blankly.
He finally saw the girl's full appearance.
She was slender, with waist-length white hair.
She wore an openwork golden bracelet on her wrist, black and gold patterned leggings on her perfectly curved legs, and a short white butterfly dress with gold trim. From the hem to the waist, and even the lapels, violet-like flowers bloomed. A crystal-clear blue sapphire pendant hung around her slender, fair neck.
Above that was an exquisite, innocent face with a slight frown and rosy-red eyes looking down, hinting at a touch of disdain.
In short,
She was so beautiful she didn't seem "human."
She perfectly matched Su Ya's every fantasy of a magical girl.
A girl in such magnificent attire shouldn't be treading a battlefield filled with scattered soldiers, blood, and severed limbs. Instead, she should be seated elegantly in a royal palace, serving as a chief mage, princess, or queen.
Su Ya glanced at his own hands, covered in dark red blood, mud, and wounds, feeling a little unsure where to put them.
However, the dagger pressed tighter against his neck.
He could only grab her delicate white hand, lower his head slightly, and kiss it.
"In the name of the British court butler, the Flower Magician Merlin, I make this oath—"
"Declare!"
"My body is entrusted to your command, your destiny is attached to my sword!"
"Respond to the king's summons, you who obey this will and reason, answer me!"
"I am the one who achieves all good in the world, I am the one who serves the king and cultivates the king, I am the guardian of the forgotten land and the king's treasury!"
"Hereby I swear!"
"I will entrust myself to you, learn from you, and pledge my loyalty to you."
"I will serve you as you ascend to the throne, and you shall honor me as kin."
"The defiant shall be imprisoned in the cage of madness, and I shall be the one who holds their chains!"
And so,
On this chaotic battlefield,
The fake king, covered in filth, mud, and black blood, was forced to lower his head and kiss the back of the seemingly proper Flower Magician's hand, swearing an oath to be fulfilled in this life.
The two would walk side by side until Su Ya ascended the throne!
But,
Was that truly the case?
The moment the oath was formed,
Merlin, the girl who called herself the British court butler and Flower Magician, cast a low gaze at Su Ya kneeling before her.
A strange smile quietly emerged on her lips.
Meanwhile, Su Ya, who considered himself half-Moon-Slayer (a reference to Fate/Grand Order and its "Moon Cell" setting, implying a certain familiarity with its concepts), listened to the serious white-haired girl solemnly recite the oath.
His expression gradually became blank and bizarre.
Wait,
Damn woman,
What nonsense are you spouting?!
What do you mean you're the guardian of the forgotten land and the king's treasury?
When did I agree to open my treasury to you!
And what do you mean "honor me as kin"?
Does that mean I have to call you Mom?
And, and, what the hell do you mean "you shall be the one who holds the chains"?!
So whether we fall out depends entirely on your mood, huh?!
What kind of humiliating and traitorous treaty is this?!
In fact,
The Merlin who appeared before Su Ya at this moment was not the court butler by King Arthur's side, nor was she Merlin, the great mage who had taken King Arthur from King Uther's side and raised him since childhood.
Her true identity was actually a failed gambler.
On a beautiful afternoon, Merlin, who longed for a life of princely wealth, decided to stake everything she owned—her staff, jewels, magic books, and all the treasures she had brought from the land of fairies.
At a gambling house within the second ring of Winchester.
As expected, she lost everything, even the magical dress she was wearing. Her opponent took pity on her and allowed her to buy back her clothes on credit, then figure out how to repay the loan.
Merlin, whose life had instantly hit rock bottom, applied disconsolately for a job posting at a manor outside the capital.
Thanks to her abilities as a professional Flower Magician and her innocent appearance, Merlin quickly joined Sir Ector's Manor as a gardener.
Of course, as a magician, she wasn't actually going to work.
Merlin joined Sir Ector's Manor precisely to take advantage of the brief period while Sir Ector was away serving King Uther, and plunder the manor's treasures!
Everything was supposed to go according to Merlin's plan; she had even divined the safe's password.
Until the day an accident happened—
Was it after King Uther fell ill, or after he raised his army? Well, it didn't really matter.
Three days after King Uther led a large army to conquer King Alexia III, the Conqueror King, who had recently ascended the throne in the west, he was captured alive by the Conqueror King, sent to the guillotine, cut in half, and hung on the royal banner. Subsequently, King Alexia III led her army to begin her eastward conquest!
The entire city of Winchester fell into chaos, and even Sir Ector's Manor, far outside the capital, became a mess and was soon looted by scattered soldiers.
It was then that Merlin, who had planned to escape with the safe, unexpectedly learned a shocking secret from the manor's butler, who had been cut to near-death by the rogue soldiers—
King Uther's own son, who had been taken away by the great mage Merlin fifteen years ago, was actually Sir Ector's adopted son!
He possessed the most legitimate royal bloodline in all of Britannia and was destined to become the new king of this land!
And now,
With the butler dead, could she, having received the butler's dying wish, become the new king's court butler?
Or perhaps go one step further and, by virtue of helping the dragon, ascend directly to the position of Court Archmage!?
Just thinking about it—
Merlin was practically trembling with excitement!
But all of this would only come true the day Merlin and the new king escaped back to the capital.
Soon,
The new king returned to the manor, killing the rogue soldiers with his excellent swordsmanship and magic.
He prepared to break through with the retainers from Sir Ector's Manor and return to the capital.
With her innocent appearance and seemingly delicate and easily-toppled physique, Merlin was quickly categorized as "weak" by Arthur Pendragon and bundled away with the luggage. Although Merlin was actually a higher-ranked magician than him, she didn't care about such things. All she wanted was that moment of turning the tide.
After all, a timely helping hand is always more appreciated than something that merely adds to what's already plentiful, right?
But this thought,
Soon after, when Merlin simultaneously saw two sons of King Uther, and one of them, the "son of King Uther," had dangerously flickering eyes, she began to hesitate.
Merlin didn't know why she hesitated, and she felt a sense of perverse shame for this hesitation.
From the time she left her homeland as a refugee and came to Winchester, until she gambled away all her fortune,
She was always hesitating, afraid, constantly feeling lost about the future, missing opportunities and then regretting them.
It was as if only at the gambling table, pushed to the edge of a cliff with no retreat, did she feel relaxed and free.
Just like that moment,
She personally saw the substitute sneak attack the new king from behind, piercing the king's body with a sword poisoned with magic, then withdrawing the sword and stabbing again, preparing to torture the new king into revealing the royal magic circuit.
Merlin didn't feel sad for a moment about the new king's carelessness; instead, she felt joy at the victory of the impostor who was the substitute!
She couldn't describe what kind of feeling it was!
It was as if all her hesitation was a bodily instinct meant to welcome that moment!
After all, she herself was a fake, a pathetic forgery trying to become King Arthur's butler, a replacement for the legendary and wise Archmage Merlin.
Perhaps there was pity for the substitute, who was also a "fake"?
Or perhaps it was the moment the fake killed the real one that made Merlin, for the first time in a long time, return to the gambling table, to the moment when she was gambling with red eyes!
Her hesitation had already made everything futile.
So,
She stepped onto this abyss of mad gambling once again!
The moment Su Ya eliminated Arthur,
Merlin's heart,
Immediately constructed a bigger, crazier gamble, one that would shock the entire kingdom, all the nobles, and even the whole world!
She wanted to turn the fake into the real!
To make a fake become the true king!
And then,
Plunder everything from this forged king!