"Are you sure this plan of yours is going to work?"
"Shut up. You're lucky I haven't chopped your head off already. Now play your part properly."
In the spacious castle hall, Kay, wearing a cloak, shoved the tightly bound rlin forward. He glanced at the nurous guards surrounding them and spoke in a low voice.
Beside him, Artoria, similarly cloaked to hide her appearance, silently observed their surroundings without a word.
"Alright, alright, I get it..."
Feeling the edge of a sword pressed against his back, rlin nodded helplessly.
Just then, the crisp sound of footsteps echoed from a distance, drawing nearer.
Before long, a golden-haired girl, holding the hem of her skirt with both hands, hurried into the hall. From her rushed breathing and the slight sheen of sweat on her forehead, it was clear she was anxious.
However, upon entering the hall, she deliberately slowed her pace, straightened her appearance, and walked up to rlin with elegant steps, her face stern.
"Hmph. You still have the nerve to co back and see ?"
"Haha, what are you saying, Eunice? I love you so much, how could I bear to leave you?"
Faced with the girl's resentful gaze, rlin reflexively put on a gentle, sincere smile and whispered sweet nothings.
"Th-Then why did you just disappear this morning without leaving a single ssage for ?"
"That's because, to commorate our night together, I was so eager to prepare a gift for you that I didn't have ti to tell you. I just never thought you would misunderstand ..."
rlin put on a heartbroken expression, causing the girl, who had been full of resentnt, to hesitate.
"R-Really? You're not lying to ?"
"Of course not. If you don't believe , you can have this knight untie so I can take out the gift."
Staring at rlin's face, which showed no trace of falsehood, the girl froze for a mont. Then, without further hesitation, she snapped at Kay.
"Hey, what are you standing there for? Untie him for !"
"Tsk."
Kay turned his face away and clicked his tongue, reluctantly cutting the ropes on rlin with his sword. Once freed, rlin took out a wildflower from his robes—one that seed to have been casually picked from the roadside just a few minutes ago—and presented it to the girl.
"See, this is the gift I so carefully prepared for you. Do you like it, Eunice?"
"So what you said was true? I'm sorry, I misunderstood you..."
"It's alright, as long as you're happy."
"Ooh... Thank you, 'Kay'."
Glancing at the escalating love cody beside him, and at the real Kay, whose face was so dark with rage he looked like he was about to start swinging, Artoria discreetly backed away into a corner of the hall, as if everyone had forgotten her existence.
After subtly shooting a few glances at Kay, who was practically shaking with anger, Artoria tiptoed out of the hall.
The reason no one noticed her was that rlin had placed an illusion on her before they arrived, one that weakened her presence. Of course, just in case, her and Kay's appearances had also been slightly altered.
—Where on earth are they keeping En...?
Worry and anxiety flashed through her heart as Artoria dodged patrols, searching the castle aimlessly for the boy.
Just as she was passing a corner, the sound of patrols ca from the front, back, and left simultaneously. Her expression changed, and she instinctively ducked into the area on her right.
Only after entering did Artoria realize she was in a small bathhouse, clearly a place for the castle's master and their family.
"Who's there?"
A young and familiar voice ca through the steam. Artoria froze, subconsciously looking in the direction of the sound and exclaiming.
"En?!"
"Is that you, Sister? Why are you here?"
Aozaki Rin lowered the broken sword in his hand and sighed in relief. He had thought it was that group of maids again, who kept insisting on helping him bathe, which had made him quite tense.
Thankfully, it was soone he knew.
However, Artoria did not imdiately answer the boy's question.
She looked at the boy before her, who was hastily dressed in only an inner shirt and trousers. The loose-fitting clothes, not yet fully buttoned, had slipped slightly, revealing a patch of fair skin on his shoulder and a delicate collarbone. His black hair was damp with moisture.
And he was tilting his head, facing her with a pair of blank, unfocused eyes.
Artoria blinked as if stunned, only coming back to her senses after several seconds. She quickly averted her gaze and said.
"...Sir Kay and I ca here specifically to rescue you. Anyway, get dressed first. We're leaving right now."
"I understand. I'll get ready right away."
Hearing her words, Aozaki Rin imdiately deduced that his brother and rlin must be distracting the guards elsewhere in the castle while his sister had co to find him.
So he wasted no ti, quickly changing into a set of clothes and, with the broken sword at his waist, ca to stand beside Artoria, who seed to have her back turned to him.
"Alright, let's go, Sister. But will it be okay to just walk out?"
"Ahem, don't worry. rlin put an illusion on . As long as you hide under my cloak and we try not to draw attention, we should be able to slip past everyone's sight."
Seeing that the boy was finally fully and properly dressed, Artoria breathed a sigh of relief, but for so reason, a subtle sense of regret flashed through her, a strange feeling she couldn't quite place.
She didn't dwell on it. Given the tense situation, she hid the boy under her cloak, peeked out to make sure no one was outside the bathhouse, and then carefully moved with the boy toward the castle exit.
But they hadn't gotten far before several patrols spotted them almost simultaneously. They sward forward, surrounding them.
"Wait! Why were we discovered? Could it be... has the illusion worn off?!"
Looking at the surrounding guards, Artoria said in disbelief. As if realizing sothing, her expression changed.
The mont they were surrounded, Aozaki Rin had already drawn the broken sword from his waist.
anwhile, back in the castle hall.
"So you're still planning to abandon , 'Kay'?"
"How could I? Didn't I say I have to take care of so things with my companions? When it's over, I'll definitely co back for you, Eunice."
"Heh, is that so? Do you think I'm that easy to fool? I gave you a chance, 'Kay'. Since you chose this, don't bla for being impolite."
The golden-haired girl, Eunice, glared at rlin as if suppressing her anger. Then, as if noticing sothing, she looked at the real Kay standing beside rlin, and her brow furrowed imdiately.
"Wait a minute, aren't you the guy I saw at the inn this morning...?"
"Aha! So you really are a group! And you ganged up to lie to ! n, seize these two bastards! I'm going to have them castrated!"
Startled by the girl's words, rlin instinctively covered a certain part of his body. Kay, on the other hand, froze for a second before grabbing rlin by the collar and demanding angrily.
"What's going on!? What about your illusion!?"
"Er, it seems I misspoken the incantation earlier and accidentally made it a tid spell... Ehe!"
"Ehe your head! You idiot!"
Kay kicked rlin squarely in the rear, sending him flying. But even as angry as he was, he had to force himself to calm down. The guards in the hall had already closed in, and from their hostile glares, it was clear they fully intended to carry out the girl's order.
"This is going to be a bit of a headache..."
Kay's face darkened as he drew his sword, his eyes scanning the surrounding guards warily.
It wasn't that he couldn't handle this many people, but escaping unscathed would be difficult for him, having only recently beco a full-fledged knight. What's more, he had a hate-magnet, white-haired burden with him.
I hope Artoria and En have already made it out safely...
Just as he was thinking this, at the very mont the guards were about to charge, the great doors of the castle hall, which had been closed, were suddenly blown open as if struck by a massive force.
With a deafening "BOOM!", the doors were blasted inward, shattering into pieces.
Rubble and dust flew through the air.
In the sight of everyone in the hall, dozens of soldiers, holding shattered spears, stumbled backward in terror. Yet, bound by their duty, they dared not break the encirclent, retreating into the hall in a strange formation. When the dust finally settled, everyone could see the figure at the center of the circle of soldiers: a pure-white knight-princess in skirted armor.
"Lily?!"
Not calling out his sister's real na but her travel alias, Kay stared in astonishnt at the girl holding the sheathed Sword in the Stone. He could hardly believe his sister possessed such power to make these soldiers so terrified.
But his assessnt was quickly overturned.
While the soldiers were indeed afraid of the knightly girl who had shattered the stone doors with a single blow, they were clearly more afraid of soone else.
—Tap.
The crisp sound of a footstep ca from behind Artoria.
From within the settling dust, Aozaki Rin walked forward, step by step, holding his broken sword.
And with every step he took, the soldiers who had been surrounding him took a step back in unison, as if what was approaching them was not a boy, but sothing else entirely.
"Hey! What are you all doing? Seize them at once!"
Snapping out of her stupor, the noble girl Eunice imdiately ordered her guards to act.
However, the soldiers who had been surrounding Aozaki Rin and Artoria seed to be afraid of sothing and hesitated to advance.
As for the guards inside the hall, after hearing the girl's repeated command, they hesitated for a mont before finally choosing to charge, thrusting their spears toward the boy, intending to pin him down!
But what happened next was unbelievable.
Aozaki Rin did not dodge the spears coming at him. He took a step forward and raised his broken blade.
In the next instant, a dazzling line of white light flashed through the air!
Clink, clink, clink...
The sound of neatly severed tal spearheads falling to the ground echoed in unison, instantly silencing the entire hall.
"I don't wish to harm anyone. If it's alright, could you let us leave?"
Raising the broken sword in his hand and pointing it at the golden-haired girl, the boy lifted his unfocused eyes. A mysterious pattern seed to glow within his golden pupils.
—One swing, severing steel.
"My lady..."
Clearly recognizing how dangerous the boy was, an older captain of the guards stood beside Eunice and advised her softly.
The girl stared at the boy for a mont, then at rlin, who was just now getting up from the ground where he'd been playing dead. She gritted her teeth and said resentfully.
"Fine! I'll let you go! But you rember this, I hope you don't fall into my hands in the future, Kay!"
The girl's hateful words made Kay's face instantly darken, and a sudden urge to kill soone surged within him.
Learning that they were being let go, Aozaki Rin also breathed a sigh of relief. He lowered his broken sword and offered a sincere thanks.
"Thank you."
Only then did he walk over to Artoria's side and, following his sister's lead, leave the castle with the other two.
And so, the party of four finally brought the curtain down on this farce.
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