Chapter 26: Sacred Forest (4)

The Lady of the Lake.

This mysterious woman, unnamed even in the original Arthurian legends, goes by various names depending on the region and adaptation.

Woman, fairy, lady, and so on.

But every Etius player called her the same thing.

The Witch of the Lake.

["How rude. A witch? I am a fairy, you know. And I have a name: Nimue."]

Right, Nimue. That was her name. I had spent so long calling her a witch and hearing everyone else do the same that I had forgotten.

Nimue smiled softly as she spoke. Her pure features and smile certainly did not suit the nickname “witch.”

Or was that precisely what made her a witch? Quite a few players had been fooled by her appearance.

Plenty of them had poked around everywhere, convinced she must actually be a good person deep down.

But as the person who had stuck with this game longer than anyone, I could say with certainty that Nimue was indeed a witch.

"Yes, Lady Nimue. I have business at the lake."

["What business?"]

"I came to find the sword inside it."

Nimue’s expression faltered slightly.

["I see... You really did come here knowing something."]

Nimue spread her arms as though welcoming me.

["If you can find it, be my guest."]

["Nimue!"]

Merlin called her name reproachfully.

Nimue smiled sweetly at me.

["The sword is in the lake. You are quite welcome to take it, if you can."]

"What do you mean?"

["Have you forgotten where you are? This is a land of extreme cold, even farther north than your own territory. This lake is colder than a glacier. It remains unfrozen only because it exists as a ‘lake.’"]

I looked down at the lake. Its water was clear and transparent, but just as Nimue said, I could feel a biting chill.

Water colder than ice. It should have been impossible for this still lake to be so cold, but under the name of “mystery,” it retained its appearance forever.

Cold alone could not freeze this lake. Its temperature would simply keep falling.

To take it to an extreme, even if humanity went extinct, this place would remain just as it was forever.

Even so, the cold was absurd.

Watching me, Nimue gave a soft chuckle.

Even her laughter seemed so kindly that it was uncanny.

["Will you go in? What good will finding the sword do if you cannot come back alive?"]

"Don’t worry. I came prepared."

I turned and walked over to the Cassian. Taking Penelope’s Cloth, I tied it around my hand. The chill surrounding me vanished without a trace. That was the cloth’s effect.

["... Hmm."]

Nimue’s smile faded a little, though she still looked untroubled.

["Well, by all means."]

Nimue spoke again, still making no attempt to stop me.

I glanced at Merlin. He, too, was watching me with a grim expression, but he did not look ready to move.

"... Are you really going to jump in?"

Selena asked, sounding worried for some reason.

It seemed only natural for my bodyguard to worry about me, but somehow that did not quite seem to explain it.

"I have to."

"Something feels suspicious. They’re letting you go far too easily."

"Yeah, I think so too."

"What?"

I smiled and waved as though I were stepping out on a quick errand.

"Well, I’ll be back."

With that, I jumped into the lake.

* * *

Selena stared for a moment at the lake Frondier had jumped into.

If she jumped in after him on the pretext of being his bodyguard, she would surely freeze to death in under five seconds.

Even from this distance, she could feel a chill that seemed cold enough to give her frostbite if she so much as dipped a hand into it.

Beside her, Nimue sighed as though in pity.

["And so another greedy life comes to an end."]

"... What do you mean by that?" Selena asked.

Whatever Frondier did, wherever he went, was none of her business. His death, however, was a different matter. Protecting him was her mission.

Of course, the Ten Thousand Capes would not kill her just because he died, but she would certainly face a severe reprimand.

"Lord Frondier isn’t affected by the cold. Bringing back the sword should be easy for him."

She had noticed back in Teibeon that Frondier did not feel the cold. It was probably because of that cloth. Who would have thought the thing he usually wore as a necktie had such a function?

But Nimue shook her head.

["That is not the reason. Merely warding off the cold will not let him retrieve the sword."]

"... It’s not because of the cold?"

Nimue covered her mouth with one hand, her smile benevolent.

["This lake is deep. Ordinary people cannot reach the bottom."]

"... Even so, that wouldn’t kill him."

["If that were all, yes. That man seems stronger than he looks, so I imagine he will reach the bottom. But in keeping with the legend, the sword is actually—"]

Nimue, who had been speaking with evident enjoyment, suddenly stopped and glanced at Merlin, as though checking his reaction. It was a very strange thing to do, but she soon turned back to Selena.

["... Embedded there. Deep in the lake bed."]

"...!"

That was right. Excalibur was originally a sword embedded in a stone. Or a sword bestowed directly by the Lady of the Lake.

But instead of either, it was embedded at the bottom of a deep lake? The legends had been completely mixed together.

["Try to pull that sword free, and it drains your mana. Then it goes further and steals your life force. Only someone powerful enough to overcome all of that can draw it. If you try without knowing your limits, it will simply drain every bit of vitality from you. By the time you come to your senses, you are deep underwater, with no way out."]

Selena swallowed at Nimue’s explanation.

A sword that was extraordinarily particular about its wielder. So particular that it drove anyone unworthy of it to their death.

‘... But it’s underwater.’

Even if someone was worthy, could they really draw the sword underwater?

Could anyone accomplish underwater a task that would be difficult even on land?

Why had two different legends been mixed together, leaving the sword with a trial that seemed impossible for anyone to complete?

["Because the lake is real."]

Frondier’s words kept circling in her head. Selena’s mind continued to race.

But time was steadily passing all the while.

A person could not last long underwater. Nimue glanced up at the sky as though bored, then spoke.

["... You should go back now. The master you are waiting for will not re—"]

SPLASH!

Just then, water surged noisily into the air. Selena, Nimue, and Merlin all turned to look.

It was Frondier. He shot upward holding something like a hammer in one hand, then landed with a splat.

"..."

He hit the ground and went tumbling like a dog.

His emergence through the lake’s surface had looked quite impressive, at least. Selena held her tongue.

"Haaah, I thought I was going to die."

His first words were even less impressive. Selena pressed her lips shut and walked over to him.

He had seemed to be holding something like a hammer in his right hand when he shot out of the lake, but it had already vanished again.

In other words, both his hands were empty.

Selena studied Frondier as she asked,

"... Did you fail?"

"Huh? Fail?"

"You didn’t bring back the sword..."

"Oh, right. I tried gripping it once, just in case, but it drained the strength right out of me. That thing wasn’t for me to touch."

Frondier admitted it readily.

Seeing him like that, Selena felt relieved. Frondier had not died. The Ten Thousand Capes would not scold her, either.

["Hmm, I see. You did know your limits, then."]

Nimue looked down at Frondier, who lay sprawled on the ground.

She looked at his empty hands. Well, it would have been strange if he had brought the sword back. Perhaps he deserved praise simply for abandoning his greed and returning alive.

["I told you, didn’t I? You cannot take that sword."]

"Yes. You did."

As he spoke, Frondier extended one hand. Still lying down, he raised it toward the sky.

"But that doesn’t matter."

And then, with his other hand, Frondier broke the necklace he was wearing.

["What...?"]

For a moment, she could not understand his bizarre behavior.

But as the black liquid flowing from the necklace gathered in Frondier’s outstretched hand, forming thread-thin strands that began to take shape, Nimue’s eyes finally widened.

Her smile vanished. Her mouth fell open in horror.

A smile settled on Frondier’s face, every bit as broad as the one Nimue had lost.

"I told you, didn’t I?"

Frondier gripped the completed object.

A round pommel, a grip made for two hands, a blade with a recessed center, and a guard and cutting edges that gleamed gold.

["What—no, how...!"]

It was the sword embedded in stone for a hero to draw, the sword the Lady of the Lake herself would bestow.

Excalibur.

"I said I came to ‘find’ the sword."

Not once had he said he had come to take it.

* * *

I had never intended to draw Excalibur in the first place.

The “real thing” was not mine. It was the sword this game’s protagonist, Aster Evans, would one day wield.

It would become one of his main weapons. I was not going to do something as stupid as stealing it from him. That was impossible, and there was no need to, anyway.

After entering the lake and finding Excalibur, I had gripped the sword just in case.

... It truly had not budged. Rather than being embedded in the lake bed, it felt as though it was one with the ground.

Besides, the moment I gripped it, I felt my mana draining and gave up. At the same time, I became certain.

No one could draw this sword. Not even Aster Evans.

That was the moment the hypothesis in my head became a certainty.

In any case, I had “seen” it, and that was enough. I used Menosorpo and checked Penelope’s Cloth. Since I had eaten the Dragon Heart earlier, the cloth would supply my mana until it was completely consumed.

‘I’ve found another use for Menosorpo.’

Menosorpo was what had allowed me to shoot from the lake bed to the surface.

Within the magic circle’s range, woven weapons could move freely. So if I held on to one while moving it, couldn’t I fly?

It had been a simple idea, and it did work. The problem was that it only worked with Mjolnir.

When I tried moving other weapons while holding them, they could not support my weight. If they could not even manage it underwater, things looked hopeless on land.

It took something on Gram’s level just to make my body shift a little. Artemis’s Bow and its arrow both managed to lift me, but I nearly ran out of breath first.

‘It’s almost used up.’

Penelope’s Cloth, tied around my hand, had now shrunk to a length that reached only about as far as my elbow.

Meanwhile, Nimue muttered in confusion.

["Impossible. It cannot be. There is no way he drew that sword! It is impossible. No one could..."]

Impossible. No one could. Nimue had said so herself.

["Y-yes! It is a fake! Isn’t it!"]

Nimue shouted, pointing her finger straight at me.

"... Heh."

I could not hold it in any longer. A laugh escaped me, and I gave her a brilliant, unclouded smile.

From the soles of my feet to the crown of my head, I embraced her words. It felt as though my entire soul agreed with Nimue.

And so I beamed with a smile that could not have been more sincere.

"Yes, it’s a fake."