Chapter 26: Sacred Forest (6)

A mistlike wind blew through the space Frondier had left behind.

Merlin stood with his back to Nimue. She could not see his expression, and the uncertainty was unbearable.

["... Merlin."]

Nimue called to him, but he did not answer. He merely tilted his head a little, giving her a fleeting glimpse of his profile. His hair still cast a shadow over his face, hiding his expression.

["Nimue. Why did you deceive me?"]

Merlin’s voice was flat. She could not even tell whether he was angry or disappointed.

Nimue almost denied it out of reflex, then closed her mouth. Merlin would know everything now. All she could do was tell the truth.

["... Y-you..."]

Now that she was speaking honestly, her voice trembled all the more anxiously.

["I was afraid you would disappear."]

["..."]

Only then did Merlin look at her.

Nimue pleaded with him.

["If you learned King Arthur was gone, I was afraid you would lose your purpose and leave..."]

The Merlin who existed here was, after all, only a guide meant to lead King Arthur. Without Arthur, he had no reason to exist.

Merlin’s wrinkled eyes grew still more somber. Nimue swallowed hard. She had no idea what he would say.

["I see."]

With only those words, Merlin turned his back on her again and walked away, slowly, one measured step at a time.

Nimue watched blankly.

The distance between them steadily grew. He showed no intention of stopping.

["... M-Merlin!"]

Only then did she realize what he meant to do, and she cried out in alarm. Her lips trembled.

But Merlin did not stop. His pace remained unchanged, as though he could not hear her.

["I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Don’t go. Don’t go, Merlin!"]

Despite her desperate cries, Merlin kept walking with the same even stride until he vanished completely from sight.

* * *

I rode through the forest. Selena glanced back from time to time.

"Are you worried about those two?"

"... Merlin isn’t going to kill Nimue, is he?"

Ha ha.

I laughed inwardly.

Merlin couldn’t kill Nimue. Well, he could, but he would never do such a thing.

RUSTLE

Just then, I heard something brush against a tree.

Someone appeared ahead of us. It was Merlin. Just as when we first met, he walked slowly out from behind a tree.

'Hmm.'

Merlin had no intention of attacking me.

I brought the Cassian to a halt and dismounted. As I slowly approached, he spoke.

["Frondier, may I ask you one last thing?"]

"What is it?"

Somehow, I had a feeling I knew what he would ask. Just as I expected, he said:

["Why did King Arthur never receive his second sword? Why could he not come to the lake?"]

Merlin was still here, and Nimue still had Excalibur. That meant King Arthur had never received his second sword.

This was where this world’s Arthurian legend differed most from the actual legend.

"I don’t know either."

Unfortunately, that remained unknown even to the players. No matter how thoroughly we explored the game, Arthurian legend belonged to history. Players couldn’t travel back in time.

["I see."]

Merlin nodded. He did not seem disappointed. It would make no sense for someone living in this age to know even that. In fact, from his perspective, even what I already knew must have been astonishing.

["What should I do?"]

This time, the question was rather difficult. His voice, mingled with something like a sigh, held more emotion than I had ever heard from him.

I asked, "Do you mean about Nimue?"

["Yes."]

"Do you resent her?"

At my question, Merlin raised his head as though only now examining his own feelings.

["I’m not even sure of that. Is it right for me to resent her?"]

He wasn’t sure.

Though Merlin said he did not know, somehow that very answer struck me as befitting Merlin the sage.

"What I can tell you is..."

And so I offered something that might help the two of them, if only a little. They both probably knew it already, but Merlin would need reassurance.

"If not for Nimue, you would have died long ago."

"...?"

Beside me, Selena tilted her head, clearly not understanding.

"You said it yourself. How could a human maintain an illusory world for so long?"

"Oh, then that means..."

Exactly.

Merlin might have created the dream, but it was the fairy Nimue’s power that had sustained it to this day.

["That’s true."]

Merlin knew. Nimue had devoted all her mana to maintaining his dream, just to be with him—even if he was an illusion.

"Nimue could have erased you at any time. Or she could have used that to threaten you. But judging by how you are now, I don’t think she ever did."

I had ended up defending Nimue. There was no helping it. I didn’t want Merlin to disappear yet, either.

"And personally, I would like you to stay here a while longer."

["Why? Your business here should be finished."]

I could now replicate Excalibur. That alone was enough to consider my purpose here fulfilled.

So I wasn’t saying this for my own business.

"Someday, someone will come here."

I told Merlin about Aster Evans.

"That man is far better suited to Excalibur than someone like me. He’s worthy of it."

["Are you telling me to give him the sword?"]

"You can judge for yourself when you meet him."

["How am I supposed to know who he is?"]

I smiled.

["You’ll know that too when you see him."]

What I had was King Arthur’s first sword. The one Nimue held now was his second.

I wanted to see how the two swords differed in appearance, but even if it wasn’t now, I would probably cross swords with Aster someday.

["... Perhaps you might know."]

"Know what?"

Merlin spoke suddenly. What followed was something I had not expected at all.

["King Arthur once gave me this sentence."]

He waved a hand, and a sentence began to appear on the ground between us.

["I couldn’t understand it, so I simply committed its shape to memory."]

A single line slowly took form. As it was completed, my eyes widened.

["Can you read it, by any chance?"]

"..."

I stared at the sentence, my eyes wide. I had no composure to spare for controlling my expression.

It was written in the ancient language. I had no idea how King Arthur had known this sentence or why he had given it to Merlin, but it was unmistakably the ancient language.

That alone was astonishing, but it was the meaning that set my heart pounding.

The sentence Merlin had offered was only one line.

─For the giant who will bring down a god.

... That was what it said.

* * *

Nimue had remained standing all this time, looking in the direction Merlin had gone.

She felt that if she looked away for even a moment, he would never return.

She did not know whether staying like this would bring him back. Even so...

Merlin waited for King Arthur at the lake. And so she, too, could only wait here for Merlin.

["... Ah."]

Then, in the distance, Merlin came slowly walking toward her.

["M-Merlin."]

["Nimue."]

Merlin looked straight at her. Nimue found it almost unbearable to meet his direct gaze, but somehow she did.

["I’m sorry. The reason I deceived you—"]

["Nimue. There is something I want to ask. Will you answer honestly?"]

At his question, she gave a deep nod.

["Yes. I will never deceive you again."]

["All right, then."]

Merlin fell silent for a moment, looking into her eyes. His gaze seemed to penetrate deep within them.

["Can you kill me whenever you wish?"]

At his question, Nimue’s mouth fell open in shock before she bit her lip.

["What does that mean? I mean, I won’t lie to you, but still..."]

["I was told I owe my continued existence to you. Then the moment you cut off your mana, I will disappear. Isn’t that right?"]

Merlin remained impossible to read. Nimue clenched her fists and trembled. How she regretted her own promise not to lie.

["... That’s right."]

She kept her promise.

["The original Merlin, who designed this dream, exhausted his mana a very long time ago. My mana is what sustains you and this forest now. I’m a fairy, and this lake alone can supply me with mana."]

Nimue hated saying this.

It sounded like a threat, as though she held the power of life and death over him. Such a threat would never work on Merlin to begin with, and she did not want it to.

That was why she had concealed it, but there was no point anymore.

["Then I have a favor to ask."]

["... What is it?"]

["This has made me realize my own ignorance and mistakes."]

Merlin smiled, his wrinkled eyes gently lowering.

["When I make the wrong choice, when I walk the wrong path..."]

His smile seemed both self-deprecating and relieved.

["Will you kill me?"]

["..."]

Nimue blinked blankly at his words.

Merlin was asking her to kill him, but the request itself did not register. She would never make such a choice.

Instead, one clear fact reached her heart.

["... With me."]

["Hmm?"]

["Will you stay with me?"]

["..."]

["You won’t leave?"]

That was as good as what Merlin had said. That fact alone kept circling through her mind.

Merlin spoke.

["You will have to be there to see me make those mistakes, after all."]

He nodded.

["Yes."]

Hearing that unmistakable confirmation, Nimue worked her lips wordlessly, then nodded.

["All right. I will. When you go wrong, when you make a mistake, I will..."]

Though she never finished saying it, that answer was the last lie Nimue would ever tell—and one she would uphold to the very end.

* * *

"Selena."

Frondier called her name coldly.

"What do you think you’re doing?"

A sharp needle rested against his throat.

Selena glared at him as though she had become a different person. The needle in her hand trembled.

"What was that just now?"

"What do you mean?"

"That sentence was in the ancient language."

Selena had seen it—the unusual look on Frondier’s face when Merlin showed him the sentence.

And yet Frondier had said he did not know.

Even after parting with Merlin and galloping off on the Cassian again, he had remained unresponsive.

'There’s no doubt about it,' Selena thought.

She could not decipher the ancient language, but she knew what it looked like. And the sentence Merlin had shown them looked very much like it.

"What did it say?"

"I couldn’t decipher it."

"Liar."

The needle pierced Frondier’s throat. Blood welled up and trickled down his neck.

His eyes turned icy.

"... Selena."

"The Ten Thousand Capes sent me because of your ability to decipher it."

Selena gritted her teeth, her glare boring into him.

"Don’t delude yourself into thinking you matter in your own right."