Melusine, Become my Noble Phantasm!

Things were somewhat different from what Morgan and the others had expected. The Lion King did not immediately send forces to encircle their new city. Instead, he ordered the Knights of the Round Table to first arrest those remaining in the ruins, forcibly taking them to Camelot for the Sacred Selection. This made the already sparse population of the ruins even smaller — or perhaps completely extinct.

Is this truly what a king should do?

Gawain chose to ignore the question; Aguiwen remained silent. Tristan, however, didn't care whether all this was the king's doing. As the Reversal Blessing grew stronger, as long as he could kill, nothing else mattered. Recently, Tristan had even directly replaced Gawain in the Sacred Selection.

As for those who failed the selection... well, one could imagine their fate.

The Lion King seemed indifferent to what outsiders thought of her. Even if they labeled her a devil, it appeared she remained unmoved.

Faced with this situation, Lancelot could only request more patrol missions. Originally, these missions belonged to Mordred, but since Mordred had been captured by Morgan, her position and duties were vacant.

Lancelot had made only one mistake in his life — developing feelings for the queen, a bond that should never have formed. Yet, after everything, both he and Guinevere chose to accept severe punishment from the king to restore his dignity. His obsession with earning the king's punishment even led him down a path of madness.

It was true that Lancelot was a noble knight. Of course, that nobility didn't mean he was without faults, but he always carried justice in his heart.

Now, confronted with the Lion King's harsh actions, he felt guilt toward the king and refused to betray him again. Yet these Sacred Selections — tantamount to the slaughter of civilians — were tragedies he wished never to witness again. Thus, compromise was his only choice.

Aguiwen had no objection to Lancelot's decision. The reason was simple: wasn't it better that the knight who had betrayed the king be kept away from him?

Thus, during this period, much of the friction and conflict between Aslan and the Lion King centered on the residents forcibly taken for the Sacred Selection.

Of course, to avoid some Knights of the Round Table being overwhelmed in the process, the arrests were carried out by the Knights of Discipline.

Compared with the original Knights of Justice, the current Knights of Justice had become larger — some over three meters tall — and their armor had thickened. Without Morgan sending forth Heroic Spirits, the militia alone could not contend with such forces.

Arash, as the link between Morgan's Small Holy City and the eastern villages, was constantly on the move. Hassan and the others needed to guard their holy temple, creating a weak point in the resistance. If Arash was away when the village came under attack from the Holy Spear, the resistance could suffer major losses.

Fortunately, the village's mountainous location made it relatively hidden. Without careful scouting, it remained out of the Lion King's sight.

More and more people began gathering spontaneously around this Small Holy City. For the Lion King, this was a growing source of confusion and frustration. She increasingly wondered whether she should resort to special measures to forcibly maintain the human population at a sustainable level.

There were still too few humans kept within the Holy Spear.

There was only one reason the Lion King hadn't yet taken such drastic action — and that was the counsel of Aguiwen. While Aguiwen desired to realize his long-held ambitions, he also sought to prolong the existence of this new Camelot.

The king before him was no longer the man he once knew — yet he was still a king. No matter what, Aguiwen felt compelled to ensure the king's decisions benefited Camelot. Originally reluctant to do so, he had awoken from his dreams upon witnessing the king's growing emotional instability.

While the Knights of the Round Table feared being besieged by Aslan and his allies when venturing out, Aslan and his forces feared falling into traps set by the Knights of the Round Table during rescue attempts. Consequently, Aslan's rescue parties always moved in groups with multiple servants.

Aslan himself — born as two — was an exception. Alone, he was a formidable servant, and alongside Melusine, a top-tier presence, they were nearly impossible to capture unless the Lion King deployed multiple Knights of the Round Table in a trap.

Upon hearing news that the Knights of Justice had begun plundering cities further east, Aslan once again set out for the eastern continent.

As mentioned before, there were always those unwilling to leave their homes, those unaware of the truth, those holding fantasies about the Lion King, or those unable to travel far for physical or psychological reasons.

Morgan's philosophy was clear: tell these people the truth as much as possible. If they refused to leave, then protect them when danger came. The Lion King's growing determination only strengthened their resolve to protect these people.

A thousand years had passed, and although Morgan understood Artoria, understanding was one thing — hatred another. He opposed the Lion King. On one hand, displeased with her actions; on the other, the body she used belonged to Artoria, giving Morgan a chance to vent his long-standing hatred.

Though Morgan's stance was partly born of his own stubbornness, he also knew it widened the divide between the two sides. How could a witch a thousand years old still behave like a petulant child? Ha.

Meanwhile, in the east, a figure cloaked in tattered robes, clad in silver knight armor, with his right arm hidden beneath the cloak, staggered into the ruined city. Tall, solemn knights rapidly approached the border ahead.

After all, aside from the border dwellers, most survivors had already fled to the Small Holy City.

-End Chapter-

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