Although the Lion King had agreed to leave Camelot with Shiomi and personally witness the humans living in this Singularity, up to now, it had been difficult to read any expression from her face.
Still, she offered some information about this Singularity.
For instance, at the heart of the desert lay the territory of the Sun King. To the northwest of the Holy City were impassable mountains, where villages of the Mountain People still remained. Under the Lion King's Rhongomyniad, the western village had been wiped out, leaving only the eastern village barely clinging to life.
Shiomi didn't ask why the village had been destroyed. Most likely, resistance forces there threatened her plans, so she chose to eliminate them without hesitation.
Between Camelot and the mountains stretched a dead land—a barren wilderness. Even on foot, the journey to the mountain's base would take at least a day and a night.
Yet, riding alongside the Lion King on the warhorse Dun Stallion, Shiomi felt something off.
He leaned forward slightly to peek at the Lion King's face from behind but, unsurprisingly, saw nothing.
"If you have questions, speak them. Depending on what you ask, I'll decide whether to answer," the Lion King said.
"It's nothing. I'm just surprised you're being this lenient with me." Shiomi shook his head.
With only one warhorse, he had assumed he'd be running on foot. But apparently, this was how she chose to handle things.
"This is also a form of appeasement. Even if I handed you over to Sir Agravain for interrogation, it's unlikely you'd break," the Lion King said.
Agravain was particularly skilled in torture—a rare talent even among the Knights of the Round Table.
"That's hard to say. I'm the type who bullies the weak but fears the strong. If Agravain gave me a good beating, I might end up clutching your leg, begging for mercy," Shiomi joked with a smirk.
Unfortunately, the Lion King didn't react. If it had been Artoria from the Fourth Holy Grail War, she might have pretended to seriously consider the idea.
"No one would believe such a joke," the Lion King said, eyes fixed forward, clearly unbothered by the man sharing her horse. "Someone the King of Magecraft couldn't subdue wouldn't surrender to mere torture."
"Oh? You know about that?" Shiomi raised an eyebrow.
"The King of Magecraft appeared in another Singularity and tried to recruit you. But he failed, and even his attempt to kill you on the spot came to nothing," the Lion King revealed, something she should not have known. "That man didn't see through your true nature."
Shiomi pursed his lips. "How do you know that? Can your eyes see events in other Singularities?"
"No. After I wiped out the false Crusaders, the King of Magecraft's messenger appeared in this Singularity," the Lion King explained. "The Crusaders were originally chosen by the King of Magecraft for this place, but they were too foolish and summoned the Sun King instead."
"Then who were the false Crusaders?" Shiomi asked.
"It's irrelevant. They just happened to occupy Jerusalem," the Lion King replied indifferently. "I destroyed their base with Rhongomyniad."
After that, the Holy City of Camelot was established.
"So the King of Magecraft's messenger appeared in this Singularity…" Shiomi pieced it together. "They were meant to manipulate the Crusaders to stabilize the Singularity and interfere with Chaldea's restoration efforts. But with the Sun King and the Lion King as variables, the plan unraveled."
Even so, the messenger realized that the Singularity would persist—and might even grow more troublesome.
The clearest proof was that the Human Order Foundation value had reached EX level.
"The King of Magecraft's messenger came to Camelot and revealed Chaldea's appearance here—including your information," the Lion King said, showing no intent to hide anything. Shiomi couldn't tell if it was confidence or something else.
After receiving that information, the Lion King quickly grasped why Shiomi couldn't be killed and issued a secret order to capture him alive.
Shiomi narrowed his eyes. "So that's how you were able to have the Knights of the Round Table ambush us so precisely... The King of Magecraft's Clairvoyance can't see into Chaldea, but he can still predict and calculate our general coordinates through other means."
Was he being overestimated, or was she just that cautious?
Either way, it was a hassle.
"So, who was the King of Magecraft's messenger?" Shiomi asked.
"I don't know. The moment he barged into the palace and finished delivering his prophecy, the Knights of the Round Table executed him," the Lion King replied coolly. "He wore a dark green coat."
"Lev Lainur Flauros." Shiomi rubbed his brow. "That guy just won't stay dead."
That man had also appeared in the Second Singularity and was cut down by Attila.
But that hadn't truly killed Lev—he had already awakened as the Demon God Flauros.
According to Romani, Demon Gods couldn't be fully destroyed. They always existed under the premise of the "Seventy-Two Pillars." As long as they considered themselves Demon Gods, Solomon would always be surrounded by seventy-two pillars.
Even if killed by the Lion King, Lev would simply resurrect at the King of Magecraft's side again.
"So, was the King of Magecraft trying to recruit me for the same reason you did?" Shiomi asked.
"Not necessarily. That man never saw through your true nature, nor did he understand your origin," the Lion King said. "He simply viewed you as an existence even more unpredictable than Chaldea—a threat that needed to be removed."
Whether through recruitment or execution, both were just means to the same end.
That thought brought Shiomi back to his initial question. He muttered under his breath:
"Why did the King of Magecraft initiate the incineration of humanity...?"
The Lion King didn't answer. Perhaps it wasn't truly a question.
In silence, the white warhorse moved across the barren, lifeless wasteland.
But Shiomi didn't have time to dwell on it for long.
The wasteland wasn't empty. It was crawling with ghouls—humans twisted into mindless creatures. Upon spotting Shiomi and the Lion King, they charged.
They were now monsters driven by nothing but the urge to kill and devour, yet they had once been human.
As Shiomi jumped down from the horse, he glanced at the Lion King and half-joked, "I'll handle this. No need to trouble yourself."
"Then I'll leave it to you."
The Lion King didn't sound particularly casual or commanding. She simply took the reins and watched as Shiomi moved to confront the encroaching ghouls.