When Shiomi was first brought to Camelot, he learned from Mordred that two of the Knights of the Round Table had not responded to the Lion King's summons.
Those two were Galahad and Bedivere.
Now, hearing from Sakura and the others that the Servant who had granted Mash her strength was Galahad, Shiomi was genuinely surprised.
And the knight who had taken part in the assault on the Round Table Fortress but collapsed after a fierce battle with Tristan—that was Bedivere.
Piecing all this together, Shiomi became certain: the distortion of this Singularity wasn't without cause.
When he arrived, Bedivere was in the middle of a spat with Mordred.
Well, more accurately, it was Mordred pestering him—curious about his prosthetic arm.
Since Bedivere claimed it was crafted by Merlin, Mordred's curiosity was through the roof.
"That silver arm looks amazing! Let me try it out…" Mordred said, eyes gleaming.
"No, um, this is a prosthetic Sir Merlin prepared specifically for me—" Bedivere replied, clearly distressed.
"C'mon, it's a prosthetic, not a real arm," Mordred insisted, pouting. "I'll just mess around with it a bit and give it back… I won't break it!"
Her tone was exactly like a kid eyeing someone else's toy—hardly knightly behavior.
Shiomi watched with a headache forming, wondering if recruiting her had really been the right call.
"You've got both arms and legs, so what do you even need a prosthetic for…" Shiomi muttered.
Spotting his arrival, Mordred stopped tugging at Bedivere's arm.
"...So you finally showed up too, huh…"
"Would it kill you to be a little nicer? I did cover your retreat, remember?" Shiomi sat down beside Bedivere and began checking his wounds.
During the battle at the Round Table Fortress, both he and Tristan had unleashed their Noble Phantasms at the same time—an exchange that had ended in mutual destruction.
"Well, if you call that a draw, I took the worse of it," Bedivere said, gripping his prosthetic arm.
Shiomi reached out to heal him, but as he examined the injury, his hands froze in surprise.
"What is it? Did Tristan really go that hard on you?" Mordred frowned. "I thought you two were close."
Not that she had much room to talk—she herself had loudly declared she would take up her father's sword and defeat their enemies.
All the knights still serving the Lion King seemed to feel the same way.
"...Can I speak openly here, Bedivere?" Shiomi asked.
"There are no outsiders here," Bedivere said, glancing at Mordred. "She has a right to know."
"What?" Mordred's tone shifted, suddenly serious.
Shiomi continued applying healing Magecraft. "Then I'll get straight to the point. Bedivere—you're not a Servant, are you? You're a human who's lived from the time of King Arthur to the present."
"Huh?!" Mordred nearly shouted. "So this guy's actually some ancient grandpa who's lived for like a thousand years?!"
"No, more like 1,500 years," Shiomi said. "You carry the same aura as someone from my own time. You must've wandered through the human world for those 1,500 years and, for some reason, ended up here in the 1273 Singularity."
"What the hell? Why isn't this guy dead?" Mordred was baffled. "Didn't he become a monk or something in the end?"
Servants could retain records of events after their death—Mordred herself was one such case.
"There must've been a reason," Shiomi said, his eyes scanning them both. "After all, even the Lion King didn't recognize the existence of the Holy Sword."
"...What?" Mordred froze.
Bedivere's face twisted with grief. "...It's all my fault. I failed to carry out the king's final order…"
With that, Shiomi understood.
After the Battle of Camlann, the gravely wounded King Arthur had been taken into the forest by Bedivere. There, Arthur entrusted him with the Holy Sword and commanded him to return it to the Lady of the Lake.
It's said that Bedivere hesitated three times before finally making up his mind and returning the Holy Sword on the third try. That was when King Arthur met his end and his soul passed on to Avalon.
But now, Bedivere revealed something that contradicted the legend.
"So even the third time... you couldn't go through with it?"
"Returning the Holy Sword meant the death of my king. I couldn't bring myself to accept it." Bedivere bowed his head deeply. "When I came back to the forest with the sword still in hand, the king was already gone."
Mordred rushed over and grabbed Bedivere by the collar, wanting to demand answers. But the words wouldn't come. After all, it was her own rebellion that had led to Arthur's death.
"...Gone from the forest… don't tell me... Father is in the Holy City...?"
"That's right. Unable to witness the return of the Holy Sword, King Arthur took up the Rhongomyniad and became the King of the Dead," Bedivere said, his voice pained but resolute. "This is my fault—my sin. I failed to fulfill the king's final command. That's why, with Sir Merlin's help, I came to this Singularity... to see my king again, and return the Holy Sword."
As he spoke, he gripped the silver prosthetic arm tightly.
At that moment, even Mordred realized the truth behind it.
That arm—was the Holy Sword itself.
"Damn it... how did it come to this..." Mordred cursed under her breath.
No one could tell if she was cursing herself for starting it all—or something else entirely.
"Sir Merlin disguised my Magic Circuits so I would appear to be a real Servant," Bedivere said, forcing a bitter smile. "But he still couldn't fool you."
"It's nothing. I just happened to be unusually sharp," Shiomi replied, shaking his head. "Focus on recovering. If you truly want to return the Holy Sword and atone, then joining us in the assault on the Holy City is your best path forward."
"What will happen to Father if the Holy Sword is returned?" Mordred asked.
Shiomi stood, lifting the curtain to leave—but paused.
"If the Holy Sword is returned, the Lion King should regain the humanity that was eroded by the Rhongomyniad... and finally find peace in death."
Mordred clenched her fists. "I understand. It was my rebellion that led to Father's death... So one more act of rebellion won't change anything."
"Don't make it sound so easy. You're clearly hurting too," Shiomi said, giving her a gentle pat on the head.
"I told you, I'm not your kid!" Mordred barked behind him as Shiomi stepped out of the stone room—only to find Morgan and his master waiting outside.
"Eavesdropping's a bad habit, you know..."
With a single glance, Shiomi conveyed everything he needed to.
...
(100 Chapters Ahead)
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