A Lady of the Lake?!
Hearing that name from Mephisto's mouth, Faust wasn't surprised. He'd already suspected as much.
In countless legends of heroes, they were practically a fixture, a recurring cast member. Compared to the Fae, whom mortals could scarcely hope to encounter, Ladies of the Lake appeared far more frequently.
Sometimes they were prophets bringing revelations to heroes; sometimes messengers delivering treasures; sometimes examiners setting trials...
In a sense, they were like a weaker version of the Fae.
If the Fae were, in mortal understanding, all but indistinguishable from gods, then the Ladies of the Lake were something like angels, regarded by mortals as the messengers and servants of the Fae.
[I've said it many times: under the Wheel of Fate, all living beings are equal. There is no such thing as one being nobler than another, only different roles to play. Naturally, the Ladies of the Lake are independent too. Compared to us, they enjoy far more freedom, and plenty of amusements to pass the time.]
"Child of man, what brings you to this land?"
The golden brown haired Lady of the Lake floated in midair, her exquisite white robes stirring gently.
Blue Lady smoothed her lip gloss with a fingertip. The delicate, gentle air about her vanished without a trace; her downcast eyes carried an unconcealed arrogance, the look of someone gazing down from on high.
"The land ahead is not yours to tread. Turn back, child of man."
Faust feigned deference, bowing in greeting. "Might I ask who you are..."
At the same time, the Prince of Aurum asked silently in his mind, "You know this Lady of the Lake?"
[Ha, of course I know her. Even among the eccentric bunch that Ladies of the Lake tend to be, she's a bitch through and through. Don't believe a single word she says.]
A bitch has arrived, no less!
Faust had never heard such a scathing verdict from Mephisto before. If even a Fae judged her this way, then she truly must be an extraordinary bitch.
Blue Lady said, her smile not quite a smile:
"Child of man, before asking a Lady of the Lake her honored name, shouldn't you offer your own first?"
Faust drew a deep breath at once and said,
"Esteemed Lady of the Lake, I am a prince of the Kingdom of Aurum. I have come this time to propose marriage to the Snow White Princess of Wintertide."
"Pfft."
The moment Faust finished speaking, Blue Lady burst into a mocking laugh. The Lady of the Lake crossed her full, voluptuous legs, looking the Prince of Aurum up and down.
"You may call me Blue Lady. As you can see, I am a Lady of the Lake."
Blue Lady propped her flawless, delicate chin up with one hand and smiled.
"Wanting to propose to the princess of Wintertide? Heh, you men really don't know when to give up. Who knows where you heard the rumors, but you've all trudged all this way regardless of the hardship. Plenty came before you, hoping to try their luck, but every one of them was stopped here by their own greed."
So that's why I never ran into the usual streetwise types out there. They all fell here, to you. Wait, are you a highway robber or a Lady of the Lake?
[This is Blue Lady's favorite pastime: entrapment. If you'd shown even the faintest hint of greed just now, she'd have had every excuse to punish you. Tsk tsk, and her punishments are humiliating enough to make anyone regret it.]
Fine, fine, so that's how she wants to play it.
Faust nearly laughed out of sheer exasperation. The Lady of the Lake's disguise was riddled with holes, but her sinfully alluring body and the dazzling, exquisite jewels adorning her were real enough, no question about that.
Under temptation this lavish and unrestrained, staying entirely free of greed was next to impossible; human nature had never withstood testing well. But if a Lady of the Lake insisted on playing con artist, baiting people into showing greed and then crying foul the instant anyone took the bait, well, there was truly nothing to do but comply.
Blue Lady bit her finger and clicked her tongue. "Still, though... amid so many vulgar treasures, here you are, entirely unmoved. I really am curious now, whether you're actually a man at all. Tch..."
Faust put on a face of perfect loyalty, filial piety, benevolence, righteousness, propriety, and wisdom. "One need only do good; the future will see to itself."
"Hahaha, well said. I'm looking at you with new eyes now, handsome one."
Blue Lady leaned in close to Faust, an intoxicating smile playing on her lovely face, and lifted the prince's chin with one slender, jade white finger.
"Honestly, you're unusual enough that I'm starting to feel a little tempted myself."
Had he been any ordinary man, or rather, had Faust never met Mephisto, being praised so by a Lady of the Lake would surely have set his imagination running wild.
But the Prince of Aurum felt nothing of the sort, because at that very moment Mephisto was in his head narrating this Lady of the Lake's illustrious track record.
[Besides entrapment, Blue Lady's other great hobby is collecting suitors.]
[She strings them along, keeping them close enough to hope yet far enough to suffer, toying with their feelings, draining their wealth, wearing down their edges. She drives young men of talent and promise, one after another, into becoming servants beneath her skirts, sons of men who might have achieved greatness instead debasing themselves just to win a Lady of the Lake's smile.]
[Looks like she's taken a liking to you now... Hmph, well, that's only to be expected. Faust, you are my contractor, after all.]
What exactly are you so proud about?!
Faust asked, startled, "Is it really fine for her to run this wild, unchecked?"
[This is where the Ladies of the Lake differ from us Fae. Their power falls far short of ours, but precisely because of that, they're granted far greater freedom. So long as their actions serve the purpose of a "test" or a "trial," they're permitted. That's simply the role a Lady of the Lake is meant to play within fate.]
[As for how intense the trial gets, that's entirely up to the individual Lady of the Lake. The kindhearted ones know when to stop. But ones like Blue Lady take pleasure in toying with sons of men.]
Faust asked suspiciously, "Such a bitch, she isn't one of your prized subordinates, is she?"
[How could that be? Every Lady of the Lake I've trained is genuinely beautiful in both face and heart. Though... I won't deny that I did work alongside Blue Lady for a time.]
[She doesn't know you're my contractor, or she'd never have come to flirt with you like this. Play along with her for now, but remember: don't believe a single word she says.]
The exchange between Faust and Mephisto happened in the space of a spark, an instant. To keep his expression from slipping and giving him away, the prince deliberately lowered his head.
"Hm?"
To Blue Lady, Faust's bowed head and silence looked exactly like a man dazed by her beauty. No matter how extraordinary a young man might be, before her otherworldly beauty and her noble station as a Lady of the Lake, he was no different from some lovesick fanboy.
Still, the mortal before her... was frighteningly handsome, honestly. Compared to him, all her other collectibles paled in comparison.
The Lady of the Lake licked her plump, cherry colored lips and rose higher into the air.
"Handsome prince, would you be interested in becoming my Grail Knight?"
Blue Lady extended an olive branch that almost no one could refuse, lifting her chin.
"A son of man with character as upright as yours has every qualification to become a Grail Knight. Should you pass my trial, you'll have the honor of drinking from the Grail."