---o---
Guinevere!!
Upon hearing this name, many viewers across the infinite dimensions shot straight up from their seats in shock.
My goodness, that was Guinevere.
How could anyone who knew the legend of King Arthur not know who Guinevere was?
According to legend… Guinevere possessed a breathtaking beauty that could stir the hearts of all men. At the same time… she was the spouse of the Holy King, King Arthur.
His wife!!
This identity alone was enough for everyone who knew the legend of King Arthur to remember this character.
However, opinions regarding Guinevere were mixed.
Some believed she had an affair with Lancelot. Even if it was a "Platonic" spiritual love, it would be difficult to accept even in today's society.
And the collapse of the Knights of the Round Table was heavily linked to Guinevere's affair with Lancelot.
Just as Merlin had prophesied, "Guinevere will one day bring disaster to King Arthur; she cannot be forcefully kept."
Although Guinevere herself had no such intention, King Arthur's death and the fall of Britain were, in some ways, closely related to her.
Similarly, this was only the view of some. Others believed that Guinevere had not done anything out of line with Lancelot.
In the end, King Arthur never punished Guinevere. And after King Arthur and Mordred fell in the Battle of Camlann, Guinevere wept bitterly over it. Afterward, she spent her days in pious prayer and giving aid to the poor.
Neither the death of King Arthur nor the fall of Britain could be blamed entirely on her.
Of course… this was just the legend from the histories of most worlds. Perhaps the Type-Moon world would be different. After all… the King Arthur of the Type-Moon world was a woman.
Therefore, Guinevere naturally couldn't be judged by common sense.
What was puzzling now was another point entirely. Why did Guinaifen suddenly ask this? Was it because she had a sister named Guinevere, or was it something else…
In any case, the name Guinevere had just set off a bombshell among the viewers who saw this scene.
---o---
Detective Conan: "Although I had my suspicions, seeing it laid out like this still gives me a sense of disbelief."
Yukino Yukinoshita: "Guinevere from the epic of King Arthur? The queen who, as Arthur's wife, had an affair with Lancelot and was condemned by public opinion…"
Qingque: "Huh? What? That King Arthur had a past like that?"
You All Should Just Explode: "This should be the history from our world. I don't know what the Guinevere of the Type-Moon world is like."
Little Gui: "No, what are you guys talking about? Me and Brother Arthur are husband and wife, and I had an affair with Brother Lancelot? That's taking the joke way too far! Be careful, or I'll sue you for slander! Incestuous marriage is illegal on the Xianzhou!"
On the Xianzhou Luofu, looking at the barrage of comments flashing by, Guinaifen's head was about to explode.
What was all this?! Why was it that she recognized every word, but when put together, she couldn't understand a thing?
Sushang (Cloud Knight): "Camelot of another world… is it this complicated? And another world's Little Gui… Hiss… this feels so sensational…"
---o---
[On the light curtain, following Guinaifen's question, Mash couldn't help but widen her eyes.]
[Guinevere. It would be strange if she didn't know that name.]
[Rather, the moment she heard the name, the Spirit Origin within Mash reacted, even more strongly than it did during battle.]
["Miss Guinaifen… why did you suddenly ask that?"]
[Mash really wanted to ask Guinaifen this, but seeing her expression, she swallowed the words on the tip of her tongue and instead began to answer Guinaifen's question.]
[Logically, such an explanation should have been given by Da Vinci or Dr. Romani. After all, they were more knowledgeable and had seen more of the world.]
[In the previous Singularities, whenever they encountered an unknown Servant or an unclear situation, it was always the doctor or Da Vinci who provided the explanation. But this time, the situation was completely different.]
[For some reason, Mash felt as if she knew all these secrets like the back of her hand, as if she had personally experienced them.]
[Her account was not only different from the histories of other worlds, but it also had major discrepancies with the records of King Arthur's future in the Type-Moon world itself.]
[Under Mash's explanation, Guinaifen gradually came to understand the history of the Round Table. Her expression shifted from serious to shocked, and then to a silence born of knowing the truth.]
[It turned out that after King Arthur inherited the throne, in order to hide her true gender, she took Queen Guinevere as her wife in her capacity as king, holding a grand wedding to announce it to the world.]
[With Camelot completed and the seats of the Round Table filled, the King took Guinevere as his queen. At that moment of their wedding, King Arthur had sincerely hoped for Guinevere's happiness. Their marriage received the blessings of the entire nation.]
[However… the marriage was merely a facade. After all, who could have imagined that the holy king who saved Britain was actually a young woman?]
[On their wedding night, King Arthur Pendragon confessed everything to the queen. Guinevere, who had always worshipped the king, was crestfallen but still expressed her understanding.]
[The King confessed the matter of her disguised gender to Guinevere, and Guinevere also said that she accepted this secret for the sake of governing Britain.]
[No, it should be said that she had no choice but to accept. Guinevere was an intelligent woman.]
[She knew how much effort King Arthur had spent to quell the civil strife, and she had admired King Arthur from the bottom of her heart. In fact, she had secretly admired the King for the entire ten years since the King pulled out the sword of selection to the討伐 of the vile king.]
[On the night of her decade-long adoration, what did the queen feel when she was told the truth? No one knew.]
[Was it the feeling of obtaining something you loved, only to discover it was a hollow shell, like being told it was something you could never have?]
[Did she feel betrayal and despair, or did she pity the King's circumstances?]
[Perhaps it was a bit of both.]
[Though Queen Guinevere knew the truth, she still supported the King, presenting herself to the world as the queen. But this marriage, blessed by all, was in reality like a cage to her.]
[Although King Arthur often felt troubled by this matter, she was powerless to do anything about it.]
["What are you talking about, Artoria? As a woman, you are also unable to receive repayment, aren't you?"]
[Guinevere's words left King Arthur with nothing to say. She could only accept the goodwill of this same-sex queen.]
[But even if the King and Queen's relationship was a sham, the friendship that blossomed between them was real. In the eyes of others, this trusting relationship looked like that of a loving couple.]
[If things could have continued like this, it would have been fine, but… there are no walls in the world that are not porous.]
[The affair between Lancelot and Guinevere shattered everything.]
[As the First Knight of the Round Table, Lancelot wanted to alleviate the King's worries. He personally spoke with the Queen, but unexpectedly learned of the King's true identity. He discovered the heavy burden Guinevere had been carrying all these years—the King was a woman, and her marriage to the Queen was nothing more than a political one.]
[From then on, Lancelot couldn't help but comfort the lonely and melancholic queen daily. Before long… they fell in love. Guinevere felt that she had found "complete release" when she was with Lancelot. And because Artoria felt a debt towards Queen Guinevere, not only did she not fly into a rage after learning the truth, but she privately felt relieved for them.]
[But… this brewed another disaster.]
[King Arthur's tacit approval and inaction allowed Mordred, who coveted the throne, to seize the opportunity.]
[In the tenth year of Artoria Pendragon's reign on the throne of Camelot, the relationship between Lancelot and Guinevere was exposed by Mordred.]
[The illicit affair between the peerless hero—the Knight of the Lake, Lancelot—and King Arthur's wife, Guinevere, once revealed, instantly caused an uproar among the Knights of the Round Table.]
[Lancelot fled, and Guinevere was put on the execution pyre, about to be burned at the stake.]
[But at the critical moment, Lancelot appeared to interfere with the execution, snatched Guinevere away, and in the process of their clash, killed Gaheris and Gareth who had come to carry out the sentence.]
[This enraged their brother, Gawain, who swore to sever all ties with Lancelot. Thus, a tragedy with no right or wrong was born. The once glorious Order of the Round Table was, at this moment, on the verge of collapse.]
[Afterward, while King Arthur was on an expedition, Mordred, incited by Morgan, took the opportunity to rebel. In the end, she wanted to forcibly marry Guinevere, to marry the wife of her father, the King.]
[The end of the story was no different from the legend. King Arthur returned to fight the Battle of Camlann with Mordred, and both fell. Guinevere became a nun and never saw Lancelot again, living out the rest of her life in this way.]]
---o---
"Guinevere…"
In the Type-Moon world, King Arthur, watching this, couldn't hold back any longer. She let out a long sigh and fell into a boundless melancholy.
She somewhat understood why the Lion King would grant Guinaifen a blessing. It was because of guilt, because of regret, because the person King Arthur had wronged the most in her life was Guinevere.
If it were her, she would have made the same choice.
If Guinevere and she were to appear in the same Holy Grail War, she truly wouldn't know how to face her.
The longer the time passed, the deeper King Arthur's guilt toward Guinevere became.
---o---
You All Should Just Explode: "A tortuous and tragic story. Is this the epic of King Arthur in the Type-Moon world? It's really laughable…"
Finding a Camera: "Clearly, everyone was a good person. Guinevere, King Arthur, and even Lancelot, Gawain, and the other Knights of the Round Table were all good people. But… such a tragedy still occurred."
Utaha Kasumigaoka: "Sure enough, is it all Mordred and Morgan's fault? If not for them, the Round Table would not have fallen to such a state."
Mordred: "…What does this have to do with me? It's clearly…"
Damn it, she couldn't seem to refute it.
In the Type-Moon world, little Mo was instantly stunned. Although her heart was filled with admiration for her Father King, she had indeed rebelled.
As for Guinevere, Mordred had truly never considered her feelings. After all, she was busy trying to seize the throne at the time. How could she have paid attention to her?
Thinking about it now, Guinevere, unlike King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, was just an ordinary person, yet she had shouldered a burden she should never have had to bear.
It truly gave one a sense of sorrow.
Especially as the main culprit who had personally brewed this tragedy, Mordred could only helplessly scratch her head, saying that Morgan had made her do it. After all, under normal circumstances, how could she have been so smart?
---o---
[Light Curtain Barrage—]
["…"]
[Silence…]
[After listening to the complete story, Guinaifen fell into a long silence.]
[How should one put it? There was a bit too much information, so much so that she had no idea what to say.]
[In short, Guinaifen's mind was a mess right now, as if something she had always taken for granted had been shattered.]
["Hah~~ The general situation is like that. Guinevere is not a Knight of the Round Table, but she is King Arthur's legitimate wife, and also a pitiful woman who bore a burden she should not have."
[Mash spoke thus, her eyes dimming. From a woman's perspective, Guinevere's life was far too tragic.]
[She had admired King Arthur for over a decade, only to find out he was a woman. Her love affair with Lancelot was not accepted by the world. Even in death, she was left with a reputation for unfaithfulness.]
[If Guinevere were to truly appear as a Heroic Spirit, how would the all-knowing Knights of the Round Table and King Arthur view her?]
[Mash wasn't sure, but she knew that Guinevere was not the person recorded in the legends of history, but a pitiful girl.]
["Hiss—"]
[Taking a deep breath, Guinaifen's mind was still blank.]
[Although this was the story of this world's Guinevere and had nothing to do with her, she still couldn't quite process it right now.]
[She had originally thought that the Guinevere of this world would be like her brothers, Lancelot and Cui Sitong, a member of that Round Table, jointly serving the Lion King.]
[But she had never expected Guinevere's story to be so complicated that it could be compiled into a best-selling novel on the Xianzhou.]
[This is bad. My sense of immersion is strangely strong.]
[Thinking this, Guinaifen calmed her emotions.]
[This had nothing to do with her, after all. The reason she felt such a strong sense of immersion was probably because her Spirit Origin was acting up.]
[But now the problem was, if her Spirit Origin was truly connected to Guinevere, then how should the current Guinaifen face Lancelot and King Arthur?]
[This was a question that had to be considered.]
[Because… even if Guinaifen didn't see herself as the Guinevere from Mash's story, Lancelot and the Lion King would see her as their Guinevere.]
[This much was clear from the blessing the Lion King had bestowed…]]
---o---