A day, a month...
After defeating Rome, Camelot entered another period of peaceful development, with the exception of Lancelot, who remained stationed in Gaul and occasionally led troops to suppress rebellions.
While Gaul's upper echelons had surrendered quickly, the common people refused to accept foreign rule. Even with policies like tax cuts fully implemented, they continued to resist.
In response, Camelot issued a single, unwavering command: even if their hands became stained with blood, their rule over Gaul must be maintained until the Decline of Mystery in the British Isles was complete.
Faced with the extreme heat, Camelot could perform artificial rain rituals to save some vital coastal grain-producing regions. However, it was clear that for the next few years, Britain would be heavily reliant on Gaul for its food supply.
In response to complaints from the inland regions, Guinevere forcefully initiated an urbanization process. She ordered the Knight Lords of various territories to build factories, providing work and wages to the farmers and herders whose crops had failed.
As for the type of factories...
In the countless worldlines Guinevere had witnessed, there existed numerous inventions unknown to later eras, such as certain inventions from a certain Lostbelt.
However, unwilling to steer Camelot toward the path of a Lostbelt, Guinevere instead sourced existing weaving techniques from Rome, brought over from the East.
She intended to use this industrialization as a form of work relief and to improve the quality of clothing for the people of Camelot.
The days of relying on imports for even decent underwear! Those should have ended long ago, and the World...
"No, the Human Order doesn't care about such trivial matters. It only concerns itself with crucial historical turning points."
-
Camelot, Royal Palace...
The King of Knights questioned Guinevere's various policies. In the stories Guinevere had told her, Camelot was clearly not developing toward a stable and prosperous future.
"Lia, I've already told you the Human Order won't care," Guinevere replied, scribbling furiously on a sheet of newly produced paper—another improved technology from the East. "Besides, I know what I'm doing and will carefully manage the limits."
"And anyway," she added, "if you want to let me handle things freely, doesn't Camelot first need to be strong enough?"
One after another, Guinevere implemented her plans. If not for the chaos east of Rome and the ongoing wars in the ancient Eastern kingdoms, the King of Knights would have dispatched an envoy to see for herself.
What was Guinevere writing so furiously? The answer: a novel, a volume of unofficial history, a tool she intended to use to spark public discussion about the Camelot court.
The King of Knights is seven feet tall and seven feet wide, with horns on his head and fire breathing from his mouth. Most importantly, he is male.
Guinevere is a peerless beauty, born with succubus blood, but she too is male.
Tristan and Lancelot are true Faeries, both originally female, who use Illusion Magic to disguise themselves as men to sit at the Round Table...
And Morgan... she actually has two older sisters. One is named Morgause, and Gawain is Morgause's son.
In this era, information remained scarce. Most people only knew their king was named Arthur and their queen Guinevere. They had no idea what they looked like or how old they were, let alone what happened within the Camelot court.
Thus, as long as the kingdom refrained from recording an official history and instead disseminated enough unofficial accounts among the people, after a few hundred years, the true nature of the Camelot court would be lost to endless debate.
On key points, Guinevere ensured every unofficial history remained consistent. For example, the King of Knights must be male, and "he" and Morgan were genuinely entangled.
And the reason Mordred was named Mordred? Because Morgan despised the King of Knights and hoped "he" would rebel against "his" beautiful father.
Oh, right—in the many unofficial histories, Mordred would also be a boy.
As for Guinevere herself, she wrote numerous versions of her own story. In one, she had an affair with Faerie Lancelot and, after being discovered, spent the rest of her life in a convent. In another, she was burned at the stake by the enraged King of Knights!
In essence, Guinevere didn't need to write detailed, perfectly logical narratives. Her fragmented accounts, passed down through generations and supported by the "authentic" ruins she would have the knights help construct, would be fleshed out by future generations who would fill in the logical gaps themselves.
"Guinevere, will this really work?"
"Lia, I haven't even started spreading these unofficial histories yet. But based on past rumors and the fact that Mordred calls Morgan 'Mother,' how many people do you think already believe you and Morgan are involved, and that Mordred is Morgan's biological child?"
Holding the story outlines Guinevere had written so far, the King of Knights fell silent. It wasn't just the ignorant common folk; even some of the knights believed these rumors.
They simply accepted it as a common occurrence, and since the King, Queen, and Morgan all seemed to get along well, any objections were kept bottled up inside.
"But Guinevere, can this truly deceive the Human Order? At best, it will only deceive future generations, leaving them with a fabricated history.
"In the end, if the Battle of Camlann never happens and the Kingdom of Camelot doesn't collapse, the truth will eventually break through the lies."
"That's why I will make the Battle of Camlann happen. I will make the Kingdom of Camelot disappear, and I will make you and Mordred both 'die' in it."
"What?"
Guinevere's plan was a two-pronged attack. On one front, she would use unofficial histories to obscure the truth, deceiving future generations. On the other, she would orchestrate real-world events that could be described with the exact same words, thereby deceiving the Human Order.
She set down her pen and explained her current plan.
"Guinevere, will this really work? Having Mordred change her name after becoming king, and renaming the Kingdom of Camelot?"
"Just tell me this: did Mordred 'die' at Camlann Hill? Did the Kingdom of Camelot fall afterward?"
Despite her confident words, Guinevere wasn't entirely sure if the plan would truly succeed. But it was the only path she could take.
At the same small Round Table, the King of Knights sat opposite Guinevere, her mind racing.
Thanks to papermaking technology from the Eastern lands, Camelot could now produce more paper, but it remained a precious commodity. The stories Guinevere wrote still needed bards to spread them.
For that, they needed Merlin's help.
"Guinevere, do you really think Master Merlin will approve of this plan?"
When they had needed someone to spread damaging rumors about the Church, Merlin had taken on the task and performed it well.
Moreover, for a matter as monumental as deceiving the world, both Guinevere and the King of Knights wanted to hear from Merlin whether it was even feasible.
After sending him a letter a few days ago, they had been eagerly awaiting his appearance.
"Deceiving the Human Order, is it?"
In Avalon, within the Tower of Confinement, Merlin had returned after delivering the news of Rome's impending invasion to Camelot.
After the "failure" involving Priest Andrew, Merlin had become wary of interfering in futures where he had no predetermined role.
Upon receiving the King of Knights' letter and seeing Guinevere's still-incomplete plan, he had taken a nap. In his dreams, he witnessed the future that would unfold if they proceeded.
Once again, he saw the Battle of Camlann and the King of Knights' death. But this time, he also saw what lay beyond.
Fortunately, he saw the King of Knights and Guinevere traveling the world. But he also saw that after Camelot was renamed the British Kingdom, Mordred died young from overwork, leaving no heirs.
This rebranded Camelot survived for less than twenty additional years—a minor deviation permitted by the Human Order.
Of course, this was also because later historical records lacked detailed information about this era. Guinevere had suppressed official histories and promoted unofficial ones, leading some later scholars to believe the Camelot Kingdom never existed at all, dismissing it as a mere literary invention. They certainly had no idea of the exact year of its fall.
"Camelot only lasted an extra twenty years?"
What a pity. Even Morgan didn't know that the Mordred she had deliberately raised to be more 'normal' still suffered from a short lifespan and frail health.
No, wait. Even if Mordred's life wasn't perfect, she would surely be content if she knew her original fate, wouldn't she?
She earned the recognition of her beloved Father, the King. She exhausted herself for her kingdom until the very end. And its fall wasn't her fault—it was simply that the successor she chose failed to win the people's support, leading to civil war.
From the Tower of Confinement, a single flower petal carried a message to the King of Knights.
Merlin informed Camelot...
"Lia, I'm so happy to see you smiling decades from now..."