Soon after, the King of Conquerors departed, taking his Little Master with him aboard his undamaged Thunder Chariot.
After he left, the King of Knights fixed her gaze on Guinevere, her eyes betraying all the questions she longed to ask.
"Guinevere, are you serious? Can you truly manifest them all?"
The silver armor faded away, revealing her casual shorts and shirt. By now, Kiritsugu Emiya had entrusted Maiya to the maids, instructing them to take her to a bedroom to rest. But as soon as the King of Conquerors was gone, he had to rush to support Irisviel, who could no longer hold herself up.
With the complete souls of three Servants—Lancer, Berserker, and Assassin—now inside her, Irisviel's body could feel pain. The weight of the souls pressed down on her, leaving her nearly paralyzed.
Watching them, Guinevere and the King of Knights chose not to intrude. Instead, they leaped onto the roof of a nearby building to speak.
"To be precise, it will be Sir Tristan and my Berserker Knight Order.
"Speaking of which... I actually thought this would be my Noble Phantasm as a Berserker."
Slightly disappointed, yet not entirely so, the King of Knights had hoped to see Gawain and the others.
"Yes, it would be wonderful if Gawain and the others could appear too," Guinevere said. "I can't convince you with words, nor can I... persuade you in other ways. But some of them are far more eloquent than I am.
"Besides, if they all told you they're willing to bear the world's condemnation for your sake and begged you not to put so much pressure on yourself, you'd surely listen a little more, wouldn't you?"
The King of Knights tilted her head slightly to the left, unable to meet Guinevere's gaze. The King of Heroes' words had indeed struck a chord, further weakening her resolve.
"Guinevere, do you truly not care about the condemnation?"
"Of course not! Not if that's the price for deceiving the world."
"Then wait here for a moment..."
With that, the King of Knights leaped down to where Irisviel lay limp in Kiritsugu's arms.
She gently took Irisviel from him and whispered in her ear for a moment. In return, she received a small booklet.
Then, she handed Irisviel back to Kiritsugu Emiya.
"This is..."
Back on the roof, the booklet from Irisviel was now in Guinevere's hands.
It was a hand-drawn booklet, only half-finished. But as Guinevere quickly flipped through it, her expression flickered between light and shadow, her emotions warring until the King of Knights spoke...
"Irisviel drew this herself. She modified the faces of you and me from the doujinshi she'd seen before.
"What do you think? It's manga-style and only bears a slight resemblance to us, but can you honestly say you don't mind?"
After learning why the King of Knights was so determined to clear her name, Guinevere had sought out and read some of those doujinshi herself. After skipping the genres she disliked, she found herself quite engrossed in the ones featuring her and the "gender-bent" King of Knights.
After all, they looked nothing like the characters in the comics, allowing her to read them with the detached perspective of an outsider.
But if the characters in the doujinshi bore even a slight resemblance to their real selves...
"Does Irisviel plan to distribute this?"
"No, she only intends to use it for herself."
"For herself?"
Guinevere's eyelid twitched. She couldn't begin to imagine just how far this married woman had ventured into the "New World" of fandom.
"So, Lia," Guinevere asked, "what will you do if I mind? And what will you do if I don't?"
"If you mind, then you'll agree with my plan and help me clear your name."
"Lia, I think you're misunderstanding something," Guinevere said. "Even if you clear my name, the number of doujinshi about us won't decrease. At most, the mainstream NTR doujinshi will just be replaced by pure love doujinshi featuring you and me.
"If you want there to be no doujinshi, then you and I would have to be completely unknown to future generations."
The King of Knights was momentarily at a loss for words. Upon reflection, she realized Guinevere was right. Yet, the future Guinevere described—one filled with pure love doujinshi—made her heart flutter. She found herself thinking, That would be perfect.
In that scenario, their true appearances still wouldn't be known, and she could continue to read them from an outsider's perspective.
It was in that instant that the King of Knights realized the truth. She wanted to clear Guinevere's name, but the "name" she most wanted to clear wasn't about historical achievements. It was about the fact that nearly all the doujinshi about them in later eras were NTR.
What she truly wanted to change was her own reputation.
Taking a deep breath, she chided herself for being so selfish, but Miss Artoria simply couldn't accept the situation as it was.
"Um, Lia," Guinevere prompted, "you still haven't told me... what if I don't mind?"
"Then for the rest of the night, you will do everything in this doujinshi to me, to prove you don't mind."
"Huh?"
Guinevere had no idea what the King of Knights was thinking at that moment. She didn't know that Lia had already retreated a step in her mind, nor that she had hastily changed her stance to "not minding."
All Guinevere knew was that if she followed the instructions in the doujinshi, it would be a complete reward for her.
"Lia," she began, "I contacted the Clock Tower yesterday. I told them to find more indie artists and commission more yuri doujinshi of the King of Knights and Guinevere.
"I also told them that from now on, they shouldn't just make the public believe Lancelot is a faerie girl—they should also make them think you're a mature woman!
"In the court dramas about the King of Knights, there will be no room for any boys to set foot!"
Guinevere had originally planned to reveal this later, as it was just one of the methods she'd devised to change her and the King of Knights' current reputations.
As things stood, the public believed Lancelot was a faerie girl and the King of Knights was a man. In the popular NTR doujinshi...
...the King of Knights, depicted as a middle-aged man, was cuckolded by the faerie girl Lancelot. The reason for this was the historical rumor that had persisted for centuries...
...that Guinevere, from birth, was a fool who only loved girls.
"So," Guinevere concluded, "if the King of Knights is also a girl, then pure love doujinshi about the King of Knights and Guinevere should gradually be able to compete with the current mainstream."
"In the future, I'll commission Japanese anime companies to produce works where the King of Knights is a girl. I'm certain I can make it so that 90% of future doujinshi are pure love stories!
"Then, I'll find a way to forge some historical artifacts. I'll claim that the stories about Guinevere and Faerie Lancelot were just wild fabrications by future novelists.
"The historical evidence will prove that the King of Knights and Guinevere were deeply in love, and that Guinevere wasn't the wicked queen who brought ruin to the kingdom!
"After all, how can you blame the fall of a kingdom on just one girl?"
Guinevere's words poured out in a torrent, striking the King of Knights. It made her realize that Guinevere was truly taking action—her desire to live in the present and change her reputation from this moment forward wasn't just empty talk.
Silence. The King of Knights didn't know what to say. Her already hesitant heart retreated another step. She decided to wait and see if Guinevere could succeed. If not, she would find a way to travel to the past and change the future from there.
As this thought crossed her mind, the King of Knights suddenly realized that it had never been an either-or choice between her and Guinevere. If she simply took a step back, the conflict between them would cease to be a conflict at all.
Surprisingly, the King of Knights didn't dwell on whether she would still insist on her own plan if Guinevere failed. Perhaps, deep down, she believed that once Guinevere set her mind to something, there was nothing she couldn't achieve—that she had never truly failed.
"Guinevere," she said, "as I just mentioned, I'm giving up on my wish to the Holy Grail. I'll choose to gain a physical body and stay with you in the modern era for a while. During this time, I'll fulfill my duties as your partner and observe whether you can truly change the present from the present."
In the end, Miss Artoria chose to take a step back. She allowed herself to be held in Guinevere's arms, letting Guinevere begin to do the things she'd read about in those doujinshi.