Chapter 51: King Leodegrance's Distress
Guinevere was frightened.
In her world, defeated enemies shouldn't have met such a bloody end to begin with. Having witnessed a scene severe enough to make even Artoria frown, she was clearly quite shaken.
Artoria understood this well.
Though she comforted Guinevere with several words, the latter still refused to acknowledge her.
Thus, Artoria could only look helplessly toward Noah, even the tuft of hair on her head drooping like the tail of a dejected puppy.
"My King..."
Seeing Artoria like this, Noah could only shake his head helplessly.
Comforting Guinevere... that wasn't something he knew how to do either.
However.
"Mary, cast an illusion on her. Use your ability as an incubus to disguise all this as a dream."
Noah took Artoria's place and walked up to Guinevere. After contacting Mary, his eyes shimmered with a silvery-white light that seemed to contain a spectrum of colors.
"This method is feasible. Dreams change according to the dreamer's emotions. Since it's a dream, no matter how unreasonable, it won't be a problem."
Mary's emotionless voice sounded before she cast the illusion.
"If we intervene while she's in this state, her dream will adjust everything based on her current emotions. By leveraging this slightly, we can indeed make her forget the bloody scene. However, this approach will also make her remember the dream extremely clearly after waking up, as if she had truly experienced it. Is that acceptable?"
Hearing Mary's words, Noah pondered for a moment before nodding.
"That's fine. As long as she can forget that scene, the rest... well, it's just a dream, isn't it?"
Noah was somewhat affected by what he had just witnessed.
He had inherited countless simulated memories—memories of countless battlefields and countless gruesome deaths.
If such vast memories were forced upon an ordinary person, even the remarkably capable human brain would inevitably suffer severe damage.
But under the system's influence, Noah had absorbed all these memories in just a few days without any harm to his mind.
Having perfectly internalized these memories, he had naturally grown desensitized to many things.
While he could now face such scenes expressionlessly, for someone like Guinevere, who was clearly sheltered and inexperienced, the shock was far too intense.
So...
"Disguise all this as her dream."
"Understood."
With Noah's approval, Mary immediately activated her ability.
Guinevere, who had been terrified moments ago, slowly closed her eyes, frowned, and fell asleep.
"Artoria, carry her. Let's take her back."
"Yes..."
The moment she heard Noah's command, Artoria responded instinctively.
But she quickly realized that Noah hadn't called her "Arthur"—he had used her real name.
Although she had long learned from Morgan that Noah knew her little secret, being addressed by her name so suddenly still made her a bit nervous.
Seeing her like this, Noah—who had obtained permission from Morgan before she left, as Artoria's only living blood relative and elder sister—spoke up again.
"Morgan must have told you I already knew... Don't worry, I won't get angry over something like this. In fact, your current state suits me just fine."
"I originally planned to find an opportunity to discuss this with you sooner or later. After all, you are my... personal guard. We'll be spending day and night together for a long time. If you had to keep hiding secrets under such circumstances, it would be exhausting."
"So Artoria, follow me. And don't worry about all those complicated matters. You are the guard I chose and the knight I acknowledge, so there's no need for concern."
After saying this, Noah turned and headed toward Camelot.
Artoria stood frozen for a moment, watching Noah's receding figure before hurriedly scooping up Guinevere, extinguishing the campfire, and chasing after his retreating back.
Though still somewhat flustered, a faint smile now graced her features—a clear contrast to earlier—and the furrow in her brow had smoothed away.
...
When Noah and Artoria returned Guinevere to King Leodegrance, Noah immediately noticed the unmistakable surprise on the king's face.
He clearly couldn't comprehend why his daughter was here.
Noah didn't exploit the situation, merely explaining matters plainly. He didn't even reveal his identity as King Arthur, declining King Leodegrance's offers of gratitude before departing with Artoria.
This wasn't because Noah thought King Leodegrance would fail to recognize him when they officially met in the coming days.
Rather, he intended this gesture to convey to both King Leodegrance and likely King Rience—who was undoubtedly monitoring the situation—that today he had saved an unfamiliar maiden merely as an ordinary knight, completely separate from his royal status.
He had no intention of using this incident to curry favor with King Leodegrance.
Nor did he plan to leverage it to pressure King Rience.
Such manipulations were unnecessary.
To Noah, today's events were merely an interlude.
But for King Leodegrance, or more precisely for Guinevere, this matter wouldn't conclude so simply.
After all, Guinevere's reason for coming to Camelot was to find the Knight of the Dawn.
And during Noah's incognito outing, he happened to be wearing the very armor he'd worn when he was still a knight... though perhaps "happened" wasn't quite accurate, since Noah only owned two sets of armor: one symbolizing his coronation as king, and the other being a gift Morgan had given him long ago.
Regardless, Guinevere saw him wearing the armor of the Knight of the Dawn.
With Noah's appearance being the type that bards could describe without embellishment in their tales, Guinevere—who adored stories featuring Noah as their prototype, particularly the Epic of Radiance—instantly recognized him upon seeing his face and attire.
She identified him as the very Knight of the Dawn she had come to find.
If not for the shock caused by the thief's subsequent spontaneous explosion, Guinevere might have chattered endlessly with Noah.
After Mary disguised everything as a dream, the bloody scene faded from memory, leaving only the excitement of encountering the Knight of the Dawn!
And the dream was exceptionally vivid—Guinevere remembered it clearly even after waking up.
This left the princess, who already lived in a fantasy world, in particularly high spirits upon awakening.
The terror from the previous night had completely vanished.
Now, she was filled only with the bashfulness and happiness of a maiden in love.
While she felt this way, King Leodegrance was troubled by the fact that Guinevere had secretly followed him.
After all, since his daughter had come along, he would have to bring her along when he met King Arthur in a few days.
Otherwise, if someone with ill intentions reported that his daughter had come but refused to see the king, who knew what might happen?
The mere thought of this worried King Leodegrance deeply.
It wasn't that he thought his daughter was too unattractive to present.
Rather, he had too much confidence in her beauty.
No one could dislike Guinevere!
So...
What if the king took a liking to her at first sight, but Guinevere herself disagreed?
As one of the rare monarchs of this era who cherished his daughter deeply, King Leodegrance couldn't help but sigh at the possibility.
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