"I am Allister, King of Camelot. It is a pleasure to finally meet you, King Faker."
Emrys observed the man standing before him.
The ruler of Camelot wore a bright, almost casual smile, as though he were welcoming an old friend rather than another king from a neighboring kingdom.
Emrys slightly inclined his head.
"The pleasure is mine."
Allister seemed amused by that response.
"Really? You certainly don't look like it."
"I'm simply tired from the journey."
"Ah, I understand. I hope you'll forgive me if I keep you a little longer than expected."
"As long as you don't intend to show me every corner of your castle, I should be able to endure it."
Allister burst into genuine laughter.
"That's a relief. I was afraid you were the type to run away as soon as someone suggested having a conversation."
He's not far from the truth.
Emrys maintained his impassive expression.
Allister gestured for him to come closer.
"Please, have a seat. I assume you'd prefer to sit down before we begin talking."
"It's all the same to me."
The King of Camelot headed toward a table set up in an adjoining area of the audience chamber.
Several chairs had been arranged around it, along with drinks and a few refreshments.
Emrys followed him without rushing.
Once seated, he briefly looked around.
The room was elegantly decorated without being excessive. The furniture seemed to have been chosen as much for comfort as for appearance, and the large windows allowed pleasant sunlight to stream inside.
Allister took a seat opposite him.
"So, King Faker, what do you think of Camelot?"
"The inhabitants seem happy."
"Is that all?"
"What else do you want me to say? I haven't had the opportunity to explore the place yet."
"I thought you might have a few comments about our architecture, our walls, or even our castle."
"I'm not an architect."
Allister smiled.
"I'm beginning to understand why people describe you as someone who's difficult to impress."
"People talk a lot."
"That's true. And from what I've heard, they have quite a lot to say about you."
Emrys picked up the glass that had been placed in front of him.
"I imagine so."
Allister leaned back in his chair.
"Speaking of which, I'd like to ask you a question."
"I'm listening."
The King of Camelot folded his hands in front of him.
"Don't you intend to take off your mask?"
Emrys froze slightly.
Allister continued, still wearing the same smile.
"Or, failing that, would you be willing to reveal your real name?"
Silence settled between them.
Emrys slowly set down his glass.
"...Pardon?"
"You heard me perfectly well."
"What makes you think Faker isn't my real name?"
Allister burst out laughing.
His laughter was so spontaneous that Emrys was momentarily taken aback.
"Ah! I was waiting for that reaction!"
The ruler of Camelot wiped the corner of his eye before catching his breath.
"You know, I've lost count of how many times people from Ulster visiting my kingdom have nearly said your real name before stopping themselves at the very last second."
Emrys didn't respond.
Allister continued, visibly delighted by his anecdote.
"It's always the same thing. They start talking about you, mention your title, and then, just as they're about to say your name, they suddenly stop. Some of them change the subject entirely. Others simply cough or pretend they've forgotten what they were going to say."
He shook his head, amused.
"At first, I thought it was just a coincidence. But after seeing the same thing happen again and again, I eventually realized it wasn't a coincidence."
Allister placed a hand on the table.
"So you've ordered your own subjects to keep your identity a secret, haven't you?"
Emrys stared at him.
Those idiots... Couldn't they simply keep their mouths shut?
He felt a hint of irritation rising within him.
He had taken great care to protect his identity, and now the inhabitants of Ulster, by being too talkative, had nearly revealed his secret to a foreign ruler.
The worst part was that they seemed to have stopped themselves just in time.
Which meant that the confidentiality geis had worked.
They even went as far as activating the confidentiality geis. I'm going to have to have a little talk with some of them when I get back.
Allister, who was carefully observing his reaction, smiled again.
"Well? Are you going to reveal your real name to me, King Faker?"
Emrys sighed.
"Whether it's my face or my name, only the inhabitants of Ulster have the right to know them."
Allister tilted his head slightly.
"Not even the king of a neighboring kingdom?"
"Not even him."
"I see."
The ruler of Camelot didn't seem particularly bothered by that answer.
On the contrary, his smile widened.
"So you value your anonymity quite a lot."
"I mainly value being left alone when I travel."
Emrys crossed his arms.
"I never wanted to be king."
Allister raised an eyebrow.
"Really?"
"Yes."
Emrys sank deeper into his seat.
"The inhabitants of Ulster forced that title upon me. I never asked to rule a kingdom, much less to deal with all the nonsense that comes with the position. Like having to sit here right now."
He paused.
"If it were up to me, I would have gladly done without all of this."
Allister stared at him for a few seconds.
Then he burst out laughing.
His laughter was so genuine that he had to lean back against his chair.
"Ahahah!"
Emrys frowned.
"What's so funny?"
"Forgive me, forgive me..."
Allister wiped a tear from the corner of his eye.
"It's just that I didn't expect to hear that from the mouth of the King of Ulster."
"This isn't a joke."
"I can tell. That's precisely what makes it so amusing."
He caught his breath before straightening up.
"I must admit, I'm growing rather fond of you, King Faker."
Emrys stared at him without saying anything.
Allister continued.
"You know, you just said that you never wanted to be king and that your people were the ones who imposed that title upon you."
"That's correct."
"Well, that's precisely why you're perfectly legitimate as a king."
Emrys raised an eyebrow slightly.
"I beg your pardon?"
Allister clasped his hands together in front of him.
"A king isn't merely a man who sits on a throne, wears a crown, and gives orders to his subjects. He is also the person whom his people recognize as their sovereign."
He paused.
"And if the inhabitants of Ulster themselves gave you that title, then who could claim that you don't deserve it?"
Emrys remained silent.
Allister continued.
"You may never have wanted that position. But your people wanted you to be their king. And that's what matters."
He smiled.
"After all, if those you govern recognize you as their sovereign, there's no reason why you shouldn't be one."
Emrys turned his gaze away slightly.
"I don't like that theory, so it's wrong."
Allister, for his part, seemed perfectly satisfied with his reaction.
"I'm not asking you to change your mind about the matter. I simply wanted to tell you what I think."
Emrys turned his attention back to him.
"Are you done?"
Allister burst out laughing again.
"You're truly incredible!"
"I'm going to end up regretting coming here even more than I already do."
"In that case, I'll avoid keeping you any longer with my speeches."
The King of Camelot stood up.
"Come. I'd like to show you something."
Emrys looked up at him.
"What is it?"
"A sword."
"A sword?"
"Yes. I think it might interest someone known as the Specter of Blades."
Emrys remained seated for a few seconds.
Then he stood up as well.
"Very well. Show me this famous sword of yours."
Allister smiled.
"Please, follow me."
---
They left the room and took a corridor that seemed to lead to an older part of the castle.
Unlike the rooms they had passed through so far, this area was considerably less frequented.
The guards stationed along the passage bowed as the king approached.
Allister acknowledged them with a nod before continuing on his way.
Emrys walked beside him, his hands in his pockets.
"You seem to care a great deal about this sword."
"I do."
"A family heirloom?"
"Much more than that."
Allister slowed down slightly.
"This sword represents a significant part of Camelot's history. It has been connected to our kingdom since its founding."
Emrys turned his head toward him.
"Since its founding?"
"Yes."
The king paused.
"Since the time of Camelot's first ruler. In fact, the sword existed even before that era. It dates back to King Carfen and passed from hero to hero and from kingdom to kingdom until it eventually reached the hands of Camelot's first king."
Emrys didn't answer immediately.
"King Carfen used this sword?"
"Yes, as did many other renowned warriors who came after him."
They arrived in front of an imposing door.
Two guards stood on either side.
At the sight of Allister, they immediately stepped aside.
The ruler placed a hand on the door and pushed it open.
"Come in."
Emrys entered the room.
It was a relatively simple chamber, its walls decorated with several tapestries depicting historical scenes.
A pedestal stood in the center.
And resting upon it was a sword.
Emrys stopped.
The weapon was displayed with particular care, as though it were Camelot's most precious treasure.
Allister approached it.
"This is Excalibur. According to legend, it was given by someone who emerged from a lake."
Emrys observed the sword.
Excalibur? So this world is somehow connected to Arthurian legends?
Allister placed a hand on the pedestal.
"This sword has been passed down from ruler to ruler since Camelot's first king. It accompanies every reign and symbolizes the continuity of our kingdom."
He turned toward Emrys.
"Carfen himself used it to defend the people of his kingdom against attacks from demons and other hostile beings. In those days, the dangers humans faced were numerous."
The king gazed at the weapon with a certain solemnity.
"Thanks to it, Carfen was able to protect those living under his authority. He fought the creatures threatening his people, and, when he was on the verge of death, he dipped the sword in his blood. But instead of rusting, the sword became even sharper and more durable. Then the second wielder of the blade did the same, and so on, all the way to the present day."
Emrys slowly approached the pedestal.
His gaze traveled along the blade, the guard, and the pommel.
At first glance, it was a magnificent sword, but nothing about it seemed particularly extraordinary.
At least, not at first glance.
"May I?"
Allister nodded.
"Please."
Emrys reached out.
The moment his fingers brushed against the weapon, he activated his Structural Analysis.
And, the very next instant, his expression changed.
What?
He froze.
His mind had just perceived something he had never imagined finding inside a weapon.
Souls.
Several souls were contained within the sword.
They were there, deeply bound to the weapon, as though they were an essential part of it.
Emrys slightly withdrew his hand, stunned.
Wait a second... Didn't he just say that every wielder of the sword had dipped it in their blood before passing it on?
He resumed his analysis, this time with far greater attention.
There could be no mistake.
The souls of the previous wielders were indeed present inside Excalibur.
How is this possible?
He had already encountered weapons with extraordinary properties.
He had even forged and reproduced a great many of them himself using his abilities.
But what he was looking at was of an entirely different nature.
He could understand a weapon retaining traces of its user's energy.
He could even imagine a magical object being imbued with a particular will or power.
But souls...
Actual souls, bound to the same weapon across generations.
That was something else entirely.
Emrys resumed his analysis, trying to understand the mechanism that allowed those souls to persist within the sword.
And the more he examined its structure, the more he realized just how extraordinary this discovery was.
I can't reproduce this. Or rather, whatever I reproduce would be nothing more than an ordinary sword.
He tried to mentally imagine how he could reconstruct a weapon with the same properties.
But he quickly understood that it wouldn't work.
What he was looking at surpassed the limits of his current abilities.
To reproduce something like this, I would have to be able to interfere directly with the souls themselves...
His expression hardened.
That would be...
He stopped.
The third True Magic.
Emrys remained motionless.
He knew the limits of his own abilities well enough to understand that he couldn't get around this difficulty simply by modifying the weapon's structure.
The presence of the souls wasn't some secondary detail.
It was the very heart of what made Excalibur unique.
Allister, who had noticed his stillness, tilted his head slightly.
"Is something surprising you?"
Emrys didn't answer immediately.
He continued observing the sword.
How could something like this have been created?
He had initially thought that the weapon's appeal lay in its magical properties or its power.
But he had been mistaken.
What made Excalibur exceptional was its history.
A history that had not simply been passed down through stories or memories.
It was literally inscribed within the weapon.
Emrys turned his attention back to the blade.
And, suddenly, something changed.
---
An image appeared in his mind.
A landscape.
A lake.
The water stretched as far as the eye could see, calm and clear, reflecting the light of the sky.
Emrys felt his surroundings disappear.
He was no longer in the castle's chamber.
He was somewhere else.
A man stood before him.
A man whose presence seemed imbued with a particular solemnity.
Carfen.
Emrys instinctively recognized him.
The first king of Camelot stood at the edge of the lake, his gaze fixed on the water.
Then, slowly, a hand emerged from the surface.
It was holding a sword.
Excalibur.
Carfen approached.
He reached out with both hands and received the weapon.
The scene was astonishingly clear.
Emrys could see every detail, every movement.
The way Carfen grasped the sword.
The water falling around the hand.
The light reflecting off the blade.
Everything seemed real.
As though he were witnessing the scene firsthand.
So that's how...
He didn't have time to finish his thought.
A brutal force seized him.
The vision shattered.
Emrys was violently torn away from the scene and dragged back into the castle chamber.
He stumbled backward.
His breath briefly caught in his throat.
"...!"
He raised a hand to his head.
The sensation had been so sudden that it took him a few seconds to regain his bearings.
What the hell was that?
He abruptly raised his head toward Excalibur.
He had seen something.
Something very real.
But he hadn't managed to go any further.
The vision had ended before he could discover what had happened next.
Why was I thrown out?
He tried to recover that sensation, to reconnect with what he had perceived.
To no avail.
Access to the vision seemed to have closed.
Emrys clenched his fists.
But that wasn't what concerned him most.
He had just obtained a piece of information of paramount importance.
Carfen hadn't simply found Excalibur.
He had received it.
From a hand that had emerged from a lake.
And that hand necessarily belonged to someone.
Someone who had given the sword to Camelot's first king.
Emrys felt his heart begin to race.
A possibility had just presented itself to him.
A possibility he had almost stopped daring to believe in.
He abruptly turned toward Allister.
"Your Majesty."
The King of Camelot, who had been watching him for a few moments, raised his eyebrows slightly.
"Yes?"
Emrys took a step toward him.
"You just told me that Carfen had received this sword from someone who emerged from a lake."
Allister seemed surprised by the question.
"That's correct."
"Who was it?"
The king thought for a moment.
"According to the accounts passed down through the generations, it was an exceptionally powerful princess."
Emrys froze.
"A princess?"
"Yes. She is said to have appeared on the surface of the lake and handed Excalibur to Carfen."
Allister turned toward the sword.
"No one really knows where she came from or why she chose to give him that weapon."
He paused briefly.
"Since that event, this woman has been known as the Lady of the Lake."
Emrys felt something tighten in his chest.
The Lady of the Lake...
He needed to learn more.
"Which lake?"
Allister turned his head toward him.
"Pardon?"
"Which lake was it?"
This time, the king seemed to notice a new intensity in Emrys's voice.
Emrys took another step closer.
"The lake where Carfen received Excalibur. Which lake was it?"
Allister remained silent for a few moments.
Then he answered.
"Lake Salisbury."
---
Lake Salisbury.
Those two words echoed in Emrys's mind.
For a few seconds, he remained motionless.
He had finally obtained a lead.
A real lead.
How long had he been searching for such a possibility?
How many times had he considered different theories without ever managing to obtain the slightest confirmation?
And now, a simple diplomatic visit had just given him an answer.
The Lady of the Lake.
There's no doubt about it. The entrance must be there.
Emrys felt his fingers tighten.
He wanted to leave.
Now.
Leave Camelot, reach Lake Salisbury, and discover what lay behind this story.
But he forced himself to remain still.
He had come here for a specific reason.
He couldn't simply turn around and abandon everything else.
Especially not after agreeing to this meeting.
Calm down.
He slowly inhaled.
Then exhaled.
You have to take care of what you came here to do first.
Allister, who was watching him attentively, eventually spoke.
"This story seems to interest you far more than I would have imagined."
Emrys turned his head toward him.
"It's a fascinating story."
"You seem rather invested in what you consider fascinating."
"Let's just say I never expected to hear about a Lady in a Lake one day."
Allister smiled.
"In that case, I'm glad I showed you Excalibur."
Emrys cast one last glance at the sword.
He finally turned away from the pedestal.
"Your Majesty, I think we should resume our conversation."
Allister nodded.
"With pleasure."
But deep down, Emrys was already thinking about only one thing.
Lake Salisbury.
---
The following days were devoted to discussions between the two rulers.
As impatient as Emrys was to leave, he couldn't simply ignore the reasons he had come to Camelot.
Allister, for his part, proved particularly open to the idea of establishing lasting relations with Ulster.
Their discussions focused on the possibilities for cooperation between the two kingdoms, the interests they might share, and the means of maintaining peaceful relations.
Emrys wasn't particularly enthusiastic about spending hours discussing diplomacy.
But he made an effort to participate seriously in the negotiations.
He knew that this meeting could have significant consequences for Ulster.
And even though he had never wanted to become king, he had no intention of neglecting the responsibilities that came with that title.
As the discussions progressed, the two rulers eventually reached an agreement.
An alliance was established between Ulster and Camelot.
The terms were defined, their mutual commitments were clarified, and the foundations for their cooperation were laid.
When everything was finally settled, Emrys felt that he could breathe a little more freely.
He had kept his word.
He had met Allister, discussed matters with him, and established an alliance between their two kingdoms.
All that remained was for him to leave.
---
On the day of his departure, Emrys didn't even bother to rejoin his convoy.
He simply sent a message to Rou.
In it, he explained that he had concluded an alliance with Camelot and that he would return to speak with him shortly.
Then, without waiting any longer, he left the castle.
He didn't want to waste a single minute.
Lake Salisbury was some distance from Camelot, but that wasn't an obstacle for him.
He could cover that distance at a speed few people could even imagine.
And he fully intended to do so.
---
The journey was brief.
Emrys moved at a dizzying speed, crossing the landscape without ever stopping.
He didn't stop even once along the way.
His mind was completely consumed by this lead.
Lake Salisbury. Lake Salisbury. Lake Salisbury.
The plains disappeared behind him.
The forests disappeared behind him.
The roads followed one after another without receiving the slightest attention from him.
He no longer thought about Camelot.
He no longer thought about the alliance he had just concluded.
He didn't even think about Rou.
The only thing that mattered was this lake.
And the possibility of finding the person he was searching for.
Less than three hours after his departure, he finally arrived at his destination.
Lake Salisbury stretched out before him.
A vast expanse of calm water, its surface reflecting the sky.
Emrys stopped at the water's edge.
He observed the lake for a few seconds and was all the more surprised.
This lake was exactly the same as the one inside Unlimited Blade Works. The sensation he felt was exactly the same.
This only confirmed Emrys's suspicions and without wasting another second, Emrys launched himself forward.
And plunged headfirst into the lake.
---
The water enveloped him.
For a moment, all he felt was the coolness of the lake surrounding him.
Then, as soon as his head came into contact with the water, something happened.
Emrys felt as though space were warping around him.
He had the sensation of being pulled toward another place, as if the lake concealed a passage to a different world.
---
Silence.
That was the first thing he noticed.
A profound, almost unreal silence.
Emrys raised his head.
The second thing he noticed was the absurd amount of magical energy floating in the air.
The concentration of magical energy in the air that Emrys sensed far exceeded what he had felt in the lake moments earlier. A concentration that, now that he thought about it with a clear head, had also been absurd.
The concentration of magical energy was so intense you could cut it with a knife.
The third thing he noticed was another lake.
He was standing in front of another lake.
The water stretched out before him, calm and still.
But something was different.
He could instinctively feel it.
This wasn't simply another place.
This was the real lake.
The even more absurd amount of magical energy here proved it.
In fact, Emrys was certain that if the main ability of Observation Haki were to perceive magical energy rather than a person's aura, he wouldn't stand a chance of detecting an incoming attack, given how saturated the air was.
Emrys remained motionless for a few seconds.
Then his gaze fell upon a silhouette.
A woman was floating on the surface of the water.
She stood before him, supported by the lake as though she had no weight.
Her presence seemed almost unreal.
Emrys's heart skipped a beat.
He didn't need anyone to introduce her.
He didn't need to hear her name.
He recognized her.
The woman opened her mouth.
"Hello, Em..."
She didn't have time to finish.
Emrys rushed toward her.
He crossed the short distance separating them and threw himself into her arms.
The woman was caught off guard by the sudden embrace.
She didn't even have time to react.
Emrys held her tightly, making no attempt to hide the strength of his embrace.
His face was buried against her.
And, for the first time in a long while, he could no longer hold back his emotions.
Tears began to stream from his eyes.
He tightened his embrace even further.
Then, in a trembling voice, he whispered a single word.
"I missed you so much… Mom."