"Aren't you going to punish me?"
After Shirou returned to Camelot, Merlin had fully expected to be punished this time, only to be told that the matter would be let go.
Merlin stared at him in surprise.
"Did you plead with Morgan for me?"
Shirou shook his head, indicating the exact opposite.
"I'm still really angry, you know?
You actually went behind my back to negotiate with Morgan, even though your greatest virtue is that you never interfere too much.
If you abandon even that principle, then doesn't that just make you a mean-spirited succubus?"
"Ugh... I can't even argue with that!"
Shirou explained,
"So I was originally planning to teach you a lesson this time, but Morgan told me not to pursue it."
"Morgan did...?"
Merlin looked utterly incredulous.
She was not only Shirou's guardian, but Morgan's as well, so she knew better than anyone how much Morgan held grudges.
And yet this time, Morgan had taken the initiative to forgive her...
All at once, a flash of understanding crossed Merlin's mind, and she suddenly realized the truth.
"What's with that disgusting smile all of a sudden?"
"It's nothing, hehe."
The Flower Magus covered her lips and thought to herself:
Shirou didn't just change me. He changed Morgan too.
Now that I think about it, what a useless teacher I've been...
All I ever did was teach Morgan magecraft. I never once truly tried to help her, even though that was exactly what I, as her teacher, should have done.
In the end, it was Shirou who accepted Morgan, changed Morgan, and saved Morgan.
If it hadn't been for Shirou, Morgan probably would have gone down the wrong path by now.
"...Thank you, Shirou, for accepting Morgan. Really... truly, thank you so much."
Merlin murmured those words as she wiped away the tears gathering at the corners of her eyes.
"By the way, Arthur."
"What is it?"
"Have you ever considered taking Guinevere as a secondary wife?"
"Huh?"
Ignoring Shirou's dumbfounded look, Merlin launched straight into her backup plan.
"Morgan's position as queen and legal wife would remain unchanged, but Guinevere could also become your secondary wife.
That way, we could secure the Duke of Camelot's support.
Hehe. Marrying Guinevere wouldn't just get us Camelot, you know.
Just think about it...
The Knights of the Round Table may be willing to respect their king's wishes and accept Morgan as their lady.
But in the future, conflict between them and Morgan is probably inevitable.
Arthur, do you really want the Round Table hall to turn into a hell where every meeting erupts into shouting the moment it starts?"
Shirou pictured it for a moment and instantly sucked in a sharp breath.
"At a time like that, Camelot needs someone to smooth things over, and Guinevere is the perfect choice.
She can ease the tensions between Morgan and the knights, and the Knights of the Round Table would be more than happy to offer their loyalty to Guinevere as someone worthy of their protection, wouldn't they?"
"I see..."
Shirou rubbed his chin. Wait, isn't this basically the Saber camp's setup in Fate/Zero?
For the Knights of the Round Table, Queen Morgan was basically in the Kiritsugu position, while Queen Guinevere stood in Irisviel's place.
Seeing Shirou start to waver, Merlin pressed the attack.
"Guinevere would probably be very willing too, even if it were only as a secondary wife."
Shirou frowned.
"But... Britannia doesn't have a polygamous tradition, does it?"
Under Roman cultural influence, Britannia had always upheld monogamous marriage.
"It's fine. Polygamy may be hard for Britannia to accept, but accomplishing what ordinary people can't is exactly what makes you 'my Arthur.'"
Merlin said it all with a cheerful smile. Shirou rolled his eyes and reminded her,
"Morgan's going to kill you, you know?"
The female Magus sounded completely unconcerned.
"If it's for the sake of witnessing your journey, Arthur, I've long since prepared myself to be killed."
...
...
One year later.
Construction on Camelot was completed, and after obtaining consent from both sides, Shirou married Morgan and Guinevere at the same time.
As King Arthur's legal wife, Morgan was not only Camelot's queen, but also Britannia's queen, with authority second only to the king himself.
Although Guinevere was only a secondary wife, she enjoyed the support of the Knights of the Round Table and the love of the people, becoming a symbolic figure for the Camelot royal house.
Morgan and Guinevere, each in her own way, supported Shirou as his wives.
What followed was ten peaceful years, without any large-scale war.
With Lancelot's help, Britannia restored trade with the continent, and port commerce began to flourish.
Under Gawain's promotion, the kingdom began large-scale potato cultivation, solving its food problem and causing the population to grow rapidly.
It was also during this period that the tales of the Round Table truly came into their own.
Conflicts with foreign races gradually eased, so the Knights of the Round Table instead began appearing all across the country to resolve domestic disputes wherever they arose.
Although they all saw one another as rivals, and would draw their swords to compete the moment they found an excuse, taken as a whole they were still decent people.
Merlin also often traveled with the knights on their adventures, accompanied by the three-eyed cat demon. In truth, she was searching for a way to avoid [Pruned Events].
"Take me with you next time too. It's been a long time since I traveled with Merlin-sensei, so I'm actually looking forward to it."
"No... Arthur should stay in Camelot and spend more time with your daughters."
There was no need to worry that much, but Shirou could only sigh.
"If anything related to Mystery comes up, Morgan can handle it in my place," Merlin said.
In Shirou's heart, no one could ever replace his teacher... though of course, he would never say something like that out loud even if it killed him.
In the second year after their marriage, Shirou and Morgan's child, Mordred, was born.
Unlike in the original story, where she was an artificial human created to defeat King Arthur, this Mordred was a girl born from a natural pregnancy and welcomed into the world with her parents' love.
That same year, Queen Guinevere's child was also born.
She was a girl who had completely inherited her mother's golden hair and blue eyes, and Shirou named her Artoria.
Artoria was Mordred's younger sister, and this fact was also recorded in The Unofficial History of Britannia.
Mordred, whose very first words were "Papa~," was an extreme father-lover who did not even glance at her mother.
She was so adorable that Shirou doted on her as if she might melt if he held her too tightly.
Morgan, who was completely unable to win Mordred's affection, was heartbroken for a while, but she quickly found a new outlet for her feelings and turned to doting on Guinevere's daughter instead.
Unlike her older half-sister, Artoria had no talent for swordsmanship. Instead, she was a genius when it came to magecraft.
Perhaps that was why Morgan loved her so dearly.
"Oh my, looks like Artoria inherited my talent for magecraft," Shirou said smugly.
Morgan rolled her eyes.
"Shut up, you third-rate Magus... If this child turned out like you, that would be a disaster."
Crying, Shirou buried himself in Guinevere's arms and sought comfort.
Morgan decided to raise Artoria into a genius Magus who would not lose to either herself or Merlin, and from then on she kept the girl by her side at all times.
Although Artoria did look toward her birth parents from time to time, after wavering in the end she always chose Morgan. That left Guinevere unwilling to lose, so she spent her days taking Mordred everywhere with her.
And so, through the joined efforts of the King of Knights and the Fairy Queen, Britannia passed through its most glorious era.
Yet even as Camelot shone with dazzling brilliance and the kingdom grew more prosperous by the day, the island's decline could not be stopped.
From a certain point onward, the activities of foreign tribes within Britannia began to grow active again.
After looking into the matter, they learned that this time the foreign tribes had received support greater than ever before.
From Rome.
Originally, the Saxons had invaded Britannia because of the Empire's decline.
However, that situation changed after Emperor Lucius Tiberius ascended the throne.
Not long after taking power, the emperor used force to conquer the barbarian factions raging within his territory, then swiftly annexed the nations that had split away from the Empire. It could be said that he rebuilt a vast super-military empire from the ruins.
After restoring Rome to greatness, the emperor then turned his gaze toward Britannia.
He was not after the island's treasure, nor even the remnants of Mystery left upon it.
He had heard tales of the Knights of the Round Table, and they had stirred his intense interest.
Though Lucius Tiberius was an emperor, he was deeply devoted to swordsmanship and possessed extraordinary personal martial power.
His strength, tempered through countless trials on battlefields and in arenas, had already surpassed human limits. He was feared as the Sword Emperor, and his name was renowned even in Britannia.
Before long, the Roman emperor, undefeated on the continent, crossed the sea with his army in search of a worthy foe.
With a single blow, he struck down Sir Gawain, who had come to meet him in battle.
The Sun Knight, who should have been invincible at noon, was crushed with ease. Sir Bedivere, who rushed in to support him, was also defeated without effort.
The knights of Camelot trembled before the Sword Emperor's might.
The people recalled the terror of being ruled by the Romans.
But it was not all bad news.
As the Roman army continued pressing deeper into Britannia, Shirou also led his forces in counterattack.
He defeated the Gallic governor who had crossed the sea alongside the emperor, seized the sword known as Clarent, and restored the knights' morale.
At last, that moment had come.
Britannia's fate would be decided by the outcome of the duel between the King of Knights and the Sword Emperor.
Even before invading Britannia, the emperor had already known of the King of Knights' deeds.
Not only was he completely unafraid, he accepted the King of Knights' challenge with a savage grin of delight.
A king who wielded the Holy Sword, the Holy Lance, and the Sword of Infinity.
An emperor who conquered the continent with nothing but a single demonic sword.
Thus began a duel between superhumans who had reached the very limits of mankind.
The earth split apart. The sky trembled. No one else could possibly interfere in their battle.
Both the Britannian and Roman armies ceased fighting and watched the duel before them with bated breath.
The fierce battle raged on for a full day and night.
In the end, the radiance of the Holy Sword of the Star swallowed up the emperor and his demonic sword, erasing even their very existence from history.
The Romans stared at the sight before them in utter disbelief. Soon their morale collapsed, their formation fell apart, and they retreated from the island back to the continent.
Once again, Shirou had saved Britannia.
The first time, from the hands of the Usurper King Vortigern.
The second time, from the Sword Emperor Lucius.
From that moment on, the people revered him as the savior who had rescued Britannia.
From that moment on, the world's pruning became inevitable.
...
...
Shirou had originally thought that the Usurper King and the Sword Emperor would be the strongest enemies he would face in his entire life, but he soon realized he had been far too optimistic.
The new enemy was called Albion.
The Grand Dragon. The Boundary Dragon, Albion.
As the island's will and terminal device, the Usurper King Vortigern possessed power on the level of a chief god from an entire mythological system.
But Albion was a lifeform that stood above the planet's touch, an existence even older than any ancient god.
A transcendent species that had been born alongside the planet and survived for 4.6 billion years had now begun to rampage, treating the kingdom as its enemy. By any measure, this was an extraordinary crisis.
From the moment Arthur and Morgan came together, they had already stood in opposition to the Counter Force.
The enemy was the Last Dragon. At last, this was a battle Shirou could not possibly win alone, no matter how hard he tried.
In the long war to subjugate Albion, countless knights died, and countless towns were destroyed.
Even King Pellinore, one of the earliest members of the Round Table, Agravain, the king's most trusted retainer, and the king's sworn brother Kay all perished beneath the dragon's claws.
In the end, Sir Lancelot, the strongest knight and foremost seat of the Round Table, sacrificed his own life to halt the dragon's movements for a brief moment.
The holy sword Arondight tore open the dragon's chest.
Together with Galahad, Lancelot's son, Shirou seized the opening created by the Knight of the Lake and pierced the Grand Dragon's heart.
After a grand state funeral was held for the fallen knights, peace returned to Britannia once more.
At Shirou's instruction, Morgan and Merlin began researching Albion's corpse, searching for a way to preserve Mystery on the island.
If they succeeded, they might truly be able to create a future in which Britannia would never perish.
However, a single piece of news brought everyone's dream to an end.
[The Roman Empire has fallen.]
Rumors arrived from the continent that the Roman Empire had collapsed, a full thousand years earlier than in proper history.
The one who destroyed the ancient empire and its civilization was a king who had descended from the moon.
The King Of The Moon, Crimson Moon, called forth by the planet, began a purge of humanity on the surface of the earth.
In barely half a year, the situation had worsened to the point that human civilization itself was on the verge of disappearing.
Britannia, isolated overseas, could do nothing but watch. Were they supposed to wait until Crimson Moon destroyed every nation on the continent before turning toward them?
"We strike first."
Shirou led the knights out from the harbor and headed for the continent to intercept Crimson Moon.
This time, too, many of his comrades died.
Gawain, Tristan, Percival, Gareth... the Knights of the Round Table fell one after another in battle against the King of the Moon.
After paying a devastating price no one could accept, Shirou heavily damaged Crimson Moon's physical body. Morgan and Merlin followed up immediately, using magecraft to exile her into Imaginary Number Space.
After returning to Camelot, Shirou often shut himself away inside the empty Round Table hall.
Albion and Crimson Moon had both already been defeated.
Through that process, Shirou himself had grown more than ten times stronger than he had once been.
His body, whose growth had stopped after drawing the Sword of Selection, had gained even further divinity under the influence of the Holy Lance, and Shirou had become something no longer human.
Perhaps it would be more fitting to call him the God of the End, Rhongomyniad. As he was now, not only could he control thousands of swords at once, he could even fire beams from the Holy Lance from his fingertips, his eyeballs, and all sorts of other body parts.
If there was still anything that could threaten him and this world, then it was probably only that monster sleeping in South America.
Just to be safe, Shirou began thinking through the details of a future battle with ORT.
Honestly, he could barely summon any motivation.
Even if he defeated ORT, his fallen comrades would not come back to life.
Even if he defeated ORT, some new absurd enemy might still appear.
It was enough to make anyone lose heart.
But even so, he had to keep fighting.
From the moment he took Morgan's hand in his own, he had already steeled himself for that.
Perhaps it was because he was getting older, or perhaps because divinity was gradually replacing his humanity, but Shirou had started to enjoy looking back on the past.
He remembered the days when Camelot was known as the City of Flowers. He remembered the days when the Knights of the Round Table held wrestling tournaments.
He remembered his battle with the Usurper King Vortigern, and he remembered the decisive clash with the Sword Emperor Lucius.
Albion and Crimson Moon had both possessed power far beyond human understanding, but for Shirou, the battle he found most unforgettable was still the one against the Roman emperor.
After all, that had been the last glorious battle in which he fought as King Arthur, staking his beliefs against those of his enemy.
"In the end, after Lucius was destroyed by the Holy Sword, even every trace that he had ever existed was erased... what the hell."
Shirou muttered to himself,
"He was never a real historical figure to begin with, but this is still too pitiful.
Because he disappeared, even the history of the Roman Empire's temporary revival was corrected by the Counter Force... huh?"
Shirou's shoulders began to tremble.
As he looked at the golden Holy Sword in his hand, a mad idea surfaced in the boy's mind.
He had thought of a way to accomplish both [save the world] and [make Morgan happy].