About half a month later.
On the streets of Camelot, people were discussing the announcement Artoria had made not long ago.
"Did you hear?"
"It seems the King discovered something incredible during her recent war against Vortigern."
"That's right, that's right!"
"They say it's something that could transform all of Camelot into something completely different, right?"
"Wow, what could it be? I'm so excited—"
"..."
"..."
Not far from where this discussion was taking place, Barghest and Mélusine were drinking together.
Having gone through the previous events, while their relationship couldn't be described as 'brothers-in-arms,' they were at least good friends.
"Mélusine, do you know what they're talking about?"
"Of course I know."
"Didn't the King announce it as soon as she returned?"
"And she announced it together with Ian, right?"
Mélusine recalled the scene with a sense of boredom.
On the day of their triumphant return, atop the city wall, Artoria had announced the matter with Ian in a high-profile manner, just like on their wedding day.
Those spirited eyes held both the pride of a victorious return and the confidence of intending to lead Britain into the future.
"Don't you remember?"
"That's not what I mean!"
Barghest gripped the wine cup in her hand.
"The King... everyone knows the King is going to do something earth-shattering, but as for what exactly that is, we still don't know anything, do we?"
"Don't you find that a bit abnormal?"
"..."
"Right..."
When Barghest put it that way, Mélusine immediately realized what was wrong.
"Although everything was announced, in reality, for us, it feels like nothing was said at all."
"Right? You think so too!"
Barghest looked left and right, and after confirming that everyone was passionately discussing the topic, she continued.
"I suspect the King might be doing something that isn't quite suitable for us to know!"
"..."
"Impossible, absolutely impossible!"
Mélusine denied such a possibility almost without hesitation.
However, after realizing that her outburst had attracted everyone's gaze, the petite knight immediately felt embarrassed.
"It's nothing, keep drinking and dancing, just pretend I suddenly got excited!"
"..."
Although they found it a bit strange, realizing that she was drinking, an occasional outburst wasn't that hard to accept.
Seeing the atmosphere calm down, Mélusine continued the previous topic with Barghest.
"You don't need to think about such things!"
"Even if the King really decided something, she would absolutely never hide it from us."
"So, you don't need to worry about that!"
"..."
Barghest was a bit stunned by Mélusine's reaction.
After a while, she said:
"How do you know?"
"I feel like you're very certain—did Ian give you some inside information?"
"Or could it be..."
Barghest downed the wine in her cup in one gulp, then revealed a suspicious look.
"Is there some relationship between you and him that I don't know about?"
"Is that it?"
"..."
Of course, Mélusine couldn't tell the truth.
She definitely couldn't say that during the wedding dress fitting, she had even been... intimate with Ian inside that room.
After all, no matter how she thought about it, it felt like she was betraying Barghest a little.
"Nothing like that, I just trust him!"
"Big fella, think about it!"
"You should know what kind of person Ian is. If he could tell me something, he would definitely tell you too, right?"
"That's true."
Barghest didn't seem to doubt Mélusine's words.
"Forget it, never mind all that!"
Barghest slammed her wine cup down, then spoke with incomparable heroism.
"There are still many things to do!"
"I—!"
"I must perform well!"
The conversation in the tavern ended in such a subtle way.
However—
Barghest's words did leave Mélusine somewhat confused.
She was right.
Although the intelligence about the "tree" had been made public, Artoria hadn't actually fully revealed the subsequent plans, otherwise the discussions wouldn't be so intense.
Although she no longer suspected that Artoria would be wary of her, and she knew that Morgan often helped Artoria.
But Mélusine still felt a little concerned deep down.
What exactly were they planning to do?
Right.
Go ask Ian.
Given her relationship with him, getting some intelligence shouldn't be difficult.
Thinking this, Mélusine completely denied the flicker of excitement in her heart at finally having a reason to see Ian.
This isn't going to see him just for the sake of seeing him.
It's genuinely because of important matters that I'm going to see him!
No sooner said than done.
Imitating Barghest, Mélusine also slammed her wine cup onto the table.
Then, she strode out the door with large steps.
"I'm coming, Ian."
....
However—
Finding Ian wasn't such an easy task.
The reason was simple:
As someone who made outstanding contributions in the war against Vortigern, and could even be called the core reason why Camelot's knights didn't suffer greater losses.
Ian's current status could be said to be only slightly lower than Artoria's.
Finding him might take some time.
But quite fortunately, Mélusine didn't spend too much time finding Ian's trail.
To be precise, she learned of his whereabouts from others.
Only, this answer was a bit sad for her.
Because everyone who had seen Ian told Mélusine the same fact—that the place he was heading to was none other than Artoria's room.
Even without it being said explicitly, Mélusine knew what such words meant.
That would naturally be Artoria's "summons."
He was her husband, after all. Doing such things wasn't strange at all.
But even so—
given her previous relationship with Artoria, if she went over now, perhaps she could still do something.
Holding onto a mentality that was hard to define—perhaps luck, perhaps something else—Mélusine avoided the gaze of others and made her way step by step towards Artoria's room.
However...
When she arrived at the door of that room, what greeted her eyes was an unexpected scene.
Because the person there was neither Artoria nor Morgan.
But...
Baobhan Sith?!