Chapter 709: 555, I will make you king.
Night...
In a plain several kilometers away from a large cave, a heavy tower stood here, presenting a pressuring presence under the night sky.
Undoubtedly, this was a temporary residence created by Reiger using "Fortress Creation."
Reiger and his group had already moved in and were resting here temporarily.
During the day, Morgan had told Reiger that she would take responsibility for explaining things to Tettelot and the Black Knight, so he didn’t need to waste his breath.
Thus, the matter of the large cave had come to a close for Reiger, and he had chosen a room to sleep in, adjusting his state.
Although the curse in the large cave had not brought any sequelae to Reiger, the curse had already interfered with the real world, taking on the nature of a physical attack. Diving headfirst into such a Sea of Curse, it was inevitable that his body and mind were somewhat affected, and he needed to properly adjust.
Therefore, after returning to his room, Reiger rested and used several types of magic to treat himself, including but not limited to Healing Magic.
After resting like this for a long while, until nightfall, Reiger finally woke again, walked out of his room, and went to the hall.
By this time, Tettelot and the Black Knight seemed to have already gone to sleep.
Reiger had thought that he would be the only one active at this time, but instead, he found that there was already someone in the hall.
"You’re awake?"
Standing in front of the window and looking out at the starry sky, Morgan turned her head at the sound of someone approaching, and cast her gaze upon Reiger.
She was not carrying her Magic Wand, had removed all her armor, and appeared here in a rare, unguarded state, which surprised Reiger slightly.
In the past half-month, Morgan had never once removed her armor, even when sleeping, so this was the first time Reiger had seen her utterly without defenses.
However, he quickly recovered and nodded at Morgan while saying, "Didn’t you go to rest?"
"I suppose," Morgan did not deny it, murmuring softly, "My thoughts are a bit jumbled, I need to sort them out."
"Is it about the large cave?" Reiger came beside Morgan, joining her in gazing out the window at the night sky, and said, "Do you care that much about it?"
"...How can I not care?" Morgan sighed and said, "If it awakens, Britannia will surely cease to exist."
Not to mention anything else, just that terrifying curse, potent enough to contaminate even the planet itself— once it escapes the large cave and spreads across the lands of Britannia, Fairy Country would be doomed.
Thus, Morgan was understandably filled with worry.
Unfortunately, Reiger could not understand.
"You saw it, right? The ancient memories that crossed over from the other side of the curse."
Reiger made such an utterance.
Clearly, he too had seen those memories.
"......"
Morgan neither denied nor confirmed, her face clouded with gloom.
"Since you saw, then you should know that the existence of Britannia itself was mistaken from the very beginning," Reiger stated indifferently. "For such a Britannia, is it really worth your sacrificing so much, doing so many things?"
Morgan did not respond immediately to this question.
She closed her eyes as if recalling her past life.
Then, she opened her eyes.
In that moment, the expression in the eyes of this savior was no longer calm or spirited, but instead exposed the indifference hidden deepest within.
This was Morgan’s most authentic side.
Now revealing her truest self, Morgan slowly began to speak.
"Indeed, I have no desire to be any sort of savior," Morgan said coldly. "I just want to maintain Britannia as it is now, I never intended to save all the fairies, nor did I plan to protect anything."
"For me, as long as Britannia continues to exist, that’s enough."
"Everything else, as far as I’m concerned, is unimportant."
Morgan was finally willing to confess her true feelings in front of Reiger.
"At first, maybe I did have the idea of creating a utopia," Morgan remarked impassively. "But such thoughts, I have completely lost them now."
"For these 3600 years, I have been repeating the same action."
"Removing the ’Calamity’ that occurs every century..."
"Exorcising the ’Great Calamity’ that occurs every millennium..."
"Yet, after completing the exorcism, I would immediately be hunted by the fairies, ostracized, and forced to flee, entering the ’Coffin’ to sleep."
"With so much effort exerted, I ended up facing even more blame and persecution."
"Thus, as you said, I long ceased expecting anything from fairies."
Morgan relayed her most harrowing experiences in a level tone, as if they were someone else’s concerns.
Reiger did not interrupt, simply listening quietly.
Under such circumstances, it seemed that Morgan was venting all that she had been hiding all along, continuously speaking.
"Now, I’m only acting to protect myself, to protect Britannia."
"Taking Yuse as a disciple, making a human the king of Britannia, stems from my disbelief in fairies, my disbelief that they can manage Britannia the way I wish."
"I also do not wish to entrust Britannia to those fairies. Thus, I chose to aid humans, to help Yuse unify Britannia."
"Such a me, from the very beginning, was never a savior, but a witch who arbitrarily decides the fate of fairies."
"If not for Britannia, I would have ended its history long ago, right?"
Speaking thusly, Morgan turned towards Reiger.
"You ask me why I do so much for such a Britain?"
"That’s because this is the only place I belong."
"I don’t actually want to save the fairies, let alone fulfill the mission of the Paradise Fairy. I just want this Britain to last forever."
"For that purpose, I can sacrifice anything, including myself."
The words revealed by Reiger were indicative of what could be described as an obsessive dedication, a kind that had become synonymous with the meaning of existence—once one fails to fulfill that, one immediately loses oneself, loses all desires.
Why go to such an extent?
This very thought flashed through Reiger’s mind.
But when he thought of Reiger’s essence, of all her experiences and origins, it seemed perhaps fitting that she turned out this way.
Here, because of her ties to the Rain Clan, she had since childhood the idea of creating an ideal kingdom, and she loved this land deeply.
In the annals of human history, due to her life experiences and the nature of her existence, she became nearly frenzied in her quest to possess Britain.
It could be said that Britain was everything to "Vivian."
If she could not have it, what then was there that could not be sacrificed?
"To be honest, I was a bit afraid of you at first,"
Reiger confessed this.
"I didn’t know what role you would play in the future of Britain, whether it would be good or bad."
"Despite being an enemy to the queen who ruled over Britain, which should be detrimental to Britain, yet you did not dislike Morgan, you bore no malice towards her, and even became her chosen husband, approved by her."
"I don’t know what the future... she, is really thinking."
"I also don’t know why you came here, for what purpose."
"I even thought about eliminating you, yet you were so powerful, and so... special."
Because of this, over the past half month, Reiger had actually been very confused for a long time.
She didn’t want to get close to Reiger, yet was drawn to everything about him.
She felt he was a threat, but the future queen who would rule over Britain was willing to marry him.
If this relationship were purely superficial, it would have been fine.
She knew that Queen Morgan would not seek a partner for her own happiness; as long as marrying this person was beneficial to Britain, she would marry him without any hesitation, regardless of who it was.
But this husband, Morgan, clearly did not marry him for the sake of Britain, otherwise she wouldn’t have, through the current Reiger, been able to only vaguely understand, and realize the way she built a conceptually indelible relationship with him and gave him her essence.
Thus, Reiger was really confused and conflicted, unsure how to deal with Reiger, who suddenly appeared in her life.
But now, she felt, perhaps none of it mattered anymore.
Because she might have begun to understand why the future Morgan looked highly upon this man alone.
Recalling the experiences in the great cave, remembering the words he said to her in her inner world, the warmth passed to her, and that moment of emotional contact, Reiger felt that a crack might have appeared in her long-frozen heart.
She then steadfastly gazed at Reiger and after a while, she said,
"Am I going to fail?"
The statement, coming from Reiger, was abrupt and incomprehensible to anyone.
But Reiger understood it.
She was referring to her future self.
She was referring to the peace that was soon to come to Britain.
Soon, her apprentice would be crowned king, the fairies would be governed, and Britain would become that which Reiger had envisioned.
However, Reiger had already acknowledged that Reiger’s ideas were too naive.
This means...
"Yes," Reiger said indifferently, "you will fail."
Reiger closed her eyes again.
This was clearly her last attempt...
This was clearly the method she had placed great hope in...
Yet, like before, it would end in failure.
"You’re right, the fairies aren’t worth saving, nor should they be saved,"
Reiger said, with a voice as cold as ice.
"Britain might need fairies, but it doesn’t need disobedient fairies."
At this moment, a certain thought in Reiger’s mind slowly solidified.
Britain could not be entrusted to the fairies, for fairies were not trustworthy.
Britain could not be entrusted to humans, for humans were too weak.
If she wanted to turn Britain into what she desired, then she would have to do it herself.
Since that’s the case...
"Let there be a king, and let it be me."
Reiger made this decision in her heart.