The match had ended. Both children lay on the grass, staring up at the clouds. A few meters behind them, Percival chatted animatedly with the queen. Beside him rested that legendary Hippogriff, lying peacefully on the lawn next to his young knight companion.

"Your swordsmanship was excellent. How long have you been training?" Arthur asked without taking his eyes off the sky.

Cinder thought for a few seconds.

"I think... two months."

Arthur froze.

"Two months...?" he whispered.

"Why do you ask? How long have you been training?"

The prince remained silent for a few moments before answering. The coldness on his face had been replaced by an expression of self-directed disappointment.

"One year..." he said softly, barely audible.

"Oh..."

Cinder looked back at the sky.

"I’m really sorry."

She had only been training for a short time, yet the prince already had far more combat experience than her. It must’ve been hard for him to end up tying with a beginner, but that’s just how things were.

At the very least, she turned out to be more talented.

"Don’t apologize. I’ll keep training and beat you next time. Since His Majesty will be sending envoys to this kingdom, I could ask to come here from time to time. That way I can prove to you that I’m strong."

"Then I’ll look forward to that day. Though, honestly, I had a few hidden tricks too, but they could’ve been dangerous for both of us."

"So did I, but I thought it was only fair not to use magic in battle. I want to become a paladin someday, but I can’t use magic against someone who’s fighting without tricks."

"A paladin? I think that suits you. I want to become a battle mage. That way I can help others and fight for them."

"That sounds nice. You’re very kind. I’d like to train with you from now on."

Cinder was about to say something, but she fell silent. The prince’s words were exactly what she wanted to hear.

It felt good interacting with someone her own age after being surrounded by maids and nobles all the time. It was refreshing for her.

***

The days passed, turning into weeks and then months. The alliance between Holylight and Axorhibis bore fruit on the battlefield.

While the soldiers fought for the lost territory, Arthur and Cinderella kept meeting each other. They trained together, but every match always ended in a draw, as though both of them were equally prodigious in some inexplicable way.

Their hearts slowly grew closer every time their swords clashed, exchanging blows, blood, sweat, and tears. Both of them seemed especially happy whenever they fought. The queen could see it clearly.

The look in her daughter’s eyes... the gaze of a girl in love.

Arthur wasn’t any different. As they grew older, he started showing increasingly shy behavior around Cinder.

The two of them were so adorable that sometimes Percival felt disgusted. It was obvious they had a problem. No normal person falls in love while beating someone else’s face in!

There were even times when the training sessions between those two became too extreme. The small flower garden could no longer handle this pair of savages who beat each other senseless only to lie on the grass afterward, covered in blood and missing a few teeth while staring at the sky like they did when they were younger.

Seven years passed like that, and Arthur was eventually forced to join the endless war that had intensified after, somehow, Warlock obtained the aid of a Primordial Demon. The power of the mighty Pendragon brothers was needed.

And so, one day, Arthur never returned to train with Cinderella again, because he now lay dying on the battlefield.

His sword was broken, his abdomen bled endlessly, and he was dying. With the last of his strength, he thought about the princess patiently waiting for him so they could train and lovingly beat each other up again.

And then he heard her...

The Goddess of Light spoke to him; not through dreams this time. She was there to tell him not to give up, that someday everyone would know his name.

And so Arthur rose again and, in the name of his beloved Guinevere Cinderella, became the hero of a legend.

In the end, only he and a few knights who accompanied him remained. They were his comrades, his brothers-in-arms.

His older brother, Morgan.

That cheerful and strange knight, Percival.

The older brother who trained him to become the best, Lancelot.

And that assassin who wished to return home to his family, Gawain.

However, all of them were in terrible condition, so one final knight had to take responsibility for protecting them until they returned home.

His name was Bedivere, the deserter from Warlock.

***

When the dying Arthur finally returned home, Cinder was waiting for him with tears streaming down her face. Desperate, she begged the mage Merlin to do something. What that legendary mage did was take Arthur’s broken sword and transport him through a teleportation portal to an old village surrounded by forest.

There, the mage said:

"Arthur must not die, for the fairies and the Goddess have a mission for him."

And so he was brought to that village, guarded by the Guardian of the Nine Gates, a dragon bound by contract to the village mayor. The dragon, arrogant and stubborn yet kind to those who deserved it, allowed them to use the town’s portal to cross the World of the Etherealsand reach the corpse of the Time God, which had become a continent thousands of years ago.

Arthur’s dying body, whose soul had been shattered by the use of the skill Limit Break, was carried by his closest companions and his beloved Cinder.

In the land of the fairies, they were welcomed by Titania, Queen of the Fairies and Oracle of Fairyland. Together with the mysterious Goddess of Light, who allowed no one except Arthur and Merlin to see her, they guided them to the island of Avalon, where Arthur was healed, but also granted an object.

It was a legendary sword, reforged from Arthur’s broken blade.

They named it Excalibur, a weapon capable of connecting with the divine power of the world itself.

***

Mitsuki opened his eyes. He held his aching head as he sat up.

An unbearable urge to vomit hit him, so he leapt out of the room through the hole in the ceiling. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

Hidden in an alleyway, he threw up everything he had eaten the night before.

’That sword... it was the one stabbed into the throne room... and the black armor... It belonged to Morgan! He was the Master of Cinder!’