There were fewer than two hundred steps left to the main gate of Ryuudou Temple.
Alright, let's make a final push and charge to the top in one go!
Shirou cracked his knuckles and was just about to step forward when he noticed a silver-haired woman collapsed at his feet.
"Avalon-nee-san? Don't sleep in a place like this. Seriously, you'll catch a cold."
The side effects of the second [Dead Count Shapeshifter Command Spell] had hit Lady Avalon as well.
This time, she did not even have the strength to maintain her Spirit Form. Her face was drawn with pain, and her voice was weak.
"Sorry... Master, let me rest here for a bit."
"...What's wrong?"
"It's nothing. I just haven't exercised in a long time, so climbing such a high mountain all of a sudden wore me out."
Shirou hurriedly waved his hands.
"No, no, no. Normally, nobody gets so tired from climbing a mountain that they end up face-down on the ground, right?"
Lady Avalon bit her lip and pushed herself up with her slender body, then leaned back against a tree.
"Master... I'm going to rest here for a while. I'll leave the rest of the fight to you.
There's still one last [Dead Count Shapeshifter Command Spell] left. Use it to its fullest and defeat Saber."
"Got it."
Shirou nodded, then gave her a long look before leaving.
"Don't catch a chill, okay?"
"Are you my mother or something!?"
Watching the boy's retreating back, Lady Avalon smiled and slowly closed her eyes.
For the first time in a long while, the succubus had a dream.
...
...
To trace the beginning of it all, one has to start with a rumor Merlin once heard.
They said a prodigy had appeared in a village near Tintagel.
Apparently he was not the child of any local farmer, and no one knew where he came from. He had delicate features unlike those of the Welsh, the Picts, or the Saxons.
This red-haired child, only seven years old, could already use the mysterious Projection Magecraft.
Merlin found the rumor extremely strange. Her eyes, which surveyed the present, had never reflected such an event in advance.
So the court Magus took time out of her busy schedule and personally went to Tintagel to see the child for herself.
"...Huh?"
The female Magus, revered by humans as the [Sage] and honored by the fairies as [Teacher], let out a startled, flustered sound.
Her Clairvoyance showed her nothing.
From the boy standing before her, she could see nothing. Nothing at all.
It was the first time anything like this had ever happened.
Merlin possessed the highest rank of Clairvoyance, proof of her qualification as a Grand Caster candidate.
With those extraordinary eyes, she could see through the present.
Not only everything happening across every part of this planet, but even worlds beyond this one.
The Magus of Flowers could even behold the present of parallel worlds.
And yet now, something had appeared that even she could not see through.
It was the boy standing before her, Shirou.
Even though this was their first meeting, he had looked at her with an expression of utter disgust.
It felt a little awkward to say it herself, but nobody would ever look down on Merlin because of her appearance.
Men would lose themselves in her beauty, and even children ought to let down their guard around her...
The female Magus quickly realized one thing.
She could not see through Shirou, but Shirou, in contrast, knew about her.
Why?
The people of the kingdom called Merlin a great prophet.
She could not directly see the future, and yet she could speak of everything to come. The reason was her incomparably brilliant mind.
It did not take Merlin long to realize that the soul of the child named Shirou did not come from anywhere in this world.
Clairvoyance could only perceive things that existed in this world. It could not observe beings that did not belong to it.
In other words...
Shirou was not from a parallel world, nor from another dimension or universe, but from a true different world.
At that instant, Merlin's heart began pounding.
As if she could not breathe, she clutched her chest, drenched in sweat and gasping for air.
This too was a first for her.
Since birth, Merlin had lived through a long, long span of years, and throughout all that time, she had known everything happening in the present.
Because she could see everything in the world, nothing unexpected had ever happened, nor had anything ever truly surprised her.
To Merlin, the whole world had been like a painting mounted on a wall.
And she had merely been an observer, happily admiring the scenery within it.
Then Shirou appeared.
It felt like standing in her own bedroom, quietly admiring a painting, only for someone to suddenly walk up beside her and start talking to her.
In a place that should have contained only herself, a stranger she did not know at all had suddenly appeared.
Who are you!?!?!!
"..."
Merlin stared blankly at the red-haired boy in front of her.
From that moment on, the world was no longer a painting to Merlin.
Everything around her, everything in her sight, seemed to take on color, turning into a world full of unknown possibilities.
Merlin thought to herself in a daze.
No matter how many hundreds of millions of years passed, she would never forget the shock and emotion of this day.
...
...
And so, the child from another world, Shirou, was brought by Merlin before King Uther.
"I want this child to become my disciple," the court Magus said without preamble.
"Hah? Who'd want to be a succubus's disciple!?"
The red-haired boy frowned.
"I want to be Artoria's disciple! Hey! Let me see Artoria already! If she's not born yet, then hurry up and make her!"
Merlin used Magecraft to shut Shirou up.
"There's no child named Artoria here. Give up already!"
Because an impurity, Shirou, had been added to the story, the Magus of Flowers' Clairvoyance could no longer see the original future. As a result, she did not know of Artoria, who was originally meant to be born two years later.
"...Merlin."
The old man seated on the throne, King Uther of Britain, glanced at the queen beside him and asked hesitantly,
"It's fine if you want to teach this child, but what about Morgan?"
Morgan was Merlin's disciple, and also the princess of this kingdom.
In truth, however, Morgan and King Uther were not related by blood. She was the baggage child Queen Igraine had with her former husband.
Shirou, with his mouth sealed shut, went:
"Mmph! Mmphmmmmmmmm! Mmph mmph! (Morgan! Morgan's already been born!? Hell yes! I'll always love Morgan!)"
Merlin said, "I will continue serving as Morgan's Magecraft teacher... but there is one thing you misunderstand. I have no intention of teaching this child Magecraft."
Uther: "?"
"This child is an orphan who ended up in Tintagel... My King, I have a proposal."
With a serious expression, Merlin said,
"Have you and the queen ever considered adopting a boy?"
Shirou, still with his mouth sealed, protested:
"Mmph! Mmphmmmm! Mmphmmmmmmm! (Merlin! Why are you making decisions on your own!? Did you even ask for my opinion!?)"
On the way to the royal palace, Merlin had already come up with a plan.
That plan was to make Shirou the king who would save Britain.
"Wait... you mean!?"
Uther's eyes went wide, and he shot up from his throne in agitation.
Merlin gave a small nod.
"My King, please abandon the original plan. A more suitable candidate has appeared."
King Uther sank back onto the throne as though all strength had been drained from his body.
The plan he had devised with Merlin had already reached its final stage.
Since ancient times, whoever became the King of Britain would receive the island's blessing and be granted mysterious power.
However, with the end of the Age of Gods on the mainland, the Mystery of Britain had gradually thinned, and Uther was the last person to be granted such extraordinary power.
Fearing that the next generation would no longer receive the island's blessing, he put a forbidden plan into motion.
Uther conspired with Merlin to create an heir bearing the Dragon Factor.
The woman chosen as the vessel for this plan was Igraine, whose veins carried fairy blood.
King Uther forced her to divorce her original husband and made her his queen.
Such a morally reprehensible act had been committed for the sake of Britain's future.
But after coming this far, was he really supposed to give it up now?
King Uther was deeply conflicted... Could this utterly ordinary-looking boy before him really stand shoulder to shoulder with a superhuman who possessed the Dragon Factor?
"I swear it to you."
Merlin glanced at Shirou, then declared:
"I will raise him into a king capable of saving Britain."
"Mmgh! Mmgh! Mmmmmmmmmmmm!!! (Merlin, you bastard! What have you done!? If this happens, then Artoria won't be born, will she!? You murderer!!!)"
...
...
And just like that, Shirou became King Uther's adopted son in name and began living in the royal palace.
He started learning everything a king needed under Merlin's guidance.
Swordsmanship, horsemanship, military strategy, etiquette, the art of kingship, and more.
Needless to say, even on the days when Merlin accompanied King Uther on campaign, the court Magus still held lessons for him in dreams.
Naturally, Shirou also came to know Merlin's other student.
"So you're the one I've been hearing about..."
The silver-haired girl and the red-haired boy met at a corner of the courtyard.
"Nice to meet you. I am Morgan, daughter of King Uther and Igraine... which makes me your older sister."
Morgan folded her arms across her chest and looked down coldly at her younger brother, who had fallen to the ground.
Why had King Uther adopted a child of unknown origin? Why had he even made him Merlin's disciple?
What exactly were they plotting?
When Morgan learned that she had suddenly gained a younger brother out of nowhere, the first thing she felt was overwhelming tension and unease.
Could it be that Father intended to choose this boy as the future King of Britain?
How could that be... Don't be ridiculous! The only one who can become King of Britain is me!
Morgan had always believed that she was the rightful next king.
She was the girl chosen by the island, born with magic power greater than her mother's and strength surpassing every King of Britain in history.
That was why, even toward the man who had driven away her biological father and taken her mother for himself, the girl still called Uther "Father" without hesitation and genuinely respected him from the bottom of her heart.
Because that was exactly what a king should do.
But now... somehow, a younger brother had appeared out of nowhere.
And he did not even share King Uther's blood.
Could it be... that he's more outstanding than I am?
Morgan sent a crow familiar to observe him for a long time, only to realize she had been overthinking it.
Her younger brother was nowhere near outstanding.
Even though his Projection Magecraft was so strange that it impressed even Morgan, that was all. Aside from that, he was mediocre across the board.
Even in swordsmanship, the thing he had devoted the most time to, he was only better than an ordinary soldier and still far from the level of a knight.
If there was one thing Shirou, her younger brother, had over her... it was his gender.
Father has no intention of passing the throne to me... just because I'm a woman!?
Morgan was bitterly disappointed.
She hated her father for making that choice, hated her teacher for suggesting it, and developed intense hostility toward her new younger brother as well.
That day, Morgan quietly used Magecraft to conceal herself and hid around a corner in the garden. When Shirou walked past, she stuck out her foot.
The boy was tripped and crashed heavily to the ground. Morgan then dispelled her concealment Magecraft, folded her arms, and mocked him.
"You really can't go around walking without watching where you're headed, can you, my dear little brother? Did you not learn a single thing from Teacher Merlin?"
"Ugh...!"
With tears in his eyes, Shirou rubbed his knee and turned his head.
"Are you fucking trying to die... huh, Morgan!?"
"That's right, I'm Mor... w, wait! What are you doing!? Let go of me! You insolent brute!"
At their very first meeting, her younger brother suddenly lit up as though he had found buried treasure, shouted, "Big Sister Morgan!" and threw himself at her.
The princess, caught in the boy's tight embrace, flushed bright red.
"W, wait... let go of me! Let me go this instant! You fool, do you even understand the situation at all!?"
Shirou looked up at her.
"Huh? You're my big sister Morgan, right? Isn't that true?"
"That's right, I am your big sister Morgan... ngh!?"
"Big Sister!"
The boy hugged her even tighter, burying his face in Morgan's chest as he rubbed against her and sniffed at her.
At the end of her patience, Morgan raised a delicate finger and blasted him away with a spell bullet.
She had assumed Shirou was deliberately provoking her and trying to start a fight, but to her surprise, he was knocked out cold on the spot. He had not been on guard at all.
"...."
Morgan was speechless.
Why had things turned out like this? What exactly had gone wrong?
...
...
Morgan carried the unconscious Shirou back to her room.
By the time the boy woke up and immediately pounced on her again to act spoiled, she had already calmed herself and spoke.
"...In any case, you are not allowed to do that sort of thing again."
"That sort of thing means what?"
Shirou asked while resting comfortably on his foster sister's lap.
"It means... that..."
Morgan's cheeks flushed faintly, and she shoved his head aside.
"...You are not allowed to get close to me!"
Shirou blinked.
"Why? I like Big Sister Morgan the most!"
Morgan bit her lip.
"Why...? Because we're enemies. Don't tell me you can't even understand that!"
The red-haired boy shook his head to show that he did not understand, leaving Morgan speechless.
Is my younger brother really a hopeless idiot? Have Uther and Merlin both gone blind?
Just as that thought crossed her mind, Shirou suddenly spoke.
"If this is about the throne of Britain, then don't worry... I have no intention of going along with Merlin's wishes.
Quite the opposite. I support you, Big Sister, becoming the King of Britain."
Morgan: "?"
...
...
Ayyy, we've reached 100 chapters here, guys. To celebrate, I'm going to run a campaign: if we hit 10 reviews on this fic, I'll release 10 extra chapters on top of the normal daily chapters. 10 extra chapters!
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...
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