Part 1 Chapter 11 4

Although I talked about the truth of the world, nothing much changed in reality.

Joint cooperation with the Heroes was still not easy, and I tried to gain their trust by answering their questions to their satisfaction.

The Association’s Heroes left Seoul. They were greatly shocked to learn that Cheonghwa, whom they had struggled so hard to protect, was the Villain Phoenix.

– I can understand killing Gwanggeom-nim, but that doesn’t erase the evil deeds committed as a Villain.

They needed time, and I also needed time.

While the Association members were lost in thought, I turned my gaze to the Round Table-especially to the man who had just learned my identity, Sir Gawain.

“Then, Sir Gawain.”

I wanted to talk with Gawain, and Gawain also wanted to talk with me.

“Would you like to talk privately?”

“Alright.”

Gawain and I moved to a quiet place where we could talk alone. The sun was slowly setting below the horizon, and the moon was gradually rising in the sky.

Paju, Gyeonggi Province.

The ownerless land, neglected for over a decade because the Azure Syndicate’s recovery personnel hadn’t reached it yet, was a vast plain throughout its entire city center, and also a potential battlefield for any unforeseen circumstances.

Whether this place would become a negotiation ground or a battlefield depended on Gawain’s answer.

Standing with the setting sun at my back, I first interrogated Gawain.

“The British Royal Cat Sir Cat Sith. Did you know that was Fenrir of the Gale?”

“……I didn’t know.”

Gawain, an S-rank ability user, didn’t know? That didn’t make sense. He, who was the first human to reach SS-rank in the original story, couldn’t have missed an executive frequenting his own backyard.

“Why are you lying?”

“……As expected, it’s hard to deceive you.”

Gawain continued to insist on his innocence. But the mana flowing from Gawain clearly revealed whether Gawain’s words were true or not.

Gawain had lied.

“Why did you specifically lie? You lied because there was a good reason for it, right?”

“W-well, that is to say….”

Gawain seemed reluctant to answer.

“But? You have something you’re hiding, don’t you?”

“……Whenever I met him, he was always with the ‘Princess-nim’.”

“Princess-nim?”

No way. It can’t be. But once again, my ‘no way’ became a prophecy of the future.

“Ariel Elizabeth Mary…. She was the royal cat raised by the Princess-nim.”

“Oh, dear.”

I could understand why Gawain couldn’t easily touch it. I also understood why Gawain deliberately didn’t confirm it himself with a lie. Gawain wanted to test if I ‘came from the future’.

“Do you want the short version, or the long version?”

“The short version, if possible, please.”

“Princess-nim, your daughter. Her mother is now the Queen-nim.”

Clang!

Gawain drew his sword.

“You omitted too much!!”

“No, you asked for the short version, didn’t you? Sir Gawain. Ah, no.”

I called out his true name, taken by the Queen.

“The adulterer Lancelot du Lac, or Sir Lancelot for short?”

“……!!”

Gawain, no, Lancelot’s face turned pale. He tried to figure out just how much I knew about him, and I willingly revealed everything I knew.

“…Ah, was it not adultery by his own will?”

“Ah, no! I committed adultery of my own will!”

“What are you talking about?”

In the ruins of Paju where no one came, I exposed all of Lancelot’s dirty laundry.

“That he was raped by the Queen and had a child, then naturalized into England-“

Right in front of him.

Lancelot raised his sword to the sky.

***

The motif of the Round Table was, of course, England’s ‘King Arthur Legend’. The first generation of the Round Table were simply 12 heroes who secretly gathered to defeat Seongju, and they all died from the aftereffects of the battle, regardless of nationality.

Lancelot created the ‘Round Table’ to commemorate them and to officially operate and ask for people’s help.

Lancelot, the French Hero, wanted to create a Knights Order centered around 12 people, including himself. A righteous Knights Order that protects the world. The name or designation didn’t matter, so Lancelot set the Knights Order’s roster to 12 members to honor the Martial God and the other 11 ability users.

However, Lancelot was in his early 20s at the time.

He, who had only survived alone, didn’t know how to create a Knights Order encompassing the entire world, and ended up consulting a close acquaintance from England.

As luck would have it, that acquaintance was a woman,

a princess who was studying abroad in France, hiding her identity at the time,

and even had a fiancé,

and the secret that she ambushed Lancelot, who was the strongest in the world at the time, had a child and returned to England, and ascended to the throne as Queen, was a secret no one knew.

It was the moment Lancelot transformed into Gawain, and he, who unexpectedly fathered the Queen’s illegitimate child, felt a sense of responsibility and became a Knight of the Round Table, protecting her by the Queen’s side.

***

“So don’t blame yourself too much. After all, you were unilaterally victimized-“

“No! The Queen-nim would never do such a vulgar thing!”

Gawain swung his sword, sweating profusely. It seemed he intended to subdue me and shut my mouth, but of course, I didn’t let him easily.

“Alright. Fine, let’s say you forcibly took the Queen-nim. Satisfied?”

“Haa, haa.”

Gawain panted for breath with his sword plunged into the ground. His mind was already in disarray, and I merely used my sharp tongue to shatter Gawain’s composure.

“Are you going to keep wasting your strength meaninglessly like that? I’m trying to cooperate with you right now, not fight, you know?”

“……Can you promise me?”

Gawain pleaded with me with a desperate expression. It was certainly a sight to behold, a middle-aged blonde man humbling himself like that, but as someone who supported his pure love, I made a zipping motion over my mouth.

“Don’t worry. If the truth ever comes out, I’ll testify that you were the one who committed adultery. I will protect Her Majesty the Queen’s honor.”

“……Thank you.”

“No need to thank me. That’s why you wanted to come out and talk privately, wasn’t it? Just in case I exposed everything right there.”

In front of people who were already shocked by my identity, I also felt uncomfortable revealing the messy story between the world’s most respected head of the Round Table and the Queen.

Didn’t I appropriately massage Gwanggeom and Rusalka, the couple’s, story, full of chestnut flower scent, into a poignant and sad drama?

“So now you know I came from the future, right?”

“Yes. That’s enough to believe.”

“Then, would you mind resolving the confusion I’m experiencing?”

I interrogated him about the British Royal Cat Sir Cat Sith, which I had found through a network search.

“How did Fenrir end up by the Princess-nim’s side?”

“……I will state one thing clearly. I only thought Sir Cat Sith was just a cat that awakened an ability; I didn’t suspect for a moment that he was an executive of the Dark Legion. Like Unjang’s Red Hare, you see.”

“Why?”

“Because he never engaged in such activities.”

“……?”

His words started to contradict themselves.

“But Fenrir has been active for 20 years, hasn’t he?”

“Yes. The year the Princess-nim was born, the infant Princess-nim was holding the tail of a cat that had entered through the open window. It’s still vivid in my mind. Sir Cat Sith’s bewildered eyes, not knowing what to do with his tail caught.”

“……Whoa. He just left a human alone? Even with his tail caught? He’s an assassin brainwashed to kill any human he sees, isn’t he?”

“He is an assassin, alright. Armed with a severe cuteness that assaults one’s heart. But Sir Cat Sith is by no means the villain you imagine. Rather, he was a cat no different from a nanny, protecting the Princess-nim since she was a baby.”

The more I heard, the more absurd it became. I summarized Gawain’s words simply.

“So, Fenrir, while being awake, instead of doing villainous deeds for 20 years, protected the Princess-nim from infancy and grew up as her friend? Is that what you’re saying now?”

“Precisely.”

I’m not letting Kim Fenrir off the hook. To think he was just slacking off for 20 years instead of acting as an executive.

“Are you sure he wasn’t up to any dog tricks? Like secretly gathering forces?”

“He did gather stray cats near the royal palace and clean up trash, though.”

“And he didn’t mass-produce monstrous humans or secretly create a terrorist organization somewhere?”

“On the contrary, he mobilized stray cats and went around catching rat swarms.”

“Oh, for f-.”

I was so dumbfounded I couldn’t speak.

“At this rate, he’s not even an executive or a Spirit; he’s just a house cat, isn’t he?”

“He was a house cat with abilities, yes. Far from the terrorism you mentioned, he even rescued the Princess-nim from being kidnapped by a terrorist group. He even received a knighthood in recognition of that achievement.”

“Huh.”

Later, I’ll have to investigate what Kim Fenrir was really up to. I was genuinely so flabbergasted I couldn’t continue speaking.

“So he really just lived in the royal palace and popped out because he was annoyed by the mint scent…. It doesn’t make sense from the start. He was also connected with two other executives, you know.”

“How could I possibly check every single place a cat roams? If it were a human, maybe, but he was just a cat.”

“You never suspected him?”

“I did suspect him. Perhaps this cat was a soul bodyguard sent by God for the Princess-nim.”

“I’m seriously going crazy here.”

“That’s what I want to say. The fact that Sir Cat Sith was an executive of the Dark Legion, doesn’t that mean I kept an SS-rank assassin next to my daughter for 20 years?”

“…….”

“…….”

We fell silent for a moment, lost in thought. And we formed one common ground.

“Then Fenrir is the bad one. Why did he act like a real cat and deceive people!”

“Indeed. If he was an executive of an evil organization, if he had acted in a manner befitting his role, I would have taken action long ago! Even if it meant my death!”

“Then let’s go catch Kim Fenrir. Okay?”

“Yes. I have no objection regarding that part.”

After putting me in a Barrier, Sir Cat Sith and Fenrir of the Gale simultaneously disappeared. As he had revealed his true colors, it seemed Fenrir judged it impossible to continue staying in the royal palace, no matter how strong he was.

“However, it’s absurd for the Round Table to fight alongside the Villain Phoenix. Because you are a villain who scratched England’s pride.”

“Alright. It’s enough that you’re not an enemy in the first place. Then, you’ll also need a meeting, right?”

“Yes. Now that you’ve stepped forward and caused an issue, we can no longer hide the Dark Legion.”

“If it’s revealed to the public, the executives will hide even more tightly, won’t they?”

“In that case, we’ll first discuss it among the Round Table members. Because among the Round Table, there are those who believe villains must be killed unconditionally.”

Not all Round Table members acknowledged shades of gray. As some among them had lost family to villains, negotiation was necessary even within the Round Table.

“Don’t forget. Even if our paths are different, our ultimate destination is the same.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. Instead, please make one promise.”

Gawain pointed his sword at me.

“If anything happens to tarnish the Queen-nim’s honor, I will immediately cut you down.”

“Understood.”

Just as Changyeom was an absolute being to me, he also looked up to the Queen like the sun.

“Then, please take care of me from now on, Father-in-law.”

Chak!

The sword was drawn from its sheath. I subtly turned my head to dodge the sword energy, glancing at the onlookers who had followed us all the way to Paju, and transformed into my monstrous human form.

[I don’t know why fathers with daughters all get so heated up like this.]

Dodging Gawain’s sword, I extended my fist.

***

And now, time returns to the present.

Having achieved a ‘draw’ in my confrontation with Gawain, just before entering the meeting room, I composed myself, checking my reflection in the glass window on the wall.

“I hope things go well today.”

“What if they don’t?”

“Hmm….”

I pushed open the meeting room door. The time was exactly 8:59. The executives of the Azure Syndicate were already seated in the main conference room.

“Oh, a new face. Hello, Dark Praetor? Puhuhu.”

“……That’s a hastily made alias. Damn it, I don’t know how that Yoo Young-ho guy comes up with aliases so easily.”

“Then I’ll make one for you. How about Mad Dog?”

“……I’d rather die.”

Gwanggeom winced and leaned back. The existing executives seemed quite displeased at the joining of the new executive who decided to step forward officially.

“With that kind of confidence, he should just go in front of his daughter, Keoheuk!”

A golden sword was plunged into Deokbae’s stomach. The unofficial SS-rank sword struck Deokbae down faster than light.

“Do you enjoy an SS-rank bullying a B-rank?”

“Says you.”

“What I’m doing is love as the leader. I can’t stand to see executives bickering among themselves. Refrain from it.”

“Tch.”

I patted Jo Deokbae’s fallen back and pulled out the sword. Before blood could drip down, I infused mana to heal the wound.

“Then return to your seat, subordinate number 2. You know there’s a late fee if you don’t sit down, right?”

8:59:57.

I sat in the chairman’s seat of the main conference room.

“Hey, you!”

“3, 2, 1, Ding.”

I clapped my hands and stood up from my seat.

“July 18th. The Azure Syndicate morning meeting begins. First, there’s one latecomer, Jo Deokbae. Since everyone else is present, we’ll skip the headcount. The topic of the meeting is….”

-What kind of challenge the Association’s Heroes will propose.

The Association proposed a ‘challenge’ as a condition for joint cooperation with the Azure Syndicate for world peace.

I slammed my hands on the table and opened my mouth.

“Anyone have a guess?”

Annoyingly, Praetor Baek Heea didn’t tell us what the challenge would be.