In Artoria’s memory, Ector really hadn’t been the most approachable person.
He hated all fairies and everyone in the Fairy Kingdom, so he never associated with anyone. He just stayed in this remote corner by the sea, guarding his workshop, hardly ever stepping out of the place.
Tintagel was the closest village, but barely any fairies were willing to go near it. Back when Artoria was in the village, all the rumors she heard about Ector were basically bad, since he had a terrible attitude toward any fairy, so no one liked him.
On top of that, Ector was hard of hearing, making it tough for him to catch what people said, which made him seem kind of arrogant, like he was ignoring everyone on purpose.
And now, this same man, out of nowhere, was not only planning to give away one of his greatest masterpieces but also suddenly didn’t seem hard of hearing anymore.
Was this favoritism or what?
Could it be that, despite hating fairies, Ector actually liked humans?
Truthfully, judging from what Ector said from the heart, he didn’t seem to hate humans, but he didn’t exactly like them either.
So what was going on?
Artoria was extremely confused.
Let alone her, even Riezel was confused.
"You sure you’re giving this to me?" Riezel held up the little black dagger. "I mean, this thing’s worth a ton, right? I figured even if you were willing to hand it over, you’d ask for something in return."
"It’s no use just sitting around here anyway. If you want it, just take it..." Ector went silent for a bit, then continued with clear irritation. "Alright, now hurry up and tell me—who made that blade you’re carrying?"
"Hmm, that’s kinda hard to explain..." Riezel shrugged when he saw Ector wasn’t joking. "Originally, this sword didn’t even look like this, but I fused all sorts of stuff into it, and it ended up like this. So, asking who made it... Well, the answer’s kinda complicated."
Needless to say, the one who first forged Hermit was without a doubt Orario’s strongest blacksmith, known as Cyclops, Captain of the Hephaestus Familia—Tsubaki Collbrande.
However, the Hermit created back then was just a regular weapon with the Durandal attribute. Even though it was considered second-class special equipment, because of the Durandal attribute, its power was slightly lower than typical second-class equipment.
It went without saying that the past Hermit, in terms of quality and value, probably didn’t even compare to the dagger Riezel was holding right now and definitely wasn’t something worthy of Ector’s interest as a divine weapon.
It wasn’t until the world of Demon Slayer that Riezel used magic to refine a large amount of Scarlet Crimson Iron Sands and Scarlet Ores, merging the essence of both materials into Hermit to reconstruct it, that it became what it was now.
Given that, it really was hard to answer the question of who actually forged Hermit.
"Let’s just say it was a joint effort between me and another skilled blacksmith."
Riezel ultimately chose to answer this way, which made Ector frown.
After a moment of silence, Ector turned his head away as if he had lost interest.
"If it’s a blade made by two people with some random luck involved, then I’m not interested anymore."
As Ector spoke, he seemed ready to head back to the forge and continue working.
"Hey, wait! Ector!"
Artoria couldn’t hold back anymore and shouted.
"I’m here too! I’m right here! Why are you ignoring me?!"
At Artoria’s words, Ector dug at his ear.
"I can hear you. No need to yell so loud." Ector shot her a look full of annoyance. "What are you doing back here anyway?"
"I... I just came to see... if you’re doing okay..."
Artoria’s presence deflated at a speed one could almost see as she looked down, muttering timidly.
"Doing okay? Hmph!" Ector gave a heavy snort. "I’m just fine. At least I wasn’t killed by you the other night."
Upon hearing this, Artoria instantly went quiet.
Seeing her like this only made Ector even more annoyed.
"Since you already escaped from the prison, what the hell are you doing back here?" Ector said with a dark expression. "You finally got out, and instead of running for your life, you’ve got time to wander around a place like this? What, you think getting captured once wasn’t enough or something?"
"O-Of course not!" Artoria shot back. "I just came to take a look, that’s all! I’m leaving right after! I’m not going to waste too much time here!"
"Then why haven’t you left yet?" Ector asked again, clearly annoyed. "Sure, this place is remote, but it’s not that far from the village. Soon enough, those fools will find me. If you’re still here, they really might tear you to pieces."
"I know..." Artoria muttered sadly. "Once I get the Staff of Selection back, I’ll leave..."
Hearing this, Ector silently walked into the back room of his workshop and brought something out.
It was a staff, taller than Artoria herself, that looked like it was made from some mysterious tree root. Its surface had a plant-like texture, and the top extended into root-like branches.
At the tip of those branches was a crystal—whether it was a jewel or just an ordinary crystal wasn’t clear, but the whole thing had a very natural vibe to it, so much so that it didn’t even seem man-made but looked like something that came straight out of nature.
"Here. Your Staff of Selection."
Ector casually tossed the staff to Artoria.
"W-Why do you have this?" Artoria scrambled to catch the staff, her eyes going wide in shock. "Didn’t everyone at Tintagel take it away?"
"Who do you think I am?" Ector scoffed. "It’s just a damn weapon. I could sense where it was, even from a distance. Getting it out of the village was easy."
Upon hearing this, there was no way Artoria could misunderstand what it meant.
"You stole the Staff of Selection from the village for me...?"
Artoria held her so-called Staff of Selection tightly and asked in a low voice.
"It just happened, alright? It’s not like I went out of my way to do it for you."
Ector scowled as he said this, but unfortunately—
"You’re lying!" Artoria said firmly. "You totally went and stole the Staff of Selection just for me!"
Needless to say, there was no way her ’eyes’ would miss something like this.
"Tch..." Ector clicked his tongue, clearly annoyed, as if something had just occurred to him. "You know, that damn Fairy of Paradise thing is such a pain in the ass. Can’t believe you still have those kinds of eyes—it’s supposed to be long gone."
Despite all his griping, he didn’t deny it anymore and looked Artoria straight in the eyes.
"Now that the Staff of Selection is back in your hands and you’re free from the village, it’s time for you to set off on your own journey. Go on your pilgrimage, Artoria Caster."
Ector’s words made Artoria tighten her grip slightly on the Staff of Selection.
"Go. It’s your mission and your fate. You can’t run from it." Ector added.
Just as these words came out of Ector’s mouth, Riezel, who had been toying with the black dagger the whole time, suddenly spoke up.
"Now that’s where I gotta call bullshit."
Riezel spoke up rudely out of nowhere.
"Nobody has to carry some unchangeable mission, and no one’s fate is carved in stone from the start."
"Can’t run from it?"
"What a damn joke. If you really don’t wanna do it, who says you can’t run?"
Riezel’s sudden rude comment not only made Artoria freeze up but also made Ector turn and shoot him a sharp glare.
"...You know anything about this girl?" Ector asked with a blank expression.
"Kinda..." Riezel replied calmly, looking completely uninterested. "She’s the Child of Prophecy from the rumors, right?"
Child of Prophecy.
It was a figure known to just about everyone in the Fairy Kingdom.
Around sixteen years ago, a clan head from one of the fairy clans had left behind a prophecy.
"From now on, I tell you of a future—the fate of a mysterious island that became the land of fairies."
"The innocent return."
"This infinite castle of the Queen."
"Like rain, like ashes, it accumulates. Like snow, like lies, it fades away."
"Our hopes are at the ledge. Even now, we remain in the palm of the Queen’s hand."
"But we only need to endure it a little longer. The morning when two thousand years have passed, the child of salvation will appear."
"The one who joins fairy and human. The child of salvation who will save the world."
"Like a moth to a flame. Even if it begins as a small spark, even if it cannot be seen."
"A city of iron, a sea of soot."
"When the calamity was repulsed, the pilgrimage can be welcomed."
"Guided by the Staff of Selection, watched over by the foreign traveler, the child of salvation will reach the throne."
"The true king takes their place on the throne. The bloodstained crown is received."
"Ring, ring, thunderous anger, fiery lamentation. Herald with six bells. Make way for the true king."
"Before the red calamity reaches us. Before the black calamity bites."
"We may be a bit lazy at our job, but we are descended from free fairies."
"Hope is still missing. A shining tomorrow is desired."
Simply put, the general idea of this prophecy was that, sixteen years later, the savior of this country would appear. Guided by the Staff of Selection, they would be crowned the true king and save the world.
This savior would have to embark on a pilgrimage and ring the six Bells of Pilgrimage scattered across the Fairy Kingdom. Once all six bells rang out, the evil queen ruling the land would be defeated, and the savior, now crowned the true king, would lead both fairies and humans to end this false history.
Now, this prophecy had become widespread in the Fairy Kingdom, known by almost everyone, and the savior mentioned in it was referred to by all as the Child of Prophecy.
According to legend, the Child of Prophecy did not belong to any of the six fairy clans but instead came from a place called ’Paradise’. It was also said that when the Child of Prophecy arrived in this world, they would have the Staff of Selection with them, growing up alongside it.
Needless to say, this Child of Prophecy was none other than Artoria.
She had drifted ashore on a small boat sixteen years ago, where the villagers of Tintagel found her, along with the Staff of Selection by her side, and believed she was the one spoken of in the rumors.
In the end, they raised her as their own.
However...
"I’m already being called a fake now..."
Artoria spoke with a self-deprecating laugh.
Why was she called fake?
It was simply because her growth hadn’t seemed too promising.
Fairies were born with an inherent sense of Mystery, and their strength generally far surpassed that of humans, yet Artoria had always been weak since she was little. Her physical abilities weren’t anything special, and her magical energy wasn’t strong either. Even now, at sixteen, she still hadn’t shown any particularly outstanding ability.
Because of that, the villagers in Tintagel had started to doubt whether she was really the Child of Prophecy.
Just a few days ago, the fairies in the village decided to test whether Artoria truly was the Child of Prophecy by having her come to this workshop and kill Ector, because they naively believed that if she could somehow manage to kill him—the blacksmith even many fairies feared—then she was most likely the Child of Prophecy.
Artoria ultimately came, but she didn’t lay a hand on Ector at all and backed out at the last moment.
As a result, the fairies of Tintagel got angry and thought that if she couldn’t even take down a mere blacksmith, there was no way she could defeat the Queen.
In other words, she had to be an impostor, a fake.
As a result, the villagers locked Artoria in an underground prison, planning to hand her over to the execution squad that was set to arrive in the village the next day.
Since the execution squad was the Queen’s group of executioners, who had been hunting down the Child of Prophecy, whether Artoria was the real one or a fake, she would be executed either way if handed over to them.
Knowing this, Artoria naturally didn’t want to die, so she had been planning to find a chance to escape from the prison.
As for Ector, after finding out about this, he planned to first help Artoria steal the Staff of Selection, then began planning to break her out of the prison before the execution squad arrived the next day, so she could leave the village and set off on her pilgrimage.
However, just when everything came down to the wire, Riezel suddenly appeared out of nowhere and rescued Artoria from the prison without a scratch.
Ector didn’t know the exact details of what had happened, but seeing Riezel show up here with Artoria, who should have still been locked up, he could more or less guess what had happened.
Even so...
"I wasn’t going to ask you, but now I need to know. Why’d you break this girl out of prison?" Ector stared at Riezel, asking seriously. "From the looks of it, you didn’t do it to send the Child of Prophecy on pilgrimage."
"Why would I save her just to send her off on some pilgrimage?" Riezel replied with a half-smile. "To save this Fairy Kingdom? Or maybe to defeat the Queen?"
"...Let’s set the first one aside for now, but isn’t the second one your goal?" Ector frowned and asked again. "Everyone knows that the Queen’s tyranny has pissed off a lot of fairies. She’s the one who gave that order to strictly control the human population too, so whether fairy or human, plenty of people want to overthrow her and free this country. You... aren’t one of them?"
Ector’s question only got him a cold, indifferent response from Riezel.
"I’ll just be honest, this country isn’t worth saving." Riezel said bluntly, sounding calm and distant.
As soon as these words came out, both Artoria’s and Ector’s expressions changed.
"Riezel...?"
Artoria stared at Riezel in shock.
"You—!"
Ector’s brows furrowed even deeper.
At first, the look he gave Riezel was filled with hostility, but then the hostility strangely faded, as if something had crossed his mind—his gaze turned thick with emotion, tangled and hard to read.
Riezel didn’t pay any attention to their reactions and just looked at Ector before speaking again.
"Let’s not talk about that for now. Shouldn’t you be thinking about your own situation instead?" Riezel said indifferently. "I mean, now that Artoria has already escaped from the prison, no matter where she plans to go next, those dumb fairies are surely going to take it out on you if you keep staying here."
"Take it out on Ector?!"
Artoria exclaimed in panic, showing how easily she got distracted.
"You’re right..." Ector finally calmed down and responded in a low voice. "Tch, those morons know I’ve had contact with this little girl. If they can’t find her, they’re surely going to think I helped her escape and hid her somewhere."
"In that case, come with us!" Artoria exclaimed quickly. "Don’t stay here anymore, or the fairies in the village are surely going to come after you!"
"I do need to leave..." Ector nodded but then shook his head. "But I’m not leaving with you two."
Before Artoria could anxiously ask why, Ector cut straight to the point.
"I’m not going to go on some pilgrimage journey with you, since that’s a path you’ll have to walk on your own."
As soon as the sentence dropped, Artoria shut right up.
Riezel, on the other hand, didn’t hold back at all.
"You don’t even want to go yourself, yet you want someone else to go and talk about some mission or fate? Guess you’re even more pathetic than I thought, old man."
Ector didn’t argue with Riezel’s words at all.
"I’m sick of it, but this girl still has to go at least once, or else she might never find out about the history of the Fairy Kingdom, about the truth."
Ector let out a sigh, looking kind of frail as he said this.
"As a Fairy of Paradise, at the very least, she needs to understand what she’s doing before she can decide whether she wants to do it or not."
After saying this, Ector seemed like he didn’t want to waste any more words, so he started shooing Riezel and Artoria off.
"Alright, I’ve said what needed to be said, we’ve met up, and that’s that. What happens next, you youngsters figure it out yourselves."
"Don’t worry about this old man. I’m not dying just yet."
"Now get out of here. Go do what you’re supposed to do. Go where you’re supposed to go."