Meet the Queen and the Fairy Knights.
Even though Riezel made such a bold declaration, he clearly wasn’t heading to Camelot anytime soon.
As mentioned before, he had just arrived and hadn’t even figured out the layout of Faerie Britain, so even if he wanted to use Gate to get to Camelot, it wasn’t going to happen.
On top of that, night had already fallen, and Artoria, who was with him, was just a countryside fairy with limited knowledge about the outside world, so Riezel had no choice but to settle on a temporary plan.
"Let’s rest here for the night and head to the nearest city tomorrow to resupply a bit."
Unlike fairies who didn’t need to eat, Riezel still had to take care of basic needs. Even though he could handle those issues with magic, he also wanted to understand the geography of Faerie Britain by getting a map, or else his future actions could get messy.
For this reason, finding a nearby city to get the supplies and intel he needed became his top priority.
"I’m coming with you!"
Artoria naturally had no objections to this.
Evidently, this fairy girl had started clinging to Riezel a little—at least for now, she wasn’t planning on acting independently.
"Alright, then let’s rest here for the night."
Having made up his mind, Riezel found an open patch of ground with no rocks or obstacles and activated his magic.
"Create Fortress."
As Riezel cast this magic, the ground began to rumble.
*Rumble—!*
With a tremor and a loud rumble, a massive, heavy tower rose from beneath the earth.
It had steel double doors that looked thick and sturdy, walls covered with countless spikes, and a demon statue at the top that stared down in all directions.
It stood at least thirty meters tall, towering like a fortress—or maybe even like a giant tree.
"Eeeeeeh?!"
Seeing a massive tower suddenly rise from the ground, Artoria froze completely, letting out a startled scream.
"W-What is this?!"
Artoria screamed in total panic, nearly bursting Riezel’s eardrums as the creator of the whole thing.
"Why are you always yelling? It’s just magecraft, what’s the big deal?" Riezel said in an annoyed tone.
Upon hearing this, however, Artoria didn’t calm down at all—if anything, she got even more flustered.
"Magecraft? You’re calling this magecraft?!" Artoria exclaimed flusteredly. "I’ve never even heard of anything like this!"
In this world, ’Magecraft’ and ’Magic’ were completely different concepts.
Magecraft referred to phenomena that defied common sense—supernatural powers that artificially recreated miracles. It was basically this world’s version of magic, a kind of Mystery that could be learned, trained, and improved by people.
However, this world also had the concept of magic, also known as true magic, which was distinct from magecraft.
Even though magecraft was also considered a supernatural power, if something could be achieved using science and technology, then it would only be called magecraft, not magic.
Take Riezel’s commonly used magic, Fireball, for example.
No matter how one looked at it, Fireball was just a power that ignited flames over a certain area to burn things.
Humans, using technology, could pull off something similar, right?
As a result, in this world, something like Fireball would be considered magecraft, not magic.
On the other hand, phenomena that science and technology could never achieve were considered magic in this world.
For example, Time Stop, a magic spell that could freeze the flow of time, was currently impossible for humanity to replicate through science or tech. For this reason, Time Stop was classified as magic because it represented a phenomenon that was currently beyond human capabilities.
Whenever a phenomenon could be realized just by spending enough time and money—even if the method was difficult—the supernatural power behind it wouldn’t be considered magic, but only considered magecraft.
Only when civilization couldn’t possibly recreate the effect would it be counted as magic.
Ultimately, as science and technology advanced, more things became achievable by human hands, and the amount of magic became increasingly rare—so rare one could count them on one hand in this era.
Keeping this in mind, Riezel intentionally called his magic magecraft to help Artoria understand faster.
By the way, in this world, people who used magecraft were usually called ’Magus’, while those who used magic were referred to as ’Magicians’.
Thanks to this distinction, Riezel couldn’t call himself a magician here and had to go with either magus or mage so that people of this world could understand easily.
Even though Riezel tried to explain all this clearly, Artoria still looked freaked out.
It couldn’t be helped.
Creating a giant tower with a mere wave of a hand—that kind of magecraft was something she had never heard of.
Maybe some powerful fairies could pull off something like that on their own, but she was just a village girl fresh out of the sticks, so she had never seen magecraft on this level before.
If she were just a normal fairy, that would’ve been one thing, but the problem was, she had also been studying magecraft. As a fairy born with some special capabilities, she had grown stronger through training since childhood and through the guidance of a ’kind person’ who taught her magecraft.
As a result, she could use magecraft as well, which was exactly why what Riezel had just done blew her mind.
Unfortunately, Riezel didn’t get what she was feeling.
"Don’t worry. Someday you’ll be doing stuff I can’t pull off either. I’ll probably be the one freaking out then." Riezel said casually. "C’mon, let’s head inside already."
With that, he walked toward the giant tower without hesitation.
"I..."
Artoria stood frozen for a while, then followed after Riezel with a look of disbelief still on her face.
Create Fortress—just like its name implied, this magic created a fortress-type structure that belonged to the same category as magic spells like Create Greater Item, which was all about creation.
It was a 10th-Tier Magic that, once cast, would summon a massive, heavy tower at a suitable spot chosen by the caster and could be used to rest or as a stronghold against enemy attacks.
Since it was labeled a fortress, its defenses were naturally top-notch, so even if someone blasted it with multiple 10th-Tier Magic, it would still hold up for a good while.
Back in YGGDRASIL, some players had even tried attacking this kind of fortress with Super-Tier Magic, but in the end, it turned out that unless the Super-Tier Magic was specifically meant to destroy structures, normal offensive Super-Tier Magic couldn’t break it in one hit.
Because of that, a lot of players liked to use this magic in the wilderness to set up temporary bases.
The only problem was that maintaining the fortress constantly consumed magical energy. In combat situations, most players weren’t willing to keep it running since it drained their magical energy (MP) too fast.
Riezel, on the other hand, used it without hesitation.
He had already tested it before—thanks to the automatic recovery from Spirit Healing, the magical energy needed to maintain the fortress could be instantly replenished.
In other words, even if he kept the fortress up the whole time, his magical energy wouldn’t actually decrease but would recover the moment it was used.
With such an advantage, he naturally wouldn’t hold back since he could use it however he wanted.
*Rumble—*
When Riezel approached, the steel doors of the tower opened automatically, revealing the interior to both him and Artoria.
They then stepped through the doors, and the first thing that caught their eyes was a spacious main hall.
Across the hall stood another set of double doors, and beyond that was a corridor, with yet another pair of double doors at the end. Meanwhile, the surroundings were lit by magic lamps using Continual Light, making it easy to navigate.
Once the doors at the end of the corridor opened, a dazzling light immediately poured out from behind it, shining on Riezel and Artoria.
Riezel, with Artoria following behind, immediately stepped inside and arrived in a round hall.
What they saw was a white floor, a high ceiling, and a spiral staircase in the center leading upward. Clearly, the interior had been expanded with magic, making it far more spacious than it appeared from the outside.
"W-We’re staying here tonight?"
Looking at the ultra-luxurious hall that resembled a noble’s residence, Artoria started to stutter.
She saw that the hall had all sorts of furniture like sofas, tables, chairs, and even a tea cart, making it look like a noble’s residence.
Especially that spiral staircase leading upstairs—even from where she was standing, she could see a row of doors that looked like suites in a high-class hotel, so it wasn’t hard to imagine what kind of luxury rooms lay behind them.
"Yeah, we’re staying here tonight." Riezel pointed at the rooms casually. "You can pick any one of those you like."
Hearing this, Artoria instinctively took a step back.
"N-No, no, no, no! I’m not staying there!" Artoria shook her head frantically. "Are you kidding?! There’s no way I can get used to a place like this!"
When she said that, Riezel realized what the problem was.
No matter how extraordinary her origins might have been, the truth was that for the past sixteen years, Artoria hadn’t lived a good life.
She had lived in a stable and been treated like a horse, raised like livestock by the fairies in Tintagel.
Given that, how could she possibly get used to such good living conditions all of a sudden?
For someone like her, just having a place that could keep her warm during winter—somewhere she wouldn’t lose two toes to frostbite like before—was already more than enough.
Now that Riezel wanted her to stay in a place this luxurious, for a countryside fairy whose living conditions had been worse than a human’s, it was only natural for Artoria to feel anxious.
"I’ll just stay in some corner there, that’s fine! Like, that spot is great!"
Artoria insisted before running over to a dim corner of the hall and curling up against the wall without moving.
When Riezel saw this, she looked just like a socially anxious person, or maybe even someone with autism.
"...You sure you wanna stay in a place like that?" Riezel asked, looking at Artoria with a strange expression.
"I’m sure!" Artoria nodded firmly. "Compared to where I used to live, even this corner is heaven!"
Her emotions were running so high that she even blurted out the kind of treatment she used to hide from others, since normally she would never have said something like this.
Riezel wanted to talk her into it, but after seeing how uneasy and flustered she looked, he figured no amount of persuasion would help. Anyone would feel out of place jumping from a stable or prison straight into a mansion or presidential suite.
’Looks like she needs time to adjust, huh...’
After thinking for a moment, Riezel made up his mind.
"If you’re not sleeping in a room, then I won’t either." Riezel walked over to the sofa and sat down. "I’ll just sleep on the sofa tonight."
"You can’t!" Artoria froze, then exclaimed with a flustered expression. "I mean, this is your place to begin with. You should sleep in the room!"
"I mean, sure, that’s technically true, but letting the guest sleep curled up in a corner while the host kicks back in a comfy bed—yeah, I’m not cool with that." Riezel shrugged nonchalantly. "Unless you’re gonna sleep in one of those rooms too."
"I can’t do that either..." Artoria said hesitantly, looking like she was about to cry. "I mean, I’m just a villager, so there’s no way I could sleep in a room that fancy. I wouldn’t even be able to fall asleep..."
"In that case, don’t stop me." Riezel said without giving her a chance to argue. "If you keep stopping me, I’ll go curl up in the corner just like you."
Artoria could tell he really meant it, so she suddenly couldn’t say anything in response.
"Alright then, let’s sleep." Riezel gave her a small smile. "A lot happened today. Even if you’ve still got energy, you’re probably tired, right? Let’s get some sleep. Once we wake up, everything’ll be behind us."
After saying this, he lay down on the sofa, closed his eyes, and went still.
"Um... are you really not going to the room...?"
Artoria mumbled weakly from the corner like she still wanted to convince Riezel.
However, Riezel didn’t say a word as his breathing and the rise and fall of his chest slowly settled into a calm rhythm, showing he had already fallen asleep.
Artoria stared at Riezel for a long moment, and only after she was completely sure he wasn’t faking did she give up.
"What a weirdo..."
Muttering softly, Artoria then slumped down in the corner as if all her energy had suddenly drained away.
Feeling that the floor wasn’t cold at all and that the wall she leaned against had a faint warmth to it as well, made her wonder if some sort of magecraft had been applied to keep this place so warm.
Feeling that gentle warmth she had never experienced in her old living conditions, she finally started to relax, and the moment she did, everything that had happened today came rushing back to her mind.
Getting thrown into a prison, then rescued.
Meeting Riezel, then saying goodbye to Ector.
Tintagel in flames, villagers tearing each other apart, Woodwose’s execution squad, the fierce battle between Riezel and Woodwose, the ambush of the Fang Clan’s fairies, and then rescued by Riezel.
One scene after another surfaced in Artoria’s mind.
"Hahhh..."
Overwhelmed by emotions too tangled to call just sadness or pain, Artoria let out a long sigh.
"Child of Prophecy, huh...?"
She looked at herself curled up in the corner and gave a bitter little laugh.
"Doesn’t suit me at all..."
With that, Artoria finally shut her eyes.
Maybe because so much had happened today, despite all the thoughts racing through her head, sleep hit her fast.
Not long after, she drifted off to sleep.
===
*Whoosh—*
Suddenly, the sound of a fierce, howling wind resounded.
Not the kind of soft breeze one would feel on a calm day, and definitely not the pleasant wind of spring, but the kind of storm that felt like it could blow a person away and tear their consciousness to pieces.
When Artoria came to, she realized that, at this moment, she was standing in the middle of a storm—a violent storm that made her whole body tremble and left her covered in cuts.
For her, this was something she knew all too well—a storm filled with malice.
"Here we go again..."
In the middle of the storm, Artoria let out a faint sound.
It sounded like crying.
It sounded like a sob.
This familiar storm of malice had appeared once again in her dreams, tormenting her, crushing her, pushing her to the brink of screaming.
Regardless, she was used to it by now.
—This world is a storm of malice.
Since childhood, this had always been Artoria’s understanding.
Every time the malice of others came crashing down on her, she saw this terrifying storm and felt her mind being torn apart.
So many times she wanted to cry, but she held it in.
So many times she wanted to scream, but she stopped herself.
Because Artoria knew she had to endure it.
Otherwise, in a world filled with this much malice, she would completely fall apart.
’Endure it.’
’Endure it.’
’Endure it.’
Artoria kept walking through the storm, forcing herself to repeat those words—until, within the storm, a light appeared.
"What... is that...?"
Artoria stared blankly at the source of the light.
It was a small sun.
A sun that shone brightly through the storm, driving back the darkness, purifying the malice, and keeping the terrible storm from coming anywhere near it.
"!!!"
As soon as she realized what it was, Artoria instinctively ran toward the shining sun with all her strength.
Before she knew it, the pain was gone.
Before she knew it, the storm had vanished.
Artoria burst into tears of joy, reaching out her hand toward that bright sun.
Tonight, the young fairy had the most peaceful sleep in all sixteen years of her life.