Two hours later, Gawain left Riezel’s room.
Despite the fact that the two had exchanged words that basically amounted to a declaration of war, and despite having fought each other to the point of being covered in blood and injuries, they somehow ended up having an unexpectedly enjoyable conversation once they sat down together.
"Looking at you like this, I still can’t believe you’re the same guy who went berserk in Salisbury."
"...Aren’t you the type who goes wild the second a fight breaks out too?"
By the end of it, Gawain and Riezel even had an exchange like this before glaring at each other, then raised their drinks in a toast.
It was worth mentioning that their fierce battle had happened just the day before, yet today, it was as if none of it had ever occurred—their injuries had already healed.
Gawain seemed to have recovered simply by resting for one night, thanks to her powerful regeneration as a fairy of the Fang Clan.
As for Riezel, it was probably because Morgan had used some recovery magecraft on him to heal his wounds.
At one point, the two had even considered having another fight right then and there, since Riezel definitely wouldn’t have minded.
Gawain, on the other hand, gave it serious thought but ultimately decided to pass.
"Without Her Majesty’s permission, I wouldn’t dare start a fight inside the palace. I mean, I’m not exactly great at holding back."
If they had started fighting, the palace would definitely have taken some serious damage.
Given Gawain’s strength, even if there was some kind of protective magecraft in place, it wouldn’t have been able to completely hold back her rampage.
Moreover, with Riezel—who was even more reckless than Gawain—once the two clashed, there was no telling when the palace would collapse.
As a result, while Riezel might’ve been all for it, Gawain decisively gave up on the idea.
"No worries, there’ll be a chance."
Gawain gave Riezel a look that carried a deeper meaning, one that showed this Fairy Knight didn’t believe he would stay here obediently as Morgan’s husband forever.
And so, with that meaningful remark, Gawain finally left Riezel’s room.
However, what surprised Riezel was that not long after Gawain left, another visitor showed up.
"So this is where you’re staying, huh?"
As a calm, frosty voice resounded, a silver-haired girl stepped into Riezel’s room.
She was none other than the Fairy Kingdom’s strongest Fairy Knight—Lancelot.
"You?"
Riezel was caught off guard.
Lancelot, the same dragon fairy who had gone head-to-head with Riezel in Salisbury, was now standing before him, having taken off her mask, the armor that looked more like a mech suit than a knight’s armor, and even the arm guards that could release beam sabers.
Dressed in a white dress with a blue skirt, Lancelot looked just like a princess out of a fairy tale.
"What’s wrong?" Lancelot tilted her head. "You surprised to see me?"
"...How could I not be surprised?" Riezel put away his look of shock and spoke with a complicated mix of emotions. "Just yesterday, we were locked in a fierce fight, and now you guys are showing up at my place one after another. Anyone who doesn’t know better might think we’re close or something."
Hearing this, Lancelot’s first reaction was to furrow her brows.
What made it even more frustrating was that even while frowning, this strongest Fairy Knight of Britain still looked stunning, almost heartbreakingly delicate.
"Fierce fight, huh?" Lancelot replied, her tone a bit complicated. "Even teaming up with Gawain and Woodwose, we still couldn’t take you down. You even managed to injure us like that. Personally, I wouldn’t call that a fierce fight."
"So what?" Riezel sat, holding a half-finished mug of ale, and looked calmly at Lancelot. "You here to challenge me? Looking for revenge or something?"
"If I could, I honestly would." Lancelot plopped down in front of Riezel with a sigh. "But Her Majesty won’t allow it. Aurora won’t either. It’s a real headache."
As she finished speaking, she then noticed the cup sitting across from Riezel.
"Someone was here just now?" Lancelot’s thoughts stirred, and then it clicked. "Was it Gawain?"
"Yeah." Riezel nodded casually. "You knew Gawain came to see me?"
"Well, you just said it yourself. We were locked in a fierce fight, and now we’re suddenly showing up one after another at your place." Lancelot slightly raised her eyelids. "And judging from Woodwose’s attitude toward you, there’s no way he’d bother showing up here, so that only leaves Gawain."
"You’re one to talk..." Riezel murmured absentmindedly. "Woodwose, that mutt doesn’t treat you much better either, does he? Even Gawain doesn’t like you, right?"
Lancelot fell silent, opening her mouth but failing to find the words.
"Oh?" Riezel smirked faintly. "So you’re at least a little self-aware."
"...I guess." Lancelot pressed her lips together, then shook her head. "I just don’t get it. I really don’t know what exactly they hate about me... No, wait—Woodwose, I can kind of understand. He’s always been pretty hostile to us, Fairy Knights with unclear origins. But Gawain? What’s her problem?"
Hearing her question, Riezel gave her a sideways glance.
As someone who knew the original work inside and out, Riezel, of course, understood why Gawain didn’t like Lancelot.
It all came down to a difference in beliefs and ideals.
To some, Lancelot, who was known as the strongest among the Fairy Knights, was terrifying.
Not only was there always this intense atmosphere around her, but her voice was also cold and sharp when she spoke. She also saw humans as inherently evil, rejecting them without mercy, and even most fairies were pushed away by her.
Because of all that, many fairies viewed her as a cold and unfeeling person.
In truth, however, Lancelot neither hated nor distanced herself from humans, nor did she look down on them. She simply saw them as creatures with low survival ability—nothing more.
As a dragon fairy, Lancelot considered most fairies weak, and humans even weaker by comparison.
Simply put, to her, everyone else was just weaklings, and from her perspective, she was without question the strongest.
Naturally, that led to a certain belief—the weak should follow the strong.
From her perspective, it was just common sense.
For this reason, Lancelot often said one particular line:
"The strong are to be obeyed and followed—that is absolute. In other words, obey and follow me."
Whether or not she actually meant those words, the moment they left her mouth, her relationship with Gawain was doomed to be rocky.
On the surface, Gawain might have seemed like an aggressive predator type, but in truth, she was the one who followed the knight’s code most closely among all the current Fairy Knights, embodying what it meant to be a knight and holding the most upright sense of duty.
As the lord of Manchester, Gawain always prioritized managing the territory and protecting its people.
As a Fairy Knight, one of her core principles was to ease the suffering of the people and serve any worthy ruler with loyalty.
On the battlefield, she was a calm and cautious strategist who could read the situation clearly. Among her peers, she was also someone who thought things through and offered sincere advice.
Because of that, even though she didn’t like Tristan’s ways, she would still protect her in front of Morgan and the envoys. Tristan was Morgan’s foster daughter, so if things escalated, the one who would end up in trouble wouldn’t be Tristan, but whoever opposed her, or even innocent bystanders caught in the mess.
As a result, Gawain often scolded Woodwose, the head of the Fang Clan, not just because she was also from the Fang Clan, but because if she let Woodwose keep acting out, it would damage the clan’s image in front of Morgan and hurt the other fairies in the clan too.
Of course, no one else really knew any of this, since to the fairies, Gawain was someone who always volunteered to charge ahead whenever there was a battle or campaign. Once on the battlefield, she showed no mercy as she trampled the weak, which earned her the reputation of a merciless knight.
Gawain herself abided by the laws of nature, upholding the belief in the survival of the fittest, and firmly stated that it was only natural for the strong to rule over the fragile race known as humans.
However, the deeper meaning behind her words was that the strong should protect the weak, and unless they were enemies, she would never abandon those who were weaker.
As a lord, she was cautious and composed, and as a Fairy Knight, she was stern and cold-blooded—but in truth, she had a gentle nature and was easily moved by others.
Such was Fairy Knight Gawain—a fairy who could clearly distinguish friend from foe, fiercely shielding her allies while showing no mercy to her enemies.
And so, that was also the biggest point of conflict between Lancelot and Gawain.
While the former believed that the weak should obey the strong and saw her own power as something natural, the latter believed that the strong should protect the weak, following a different interpretation of the law of the jungle.
It was this clash of beliefs and ideals that made Gawain dislike Lancelot the most.
Perhaps Gawain was also dissatisfied with how Lancelot always called herself the strongest Fairy Knight, or with her indifferent attitude toward creatures weaker than herself. Maybe there were other small reasons too, all contributing to her aversion to Lancelot, but in the end, the root cause was still their differing beliefs and ideals.
Would Lancelot ever figure that out?
Despite her cold appearance, this Fairy Knight was actually quite innocent at heart—pure, even.
Some might call her profound, while others might just say she was naive.
Knowing all of that, Riezel didn’t bother pointing it out to her.
"Why don’t you tell me what you came here for? You’re not like Gawain, just here to look around, are you?"
Riezel’s question snapped Lancelot out of her dilemma.
She had come to see Riezel for a reason.
Lancelot shifted her gaze slightly, looking toward Riezel’s right hand, where a ring shaped like a dragon’s claw resided.
"You came for this?"
Noticing Lancelot’s gaze, Riezel raised his right hand, showing the Origin Ring.
Lancelot’s eyes immediately followed, locking onto the ring on Riezel’s hand.
"What’s with that ring?" Lancelot hesitated for a moment before asking, "I can feel a dragon’s aura and magical energy from it... I’m not imagining things, right?"
"No, you’re not." Riezel shook his head and didn’t try to hide anything, speaking bluntly. "It’s a magic item crafted by dragons. It contains their power, so the dragon aura and magical energy you’re sensing must be coming from that."
Hearing this, Lancelot’s eyes lit up.
"Are there still other dragons in this world?!" Lancelot asked eagerly.
It wasn’t strange for her to ask this.
As far as she knew, she should have been the only dragon left in this world—at the very least, she had never seen another dragon besides herself, let alone another dragon fairy.
However, the ring Riezel wore, along with the aura and magical energy emanating from it, was clearly different from her own, so it obviously came from another dragon.
Such a fact made Lancelot quite curious, and at the same time, made Riezel give her a deep look.
Others might not have known where Lancelot came from, but Riezel understood it better than anyone.
In the distant past, long before Faerie Britain became what it was, a dragon had once appeared here.
It was the last remaining pureblood and true dragon in existence.
Many humans and fairies had called it the Last Dragon.
Back when the Last Dragon still roamed the land, there was no actual ground for it to stand on, so it always had to fly through the skies—until eventually, that dragon reached its limit.
In the end, the final pureblood dragon fell, leaving behind nothing but a skeleton in Faerie Britain.
Lancelot had been born from that dragon’s left hand, which made her both dragon and fairy, born with tremendous power.
Naturally, someone like Lancelot would never have met another dragon, since the one she came from was the last true dragon in this world.
As for the dragon species that came later, Lancelot probably didn’t consider any of them true dragons.
On the other hand, the dragons who created the ring Riezel wore, while not native to this world, were not impure beings like lesser dragons either. Furthermore, the dragon who crafted it had used ancient magic that predated Tier Magic, a power known as Wild Magic.
In terms of sheer Mystery, that kind of power certainly wouldn’t be inferior to the true dragons of this world, which was why Lancelot could sense a pure dragon aura from Riezel’s ring and had taken such an interest in it.
After a moment of silence, Riezel finally answered Lancelot’s question.
"No, there definitely aren’t any other dragons in Faerie Britain..." Riezel said, rubbing the ring on his middle finger. "I got this ring from outside Britain."
"Outside of Britain?" Lancelot was startled at first, then her expression shifted. "You mean... Paradise?"
It was obvious Lancelot still thought Riezel was the Child of Prophecy, a fairy who came from Paradise.
At Lancelot’s guess, Riezel didn’t bother explaining.
"If that’s what you wanna think, go ahead." Riezel replied indifferently. "I’m just saying, if you’re hoping to hear about some other dragon from me, you’re out of luck."
No other dragons in Faerie Britain—that was the point Riezel wanted to make to Lancelot.
"Is that... so...?"
Disappointment immediately spread across Lancelot’s face, and she visibly deflated.
Seeing Lancelot like this actually made Riezel find her pretty amusing.
"Heh, bet no one could imagine the strongest and most beautiful Fairy Knight in all the rumors, the cold and ruthless Lancelot, making this kind of face in private."
Saying this, Riezel then recalled the moment he first met Lancelot in Salisbury.
Back then, she had shown a cold and ruthless side, like a heartless executioner who would cut down anyone standing in her way.
Who would’ve thought Lancelot could make such expressive faces behind the scenes?
Unfortunately, it seemed like Lancelot didn’t get what Riezel found so funny.
"What’s wrong with my face?"
Lancelot looked genuinely confused, and her straightforward question nearly left Riezel speechless.
"No... Nothing..." Riezel had to shove down the strange feeling in his chest. "Wanna drink something?"
Seeing him change the subject, Lancelot looked a little puzzled but didn’t press him further.
"Any fruit juice?"
Lancelot’s question made Riezel feel even more off.
Fruit juice?
Why did this Fairy Knight feel like a little child?
Riezel shook his head and tried to clear his mind of all the weird thoughts.
He pulled out a bottle of fruit juice from the storage space of the Dimensional Magic Cube, along with a clean glass, and poured Lancelot a drink.
In truth, the fruit juice had originally been prepared for Artoria.
Artoria had, after all, only just turned sixteen.
For a young fairy girl like her, ale or anything heavier was still too early.
Just like that, Riezel and Lancelot started chatting, though not too intensely, just here and there.
Mainly, Lancelot wanted to know more about the dragon used to create the Origin Ring, while Riezel gave half-serious, half-dismissive answers.
Even so, the two of them ended up talking for more than two hours.
Lancelot wasn’t as talkative as Gawain and mostly kept asking questions about dragons, but she was a lot more straightforward. Moreover, the way she occasionally acted so naive and so unlike a warrior gradually made Riezel let his guard down without even realizing it.
’Is she trying to make me drop my guard... so she can stab me in the back later?’
As the conversation naturally grew more friendly, this idea even crossed Riezel’s mind.
But soon enough, he dismissed it, because before she left, Lancelot, just like Gawain, challenged him.
"If I get the chance, I want to settle the score from last time."
"I definitely won’t lose this time."
As soon as Lancelot finished saying this, she immediately left.
As Riezel watched her go, he couldn’t help but let out a sigh.
"What a strange day... in so many ways..."