Oberon watched Artoria for a moment, falling briefly into thought.
A moment later, Oberon suddenly spoke, asking a question.
"Are you and Riezel Brynhart close?"
Hearing this, Artoria stopped in her tracks.
"..."
In an indescribable silence, the atmosphere at the scene shifted ever so slightly.
Even though the change was minor, for Oberon, being in the midst of it, he knew that it was by no means a good sign.
"...What’s that supposed to mean?"
Artoria turned around and looked at Oberon—the emotion in her eyes was plain as day.
It was a discontent.
It was an annoyance.
Artoria was not quite angry yet, but Oberon understood that she had already figured out what he was trying to say.
She knew that whatever he was about to say next was definitely not something she wanted to hear.
And that was exactly the case.
"I know you probably don’t want to hear this, and it might even sound like I’m just trying to stir things up. If I could, I wouldn’t have brought this up right after joining this group. I know it makes me look like I have some hidden agenda, but there’s really no other choice, since the chance to talk about this while that guy isn’t here might only come once."
Oberon seemed to have already braced himself to be disliked or even suspected by Artoria, as the helpless look on his face slowly faded while he stared straight at the fairy girl.
"I don’t know how you see that guy, but to me, there’s no doubt he’s a suspicious character."
"He’s not the Child of Prophecy, not a Fairy of Paradise."
"He isn’t from Proper Human History either, not some traveler from another land."
"And obviously, he’s also not from Faerie Britain, so he has no ties to this Lostbelt."
"If that’s the case, then who is he? Where did he come from? And what’s his purpose in coming to Faerie Britain?"
All these questions were things Oberon had already considered more than once.
Even though he had only met Riezel and Artoria in the past few days, Oberon had started paying attention to Riezel long before that.
It was only natural.
After the battle at Salisbury, Riezel’s name spread all over Faerie Britain, so everyone started keeping an eye on him, and Oberon was no exception.
Oberon had taken an interest in this so-called Child of Prophecy who could hold off Lancelot, Gawain, and Woodwose all at once, and had even forced Morgan to leave her all-important throne just to appear in person and capture him.
Especially after learning that Riezel was not actually the Child of Prophecy, Oberon’s suspicion only grew stronger.
He wondered just who this so-called Child of Prophecy was, who made Morgan act personally and even managed to force Lancelot, Gawain, and Woodwose to retreat empty-handed.
And so, Oberon started investigating.
As a result of his investigation, Oberon became certain that Riezel was not a fairy from Faerie Britain.
If that was the case, Riezel could only have come from the outside world, which made Oberon start to wonder if Riezel had drifted over from Proper Human History.
Faerie Britain might have been a Lostbelt, but it and Proper Human History both existed on Earth, so every now and then, some things from the outside world would wash up on these shores for various reasons—sometimes even humans or fairies from other places.
Oberon suspected that Riezel was one of those people, and even considered whether he might have been sent by Chaldea from Proper Human History.
For that reason, Oberon launched another investigation, but found that during the period when Riezel appeared in Faerie Britain, there had been no sightings or signs of any unidentified objects drifting ashore around Britain.
Which meant there was a good chance Riezel hadn’t just randomly drifted here from the outside world but must have entered this strange world through some other means.
Such a discovery made things rather intriguing.
If he wasn’t from the Fairy Kingdom and hadn’t drifted here by chance from the outside world, then how did Riezel get to Faerie Britain?
If he came here on purpose, not by accident, then what was his goal?
Was it really just by chance that he met Artoria and pretended to be the Child of Prophecy?
Why would Morgan abandon her crucial throne and make a personal move just for him?
Who exactly was he?
Where did he come from?
All these questions remained unanswered even now.
When Oberon realized his investigation could go no further and would not yield any real progress, he chose to meet directly with Riezel and Artoria after they escaped from Camelot and team up with them.
Now, Oberon was sharing the doubts in his heart with Artoria, giving her a warning.
"As things stand, he seems to know a lot about Faerie Britain—about you, about Morgan, and even about me, as if he’s got some inside scoop on all of us."
"Why is that?"
"He’s not a fairy from Faerie Britain, nor is he a foreign traveler from Proper Human History, so how does he know so much?"
It was as if Oberon wanted to spill all the doubts he had bottled up inside, letting them pour out in a rush.
"So, I really do think he’s suspicious. It’s not that I’m saying he’ll necessarily turn against us, but the truth is, we don’t know where he comes from or what he wants—that’s reason enough for us to be on guard."
All of this was what Oberon had wanted to tell Artoria all along.
He didn’t expect to get much information about Riezel from Artoria, since from her reaction, it was clear she trusted and even relied on Riezel for some unknown reason, yet she also didn’t know much about him.
She had already shown surprise and shock more than once at the things Riezel had done and the tricks he had pulled, but when it came to dealing with someone whose origins were a complete mystery, Oberon felt she should at least keep her guard up a little.
From his point of view, it was necessary because all his suspicions were reasonable.
After all, Riezel’s background truly was a mystery, and in the eyes of people with brains, he really was suspicious.
However...
"...If you’re putting it that way, Oberon, aren’t you just as suspicious?"
As she asked, Artoria looked at Oberon like she was staring at a professional liar.
She couldn’t help it.
"Even though your stance seems to line up with ours, and most of what you say isn’t a lie, you still haven’t told us the whole truth. You’ve been hiding a lot from us, haven’t you?"
Artoria called him out directly, leaving Oberon once again with a helpless expression.
"Ahh, it’s your Fairy Eyes, isn’t it?" Oberon scratched his head. "No wonder you’re the savior. A power that has vanished from Faerie Britain... you were born with it."
Fairy Eyes was a type of ability to see through lies that was not unique to Artoria.
In fact, at the very beginning, every fairy possessed Fairy Eyes, so they could see through lies and sense what others truly felt.
Naturally, the fairies of Faerie Britain were the same—at least, the original six A-Reis who first came up from the Inner Sea of the Planet to the surface all had Fairy Eyes.
However, as times changed and the Fairy Kingdom expanded, at some point, the fairies of Faerie Britain began to lose their Fairy Eyes, becoming unable to tell truth from lies.
As a result, fairies now had to rely on magical energy, scent, appearance, and other traits to distinguish fairies from humans. If they still had Fairy Eyes, Riezel wouldn’t have stood a chance of hiding his human identity in front of them.
Only fairies like Artoria, who was not born in Faerie Britain but came here from Paradise, still retained the eyes that the fairies of the Fairy Kingdom had lost, which alone proved how genuine she was as a fairy.
Knowing this, Oberon had never really expected to easily gain Artoria’s trust from the start.
Just as Artoria said, while he never lied to their faces, he had seldom spoken the whole truth, or rather, everything he did say was true, but some truths he simply chose not to reveal.
For example, when Oberon told Riezel that he wasn’t good in a fight and they shouldn’t count on him, that was true—at least, in his current state, his combat ability was honestly next to nothing.
However, if he were to regain his true form, that would be a different story altogether.
Oberon kept things half-hidden like this, which was why he ended up in this strange state of never quite lying but never really telling the truth either.
In Artoria’s eyes, that was obviously suspicious.
"I won’t deny it..." Oberon raised his hands in a gesture of surrender. "But it’s not like I don’t want to tell you, y’know? It’s just that the time isn’t right yet, so I can’t just blurt everything out."
What he said was the truth, but as far as Artoria was concerned, he was a big liar.
In truth, the only reason for this was that, although both Riezel and Oberon spoke the truth, Riezel had never tried to be evasive, completely different from Oberon, who always hid things.
Riezel never explained his origins, not because he didn’t want to or had some unavoidable reason, but just because it would be too much trouble to explain, so he simply didn’t bother.
Oberon, on the other hand, purposely concealed things and chose to speak in half-truths.
Needless to say, the former was open and straightforward, while the latter was the one who really seemed suspicious all the time.
Because of that, Artoria was much more willing to lower her guard around Riezel, but not with Oberon, who technically had never lied.
"Since you think the time isn’t right and you can’t just say it, then how do you know Riezel isn’t the same way?" Artoria argued. "Maybe he also thinks it’s not the right time and isn’t hiding anything on purpose?"
"If you put it like that, I’ve got nothing else to say..." Oberon let out a sigh. "I was just giving you a reminder, seeing how well you actually know him, that’s all. No other reason, you can see that, right?"
With Fairy Eyes, whether his words were true or not was easy to tell.
Unfortunately, Artoria had already realized that just because someone spoke the truth didn’t mean they weren’t hiding anything.
Even if Oberon had no hidden agenda, that meant nothing.
Maybe Oberon just wanted to see how much she understood Riezel before deciding what to do next?
Having no hidden agenda didn’t mean Oberon didn’t want to do anything at all.
If Oberon hadn’t been a Servant from Proper Human History, someone who was undeniably opposed to Morgan, and if all the things he said about the crisis of Proper Human History and wanting to help them, be their ally, hadn’t been genuine, Artoria wouldn’t even want to deal with him at all.
Compared to those fairies who wore one face but had another beneath—who could be easily seen through by her—someone like Oberon, who was completely consistent on the outside but still shrouded in mystery, made Artoria even more wary.
In Artoria’s eyes, this world was nothing but a storm of malice, while Riezel was the sun that could light up that storm and warm her heart.
Oberon, on the other hand, was like a shadow hidden behind the storm and the sun, where you could never tell if that shadow would engulf the storm or block out the sun.
For that reason, Artoria wanted to keep her distance from Oberon, but at the same time, she didn’t want to end up on opposite sides with him either.
As for why...
"You... You’re really not Merlin?"
After some hesitation, Artoria asked this question again.
At this, Oberon frowned.
"Uh, the Merlin you speak of... You mean the legendary magus who guided King Arthur and raised King Arthur to greatness, right?"
Merlin.
He was also a figure from the legends of King Arthur.
According to legend, he was a magus from paradise, an incubus living in Avalon.
He was King Arthur’s mentor, and more than that, he was the one who orchestrated the birth, growth, and ultimate ascension of Artoria Pendragon—the one who drew the Sword of Selection, Caliburn, and became the legendary king of Britain.
Some saw him as a sage.
Some saw him as a calamity.
Regardless, it was undeniable that he played a very important role throughout King Arthur’s life, as without him, there would never have been a King Arthur.
And the legendary King Arthur was Artoria’s counterpart in Proper Human History.
Now, the fact that Artoria had brought up the name Merlin again and again in front of Oberon naturally gave rise to all kinds of speculation.
"Did someone teach you your magecraft? Was it Merlin?" Oberon asked, half pretending to understand and half smiling. "Well, that’s unfortunate. As you can see, I’m not Merlin."
He was Oberon, and there was no mistaking that.
Whether it was true or not, the answer was clear in the heart of Artoria, who possessed the Fairy Eyes.
"In that case... I’ll just take it that you’re not Merlin."
Artoria lowered her gaze, as if confirming something in her heart, and turned to leave.
"Wait! At least help move these people out!"
Oberon glanced at the three people lying on the shore whom he had just saved and hurriedly called out to Artoria.
Artoria paused for a moment, then picked up the smallest one, who looked just like a child, and left with them.
"Are you serious? Both of them?"
Looking at the remaining two, who were both adults, Oberon wore a bitter expression.
"Looks like our Child of Prophecy has a bit of a temper..."
In the end, Oberon could only force a smile and hoist the remaining two over his shoulders, heading outside.
*Buzz!*
Blanca followed alongside Oberon, fluttering her wings as she flew gently.