The king was silent as if judging whether Arthur was lying. However, Arthur was unwavering, his face showing no hesitation nor any other emotions that would make the king suspect him.
"What do you mean by that?"
"If you question the Knight of Honesty, then you can know that I wasn't conscious at that time. Therefore, whatever I can remember is not useful, as it is all hazy memories."
"I see," the king muttered, and his eyes went out of focus for a moment. Then, he blinked, and he nodded toward Arthur. "You are right. The Knight of Honesty has agreed to show the memory of that time. Do you want to watch it?"
"I… can?" Arthur was taken aback, as that wasn't within his expectations. The king gave a smile and waved his hand, and the scenery changed. They were in another room this time, but this one had two more people: the king and the Knight of Honesty, sitting opposite each other.
"We are unseen by the knight. But, do not worry," said the king as he looked at himself talking to the knight. "I look handsome today too," he muttered, and Arthur had a speechless face, but the king seemed oblivious.
'Can this king be a little… narcissistic?' mused Arthur. It might not be to the degree of being called a disease, but it was enough to humanize the aloft king. Arthur was finally starting to see the different sides of the king, and it was no accident.
"Please present your memory of that time, Knight of Honesty," said the king who was interrogating the knight. His tone was cold and stern, and it was nowhere similar to the one he used with Arthur.
"As you command, your majesty," the knight closed his eyes, and the world changed around them. They were on the battlefield of that time, and Dia was high above to tear down the walls under Arthur's command.
The Duke of Fire attacked, and the flames damaged Arthur's soul. Arthur got to see how Dia struck the isolation barrier and how Gala descended from the sky, furious at the duke. The Salamander appeared as well, and the battle was fierce.
"You have a good friend," said the king as he witnessed Gala's rage. "It is too bad that she had to leave."
"It seems Ruri is keeping you updated," Arthur smiled as his eyes blurred, seeing Gala again. "A good friend indeed."
The revelation of the king's spy did not faze the king in any way, and he only smiled. "It makes up the most of his reports. Lady Gala has a way of growing on people despite how much they complain about her."
Arthur felt that the king couldn't be more accurate. It was weird that despite the countless pranks she did on him, it made them closer somehow.
As they were watching the memory, the change finally happened, and the fading life of Arthur was reignited. Arthur would have preferred that what to come to remain a secret, but he knew it was impossible.
Arthur saw his lips move, but the knight of honesty did not hear him. This memory was before the knight arrived, and it was constructed from his observations from afar.
The Knight of Honesty has witnessed the battle from afar, and he descended with the rain. He managed to make out the words of the Seika before the sky split apart, and they stabbed into Arthur's heart.
"I… just want to survive," this was his raw and singular desire in this world. Every day, he had to fight and prove himself against countless enemies who desired either his power or his lover. Then, finally, the sky split, and the voice resonated within everyone's souls.
"Who dares hurt my vessel?"
Arthur looked at the pair of eyes, and even within the memory, he could feel the eyes looking at him. There was no fear, only alienation. The pair of eyes were ones he only saw once before, and they were the same as his eyes.
The rest of the memory was filled with fighting and screams. Arthur could tell that at that moment, he was no human, only a symbolization of power. The king was quiet as he stared at the demonstration, and Arthur could see his eyes gleam. It was greed, but it was quickly hidden.
"I am glad that you have survived this," the king said with a sincere smile, and Arthur stared at him silently and bowed slightly in thanks. "Tell me, Seika. Are you a vessel?"
"I have limited knowledge on what that is, exactly," Arthur shook his head. The king nodded and waved his hand again, changing the scenery around them. They were standing on a cliff, with an infinite fog around them.
"Long ago, the guardians existed," the king summed it up and didn't seem to care what happened that they disappeared. "After their disappearance, people wielding similar powers started appearing. Some of them died, and some of them killed themselves."
"Killed themselves?"
"Indeed. It was all according to the guardians' will, who dictated the life and death of their vessels. If their deaths were necessary, then a vessel needed to do it."
"That is… terrifying," Arthur muttered with a frown. He did not know if the vessels had a legacy, but he didn't think that his legacy could force him into such a thing.
"Do you know of legacies, Seika?" asked the king, as if reading his mind. "They are quite common, and any powerful person above the Astra-rank can keep a part of their souls as a legacy. Those who use the legacy of guardians are called vessels. This is because the souls of guardians are too powerful for anyone to handle, and they are forced to obey the guardians. Hence, they are called vessels."
Arthur felt like a light was shed on the matter, and it somehow made sense. However, Arthur was not a vessel, not that he knew of it. This fact proves that the legacy owner of Sier was none other than one of the guardians, too.
"They call you the inheritor of the scholar guardian," Arthur realized as he turned toward the king. A complex expression appeared on the king's face, and he gave a slight nod.
"I am a vessel, too," said the king. "I am one of the few vessels this world has."
There was silence between them, and the king waved his arm to clear out the fog. A grand city appeared in the distance, stretching as far as the eye could see, and it was as big as Freda itself.
"This is the domain of the Scholar Guardian, and it is now known as Freda, despite the city falling apart between the two worlds."
The king's knowledge was extensive, and Arthur was in awe. It was the first time someone had this amount of knowledge about the guardians, and he was not reluctant to share it. Arthur's heart had an emotion foreign to him, and it was gratitude.
"You know that there are two worlds," Arthur said, and the king gave a short laugh.
"It is not a secret, and people of that world fall into ours quite regularly. Although, of course, they are secretive about their world, some of them tried to make contact with me to find a way back."
"And did you agree?" Arthur tried to hide the fact that he was a part of the world he was talking about. It was a wonder if the king knew already, but he didn't say anything about it.
"I did not until I met someone I could not ignore," said the king with a hint of sadness. "Now, I made it my sole pursuit to find a way to connect the two worlds. However, it feels as if I am defying heaven's will."
Arthur did not know what to say because these words were the same as the ones this man said to him in the trial. He was once again reminded that for Arthur to go back to his world, the king in front of him had to die.
However, it does not need to be like that. Arthur could find another way using his runes. His actions might accelerate the negation of the split, but he could deal with that later.
"You are walking a path of self-destruction, your majesty," warned Arthur, against his best interests. It was the wrong choice to deter the king from this path, but Arthur did not care.
'I shall forge my own path.'
Arthur did not want to sit around and wait for this timeline to take its natural course. He needed to do many things, and one of them was to keep Diana by his side.
The thought of leaving her here, never to see her again, tore his heart apart. Arthur couldn't accept the image of Diana alone among these people, all lusting over her powers. For outsiders, she might look like a cold and heartless princess. However, Arthur knew that she could be quite vulnerable.
"I know," said the king.. "However, it is the path I chose to walk, even if it's the wrong one."
