Chapter 974: The Tragic Victim Melusine
"Then when I was entering and leaving that ruin earlier..."
"I witnessed it too—it was the rebel army, right? I never expected Aurora to even learn the trick of nurturing threats to strengthen her own position. Has she studied human culture?"
Eiji remarked with a sigh.
Most fairies in the Fairy Kingdom were quite pure, a purity reflected in their sense of good and evil, and sometimes in their minds as well. Being overly simple, they hardly ever dwelled on convoluted matters.
Forget someone like Eiji, who possessed charismatic leadership—even a slightly more meticulous human could probably run circles around the Fairy Kingdom!
Against this general trend, Aurora was not only skilled at deception but also understood how to nurture threats to bolster her own standing—she was truly a foul current!
"...Did you possibly overhear my conversation with those people?"
"I didn't hear it, but I can read lips."
Eiji smiled at her.
"How impressive! No wonder a mere handful of humans dared to assassinate me—so they were all Aurora's lapdogs, huh?"
Melusine's expression instantly turned helpless.
He knew!
He hadn't known before, but now he did!
She had forgotten to check her surroundings in a moment of anger. In the open sky, there was no place to hide—if she had just glanced behind her, she would have definitely noticed him tailing her!
But she hadn't.
Aurora's scheme to have her subordinates assassinate him was exposed for such a ridiculous reason!
It was all her fault!
"...Please don't go and hold Aurora accountable."
"What are you talking about? Good deeds should be rewarded, and bad deeds should be punished, right? Do I seem like an easy target to you? Someone anyone can mess with?"
"I'm begging you, please don't go."
"..."
Eiji fell silent for a moment.
Melusine looked dejected. She removed her mask, revealing her lovely, charming face, and gazed at him with a near-pleading expression.
"If you have any punishment, I'll accept it in her place. But I beg you, please don't go and hold Aurora accountable!"
That sorrowful plea, the tears streaming from the corners of her eyes—it was enough to wrench anyone's heart.
No matter how cold-hearted one might be, they couldn't refuse the plea of such an adorable maiden knight.
"Is it necessary to go this far?"
Eiji was perplexed.
He simply couldn't understand why someone like Melusine would be willing to go to such lengths for someone like Aurora.
"It is necessary!"
Melusine nodded emphatically.
"Aurora is the most important person to me! She is the purpose of my existence. If she ceased to be, I couldn't go on living alone either!"
To such an extent?
Honestly, Eiji was somewhat taken aback by her almost reverent attitude toward Aurora.
"What happened between you two?"
Eiji asked curiously.
Melusine hesitated for a moment, then chose to reveal her past in its entirety.
It was a story from four hundred years ago.
Even among all the fairies in the Fairy Kingdom, Melusine was the most unique.
Her birth was destined to be extraordinary!
Because she was a dragon fairy born from the left hand shed by the Last Dragon—Albion!
"Albion? You said Albion?!"
Right from the start of her account, Eiji was utterly shocked.
The Dragon of Albion!
That was the last pure-blooded dragon known throughout the entire magical world!
Eiji had crammed knowledge of the magical realm under Alice's guidance, so he understood the significance this dragon represented.
To describe it in one phrase—it was the Crown-ranked among dragons!
The dragons featured in various mythologies today, such as Fafnir, Nidhogg, and others, would be considered mere juniors in the presence of the Final Dragon!
After all, according to magical world speculation, Albion was an existence that coexisted with the planet, possibly as old as 4.6 billion years, possessing all the information from Earth's birth to the present. It was the most primitive, transcendent being!
How powerful such a creature truly was, Eiji couldn't fathom.
Even the fairy Lancelot, born from just a fallen left claw of that being, was already this formidable. The original Albion's true nature was likely beyond anyone's comprehension.
That said, the fairy Lancelot initially possessed no intelligence at all.
She was merely a mass of flesh writhing incessantly in the dark, muddy swamp—ugly, decaying, and foul-smelling... And it was Aurora who lifted her out of that state.
Around the year 1600 of the Queen's Calendar, Aurora journeyed to the northern lake regions. While passing through the "Swamp of Dragon Remains," she noticed the squirming mass of flesh in the mire.
Aurora walked over of her own accord.
The fairies behind her cried out, "Please don't go, it's too filthy there," and "It will tarnish your radiance," but she insisted on approaching and lifted the flesh mass from the swamp.
In that instant, the flesh beheld true beauty.
"I want to become like you."
With that thought, the flesh evolved.
In the blink of an eye, it advanced from a single cell to a fairy—a Dragon Fairy!
After being rescued by Aurora, the flesh mass vanished, and in its place emerged the most beautiful, powerful, and self-respecting fairy in Britain.
"Look, this is clearly the most beautiful thing. How could it be dirty?"
Aurora held the Dragon Fairy in her arms, completely unbothered by the filth staining her, and smiled back at the fairies behind her.
Aurora adopted this fairy and named her Melusine.
Thanks to having once defeated her, Eiji successfully recognized her true name.
If one ignored the characters involved, this would undoubtedly be a heartwarming legend.
But the protagonist of the tale was Aurora.
Considering her penchant for putting on airs—
"That was just her putting on a show, wasn't it?"
Eiji deduced Aurora's true motive at the time.
Just like idol celebrities in fan circles, she needed to cultivate an image of boundless love, unbothered by filth and disorder. Thus, Britain's most radiant Aurora deliberately rescued the ugliest flesh mass—the fairy Lancelot—from the swamp.
It was the perfect natural publicity stunt and hype material!
"...You're being too blunt, though you're not wrong."
The fairy Lancelot fell silent for a moment, then smiled wryly.
"After all, having been with her for so long, I've long understood Aurora's true nature."
"But you still can't let go?"
"...That's right."
The fairy Lancelot nodded with complex emotions.
"I evolved from an ugly mass of flesh into a fairy, adapted to the rules of fairies, and from birth, I had my own purpose—and that purpose was Aurora."
Eiji understood.
The fairy Lancelot was Aurora's number one simp.
"The concept of 'purpose' is truly such an unreasonable rule for fairies!"
"Even so, that doesn't justify you taking Aurora's punishment, does it?"
"No, it does justify it, because Aurora is in a terrible state right now!"
Barghest snapped out of her memories and glared fiercely at Eiji.
"Because of your fault, her purpose has become disordered! If you go to accuse her, it will surely cause her light to wither, and she might even fall and become a Mors!"