Chapter 1117: Where Is the Queen?
Although Melusine transformed into the Calamity of Fire due to the resentment of the northern fairies, one thing she said wasn't wrong.
Aurora was indeed the anchor that maintained her sense of self.
Once Aurora died, she lost the will to maintain her identity, like a lone leaf boat adrift on the sea, easily overturned by resentment.
But from another perspective, Aurora was also Melusine's shackles.
When the Great Calamity descended, Aurora would inevitably die sooner or later, and Melusine would eventually transform into a calamity.
Eiji killing Aurora merely accelerated this process.
In essence, it wasn't his fault.
It was Aurora's fault.
If Melusine had fallen in love with Morgan or someone else instead of the scum of all scums Aurora, such an outcome might have been avoided.
From this perspective, Percival chose to thank Eiji.
At least he gave Melusine a dignified end, sparing her from being trapped in this tragic cycle.
After learning everything, Percival left.
"Percival, may I have a moment?"
At that moment, Da Vinci suddenly appeared before Percival and stopped him.
"Looking for me?"
Percival looked at her in surprise. Don't you need to steer the ship right now?
"Exactly."
Da Vinci nodded solemnly.
"This is something I must tell you no matter what. Listen carefully—I previously sent a familiar to investigate where the Albion Dragon fell!"
"What?"
Percival was stunned.
What did you send a familiar there for?
You're not thinking of looting the corpse, are you?!
"Here's the crucial part!"
Da Vinci said with a serious expression.
"At the location where it fell, I didn't find Melusine's body!"
...
Eiji originally intended to return to his room to rest for a while, but as he passed a corner, he suddenly noticed someone with a troubled expression.
Raising an eyebrow, he followed.
"Knock, knock, knock!"
"It's you?"
After he knocked, the door opened to reveal a girl who shared the exact same face as Morgan.
However, compared to Morgan, her face lacked determination and resolve, instead carrying a touch of immaturity and despondency.
"I was just about to rest. Why are you bothering me now?"
Artoria immediately expressed her displeasure.
"Oh? Are you tired?"
Eiji looked at her in surprise.
"Haven't you just been carried all the way here? Everyone else handles the tough parts, right?"
A vein bulged on Artoria's forehead.
"Don't look down on me!"
After all, I'm the Child of Prophecy who's rung six bells now! My magical power surpasses even the Fairy Knights—I'm clearly a main combatant!
"Even now, you still lack proper resolve. You keep wondering what to do next, always following the crowd and being pushed into action. How could I not look down on you?"
"..."
Artoria stared at him fearfully.
"Do you have Fairy Eyes too?!"
Oh no, how much of my privacy has he violated along the way?
"Do I need Fairy Eyes to see through a brat like you?"
Eiji shot her a disdainful glare.
Slipping past the ahoge that failed to block him in time, he entered the room.
"And then, what do you plan to do next?"
Eiji didn't treat himself as an outsider at all, comfortably lying down on the slightly narrow single bed.
"What did you say?"
Artoria blinked, looking at him with feigned confusion.
"Are you going to play dumb with me?"
Eiji glanced sideways at her.
"After ringing the six bells, you should have understood your true mission, right? Or do you think that after being with C for so long, I wouldn't know what the true mission of a Fairy of Paradise is?"
Artoria fell silent immediately.
Her explanation to Gudako and the others had always been that "the Fairy of Paradise's mission is to correct a certain mistake."
She wasn't lying.
Because even she herself wasn't sure what her true mission was, only vaguely feeling that she needed to correct some mistake.
Previously, she had always thought her mission was to correct Morgan, the previous Fairy of Paradise, to pull her down from the queen's throne, and leave Britain to be governed by Britain's fairies themselves.
The reason she had come this far despite not daring to defy Morgan was partly due to being pushed into action, but also partly because of this belief.
But it wasn't until she started ringing the bells that she gradually understood.
The so-called "mistake" wasn't Morgan.
Or rather, the main mistake wasn't Morgan.
The mistake was the fairies.
The mistake was the six original fairies who committed unforgivable original sins, and their descendants!
The mistake was the millions of fairies living on the island of Britain!
Her mission was to correct these fairies' mistakes.
Then return to her original place.
To complete the final mission there.
And Eiji already had complete understanding of all the Fairy of Paradise's missions.
Not just because of C's information.
But more importantly, because in the past, he had sucked C's blood many times, obtaining fragmented information from her blood memories that had now finally been completely pieced together.
"There's no helping it, is there."
Artoria lowered her eyes.
She had always pretended not to know the true mission, always facing everyone with the smile of a country fairy girl, precisely because she didn't want them to know her final fate.
However, what she didn't expect was that Eiji had known from the very beginning.
Eiji remained silent.
That's right.
There's no helping it.
This is driven by fate.
If it's not done, Pan-Human History will lose the possibility of defeating the Alien God.
"But is it really something that can't be helped..."
Eiji asked himself this in his heart.
He had never understood what Goetia's purpose was in creating the Type-Moon Academy Singularity.
But now, he felt he had grasped the key point.
In the original world line, he didn't know if Goetia had created this Singularity.
But even if it was created, it probably couldn't have screened for the true Earth UO.
This has nothing to do with strength, but rather that humanity as a collective forms civilization, turning "one" into "all," naturally making it impossible for the strongest "one" to be born.
But for this world.
There was an additional variable.
A variable not within fate, perhaps not even within the Root.
That variable was Eiji himself.
"By the way, there's something I want to ask you."
Artoria suddenly thought of something and hurriedly asked Eiji.
"About the Queen... where is she now?"
She skipped right over the question of "whether she was dead or not" and jumped straight to "where she is."
Hmph.
With her Fairy Eyes, there was no way to hide it from her anyway.
"It's not because of Fairy Eyes!"
Artoria suddenly broke into a smile, speaking triumphantly.
"Do you think I need Fairy Eyes to see through a little brat like you?"
From his words and actions so far—especially sending a dream clone to protect them—she was absolutely certain the Queen couldn't possibly be dead.
Eiji:
Brat, asking for a beating, aren't you?