"Ha! Utterly foolish!"
Rider slammed his thigh with a sound like a thunderclap from a clear sky, causing the grass clippings before him to fly into the air.
"You actually want to deny your own past?! Deny the history created by the subjects who died following you?!" Rider glared with wide, furious eyes. "Do you know this is a betrayal of them?!"
"This is not betrayal!" Saber abruptly stood up, arguing her case with reason. "For the country, for the people, I can sacrifice everything! This is also my responsibility as a king!"
"Wrong! Completely wrong!"
Rider also sprang to his feet.
The immense shadow cast by his mountain-like, burly frame instantly enveloped the petite Saber, creating a suffocating sense of oppression.
"It is not the king who sacrifices for the people, but the people who sacrifice for the king!"
Rider spread his arms wide as if to embrace heaven and earth, his voice booming as if roaring on a battlefield:
"Precisely because of this, a king must be more greedy than anyone! More magnificent than anyone! More prone to anger than anyone!"
"A king must display the ultimate in life, the ultimate in evil, the ultimate in beauty, the ultimate in desire!"
"Only then will the subjects yearn for their king, become infatuated with that living figure, and willingly follow him!"
He lowered his head, looking at Saber's pale face. His eyes held no pity, only disappointment.
"And you... your so-called'sacrifice for the country' is nothing but self-indulgent slavery!"
"How can someone who cannot even face their own desires bear the weight of an entire nation?"
Rider's words were like heavy hammers, each one striking at the heart, smashing brutally against Saber's already fragile mental defenses.
"A'saint' like you, so pure and free of desire, could never save a country! You would only lead the people towards a more oppressive destruction! That's why your country fell apart—because no one wants to follow a bloodless idol!"
At this moment, Saber felt the belief she had upheld her entire life beginning to crack and shatter.
It wasn't like this... I just wanted them to be happy... I just wanted to be a perfect king... "How could..." Saber staggered back a step. Her once upright posture seemed to have its backbone ripped out, her eyes becoming hollow and confused. "Could everything I did... have been wrong?"
"Of course it was wrong."
Gilgamesh, who had been watching the show, didn't miss the chance to deliver the final, fatal blow.
He shook his empty cup, his gaze filled with utter contempt.
"Sacrificing yourself for those mongrels like a clown, only to end up denying your own life." Gilgamesh sneered coldly. "Saber, what you have is not the King's Way."
"It's just a little girl's unrealistic fantasy, an insult to the noble title of 'King.'"
Two kings, equally renowned through history, used their domineering logic, tempered by the ages, to tear Saber's "Way of the Knight" to shreds.
Saber stood in place, her body trembling slightly.
She wanted to refute, to draw her sword, but her hand simply wouldn't lift.
Because deep down, that Hill of Camlann, filled with corpses and blood, was, as Rider said, the outcome she herself had steered towards.
Despair surged over her like a tide.
Just as Saber was about to sink into the abyss of self-doubt and admit she was a failure...
*Clap, clap, clap.*
A crisp, rhythmic sound of applause suddenly rang out in the courtyard, shattering the oppressively heavy atmosphere.
Everyone's gaze instantly snapped towards the source.
Hansen was still sitting there, even crossing his legs.
While clapping, he swept his gaze over the impassioned Rider and the arrogant Gilgamesh with a look one might give a circus performance.
"Brilliant, truly brilliant."
Rider frowned. "Ruler, do you also wish to refute this king's Domineering Way?"
"Refute?"
Hansen stopped clapping, stretched lazily, and let out a comfortable sigh.
"No, no, no, you've misunderstood."
He slowly stood up. His gray casual clothes swayed slightly in the wind, looking exceptionally relaxed. Yet, the composed aura about him made him seem even more arrogant than the armored kings.
"In the eyes of an adult, why would one refute the innocent chatter of children?"
"What did you say?!" Gilgamesh's eyes instantly turned dangerous, golden ripples beginning to shimmer in the space behind him once more.
"Isn't that the case?"
Hansen scoffed, his gaze sweeping over the three of them. "You're here arguing until you're red in the face. One says be greedy, one says seek pleasure, one says sacrifice."
"But in my view..."
Hansen shook his head, the corner of his mouth curling into an extremely mocking arc. "This is just two slightly bigger kids showing off to the little girl about whose toy is more fun."
"The so-called King's Way, the so-called Domineering Way..."
Hansen lifted his foot and took a step forward.
*Thud!*
Just one step.
The entire courtyard ground seemed to tremble. An invisible yet terrifying aura erupted instantly with him at its center.
"In the face of absolute power, these theories aren't even worth shit."
Rider's pupils constricted sharply. He instinctively gripped the short sword at his waist.
He sensed the monster lying dormant within that man was awakening.
Hansen ignored Rider, who was treating him as a formidable enemy. Instead, he turned his head and looked at the King of Knights who was on the verge of tears.
"Saber."
He called out plainly.
Saber raised her head. In her eyes, once filled with confusion, the tall figure of Hansen was now reflected.
"You wanting to change the past is indeed naive." Hansen's words remained blunt, yet they lacked Rider's aggressive, confrontational tone. "There are no regrets in this world. Not even the Holy Grail can achieve a perfect do-over."
As he spoke, he shifted his tone: "Besides, you already understand the true nature of that thing."
A shadow fell over Saber's eyes.
Beside them, Gilgamesh narrowed his eyes shrewdly.
True nature?
It seemed the other party possessed information even he was unaware of.
"When it comes down to it, everyone's the same."
Hansen pointed at Rider, then at Gilgamesh.
"Since they're all desires, there's no need to rank them as high or low, noble or base."
Hansen walked up to Saber, raised his hand, and placed it on the cold shoulder plate of her armor.
"If your fist is hard enough, your naivety becomes an ideal. If your fist isn't hard enough, your ideal becomes a joke."
"And Saber, you are now my person."
Hansen turned around, his back to Saber, facing Rider and Gilgamesh directly.
The Platinum Divine Fire flickered slightly in his eyes, his voice turning icy and domineering: "Even if her ideal is wrong, no one has the right to criticize her."
"Want to lecture her?" Hansen grinned, revealing a mouthful of stark white teeth. "You'll have to ask me first if I agree."
Rider and Gilgamesh were stunned on the spot.
The former's eyes showed approval and admiration, while the latter... had the distinct feeling of an Ox-Head Man watching the woman he fancied being led away hand-in-hand by another man.
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