"What? We're not sleeping together?"
Since entering the city, Guinevere had seen nothing but splendor and prosperity. Though the commoners were fearful, their faces were plump and their bodies showed they were well-fed.
After passing through the outer and inner city walls, they reached the castle, the residence of the King of Knights. Yet the King of Knights immediately headed to her study. She had urgent state affairs to attend to and needed to regain her composure after Guinevere's relentless advances.
"Queen? Or should I address you as Your Highness, Guinevere?"
"Either will do... no, let's stick with Your Highness for now. The wedding ceremony hasn't taken place yet, so 'Queen' feels a bit premature—though I've already been addressed that way."
At that moment, Guinevere was in a temporary bedchamber, pondering her next move.
The stone room featured a spacious velvet bed that occupied half the space, along with an enormous wardrobe. Opening it revealed a dazzling array of gowns, including imported silk garments.
Yet despite the opulent wardrobe, after removing her armor, Guinevere had changed into a white training knight's uniform. Her gray-white hair was pulled back into a simple ponytail with the help of a chatty maid.
"You... you're Alice, right?"
"Yes, Your Highness, Princess Guinevere."
Few knew the King of Knights was female, and she never used maids. But there was no need to conceal Guinevere's gender, so she didn't mind employing maids.
Thus, the King of Knights had maids arranged
The other knights remained in the Inner City, settling into their assigned quarters under the guidance of Sir Ector, who had led the welcoming party.
Ector and Kay, the foster father and elder foster brother who had raised the King of Knights, now primarily oversaw the King's court administration and internal affairs.
With Kay still absent, all these responsibilities fell squarely on Ector's shoulders.
After leaving her temporary chamber, Guinevere strode ahead, casually surveying her future home with the air of a mistress inspecting her domain.
The King of Knights' Royal Palace far surpassed the grandeur of both the Outer and Inner Cities. Towering white marble pillars were ubiquitous, seemingly supporting the entire palace through sheer magic.
Moreover, the magnificent stone-built palace was extraordinarily spacious throughout, filled with designs Guinevere had only ever seen in video games from her past life.
In short, the palace's architecture was impossibly magical, defying the limits of its materials and logic.
"Alice, what should I do? I'm starting to feel like a true country bumpkin after all."
Guinevere hadn't excelled academically in her previous life, and after completing her basic education in this life, she had primarily taught others in subsequent cultural studies. Yet, as she toured the palace, her mental repertoire of praises was nearly exhausted.
Despite her admiration, Guinevere couldn't help but find a flaw in the sprawling castle: it was excessively large, more suited to being a temple for deities than a dwelling for humans.
This thought sparked unease in Guinevere's heart. She recalled the Holy Lance used by the King of Knights during the War of the Five Kings. As far as she knew, prolonged use of the lance would inevitably lead to divine corruption, causing the wielder to become increasingly godlike.
With this realization, Guinevere feared that the future King of Knights she remembered might grow even more detached from human sentiment. Perhaps the Kingdom's decline wasn't solely due to political decay, but also stemmed from the Holy Lance's excessive use.
"Um, Your Highness, Princess Guinevere, are you listening? Lady Morgan... Lady Morgan le Fay sends her greetings."
"Ah?"
Guinevere had been lost in thought, yet she trusted her senses implicitly. However, the cool-faced, veiled woman who had breached her awareness and materialized before her without her noticing left Guinevere deeply startled upon snapping back to reality.
"Greetings, Lady Morgan... le Fay."
Morgan le Fay, a supremely powerful sorceress in the Fate universe, daughter of the late King Uther, elder sister of the King of Knights, the most legitimate heir to the throne of Great Britain, and the Faerie of the Lake, Vivian.
However, the version of Morgan's origins that Guinevere had heard in this world aligned more closely with Le Morte d'Arthur.
She was still the King of Knights' elder sister, a supremely powerful sorceress, and the mother of Gawain, Gaheris, Gareth, and Agravain, as well as the Queen of Orkney.
But she was no longer King Uther's daughter. Instead, she was the child of the Duchess and the Duke, conceived before Uther stole the Duchess away and forced her to bear the King of Knights.
The King of Knights and Morgan le Fay were no longer full siblings, but half-sisters sharing the same mother but different fathers.
This arrangement alone allowed Uther to marry Morgan off to another feudal lord before marrying the Duchess himself. It also enabled Morgan to give birth to Sir Gawain, who was roughly the same age as the King of Knights and currently served under her banner.
Regardless of her father's identity, Morgan's complex feelings toward the King of Knights remained unchanged. She loathed this "cursed child" who had caused her father's death and her mother's remarriage, forcing her into a political marriage.
Yet she also loved her half-sister, lamenting that they were both mere puppets of fate.
Even through the veil concealing her face, the piercing malice in Morgan's gaze was palpable to Guinevere.
"Even with your help, that bastard child will still be usurped by me. I will become the new King of Great Britain."
Morgan's voice was strikingly different from the King of Knights'—mature and... gentle?
After uttering these words, she departed, her frigid figure quickly evading Guinevere's lingering psychic connection.
"Um, Your Highness? Did you and Lady Morgan say something to each other?"
Guinevere frowned, her attention drawn to the present by her maid Alice's timid voice. Alice clearly hadn't overheard Morgan's earlier remarks.
"Nothing much," Guinevere replied. "She said she wanted me to tie her up and spank her. I refused."
"Your Highness, please refrain from such jokes. If Sir Gawain were to hear you, he would demand a duel to defend his mother's honor, even if you are destined to become Queen."
"Tch, is that so? Well, let Sir Gawain come for me then. Since I've come to Camelot City, I was planning to challenge each of the knights here one by one anyway. Besides, Lady Morgan provoked me first. If Sir Gawain confronts me, I'll have plenty to say."
Despite Guinevere's confident words, Morgan's sudden appearance had stirred an unprecedented unease within her heart, leaving her with no appetite to continue her tour of the Royal Palace.
"Alice, where's the Training Ground? Take me there."
"Huh?"
Morgan had made Guinevere acutely aware of her own inadequacy. She couldn't afford to slack off any longer; she needed to seize every spare moment to grow stronger!