He, who was born with determination became a failure, needed by no one.
“…Why did you have to be born…”
This was the sentence that was unintentionally uttered by a middle aged man.
At that time, I was not developed enough to know that the other was my ‘father’. I only knew he was not dangerous and I would often see him.
Sometimes, he wold accidentally spurt these kind of sentences out.
“…Did we make a wrong decision…”
“…Is it my fault…”
“…It is wrong that you are here…it is wrong that you made another child of ours into a talentless person…”
I never understood and never will. Until I met ‘her’, I learnt something about this world…this world that is not worth living in at all.
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It happened when I was running away.
I remembered, that day, I was running away from something called an ‘elder brother’. Me at the age of 2 years old could feel danger emitting from him. As if he was a doggie that would spring towards me every time I walked past him. His eyes would always be sparkling…when I knew what was going on, I labeled those eyes as ‘l.u.s.t’.
That day, I ran towards the back of my house and coincidentally, when I was hiding, my hand triggered a mechanism, making me fall down to a room. It’s an old place and there was a pool of clear water at the middle that seemed out of place.
At that place, I met ‘her’.
A woman with golden locks who was sleeping. The me at that time did not know what beauty was but she sparkled, not like anything I’ve seen before. I walked closer out of curiosity…close enough for her to notice my presence and open her eyes.
Her eyes were pale blue: gentle and glistening.
The me at that time did not know what beauty was…
But when she smiled…
My whole world…
“Bedivere…are you not Bedivere?”
Became brighter in the blink of an eye.
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Everything began here. At that time, I was still young…to be honest, I am still a child even now.
I remember, after she smiled, she spoke…she spoke non-stop, she probably forgot that her conversation partner was a ‘2 years-old’ boy and the sad thing was that she knew what she had to do to make someone listen to her vent her sadness out since she’s been alone for thousands of years so, she began blessing me.
“We bestow you with intelligence…”. She closed her eyes and gave me blessings which were like curses to me. “…You will be able to learn things quickly. You will have an intelligence above any others who are the same age…”
…They seemed like blessings from heaven.
The me at that time…still could not understand as usual. After blessing me with the gift of intelligence which will undoubtedly bring me misfortune in the future, she did not stop there. Just like how she would not speaking, her blessing was not limited to one.
“…The second blessing we will bestow upon you is…”, she closed her eyes and smiled – just like a kind angle in fairytales. “…You will grow up into a gentle, kind-hearted child with endurance above any other.”
If the me in the future was here, after receiving ‘intelligence’, I swear I would have slapped her because of her latest blessing…endurance above others.
“…and…the last blessing…”
They say the last blessing is the best…because it will the most powerful and important one and…
“You will grow up to become a beautiful child like us…there will be no one with better features than you…you will become a perfect woman and will become the Kingdom’s Queen!”
…It’s the worst!
At that time, I still…did not understand.
But at least, the 2 years-old me knew that a Queen is a t.i.tle for a ‘woman’ so I could not resist asking that thousand years old auntie…
“…But I’m a boy?”
“What?!”, her eyes opened wide before she smiled sweetly.
“Then would you like me to curse you and make you a girl?”
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Her name is…Excalibur.
After I received my blessing, I started to ‘realise’ and grew faster than those of the same age. I was able to read and write faster than I would have been able to. My thoughts were becoming more mature.
…And my features started to drift away from masculinity.
First, I should expand on the blessings that were given to me by that thousand years old auntie.
Intelligence…so I may be able to listen to her rants and able to converse with her.
Kind-hearted and endurance above any other….so I may listen to her without wanting to punch her in the face.
And…beautiful features, a future queen…the only scary thing is that when I grow up to become a Queen, ‘that thing’ may also disappear. ( TN: if you don’t understand this, it’s his w.i.l.l.y )
What the h.e.l.l is up with this blessing! It’s a curse!!
The deal was that, if I didn’t want to become a real ‘Queen’, I would have to go and meet her everyday…
Bang!
I threw a book towards the golden sword. My household is pretty rich so it’s not like there’ll be a problem if a book goes missing.
“…Child, your temper is becoming worse…or is it that your period has come? But you are only 4-5 years old and you are already ready to bear a child, our power is truly the best in this world…”
The corner of my mouth twitched.
“Excalibur…I’m a man.”, I reminded her. Even though, none of my manly features have decided to grow at all but on the other hand, it might as well be because I am still a child. “…such a bad luck…”
“There is no bad luck in my blessing. No man can go against a woman. Even a King has to obey his Queen…”, the Holy Sword of Legends said. She picked up the book before throwing it into the pool of water so she can read it later. “Another thing, it is your fortune to have been born a Bedivere. If you were not a Bedivere, you would not be able to see our human form…”
This is also another misfortunate coincidence. Excalibur is an extraordinarily picky person. If she does not accept someone, that person would not be able to see her human form; they will only see her as a pretty golden sword, that’s all.
The reason why I’m able to see her is because I have the blood of Bedivere. She told me that she was indebted to my household because we did not throw her back to the lake where she came from. In exchange, she promised that no matter who, as long as they are a descendant of Bedivere, they will able to see her and ask her for blessings.
…But apart from me, she’s not given her blessing to any other Bediveres at all since they’ve all forgotten her or have yet to come to meet her.
…If possible she should be buried somewhere no one will ever find her!
“Child…do you have any news of the descendants of Arthur Pendragon today?”, Excalibur said as she floated before me.
She would often say that she’s the sword of Arthur Pendragon, the first King of the reign of the royal family, Pendragon. She also said that she desired to become a sword for the King who carries the same blood as Arthur Pendragon. Yet, when I offered to bring one of the Princes here, she shook her head.
“We are a woman!”, the thousand years old auntie proclaimed. “We are the most beautiful and perfect woman! So, if one thinks of touching me and becoming my master, they must pa.s.s the trial…”
“Wait, what?! Trial?!!”
“Oh? Have we not told you before?”, Excalibur looked at me innocently. “If you used the normal pathway to come here, you would encounter 99 traps and mechanisms, ancient mechanism created by ourself and so not to make us look easy, we have prepared another mechanism, the 100th mechanism. This mechanism was crafted from a high level spell that may make some accidentally kill themselves…”
“…”
I’ve been risking my life to see her all these days?!
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“Child!! Today someone came to see me!! The child with the blood of Merlin said his name was Salsaal Secalno De Arthur!!”
“F-Finally! Arthur sent someone to fetch me!!”
While I was sleeping, Excalibur suddenly communicated with me. Her voice was filled with excitement and happiness. She even hurried me to go see the Holy Ritual which happened thousands of years ago. So, when I got dressed, I used my usual secret pa.s.sage to go see her. I saw her pacing around the room.
“Are we beautiful enough!!”
She immediately asked me as she saw me…I looked at her, today, Excalibur is more beautiful than any other days. She tied up her golden locks and changed her clothes to an extravagant one with ruffles.
“Yeah, you’re beautiful.”
“A-A-Are we lacking in anything!”, she started to panic. “O-Or is it that we look old? Obviously, this dress was in fashion a thousand years ago. What should…What should…!!”
“You told me that your beauty is unrivalled so why are you panicking?”
“Yes…it is true.”, her eyes sparkled. “Why should we be scared since we are the most beautiful!”
Here it is…her unrivalled narcissism.
I rolled my eyes before being pushed behind the wall by the ‘most beautiful women with unrivalled beauty’. She cast a camouflage spell on me and told me I can look around but I must not make any noise.
After a while, ‘Arthur’ came…
As Prince Salsaal and Merlin stepped into the room, they froze. I thought they were trapped in Excalibur’s 100th mechanism and it would probably be a while before they can escape. I turned to look at the room’s owner and widened my eyes…
“No…no…”
Her body floated towards Salsaal and stopped before him. She extended her hands and touched the Prince’s arm. Her countenance paled as she touched him. “…His blood…does not contain a trace of Arthur Pendragon’s blood. Not at all…”
How could it be?
“Prince Salsaal was born from the Queen. He’s the eldest son of the Royal Family.”, I told her what information I had of him but Excalibur shook her head even harder.”…Or is it that Prince Salsaal is the son of the Queen and…her secret lover?”
Once I spoke, Excalibur’s countenance seemed to improve. She muttered something, “Yeah…it’s probably like that because we can feel the blood of Constantin, one of Arthur’s knights of the round table…no matter what era it may be, there will always be issues involving secret lovers. Another thing, there is no way for the blood of Arthur Pendragon to disappear completely…”
Excalibur closed her eyes…
“…We must be overthinking it.”
The me at that time, no matter how intelligent I might’ve been, I was still a child. So I did not realise her saying she was ‘overthinking’ was a prayer to let it ‘not be real’.
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After that day, the Prince and the Wizard came to destroy the mechanisms. Excalibur told me to not return until they are gone. She told me she was going to go into slumber for while. I thought she must be tired…but I did not know that in fact, she was trying to escape reality. At that time, I thought when she wakes up she would probably talk to me endlessly like we used to.
When I discovered Prince Salsaal used her through Haref Lancelot, I could only curse him in my heart that he’s stupid. That woman is not fond of Salsaal because he does not carry the blood of Arthur Pendragon but that black guy still used her…
Be careful, she may end up ‘blessing’ you!
And at the same time I discovered something…
Arthur Pendragon died before he was able to have an heir.
The current Royal Family are descendants of a knight, named ‘Constantin’.
He made himself King and used his master’s name – Arthur Pendragon as his Surname. That was how the dynasty of Arthur came to be.
What was weird was that she did not turn into her human form and protest against this so, I thought the Prince must’ve sealed her powers or she was still in slumber…
But I was wrong…I was terribly wrong…
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That night she came to me…
Not just her voice but she came with her body.
“…We have always known you were a boy…”, she closed her eyes. “We knew so we gave you that blessing which will make you as beautiful as a woman. We knew you would get angry but we did it only because…we wanted to talk to you.”
“…”
“We wanted to create a deal, to make you come see us because we knew, if we don’t do something, we will be all alone at that place again.”, her blue eyes met mine. Those eyes were still with no trace of kindness. “…We are sorry.”
I was silent. I didn’t know what to say. My emotions were chaotic. I did not know if I should be angry, irritated or laugh it off.
“We came here to say goodbye.”
At last, I felt something certain. It was grief.
“We now have a master and would probably not go back to that place again…. We probably would not be able to meet you again…”, She smiled slowly. A smile which I could not tell whether it was a gentle smile or a courteous smile. “The blood of Arthur Pendragon is no more in this world…so we will not wait anymore…”
At that moment, I wanted to ask her…
Is Arthur Pendragon of such high importance to her?
For a thousand years she’s been waiting for someone who carries that person’s blood. Has she been waiting for so long that her heart was broken by the fact that no one in this world carries his blood?
No…I should not say any of these words…
I…
“Goodbye…Ca.s.s”
That was the first time she called me ‘Ca.s.s’.
…And the last time I saw her.
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“…I’ve been wondering, isn’t the name Excalibur a bit too masculine? Since you’re a woman…or is it…”
I asked her this a long time ago.
“We’re this beautiful, there’s no way we can be a man!”, Excalibur looked at me angrily. “The name Excalibur was bestowed upon us by the Lady of the lake. Although, she was as beautiful as us, her taste was questionable…”
This seems more like it.
“We are the most beautiful woman ever since we were born!”, she scrunched her face before continuing. “In a matter of fact…your words are similar to that of our master, Arthur Pendragon. He once told me this name was too masculine and that it was not befitting of someone as beautiful as us.”
“…”, I rolled my eyes…he was probably afraid you were a cross dressing sword!
“That was why he named us and told us to use this name when we are in our human form…when someone asks us what our name is, he told me to use the name he’d given us… It’s a pleasant name and we like it very much when he calls us…”
She smiled and closed her eyes.
“Guinevere…”
“…Guinevere Excalibur…”
The one and only Holy Sword of Arthur Pendragon.
[ Tea time behind the curtains -It’s not like they want to stay with someone older, but they are surrounded by those who are older- ]
Ca.s.s: “Wait! What kind of topic is this!!”
Gilbert: “Oh…my beloved lil’ bro is having puppy love with someone older?”
Excalibur: “Actually, we know that we are exceedingly beautiful but we are not interested in children.”
Haref: “…If you want to marry my sword, you have to give me your elder brother in exchange.”
Haref: “But I will only let you marry each other. Excalibur will still be my sword.”
Ca.s.s: “All of you, stop making things up! When did I have any interests in this thousand years old aunt?!”
Ca.s.s: “Another thing, I’m not gaining anything from this at all. I’m giving you my elder brother but you’re not even planning on giving me your sword!”
Gilbert: “Do-Do-Does it mean that if you can have the sword, you’ll exchange me?!”
Ca.s.s: “There’s no way I’ll exchange you! Since you’re the elder brother I lov…lo-lo-loathe!”
Haref: “…future younger brother-in-law.”
Ca.s.s: “What future younger brother-in-law! I’m not giving him to you. No matter what!”