Chapter 146: Lancelot and Arthur

But when the magic circle finally wore out, the light-emitting on the runes disappeared. As the luminance faded away, that faint light slowly revealed the surroundings. 

There was a table in front of us, with a man confidently standing at my fore. The bloke armed himself with a weapon and left no openings in his stance. My eyes couldn't describe the man's face. But it didn't take a genius to know that this guy glared in my direction, while observing our every move. That knight walked towards us and raised his bow.

My status warned me to run away after sensing such dangerous arcane running rampant inside the room…. But instead of heeding my conscience, I fought back the urge and returned the man's gaze

"Welcome, Arthur," the man spoke to me. "Or should I say…. an imposter."

The knight in shining armour had an exhausted look on his face as he met my eyes. That man remained stiff as a rock, with his hand gripping the handle of his bastard sword. He never let his gaze away from me, while maintaining my friends on his peripheral vision. 

Even though we were inside the room of a prestigious environment, this knight was the only one who greeted us. I expected more to arrive, since we had a demon on our side. But it turned out that my worries were nothing but cold air. 

I stood from the ground and flailed my hands. "I don't know why you're pointing your sword at my face. We mean no harm, knight. We're actually here to meet the king."

The mysterious knight remained his stern gaze as he gave me his reply. "My name is Lancelot, a noble knight of the roundtable! And I hereby sentence you to imprisonment until further notice!"

"You took the king's name and made him disappear! Fortunately, King Arthur returned just a few days ago. And that was when I knew your whereabouts from other villages. Why have you done this, adventurer! Explain!" the knight named Lancelot growled at me. "Are you conspiring with the demons? Did the demons send a spy to infiltrate our base? Because I can sense demonic energy spiralling inside this room."

As soon as Lancelot shouted those words, he inspected everyone who arrived in this room. Lilith and my other teammates wanted to retort and defend our demonic friend. But I lifted my arm and told my comrades to worry nothing about this situation.

"Before anything else, let's put down our weapons, shall we? We don't have to fight about everything. And let me speak too," I said, and sat on the chair. "Please have a seat, too. And Lilith! Take a seat right next to me."

There was no point in yelling at each other since a misunderstanding took place. Although Lancelot's words were partially true, there was something more behind that story.

Lancelot confusingly heeded my plea and sat on the opposite side. He remained his leer in our direction, checking our every move. Lilith did the same and tried casting some spells behind her back. But I stopped her from doing anything that could make this situation worse for everyone.

"Now that we're seated in, I will be the first one to speak up!" I exclaimed, and cleared my throat. "It's true that I share the same name as King Arthur of Camelot and the leader of Albion. But that doesn't mean I stole his name! I just realised that around a few days ago too! We're riding the same boat."

"And, yes. I am with a demon friend."

When I said those words, Lancelot wanted to interpose and attack me. That knight might have thought that I mocked him with my words. Little did he know I meant every word I narrated to him.

"Before swinging that sword like a barbarian, you should accept this. In fact, that's the main point of our journey. We planned on telling this to King Arthur, since he's the…. Well, king of Albion, I think we can spare some explanation."

Upon ending my sentence, I urged Lilith to introduce herself to Lancelot. We could avoid conflicts by introducing ourselves and our goal for this trip.

"My name is Lilith Umbra! I am the daughter of the demon lord. But I didn't come here to announce the war between humans and demons. I came here to end it!"

Anyone in this world would listen to Lilith's words. Demons who had the same pacific goal as Lilith were hard to find. It was as if looking for a pearl in the middle of the ocean.

But Lilith had proven Lancelot wrong. Since Lancelot was also a soldier, he probably knew about the demonic culture. And that culture explained the demon's inability to lie in a conversation.

"What do you mean by ending the war?" Lancelot asked, as he lowered his sword against Lilith. "Explain yourself, demon. And I know that you can't lie to anyone, especially to me. If I sense that you're bluffing, I will kill you right here and now."

Lilith confidently explained our goal to Lancelot, hoping he could understand. After hearing about Lilith's explanation, Lancelot turned his back against us and walked around. He pondered to himself and studied every word Lilith and told him. 

"Everything you said earlier….did you mean it?" Lancelot asked, and finally stopped walking in circles.

His tone changed into a surprised one and a higher pitch. Lancelot still had his doubts when he digested the meaning behind Lilith's words. But after a few seconds, he finally gave in and gave Lilith a chance to explain herself once again.

"What I've said is true, Sir Lancelot. My father accepted that proposal, as long as the demons would give fair treatment. All the demon wants is to find the perfect harmony between these two factions. We are tired from getting suppressed by humans. Those soldiers surrounding the demonic border killed my kin without doing anything to the villages. Well, there are times that those demons wanted revenge and killed some villages. But my father and I will always deal with those troublemakers everyday, until we stop them," Lilith narrated. "Those arrogant soldiers kept crossing our boulders. And the humans stole our resources and mines inside our lands. And when we did the same, you lots wanted to engage into war, while this famine strikes from our backs! Our enemy is our limited resources against this phenomenon, not against ourselves."

Lancelot raised his hand and told us to stay inside this room while he thinks on the other side of that door. He also assured us that he was all alone inside this room. And Lancelot wouldn't imprison us without proper reason. 

It took a few minutes before Lancelot could give us a reply. That knight slid the door open and went to our figures, waiting for his insights.

"You're right. I've also checked those documents you spoke of when I had my free time. And judging by those papers King Arthur has, some of them got fabricated. Those books spread to schools were edited by some scholars and made the demons the enemy. When I found something was off, I hurried myself to the library. It didn't take me long before realising that we have another side of the same coin."

Much to our surprise, Lancelot agreed to our suggestion. He even shared some information regarding this contract and how the treaty worked with humans before. But instead of blissfully accepting those details, Lilith clenched her fists and gritted her teeth. 

Fortunately, I held her hand and calmed her down before Lilith erupted like a volcano. 

"So humans changed history and made us humanity's greatest opponent, while seeing themselves as the hero…" Lilith murmured, while gazing at the ground. 

"It's hard to debate this topic from the Holy Light Church and to King Arthur. Those two officials are the ones who made that edited information possible. They didn't want to become the greedy individuals that could tarnish the council's name. I'm sorry if I couldn't do anything. I am just a knight without power. Although I may have become the king of this place for a short while, I didn't have much power over these documents. And I just got here as I followed your scent. After witnessing your presence, I also found that King Arrthur returned from his sudden disappearance. And I linked that disappearance from your group, since you share King Arthur's name. In addition, you have outmatched abilities, together with your comrades," Lancelot explained, as he went towards the door. "Well, I wouldn't expect less from the group of people who dethroned the crooked king. Don't worry. That part is taken care of by me. And that king used the tax of people for his personal deeds. We punished that tyrant leader for what he deserved."

This knight did his research and studied our information before meeting my group. Lancelot also knew the achievements of what we did from the Caerleon kingdom. And I believed that Lancelot also gauged my strength, since he thought I was the missing king or kidnapped King Arthur….