Thanks to her having received the King's approval, Klea was allowed access to the Knights of the Round Table's main hall, where the Sword of Destiny could be seen embedded deep into the stone, prepared for the time of the ceremony later on.
As the hall was considered sacred to the Kingdom, only a group of selected knights were allowed to be assigned to escort Klea. Besides them, there were also the Court Wizard of the Kingdom Gaious and Golden Knight Sir Yvain.
However, the unexpected figure in this entourage was the Queen herself, who had apparently left the banquet to accompany Klea.
The group soon arrived before the marble plinth where the stone was placed, whereupon Gaious went to stand beside it and started talking about the history of the illustrious sword.
"Here is the Sword of Destiny, the Excalibur," the old man spoke with fervor in his voice. "Only a select few may be able to obtain its powers, as evidenced by history, where only two people have wielded it so far."
Klea ignored the old wizard's words as she made her way to the plinth and touched the sword's hilt in a casual manner. While most of those present looked surprised by the Egyptian Queen's actions, Gwen herself wore a curious expression.
She watched in full attention as Klea came into contact with the sword. The reason for that was because she was particularly interested in whether the sword would have a reaction to this young woman, who seemed to have the same power as Emery.
Alas, there was none at all.
On the other hand, Klea's actions made the old wizard repeat his words. "Like I said just now, it cannot be wielded by just anyone, unless the sword has chosen them."
Once again, Klea ignored the old man's ramblings as she ran her finger along the sword, admiring the beautiful jewels embroidered around its crystal-like body and its gleaming silver blade that was placed majestically on the massive carved stone.
A wide smile of admiration appeared on her face as she said, "You are such a magnificent, beautiful sword. Let me hold you for a while, will you?"
Klea's words managed to make the old wizard break into a chuckle. However, his chuckle was cut short and his face immediately turned pale, when the second time Klea grabbed the sword's hilt, she was able to easily pull it out of the stone.
Ignoring the shocked looks everyone was giving her, Klea had her full attention to the sword in her hand and said, "You are indeed a beauty."
As someone who could be considered an expert in Spirit Reading, Klea could sense and communicate with the sword, luckily the latter answered her call. Unfortunately, as she brandished the sword, she did not feel any power like Emery had told her.
Not to mention the appearance of two bright lights that could be interpreted as potential rulers of the Kingdom of Britain, there wasn't even a single bright light that she could see when she held the sword.
Klea just smiled at the old wizard when she saw him heave a sigh of relief at not seeing anything happen.
She wasn't too disappointed to be unable to receive its power as her objective in seeing the Sword was none other than to find out if it could help in their fight against the Kronos faction.
If it was true that only King Arthur could unleash its true power, then depending on how strong that power was, the young king could become one of the candidates for the upcoming duel.
While still holding the sword, Klea turned to the people accompanying her, "You guys don't mind if I borrow the sword for a while, right?"
In an instant, the old wizard broke into a frantic outburst. It seemed he opposed the idea vehemently. But before he could voice her opinion, Gwen quickly stepped up and said, "You may hold onto it, but it must not leave the castle's premises. After all, that sword is the symbol of the kingdom."
"I see, then just while I'm here, thank you."
The others seemed to be against the idea of ​​a foreigner carrying their kingdom's national treasure with them, but since their queen had approved it, there was nothing they could do but to ensure it remained within the castle.
Now that she had got hold of what she came here for, Klea made her return to her quarters in the castle. In the meantime, Luna was confused by the sudden increase of security around the mansion.
That night, Klea constructed and cast all the rune formations she knew of onto the sword, to try to analyze it. In the many attempts and several hours spent, she managed to find a few clues.
To be deemed to have completed an analysis of a sword like this, one needed to determine the quality of the material, the enchantment that had been applied and the soul that had been used.
For the material, her rune formation confirmed it to be a Tier 6 artifact, which was a relief for her since the existence of a Tier 7 artifact could bring another set of problems to Earth.
The most interesting part in this whole process was when she determined the enchantments applied onto the sword. To her surprise, the set of runes on the sword's blade was something she found difficult to recognize even with her knowledge of formations.
This meant there was something unique with the way it was enchanted. As for the soul aspect, it was something definitely above magus level.
"I wonder if there is someone who knows about the history of this sword," Klea muttered under her breath, fascinated by what she discovered.
Klea knew from the Fey that the knowledge about this sword had been lost to the rivers of time. Hence, the other person she could think of was the Northern King Fjolrin, who was said to have lived for a thousand years.
She was tempted to summon her thunderbird and head for the man while bringing along the sword. But not trying to make trouble for Emery's good friends, she decided to send a letter to the Northern King through her spell instead.
As the light caused by the spell faded, she looked out her room window.
"I guess I'll be staying here for a while."
...
Unknowingly, the morning sun had emerged, its rays filtered through the windows of the mansion. It wasn't long before several horn sounds echoed throughout the City of Camelot, signaling that the tournament was about to begin.
Not wanting to waste time here, Klea left her room in the hope of finding at least one interesting talent among the tournament participants.