Miss Hebe Is Charging Through the Lostbelts! [7]

Die? What kind of joke was that?

For a moment, Arthur thought Merlin was playing another prank on her.

But she quickly realized that this time, it was no childish trick.

Beneath that court mage’s robe, two-thirds of the body had already turned into clear, limpid water. And as time passed, it was becoming harder and harder to hold it together.

Of course. How could she have defeated Morgan, who possessed a Great Deed, without paying any price at all?

Arthur’s breathing grew heavy. Only then did she fully realize what she had just done.

Guilt, grief, and pain crashed over the king’s mind like a flood. She almost wanted to pass out, yet a Dusk-ranked mind kept her trapped in a terrible lucidity.

It shouldn’t be like this. It shouldn’t have come to this. Something must have gone wrong somewhere.

And yet Arthur let none of it show. She still maintained the majesty of Albion’s king, looking down at Hebe from above.

“I understand.”

Beg me. Just beg me. If you use the Sword in the Stone… there’s still time for everything. Arthur thought.

But the king’s expression remained as hard as iron.

And that was exactly the answer Hebe wanted. At last, she could leave this Lostbelt in peace.

Calmly, Hebe raised a hand and swept aside the drifting curtain. The motion made several of her fingers fall away, splashing into a puddle of clear water on the floor.

Step by step, she walked toward Arthur, while the king glared at her with wide eyes.

Just a little closer. Just a little closer, and I can use the Sword in the Stone to “invest” you…

Hebe stopped two paces away from Arthur, then lifted her last remaining finger and pressed it to the center of her brow.

Arthur was both startled and furious.

“Honestly, I don’t care in the slightest about being a court mage, or a sage, or any such station. But in the end, I also had a hand in Albion’s founding and prosperity.”

Hebe’s voice sounded beside Arthur’s ear, touched with a hint of lightness, a trace of laughter.

“So this is my revenge on you.”

Illusory pansies burst into bloom with fervent life, swiftly overtaking the walls, the floor, the windowsills—everything in sight. They replaced the ceiling threaded with pipes and fuel channels, layering over one another as brilliant, dreamlike daylight shone through them.

Everything felt weightless, as though it were steadily rising upward.

At last the pansies could no longer hold their shape. In ecstatic profusion, they surged toward the sky above.

A spiraling tower of pure white rose from the earth.

At the edge of the horizon, twilight still glimmered, and countless flowers, fierce as flames, bloomed as they flew toward the heavens.

Arthur sat upon the iron throne, watching Hebe’s actions with cold eyes. The flower petals drifting upward passed through the king’s body without affecting her in the slightest.

The pure white tower, the sea of flowers, the dreamlike daylight—all of it existed in another dimension, sharply distinct from reality.

“Illusory. Powerless… and this can still be called a Great Deed?” Arthur said.

“No. It’s a blueprint.” Hebe smiled faintly. “A key that opens up the possibilities of the future. With it, every mistake can be set right.”

“What comes next will be a long and lonely journey, so please endure it.”

“But I promise you, Artoria.”

Hebe bowed slightly, pressing her right arm gently to her chest.

“At journey’s end, everything will be all right. Everything will be set in order.”

May heaven bless my king.

—[AVALON: THE EVERDISTANT UTOPIA].

[CURRENT LOSTBELT PROGRESS: 100%]

[1455 · WAR OF THE ROSES HAS ENDED.]
[“KNOWER” LOGGED OUT.]

…

She wanted to cry out, but no sound came.

From somewhere far away, it felt as though someone were calling her name—not Arthur, but the name abandoned long ago at the end of that pilgrimage: “Artoria.”

“After you draw that sword, what do you want to do?”

The evening sky, drenched in gold and violet, spread overhead as the girl lying in the hay turned her head and asked with a bright smile.

“Of course I’d drive the invaders out of Albion,” she had answered then.

“Mhm. And after that?” the girl with the beautiful pink eyes asked. “Become Albion’s new king?”

“If I have to become the new king, then naturally I’ll take up that duty without hesitation!” she had answered loudly. But then her voice dropped. “But being king would be troublesome, wouldn’t it… I’ve never learned how, and no one’s ever taught me.”

The sun’s afterglow gradually faded from the sky. The clouds turned blue-violet, and a few stars had already begun to appear against the deepening dark.

“I see. Then from now on, I’ll be your court mage and become a sage who belongs only to you,” said the girl, her words muffled by the stalk of straw between her lips. “You just keep sitting on the throne, and leave all the troublesome stuff to me.”

The girl shook out her white hair. “As long as you don’t regret it one day.”

“I won’t regret it,” Artoria had answered firmly.

…

The king lowered her head slightly. She had become Artoria once more.

At last, the power of [Avalon] began to take effect on her, driving the sickness from her body, repairing that long-damaged frame, and restoring aged organs to new life.

The pipes binding her to the iron throne fell away one by one in utter silence. Artoria lifted her arms, as though welcoming her own rebirth—or as though she were reaching out to embrace someone.

There was no one there to embrace her.

“Merlin, you lying cheat…”

The tower of pure white had already risen from the earth and had begun to merge with reality. At its summit was a small room, corresponding to the palace where the iron throne stood in the real world.

At this moment, only that one cramped palace remained unchanged, while the world beyond the tower began to undergo earthshaking transformation. The torrent of time surged past, swift and violent. All things faded and shifted within it, and yet somehow, everything seemed to be getting better.

This was [Avalon]’s true function.

In essence, it was only a blueprint that revealed the possibilities of the future.

But at the instant a Lostbelt was about to reach its end, that blueprint could become a lamp that cast out the dark, allowing this stretch of history to connect to the future its designer had envisioned.

Barring accident, it would carry Artoria whole into the future five hundred years later.

And yet the girl seated on the iron throne remained utterly unmoved by any of it.

She simply rose from the throne, then crouched down and looked at the clear, rippling water on the floor before laying her right hand upon it.

“I invest you as the sole wife of Albion’s king, the queen who shall share my glory for all eternity,” she said softly.

The water rippled in silence.

…

When Morgan entered the palace housing the iron throne, this was the scene that greeted her.

Perhaps because no one had visited this place in so long, when Artoria looked up, she had almost forgotten how to speak. Even so, her eyes were full of confusion.

“From the Lostbelt to Proper Human History, it was Merlin’s Great Deed that protected us,” Morgan answered. “But the old Albion was destroyed along with the past. That is precisely why my Great Deed was truly accomplished.”

The moment that Great Deed was accomplished anew, Morgan’s body naturally re-formed as well.

“Even so, she still kept the promise she made back then,” Morgan said. “And you? What exactly are you doing? Investing a puddle of water as your queen?”

Artoria did not react. She sat quietly by that puddle of water.

Morgan lifted her hand, then let it fall again. She looked at Artoria with sorrow and shook her head.

“Art, I despise myself. But the way you are now is so pitiful I can’t even summon up the will to despise you.”

She turned and left the palace.

“Heh heh.”

A light laugh drifted from the empty hall behind her.

Then the laughter turned shrill, piercing, and desolate—worse than a wail.

This is a fan translation of 赫柏小姐正在杀出异闻带！ by 青散人 Rights to the original work belong to the creator. Please support them by exploring their original work or sharing it with others if you can. Thank you for reading and supporting my efforts to bring this story to a wider audience!