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【Iri...Merlin, in the future you see, will I become a better person? 】

Awakened by the chirping of birds, the moment she opened her eyes in a daze, she was filled with golden sunlight that filled the entire field of vision, making her want to raise her hands to cover her eyes, but found that her hands were so numb that she couldn't lift them up. half height.

Not such a good experience.

After being dazed for two seconds before waking up, she realized that she had fallen asleep lying on the desk last night. The window in front of the desk was half open, and the sunlight unscrupulously spread on the desk, and the dust in the air stained a thin circle. The golden halo, the cold wind of early spring blowing the half-worn curtains, followed by a petite bird landed on her hand familiarly, pecking and playing with her fingers.

After letting the little bird fly to her finger, she raised her hand, and she leaned closer, smiling softly as usual.

"Good morning."

The bird responded by touching her cheek lightly, flapping its wings and chirping shortly.

"Yes, I will pay attention to closing the window next time."

"grumble!"

"Okay, I'll try not to stay up late in the future, okay?"

"grumble."

After getting a barely satisfactory answer, the little bird pecked her face lightly again, turned around and flew out of the window.

Looking at the small figure that disappeared among the trees in the blink of an eye, the corners of her mouth curled up in a helpless and pampering arc, and she lowered her head and began to tidy up the desk.

The randomly placed and partially opened magic books and the not too many official documents that can be called "piles" occupy the entire plane of the desk.

It can be said that it is a magical skill for her to sleep on her stomach on such a desk all night, right?

While teasing herself in her heart, she stretched out her hand and tapped twice on the desktop.

In the next second, whether it was a thick magic book with obscure contents or light or heavy official documents, they all floated up and stacked together in an orderly manner, and it didn't take a few minutes for the desktop to become refreshed again.

Satisfied with the results of the little magic she created, she turned around and was about to clean up before she went out. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw her signature on the top official document, and she couldn't help but pause.

【Merlin】

A word that is both familiar and always full of disobedience, that is her name.

I couldn't help but recall the dream I had before waking up.

That must have been a long time ago.How long has it been?She found that her concept of this period of time had become so blurred that she couldn't figure it out.

She is obviously an immortal magician, the time during which can only be called "short" in her life.

At that time, Artoria had just pulled out the Sword in the Stone, and asked her the question "Will I become a better person" during the break of her journey to become a king.

The girl who knows the path she has walked and its end, because she is too concerned about the future, has a feeling of insecurity that would not have appeared in her body.

At that time, she defined Artoria's state like this.

And how did she answer her then?

Can not remember.

The memory of that question and answer was unexpectedly chaotic, and it seemed that once the thoughts touched the edge of that memory, they would turn into nothingness.

Although it didn't suit her personality, she subconsciously didn't delve into the problem of that memory.

However, the magician's dream would not be meaningless, and a little worry appeared in her heart.

While cleaning herself up and thinking about it one after another, she pushed open the door and stepped over the threshold.

The breeze generated by the circulating air blows her pure white mage robe with some traces of age, and the silver-white hair, which is more holy than the robe, rises and spreads with the wind, like an unfolded angel under the slightly golden sunlight. The wings made her body inexplicably entangled with an unreal hazy feeling.

Half-closed her eyes to feel the breath of the earth brought by the breeze, her wine-red eyes seem to reflect the mountains, villages and farmlands outside the city of Cammeler to the distant sky.

What a beautiful day.

If only this year's harvest can be as good as today's weather.

pity.

As King Arthur's teacher and also King Arthur's most important subject, according to Arturia's proposal, she should live in the palace.However, she did not accept this proposal, which was actually very convenient for both public and private use.

"I want to live among the people, so that I can reflect the people's sentiments more intuitively, so I can help Arturia." That's what she replied at the time.Of course, it is true.

There are always few pedestrians on the streets of Canmele, whether it is a naturally cold morning or a theoretically busy time.

Of course, this is not to say that Camille is in a depression. In fact, according to what she, Artoria, and Kai saw and heard during the training trip, all parts of Britain are sparsely populated.Although it was only recently taken back from King Vortigern, Cammela, as the capital of King Arthur, is already the most prosperous place in Britain. However, including other divided territories within the [capital city] neighborhood, The total population of Canmele does not even exceed [-]—this is a very unreasonable thing. Although Britain has suffered from civil strife and alien invasion, the long-term war and violent years will indeed reduce the population sharply, but even the capital city With a population of only tens of thousands, this can be called a "township" rather than a "city".

Fortunately, the population of foreign races does not seem to be large, and the invading army is usually in the thousands or tens of thousands.

However, it made her feel that the whole world was against her.

While walking leisurely towards the palace, she pondered over these doubts that could not be explained for a long time. It was not until the clear and clear sound of children playing that she came back to her senses and realized that she had already walked to the square in the center of the city.

There are five or six children playing around the statue in the center of the square, wanton and lively, swaying the enthusiasm and vitality of life to the fullest.

But she couldn't help but think of Artoria when she was a child.Arturia has been receiving strict education since she was very young. She did not have a normal childhood where children played freely. She received various levels of education all day long, and the only free time she had was to take care of the horses.

A trace of distress flashed across her face—even she herself was the culprit for occupying Artoria's dream for teaching.

"Ah, it's Merlin."

Ah, of course it was discovered.

Thinking like this leisurely, she put the emotions in her heart behind her, smiled and watched the children running towards her.

"Good morning, Merlin."

"Good morning, boys."

Although she lives among the common people, because she gets up early and has heavy official duties, the number of times the children can see her is only a handful.

But even so, she is still very popular with children-a big sister who is gentle, smiling, approachable and good at telling stories, and her attributes are very suitable for children's tastes.

"Will Merlin tell a story today?" The little boy with blond hair raised his head and asked.

She looked down at the blond-haired little boy, a very cute child, with his hair fluffed up so that he looked full of life, but for some reason, he gave her a vague feeling.

In fact, except for a small number of people, all people gave her a vague feeling, with an unnatural sense of incongruity, which made her think that maybe it was because she was not of the same race as humans.

"Yes, what story do you want to hear today?" Seeing that there is still plenty of time, she can sit down and tell a story before going to the palace.

"Ah! I want to hear the king's story!" The children booed excitedly.

"Then tell me the story of Wang's childhood."

"When Wang was young? Did he lead a group of children to dominate? Beat the villains who would bully children to their knees and beg for mercy?"

"Ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah a little adult looks like a little adult since childhood"

Unexpectedly, she started talking about Artoria's childhood, and the children's curiosity about idols made her forget the passage of time.

"Merlin."

A familiar voice came from behind, and it took her two seconds to realize that it was her who called her. She turned her head and saw Artoria, who was rarely dressed in plain clothes, standing behind her and looking at her helplessly.

"Why is the king here?" The children excitedly ran to the king's side when they saw Artoria. She sat there smiling and asking non-nutritive topics, but she didn't intend to get up.

Artoria patted the heads of the children and walked to her side.

"Seeing that you haven't come yet, I'm a little worried so I'll come out and have a look."

"I'm in no danger in Kanmeile, where you are." She said jokingly, but she still became happy in her heart. "It's cold in the morning, why don't you come out wearing a cloak?"

"You know I'm not afraid of the cold." Arturia sat down beside her while talking, "What are you talking about?"

"The story of your childhood." Although she didn't actually tell anything explosive, there was a mischievous smile on her face. It can't be called a bad smile, maybe it's more accurate to call it teasing, "It just so happens that you Come on, it will be more interesting if you tell me yourself."

"There is nothing to talk about, it's just a very ordinary childhood." Arturia pretended to be serious and wanted to expose this topic.

"Ah, the king is shy."

"Iri...Merlin!"

Seeing Arturia's reaction, she couldn't help chuckling.

Arturia, I always call her by the wrong name when I'm shy.