In the corner of the alley, a blonde girl was cautiously peeking in his direction, carefully scanning outside as if afraid of being seen by patrolling knights.
The girl wore a coffee-colored bowler hat, her smooth blonde hair, blue eyes, and long slender legs wrapped in semi-sheer black stockings.
However, her face was deliberately covered by a veil, hiding her features.
'Hmm, even though I can't see her face, those black stockings look a little familiar.'
"Reines?"
Alvin quickly recognized her and asked in surprise, "What are you doing here?"
Reines, like Alvin, attended the Clock Tower. Although they studied different subjects, they were friendly enough to talk.
At Alvin's voice, the girl's eyes immediately brightened with the joy of meeting a familiar face in a foreign place.
But she quickly regained composure and pulled Alvin into the alley.
Reines looked around with vigilance and then whispered, "This place isn't safe. Let's go somewhere else to talk."
Alvin was slightly taken aback, then nodded without showing it.
"All right."
Although she said that, unless he activated the Watchman ability, that thing probably noticed them the moment they entered Camelot, right?
No... if you insist on calling it something, it wasn't really human.
It was a monster called a Nightmare.
———
[Camelot Palace]
Deep inside the palace, Artoria gently rubbed her brow and set the document on the desk.
Then she slowly raised her eyes and looked at the white-haired mage before her.
"It's rare to see you here today. What brings you, teacher?"
A man in a mage's robe with lazy white hair sat on the desk and sighed helplessly, "Lily, since his death, your vigilance toward me has only grown."
"Sometimes you could trust me a little more... it's honestly a bit hurtful to see you so cold."
Merlin, the court mage of the Camelot Empire and Artoria's teacher.
Given Artoria's emotional nature, she would normally respect Merlin.
But for some reason, when facing this white-haired mage now, she only asked coldly, "You came about the transmigrators, didn't you?"
Recently many transmigrators had appeared across the Camelot Empire. Some were soul-transfers and some were body-possessions.
It was understandable that even Merlin would be unsettled. Body-possessions might be tolerable, but soul-transfers meant randomly taking over the soul of someone in the empire.
No one knew whether the people whose bodies were taken after soul-transfer might include some great nobles of Camelot.
Merlin smiled faintly, "Nothing escapes you, Lily."
"Actually it's not just about the transmigrators... I heard a girl who looks a lot like you and Morgan appeared in the palace today. May I see her?"
Artoria glanced at Merlin, then finally said, "Mm."
Over the years Artoria had grown resentful toward Merlin, largely because Merlin had a hand in Alvin's death.
Merlin had witnessed Alvin killing a noble and had even secretly pushed events forward. For Merlin, Alvin's death wasn't important.
What mattered was making Artoria into the true Arthur.
Because Artoria later learned the truth, the once deeply respectful girl had become cold toward Merlin.
Still, at such a special time, Merlin's clairvoyance was useful.
After all, his eye could observe the present.
"Bring that girl Gray here," Artoria instructed the maid at the door.
Merlin shrugged helplessly and smiled, "Lily, I know you're still mad at me, but many deaths are destiny."
"I can't do anything about Alvin's matter. His death... was, in a way, destined."
After all, only after Alvin died could the girl named Artoria be sealed away and the true Arthur who rules Camelot emerge.
Merlin soon added with a smile, "As compensation, I'll check how many transmigrators are in the palace. How about that?"
Seeing Artoria not respond, Merlin smiled and slowly raised his eyes.
Those deep purple, star-like eyes seemed to reflect the whole of Camelot Palace.
"One... two... three... six... ten..."
"Tsk! It seems not all of them are from the Clock Tower... there are transmigrators from other forces as well?"
Merlin clicked his tongue, treating it like a game, and idly scanned the lives in Camelot with his clairvoyant eye.
At some point he glanced toward an alley and saw a blonde girl.
"Hoh! Judging by that outfit, she should be a body-possessor, right?"
"From what I see, the ratio of body-possessions to soul-transfers is about one to ten?"
"The person beside her looks like a body-possessor too. Probably companions—"
He stopped mid-sentence as if he suddenly saw something. At first he thought it was an illusion and looked again, focusing intently in that direction.
After repeatedly confirming, the calm smile Merlin always wore slowly froze.
'Is that guy's soul returned?'
———
After about ten minutes of hurrying, Alvin and Reines found a small rented room in the city.
Once the door was shut, the two began analyzing the situation.
From available intelligence, many transmigrators had appeared in Camelot, and they did not all come from the Clock Tower.
There seemed to be magi from other eras as well.
These transmigrators were divided into soul-transfers and body-possessions.
Soul-transfers directly replace someone in Camelot, while body-possessions arrive here with their own bodies.
Alvin, Gray, and Reines had all appeared as body-possessors.
At this moment Reines sat on a wooden chair, her long legs in black stockings held close, a knee-length skirt, and a pair of delicate deerskin boots swinging slightly.
"So you're a body-possessor like me?", Soon the girl spoke.
Not far across from Reines, Alvin leaned against the wall and softly said, "I am a body-possessor... Reines, you should be seeing a string of numbers right now, no?"
"The countdown?", Reines asked. Seeing Alvin nod, thought crossed her clear face, "Looks like our situations are the same... but we'll have to wait until the countdown ends to know what it means."
"I want to go back soon. I kind of miss the cake shop near the Clock Tower. I heard many transmigrators have been taken for questioning."
She propped her cheeks and sighed, "King Arthur seems stricter than the legends say."
'After all, the current Lily is probably a blackened version,' Alvin remained silent.
If it were the old Artoria, she might handle unexpected transmigrators more gently.
But now... after Alvin's heroine-training plan, Artoria had been completely reborn.
The former Artoria was dead. What remained was the Lion King, Artoria Pendragon.
Reines continued, "Our urgent task is to find other companions... I think there are more Clock Tower transmigrators than just us two."
"If only a lord from the Clock Tower had come. If they're all just students, we might have trouble resisting."
At this, Reines looked worried.
The lords of the Clock Tower are each an outstanding magus. If a lord were here, the transmigrators' situation might not be so passive.
Alvin didn't reply. He knew even if there were lords among the transmigrators, it might still be difficult.
This was Camelot in an age when the Age of Gods had not fully declined.
The Clock Tower is powerful in the modern world, but, modern magi who could truly match up to the Camelot Empire were few.
"You've been quiet. Give some opinion, will you?", Reines sighed, "Alvin, I know you slack off at the Clock Tower, but this is urgent, you know?"
Alvin spread his hands, "I really don't think modern magecraft can counter these Camelot people."
"Besides, we don't have to make enemies of Camelot. Someone just needs to convince Arthur that we mean no harm."
Reines tilted an eyebrow and crossed one leg over the other, her black-stockinged foot swinging.
"That's logical, but do you think that Arthur will listen?"
The blonde from the El-Melloi family tapped the table, "Can we even get a chance to meet Arthur?"
"Why don't you go to the palace and explain to Arthur that we have no hostility toward Camelot?", She said it with a joking tone at the end.
If it were that simple, transmigrators wouldn't be hiding. Once captured, the chance to see Arthur was slim.
"We can't talk to her, but there are people who can move her," Alvin said with a smile.
"Who?", Reines looked up instinctively.
Alvin did not answer directly. He looked toward the window.
Specifically toward Camelot Palace.
"Merlin," he whispered.
———
Deep in Camelot Palace, Merlin was staring at a direction in the city in amazement.
A name immediately surfaced in his mind.
'Alvin?'
As Camelot's court mage, Merlin had the clairvoyant eye to see the present.
Although by his own admission that eye was of limited use, he could not see the future nor the past, Merlin could use present observation to infer the future.
Long ago, when Alvin was born, Merlin had already seen Alvin's end.
'But now... this soul that should have died is alive and well.'
And it appeared Alvin had arrived with his own body, not summoned as a hero.
"What is it? Did you see something?", Artoria's voice sounded from the side.
She turned slightly toward the white-haired mage. Her verdant eyes were deep.
As the Nightmare, Merlin did not understand human feelings. Because of that, Artoria had rarely seen such a shocked expression on Merlin's face up to now.
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