Chapter 6: The Second Counterfeit

"Hold my hand, kiss me!"

Hearing such wolfish words, Su Ya, who has been single since birth and is actually quite conservative and traditional, couldn't help but stare up blankly.

He finally saw the girl's full appearance.

She was a slender girl with waist‑length white hair.

On her wrist she wore a hollowed‑out gold bracelet, her perfectly curved legs were clad in black‑gold patterned tights, and she wore a short white butterfly‑style dress trimmed with gold; the hem, belt, and collar were all dotted with flowers blooming like violet blossoms, and a crystal‑clear sapphire pendant hung from her slender white neck.

Looking higher, one could see a delicate, harmless‑looking pretty face slightly biting its lip; its brows were slightly furrowed, its magenta pupils gazed downward, and its expression carried a hint of disdain.

In short,

She was beautiful beyond that of a "human".

She fit every one of Su Ya's fantasies about a magical girl.

A girl dressed in such splendid attire should not set foot on a battlefield strewn with marauders, blood, and severed limbs, but rather sit gracefully in the palace, serving as chief mage, princess, or queen.

Su Ya glanced at his own hand, smeared with black‑red blood, mud and wounds, and felt a vague sense of displacement.

But the dagger pressed against his throat tightened further,

He could only seize the pale delicate hand in one grip and gently lower his head to kiss it.

"In the name of the Britannia court steward, the flower magician Mei Li, a pact is sealed—"

"Proclaim!"

"My body I entrust to your command, your destiny bound to my blade!"

"Those who answer the king's summons, who obey this will and reason, respond to me!"

"I am the one who accomplishes all good deeds in the world, I am the king's servant, the shaper of the king's cultivation, I am the guardian of the secluded realm, the king's treasury!"

"Here I swear!"

"I will devote myself to you, learn from you, and be loyal to you."

"I will serve you as you ascend the throne, and you shall treat me as kin."

"Those who defy shall be imprisoned in the cage of frenzy, and I shall be the one holding their chains!"

Thus,

on this chaotic battlefield,

the counterfeit king, filthy with grime, mud and black blood, was forced to bow his head and kiss the seemingly proper flower magician's hand, sealing a lifelong oath.

The two would walk side by side until Su Ya ascended the throne!

But,

is it really so?

At the moment the pact was sealed,

the girl who called herself the Britannia court steward and flower magician, Mei Li, cast a low glance at the half‑kneeling Su Ya before her,

a strange smile silently curled at the corner of her mouth.

And Su Ya, who boasted of being half a moon‑person, listened as the solemn white‑haired girl before him recited the oath solemnly,

his expression gradually became blank and odd.

Wait,

damn woman,

what the hell are you babbling!?

What do you mean you're the guardian of the secluded realm, the king's treasury?

When did I ever agree to open my treasury to you!

And what does 'treat you as kin' even mean?

Does that mean I have to call you 'mom'?

Also, what the hell does 'I am the one holding the chains' even mean?

Whether I turn my face or not depends on whether I feel like it, got it?!

What kind of disgraceful, rights‑stripping treaty is this!?

#

In fact,

at this moment, the Mei Li before Su Ya was neither the court steward beside Arthur Pendragon nor the great mage Mei Lin who had taken Arthur Pendragon from Yuse Wang's side for training since childhood.

Her true identity was that of a life‑ruining, hopeless gambler.

To live a princess‑like affluent life, Mei Li, on a breezy sunny afternoon, decided to stake her entire fortune—staff, jewels, spellbooks, and all the treasure she had brought back from the Fairy Realm.

At a casino within the Second Ring of the capital Wenchester.

Sure enough, she lost everything; even the magical gown she wore was forfeited to the opponent, who, feeling sorry for her, allowed her to take a loan to buy back her own clothes and then figure out how to repay it.

The Mei Li whose life had plummeted into the abyss, despondent, applied to a job posting for a manor outside the capital,

Leveraging her skill as a professional‑grade flower magician and her harmless appearance, Mei Li quickly joined Sir Ecto's Manor as a gardener.

Of course, as a magician, working a regular job was impossible.

Mei Li took the position at Sir Ecto's Manor precisely to loot the estate's treasures during the brief vacancy while Sir Ecto was away serving Yuse Wang.

Everything should have proceeded as Mei Li envisioned; she had even divined the password to the Sir family's safe,

until the day the unexpected occurred—

Whether it was after Yuse Wang fell ill or after he dispatched troops, it made no difference.

On the third day Yuse Wang led his army to campaign against the newly crowned Conqueror King Ya Li Ke Xi Ya III in the west, the Conqueror King was captured alive, sent to the guillotine and split in two, his flag raised, and then King Ya Li Ke Xi Ya III led his forces eastward!

The entire capital Wenchester fell into chaos, and Sir Ecto's Manor far outside the capital was likewise thrown into disorder, soon being looted by the scattered marauders.

It was at that moment, while Mei Li was planning to flee with the safe, that she inadvertently learned an earth‑shattering secret from the manor steward, who had been cut near‑dead by the marauders—

The Yuse Wang parent and child who were taken away by Archmage Merlin fifteen years ago are actually Sir Ecto's adopted son!

He possesses the most legitimate royal bloodline in all Britannia and is destined to become the new king of this realm!

And now,

The steward is dead, and I, having received the steward's final orders, could I become the new king's court steward?

Or go straight to the top, using the Dragon‑Assisting Merit to ascend in one step to the throne of the court's Grand Archmage!?

Just thinking of that—

Mei Li would be so excited she'd tremble uncontrollably!

But all of that can only be realized on the day Mei Li and the new king escape back to the capital.

Soon,

The new king returned to the manor and, with outstanding swordsmanship and magic, slew the marauding troops,

He prepared to lead the forces within Sir Ecto's manor to break out and return to the capital.

Because of her harmless appearance and seemingly delicate, frail body that could be easily pushed over, Mei Li was quickly classified by Arthur Pendragon into the "Weak" category and bundled together with the luggage to be taken away. Although Mei Li's actual mage rank is higher than his, she doesn't care about that; what she wants is to turn the tide at the very moment of collapse.

After all, offering a helping hand in a snowstorm is always more gratefully received than adding embellishment to an already splendid brocade, isn't it?

But that thought,

Soon after, when Mei Li simultaneously saw two sons of Yuse Wang, and one of those "Yuse Wang's sons" had eyes flashing with dangerous light, she hesitated.

Mei Li didn't know why she hesitated, and felt a perverse shame about that hesitation,

from the time she fled her hometown to Wencheson, all the way through the long period of gambling away her family's fortune,

she was constantly hesitating, fearing, feeling perpetually at a loss about the future, missing out on one hand and regretting on the other.

It seemed that only at the gambling table, when forced to the edge of a cliff with no way out, did she feel relaxed and free.

Just like that moment,

She watched with her own eyes as the double attacked the new king from behind, thrusting a sword imbued with magical poison into his body, then withdrew the blade and re‑pierced, preparing to torture the new king into surrendering the royal Magic Circuit.

Mei Li didn't feel sorrow for the new king's carelessness for a single moment; instead she rejoiced at the victory of that counterfeit double!

She could not put into words what that feeling was like!

It was as if all her hesitation stemmed from a bodily instinct to welcome that moment!

After all, she herself is a counterfeit, a pitiful fake trying to become Arthur Pendragon's steward, a substitute for the legendary, exceedingly wise Archmage Merlin.

Might there be compassion for the double that is also a "counterfeit"?

Or perhaps when the counterfeit killed the genuine one, it caused Mei Li, after a long absence, to stand again at the gambling table, the moment her eyes turned red with gambling!

Her hesitation rendered everything already futile,

so,

She once again stepped onto this abyss of frenzied gambling!

From the moment Su Ya took down Arthur,

In Mei Li's heart,

she instantly constructed an even larger, crazier gamble that would shock the entire kingdom, all the nobility, and even the whole world!

She wants to turn the fake into the real!

Make a counterfeit become a true sovereign!

Then,

plunder everything belonging to the King of Counterfeit!

(End of chapter)