Tonight, Alice joins the hunt.

The duchess's sword touched the knight's neck; with just a little more force, she could decapitate the offender. But as a bead of sweat slid down the girl's cheek and struck the blade with a soft sound, the duchess withdrew her sword.

"For the offense of today, a year from today, I will send troops to Britain."

She waved her hand, signaling her knights to banish the offender from the castle. She then turned and returned to her throne.

"Wait! Your Grace—" the girl cried out, but two strong knights grabbed her shoulders and dragged her out of the castle, slightly exhausted from the sword fight. As she was unceremoniously thrown onto the ground outside the castle, the doors slammed shut with a dull thud as the King's Sword was thrown in front of her.

She was expelled.

And the duchess refused her next audience.

After being rejected, she stayed in Wales for another month, during which time she witnessed the transformation of the country, which was once considered almost 'uncivilized' by the native Britons.

Crop rotation farms, alchemy workshops, foundries, professional soldiers—in a daze, she seemed to see traces of a civilization called Rome across the ocean. And all of this was changing at a speed that ordinary people could understand, rushing toward new boundaries at a visible pace.

When she left Wales, she was no longer certain whether Britain, having lost its powerful knights, still had a chance of victory. What she was certain of was that if the Welsh could hold their own in knightly combat, or even be slightly inferior to the British, then the Grand Duchess's army would find it as easy as rolling dust on wheels to crush the Celts on the homeland.

She was worried about this.

But even if you worry, it won't help.

When she returned to Britain, she found the country engulfed in war due to the loss of the monarchy.

....................................

Alice lowered her eyes.

Her will expanded with the distortion of history. In her perception, nearly one percent of these billions of parallel world lines had already shown traces of her, or rather, traces of the 'time traveler Satori Aika'. She could control them, but she chose to remain silent. And the detection agency—its eyes appearing more and more frequently as if manifesting divine will—found nothing in each test.

Time and time again, again and again.

The monitoring agency seemed enraged by this anomaly. What began as mere observation quickly escalated into intervention, and eventually, a complete overhaul. When Alice withdrew her gaze, in the last place her eyes caught, a worldline where 'Gauze Song' had reigned supreme and unified the world had been utterly destroyed and reset by the monitoring agency.

This source world is evolving, evolving in ways that are difficult for other observers outside the circle to perceive.

Sooner or later, the master of this world will be forced to reveal his true form, and that will be the day the outcome changes.

—The Duchess opened her eyes.

The agreed-upon one-year period is drawing to a close, and the war on British soil remains at a stalemate.

Many people want to be king, but many people are unwilling to accept someone else being king.

The only one qualified and capable of ruling as queen was the Duchess of Wales, and most of the less ambitious knights had come to her side within the year.

So, war.

Before the war broke out, a fairy claiming to be the goddess of the lake came to obstruct the war, but she was defeated by the Duchess's simple yet seemingly all-encompassing swordsmanship. A green knight claiming to be the guardian of the lake came to assassinate her, but he too fell to the Duchess's sword. And when these last obstacles disappeared, the Duchess's army set foot on the land of Britain.

—The Duchess met the knight who called herself 'Lily' once again.

Compared to their last meeting, Lily had matured considerably. Holding the Sword of the King in her hand, and surrounded by a group of knights, she challenged the Duchess.

She is still not the queen.

When she left Wales and returned to Britain, her female identity and King Uther's lineage could no longer be concealed. However, the war had already broken out, and news of her defeat in Wales had reached the homeland. Therefore, even if she revealed her identity, she could not suppress all dissent.

She missed the only, most opportune moment. That's why she could never become queen.

"I lead an army to block your path, Duke." A knight who was not the king stood in the way of the army's advance and challenged the army's leader.

“I expect you to either retreat to Wales or acknowledge your offense against King Uther,” said the knight standing in front of the Duchess’s army.

However, the response she received was a hand that drove war.

"Your army is not strong enough." The duchess's voice came as her sword was pointed at her nose, and the sword-to-sword duel broke out once again.

“You need more than this level of power.” — And the sword fight abruptly ended fifteen seconds later.

Lily lost again. The Duchess once more knocked the sword from her hand without taking her life. Her knights crumbled under the Duchess's superior forces, as well as another group of knights who were better equipped and more numerous. And when the Duchess's sword was at her neck, her knights had no choice but to lower their swords to save her.

"We will meet again," the Duchess said calmly, and the next moment, Knight Lily lost her sight after a light blow to the back of her neck.

When she awoke again, the Duchess's army had already left the continent—not because of her persuasion, but because of the invasion of foreign tribes brought by King Vortigern from the north. Upon learning this, the Duchess led her army lightly armed and raided Vortigern's territory, returning to Wales with a severed dragon head after paying a price.

Who could have imagined that Vortigern could transform into a dragon?

Who could have imagined that even a dragon would be so vulnerable under the Duchess's sword?

Only her army suffered losses, not herself. In order to recover her lost forces, the Duchess chose to retreat from British territory, a move that seemed like a missed opportunity to most people.

Ah... If it were an ordinary person, they would definitely think this is foolish. After all, they have clearly won such a huge victory and gained prestige from slaying the dragon. With just a little more effort, the supreme crown is within reach.

For anyone else, such an action would certainly be considered foolish. But the Duchess was different; everyone knew that if she wanted to win, she was destined to succeed. And precisely because of this, her actions were not criticized, but rather seen as an expression of kindness and nobility.

If she were willing to acknowledge Uther, and the rule and titles he had bestowed, then perhaps the knights of the homeland would kneel along her marching route and beg her to assume the throne. However, the Duchess ignored their hopes, so they had no choice but to continue fighting for themselves.

They fought.

During the battle, the Duchess returned to Wales and spent the next few years recuperating.

Three years later, when she led an unprecedentedly powerful army to Britain for the third time, she was met with a coalition of local nobles, barely united. And commanding this coalition was once again Lily, who now wielded the Sword of the King and had matured considerably.

She was still not a queen—no nobleman in all of Britain dared to claim the title of queen. Nor did any nobleman dare to acknowledge anyone else as queen. For everyone knew that the Duchess's army would surely return, and at that time everyone else could surrender, but the king and his supporters would surely die.

"Duke, all the armies of this land stand before you." Lily stepped forward amidst the crowd's anticipation, addressing the Duchess from the front lines. "Can't you yield a little? If you were willing to acknowledge everyone, to recognize their honor and status, then not one here would raise a sword against you."

Her attitude was sincere and her words were genuine.

This time, however, the duchess said nothing, but simply raised the sword of war.

—Lily failed again.

Unlike her previous act of leniency, this time the Duchess decided to eliminate all opposition. When Lily awoke amidst the corpses, her mangled body exposed, all she saw was the blood of her companions and friends.

All are dead.

All her companions, all her friends, all her acquaintances, all those who had helped her and those who had helped her, were all dead.

Their bodies were piled up and burned by the Duke's soldiers with flamethrowers. The Duke stood before her, less than three meters away.

She should be angry.

But more than anger, there was confusion.

"Why did you do this?" His blue eyes were filled with incomprehension. "You could have brought happiness to everyone, you could have been a wise king, why did you choose this ending?"

"why?"

Her questioning earned her a smirk from the Duke.

“It’s very simple,” the Duke’s voice was brief and crisp: “Because you want a king who lives for you. I only live for myself.”

"What kind of king is this...?" His blue eyes suddenly narrowed, filled with disbelief.

“Isn’t that what it is?” The Duke smiled and looked at her. “A king never needs the recognition of others, because a king is a king. A king who needs the recognition of others, who lives for others, is nothing more than a tool called king.”

"And you, you were born to be this kind of prop."

"I... am well-suited to be king?" The girl subconsciously ignored the important suffix 'prop'. She just stared blankly at the duke in front of her.

“Yes, you are very suitable. Artoria Pendragon.” The Duke stated the knight Lily’s real name without any hesitation. “Don’t you realize that everything you are facing now is entirely because you didn’t draw that royal sword before me back then?”

The moment her words fell, a thunderclap suddenly resounded in the sky. It seemed as if some strange object was trying to part the clouds and cast its gaze, but neither Lily nor the Duke paid it any attention.

"Is it all because... I didn't draw the King's Sword?" The girl stared at her hand and murmured to herself.

“Yes, that’s right. If you don’t hesitate, if you draw the sword before me, then I will have no reason to act. Even if I forcefully act, the British monarchy will not be shaken. Because people will only recognize you as the king, and regard me, who has no way to prove myself, as an outcast like a witch. In that case, the knights will not come to me, and Wales will not have such a powerful army.”

The Duke looked down at her, his imposing presence as heavy as a mountain.

"Because you didn't become king, because you hesitated when choosing a king, everything has turned out this way. Everything you've encountered is the result of your own choices, and yet you're still asking me why?"

The girl opened her mouth as if to refute, but ultimately succumbed to despair. Her words came out as nothing more than a sigh.

"If I... become king, bad things will happen." — A faint, pure light flickered in her eyes; she was no longer the innocent person she once was.

Then the Duke's fingers gently touched her forehead.

"No, if you don't become king, then all the bad things will happen."

The next moment, the billions of parallel world lines that Alice had eroded appeared in the girl's mind in an instant!

She saw it; she saw the past and future of countless parallel world lines.

She saw the Duchess's rule on a global online platform, a country that was orderly yet cold and devoid of humanity.

She didn't see the Duchess on a global online platform, but Britain was plunged into civil war due to the failure of the election of a king. Even though she eventually drew the sword of kingship, she was forced to let the earth bleed.

She saw the Lowly King on a global online platform, saw the withered earth and decaying plains. The dragon, equivalent to Britain itself, had utterly destroyed everything here, leaving the land uninhabited.

She saw it...

She saw a lot. A lot of truth, a lot of what was right. And all of this pointed to one conclusion for her.

"No one is more suited to be the King of Britain than you. Your choice to flee will only plunge your homeland into one miserable place after another."

The cracking sound in the sky stopped.

The knight named Lily rose indifferently, her gaze fixed on the depths of the Duke's blue eyes, where a pale white radiance was clearly visible.

"Why did you interrupt my dream? Why did you wake me up?" she asked softly, gazing at the Duke. The Duke's form then vanished, the identity of 'Sasa Aika' was reclaimed, and Alice's form emerged from it.

“Because the war has already begun, and as long as you're on the field, you can't escape it,” Alice replied calmly. “I've found you, captain of the West Sea team.”

And then, you will die here.

She saw the West Sea team captain, who was no longer Lily, nod, and the next moment, a sword made of pale pure light appeared in his hand!

The world cracked open at that moment.

Earth, sky, and even the planet beneath our feet—an infinitely long sword-like beam of light sliced ​​through the celestial bodies, pierced the sun, and touched the Ikobo Belt on the right, passing through the third planet on the left. With the collapse of the gravitational system, the star at the very center of the galaxy was cleaved in two by this fleeting beam of light. And in the instant that Earth and Mercury, along the central axis, split apart like apples, the uncontrolled core of the sun unleashed its radiance upon everything around it!

A small-scale gamma-ray burst was thus generated.

Light transcended time and engulfed everything in this star system.

Section 22 Rules

The surging light dissolved the sun.

The surging light engulfed the cosmos.

In the instant the entire zodiac was shattered, collapsed, and vanished into nothingness by the slash of that sword light, Alice's clear voice echoed from the void.

"Do you know? Since I broke through to the True God level, I have rarely used this kind of simple manipulation of physical phenomena to fight against enemies."

At the end of the pale light tide, a meter away on the outer side of the Icobo band, Alice stood perfectly intact.