Morgan

It was a few days after Arthur had departed on his journey. Morgan had been thinking all this time about why he had gone to Dorf.

Officially, it was to teach the orphanage children a trade, but she knew that was just a pretense. After all, the plan to have dwarves teach their techniques to humans had already failed—among the nobility, it was considered impossible.

“Sure, I might be unreliable, but he could’ve at least told me a bit more about his true intentions… I mean, we’re engaged after all…”

In the director’s office, Morgan’s face turned bright red at her own words. Having decided to support Arthur, she had met with the king directly after his departure and finalized their engagement.

With this, she had ranked up from childhood friend to fiancée.

“Hehe, now I can officially support you.”

Rather than her usual sarcastic smile, Morgan looked sweetly toward the direction of Dorf—where Arthur was likely to be—smiling like a girl in love. Anyone who knew her usual demeanor would’ve thought they were hallucinating.

That’s how happy—and slightly silly—her smile looked.

Knock knock

At the sound of knocking, Morgan’s expression snapped back to her usual emotionless face, and her cold voice rang out.

“What is it?”

“Hah!! Lady Morgan, a letter has arrived for you, so I brought it.”

Her subordinate spoke in a flustered tone, clearly nervous around the strict Morgan. He quickly delivered the letter and rushed out.

Though he misunderstood her coldness as displeasure, in reality, she was just embarrassed and hiding it.

“Who could this be… Arthur?”

Morgan’s eyes widened at the sender’s name. She then carefully opened the envelope with a paper knife.

“Lord Glutton is trying to use my name to steal rare ore from Dorf. I will pass judgment on him—please serve as a witness.”

It appeared Arthur had entered into a contract to purchase all items produced in the dwarves’ workshop, including receiving a rare ore called Orichalcum.

That gem-loving man—this was exactly the kind of thing he’d do. But something about it bothered her.

“What does this mean…?”

Morgan furrowed her elegant brows at the letter’s contents. Surely this wasn’t just Arthur catching Lord Glutton in the act and trying to punish him.

After all, Dorf’s lord belonged to Prince Rod’s faction. Everyone in the castle knew Rod viewed Arthur as a rival for the throne. If word got out that Arthur was there, Rod’s faction wouldn’t stay silent. The power balance could break, and the kingdom might be split—opening a window for foreign powers.

“So… he wants me to help him pass judgment as ‘Richard’—his alias? But Lord Glutton is a master of self-preservation…”

In truth, Morgan had been gathering intel to imprison Arthur’s opportunistic noble followers at any time. Since Greed—who had also used Arthur—was imprisoned, Lord Glutton had dismissed all his previous commoner workers and hired new ones at fair wages.

“There’s no room to attack him from that angle… In that case… The only suspicious thing is that he’s been meeting with a lot of merchants in the capital lately…”

Lord Glutton was a high noble. It wasn’t strange for him to meet with merchants. But why were the goods he dealt in so inconsistent?

Thinking that, Morgan decided to investigate the merchants. She uncovered one fact.

“Every one of them has a sick family member… In other words, they’re people who need Prince Arthur’s healing power…”

With that, she finally understood. Arthur was asking her to weaken Lord Glutton’s influence ahead of judgment.

Normally, such a task would be difficult. But now she was Arthur’s fiancée. A shrewd merchant would clearly see the difference between Lady Morgan, officially recognized by the royal family, and someone like Lord Glutton—just another hanger-on.

Especially considering Arthur had imprisoned Greed and was rumored to be cutting ties with his sycophants.

“You really work me hard…”

With a soft tsundere tone, Morgan concluded negotiations with the merchants Lord Glutton had approached regarding healing magic, then hurried toward Dorf.

Though she sounded cold, she was clearly pleased to be relied upon.

Arriving in Dorf, Morgan confronted Lord Glutton, who looked frustrated, and delivered the final blow.

“What you were doing in Dorf was investigated by Richard. And if Lord Edward finds out Prince Arthur will heal his daughter, he’ll testify to what you told him, won’t he?”

“Y-Yes, of course!!”

“Hehe, if Prince Arthur finds out what you were up to, I’m sure he’ll be angry. I don’t know if it’s a crime, but being exiled from his faction will be fun to watch.”

“Ugh… You…”

“Something wrong? I’m happy to hear complaints.”

Lord Glutton clenched his teeth and glared at her, but when Morgan gave him a cold glance, he let out a pathetic scream.

“Hii!!”

Arthur looked on as Lord Glutton shrank back in fear before Morgan. He couldn’t help but feel a bit sorry for the man.

Yeah… she’s scary when she’s mad…

“Haha, serves you right!! I’ll make enough goods that you can’t even afford to pay for!!”

As Lord Glutton fled, Gazeff hurled those words after him. Seeing this, Morgan turned to Arthur—but wore an oddly uncertain expression.

As if wondering, “Did I mess something up…?”

Arthur was just confused, not reading the situation at all, but Morgan didn’t know that. Seeing his subtle reaction to her, she worried that she’d made a mistake. Right now, she was a girl in love.

But then, good news reached her ears.

“Ahh, I see! So Richard wanting an Orichalcum accessory was because of this!! Leave it to me, I’ll make a national treasure-grade piece!!”

“I see… When he said he wanted to give it to someone who always cares for him, he meant his future wife. Fufu, when I asked if it was for Lady Morgan and he denied it—that must’ve been embarrassment.”

“H-Hey, what are you two talking about…?”

Arthur tried to cut off Gazeff and Gawain, who both knew his true identity and had clearly misunderstood. But it was too late—Morgan was close enough to hear everything.

As thanks for helping, it wouldn’t be unusual to receive a small item made from a rare stone—but Arthur had come under Morgan’s command, at least in title. He dreaded what might happen if someone as principled as her heard about it.

He cautiously glanced at her face, only to meet her emotionless stare.

“Yikes.”

“…Honestly, what were you thinking? I appreciate the sentiment, but I can’t accept an Orichalcum accessory, can I?”

No, I had zero intention of giving it to you…? Before Arthur could reply, Gazeff jumped in.

“That won’t do. We dwarves make accessories only for those we like. This man even took down one of the Five Great Beasts to get Orichalcum. If you don’t accept the masterpiece I poured my life into, I won’t be satisfied.”

“Again with the Five Great Beasts…”

“It’s true. I can tell because I fought them too. Facing such monsters—it had to be for someone’s sake… I get it!! I survived for Marianne’s sake!!”

“For my sake…”

Hearing them, Morgan remained expressionless, but her face slowly turned red.

“Hey, Arthur.”

“Y-Yes, what is it?”

He reflexively used polite speech, unsure what sarcasm was coming.

“Well… Thank you. I’m happy… But if you’re going to push yourself, at least say something to me…”

Morgan’s reddening face looked unexpectedly cute. And her words reminded Arthur of something he’d heard in Jerusalem—from Kei.

Ah… she’s always been someone who cared about me, huh…

In his previous life, unlike Kei, it was Morgan who had supported him to the very end. She never abandoned him. Her mouth was sharp… absurdly sharp…

“Yeah, I’ll be careful.”

Thinking back on all that, Arthur replied honestly for once.