Disclaimer: Fate/Stay Night is the work of Kinoko Nasu
Saber had never considered herself as a girl. She was a knight and a king before that. She was the King of Knights, the one that led her country to prosperity.
But sometimes, late at night, Saber would lie on her bed, gazing at the stars above, and she would imagine. She would imagine herself on a different path, the path of a princess at court. She would let herself think of the finery she would have worn, the things she and her friends would have giggled about behind ruffled fans.
She supposed it would not have been a bad life, with all your cares and needs provided for; and sometimes, Saber would envy the ladies in her court. She envied their flighty, carefree laughs, their sheltered world, their ignorance and naiveté. She envied them for their petty problems, for their trivial political and romantic intrigues.
She envied them, for they embodied the life she never could have led, the things she would never have the chance to experience, and she mourned for her own lost innocence, scattered into the wind the day she drew Caliburn from the stone.
Yet no matter how long she thought, despite her envy, she would always arrive at the same conclusion. She was not sorry for having chosen this path, despite the hardships and the things she had lost, she felt no remorse.
The decision to take on the burden of the entire kingdom had been hers and hers alone, she would respect that, she would not regret. She would not trade this thorny path, as difficult and laborious as it was, for the comforts of a lady-in-waiting, a princess, or anything else.
That was something she had learnt again, after when, in her moment of weakness, she had regretted her choice and begged the Grail for a second chance. But with others' help, her eyes had opened once more to the truth.
And so, as she rested under the tree, Saber smiled. She had accomplished more than most would ever do in their life, she had given all she had to her kingdom, and if her kingdom required her life as well, she would gladly give it.
As the towering gates of Avalon slowly creaked open, Arturia Pendragon, destined to be remembered as one of Britain's greatest kings, walked into its light the same way she did everything else: without a backward glance, without a single regret.