Who Says You Can't Compromise with Your Partner's Ex to Settle an Ancient Grudge?
Hedonist Safir & Heretic Merlin #8
By: Aviantei
[Twelve Shots of Summer: Nine Tales 11/12]
[Parameters: "Resurrection of Evil" & "United on the Battlefield"]
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"Not as Fuyuse Nayuki, student council secretary, but as Nimue, former member of the Dame du Lac."
Those simple words are enough to make a complete change to your demeanor. Because you're a petty piece of shit, you haven't been able to get over your biases whatsoever, and so your relationship with Camelot International Student Council Secretary Fuyuse Nayuki has been nothing more than politeness and formalities, and you've used all the paperwork you've been managing as an excuse to not form any more of a bond than that. You've tried to be subtle about it, but it's a wonder that neither Rintarou nor Luna have called you out on it.
Now, though. Now, Nimue has approached you, and that's a different can of worms altogether.
(You didn't ask, but Rintarou chose you, didn't he? That has to be worth something.)
The persona of Student Council Treasurer Safir disintegrates, leaving just you, and there's no guarantee that's a good thing. The air sharpens around you both, and you add your own cloaking magic onto the spellwork Nimue has already put on the student council chambers. You're rather certain that the last thing either of you want is for Rintarou to arrive—for Merlin to see this.
(You will not make an enemy of Nimue just because she and Merlin were once lovers. That's harmful bullshit that you don't subscribe to in the slightest. But if you have somewhat of a grudge against her for being the one to betray him—even if it wasn't of her own volition—then that's much more reasonable.)
(You sure can talk yourself into anything, can't you?)
"If you're bothering to reveal that to me at all, you must understand that I already know Magami Rintarou is Merlin," you say, and Nimue nods. Her Deceit to keep Rintarou from recognizing her never worked on you in the first place, but even without that magic stripping away, you can see how her demeanor has changed, those aquamarine eyes now crystal clear in their resolve. "Didn't you have some sort of restriction on not revealing yourself or whatnot?" You're pretty sure that was part of the deal whenever she got permission to even attend your school in the first place.
God, you're fucking lucky you were born into some family that had nothing to do with the Succession Battle. Just the thought of having to follow all those rules is enough to make you want to hurl.
Though you think you've just made a pretty damn good point, Nimue just smiles. The expression is somewhat strained, though, but she doesn't seem to be panicking. "Didn't you know, Safir-san? You're so much of an enigma that you're an exception." Oh, that's interesting. Is it because your soul isn't from this world, that it's an amalgamation of all the past lives you've ever experienced? Does that mean the type of spells the Dame du Lac uses to manage that kind of shit are bound to souls? You tuck that hypothesis away for later and focus on the girl in front of you. "That said, I've already been prevented from using you to reach out to Merlin, so that's a different matter. But the point is, there's nothing they can do to stop me from talking to you in the first place."
"Which begs the question of why the fuck you want to talk to me in the first place." Your tone isn't all that harsh, but Nimue flinches anyways. You lean your chair back onto its hind legs and observe her. "If it's just because you want to talk to someone who can listen to your angst in the first place but isn't part of the Dame du Lac, sure, whatever. But if that was the case, you would've started talking to me a long ass time ago, yeah?" The one thing that has changed since you met each other is you and Rintarou starting your relationship, but that doesn't make any sense at all, other than the fact that the timelines match up.
So what the hell is this…?
Nimue wrings her hands together, looking rather nervous, and you can't blame her. You're not being as antagonistic as you were to Morgan le Fey, but you're not being pleasant, either. Maybe it would have been better for Rintarou to be here to help mediate, to give you some clue of how you're supposed to feel about Nimue. He said that he would want to talk to her again, right? He just wasn't ready whenever you asked before.
What would his answer to that question be now?
At last, Nimue manages to say, "Vivian," and you give the memories a moment to click right back into place. Vivian, the head of the Dame du Lac (so there's already one point against her), in Canon tried to send Rintarou on an impossible mission to die (and there's another), but also planned use her position as the head officiator of the King Arthur Succession Battle to take over the world (yeah, you guess you should care about that, too?). Something to that effect. "She's the one that's restricting me like this, and she wants to get rid of Merlin. You…you've become his friend, so you care about him. I thought you should know…"
"You thought I could stop it, didn't you?" you ask, and the guilty look on Nimue's face is answer enough. Oh, great, she's so beaten down that she doesn't even know how to ask for what she wants. Come to think of it, didn't Canon Nimue just always do things for others and never for herself? Your being a petty bitch aside, that's not a healthy mindset for anyone to have whatsoever, and you let out a long sigh. "Listen, I'm going to be looking out for Merlin no matter what." Unseen to anyone but you, the silver ring on your finger glimmers in the light, a reminder that he made that promise to you in return. "There's no way you could know that was my intention, but now you do. So now what?"
Nimue's smile is strained, as fragile as a thin layer of ice under pressure. "So long as you're looking out for him, Safir-san, that's all I—"
"Don't give me that shit." Nimue's eyes go wide, but you don't let up. "Don't give me that 'I'd be happy with just the bare minimum' spiel. You don't mean it. Sure, you want to mean it, but that's nowhere near the same. There's nothing more unfortunate than someone who's beaten down their own ability to hope. Or are you just scared of the chance that I'll tell you no? Why the fuck should that matter? I won't give you any promises, but I'll give you permission, so do us both a favor and be honest about what you want."
Aren't you tired of always being nice, Nimue?
Don't you just want to go apeshit, Nimue?
(You sure got tired of it, being beaten down over and over again. It's why you haven't even bothered this time.)
"I… I…" Nimue's face screws up, her hands in tight fists at her side as she shouts, "I'm sick of this! I'm sick of being tied to the Dame du Lac's stupid rules! I'm sick of sitting around and waiting for Vivian to get away with whatever she wants!" She sucks in a deep breath, looking surprised with herself, but she doesn't stop talking. Once you let something like that out, it's hard to stuff it back away. "I know Merlin might not forgive me. I already accepted that. But even if he doesn't, I want to at least try to apologize, try to support him. Even if I can't ever make up for abandoning him to his death, I can at least do everything I can to try and stop him from having to endure all of that again."
Well, that's a pretty decent start, but she doesn't get a gold star for stating the obvious. So you just regard her in silence, with one single brow raised in the simplest of questions:
And?
What do you expect me to do about it, Nimue?
"Safir-san," she says, the conviction in her voice solid and the determination in her eyes as luminous as ice under the light of the blinding winter sun, "I want you to help me kick Vivian out of her position as head of the Dame du Lac to protect Merlin."
If you're being honest, that's a way ballsier ask than you would've thought Nimue capable of. You thought it would take her a while to work up the resolve to do anything, but maybe you're biased. Hitsuji Taro's gotten a fuck ton else about this world wrong; why wouldn't he make Nimue way more spineless than she is at her core? If she were the dainty and hesitant ice maiden, then that would give big damn hero Rintarou way more opportunity to be the shining star.
The real Nimue is a member of the Dame du Lac, someone who survived in the Legendary Era—a world with values so much harsher than the ones of the nice and shiny modern era. Magical fairy or not, she was still a woman in a time period where society had very little respect for her, and she oversaw war after war, battlefield after battlefield filled with blood and death and all sorts of horrors, and she came out of it still standing. Sure, the guilt over what happened with Merlin still clings to her, has impacted her attitude, but you can't blame her for that, not when you have millennia of traumas still following you.
But even after all that, Nimue is not fragile. She won't fall apart if you turn her down. In fact, now that you've seen this side of her, you wouldn't be surprised if she charged at Vivian without you. You don't know how much of a chance she would stand, considering that you don't have Vivian here to compare her to, but it sure would kick ass if she tried anyways. But, still, whatever she decides is, in the end, not your fucking problem.
(In the living room, Luna smiles at you.
You just keep doing what you're doing and save whoever you think needs it, okay?)
"I'll think about it," you say, and then you teleport the fuck out of there like the coward you are.
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After the both of you have both pulled running away from home without any indication of when you'll be back by this point, you and Rintarou have come to a compromise that involves magic accessories that allow you to teleport to each other, no matter where the other one is. Of course, just in case you both super need some solo time, the accessories can change color to signal if you're willing to have company, but the magic will still let the other one know where you are. Considering both of you can pop to the other side of the globe within the space of a second, it seemed pertinent to have.
Plus it let you craft matching necklaces to thank Rintarou for the nice ring he made for you. He almost cried whenever you manifested them with a snap of your fingers, but that didn't stop him from putting it on anyways.
So, yeah. Even though you're sitting on the top of a mosque in Istanbul, it's no surprise at all that Rintarou hugs you from behind, despite the fact that you told a grand total of zero people where you were going.
"Are you not coming home tonight?" he asks, his weight nice and grounding against your back. Rather than watching the cityscape before you, you stare up at the clouds floating through the sky.
"I don't know." You don't, and, this round, you're bad at not knowing things. "I'm trying to decide what to do next, but…" You haven't brought it up since that first time in the Antarctic snow, but you can't keep avoiding it at this point. "We need to talk about Nimue."
The two of you are so close that it's difficult to tell which one of you tenses more at the mention. "She's closer than usual, isn't she?" Well, the answer to that is no on a technical level, but maybe it's also yes? Rintarou must come to some sort of conclusion, since he doesn't wait for you to figure out the appropriate answer. "She talked to you?"
"As Nimue," you say, because Fuyuse Nayuki talks to you plenty.
Rintarou does not seem to be in any state of mind to appreciate the nuance. You two can circle back to that later. "What did she want?"
"To overthrow Vivian for pulling some grade-A bullshit on you." There's no sense in trying to hide any of that. "In case you haven't figured it out by now, it seems I'm a big enough deal that she knows about me. So she asked for my help since my soul state or something lets her break the dumb rules she's put under." Rintarou is so still you can barely feel him breathe, though his breath tickles against your neck. "What do you want me to do, Merlin?"
"What do you want to do?" You didn't expect that answer at all, and you expected the quiet tone of voice Rintarou asks it in even less. "Rule one, Safir. Fuck holding back."
You swallow down the lump that you didn't even notice forming in your throat. "…Maybe you're worth holding back for."
"If I let you do that, Id would never let me live that down." You get out half of a protest before Rintarou talks over you, which is fine, because you didn't have any real words to make that sentence anyways. "I—we both like you best when you're doing what you want. So fuck holding back. What do you want to do, Safir?"
"…Kick Vivian's teeth in for fucking you over." Nimue may have been the one to betray Merlin, but Vivian was the one that planned it. Sure, Nimue had a choice, so she's not faultless, but the blame doesn't all fall on her. And, yeah, there was some logic or whatever about trying to circumvent Merlin's bullshit destiny of killing Arthur, but how much did that even matter in the end, whenever Mordred ensured that the once and future king fell anyways? You tilt your head back, your skull bonking into Rintarou's forehead. "Why do you enable me like this?"
"Because you enable me just as much." His fingers pull a lock of your hair out of the way so he can drop a gentle kiss against your ear. "Besides, I'm flattered that you wanna win fights for me."
Because, yeah, you would win, hands down, and the both of you know it. Vivian just didn't seem like an immediate threat, not to mention you'd figured that Rintarou would wanna take care of the Dame du Lac himself, so you just kinda let it be. "Do you want to help? You have way more of a stake in this than I do."
"Nah, it's fine. You two can take care of this." You're surprised that Rintarou can sound so calm about the whole thing, seeing as this whole situation still bothers him. He's self-aware enough to know how strange that is, since he continues, "Vivian pisses me off, but I'm way more interested in dunking on Morgan than her. Though that's just because it's you handling things; I wouldn't trust anyone else with this." That makes you feel a bit prouder than it should. Well, if Rintarou trusts you with his vengeance, who are you to turn him down? "And I mean…I don't think I'm ready to face Nimue yet."
You are very grateful that you have such a bomb poker face. When he's ready to deal with it, you'll tell him, but not a moment sooner. Though, at this rate, Nimue will be able to tell him herself, assuming that kicking around Vivian frees her from her vow of secrecy or whatever it's called.
So you take Rintarou's hand and squeeze it instead of saying anything.
"I think…" he murmurs, and you let him talk to process whatever's in his head. "I think I can forgive her for what happened. I can't love her the way I did before, but I can forgive her." And that makes you feel more relieved than it should. Hm, you'll work on sorting out all those feelings later, after you get through this whole mess. "But that's about me, and the idea of talking to her just yet… Thinking about it still hurts, and I hate it."
(I want it to go away so I can enjoy myself, but it doesn't work like that, and I hate it!)
"I know," you whisper. "I know. Hating what happened to you is more than well deserved. But if you keep facing it, you'll work your way through it, and I'll always be here whenever you want me. You won't be controlled by this feeling forever. But no matter what happens, I'll be at your side, Rintarou-chan."
"Yeah." He squeezes you in a tighter hug. "So go have fun overpowering Vivian. I wanna hear all about it when you get back."
"Come now, you know that fighting you is my favorite, darling."
Rintarou's answering grin is infectious. "Sounds like a date to me."
And since neither of you have an interest in destroying a historical building, diving straight into a Netherworld for the next several hours to spar it is.
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It's dawn whenever you return to New Avalonia, and Nimue looks surprised for all of five seconds when you appear in front of her as she walks to school. To give her credit, she recovers her composure far faster than you expected.
"I'm not slowing down for you," you say, because you don't have the patience to hold back whatsoever. Not when Rintarou's given you his blessing.
"I know," Nimue says, dispelling her Deceit and refining her mana to head into battle.
And with that settled, you transport the both of you to City Hall to get this thing started.
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The Dame du Lac have their fancy little shadow government set up in a pseudo-Netherworld underneath New Avalonia, which, in theory you one, shouldn't know about—but, hey, you're you, so—and two, shouldn't be able to get into—but, hey, you're with Nimue, so.
Well, even if you weren't with Nimue, you would've been able to get in anyways, but that's beside the point.
Nimue is already prepared, ice dancing at her fingertips as she leads the charge. Vivian is the goal, but there's plenty of other Dame du Lac around, and they're all on their guard by the sudden arrival of two hostile presences. Nimue is able to dispel most of them without worry, and you don't even bother to retaliate as several women turn their attention on you.
You yawn. "Archiatius Overload."
Your mana furnace ignites, your obvious power increasing all the further and blowing the approaching enemies away. You follow Nimue's lead and don't kill any of them, though. It wouldn't be worth it, and not all of them have a connection to what happened back in the Legendary Era. Vivian is their trash boss; she's the one that's earned your ire. And, well, up against your aura of intimidation, most of them aren't even bothering to pick a fight in the first place. Any of them that have the will left to try and attack? You just put them to sleep.
Well, this is just the appetizer anyways.
Though it's the hideout of an ancient magical organization that's existed for centuries, the Dame du Lac's Netherworld doesn't look all that different from a modern government building. If it weren't for both the change in atmosphere and the piles of antagonistic fairies glaring daggers at you, you might worry that you're in the wrong place.
But Nimue's forging on ahead, and you follow her path of frozen walls and floors to what must be Vivian's chambers. Unlike the office one might expect, this place is much closer to the mythos they're from: a malleable open space that is currently a forest in the late afternoon with the sound of trickling water somewhere in the distance.
Such a pretty place. Good thing it's constructed of magic, otherwise you'd feel bad for tearing it apart.
"You little harlot of a traitor!" shouts a voice a bit farther into the trees. It's not Nimue, so it's gotta be Vivian. You don't wanna call her a bitch without just cause, but like…she kinda is. "You're going to take over the Dame du Lac instead? After you broke the compromise I was kind enough to give you? You've already made a mess enough of things—don't get too full of yourself!"
"You're the one that's going too far, Vivian!" Nimue shouts, and you're glad she can bite back enough without needing extra support. It's not that you wouldn't have participated, but you'll always cheer on women with agency. "You're just waiting for the world to get destroyed so you can rule over it, and that's not what we should do. Merlin's already found a new king, so he should be able to avert the original prophecy. Not to mention I'm sick of you acting like you can get whatever you want." Nimue summons her magic, slicing the temperature in half, and that's on the absolute scale. "I won't let you push me around anymore! I'm going to do what I want for once, and that means defeating you!"
You step through the now wilting trees just in time to see that Nimue's summoned dozens of her ice spears, all of them pointed at the same woman. Where Nimue's hair is the pale blue of implied frost, Vivian's hair as a much deeper shade of the same tone, though it's not dark enough to be considered cobalt. Like one would expect, she's gorgeous, even while sneering. Too bad for her that does nothing to make up for her shitty personality, but maybe you're not one to talk?
Hey, stuff is happening. Maybe you should be paying attention.
"Oh, Nimue," Vivian says, not so much as flinching at the weapons around her. "Nimue, Nimue, Nimue. I know you haven't forgotten that water is my specialty. Were you hoping to beat me on willpower alone? I admire your attempt at a backbone, but you know the world isn't that kind." The worst part is that Vivian's right; Nimue has some decent power stacked behind her, but Vivian can, in fact, outclass her control. Ice is just water after all. "Well, out of respect for that, I'll end your life quick. So—" With a flick of her wrist, the ice spears change direction, turning on Nimue instead. "At least give me a good scream before you go!"
If this is a pissing contest over who's got the best water control, then…
"Aruan."
The ice spears freeze. Yup, you thought so, your past power still holding ground, even in this world. Vivian looks appalled, and the look on her face doesn't improve as you redirect the projectiles to slam right into her. She's part-fey; something like that isn't going to be enough to kill her.
It will, however, still fucking hurt.
"You were wrong," Nimue says. "I wasn't banking on willpower. I was banking on them."
You're not even mad. All things considered, that is Nimue's best move. Besides, her distracting Vivian made this whole thing even easier than it already would've been, so you just used each other in a mutually beneficial arrangement. "'Sup, Vivian," you say with a wave as you walk over to where you've pinned her to a mossy rock that shines with frost. "It sounds like you Dame du Lac already know enough about me, so I won't bother with any of that exposition shit. That said, you are planning on hurting Merlin, which I'm not okay with. So—
"Wanna guess what I'm gonna do with you?"
The truth is that you haven't decided yet, which is for the most part because you didn't think you'd have a choice this soon. Torture porn isn't quite your thing, but there's no way you can just dump Vivian into a Netherworld like you did with the Religious Order of Saint Joan and be done with it. Vivian's way too powerful for that to work, but you can't just let her go without some consequences for what she did.
That's what you decided you want.
Unaware of the thoughts in your mind, Vivian scowls. "You," she says, managing to sound rather enraged despite the condition she's in. "Do you have any idea what a mess you've made? Everything was all set up and ready to go before you decided to drop on in. You've made even the most ancient prophecies come into question, not to mention not even the three goddesses can see your future. All we know is that the resurrection of Balor and the Wild Hunt is guaranteed now that you've stepped in, so I hope you're happy knowing that's going to be on your shoulders. You're even worse of a blight on this world than Merlin was—"
"Careful," you say. Balor can fuck right off. Canon Rintarou and Luna handled him just fine, so you don't even care, not when there's more pressing matters at hand. "I don't care how much you insult me, but I don't want you to go around acting like you have any right to complain about Merlin whenever you made a mess of his fate." Ah, even you're surprised by how calm your voice is. That's never a good sign for whoever you're talking to. "Nimue, is this enough for you? Merlin told me I could do whatever I want, but you have just as much of a stake in this as he does." Petty bitch you may be, you wouldn't ever take away someone else's chance to deliver retribution like this.
After all, you understand the desire for vengeance, so deep in your soul that you can't erase it, even all these lifetimes later.
Nimue crunches through the moss and leaves along the ground, looking graceful and triumphant. Even so, her eyes are an icy cold. "The most important thing right now is making sure Vivian can't trigger the Catastrophe. Watching you overpower her so easy was satisfying, but…now, she's not even worth my energy."
You happen to have a very different philosophy on that matter, but, hey, Nimue can do Nimue; it doesn't matter either way to you. All that means is that you have full free reign on how to handle the matter.
God, it would be so easy to kill her, immortal fairy or no.
Vivian's still in the middle of cursing at you, as if you had any call in getting dumped in this universe with all your memories and abilities intact. Maybe, if she wanted to rule the world so bad, she should've come up with a plan that couldn't get fucked up by someone like you getting reborn into it. Isekai and the like are popular enough by now; she should've at least had a backup plan, no matter how unprobable it is that it would've happened.
Probability means shit in the face of reality.
Hm, maybe I should account for some other broken af soul to get involved with the plot. You know, just in case. It wouldn't be the first time you had company in a new life.
But before then, the matter of Vivian before you. You've already tuned out her angry ranting, because it's not going to matter. Hm, if this is about avenging Merlin, maybe you should give her a taste of her own medicine? Lock her up in stone and let her wither away as everything she cares about crumples around her? No, wait, that idea requires her having people she cares about; even with her in front of you, it's rather obvious that she's self-centered to the point that it wouldn't matter.
So, death it is. I'd say better luck in your next round, but— You shrug to yourself, power surging around you, the intention of the spell more than clear to any mage with a half-assed competency in the subject.
(All life is precious, your own voice whispers to you.)
Not now, dammit!
(I'm greedy enough to want peace for everyone, you know.)
Yeah, well, how did that work out for you?!
(All life is precious.)
"Just shut the fuck up!"
Your breath comes out haggard, even though it shouldn't. You don't get exhausted in this body, and yet you've shouted, hyperventilation threatening to steal your breath from your lungs. Vivian blinks up at you, too confused by your outburst to look afraid anyone, Nimue glances at you in concern, and you can't fucking stand it.
(The nasty parts of you still want to kill her, but all life is—)
"Swear," you say, and the word is a command, brokering no room for judgement. The air is dense with your mana, heavy even on your own skin. Nimue's not the target, and even she looks nauseous. Vivian, who you very much are going to ensure she can't fuck with any of you ever again, has broken out into a cold swear, primal fear obvious in her expression. That's a reasonable reaction to having someone invoke Old Magic on them. "Swear that you'll step down from the head of the Dame du Lac, giving your position to Nimue, that you'll never do anything to interfere with Merlin and Magami Rintarou's soul ever again, and that you won't involve yourself with any descendants of King Arthur." Then, one more time, because the silence that follows is almost too much for you to bear: "Swear."
Lucky for you all, Vivian is smart enough to realize a good deal whenever she hears one. "I swear!" she says, her own magic imbued in the words to give you the last ingredient you need to complete spell. "I swear to all your conditions, just let me—"
You finalize the Binding Vow with far more force than necessary, cutting Vivian's voice off, and your mana burns intense enough to evaporate the ice spears on the spot. You give her a Look, just to convey how serious you are about this whole thing. "You know what happens if you break those promises, Vivian. Now, I suggest you vacate the premises so your replacement can redecorate her new office."
And because Nimue doesn't need you to be her babysitter, you teleport straight into your bed back home, as if that will make the voices of your past selves stop echoing in your head.
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With your favorite hug pillow, some comfort food ordered through delivery (you may be an all-powerful mage, but anything you don't have to expend effort on making yourself is just better sometimes), and some wordless Rintarou and Emma cuddles, you're feeling much more up to attending school the next day.
You are very much less prepared for Fuyuse Nayuki also attending school the next day, her Deceit still intact, and you don't even bother to keep just how unimpressed you are off your face. At this point, if Luna and Rintarou figure out who Nimue is, that's all gonna be on her, and you have all the plausible deniability. Nimue smiles right on back at you, her smile much brighter than usual.
Ah. That's the look of someone who just dropped a massive weight off their shoulders and is proud to show it. Well, you can't argue with that.
"Nayuki," you say, which you're pretty damn sure is the first time you've ever greeted her first unprompted.
Nimue's smile somehow grows even brighter, to such a degree that making an ice metaphor about it would just feel wrong. "Safir-san, good morning! I was hoping we could go over some of the student council budgets on our free block, if that's alright with you?"
Which is code for I'll tell you what I'm doing then, so I'd appreciate it if you don't make a scene about it. Well, you'll admit that you're curious, so you can agree to that. "Sounds good. See you then."
With that settled, Nimue goes to her desk, getting ready for the day. In contrast, Luna almost topples her own desk over in her haste to get your attention. Good job, Rintarou, with that spectacular save. Not that you get to compliment him for it, seeing as Luna is all up in your face, half-shouting, "What was that about?"
You give your King a smug smile. "Wouldn't you like to know, my liege?"
It's impressive just how speechless Luna has gotten. You think you've set a new record. "That's… No fair, Safir! You already have Rintarou. They can't keep getting away with this!" Before you can even try to correct that assumption, Luna's already bolted off. "Nayukiii, what happened—"
"Sometimes I think that you just like stirring the shit to see what happens," Rintarou says, sitting on the edge of your desk.
"Oh, darling," you say with all the sweetness you can muster, "whatever could you mean?"
Yeah. You think you like life the way it is just fine.
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Of course, the day-to-day life can't last forever. The school year ends without much fanfare, a short break before your nth time through your second year of high school starts. Emma passes her entrance exam to Camelot International High School with flying colors, joining your number as a first year, and your usual group all manage to remain in the same class with Kujou as your homeroom teacher. You'd be hard-pressed to say anything's changed much at all, were it not for one thing:
The start date for the King Arthur Succession Battle is upon you, and this is what you're here for, to fight alongside Magami Rintarou as the two of you carve a path for Luna's victory, even as the threat of the resurrection of Balor and the Wild Hunt are coming.
As far as you and Rintarou are concerned, you couldn't ask for anything better.
Rule number one: Fuck holding back.
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"Luna Artur, one of the eleven chosen candidates for the King Arthur Succession Battle, the time has come for you to summon your Jack and Excalibur from Camlann Hill."
The fight to become King Arthur's true heir won't know what hit it.
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[Episode: Hedonistic Sorcerer Alliance for the Scum King Closed]
We made it through pre-canon, baby! That's season one cleared!
Thanks to MidnightStar64 for the favorite since the last update! I hope this chap also delivers~.
In case you haven't noticed, Safir's kinda not having a good time. More of that in the next season as we go reap all the consequences of uprooting, like, half the available plot points for the novels. I have all sorts of plans, though, so I hope they'll be enjoyable. Gimme your guesses on how much we're gonna turn everything into a mess.
I didn't expect to make another piece for this project for [Twelve Shots of Summer] this year, but here we are! The prompts just worked on out. I'm gonna promo Chronic Guardian's week eleven shot, "11-Recycled Steam," which is part of his fan project for one of my original projects that I plan to publish in the next year. The whole series is a fun exploration of a canon side character, so I do recommend. As for myself, there's one more shot left for this summer, and that will be the finale to A Fire Inside, another reincarnation fic of mine, so do check that out if you like what I'm doing.
Since this is a completed season, I think I'm gonna put this fic on publishing pause. What I want to do is start setting up my active fics into "seasons," that way I can pre-write a lot of content and then do regular releases. So hopefully whenever I finish drafting out the canon chunks, we can go all in and have the whole thing come out in quick succession! I legit just decided this this week, so we'll see how it goes. But know that I'll be looking forward to sharing the shenanigans with you, so I hope you'll look forward to them, too!
-Avi
[08.14.2022]