GoA: Setting Sail.

Arturia and Merlin are taking a break from overseeing the last of the ships’ preparations for the expedition to Rome. Arturia plans to reach Rome before the Romans can set off on their ships, beat the shit out of them in one hit and force them to sue for peace. Merlin laughs at the the matter-of-fact way in which she talks about beating them in one go, though he has no doubts she’ll pull it off.

He asks her about who’ll be in charge while she’s out, and she says it’ll be Kay (she starts saying “big brother” and then corrects herself with “Sir Kay”), Mordred and Gawain, the later who is still recovering from injuries. She plans to tell everyone about the matter with Lancelot after the expedition is done. Then there’s a small aside about how Merlin’s keeping his mouth shut, since he can see the future and knows that although the expedition will succeed, all hell will break loose just as she’s making her way back.

>Britain is at its limit. The role of the saviour king is over. He believes it is time for the girl to rest.

Merlin says out loud that no matter when Britain is destroyed, its influence will linger for hundreds of years. He’s actually shown Arturia her fate in her dreams, but she admonishes him, telling him not to keep making the same bad joke since she won’t let it fall.

They’ve apparently had this conversation many times. He recalls the morning of selection and how she chose to fight despite knowing everything she’d have to sacrifice, and overall thinks that everything has gone as planned and he did create the perfect king

>“But, my aim was the perfect King. Your aim was to bring people’s happiness. I ought to have realized the difference between those two things sooner.”

Arturia doesn’t really understand what he means, but he’s airing his guilty feelings.

A bit later as they’re about to board, Merlin suddenly stops.

>Merlin: “Sorry, I know it’s sudden, but this is as far as I go. I went for a spirit with a pretty bad disposition, so I need to lay low for a while.”
>The girl shrugs her shoulders in exasperation at the Magician’s words.
>Arturia: “’You should work on your troubles with women’… or so I thought to say, but even after all these years you haven’t improved one bit.”
>Merlin: “It’s the reason for my existence. A life without flowers is no life at all.”
>The girl smiles gently at the Magician’s proud words. The Magician has seen the girl’s kind smile many times until now, yet the girl never smiles for herself.

Arturia gets on the ship and turns to him one last time.

>”Thank you, Merlin. You have always been my great teacher.”
>The parting words are simple. The girl does not know what fate awaits her, and so she thinks this is merely a short separation.
>The Magician is bashful when faced with straightforward gratitude.
>He has heard that compliment countless times, but…
>”......”
>Her words are packed with an emotion that the Magician has never even dreamed of. The usually talkative magician has no parting words.
>”You and I have never minded each other as members of the opposite sex, so I’m not sure how to put this feeling into words. A rare feeling after all these years of being together. Perhaps, I might have fallen in love with you.”
>Without reddening her checks, without a hint of bashfulness, the girl speaks her mistaken thoughts.
>As far as the girl knows, that is the deepest form of affection.
>Of course, that is not love. The girl with no experience of normal life has mistakenly taken her gratitude and put it into a category she has only heard from second-hand.
>The last conversation is over.
>The ship bearing the King leaves for the golden seas.
>The Magician seeing her off monologues to himself.
>…I am a living being that loves only beautiful outcomes.
>An inhuman being that can’t even feel properly and sees humans as if they were ants.
>And yet I have fallen in love with only one beautiful form.
>The Magician does not understand human love.
>Arturia does not know human love.
>For these two to speak of mutual love… that’s the apex of irony.
>”No, that’s the obvious conclusion. Two inhumans play-acting as if they were human don’t go together at all.”