By the time Asher returned, it was already evening. Scáthach didn't ask him where he had gone. Instead, Uathach pestered him the whole way, insisting on getting to the bottom of things.
Fortunately, seeing Asher's tired appearance as he lay down on the bedside and immediately fell asleep, Uathach quietly left.
And after Uathach left, Asher immediately opened his eyes again.
"Big Sister is really troublesome..." Asher sighed, picked up the magic cauldron beside him, and prepared for today's tempering.
If it was just ordinary communication with Big Sister Uathach, Asher wouldn't mind, but she kept wanting to know where he had sneaked off to, and he couldn't tell the truth about such things.
He couldn't possibly say: I'm having an affair with the princess of a neighboring country and go over there every day... could he?
Putting the dragon blood into the magic cauldron, Asher drew a rune in the air with his finger.
This was a Rune word. He practiced it every day after returning home. He could feel that his magical power had improved quite a bit after this period of practice.
The only thing Asher felt a bit regretful about was probably that he didn't have a suitable opportunity to learn any abilities from Morgan until the very end today.
But there was no way around it. After all, that kind of thing had happened, and Morgan probably wasn't in the mood to teach him these things.
There would always be opportunities later.
Thinking of this, Asher shook his head, stopped thinking too much, and focused his attention on practicing the Rune words.
Days passed like this, one after another. Asher took the dragon blood Morgan gave him every week. One day, he accidentally discovered this bottle of dragon blood by Scáthach. With a "what's the worst that could happen" attitude, he tried asking Scáthach what exactly this was, and Scáthach just told him to take it without worry, without saying what it was.
She didn't even ask where this thing came from.
It was because of this that Asher became increasingly convinced that Shishou had long known about his secret contact with Morgan, but had just turned a blind eye and tacitly approved of this behavior.
Since Shishou had tacitly approved, Asher no longer hid it. When it was time to go see Morgan, he would leave directly, no longer worrying about whether Scáthach would find out.
Such days continued for nearly three months.
During these three months, Camelot could be said to be in chaos. There were incidents of undead harming people almost every day. Some doomsayers claimed that Britain had angered the elven race and brought their revenge, while others rumored that it was the "witch's" doing. There were also those who claimed that the undead were all humans in disguise. In short, all sorts of rumors spread throughout the royal city.
It wasn't until the last few days that such internal strife slowly subsided.
Because the number of undead was clearly decreasing. People were very forgetful creatures, and unknowingly, they put these things behind them and continued with their lives.
"Artorius, Asher, you've both come together today." The townspeople were completely familiar with these two, and now they teased them without much restraint.
Artoria just nodded slightly, without saying anything.
It wasn't that the townspeople had mispronounced her name, but that she used this male name as a disguise in town.
"We're here to bring the knightly equipment to Kay, and then we'll go back to continue training immediately. After all, we're still just squire knights," Asher said with a smile as he greeted the locals, looking very easy-going.
Over these three months, Morgan had already arranged the procedures for Asher, allowing him to train as a squire knight alongside Artoria.
"Work hard! Maybe you'll be able to get rid of the title of squire knight!" the villager said with a smile.
"I will work hard," Asher replied with a smile.
The two continued walking through the town. Noticing Artoria's gaze, Asher seemed to understand what she meant and asked, "Do you find it hard to understand greeting others?"
She nodded, then quickly shook her head.
"If you want to become king, this is a very important part," Asher said.
"What?" Artoria looked confused.
"To become king, it's not enough to just be respected. You have to be approachable, make others feel that you're a kind king," Asher said. "You want to become king, right, Lily?"
Artoria nodded firmly.
"A king has to understand people's hearts. Come on, try smiling now."
As Asher spoke, he demonstrated, a smile appearing on his face. "Like this, relax your eyebrows, relax your face a bit, and you'll naturally be able to smile. Come on, you try."
Artoria stared at Asher blankly.
She had known Asher for less than three months, but he seemed to have matured a lot... at least compared to the very green young man he was at the beginning, he was much more mature now.
"A king... has to understand people's hearts...?" A hint of confusion laced her tone.
Logically, as long as she could accurately unite the tribes and then lead everyone to drive the foreign races out of Britain, wouldn't that be enough?
As long as she did well enough, others would obey. That should be right.
"Mm, you have to understand people's hearts," Asher nodded. "At least, I think a king who understands people's hearts is a bit more likable."
After all, between A and double F, if he had to choose... F would be better, right?
Definitely F would be better, right?!
It had to be F that was better, right?!
"More likable...?" Artoria tilted her head slightly, a puzzled look on her face, and the ahoge on her head wobbled gently.
"Mm." Asher said this, glanced at the girl, sighed, and reached out to press his hand on her face. Because of her daily training, her face felt smooth and elastic to the touch.
Asher placed his hands on either side of her mouth and gently pulled it open.
"Like this."
Under Asher's "guidance," a stiff smile appeared on Artoria's face.
"Pfft—"
Seeing this smile, Asher couldn't help but cover his mouth and turn away to secretly chuckle.
"That's very rude of you," an displeased look appeared on Artoria's face. "Why are you laughing?"
"Mm... I remembered something happy." By the time Asher finished speaking, he had finally turned back, suppressed his laughter, and coughed lightly twice.
"In short, if you want to become king in the future, relying solely on iron-fisted command won't be enough. You must try to understand other people's thoughts."
A thoughtful expression appeared on Artoria's face.
"Let's go and take these knightly equipment to Kay first," Asher said.
Artoria nodded. Just as she was about to step forward, a commotion came from not far away.
"Oh! What a pity! Just a little bit more and he would have succeeded."
"That's not just a little bit more, it's finally shaking it a little bit, right?"
Artoria's gaze fixed in that direction, as if trying to see something beyond the crowd of people huddled together.
"Shall we go take a look?" Asher noticed Artoria's gaze and so he spoke.
She nodded lightly. After finally squeezing into the crowd, they saw a group of people pointing and gesturing in front of a certain giant rock.
"The Caliburn?"
Asher muttered to himself, looking at the sword stuck in the giant rock not far away, and the knight who was desperately trying to pull it out.
He had seen this scene almost every day this month. Every day, a batch of knights would come here to pull the sword, but so far, no one had succeeded.
"Caliburn," Artoria said softly. "Merlin said that the one who pulls the Caliburn from this giant rock will become king."
"He also said that only the one with the body of the Red Dragon can pull out this sword, right?" Asher added.
Precisely because of Merlin's words, the foreign tribes had been searching frantically for the body of the Red Dragon recently. For these foreign tribes who were invading British territory, the body of the Red Dragon was their greatest enemy, and they had to eliminate this enemy as soon as possible.
It was just a pity that the foreign tribes had not yet been able to find out who the body of the Red Dragon was.
Hearing Asher's words, Artoria fell silent, her gaze towards the Caliburn slightly complicated.
After a moment, she spoke, "Let's go."
She hadn't told Asher about the Red Dragon, because it involved too many things.
It wasn't that she didn't trust Asher, it was just that she didn't want Asher to know too much.
Knowing too much wouldn't do him any good.
Although Vortigern had mysteriously disappeared after defeating King Uther, the foreign tribes still occupied most of Britain's territory. Once the secret leaked out and they learned that she was the Red Dragon, it would lead to her death, and even Asher would be implicated.
So this matter... the fewer people who knew, the better.
-----------More Bonus Chapters!!!!
Every 300 power stones = 1 Bonus Chapter