The Round Table Knights' Plastic Surgery Mishap

"Hey, Master, long time no see! How were you doing in Italy?"

Gawain forced a smile and said in a relaxed tone to the person on the other end of the phone, "Let me tell you, the three of us had a great time on the show..."

"Gawain, you big gorilla--!! Success, you big dummy!"

"Don't you even know how many pounds of mashed potatoes you made?!"

"How can you feed your mashed potatoes to an ordinary person? Your brain isn't fully developed, your cerebellum isn't fully developed either!!"

Even though Gawain wasn't on speakerphone, his series of roars were still transmitted to everyone present through the receiver.

"This will severely damage the group's image! And it will also affect Artoria's reputation! You idiot! Pighead! Three-Red Gorilla!"

Whether he was genuinely angry with Gawain or simply using the situation to vent his frustrations, Shinji on the phone became increasingly agitated and vehement in his rant.

This is never going to end...

Seeing that Shinji showed no signs of stopping, Gawain felt utterly overwhelmed.

"Um... Master... what did you say? I can't hear you..."

Gawain simply switched to cheating mode, pretending that the signal was bad.

"Ha?"

Shinji on the other end of the phone scoffed, "Don't pretend with me!"

Gawain ignored Shinji and continued his performance.

"Is the international call signal bad? Your voice keeps cutting out..."

"Gawain, stop pretending! Do you believe I'll make you eat the mashed potatoes you made yourself?!"

"I... Master...you..."

Gawain deliberately spoke in broken sentences, then pressed a button on his phone to hang up.

"Beep--Beep--Beep--!"

Hearing the busy tone on his phone, Shinji, far away in Venice, was so angry he laughed.

"Good! Very good! You actually dared to hang up on me! Gawain, you're finished!"

Chapter 304 The Knights of the Round Table's Plastic Surgery and Facial Paralysis Incident

Back in Fuyuki City, Lancelot felt a flicker of worry when he saw Gawain hang up the phone.

"Um... is it alright if you just hang up?" Lancelot reminded him, "You know Master particularly petty, what if he holds a grudge against you later..."

"Let's talk about it when he gets back."

Gawain replied nonchalantly, "Anyway, by the time he gets back, this will all be over. The internet's memory is short; Master himself said so."

The Three Red Gorillas' twisted logic made a tiny bit of sense, but the more Lancelot thought about it, the more something seemed off.

"Ex-calibur! Ta-da~ Ta-da~ Ta-da~"

Just then, Lancelot's phone rang again.

Don't answer!

The gorilla immediately pressed its paw down on the camel's hoof.

"Silly camel, if you answer now, it'll be like my fake bad signal being exposed! Don't answer!"

Lancelot scoffed, "Who are you calling a camel?!"

[You actually won't deny that you're stupid?]

Old Cui, who was standing nearby, glanced at the two of them.

Although Lancelot was angry at Gawain's rude remarks, he did not contradict him.

After all, the Shinji really wants to investigate, he won't be able to escape.

"Ex-calibur! Ta-da~ Ta-da~ Ta-da~"

So the trio at the Round Table listened quietly to Lancelot's phone ringing, waiting for Shinji to get impatient and stop calling, or for something to do and give up on the call.

But perhaps Shinji was particularly free at this time, or perhaps he was being stubborn today and wouldn't give up until he got through on the phone.

Over the next few minutes, Shinji repeatedly called the trio's cell phones, trying to get in touch with them.

"This is never going to end," Tristan said helplessly. "Maybe we should just give up. After all, Master is out of town and can't possibly give us Command Spell on the spot."

"We've already started, how can we give up halfway?"

Gawain said confidently, "Just wait and see. There's a lot going on at the film festival. Master doesn't have time to waste on us."

As if to confirm Gawain's words, after failing to get through to Lao Cui again, Shinji never called the three of them again.

Gawain put the now-quiet phone back in his pocket and let out a long sigh of relief.

"Phew~ We finally managed to smooth things over. Remember, it was because of bad signal that we couldn't answer the phone, not because we deliberately didn't answer."

Perhaps fearing that the other two might betray him, Gawain specifically warned them.

Lancelot rolled his eyes, ignoring him.

How could I possibly reveal something that would get me punished for informing on others?

He patted his behind and stood up. "Alright, let's go. There's no point in sitting here any longer. They're going to start recording again soon, so this is just an excuse."

"I'm going to get some water."

Just as Gawain was about to leave the corridor, Diarmuid came out of the room next door with his phone in his hand.

"You three are here," Diarmuid said. "Master is calling, looking for you."

"Just say we're not here!"

Lancelot answered without hesitation.

Gawain and Tristan nodded in agreement.

Diarmuid guessed why they reacted that way; he had also heard about the three clowns' "glorious achievements."

Diarmuid handed over the phone, saying, "Trying to escape is useless. This is a video call, the camera is on."

When Shinji called, Shuazige was wondering why it was a video call, but now, seeing the expressions on the three of them's faces, he immediately guessed what had happened.

Fortunately, Diarmuid to block the phone's camera and earpiece, ensuring that Shinji wouldn't know what was happening, while giving his own warning to the three poor, weak, and helpless Three Knight Classes of the Round Table.

"Go ahead and accept it. If Master really gets angry, he might call the King of Knights, and it could very well be a mixed doubles team of Black and Blue."

Having probably imagined themselves being attacked by Excalibur and Excalibur Morgan in turn and blasted to smithereens, Lancelot and Tristan immediately adopted the "better to sacrifice your own friend than yourself" mentality and turned their attention to Gawain.

"You're the one who caused this mess, so what are you going to do about it now?"

"I'll take it."

As Gawain stepped forward, he muttered to himself, "It's just one more time, what's the big deal?"

As soon as Gawain got Diarmuid's phone, Shinji's face appeared on the screen, that familiar roar echoed in Gawain ears once again.

"Gawain! You dared to hang up on me just now!"

Shinji looked at Gawain's constipated face on his phone screen and yelled in exasperation.

Gawain scratched his head, replying awkwardly, "How could I... I wouldn't dare hang up on you, Master..."

"..."

Seeing Shinji's eyes staring directly at him through the screen, Gawain's expression became even more uneasy. "The signal was really bad just now..."

"..."

Shinji didn't speak, but continued to stare at Gawain, as if mocking him: Go on, I'll just quietly watch your performance.

Then, Gawain actually started acting.

"Master, it was too... laggy just now..."

Using the same tactic as before, Gawain deliberately became hesitant and fragmented when he was halfway through his sentence.

That's not all. To cooperate with this video call, Gawain deliberately made a stiff expression with his mouth open.

These days, camera resolution is so low that it's impossible to clearly capture whether a person is blinking.

"..."

Shinji raised an eyebrow as he looked at the still frame on his phone.

"Gawain."

"..."

This time, Gawain pretended to be an expert and remained silent.

"Gawain!"

Shinji suddenly shouted.

"..."

Gawain maintained his stiff expression, as if he were playing a game of staring intently at someone's eyes.

Shinji was about to say something when he suddenly saw a reporter with a camera walk in behind Gawain.

The other person recognized Gawain and walked over with a camera in hand.

"Gawain, stop pretending to freeze the moment." Shinji sighed, "It's already revealed—"

At that moment, the reporter behind Gawain had already raised his camera and pressed the shutter.

"??! (Chinese-Japanese bilingual)"

Shinji immediately panicked; someone who takes photos without saying a word is definitely not a legitimate reporter.

These paparazzi photos of celebrities are like drinking cold water while looking at porn—they're not going to spout anything of substance!

"Gawain! Look behind you! There are paparazzi!!"

The trio is already under intense public scrutiny; if they were to be photographed in such an inappropriate manner by paparazzi, wouldn't that be...?

"Gawain! Stop pretending!"

Seeing the paparazzi behind him frantically snapping photos, Shinji's expression became unusually agitated.

However, Gawain remained unmoved in front of the camera, seemingly still believing that Shinji was testing him.

"I'm not lying to you! Look at what's next!!"

"Look behind you! You brainless gorilla!"

Perhaps Shinji's expression was too real, Gawain cautiously turned his eyes and glanced behind him out of the corner of his eye.

Moreover, fearing that Shinji would seduce him, he deliberately paused when rolling his eyes.

Despite Gawain's elaborate acting and careful planning, Shinji really didn't lie to him this time.

In fact, when Gawain turned his eyes to the camera, he saw the paparazzi running away with the camera.

Shinji, far away in Italy, trembled slightly.

There were too many people in the studio, making it difficult for the few Heroic Spirit to make a move, and given the paparazzi's shrewdness, he must have already found another job.

"Gao-wen--!"

"Master, it's lagging too much. I'm hanging up now."

Sensing something was wrong, Gawain immediately ended the video call; he dared not continue talking to Shinji.

"You little punk, I'll throw a nut at you!"

Shinji roared at the blacked-out phone screen once again.

◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

As Shinji had expected.

Just the next day, Weekly Bunshun published a photo of Gawain appearing to be having a nervous breakdown on its website, along with an article titled "Gawain, a member of the 'Round Table' group, is suspected of having botched plastic surgery, resulting in facial paralysis!"

The article's content is entirely fabricated and nonsensical, basically just trying to smear Gawain.

This article in Weekly Bunshun was quickly reprinted by major media outlets, and some tabloids added various embellishments to the article, smearing Gawain.