Of course, there was something else besides that.
It belonged to Artoria Pendragon, who was now whispering in her ear in a gentle voice:
"You did well, Morgan le Fay."
The son of King Arthur, named Artorius.
"As our first collaboration, I'm very satisfied."
He was the perfect fit for Morgan le Fay's desires.
Whether they were desires of affection or desires of revenge.
"I think that from now on, we'll definitely also..."
Arthur's words came to a forced stop.
By a dagger plunged into his side.
Author's note:
First update of May! Please vote with your monthly tickets!
Starting this month, I'll aim for three updates a day. I hope everyone will continue supporting this book!
Still Pursuing Happiness Proactively
"Mm... hm...?"
Touching the wound that was slowly bleeding, Arthur tilted his head and looked at Morgan le Fay with a somewhat strange expression.
"I'm truly sorry, Your Highness."
The enchantress wore a delighted smile.
"Compared to obeying your orders, letting you command me like a slave, and worrying every day about being ruthlessly discarded by you, this is much simpler."
Artorius pulled out the dagger. The recovery abilities of a legendary Dragon Kind warrior should have healed the wound immediately.
But this time, they did not.
Not only did the wound fail to heal, it was even beginning to fester.
Ah, before that, although Arthur wore a beautiful blue-and-silver aristocratic formal outfit, it had been reinforced with magecraft. Its defensive power exceeded that of ordinary fine plate armor, yet her dagger had pierced through it in one stroke.
The mage who had made the outfit had thumped his chest and sworn to Arthur that it was reliable. Was it because he did not fear Artorius and had cut corners, or because he was not actually as capable as he boasted?
Probably neither.
The real reason was that the woman named Morgan le Fay standing opposite Arthur was unreasonably powerful.
"Poison."
"Yes, that's right."
He could not feel pain from the wound. Instead, there was a faint numbness. That confirmed Arthur's suspicions about her methods once again.
"Would killing me really do you any good?" As if the poison had truly taken effect, Arthur spoke while clutching his wound and slowly taking two steps back. Then he sat down on a chair that appeared out of thin air.
Though his expression remained composed, the sweat on his forehead and the uncontrollable twitching of his facial muscles proved that he was enduring pain.
"Why did you suddenly change your mind?" he asked. "What do you gain by dealing with me here?"
"You can try guessing."
She continued keeping her distance from Arthur rather than approaching. At the same time, black mist appeared around her and was transformed into a squad of heavily armored knights in the shortest time possible.
Amid the clattering of clockwork gears, more and larger puppets continued to emerge... followed by gargoyles and wyverns in the air.
These monsters and Phantasmal Beasts nearly packed the once-spacious hall to bursting.
They were ferocious and evil, brazenly radiating a terrifying aura.
Morgan le Fay seemed to have brought out all her resources, determined to capture Artorius at any cost.
"Hehe."
Arthur chuckled twice, then drew his sword. "You think you can defeat me with this trash, Morgan?"
"How would we know without trying?"
As her words fell, the monsters, puppets, knights, gargoyles, and wyverns all charged at Artorius with bared fangs and claws, as though they intended to tear the Evil Dragon Prince apart.
Ah, of course, they would not actually kill Arthur.
Morgan's plan was simply to make Artorius lose his ability to resist in this battle. That would be enough for her to carry out her other plan.
It had been a spur-of-the-moment idea, one she had only just conceived. Yet in an instant, Morgan's desire had reached its peak.
"You really are awful, Aunt."
Artorius had no choice but to rise, swinging his sword and cutting down every monster that lunged at him.
His swordsmanship was exceptionally exquisite, a style uniquely his own that fused dueling swordsmanship with military swordsmanship.
Such swordsmanship was suited both for dueling one or many powerful opponents and for sweeping through armies. The heroic figure of him wielding his longsword, along with the dragon's savagery he displayed in battle, made Morgan le Fay's heart stir.
"Yes, yes, exactly."
As she happily answered Arthur, "I am a Witch, my dear nephew!" she thought to herself:
I want this boy!
Arthur: "Hehehe, a Witch, huh."
Morgan le Fay: I'm taking this child home to raise!!!!!
The next second, Artorius released the hand clutching his chest.
Holding his sword with both hands, the mana around him surged under the pulse of his dragon heart, reaching its peak at the fastest possible speed.
As he circulated mana so rapidly, the temperature within dozens of meters around him suddenly plummeted. Frost as cold as death instantly froze every monster approaching Artorius, turning them into lifelike ice sculptures.
In an instant, the area around Artorius became a deathly expanse of pale silver and icy blue. That stillness, that absolute cold and frost, continued spreading rapidly outward with him at its center. Even Morgan felt panic at such terrifying reserves of mana.
"Wait, this is... How is this possible?!"
—It was not merely beyond her understanding—even the highest-ranking dragons, the highest-ranking Phantasmal Beasts, even Artorius's Father King, Britannia's Red Dragon, or the White Dragon Vortigern who had granted Artorius such immense power, did not possess such powerful mana.
And beyond that, he had clearly been poisoned by her. It was poison she had carefully prepared, originally intended for her adorable younger sister.
—If her "adorable" younger sister had not already obtained Avalon's holy sword, whose Scabbard could resist all harm in the world, Morgan could have celebrated victory by now.
But, but...
"You're being too shallow, Aunt."
Arthur smiled. The Evil Dragon Prince's aura continued rising, while Clarent in his hand gleamed with dazzling, ominous crimson light.
"Don't judge people by outdated standards."
As he spoke, Morgan le Fay's castle had already become the Evil Dragon Prince's frost domain.
It was the reflection of Artorius's heart—his Inherent Skill, Frost of Stillness. It was the ultimate technique he had gained through leading armies across Europa's frozen lands, fighting the equally crazed German armies again and again and again, winning again and again and again.
A frost domain more powerful than Vortigern, the White Dragon of Britannia's northern border!
"I've been improving all this time!"
The frozen sculptures shattered in an instant, becoming fragments scattered across the floor. At the same time, the warmth was drained from Morgan le Fay's body.
"My body... I can't control my body!" She wanted to scream, only to find that her voice had been taken as well—touch, hearing, sight. Morgan le Fay was now completely at another's mercy.
Overwhelmed by terror, one of the most famous and powerful witches of this era, Britannia's enchantress, was subdued by Artorius Pendragon.
Heroic Spirit Artorius Pendragon has gained the A+ skill, Inherent Skill "Frost of Stillness."
Mom's death.jpg
Author's note:
First update today!
The first yandere Arthur encountered. A twisted King Arthur fanatic and all that.
I'm Not Interested in You
Artorius tightly pinned down Morgan le Fay. Clarent, the Demon Sword whose blade shone like silver frost, was pressed against her neck. In the next second, it could sever her fair neck and slice her beautiful head from her shoulders.
The deathly silver-frost world had vanished without a trace. The castle had returned to "normal," except every army, monster, and puppet Morgan had deployed had been shattered.
In contrast, the weaker familiars not meant for battle had survived. For example, the puppets dressed as musicians were still playing. Yet due to problems with their internal magecraft mechanisms, the music they played had become horribly off-key, the sort of sound broken things made.
"You really made me break a sweat, Morgan."
He said it to her happily.
Morgan's poison had still caused Arthur considerable trouble.
Although Arthur's foundation had undergone tremendous changes, transforming from the Dragon of Britannia into the Dragon of Usurpation and the Evil Dragon of Europa, Vortigern's White Dragon had also been tempered in the German Black Forest and ascended into the Dragon of Frost.
At the same time, after devouring a large number of German tribes and forming the concept of Ruler of Germania, his strength had increased enormously.
But it still hurt.
A targeted poison was still a targeted poison. Though its effects had weakened, it was like reducing deadly pneumonia to a severe cold. It was still unpleasant, and it still hurt.
Of course, he had long grown accustomed to pain. Beneath his beautiful formal outfit was a body tempered through countless trials and crisscrossed with scars. Other than scars on his face, which absolutely had to be removed, Arthur had kept every one of those "medals."
Unlike Arthur.
Victorious Arthur could be happy. Defeated Morgan... well, defeated Morgan was happy too.
"Heh, hehehe..."
While Artorius laughed happily, Morgan le Fay found herself thinking that being killed by him might not be so bad. After all, her life had always been a complete mess.
A messy life paired with a rather ironic death—what could be more fitting for a Witch?
Yet that did not happen.
Under Morgan's surprised gaze, his blade moved away from her neck. Then, filled with a sense of superiority, Artorius fiercely kissed her.
Morgan only resisted slightly. Her body, frozen by Frost of Stillness, was also melted by passion.
She grabbed Arthur's back, raking all ten fingernails viciously down it.
"Don't misunderstand."
Afterward, Arthur's eyes flickered as he continued speaking to her in a delighted, condescending tone:
"This prince has no interest in an old woman like you. It was merely an expedient measure to ensure your hands and feet wouldn't freeze off. After all, this prince still needs you for the next stage of my plans."
Morgan responded by slapping him.
Of course, before it could strike its target, Arthur caught her wrist.
Morgan le Fay glared viciously at the shameless man pinning her to the floor. He actually dared say such nonsense.
He had clearly provoked her to this extent, yet he had no intention of taking any responsibility.
This man was a bastard.
Thinking this, Morgan swung her other hand at Arthur's face again. Naturally, it was caught as well. Even the kick she aimed at Arthur's knee was suppressed. In close-quarters combat, Arthur completely outclassed her.
"Don't push it, old hag," Arthur told her.
The next second, the dagger that had pierced Arthur's abdomen earlier was transferred into his hand. Without hesitation, he drove it into Morgan's body—into the same place where Arthur himself had been stabbed.
The intense pain made Morgan's body convulse. Her eyes widened, and tears flowed helplessly from them. Before she could scream, Arthur covered her mouth.
"Be grateful you're still alive. You're alive because you still have use to this prince. Otherwise, the punishment for attacking me would not have ended with this."
Arthur said that to her. Only then did he release her and climb off her.
"Ugh—bastard, bastard! I've never seen a bastard like you!"
Morgan, who had also barely managed to get up, denounced this disgrace to knighthood in a trembling voice. "You, you, you..."
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