Honestly, this development was completely beyond Artoria's expectations. She had thought Su Yun was just a handsome, excellent cook, and a good friend she got along with very well—someone she'd begun to develop a little crush on. But who would've thought he was also a member of Destiny?
The information had come out of nowhere. She hadn't been prepared for it at all.
The girl had already made up her mind to protect the boy and cut ties with him completely. But before she could even say a word, he'd hit her with even more explosive information, shutting down the decision she'd been about to make. She was left sitting there, utterly dumbfounded, unable to recover for a long time.
Su Yun simply watched Artoria with a smile. He didn't say anything more, and waited for her to process the news.
After a while, the girl came to her senses. Her expression turned complicated. "You're... a Destiny Operator too? Um... sorry, that's such a shocking revelation. I'm having trouble taking it in..."
Su Yun shrugged. "It is a pretty shocking truth. I can understand how you feel. It's like finding out that you're the reincarnation of King Arthur."
Artoria's expression grew even more complicated. She pressed her lips together and grew uneasy, placing her hands on her lap and twisting the hem of her clothes. Her beautiful green eyes trembled slightly, as if she were struggling with something.
After another while, the girl finally asked in a somewhat subdued voice, "Then... did you approach me on purpose? A-Yun... Was transferring to Tianwang High School, or becoming my friend, all because of orders from Destiny...?"
Su Yun smiled at that, then shook his head. "No. I transferred to Tianwang High School simply because I'm a student now, and it's a top school. If I had the chance, of course I'd go to a good school."
"Meeting you was a complete coincidence, too. And I became your friend because I meant it. I think you're wonderful and adorable, and I really like you, so I wanted to be friends. It wasn't because you're the reincarnation of King Arthur."
The boy spoke calmly, without a trace of insincerity. He meant every word. Though he'd just put the girl in a difficult position, everything he'd said was true. He'd reached out to her because she was Artoria, the one who was special to him.
Artoria watched Su Yun closely as he spoke. Then, as if a great weight had lifted from her shoulders, she relaxed and couldn't help but smile—a beautiful, happy, relieved smile.
The girl knew Su Yun wasn't lying. Her Instinct was now strong enough to tell whether someone was speaking the truth. But this was something she did deliberately; unless she tried to discern the truth, she wouldn't passively detect whether others were lying. At most, she could clearly sense it if someone felt intense hostility toward her.
Now that the girl had confirmed the boy was being sincere, she felt at ease. She stopped using her Instinct to judge his words.
Instead, now that she'd relaxed, she suddenly realized he'd used a certain word. Her cheeks flushed, and she grew uneasy again, fidgeting shyly.
L-Like me...?
W-W-Was that a confession? Was that what people called a confession?
S-Should I accept or turn him down? This is too hard...
Ugh... A-Yun, you idiot. How am I supposed to respond when you suddenly say you like me?
The girl suddenly felt as if she were in grave danger!
To be honest, Artoria's feelings for Su Yun went far beyond ordinary friendship. She truly liked him as a girl liked a boy—and she liked him a lot.
They'd known each other for only a little over a month. The girl shouldn't have developed such deep feelings for the boy in so little time.
But she was Artoria, a girl with an incredibly sincere heart.
The environment she'd grown up in had always been full of deception and malice, so the girl had learned to be cautious about everything. And because she had so many outstanding brothers and sisters, she'd also grown somewhat insecure.
On top of that, she had a trait none of her siblings shared, one considered extremely "ugly" among the royal family: she was a glutton.
The girl was pitiful and weak, but she could really put food away.
Unless she ate enough for five people, she never felt full. To preserve the royal family's dignity, she had no choice but to force herself to control her appetite, and so she was almost always hungry.
All those factors had led her to study abroad in Yingzhou. Even there, she remained cautious, not daring to reveal her royal identity or her enormous appetite.
Until she met Su Yun, the girl had always been careful, afraid that if her "flaws" were exposed, people would look down on her.
Honestly, the girl really was insecure—almost as much as the Artoria Caster who'd grown up in a stable in a certain Fairy Lostbelt. She looked beautiful and adorable, but deep down, she had no confidence in herself at all.
Then Su Yun appeared.
As soon as he approached the girl, Su Yun showed that he knew how much she could eat. On their second day of knowing each other, he brought her a whole lot of food and shared all those delicious treats with her.
That day, the warmth of a full stomach gave the girl a sense of satisfaction she hadn't felt in a long time. It was also the day she began to feel something called affection for Su Yun.
After that, whenever Su Yun had time, he shared food with the girl. As it happened, she lived in this same apartment building, which made it even easier to share food.
When Su Yun invited Artoria to his home one weekend and cooked her a sumptuous lunch, his superb cooking won over her stomach.
As the saying went, if you wanted to win a woman, you had to win her stomach first. There was no doubt Su Yun had managed it.
Su Yun simply knew that the girl with the ahoge had an unusually big appetite, accepted it as a matter of course, and even thought it was a cute trait.
What mattered most to the girl was that he felt no dislike toward her "big appetite." He thought it was a good thing, and did his best to satisfy it. That was the real treasure she cherished most.
That day, the girl realized that her flaw wasn't really a flaw—not when there was someone in the world who wouldn't judge others for what everyone else saw as a disgrace to the royal family.
That same day, the girl gradually opened her heart to the boy, and he returned her sincerity, giving her the friendship and heartfelt affection she craved most.
Because the girl's feelings were so sincere, she returned the boy's sincere affection in kind.
It was hard to say whether those feelings were the result of a "damsel in distress" effect born from overwhelming gratitude, or whether the girl truly liked the boy. But she truly treasured him, and he held an important place in her heart that no one could shake or replace.
So, in the dream of inheritance, the person Artoria thought of was Su Yun.
The person she most wanted to protect was Su Yun!
That was who she was—Artoria Pendragon.
A girl with a heart so pure it hurt to see, insecure, yet incomparably strong.
Su Yun understood what kind of person the girl was better than anyone. So when she had quietly made up her mind to protect him, he'd already decided to protect her long before that.
In this world threatened by Mystery, only those who possessed power could better protect themselves. So the boy chose to give the girl great strength, even if it meant she would have to shoulder enormous responsibility and carry a heavy burden.
Still, that was better than being inexplicably finished off in a Mystery attack, wasn't it?
After all, Su Yun wasn't confident he could protect everything he cherished. He wasn't even confident he could truly defeat Mystery.
Because Mystery was powerful—far more powerful than he'd imagined.
A few nights ago, Su Yun had secretly helped Artoria effortlessly destroy a Super Mystery. But to the true forces of Mystery, that level of power was nothing more than a tiny insect.
The mysterious forces that had invaded this world were merely an insignificant fraction of the power that seeped into it when this world collided with the world of Mystery—not even one-millionth of what truly existed in the world of Mystery.
Yet even that one-millionth was almost enough to make this world Honkai.
Faced with such a terrifying enemy, even Su Yun had no idea what the future held. All he could do was cherish what he had now and do his best to fulfill his own duties.
Since he cherished Artoria, he would make her the true reincarnation of King Arthur and give her the strength to protect herself.
That was Su Yun's sincerity, and how much he treasured the girl.
The public execution wasn't some twisted joke. It was a genuine act of kindness.
Just as Artoria was falling into the throes of adolescent angst over Su Yun saying that he "liked" her, the light outside the window suddenly changed. The girl sensed something at once and turned to look out the window.
There, the Light Screen that hadn't appeared in several days had appeared once again!
That's the second chapter today. I've posted another six thousand words.
Also, I've started a reader group: 296098125.
Before you continue