The Dragon Has Arrived

"Dala Bengba, get your ass out here!"

The deafening roar of a giant dragon rang through Camelot's skies. In the silence of the deep night, it was like a sudden clap of thunder, impossible to ignore.

Gawain froze at the thunderous voice and looked blankly at Merlin beside him. "Who is Dala Bengba?"

"Prince Gawain, Dala Bengba is you!"

Merlin shrugged and reminded the youth before him. At that moment, he looked like an adorable old man brimming with childlike innocence.

"That voice is pretty loud, on par with Zhang Fei. Should I go out and take a look?"

Hearing Merlin's words, Gawain finally remembered that Dala Bengba from Dala Bengba's Song was his alias in the setting. He pondered it silently.

Though he did not think the other party had come for him, the voice calling out was absurdly loud, like a citywide alarm sounded during an emergency drill. It was hard not to be curious.

Whose voice could possibly be that loud? Had they used magic?

"He's looking for you!"

Merlin took a crystal ball from his robes. The ball displayed the castle: a giant dragon over a hundred meters long circled above Camelot Castle, calling Dala Bengba's name. The soldiers on the battlements aimed their spears at the dragon, but under its draconic might, one after another, they could not help but drop to their knees.

It was not that the soldiers lacked courage. To kneel before a dragon and still dare to swing their fists and fight was already brave enough.

A dragon's might inherently possessed magical power. As long as one was a living creature, the instinct of life itself made humans utterly unable to resist a dragon at the top of the food chain.

"That dragon is huge. He isn't really looking for me, is he?"

Gawain stared at the dragon in the crystal ball, his heart pounding. Facing it, he felt like an ordinary human confronting Godzilla in a disaster movie. No matter how much courage he possessed, there was no way he could directly fight something like that.

Dragons and giant dragons were ultimately different. There was no shortage of Knights of the Round Table who had accomplished dragon slaying, but those dragons were only around ten meters long.

Sir Lancelot's Dragon-Slaying Textbook had laid out the process of slaying dragons in crystal-clear detail.

First, one had to use a scheme: smear poison on roasted mutton and lure the dragon into taking the bait. Then command one's soldiers to fire arrows and restrain it while the knight charged forward alone to accomplish the feat.

Because dragons could fly, breathe fire, use magic, and conceal themselves along with their surroundings, their wings had to be targeted first.

Even the steps for dealing with a mere ten-meter dragon in the Dragon-Slaying Textbook were this complicated and difficult.

This giant dragon, at least fifty or sixty meters tall, was the height of an eighteen-story apartment building in modern terms. It was undoubtedly on the same level as the monsters and Ultraman from disaster films and television dramas.

Gawain could not help wondering whether this was truly something humans could fight.

"Mr. Merlin, how should we deal with this giant dragon?" Gawain asked Merlin, trying to learn from him how to handle it.

"Dragon slaying is not the work of a wizard like me. It is the work of a knight like you!"

Merlin shook his head, slippery as an old hand. Yet his composed expression and barely perceptible smile showed that he was not worried about the dragon at all. He likely had plenty of ways to deal with it.

"Which knight can handle it?" Gawain frowned.

"Perhaps Arthur, perhaps Lancelot. At the very least, one of the highest-ranked Knights of the Round Table, such as Bedivere, who once defeated a giant. The other Knights of the Round Table could easily keep it occupied. With proper coordination, they could hold the giant dragon at bay and eventually drive it away with an army. However..."

"However what?"

"However, none of those three are currently in Camelot. Therefore, this is your prey, Sir Gawain, Your Highness. It is time for you to make your name."

"My prey? Mr. Merlin, what kind of joke is that?"

Gawain did not quite understand Merlin's words. Camelot's Round Table warriors were famous far and wide. Why should it be his turn, a complete weakling, to take the field?

Honestly, he was being terribly wronged.

He had only come to the Kingdom of Camelot two months ago, and he had spent a full month and a half training at Ector's castle.

He had only trained for half a month when, on a dark and stormy night, Sir Ector had thrown him out of his room and into the dog kennel to fight the dogs. That was when he had awakened.

After that, he had trained as a knight for only one month before graduating early with "outstanding results."

What use was that?

Even new recruits needed three months of training to get through the recruit period. One month of training was no more than the level of military training in high school or university.

Moreover, knights generally began training at the age of six and were not qualified to become knights until they were twenty-one, after their bodies had fully developed. This body of his was only fourteen.

So when Queen Guinevere accused Gawain of wasting his days and doing nothing, and King Arthur asked why he had yet to create any achievements of his own, he truly felt wronged.

You have to give me time.

Unfortunately, Gawain was him, and he was Gawain. He could only shoulder the blame for his predecessor being a "playboy."

Gawain had grown up in Northern Europe, where people worshipped Odin. They did not practice a knightly system built upon the doctrines of Christianity, and the education he had received was that of a Northern European prince.

Wrestling, fencing, rock climbing, skiing, ice skating, swimming, throwing spears with both hands at once, sailing through rough waters while rowing—these were skills entirely different from those of Europe and Britain.

Prince Gawain's predecessor had been skilled in poetry and music. He could sail large ships and serve as their captain, repair ships, and possessed basic mathematical ability. That alone was rare and valuable in the Middle Ages. He could handle administrative work and had also received combat training. Though not exceptional, he was decent enough, had served as a military commander, seen bloodshed, and looted things.

Vikings generally did not ride horses. Compared with land warfare, they were more skilled at asserting their power at sea. Knights, meanwhile, not only rode horses but also wore heavy armor. Viking warriors and European knights were two entirely different types of soldiers with utterly different requirements.

One was a marine corps, while the other was an armored tank division of the army.

The reason Gawain could not remain in Northern Europe and had to come to Camelot was because he had been accused of being a "pedophile."

Although the king held the highest authority in Viking lands, tribal assemblies possessed power above that of kings.

For King Lot to declare Gawain his heir, he needed recognition from the tribal assembly.

At that crucial moment, the kingdom's nobles had gathered, with people from Norway and Iceland attending as witnesses. An elder from a prince's maternal clan carried forward a baby and said it had been captured in a raid. He told Gawain to throw the baby into the air and spear it to death to prove his courage.

Only one with courage was a son of Odin and worthy of everyone's loyalty.

Gawain had refused to accept such a cruel and barbaric act. He furiously rebuked the elder, only to face his father's disappointed gaze and the elders' ridicule.

From that moment onward, Gawain lost his right to inherit the throne. Though the tribal assembly had not formally passed a resolution, the king's many sons—his half-brothers—had already stepped forth and demonstrated their courage by using swords on the baby.

Viking kings did not believe in Christianity and were not bound by the rites of monogamy. A king had multiple wives, and all children born to those wives were legitimate heirs.

Gawain's mother came from the powerful Kingdom of Camelot, and her younger brother was King Arthur, who had once invaded Rome and been crowned there. Therefore, she was the first queen.

Gawain had originally possessed the unquestionable first right of succession, but one act considered cowardly had cost him the people's support. To prevent him from making a comeback, his brothers joined forces to ruin his reputation.

From that day on, Gawain had borne an infamous title: "pedophile."

Prince Gawain's values were twisted. Prince Gawain was a coward, unworthy of being Odin's descendant. That was what everyone in the kingdom believed.

If her son could not inherit the throne, then there was no point in remaining queen. So his mother took Gawain to Camelot.

Fortunately, Gawain had not killed the baby. Otherwise, while the Vikings might have regarded it as a brave act, he would have been seen as a man without knightly spirit or morality.

Still, if Gawain had killed the baby, perhaps he would have become king in the future.

Different choices often determined different futures.

When Gawain had said in court that he wished to spread King Arthur's glory across Northern Europe, he had not been lying. It had also been his predecessor's wish.

Camelot might have been a cultural wasteland, but it was still a nation far more civilized than Northern Europe. Even Gawain could not help cursing it.

The Mongols were barbaric, yet even they only harmed children taller than a cartwheel and would not hurt innocent infants.

By the moral standards of this era, King Arthur was already a wise ruler among wise rulers, an ideal holy king.

The Kingdom of Camelot was, after all, a medieval knightly kingdom. The Saxons came swarming like locusts from the beginning of King Arthur's reign until the end of his life, forcing him to devote all his energy to military affairs and leaving him powerless in domestic governance.

Grammar, rhetoric, logic, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music—the seven arts inherited from the Roman Empire—were regarded as useless learning in a knightly kingdom.

Only knightly arts that could defend the nation were considered proper and useful studies.

It was like the feudal dynasties of the Central Plains. Sanskrit, geometry, and mathematics were seen as nothing more than strange foreign tricks. To earn the respect of the world, one still had to study the Four Books and Five Classics and master the eight-legged essay.

What Gawain had learned in Northern Europe was useless in Camelot. The cultural knowledge he possessed was looked down upon. That was the awkward situation he found himself in.

India divided its people into four castes, while the kingdoms of the Central Plains divided their people into scholars, farmers, artisans, and merchants.

In the Middle Ages, however, people were divided into three kinds: those who fought, those who prayed, and those who labored.

The seven monastic arts were studies mastered by monks. The Knights of the Round Table arrogantly viewed them as seven arts for serving God, rather than knowledge all humans ought to learn.

This was the greatest problem and obstacle in Gawain becoming King Arthur's heir.

By the standards of both Vikings and Camelot, Gawain, who was not decisive enough when cutting people down and not good enough at cutting people down, simply lacked courage.

Even King Arthur had no solution to that.

"Giant dragon, who exactly are you? Do you not know that this is the court of Arthur, King of Camelot?

"The Arthurian dynasty's reputation is thunderous even among the fairy royalty of the Otherworld, and they acknowledge King Arthur's authority because of it."

An armored knight stepped onto the battlements and approached the giant dragon amid a cluster of archers. He was built like a lion, towering and powerful. He was none other than the Arthurian dynasty's Master of the Horse, a Knight of the Round Table, and one of Britain's Three Knights—Tristan.

Tristan spoke loudly, his voice like a lion's roar. Crimson flames seemed ready to blaze from his sword.

The contest between animals, between man and beast, often began with presence. If they did not suppress the giant dragon's momentum, they could not inspire the soldiers' courage.

Even before such an enormous dragon, the Knight of the Round Table fearlessly confronted it. His actions instantly bolstered the soldiers' spirits atop the walls.

Having risen to the lofty position of Master of the Horse, Tristan had long understood that politics was not merely about fighting and killing, but about human relations and social finesse. Such a powerful giant dragon must have come from an Otherworld beyond the shores, so it had surely heard of the Arthurian dynasty's renown.

It was best not to fight if they could avoid it. Knights did not fear challenges, but meaningless challenges did not prove one's bravery.

"Who are the fairy royalty of the Otherworld?"

Gawain heard an unfamiliar term from Tristan and vaguely felt that it contained important information.

"They are the Celtic deities. After Christianity arrived and Arthur became king, those old gods gradually withdrew from the stage of history and secluded themselves in the Otherworld. As for their titles, it is like how there were once thousands of kings, great and small, throughout the British Isles. By now, they have either been eliminated or reduced to dukes and barons. They have been demoted."

Merlin explained, "The Arthurian dynasty's fame extends not only through worldly nations, but also through the Otherworld inhabited by elves, fairies, gods, and dragons. You were born too late. In the divine age of King Uther and before, gods and immortals would personally visit human courts as guests. For instance, the High King of Ireland was even qualified to marry Ireland's goddess of sovereignty.

"Morgana, the goddess of war and death, was once an honored guest of King Vortigern. The two were said to share a deep friendship, yet who could have expected Morgana to side with Uther at the final moment of the war between the two kings?"

"Morgana... that goddess's name sounds very similar to my mother's," Gawain said casually.

"Not similar. Exactly the same. To thank that great goddess for her help, Uther named both his eldest and youngest daughters after her. Their pronunciations may have differed slightly, but their spellings were identical. The former is like Brittany and Britain: both share the same spelling, and one must distinguish them by whether the letters are capitalized. The latter is completely identical and can only be distinguished by stress, just as the goddess Athena and Athens, the city, have the same spelling. There is a theory that both princesses were incarnations of the goddess Morgana, and thus possessed some of her divine power. They are witches whose magic surpasses mine."

Merlin spoke as though he meant something more, deliberately or otherwise mentioning the mothers of Gawain and Mordred. Both princesses were the finest witches.

When Gawain emphasized that King Arthur was his uncle, he was borrowing King Arthur's power.

If King Arthur agreed, it was borrowing. If he did not, it was usurpation.

The goddess Morgana had been suppressed by King Arthur in the Otherworld and could never return to the human realm.

"Human knight, I am Kuntukatakatikotusuwasirason.

"I am the dragon defeated by Dala Bengba in Dala Bengba's Song.

"I came here to find Dala Bengba Bandebedibudobiruon.

"I heard that he changed his name, became a prince, and now calls himself Gawain.

"After training and becoming stronger once more, I think I can do it again.

"I swear to duel Dala Bengba again. Can anyone tell me where he is?"

Listening to the giant dragon's voice through the crystal ball, Gawain heard its normally majestic draconic voice turn into song. He immediately understood that this dragon might truly have come from a poem.

The dragon's entire style was completely out of place with the Arthurian world. What normal person started singing while answering someone's question?

Did it think this was some Disney animated film where people suddenly burst into song at every turn?

"You knew all along, Mr. Merlin!" Gawain asked with a bitter smile.

"This is your dragon, Sir Gawain!" Merlin said solemnly. "Brave youth, go create a miracle and defeat the evil dragon to save the princess in the castle!"

Merlin had already decided that he would send him off to his dea—ah, no, to create a miracle.

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