Bedivere

With Sovell's permission, Barghest crawled out of his armor.

She shook her head, dislodging the flower atop it, and her burning horns and chains immediately appeared!

"Roar!"

Barghest began to swell, growing from a puppy into a full-grown demonic hound taller than a person!

"Girl, show these men the might of a fairy of Britain! Hahahaha!"

Barghest opened her cavernous maw and let out an earth-shaking roar, instantly stirring the most primal, powerful emotion in every Saxon soldier present-

Fear.

Barghest absorbed that fear along with the souls of the dead soldiers, further strengthening herself.

The ability to grow stronger with every battle was arguably the most powerful weapon on a battlefield.

With Barghest's support, more than half the resistance Sovell faced vanished.

The soldiers confronting the villagers also lost all will to fight at Barghest's roar, and groups of three or five villagers surrounded them and beat them to death.

Merlin's flower was still in place, and Sovell still had black hair and blue eyes, but Lia's Sword of Selection had already been exposed to the enemy. To prevent trouble later...

Not a single one could be left alive!

"Girl, cut back on your magical output!

Just kill them! Don't scorch the land!"

Scarlet Thunder and flames spewed from Barghest's mouth, reducing the foreign soldiers they touched to ash and charcoal in an instant.

But the residual heat kept blasting the ground into scorched earth that could no longer be farmed, forcing Sovell to spare some attention to warn her.

Seeing that the situation was beyond saving, the officer immediately left the battlefield and ran to the camp's stables, hoping to escape to Londinium on horseback.

Amid the fighting, Sovell spotted a rider fleeing east from the rear of the camp. But he, Artoria, and Kay were all busy hunting down the fleeing soldiers and could not break away, leaving him frantic.

Just then, a knight in blue clothing and silver armor rode toward Sovell on a white horse. Sovell immediately called out to him:

"We have enough people here! We're fine!

Please chase down that deserter heading east! I'm counting on you!"

The knight seemed to have heard Sovell clearly, for he turned his horse and gave chase eastward.

But the officer's horse was running so fast that it seemed impossible to catch him, and Sovell inwardly lamented the missed opportunity.

The blue-clad knight, however, raised his spear in his left hand and hurled it forward!

Sovell heard only the whistle of the spearhead cutting through the air. Looking east, he saw that it had pierced straight through both the fleeing officer and his horse!

"What a throw!"

As Sovell voiced his praise, the blue-clad knight caught up with the immobilized officer, who was barely clinging to life. He pulled out his spear and struck again, putting the man out of his misery.

A few minutes later, Sovell and the others had wiped out every Saxon soldier in the camp.

After joining the villagers in rescuing their abducted relatives and neighbors from the holding area, the villagers decided to thank the three of them with a portion of the recovered grain.

The three naturally accepted. They did not have many provisions left, after all, and aside from the coins Sovell had obtained in Orkney, they had little money for their travels.

Sovell and his companions invited the blue-clad knight to join them for dinner.

"This humble knight, Bedwyr Bedrydant, greets you, fellow knights."

Only after seeing the knight unusually use his left hand to salute over his chest did Sovell and the others notice that this handsome young knight, with his formidable spearwork and throwing skill, had an entire right arm made of steel!

Noticing the three of them looking at his right arm, Bedivere remained composed, as though accustomed to such attention, and explained with a smile:

"Ha, I lost my right arm in a battle some time ago, and my father forged this iron prosthetic for me.

Thanks to certain ancient techniques, it is no different from my original arm to me.

Unfortunately, the techniques for maintaining it have been lost, and it has grown a little rusty."

As he spoke, Bedivere flexed his right arm. Its stiffness was visible, accompanied by a faint, grating screech of metal.

"Sir Bedivere, what brought you here?"

Artoria held the dried bear meat Sovell had given her and was about to put it in her mouth when she seemed to remember something and asked Bedivere.

"I attended the Selection of the King Ceremony a few days ago, but left early after failing. Later, I heard that someone had drawn the Sword of Selection. What a pity I didn't get to witness it.

These past few days, I've heard reports of foreigners infiltrating Wales, so I've been patrolling the border between Wales and England.

Today, I saw that this village had been destroyed, but there was no one inside. Then I heard the sounds of your battle in the distance.

So I decided to come and help, and happened to spot that fleeing officer. The rest was just as you saw, my... lovely lady?"

Bedivere answered, but seemed uncertain about how to address Artoria.

Before Artoria could speak, Sovell answered for her:

"Her name is Lily Ambrosius. She's my younger sister.

I'm Stam Ambrosius. You can just call me Stam, Bedivere.

And this is Kay Senor, the eldest son of Sir Ector Senor."

"Lily... she certainly lives up to her name. Your sister truly is a knightly princess as lovely as a lily, Sir Stam."

Thus Bedivere praised Artoria's beauty.

Meanwhile, Kay quietly moved behind Sovell, pressed his sword's pommel into his lower back, and whispered viciously:

"So my sister's your sister now? Fine. Just you wait."

Faced with Kay's threat, Sovell could only explain:

"Easy, easy. If we really said Lia was your sister, where would your 'younger brother' Artoris have gone?

You know how little difference there is between 'Artoria' and 'Artoris.' They're simply the female and male versions of the same name.

Lia will become king one day. People are bound to question her appearance, so we can't let her name cause problems too. I only resorted to this to keep people from getting suspicious."

Hearing this, Kay stopped pressing the issue and released his sword's pommel.

To conceal the fact that Artoria was a girl, Merlin had discussed matters with Sovell and Artoria a few days earlier and decided to spread a false report:

Merlin had taken Artoris Pendragon, the Crown Prince of King Uther's Royal Court, away to train him to become king.

In reality, it was a cover for Artoria's travels, and the supposedly departed "Artoris" naturally did not exist.

Sovell had also prepared an answer in case anyone asked Artoria's name, as Bedivere just had.

The alias combined the impression Artoria now gave people-a lily-with Merlin's surname:

Lily Ambrosius.

Sharing the surname of Sovell's alias also helped shore up their fabricated identities as brother and sister.

Bedivere had not caught their whispers, but seeing Sovell's slightly pained expression-which was actually feigned-he could not help asking:

"Um... are you all right, Sir Stam?"

"Ah, I'm fine, I'm fine. Sir Kay and I were just fooling around. Hahaha."

"You two truly share a close friendship."