Ever since Artoria had become king under the name Arthur, time seemed to pass especially quickly.
Sovell often felt that way himself. Each day consisted of getting up, eating with Lia, practicing swordsmanship, making his rounds, eating with Lia, practicing with his spear, making his rounds, eating, playing with Barghest, and sleeping.
Incidentally, Sovell's archery skills had all but fallen into disuse.
Four years earlier, Sovell had learned archery from Tristan in Cornwall, but afterward, he had discovered a rather depressing fact-
He had no use for a bow.
Sovell was a wind attribute magus himself. He could achieve the same long-range attacks a bow offered without one.
Still, to be prepared for anything, Sovell occasionally strung his longbow again and loosed a few practice shots to keep from getting rusty.
With Kay and Sir Ector handling matters of state, Sovell had no need to worry about those either.
Although life was certainly much more comfortable than before, Sovell felt as though his body was beginning to rust.
And so he requested Artoria's permission to leave for a while, scouting out and destroying the foreign invaders' camps currently established within Wales.
Artoria naturally had no reason to stop him, so she allowed Sovell to leave Caerleon with his personal guard.
By late April of the following year, Sovell and his men had wiped out nearly all the enemy camps that had slipped into Wales.
But the unexpected always arrived first.
That day, a messenger from Caerleon arrived at the camp of Sovell and his personal guard. Sovell opened the envelope and glanced at the signature. It was from Artoria:
"Dear Sir Sovell,
Reading these words is as though we were meeting face-to-face. More than ten long months have passed since your departure. With May Day approaching, I write this letter