Fate: The Forged Arthur Pendragon

Seleucus fell silent for a moment.

He stood still, seemingly making a difficult choice.

Suya dared not utter a sound. He neither dared to deny his identity as King nor expose the fact that he was not the King in front of Ector.

This feeling, akin to humiliation, of being placed on a chopping block like a lamb to be slaughtered, bargained over, made him incredibly uncomfortable.

Suya couldn't help but clench his fists slightly.

Merlin, holding Suya's arm, seemed to sense his trembling body, as if she empathized with his repressed frustration.

But she merely pursed her lips slightly and shook her head at Suya.

After a long while, this unbearable, humiliating silence finally ended.

"I understand."

"I will report this to my King."

Seleucus coldly scrutinized Suya, then slowly raised his head to look at Ector, stating directly:

"In him, I sense no aura of kingship."

"However, if this is your choice, Sir Ector, then one day, after I kill this brat, full of lies, on the battlefield, I will capture you and bring you back to Macedon to recommend you to my King."

"Your superb spearmanship and admirable knightly spirit should not be wasted on such a small nation!"

"Next time we meet, I will use the Conqueror King's Banner to legitimately break through your Noble Phantasm."

After saying those words, Seleucus quickly departed.

The Companion Cavalry, who had come for the Noble Phantasm, were forcibly led away by him, returning empty-handed whether they liked it or not.

A crisis that was almost certainly fatal for Suya was thus incredibly easily resolved by the sudden appearance of a formidable allied force.

Seleucus seemed to be greatly wary of Sir Ector, who wielded the flaming spear. Even though the latter had less than a hundred men, Seleucus was extremely reluctant to force a battle.

And Sir Ector, upon reaching Suya's side, merely gave Suya a deep look. After that, he ascended the hill pass without a word to re-organize the less than hundred cavalry he had brought.

Once everyone had left,

Suya finally let out a huge sigh of relief, instinctively looking at Merlin.

But then, he suddenly didn't know how to face Merlin anymore.

He unexpectedly found himself in an uncontrollable situation.

Normally, Suya should use this moment to clear Merlin's doubts about him—

Before, he relied on lies and acting to convince Merlin that he was the true heir to the Kingdom of Britain. However, his recent act of not recognizing Ector cast doubt on that truth.

And this could actually be forcibly explained away.

For instance, the one fostered in Sir Ector's house was merely Arthur as a substitute, while he, the true heir, was only brought out from a secret location at a moment of grave danger. It might be a bit forced, but Merlin was so easily fooled, she would surely believe it, right?

But, but—

When you tell one lie, you need countless others to cover it.

Deceiving Merlin would lead to deceiving Ector. Deceiving Ector would lead to deceiving the other Knights of the Round Table.

Deceiving the Knights of the Round Table would then lead to deceiving the Church, the nobles, the kings of the smaller nations gathered in Britain.

Deceiving them would ultimately lead to deceiving all the people of the entire kingdom who believed him to be King, deceiving his enemies, and even deceiving God, who allowed Arthur to pull the sword from the stone—

Suya was not Arthur Pendragon.

Suya did not want to become Arthur Pendragon.

Suya had no reason to bear the burden of this kingdom, nor any reason to continue risking himself by impersonating the King.

Suya understood even more clearly that the humiliating silence when insulted by an enemy, and the indignity of being like a lamb to be slaughtered, were already the gentlest punishments for telling this lie.

But if he were to continue down this path with no foreseeable future,

What would he face next?

What would he lose?

More importantly—

At this moment,

Facing Merlin's beautiful, reddish-purple eyes, staring at him like those of a silly deer, bright and shining as if gazing at a precious treasure,

Suya's already prepared lies suddenly caught in his throat.

He fell silent for a moment, then suddenly spoke:

"Hey, Merlin."

Merlin tilted her head: "What is it?"

"Let's say, and I mean let's say, I'm not the King, but just a poor guy who suddenly got caught up in all this mess."

"What would you think?"

"I know."

Suya was startled: "You know?"

Merlin looked at him with an expression that said, I can't do anything with you.

"No matter what, if you were the true heir to the kingdom, you couldn't possibly fail to recognize Sir Ector. He is the trusted minister entrusted to Arthur by the late King. This doesn't change whether you are his adopted son or not."

"You can't even recognize the most important person who can help you become King. You're definitely a bit problematic!"

"If it's fake, then let it be fake!"

"But, Suya—"

Merlin's tone suddenly shifted. Her reddish-purple eyes looked at Suya, as if re-evaluating his worth. A hint of excitement flashed in her gaze. She clapped Suya firmly on the shoulder, a smile curling at the corner of her lips:

"Isn't that even more interesting!?"

"If we fail, we'll just run. At worst, we'll surrender to that wretched woman, Alexia III, and become Greeks!"

"But, as long as you don't expose yourself, Ector's strength will definitely be enough to escort us back to the capital."

"And once we're back in the capital, combining my card skills and your eyesight, we'll definitely win back everything I've lost! We'll definitely get rich!"

"With that money, whatever you want to do, there'll be no problem at all!"

Suya choked, his mouth twitching slightly.

He decided to bite the bullet and confess directly: "I'm not good at gambling. I just want to find a stable place to practice martial arts, practice until I'm invincible, and then come out."

Hearing this, Merlin looked at Suya with contempt, as if she had heard a joke.

"Hide away and practice martial arts, practice until you're invincible?"

"Suya, I admit you have a little talent, but you don't think getting stronger costs nothing, do you?"

"Promotion to squire, materials for professional advancement, rituals for title promotion, miracles for hero advancement, and paths and Noble Phantasms for legend advancement—which of those doesn't cost money, or require you to risk your life?"

"If you don't fight with the flair of a master, perform the deeds of a hero, or forge the legends of a legend,"

"You'll practice your whole life until you die, and only reach the level of that assassin you just killed!"

"Just now, facing Seleucus, you trembled, didn't you? You felt humiliated, didn't you?"

"But if you don't have money,"

"You can't even beat one of his armpit hairs!"

"Understand?"

"In this world, the stronger someone is, the richer, more powerful, and more influential they are!"

Hearing this barrage of complaints from Merlin, Suya, who now had a deeper understanding of this world's power system, felt a surge of absurdity.

Damn it, what kind of world is this anyway?

No money, no legend!?

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