Fate: The Forged Arthur Pendragon

12 PM.

The sun hung high, casting its blazing rays upon the dilapidated castle within the manor below.

In the square,

"—Burp!!!"

Following a burp, like the roar of a giant dragon, from the small round table in the center of the square,

The nearly hundred knights laboring around the square collectively collapsed to the ground, a look of release finally appearing in their eyes.

"Ha~ ha~!"

A chorus of heavy breathing rose and fell.

Merlin blankly removed the last sparkling plate from the dining table, then stiffly turned her head to look at Suya, who had his eyes closed and had put down his chopsticks.

And at this moment,

Suya, who had just let out a satisfied burp, finally regained his senses.

He slowly opened his eyes.

After eating two plates of food and still feeling very hungry, Suya's mind had suddenly blanked out.

A terrifying sense of hunger instantly stole his consciousness, leaving him unaware of what happened afterward.

Only vaguely did Suya feel that he seemed to have done something quite dreadful.

Thinking this, he rubbed his now comfortable stomach.

Suya looked up, scanning his surroundings,

And saw—

In the originally neat square, the ninety-eight knights who had pledged allegiance to him yesterday evening were all slumped on the ground, breathing heavily, looking at him with a very peculiar expression.

It was an almost broken look of affectionate pity. Just looking at that expression, a feeling like that of a married uncle who had lost all his tokens at an arcade, with no regrets in life, welled up spontaneously. They said nothing, yet their faces seemed to be etched with the proud words, "I fed this child."

Suya blinked blankly, a premonition of unease in his heart.

What the hell did I do?

Why do they look like they just did ten thousand sit-ups on the spot?

And at this moment,

A figure suddenly leaped down from the city wall, taking a few bounds to reach Suya's side, attempting to grab Suya's hand.

Suya startled abruptly, almost instinctively twisting his feet on the ground and sharply extending his back, immediately trying to stand up and use Quick Step to dodge.

However,

"Crack!"

The chair back instantly broke, and the entire chair fell apart!

And Suya himself was visibly about to be 'launched' backward by the unprecedented power bestowed by Quick Step.

Just then, the hand Suya tried to dodge reached out and firmly gripped Suya's wrist, forcefully stopping him, who was about to be launched like a cannonball.

Lucan's voice rang in his ears:

"Indeed, the War Marks have begun to grow."

"My King, please calm down and feel your body!"

Suya didn't feel like he was losing his calm. In fact, after eating his fill, he felt his mind was clearer than ever before.

Only,

His body felt somewhat unfamiliar at this moment.

If before, his Strength and Agility were F-, a level of basic trained human.

At this moment, Suya felt that his body's strength had completely surpassed that level, even approaching the lean body he had trained with countless martial arts before transmigrating.

And then, a line of text popped up before his eyes.

[Panel Attributes Updated]

[True Name: Suya.]

[Attributes: Strength: F (Growing), Agility: F (Growing), Endurance: F- (Growing), Mana: -, Noble Phantasm: C.]

[Main Class: To be assigned.]

[Paths: Fate Forgery (Ex), Quack (E), Con Artist (E), Hyena (F).]

[Status: War Mark Growth (Legs, Palms).]

After a quick glance at the panel, and following the panel's prompt and the direction of Lucan's narrowed eyes, Suya slightly lowered his head, looking at his palms and legs.

At this moment,

White, crack-like lines were constantly spreading across his palms, legs, and feet.

These are the War Marks Lucan mentioned?

But what are War Marks?

Suya couldn't help but look up, withdrawing his wrist from Lucan's grasp. He simply moved his shoulders and limb joints, quickly mastering this level of physical strength.

Although there were significant changes, this was still not quite at the strength of his body before transmigration.

To give a more precise numerical estimate, his current body's strength was roughly equivalent to a 300-pound punch and a speed of about ten seconds for one hundred meters.

Suya found it not very difficult to control, or rather, the feeling of this strength gradually returning actually made him feel a sense of peace.

If he were to encounter that red-haired assassin again, treating them like a spinning top to be whipped shouldn't be a problem.

"Very good, My King. You're adapting faster than I imagined."

At this moment, Lucan continued,

"I'll explain the matter of the War Marks to you later, but for now—"

He looked up at the sun's position, frowning.

"We should depart!"

At this time, Suya still had many questions.

For example, the instinctive Quick Step he had just used was completely different from what he had learned that morning.

Also, the War Marks, the changes in his body, and what exactly happened when he blacked out—why were the knights looking at him with such strange eyes?

Finally,

Suya turned his head to look at Merlin, who was looking back at him with a slightly blank expression, like a pig's brain overloaded.

Following the direction of her rose-red pupils,

He saw his own reflection in those pupils.

Bright golden hair, delicate features.

Nothing seemed different.

But his own clear emerald-green pupils now seemed to be losing color. At the center of the deep green circular pupils, faint streaks of viscous scarlet, like blood, were slowly emerging!

Without further explanation, Lucan turned and left.

In the distance, Dagonet, who had been missing for a long time, reappeared at some point and was already scolding the collapsed knights, urging them to get up and mount their horses, preparing to leave.

Until all the outsiders around them had left,

Suya was also preparing to set off with the group when,

Merlin, who had been tilting her head and strangely staring at Suya, suddenly asked,

"Suya,"

"Do you feel your skin itching? Does your head feel pointy?"

What the hell is she talking about?

Suya immediately glared back:

"Your head is pointy!"

Just as Suya and his Knights of the Round Table departed Sir Ector's Manor and set out on the road to Saul,

On the other side,

East of Bourn's territory, beneath the Plymouth Iron Wall.

This was the second of the three great iron walls on the western side of Britannia.

It boasted chalk white walls nearly fifty meters high, twelve activated alchemical mana cannons, and was guarded by sixteen well-trained elite Knight Battalions. It constantly garrisoned over fifty thousand defenders, and all the most advanced siege weaponry was directly supplied from the King's treasury.

Completely unlike the first Iron Wall of Exeter, built by the Duke of Cornwall, there was no possibility of cutting corners on this Iron Wall.

Under normal circumstances, this was a fortified city, combining mystical powers with the latest technology from the Kingdom of Jerusalem in the continent's center,

Which, in a worldly sense, was absolutely impossible to breach!

However,

At this moment,

The nearly twenty-kilometer long Iron Wall was engulfed in flames, countless corpses piled up like mountains beneath the city walls, and endless wails echoed through the fortress city behind the wall.

The smoke burning in broad daylight obscured the azure sky, turning it black!

Under the somber sky,

Countless soldiers, clad in sturdy armor, sun masks, and exaggerated long spears, rushed through the city.

The air was filled with the smell of iron and blood.

And at the far end of this iron-and-blood tableau, a grand temple with 126 pillars stood in the barren wasteland where not a blade of grass grew.

That was precisely what was hailed as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World,

The Temple of Artemis!

At this moment,

A group of knights was proceeding towards the temple to audience with the King.

At the forefront was Seleucus, who had previously single-handedly cut through King Uther's routed army. Behind him, the grim-faced Hector led his Companion Cavalry, following closely.

Until—

They arrived before the great gate of the temple.

Guarding the temple entrance was a scribe with long dark-brown hair, holding a book in one hand and a quill in the other, constantly flipping through and revising the book's contents.

"Callisthenes, I have received the King's command and come to report."

"Your Majesty..."

The scribe looked up, thoughtfully observing Seleucus, and then Hector behind Seleucus, before chuckling.

"Your Majesty has been waiting for you for a long time."

"General Seleucus, please enter."

"Oh, and this one, General Parmenion's son—"

"Is your name... Philotas?"

Hector's face immediately stiffened, but he dared not put on airs in front of this person. He could only awkwardly explain,

"That's my elder brother. My name is Hec—"

"Then that's strange,"

Callisthenes smiled faintly,

"Wasn't Hector the knight who pledged allegiance to Arthur Pendragon only yesterday?"

"You, a knight of Britannia, why do you seek an audience with my King?"