Inside a small wooden hut.
"Is that so? You're the friend from across the island that my sister mentioned before?"
The man named Kay was dressed casually at this moment, a warm smile on his face as comforting as sunlight. However, Asher didn't dare underestimate him in the slightest.
The man before him was one of the Knights of the Round Table, Sir Ector's son and Artoria's foster brother.
To be able to serve as one of the Knights of the Round Table, his strength would naturally not be weak.
Asher nodded politely and greeted, "Hello, Sir Kay."
"You don't have to be so formal. You can just call me Kay," Kay said with a smile, glancing at Artoria beside him who hadn't moved at all.
"Then I'll go out and help Father. You two take your time chatting."
After saying that, Kay left the small wooden hut, closing the door behind him.
Asher looked at the girl sitting opposite him. The girl opposite him was also looking at him.
Then—
The sound of a sword being drawn echoed. Artoria suddenly drew her sword.
Seeing this, Asher quickly reached out and pressed his hand on the back of her hand. "Calm down, Artoria! Let me explain first!"
Artoria returned the sword to its scabbard, but her gaze remained fixed on Asher.
"You don't need to explain anything. It was just a coincidence that you appeared here in the first place, so it wouldn't be strange if you suddenly disappeared again."
She was naturally referring to Asher's sudden disappearance for half a month.
"Shall we go outside to talk?" Asher asked.
Artoria shook her head. "I still have training to do later. If you have anything to say, just say it here. I won't go anywhere else with you."
The atmosphere instantly cooled down, as if frozen.
Asher glanced at Artoria. Her expression was unchanging from beginning to end, and there was no emotion in the way she looked at him, as if she were looking at a stranger.
That was understandable. Anyone who waited by that island every day for someone to arrive, but never saw them, would eventually become disheartened, then filled with resentment, thinking things like, "Does he just see me as a tool?"
But even so, Artoria was still sitting here, patiently talking to Asher.
Because she was the future king. A king should have the magnanimity of a king. Even if Asher hadn't come over once in half a month and hadn't told her the reason, she was still willing to sit here, listen to him finish speaking, and then send him back.
That was what a king should do.
However, asking her to leave here to chat alone elsewhere… don't even think about it.
The fourteen-year-old girl secretly made up her mind. No matter what, she wouldn't go anywhere else with Asher. If he had anything to say, he could just say it here.
Asher suddenly said, "Are you hungry? How about we go to the old place to grill fish?"
Artoria's eyelids twitched slightly, and her eyes brightened a little, but she turned her face away.
"My skills have gotten even better recently," Asher said again.
So, Artoria nodded silently.
---
The fire crackled, making a series of "crack crack" sounds. Artoria remained silent, her gaze calmly fixed on the fish roasting over the fire, seemingly lost in thought.
Asher also didn't say a word, just silently grilling the fish. He held a small knife in his hand.
Scáthach had originally taught him spearmanship, but Asher carried such a weapon just in case. Although its power was much, much smaller than the Red Spear, it might have an unexpected effect.
For example, right now, the small knife played an unexpected role—he lightly sliced the fish meat a few times, allowing it to cook faster.
When he handed a tender and delicious grilled fish to Artoria, watching her slightly open her mouth to take a bite, Asher finally spoke,
"Do you remember the black dragon I told you about before?"
Artoria had just taken a bite of the tender fish meat. Hearing this, she raised her head, a look of confusion in her eyes. "What about the black dragon?"
Seeing that Artoria was somewhat interested in this matter, Asher tentatively felt relieved and explained the general situation.
"So... a portion of the black dragon's power has already integrated into your body?" A thoughtful expression appeared on Artoria's face.
In this way, it could explain why Asher had inexplicably disappeared for nearly half a month.
Rather, it would have been truly difficult for Asher to come over here while integrating the black dragon essence blood.
"But it's amazing that you were able to integrate the black dragon essence blood with a human body," Artoria looked at Asher with a complex expression. "If you had been a little unlucky, we probably wouldn't have seen you again."
Asher himself was also somewhat fortunate.
Even if it was just an ordinary black dragon, that kind of powerful force was not something ordinary people could withstand. If Scáthach hadn't helped with the secondary filtration, he would probably have died on the spot the moment he took the essence blood.
"You probably haven't fully adapted yet, have you?" she then asked.
"Almost," Asher nodded. "But it might still take some time."
Artoria looked at Asher, a look of contemplation on her face. After a moment, she stood up.
"Since that's the case, then let me be your sparring partner. I also want to see how much stronger your combat power is now compared to before."
"That's exactly what I wanted," Asher nodded, handing the last grilled fish to Artoria. "But before that, do you want to eat another one?"
Artoria was taken aback, took the fish Asher handed her, and then sat down silently.
---
In the following days, Asher sparred with Artoria every afternoon.
He had to say that the Knights of the Round Table were really quite upright... uh, or rather, the two Knights of the Round Table Asher had seen so far were quite upright. When they taught Artoria swordsmanship, they would also give him some guidance.
In addition to this, Asher usually sparred with Uathach in the Land of Shadows. And yesterday afternoon, Asher finally defeated this highly talented Big Sister.
Although there was an element of her being careless and negligent, it still really hit Uathach hard. She vowed that she would definitely get her revenge in two days. In the following two days, the girl trained diligently and no longer bothered him.
Scáthach was right. Only Asher could wake up his arrogant Big Sister. After all, no matter how proud Uathach was, she wouldn't want to lose to her younger brother.
---
Fourth day afternoon.
There was still more than a week before Scáthach returned. In these days, Asher had completely adapted to the power brought by the black dragon essence blood. He had gained a lot of combat experience in his fights with Uathach. The words of experience that Kay and Sir Ector had told him were also very beneficial to Asher, and he had gained a lot.
Also... Asher's fish grilling skills had improved quite a bit.
In that world before, his cooking skills could only be considered mediocre, but coming to this world, especially after meeting Artoria, his cooking skills had indeed improved a lot.
Everything was progressing quite smoothly. The only problem was probably—
Asher raised his head. The dim orange-red light of the setting sun shone on his face. The leaves in the forest rustled.
"Looks like Big Sister Morgan won't appear today either?" Asher sighed, a strange sense of loss in his heart.
Yes, from the day Morgan had helped Asher escape the black dragon's pursuit until now, she hadn't appeared again. Asher had gone near the Trial Forest every day these past few days, but unfortunately, he hadn't found Morgan.
Asher didn't know if Morgan was held up by something or simply didn't want to see him.
In short, he hadn't seen that goddess who always liked to tease others and please herself for almost three weeks.
After another day of this, Asher finally couldn't bear it anymore. He wanted to see Morgan. On the one hand, he felt that his "prophecy" had reached a small bottleneck and couldn't be improved further. On the other hand...
He really wanted to see Morgan le Fay, at least to figure out why she had suddenly disappeared.
After finishing his training with Artoria that afternoon, Asher raised his head with a determined look, looking at Artoria who was wiping sweat from her forehead.
"Can I ask you a question?"
"Suddenly so serious?" Artoria noticed the seriousness in Asher's eyes and hesitated for a moment. "Go ahead."
"Do you know Morgan le Fay?" Asher asked.
--------More Bonus Chapters!!!!
Every 300 power stones = 1 Bonus Chapter