Chapter 20: Chapter 20: Ahoge: Boohoo, My Little Dragon!
In the small town, seven days had passed since Kay had brought Shiroryu here. The young knight had openly brought his new partner to this populous town, without any attempt at concealment—he would even proactively "show off" this cute and cool young white dragon to people, and tirelessly tell the curious crowd the story of him and the young dragon joining forces to defeat "thirty water monsters."
"One glass of wine, just one glass of wine, and you can get the chance to personally feed the legendary dragon. Of course, beautiful ladies are free."
Kay had a strong appeal in this town. In fact, for the past seven or eight years, this high-spirited, witty, and humorous knight had always been the "protagonist" in the nearby villages. Fifty percent of the young ladies liked him, and the other fifty percent liked his brother's type—gentle, calm, and steady, a completely different type from the glib-tongued Kay.
But now, the ranking of these two brothers on the "most popular list" was about to drop.
"A dragon... it's really a dragon!"
"It's so beautiful!"
"Can I touch it? Can I really touch it?"
The young ladies screamed at the arrival of the young dragon. They scrambled over each other, wishing they could bring out the best food from their homes to entertain this legendary creature—but the ones who were truly excited were the hot-blooded young men. A young knight was willing to pay a hundred gold coins just for a chance to challenge the young dragon.
"Hey, brother, do you remember me? It's me, your best brother Evan. We once stole my old man's wine together!"
"For the sake of me getting beaten half to death by my old man last time, can you let me have a go with this young dragon? With a wooden spear, I promise I won't hurt it!"
The young knight looked at the harmless little dragon surrounded by young ladies in the distance and rubbed his hands excitedly—after tonight, he would also be a hero "who could defeat a dragon."
"Oh, of course, my brother." Kay happily took his friend's gold coins, then directly called the young dragon over and gave half of the gold coins to it.
The young dragon looked at the glittering coins and nodded with satisfaction. Then, at the knight who had already charged over, it gently flapped its wings.
"BOOM—"
A human-shaped hole appeared directly in the wooden wall. But no one was worried about this. On the contrary, everyone was screaming and cheering for the young dragon's savage power—including the tavern owner and the knight who had just been knocked out of the tavern, covered in dust.
"Yes, that's right, a dragon should be like this!"
"Can you hit me again? I promise, I can take it this time!"
...
In the territory of Ector, in the far suburbs, it was another refreshing morning. As usual, Artoria had woken up before the sun had fully risen—the first thing she did when she woke up was to run to the stables to take care of the horses, preparing fresh fodder for them. Then, she ran to the backyard of her home, ready to start today's training.
—It was called training, but it was actually more like a sparring of "the way."
Ector, this somewhat old-fashioned old knight, had not made a definite name for himself in his youth, and he himself was not the type to pursue fame and fortune, so his reputation was not widely spread on this island. But in Artoria's heart, this old man who had retired from the front line was her [ideal knight]—not only because of his superb swordsmanship, but also because he had demanded of himself with the standards of a knight for decades, without ever overstepping.
"To put it bluntly, to be entrusted by the king by name is enough to show his talent."
The magus had once commented on this knight: although his martial arts were only second-rate, both his loyalty and his temperament were top-notch, the type you could entrust your back to without worry.
And he had indeed not failed the former king's expectations, always demanding of Artoria with the strictest standards—
"Al, what are you doing? How can you be distracted in a battle! Do you expect your enemy to stop because you are distracted?"
"I'm sorry, sir, it won't happen again—"
A stern criticism sounded by Artoria's ear, almost without leaving any face. And the girl just shook her head, immediately apologized, and quickly focused all her spirit on the battle before her.
—That's what she said.
"But, why?"
Artoria still had doubts in her heart. She always had a bad premonition, her intuition told her that something very bad seemed to have happened... This uneasy feeling made her completely unable to concentrate, so that she made continuous mistakes in the sword fight.
In the end, Sir Ector, seeing her unsettled state, even gave her a day off to calm her restless heart.
"So, this ominous premonition... is it an illusion?"
No, it was not an illusion, but something that was happening. The girl believed in her intuition—she believed that something really bad, something she absolutely did not want to see, was happening. But, what could it be?
Did something happen to the young dragon? Artoria thought for a moment, then slowly shook her head, denying this guess. According to Merlin, that white dragon, although young, was a genuine god—there was no longer anything on this island that could threaten its life. It was impossible for it to be in danger.
"Then what else could it be?"
Artoria was puzzled, and the ahoge on top of her head also bent into a small question mark. And coincidentally, at this very moment, a knock suddenly came from the door.
—It was Merlin, bringing breakfast. A nutritious breakfast, with a reasonable balance of meat and vegetables, and the portion was definitely enough—clearly, this was a "feast" specially prepared for the king.
But at this moment, Artoria's attention was not on these foods at all.
"Th-that, what is that?"
She pointed at Merlin's clothes—it was a very beautiful white garment, on which was drawn a majestic, baring-its-fangs-and-brandishing-its-claws blue young dragon.
"Ah? A girl gave this to me. You know, I'm also very popular in town." Merlin said proudly.
In a sense, he and Kay were actually of the "birds of a feather" type—it was just that one was chasing after women's butts, and the other was being chased by women. But now, Artoria no longer cared about women or not.
"I mean, why are you wearing such clothes? With that young dragon drawn on it?" Artoria asked in disbelief. At the same time, she probably already knew why that very bad premonition had arisen in her heart.
"Ah, you don't know? Your brother brought that highness to the town—they are now household-name superstars, warmly pursued by everyone! Girls will draw the image of that highness on clothes and give them to their beloved.
Merlin said this while pointing at the pattern on his clothes, as if showing off something.
And Artoria—this little sister who knew very well what kind of person her foster brother was, her eyes widened, and a look of almost regret appeared on her face:
"Boohoo!"
"My little dragon!!!"
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