Fate: The Forged Arthur Pendragon

In the first hour of establishing the breakthrough plan, after the initial chaos upon learning there was no retreat, the troops within Pendragon Castle quickly restored order under Dagonet's command.

The initial one hundred cavalry followed Merlin to create military banners and other small objects symbolizing kingship, while the other two hundred castle guards quickly prepared their horses and weapons, gathering outside Pendragon Castle.

Soon, at 8 AM, at Pendragon Castle, over a hundred cavalrymen, clad in silver-white armor and blue cloaks, lined up in ten rows. The captain at the head of each row held a four-meter-long royal banner, ten in total, emblazoned with a blue background and a red dragon. They stood before the flat ground outside the castle, awaiting inspection.

Two hundred infantrymen were arrayed in two lines, stretching from the gatehouse tower to the castle courtyard, standing ramrod straight.

Dagonet, looking solemn, led a white horse and waited before the inner castle gate. When the thin morning mist completely dissipated under the rising sun,

Creak!

With a strong gust of air, the castle gates swung open!

Clatter! Clatter!

To the rhythm of unhurried footsteps, under the scorching sunlight, a pair of moon-white iron boots stepped out.

Under the fervent gaze of three hundred soldiers, a golden-haired young knight, clad in moon-white cold-forged steel armor, a blue cloak draped over his back, and two longswords at his waist, emerged from the castle.

He wore no superfluous equipment, no gaudy embellishments. Simply by standing there, one hand resting on his sword sheath, looking forth with dignity, an aura belonging to a knight, to a king, to a noble person, grandly enveloped the entire castle!

Dagonet, standing at the gate, immediately led the horse forward, knelt on one knee, and proclaimed loudly for all to hear without any reservation: "My King—"

"Your knights are ready and await your inspection!"

His booming voice, requiring no magical amplification, echoed throughout the castle. All the knights awaiting their new King stiffened their expressions simultaneously.

Then,

"Thud!"

Three hundred knights raised their gauntlets, struck their hearts, and bowed in unison!

"You've worked hard, Sir Dagonet."

Suya nodded, gripped the white horse's reins, and swung onto its back. Under the gaze of the soldiers arrayed on either side, he calmly urged the horse forward.

Dagonet, Lucan, and Merlin followed closely, step by step.

The white horse passed through the castle courtyard, through the gatehouse, across the drawbridge, and arrived outside the castle, before the hundred cavalrymen.

Everyone seemed to be waiting for Suya to say something, something inspiring, something to boost morale, even if it was just meaningless platitudes to invigorate these soldiers who had reached a desperate situation.

However, Suya swept his gaze over the hundred knights before him. After taking a deep breath, he directly and gravely told them his arrangements: "Knights—"

"Next, we will gather thirty thousand scattered troops to make a final struggle, a final breakthrough."

"The cavalry regiment will be divided into ten squads, each carrying a military banner, and proceed in ten routes to declare our existence to the routed troops heading towards the Bern territory."

"Tell them—"

"Their King, Suya Pendragon, is right here!"

"And he will depart immediately to meet them!"

Having said that, Suya looked up at the first knight of the cavalry squad, his gaze penetrating the eye-slits of the helmet, meeting his eyes. "Cedric, you are a local of Cornwall. Before enlisting, you were a fisherman in Exeter. I have noted your name."

"You are responsible for going to Iron Oak Manor, under the Bern territory, to recall the 600 soldiers lingering there to the ranks."

"I will take them home."

The knight named Cedric trembled when Suya accurately stated his name, origin, and even his past profession. He looked up, gazing at Suya with disbelief.

"You—"

"Go, Knight Cedric. Please bring my soldiers back to me!"

Suya calmly nodded at him, as if this was nothing to boast about. He then looked at the next knight holding a royal banner,

"Rowan, a shepherd from Yorkshire, go to Cambria Village under Sir Hector's manor. There, you have friends from your hometown leading 500 soldiers wandering in the wilderness."

"You are to rally them!"

"Guh...! My King, you..."

"Oswin."

"Leofric."

"Wulfric..."

Suya issued tasks one by one to the ten leading knights, and personally watched as they led their cavalrymen on their warhorses.

Then, he turned his horse around and looked at the two hundred-odd light infantrymen behind him. "Finally,"

Suya slowly looked up again at Dagonet, who was already mounted and holding a royal banner, and at Lucan and Merlin. He paused, then said gravely:

"The two hundred and six of us will proceed at full speed towards the Bern territory, receiving scattered troops along the way, and going to meet King Uther's main army, composed of five thousand cavalry and twenty thousand light infantry, who are currently fleeing towards us."

The morning sun fell upon Suya's resolute face, and his emerald eyes shimmered with a fiery spirit.

He drew the ceremonial longsword from his waist and raised it towards the sun.

"Depart!"

Ten hours after the breakthrough plan began—

Bern territory, a disordered army, almost on the verge of collapse, passed through the western pass of the hills, arriving at this scorched plain.

They were the last army in Cornwall belonging to King Uther, whose organization was barely intact. After the Conqueror King's personally led army blocked their retreat to the Golden Curtain, they were forced to flee into St. Michael's Mount, constantly using the terrain to evade the Macedonian army's slaughter.

However, at this moment, the Conqueror King's army, commanded by Parmenion and led by his son Philotas, no longer intended to play cat and mouse with them. They advanced with their main force, initiating an encirclement and slaughter.

This routed army had no choice but to retreat from the Buttercup Plains towards the Bern territory. After suffering the loss of nearly three thousand men, the main force, with five thousand cavalry leading the charge, broke through from the foothills of St. Michael's Mount to the hilly terrain, and then, with the intentional concession of Seleucus's army stationed there, successfully retreated to the Bern territory.

But at this point, everyone knew they had merely fallen into another, more desperate encirclement. This force was completely lost in enemy-occupied Cornwall. Forget retreating to the capital, or back to the Golden Curtain. Now, having lost the precarious supply of provisions from the Golden Curtain, they could barely maintain their army's organization for a few more days.

Just as everyone despaired, Hammond, the temporary leader of the routed army, a master-level spearman, saw a cavalry squad carrying royal banners approaching from the direction of Thorr City.

This ten-man cavalry squad was entirely clad in silver-white armor and blue cloaks, with red armbands symbolizing the Pendragon Royal Guard. The leading knight held a giant four-meter-long royal banner.

As soon as they approached, this cavalry squad sent word that the new King was about to meet his army and would lead everyone home.

The routed soldiers exchanged glances, then burst into joyous cheers.

However, Hammond, who had just narrowly escaped death at the hands of the heroic knight Philotas, merely wanted to laugh upon hearing these nonsensical words.

He received the ten-man cavalry squad with the etiquette due to a subject, and hosted a banquet for them. When these ten messenger knights entered the military tent, Hammond ordered his personal guards to kill them all and seized the royal banners.

Then, he summoned the only other master-level knight remaining in the routed army and discussed with him, saying:

"Now, we are pursued by Philotas and trapped in Cornwall, with no possibility of retreating to the Golden Curtain and the capital."

"Moreover, morale is on the verge of collapsing, and we can barely maintain the army's organization for a few more days."

"But fortunately, I have obtained a banner of the King of Britannia."

"I plan to use the royal banner to deceive the soldiers, telling them the new King is under our protection, to maintain morale. Then we will head directly for Patara in Persia."

"By sacrificing them, it might be possible to break through the Conqueror King's logistics corps. Once we reach Persia, we can live there anonymously and escape from Lycaon's sorcerers."

The other master-level knight refused. That night, his head was severed from his body.

On the second day after the breakthrough plan began—

In the early morning, before the Bern territory, Suya, pacing alone back and forth, still had not seen the return of the tenth knight squad.

Looking at the more than six thousand people gradually gathering behind him, he turned around, coldly looking at the twenty thousand routed soldiers camped on the other side of the plain.