Blue-Eyes White Dragon: Adopted by the King of Knights [21]

Artoria no longer had the slightest hesitation.

“Pardon me, Sir Ector, but I need to head into town immediately.”

So urgent was her heart that she didn’t even wait for Ector’s permission—she simply informed him, then leapt onto her horse and galloped off toward the town without another word.

“Well, now that’s rare. She didn’t even say goodbye.”

Sir Ector murmured to himself—but there was no anger in his voice.

He merely stood just outside the doorway, watching the girl’s silhouette grow smaller in the distance. Then he turned slightly to look at the magician who wore a half-smile.

He understood. With this departure, the girl named Artoria would never return.

The one who came back would be Arthur Pendragon, the fated King of Britain.

“So impatient, is she?”

He muttered in discontent. He had mentally prepared for this day, and yet, when it truly came, the old knight still found himself caught off guard.

There were so many battlefield survival tricks he hadn’t had time to pass on to her!

“Actually, there’s no real urgency—by all rights, we should’ve had another two or three months.”

“But, well... what can I say? It’s just too perfect a coincidence. So much so that even a lazy man like me felt, ‘If I don’t take this opportunity to do something, it would be a real shame.’”

The Magus of Flowers also watched the girl’s departing figure, but the look on his face was utterly different from the old knight’s.

There was anticipation. Approval. The giddy delight of someone watching a good play unfold.

…

The girl galloped down the road toward the town.

At this moment, her mind was blank, consumed only by thoughts of that lively, spirited young dragon.

—Not that she was truly worried about the dragon’s safety.

She knew how powerful it was, and she also knew what her foster brother was capable of… To put it plainly, the two of them could come and go freely through a battlefield of ten thousand soldiers. No army of ordinary humans could possibly harm them.

That was what it meant to be supernatural—a guest of honor, no matter the country.

And yet, even such beings weren’t free from the “traps” they were destined to stumble into.

“The tavern!”

Even using just the ahoge sticking out from her head, Artoria could guess exactly where her wayward brother had taken that adorable young dragon.

Taverns, dancers, wine, and revelry… Good grief, was there anything in the world more terrifying?

“It’s going to be corrupted, isn’t it? Definitely going to be corrupted!”

As far as she was concerned, this was absolutely Kay’s fault. But the dragon wasn’t entirely innocent either—at the very least, it shouldn’t have listened to the coaxing of some suspicious man and voluntarily gone to such a dangerous and immoral place.

“When I get back, I’m giving them both a proper scolding… No, they will be punished!”

Artoria ground her teeth, muttering in her heart.

But just as she stormed into the outskirts of the village, ready to dash toward the tavern—

“Hold it right there—”

Something unexpected happened.

The town, which normally didn’t even have a gate guard, suddenly had two sentries.

Two decrepit old guards, clearly stationed there for the sole purpose of collecting “entry tax.”

“You here for the dragon too?”

“Well then, hand over one gold coin, and line up over there.”

“Charlie, have you gone senile? That’s Little Arthur—Sir Kay’s younger brother!”

“Exactly. That’s why it’s one gold coin. Everyone else only has to pay a copper. Sir Kay gave explicit instructions.”

“!!”

This was deliberate. No doubt about it.

That cunning knight must’ve foreseen that his little sister would come barging in to raise a fuss. So he’d stationed two elderly sentries here to block her path before she even set foot in the town.

And under normal circumstances, faced with these two old men, Artoria would be helpless.

She was a knight who upheld the code of chivalry. She would never raise a hand against the unarmed—let alone elders. Doing so would violate her principles, and that was something she could not do.

So under ordinary conditions, even knowing she’d been set up, Artoria would’ve obediently turned her horse around, gone home to borrow a gold coin from her foster father, and come back to pay the fee.

—That round trip would cost her half a day.

“No. I can’t afford a delay.”

“The longer I wait, the more likely something goes wrong!”

Artoria stared anxiously at the noise and chaos echoing from within the town.

Then looked again at the two old men blocking her path, refusing to budge.

Crack.

It was as if a string inside her snapped.

The normally composed and courteous Arthur, who was polite and humble to everyone, suddenly became someone else entirely.

She didn’t even speak. She simply narrowed her eyes and glared.

The two elderly sentries froze, like they’d been hit by a binding spell. They couldn’t move a muscle.

“Forgive me.”

Before the words were even fully out of her mouth, her figure had vanished.

“But this time—I really don’t have time.”

…

Having broken past the guards, the girl charged toward the heart of the town.

But she didn’t get far before she had to stop.

Artoria stared in disbelief. This little village—never bustling to begin with—had somehow filled with people. Not twice the usual number, not five times, but ten times more than usual. The narrow streets were packed to the point where she couldn’t even squeeze through.

“Where did all these people come from?!”

She scanned the crowd, noting how agitated—no, frenzied—they were. Some were waving banners Artoria recognized as belonging to noble families from other kingdoms.

“Why are other kingdoms getting involved?!”

She couldn’t understand. It was just a baby dragon. Was that really enough to drive everyone into a frenzy?

…Okay, fine. Maybe it was enough.

Now that she thought about it, those so-called “heroes” probably would travel halfway across the world just for the chance to see a real dragon in the flesh.

—But still, this level of frenzy, this madness verging on hysteria, couldn’t be explained by that alone.

No, something else was going on here... It felt like a trap. Someone had deliberately set this all up—using the young dragon as bait to lure warriors from across the land.

And the one who set this trap—what was their identity, their purpose—

“Hey, Little Arthur! You here to pull the sword too?”

The sword? What sword?

“A legendary mage once said that only the fated King of Britain can draw the holy sword from the stone. And only the one who draws it will earn the dragon’s recognition, becoming its true partner—to save Britain together!”

“……”

Damn it, Merlin!

---

T/N: Damn it, Merlin!

This is a fan translation of 综漫：青眼幼龙，被骑士王捡到了 by 歌冰丽月. All rights to the original work belong to the creator. Please support them by exploring their original work or sharing it with others if you can. Thank you for reading and supporting my efforts to bring this story to a wider audience!