I Became a Mythical Knight King

Chapter 3 – Heir to the Light of the Holy King (3)

The first thought that flashed through Yoo-seong’s mind as he saw Rene open her eyes with difficulty was a rather unorthodox one.

‘No, she’s not passed out like that, and she woke up less than 20 minutes later.’

It was surprising, but it was a good thing anyway.

“Are you awake?”

Rene blinked, somewhat disoriented by Yoo-seong’s question, and fumbled at her waist with a weak hand.

“Moo, water…….”

She looked at her waist and saw a leather water bottle hanging from her belt.

Yoo-seong grabbed it and helped Rene to her feet.

“Here, drink slowly.”

“Thanks…….”

Rene gulped down the water, though she spilled almost half of it, and breathed a sigh of relief that she had survived.

“Haah…….”

Her shoulders drooping, Rene closed her eyes tightly for a moment, then opened them to face Yoo-seong.

She had a white face and golden eyes.

Her makeup was a violet color with a hint of blue in the corners of her eyes, giving her an enchanting appearance.

“Greetings again, I’m Rene Baltois.”

Rene gestured to her chest, and Yoo-seong nodded once before asking a question that could elicit several answers at once.

“What happened?”

Rene took a deep breath and straightened her posture before answering.

“I am the second daughter of Count Baltois. I came here in search of the Heir to the Light after a revelation from the Goddess of the Lake.”

The Goddess of the Lake was a being from the legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.

In Fantasy Monarch, she was known as the human goddess who guarded the divine kingdom of Camelot.

“What about the revelation?”

“In the forest of Lotho, there will arrive one who will carry on the light of the Holy King, and you must greet him and deliver the call of awakening.”

“Uh, is that the status window?”

“Yes, it said to shout ‘status window’. I didn’t understand exactly, but I’m sure it’s a word of the gods with sacred meaning, right?”

Rene said with a smirk.

‘[Status window] given her partial Korean pronunciation, she didn’t really know what it meant.’

“Um……yes.”

Not a common word.

Yoo-seong nodded heavily, and Rene gave him a look that said, “Oh, I see.” Yoo-seong coughed and continued.

“What about being chased by the kobolds?”

“Oh, that. We were attacked by kobolds while traveling. I thought there were no kobolds in the Lotho Forest in the first place……Maybe it’s the effect of the coming of the Era of the Ominous Star.”

The Era of the Ominous Star was a proper noun that came out of nowhere, but like the Goddess of the Lake, it was a word Yoo-seong already knew.

‘A time of all kinds of disasters, with monsters coming from all directions and threatening to destroy the world.’

In Norse mythology, it was Ragnarok, and in Greco-Roman mythology, it was Gigantomachia.

The era in which Fantasy Monarch is set is a time of chaos, before the Era of the Ominous Star arrived, but it is believed that it will arrive soon.

The introductory image I saw in the sky when I first opened my eyes indicated that the Era of the Ominous Star had arrived, or was on the verge of arriving.

Swallowing hard, Yoo-seong turned back to Rene.

“Didn’t the revelation tell you what to do after you encountered me?”

“What? Oh, no. Nothing.”

Rene looked momentarily puzzled, as if she hadn’t really thought about it before Yoo-seong asked, but only for a moment.

Her eyes quickly returned to their glazed look.

“……Are you not accompanied by anyone?”

“No, I’m alone. In fact, when I told them about the revelation, they all said I was just dreaming, but……now everyone will know that I didn’t just doze off during dawn prayers and had a crazy dream.”

Judging from the way she was huffing and puffing at the end, and the fact that the Countess had come all the way here alone, it was obvious that she had been ignored by everyone around her and told to stop talking nonsense.

‘In a word, she’s spirited.’

Aside from her flirtatious appearance, Rene was actually quite cute in person.

“So, are you planning to return to the County of Baltois for now?”

“Yes, Heir.”

“We’ve traveled quite a ways from where we were before, do you think you can find your way?”

Rene looked around and narrowed her eyes at Yoo-seong’s question.

“Um……I think I can, once we get out of the woods.”

Something told him that she just didn’t know the way, but Yoo-seong nodded anyway.

It didn’t sound like she was completely wrong.

“Alright, then go to……enemy!”

“What?!”

Yoo-seong shouted like a thunderbolt as he grabbed Rene and pulled her backwards.

Although he was still only level 2, his senses, amplified by being a superhuman named Knight, had detected the enemy’s pretense of strength.

And Yoo-seong’s reaction was not wrong.

Kobolds burst out of the bushes just behind where Rene had been sitting, screaming in agony.

“KHHHHH!”

“Thump!”

There were seven of them in all.

As soon as Yoo-seong made eye contact with them, he immediately activated Chivalry.

“Serf troops, rally!”

-Papat!

Once again, in a blur of light, the serf troops appeared between Yoo-seong and the kobolds.

Far from valorous, they reflexively cried out as soon as their gazes locked with the kobolds, who were startled by the appearance of the serf troops.

“Ugh! Monsters!”

“Run!”

But this time, as before, there was no escape.

Just as the serfs were about to flee, a man raised a flag and shouted.

“Don’t run! Fight back!”

The high, melodious voice of a woman grabbed the legs of the fleeing serfs.

No, it wasn’t quite that.

The shout of a rider added to the serf army ignited the courage hidden deep within the serf army’s hearts.

“Woof!”

“Fight, fight!”

“Let’s fight!”

As the serfs clutched their weapons and shouted, the blonde female rider-Kate-raised her banner high again and shouted.

“Glory to Camelot!”

Pow-!

The banner Kate held was not as colorful as the banner of a serf army but it was the flag of Camelot, the holy kingdom that defends humanity.

The first unified nation of mankind, founded by King Arthur to usher in the Age of Man.

“Oooooh! Let’s go!”

“For Camelot!”

The serf troops, with their morale boosted by Kate’s encouragement, grabbed their weapons and charged at the kobolds.

And at that very moment, Yoo-seong that had set Rene down also made its move.

“Kayak!”

Draw attention to your serf units and strike the enemy from behind.

It was the same tactic as the previous battle, but this time it was different.

The moment Yoo-seong slashed the back of one of the kobolds, the serf troops swung their weapons at the enemy in front of them.

“Ack!”

“Argh!”

Moreover, there was one more unexpected ally.

“Fire Arrow!”

Rene shouted from behind the backs of the serf troops, thrusting forward a large staff from some unknown source, and a bolt of fire formed from thin air and struck one of the kobolds in the head.

“Magic! Magic!”

“A wizard!”

The serf troops’ morale was boosted, and the kobolds’ confusion increased.

As a result, the kobolds, attacked back and forth by the serf troops and Yoo-seong, were too weak to put up much of a fight.

“Wooooo! We won!”

“We won!”

“Long live Camelot! Long live Camelot!”

The serf troops raised their weapons high in victory.

Yoo-seong, who couldn’t help but smile at the sight of the serf troops, glanced at Rene’s joyful face and saw Kate standing behind the serf troops.

‘What the heck, did I get some kind of SSR rank?’

A blue-eyed, blonde woman with a big smile on her face looked at the serf troops with compassion.

Though the clothes were a bit shabby, the rider of the serf battalion possessed an extraordinary beauty that seemed excessive for the role. Her face was pale, and more than anything, every action she took exuded an air of nobility. No matter how one looked at it, she certainly didn’t seem like an ordinary commoner or serf.

‘Plus, the effect is strong.’

Even with the addition of riders, the serf troops were more than half as likely to run away.

Their morale was already low enough to begin with.

However, with Kate’s encouragement, their morale more than tripled, making them more effective in combat rather than simply not running away.

This world was not quite the same as Fantasy Monarch, nor were his skills but maybe he had actually picked an SSR ranked rider.

Then it happened.

Catching Yoo-seong’s gaze, Kate smiled wryly and walked over to him, giving him a slight nod.

She tapped her right fist against her left breast, a Camelot greeting.

“I am Kate. Heir to the great Holy King.”

Up close, she looked younger than I’d expected.

Late teens at the low end, barely past twenty at the high end.

Faced with Kate’s gaze looking up at him, and the surprised eyes of the serf troops with faces like, “So you’re the heir to the Holy King, then?” Yoo-seong was torn for a moment, but then he smiled and said with the same smile.

“I am Cheon Yoo-seong, and I salute you for your struggle.”

“It is an honor.”

Bowing again, Kate smiled softly and then vanished into the light.

“Huh, we haven’t gotten to plunder yet-”

“Come on, let’s go. I’m not in the mood for that right now.”

“You’re a prince.”

The serf troops also disappeared into light, each with their own words.

Considering the previous battle, I wondered if it was possible for them to stay a little longer, but for now, they were already gone, so there was no point.

Then it happened.

When Kate and the serf army disappeared, Rene, who was left alone, blinked and her eyes lit up with recognition.

“Wow……Is this the Heir’s chivalry?”

Chivalry is the magic of knights or more precisely, the power of the soul that an enlightened knight could manifest.

Chivalry was a reflection of the knight’s life and soul, and while there may be similar chivalry, there is no such thing as identical chivalry.

Chivalry is both a reflection of the soul and an expression of the will.

As such, chivalry was not fixed.

As a knight’s will grew, so did his chivalry, and as a knight lost his integrity and became corrupted, so did his chivalry.

‘In short, the unique skills of knights.’

It’s a skill of the realm, or rather, of the bonding system.

Rene was genuinely admiring him, as she hadn’t been able to watch him fight in the previous fight because she was too exhausted.

‘Well, an army suddenly appeared, so it’s no wonder she was surprised.’

Besides, what kind of army is that?

It was the army of the Holy Kingdom of Camelot, albeit a serf army.

Of course, Rene’s assessment would have been different if she’d seen the serf army enjoying themselves as they plundered the kobolds, but thanks to Kate, that didn’t happen.

‘A mage, by the way.’

The body type, the equipment, the makeup around her eyes.

From head to toe, she looked more like a mage than a warrior.

The look on Rene’s face suggested that she had a lot to say, but Yoo-seong held up a hand to stop her.

He had more important things to do right now than listen to Rene’s admiration.

“Status.”

[You have won the battle.]

[You have gained 2 Commander Skill Points.]

[Slaying Evil:  Virtue has slightly increased.]

[Level up.]

[Your stats slightly increased.]

[New units have been added.]

[You have gained 3 Commander Skill Points.]

I leveled up and gained new skills.

A smile spread across Yoo-seong’s face.