Chapter 3: a better excuse
They were now within her personal chambers, The room was sparsely decorated with hardly anything to make it stand apart from the typical chambers of a member of nobility, the only thing with the room the would draw attention is the chandelier that hung on the ceiling. Renner wasn't one to decorate as she didn't think it mattered, no rather the room was the way it was because it reflected the golden princess, despite the moniker the golden princess was not an extravagant person and did not wish to spend money for her own sake but for the sake of the people.
both of them were seated on chairs opposite of each by a table that was between them. Arthur had quickly made himself comfortable, trying to maintain the image of a polite knight was beginning to annoy him as such he loosened his posture just a little plus this would serve to show the princess that he is relaxed and holds no ill intentions.
"you made quite the big entrance"
She spoke doing away with the silence in the room, her gaze was fixated on his figure, his hair matched hers or perhaps it was a tad brighter in colour than her, his face was flawlessly handsome and eyes that held a gentleness to them, he wasn't short nor was he tall but he certainly was a head taller than her. She made eye contact and noticed his pupils and was once again taken by their beautiful Emerald color.
"yes, I apologize for that. Learning to fly would make things easier"
"if you could fly, you wouldn't have landed on my garden, so I'm quite thankful that you cannot"
"If the princess thinks so, then I can't say anything further, but instead, I will just ask what you wanted to talk to me about?"
"The matter concerning you becoming my knight has been approved, so starting today, you shall accompany me everywhere I go and go where I cannot"
'wait a minute'
As soon as the words left her mouth Arthur suddenly remembered something, his mind was occupied by the suddenness of the transmigration that he hadn't really noticed the missing person that was supposed to be always beside Renner.
'Where is Climb?'
The boy was supposed to be Renner's little puppy but he hasn't been around in all of Arthur's interactions with Renner, not to mention the princess seemed to be a bit older, there wasn't a significant difference in her height she certainly had a more mature body and charm right now.
'is this really the Overlord universe?
Renner figured he was pondering further about becoming her knight. As such, she let him think. She certainly found it cute how his brows creased just now. He was certainly thinking hard about things.
"very well, Your Highness, I accept being your knight"
Honestly this was hardly a bad deal, becoming her knight guarantees him a place to stay and a steady income and food which is what's truly important here though he didn't plan to be a mindless puppy that does whatever she wants.
"excellent, now on to the next matter."
She clasp her hands together and beamed a bright smile on her face, with Arthur as her knight things that she has had planned but had no way to act on them could now begin to move, she may not be fond of the majority of nobles but she does indeed care for her country as such she will work towards its best interest and if that best interest means her becoming queen after doing a purge then so be it.
"now, while it is true that you are my knight, it is also true that you aren't fully trusted by the nobles and you have no achievements that can be attributed to your name, it is because of those things that you are unofficially my knight"
Arthur nodded to her words.
"I see, so I need to earn some recognition, right?"
"yes, tomorrow I'll need you to mingle with the other knights in the castle, get to prove your strength to them and I will need recognition from the fellow knights and from there we can move forward with other things, I'll explain what they are later tomorrow"
She Explained, there are various things that she has managed to find out thanks to her efforts she had made in collecting information, though she doesn't have any official spies her adventurer friends do feed her the necessary information and have given her a few items to help with information gathering so she has the substantial amount of information on various nobles.
" I guess it was good to ask Sir Gazeff for the sparring match"
"Yes if you are able to contend with Gazeff, the other knights should begin to respect you, although I should mention that they might try to antagonize you at first. Being my knight is a privilege most can only dream of"
A giggle escaped her mouth, and Arthur found it very cute. The innocence that came from the giggle was in complete contrast to what he knew her to be.
....
ERRYUN was what one would call an admirer of the princess. He simply found her to be completely beautiful ever since he first saw her he was enamored. Her golden hair glistened in the sunlight illuminating her innocents, her sky blue eyes that held boundless kindness behind them, her small delicate frame in need of protection, all it took was a single glance and he was hopelessly in love with her.
Unfortunately for Erryun as a low born peasant his dream of being with her was never going to come true, no noble in their right mind would ever consider being with a peasants, his dream may not be feasible but that didn't mean he couldn't be by her side and be close to her as such he dedicated himself to his knightly duties all in hopes that one day he would distinguish himself and be chosen to be her personal guard.
It was unfortunate that Erryun lacked talent massively and therefore was no better than the average knight, it was even more unfortunate that despite his hard work it never bore fruit and he couldn't climb the ranks, perhaps he was delusional to think he could rise in rank in just 2 years and he had yet to distinguish himself during the yearly war with the Baharuth empire as such there was no reason of him to think he could rise rank with barely any experience and any accomplishments however what was most unfortunate was the fact someone had just took his dream from him.
A new knight, a man with golden blonde hair matching the princess, his armour was foreign but it was exquisite and very shiny with a look from the armour alone one could tell that he was a distinguished knight.
"Alright Everyone Today I'm going to be introducing a new comrade of ours"
Gazeff shouted as he stood in front of a large crowd of knights within the training area of the castle, which was located near the watch towers a bit far from the main palace, the knights looked upon him curiously waiting for him to speak the name of the knight that stood beside him.
"This is sir Arthur Pendragon, he is what you'd call a wandering knight that will be joining our ranks today please give him a warm welcome"
Gazeff spoke, and Arthur cursed himself internally as he realized that claiming to be a wandering knight would have been a better excuse than claiming to from another continent, but it was too late now. The knights clapped as Gazeff signaled Arthur to step forward and give a few words.
"Nice to meet all of you, I hope that in the coming days, I will be able to call some of you my friends, and I hope we can all get along."
It was brief, but Arthur believed that it was enough. There was no need to offer a long-winded speech when you're not well known by the people you're talking to. After his speech there was some questions that the curious soldiers asked a few were more interested in the fact that he was knight of the princess and the were quite a large majority that looked at Arthur with more than a little envy.
"Mr Arthur!"
Erryun called out to him as he shoved his fellows out of the way in order for him to make it to the front.
"Yes?'"
He turned to look at the owner of the voice, he was planning on asking Gazeff for a sparring match, he had already thought of a good excuse about his lack of skill in swordplay, lying so many times in a row wasn't something he liked, hence he planned to tell the truth this time mixed with a few lies to make it more believable.
"Would it be possible to challenge you to duel?"
"why?"
"Frankly speaking, I don't believe you qualify more than I do to be the princess's knight"
A large majority seemed to nod at his statement. It seemed that many weren't exactly happy that some random guy was suddenly the knight for Princess Renner. Despite Earlier Erryun being impressed by the armour and feeling inadequate he felt he need to evaluate this man, after all if he can defeat him in a match then he'd have to take his place at the knight of the princess.
"I see, then I accept your challenge"
He took the challenge, and as he said so, the space that was filled with a plethora of knights suddenly opened up, creating a circle and making space that was big enough for duel. Seeing such an eager display of preparedness by the knights Arthur felt conflicted, he definitely wasn't ready to get in to it right now and he had thought that there'd be at least a 5 minute walk towards a proper location.
"Well since this isn't an official duel, I believe the rules of one shouldn't apply, or do you wish to stake something?"
Gazeff asked as Erryun and Arthur entered the open circle and faced each other, Erryun was the first to respond
"If I manage to win, I get to be the knight of the princess"
"what about you, sir Arthur?"
"There's nothing he can offer me nor do I have anything in mind however, if I win he'll owe me a monetary debt of 10 gold, I think that's a fair trade for the opportunity to be the golden princess' knight"
He offered whilst staring at the man's eyes, truthfully he didn't want to anything he just needed the guy to back of, surely the possibility of being suddenly in 10 gold in debt should be enough as a deterrent, well it wasn't. Erryun gulped down and accepted the deal.
"If it means I can be by her side, so be it, I accept"
'Fuck'
He cursed, he should have declined the invite, now he might get exposed as fraud.
'No this is fine, Prana burst should allow me to blitz this guy'
"Very well, do you both have your weapons?"
"yes"
Arthur answered simultaneously with Erryun however he realized a bit too late to use Excalibur in this duel as that would be overkill however it was too late
" let's begin the match."
Gazeff stepped back into the spectator line and the two men gave each other some space, standing 5 meters apart.
"Begin"
Gazeff signalled and Erryun Moved without a second her was his sword aiming for the neck of his opponent, the moment Gazeff said to begin Erryun forgot himself and let his passion for the princess drive him and thus aimed to kill, Arthur took a step back and gulped a bit, He had no idea how to use a sword and he wondered how he will win this, his body moved instinctual easily evading the attack.
"Huh?"
He sounded asked at the sudden movement of his body without his command, Erryun didn't stop his attack, he swung his sword down and Arthur easily evaded once again by moving back, Erryun thrusted forward and Arthur stepped to the side. Erryun swung sideway aiming for the torso but again it was a miss.
Seeing an opening Arthur used his armoured boot and kicked Erryun's hand with a bit too much strength and causing the young man to drop his sword, Arthur then kicked him on the torso Sending flying before taking the sword of the ground and walked the knight that cried about his broken hand whist rolling on the floor.
"I'm appalled that you would go down with just your hand being broken"
He didn't actually mean to kick to break his hand but instead he wanted to kick the sword away, He wanted to apologize but Showing kindness might not work out for the best as they might this he can be messed with.
Standing over the man he sighed and turned around, despite feeling bad about breaking Erryun's arm he was still a fair bit excited over what he did.
"I do apologize if I went too far sir Gazeff, I had assumed he would be quite strong for challenging me"
He saw this as a good opportunity to build up a reputation as strong. As he said that the knights that he turned his back toward seemed to get a spark in their eyes, the Desire to fight Arthur made itself known to them, it was hardly to avenge their fellow knight but instead to put Arthur in his place, he seemed a bit arrogant.
"It'd fine Sir Arthur although looking behind you, my men look eager to getting a match of their own with you, do you have the time?"
He wanted to say no however, he needs to build up a reputation as a strong knight, especially considering he made up a story of fighting a powerful witch with enough power to teleport him to a different continent, plus he was sure some noble was probably watching him. pretending to be thinking it over he put his hand on chin and hummed before speaking.
"Very well but I need a weapon, I can't use my main weapon for such things now can I?
"Understandable, you can use this, I usually carry it with me but it not my main sword either, truthfully I'm also curious about the one on your waist, it looks like a sacred treasure"
Gazeff said as he handed over his spare to Arthur, He was quite curious about Arthur, his. Armour was very high quality, pristine even, not only that but it looks like he used a martial art when he dodged Erryun earlier
"We can talk about such things later"
Taking his sword of off it's strap he then plunged it into the ground, letting it stand on its own, he had wanted to buy it's sheath too but it was more expensive than the sword so he just bought the sword by itself.
"Who'll face me next"
...
A/N: the mc doesn't just have Excalibur and the dragon factor, he has other powers and skills from other random anime I've watched, which I'll slowly reveal on various different chapters.
S/N: my overlord waifu list is like this.
1.Albedo
2.Shalltear
3.Yuri alpha
4.Solution Epsilon
5.Renner