Chapter 360: Arthur

The boy was born to be a great king, they said.

Wealth, education, the best of anything Briton could offer. Everything could be in his grasp with a snap of his fingers. After all, didn't a king deserve the best?

He was also born with an irresistible appearance most women would fall on each other for. His excellent talent in the art of the swords was the icing on the cake. But, above all else, he possessed the surname 'Pendragon'.

It was a name that commanded power and respect from anyone who lived in any of the seven kingdoms' territories.

However, with all the privileges, came many expectations. Logress was an old kingdom, where generations of great kings ruled and safeguarded their hold on Briton for millennia. With such a history, the boy had a lot to catch up to.

Fortunately, his talent was supported with a great character and commitment to the way of the knight. 

Justice, Truth and Honor.

Three principles all knights should live by, which their deeds must show. 

Every day, the boy practiced diligently with a continuous thirst for growth, without ever complaining. His efforts paid off and he became a silver knight champion when he was 17. Knight Arthur Pendragon, the youngest squire to obtain the title of silver knight champion.

With such an achievement under his belt, the King of Logress, Uhtred Pendragon, placed even more expectations on the shoulders of the young Arthur. He then was involved in many tasks related to the kingdom's safety and a visit to the battlefield became a regular occurrence.

Still, young Arthur triumphed over all the challenges. Quickly, his popularity climbed and spread beyond the walls of the Logress Kingdom.

With his talent, his achievement and the right surname, none of the 50 golden knights would argue his place among them even if he hadn't reached his 20s yet.

When he received the invitation, there was even whispered that this young Arthur might actually be the chosen one.

The one who finally could pull out the legendary sword

The hope and support for the new golden prince to be able to pull out the sword was so huge, not even the rare two lights occurrence was able to stem the disappointment of the knights of the Order.

But…

Little did everyone know, the day Arthur became a golden knight and received his blessing, something inside of him changed.

From the blessing, he not only gained strength, he also believed he was given a higher purpose by the sword.

From that day onwards, he started questioning everything around him, especially after he started to receive information that was only shared amongst golden knights.

The Knights of Divine Order merely projected an illusion of stability.

From inside, he could see how rotten they actually were. Factions splintered the Order and secret fights for power happen almost on a daily basis. Those he considered good took part in the cover up with excuses regarding the masses, while the king watched it all unfold without doing anything.

Even the enmity between them and the people of the Forbidden Forest were covered up.

Arthur had witnessed conflicts develop over seemingly insignificant things in there and, with every question he asked, the rift between him and his father, the king and knight commander, merely grew even more.

"Why do we need to hide the existence of the sword from the public?"

"Who, or what, actually decides who is worthy to be nominated as a new golden knight? What is the true reason for the restriction?"

"Why were there many secret activities involving the seven kingdoms that could be traced back to the Order, or even outright orchestrated by the Order itself?"

Most of all, the most important incident weighing his heart was the hidden black history moment from 20 years ago, when the conflict between humanity and the Chrutins reached a boiling point. For much of his life, he thought of that war as the darkest moment of Briton that claimed thousands of lives.

There was no one who had any answers to those questions except for the five knight commanders, his father among them. The king's refusal to address Arthur's questions only further broke their relationship apart.

The last two years, they maintained the appearance of being very close in public, but both had been keeping their own secrets, waiting for their chance to strike in the future.

Up until four months ago, Arthur had no chances to ever get to the bottom of all his questions.

That day, late at night, a certain knight came asking for an audience with the king, but Uther Pendragon was away. So, Arthur met the person whom he later discovered was a silver knight from the Lioness kingdom named Keane.

The knight looked wary about the situation and from his behavior, the message he had seemed to be urgent.

Arthur tried to pry the information out of the knight, but even after the knight learnt who he was, the knight still refused to give the information he sought and left the palace that night. Since then, no one had any information regarding his whereabouts.

A few days later, Arthur learned of the mysterious death of the golden knight Bagdemagus. He looked up the golden knight's background and was surprised to find that the golden knight was related to the same knight that went missing after what he asked.

With his authority, he quickly launched an investigation. As his father was away on official kingdom business at that time, by sheer chance he was assigned as the main investigator to the case.

Following the clues related to the golden knight, he was led into tracking an abandoned house in the middle of a forest.

To his surprise, there he found a weak, barely breathing girl slumped inside a cage, which he later found named Morgana.

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Written by Avans, Published exclusively by W.e.b.n.o.v.e.l, 

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