met free Chapter 1 The Strange Phenomenon of the Sword in the Stone
Chapter 1 The Strange Phenomenon of the Sword in the Stone
Spring comes exceptionally late in Britain.
On the edge of the forest outside Camelot, on a moss-covered stone platform, a longsword lies silently embedded in a boulder.
There was not a single gap where the sword met the stone; it seemed as if they were naturally one.
The sapphires inlaid on the sword hilt shimmered faintly in the morning light, as if waiting for a destined moment.
Fifteen-year-old Arthur Pendragon stood before the stone platform, his golden hair tousled by the wind, his emerald green eyes fixed on the legendary sword that would make him king.
He was waiting.
He was waiting for an answer that even he himself was unsure of.
"Oh dear, still hesitating? The sun's about to set!"
A lazy, slightly teasing female voice came from behind me.
The sound was dreamlike and ethereal, as if it came from the bottom of the lake, or as if it resonated directly in one's heart.
Arthur did not turn around.
He knew who it was.
Mary emerged from the shadows of the trees, her long, silvery-white hair cascading down to her waist, shimmering softly in the dappled sunlight like threads of moonlight.
Her amethyst-like eyes held a smile, with the corners slightly upturned, exuding a captivating blend of allure and gentleness unique to mature women.
She wore a white magician's robe, with delicate flowers and magical emblems embroidered on the hem and cuffs. As she walked, her robes fluttered, like a phantom stepping out of an ancient painting.
She is a hybrid of a nightmare and a human, and the guardian of Avalon.
He is a magician who possesses "clairvoyance".
But those eyes can only see what is happening in any corner of the world "at this very moment".
Neither the past nor the future belonged to her.
He is also the only being in this forest that Arthur cannot see through.
It wasn't because her abilities were unfathomable, but because she was incredibly eloquent.
"You've been standing in front of that rock for two whole hours." Meryl walked up to him, tilting her head and looking at him with the expression of a caring older sister.
"Aren't your legs sore? Doesn't your back hurt? Or are you actually waiting for me to appear? Oh my, I knew my charm was irresistible..."
"Merry," Arthur interrupted her calmly, "those three knights you said you'd curse if they ever showed their faces in front of me again are still lying in the infirmary."
Mary blinked her amethyst-like eyes, looking completely innocent:
"That's because they're so boring. They can't even take a joke. What kind of knights are they?"
Besides, I just gave them a little "honesty potion" to get them to open up... Who knew they might have those kinds of thoughts about Her Majesty the Queen?
As she spoke, she extended her slender fingers and gently tapped Arthur's chest, a sly smile playing on her lips:
"What, feeling sorry for your knight? Don't worry, he'll be fine in a couple of days. I'm the kind of person who never does anything truly immoral."
Arthur sighed.
He had known Mary for five years, and in those five years, he had come to a profound understanding of one thing:
This seemingly gentle and beautiful older sister is, in her heart, a super cunning, extremely narcissistic, and optimistic dream demon who enjoys teasing people.
Her favorite thing to do was to run into the city of Camelot, use her gentle and harmless face to fool the knights, and then laugh heartily after they were fooled.
But strangely enough, Arthur was never tricked by her.
It wasn't because he was smart, but because... every time Meryl was about to make a move against him, she would inexplicably stop.
"What are you doing here?" Arthur asked, his gaze returning to the sword in the stone.
With her hands behind her back, Mary tiptoed and circled around him once:
"Of course I'm here to see the excitement! 'The sword in the stone has been pulled out'—this kind of big news only happens once every thousand years. If I miss it, what will I have to brag about later?"
"Didn't you say you've lived for over a thousand years?"
"That's why we need new topics even more."
"It's a matter of course," Mary said matter-of-factly, then stood beside Arthur, a serious glint in her amethyst eyes. "But seriously, are you really sure?"
Arthur remained silent for a moment.
"Sir Hector told me last night, 'If you draw that sword, you can no longer be 'Arthur,' you will become 'King.'"
"Hmm, and then?"
"I'm thinking," Arthur turned to meet her gaze, "If I become king, will I be able to protect everyone?"
Mary stared at him for two seconds, then burst out laughing.
"Hahahaha...you really are..." She laughed so hard she bent over, her long, silvery-white hair swaying in the sunlight.
"Protect everyone? Are you serious? Good heavens, I haven't seen such a naive question in over a thousand years."
Arthur wasn't angry; he just waited quietly for her to finish laughing.
After laughing enough, Mary wiped away non-existent tears from the corners of her eyes, then looked at him with an expression that said, "Look at an idiot."
"Of course not! Even a king can fail, lose things, and get stabbed in the back. Do you think you're a god?"
"I know."
"You already know, why ask?"
"Because I want to know," Arthur's voice was calm: "Have you ever seen the 'King who can protect everyone'?"
Mary paused for a moment, a complex light flashing in her amethyst eyes.
That was an expression Arthur rarely saw on her face.
"No," she finally said, her voice softening.
"Not a single one. I've seen every corner of this world with my all-seeing eyes, and witnessed the downfall of countless kings. Not one... can protect everyone."
"Then I'll be the first one."
Mary blinked, then turned her face away.
Arthur noticed that the tips of her ears were slightly red, which made her look especially cute on her mature and alluring face.
"...Arrogant brat." She muttered under her breath, but there was no sarcasm in her tone. "Fine, go ahead and try. I'm always looking for a good show."
Arthur smiled slightly and turned his gaze back to the sword in the stone.
He raised his right hand, his fingertips just an inch from the hilt of the sword.
"Merry," he said, "if one day I leave Britain... what would you think?"
"Why are you asking me?" Mary's tone remained light, but Arthur detected a subtle pause:
"I'm just a spectator, what does it matter to me whether you leave or not?"
"Then why do you always appear beside me?"
"...Is it wrong for me to like looking at handsome men?" Mary said matter-of-factly, hands on her hips.
"You're the most handsome human boy I've seen in over a thousand years. What's wrong with taking a few more glances before you grow up ugly?"
Arthur smiled and didn't expose her.
His fingers finally gripped the hilt of the sword.
In that instant, an indescribable power surged from the sword hilt throughout his body, as if he were being infused with starlight.
Arthur felt his consciousness being suddenly pulled, and the scene before him distorted like ripples on water.
Then, he saw it.
flame.
Camelot's palace was burning, the round table was shattered into countless pieces, and the knights' corpses lay strewn across the hall.
A masked knight lay in a pool of blood; it was Mordred.
Guinevere wept alone by the window of the convent. Lancelot knelt before her door.
Morgan stood amidst the ruins, his eyes vacant.
This is a possible future in "his world".
But the video didn't stop.
Another King Arthur, Artoria Pendragon, raises the Holy Sword in the burning city of Fuyuki.
On the Mesopotamian plain, humans and monsters fought a bloody battle.
A purple-haired woman looks back under the moonlight, her eyes filled with eternal loneliness.
……
Fragments of countless worlds, countless regrets and remorse, flooded his consciousness like a tide.
Arthur's hands were trembling violently, but he did not loosen his grip on the sword hilt.
"Arthur!" Mary's voice came from afar, but this time, her tone lacked its usual playfulness, instead carrying a rare hint of tension:
"Your hand is bleeding... What happened?"
She couldn't see what Arthur was seeing.
Her all-seeing eyes could only see "the present," and in the present, she only saw a blond boy gripping a sword hilt, trembling all over, with blood seeping from the mouth of his hand.
Arthur did not answer.
He gritted his teeth and pulled hard.
The sword in the stone emitted a clear, melodious sound, like a sigh from the starry sky.
The sapphire burst forth with dazzling light, illuminating the entire forest.
The stone platform shattered, and the fragments floated in the air before being dispersed by the light.
Arthur raised his longsword high, and light emanated from his hand, like a second sun rising from the ground.
Mary instinctively covered her eyes with her arms.
As the light dimmed slightly and she lowered her arm, a breathtaking sight was reflected in her amethyst-like eyes.
Centered on Arthur, countless fine, hair-like streaks of light lingered in the air, like the afterimages of some kind of trajectory, slowly dissipating.
"This is..." Meryl murmured, she had never seen such power before: "The Path of the Stars?"
The light lasted for about ten seconds, then disappeared completely.
Arthur slowly lowered his sword, looking down at his right hand. The skin between his thumb and forefinger was chafed, but a faint starlight remained on his palm, like a mark that could never be washed away.
His breathing was rapid, but his eyes were unusually calm, not the look one would expect from a fifteen-year-old boy.
"Arthur." Mary approached, her usual playful expression unusually absent. "What...did you just see?"
Arthur looked up, his emerald green eyes meeting her gaze.
"The future," he said. "My future, the future of Britain."
And... the future of countless other worlds.
A tragic, inevitable, and potentially better future.
Mary frowned. She opened her mouth as if to say "Impossible," but swallowed the words back.
Her clairvoyance couldn't see the future, but she could sense that Arthur possessed something she had never perceived before, like some ancient power being awakened.
"So what do you want to do?" she asked.
Arthur took a deep breath and then smiled.
That smile was so gentle it brought tears to my eyes.
"Change them," he said. "Change as much as you can."
Mary stared at him for a long time.
"You're insane," she finally said, her voice soft. "There are thousands upon thousands of 'possibilities,' and you're all alone, with only one life. How could you possibly..."
"I am not alone," Arthur interrupted her, his gaze calm and resolute. "I will have companions, people who are willing to walk this path with me."
As he said this, his gaze lingered on Meryl's face for a moment.
Mary understood the meaning behind that look.
Her heart skipped a beat, but she didn't let any emotion surface.
She simply turned around, her long, silvery-white hair arcing through the sunlight.
"Whatever you want," she said, her voice regaining its usual lightness.
"Anyway, I'm just a spectator, whether you live or die is none of my business... But if you die, I won't have any handsome guys to watch, which would be a real loss."
She walked a few steps deeper into the forest, then stopped.
"Oh, right." She didn't turn around, her tone as if she were talking about something trivial:
"If you really want to go to those 'other worlds,' at least learn how to use that sword first."
I don't want to hear that you died somewhere unknown...that would make me lose face.
"After all," she turned her head, revealing a sly smile, her amethyst eyes reflecting Arthur's image:
"You are the human boy I chose."
After saying that, her figure disappeared into the shadows of the trees, leaving only a faint wisp of silver light slowly dissipating in the air.
Arthur stood there, watching her leave.
He looked down at the sword in the stone at his waist, then looked up at the sky.
"I will come back," he said.
He didn't know why he said "come back".
Perhaps it was because, amidst those chaotic images, he vaguely saw a silver-haired, purple-eyed nightmare standing alone by Lake Avalon, gazing into the distance with a faint smile on its lips.
That smile held a thousand years of loneliness, and a thousand years of waiting.
Arthur turned and walked out of the forest.
The walls of Camelot are faintly visible in the distance; a new king is about to be born.
Where Arthur couldn't see, Mary leaned against the trunk of an ancient tree, her amethyst-like eyes gazing at the sky.
She used her clairvoyance to look in Camelot's direction.
The blond boy was walking through the forest with firm steps.
"The Trail of Stars..." she repeated softly, a slight smile playing on her lips.
"You see a future that even I cannot see. You have indeed chosen the most troublesome path, my little prince."
She didn't leave; she leaned against the tree trunk and closed her eyes.
Anyway, she has been waiting for over a thousand years.
It doesn't matter if we wait a few more years.