Chapter 80: Crossing the Blazing Sun to Meet at the Royal Banquet

"The sun... has fallen?"

The moment he heard that, Suya's first thought was, Woohoo, could it be Sir Gawain coming to the rescue with his revolving sword of victory? After all, all British knight legends related to the sun revolved around the Sun Knight, utterly loyal to King Arthur.

But then, seeing Dagonet's somewhat fearful expression, Suya suddenly remembered: the enemy lay ahead. And the conquering king, his enemy, also had a Sun Knight under his command. No, perhaps it should be—

Selukos, Son of the Sun God Apollo.

Legend says that when Selukos departed with Alexander the Great for the Persian expedition, his mother, Laodice, told him his true father was actually the sun god Apollo. The night before Selukos was born, Apollo granted Laodice a ring engraved with an anchor in a dream. Later, when Selukos was born, he too had an anchor-shaped birthmark. This was Apollo's divine mark, a blessing bestowed upon his son. From then on, Selukos always returned victorious from battle; once he set out, failure was impossible, until Alexander's demise and the start of the Wars of the Diadochi.

Thinking of this, Suya fell silent. The Selukos he had seen was clearly a two-meter tall, broad-shouldered powerhouse wielding a 2.2-meter greatsword, a peerless tough guy and ultimate berserker who would charge into an army of thousands at the slightest provocation. But what was with this Selukos now, with Gawain's aesthetic and full divinity?

A bunch of fakes in Britannia is one thing, but the enemy has masters too?

Beside him, upon hearing Dagonet's description, Meli spread her hands and gave a dry laugh: "Well, we don't need to search anymore. It looks like the enemy is waiting for us right up ahead."

Just then, Lucan walked over, cradling a stack of parchment scrolls. Seeing everyone gathered, he urged: "What are you still chatting about?"

"The army is ready. Now we just need to cross the Gorse Plains ahead and head north to reach the Golden Curtain."

"Beyond the Golden Curtain is the royal capital, Winchester."

At this, Lucan couldn't help but muse for a moment, narrowing his eyes with a smile: "Once we reach the capital, I'll figure out how to arrange for His Majesty to inherit the throne. I have some connections in the capital and some ties with the King of Francia. We'll arrange for you to stay at a tavern in Winchester's Fourth Ring. His Majesty must first meet with some ministers and knights close to King Uther. Oh, and I must introduce you to my junior, Bedivere."

"Gillian Frette, the tavern owner, is an excellent cook. His Majesty will surely like her. If we can get her to join us, it will also temporarily solve the problem of meals."

"Also, regarding training in knightly and court etiquette—"

Hearing this, Dagonet gritted his teeth and couldn't help but interrupt: "Lucan, in front of us—"

"Enough!"

Suya suddenly spoke, cutting off Dagonet's words. He took a deep breath, turned, and calmly soothed Dagonet with a steady gaze, speaking quietly:

"Sir Dagonet,"

"We must depart."

Dawn, 4:37 AM.

Southeastern Bourn territory, Cornwall coast.

In the final, dim twilight before sunrise, twenty thousand British soldiers passed through the canyon behind the coast. They met no resistance, encountered no enemies, and no unexpected incidents. They reached the Gorse Plains behind Mount St. Michael.

Then, Suya saw it:

On the plains, massive golden craters, each the size of a football field and thousands of meters across. Spiderweb-like golden cracks crawled from the bottom of the pits to their edges, with scorching, golden particles constantly drifting upwards from the fissures.

These particles, radiating sunlight and continually rising, illuminated the Gorse Plains before dawn, reflecting the giant craters, the scattered corpses, wreckage, horse bones, and broken, impaled spears, all narrating what had recently transpired here—

The sun had fallen.

Sixteen golden swords of Apollo, summoned as solar sword-lights, had plunged down, striking the entire plain. All the Halicarnassus cavalry and soldiers Suya had seen were buried.

The smell of charred flesh hung over the plains, mingling with the hot wind blowing from the horizon, filling hearts with dread. All who witnessed this scene were so stunned that for a moment, they couldn't take another step forward. It was as if taking that step would seal their own tragic fate.

The atmosphere grew heavy. Despair spread in silence.

Twenty-one thousand three hundred and twenty-six British soldiers, everyone present, involuntarily turned their gaze towards the blond young knight standing at the very front of the army.

Suya could feel tens of thousands of eyes converging on his back. They were all eagerly awaiting his every word. They were waiting for him to speak, but what should he say? Should he say, "Actually, I'm not confident either, don't look at me like that, guys, I'm just a high-level swordsman who just became a professional. Facing someone who can unleash area-of-effect attacks like this, I really can't even beat a single armpit hair of theirs. Why don't we just part ways here, salute, and go back to Gao Village?"

Or, should he deliver an impassioned speech, rally everyone, win their hearts, and then, upon seeing the monster waiting ahead, order everyone, "Charge! When I reach the capital alive and inherit the throne, I will treat your families generously, make your sons wealthy nobles, and let them enjoy endless glory and riches!"

However—

Suya remained silent.

He remained silent. As the sun fell, and its light shone from the earth into the night sky, dyeing the clouds gold, he mounted his horse and set off. He raised his hand to summon his Noble Phantasm reins, tying them around the neck of this new, unfortunate horse. Then he conjured a deck of playing cards and tucked them into the pouch behind his waist.

Next, like a devout knight praying to God, he let the horse carry him onto this sun-scorched path. He closed his eyes, clasped his hands together, fingers intertwined, and finally, in the subtly rising holy glow, he opened his palms, holding the intangible, hazy glimmer that had appeared within them, and placed it into his heart.

It was the glimmer of loyalty and admiration from tens of thousands of people behind him, transforming him, a perfect fake, into the dazzling King of Knights—

[Noble Phantasm: Miracle of Divine Performance (C+)]

Suya opened his eyes. He said nothing, merely rode his horse calmly forward, stepping onto the narrow path blasted open by the sun's impact, feeling the increasingly scorching sunlight caress his cheeks. Faster and faster, faster and faster! He passed over the sixteen suns that had fallen to the earth, through the cramped, narrow paths, like the lead old antelope in "The Anthem of Life" he'd read in his fourth-grade Chinese textbook, fearlessly leaping towards the ravine below the cliff!

Behind him, watching their King charge towards certain death, Meli, Lucan, and Dagonet exchanged glances, then unhesitatingly spurred their warhorses to follow.

Immediately after, the Royal Guard, the remaining one thousand three hundred and twenty-six soldiers of the First Combat Group, the two thousand one hundred and twenty-two of the Second Combat Group, the Third Combat Group, the Fourth Combat Group... Everyone followed their King's footsteps, gritting their teeth, onto the Gorse Plains!

Finally—

Suya arrived before a field of flowers.

A tall figure stood in the center of that flower field, composed of countless gorse blooms, seemingly having waited for a long time. She slowly turned around, revealing a face of peerless beauty that could drive countless kings to madness and incite dog-eat-dog battles. She smiled, extending her hand to Suya, inviting him to a royal banquet.

"I am—Alexia III, King who has come to this banquet,"

"State your name!"

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