The golden-haired girl, or rather, the future Knight King Artoria, was stunned for a good while upon hearing Asher's words.
"Your name," she then asked, the sword in her hand still pointed towards Asher.
"Asher," Asher still had both hands raised. "I'm from the other side of the island. Appearing here was purely accidental. To be honest, I didn't even expect I could cross the Trial Bridge, so if you're willing... I can leave right now."
It sounded quite cowardly.
Shishou hadn't told him that the bridge connected to the country of Britain, otherwise he would have been more careful.
But fortunately, Artoria was a very upright person. He currently had no weapons, and a knight wouldn't attack an unarmed person.
"The other side of the island?" A confused expression appeared on Artoria's face, and the ahoge on her head swayed gently in the sea breeze. Although her expression was serious, she looked somewhat endearingly dazed at this moment.
"Yes, the other side of the island," Asher nodded. "The Land of Shadows on the other side."
"So, you're from that country?"
"Sort of, but I'm an orphan who was picked up by my Shishou," Asher said, trying to ask, "Can I put my hands down? My arms are a bit sore."
Artoria had a thoughtful expression on her face and lowered the sword in her hand.
"You may leave."
Hearing Artoria's words, Asher's tense nerves slowly relaxed, and he was about to turn around and leave.
At this moment, he suddenly heard a "guruguru" sound.
It wasn't his stomach growling, so it must be...
Asher couldn't help but look at Artoria. A somewhat embarrassed expression appeared on the girl's face, as if she was ashamed and angry, and she said fiercely, "What are you still looking at? Do you want me to take you to the royal palace to be punished?!"
Guruguru.
After she finished speaking, her stomach growled again.
A look of embarrassment immediately appeared on Artoria's face.
Asher's gaze fell on the basket in Artoria's other hand. He could vaguely see a few fish flopping around inside.
Artoria obviously noticed Asher's gaze and subconsciously hid the basket behind her, a few more traces of vigilance on her small face.
"Leave quickly. Considering your honest answer just now, I'll let you off this time. Don't make me regret it."
"Are you going to grill fish?" Asher asked.
Artoria remained silent, looking away.
After a long while, she nodded lightly.
---
The sun gradually sank, and in the dimming environment, a flame was lit, also illuminating Artoria's surprised expression.
"Are you a magician?"
"No," Asher said. "Just know a few tricks."
There were a total of 24 Rune characters, encompassing the four major attributes of earth, water, wind, and fire, as well as healing, curses, and so on. Each character contained terrifying power. Although Asher knew these characters, he could only unleash a maximum of 5% of their power.
For example, with the current Rune characters, Scáthach could use them to directly burn a dragon to death, while he could only use them to grill fish...
The dry wood slowly emitted smoke, then completely ignited, the firelight illuminating both of their faces.
Artoria stared blankly at the fish Asher was roasting on the fire rack for a while. When she heard the sound of sparks, she explained, "Don't misunderstand. Only by eating something after training can one replenish their strength."
"Is that so? I thought you just wanted to eat grilled fish..." Asher teased.
Knowing that Artoria wasn't hostile towards him, he also relaxed a lot compared to the beginning.
"This is an insult to my character, Asher," Artoria said with a displeased expression. "How could I possibly go to the shore to catch fish just to eat?"
"Is that so?" Asher murmured, handing her a grilled fish, then picking up a freshly grilled fish for himself.
Artoria looked at the blackened fish in front of her, then glanced at the perfectly browned fish in Asher's hand, her brow furrowing slightly.
"Anyway, it's just to fill your stomach. You probably don't mind the taste, so you can just eat this one," Asher said, taking a bite.
Although there were no seasonings added, the taste was quite good.
Artoria sat upright and straight, picked up the burnt fish, took a bite, and then couldn't help but stick out her tongue.
So bitter!
She turned her head to look at Asher, but before she could speak, she saw Asher hand her another skewer of freshly grilled fish.
"Just kidding. I'm not a professional fish griller. It's normal for one or two to fail occasionally."
Artoria took the second skewer of grilled fish that Asher handed her and took a small bite.
Sure enough, the taste was very different from the previous one.
The two chatted while eating grilled fish, and unknowingly, the sun was about to set.
"Is that so? Do you also undergo strict training every day?" Artoria muttered to herself.
"Yeah, my natural stamina isn't as good as others, so my training time naturally has to increase," Asher said. "But even so, my stamina is still very poor, and my combat experience is severely lacking..."
"Is that so? I see," Artoria tilted her head. "Considering you presented me with food today, starting tomorrow, I'll be your sparring partner."
"You?" Asher repeated.
"Do even you look down on women?" Artoria frowned.
"No, I didn't mean to discriminate against you. I just don't know if I can come over," Asher said somewhat troubled. "To be honest, I was only able to appear here today because of the Trial Bridge that my Shishou opened. But I guess the bridge will disappear tomorrow."
"Bridge?" Artoria looked confused.
"It's like this, like this... and then like that, like that..." Asher explained briefly.
"Is that so? Then there's no way," A hint of gloom flashed in Artoria's eyes, then she smiled and said, "Let's encourage each other."
Asher nodded lightly, not saying that he would definitely be able to come here.
He didn't want to make promises he might not be able to keep.
"But if I can appear here, I'll teach you Rune characters as a reward for being my sparring partner," Asher promised.
Although Rune characters were secretive, they weren't a secret art that couldn't be told to others. Scáthach had previously said that if there was someone he wanted to teach, he could freely teach them.
For that woman, she probably wished for powerful enemies to come and fight her.
After leaving the small island, Asher quickly returned to the Land of Shadows. After a simple prophecy practice, the day ended.
---
The next afternoon.
"Today's training ends here," Scáthach put away her spear and looked at Asher. "Do you have something on your mind? Your reactions were noticeably slower."
"Sorry, I was indeed thinking about some things," Asher bowed slightly, saying apologetically.
"Forget it, adjust your mindset properly. Tomorrow I want to see a different you," Scáthach looked in Asher's direction. "Did you hear me?!"
"Understood!" Asher said loudly.
"Very good, then have a good rest today," Scáthach nodded slightly, turning and leaving the forest.
Asher watched Scáthach's departing figure with some helplessness and sighed.
Although Shishou was quite gentle when she wasn't training, once she entered combat mode, whether it was training or a real fight, she would take it seriously.
After watching Scáthach's figure disappear, Asher turned his head in a certain direction.
That was the small island they had gone to yesterday, and across from the island was Britain.
He wondered if she was still there today?
Poke.
His cheek was suddenly poked. Asher had just taken half a step back when he saw a slender index finger pointing at his forehead.
Morgan le Fay had appeared in front of Asher at some point, a faint smile on her face.
"Why do you look so absent-minded?"
Although she asked this, her gaze seemed to see through everything.
-----More Bonus Chapters!!!!
Every 300 power stones = 1 Bonus Chapter