Chapter 183. The Knight’s Assault (6)
“Ghk!”
The man calling himself Tristan collapsed under the combined attack of Daji and Lee Hyeonje.
Contractors who used bows were naturally weak in close combat.
Once his companions outside had been defeated, Tristan had no chance of winning.
“Lord Lee Hyeonje, I’ll pull the arrows out for you. I’ll stop the bleeding, but you’ll have to handle the actual treatment yourself.”
“Understood... ugh!”
With Daji’s help, Lee Hyeonje treated his wounds.
Closing the wounds themselves was easy enough with healing items.
But even if the outside looked fine, the damage to his body remained.
His combat ability would inevitably be reduced for some time.
“Is it over now?”
“Who knows?”
Daji tilted her head.
“There’s fighting going on outside too. It seems quite a lot of people have attacked.”
“What the hell is going on? If that many foreign Contractors had secretly entered Korea, there’s no way we wouldn’t have known.”
Saionji Keito and the Tenka Four Heavenly Kings had once infiltrated Korea in secret.
But there had only been five of them.
This time, the numbers were much larger.
And they were conspicuous Westerners.
“Exactly. They should have been caught at checkpoints...”
“If this many people entered Korea, I should have received reports.”
“The fact that we knew nothing until now is unnatural.”
Lee Hyeonje forced himself upright.
“We need to contact everyone.”
“Won Pilso and Shin Minyu in the north too, and Lee Sion at the Hwaseong Sect in the south...”
“I think you’re too late.”
A rough voice interrupted Lee Hyeonje.
They looked toward the source.
A red-haired man was climbing in through the shattered window.
“We already know how all of you are deployed.”
“Calling them back now won’t help.”
“Who are you?”
“Mordred.”
“Another codename?”
“Something like that.”
Mordred was also one of the Knights of the Round Table.
The son of King Arthur who had rebelled against him and, according to legend, dealt Arthur a fatal wound in their final battle.
“Lord Lee Hyeonje, be careful.”
Daji frowned and raised one hand.
“This man... is much stronger than that Tristan.”
“Of course I am.”
Mordred suddenly drew his sword.
Then he stabbed the nearby Tristan through the neck.
“Ghk!”
Tristan, who had still been barely alive, sprayed blood and died.
“If I wasn’t stronger, I wouldn’t be assigned a role like this.”
“What the hell are you people?”
“Don’t make such a scary face, Lee Hyeonje.”
Mordred grinned unpleasantly.
“He’ll be here soon.”
“You should greet him with a smile.”
“He?”
“Who’s coming?”
“Come on. You should be able to guess.”
At that moment, the elevator doors opened.
The sound of dress shoes striking the floor followed.
A young man appeared.
“This way, my lord.”
Mordred, who had been acting like a thug until moments ago, suddenly became respectful and bowed.
The young man nodded with elegant composure.
“Well done, Mordred.”
He was young.
Early twenties at most.
Perhaps even in his late teens.
He was a strikingly handsome young man with gleaming golden hair and a gentle smile on his lips.
Looking at his relaxed bearing...
Lee Hyeonje was reminded of Cheon Sangwoon, who was currently asleep in this very hospital.
“A pleasure to meet you, Lee Hyeonje. Daji.”
The young man greeted them calmly.
“You’ve probably already figured it out, but allow me to introduce myself.”
He spoke with the relaxed arrogance of a king.
“My codename is Arthur.”
“Arthur Pendragon.”
"...!"
“I am the Contractor of the S-rank Constellation ‘King of Knights’.”
“And I have been granted Maximum Manifestation of the great holy sword Excalibur.”
He drew the sword hanging at his waist.
The instant he did...
brilliant light flooded the surroundings.
“From this moment onward, we of ‘Round’ will ravage this land.”
“I ask for your understanding.”
Why had Lancelot, Gawain, Tristan, and the other knights, all figures worthy of being S-rank Constellations themselves, deliberately lowered themselves to A-rank?
Because there was someone before whom they willingly humbled themselves.
“The many legendary Knights of the Round Table would only bow their heads before one person.”
Arjuna’s voice came through the communication window.
“The S-rank Constellation ‘King of Knights’... King Arthur, who led the Knights of the Round Table and created countless legends.”
“So the leader of Round is contracted to King Arthur.”
"..."
King Arthur.
The most famous legendary hero in Britain.
A symbol of medieval European chivalry.
A hero among heroes who wielded many legendary weapons, including the holy sword Excalibur, and accomplished countless feats alongside Merlin and the Knights of the Round Table.
And that man is King Arthur’s Contractor...
I bit my lip as I watched the hospital through the Observer.
I could tell just by looking.
The man using the codename Arthur was clearly on a completely different level from the other members of Round.
Kang Yujin’s group is still being held up by Percival and the others.
This is bad.
And it wasn’t only the hospital.
Our overall situation was poor.
Shin Minyu, the strongest remaining member of the Eight Guardians after Lee Hyeonje, was stationed near the border with Pandemonium.
Won Pilso was in Kaesong.
Lee Sion, who was contracted to Lee Gyu, could provide serious fighting power, but she was at the Hwaseong Sect headquarters in Suwon.
It would take time for her to get here.
We can’t expect much from the Golden Ram Order either.
Most of its members had been deployed throughout the Capital Region, so they had avoided the attack on headquarters.
We could gather them...
but honestly, they wouldn’t be a match for Round’s elite members.
The only immediate reinforcement is probably Seo Youngmi, Lee Hyeonje’s lieutenant.
Seo Youngmi, Korea’s strongest water-attribute Contractor and Princess Longji’s Contractor, had heard what happened and was rushing toward the hospital.
Even so...
she would be too late to save Lee Hyeonje.
“So... what brings the great Lord Arthur all the way here?”
Daji asked, lowering her body slightly as though waiting for an opening.
“There are two reasons we came to this land.”
“The reason I personally came to this hospital is the first of them.”
“Hmm? And what might that be?”
Daji glanced toward Ha Mina.
