Under the sunlight in Carmarthen, Ector stood before the local militia, training all of them so they could hold their own in a war with many of them, wishing to become a knight under King Arthur.

"Hold firm! A knight must never let slip their weapon, nor let slacken their form!"

"Yes, sir!"

As he looked at his apprentices with pride, happy to see them work with vigor, Ector felt a shiver run down his spine.

'What the... I have a feeling something bad is going to happen...'

He thought as he looked at the bright sky above him, only to have something land on his face, surprising him.

"What's this... A parchment?"

Frowning his eyes, he cautiously took the parchment in his hand and glossed over it, and when he saw nothing wrong, he decided to read the text written on it.

Dear Father-in-law,

It is under this beautiful day that I decided to share some marvelous news with you through this little letter.

Firstly, we managed to take over a castle, which we are now using as our base of operation. The castle of Caerleon has quite a splendid view of the sea. I would like to invite you and your wife so you two could experience such a beautiful landscape, which I enjoy daily with your son.

Secondly, after news about us using the castle as our home, a village was built upon its walls by the many villagers whom we encountered across our journey, all of them swearing their loyalty to Arthur Pendragon as they would rather serve a king who lent their hands and help in their darkest hours, unlike the current lords reigning over Wales.

Isn't it a wonderful thing that our young lord's reputation is a good one?

And lastly, in order to celebrate Arthur getting his first castle, we decided to organize a feast in said castle next week and invite you as one of our many guests.

Of course, we extend this invitation to your wife and all the people living in Carmarthen, so we would be happy if you decided to come to this festive day.

'You can't be serious... A castle? Just what were they doing during those past weeks... Hm?'

Ector blinked in surprise when he saw something written at the bottom corner of the parchment, causing him to frown his eyes as he read it.

'Please, look at the back.'

Having a bad feeling in his guts, Ector turned the parchment over and saw a text that wasn't present when he first looked over it.

Perhaps I should precise that I have also invited some of your old comrades from the time you served under Uther, all being currently kings, such as Lot of Orkney, Uriens of Gore, Nentres of Garlot, and some of the neighboring kings such as the two kings of Wales, Cradelmas of Northgalis and Belinant of Sorgales, and others.

I predict the day to be a fruitful one, one full of violence and bloodshed, so it would make us pleased that you were to grace us with your presence and witness to this moment which, I believe, would go down in history.

Your adorable daughter-in-law, Merlin.

Once he finished reading, Ector did the first thing that crossed in mind.

He fainted.

"Sir, are you alright?!"

"Someone call the medic!"

"It looks like it worked like a wonder." Merlin mumbled as she saw through her Clairvoyance the scene of an unconscious Ector being carried away in the militia thanks to the men who trained under him.

"What worked?" Merlin glanced at her side where Kay was, eyeing her suspiciously, causing the succubus to give him a cute smile.

"Nothing important. I just sent a letter to Ector with Magecraft, telling him that we managed to get ourselves a castle, and it reached him with no problems."

"Is that so? Anyway, I wanted to ask you this earlier but were you really serious when you said yesterday that we should put our journey on hold in order to recruit companions and build an army?"

"Of course. Now that we traveled around Wales and helped people on our way, Artoria's popularity has grown a lot to the point that people want to serve under her like the ones we helped yesterday with Twrch Trwyth. I believe that it's a good time for us to finally promote Artoria as a king and create our own little kingdom, especially now that we got ourselves a nice little castle. And it would be bad for Artoria's image as a king if she didn't have any slaves... I mean, subjects to rule over."

"I have a bad feeling about it, there's no way you would propose something like that without ulterior motives... Well, it's not like I can say anything since Artoria's on board with your idea anyway and you know how stubborn she can get once she gets started on something."

"She wanted to give the guys a place to live since many of them lost their home because of that boar, so to say she was excited to build a town next to the castle would be an understatement. That said, it's time for you to do your job. Look, they are all waiting for you." Merlin said as she smiled at Kay, gesturing to the villagers who were all watching at the duo at a distance behind them, making him sigh before he nodded.

"Alright, time to get this over with..." He muttered as he faced the landscape in front of him, a barren land with no sign of vegetation or life.

As he took a deep breath, Kay placed his hand over his chest.

"Heed my call... o' Spirit of the World Tree, Yggdrasil!"

With a flourish, he called upon Yggdrasil who appeared behind him out of nowhere, surprising the villagers with many of them being struck by her unearthly beauty.

"She's gorgeous!"

"Dear, am I dead? Because I'm seeing a goddess right now..."

Ignoring the discussions taking place in the distance, Kay looked at Yggdrasil who gave her a smile, a bell like chime ringing out from her.

"Yggdrasil, do you think you can do it?"

""

Hearing her answer, Kay let out a small smile as he looked at Yggdrasil who shone with a bright and warm light, a ball of light formed between her hands which she promptly let go.

And as they all looked at the ball slowly dropping until it touched the barren land, bursting like a soap bubble, the villagers blinked in surprise when the ground suddenly started to gain some color, becoming darker, with grass and vegetation everywhere within sight, much to their amazement.

"Incredible!"

"A goddess… She's really a goddess!"

"Let's pray to her for her blessings!"

As they watched the villagers all bowing before Yggdrasil, Kay could only let out a sigh while Merlin chuckled at the sight.

"Somehow, I feel like this will cause us some problems in the future."

"Well, I suppose anybody who knows about mythologies and the likes would be surprised to hear about Yggdrasil, especially when the Norse myths happened and ended a millennium ago. They would lose their mind if they discovered that a being close to a divine spirit and embodying the concept of the World Tree were to exist in our age, having formed a contract with a completely ordinary human like you. I'm sure you'll get quite popular in the future." Merlin said as she teasingly nudged Kay with her elbow, causing him to place his hand over his face.

"Please, don't jinx me..."

""

Hearing a chime-like sound ringing from behind him, Kay turned around to see Yggdrasil floating by his side with a smile on her face, having left the villagers behind.

"Ah, Yggdrasil. Thank you for your help, you were great. Here, I made some orange juice, do you want some?"

Seeing her nod, Kay took out a small gourd from his bag and gave it to Yggdrasil who happily took it, wasting no time to drink the content. And in an instant, her expression blossomed into one of utter delight, with flowers sprouting up from the earth, budding and blooming in the blink of an eye.

"Hey, her healing power's leaking out of her right now."

"It just means she likes the juice I made, nothing to worry about."

"Really? Because it looks like the scent of the flowers has attracted the attention of some wild boars."

"Like I said, nothing to worry about. Just our dinner arriving at our doorsteps, that's all."

Meanwhile, in several kingdoms, a few individuals were outraged when they received a letter from a certain Magus, inviting them to partake in a feast to celebrate the coronation of Arthur Pendragon, the true King of Britain.

"Just what was Merlin thinking..." A blond-haired woman muttered as she observed her husband screaming in anger, ordering his troops to prepare themselves to march out, a situation happening in other regions of Britain.

[I believe that sealing that succubus away would be the best course of action. Her unpredictability is nothing but an annoyance, for both our plans and the future of this world.]

[No, it works in our favor this time. With her invitation, we can now officially meet Kay again. Prepare yourself, Artoria, because your precious knight will be mine very soon...]

As she heard her other personalities interact in her mind, the woman barely managed to suppress a blush from appearing on her face, imagining all kinds of scenarios because of her alter-ego's thoughts.

"Mother, is there something wrong?"

"Don't worry, Gawain, it's nothing. Your father is just... upset that your uncle became more popular than he is."

"I see, like always then... Oh yes, Mother, can you tell me that story once again? That story with the knight who reached the stars?"

"You really like that story, don't you. Well, I don't mind, let's go to your room then."