Chapter 22: Alchemical Synthetic Metal Canister
"It is said the King spent the entire afternoon fiddling with some messy materials, no one knows what he was doing... Now that he's summoned us, does His Majesty have some special plan requiring our execution?"
Artoria, Sir Kay, and his father Sir Ector were currently in the reception chamber of Camelot Castle. While Artoria and Sir Kay remained silent, the elderly Sir Ector couldn't help but sigh.
"Kay, you and... Arthur," Sir Ector still couldn't quite adjust to his adopted daughter suddenly having to disguise herself as a man. Moreover, he'd heard that Artoria had slept with the new King last night, which made him feel even more lightheaded. However, since Artoria herself had no objections, he had no standing to interfere.
But there was another matter he felt must be reported to the King—that this King Arthur had Kay notify the knights who participated in the sword-drawing ceremony, ordering most of them to gather near the Selkirk Territory.
Sir Ector didn't believe King Arthur intended to attack Selkirk Territory. However, these knights normally had responsibilities to protect their respective regions against magical beasts in their stationed areas. With eighty percent of knights suddenly leaving their posts, even though King Arthur had dispersed the remaining twenty percent to cover the vacated defense areas, Ector still sensed potential issues.
As an experienced knight who had fought under the royal banner multiple times during King Uther's reign, he considered himself somewhat knowledgeable about battlefield matters. After hearing Kay explain that King Arthur was preparing against the Picts, he actually had no objections. Upon carefully considering the Picts' movements, he too felt something was amiss.
Indeed, the Picts' previous invasions of Britain always followed a pattern—they would only march south when Britain had a bountiful harvest, and wouldn't retreat until they seized sufficient food supplies. Though they had come south during this harvest season too, their attack intensity was unusually low, and their food plundering seemed merely symbolic.
Previously distracted by King Uther's death, Ector hadn't paid much attention to this matter. But now, alerted to it, he realized the situation. In this regard, he held Arthur in particularly high esteem—otherwise he would have voiced his concerns about magical beast defense much earlier, rather than waiting to see if the King had other arrangements.
But before witnessing any such arrangements, he too had been summoned to Camelot Castle. Thus, he decided to take this opportunity to raise the issue.
After all, battlefields cannot be managed by merely looking at maps. Though the current knight distribution might appear to effectively cover defense gaps on paper, fewer personnel meant weaker defenses. If the magical beasts launched a serious assault, such defensive lines would undoubtedly prove fragile.
And the consequence of knights failing to defend against magical beasts would be the slaughter of civilians by these creatures.
Just like the Picts, this is something that must be taken seriously.
He wasn't sure if King Arthur had realized this, so he intended to take this opportunity today to come and address the issue.
Kay also knew what his father was thinking.
However, his observations over the past two days had shifted his perception of this King Arthur. At least so far, King Arthur had carried out everything with remarkable composure, and indeed, events were unfolding exactly as he had anticipated.
Thus, Kay didn't believe the King would overlook this matter.
As for Artoria, she was even more convinced. Firmly believing in Noah's identity as the Chosen King, she didn't think Noah could make any mistakes, so she wasn't worried in the slightest.
She was even certain that the King had summoned the three of them today precisely to discuss this matter.
Ector watched as his son and adopted daughter displayed such unwavering trust in King Arthur. Though he still felt uneasy inside, he refrained from saying anything further.
After all, he had watched Kay and Artoria grow up and had great confidence in their abilities.
Since they both felt this way... he would wait a little longer.
After Sir Ector had waited with these thoughts for a while, Noah entered the reception room.
Behind him, several attendants he had arranged brought in the fruits of his afternoon labor and placed them in the room.
Once the attendants had completed their task, Noah signaled for them to leave.
Noah then smiled and nodded to the three before him.
"Arthur, Kay, Sir Ector... my apologies for keeping you waiting. It's quite late now, so I'll skip the pleasantries."
Noah walked directly over to a large alchemical creation and turned his gaze to Kay.
"Kay, I've entrusted the patrols to you, so I'll gradually hand over Camelot's various affairs to you as well. This alchemical machine, I've named it the Alchemical Synthetic Metal Canister..."
As he spoke, Noah deftly activated the machine.
Kay, Artoria, and Ector then watched as a fully cooled iron block was ejected from the bottom of the large machine.
Noah picked up the iron block and tossed it directly to Kay.
After catching it, Kay squeezed and weighed the block in his hand... Though he was no expert, he had to admit this iron was unlike any he had encountered before.
Noah didn't expect Kay to understand the qualities of this special alloy, which he had discovered in the memories of the Alchemy King. After demonstrating how the machine worked, he continued.
"I've placed all such machines here. As you can see, there are five of them. As long as you add the raw materials according to the formula ratios I've provided, these five giants will continuously produce alloy of this quality at the speed you just witnessed."
"Next, Kay, you go have the blacksmiths utilize this special alloy. Start with the patrol team—have them forge better armor and weapons for the patrol using this metal, and it must be fully equipped for the entire patrol. Later, I have tasks to assign to you."
After saying this, Noah noticed Ector was also present and added, "By the way, don't forget mine and Arthur's sets, and bring one for Sir Ector as well."
Hearing this, Kay nodded, while Ector stood up and directly addressed Noah with a question. "Your Majesty, it's not that we distrust you, but merely presenting such iron blocks... or rather, alloy to forge weapons and armor may not earn the knights' trust. So, do you have any finished products? At least let us see them first."
Upon hearing Sir Ector's words, Noah smiled and casually retrieved a sword made from the alloy and a set of upper-body armor from the storage ring he had forged that afternoon. "Of course I do. Although my craftsmanship in forging these items can't compare to that of professional blacksmiths... if you'd like a preview, you can test them now."