Chapter 4

As she saw that Ace seem to really care about this girl, she thought, 'He must feel pity towards her, such a good and kind boy my Ace is.'

"Ace, what are you going to do about her?"

"I am thinking about taking her as my personal maid." Ace replied and then looked at Artoria, "Would you mind being my personal maid?"

"I don't mind at all." Artoria replied immediately. To her, he was her savior. She can do anything for him.

"Good. That's settled. Ai, can you arrange bath and clothes for her?"

"Alright, Ace-sama."

"And then send her to my room, I want to talk to her privately."

"Okay."

Ai took Artoria and went ahead first, leaving Kaguya and Ace alone.

"Come to think of it, I still haven't thanked you, did I? You spend your own money to fulfil my wishes." Ace stated, looking at Kaguya's side profile.

"It's a small matter, you don't need to thank me." Kaguya waved her hands away generously.

"But I still want to thank you somehow. Oh, I remember." Ace suddenly clapped and then moved towards Kaguya's face.

"Huh?" Seeing his face coming close to her, Kaguya was instantly flustered.

'Is he going to kiss me again?' Her heartbeat sped up and her breathing turned unnatural. She looked left and right in worry, but seeing no one in sight, she looked relieved.

As his face came centimeters close to her, she closed her eyes and pouted her lips expectantly.

'So cute!' Ace was initially thinking of teasing her but seeing her cute look, he couldn't hold back. He sent his lips towards her, kissing her little mouth rudely.

Kaguya trembled slightly feeling their lips touch. It felt so good that her legs got unsteady. Ace caught her soft and slim body and stroked her back while kissing her. He didn't go overboard and let her go within a minute.

When Kaguya opened her eyes again, she was dazed, silently reminiscing about the kiss.

"Ace, why do I feel like you have changed since yesterday?" She couldn't help but ask.

"Well, I felt like I was too cold to everyone till now. I… read a story yesterday about a man who lived like that, only to feel immense regret in the end. I don't want to end up like him, so I wanted to change myself. Is it weird?" Ace said the prepared answer with his eyebrows slanted downwards.

"No, it's good. Actually, it's perfect!" Kaguya said immediately seeing his sad look, completely forgetting her cold outlook. Her eyes were shining weirdly. It may have been his illusion but he felt like he saw a glowing outline of hearts in her irises. Maybe he was overseeing things.

"Alright sis, then I'll try to change further. You will support me, right?" He looked at her expectantly.

"Of course, you can count on me."

"Thanks. Then I'm a little tired so I'll be going back to my bedroom." Ace tapped on her pink lips once more before leaving her.

After he left, Kaguya touched her lips with her index finger whilst restraining herself from jumping in joy.

…

Ace got back into his room. He threw away his shoes, lay on the bed, and checked his stats.

…

Host: [Ace Shinomiya]

Race: [Human]

Talent: Unknown

Level: 5 (12%)

Intelligence: 6

Charm: 10

Spells: None

Active Skills: None

Passive Skills: None

Partners: None

Lust Points: 80

System Functions: [Store] (Level 0), [Inventory], [Observe]

…

[Inventory]

— Full Recovery Potion x1

…

The reason why his talent is still unknown is that before one's mana core is fully matured, it is hard to grasp accurate talent. He read about it yesterday.

Everything else looked the same.

Bored, he closed the status panel and looked outside the window.

The wind was blowing gently, and curtains danced to its rhythm, creating a perfect atmosphere for sleeping. His eyes fluttered as drowsiness overcame him. Today was a tiring day even though the only thing he did was to place his ass down. Nonetheless, his young body was tired.

Unknowingly, Ace drifted into dreamland.

…

Don't know how long after, the doors of his room opened, causing Ace to open his eyes. He wasn't really a heavy sleeper.

"Ace-sama, sorry to disturb your rest."

"Yawn… It's alright, is she here?" He said to Ai while rubbing sleep off his eyes.

"Yeah, she is just outside."

"Okay then, you can leave. Send her in."

"Ace-sama, would it be fine if I stayed?" Ai asked after a moment of hesitation.

"Don't worry, she won't try to harm me, you can leave."

Being told twice to leave, Ai can only nod and leave after she curtsied.

Moments after she left, Artoria came in. Currently, her slim, borderline malnourished figure was wrapped in a white one-piece. He assumed that it might be because her maid outfit wasn't ready yet.

Her pale white skin along her arms and below the knees was clearly visible. All free of dirt. But he could see traces of cuts and wounds here and there.

Her head which was full of blonde hair was tied in a single bun and two bangs that reached just past her chin were hanging on either side. If not for the fact that one side of her face was burnt, she might've completely overlapped the girl in his memories.

Artoria didn't shy away from his gaze, meeting him dead in the eyes. They looked at each other for about a minute before Ace smiled. "You are here."

"Hmm." She nodded lightly. It appears she wasn't a woman of many words. He liked it.

"Sit here." He patted his side on the bed.

Artoria didn't think much and sat down beside him. If he asked other maids to sit on his bed, they might think twice about their own identity but Artoria was clearly unaware of such protocols.

Ace didn't mind at all.

"What's your name?"

"Artoria… Artoria Pendragon." Artoria replied faintly.

"Do you mind if I call you Artoria?"

She shook her head in response, indicating that she doesn't mind.

"Nice. Now, Artoria if you don't mind, can you tell me about yourself? It's alright if you don't, I won't treat you worse because of it."

Hearing this, a hesitant expression surfaced on her face.

"Like I said, it's alright if you don't want to say anything."

"No, it's fine. I'll tell you."

Seeing how nice and gently he was treating her, to be honest, Artoria was in genuine shock. She felt that she was really lucky to find herself in the care of someone like Ace.

Thus, she was willing to tell about herself. It was also for herself. Having bottled up everything for years, she also wanted to speak to someone.

...

"I came from a village nearby Chasm Battlefield," Artoria began, her golden eyes faintly clouded in reminiscence. "My father was an ordinary farmer and my mother used to a housewife. My daily life consisted of feeding cattle, playing with my neighbours, and occasionally going out to swim in nearby lake."

Chasm Battlefield!

Ace recalled what it was. It was a battlefield that lay just outside the border of the Human Realm. It is said that it's a piece of land riddled with malice and evil and it's entirely engulfed in thick miasma.

To think she is from that far away!

"The life there was boring but fulfilling. But everything changed on my 13th birthday. The day after my birthday, I woke up amidst flames that burned everyone I have ever known."

As she spoke till here, although her expression remained unchanged, her tone trembled.

"I don't know who they were or what their objective was. All I know is that they took everything from me. My parents sacrificed themselves to let me run away. I still remember their bodies engulfed in scarlet flames, turning into ashes in front of my eyes."

Ace held her shoulders which were trembling incessantly and whether wanted or not, tears gathered in her eyes.

"I… ran and ran, hoping to flee but suddenly a woman appeared in front of me, dressed in all black, pale skin, extremely beautiful. Her hands had the same scarlet flame that burned everyone. I was enraged. I don't know what exactly happened at that time but the next thing I remember is I had already collapsed on the ground, and my whole body was burning."

"In my blurry consciousness, I only heard on sentence spoken by her comrade which I remember perfectly."

At this point, she took a deep breath as golden flames burst into her eyes. "Yennefer of Vengerberg."

'Wait, Yennefer? From The Witcher? Oh boy, this is kinda fucked up. And she's my favourite character from that series too. Now, it seems like she had become Artoria's mortal enemy. Bad blood between waifus even before they met? Well, shit!' Ace didn't have tears to cry knowing this. It didn't make his mood better when he heard Artoria's next words.

"In this life, I only hope to get my revenge on her someday!"

"I see, you have suffered a lot. But Artoria, you know that revenge won't achieve anything, right?" Ace rubbed her soft head which smelled like shampoo and taught her life lessons. He just didn't want her to waste her life thinking about revenge.

He didn't have other thoughts.

Artoria shook her head stubbornly. "I don't care. Don't try to dissuade me. But don't worry, since you are my saviour, I'll definitely fulfil my duty and serve you."

'That's Artoria for you.' Seeing how stubborn she was, and how she thought that serving himself was her duty, Ace couldn't help but think.

"Alright, I won't try to dissuade you. Then, can I help you?"

"You have already helped me a lot."

"That's different." Ace shrugged and from his pockets, he took out a vial that was filled with crystal clear blue liquid. A faint fresh aroma surrounded the vial.

"What is this?" Artoria examined [Full Recovery Potion] carefully.

"Something that might help you. Don't waste time and drink it." Though Ace felt heartache giving a potion worth 100,000LP, he truly wanted to help Artoria.

After she drinks this, he believes that she will let go of all distractions, and serve him to the best of her abilities, even if that involved rolling around in bed naked.

'Investment, it is an investment!' He persuaded himself.

"Okay." Artoria didn't question further. Taking the vial from his hands, she popped the stopper. The fresh aromatic smell burst out, refreshing both of their senses.

"Ace…sama, are you sure you want me to drink it?" Although she was ignorant, she could tell that this liquid was anything but ordinary.

"Why are you asking so many questions? Just drink it!" Seeing her still hesitating, Ace scolded.

Artoria immediately drank it. Moments after she drank it, her body started glowing, and cyan radiance enshrouded her figure.

Within the cyan radiance, he could see Artoria's body seeping out the black liquid and the burn marks on her face as if dried scabs over a wound fell off one at a time. The skin that appeared underneath it was pink and tender, like a baby's.

Under his surprised eyes, she underwent a complete transformation.

After about an hour, the cyan radiance surrounding her disappeared.

Just as he thought that it was the end, a purple-black sword of elegant design with exquisite red marking appeared suddenly, floating gently in front of Artoria who has her eyes closed.

'Woah, you are kidding me!' What appeared was precisely Excalibur Morgan, otherwise known as Black Excalibur!

As her eyes opened and purple light burst forth from her body momentarily, she grasped the sword's hilt. At that particular moment, she morphed from a piteous Artoria to the King of Knights.

…

At the same time, many mythical and ancient beings awoke from their slumber. All of them have only one thought in their mind.

'A Holy Sword has born!'

…

In another place far away from Ace and Artoria, inside a villa, an extremely beautiful woman with jet-black hair and deep black eyes who was taking a bath looked outside the window all of a sudden, her eyes narrowing.

"Her curse has been broken? Did she do it herself or… someone helped her?"

She stood up after a moment, proudly showing the assets on her white naked body. Unfortunately, no one was there was appreciate her.

Walking up to the table, she wrote a letter and tied it to the legs of a black crow. The black crow shortly felt the caress of her hand before flying away.

…

Ace looked at Artoria and the corners of his lips couldn't help but curl into a grin. Although he has lost a [Full Recovery Potion], he knew has struck it big!