Arthur always had a good impression towards the princess of Lioness and, even if she lost her title during the struggle in the former Lioness territory, that did not change.
Same for Gwen, Arthur was the ideal partner. He had a charming personality, good-looking and a great fighter to boot.
Above all, Arthur had enough power to make Lioness safe. There was no doubt that for her, he would be the best choice.
But now that she lost her kingdom, it was like the chains were lifted off from her.
Nevertheless, the charming golden prince was missing one most important factor. That was: the ability to make the princess' heart beat as fast as when she was with Emery.
At the moment, Emery did not even need his spirit reading to realize the prince was quite upset to see what happened in front of him.
But, the prince took this fact admirably.
He looked at Emery and said.
"I guess once again I must accept my defeat, Merlin. Damn! This hurts! You beat me in a fight and now you beat me in love, too!" Arthur laughed.
Before Emery was able to answer, Gwen opened her mouth and said.
"Your highness, I am sure there will be much better suitors for you and the kingdom."
The remark made Arthur look at her and fell silent for a few seconds. Then, he said,
"The truth is, even now and to this day, my father the king still believes you are still the best choice."
Curious, Gwen stared at him and asked.
"Why is that?"
Again, the prince went silent. He rubbed his forehead and leaned back on his chair, sighing as he did. It seemed that whatever he wanted to say, he found it difficult to find the proper words.
"I guess… currently my father is trapped in a very difficult situation. Things between the seven kingdoms have never been this bad before."
Arthur proceeded to explain how the situation between Logress and Norgales in the north has never escalated even further. In the last few months, there have been many minor skirmishes going on between the two. It was clear that day by day, it was getting worse.
While they were embroiled in this escalating conflict, things turned even worse with the increased threat of the northern barbarians.
With the increased threat, Norgales has been gaining more sympathy and support from other kingdoms. Hence, there were rumors that Logress was not supporting the cause and only making trouble to Norgales
Arthur looked towards Gwen and said.
"Unfortunately we were unable to come to your aid to your kingdom that time. Now, we must deal with the consequences."
When Lioness Kingdom fell, Logress lost their closest ally and one of their most devoted supporters.
Now that Cantiaci had taken over the whole southern Briton, Logress Kingdom was being pressured from both the north and the south.
"With the way it is, There is a high probability that a war between the kingdoms will break out soon."
This reveals startled Emery a bit, while Gwen took it much harder.
"How is that possible?! How about the Divine Order? Can't they prevent it from ever happening?"
Arthur shook his head and explained how currently the Divine Order was also in a precarious situation
The cause was the appearance of the new golden knight, Sir Maleagant of the Norgales. He had been gaining more supporters, this caused rifts to appear within the people and the Divine Order.
Emery recalled that name. The golden knight was the son of the late Sir Bagdemagus and the only one other than Arthur who managed to receive a second level blessing from the legendary sword.
"Merlin, did you know that in the last yearly gathering, out of the 12 golden knight replacements, half of them came from Norgales?"
With this, it was clear that the balance of power had shifted. Logress was in even deeper trouble than it appeared at first glance.
Arthur sighed again and said.
"If only I had managed to pull out the sword. It would be much easier to bring peace to the seven kingdoms."
For a few months, Arthur has been consuming the serum as well. Same like the fey girls, Arthur already reached his maximum limit. Right now, he was at rank 4 and his spirit force had stopped at 60.
Currently there was no other way except for the prince to find it within himself to break through the limit, or wait until Emery could find a better solution.
"I am sorry, Merlin, I knew it wouldn't be that easy and I really appreciated your help and what you did the last few months."
With the increase in spirit force, currently, Arthur could be said to be the strongest golden knight there was. Unfortunately, Emery didn't know any light element magic to teach him.
Silence reigned between them for a moment, until the prince regained his bearings and spoke again.
"Ah, by the way, I came here today, not by coincidence. For weeks now, I have been meeting with the Cantiaci nobles… no, I mean, they are the former Lioness nobles."
What the prince said came as quite a shock to Gwen. She hurriedly asked.
"What do you mean? Why are they meeting with you? What do they want?"
"I will explain princess." Arthur calmed her down. "to put it simply, these nobles do not wish to be ruled by the Cantiaci and they have expressed willingness to submit under Logress' rule."
The prince paused for a second, glanced towards Emery and continued.
"There is a catch, though. For them to defect to our side, they wanted you to be on board."
"Wait, what? How?" Gwen asked, confused.
Arthur hesitated for a second before saying
"Didn't you ask before, why are you the best choice? It's basically because of this. Marrying you will probably be the quickest way to solve most of our current problems."
Hearing this, the situation became extremely awkward.