"We won." Closing his eyes and smiling, Kayal knew they had won not just the battle, but all of Scotland!
The King of Scotland here could no longer stop his plan.
The most crucial part had been seized; the next step wasn't to directly invade Scotland, but to hold this position, creating unrest and oppression within Scotland through the pressure exerted by knights and rangers.
Then, in just a short time, Scotland would be plagued by internal strife, and when the fragmented Scotland was unified and integrated, they wouldn't be seen as invaders but rather as liberators, welcomed with open arms by the Scottish people, wouldn't they?
So, the goal of the second step wasn't to directly approach Scotland, but to use the port facing Ireland, Bradford, as a springboard to directly launch an invasion of Ireland.
Instead of focusing on Scotland.
"Then we will stay here for half a month, starting to build ships and gather troops in Bradford, no problem, right?" Artoria gave this command majestically, then suddenly turned to Kayal and asked.
"Exactly," Kayal turned and smiled.
"Then I'll go take a look at the contribution side of things." Kayal smiled and nodded, then patted his rear and pushed the door open to leave.
Listening to the door close, Artoria let out a soft sigh for some reason.
After she ascended the throne, a strange rift had formed between the two of them; although they still spoke, chatted, and discussed as before, this rift truly existed.
Inevitably, the lofty isolation of the throne.
While Kayal maintained Artoria's royal dignity, he also inevitably grew distant from Artoria.
This was unavoidable, yet he didn't know how to break through it.
This was the awkward situation they currently faced.
"There really are a lot of people." Accompanied by three Claymores behind him, Kayal looked at the contribution platform, which was full of rangers lining up; knights, on the other hand, had free time and didn't come to collect contribution points because there were no large-scale battles.
"How is it? Are there that many people?" Kayal smiled as he approached a girl from behind and asked with a smile.
"Ah, Teacher!" The girl turned around in surprise, looking at Kayal with delight.
Kayal took the list from her hand; it was filled with rows of names and contribution points.
"That's great, so many people have already come to claim their merits?" Kayal asked with a smile.
"Oh!" Kayal's eyes widened slightly, "This Leah! Morad is? Such high merit yet not well-known... Could it be that he burned down a granary by himself?"
"Yes, Teacher." The ponytail girl with freckles on her face, but still undeniably beautiful, said, "He alone burned down a medium-sized granary in Scotland; he's said to be a famous master of dual swords."
She spoke excitedly, clearly thrilled that her admired teacher had come directly to her, among so many classmates.
But then, there was a sudden sound from the front.
"Excuse me, can you process mine?" A cold, gloomy voice, with slightly curly brown long hair, a somewhat somber man, threw a bag of items onto the table.
"Ah! I'm sorry." The ponytail girl turned back and apologized, taking the parchment back from Kayal's hand, dipping a quill in ink, and asking sideways, "Then, may I have your name?"
"Reislin! Gritz!"
"Then, what is your merit?"
"Ears."
His slightly handsome face was entirely gloomy, filled with an immense darkness, as he opened the bag.
Inside were bloody ears, a whole large bag of them.
"Ugh... blech..." Although she had seen ears before, most were very clean and strung up for easy counting, but this one was simply too bloody, and the number of ears was just too many! So, even though the girl was a medical student, this bag was just too disgusting; even she couldn't help but vomit.
"Go on, go get a drink of water." Kayal gently patted her back and softly pushed her aside.
"I apologize, my student is still a bit inexperienced, so I'll serve you." Kayal smiled, merely weighing the bag and estimating the weight of an ear to understand how many ears were inside.
"So, one hundred eighty-five ears, one merit point per ear, that's one hundred eighty-five merit points, is that correct?" Kayal asked with a smile.
"..." A hint of surprise was in his eyes, seemingly puzzled by Kayal's precise knowledge of the number of ears without physically counting them; of course, when he took out four badges, his surprise finally shifted to Kayal's face.
"These are... the badges of a titled knight!" Kayal said in surprise, looking at the four badges in his hand.
"Did you kill these by yourself?" Kayal asked.
"Trap." The gloomy youth, sparing his words, said faintly.
"I see, if mobility is lost, only brute force remains, but if used effectively, they can still be slain." Kayal smiled and nodded, "Four, three hundred twenty points, plus one hundred eighty-one ears, five hundred one points, that's correct." Kayal smiled and stated his contribution points.
"Correct." He directly removed four ears, clearly counting them as belonging to the four titled knights. After a moment of silence, he could only agree.
"Then please continue to strive for Camelot, Reislin." Kayal smiled and nodded slightly to him.
Nodding slightly in response to Kayal's words, Reislin disappeared into the crowd.
"Then, Kanas, I'll leave this to you." Kayal said to another student, who was simple but steady.
"Alright, Teacher, please go rest." He chuckled at Kayal, then sat in Kayal's seat. Kayal moved aside, his gaze turning to the three Claymores.
"Then... let's go, to, set up a big plan." Kayal smiled.
"Yes." Teresa, Irene, Cassandra nodded gently.
On the third day after taking Bradford, the Sage left Bradford and returned to Camelot Royal City, Camelot.
On the same day, the invasion of Ireland began.