Time flowed like a river, and before he knew it, four years had passed.
In the barren lands of Britain, within a cabin on the outskirts of the Tintagel forest, a legend—or something close to one—was beginning to take root.
It was the story of a boy who acted as the head of his household, a youth capable of slaying bears with his bare hands and hoisting wild boars onto his shoulders.
Ten-year-old Kay.
He was no longer just a child.
He possessed a lean, muscular build that seemed impossible for a ten-year-old, and his skin was mapped with fine scars earned from brutal skirmishes with wild beasts.
He was the wilderness incarnate—a rugged, natural-born man.
Having inherited his mother's features, his face was handsome and youthful, lacking the rough, dwarfish appearance of Ector. However, his physique was the complete opposite; he was solid and masculine, the spitting image of Ector.
Because he looked lean when clothed, he wore long sleeves even in the height of summer to hide his scars and protect his skin from splattering oil while cooking.
Still, whenever the sturdy muscles of his arms or the veins in his hands peeked through, he became an idol to the other boys in the village.
One day, at the Tintagel village market,
Kay appeared with a hunk of meat the size of a rice sack slung over his shoulder. It was the hind leg of a wyvern he had hunted at dawn.
"Ma'am, you should buy this. The quality of the meat is superb."
"Oh my, Kay! You're back again?"
The butcher's wife rushed out to greet him with a bright smile, but she wasn't the only one excited by his arrival.
The village girls around his age began to whisper as they watched him.
"Look, it's Kay."
"Wow... look at those arms."
"He's so handsome, too. Though his eyes are a bit sharp."
Their gazes were locked onto his broad shoulders and powerful forearms.
Kay pretended to be oblivious as he wiped the sweat from his brow, but internally, he was beaming.
Am I finally becoming a popular guy? Well, I suppose my physique is in the top one percent for my age in all of Britain.
Truthfully, Kay wanted a romantic life of his own.
He had heard that Tom from next door was already wandering the riverbanks hand-in-hand with a girlfriend. Why couldn't he do the same?
He noticed Anne, the baker's daughter, blushing as she looked at him. He considered approaching her, but then...
A sudden realization hit him, and he rifled through his pocket.
He pulled out a crumpled piece of cloth.
[Tonight's menu: Hamburg Steak (If you don't bring it, you die)]
It was a demand scrawled by Artoria Alter.
"...Sigh."
Kay let out a heavy sigh and slumped his shoulders.
Romance? Dating?
Pure fantasy. Back at home, eight little baby tigers were waiting with their mouths open, starving.
He had to get home and start mincing meat immediately, or he would face a storm of tantrums.
Leaving the disappointed girls behind, Kay grabbed his coin purse and practically fled toward his home.
A lonely wind blew across his back.
"I'm home!"
As soon as he opened the cabin door, the familiar scene unfolded.
His five-year-old sisters.
Now looking like proper little children, they swarmed toward him in a chaotic heap.
"Big brother! You're late!"
Led by Artoria, the children rushed Kay.
"I'm starving. Feed us already, Kay."
"Welcome back, brother."
Artoria Alter commanded him as if he were a servant, while Lily greeted him with polite grace.
They were called siblings, but in reality, Kay functioned as a butler attending to the children of the King, so the treatment wasn't entirely inaccurate.
"Alter, is that any way to speak to your brother?"
"It's not like I'm wrong. Your stomach is growling too."
"Ahaha, well, I am quite hungry myself."
Artoria Lancer pointed out Alter's rudeness, but Artoria Lancer Alter acted as if it were no issue. Artoria Caster, standing beside her, nodded in agreement, complaining of her own hunger.
Meanwhile, Artoria X and Artoria X Alter were preoccupied, having a sword fight with tree branches.
Ignoring the chaos, Kay habitually set down the bag of meat.
He then pointed to a massive object lying in a corner of the yard.
A monstrous wild boar the size of a truck.
It was a beast Kay had caught this morning as a light warm-up. A deep, clear indentation from Kay's fist was carved into its forehead—a one-hit kill.
"Alright, this is the main course today. But this one has too much muscle, so it's tough."
Giant boars have hides like armor and muscles as tough as rubber tires. If you simply grilled it, you'd break your jaw. While the children's jaws were strong enough to handle it, the taste would be terrible.
"That's why today... we're having special Hamburg steaks!"
"Yaaaay!"
"Hamburg! Hamburg!"
The children cheered wildly.
Kay cleaned his massive wood-splitting axe and began the "boar dismantling show."
Thump! Crash!
He stripped the bones and carved out the lean meat. Then, wielding a kitchen knife in each hand, he began to mince the meat with blinding speed.
Dak-dak-dak-dak-dak-dak!
His hands were a blur, and the meat was finely minced in an instant.
He mixed in mashed potatoes from their garden, added a bit of ground meat for texture, and created a sauce using a small amount of milk and wild boar bone broth.
Milk was a luxury, so this was the best he could do.
Sizzle...
On a large iron griddle, Hamburg steaks the size of human heads began to cook. The savory aroma of searing meat and sweet sauce filled the cabin.
"Alright, eat up!"
Eight plates were emptied in the blink of an eye.
Kay watched with a satisfied smile as the children licked every last bit of sauce from their plates.
In truth, he struggled every day to feed and raise sisters who weren't even related to him by blood. The Artorias knew he wasn't their biological brother, but that didn't matter.
Who cares about blood? If you feed them, you're their brother; if you provide the meat, you're their father.
A few days later.
Kay prepared for another hunt. Today, he planned to venture deep into the forest, into the territory of the black bears.
As he was leaving, someone tugged on his sleeve from behind the door.
"...Um."
It was Artoria X Alter.
She was usually a quiet child who did nothing but read books while wearing her glasses and a red-checkered muffler.
"What is it? Hungry?"
"No... I want to go too."
"Where?"
"Hunting. I'm curious about what you do, big brother."
Kay hesitated for a moment. Knowing that Artoria X Alter was prone to laziness, he decided this was a good opportunity to force her to exercise.
"Fine. Follow me. But if things get dangerous, you hide behind me immediately."
"Okay."
The forest was silent.
Kay led the way, pushing through the thickets, while Artoria X Alter followed closely behind. She stared intently at Kay's broad back.
He always smelled of a mixture of sweat and blood, yet it was a scent that felt strangely reassuring. To five-year-old Artoria X Alter, ten-year-old Kay's back looked like the largest and safest fortress in the world.
Grrrrr...
A massive black bear appeared.
It was far larger and more ferocious than the brown bears he had fought before—nearly the size of a house.
"Stay back."
Kay shielded Artoria X Alter and clenched his fists. He didn't need a weapon.
The bear roared and charged. But to Kay, the bear was no longer a source of fear; it was merely a punching bag.
"Hyaaaaa!"
Bam!
Kay's fist slammed into the bear's jaw. With a dull thud, the bear's head snapped ninety degrees to the side.
Thwack! Bam! Crunch!
It was a one-sided slaughter. Kay dove into the bear's guard and unleashed a barrage of blows to its abdomen. The bear shrieked and stumbled backward.
"Is this all you've got? My kids are scarier when they're begging for food!"
Just as Kay was about to deliver the finishing blow,
Rustle.
A gray shadow leapt from the opposite thicket.
Wolves. A pack of starving wolves, drawn by the noise of the fight.
One of them singled out Artoria X Alter, who was standing apart from the fray.
"Kyaa!"
Artoria X Alter screamed as the wolf bared its fangs and leapt toward her slender neck.
"No!!"
Without a moment's thought, Kay spun around.
The bear seized the opening and slashed Kay's back with its claws.
Squelch!
Blood erupted from his back. The pain of tearing flesh was immense, but Kay didn't even groan. He kicked off the ground and launched himself forward.
"Don't you dare touch her!!"
Kay's body shot forward like a bullet.
Just before the wolf's teeth could reach Artoria X Alter's throat, Kay's fist arrived.
KABOOM!!
It wasn't just a hit; it sounded like an explosion.
Kay's fist struck the side of the wolf's head with absolute precision.
Crack!
With the sickening sound of a skull shattering, the wolf was sent flying across the forest, crashing into an old tree. It died instantly.
"Phew..."
Kay stood firmly in front of Artoria X Alter.
Blood dripped from his back, soaking the soil beneath him, but he didn't look back. He glared at the remaining wolves.
His eyes were filled with murderous intent.
They were no longer the eyes of a human. They were more ferocious than a mother bear protecting her cubs or a dragon guarding its nest—they were the eyes of a protective older brother.
"If you so much as touch a hair on my sister... I'll kill every single one of you."
Yelp!
The wolves tucked their tails and fled. They had instinctively realized that this creature was not prey, but a predator.
Once the danger had passed, Kay finally relaxed and dropped to one knee.
"Haa... You okay? You're not hurt, are you?"
Artoria X Alter looked up at him, dazed.
His blood-stained back, his heavy breathing, the beads of sweat rolling down his forehead.
The boy who had rushed to save her, even while offering his own back to a bear.
"...Big brother."
"Yeah?"
"Blood... you're bleeding... so much..."
"Oh, this? It's nothing. It'll be fine once we get home."
Kay grinned, wiped his bloody hand on his clothes, and gently patted her head.
"You were scared, weren't you? Sorry. I should have kept a better eye on you."
In that moment,
Her heart skipped a beat.
Then it began to race—thump, thump, thump—wildly.
This wasn't hunger. It wasn't the dizziness of a sugar crash.
It was a strange sensation; a tickle in her chest, a flush in her cheeks, and the feeling that the boy before her was moving in slow motion.
He's so cool...
It was a stimulation far more powerful than any sweet treat.
The scent of his sweat and the metallic tang of blood felt, to her, like the sweetest chocolate fragrance in the world.
"Big brother..."
Artoria X Alter silently wrapped her arms tightly around Kay's waist, burying her small face in his chest.
"Huh? Hey, what's wrong? Are you hurt?"
Kay asked in confusion, but Artoria X Alter didn't answer, only hugging him tighter.
This sturdy embrace, this rough yet warm touch.
She knew then that, even though they weren't related by blood—or perhaps because they weren't—she would never be able to let this man go.
On the way back home,
Kay dragged the bear's leg with one hand and held Artoria X Alter's small hand tightly with the other.
Under the light of the setting sun, her cheeks were stained a deeper red than the muffler she wore.
Comments (0)
Please log in to leave a comment. Login or Register