The morning after Umiin had disguised herself as a maid and slipped a potion of revulsion into the water supply and communal food of Camelot’s inner kitchens, dawn arrived.
The morning within the castle seemed as peaceful as ever on the surface, yet the very air inside the inner walls was nothing like its usual bustling warmth.
A cold, razor-sharp sense of alienation, strong enough to take your breath away, and an unambiguous hostility that felt like needles piercing the skin weighed heavily over the castle.
“Yaaawn… Good morning, everyone. Today’s breakfast is sandwiches and soup, so help yourselves—”
It was at that moment when Kay, in his shrunken form as a young boy, took Mordred’s small hand as usual and pushed open the dining hall doors.
“…Shut that filthy mouth. The mere sound of that vulgar voice assaulting my eardrums is disgusting.”
The greeting Kay had just offered was cut coldly, like a sheet of ice—by [Artoria X], who always praised him as the universe’s treasure and clung to him like a barnacle.
She sat slanted in her chair, her eyes filled with extreme disgust, as though gazing down upon maggots in a sewer, glaring daggers at Kay.
“…Huh? What did you just say…?”
Kay stopped in his tracks, stunned.
“Get out of my sight at once, before I carve that small, pitiful body of yours into cosmic dust with my holy sword.”
Her pupils were dark and clouded, and her gaze bore not an ounce of goodwill or affection.
“[Artoria X] is right. Just looking at you makes me nauseous—I can’t stand it.”
From a corner, [Artoria X Alter], who had been holding the special homemade dango skewers that Kay made, suddenly hurled them to the floor as if they were animal droppings, then smashed them to pulp with her boot.
“It’s disgusting enough that a remnant without any mana would dare impersonate a brother to train us. I’m horrified that I was fooled by those revolting sweets… I want to puke up every trace of that disguise right now.”
“You lot… this joke’s gone too far for a morning. Anybody got an upset stomach or something?”
As Kay took a step forward with a stern expression, [Artoria Alter], who was seated in the place of honor, gripped the hilt of her jet-black sword with lethal intent and growled like an animal.
“If you so much as take another step toward me with those filthy feet, I’ll cut your legs off below the knee without hesitation.”
In her eyes, a clear and viscous murderous intent boiled over.
“It makes me sick just thinking about it. How could those of us, descended from noble dragon’s blood like ourselves, bow and beg for meals from a vulgar, weak-brained upstart like you? You’re nothing but a parasite living off the backs of us Pendragon sisters with your shallow cooking skills. Know your place and crawl out of Camelot on your own two feet.”
“Right. To think that I would rest my head on your lap… It’s a shameful disgrace that even a lifetime of washing away wouldn’t cleanse.”
Even [Artoria Lancer Alter], who stood by the window, sneered coldly and turned her head away.
Not long ago, she had tears in her eyes, promising to make up for the childhood he lost, tenderly stroking his hair like a devoted sister. That gentle, devoted older sister was nowhere to be found.
“I resent myself for the pity I once felt for a mere runt like you. The very sight of your weak, wretched face is one colossal insult.”
Even the maids and soldiers passing through the hallway beyond the dining hall whispered and cast hostile glances at Kay.
Everyone inside the castle directed blade-sharp hatred at just one person: Kay.
Their overwhelming murderous intent and contempt hit him all at once. This was no ordinary prank or rough teasing.
They truly regarded Kay’s very existence as the most disgusting filth in the world.
“Ah, Daddy… What’s wrong with everyone? The way they’re looking at me… it’s so weird…”
Mordred turned deathly pale, trembling as she hid behind Kay.
That was when—
Bang! Artoria burst through the dining hall door, her hair in disarray.
She had spent the night awake in her study, dealing with Duke Eustace of Cambenic’s settlement and the backlog of administrative work.
She’d endured without so much as tasting the late-night snacks and water the maids had brought, all in order to have breakfast with Kay.
Thanks to that stubborn resolve and her love for Kay, she was completely untouched by the potion’s effects.
“The insane ones aren’t us, but you, blindly following such a bug.”
[Artoria Alter] snorted, refusing to let go of her murderous intent.
“What on earth are you babbling about? Have you all gone mad?!”
When Artoria looked baffled, [Artoria Caster], who had been quietly observing the situation, urgently grabbed her shoulder.
“Calm down. None of us are in our right minds. Someone unleashed an extremely nasty mind-interference Magecraft.”
[Artoria Caster], thanks to her Mystic Eye, was immune to this kind of mind manipulation.
“No wonder… This morning, around the kitchen’s water basin, I smelled something even more disgusting than rotting beasts. I refused to let the water touch my lips.”
Next, Bagest, dressed as a maid, bared her teeth menacingly and barred Kay’s path with her massive body.
“Master, come here. Their gazes are not normal. They look ready to slit your throat at any moment!”
Tamamo and [Medusa] also quickly armed themselves and surrounded Kay. Because Heroic Spirits are spirit forms, they don’t need Camelot’s water or human food, so they completely escaped the potion’s effects.
“Hey, Master. Those dimwits have all messed up the potion they took. Should I fry their heads with Dark Flames so they sober up?”
[Jeanne d’Arc Alter] flicked vicious sparks of flame from her fingertips, taking a combat stance.
Yet, in the eye of this storm of extreme tension and disgust,
the reaction of the one who should be most wounded and mentally shattered—Kay—completely upended everyone’s expectations.
“No, no, no, hold on a second. Artoria, sheath your sword. Jeanne, put out the fire. Bagest, calm down too.”
Kay showed no sign of hurt, no desperate cry of injustice.
Instead, in that childlike form, he stood with his hands clasped behind his back, eyes alight with fascination, scrutinizing each sister who glared at him as if he were an insect, analyzing the situation with razor-sharp intellect.
“They’re behaving normally around the others, but with me they’re hit with a pinpoint perception disorder and an extreme emotional flip.”
Kay murmured casually, chin resting on his hand.
“I know what this is. It’s that hating-drug trick, isn’t it?”
“Daddy? Mommies really hate me now…?”
Mordred looked up with glistening eyes, and Kay wrapped her gently in his arms, patting her back.
“It’s okay, don’t worry. They’ve just caught a really nasty epidemic of mental-illness flu and are spouting nonsense. Daddy will fix them all with one dose of the antidote. There’s no need to be scared. It seems to only happen to me, after all.”
Kay rose to his feet and gave a sly smile to Tamamo, whose tail was bristled upright.
“Tamamo. You know what I want you to do, right?”
“Yes? Um, what would you like…?”
“Go to the bottom of the third compartment in the Extra-dimensional Storage Box and bring me that medical kit I sealed away.”
“Ah…! Right!!”
As if she just realized something, Tamamo’s eyes lit up.
“Of course. I should have known.”
A look of incredulous, yet somehow arrogant, laughter escaped Kay’s lips.
“When you live in a fantasy world overflowing with magic and mysteries…”
Kay’s gaze was that of a hardened empiricist, unshaken by any mystery or curse.
“Every single time, the trope of forced hate—damn, that cliché—gets pulled at least once.”
“Forced-hate cliché…?”
Artoria echoed, her face blank.
“Yeah! Love-turning-to-hatred potions? Brainwashing allies? Sudden memory loss? Ha! Do you really think I’d fall for such a trite, third-rate novel scenario and end up whining?”
Kay snorted and declared with confidence.
“I’ve already made dozens of universal anti-cliché antidotes for every type of mind-control Magecraft and blind emotion-manipulation curse that humans and Heroic Spirits can catch in the Labyrinth, sorted by category and situation!”
“A potion that causes hatred? Such a potion does exist.”
“Really…?”
“But its versatility is limited. It’s no small feat to brew such a potion in large quantities. You can only make it in small batches. And the more it’s diluted, the weaker it becomes and the shorter its duration.”
“So nothing is eternal?”
“Exactly. It’s the sort of concoction typically handled by the goddesses of discord. But even they can’t grant eternal potency. Of course, brainwashing potions are a slightly different story, but maintaining outright hatred and disgust is difficult. The stronger one’s mana, the shorter the effect lasts. It probably varies by potion type.”
“Then, can we create an antidote to counter it?”
“Heh… you really worry about everything, Kay.”
“No, I’m serious. In this world, forced-hate stuff really exists.”
“No, that’s not what I meant. Kay, who do you think is standing right in front of you? Do you honestly believe I couldn’t even make something like that?”
“Oh…”
“Remember, Kay. You are my partner, my husband. And I am your wife. And also your teacher. You called it forced-hate? Protecting you from such trivialities is my duty as well, isn’t it?”
[Artoria], [Artoria Caster], and Bagest were left speechless at Kay’s terrifying level of foresight and madness in his preparations.
“Honestly, who do you think I am, some delicate, pure boy easily wounded? This isn’t some childish prank—just a simple potion of revulsion. It’s so obvious and juvenile, I’m yawning.”
He cast an arrogant, triumphant smile at the sisters still spewing murderous intent at him, showing not a shred of fear.
“Tamamo!! Hurry up! Stick a funnel in those idiots’ mouths and force-feed them the antidote!”
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