After that stormlike night had passed, the next morning came.
I rose from bed feeling refreshed, bathed in the dazzling morning sunlight.
The injuries from last night had healed smooth and clean without even a scar, thanks to Merlin tending to me all night with great care in more ways than one.
The breakfast I had quickly put together in the kitchen was spread out lavishly across the table.
Today’s main dish was, of all things, bulgogi.
A few years ago, to obtain the ingredients for seasonings I had desperately wanted, things like soy sauce and doenjang, Merlin had mobilized both her [clairvoyance] and Magecraft to procure meju bean seeds.
Thanks to making all sorts of condiments from those carefully cultivated beans, we now had a meal so excellent and varied that no one would believe it belonged in a fifth-century British cabin.
As the sweet and savory aroma filled the air, the Servants gathered around the table all had their eyes light up.
"Ohh! What is this sweet and salty meat? It melts in my mouth! Excellent, Master!"
Nobunaga kept exclaiming in admiration as she picked up piece after piece of meat.
Beside her, Penthesilea was also chomping away at the meat, sauce smeared around her mouth.
She glanced at me, then cleared her throat and spoke.
"Ahem... Yesterday, I got carried away and lost my reason. For that, I apologize."
But perhaps the pride of the Queen of the Amazons would not allow her to leave it at that, because she quickly added a protest.
"But do not misunderstand. I had not even released my Noble Phantasm, nor had I fought at full power! If I had truly gone all out, the result would have been different!"
At that transparent excuse, Caenis, seated across from her, propped up her chin and snorted.
"Ha! You sure talk big for someone who got flattened out on the ground and started snoring. Making excuses after losing is kind of pathetic, don’t you think?"
"What did you say?! You bastard!"
As Penthesilea flared up like she might flip the whole table over on the spot, Stheno, who had been elegantly holding a teacup, cut in with a gentle voice.
"Hehe, don’t be so harsh. No matter how great and strong a hero may be, there are times when they die or lose in absurd ways, aren’t there? Losing is nothing to be ashamed of, Queen."
At Stheno’s barbed consolation, Penthesilea deeply furrowed her brow, but could not find anything to say in rebuttal and merely bit her lip.
"Tch... Unless it is Lady Artemis or my father, Lord Ares, I do not sincerely bow my head to anyone."
She was still prickly, but it was obvious she acknowledged the strength I had shown yesterday.
Amid all that noisy commotion, the seats on either side of me were, as always, occupied by Artoria, Merlin, and Ushiwakamaru.
"Aaah~ Brother, here’s some meat."
"Arthur, over here too, over here too~"
"My lord! I personally blew on it to cool it down! Say ahh!"
The three women took turns pushing food into my mouth and kissing my cheeks.
Nobunaga, who had been watching that sticky, shameless display of affection with interest, widened her eyes.
"Hey, brat. What exactly is going on between you people? Especially that one over there, isn’t she your twin younger sister?"
At Nobunaga’s blunt question, Artoria, who had just been feeding me meat, proudly puffed out her chest and answered.
"That’s right. I’m my brother’s little sister, and the lover he cherishes most!"
"Oh-ho? You mean blood siblings are committing incest?"
Far from being horrified, Nobunaga’s eyes sparkled with a remarkably open-minded interest as she slapped her knee.
"Kahahaha! Now that’s interesting! Blood-related siblings mixing flesh with each other, that lawless audacity that tosses morality to the dogs! Just what I’d expect from the little conqueror I acknowledged!"
Following her hearty reaction, the three Greeks, Stheno, Caenis, and Penthesilea, also nodded as if it were nothing worth making a fuss over.
"Well, in Greece, incest happens whenever people get bored."
"Right. That old man Zeus married his own older sister, didn’t he? Siblings screwing each other isn’t exactly shocking."
At the Servants’ reactions, accepting it all far too easily, Kay, who had been tearing at bread in the corner of the table, grabbed at his hair like he was losing his mind.
"Good grief... Am I the only normal person in this house?"
At that moment, Uncle Ector, who had been quietly savoring the bulgogi, cut in sounding rather hurt.
"Kay, why are you leaving your father out of that?"
"Because you already went senile ages ago, Father!"
"You little bastard!"
Smack!
Uncle Ector’s spoon struck the back of Kay’s head, and the dining table once again dissolved into cheerful chaos.
After the meal, I headed for the stable to walk it off a little.
In the stable, along with my beloved black mare Llamrei, there was another dazzlingly beautiful white steed tied up there.
It was Dun Stallion, the fine horse Merlin had stolen from somewhere... no, acquired for Artoria a few years ago.
"There you go, eat up."
I brushed their glossy coats while feeding them sugar cubes and hay.
Step, step.
Just then, I sensed someone at the stable entrance. When I turned, I saw Caenis standing there at a slant, watching me.
She was wearing something different from before. It was probably casual clothes Medea had made for her, but the outfit was quite provocative.
Even for Britain, it felt way too revealing, and most of all, it was one of those outfits that seemed to have lost the entire lower half. In fact, it really had no lower half.
Clothes that only covered the crotch, if anything making the crotch stand out even more. Was that some kind of Greek traditional style? Jason was like that too. Well, Heracles wore a skirt, so who knew.
Still, couldn’t she at least wrap her chest with bandages? She called herself a man, but was it enough as long as the leather outfit kept her nipples from showing?
"What are you doing?"
"Can’t you tell? Feeding them. What brings you here? Do you like horses?"
At my question, Caenis clicked her tongue with a look of disgust.
"No, not at all. Just looking at horses makes my skin crawl."
I could understand that reaction. Poseidon was the god of the sea, but also the god of horses. For someone like her, who had a horrific past of being raped by Poseidon, horses were hardly going to be welcome.
Caenis stared straight at me.
"Judging by the way you looked this morning, you seem really crazy about women. Am I right?"
"Yeah, that’s right. My goal is to build the biggest and most beautiful harem in Britain."
I shamelessly admitted it while stroking a horse’s neck. Caenis let out a scoffing laugh, as if dumbfounded by how brazen I was.
"Heh, I like that honesty. A guy like you, who shows his desires openly, is way better than those pretentious knightly bastards putting on airs."
As she said that and nodded, Caenis swept her gaze over the lower halves of Llamrei and Dun Stallion, then narrowed her brow.
"But these two... they’re both mares."
"That’s right."
"...Don’t tell me mares are part of your harem too?"
"What?"
My hand stopped for a moment. I set down the brush and turned to her with an incredulous look.
"What kind of insane nonsense are you talking about, Cai-Caenis?"
"No, it’s just that I knew one crazy cocksucking bastard who got horny enough to mount mares too."
That was Caenis’s usual blunt way of putting things.
I immediately knew who she meant.
Poseidon.
Demeter had transformed herself into a mare and hidden among a herd of horses to escape him, but he chased her down anyway, transformed himself into a horse, and raped her.
And from that, the divine horse Arion was born. A completely insane episode from Greek myth.
"Hey. I’m not into bestiality. I don’t fuck horses, so cut out the nonsense."
When I firmly drew the line and shuddered in disgust, Caenis finally burst out laughing.
"Kahahaha! Thank god! So you’re not some freak with twisted tastes! No matter how skilled you are, I couldn’t acknowledge some lunatic who sticks his dick in horses as my Master, right?"
"Your Master is Artoria, though."
"Yeah, but you’re the one really in charge. And if you’re aiming to become king, then our position feels more like allies and generals, doesn’t it? Not that I’m planning to serve you, but as Servants, it’s close enough."
After laughing so hard she had to clutch her stomach, Caenis wiped away tears from her eyes and then gave me a slight smile. The roughness in her gaze had softened in a strange way.
"Do you like drinking?"
"Rather than liking it... I wouldn’t say I hate it."
"Yeah? Then when you’ve got time later, have a drink with me. After seeing you beat the shit out of her yesterday... I got pretty interested in you."
Caenis shrugged and said it casually. But I did not miss the subtle nuance hidden underneath.
Grinning, I took a step toward her.
"Oh? Is this, by any chance, the fearsome Lady Caenis trying to pick me up?"
"W-what?! Pick you up, my ass! I just said I got interested, that’s all. Who said I’d fallen for a guy like you? Don’t talk bullshit!"
Caenis’s face instantly turned as red as a tomato. She stomped her foot in agitation, then, unable to continue, fled the stable with heavy pounding steps.
A textbook tsundere reaction. Watching her retreating back, I let out a quiet chuckle.
"Hehe... That wild beast will probably come rolling obediently onto His Majesty’s bed before long too."
At some point, Merlin had appeared and was hanging upside down from the stable roof. She suddenly poked her face out and whispered that.
"You heard all that? Well, if they don’t play hard to get, there’s no fun in taming them."
"That type is weak in the ass, you know~"
"Where exactly did you hear such a universal truth?"
I brushed dust from my shoulder and shot Merlin a sidelong glance.
"More importantly, when exactly is my [Sword of Selection], Caliburn, going to be finished? You said it’d be done soon."
At my questioning, Merlin lightly jumped down from the roof and stuck out her lips.
"Well, every time I try to make it in the workshop, you keep dragging me into bed, so it keeps getting delayed...."
The succubus fidgeted with reddened cheeks. I folded my arms firmly and gave her an ultimatum.
"Then hurry to the workshop and finish it. If you don’t bring Caliburn back completed, I won’t love you until then."
"W-what?! That’s way too cruel! Fine, fine! I get it! I’ll go work the forge right now, so just wait a little!"
Faced with the danger of losing her greatest reward, Merlin pulled a tearful face and hurriedly ran toward the workshop.
Watching her go, I gave a light stretch.
All the preparations were nearly complete. Now all that remained was to draw the sword from the stone and be reborn as the true king of Britain.
I was looking forward to it.
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