Home.
We had arrived home only moments before when Artoria and Medea both tugged me toward the bed, forcing me down without protest.
"Master, look at your hand! It's been bleeding this entire time. Let me examine it properly." Medea reached for my gravely injured arm, her hand trembling.
I remained silent as she tore the sleeve of my shirt apart, exposing the gruesome wounds beneath.
Medea hissed through her teeth.
Strips of muscle hung loose, pale against the exposed bone where it jutted through in two places. Blood ran warm down my wrist and dripped off my knuckles in a steady rhythm onto the floor.
Artoria heard the sound and looked over. Her composure cracked, for just an instant.
That limb was a hair's breadth from being completely pulverized.
However, both of them also noticed that my injuries were healing. Naturally, that was due to [Avalon] residing within me.
Other options existed. A robotic prosthetic. A regenerative compound.
I allowed [Avalon] to handle it instead. The alternatives would take time.
My line of thought was interrupted as countless magic circles sprang to life around my arm, accelerating the healing process.
I looked at Medea—intensely focused as she poured her magic into mending my arm. Then at Artoria, who was carefully checking the rest of my body for any other serious injuries.
"There is no need to take it so seriously... It is merely an arm."
Both of them snapped their gazes toward me.
Medea's jaw tightened.
Artoria's eyes flickered with something complex, and for a moment, the room smelled of iron and ash and wet earth, and it was not this room at all.
...
Countless battering rams slammed against a fortress's wooden gates. People fought all around—sword against sword, blood mingling with blood.
Men roared.
War cries. Desperate screams. Dying gurgles.
It was a siege.
Artoria walked over a carpet of corpses, her soldiers and enemies alike. Her expression flat. Her eyes unfeeling.
Bedivere followed behind.
"My King... your arm is wounded. Please, allow me to stem the bleeding." Bedivere spoke from behind, gazing at Artoria's injured arm with barely perceptible worry.
Her expression did not change. Her steps did not falter.
"There is no need to take it so seriously... It is merely an arm." Her voice carried no emotion, like an unfeeling machine.
Bedivere froze in place at her words.
She did not notice.
Continuing onward toward another victory.
...
I watched with a slight tilt of my head as Artoria slowly took my uninjured hand between both of hers and looked at me.
"Master... you must take care of yourself." Her eyes trembled, golden lashes fluttering.
"Do not become like me." She tightened her grip slightly.
"I do not like it."
"..."
My silence was more hollow than any confirmation could ever be.
Become?
I already was.
...
..
.
Artoria had brought a "soup," in her words. It was a slush of alternating colours, with fragments of uncooked vegetables floating in between.
And now, she was aiming a spoonful of it straight at my mouth.
I looked sideways at Medea, who had slightly curled lips, while she wrapped a bandage around my healing arm.
"Master, come on, eat quickly or it'll get cold." Artoria insisted, pushing the spoon closer to my mouth.
My gaze landed on some bubbles spurting out from her "soup."
"Are you sure this is edible?" I asked, my voice apathetic.
"It's edible, Master. Back during my time, even the Knights of the Round Table tasted it and couldn't stop themselves from singing praises." Artoria brought her free hand to her waist, puffing her chest out unconsciously.
I took in her posture and the spoonful of "soup" hovering before my mouth.
Even with just the smell and appearance alone, I could pinpoint so many mistakes in it that...
My mind had to consciously search for any redeeming qualities it might possess.
If she had told me it was a secret formula to assassinate someone via poison, I would have believed it.
Nonetheless, I still opened my mouth and let her feed me.
Artoria eyed me after I had swallowed it.
"Master, how was it?" She asked.
I did not reply. Instead, I pulled a handkerchief from my free hand and cleaned my mouth.
Had she focused on my hand, she would have seen it tremble imperceptibly.
"It was acceptable." I put my handkerchief away.
Silence fell.
"Who made this? You alone, Artoria, or Medea as well?" My words broke the silence, my face turning toward Artoria.
"It was all me, Master." She replied while scooping another spoonful to feed me, her voice carrying a faint expectation of praise.
"You're grounded." I spoke without emotion.
"Ah?"
Artoria blinked. Then blinked again. The spoon hovered in place, forgotten.
"Hehe... Master, I'll paste a signboard just outside our kitchen—'King of Knights not allowed entry.'" Medea did not let the chance slip by.
My gaze shifted toward her.
"You're grounded too."
"Huh?"
Her fingers spasmed, tightening the bandage around my arm before she frantically loosened it.
...
..
.
Sometime later.
Medea had curled against my leg, her head resting against it, her purple-blue hair fanning across the bed.
Artoria lay beside me, her eyes fixed on the ceiling.
"Master... could we win? Against someone like the King of Heroes?" Medea's voice carried a thin current of uncertainty.
The memory was still fresh—Gilgamesh, reducing Heracles to a broken thing crawling on half his limbs. Then fighting Saber, Lancer and Rider without a single drop of sweat.
To Medea, Heracles was one of the strongest souls she had ever known. Even under [Madness Enhancement], that truth held.
Seeing him reduced to that state had shaken something inside her. She had walked alongside him once... both of them Argonauts.
I heard the fear beneath her words. Artoria turned her gaze toward me as well.
In response, my hand came to rest on Medea's head. I observed the action as though it belonged to someone else.
My eyes. Blank? Or perhaps not blank at all.
When I spoke, there was not a single particle of uncertainty in my voice.
"Tell me... how could I lose?
When the only thing I've ever understood... is victory."
...
..
.
***
[200 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter]
[5 chapters ahead on P@tr3on = [email protected]/Not_Aaryan]
...
Unknown Talents referred in this chapter -
[Ultimate Pharmacist]: Seiko Kimura's Talent. Izuru's skills let him find new uses and purposes for the currently and already existing medicines due to claiming to know all possible research. He has the capability to create medicine concoctions like strength enhancers and super healing medication without being overdosed or giving side effects to the drinker.
...
[Authors Thoughts]
A slice of life chapter to change the pace. More like this will come to deepen their relations and sketch their overall characters. So many things have not been discussed till now. Wishes, wants, and everything in between.