Clatter~!!
The porcelain bowl that held the piping hot abalone congee shattered into jagged pieces, littering the floor with splintered ceramic.
Alter stood frozen like a statue, mouth half-open. Her coldly luminous golden pupils had lost focus, floating aimlessly before her.
"…Da…Dad?"
For the past five years, she had searched relentlessly for Kay, vowing vengeance if she even found his corpse.
The brother she had yearned for so desperately had fled to another world, taken up housekeeping with a woman he barely knew—and had even gone and fathered my niece!
"…Ha, haha."
A hollow laugh escaped Alter's lips.
Tears welled in her reddened eyes and thick droplets began to fall. Though she had spewed venom even in Taquin's subterranean prison, at this moment she looked like a child stripped of everything by the world and cast aside in misery.
"Al-Alter? You're crying?! I'm sorry, I swear I am! I'm such scum!"
Kay's face drained of color as he dropped to his knees, gathering the broken pieces of the bowl with his bare hands, completely at a loss.
With her head bowed low, Alter spat out in a heavy, trembling voice, "Why… why have you treated me so cruelly?"
"I have admired you since time immemorial! From the moment I could sit up in diapers I grew drinking in your warmth, and we've exposed each other's ugliest depths without shame! So why… why must those cheap strumpets who happened to come along steal my place?!"
'No way I was supposed to hear that part out loud!'
The ruler's sanity snapped. The imposing, ruthless shell was stripped away, replaced by a destructive obsession fueled by abandonment and raw jealousy—a true psychotic awakening.
"And… at the root of all this tragedy is that sly spawn, Merlin."
Alter snapped her head up. Tears still stained her cheeks, but her eyes blazed with the power to reduce the world to ash.
"Merlin! That son of a witch damned better not have thrown Kay into that so-called [Abyssal Realm]! I should have been Kay's first woman; I should have been that child's mother! The moment I find him in hiding, I'll skin him alive!"
As Alter leapt out of bed, Kay hastily grabbed her, holding her back.
"Calm down! You're not even healed yet—where do you think you're going? I'll handle the revenge later, I promise!"
"Let go!! I can't stand this anymore!! I'm going to bleed you dry to repay these five years of my stolen devotion!!"
At that moment, a leisurely laugh sounded from behind Kay.
"Oh my, our dear sister-in-law. You really have a fiery disposition. But it's already too late. Your husband's night-time technique has been perfectly tamed by this Tamamo-no-Mae."
Tamamo-no-Mae covered her mouth with one hand, her fox ears twitching.
At those words, Alter's gaze locked onto Tamamo-no-Mae with lethal intensity. Her dragon-blooded nose picked up the potent mana radiating from Tamamo-no-Mae's body, mixed with Kay's unmistakable scent.
"You wanton beast-wench… slithering into Kay's bedroom dangling a beast's tail!"
"Cheap? I'm a model wife in the making! I've fulfilled all the duties of a proper bride! By contrast, isn't it far more unscrupulous for you, my sister-in-law, to try and claim my brother just because our bloodlines don't mix?"
"You…!! What does that have to do with anything! If there's no blood bond, what's the problem? Even gods and immortals marry their kin!"
"Hey, Tamamo! Enough already, stop stoking the flames! And that might be true, but it's a dangerous line of reasoning, Alter!"
Kay roughly shoved Tamamo-no-Mae aside, but the situation continued to spiral out of control.
"I have finished clearing out the remaining stragglers in the courtyard, Master. What's all this racket to warrant such screams indoors?"
"Ugh, we're covered in dust. I just cleaned this place up—why is it a mess again?"
The door to the lord's chamber swung open again as Medusa and Jeanne Alter, mission complete, entered the room.
Alter's growl abruptly ceased.
Alter's frosty gaze then slowly, meticulously ranged over the two Servants from head to toe.
First, Medusa in her black tights, her voluptuous curves threatening to burst out.
Then Jeanne Alter, dressed in that low-cut outfit, her expression clearly one of disapproval.
Even from the side, as Tamamo-no-Mae fanned herself, the ample valley between her kimono's folds swelled enticingly.
Alter hesitated, her gaze drifting downward to her own chest.
Through her black shirt, Artoria's trademark modest, well-shaped hillock peeked out.
Thanks to Kay's efforts, it had grown beyond what fate had intended, though still stunted by the lingering power of her sacred sword.
…
In that instant, she heard what felt like an unrepairable fracture in her sanity, echoing like thunder.
"…Brother."
Alter seized Kay by the collar. Her eyes were empty.
"Are these whores all concubines to my brother?"
"C-Concubines?! They're just [Servants] bound by contract…!"
"Don't lie!! Their bodies reek of your scent, too!!"
"Master's scent, you say… Well, it makes sense. After blending our mana so intensely all night from dream to reality, it's only natural that our bodies carry that aroma."
Medusa's single remark drove a spike into Alter's heart.
"You… what are you, then, you snake-scented creature of the night! Did you sleep with Kay, too?!"
"It was part of the mana supply, but the satisfaction was exquisite. Master's technique could rival that of any Greek god."
At Medusa's cool reply through her blindfold, Alter's lips trembled. She seized Kay by the collar again, shaking him violently.
"So my brother's real taste… was clearly for those animalistic females with grotesquely oversized bosoms! Over that shallow lust, he wouldn't even look at me, but kept these filthy beast-wenches close to him?!"
"What do you mean 'oversized'?!"
Kay tried to calm her, but Alter's reason had long since flown out the window.
"And that [Scáthach] or whatever, that mistress you claim bore your seed—does she have such monstrous breasts, too?! Answer me!!"
"Uh… well, objectively, yeah, they're big."
"Aaaaargh!! You vile pervert, less than a beast!! Lust-crazed animal!!"
Alter pounded his chest with her fists, wailing. Though her blows carried no mana, the sorrow in every strike left Kay with no words, and he silently took it.
Then Alter's gaze locked onto Jeanne Alter standing in the corner, watching with a peculiar expression.
Her facial features were eerily identical to Alter's own. Pale skin, silver hair.
But her figure was far more voluptuous and seductive, not to mention her arrogant demeanor.
"…And who exactly is that she-wench?"
Alter pointed a trembling finger at Jeanne Alter.
"You've cunningly imitated my appearance, only to obscene inflate that body of yours. Kay, do you seriously keep that abomination by your side as a replacement for me?! Do you think that… that inferior copy is somehow superior?!"
"W-What?! 'Obscene copy?!' 'Superior replacement?!'"
Jeanne Alter, having listened quietly, suddenly bristled and slammed her pitch-black flag onto the ground.
"You done talking, you flat little runt?! We only look similar by some freak coincidence that grosses me out! And as for being a superior replacement, of course someone with curves like mine is a hundred times more attractive than someone as bony as you! Why don't you look in a mirror and figure out why your brother doesn't see you as a woman?!"
"You disgusting knockoff bitch!! How dare you humiliate me?! All you've got is big breasts!"
"All bark and no bite! Want me to roast you alive on a charcoal fire?!"
Black flames flickered from Jeanne Alter's fingertips, and Alter, matching her ferocity, shot murderous intent from her eyes as if they were about to tear each other apart.
"Stop it!! Both of you, back off!!"
Kay rushed between them, snuffing out Jeanne Alter's flames with his bare hands.
"Jeanne, what are you doing to a patient?! And Alter, what's your problem? Jeanne is just a Servant who happened to be summoned from the Abyssal Realm, and I've never once considered you a replacement! You two are completely different!"
"…Really? Is that true?"
Alter panted, tears brimming in her eyes as she looked up at Kay.
"Yes. Big chest or small, you're my dearest little sister. Your charm is yours alone. And every time you tug on my sleeve whining for something delicious, you're the cutest thing in the world to me. Why would I ever compare you to anyone else?"
It was Kay's best attempt at a sincere consolation.
But to Alter, cornered at the edge of despair, the words "dearest little sister" felt like a sharp blade burrowing deeper.
"…Sister."
Alter clutched Kay's sleeve tightly. As her head bowed, her golden eyes ignited with a sticky, fierce obsession.
"I now… refuse to be your little sister."
"Alter?"
"If not a drop of blood binds us, why should I be shackled perpetually by the title of little sister? Those beastly bitches shamelessly call you husband and slither into your bedchamber—why alone must I be shoved aside under the flimsy excuse of being your sister?!"
Alter lifted her head and stared straight at Kay.
It was a desperation and blind yearning that had cast even pride aside.
"I no longer need the shell of siblings. I don't care if it means ripping apart the chains of family. Just take me… take me as a woman just like those other women, Kay. Look only at me…."
Alter buried her face deep in Kay's broad chest, looking up at him.
Her slender arms tightened around Kay's waist as if to break him. At this raw, desperate obsession, he felt sticky cold sweat roll down his spine.
'…This is definitely going off the rails.'
It reminded him of how clueless Kay had once brushed off the rivalry of eight sisters in Britain as mere childish squabbles.
But this was no petty tantrum—it was a blind possessive hunger, a destructive love willing to destroy herself to claim him.
'Could it be… they're all going to end up like this? Lancer seemed pretty intense back in Manchester.'
The trembling touch Lancer had shown him in North Wales, and the rampaging obsession of Alter upon waking in Manchester—they flashed through his mind in rapid succession.
Images of the remaining Artorias—Artoria, Lily, Lancer Alter—who he had yet to meet raced through his mind. What if they, too, saw him as anything but family?
A foreboding sense settled over him.
"Hehe~ what a troublemaker, huh? Not so tough for the Master's sister, is it? So, what was it again? As the new sister-in-law, I'll spoil you real good, okay?"
"Indeed. As the new sister-in-law, comforting the Master's sister is a wife's role, after all."
"Um, don't you think you're teasing her a bit too much?"
'Honestly, can you all just get lost?'
"Ugh, I'll go get some more congee."
"…I'll come too. I can't stay here with these lumps of flesh."
"For now, we're like a new family, right? So get along, please."
"Heh… didn't big brother teach you something once? They called it NTR, right? Why should I be friendly with NTR girls?"
"Tch… alright, let's go."
Somehow, Kay felt the future looked bleak.