"Ah~ go on, Alter."
Kay leaned against the bed and held out a wooden spoon toward Alter's lips. The steaming porridge he'd just brought was still hot.
Alter pursed her lips shut and turned her head away. Her mind hadn't fully recovered yet, and earlier Tamamo and Jeanne d'Arc Alter had completely turned her insides upside down, leaving her in a decidedly foul mood.
"I'm not eating. I'd rather starve to death."
"If you starve, Tamamo or Jeanne d'Arc Alter might force your mouth open and feed you, you know?"
At that, Alter's shoulders twitched. She shot a sidelong glare at the servants huddled in the corner of the lord's chamber, sipping their tea and watching her with interest.
Each one was insufferable—yet they knew my brother's last five years better than I did.
"…Hmph."
Reluctantly, Alter parted her lips and accepted the porridge as Kay fed it to her.
It was delicious. Simple, familiar—the taste of her foolish brother, melting her frozen heart.
Kay silently soothed her and tended to her spirits until she finished the entire bowl of porridge.
"All right, now rest a bit. I'm going out for a moment."
"Where are you going?"
Alter, looking anxious, clutched Kay's sleeve tightly. Though she hadn't flinched under Taquin's torture, the fear that her brother might disappear before her again was obvious.
"I have to discuss Manchester's directive—there's also the matter of dealing with the remaining Saxon bandits. I'll be back soon. Tamamo, Jeanne d'Arc Alter, Medusa—you three take good care of Alter. No fighting."
"Oh, don't you worry~ Your sister-in-law is practically my sister! I'll pamper her with all my heart!"
With Kay's parting admonition to the servants, the door closed firmly, and a strangely chill silence settled over the lord's chamber.
Alter sat on the bed, pulling the covers up to her chin, glaring at the three servants with guarded eyes.
The air in the room weighed heavy. A standoff between predators sizing each other up.
Tamamo was the first to break the silence. She cleared the tray holding the empty porridge bowl and gave a coquettish smile.
"Oh dear, our dear sister-in-law. Please don't look at me with those murderous eyes. You'll get wrinkles between your brows. Since your brother's not here, shall we ladies have a little chat?"
Tamamo approached Alter's bedside, speaking in an ingratiating tone. Alter only glared fiercely without answering, and Tamamo's lips curled slyly.
"You know, I actually have some skill in cooking! Every day in the Demon Realm's kitchen was a labor of love with your brother. He'd hug me from behind to show me how to control the fire… and when he tasted my dishes from the same spoon, smiling, my heart would flutter so much."
Alter's cheek trembled. The fist gripping the blanket balled into a knot.
"Oh my, sometimes I'd just wear an apron over nothing and let my tail wag to whet his appetite~ The nights in the Demon Realm are long and cold. Sharing body heat is a married couple's duty, isn't it?"
"…What the hell are you prattling about, you vulgar beast?!!"
Finally unable to hold back, Alter bared her teeth and roared.
Dark black mana, ominous and heavy, poured from her entire body, cracking the bedpost.
"You filthy she-fox crawling into my brother's bedchamber! I'll rip that three-inch tongue of yours out right now!!"
"Oh dear, just kidding, just kidding! You're practically on fire!"
Seeing Alter truly radiate murderous intent and rampage, Tamamo hurriedly opened her fan and took a step back.
"Your brother's such a stick-in-the-mud that in the Demon Realm's kitchen, all you heard was the sound of him chopping vegetables and mincing meat. I was just having a bit of fun teasing my sister-in-law—clearly I went too far. Please forgive me."
"…I'll kill you."
"Oh, cheer up. Here, this is my heartfelt apology gift. Your brother personally told me that this is Alter's favorite and taught me the recipe just for me."
Tamamo summoned a plate with a gesture and placed it on Alter's lap through a minor spell.
On the plate was a colossal hamburger: a thick, glossy bun sandwiching a juicy beast-meat patty, fresh vegetables, and oozing melted cheese.
"…Junk food."
Alter's nostrils flared. Even after finishing the abalone porridge, the aggressive aroma of meat and sauce unique to a hamburger assaulted her senses.
She glanced around furtively, then carefully grasped the burger with both hands and took a big bite.
With a satisfying crunch, the juice of the meat—evidence of Tamamo's perfect cooking skill—flooded her mouth.
"Well? How's this Tamamo's handiwork? I grilled the patty made from the Demon Realm's beast meat with my special Flame Wind spell, so the flavor should be extraordinary."
Alter silently chewed and swallowed the burger.
Objectively speaking, the taste itself was excellent. The meat's juice, the softness of the bun, the harmony of the sauce—it was near perfection. Even bringing in the best cook from Britain couldn't improve on this. But…
"…The taste is excellent. I'll give you that. But it's not the same as the burgers Kay makes."
Alter wiped her mouth with a napkin and responded dryly.
At those words, Tamamo's fox ears perked. Jeanne d'Arc Alter and Medusa, leaning against the wall playing with their flags and quietly reading, respectively, turned their heads with interest.
"Oh~ really? What do Kay's burgers taste like? You followed the recipe down to every letter."
"Exactly. That idiot does cook well, but a burger's a burger. You're just being picky."
Jeanne d'Arc Alter's remark irked Alter. She'd never tasted British cuisine. If they tried the burger recipe themselves, they'd end up with true junk food.
Alter leaned back against the headboard and gazed out at the blue sky. Her eyes slowly became soaked in bittersweet nostalgia.
"We were blood of the Pendragon line, noble royalty… but hiding our identities, we lived in a barren fringe village. Beasts and monsters swarmed the forest, so we had plenty of meat from the hunt. But now Britain was suffering poor harvests, so bread and grains were rare, precious ingredients too scant to fill the stomachs of the eight of us sisters."
Her voice grew strangely soft. The oppressive aura of a tyrant vanished; it was a sister's voice longing for one person.
"Kay, that foolish brother of mine, crushed wild fruits and coarse wheat in the forest every night for us. He'd crouch by a makeshift oven, face burnt, blisters bursting on his hands, kneading dough and researching bread recipes."
Alter looked down at her hand holding the burger.
"But with Britain's meager flour, from a boy who'd never formally learned cooking, the first loaves were… horrific. Hard as stones, gritty like chewing sand—absolutely inedible."
"Oh my, I had no idea our brother had that culinary skeleton in his closet."
"He knew better than anyone how bad that bread was. So he came up with… the first hamburger: slicing that hard bread, mixing in thick ground boar meat from hunting, then slathering a greasy sauce he'd boiled down so you could choke it down if you had to."
A faint smile spread across Alter's lips. It was the warm, pure smile of a girl—something impossible to see in Taquin's prison.
"That first burger… the bread scraped the roof of your mouth, the sauce was too salty and sour. Objectively, it was hard to swallow, lackluster compared to past meals. But…"
Alter placed her hand gently over her heart.
"On cold winter nights, spent covered in ash by the fire all night, burn scars and bandaged hands shyly offering that burger—my brother's face, smiling like he'd never been happier when we devoured it through tears. That was the luckiest moment in the world, the relief in his foolish grin."
Her golden eyes glistened with affection and longing.
"That burger was, more than any delicacy I ever ate, the greatest feast of my life. No matter how perfectly you copied the recipe, you can never cook up the rough, desperate love my brother poured into it."
After finishing her tale, a quiet pride at being Kay's little sister lingered on her face.
Silence reigned in the room as they listened to the touching, profound story of brother and sister.
Jeanne d'Arc Alter clenched the flag in her hand and muttered bluntly, "…Hmph. What an annoyingly devoted brother you have. Glad you never had to go hungry."
Medusa, who had once sacrificed everything for her sisters and fallen into ruin, quietly closed her eyes and nodded.
"I understand that feeling. This wasn't about skill, but a meal made by sacrificing one's own life force. It's a level of cooking beyond our reach."
Tamamo sighed softly, folded her fan, and smiled gently.
"…Indeed. Our sister-in-law truly is the most special person to your brother. I have to admit it~ I might even be a little jealous."
"What? That's only stating the obvious."
"If I'm honest, we don't hate our sister-in-law or see her as an enemy."
Tamamo spoke sincerely.
"If anything, we're envious. In that hellish dungeon, your brother's drive to keep going every night—breaking bones and coughing up blood, yet never giving up—was fueled by you. In this world, you're the women who received his deepest devotion and love. We're just latecomers, brides who came to admire that desperate figure from the sidelines."
Taken aback by the servants' unexpected, earnest confession, Alter's golden eyes darted around in astonishment. Then she let out a short laugh and bit into her remaining burger.
"Hmph. Not much to say for stones that roll in, is it?"
Though she quipped, the murderous edge and hostility in Alter's voice had thawed away like spring snow.
Several hours later.
After wrapping up the administrative work at Manchester Castle and returning to the lord's chamber, Kay blinked at the surprisingly warm atmosphere as soon as he opened the door.
"Uh…? You lot didn't fight? And Alter, you're letting Tamamo brush your hair?"
"S-Shut up! I just outsourced my hair care to that she-fox because her brushing skills are astonishingly good!"
"Ufufu, Master! See? Between sisters-in-law, the bond's stronger than you'd think."
Kay sighed in relief.
It was more than a relief that Alter's mental state, the biggest ticking time bomb, seemed to have settled.
"That's fortunate. Once your strength returns, Alter, we'll head up to North Wales right away. Artoria Lancer's been waiting anxiously, too."
At that moment.
Urgent clanging of metal came from outside the lord's chamber, and a panting household servant rushed in.
"Kay, Kay-nari!! It's a dire situation! Outside the gate, a knights' contingent has arrived!"
"Knights? Saxon reinforcements?"
Kay immediately picked up the golden axe from the floor, but the servant shook his head vigorously.
"No, no! They carry the Lion King's banner! They say they're the escort knights dispatched from North Wales!"
"Knights sent by Artoria Lancer? They arrived sooner than I thought. Guess they sent a welcome party because they were worried."
Kay relaxed and smiled in relief.
"Let them in. We were just about to pack our things anyway."
A moment later.
Ten elite knights clad head-to-toe in silver plate armor, their footsteps thundering, entered the lord's chamber.
At their head stood a man almost half-giant in stature—two heads taller than an ordinary knight, looking near-human in build. His armor bore the emblem of a blue lion. Lifting his massive helmet, he hooked it at his side and knelt on one knee.
"I am Galehaut, knight of North Wales. By the royal command of Her Majesty the Lion King, I have come to escort Lady Alter, the Lion King's sister."
Galehaut.
Once king of the islands near North Wales, he was defeated in war by the Lion King, the conqueror of North Wales, and became her retainer.
Though he was once a king, he yielded willingly to the Lion King's overwhelming power and mystique, becoming her faithful vassal.
"Thank you for your service, Sir Galehaut. Alter has just recovered, and we were about to depart."
Kay approached with a smile and extended his hand for a handshake.
However, Galehaut completely ignored Kay's outstretched hand and rose coldly.
With an aura of oppressive force from his massive frame, he glared down at Kay with eyes as sharp and hostile as if carved from ice.
"…Are you the Kay whom Her Majesty sought?"
Though it was polite speech, his voice dripped with unabashed contempt and displeasure.
In the eyes of this man, once a king, Kay appeared only as a rough, provincial fellow in unremarkable attire.
The nine knights behind him also gripped their spear shafts tightly, radiating a sinister, tense energy toward Kay.
"Her Majesty has commanded me to receive you with the utmost honor… but in my personal opinion, a disreputable man of unknown origin who disappeared like a mouse for five years, then reappeared and lingered by Her Majesty's side, would be a grave stain and hindrance to Britain's grand enterprise and Her Majesty's reign."
Galehaut's arrogant, provocative words.
In an instant, the peaceful air of the lord's chamber froze solid below the point of a deep freeze.
A blue kitsunebi flickered at Tamamo's fingertips, chains slithered from Medusa's sleeve like serpents, and black flames sprang from Jeanne d'Arc Alter's flag.
And most of all—
"…How dare this bastard open his mouth before my brother?"
Alter, seated on the bed, slit her vertical golden pupils, and murderous mana of a tyrant, orders of magnitude more powerful than before, began to crush the room.
These were the escort troops from North Wales, whom we'd thought were reliable.
But five years of absence had left deep-rooted misunderstandings and blind distrust of Kay among armed men like Galehaut, who worshipped absolute power.