Inside a spacious carriage heading to North Wales.
…Will Lancer welcome me?
Kay stared out at the blur of Britain's landscape rushing past, lost in thought.
Five years ago, Merlin had forcibly cast him into the [Abyssal Realm].
But from his sisters' point of view, the brother who promised to protect them to the very end had simply vanished one day.
He was crushed by guilt, believing it was his fault that the sisters had fractured and gone their separate ways.
The cause was clearly Merlin's doing, but in the end, it was just as Merlin had said.
Kay himself had been their weak point. Just one person's absence had sparked all this chaos.
If only he'd been stronger, if he hadn't been separated, he might not have fallen for Merlin's gambit.
"…You look tense, Master."
Medusa, sitting across from him, spoke softly. She closed her book and peered at him from behind her blindfold.
"Could it be you're afraid your younger sister will blame you?"
"…You caught that, huh."
Kay gave a wry laugh and scratched the back of his head.
"Well, I deserve their blame. I was too weak and fell to that fiend's tricks, leaving them on their own for five years. I'm ready to take a beating."
"Oh, come now, Hubby! Don't say such weak things."
Tamamo, sitting close beside him, looped her tail gently around his arm in comfort.
"When your siblings believed you were dead and you come back alive, who'd hold a grudge? They ought to cry tears of joy and throw themselves at you! And if that so-called queen sister-in-law ever dares to raise a sword against you, Hubby, I, Tamamo, will give her a stern education!"
Tamamo was spot on. After raising him for sixteen years, any betrayal for five years of absence would truly be unforgivable.
"Hah. Tamamo's right. It's not your fault, so why're you hanging your head? That fiend's the jerk here."
Jeanne Alter, arms folded, blurted out as she gazed out the window.
"And if anyone actually tries to lay a hand on you… I'll scorch them first, so don't worry."
Buoyed by his Servants' fierce yet reassuring support, Kay let out a small laugh.
"Just… don't burn them."
Such worries were pointless. What mattered was facing his sister and clearing up the misunderstandings of the past.
After days of travel, the carriage finally arrived at the gates of the grand capital of North Wales—where King Rience had been overthrown and a new queen now reigned.
The approach to the city gate thronged with merchants and mercenaries drawn from all corners.
"We will conduct an inspection. Step down from the carriage and state your business!"
Armed guards surrounded the carriage, blocking its path.
When the carriage door opened and rough-hewn Kay stepped out, followed by three dazzlingly beautiful women, every gaze in the crowd snapped to them.
"State your identity and purpose of visit."
The captain of the guards held up a parchment chart, eyeballing Kay from head to toe as he asked gruffly.
"Ah, thanks for your diligence. My name's Kay. As for my purpose… I've come to see the Queen of North Wales. No, my younger sister."
The guard captain's hand froze at Kay's calm reply.
A wave of irritation and contempt flickered across his face.
"…What? Kay? Your sister?"
"Yes. She used to be called just Lancer, but now she's become Queen, I hear."
"Sigh… again."
The captain pressed his hand to his forehead and spat on the ground in irritation.
"Hey, you crazy bastard. You're the twentieth 'Kay' this year alone."
"…Huh?"
"Do you know how many hulking cooks just like you have stormed in, pretending to be the late Sir Kay, His Majesty's deceased foster brother, trying to rake in a spot here in North Wales?! I'm damn sick of it!"
The captain poked Kay's chest with the chart and raised his voice.
"I know our Queen put up a bounty, desperately searching for that supposed dead brother all those years ago! That was years ago! Now, because of these impostors, Her Majesty is sick to death of the whole thing! Why does everyone keep pretending to be someone who's clearly dead?! Now get out! I'm too damn tired to deal with this!"
The guard shoved Kay by the shoulder, trying to drive him off.
"Honestly, it's the Queen's fault too. She makes such a fuss over one foster brother who could only cook at best. Because of that guy, so many scams have already happened; it's a real mess. Anyone can see he's dead—just search for a corpse, it'd be so simple. Instead they hunt for a man and complicate everything."
Kay was dumbfounded. Impostors running rampant because so many people believed him dead? Still, he couldn't back down.
"I'm sorry, but I'm the real deal. Just let me see my sister's face. If you give me a meal, she'll recognize me instantly."
"Is this bastard truly insane?! You don't understand words?!"
The captain, enraged, drew his mace from his belt and swung it toward Kay's head.
But to Kay's eyes, that attack looked slower than a child's swing of a toy stick.
Thud.
Kay casually reached out and grabbed the guard's wrist.
"Uh…?"
"Would it have killed you to listen?"
Holding his wrist, Kay lightly swung his arm and hurled the entire guard's body into the air.
"Aaaah!!"
The captain's body arced dozens of meters through the air, smashing into the ground near the ramparts.
"Aaah! My back! My back…!"
"You're clearly brain-dead, so having your spine shattered and being bedridden would probably improve your life. Whatever you are, I don't tolerate anyone insulting my sister."
Kay stared coldly at the crumpled guard and turned back to the gate, striding forward.
The sheer ferocity froze the surrounding merchants and other guards in place, parting to clear his path.
"Let's go. We're going straight through."
"Ohohoh, as expected of our Hubby! So tough! It's exactly like the Genji way!"
"Looks like those Genji fellows weren't exactly sane either."
Kay walked steadily on until he reached the main gate of the massive palace where the Queen of North Wales resided.
In front of the gate, dozens of elite knights clad in plate armor stood in formation.
"Halt! You at the gate! Drop your weapons and kneel at once! State your business!"
The commander leveled his spear and barked his order.
Kay answered calmly.
"I've come to see my sister. Open the gate."
"Your sister? Who's your sister that you'd barge into this palace?!"
"The Queen you serve. Lancer, that is."
No sooner had the words left his mouth than the knights' expressions hardened. Their spear tips and swords all turned on Kay.
"How dare you so casually utter the name of our glorious [Lion King]! You're surely either a spy of the traitors or a mad fraud!"
"What's wrong with a brother calling out his sister's name? I'm really Kay. Hurry up and tell Lancer her brother's here."
"The nerve on this one! All of you, arrest that fraud at once! If he resists, you may cut him down!"
At the commander's order, dozens of heavily armed knights surged toward Kay at once.
"…Sigh. Well, it makes sense since I have no credentials. But in Ulster, they said they didn't care about things like that, you know?"
Kay shrugged, reached to draw the golden axe strapped to his back, then paused mid-reach.
If he used the axe, those knights would vanish without so much as a splinter of bone left behind.
He clenched his bare fist instead.
"Since I'm plowing straight through, I might as well see what level the soldiers under my sister's command are at."
Kay kicked off the ground and leapt into the formation of knights.
Kraaang!! Thwack!!
When Kay's fist slammed into a knight's shield, the steel buckled like paper, crushing the plate armor of the knight standing behind in a chain reaction.
He hadn't used any mana. It was pure physical force generated by compressed muscles honed over five years in the [Abyssal Realm] and flawless power transmission.
"Aaaargh!"
"What the—?! This brute strength?!"
The knights flew like autumn leaves in a harvest field.
Following close behind, the Servants also started to warm up.
"I'll clear away any pests bothering Master."
When Medusa whipped out her chained daggers, the knights' legs tangled and they collapsed in a heap on the ground.
"Hmph! All of you are pathetic!"
When Jeanne Alter waved her banner, black flames engulfed the shafts of the knights' spears, disarming them.
In less than a minute, the dozens of elite knights guarding the gate lay groaning on the ground.
They had been defeated cleanly, without a drop of blood shed.
"…Hah."
Kay looked down at the fallen knights and released a deep sigh.
"Pathetic. Aren't they way too weak? They're supposed to be knights, not common foot soldiers—how does this lot expect to protect my sister with skills like that? Lancer still has no eye for competent subordinates. Our girls really are hopeless at judging people. Next thing you know, she'll appoint some weirdo to the Round Table or something."
Just as Kay clicked his tongue in exasperation, worrying about his sister, it happened.
Kkigigigik~Thud!!
The massive gate of the palace, tightly shut until then, groaned as it slowly swung open.
And from within, a colossal figure exuding overwhelming mystery and mana strode out.
She wore a hefty suit of plate armor, gleaming with silvery light.
Under a helmet evocative of a lion's mane, she held the star-binding anchor: the holy lance [Rhongomyniad].
The pressure she emanated chilled the very air around her solid.
She was the ruler of North Wales—the [Lion King].
Even though her face was hidden by the helmet, Kay recognized her in an instant from her presence and stature.
"Lancer…!"
Overwhelmed with joy, Kay broke into a wide grin and strode toward her.
Clang!!
But Kay's greeting never reached its end.
The [Lion King] flashed a glare through her helmet's visor, coolly aiming the tip of [Rhongomyniad] at Kay's throat.
"…Halt right there. Who are you?"
Her voice was cold and mechanical, as if all emotion had been stripped away.
Kay blinked uncertainly as he eyed the spear's tip inches from his neck.
"What's this, Lancer? Can't see well with that helmet on? It's me, me—your brother Kay. I really made it here──"
"Don't lie."
Lancer's voice began to tremble ever so slightly. Beyond the visor, her words carried icy rage mixed with a profound denial of reality.
"My brother… he's dead. That day five years ago, he was attacked by beasts at the cliff's edge and fell into the sea below. I searched the base of that cliff dozens, no, hundreds of times, but not a single strand of hair did I find."
"Lancer, please hear me out. That was Merlin—"
"If he were alive!"
Lancer suddenly exploded in a roar. Her once icy composure momentarily shattered in a burst of emotion.
"If he were alive… why did he only come for me now?! Do you know how many nights I cried blood tears calling for him?! Not a single whisper for years, and now you show up looking like my brother… You must be a devil's illusion to mock me, or a vile imposter!!"
The mana she unleashed howled like a storm, whipping Kay's hair around.
She was in desperate denial of reality—he couldn't be alive, and if he were, he wouldn't have left her alone for so long.
Yet she had kept searching for him all this time; even in her grief, she clung to the tiniest spark of hope.
Her profound despair and twisted, wounded heart were transmitted to Kay through the tip of her spear.
Kay silently watched his sister, spear aimed at him.
He wanted to explain—that he'd been trapped in the [Abyssal Realm] by Merlin, enduring bone-crushing agony every day to return alive.
But standing before the sister who'd suffered for five years, he knew full well that such feeble excuses would bring her no comfort.
"…I'm sorry."
He gave a bittersweet, tender smile.
"I'm sorry for coming so late. I'm sorry for leaving you alone."
Then, he gently shoved aside the tip of her [Rhongomyniad] with his bare hand and strode resolutely into the castle.
"…! W-what are you doing!? I'll stab you if you come closer!"
Lancer, flustered, tried to re-aim her spear, but Kay marched toward the castle kitchens without once looking back, calling out:
"Go ahead and stab or strike me, I don't care. For now… I'm going to make you your favorite dish for the first time in five years. When the smell makes you drool, then you can come at me."
"…!"
The hand that gripped Lancer's [Rhongomyniad] began to tremble.
Beyond the visor, the [Lion King]'s eyes began to storm with an uncontrollable tempest of emotion.