After lunch, a petite shadow fell across Barghest, who was lifting a stone weight beneath the shade of a tree in the courtyard.
"Barghest, I'll accept your challenge."
"Ha... Hahahahaha! Great! You finally agreed! We'll settle right here who deserves to be called the strongest knight among the fairies. Father-sama happens to be here too, so he can be the referee."
Hearing that heavenly reply, Barghest immediately broke into a delighted grin and tossed the stone weight aside. The roughly ninety-kilogram object slammed into the lawn and left a deep crater.
The curvaceous, heavily muscled fairy girl cracked her wrists as she stepped forward.
But just as the duel was about to begin, Melusine's eyes flickered and she spoke solemnly.
"Before we fight, I have one request..."
"No problem! Name whatever conditions you want! I can hold back an arm or a leg, or carry extra weight. As long as you're willing to fight me, anything goes!"
Barghest readily agreed and eagerly assumed a fighting stance.
"Let me pet your head..."
"Huh?"
"Is that not allowed?"
"Um... It's not that you can't. It's just a really strange request..."
"Then how about we forget it? Your duel can end here."
Samael, who had been dragged in as the referee, yawned and added from the side.
"It's not strange! Not strange at all! Hurry up and pet me!"
Seeing that Melusine, who had finally agreed to fight, was already turning away with an indifferent expression, Barghest immediately stopped worrying about how odd the request sounded and hurried after her.
She closed her eyes and obediently stood still, as docile as an enormous family dog.
At last, her wish was about to come true.
Melusine instantly lost her earlier aloof expression and exchanged a knowing glance with the referee conspiring with her from afar, her golden eyes brimming with excitement.
Yet after waiting for a full five minutes, Barghest still felt no hand touch her head.
Growing impatient, the Black Dog opened her eyes.
There stood Melusine, desperately stretching onto the tips of her toes with one arm raised as high as possible. She tried again and again, but still could not reach the top of Barghest's head.
Well, judging by appearances, Barghest was around 1.8 meters tall, while Melusine was only about 1.4 meters.
There was no getting around the height difference...
But it was undeniably adorable.
Samael watched from the sidelines with great interest and naturally had no intention of pointing it out.
Once Melusine realized Barghest had discovered her predicament, her face immediately turned bright red. She turned her head aside, mortified.
"There. Can you reach now?"
To Melusine's surprise, the towering figure before her dropped to one knee and obediently lowered her head, without the slightest hint of mockery on her face.
At last, after a brief hesitation, Melusine's slightly trembling hand reached the height she had dreamed of.
Soon, as she grew more comfortable, Melusine suppressed her nervousness and buried her pale fingers in Barghest's long, fluffy golden hair.
She closed her eyes and stroked it over and over, unable to stop herself from murmuring softly. Every now and then, she cracked one eye open just enough to glance around and make sure no one had noticed what she was doing.
"Good... good doggy... Such a good doggy..."
"Um... Excuse me, can we start now?"
After being petted for a full fifteen minutes, Barghest was beginning to feel as if she might actually lose some hair and finally could not help speaking up.
Interrupted, Melusine reluctantly withdrew her hand and stepped back, clearly not yet satisfied.
Then her expression became serious as she looked solemnly at Barghest.
In the clearing, Barghest and Melusine adjusted their breathing almost simultaneously and quickly entered combat mode.
Ether surged through their bodies, whipping the air around them into violent currents. Their pressure steadily climbed, and sparks seemed to fly as their gazes collided in midair.
The next instant, feeling herself suppressed beneath Melusine's draconic pressure, the Black Dog struck first.
Melusine stamped against the ground and met her head-on without hesitation.
"I'm coming!"
"Bring it on!"
"Haah!"
"Hup, ha, hey!"
"Sweep All Before Me!"
"High-Angle Maneuver!"
"Chain·Explosion!"
"Claws, fire!"
"Weak! Weak! Is that all you've got?!"
"Fine, increasing output. I'll split you in half!"
One large figure and one small one finally broke through the distance between them and began trading fierce blows across the courtyard.
For a time, shockwaves swept over the flowers and trees like violent gusts, leaving broken branches and crushed vegetation behind. Ether flew in every direction, blasting the ground and sending turf and green-speckled mud spraying through the air.
Not far away, Samael and Morgan sat at a stone table drinking hot tea as they watched, treating the whole thing as little more than children playing.
After all, the courtyard had already been enclosed within the [Sealed Courtyard] Barrier Magecraft. No matter how violently Barghest and Melusine fought, none of the noise would reach the outside.
The Ancient Serpent glanced at the witch's exquisite profile, his eyes flickering thoughtfully.
Ever since defeating Vortigern, Morgan's Magecraft had improved considerably. She could now suppress the collision of Mana between two future Fairy Knights with ease, all by herself.
Still, fate was often fair.
To gain something, one usually had to pay something in return.
Vortigern's power had come from the polluted wills of those abandoned beneath the land of Britannia.
Samael wondered whether fusing with that power had influenced Morgan's personality in the future, gradually driving her behavior to greater extremes until she ultimately became a witch despised by everyone.
"Why are you staring at me?"
Sensing the gaze beside her, Morgan instinctively raised a hand to her cheek.
"With something so beautiful right in front of me, wouldn't it be stranger not to admire it, Your Majesty?"
"Flatterer. Hmph. How many girls have you said that to?"
"That line is reserved exclusively for you, of course. Are you really going to doubt even a heartfelt compliment?"
Samael put on an injured expression and answered plaintively, without the slightest hint of guilt in his eyes.
After all, he had said plenty of things like that before, but he never repeated the same line.
So this particular one was absolutely exclusive to Morgan.
Even though he felt perfectly justified and had nothing to feel guilty about, the more he talked, the more likely he was to slip up.
The Ancient Serpent quickly looked around for an opportunity to change the dangerous subject.
At that moment, Baobhan Sith had dragged Freya into the pavilion and was enthusiastically playing a simplified version of Beast Chess with her.
"Look! Barghest is about to get hit!"
The deer-hoofed fairy suddenly widened her eyes as though she had spotted something incredible.
Freya, who had her back to the battlefield, instinctively turned around.
At that exact moment, a pale little hand quietly crept onto the stone table.
When Freya turned back and looked at the board, she froze and murmured in confusion.
"I remember having fewer pieces..."
"Hey, hey! Enough about pieces already. Stop fussing and make your move! Don't waste my time when I'm about to win!"
Baobhan Sith urged her impatiently from across the table, sounding utterly confident and self-assured.
"Smack!"
Just as the timid Freya lowered her head and prepared to move a piece, a pebble flew in from nearby and struck the back of Baobhan Sith's hand.
The girl cried out in pain.
Her tightly clenched fist opened, and two missing chess pieces rolled onto the table.
"Baobhan Sith, you're bullying Freya again. Are you asking for a beating? Put the pieces back properly!"
Having witnessed the little troublemaker's sleight of hand, Samael immediately stepped in to uphold justice.
Caught red-handed, Baobhan Sith had no choice but to surrender the evidence with a disgruntled expression.
"Oh no! They're charging this way! Watch out!"
But the instant the pieces left her hand, Baobhan Sith's eyes darted around.
She suddenly lunged at Freya as though shielding her from the aftermath of Barghest and Melusine's battle.
"Thump!"
Only after lying there for several minutes did Freya realize there had never been any danger at all.
When the fairy girl dusted herself off and sat back down, she discovered that during Baobhan Sith's "heroic rescue," the entire chessboard had been thrown into complete disarray.
"Tch, how did that happen? Damn it! I was obviously about to win! Another round!"
Baobhan Sith pulled a very "heartbroken" grin and, without giving Freya any choice, dragged her into another game.
She really was hopeless at it, yet loved playing anyway...
Watching Baobhan Sith's ridiculous maneuvering from afar, Samael was utterly speechless.
Baobhan Sith had said that same thing countless times, but the number of games she had actually won was pitiful.
Even then, almost every advantage she gained came from cheating.
Eventually, her former chess partners, including Habetrot and Barghest, had all blacklisted her and flatly refused to play with her anymore.
And once people knew to watch her hands, pulling off tricks became even harder.
With her atrocious skill level, playing fairly was basically volunteering to be humiliated.
So in the end, Baobhan Sith, who fancied herself practically a grandmaster, could only bully the honest and trusting Freya in this courtyard.
Samael had no intention of interfering, though.
After all, this sort of "bullying" went no further than harmless cheating in a game.
With his sharp eye for people, the Ancient Serpent could tell that Baobhan Sith actually cared quite a lot about Freya, who, like her, had once been weak and suffered constant mistreatment.
Whenever Baobhan Sith aggressively fought over food, she always made sure Freya still got her share.
In its own strange way, that counted as friendship.
"Oh, right. Where's Habetrot?"
Returning to the present, Samael realized the lively courtyard was missing one person and turned to Morgan.
The witch glanced toward the rear courtyard and answered casually.
"I asked her to weave a formal outfit. She should still be busy in the workshop."
"You're getting a new dress? Then I want to be the first to see it!"
"No. It's for you..."
"For me?"
"Mm. There's a banquet at the palace tonight. I was invited, and I need you to come with me."
Samael nodded.
Only then did he remember that Morgan ruled Orkney, the Land of Terminus, which naturally made her one of Britannia's lords.
A banquet...
At last, he would get the chance to formally meet the King of Knights face to face.
The Ancient Serpent rubbed his chin, a trace of anticipation appearing in his eyes.
By nightfall, under countless curious gazes, the tightly shut door creaked open.
The two figures who emerged together immediately made the little ones' eyes light up.
Samael wore a perfectly fitted pure-white formal coat with a sky-blue waistcoat beneath it. The outfit emphasized his tall, slender build and elegant bearing, while his tousled pale-golden hair added a hint of uninhibited charm.
His jade-like face had clean, sharply defined lines, every feature fitting together in perfect harmony.
But the most striking thing about him was undoubtedly his eyes.
The wise could see wisdom as deep as an abyss within them.
The sensitive could find comfort as gentle as flowing water.
The pessimistic could see light as brilliant as the stars.
The shallow could perceive the flawless beauty of pearls and gemstones.
Everyone saw something different, yet each perceived "beauty" through whatever perspective could move their heart most deeply.
Even the world's greatest sculptor, working with the finest marble, could not reproduce even a fraction of the presence contained within that face.
What an extraordinary masterpiece.
What noble reason.
What tremendous strength.
What graceful bearing.
What elegant movement.
How like an angel in conduct, and how like a god in wisdom.
Even the fairies, naturally drawn to beautiful things, could not help marveling inwardly.
Feeling slightly uncomfortable beneath all those stares, Samael touched the cheek that had long remained hidden beneath his cloak and gave the dazed audience a helpless smile.
It could not be helped.
The temptation of a demon often ended in tragedy, but it usually began with something beautiful.
As the legendary King of Demons who had been blamed for countless disasters throughout history, Samael naturally possessed that kind of peculiar attraction.
Fortunately, unless he deliberately intensified it, the effect never lasted long.
The fairies soon came back to their senses and turned toward the other person who had also undergone a complete change.
To suit the banquet, Morgan had abandoned her usual severe, somber style.
She removed her veil and used only a blue crystal-like crown to gather her long hair neatly behind her head. An elegant blue-black gown covered her body.
With every movement, her regal grace blended with her innate air of Mystery, making her seem like an Elemental walking alone beneath the moon.
Once they were dressed, Samael and Morgan left Habetrot and Freya at home and took their three foster daughters, Barghest, Baobhan Sith, and Melusine, out of the manor.
They climbed into the carriage waiting outside and set off for the royal palace, where the banquet was being held.
It was the girls' first time attending a human banquet, and they were visibly excited.
Even Melusine, who normally struggled with social situations, asked several questions about banquet etiquette and repeatedly practiced with Barghest inside the carriage.
Samael had to admit that his little intervention earlier had worked surprisingly well.
Ever since Barghest and Melusine finally fought, the two had developed a real sense of mutual respect and were now getting along quite well.
But you...
Could you be a little more considerate?
The Ancient Serpent, crouched outside the curtain while driving the carriage, glanced back into the cabin.
Baobhan Sith was curled comfortably in Morgan's arms, shamelessly occupying the place Samael wanted for himself.
He could only complain inwardly with lingering resentment.
Half an hour later, the carriage passed inspection and entered through the main gate of the royal palace.
As Morgan's dedicated guardian knight, Samael naturally displayed excellent professionalism.
With perfect courtesy, he first escorted Morgan and the girls into the great hall, then went off alone to park the carriage elsewhere.
Once those trivial matters were handled, the Ancient Serpent straightened his clothes and hurried toward the hall.
But as he passed through an arcade, three figures approaching from the opposite direction made Samael pause.
Then his face immediately brightened.
He called out from a distance and walked toward them with great familiarity.
"What a coincidence, Lord Lancelot. You're here too."
At once, the man on the right turned his head.
He had tousled purple hair, wore purple-black knightly armor, and carried himself with a calm, steady presence. His features were sharply defined, almost as though carved with a blade.
But before the purple-haired man could respond, the handsome young man walking on the left suddenly darted forward.
With practiced familiarity, he hooked an arm around Samael's neck.
"All right, you've seen the famous Knight of the Lake, renowned throughout Camelot and the Round Table. No need to bother him now. It just so happens I have something I need your help with. Come on, over here..."
As he spoke, the handsome young man turned around, waved casually to his two companions, then smilingly dragged a certain old acquaintance away.
Lancelot stood there blankly for a moment before turning to his red-haired close friend beside him.
"Tristan, do you know that man?"
"Never seen him before..."
"Strange. When did Kay make a friend like that? I should remember anyone he's particularly close to..."
"Perhaps he isn't a friend..."
Tristan idly plucked one of his bowstrings and looked toward the two men whispering suspiciously together in the shadows.
He answered quietly.