Although she still wore her hard, cold, heavy armor over her blue-and-white long dress, Saber's figure appeared exceptionally slender and petite at this moment.
Her delicate collarbones were faintly visible through the slightly open neckline, and her chest, rising and falling rapidly due to weakness, traced a curve that was not exaggerated but perfectly upright.
That girlish figure, usually hidden by her kingly majesty, now revealed a sort of fragile beauty maintained through sheer willpower under the weight of her exhaustion.
It was actually more dangerously attractive than when she was wreaking havoc on the battlefield.
"Your master, Kiritsugu Emiya, cut off most of your mana supply from the very beginning for the sake of his so-called stealth tactics, didn't he?"
Hansen's words hit the mark, mercilessly piercing through Saber's facade.
Saber bit her lower lip sharply, her face turning a few shades paler as her body swayed slightly, yet she did not offer a rebuttal.
As a Servant, she did not understand her master, Kiritsugu Emiya, and even felt an instinctive distance from him.
Such a lack of compatibility indicated that the two were simply not on the same page.
And that was indeed the case.
That calculating man never seemed to intend to place the weight of victory on his Servant, treating her merely as bait and a tool.
Since her summoning last night, he had only maintained the bare minimum mana supply, keeping her in a constant state of weakness.
And during the violent attack from that mad dog Berserker just now, she had been forced to severely overdraw the already meager mana reserves in her saint graph to maintain high-intensity combat.
Add to that the world-shaking strike when Hansen borrowed her Holy Sword.
Although Hansen directed the power, as the owner of the Holy Sword, her saint graph had also suffered severe tremors and backlash.
Right now, she was like a supercar whose fuel tank had long since run dry, yet its engine was being forced to high RPMs; the whole engine was starting to emit black smoke and could break down at any moment.
"Are you hungry?" Hansen asked suddenly, seeing her struggle to hold herself up.
"Gurgle—"
As if to cooperate with his question, and as if to protest its owner's stubbornness.
Saber's flat, tight abdomen let out a thunderously loud and clear protest in the silent living room.
The air froze instantly.
Irisviel covered her mouth in surprise, trying hard not to laugh.
Saber's face turned red from her neck to her ears in an instant, and even the spirited golden ahoge on her head stood straight up like a startled rabbit's ear before drooping down in shame.
Overwhelmed with embarrassment, she pressed down hard on her stomach, wishing she could find a hole in the ground to crawl into.
"Th-this is a normal physiological reaction! For a Servant, replenishing mana is a necessary activity! I..."
"Wait a second, you just mentioned Mana Replenishment, right?" Hansen's eyes lit up, and he immediately interrupted her, saying seriously, "The food at the Einzbern house is delicious, but the efficiency of converting ordinary food into mana is too low."
"At the rate you eat, you won't be able to recover from that earlier consumption even by the time the Holy Grail War ends."
"Then... then what should we do?" Irisviel asked anxiously, her heart full of worry as she looked at Saber's pale face. "Kiritsugu isn't here. Although I am the proxy master, most of the mana in my body must be used to maintain the functions of the lesser grail. I'm afraid I don't have any extra..."
"Simple."
A playful, somewhat mischievous curve formed at the corner of Hansen's mouth.
Those eyes, burning with a faint platinum divine fire, locked onto Saber like a hunter locking onto prey.
"Since your master is a stingy miser, let's just change the power bank."
"Power... bank?" Saber was stunned, not understanding the meaning of the word.
"Hey, come with me."
Hansen didn't give her time to react and grabbed Saber's wrist.
It was the hand of a warrior who had held a sword for years, with thin calluses on the pads of the fingers, yet the wrist was surprisingly slender, as if it could be broken with a little force.
The searing heat from Hansen's palm, like a branding iron, conducted all the way to Saber's heart, making her whole body tremble violently, nearly collapsing.
"Where are we going?!" Saber instinctively tried to break free, but she found the other's hand like an iron pincer, unmoving; that domineering strength left her without a single thought of resistance.
"The bedroom," Hansen said concisely, uttering two words.
"Wh-what?!" Saber's emerald eyes widened instantly, her face filled with disbelief and extreme shame-filled rage. "You insolent man! What... what are you thinking of doing?!"
"I am the King of Knights of Britain! I will never sell my honor for mere mana!"
"Hmm? What kind of filthy things are you thinking about, Flat-chested King?" Hansen squinted, his disdainful gaze making the blonde girl-king even more embarrassed.
He didn't stop, ignoring Saber's struggles and dragging her upstairs like a ruffled kitten, not forgetting to add a parting shot.
"It's just a traditional Mana Replenishment ritual. And to be honest, I'm not interested in a flat figure like yours."
"Fl-flat... figure?!"
Not! Interested!?
Steam billowed from Saber's upright ahoge. She felt her kingly dignity had suffered a devastating series of critical hits within this single day.
Irisviel watched the two of them being pulled upstairs, her beautiful face filled with the look of someone watching a drama unfold.
A knight and a princess, a handsome man and a beautiful woman—these two Servants were like historical silhouettes stepped out of a chivalric romance; every gesture they made screamed that they were a perfect match.
(Saber: I'm the knight!)
Besides, Saber's current state was indeed too poor.
If she couldn't recover as soon as possible, the consequences of facing the next enemies would be unthinkable... On the second floor, inside a spacious guest room.
With a "bang," Hansen closed the door behind him and casually placed a soundproof barrier on it, completely sealing off all sound.
He let go, and Saber stumbled a few steps, leaning against the wall and looking at him warily, her hands clutching her chest like a young beast driven into a corner.
"Take it off," Hansen said concisely, starting to unbutton his trench coat.
"Ha?! You really are...!" Saber's face turned bright red, and anger flared in her emerald eyes.
"I'm talking about the armor. What did you think?"
Saber: "..."
Hansen calmly pulled open his collar, revealing firm, sexy collarbones and a small patch of honey-colored chest. He said as if it were a matter of course, "Next, I need to directly contact your Heroic Spirit Core."
"With so many layers of clothing in the way, the mana conduction efficiency will be much worse... What, don't you even know this bit of common sense?"
Saber: "..."
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