In the end, Bedivere fled the study, clutching her face and letting out a soft, embarrassed whimper.
"Would it be too much trouble for you to knock next time, my dear sister?"
"Oh? So I did interrupt something good, didn't I?"
Arthur looked at the grinning black-haired girl and let out a helpless sigh. He walked over and shut the door.
"Fine, out with it. Why were you looking for me?"
"It's nothing life-threatening. Just a suspicious little girl showed up at the house. She's been crying and screaming that she needs to see you."
"Someone with a background?"
Arthur wasn't being narcissistic. Between the three feats he accomplished before the Selection Ceremony and the legend of him pulling the sword, the bards had spread his name so far and wide that there were probably ten thousand women in Camelot dreaming of climbing into his bed.
If it were just a common girl, Kay wouldn't have bothered him. While his sister had a habit of barging in without knocking and loved to wind him up, she was incredibly reliable when it came to actual business.
"She seems to have some sort of background, but I can't quite put my finger on it. Argh, whatever—I brought her here. You'll understand once you see her."
As Arthur followed Kay to the entrance of the drawing room, he heard a distinct munch-munch-crunch coming from inside. Stepping through the doorway, he was greeted by the sight of a girl with long, golden hair.
A lolita? A child?
Arthur couldn't quite tell the difference. The girl looked incredibly young, standing no more than five feet tall with a petite, slender frame.
She was currently perched on the sofa, her hair still damp from the rain. A maid stood behind her, attempting to tie her hair back, but the girl herself had zero table manners. She had a chicken leg in each hand and was stuffing her face like a starving ghost who hadn't eaten in a month. The sight was oddly familiar to Arthur.
This kid... she might actually give Lia a run for her money.
"Ahem!"
At the sound of Kay's cough, the blonde girl, who was currently sucking the meat off a bone, looked up. The moment her eyes landed on Arthur, they went wide, and for a second, they seemed to lose focus entirely.
"A-A-A-Ar... Arthur?!"
Suddenly, her face twisted in pain. She clutched her throat, letting out a series of strangled ghk-ghk sounds. The maid behind her began to panic, not knowing what to do.
She really is just like that idiot Lia.
Arthur stepped forward and delivered a few sharp thumps to the girl's back. She let out a violent cough, and a look of pure, post-death-defying relief washed over her face.
"Phew... I'm saved."
"Where did you pick up this little dummy?" Arthur asked, looking at Kay. He'd almost said 'idiot,' but considering she was a cute little girl, he softened his phrasing.
"I'm not a dummy! I'm a knight from Wales who came to serve His Majesty!" the blonde girl shouted. Her claim might have been more persuasive if she weren't five feet tall with the face of a child and grease smeared all over her mouth and hands.
"She's a bit dim, but her strength is surprisingly high," Kay noted.
"I'M NOT DIM!!!"
"Oh? Elaborate."
"Hey! Listen to me!"
"In terms of raw strength, Ryan is no match for this brat," Kay continued, ignoring the girl's protests. "Her swordsmanship is average, but Roger couldn't beat her in a spear duel."
"Why do you keep calling me a 'brat' and a 'dummy' over and over?!"
"Is she really that capable?" Arthur asked.
Ryan's strength didn't compare to his or Artoria's, but among the current expanded ranks of the knights, he was considered the strongest. As for Roger, he was the best spearman among his foster father's younger generation of knights—not counting Arthur or Artoria, of course. (Merly had forbidden the two of them from learning the spear, claiming she was "worried they'd pick up bad habits.")
"Waaaaah! I'm not a dummy!!!"
Seeing the blonde girl burst into tears, Arthur and Kay shared a look. They were both speechless and struggling to hold back their laughter.
"Alright, alright. Stop crying, you little brat."
Arthur placed a hand on her head. Drawing on the expert head-patting skills he had honed after years of soothing Artoria and Merly, he soon reduced her sobbing to a series of hiccups.
"I told you... I'm not... a brat..."
"Right, right. You aren't a brat. Now tell me, little dummy—what's your name and where are you from?"
"I-I'm Jacqueline, and I'm from..."
"If you tell one more lie, I'm throwing you out."
The classic tactic for scaring children worked wonders. The girl looked panicked and didn't dare lie again.
"My name is Gareth! I'm from Orkney!"
"Orkney?"
That was the territory of King Lot—one of the Kings of Wales, the husband of Arthur's sister Morgan le Fay, and the father of Gawain, the Knight of the Sun.
"Have you heard of the name?" Arthur asked Kay.
"Never," Kay replied, shaking her head.
Gareth puffed out her cheeks in a sulk.
"Whose kid are you? I'll have someone escort you home."
"No!" Gareth shook her head like a rattle, lunging forward to latch onto Arthur's leg. "I went through so much to get to Camelot! I want to be your knight! Please don't send me away!"
Arthur looked down at his trousers, which were now covered in grease from her hands. His eyelid twitched. He looked up at Kay and shot her a look.
You brought her here. You deal with her.
Even if Kay claimed she was strong, she was too small and she was a girl. Leaving aside what the 'bros' in the knights' circle would think about a little girl joining their ranks, Arthur's own moral compass wouldn't let it slide.
"Since she's so good at eating, let her help out in the kitchens," Kay suggested.
"No! I want to join the knights! I want to be Lord Arthur's knight!"
Kay crouched down with a gentle, sisterly smile and reached out to pat Gareth's head. "Be a good girl and listen. You're too young, it's not approp—"
"Don't touch me, you flat-chested mean woman!"
Gareth glared at Kay, clearly remembering the woman who had spent the last ten minutes calling her a "dummy."
"I'm not small! I'm an adult!"
Flat-chested mean woman?
The smile on Kay's face froze. Then, it slowly broadened into something far more radiant. Arthur felt a cold shiver run down his spine. He silently offered a prayer for the little lolita named Gareth.
Rest in peace, dummy Gareth.
To be fair, Kay wasn't actually flat. For her weight, she had a standard, perhaps even slightly generous figure. It was just that her loose-fitting clothes tended to hide everything.
However, since her best friend Bedivere had a much more "gifted" figure, and Artoria had recently hit a growth spurt, Kay had been feeling incredibly sensitive during their nightly "trio bath talks." She had even been surpassed by her once-plain younger sister.
Just the other day, Artoria had accidentally made a comment about it. Kay's response? "Eat, eat, eat! All you do is eat! No dinner for you tonight! Starve!" Artoria had been so hungry that she'd crawled into Arthur's room in the middle of the night, crying about how their sister was bullying her.
"Gareth... you wouldn't want to be kicked out of Arthur's castle and left homeless, would you?"
Gareth shuddered under Kay's beaming smile. She looked up at Arthur piteously, but he pointedly turned his head away, feigning ignorance.
"You have to be a good girl and listen," Kay said. She placed her hands on Gareth's head and firmly turned the girl's face back to meet her own. Her smile grew even more terrifying.
"So, you're going to go to the kitchen and work as a scullery maid. Do you understand, little girl?"
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