Hello, and welcome to the comments section.
To Ricsi0309 and SentinelSlice: Shirou is not making nerve circuits, but the spinal burning continued even after Rin corrected him. Reference the first fight with Gilgamesh. I wasn't exactly sure how a higher-mana environment would affect that, so I just went with the sensation remaining, if lessened, and his endurance increasing.
Regarding Kay: Yeah, there was a reason for that. When doing early brainstorming, he struck me as an eminently practical guy with no patience for the sort of hopeless idealism Artoria and Shirou have going for them, while still being a good man that loves his sister and hates what she's done to herself. Let it be said he's listed as a character for a reason.
Shirou
Half a year had passed since my unexpected skydive, and with the benefit of hindsight, I could say it was the best thing that ever happened to me.
My world had come tumbling down once the Grail's true actions came to light. Everyone I loved and cared for, the comforts of modern society, even my ability speak to another human being? That wretched hole ripped them away and cast me adrift far from home.
Those early days had been a struggle to keep my head above water, with only the familiar drudgery of household chores to sustain me. But then came the raid, and everything changed the next day when a miraculous chance to save the one I loved fell into my lap.
Getting stranded in the past left a hole in my life, but that hole had been filled with renewed purpose.
My life in Fuyuki may have been happy, but it was aimless, day after day spent seeking ways to lend a hand, for want of people to save. But right here, right now? There was no question I was saving people, from the townsfolk that fiery night, to the faceless masses of Britain, to the noble girl that swore to protect them all.
The war against the Saxons lurked beyond the horizon, but each tree cut down for cabins boosted our numbers. Each lesson with Merlin strengthened my magecraft. And each spar with Kay, no matter how grueling, brought me an inch closer to growing strong enough to protect everyone in my sight.
Sadly, I had a lot more inches to go.
CLANG
Kay's overhead swing crashed into my guard. Hard-earned instincts screamed "move!", and I lunged left to avoid an armored boot between the legs.
One of Kay's first lessons had been this: A warrior fights with more than his sword. Punches, kicks and grapples were fair game when death was on the line, and rolling in the dirt was fine as long as you landed on top.
"Nice dodge, but where are those bollocks you're guarding? Are you a rabbit or a man—OOF!"
Kay met my charge and parried my oblique slash into the snow, but I kept moving and slammed into the knight. The two of us tumbled to the earth in a tangle of limbs.
In a perfect world, my gambit would let me pin him and win the bout.
Sadly, the swordsman was too wily to defeat so easily.
The second we hit the ground, Kay grabbed my hips and rolled, flipping our positions so he straddled my waist. His maneuver sent our swords skittering across the snowpack, but freed his hands for a hammerblow to my face.
I jerked my head sideways, trading a knockout blow for a strike to the ear that set my head ringing. Before he could try again, I scooped up snow in my right hand and hurled it in his face…
"Motherfuck—URK!"
…Then jabbed him in the throat with my left.
While Kay was gagging, I tried to dislodge him by bucking my hips, to no avail. His knees squeezed me like a vise, and once he blinked away the snow, the furious knight rained down blows with his armored fists until darkness took me.
When I regained consciousness, my mouth tasted like iron. So, more of the usual.
Not so usual was the sight of Kay standing at my feet wearing a crooked grin.
"Rise and shine kid, one more bout before we call it a day." He offered a hand, and I grasped it, hauling myself to my feet with a pained groan. Kay cocked an eyebrow before slipping into lecture mode.
"Mind telling me what you did wrong?"
Spitting a gob of blood, I paused to reflect on the spar.
"I lost my footing in the tackle."
He nodded sharply. "Right you are. If you'd sprawled on the way down, it would have been tricky to flip you on your back. Tricky, but nothing a knee to the crotch couldn't fix."
My legs snapped shut. Thank the gods I hadn't tried that then, not like Kay needed even more chances to hit me below the belt.
"Hey, don't be like that, look on the bright side!" he continued, slapping me on the back. "That tackle you pulled? You've finally learned to be aggressive, none of the turtling up nonsense that Saber halfwit taught you."
That struck a nerve.
"Take that back!" I snapped.
Kay backpedaled under the weight of my glare, hands raised in surrender. "Damn, take it easy! What's wrong boyo? You're acting like I insulted your mother."
Just like that, my anger drained away, and left me feeling like an ass for biting his head off.
"I apologize, it's just… if she hadn't beaten those reflexes into me, I would have died for sure. Hell, some of the threats even she couldn't handle."
Not that I'd obeyed where it counted. Like the time I chased after her during the fight with Rider. Or when I charged Berserker and got my arm broken. Or getting into a swordfight with Gilgamesh.
…I was a terrible listener, wasn't I? Not that I'd ever regret it.
In the meantime, my teacher's face had screwed up in confusion. "Wait a minute, she? This Saber was a swordswoman?"
Had I never mentioned Saber's gender?
"Yes, the very best there was."
"Now that's a ringing endorsement! You've got me curious, mind telling me about my predecessor?"
I froze.
It occurred to me that this conversation was venturing into dangerous territory. In hindsight, letting Saber's gender slip had been a mistake, there weren't many legendary female swordmasters, and the oddity grabbed Kay's interest.
That being said, he wouldn't guess her identity in a million years, and dodging the question was pointless, he'd just hound me until he was satisfied with my answer. As long as I avoided physical descriptors, I could still escape this mess of my own making.
"Now where do I begin?" My thoughts drifted back to that unforgettable night in the shed. "Well to start, she was… beautiful, and proud, and the strongest girl I've ever met. She could rip apart a horde of enemies in seconds flat, not that she was brutish or bloodthirsty, protecting others meant the world to her, and she hated seeing me get hurt."
Kay snorted. "Sounds like a real knight in shining armor, shame about the butt-ugly damsel."
"Hey, quit it, will you?"
The swordsman snickered, but motioned for me to continue.
I narrowed my eyes, but shrugged and carried on. "You laugh, but it was as much a fault as it was a virtue."
In that corner of my mind housing my darkest memories, a heart-wrenching scene played out. Saber, sprawled out bleeding on the pavement, all but begging me to abandon her to Gilgamesh…
I swallowed the growing lump in my throat. "She was so dead-set on saving others, that she never considered her own well-being. She'd get wounded fending off attackers, then chastise me when I leapt in to save her. It was no wonder I summoned her. We were exactly the same."
Silence descended upon us, only broken by the winter wind and the distant rumble of soldiers in formation. Even in the middle of December, the army camp was a hive of activity. Bedivere led daily drills in the fort, and Kay and I kept up our sparring sessions.
And like always, Artoria was out of town hunting for recruits, no doubt turning into a blonde popsicle in this frigid weather.
Kay scrutinized me for a minute longer, then he slowly nodded. "Sounds like one hell of a woman, shame I couldn't meet her."
Ignoring the irony of that statement, I nodded in turn. "Right, now you mentioned one more bout?"
"Glad your ears are working." Strolling over to where our swords laid in the snow, he snatched up his own and flung the other at my head.
Only my reflexes saved me from getting clobbered. Even then, I nearly fumbled the blade. "Geez! Was that really necessary? You have a working pair of legs."
"And you have a working pair of arms, better work on your reaction time boy, lest I be tempted to run more reflex drills. There's no shortage of rocks in the fort."
My eyes widened in horror. "I'm good, I'm good! See? I'm ready!"
Kay calmly regarded my raised sword, before resting his own on his shoulder. "You better be, 'cause I'm freezing my arse off out here, and you're all that stands between me and a warm fire. Begin!"
Quick as a blink, he rocketed across the snowpack, aiming a swipe at my head. I leapt sideways, left ear stung by the wake of his sword's passing, and watched him crater the earth I'd just vacated, throwing up a dense cloud of powder.
'There!'
Using the snow to mask my movements, I nimbly hopped around the knight to strike at his wide-open back. He had no right to complain after kneeing me in the—
"Bet you loved Saber's tits!"
"Bwah?"
A metallic blur sailed out of the mist and nailed me right in the temple.
The next thing I knew, someone had nudged me in the ribs, rolling me onto my back.
My head struck a patch of ice, and the ensuing agony and nausea nearly knocked me back to dreamland. Seems that I'd fallen prey to one of Kay's favorite techniques.
The knight in question loomed over my prone form, frowning like a disappointed father. "Really Shirou? Not even ten seconds? That's just shameful, and here I thought you'd finally learned to fear the mordhau."
I lurched to a sitting position, swaying like a drunk man from the vertigo. "You don't have to say it again, I'm no fan of concussions, just… what the hell Kay!?"
"Oh what, my little jab? Consider this another lesson kid. Remember what I told you, about fighting with more than your sword? Words are as potent a weapon as any other."
Kay squatted down and looked me dead in the eye. "When this army finally marches off to war, we'll be fighting the Saxons first, and a nastier pack of animals you'll never meet. If you think me teasing you about your lady love—Don't bother denying it, I know pining when I see it!"
He raised a hand to silence my sputtering protests. "If that got under your skin, picture some hairy barbarian screaming about raping your woman and murdering your children while swinging an axe at your neck. You need to learn to ignore their barking, or they'll get inside your head, and then your insides will become your outsides."
'Now isn't that morbid.'
Not to mention unfair to the Saxons. Yeah, they were invading the island, but they couldn't be that bad, could they? His claim that the inventors of teatime and fainting couches were a race of monsters was laughable. There's no such thing as an evil people, just evil individuals like the raiders all those months ago. But regardless of Kay's biases, he made a good point, getting distracted by trash talk would be a lame way to die.
"So what will you do now, insult me more when we're sparring?"
"That's not a bad idea, but something tells me getting on your nerves would work better." Kay rubbed his chin in thought. "It'll even be easy, now that I've found your lever."
"Oh gods please don't," I croaked. Spending month after month getting ribbed about Saber's… bits would be mortifying, but if her older brother did the teasing?
Kay hemmed and hawed for a moment, then decided to humor me. "I guess I could show you mercy… provided you pick up the pace. I mean it's been what, six months? And I'm still beating you four times out of five. By this point you're too good a swordsman to waste in a pike block, but if you don't get the lead out?" His ghastly grin chilled me to the bone. "I will take pleasure in immortalizing your impossible romance with this mystery woman with the lewdest ballads imaginable. I know that old cambion would love to give me pointers."
I decided right then, right there, that I'd take the memory of that night in the ruins to the grave. Kay was insufferable enough after discovering my relationship with Saber, somehow, but if he ever learned about that, this pervert would never let me hear the end of it.
"Alright, alright! I'll try harder to beat you."
"Just what every teacher loves to hear." He beamed. "Cheer up Shirou, campaign season's still a ways off, by the time I'm through with you, you'll be murdering Saxons by the bushel!"
His statement hit me like a punch to the gut.
'Oh gods, I'm such an idiot.'
When Artoria recruited me, I'd joined an army. Armies don't sit around waiting for the enemy to attack, they seek them out and kill them.
We wouldn't be protecting people, we'd be running down Saxons and murdering them.
"You alright kid? You look a little green around the gills."
Kay eyed me with concern.
"I'm sorry Kay, it's just… I'm not too thrilled about killing people."
His eyes bugged out of his skull.
"Don't want to kill people you say… Then why the bloody hell did you join an army!?"
His strangled scream echoed across the fields. Kay looked fit to burst, fists opening and clenching while he stood trembling in rage and disbelief.
I was petrified. Where did the wisecracking drill sergeant go? "Look! I signed up to protect people! Is that really so bad?"
Kay goggled at me.
"What do you think this army's doing Shirou!? We're protecting people! We're just doing that by destroying their armies before they destroy us!"
Quick as a flash, Kay clamped his hands on my shoulders and planted his forehead against mine.
"Listen here boyo, you're feeling a little queasy about killing savages? Tell that to the bones that are all that remain of my countrymen along the eastern seashore, or the poor sods burnt out of their homes every year so those Germanic whoresons can snatch away their birthright. Or if you like, you could ask me and Arthur about our own experiences, how we lost friends and neighbors to those bastards when they decided they liked the forest near our village, and murdered every hunter looking for food to feed their starving families!"
My eyes were round as saucers.
How… How do you respond to that? That's not conquest, that's genocide! The Saxons were committing genocide!
I desperately fumbled for answers. Even the cruelest regimes had good people under their control, there had to be some Saxons worth saving, I refused to believe otherwise.
"But Kay, are all of them like that? Humanity doesn't work that way, they can't all be evil."
He gave me a dismissive snort. "Oh sure, they're not all baby-killing bastards, I hear the king of Lindsey spared the lives of whatever Britons would kiss his boots." His eyes lost their hard edge. "But that's not what you meant, was it?"
I shook my head, and he sighed, pulling away from me. "Look, I get what you're saying, Saxons are men, not monsters, so sure, there's probably a few decent ones." He gave me a challenging look. "But are you ready to bet our lives on it? Whatever good Saxons are out there, chances are they're back in the colonies, not heading out with raiding parties to rape and plunder, so for every soldier you spare? You're rolling a loaded dice, praying that this one is a kindly fellow that won't seize the chance to slit someone's throat once your back's turned."
"Now, I understand your hesitation, you're a foreigner, you didn't grow up on stories of village after village getting wiped off the map, you don't have a stake in this mess like me and Arthur, but now that you've joined the fight, you need to make a choice."
Kay was normally such a joker, which made his cold eyes all the more unsettling.
"Are you going to stick with Arthur, and protect the Britons and all the good men at his side? Or will you betray us for the Saxons, shielding them from retribution in some fool's hope that you'll find one of the good ones? This is war to the knife, there's no middle ground here, and trying to protect both sides will just earn you the hatred of both."
Releasing my trembling shoulders, Kay uttered one last parting shot before taking his leave. "Choose quickly, campaign season begins in the spring."
As the swordsman trudged through the snowdrifts towards the village, I remained paralyzed by his final words.
No doubt about it, I would stick with Artoria as long as there was breath in my body, but doing so required sacrificing more than my own flesh and blood. I'd do anything to defend her, but did that mean killing everyone that stood in my way? Were my ideals an obstacle to helping her live a happy life?
I shivered, and it had little to do with the cold.
Kay was right about one thing, campaign season was still months away, but time was ticking down. I could only pray that I found an answer before stepping onto the battlefield.
Artoria
"G-Gentlemen, while we are all gathered here, I wish to discuss the next steps in our campaign to save Britain. Your input would be much appreciated."
By "gathered here", I meant trapped in this ice pit. Across the table, my knights looked as miserable as I felt, shivering from the biting cold filling the kitchen. This had to be the coldest January in all my seventeen years, and to make matters worse, the winter chill had invaded the house when the fire burned down to coals.
"I-I have some input Arthur, mind telling me why we c-can't throw a log on the fire? It's too damned c-cold to think in here!"
My brother was clearly the worse off of the two, even wrapped up in a blanket he was white as a ghost, and the rattle of his chattering teeth carried across the table.
I would be more sympathetic to his plight if he had not removed his armor, while I was stuck in freezing cold full plate. Because of course Merlin had designed my base garment with a bodice and a blasted cleavage window under the cuirass. Gods, the things I must suffer to conceal my gender.
"Unfortunately, there are none at hand. I believe Llywelyn took the remainder to fuel his oven, which means we must wait until he and Shirou are finished with their business."
Kay opened his mouth to bellyache some more, so I continued. "If you insist on rebuilding the fire, there are uncut logs in the woodshed, feel free to go out and split them yourself."
Displaying an excellent sense of comedic timing, the wind howled like a banshee, knocking a layer of ice loose from the windowsill. Day two of this blizzard, and still no sign of it weakening.
If possible, Kay grew even paler. "Point taken."
"Good. Now let us begin."
Drawing a scroll from my personal effects, I spread it across the tabletop.
Upon the scroll was a map of the entire island, supplied by Merlin in one of his more helpful moods. Every kingdom, whether Briton, Saxon, or Damnonii was clearly identified, with cities and the major Roman roads inked in red, privileges of having a clairvoyant at my beck and call.
Angles to the East, Saxons and Jutes to the South, Damnonii and Picts to the far north, and the utterly useless western kings. I definitely had my work cut out for me.
"As you know by now, our long-term goal is threefold: Turn back the foreign invaders, unite the Brittonic kingdoms, and cast down the traitor Vortigern. Only one of those tasks is feasible in the near-term."
I stabbed my finger at a peninsula on the eastern coast. "Here is East Anglia, the domain of King Wehha. It is simultaneously the closest Angle kingdom, the source of most local raids, and the simplest to contain. Their lands are hemmed in by the Saxons of Essex to the south and the Fens to the northwest, meaning all invasions must pass through a narrow corridor right about here."
The region in question was a land filled with countless rivers and salt-marshes, excellent defensive terrain. If only a substantial force bothered to fortify it, the Angles would have been penned up long ago.
Bedivere pursed his lips, the tactician in him weighing our options. "My king, while that is an excellent strategy for containing the Angles, how do you plan on removing them as a threat? We have less than two hundred men to call our own, and sending them to garrison a swamp seems like a poor use of resources."
"That is what I am getting to. My rides through the countryside were focused on not just rallying troops, but also building the defenses of the Angle frontier."
I circled an area near the East Anglian border. "To that effect, I have been organizing militias in the towns between the Nene and the Glein, and left them with instructions to warn us of any major Angle troop movements. Come spring, the Angle raiders will be faced with an impenetrable wall on their western frontier, the sort of defensive cordon that requires a proper army to break through. Once that army comes, our allies will alert us, and our forces will give them a beating they will never forget."
"Now I see your scheme, you plan on luring out a greater force to crush," he murmured, nodding faintly. A note of worry crept into his tone. "But with that stratagem comes another danger, what if they overwhelm us? The men are filled with fighting spirit, but high morale can only do so much against superior numbers."
"That is a valid concern, Bedivere. One that I have given much thought to. Come spring, I plan on paying another visit to King Cyngen to request troops. Previously he was reluctant to give support to a king with few men and no powerbase, but that is no longer the case. Between his aid and whatever local recruits we dredge up in the meantime, we should have plenty of men to head off the Angles when the day arrives."
Kay squinted at me. "Think that's awfully optimistic of you, he couldn't spare the men before, don't see why he c-can now. Rience doesn't seem like the type to back down once he's made a threat."
"Have a little faith Kay, stranger things have happened."
After all, what was my dream of uniting our people but idealism at its finest?
"But now that the plans for this year's campaign are laid out, here are my long-term plans for—"
The door to the adjoining bakery banged open, cutting me off mid-sentence.
Standing at the threshold was the resident archer, who quickly wilted under our combined stares. He chuckled nervously, before stepping into the kitchen.
"Sorry about that, just wanted to announce that Llywelyn and I are just about finished with our project, and we're looking for some taste testers. Any takers?"
The whole table nodded vigorously.
"Great! Food will be done in a few minutes." He shuddered, hugging his arms. "Man, it's cold in here!"
His gaze darted around the kitchen, lingering for a moment on a low circular table in a corner of the room. "Wait right here, I have an idea."
As the redhead bustled upstairs, Kay turned to me with questioning eyes. "Reckon he'll bust up the table for kindling? Not a half-bad idea in this weather."
"I rather doubt that, vandalizing our host's furniture sounds like a swift path to eviction."
But if that was his plan, I would honor his sacrifice. Another hour of this cold would give me frostbite on my collarbones.
"But while we wait, let us wrap up this meeting. Now, once we have dealt with East Anglia, the next step will be attracting allies to our banner. None but Cyngen are likely to come from the west, but the north is another story."
My finger tapped kingdoms one by one. "Elmet, Ebrauc, and Rheged. These three kingdoms are holding the line in northern Britain, and so we shall approach them first. Gaining their allegiance will require shifting our focus north for a time, to get Deira and the Picts off their backs, but once that is done, our alliance will control most of northern and central Britain. And if that does not gain the west's notice, then perhaps a warrior king of Urien's caliber joining our cause will do the trick."
"A northern campaign, interesting." Bedivere eyed me curiously. "Why not the south? The Saxons are much more expansionist than those beyond the wall."
I suppressed a grimace. "Unfortunately, that strategy is untenable. Unlike northern Britain, there is only one southern warrior king of note, and Mark's aid would not be enough on its own. Not to mention that a direct attack on his… subjects so early is liable to draw the wrath of Vortigern."
It had not been an easy decision, my own hometown laid right on the edge of Jutish territory, but Britain as a whole came before me and mine. All I could do was hope that Mount Badon continued to stem the tide.
Footsteps heralded Shirou's return, descending the stairs carrying a large, heavy blanket. I first assumed that he had brought it down for all of us to share, but that was quickly proven false when he dropped it on the floor, grabbed the low table and… dragged it towards the fire pit?
"Hey Shirou! You can't throw it in all at once, you need to break it up first."
The redhead paused halfway across the floor, quirking an eyebrow. He shook his head. "I'm not burning the table Kay, it's just a trick from my homeland."
He resumed dragging the table until it stood directly above the softly glowing coals, then retrieved the blanket and draped it over the firepit. "Behold, a kotatsu!" He declared, flourishing his arms.
"A ko-what?"
"A kotatsu, it's a piece of furniture from my homeland. You just put a table above a firepit full of hot coals, lay a blanket on top, stick your legs underneath and boom! Instant warmth. Come on, try it out!"
Why were his people so enamored with resting on the floor? First that "futon," now this? It sounded terribly undignified—
"Coming right over!"
Kay jumped up and scampered over to the foreign contraption, blanket flapping behind him like a cape. He nearly skidded across the floor in his rush to shove his legs under the blanket, scooting forward until everything below the waist was covered.
"Ahhhhhhh."
My brother practically melted on the spot, slumping across the table. A look of pure bliss overtook his miserable mood, and he beamed at his savior. "Did I ever mention that you're my favorite squire ever?"
The embarrassed redhead blushed effusively at the praise.
My eye twitched. Years of enduring blows to the groin and lugging around his wargear, and he replaces me just like that? I ought to shun the traitor.
"You two, come over here! It's nice and toasty warm."
On the other hand, holding grudges was unkingly.
Pointedly not running over and making a fool of myself, I sat across from Kay and covered my own legs with the blanket. Warmth rapidly flowed up my legs and—
'Oooh, this is lovely.'
"Tell me Shirou, How does this work? My whole body is warming up, but only my legs are covered."
"I think it depends on what clothes you wear, it's traditional to wear robes while using a kotatsu so the heat flows up the bottom and out the collar, and your dress is probably close enough—"
"It is an armored surcoat!" I barked.
Shirou briefly looked taken aback, but quickly nodded. "Of course Arthur, my mistake." Squirming under my hard gaze, he retreated towards the bakery. "Anyways, I need to get the food, be back in a minute."
The minute he left the room, I mentally breathed a sigh of relief.
That was a near miss. He came dangerously close to uncovering my secret, it was no great leap from "wears a dress" to "secretly a woman." I cursed Merlin for the thousandth time. Why did he have to make me a steel-plated ballgown? I had worn men's clothing before drawing Caliburn, was a normal suit of armor too much to ask for?
Bedivere joined us at the kotatsu a moment later, handing me the rolled-up map of Britain. He had just finished warming his bones when Shirou returned with a tray of food, Llywelyn following behind.
The elder redhead looked askance at the repurposed table. "You sure this won't light up? Nothing good comes from mixing cloth and fire in my experience."
"Don't worry, we do this all the time in Japan. Anyways, dig in!" Shirou placed the tray atop the blanket, revealing our meal was… triangles of bread and melted cheese?
Bedivere frowned thoughtfully. "Would you mind telling us what these are?"
"Sure! They're grilled cheese sandwiches."
'Sandwich? Sounds Saxon.'
For a moment I eyed the food suspiciously, before shaking my head, feeling silly. It must be a coincidence.
"Mind explaining how to eat these? Notice you didn't bring any knives or spoons."
"Sure thing Kay. You're supposed to eat them with your hands, that's actually the point of a sandwich. You can fill them with just about anything as long as it fits between two slices of bread, then carry them around while keeping your hands clean. I just picked grilled cheese since that'll warm us up."
"And thanks for sharing lad." Llywelyn thumped him on the back. "You just paid for your whole stay here. I can't believe nobody thought of this before! You're gonna make me a mint once we have customers again."
'Hmm, that does sound rather handy. Might be a good idea to add these to the troops' rations.'
Soon everyone was tucking in to lunch, and the consensus was yes, they were every bit as tasty as they were convenient. Definitely packing some of these for my next recruitment drive.
Then Shirou spoke up, calling attention to the one not enjoying the fruits of his labor.
"Hey Llywelyn, why are you standing around? Sit down, There's room for five."
Our host fidgeted, glancing around the table. "You sure there's no problem? I can eat in the bakery."
His eyes met mine, and it occurred to me that despite being our host, he was a commoner in the presence of a squire, two knights, and a king in close quarters. These seating arrangements were rather intimate, were they not?
"Feel free Llywelyn, we are using your belongings, only fair that you enjoy them as well."
"If you say so." He sat down between Kay and Shirou, taking a sandwich for himself. "Ahh, that hits the spot."
"Right, doesn't it? And all it took was a table and a blanket. Say, Arthur," Kay said, glancing my way, "Can we bring it along when we head up north? If we're going to spend years fighting Picts, might as well stay warm on the campaign trail. Hell, by the time we're done with those gangly blighters, it ought to be a tradition!"
While Kay's request made me mentally roll my eyes, his other words stuck with me. Perhaps he was on to something?
Everyone in my inner circle (bar Merlin doing who knows what) was gathered here, warming their bones and chatting amicably. There was no hierarchy to be seen, the round table forming the base of the kotatsu had no head, leaving everyone on equal footing.
I quite liked the idea. I may be a king, but that was a mark of my duty to the people, not a privilege. This was a tradition I could get behind. Maybe when my entourage fills out some more, I can make this arrangement official, call it, say, the Knights of—
"Oi, Arthur! The Knights of the Kotatsu has a good ring to it, don't you think?"
Kay's outburst interrupted my reverie. Blinking in shock, I realized that the whole table was looking at me with pleading eyes.
"Try again, Kay. No Briton outside this room knows what a kotatsu is, it would just confuse people."
Four sighs of relief met my pronouncement, versus one angry pout in favor of the name. Serves him right for severing my line of thought.
It was too early to name institutions anyways, we had not even faced the enemy yet. There would be plenty of opportunities next year, once the Angles were crushed.