Chapter 76 - Jaune vs Sabyr


"... you know, I feel like I should be surprised." Kay remarked, as he, Merlin, and Artoria watched the Huntsman of Beasts cooing over the descendant of the Nemean Lion and rocking it in an arm, even as he scooped up a bit of raw goat's milk (and tried desperately to remember how in Oum's name those people in nature documentaries had fed kittens). "But I'm really not."

"It's Jaune, after all." Artoria sighed with fond exasperation, watching with a warm smile as the lion cub playfully batted at his fingers.

Merlin and Kay exchanged looks as they noted the satisfied expression she wore on her face, before Kay nudged her in the elbow, and whispered: "Almost makes you wish for one of your own, doesn't it?"

"One of my own?" Artoria echoed, confused by Kay's suggestion. "One of my own what?"

In response, Kay merely raised an eyebrow and jerked his head meaningfully at Jaune and the lion cub, who was now relaxing contentedly as it suckled milk from the repurposed (and emptied) syringes he'd taken from the survival kit he'd gotten from the Wasteland.

Artoria blinked.

Kay jerked his head at Jaune's direction again, who was chuckling warmly as the lion cub began kneading his arm in a daze.

"... a lion cub of my own?" Artoria tried, still unsure as to what Kay was trying to get at. "... isn't that already mine?"

"You're hopeless." Kay threw up his hands in exasperation.

"Did I do something wrong?" Artoria turned to Merlin, who merely offered a maddeningly-serene smile in response.

"You know..." Jaune spoke up, before Artoria could demand answers from the two, and she quickly gave him her full attention as he walked up to them, gently scratching the cub under its chin as it gnawed at the metallic syringe in its mouth. "I thought this cat was going to be a handful, but it's honestly not so bad..."

"Well, it is still a cub." Merlin pointed out. "The beast will continue to grow over the next few years, and when fully grown would easily rival even Llamrei in size."

Jaune paused at those words, looking at Artoria's mare as she calmly grazed in a nearby clearing, before looking back at the cub.

"Woah..." Jaune whistled, impressed, before praising the lion cub: "Awww... did you hear that, little guy? You're going to be as big as a Sabyr someday!"

"A... Saber?" Artoria found her confusion increasing. "Like... a sword?"

"Oh, right... uh, Merlin, could you make a projection of him fully grown?" Jaune asked, remembering that this world seemed a lot more... mundane, when compared to Skyrim and Remnant (despite the existence of magic talking swords that shot laser beams and the Questing Beast).

As Merlin complied, and the image of a fully grown lion was projected, Jaune took a moment to study it, before instructing him: "Lose the mane, cover it in black shadows, add a white skull mask over its face... oh, and make these top two teeth there about ten times as big."

The cub stirred, wondering what the commotion was about, and found itself staring at a nightmarish beast as Jaune explained: "That is a Sabyr... one of the types of Grimm I was learning how to fight. Never encountered one before, though..."

The cub tried roaring, refusing to be intimidated by the projection, and Jaune laughed and stroked its neck in amusement as a loud high-pitched mewling noise emanated from its throat.

"Saber." Artoria tried the word out once more, looking down at the cub with approval as it meowed loudly once more, before nodding as she made up her mind. "It's a good name, for such a fine beast."

"Wait, what?" Jaune blinked, trying to figure out what on Remnant had just happened.

"Henceforth, you shall be known as "Saber"." Artoria christened the lion cub, who proceeded to chirp as if it understood and approved.

As she reached down to try and stroke the newly-named "Saber", however, it took the opportunity to leap onto her outstretched arm, intrigued by the half-dragon's presence.

"Jaune?" Artoria called out helplessly, freezing as the fearless lion began climbing and jumping all over her, not wanting to accidentally make the cub lose its grip and fall to the floor. "What do I do?"

"Uh..." Jaune just stared, torn between amusement and concern.

Then the lion pounced onto her shoulder, and playfully nibbled at her neck.

Jaune struggled to stifle the urge to coo as the cub attempted to mimic a few of Arthur's panicked vocalizations, before it decided it was victorious in their (one-sided) play fight, yawned, and fell asleep on his shoulder.

"... so... this is what you've been getting at, since the feast three days ago?" Merlin inquired idly from the sidelines, as he and Kay observed Jaune gently pick the cub up by the scruff of its neck, before slowly lowering it into an adoring Artoria's unconfident arms.

"Tell me I'm wrong, Merlin." Kay replied stiffly, overcompensating for the urge to simply melt at the sight before them. "Tell me she doesn't look like she's enjoying herself. Tell me she doesn't look like she's happy."

Merlin remained silent, as he watched his student's face subconsciously slacken. Then her familiar leaned over her shoulder to carefully stroke the cub's belly, and she looked up at Jaune, gazing at him warmly through half-lidded eyes even as she smiled softly.

Finally, though, he reluctantly answered: "Her fate was sealed, the moment Caliburn was drawn from the Stone. Even with its loss, she is still King."

Kay growled in agitation, before countering: "Does the sex of the king truly matter, magus?"

"It never has." Merlin shook his head automatically. "If it mattered, if she couldn't be king just because she's a girl, I would never have taken her from the castle to begin with, or taught her how to be a king."

"... then why?" Kay demanded. "Why was I told to always treat her like a brother and not a sister? Why has she always been forced to pretend to be Arthur and not Artoria?!"

"She was raised as a boy because Sir Ector felt that would be the best way for her to understand the hearts of her knights, and thusly become a King of Knights." Merlin explained gently. "As for her choosing to pretend to be a man... perhaps she felt that discarding everything that made her human, would make bearing the burden of kingship slightly easier. Regardless of her reasons, Kay... regardless of our failures, all either of us can do now, is support her to the best of our abilities."

"Oh, I intend to." Kay swore, already beginning to plot and scheme.

He may not have been the strongest of in terms of skill with the sword or physical capabilities, but he'd still come on top of almost every duel he'd had thanks to his quick wits and sharp tongue. Hell, in Sutton, there were even (exaggerated) rumors of Kay having shocked fire dragons into flying back from whence they came!

All he needed to do now was to convince his stubborn bratty overly-righteous-and-self-sacrificing baby sister that she should embrace her femininity and humanity, and that she should tell her familiar the truth.

...

Kay privately felt like talking a fire dragon down would have been easier.

But as he watched Artoria giggle (giggle!) as the lion cub began chewing on Jaune's finger, he found himself thinking that it might be worth the trouble.

He'd have still taken the dragon, though.

Merlin eyed the obviously-plotting knight, even as he himself wondered about what he should do.

His Clairvoyance would be of no help here; he couldn't see her familiar with it, and with how intertwined their destinies were becoming even he couldn't be sure as to how his plans and Artoria's reign would progress.

In the end, though, he was only meant to be an observer, once the prophecy of the two dragons had been fulfilled.

And, if nothing else, watching the antics of the three would at least be interesting and amusing to watch...

Eventually, Jaune noticed them watching him, and offered: "Do you two want to play with him too?"

"It's fine." Kay shook his head easily, noting how Artoria jumped at their voices. Had she honestly forgotten they were even there?

"If you say so..." Jaune shrugged, pulling his hand out of the cub's mouth. Then he continued: "Anyway, where are we going next? I think you mentioned to Pellinore that we'd be leaving Listenoise soon?"

"Our next destination will be to retrieve the Holy Lance Rhongomyniad, the Spear of the End, whose power rivals even that of Excalibur's." Merlin explained.

"... you know, I've been wondering..." Jaune spoke up, after a brief pause. "Is there a reason why we're gathering all these powerful weapons?"

"..."

"I mean, you're only trying to drive back the Saxon army, right?" Jaune continued with a frown, remembering what Arthur had told him. "Wouldn't Excalibur and a few armies be enough? Or are you planning on wiping them out?"

"No." Artoria answered immediately. "The Saxons may be our enemies, but I don't hate them. They're only here because they're looking for greener pastures to call their home; if they had settled Gallia or Germania, there would be no conflict between us."

"The problem is King Vortigen." Merlin clarified. "The Saxons have just cause to be here, or so they believe, because the Usurper King extended an open invitation to them as mercenaries, originally in order to push back the Picts and the Scots, and now to ostensibly overthrow an unjust rule of tyrant kings and corrupt judges. In exchange, they were to be given land... that belonged to the other nobles and lords not under Vortigen's purview. And so, when the Saxons came to collect what they felt was rightfully theirs..."

"War broke out." Jaune breathed, eyes widening in understanding. "And nobody has done anything about this Vortigen?"

"Were it so easy, Huntsman." Kay snorted, rolling his eyes.

"Even if the Usurper King didn't have the Saxons as his personal armies, he is still a formidable foe." Merlin elaborated. "He bathed in and drank the blood of the White Dragon of Dinas Emrys, and in doing so became a dragon, before killing the old king in the ruins of Londinium. Excalibur on its own may not be enough to take down the White Dragon."

Jaune spent a moment, trying to process Merlin's words, before finally giving up and shaking his head.

Why should he be surprised that, in a world with magical talking swords, people could also turn into Dust-damned dragons?

"So... we overthrow Vortigen, and convince the Saxons that he's been using them?" Jaune asked, trying to see the plan.

"The latter might be harder than the former, Jaune." Artoria answered, even as she continued rocking the snoozing lion cub in her arms. "Even if relations hadn't soured after years of war between the Britons and the Saxons, it would simply be our word, the word of some upstart High King, against the old and powerful Vortigen, whose relations with them started before I was even born."

Jaune winced, and looked away. He had seen war, yes, and had destroyed armies of his own... but this situation felt different. This wasn't like the Legion, or the White Legs, or the Enclave.

Coincidentally, his gaze fell back upon the Projected image of a Sabyr, and an idea began forming in his head.


Author's Note: Something something too much fluff something something hate dialogue.

On a side note, the ending of the last chapter and most of this one comes from the wiki mentioning Artoria spent a month raising a lion cub. Since I'm apparently going to be bastardizing history, myth, and legend for the rest of this arc... toss it all together and let's see if it'll blend!

... and that's how I apparently ended up with Saber Lion, I guess. Does anyone have a Lancer to feed it?

Jokes aside, this was just a simple and short chapter for Jaune and Artoria to find out what Merlin's actual plan is, since he doesn't actually know about Vortigen yet. Hopefully the next chapter can come soon...