I, Kousaka Kyousuke, the Knight of the Helping Table

"I'm not sick, I just thought some things through. If I had been the child that my mother cared for from the beginning, if I had not shown any joy in your love from the beginning, you would not have poured your love into me at all."

The desperate expression on Minamoto no Raikou's face made Kyosuke guess that he was right.

"It's the same with Master. I don't know why you, who barely even looked at me before, suddenly became interested in me. But you've always wanted only my body, not me as a person. You've never liked me. All you did was obey your possessive desire."

"So what if that's the case?" Scathach didn't try to deny it like Minamoto no Raikou did. She openly admitted what Kyosuke said, "What do you think is so worthy of my liking about you? At that time, you were just a child spoiled by Altria, so I never took you seriously from the beginning. However, you bravely stood up just now and I got a little interested in you."

"As expected..." Kyosuke breathed a sigh of relief, "Then please stop. You used me as a bargaining chip in your struggle. From the beginning, it was your pride that was at work."

"how come……"

Minamoto no Raikou took two steps back. She couldn't understand what Kyosuke meant by what he said to her, but soon her expression became ferocious, "What a joke! I won't allow it! I absolutely won't allow it! How dare you go against your mother's words? Kyosuke, it seems that you have learned bad things from that woman... If that's the case, then mom will get rid of that woman! In this way, the Kyosuke who only listens to mom will come back!"

[Oops, did I say something a bit too much? ]

Kyosuke felt a little guilty when he saw Minamoto no Raikou emitting black energy all over his body, but he still pretended to be calm and stood there. Because he knew in his heart that Minamoto no Raikou would not hurt him, and he also wanted to take this opportunity to make things clear.

"Die. Die. Die! Die--!"

Suddenly, lightning flashed on Minamoto no Raikou's body, and she once again drew out An Gang and was about to chop him down.

"Oh no, this woman is crazy!"

When Scathach saw this, she immediately wanted to step forward and pull Kyosuke behind her.

However, there is a figure that is even faster than Scathach.

Bang! Jiya——

There was a teeth-grinding sound of metal rubbing against each other on the playground, and Mashu used the round table to block Minamoto no Raikou's attack.

“Little brat——!” Minamoto no Raikou’s face was so distorted that the painting collapsed. She roared at Mashu, “It’s all because of you and that woman that Kyosuke became like that——! Just die——!”

"I--"

Mashu was about to say something but was interrupted.

"Are you talking about me, crazy woman?"

"Um--"

It was then that the stakeholders present realized that Guinevere and Lily had arrived at the scene with a group of Knights of the Round Table.

Guinevere stood at the front and looked at the already crazy Minamoto no Raikou with disgust.

"you--"

When Minamoto no Raikou saw Guinevere appear, he immediately abandoned Mashu and rushed directly towards Guinevere.

"stop!"

Lily immediately stood in front of Minamoto no Raikou, and the holy spear in her hand directly deflected Minamoto no Raikou's long sword.

“Don’t get in the way—!”

Minamoto no Raikou wanted to use a flat attack to cut Lily in half, but this time Lily grabbed her wrist.

"Let go!"

Lily flipped her wrist and pushed Minamoto no Raikou to the ground.

"you--!"

Minamoto no Raikou still wanted to resist, but the holy spear brushed her ear and pierced into the ground.

"Don't even think about resisting. With your sanity devoured, you are no match for me."

Minamoto no Raikou didn't say anything. She looked coldly at Lily who was pressing on her and holding her down, unable to move.

"Really."

Guinevere walked up to Minamoto no Raikou and looked at him with disgust, "So it's because of people like you that I'm worried about Kyousuke staying in school."

Minamoto no Raikou gnashed his teeth and glared at Guinevere who was looking down at him. If she hadn't been pinned down by Lily and couldn't move, Kyousuke believed that she would definitely eat Guinevere alive without changing her expression.

"This time, I'll take it as a sign of your generosity and let you go." Guinevere nodded at Lily, signaling her to drag Minamoto no Raikou away, "Okay, Kyousuke. Come here. Let's go home and eat."

Guinevere turned and was about to leave, but Kyosuke did not follow her.

"Kyosuke?"

Guinevere looked at Kyosuke with dissatisfaction, "What's wrong with you?"

"Sorry, I won't be going back today."

Kyosuke said this calmly, even though he had thought about the scenario of saying no to this woman many times before, and every time he simulated this scenario in his mind, it was like a storm.

But when he really said this, Kyosuke only felt inexplicably relaxed and calm.

[So it's so easy to refuse——]

Guinevere was stunned for a moment by Kyosuke's rejection, and then she immediately put on a fake smile, "Why do you want to spend the night with another woman today? No, we agreed that we must make an appointment in advance for this kind of thing, and you are making a surprise attack now-"

"No, I just think I've disturbed you for too long, and now it's time for me to go home."

Kyosuke just looked at Guinevere. He was just calmly stating a fact. However, Guinevere on the opposite side did not think so. She saw something that she would never allow Kyosuke to have - resistance against herself.

"Mashu! Kyosuke seems frightened, why don't you pull him back quickly!"

However, Mashu did not take any action. She just stood silently behind Kyosuke to show that she supported him.

“Mashu——!”

Guinevere was really angry this time. She called out Mashu's name in a stern voice, but all she got was a shake of the head from Mashu.

“Hahaha—hahahaha—”

Minamoto no Raikou, who was lying on the ground, burst into laughter when he saw Guinevere's distorted face. Seeing Guinevere being humiliated was probably the happiest thing for her.

"That's nothing funny!"

Guinevere kicked Minamoto no Raikou and walked up to Mashu and looked at her, "Mashu, you don't even listen to your mother!"

"I am just your shield, so I stand on your side." Mashu's voice was soft but very firm.

"And then watch him continue to flirt with other girls out there!? Stop joking, there's nothing wrong with paying attention to him with me! This way he will always be by your side!"

Mashu shook her head slowly, "That's just by your side. All you did was to control the senior in your own hands. The senior is not a toy for you to play with at will!"

"That's enough! What do you know, little brat! This is the only way to--"

"What can you do?" Kyosuke looked at Guinevere, "You just think you see the essence of Lily's failed marriage, but in fact, what keeps two people together forever is not control but mutual dedication."

"This is a fairy tale that only children would believe in—"

"That's enough, Big Sister Guinevere."

This time it was Merlin who spoke. Although he looked very reluctant, he still stood up and said, "What you have been doing during this period is just to satisfy your own possessiveness of Lily and Kyosuke. Now it's time to let go."

"Merlin! You betrayed me too!"

Guinevere looked at Lily, hoping to get her support.

Lily sighed, and said in a helpless tone of an adult seeing a child playing a prank: "Guinevere, stop it when you've had enough. If you're still angry, I'll keep doing this with you, but Kyosuke is innocent. His affairs have nothing to do with the two of us, so you shouldn't control his thoughts."

"Even you! Forget it, this isn't the first time you've betrayed me!" Guinevere screamed hysterically, "If that's the case, you'll never be able to enter my house again! Yumiko, let's go!"

Guinevere originally thought that her children would stand on her side, but even the child she had raised resisted her.

"I'm sorry, Mom. But this time, you really went too far. You actually wanted to control Kyousuke so much and even tricked him into signing that weird thing! I won't stand on Mom's side this time!"

"Yumiko..."

Her own child's "betrayal" seemed to have drained away Guinevere's last bit of strength. She fell to the ground and looked at everyone present with despair, "Why! Why is it like this? Obviously, there will be no problem as long as you follow my arrangements! Obviously, as long as everyone listens to me, everything will be fine..."

Seeing the distraught Guinevere, Lily hugged her with heartache.

"Guinevere... Although I know I have no right to say this, let's start over. No matter what other reasons have led you to become like this, I will forgive you, tolerate you, and accept you. So... Come back, Guinevere. Come back to Camelot."

"I...I...I can't accept this——!"

When Lily just hugged her, Guinevere showed signs of struggling, but in the end she couldn't help crying.

"Why? Why should I forgive you just for saying sorry? I've suffered so much injustice, why do you just ignore it? It's not fair! It's not fair at all!"

Facing Guinevere who was crying loudly in her arms, Lily could only hug her wife tighter, "I'm sorry, Guinevere. It's my fault. If I had explained everything to you clearly at the beginning -"

The couple hugged each other tightly, feeling your hug that came hundreds of years late.

"Forgive me, Altria. Forgive my willfulness."

"Ah..." Lily sighed, "I forgive you, Guinevere."

····

"So, the Heroic Spirits are the ones who like to make trouble."

Kyosuke looked at Guinevere who was hugging Lily and crying loudly and smiled bitterly, "You should have made it clear at the beginning."

"If they were really that easy to talk to, they, we, wouldn't be the unique ones sitting on the Throne." Merlin watched Lily hugging Guinevere and leaving with the other Knights of the Round Table.

"Just like what you said, we Heroic Spirits are just a bunch of weird guys. So this is probably why we all like you. It's not just because of your characteristics, but more importantly, the difference you can bring to all of us."

"I didn't do anything."

"No." Seeing Kyosuke's confused look, Merlin laughed, "Joining us is the most important thing you've ever done. Do you remember your first encounter with Lily?"

"That time, I still remember she fell to the ground and pretended to be dead, and then she extorted all the cash in my wallet to buy bread."

Kyousuke's complaining tone made Merlin chuckle twice, "Haha. That's really her style."

"Yeah, I was wondering if I hadn't been a good person and pretended that she didn't exist, then there would have been no subsequent events."

"Who knows? Maybe fate will let you meet us in another way. After all, this is your destiny."

Merlin dusted himself off and stood up. "Well, I have to leave too. What about you? Do you want me to take you back?"

"No thanks. I sold it to Nero last time I went with you. And I have other things to do."

"Oh?"

Merlin showed a rare look of curiosity, "What are you going to do?"

"Go and apologize to your family."

Kyosuke said this as he looked at the sky that had been dyed red by the setting sun with melancholy.