Bab 1693: 8
Chapter 8: Chapter 5 (Supplementary)Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Artoria had wound up asking for a somewhat unexpected dish- grilled salmon, seasoned however I thought best.
"Salmon? Sure. Any particular reason for the choice that I should keep in mind?"
"During my expedition to Rome, I was fortunate enough to try some salmon. It was…" Artoria trails off, looking wistful. "...it was a taste I had not experienced in many years, since leaving my village."
This…was heavier than I had intended- especially given how the Rome expedition had been directly followed by Mordred's rebellion, meaning that the salmon might have been one of the last times Artoria had a moment of happiness before everything fell apart. I had thought it'd just be about a new experience, but got…well, that.
"I'll do my very best, then."
Ok, then. Grilled salmon is easy enough- I could just do grill it simply, or I could-
"Would you mind if I took a bit longer and made a marinade? It'd take around an hour or so, but I feel it would come out better."
"I will defer to your expertise; feel free to take however long you need."
Perfect.
First up, the marinade. The cupboard contains soy sauce, honey and salt and pepper, olive oil is already on the kitchen table and a quick rummage through the fridge finds both the slices of salmon, lemons, and herbs. The ingredients of the marinade all go into a bowl and are mixed together, and once thoroughly mixed it's poured over the salmon, placed in its own dish. I massage the mixture into the salmon, then stick a lid on the dish and put it in the fridge. I'll need to check in and turn it over every so often, but now it's mostly just waiting until it's time to take the Salmon out to be cooked.
With an hour or so of waiting ahead, I guess it's time to get to work on the rice and vegetable accompaniments.
-
Artoria's reaction to the salmon is as good as I could have hoped- from her first bite onward she radiates such joyous energy that I find myself smiling also. As I look down at my plate to pick up a slice of salmon, an idea occurs to me.
"Did you ever cook before becoming King? If you want, I could probably teach you; you could make whatever food you wanted whenever you wanted."
Artoria pauses, swallows her mouthful and looks up before speaking.
"I…recall I might have had some experience cooking pies as a young girl. But I do not believe I was ever much of a cook myself."
Cooking pies is actually more advanced than I expected- before I got all these cooking hax I'm fairly sure I couldn't reliably make pies wholecloth. And I have a feeling that, for all of Arthurian (Artorian?) Britain's anachronisms, they wouldn't have had pre-made pastry sheets or anything like that. Artoria continues on, apparently not noticing my surprise and admiration.
"As for learning to cook, it is something to consider but should also probably wait- we will have more pressing priorities in the upcoming days."
"Fair enough."
From there, the meal falls into a companionable silence until the plates are bare and the dinner is over.
-
Reinhard's stats mean clearing the table afterwards is the work of seconds.
"Will there be anything else this evening, Master?"
Well, I'm going to be plush-making, but- "No, you can go to sleep. I'll be up for a bit but then head to bed myself- it's been a busy few days."
Artoria nods and heads to her room and I, after picking up scissors, pencils and a ruler from the study, head to my own room. Spreading the purchased materials out, I use a pencil to stencil out the shapes I'm after, and then grab the scissors and begin snipping out the basic body of the plush. For all of my visions of a life-sized, high quality and semi-realistic lion plush, that would have required a lot more materials than I'd purchased and so a normal-sized stuffed lion it'll have to be.
It takes a bit to get the body drawn and cut out, and from there the next step is sewing them together into a container for the stuffing. I reach for the needles. As my finger touches them, knowledge of how best to use them fills my mind, Item Mastery working as intended. Around the outsides I go, leaving one major hole for the stuffing, before filling it up and sewing it together. With the body itself done, time to add the details to the outside to turn the vaguely humanoid body into something resembling a lion.
By the end, I've exhausted my purchased supplies but am the proud new owner of an…honestly shockingly good if somewhat basic lion plush. It hasn't even taken as much time as I had feared, but it is still night-time and I do want to actually get some sleep before things get real busy and complicated tomorrow. I'll hand it over in the morning and head to bed now.
-
Artoria dreams; an unusual and rare occurrence for her. She finds herself in a forest full of straight trees and warm colors. Even as she draws Excalibur, she realizes it is a forest she recognizes.
"Ah."
With that, she walks forward. There's no need to search or wander- where she is heading towards is clear.
"-follow my command."
"Yes, your highness."
She rounds the large tree and catches the edge of a white cloak disappear out of view. The person on the ground does not open her eyes but detects her presence, as well as that of the sword still held in her hand. As, of course, she would.
"Back so soon, Bedivere?"
Artoria does not reply, looking down at herself. With no reply forthcoming, Artoria opens her eyes and looks up, tracing the blade of Excalibur up to her own face.
"I see. This is a dream."
"Yes."
"You have our blade. Does Sir Bedivere…?"
A shake of the head. "No, he obeys our commands. A true and worthy knight till the end."
Some unknown tension leaves the dying Artoria, and she lets out the slightest sigh of relief.
"I am glad. I had judged him so, but…"
The fact that their judgement had not always been accurate lingers for a moment, before the dying Artoria speaks again, weaker than before.
"...did your kingdom survive? Could I have done something different?"
"No. Like you, I met my end here. We led to the best of our abilities but our dream ends here, just as Merlin warned all those years ago."
Artoria does not seem surprised by the answer but gives a small smile.
"But it was a beautiful dream."
"It was. A worthy and beautiful dream."
There is a pause. Artoria's eyes blink from the pain and by the time they open, the figure of herself looking down on her has vanished, replaced by Bedivere. This time, he has fulfilled her command. She smiles, and the dreamworld fades.
Notes:
AN: At the request of a few people in-thread, have a supplementary to Chapter 5 with the dinner stuff. Note this is pretty hastily thrown together because I didn't plan it at all- I didn't really didn't expect the end of the last chapter to be any sort of cliffhanger and personally was mostly ok just letting Artoria have [something she wanted], but thinking back on it I guess what she would have ordered herself is a fair enough question so I did try and put some thought into it- she lived on a coastal village and so probably had fish during her childhood, and on her 'excursion' to Rome by boat she left Gawain behind so I imagine she would have had a break from his cooking and had fish sometime during either leg of the journey/in Rome proper. As for the pie stuff, Saber Lily says she can make a pie even if she isn't confident in it, so that got thrown in too.
(Another reason for this is that the interlude and what follows is proving difficult to write and so I just felt like throwing 1000 words into something else).
The last Artoria-dream bit is almost entirely a reaction to finding a piece of art by チルレム which is just so good. I might have done more with that scene specifically but for the fact that both characters in it have the same name and face and overall stances on things so actual dialogue was kinda-hard because a) "who is talking" b) "if both are the same person, what do they talk about"
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone