57 Pet Lions

(1 out of 1 chapters this week)

The pair of Artorias looked with bated breath at what was about to happen.

A pride of lions is about to invade the territory of another pride of lions.

Just to satisfy the curiosity of the pair of blondes, Ren used his timeline powers just to figure out what was going on.

In other words, he was like a narrator from a documentary.

What was happening was quite simple and natural. The male lion is getting old and the lion from another pride is at the peak of his life. So he decided to expand and get some more females.

So what the group looked at was a battle to death between two lions.

However, the pair worried the most was the fact that once one wins he will kill all the cubs of the other lion.

Sure enough, their worries were on the spot. Once the older lion was killed the younger one was about to start killing the cubs of the older lion.

"Master!"

"What is it, Saber?" Ren sighed when he heard how serious his Knight was.

"We can't let that lion do that!"

"And how do you suggest we do it? We are in the wilderness, you are about to interfere with the natural course of the wilderness."

"...But Master… *Tsk* fine… I want to save those cubs! There are three of them. Two for us and one for you. What do you think?" Saber used a different way to persuade him. She already saw this before when Morgan and Alter tried to persuade him.

"... Now that you have mentioned…I do want a pet."

Just like that, all three cubs appeared in their car.

"..." Artoria and Alter both had glistering eyes. As they picked them up.

Even Ren had a certain look on his face as he picked the one he had chosen as his lion.

"...so soft."

"Let me hold it." Morgan slightly got closer to him as she looked at the small feline.

"Sure." He handed the small lion over to her by placing it on her lap.

The pale blonde witch inspected the confused-looking feline.

The small mammal hissed at her, showing its impressive fangs.

"There-There, there is no need for you to get all hissy like that."

She tried to bring her hand closer but the cub tried to bite her. This made the dark witch frown.

"I thought witches have a natural affinity with felines," Ereshkigal said from the back.

"...Very funny," Morgan exclaimed with a not-amused tone. She had to bring her hand away as those fangs looked sharp.

"Just don't make sudden motions and let it get used to you," Ren said with a sigh.

"...Alright."

The Fairy Queen seriously nodded as she barely moved with the feline on her lap.

The Fairy is trying hard to make sure it doesn't fall or move too much, it is hard to do such a thing as she can't do much either!

While the fairy is busy with the lion cub, so are the other two. The pair of Knights were gone to their fantasy world as they were cuddling their lion cubs.

"Master…I don't want to sound like a bad person or something. But these are lions. They can eat people if they are not supervised, not to mention they grow insanely fast." The responsible Goddess reminded the Sorcerer.

Ereshkigal reminded him that these lions are not domesticated animals.

"I know. That's why I have some idea what I am going to do."

"Oh?"

"Curious, what are you thinking?" Morgan asked him, as the lion got slightly less terrified of the witch. The animal can sense that the woman is quite dangerous. She might have mellowed down on her Dark Magic, but it's not something one can just wash off.

"Phantasmal Beasts."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

The entire car got dead silent for a moment.

"Nemean Lion, in Greek myths, was a golden lion which was killed by Hercules who was a Demi-God. It was said that its fur could not be damaged by any regular weapon. So Hercules choked it to death.

Morgan, you know how to get 'title' and such things give power. Your three knights could use powers from knights of the Round Table.

If we were to apply a similar principle we could have Nemean Lions."

"... That's a tall order… but I like it." At that moment she took the lion and lifted it. The cute feline hissed at her and tried to scratch her with its pawns.

"The idea is not bad, but some things need to be considered. My fairies by nature were magical and I could imprint the Saint Graph on them.

These kittens here are just that, kittens." The Fairy Queen said with a thoughtful look.

"But we could enchant, and the enchantment could grow, eventually becoming a mystery…from there we could make something from it." She suggested that the Dark Witch is considering making the lions into something more than pets. In her eyes. She never considered that these wild animals were something of a greater threat. Sure they have claws and fangs. But she is a Fairy Queen and she is a far greater being on the pecking order.

Unlike people who have some human common sense.

"...Master, are you sure?" Artoria eventually started talking.

"About what? The lion you hold in your hands will only live a decade or something like that. After that, it's going to die from old age.

Something like that for us is a drop in a bucket or even less. You don't want it to die just like that, do you? Don't forget if it becomes something akin to Nemean Lion you could use it as a mount."

"... Oh…"

"Oh, indeed." Ren nodded as he could feel how the gears were spinning in those two girls.

"Master sure knows how to persuade us." Alter said with small glee.

She can already imagine these cubs growing into something like 3 to 4-metre tall fluffy monsters with huge claws and fangs easily biting things apart.

And her being its owner. Simply glorious.

This makes her like her Master more and more. He knows how to spoil his women!

"Yes. I can see it." Morgan imagined it as well. A huge lion-like being sitting on the ground next to her throne. Best sort of intimidator.

"Those three…" Ereshkigal, who had some Rin's common sense, could only shake her head. While Gray was wondering how they would smuggle those lions onto the cruise ship.

After the whole lion stuff, the group drove around for a bit more, and they saw some of the crocodiles in action pulling animals into the water.

Then the infamous scavengers the Hyenas in action bullying a leopard.

It was a fun two days…

But they eventually needed to return to the ship as it doesn't stay more than three days in the port. There is a limit to how much hypnosis they can use.

~~~

Once back on the ship. Keeping the Lions a secret is a pain in the butt. Until Ren figured out why not put special collars on them?

This way he can start on that enchantment he was thinking of as well.

"You three bring those cats over," Ren exclaimed with a small smirk.

"Okay… you finished?" Artoria asked with a curious tone.

"Yep."

He showed her a yellow golden collar.

"It has inbuilt minor hypnosis and light-bending spells. This means even cameras will think that this is a cat. Then you will be able to sense where the lion is at all times. Followed by the spell enchantment for stronger fur.

This way we can start working on that mystery." He explained to her while his Saber was inspecting it from different angles.

"Not bad husband, let me add a few bits~" Morgan praised him for a bit before taking the collar from the King of Knights.

She then proceeded to use her magecraft as well. Adding a few enchantments to it. After all her Item Creation EX is one of the best around.

So she knows a thing or two about creating items like these.

"Here… it should give more towards mystery growth. Now hand over the other two." The Fairy Queen handed over the collar before taking the other two and repeating the process.

Eventually, the trio put all of them on the lion cubs, who didn't even bother with them. This is a bonus as sometimes animals hate the stuff which is put on them.

"Looks amazing. We can even distinguish which one belongs to whom." Artoria was pleased with this. As she will show to that Alter whose lion is better!

Ren already sensed the competitive spirit returning to the pair of Knights.

Though…he does like the collars. A golden one, a black one and of course a blue one.

"We should add some ornaments to these," Morgan said from the side as she was looking at the cubs.

"We do have enough time to do that," Ren said with a casual shrug. They do indeed have quite a bit of time.

The next port is in Cape Town in South Africa, and it will take over a week to get there.

"True. I will think of something in the meantime."

~~~

Ren did notice that his knight was acting quite skittish. Like she wants to say or do something but she always ends up changing her mind at the last second.

"What is it?" He finally asked her with a sigh.

"!!!" The blonde for a second looked like someone found her stealing or something.

"You do know you have that certain look when you want to say something but then you just drop it." He explained to her with a certain look which made her get self-aware.

"T-This… well… I don't know how to explain…" She fiddled for a bit before looking around, making sure no one was looking or listening in. It's quite amusing when someone like her is doing that.

"Then start from the very beginning." He said with a resigned sigh.

"Well… after the whole thing in the changing room… I could not stop thinking…" The blonde King of Knights is trying to explain. It's very difficult from the looks of it.

"Oh?"

"About this whole situation…"

"Which is?"

"What Alter said made sense. You have tied us in the most direct sense possible. With your True Magic, I don't think you will die in just a hundred or so years… not that it matters since I am alive in a weird sense."

Artoria said while looking at her hands. She realised that she is not ageing because of Avalon, and at the same time, she has a proper body and the perks of a Servant.

While Avalon is an incredible Noble Phantasm, it was meant for her to be used when she is a King, so that her reign would be extremely long. But now she is attached to a guy with the same Noble Phantasm.

This means she will be with him for thousands if not hundreds of thousands of years.

"Okay? It took you a few weeks to realise that but yes. I have a bunch of things planned in the very long term." He said with a shrug.

For a moment she had a deadpan look but then she just sighed.

"I am a Knight. Not a Magus. I am good at using a sword to slay my enemies. My apologies that it takes a while to grasp what your words mean." She explained with a resigned sigh. It should be obvious, magecraft can be over her head, at a bunch of times.

"It's fine. Just tell me what you want to say."

She took a deep breath and decided to finally explain.

"...After that…incident… I realised that…our standard relationship may not work anymore…I know what you have been doing with Alter. So…I don't mind doing it as well. Since…I will be around for a very long time…" The proud King of Knights said while fiddling with her clothes. The blonde could not keep this inside of her any longer!

~~~

For advanced chapters (+5 chapters) my pat : pat reon.com/DragonsFics

OR

Discord: discord.gg/denoffanfics

~~~

P.S.: I do weekly voting on Patreon if you want more chapters for this fic (or other fics ) vote there.