A few days later.
The cabin was as peaceful as if the gas attack that day had been a lie. Of course, that didn't apply to the dark circles under Kay's eyes.
"I'm off, Kay."
Ector hoisted a hefty hammer onto his shoulder. Once the Black Knight, he was now reduced to working at the village forge to feed not just eight mouths but nine, counting Kay.
"I'm off to earn our keep, so look after the house, alright?"
"Don't worry about it. On your way back, pick up some extra diaper cloth."
Kay waved with a dry tone unbefitting a five-year-old.
As soon as Ector left, the atmosphere inside the house grew heavy. Eight pairs of eyes turned to Kay in unison.
Their gaze was clear.
Feed us.
"Sigh… fine, fine, you little pigs."
Kay sighed and headed to the backyard. There lay a small wyvern that Ector had used his old skills to catch the night before.
Its scales were as hard as metal, and its tail dripped with venomous malice.
But to Kay, it looked like tough chicken meat.
"We've had enough bear meat, so today's a treat."
Kay grabbed a knife as tall as he was and climbed atop the wyvern's carcass.
Clang! Clang!
The scales were too solid. Not an easy job for a five-year-old.
Most kids would have cried and given up, but Kay was different. He scanned his surroundings and hefted a hefty rock.
"If it won't cut, smash it!"
Thud! Thud! Thud!
The savage noise echoed through the backyard as Kay brought the rock crashing down on the wyvern's tail joint, crushing it.
Scales shattered, flesh exposed. Following Ector's old lessons, Kay deftly peeled away the hide and filleted the meat.
"Good. That should give us some broth."
Kay filled the cauldron with water, threw in the drained wyvern tail along with various herbs.
He set aside the bones to simmer them separately later.
With the fire stoked, bubbles began to froth inside the pot.
The savory aroma drifted indoors as crashing noises erupted.
The door swung open, and eight diaper-clad baby warriors crawled out.
"Wait! It's not ready yet!"
Kay drew a boundary with his ladle and shouted.
But reason was out of the question for babies.
The first to charge was Alter. She was already drooling buckets as she leapt toward the cauldron.
"You lunatic! You'll burn yourself!"
Kay lunged and scooped Alter up just as Artoria reached for the lid.
"Hey! Not you either!"
Kay used his left hand to hold Alter and his right foot to shove Artoria back.
Then X tried to shove a stick into the pot that she'd picked up somewhere.
"Don't put that filthy stick in there!"
Meanwhile, Caster waved her staff and cried "Fire! Fire!", as if about to set the place ablaze. It was strange enough that a baby barely months old could articulate so clearly.
Kay's head spun. This was not cooking; it was a defense game.
"Please… just stay still! I'm exhausted!!"
In the end, Kay pulled out his secret weapon.
Bear jerky. He stuffed a piece into each mouth, and the babies sucked on it in quiet content.
In that moment, the bear soup was done.
The richly infused broth was a restorative tonic filled with the wyvern tail's vigor.
Kay cooled the soup and poured it into eight bottles. Naturally, they weren't modern baby bottles but handcrafted leather pouches with bamboo tubes.
"Here, drink up. Please… grow up already."
All eight bottles were sucked dry at once.
Squish-squish-squish-squish-squish-squish-squish-squish.
A grotesque yet peaceful sound.
Thanks to the wyvern's magic-infused broth, the babies' cheeks flushed and their eyes gleamed.
Especially Lancer, who after finishing, let out a burp and tossed her bottle aside before tugging on Kay's trousers for more.
"There's none left. You finished it. If you eat more, your belly will burst."
Kay refused firmly.
Lancer pouted, then suddenly began to glow.
"…Huh?"
Magic energy emission. Instinctively sensing danger, Kay handed out the remaining meat chunks to the babies.
They ate them with satisfied expressions.
"I mean, these infants tearing into meat is insane. But then again, if they'd only drunk milk, every beast in Tintagel would be milkless. Meat is easier to come by than milk."
Britain was currently low on supplies.
Grains and milk were perpetually scarce. Meat wasn't.
With powerful beasts, monsters, and sea creatures in abundance, as long as one was strong, there was no fear of starvation.
Conversely, the powerless common folk couldn't even hunt that meat, which was the problem. Originally, in Tintagel, Ector would hunt and sell meat, but now that meat went to feeding the kids…
For a while, the folks of Tintagel wouldn't even catch a glimpse of meat.
"Sigh. But handling wyvern meat is a hassle. Should dinner be bear meat again? But that's all fat. I could refine it into oil for frying, but there's nothing to fry. And can these kids even eat fried food?"
"Raaah~!"
Seeing X Alter burp after eating meat made him think it might work.
"Sigh. First, I'll try refining the fat."
With child-rearing duties alongside, Kay melted bear fat to refine it.
By evening, Ector returned.
"I brought cloth for the diapers, Kay. And I caught a shark by the coast."
"Oh, right."
Catching a shark by the shore wasn't normal, but apocalyptic Britain made it possible.
"How are the kids?"
"Do I look like they're doing well?"
Seeing Kay covered in baby toys, Ector cleared his throat.
"It'd have been nice if your mother were alive."
"I'm glad she passed before this hell began."
"The nerve on you. But yeah, you shouldn't be stuck with this kind of childcare."
"Father, what about me?"
"You're the eldest son."
"Damn patriarchy."
Kay sighed. Ector expertly cleaned the shark meat. It didn't taste great, but it was edible.
Since Ector liked wine, the house had plenty of vinegar. Kay soaked the meat in it for thirty minutes to remove the fishy smell.
Then he seasoned it and prepared to fry. Of course there was no batter—flour and eggs were precious.
So he simply fried the shark meat as is.
"Here. Eat up."
"Kay, is this right?"
"Well, they're eating it."
Ector wasn't convinced about feeding the babies fried food, but the Artorias ate happily.
"Phew. Tomorrow we need to hunt in bulk."
"Please do."
Kay's biggest worry: how much they would eat once they grew up.