𝕮𝖍𝖆𝖑𝖉𝖊𝖆'𝖘 𝖀𝖑𝖙𝖎𝖒𝖆𝖙𝖊 𝕸𝖆𝖘𝖙𝖊𝖗

Eight: Cu Chulainn

"I guess I'll start with my backstory," Chulainn murmured as Enkidu went on patrol. "I was sent to my uncle Fergus when I was pretty young, as fodder for the northern kingdom's army in a way. Well, I was pretty talented back then," He grinned, then grimaced when Aleksei showed no sign of reacting. "I killed a dog one day, and it turned out to be the guard dog of the blacksmith Culann.

"The king was visiting him that day, but because I was messing around with my friends and would have lost if I accompanied him right away, I told him I'd catch up after I won. When I won, I did catch up, but the gates to the blacksmith's house were closed. Because of that, the dog saw me as an enemy and attacked me, so I strangled it."

"Slight animal cruelty, but alright," Aleksei murmured, causing the lancer to sweatdrop. Well, it made sense, considering everything.

"Anyway, I got my name from that incident. When the king and Culann saw me, I felt really bad when I saw how sad the blacksmith was, so I tried to make it up to him by offering myself as a guard until the dog's pups grew up under my care and training, but he rejected me and instead told me to keep training myself so that I could be Ulster's guard dog."

"Ulster was the name of the place you were staying, correct?" The Russian asked to confirm, which the lancer did with a nod.

"Yeah. From that, people started calling me Cu Chulainn which is Irish for Culann's savage dog. After that, I took on a geas that I could never eat any kind of dog."

"Made up for the animal cruelty, good," Aleksei nodded approvingly, causing Chulainn to chuckle slightly with a shake of his head.

"You comment at the weirdest times, Aleksei."

"Yeah yeah, just keep going," He rolled his eyes with a slight smile, so the lancer continued with his recollection of his past.

"I ended up becoming an official warrior at the age of thirteen and got the prophecy that I would have many feats in exchange for a short life. That was fine with me because that's the best way to live, right?" Chulainn grinned. "But then the king got mad that I was a warrior at such a young age, so I got mad and sorta wrecked a lot of stuff to prove my strength, which worked but I'm not exactly proud of that time..." He sweatdropped with a sheepish look.

"All of us have times we aren't proud of," Aleksei told him with a kind of knowing look.

"Oh yeah? I can't imagine you being ashamed of something," The lancer cocked his head, as if asking the Russian to elaborate. He did a second later.

"I'm ashamed that I ever got in contact with that asshat Merlin."

"W-what?" Chulainn spluttered, his eyes as wide open as his mouth.

"He's so annoying," Aleksei had a sneer on his face as he thought about the guy. "And clingy, and self righteous. If I could induce self amnesia of that time, I would. Or even better, I'd love to go back in time and strangle the me that thought Merlin might be a beneficial ally."

"That's not nice, Aleksei," A new presence appeared beside him, causing the two lancers to immediately jolt as their weapons appeared. "Easy there! No need for that," Merlin held his hands up in surrender. "I can't just ignore my best friend slandering me, now can I?"

"We're not friends."

"You always say that Aleksei, and yet we hang out all of the time!"

"No, you appear out of nowhere and I have to endure your constant ramblings."

"Same difference."

"Leave. I'm in the middle of an important conversation."

"Oh I know, it was getting very interesting, especially since it's been a while since I heard anything about the legend of Cu Chulainn."

"I thought I told you to keep your perverted peeping to a minimum, jackass."

"It's not perverted, Aleksei, I keep telling you it's so I can help you if I need to!"

"Like I would ever need your help."

"Master," Enkidu suddenly spoke up, interupting the squabble between the two immortals. "Permission to engage?"

"H-hang on now, Enkidu!" Merlin scrambled up, causing the Russian to exhale sharply before covering his mouth. "My word, you actually can laugh."

"Permission granted."

"W-Wait!" Merlin squeaked, and right before the lancer could get to him, he vanished in his usual shower of flowers.

"Slippery bastard," Aleksei tutted before giving a nod to Enkidu. "Thank you for being proactive. He's good at escaping, so don't take it to heart."

"Yes sir," They nodded their head before excusing themselves so the two boys could continue their conversation.

"So where was I?" Chulainn asked himself. "Oh yeah. At some point I fell for Emer, who was the daughter of king Forgall Monach, and I was stupid enough to think I could kidnap her. Luckily that didn't work out, and I went to study under Scathach, where I obtained rune knowledge and Gae Bolg. From there, I got myself a wife, had a kid named Connla that I hadn't met until I had to fight him."

"If you want to stop there, it's fine," The master told him as he pursed his lips.

"I'll just leave off with how awesome I went out," The lancer smiled, glad that he could skip over how he had killed his own son because of the geas he had given him of not being able to reveal his name. "I was forced to break each geas I had made for myself, which meant I lost my abilities with each one.

"But still, I managed to fight an entire army by myself. Right in the middle of it, though, I fell into some traps and it wasn't looking good," He paused to give his master a lighthearted grin. "But because I was so stubborn, I made sure that I was standing as I died. And then some otter drank my blood, that was a fun last thing to see, isn't it?"

"More gross than fun, but whatever floats your boat," Aleksei shrugged, giving his servant a nod. "Thank you for telling me your story, I really appriciate it."

"No problem," Chulainn hummed. "So, you have questions, right?"

"Not about your past, but yes," The Russian nodded as he shifted in his seat. "What are your goals now that you are my servant?"

"The main one would be helping restore all of the singularities," He decided after a moment of pondering. "I'd also like to fight a bunch of powerful enemies!"

"I'm sure there will be no shortage of powerful enemies as we work our way to the main problem," Aleksei assured him. "And, since you're a servant, you probably want the grail for something. What is it?"

"Honestly," Chulainn grimaced slightly as he rubbed his neck. "I have no clue. It was a sort of 'we'll cross that bridge when we get there' kind of situation, I guess you could call it."

"Alright, I can understand that," The Russian muttered. "That's all I have for you, so feel free to ask me any questions you have."

"There are a lot of things I wanna know about you," The lancer's eyes narrowed in on his master, who raised an eyebrow. "But oddly enough, I can't think of anything I wanna ask right now."

"That's fine," Aleksei hummed, standing up. "You can ask me whenever you do have questions, and I'll do my best to answer them."

"Sounds good," Chulainn nodded, standing up as well before jogging off. "Yo, Enkidu, it's your turn!"

"And Chulainn," Aleksei called after him, causing the servant to pause and glance back at him. "While Enkidu and I are talking, go hunt something for breakfast for everyone."

"Roger that!"