The Thirsty Girl's Guide To Summoning (Fate/Isekai)

Chapter 18

As Ren sat on her heels staring up at Merlin thoughtfully, Jack appeared from the stairs down, followed by Ritsu.

"Mommy, we ate and ate but we're still so hungry."

"I brought the grooming basket," said Ritsu apologetically. "I tried to let you rest but she started talking about going to the village to find food."

Ren went cold, and reached out for the basket as Merlin stepped out of the way. "Thank you for letting her come to me instead."

Ritsu sighed as she looked at Ren's expression. "I wondered. I mean, normal familiars don't even eat, just drink, and if they can't get recharged by their Summoner, they can cause a lot of trouble. It's why I'm worried about that one summoning gone wrong." As Jack came over to Ren and hugged her, Ritsu gave Ren a keen look. "What's special about you and Merlin is that you don't seem to need any recharge at all."

"Oh, I do," said Merlin. "I just get it from elsewhere. But Ren doesn't even have that, which is interesting. Now... Ritsu, would you go sit with Tora for a while? I think she'll give us her parole when she awakens but it wouldn't do for her to awaken alone."

"Wait," Ren objected. "I wanted to get some tips on the magic hair brushing." Jack had used an enormous amount of power in her brief fight with Artoria, and Ren had serious concerns about her ability to replenish it.

Merlin said, "I don't think she can help you, Ren, but I may be able to. When I watched you and Jack earlier I had some ideas."

Ren hesitated and then shrugged. "Okay. You're the expert."

Merlin beamed. "So nice of you to realize that!" He sat back on the bed again, behind Ren.

Ritsu, looking conflicted, said, "I'm so curious! But I want to go sit with Tora."

"Hungry, mommy!" Jack said, still clinging to Ren. Her eyes gleamed in a disturbing way as she added to Ritsu, "We won't let Caster do anything weird to Mommy, don't worry."

"Eheheh." Merlin scratched his cheek. "This may be exciting! You watch Tora for me, Ritsu." Then, as Ritsu left, he leaned forward and reached between Jack and Ren to pluck a comb from the grooming basket in Ren's lap.

Jack promptly bit his arm through his mantle and then recoiled. "Yuck! You taste as nasty as you smell!"

"Well, I'm not your mommy," said Merlin reasonably. "Ren, you go ahead and brush her hair while I comb yours."

Ren eyed him. While he once again wore his usual faint smile, he seemed serious, so she decided to go along with him. Besides, if she didn't tend to Jack soon, it seemed very possible the little Servant would be taking a bite out of her next.

So she turned her back on Merlin, positioned Jack in front of her and started running her fingers through Jack's fine, flyaway hair to pull apart forming tangles. Once she'd moved onto gentle brushing, she felt Merlin's light touch against her own scalp. Quietly, he began to hum as he started combing her hair: an atonal scattering of notes that had more of the cadence of speech than music.

Ren did her best to focus on the feel of Jack's hair against her fingers instead of what Merlin did. Jack's restless squirming certainly helped. "More, more, more, mommy."

Merlin stopped combing Ren's hair, but his humming continued. Then he said, "Give me that brush for a moment, Ren," reaching over her shoulder.

"Um, sure," said Ren, releasing it to his grasp and immediately switching to braiding and unbraiding strands of Jack's hair. A few minutes later, Merlin, still humming, returned the brush to her, clean of the loose hair it had accumulated from both Jack and Cú.