He couldn’t feel the potion in his pockets. It wasn’t something that had been on his mind, but it had always been there. Arthur had even forgotten that Arcadia had given him the potion in the first place, but he had been careful with it. A survival skill reset was a massive thing. He hadn’t faced any situation that could lead to his death yet, so he had never looped again. But still, it would’ve been nice to have.

  One of the men who had been speaking picked him up from the chair and tightened the ropes on his hand. Then, the second man grabbed him from the other side. One hand each on his shoulders, they started to walk forward. Arthur did not resist. He had no reason to.

  Cruel, ruthless, corrupt. He had heard the Celia of this world call him many things up until now, but he had seen this a million times before. To children, the person who hurt them last is the worst person in the world. If someone else hurts them after that, their target changes. Celia was just a child at the end of the day. And he was willing to bet that King Arthur was the same.

  They pulled him out of an iron door and started to walk up some very small stairs. The entire team, as he took short breaths through the wet cloth on his face, he smelled roses. It was quite a distinct smell, and one that he had always liked as a kid. That made sense, then. It had probably been a request from the Arthur of this world. The stairs ended, and they opened another heavy iron door.

  The air got easier to breathe as soon as they entered the next room. It was much more spacious. Way too spacious. That meant it was probably the throne room where the king held his audiences. And that suspicion was confirmed very soon when the guards turned him around and dragged him straight to what he guessed was the middle of the room.

  “Don’t trouble him so. Lift his blindfold, mutts.”

  At once, the guards lifted the cloth from his face, and Arthur took a long breath of relief.

  He was indeed in the throne room. It was moodily lit, with torches and lanterns providing most of the illumination. There were fancy carpets and paintings all over the room, which was a mostly empty rectangle with the throne at one end and pillars lining both sides. A golden and red colour scheme persisted everywhere. But of course, most of it was barely visible because of the new king’s preferences. Even the beautifully detailed chandelier, which was hanging right above him, had not been maintained or lit up. One of the guards pulled out his glasses and put them back on, and he could see the smudged glass on it even better.

  “Get out. I can handle him.”

  King Arthur sat on the throne. Haughty, he had his legs crossed and his head resting on his arm, which in turn rested on the massive marble throne. Wearing royal blue clothes with a cape of thick red fur, along with a gold crown that had different jewels embedded every two centimetres, the king was quite lavish in his tastes. His looks, on the other hand, were not the same. There was an ugly scar below his left eye, almost like someone had tried to hook the lower eyelid and pulled it down. Otherwise, his black hair was almost the same as Arthur’s own.

  The king blinked and picked up a wine glass from the other side of the throne. Taking a sip, he started, “Welcome to Chicago. Tell me your name.”

  “Arthur Cross.”

  “Hilarious. Tell me your name.”

  Arthur sighed. He didn’t want to entertain this child more than necessary.

  “Sy.”

  He drank the entire wine at once, and then a smile adorned his face. A small sputter of a chuckle, and some of the wine spilled out. Wiping it with the fur cape, he threw the glass away, and it shattered into pieces on the floor.

  “Repair it.”

  “Excuse me?” Arthur asked.

  “Repair it. Right now. Or I kill the girl.”

  Girl?

  Celia. It had to be Celia. He could not have managed to get Arthur alone without getting the others too. He wasn’t sure where they were, though. Maybe he had already interrogated them and was just testing Arthur now. He probably already knew about the multiversal variant and the fact that he was indeed Arthur. Right? Well, Celia knew about it all, and he used to be her friend.

  Arthur closed his eyes and turned to aim his tied-up hands at the glass. An uneventful three seconds passed.

  Skill Activation

  Object Reversal

  When he opened his eyes and looked back, King Arthur was already holding the repaired glass in his hands. He had perfectly positioned his hand to catch it when it reappeared.

  “Very nice.” He threw it once more, and it splintered into pieces again.

  Arthur struggled not to roll his eyes, but managed to keep himself calm.

  “There is no girl. I do not have Celia Ingram yet.” The king laughed, “But it was fun seeing you struggle, Arthur Cross. It was very pleasing.”

  “What do you want?”

  Arthur needed to take the power back. He needed to be the one in charge, or else the kid would keep making it worse. There was no telling how far he would go. There was, of course, the chance that Arthur was just overthinking once more. But in general, children who showed destructive tendencies did not have the greatest prospects unless dealt with in a proper, instructive manner.

  “What do I want? That is a very good question. What does anyone want? Why do we live? What is the purpose of existence? I heard you were an instructor of the sciences. It is certainly showing.”

  “Look, I have no interest in spending more time here than necessary. I have better things to do than take care of a tantruming child. Let me go.”

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  “Let you go? Oh, sure. You only needed to ask. Why didn’t you do that before?”

  “Was that an attempt at being sarcastic…my king?”

  “Perhaps.” He shook his head and groaned, “Perhaps not. It is not my strongest suit, as you may have guessed. Yet, we must try. I want to be good at sarcasm. That’s what I want. How does that sound?”

  King Arthur stood up and stood in front of the throne. Now, he actually looked a bit more intimidating. When he was sitting, Arthur could see him as a kid. Standing, however, he was almost as tall as him. Maybe even taller. So, as he started to slowly walk down the marble steps leading to the throne, the teacher actually felt his hairs standing up in fear. There was something different about this one.

  Something very different from the similarly aged Celia.

  The king made his way to Arthur and pulled out his sword. Slowly moving to the man’s back, he lined up the sword with his rope ties and swung downwards to free him.

  “There. Teach me how to be sarcastic now. That is what you do, is it not? You teach people. So, go on. Teach.”

  The sword fell to the ground, and he continued to walk and loop back around to the front. The entire time, the blade scratched against the carpet on the floor and reached all the way to the marble. Both of those sounds, paired together, were torturous to be so close to.

  “What happened? Do you not wish to teach me, Arthur Cross? Do you find flaws in King Arthur?”

  “A couple, yeah.”

  “What might those-” The king opened his mouth wide in shock and widened his eyes, “By the gods. You just did it, didn’t you? You were just sarcastic. I almost did not catch it. That is how good you are!?”

  “Uh, no. I wasn’t really being sarcastic. I really did me-”

  “You’re doing it again! It is fascinating. Does it come so naturally to you? Perhaps when one does not have anything to flaunt, they must rely on their own tongue. I have never had such deficiencies.”

  Arthur wasn’t sure what he wanted to do to this brat. On one hand, he really did want to grab him by the hair and smash his face against a knee. On the other hand, he just saw a misguided child who needed a better idol and role model. The only issue Arthur had there was that he did not know who the current role model of this child was. Who had made him like this?

  The king moved closer and matched his eyes with Arthur’s. Without blinking, all he did was stare. The teacher could not give up here. He needed to keep up, or else it would get more difficult to converse with the kid. So, he did not blink either. And before they knew it, both of them had completely dedicated themselves to the unannounced match.

  Soon after, though, the king blinked.

  And as soon as he did, he burst out into laughter. Not just the royal, smug laughter he had been maintaining earlier, but loud laughter. He moved back, crouched down a bit, and held onto his knees as he kept on laughing. As he did, multiple lights over the entire throne room came on, and it went from a moody dungeon to a well-lit, lavish mansion’s interior.

  The whites and golds came into focus, with the red accents finally gaining meaning. In the middle, the king still could not stop himself from laughing. Arthur nervously stood as he was, hoping that something bad was not going to follow. Thankfully, the only big reveal at the end was the chandelier. It came down a bit, and every candle was lit at the same time.

  The smudges he had noticed earlier were not that, but just blue paper decorations that rained down on King Arthur the instant the act ended. To sell the entire performance, the kid even gave him a full, flourished bow. Arthur wasn’t sure if he was impressed or infuriated. What was he even doing?

  Once he finally finished laughing, he looked up, “Oh, you should see your face! I was just kidding! I did not mean any of it. But that’s the king you expected, is it not?”

  Arthur did not reply.

  “Oh, I know, I know. The rumours are just rumours. I am no tyrant. I did not even kill my father. He just…died. Anyways, let us not talk about sad things. Come here, myself. I have been so happy ever since I found this out. To think there are multiple versions of me!”

  The king happily walked forward and pulled Arthur into a hug. The teacher stayed still and gritted his teeth to get through this. Now that he realized that he had indeed been pranked by this child, something in him awoke. Not the kind teacher who wanted to see him become a better person, but the very angry one who needed to teach him that none of this was funny.

  “Oh, why are you so angry!? Come on. Come with me, and I shall show you something amazing!”

  With one hand on Arthur’s shoulder, the king started to walk. For now, Arthur went along. He calmed his anger down and put on a smile. Act or not, it didn’t change the fact that this was very much a fish-out-of-water situation. This Arthur might have been king, but he wasn’t fit for it. Far from fit, actually. And he hadn’t explained how his father died.

  There were far too many unknown factors for Arthur to let his guard down.

  “You did get me. You got me good. I was worried for a good while there.”

  The king laughed, “I know, right? It’s hilarious. But trust me, you’ll be just as surprised as I was. Here it is.”

  He walked all the way to the left of his throne and stood in front of the steps going up. Then, with two quick claps, the stairs started to move. Not with magic or some insane engineering, but motors. Arthur could hear them moving very well. This was an electronic, sensor-activated door.

  The stairs split into two and moved back before collapsing to reveal a set of stairs going deeper underground. A secret door built into the throne itself. King Arthur laughed and started moving down. Arthur followed after him.

  As they moved down, the LED lights on the ceiling started to light up. Step by step, Arthur grew more confused. There was clearly modern technology at play, which meant that someone from another universe had been meddling over here.

  They reached the end of the stairs, and a door awaited them. For once, this was a very simple dark oak wooden door with the engraving of a lion holding a sword between its teeth. King Arthur nodded and opened the door.

  The room inside was big. Not as massive as the throne room, but sizable enough for about six to seven people to be able to move around inside without any issues. That was, of course, a fairly normal room. The only reason Arthur thought of it in those terms was because there was very limited furniture inside.

  A single blue light on the ceiling illuminated the entire room. Right in the middle was a heavy, circular stone table with the engraving of a tree on it. Surrounding it were six stone chairs. The one at the very middle was empty, and King Arthur took his place there. Two to his left and one to his right were occupied.

  The three other people in the room were, surprisingly, wearing military uniforms. And these weren’t old or modern military uniforms either. These were something he had never seen before. A deep blue with multiple fashion-oriented flaps and details to make it weightier. All of them had medals attached, with one having more than forty, while one only had two. All of them wore similar blue caps that went down and covered their faces.

  “Welcome, Arthur Cross.” The king stood up, spread his arms with a grin, “I am King Arthur, and this is my Round Table! Behold, the Knights!”

  He didn’t say it out loud. But he had only one thought on his mind – what the fuck?

  “Oh…hi.”

  The king laughed and sat back down, “Do not be shy. Everyone here is another Arthur Cross. These three are also Arthurs. When you join us, you shall also be Knight Arthur. Together, we can achieve whatever we put our minds to!”

  The others remained silent, but gave meaningful nods.

  “And what is that?” Arthur asked, hoping that this might give him his answer, “What exactly are we doing here at the Round Table of King Arthur?”

  Upholding nobility? Standing for chivalry? Most of the usual stuff?

  King Arthur smiled with innocence in his eyes and replied with chilling confidence and authority.

  “Multiversal Domination.”