He let the silence speak for itself for some time. As soon as the words left his mouth, Arthur could not stop shaking. The breeze was warm and pleasantly enveloping, but he still felt like it was the coldest night he had ever lived. Whether it was her slightly confused expression or his heartbeat, which he was guessing everyone in the world could hear by now, Arthur did not know what to focus on. Well, at least he was going to die now.

  “Arthur…”

  Celia whispered, but did not say anything beyond that. Slightly whimpering, slightly shaking too, she stayed as she was. Her eyes were a bit moist, but he knew that wasn’t because of him.

  “That is just unfair.”

  Vil’s first reaction was a whisper. But then, he pulled his sword back and stood still as if he had just been dealt the greatest blow of his life. Unmoving, he glanced at Celia and continued in a louder voice.

  “That is not fair. You do not get to declare your love the moment after I have defeated you. It destroys the purpose of the duel. Why would you do that?”

  By the time he was done, the knight was screaming. Normally, Arthur would have either tried to calm him down or fought back if he thought he was in the right. In this situation, he did not know if either of those was the appropriate reaction. Vil did not deserve someone to be angry at him right now. If he was going to scream, then Arthur would just hear it all and then talk to him later when he was calm.

  “Pick up the sword.”

  Arthur stayed still, but once the knight repeated his order, he had no option. Quietly, he bent down and picked the katana up and stood still. Vil, as expected, attacked. Relentlessly, over and over again, he kept smacking his sword in the same direction – straight down at a diagonal angle.

  In response, Arthur held the katana up to dodge it. He didn’t need to move or change his position. Once Vil attacked and recoiled, the teacher also set his sword back to its original position to continue defending himself.

  “It. Is. Not. Fair.” The knight screamed every time he attacked, repeating the same phrase over and over again as everyone watched.

  Arthur did not know how to respond. He did not know what to do. Suddenly, just saying those three words felt like it had been a crime. It had been the ultimate disrespect towards the knight. Celia just stood there and watched without getting time to reply. All she could do was put her hands together and watch as Vil took out all of his anger on Arthur.

  Elle was stuck in position for a while, too. But then, he eventually decided to move. One step at a time, despite Dee trying to stop him, he quietly got closer to Vil and started speaking in a low voice.

  “Vil, calm down. Hey, listen to me.”

  “It. Is. Not. Fair. How. Dare. You?!”

  “Vil, listen to me. Stop attacking him, come on. The man has already had more than enough.”

  But the strikes did not stop. In fact, they only increased in intensity and power. Slowly but surely, Arthur could feel his shoes digging into the dirt, and himself moving backwards after every third or fourth strike. Elle slowly raised his hands and tried to get them closer to Vil’s shoulders. Just in case something happened, Arthur noted that his skill had reset. He could keep people safe in case something escalated.

  His eyes met Celia’s, and hers sparkled for a while. With a melancholic smile on her face, she gave him a nod. Arthur wasn’t sure how he wanted to respond, but his body did that for him. He did not cower or apologize or mouth something out. All he did was give her a very weak smile as the sword kept striking against his.

  One of those ‘can you believe this guy?’ smiles that they shared whenever someone started spewing bullshit. Somehow, he felt guilty for doing that right now, but it was probably fine. Vil was just him with a few extra steps and armor pieces attached.

  Elle finally grabbed Vil and pulled him into a hug. The knight raised his sword once more and brought it down with the most power yet. Striking against the reinforced katana, it snapped into two once more. The piece went flying behind Arthur’s head and got stuck in the ground. Vil, with the now-broken sword, stood as he was until that also slipped out of his hand and dropped on the dirt.

  Arthur crumbled on the ground as all the pressure finally got to him. The katana slipped out of his hand too, and clattered beside his exhausted body.

  “Vil, it’s alright.”

  Elle stayed there, hugging the knight’s neck. Vil held his hand and gave it a few good pats.

  “She’s…dead. Why is she dead?”

  “I know.”

  “I could have saved her. If I hadn’t tried to make a stupid joke, I would have been there for her. I shouldn’t have…”

  “It’s done, Vil.”

  The knight fell to his knees, too, grabbing the dirt and wrapping his fist around it. Arthur moved back to give him as much space as possible.

  He did not know what Vil was talking about. He hadn’t been with them for long enough, and he did not want to pretend that he did either. Dee had told him that this would be right for Vil, so he had done it. It was the least he would do for anyone. It was what he taught his students to do, so of course, he would follow the same rules.

  But he hadn’t expected it to get so loud. He wasn’t very good at handling his emotions, so it was strange to see someone who wasn’t afraid to cry out so loudly. Crawling back, he eventually got up and moved back towards the dragon. He wanted to go to Celia, obviously, but he decided not to. He would let her come to him if she felt like it. After what he had done, he deserved absolutely nothing from her.

  “He’ll be alright.” The dragon said.

  “He doesn’t look alright.”

  “Well, people are messed up, what can you do?”

  Arthur agreed. There was nothing you could do except stand there and look at them. Elle was trying to do more, but there was no telling how much of his words were even getting to Vil.

  The dragon looked at him and spoke up, “You did well, too, don’t worry. It was more than what most people would have done for someone they met this morning.”

  “I don’t think so.”

  “Yeah, people who teach others generally tend to have a more positive outlook on things.” Dee laughed, “I speak from experience. Not my own, but experience for sure. Teachers really are special.”

  Arthur took a glance at Celia, only to notice that she was walking up to Elle and Vil. He felt a bit of jealousy over that, but he suppressed it. Even if it was real, even if he acknowledged it, he did not need to let it take over him. He could just keep that part quiet and watch what happened.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  “Hey. Vil?”

  The knight slowly quieted down his sobs and looked at her, “Yes?”

  “I, uh, am not your Celia.”

  Elle groaned, “Look, I really appreciate it. And we did have a moment back there, but this is, like, the opposite of what I asked. Come on, just give the man some time!”

  She scoffed, “Ignore him.”

  “That’s…what I have been doing for the last minute.” The sobbing knight looked at the sky and wiped the tears from his eyes.

  “What the fuck? You know what, just rot here.” Elle immediately let go of the man and kicked him in the back before taking the sunglasses out of his pockets and putting them on. It was a weird choice, considering the sun was on the other side of the planet, but perhaps that was the point.

  Celia kneeled and put a hand on his back, “You’re a total jerk, and you really don’t know how to talk to people. That is a fact I cannot change, but you can. So, work on that, I guess. It is an important skill to have.”

  The dragon nestled into his arms once more and repeated himself, “Teachers really are special, huh?”

  “The best I know.” Arthur replied.

  As the knight got up, she nodded, “But…I am sure the Celia who did love you had very good reason to. I mean, she is a different version of me, so I would trust her to have good judgment, too. That’s what you guys taught me, you know. You’re all different versions of Arthur, but you have something common about you.”

  “That’s we’re losers with nothing to live for, who are always in over our heads and do not really deserve the beauty of life?”

  “N-no. Wow, that’s dark. Who told you that? Get it out of your head. What I meant it is that all of you are a little stupid, have no social conventions and really need to stop overthinking all the time. Although I guess in the case of this universe, the overthinking got him a degree in physics, so there’s that. But in general, do stop. It’s not good for your health.”

  “Yes, Celia.”

  Vil nodded, got his back straight, and looked her in the eyes.

  She continued, “It’s not that difficult, is it? She lived, she loved you, and then she died. That was one person. It doesn’t always have to be that person. I am not the same person, for sure. All you can say is, ‘Oh well’, and move on. I know, it’s a bit insensitive. But people die. That’s what they do, right?”

  “Yeah.”

  The knight pushed himself up and picked up the broken sword. As Celia stood up with him, he put the sword in its sheath and took a deep breath.

  “And just because people die, it doesn’t me-”

  “I need some time.”

  With those words, Vil turned and started walking away. Arthur wished he had told him something. Even he had thoughts and opinions about everything that had happened. But now, he was leaving. By the time he came back, he would have calmed down and returned to who he used to be.

  As the knight disappeared into the woods, Elle quietly retired somewhere deep into them, too. Dee yawned and settled in his own arms once more. With his tail, he hit Arthur on the back and nudged him to move towards Celia. Once he was pushed forward like this, her eyes landed on him naturally.

  Celia put her hands behind her back and nodded. Arthur, embarrassed, walked up to her and waited for her to say something. She took her time as she looked at every bit of his body and all the small wounds that he had gained throughout the day.

  “I’ll give it to you straight, because I don’t like twisting my words for too long.”

  Arthur chuckled, “I think everyone got a demonstration of that just now.”

  “I don’t love you like that, Arthur.”

  “I know.”

  Even as he said those words, something in his stomach dropped. Even though he had expected this for years now, he didn’t like it. He didn’t want to hear even a bit of it. It was too much. Every cell in his body felt like it was going to burst into a million little pieces and then disintegrate after that, just to show off that much more. And yet, it felt like his heart had had peace for the first time in a long time.

  “I think you’re very funny, and very smart, and a very nice person. Hell, you are the most fun person to talk to that I know. But…I don’t love you.”

  “Yeah, I…know.”

  “I wish I did, really. I’m sure you love me a lot, being the person that you are. At the same time, even if my answer were yes, you would still be stepping into a portal an hour from now.”

  “Yup…”

  “What with the multiversal assassins and all that stuff.”

  “Yeah, horrible dates. The worst.”

  “Tell me about it. I was the one zip-tied to a chair by a woman who jumped out of a 90s arcade game.”

  “You’d know a lot about 90s arcade games.”

  “I would, yeah. I’m quite cultured like that.”

  “Never told me about it.”

  “Well, I never assumed that you were also cultured like that.”

  “Yeah…”

  She quietly nodded and looked around, waiting for him to say something. He quietly nodded and looked around, waiting for her to say something. For the next minute, all they did was stare at each other’s faces. Normally, it would have made him feel romantic. But now, knowing that there were no similar feelings being reciprocated on her side, it just made him feel uncomfortable.

  Why was she looking at him like that?

  “I’m gonna…”

  “Talk to Vil?”

  “Oh…” He scratched his head, “I was really just thinking that I would take some time to myself, but you’re right. I should go and check on him.”

  “I mean, it’s technically still more time to yourself. You and yourself.”

  “Right, of course. One advantage of leaving this place is that I don’t have to deal with these jokes again. Very original.”

  “I could have said yes and decided to come along with you. Imagine the horror.”

  “Don’t even want to.”

  Before he started all over again, he decided to suppress his next reply and step past her. Leaving her as she was, he kept walking in the direction Vil had taken, deeper into the forest.

  _____________

  “Vil, where are you? It’s me, Arthur!”

  As he got deeper in, the trees got dense. He wasn’t sure how far he had come, but it was almost starting to get claustrophobic. Every vine hanging off a branch could have been a snake in disguise. There was nothing more dangerous in this world than walking through a forest at night. The chances of death were infinitely higher than if he had done this in the morning.

  “Vil!”

  He called out once more. But it was almost like the knight had disappeared. Or perhaps, he was hearing him but was deciding not to reply. Holding on to that idea, he wondered how he would respond when Arthur stepped out in front of him and started speaking. It would probably be a better idea to keep a more banter-focused approach. Vil usually responded well to that.

  Suddenly, he heard something dripping in a rhythmic pattern. Drip, drip, drip, drip. Every single drop, at the same distance and time away from the previous one. He moved the leaf blocking his face and stepped into the next part of the tree cluster that had been blocked from his view until now.

  Once he did, he stopped moving.

  Right in the middle was a broken tree log, rotting. On it sat Vil. He was still in full armor, just as he had been a couple of dozen minutes ago. But his sword was out of his sheath and in his hands – lodged into his own neck. His head was limp and unmoving. The blood was the dripping he had been hearing for the last few seconds, and it continued even now.

  “Vil?”

  He tried to say something more, but he couldn’t. What had happened? Why had this happened? He didn’t want to see this. He didn’t want to think about it. Why would he do something like this?

  Arthur did not get enough time to think, though.

  Through Vil’s slightly ajar mouth, something crawled out. A bigger version of the parasite that he had consumed earlier. The similarities were undeniable. As it reached the very edge of the mouth, the parasite looked up at Arthur and locked its little eyes with him.

  The very next moment, it had jumped out of its original host’s mouth and straight into Arthur’s. He coughed and grabbed his throat, hoping to throw it up, but it was already inside. He felt it crawling through his mouth and into his body.

  And then…he blacked out.