Arthur's Point of View

Lestrania Thousands of Years Ago

With my plate of food still in one hand, I twisted out of the way from the spell flung by Aydan, and launched my foot towards Elias. Being adept in his magical nature, he teleported out of the way but appeared behind me. That made it easy to twist once more and knock him out with my foot once more.

However, everything came to an abrupt halt when Mara stood up, and a wave of magic froze almost everyone in the hall. "Enough!" She shouted in a firm tone and turned her attention to Elias and me. "Sir Mordred…" Mara started in a worried tone as she saw my foot stopped near her brother's surprised face.

"Yes?"

Aydan put his student down, who moved back warily as he kept an eye on me. "Please calm down. I understand that you did not come here to be insulted, and you are clearly not one to bow down to another, but please ignore their threats for the time being." Gesturing around the room, she continued. "Would you be interested in getting your reward and perhaps-"

"There will be no reward!" Rudnurth seethed and glared at his sister. "You dare go against my order and subdue my soldiers?!"

To my surprise, Mara's face contorted into more of a husk of its former liveliness as she turned to her brother. "Do not think to threaten me, brother." She warned. "Or we will find out if that crown is truly as infallible as you believe."

Elias backed away from me as Aydan was trying to decide how to proceed. "This isn't the time for your squabbling!" The Great Sage boomed throughout the hall, which gained the attention of everyone. "We-"

Mara, to my surprise, turned on Aydan rather quickly. "Hold your tongue, Sir Aydan!" She ordered. "I will handle this how I see fit!"

Elias moved over and started arguing with Mara as he agreed with Rudnurth. Aydan just sighed as he watched on, and I moved next to him with my plate of food. They were arguing on all sides of the table as I ate, and the Sage turned to me before shaking his head as I took another bite.

"This is nice, isn't it?" I inquired, and Aydan just eyed me warily. "I meant them not all focusing on me. Not the arguing. Their screaming is starting to give me a headache."

Aydan crossed his arms. "Is this what you wanted?"

"Not at all. Mara stopping all the soldiers in here surprised me, though. I was preparing to knock them all out." Taking another bite with a shrug just got him to cover his face. "Glad that one of them sees reason, though. Are they always like this?" Aydan gave me a confused look, and I gestured to the oldest siblings as Arceana and Elincia stayed out of it with frowns on their faces. "The whole sibling rivalry thing."

"Every now and then." He answered.

"So, I touched a nerve?" Another nod. "Neat."

Shaking his head, he replied. "I'm starting to think bringing you here was a mistake."

I just chuckled in return. "Starting to?" Aydan groaned and put his hands on his hips as he watched the siblings argue. "Nice to see at least one of them in my corner, though. I take it Mara actually cares about her sisters?"

"They all do," Aydan answered. "Rudnurth just has more on his plate with ruling and bringing together three different races into one cohesive kingdom."

Checking back into the argument, Mara was practically yelling at both of her brothers. "Sir Mordred saved our sister, her men, and returned them to us! Not only that, but he defeated a Ghoul and helped Sir Aydan fend off a horde of thousands of Demons! Do you really think antagonizing such a man is a good idea!?"

Leaning over and whispering to Aydan, I agreed with her assessment. "I mean… She's not wrong."

Aydan just snorted slightly before returning to a more serious look. "The King may have antagonized you, I admit this, but you have returned it several times over."

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Holding up a hand as I gestured to him, and I explained. "I let people I meet set the tone. Like you, for example. You were nice and very forthcoming, which is why I followed you here for my reward. It wasn't mentioned that I had to meet the king, and I had no interest in doing so, but I came because you were very amicable."

"So, you returned my friendly nature with indifference and caution?" Aydan questioned.

I shrugged. "Kind of. To be fair, there is a lot going on that I would like to discuss with you in private. That's another issue entirely." Then I pointed to Rudnurth. "Threatening me with numbers and a show of force isn't any way to get me to comply. What happened when Mara offered me food?"

He sighed this time. "You accepted and were indifferent during the meal." Aydan then eyed me. "You're a strange individual, Sir Mordred."

"As I said, I let people set the tone. Rudnurth and Elias are both assholes." Picking up a carrot, I threw it, and it hit Elias in the back of the head, which caused him to freeze. "Thus, I try and take the lower road of the two in these types of situations."

Elias turned around with wide eyes. "Did you just throw a carrot at me?" He asked in disbelief as he looked down at the vegetable that rolled to a stop on the floor.

Taking the opportunity to throw another one at him, his veins seemed to pop in his forehead as another carrot hit him on the cheek. "You have no proof." Was my simple reply.

In turn, he pointed his sword at me again. "I will kill you where you stand!" Elias roared while Aydan just gave me a pained look.

Taking a drumstick from my plate, I pointed it at him. "This is my drumstick! There are many like it, but this one can be yours!" I shouted in return.

Elias teleported in front of me and tried to slash me as Aydan moved to stop us. However, it was an easy enough blow to dodge, and I slapped the drumstick across his cheek. He froze and looked at me, wide-eyed with a hateful expression. In this moment, I took the drumstick and thwacked his forehead as his siblings stopped as they witness what transpired.

"You-" The High Elf began, but as soon as he opened his mouth, I stuffed the turkey leg in it.

"You'd think you'd learn by now." A smirk came to my lips as I wiggled the leg around. "How's my meat taste in your mouth?" Eventually, I removed my hand from the turkey leg and he stood there frozen in disbelief from the sudden oral violation.

To my surprise, Mara started laughing heartily as she put a hand on Arceana's shoulder to balance herself. "By the gods… That is hilarious. Elias, that's a good look for you." She said in between breaths.

"You know, I'm starting to like her more and more." Was my response as I just chuckled lightly at Elias and then turned to a stunned Aydan. "This is usually how I deal with things." Taking a bite of my food, I asked the Sage a question. "However, there is something bothering me about all this. Davost, who is a Goddess of sorts, delivered these children to all of you to rule, correct?"

Nodding numbly, Aydan replied. "She did, indeed."

"Why?"

"They were delivered to us in our time of need by the Goddess Davost herself." The Great Sage explained as he crossed his arms. "If that wasn't the sign for them to rule, then why were they given to us at that specific moment."

"That sounds like a horrible excuse. Almost as dumb as pulling a sword from some random stone and becoming the King of a great land because some water lady said you were." I commented idly as my gaze drifted back to Rudnurth's brother who had removed my meat from his mouth. "Don't you think?"

Of course, this confused Aydan. "What?"

Ignoring Elias obviously just made him angrier, and his hands started to glow as one fired a spell at me. It was a fire spell in nature but had a white glow around it to probably increase its power. Seeing that he was only a few feet away from me, they all expected to hit as Aydan teleported away this time. Holding up my free hand, I grabbed the spell with one hand and crushed it. The flames dispersed quickly as the entire room became quiet.

Shaking my hand from the stinging sensation for a moment, I grabbed a carrot and popped it into my mouth as Elias stared at me in horror. "That's not possible." The High Elf said shakily.

"So, now that this is happening, I must say I'm looking forward to it."

Aydan and the others became more cautious. "What are you referring to exactly? What is happening?" The Great Sage inquired, worried.

Pointing at Rudnurth, I explained rather bluntly. "I'm not letting him keep that crown. It's clear he is still young and shouldn't be ruling, so I'm going to borrow it for the time being." Taking another bite of my food surprised people more, and I continued while eating. "Now, there are two ways we can do this."

"Kill him!" Rudnurth ordered.

Releasing a wave of killing intent over the entire room froze everyone as my energy started to fill the room. "You can hand it over and think of me as a temporary replacement, or you can struggle and have me take it by force." Rudnurth looked at me fearfully, as I continued to eat. "The choice is ultimately yours. It just depends on how badly you want to hurt by the end of all this."

Aydan summoned his magic and took a combat stance against me. "I will not allow that to happen!" He roared as the Sage glared at me.

"You should."

If I had learned anything from my time in this world so far, it was that I was far stronger than I gave myself credit. So far, only the Ghouls gave me some difficulty, and that was only in a group. The other was Tor, but no one here, not even Aydan, could compare to him.

Plus, if it was true that Lestrania was a newly formed nation now, it concerned me that this was how it started out. Rudnurth was an ass, and so was his brother, but both were apart of the Royal Family. Perhaps if I took control, trained, and taught them, things might be different in the future. Besides, it's not like I was going to be here too long.

"Enough. You are powerful, but we've fought worse before."

I shrugged. "Maybe that's because I'm not trying to kill any of you. Merely act as a very forceful guiding hand."

In response, The Great Sage stated to teleport everywhere around the room, but he left behind a close of sorts every time he disappeared. This was slightly amusing to me. Aydan was the biggest concern I had, and the others were frozen in place with only him to rely on. That showed just how green they all were.

However, a sinking feeling started to fill my stomach when the first spell was launched. Much like you would expect from an Elf, it was green, but this was different. It held no specific form or structure and didn't appear to be an elemental spell, like fire or water. Reaching out with my hand, my eyes widened as it got closer, and I brought my arm back on instinct as I moved out of the way.

The spell crashed into the wall, and for something that seemed to be about the size of a basketball, it destroyed almost the entire wall instantly. My eyes moved back to Aydan, who had disappeared into his grouping of clones, and I frowned as they all raised their hands with magic. One was obviously the real one, but I still knew very little about magic. Thus, I was unsure if these clones could actually hurt me.

"What's wrong, Sir Mordred?" Aydan's voice called out from around the room and multiple clones. "Not going to stop my spells?" He taunted.

Stuffing the rest of the food on my plate into my mouth, I dropped the plate, and it shattered on the floor. It took me a moment to chew, but Aydan seemed kind enough to wait until I was somewhat ready. Moving to the table slowly and passed a frozen Elias, I grabbed a drink before turning back to one group of clones.

Smirking, I brought both my hands up as I started to focus on the clones to find the real one as I moved towards them. "Give me a minute. I just finished eating my dinner."