“So, what will be his name?”

  As soon as Arcadia and Arthur stepped back into the house, Elle paused the movie and looked up to ask. Both of them stood at the door and looked at each other.

  “I forgot.”

  The leader grabbed his hand, pulled him back out of the door, and then closed the door. Dee had already gone back inside his pen long before they returned. His trip with the kids had been cut short by parents who were worried about them falling off. And also, about them not having completed their homework.

  “Alright, Arthur. What name do you want?”

  “Huh? I thought you were supposed to give me one.”

  “No. I mean, yeah. I was supposed to. But honestly, there’s nothing about you that sticks out to me in particular yet. You’re…science-y, I guess? Nothing more than that. The others all have their reasons, you see.”

  “Elle clearly means the letter. Dee also means the letter. But Vil?”

  “Oh no, it’s not just the letter. Elle is the letter ‘l’ because he is so loud all the time. Dee is the letter ‘d’ because Dee is a dragon. And, well, Vil has a very villainous personality with all of his narcissism, so you know. I could name you ‘Sy’, but that doesn’t look great, does it?”

  “I mean, I don’t hate it.”

  “You like ‘Sy’?”

  “Yeah, I mean, I will still call myself Arthur. The others can call me whatever they want.”

  “Alright. I like that. Good man.”

  She put her prosthetic hand forward, and he grabbed hold of it. Arcadia started shaking, and he wondered how the hand even worked. Of course, he understood how it worked, but there was something strangely human about it. Arthur had seen actual prosthetic hands before, and you always knew it was fake. With Arcadia? It might as well have been real.

  She stopped and withdrew. Then, with a smile on her face, she pushed him forward, and they entered the room once more.

  This time, however, Elle did not ask anything. Both he and Vil were too busy leaning in and watching the film. Even the dragon had joined in through the opening in his pen. Arcadia stood as she was for a second and waited for them to look at them and ask once more. But it didn’t happen. Then, she cleared her throat and waited once more. And still, the movie was more interesting.

  “We have decided upon a name!” She made her voice as loud and deep as possible.

  No reply.

  She coughed and made it louder, “We have decided upon a name for the new blood!”

  No reply.

  “Alright. Sy? You shout.”

  “Why me?”

  “Shut up and do it unless you want a punch to the face.”

  He sighed, cleared his throat, and screamed. “We have decided upon a na-”

  Vil looked at them and threw the pillow he had been holding; his armor clanking throughout the room as he did, “Will you cease your prattle, you insolent brats!? You dare interrupt us when the brave warriors of Rohan are trying to defend the walls of Helm’s Deep? Do you not understand the tension of the moment?”

  “Oi, Vil.”

  “What is it, you failure of a leader?”

  “Turn it off.”

  Skill Activation

  All Hail the Queen

  “Alright, fine.”

  The knight picked up the remote and immediately clicked the turn off button. Elle groaned and stood up, holding a pillow of his own. Dee shook his head and vanished back into his pen, kneeling down and going to rest.

  “You can’t just use your ability like this, Arcadia. What the hell? It was so cool!” Elle shouted and sat back down like a tantruming child.

  “Well, I thought you did not even remember it existed. Seeing as how you failed to tell Sy about it.”

  “Who the fuck is Sy?” In the very next moment, he had gone back to the sassy, authoritative yet casual tone that he usually had.

  “You’d know that…if you had been paying attention.”

  Vil raised his hand, “I would like to mention that I have been paying attention, but have not received this information either. As such, this is a request to consider that this might be a mistake on your end, and not ours.”

  Arcadia groaned and walked back to the dinner table, where the bowl of milk and cereal was still lying. She hadn’t finished it before they left, so the cereal was probably all soggy by now. She took her place back on the same chair and started eating it either way. Arthur, meanwhile, decided to sit on one of the many sofas littered around the room. He did count, and there were seven in total, of various sizes. This would do, then.

  Once she sat down, Vil also sat down, and Elle turned his position to join the conversation, though he put both of his legs on the back of the sofa and lay down on the seat, looking at her with his head upside down. Through the pen, Dee also slightly raised his head to be part of the party.

  “Sy is the name of the new Arthur. Because he is proficient in science. Is that enough?” She started, “Either way, now that that is dealt with, we need to get to the most important question of all.”

  “Nice to meet you, Sy.”

  “Yeah, ok.” Arthur nodded.

  Arcadia closed her eyes and took a second to compose herself, “Now, nobody will speak when I speak, alright? When I say that, nobody interrupts me. Got that?”

  “Starting when?” Elle asked, “When…are you going to say that? Like, will you say that? Or are we supposed to infer that, like, when you said it as the example, that was actually you saying it?”

  “Do you want to die?”

  “I apologize for my inferior brain.”

  “Good, now shut up, please.” She took another bite of the soggy cereal, but it did not seem to affect her at all. “The assassin. We called her Lana for the longest time, but you say that Johnny called her Violet before he died, so that might be her real name. We’ll just ask her when she wakes up. Which, by the way, is very concerning. She hasn’t woken up at all. Are you sure she is not dead?”

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

  “She is alive.” Dee answered immediately, “A lot has happened, but it hasn’t even been a day since she was knocked out. It is normal for it to take that long.”

  “That’s better. I was starting to get worried that Vil just went and killed her. Either way, we need information out of her when she gets up. But if any of you here is smart enough to share with the class, please tell me why we cannot do that just yet.”

  “Me. I shall answer.”

  “Yes, Vil. Please.”

  “She is under the curse that stops her from speaking, so she cannot reply to our questions even if she wanted to.”

  “Yeah, and you, like, smacked her in the head thrice. And also, she’s spent the last four months trying to kill us.” Elle added, “Maybe…just maybe, that might also add to the reasons, right? Let’s cover all bases.”

  “Very good, Elle. It is rare for you, but you brought up a good point. We do not know her intentions. But I will put an either way on that previous either way, and move on to the most important question. She’s the best lead we’ve ever had. So, to even get to the part where we try to figure out her allegiances, we’ll need to remove the curse on her body.”

  “Let me guess. There’s just a cure for that in some random universe.” Arthur added.

  If there was one thing he had learned till now, it was that the multiverse always had an answer. As long as there were small brown balls that could clean and freshen up absolutely anything with nanobots, anything was possible.

  “A hundred points, good job!” Arcadia clapped her hands, “But the question was for two hundred points, so it’s still just half. That’s because it’s not in some random universe. It’s in one that we have been before. The one ruled by King Gikanamous.”

  “Gikanamous?”

  Arthur repeated the name after her, but could hardly believe it was real. Just a second ago, he had been confident that he could accept anything, but this was a bit difficult even for him to accept. Why would someone ever name their son Gikanamous?

  “Yeah. He is the father of Prince Arthur Cross, who is just a little five-year-old child in that universe.”

  Gikanamous Cross? Who made that terrible mistake?

  “So, we just go to Mousmous, ask him for the cure, and get out, right?”

  “Elle, do not call him that. Please. You’ve caused us enough embarrassment already.”

  Arcadia chomped down on one of her final bites as she gave him that warning.

  “Hey, Mousmous doesn’t mind, so why do you? Just get on with the presentation, Arcadia.”

  “I…am not going to entertain you any longer. But yes, that is what you need to do. Go there, meet King Gikanamous, and explain the situation. He’s cooperating with us to make sure his son stays safe, so he’ll be more than happy to give us the curing potion. You can do it, right? Take Dee, of course. I cannot trust you alone.”

  “I mean, yeah, sure. I don’t mind.”

  Dee nodded alongside Elle’s reply.

  “I shall go too!” Vil stood up and declared his intentions, “It will be nice for Knuckleduster Joe to explore the fields of his lands once more. A very touching reunion with the rest of his species.”

  “Fine. It’s for the better anyway. I’ll get a break from watching the same movie over and over again. All three of you can go. Get out.”

  “Uh?”

  Arthur spoke up, interrupting her and then clearing his throat. Hopefully, that would be enough, and she would get what he meant.

  “Right. You. You can clean the house. I’m going to sleep.”

  “What? Why?”

  “Ha!” She laughed, “I was just checking, but I forgot to activate my skill, so it didn’t work. Never mind. Now I’m embarrassed. Yeah, you can go too. Go on. It’ll be fun for you to see another universe. Shoo.”

  With that, Arcadia stood up, picked up her bowl of cereal, and walked back where she had originally come from. A silence took over the room after she disappeared. Arthur was a bit excited to go in and find out what the rest of the house looked like, but he wasn’t sure if the others wanted to leave immediately or not.

  Vil sat back down, while Elle stayed as he was and gave him a short wave.

  Arthur waved back, “So, are we leaving immediately…”

  “Hell no.” Elle replied, “We just got here. I’m gonna go and have a nap, and we can leave after that. Actually, Vil, why don’t you show Arthur here to a room? Or, well, my bad. I meant Sy. Why don’t you go and just throw him into, like, a relatively clean room?”

  “Sure, friend. Come on, Sy. Follow me.”

  Vil stumbled over a sofa and gestured towards the corridor that Arcadia had just taken. Arthur started to follow him.

  As they entered the other half of the house, Arthur noticed the exact area that had been the location of the centrifuge, microscopes, and incubators. In this version of the building, the main hub in the middle had been repurposed into a community kitchen. There were three fridges, multiple induction stoves, and a bunch of other weird objects that he did not recognize. Probably something from the many universes that they had been to already.

  A single light at the top provided the illumination, giving enough light to navigate around the square kitchen in the middle of the ‘lobby’ they had created. All of the smaller rooms, which had been the locations of specific research zones, had been repurposed into rooms. These surrounded the entire kitchen in the same square pattern, and there were about eleven in total. Three each on the full walls, and only two on the side with the corridor opening.

  The one to the right of the corridor had been claimed by Arcadia. All of their rooms were marked with small wooden boards that hung on the doors. It was almost like a child’s room, which made it a bit wholesome. It would have even made him smile if he did not know the kind of people who lived behind those doors.

  Vil had taken the door right in the middle of the wall opposite the corridor. Elle, on the other side, had just picked one of the rooms on the right wall; the one right next to Arcadia’s. To balance out the scales, Arthur decided that it was probably best for him to pick one to the left. He walked to the one furthest from the corridor and picked that one. It had a barren door, which would suggest that it was empty.

  “Not that one, friend. Here. Yours is the one to the right of mine. It is right in front of Arcadia’s room and very close to Elle’s, too!”

  “Oh, I was just thinking it would be more…balanced.”

  “Yes, but we do not…use those rooms.”

  “Why?”

  “That one in particular?” He looked at the one Arthur had been about to pick, “Someone else died in there. Another Arthur Cross we rescued and brought with us. But he died because of a cowardly poison dart. We weren’t able to find the antidote in time.”

  “Oh.”

  “Yes. But it is best not to mourn the dead too much. Now, take the keys and make yourself at home. We shall leave for the land of Knuckleduster Joe as soon as we wake up!”

  “Sure. Good night, Vil.”

  The knight also wished him a good night and retired to his room. Arthur took a glance at the room Vil had forbidden him from picking, and went to it. A hand on it, he thought about at least pushing it open and seeing what it looked like now. But it didn’t budge. It was locked.

  “Ah, no. Don’t open that one. Not good stuff.” Elle yawned as he walked in and saw him. Before Arthur could come up with an excuse to protect himself, the man had already withdrawn into his room. The fatigue was definitely visible.

  Arthur also decided that it was for the best if he did the same. His adrenaline and that reset potion had brought him all the way over here, but he hadn’t slept a lot recently. Not that being a teacher gave him much sleep, but at least he had a better chance. He went to the room he had been assigned and entered it.

  There wasn’t much in there. It was clean, which is something he hadn’t expected. Otherwise, it had a simple single bed, and a desk and chair to one side. Since Arthur had nothing except his katana on him, he decided to keep it leaning against the table. Once he had nothing else left to do, he took off his tattered shirt and crashed on the bed.

  _____________

  When he woke up, he found that a set of new clothes had already been kept on the table for him. A pair of surprisingly high-quality black jeans and an identical purple shirt and black tie to the one he had been wearing the entire time until now. Arthur wasn’t sure who had gotten them, or even how they had gotten them, but it made him happy. He liked the colour purple.

  Beside the clothes were some of those cleaning nanobot balls, and a note. He picked it up. The letters were perfectly cursive and looked very fancy, so he guessed Vil was the one who had written the note. And once he read it, his assumptions were confirmed.

  We are waiting right outside the house, Sy.

  Once you get ready, please leave through the doors and meet us.

  Vil, are you using the f**king voice-to-note machine?

  Yes, it is for Sy. I am informi-

  Gimme that.

  Holy waste of space. You used this to tell him we’re, like, outside the door?

  Yes. It is good information.

  Dude, he’ll walk out of the door either way?

  You never know, Elle. It is always a good idea to te-

  Just shut up. I guess you can keep it. Here. What a was-

  Arthur sighed and put the note back. He couldn’t help but smile.