Chapter Text
SPADE KING’S OFFICE
“Alfred you need to stop jumping to irrational conclusions,” snapped Yao, slamming his hand upon the mahogany desk. “Ivan wouldn’t dare do anything so reckless. You’re overthinking this.”
Staring out of the window of his office, Albert bit down hard on his lip. “Those were his Knights that attacked us. How do you explain that?”
Yao couldn’t. Both Alfred and Arthur confirmed that the two men that attacked them were indeed Knights of the Club Court, thanks to the Queen spotting a photograph of the pair back in the Heart Kingdom. They immediately returned to the Spade Kingdom and Alfred was ready to go out on the offensive against Ivan. Yao managed to calm him down and think about this as logically as he could, but as their visit to the Club Kingdom loomed closer Alfred was getting agitated and it was than Yao could handle.
“Look, I know Ivan and I know that whilst he’s not your biggest fan and his personal vendetta on witches in general often clouds his judgment, he wouldn’t just send two of his Knights out to assassinate your Queen.” Yao made sure that every word he spoke went straight into Alfred’s ears rather than through them. “You don’t want to make public outbursts, when we visit the Club Kingdom you have to remain civil and-…”
“And let him try and attack us again?” Alfred spun round. “You want to act like nothing happened and just smile?”
“Yes.”
Alfred growled in frustration.
“I know you’re upset.”
“Do you?”
“BUT. We need to confront Ivan on this in a not so aggressive way. He might be counting on you to do just that, so be the bigger man and when you meet him you will smile and shake his hand. He will do the same.”
The young King was clearly not thrilled about all this and Yao couldn’t exactly blame him. Both the King and Queen identified their attackers from the Witch licensing Centre as Simon Densen and Berwald Oxenstierna, both who just happened to be Knights in the Club Court. Alfred’s testimony he doubted a little but when Arthur confirmed the identity of the men it got Yao worried. He knew Ivan, they were old friends and he knew that his hatred towards witches often clouded his judgment, but not even he would send two of his Knights out to kill Arthur which would eventually lead to an all out war with the Spade Kingdom. There had to be an explanation for this, there just had to be a reason behind all of this, but he knew that Ivan wouldn’t risk starting a war over his own biased opinions.
He had heard rumours that there were extreme parties in the Club Kingdom who had very intense thoughts towards witches, many of them working their way into the Club Court to get their ideas heard by the witch-hating King. Witches often had to flee from the oppressive views of the people, those who tried to stay were treated like second class citizens. There were many stories, rumours, public outcries from both inside and outside the country, but even after knowing all that there was one thing that Yao did know for sure; Ivan wouldn’t dare risk a war for his own personal vendetta against witches. Even knew that picking a fight with the Spade Kingdom would lead to annihilation.
In order to keep both Alfred and Arthur happy and safe on their visit, he himself was going with them tomorrow for their last part of their journey of the Queen’s official coronation along with a couple extra Knights for protection. Due to his history with Ivan he knew he could act as a mediator between them. Alfred was ready to call the whole thing off but Yao convinced him that as long as the world was watching and that his best Knights would be there, nothing would happen to them. Ivan cared about his image just as much as Albert did so he would dare do anything whilst he had them as guests.
Alfred was biting his finger nail, very close to ripping the whole thing off. “It just pisses me off that we’re going over there tomorrow and pretend like-…”
“Nothing happened.” Yao gently booped him on the nose with his fan. “That’s exactly what we’re going to do. We will enquire with Ivan about the incident but until then you will behave and act like a grateful guest.”
“What about Arthur? Didn’t he object to this?”
Arthur was indeed worried about visiting a country that loathed his own kind, but he actually put his own foot down and convinced himself that he had to go through with it. He didn’t like it either but he was willing to put on a brave face to get this whole thing over and done with.
“If Arthur is ready to go through with it then so can you,” huffed Yao. “Where is he anyway?”
“He’s gone to visit his brothers.”
Yao felt his body jolt in response to that. “You mean back at the Kirkland Mansion!? Why is he…? After what happened with his father, was that a good idea to let him go?”
“Matthew and Michelle went with him,” grunted Alfred in response. “I told him not to but he was very insistent. He’ll be back in an hour or two.”
Yao sighed, hoping Arthur would indeed return to the palace with no extra drama to unload onto them. He still had to introduce him to his personal witch assistant, but maybe that could wait until after the Club Kingdom visit.
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OUTSIDE THE KIRKLAND ESTATE
Matthew could only stare in awe at the secret mansion that so many wished to see, the home of the elusive Kirkland family. He never actually got to see it when he initially collected Arthur when he was announced as the Queen, but on this second visit he and Michelle were guided through the old gate house and lead through what felt like an enchanted forest straight out of a fairy tale, until at last they found themselves standing outside and impressive looking mansion, seated right in the middle of this almost ancient woodland. It was even more unbelievable when he considered he was still technically within the perimeters of the city.
The mansion itself almost looked ancient but well kept, made from old stone and arranged to form beautiful rustic patterns. Ivy crawled up the walls making half the building look like it was made out of leaves. The windows glistened in the sunlight and their wooden frames almost looked like polished oak. The doorway was shaped into an arch with a large pair of oak doors and Matthew noticed the glyphs etched into each brick in the arch, possibly an enchanted of sort to protect the mansion and those who lived within it.
“I feel like a princess in a storybook,” whispered Michelle with glee.
Matthew smiled at her and looked up to see that Arthur had stopped approaching the mansion and just stood there. Maybe he was just overwhelmed about coming home after so long.
Both Knights glanced at each other before Matthew stepped forward and lightly tapped him on the shoulder. “Your Majesty? Are you alright?”
Arthur straightened up, glancing at them over his shoulder. “My apologies, I’m just… bracing myself for what’s to come.”
Matthew nodded in response, understanding the situation a little more. His own relationship with Alfred was just as complicated, and whilst he understood why he treated him the way he did, he could only hope that one day they’d be able to grow closer someday. Was it like that for Arthur and his brother’s?
The Spade Queen finally made a move, slowly walking towards the mansion. Both Knights followed close, remembering to be wary of this place. There could be a chance that Arthur’s father was visiting and after reading the reports from Yao, the man sounded like bad news. They had to be on their guard at all times in this place. Foe or not, witches were an unpredictable people, and who knew what the other Kirklands were like.
Reacting the steps up to the mansion, Matthew spotted two large statues either side of the huge doorway. At first glance, anyone would assume them to be regular statues but he had done his research and knew what they really were.
“Michelle, be prepared.”
The girl nearly reached for her sword. “What for?”
Matthew nodded his head over at the statues. “Golems.”
Upon hearing this, Michelle grimaced and kept her hand firmly on her sheathed weapon. “Crap, I heard those things are a pain in the-…”
“Don’t worry,” said Arthur suddenly, “they’re just here to stop anyone from leaving.”
The two Knights looked at each other. As Arthur walked passed them, their heads moved as their lifeless eyes followed the Spade Queen crossing the threshold. Matthew and Michelle cautiously followed, waiting for those things to attack them but thankfully they didn’t. It still didn’t make them feel at ease, Matthew could almost feel the brute force of those things as he passed by. Up close those things were really intimidating, and from the looks of it they were custom models. From what he knew, Golems were manufactured by witches for all sorts of things, from hard labour to combat. The four Kingdoms feared that wielding such monstrous creatures in conflict would escalate the violence, so witches were only permitted to obtained specific golems for menial tasks. Only the privileged were permitted to get their own custom golems, and it wasn’t surprising that the Kirkland family had their own.
Looking back at the Queen they watched as he pushed open the large doors, the loud creaks and groans they emitted echoed around them, and Arthur continued inward. The Knights followed close and once inside, the pair marvelled at the beauty of the entrance hallway. The colour was a livid shade of dark red with gold patterns, and the woodwork looked like they were made from living trees, the beaches and the roots bending to the will of the rooms design rather than their own. The chandelier above them was just a floating ball of light they resembled a sphere of water, the light gently and slowly dancing around the room. Other doors that led to other rooms all had their own unique design, some of them looked like they were encrusted with gold and rare stones. It was only the first room, but it had the presentation of a palace worthy of one of the Four Courts.
Arthur stepped forward cautiously and looked around. “Alistair? Patrick? Drake? It’s me. I’m back.”
No one responded. Then again, it was a big building, so maybe they didn’t hear him.
The Queen looked at his watch and then at one of the doors. “Maybe he’s in the Deer room?”
As Arthur made his way through one of the doors, Matthew and Michelle quickly followed, with Michelle asking, “The Deer room? What’s that? A room full of deers?”
Matthew rolled his eyes, but her question got a chuckle out of the Queen. “No, it’s just a normal room. We only called it that because of the chandelier in there made entirely of antlers.”
Michelle whistled upon hearing this. “Do the other rooms have names?”
“Oh yes. There’s the Elk room, the Fox room, the Unicorn room, the Lion room, the Snake room, the Falcon room, the Badger room, the Robin room, the-…”
“Woah, woah,” exclaimed Michelle, waving her hands for the Queen to stop. “How many rooms are in this place?”
“Quite a number. My brothers and I just gave them those names because we couldn’t be bothered to call them by their official names. It was our way of having fun. I called that room the Fairy room because when the sunlight came in at the right time, the wall it cast its light on resembled fairy wings. At least that’s what I thought, Patrick said it looked like a glowing walrus. We actually had debate that lasted a week about what we should call that room, but I ended up winning. Fun times.”
“Giving rooms animal names was fun for you?” Matthew only just realised how harsh that question sounded. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to-…”
“No, I can understand why you’d think something like that.” Arthur smiled at him, though there was a hint of sadness in those green eyes. “We couldn’t partake in your version of fun. It almost sounds sad that giving a room a name was one of the highlights of my childhood.”
Matthew lowered his head. “Sorry.” He wasn’t sure if he was apologising for what he just said or for Arthur’s bleak childhood. Maybe both.
They walked on in silence for a moment but eventually they heard what sounded like music. After venturing down more hallways and passing a great number of rooms, they finally reached a door where the music was playing from the other side.
Arthur took a deep breath before he opened the door, the three of them walking in.
The room looked like it was a miniature ballroom that was a mixture of gold, white and blue colours. Fancy furniture was placed here and there, paintings of important looking people lined the walls, and in the corner of the room was a grand piano, playing all by itself. It was almost a little eerie if not for the fact they were in a witch’s home, stuff like this was to be expected. There was no one about, at least no one that they could see.
Matthew took a step forward and something out of the corner of his eye made jump back and grasp his hidden weapon. Once he got a lock on what he saw, he was surprised to see it was a book that happened to be floating in mid air. As he looked up he saw there was a small number of books flying around the room in slow movements as if they were moving through water. High above them was indeed a chandelier made from what looked like deer antlers formed from silver, and sitting on one these antlers, their face buried in a book, was a man.
Whilst Matthew could only wonder how someone got up there considering it was nearly 20ft from the floor to the ceiling, Arthur stepped forward and shouted, “Drake! We told you not to sit up there!”
The music the piano made suddenly stopped playing and the man in the chandelier looked up from his reading material and stared down at them. There was silence for a moment.
“Arthur?” The man peered down at them, squinting his eyes. “When did you get back?”
Arthur sighed and planted his hands on his hips. “Nice to see you too, Drake. Now would you please get down from there?”
Matthew watched as the man balanced his book on one of the antlers and then, without warning, shoved himself off his perch and began falling towards them. Michelle screeched in dread, and Matthew dashed forward in a vain attempt to break his fall, but just as he was about to hit the floor he suddenly stopped falling, his feet a few mere inches from the polished floor. He hovered before them for at least two seconds before he finally planted his feet upon solid ground. Both of the Knights could only stare in disbelief as the man approached Arthur, Matthew’s heart still beating hard against his ribs.
The man resembled Arthur a great deal, the same coloured eyes and the same thick eyebrows, but his looks were much softer and youthful compared to the Queen. His hair was a little longer had a golden yellow sheen and looked soft to touch, his expression was softer, and he was also quite short compared to Arthur. He was dressed in a similar outfit to what Arthur was wearing when they first met him, only he was wearing a yellow tie that was tied in an unusual knot, and he was wearing a pair of leather gloves which he found odd.
The man ignored the Knights and only focused on Arthur.
“You came back?”
The way he said this sounded like he was almost in disbelief and upset, he didn’t sound happy at all to see him.
“Why did you come back?”
“I came to see you all, you idiot,” grunted Arthur. “Didn’t you miss me at all, Drake?”
This question was met with a frown and the man, named Drake, pouted at him. “You’re the idiot,” he huffed in response, “why would you come back and-…” He then finally noticed the two Knights and took a step back. “Who are they?”
“Them? Oh, these are my Knights.” Arthur suddenly sounded a little smug. “They’re here to protect me and-…”
Drake suddenly moved towards them at such speed that Matthew didn’t even realise his close they were until it was too late.
“Knights? Do they kill things? Do you order them to kill things? Do they do anything? Do they have names? Do obey your every command? They’re numbered, right? What are their numbers? Do they actually talk?”
Before Matthew could even say something to answer the barrage of queries, Arthur reached over and dragged him away. “Drake, you can’t just invade other people’s personal boundaries, and to answer your questions-…”
Drake pulled himself away from Arthur and looked him up and down. “What are you wearing? You smell funny. Is that what Queen’s wear? What’s the King like? What the Kingdom like? How many people live there? Are they nice? Or are they mean? Is that why you came back?”
It was like he wanted to ask these questions all his life, and he just kept going. Before any of these questions could be answered, the door to the room suddenly slammed open. Matthew spun round, readying his weapon once again and found himself staring at someone who was covered in a large patterned sheet, as if they were pretending to be a ghost. He stumbled a bit but didn’t take the sheet off.
“Drake,” cried out the covered individual, “the music stopped. You haven’t fallen off again, have you?”
Matthew glanced over at Arthur, who just stared at the newcomer with agitated eyes. “Patrick, take that off now. You look ridiculous.”
The man in the sheet paused for a moment. “Drake, why do you sound like Arthur?”
“Because that is Arthur, stupid,” answered Drake nonchalantly, “the dummy actually came back.”
The man paused again before ripping the sheet off of him, exposing himself to the others in the room. Just like before, he bore a strong resemblance to Arthur, only his skin was a tone paler, his hair was a gorgeous shade of red, and his clothing had green colours. He was wearing a silk green scarf that almost covered up his entire neck, held in place with a clasp in the shape of a leave.
He stared at everyone, looking utterly confused at everything around him. He then stared at Arthur and said, “why the hell did you come back?”
“I came to visit you all,” snapped Arthur, rummaging through his pockets and pulling out gifts he had wrapped himself. “I even brought you presents.”
“Presents?” The red haired man looked even more confused and then he looked at the Knights. “Who are they?”
“Arthur’s Knights,” replied Drake, examining the gift he was given. “They obey him.”
“Do they?”
The red head walked over towards Michelle, the girl squeaked in embarrassment when she found herself a little too close to him. She stared up at him and tried to smile.
“They don’t look like knights,” mumbled the red head.
“Patrick, don’t be rude.” Arthur walked over and pushed him away from Michelle. “These are the Spade Knights, they escorted me here to see you.”
“If they’re knights, then where is their armour?” Patrick looked back at Michelle. “Those clothes wouldn’t last against a blade. Can they even protect you?”
Matthew decided to cut in. “Actually these clothes are state of the art, military grade fabric and it was tested against all sorts of weaponry and-…”
Patrick completely ignored him and looked back to Arthur. “So why come back?”
“I already told you,” hissed Arthur, looking annoyed, “I wanted to see you all and I brought gifts!”
“Alistair is going to be real mad that you’re here.” Patrick folded his arms and sighed. “You’re a real idiot, you know that?”
“That’s what I told him,” chirped Drake, still fooling around with the gift that he hadn’t unwrapped yet. “Alistair is going to kick you out again.”
“You should’ve just stayed away.” Patrick narrowed his eyes. “Why did you really come back?”
“I think they were mean to him.”
“Were they?”
“No!”
“Then why-…”
“How many times must I say it!? I wanted to see you all!”
“Were you ordered to come back?”
“No!”
“So you really came back by your own choice?”
“Yes!”
“You are a bloody moron!”
Arthur appeared to be a little hurt by this harsh words from his own brothers, who continued to criticise him. Matthew just couldn’t understand it, why were they so disappointed that he came to visit them? In fact the whole exchange between them sounded bizarre, the short one was clearly annoyed but at the same time really curious, and the red head was also clearly upset but there was a hint of concern in his voice, but was that concern for Arthur’s wellbeing or that he was here in the first place.
Before Matthew could say anything, Michelle stepped in. “You two are being awful to him!”
All three of the Kirkland brothers looked at her. Matthew wanted to step in but Michelle kept going.
“He came all the way here to see you, and this is how you treat him? Arthur has been dealing through a lot as the Queen, and all he wanted was to visit you! You could at least be civil towards him and welcome him home! I mean, you’re his brothers! Why are you acting this way?”
After her little rant, the three brothers remained silent for a moment. They just stared at her with bewildered eyes, none of them reacting to her harsh words.
Drake finally broke the silence by asking Arthur, “do they all talk like that to you?”
“N-no,” stuttered Arthur, “I’ve never-…”
“Aren’t Knights supposed to be silent?” asked Patrick, “I mean that scrawny one is, but the lass here screams like a banshee. Not very knight-like.”
“Well maybe if the two of you weren’t so rude,” snapped Arthur.
“I wasn’t being rude,” argued Drake, “I’m being inquisitive.”
“And I’m just saying, I don’t think they’re knights.”
“Oh for the love of all that is, Patrick! They ARE knights!”
The three of them began to bicker at each other. Michelle could only look at Matthew with disbelief, a little upset that her speech from earlier had absolutely no effect on their behaviour.
Drake suddenly looked towards the door and made a sound with his teeth. “Here he comes,” he chimed, moving so he was behind Patrick.
Patrick then looked at them all. “You’re in for it now.”
It was at that moment that Matthew heard the faint sound of loud footsteps, getting louder with each second. They must’ve belong to the third brother of the Queen, and considering how the other two were acting, he could only imagine what this one was like.
The doors suddenly kicked open, so hard in fact that one of them came of its hinges. Michelle jumped back in alarm and Matthew could actually feel the intense emotions coming from whomever just entered the room. He looked up to see who it was and in that moment he actually felt inadequate as a Knight.
The man who stood in the doorway was tall, probably as tall as Ivan, but had a well built physique that would draw envy from Ludwig and Alfred. He looked like he could punch a wall and knock the whole down effortlessly, his knuckles were clicking as he clenched them into deadly fists. Those muscles of his were barely hidden under blue clothing, the buttons looked as they were desperately trying to hold the garments together.
His face was bearing the most terrifying looking scowl he had ever seen. His eyebrows were thicker, his green eyes were literally staring their souls, and that mouth of his was forming the nastiest frown that he had ever seen. His hair was a darker shade compared to the others, a loose strand standing out, but the rest of it was short and well kept. He was like an angrier version of Arthur, and quite possibly an even more terrifying version of him.
The man took a step forward, making Matthew want to take a step back. He was actually fearing for his life.
Arthur suddenly walked towards him. “Alistair, you look-…”
“WHY THE FUCK DID YOU COME BACK!?”
His booming voice actually made Michelle squat down and squeak in fear. Matthew felt his whole body freeze over, and he was fairly certain he witnessed the chandelier above them quivering out of the corner of his eye.
Arthur was stunned for a moment, but he continued. “I came to visit you all. I even brought-…”
The terrifying man lunged forward and grabbed Arthur by the collar of his coat, hoisting him into the hair and glaring down at him with pure rage in his eyes.
“Get out! NOW!”