“Whatever.” With Arthur shrugging off his own foolish mistakes aside, the two had a long chat. Cheong, happy regardless, patiently gave him as much advice and comfort as he possibly could. King Arthur couldn’t help but feel both intrigued and curious. His friend, despite being such a quirky, bizarre, and no-name inventor that still had a title, was in fact, giving proper advice he could understand and agree with. He decided that day he wouldn’t back down anymore.
As a form of thanks, King Arthur decided to help Cheong into some of his own work. While he didn’t understand it very much, he was still content with helping out in what he could. Of course, this continued for the following months, ever since this moment…
He learnt even more. “When someone dies, their pocket dimension holds whatever it previously had for a while. Until eventually, once most of that person’s essence is lost, the objects pop out in random directions, causing quite an unorganised mess.” And more random facts about the topic of souls and magic.
Content with the information and time they had exchanged together, Arthur returned to the castle. There, his inventor was waiting standing perfectly still, emitting an aura of faux formality.
“Ah… Sir? What are you doing standing here? Are you waiting for me? You could’ve… doing something else instead of whatever this is supposed to be… no?”
“Boredom is a non-existent concept for me, Arthur. Do not concern yourself about me and it. I’ve been eagerly awaiting for your arrival to… discuss a few bits and pieces. Heh.”
Intriguing. The King was more or less confused about the inventor, if a bit interested. Nonetheless, the duo proceeded to the inside of the castle to settle matters.
“There is much to talk about, my dear Arthur.” The Inventor rubbed his hands together as they both sat down on a fancy wooden table with golden decoration and a powerful, elegant red tablecloth. “Mainly… that is, the fact you need to be prepared to lead and guide everyone as much as you possibly can.”
“I guess so. But… if you built me yourself, surely you wouldn’t need to discuss this matter with me, isn’t that right? You should feel confident in what you made me as.”
“...Ah. Arthur…” The Inventor dinged a bell, some meals appeared in front of them with a tiny flash. “Even if I built you, that doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll function just how I want. There’s a lot your soul alone can do. Like… override your programming, keep some memories you may want to erase for a bit longer, and give you power the more confident, emotional, and active you are, so to speak!”
“That’s a mouthful.” The King only took a small piece of the food, not very interested in eating at the moment. “But why are you telling me this now? I’m already quite aware of it, you do not need to remind me.”
“Because I need you to be in your best shape. You’re not only my creation, but also the king of this world. We need you to last as much as possible, to be as wise, magnificent and strong as you can possibly be.” He adjusted his attire, and started eating the meal slowly, there, the King could only see him with some thoughts in his head. It was a lot to unpack, and he had only been active for a few months.
In the fourth month, Arthur and his Inventor surprisingly bonded, the Inventor told the concerned King all about the world he was in. Planet ‘Meex’, which was a planet that collected data. It had collected species, cultures, languages, and more from other planets. Despite all this, the population was quite small, with only about hundred thousand people, so, any other species, whether it was plant, animal, or any other type of living being, was stored in a potion you could transform into. These potions were at first quite complicated to make, but with only a decade of work, they were turned into something one could easily find in the market for about a dollar only. Anybody could turn into whatever they wanted.
It is unknown what species came first to Meex, but the humans that were present were looking for a place to fit in outside of their home planet Earth, which they found boring. The monsters wanted to explore the highly varied planet. The plasmatics retreated from a royal dictatorship of a planet while the terrans initially visited only for a visit, before eventually some of them settled in. And the robots… Well, they were made by humans to serve specific functions. Eventually, they had acquired highly advanced artificial intelligence instead of being simple machines.
“Now, Arthur, there is something really, really important we must discuss after this… ‘peculiar’ little info-dump.”... Before the King could question what he was about to say, the Inventor quickly resumed, not giving him a choice in the matter. “There’s a lot to say about those… pesky commoners.”
“Commoners… What?” The King raised a robotic eye, and the Inventor continued, “You shouldn’t associate yourself with those with little worth. Especially that hideous stenching creature rubbing on your leg right now.”
A-ah… but… why?” The King had a hint of blushing, he patted the skunk’s head and gently moved it away, before answering the Inventor. “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with commoners. Why would it be? Surely it would be better if people got through hard times and became much better rather than being born with everything given to them?”
“Not quite, King Arthur. Life consists of winners and losers. When you are born, if you are born with talent, then it’s your duty to be effective to the world, otherwise, if you aren’t… You amount to nothing in the grand scheme of things… I’m afraid…”
The King was completely disgusted. Regardless, all he could do was silently think of his disagreement, feeling that arguing with the Inventor would be completely futile, leading to hours and hours of arguing that would only amount to nothing in the end.
He then went to his throne, petting his skunk. Thinking about how things would unfold from here… With a lot going in his mind, he petted and petted the skunk for what seemed like hours as it relaxed on his lap. Oddly enough for a wild animal, the creature was accepting the lengthy and dedicated attention, as if comforting the king for his situation and sharing as much time and energy as him.
After a bit of time, he would hear some knocking on the window. “Hm?”. He muttered, confused, then went on to see and open it slightly.
“Hey Arthur! How’s it going?” Gi was, in fact, giving the king an unexpected, unprepared, and unsolicited visit. The King was shocked, but tried to keep calm. “Mr. Cheong?” He said shocked, before lowering his voice, still holding his skunk. “What are you doing here??!”
“I couldn’t help but rush myself to the castle and see you with my very own eyes!!!! Oh, we have so much to talk about, you and me, Mr Arthur!!!”
At this point, the King calmed down, and was just confused. After a few milliseconds of rapid CPU processing and thinking, he let his friend Gi in, curious to see what this was all about.
“You should give a warning and a scheduled meeting before you visit. This is the second time you do it… It’s starting to annoy me, and my Inventor might get pretty pissed off. Ahem… Pardon the word…”
“Listen, I came up with something that’s only an experimental concept for now… but it could be the next big thing! Just listen!” Gi rubbed his hands together, unable to contain his excitement. He then went on to explain the following: “I’ve thought about this… thing. An Ultimate Artefact. See: If we were able to contain the strength of several volunteers, we could possibly make the ultimate self-defence weapon in the case of great danger. An invading kingdom or a great monster, perhaps! Hehehe~ What do you think, Arthur?!”
“...An Ultimate Artefact… for our own defence? Hmmm…” The King pondered. “That could be quite useful, Mr. Cheong… But… are you absolutely sure this couldn’t possibly be used for evil or perhaps even possibly backfire?”
“That’s not to worry, Arthur!” Gi replied with zero worry at all. “I’m absolutely sure about this! Just trust me… I am a highly skilled professional.” Gi pointed at his chest with a thumbs up, smiling smugly and confident as the King couldn’t help but chuckle and smile for once. and then he answered the quirky researcher… “Alright… I think I’ll give you a chance. I trust you.”
“Oh yeah!” The duo exchanged a friendly handshake, and then when they moved to the other room, they saw the Inventor who was eavesdropping into their convo.
King Arthur looked at him confused. “Sir?” He uttered, completely flabbergasted.
The Inventor glanced at the both of them with as much interest as could possibly be displayed under their mask. “Why, Gi Cheong, that is most wonderful news… You could be a great asset to this royal palace. Would you like to train with us? It’d be quite the fantastic opportunity for you to develop your skills alongside your friend, the magnificent and O almighty King Arthur Gold.”
“A-aaahh!!” Gi would flinch, his poor heart unable to contain how much was actively happening all at once. “That’d be wonderful!! I’m absolutely interested! Let’s do it!!”
As Gi rushed in a random direction, the Inventor let out a monotonous, long array of repeated ha’s. Arthur, worried heavily, looked at the Inventor and told him, “Are you sure this is a good idea? This is the first time you let an outsider into this system.”
“We’ll be fine… I speculate that the little man is full of potential and power. Let’s just get started, King Arthur.”
And so, when the two of them went on to get Gi to the proper training room, the three of them prepared themselves… The Inventor prepared all sorts of training methods: fighting magical and steampunk dummies, machinery, traps, and even, perhaps, the most deadly of all… PUZZLES!!!
Back to back, Gi and Arthur checked whether their contact lenses were on and if their hand was full of soul power to cast all sorts of magic, respectively. “Ready to do this, Arthur?” The feeble Korean researcher said with an unusual amount of confidence. “Let’s get this show, Gi.” Replied the British royal robot with equally as much confidence as his partner and friend.
And so… the two of them went on to fight the dummies and dodge the traps with unbelievable speed and reflexes. The puzzles perplexed Arthur, but Gi had his back in all of them, even catching a bit of dead time to explain to him so he could solve it on his own for the next time. The Inventor, amused, continued to watch the duo work together and admired their great efforts… Those two were magnificent, one of them made them proud, and the other could perhaps be groomed into serving him later.
“That was tough, but we did it! Good job!” Gi offered a high-five, to which King Arthur just weirdly stared. “Oh… you’re not gonna… huh.”
King Arthur rested his back on the wall, relaxing after the intense stress that they had just experienced. “Well then… Was there something else you wished to discuss?”
“Ah…. Arthur… There actually is… something… strange I could ask from you.”
“...And that is?”
The researcher approached the King, and got on his knees, taking a good look at him… “Hmm… could I perhaps look into your soul and your inner workings? You just look… so… well built!”
“...???!!!”
To say that Arthur was embarrassed was a big understatement, nonetheless, he cooperated. “If you insist… I trust you not to break anything. Or at the very least, fix non-permanent damage.”
“Righty-o! Let’s check this stuff out!”
Without hesitation, the tiny researcher went on to examine King Arthur’s body and soul. “My, my! King Arthur! Are you erasing bad memories?!”
“Huh… I… think I remember myself erasing bad memories… but no bad memories at all… Oh.”
“Arthur! That’s not right! Why are you doing that? ... Actually, don’t answer that! I have an idea of why you’re doing that!
Those memories may be painful, but they help you learn. Become a better person. It is important that we remember what’s wrong to not commit the same mistakes again!
AGAIN. Do you think my inventions were all perfect? It took me several tries and lots and LOTS of work and research to get here!!”
“I- Uhh… didn’t think of it that way.”
The Researcher then held the King– or rather, his friend’s hands. “I’m able to restore these memories from your soul before they vanish. Can you promise me you won’t do this anymore? And become a better person?”
…
With lots of thinking, he decided it was for the best to agree. And smiled. “Alright, I agree, Cheong.”
“Right! It’s a promise~”
The two of them then heard the Inventor call for Cheong’s name, but not King Arthur’s.
“Huh…? He’s calling for ME?!” Cheong said, confused. “Must be important then; go get it.” Said King Arthur unamused.
As Cheong rushed to see the Inventor, King Arthur was left to think about all this alone.
“… Was all this really worth it?”
…Whatever the case, for two months, the Super Researcher had started to work with the Inventor on the sidelines while also sharing some time with Arthur both socially and work-wise.
King Arthur was sitting on his throne, petting his skunk, which was sleeping on his lap while purring. Then, disturbing his quiet moment with his pet skunk, HE arrived.
The Inventor walked towards King Arthur, limping and bleeding. He quickly took the skunk off the King and gently placed it on the ground, and proceeded to rush towards him... “Hey! Are you okay?! What the hell just happened to you?!” He yelled, as he genuinely wasn’t expecting him to arrive in a way like this one. Not at all. “Ahh… Mr. King Arthur…” He groaned in pain yet still let out a creepy chuckle that filled him with a complete sense of nervousness. “I’ve done it, I’ve found a way to make sure you manage to stay alive for so long and keep this world perfect… Haha…” He coughed out some blood.
Not understanding what he meant, he tried to heal him with his dynamic magic. “W-what are you talking about? What in the world could you possibly have found that left you like this?” However, he shoved me away. “What are you doing? I’m trying to…”. “Be quiet, Mr. King Arthur. You may be a king, but you are still my creation. I was the one that made you, and I know you more than you know yourself!”
Left speechless, he just stared at the one who gave him life, not knowing what to do; his poor CPU couldn’t even process what was wrong with him, for he could not come up with any educated guesses or conclusions over what was going on with this man.
“Watch this, King Arthur! And make sure you don’t forget! Mark this in your memory forever, make sure to keep it where it’s not lost, and DON’T EVER DELETE IT!”
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