Arthur Alexander Merlin the 3rd was the adopted son of a powerful and renowned wizard, Merlin, and was the leader of a well-known adventurer group. While they still weren’t distinguished enough to be considered heroes, they were slowly and steadily starting to get famous.
Everywhere Arthur and his merry band of adventurers went, people would sing songs of them and their wonderful deeds, praising about their achievements and told stories of their adventures.
Girls swooned over Arthur and guys envied him, for the most part, anyway. Who wouldn’t? Arthur looked and had the making of a perfect hero.
With his messy blond hair that shone under the golden sun, sparkling blue eyes that made someone looking into them feel like they were looking at the perfect clear sky themselves, and a warm smile that radiated pure bliss. He was definitely the one others would take notice more.
However, despite being the leader, powerful, handsome and kind-hearted, he was—
“SUCH A WONDEFUL PLACE THIS IS!”
—a bit too loud. Not only that but he was also too trusting and naive that his friends can’t help but be worried over him.
Bedivere placed a palm over his face, visibly embarrassed at the looks they were getting. “Arthur,” he gently called out. “We’re in a crowded place. Please keep your voice down.”
Arthur blinked at his friend, looking apologetic, but smiled and nodded. “Che,” Lancelot scoffed, crossing his arms. “should’a learn’a mind their own business then.” He glared daggers at the mass, reminding them to go about their day and scattered.
Bedivere gestured towards him, looking quite done. “You-You can’t just... tell everyone to mind their own business!” He exclaimed exasperatedly.
Lancelot glared at him, glowering at the other adventurer. “Oh? Are ya implying it’s Arthur’s fault then? Are ya blaming Arthur? Huh? Are ya?” He taunted.
“I didn’t even say anything remotely close to that!”
“But ya implied it! I knew ya were fishy, ya traitor! Arthur, next time we go to ‘nother town or city, we bett’a leave this traitor there for good!”
“Hey!”
Arthur didn’t know what they were on about but he nodded with an awkward smile. He wondered if they knew they were the ones who were causing a bigger commotion and garnering lots of attention.
Currently, he and his comrades were in a place called Remkat, a lively city full of beautiful architecture and most popularly known as the most active place of market activities in the whole continent.
Races of different kinds walked the streets in curiosity whether it was elves, lizard people, fairies, or even humans who looked like they were having fun, going from stall to stall, and showing to their party items they bought or what caught their eye.
The reason why Arthur and his group made a stop in Remkat was because Arthur’s sword was already in a very poor condition where it couldn’t be used properly anymore and his group needed to get their armor and weapons upgraded before they continued on their adventure so they split in groups of three to avoid crowding as well as the usual screaming, promises of murder and destroyed properties whenever they were all together.
“COME NOW, MY FRIENDS!” Arthur patted their shoulders enthusiastically, successfully delaying the inevitable arguing that was starting to brew between the two adventurers. “WE ARE HERE TO BUY EQUIPMENT! THERE IS NO NEED TO FIGHT NOW! LET US GO AND MARCH TOWARDS THE WEAPON STORE!” The blond-haired man lifted a leg to march towards a random direction only to be pulled back by Lancelot.
“We’re already here, Arthur.” He said blankly and pointed over his shoulder to a store which had different kinds of weapons displayed behind its massive window and a large sign up the store front that said ‘Vaughn’s Weapon Store’.
Arthur blinked owlishly as his friends looked at him in disbelief but soon chalked it up as Arthur being Arthur. Said person finally processed what happened and beamed, smile so bright that it was like looking directly at the sun itself. He cheered, “THEN LET US GO!”
Not a moment later, a very eager weapons dealer showed them his finest selection of swords, all glinting under the light like polished gems, shiny and eye-catching.
Arthur looked over each one, a feeling of displeasure slowly rising in him. They were all very beautiful and well-made, clearly properly taken care of but nothing seemed to catch his eyes. He frowned, feeling like none of the swords presented to him felt right. Maybe it was the way it weighed in his hand, being too light to the weight anything at all or too heavy to swing neatly.
Somewhere along the way as he looked over the swords, Lancelot and Bedivere somehow gotten into another heated argument on what kind of sword Arthur should get, with the shop keeper trying to calm them down to no avail.
Arthur found his attention drifting away. He may be great in leading his comrades in battle but outside of it, his attention span was like that of a fly. Coupled with his curiosity, this was exactly what made Arthur and his friends get into situations where they ended up somehow saving and village from a tyrant or a royalty from an abductor.
Arthur was basically both a trouble detector and a trouble magnet and his group aren’t even surprised at this point.
Soon, the blond knight tune out his friends’ quarrelling, which somehow went from arguing about which swords were better to arguing about whether tangerines or oranges were superior (the shop owner still unsuccessfully attempting to stop them, fearing they would start fighting and destroy his shop), as his gaze looked outside the window and landing on a dark alleyway just across the street.
No one took notice of it. For them, it was just an alleyway. A dark, scary-looking alleyway. Who would want to go there?
However, to Arthur’s line of logic, he thought, since Remkat was a place filled with shops in almost every corner you turned to, there must be some kind of store in the alleyway (although poorly located), right? Right.
And so, right under his friends’ noses, he exited the shop and made his way towards the alleyway with determination written on his face.
