The path was narrow and only one person could walk through it at a time. It was a bit hard since Arthur’s armor was bulky and it sometimes scraped the walls, making a very annoying screeching sound that grated his ears.

Arthur admitted the place was claustrophobic and somewhat eerie that he sometimes thought to stop in his tracks and turn back to Lancelot and Bedivere. They’d probably realize he was missing by now and were running their heads off trying to find him as they always do when he suddenly disappears.

But his curiosity to find out what rested at the end of the passage overpowered his doubts and worries. If the end of the path didn’t have any shops in it and it was just an empty space and a dead end, then it was no big deal to him, he’d just turn around and go back and face scolding from his friends again. However, if it did have a shop at the end, then he was willing to see what kinds of things they’d be selling.

 With this optimistic thought in mind, he trudged on.

 It took a while before he finally got out of the seemingly-never-ending alley. While in the alleyway, he felt as if he was going in circles the more he walked.

The walls and floors all looked the same that he didn’t know whether he was actually making progress or not. He swore he passed by a crack on the wall over and over again for about twelve times. When he looked up, all he could see was the sky and some clouds.

There was also that weird feeling mid-way through the path. The atmosphere unexpectedly dropped then instantly rose and then dropped again. It all happened within a second, alternating in an odd manner and made Arthur feel nauseous before it gradually calmed down.

The moment Arthur got out of the narrow space, he let himself fall on the grass underneath him, sighing in exhaustion. While his mini journey consisted of just walking for who knows how long until he finally arrived at the end, it was somehow tiring as if the path itself was trying to stop him and make him turn back from where he came.

The blond sighed and looked ahead of him. That’s when he noticed a small building not too far from where he was. It didn’t look like anything special.

In fact, it looked old with the paint fading and the walls chipped and cracked at places, however, it somehow gave out a homely feeling despite it all.

He immediately bounced up on his feet and ran up towards the small shop’s door, disregarding the common sense that everyone should have and be wary with finding a suspicious-looking shop at an alleyway that no one seemed to pay any mind.

Maybe it was the fact that he was too trusting or that his intuition was telling him that nothing would harm him here but he found himself attracted to the small shop.

Though, the moment he threw open the door, a sharp tip of a silver sword greeted him, just a few meters away from his face. The person holding the handle of the sword who was trying to stop it from moving forward and impaling the blonde looked as horrified as he was when they noticed they had a customer.

Their violet eyes widened when they noticed him in the line of danger.

"GET BACK!” They screamed and Arthur did so out of reflex.

After all, if you can’t even follow such a simple command in the battlefield, you’ll only be the first one killed or only be dragging your teammates down.

“What the hell’s wrong with her?!” Another person joined in and tackled the one holding the sword down, dragging the two of them and the sword down. The sword fell on the ground with a clatter and spun a distance away but instead of slowing down to a stop, it started to shake violently.

“Why in the seven ever-loving hell did you let go?!” The two shop owners quickly got off each other.

“How would I know you would tackle me!?” Their other shop owner’s purpled-eyed companion screamed back. “Quick! She’s trying to get up! Find something to stop her!”

The person who tackled the other one looked around the shop frantically and their eyes landed on a book by the counter. They paused for a second before dashing towards it.

Just then, the sword shot out, pointed tip first, towards Arthur’s direction at lightning speed. The shopkeeper immediately threw the book at the sword’s direction, hitting it by its edge and successfully redirecting it away and instead embedded itself on a stone statue decoration beside Arthur.

The sword started to shake violently again. Arthur was alarmed, of course. The weapon was aiming for him earlier and it looked like it would start again and he had to stop it.

He did the only thing he could think of in his mind at that time and took hold of the sword handle, preparing for it to violently try to shake him off.

 If it tried to attack him again, he would just use its momentum to redirect the direction of attack away from him. However, contrary to his expectations, the sword’s shaking stopped as if it was calmed down. He pulled the sword out of the stone statue with ease.

Silence hung heavily in the shop.

“...That’s... She stopped...” Arthur looked at the person who spoke.

 It was the violet-eyed person who told him to get back earlier. They seemed to have procured a sword out of nowhere and were holding it up like they were ready to fight. Arthur tilted his head. Were they planning on sword fighting the murderous sword?

Now that the frenzy earlier had died down, he had time to observe the pair in front of him. The two were, well, he couldn’t make a heads or tails of what their gender were, as if something was making it hard for him to think of a definite answer and seemed to urge his attention away from the two.

 There was really nothing that stood out much with the two aside from their odd clothing that is. The one who had violet eyes had the number 9 stitched on their vest located above their heart, while the other one had the number 1 painted on the front of their... half-cloak?

Arthur tilted his head and blinked before smiling.

“THIS IS QUITE A LATE GREETING BUT GOOD DAY!”

The two, in turn, looked at each other, the one with the number 1 slightly flinching at the loud noise. Unfazed by this, Arthur held out the sword towards the person with violet eyes and said:

“YOU DROPPED YOUR SWORD!”

Said person stared at him for a moment, assessing him, before shaking their head and dryly stated, “Excalibur’s not mine. In fact, no one really owns her.” They gave the sword a wary look.

They sighed in annoyance and scratch their head, the sword that had appeared in their hands starting to fade away as if it was just an illusion.

Arthur marvelled at this. Perhaps it was made with magic? He wondered if he could learn from the shopkeeper. Or better yet, from his father, maybe? That would definitely help in their adventures and lessen the hassle of buying sword after sword every time the quality degraded.

The other shopkeeper gave out a sigh too and their shoulders slumped down as if all their energy left them.

“Come inside and sit down? I have a feeling this is gonna take a while.”