The King's Revelation

"Good morning contestants! So glad none of you died during the night. It's always a hassle to deal with the highlights when contestants die during the night. Regardless, the assassination attempt has been successfully stopped. All contestants who participated in any manner will be credited with a challenge completion. The participants who have been awarded that are: Bart McKenzie, Elmo Garcia, Elin Davies, Kim O'Hare, Leon and Elwin Bell, Jonas McCain, Patricia McIntyre, Patrick Sullivan, and Owen Andrews.

"In addition to that, it has come to our attention that we made a mistake when we announced the total score of completed Challenges. We left Owen Andrews out of that list, so therefore, as per the rules, he will be granted a free skill or spell or ability of his choice, provided he meets the prerequisites for it.

"Enjoy your day today. The next fixed Challenge will be announced at the end of the day. So please relax and enjoy yourselves. You never know when you'll be able to enjoy such leisure again."

Kim was stunned at the abrupt end of the announcements. She had hoped that they would have given more information or something with that announcement, but it wasn't like she could file a complaint about it anywhere.

She had been happy to find Elin had already woken up by the time she was going to get her up herself, though she was a little put out to see she'd climbed out the window on her own. Especially with how she was clearly feeling the effects of the night before, with how tenderly she walked.

"I'll be alright," Elin assured Kim when she had mentioned it, though she doubted Elin would have said anything to Kim, even if Elin had serious concerns about it. Yet, she didn't have any evidence to the contrary, so she let it go, despite her mind screaming at her to press the issue.

Instead, she merely escorted Elin to where breakfast was being served. It was clear that this wasn't a normal day for this household, but the servants seemed happy enough. Especially to have served those who saved them from likely being burned alive. Although, a few were rather surly about it, but Kim didn't pa them any mind. No matter what, she knew she couldn't please everybody. Besides, it wasn't like she did it to get any special treatment from anyone.

When they sat down, Elin's eyes grew wide as food was put in front of her. Kim couldn't help but chuckle as Elin started eating as quickly as she could, while doing her best in maintaining the appearance and elegance of someone who had been raised in a rich family.

Not that Elin was succeeding at the moment. Instead, she was filling her mouth almost as soon as she was able to swallow. Though, what Kim was surprised most about was that she wasn't making herself choke with how fast she was eating.

As Elin was finishing her first helping, Elmo and Jonas entered the room. Now that those two were here, she considered what their next move should be. Naturally they should have another meeting so they could discuss some of the finer details, but at the moment, Kim knew that she'd have to wait until they had something to eat themselves.

"I'm glad all of you are finally here," the king spoke suddenly, startling Kim. She hadn't even heard him enter.

The king clapped his hands twice and the servants brought in several trays full of food before they left completely. Something Kim hadn't seen happen at all that morning. It was one thing at the party, as there wasn't much need for the servants during the party, given all the refreshments had been placed at a single table, but here the servants had been serving to food to everyone directly rather than just bringing in a bunch of the food at once then leaving entirely.

"I'm going to need all of you to leave as well," the king said to some of the nobility that were still sitting down, although from what Kim could see, they'd al finished eating and were just talking among themselves.

"But why can't we stay?" Lance protested. "We have as much right to know why this attack happened!"

The king sighed. "We're still investigating that matter. What I have to speak with out guests about has to do with another matter entirely. Including how Lady Elin was able to dance the forbidden dance so perfectly."

Kim's ears perked up at the mention of a 'forbidden dance.' Although, as she thought about it, it would explain some of the looks she'd noticed cast Elin's way after the only dance she'd participated in before everything really started to happen.

Kim half-expected Lance, or maybe another of the nobles to continue to complain, but they merely started walking out, quietly talking among themselves, clearly unhappy with being evicted so suddenly.

When the doors were closed, Kim glanced around and was a little surprised to see that everyone who was left in the room was Elin, Jonas, Elmo, Patricia, Patrick, Bart, Leon, Elwin, Owen, the king, and herself. As she noticed that, she had a bad feeling start to form in the pit of her stomach. She seriously doubted that she wasn't going to like what she learned.

After a full minute from when they'd been left along and the doors had been closed, the king spoke again.

"First, I just wanted to express my admiration at Elin's perfect execution of that dance. I only regret I couldn't have seen it all myself," he said. "From what I hear, it was flawless from the start to the last step."

Kim couldn't help but notice that Elin had stopped shoveling food into her mouth, clearly having given up all pretense at eating in a civilized manner. Yet, as Elin glanced at Kim, her eyes begging for help, Kim couldn't help but laugh, drawing an expression of disbelief and outrage from Elin.

It took a minute after Kim started laughing before Elin was able to swallow the food in her mouth, during which others started to join in Kim's laughing. "Stop laughing!" Elin cried, her face starting to turn red from embarrassment.

Kim forced herself to calm down, which took another minute, though the rest of the room only seemed to spread the laughter and was merely boosted by Elin's protest. When she finally stopped laughing, Kim let out a her breath that was more of a half-sigh.

"Sorry about that," Kim apologized to Elin casually. "However, you're going to have to talk to him about it yourself or you're not going to like how things will turn out, I'm sure."

It wasn't a threat, just more of an observation. It was clear that Elin didn't like the laughter going around, as it was clearly directed at Elin's own reaction to the king's statement, which Kim was sure was going to be merely the first of many different points the king had planned on making.

Elin's expression showed Kim how miserable she was at the thought, but didn't say anything in response. She merely leaned against Kim, closing her eyes as she seemed to relax with the physical contact.

"Yes, now that's something that shows both of you aren't from this world," the king commented, snapping Kim and Elin back to focusing on the king. Kim knew she hadn't expected that to have been said, and she could see that Elin hadn't expected it either.

"What're you saying?" Elwin asked, his own curiosity clearly piqued.

"Just that I was once like all of you," the king replied. "An unwilling participant in whatever they call that competition. Where everyone is given a system and challenges to complete."

Kim glanced at the others in the room. Everyone's attention was on the king. Looking at him, Kim couldn't imagine that he had been a part of this stupid competition. Especially since he was the leader of this nation.

"How did you come to be the king then?" Kim challenged, partly curious to see what his response would be.

"Well, when I first was brought here, I arrived with my brother, even though neither of us had seen each other for a few years before that," the king answered. "Then when we'd finished the last of the set challenges, they announced that no one had acquired enough challenges, so therefore there wasn't a winner and everyone had to remain."

"You're saying that if no one completes enough challenges that we'll all be stuck here?" Patricia demanded.

The king merely nodded. "Yes, I'm afraid that those running the competition aren't very accommodating at times."

"That's an understatement," Kim muttered under her breath.

"So, after we were stuck here, and I mean those who were still alive after the last challenge," the king continued. "We found this land rather desolate. I began immediately helping clean things up as well as recruiting locals to improve their lives in the process."

The king paused for a minute, his gaze moving from one person to another before he nodded, clearly satisfied with something. "Anyway, as things progressed and prosperity began to improve everyone's lives, they made me king. Although, I don't think that I even noticed until a while after. My brother said it was about two weeks before I'd even noticed, but it would let me see that while this people weren't big on cermony, they were at least grateful for having been helped out of a bad situation. Where all the food they'd been growing that year had been destroyed."