Arthur in rezero fic

Death was truly an odd sensation, Arthur decided as he sat with his back against a sturdy tree.

His arms were as heavy as a full suit of armor, and already the feeling of the lower half of his legs had faded, nearly making him feel a few inches shorter.

Yet, despite the ailments of his body, the oddest sensation was his awareness of the passage of time. Whether that was truly death's doing, Arthur couldn't be sure.

Only a few short minutes ago had he sent Bedivere to return Excalibur to its resting place, and yet during that time, he had experienced two different lifetimes, both far in the future. He had made a pact with the world, all with the sole thought of saving his kingdom.

But he had failed, completely and utterly, his dream of doing everything over was completely out of his reach.

And yet, during his brief time in the future, he was able to see what became of the kingdom he swore to protect. Despite his own death, and numerous other conflicts his people had pushed forward and continued to live attempting to fulfill his ideals… their ideals.

Despite his own failure, Arthur could not have been happier, and even now, moments before his death he was torn between being somber at the fact that his own people had to do what he couldn't or joyful that they had made it, regardless of the journey it took to get there.

Regardless, he was content to live the last minutes of his life experiencing a fraction of the emotions he had abandoned, he closed his eyes and listened to the sounds of the forest surrounding him, etching the last memories of his homeland into his mind.

His silent requiem lasted for a precious few minutes before the crunching of sticks broke through the serenity his was experiencing.

"Your Majesty," a soft voice spoke, cutting through the peaceful sounds around them. "I've returned your sword, a hand from the water grabbed it before returning to the depths."

Raising his head to regard the knight who had dedicated his life to him, Arthur let a small smile finally form on his face. A scene that undoubtedly shocked the senior knight in front of him.

"It's finally over, isn't it?"

"It seems so my king, our journey looks to be at the end."

"I think you misunderstand," Arthur started, shakily resting his armored hand on a clearly fatal laceration on his chest, "My life led to this wound you see on my body, in a way I suppose it could be said that I choose this fate, fading my vision might be, but I see no such wound on your body, so your choice is still undecided, what shall become of your life?"

The question startled the knight for a few moments before he kneeled in front of Arthur, "Truly Sire~

"Bedivere" Arthur interrupted, shakily holding his bloody hand up in an attempt to cut the man off "You need not address me as king, I don't believe that it will make much of a difference now, will it?"

A bewildered look crossed the knight's face as he opened his mouth, undoubtedly, to protest, before he froze, his gaze ensnared by something present in Arthur's eyes.

"Very well Si- … Arthur" Bedivere responded, the lack of honorifics undoubtedly odd for him, "I am entirely uncertain of what shall become of me, my life was spent in your service, and I believed it would end in your service. However, wherever I end up, I certainly will continue living by and spreading your ideals, they saved many people, myself included." Bedivere finished, a whimsical smile appearing on his face.

The heartfelt line was one Arthur never expected to hear uttered to him.

"Ahhh" Arthur attempted to respond, only to find his mouth unable to open, having become completely numb and his ears starting to ring.

Death was knocking.

The smile on the knight's face remained, although sadness was still visible in his eyes.

Steadily, the lively sounds of the forest around him started to be drowned out by the ringing in his ears, while his vision started to darken, undoubtedly the images in the next few seconds would be the last images he would see in his life.

The deep green of tree leaves, the dark brown of the trunks of towering trees, and the bright blue of the sky. Scenes that he had wrote off as unimportant, not even as a child had he basked in the natural majesty they provided.

If he were able to smile, undoubtedly a sad smile would adorn his face.

His vision faded further, the images becoming distorted, undefined, blobs of colors.

So, this was the ending he saw? Arthur thought as his consciousness started to fade.

As the pain in his chest intensified, he became aware of a foreign weight on his shoulder, heavy like metal, yet warm and tender at the same time.

Unconsciously leaning against the presence on his shoulder, Arthur took the last breath of his life, slowly going limp.

It was only when the last embers of life faded from his eyes did he realize the weight on his shoulder was the armored hand of the knight in front of him.

An endless void was all Arthur knew, the warmth of the gloved hand being only a fleeting memory now, how long had he been here? Seconds likely, but they seemed to last a millennium.

He could not even die properly, could he?

Perhaps this was the pain he would endure for forcing his people to reach the dream that he couldn't.

Suddenly, an explosion of colors erupted through the blackness, and deafening sounds boomed in his ears. Completely overloaded his senses for a few moments until the swimming colors and numbing sounds arranged themselves in a scene that was familiar to him.

A city square manifested before him, with a massive fountain taking up the center of the plaza, with numerous buildings isolating the plaza from the rest of the town.

At first glance, Arthur could have passed this off for some major village in Briton that he had never visited, but the fresh memories of his death mere moments before shattered that idea. Besides, as far as he was aware death did not move one to some remote location they had never been to before.

This had to be some fever dream he was experiencing in between his last breaths.

Clamping his eyes shut, Arthur sat unmoving, moments ago he was utterly certain he was completely accepting of his death, but as the minutes grew, he was slowly rethinking that conviction.

His mind was occupied by the feeling of wind on his face, the slow and steady movement of his hair which was brushing against his forehead.

He had lived solely for the sake of his kingdom, one that was shattered and broken beyond repair, and yet despite his death far in the future, he saw the civilization that was born from the fires of that damaged kingdom, a civilization that was pushing forward towards the ideal world that he had seen in his dreams.

Truly he could not be prouder, and he would gladly lay down his life if that was the price for that future.

Yet, as two minutes turned to three and three turned to four, small amounts of panic started to appear in his mind.

If he was so accepting of death, then why was he still dreaming?

After an eternity longer with the sounds of a bustling town still assaulting his ears, Arthur slowly opened his eyes, the view of the plaza once again appearing.

The plaza was even busier now than it was when Arthur awoke, people walking in various directions, groups of children playing next to endless stalls completely detached from the ramblings of the shopkeepers around them.

The plaza would have stirred memories of the bustling marketplace in Camelot if it weren't for one addition.

Fur.

More specifically the things the fur was attached to, humans.

Though vastly outnumbered by humans around them, a few rather human-looking animals walked throughout the plaza.

What are those? Arthur thought. What type of weird fantasy is this? Why am I dreaming of something like this while on the verge of death?

Engrossed in his thoughts, he failed to hear the heavy steps heading toward him.

"Pardon me, my lord, but I would advise against lowering your guard."

Arthur's breath hitched, his vision snapping to the source of the voice. The man before him wore an outfit unlike any he had seen before, an open black vest and pants both trimmed with a vibrant gold, with only a light red cloth on his front and back-breaking the color scheme.

It was utterly foreign

He had never even seen something like this in his brief adventures in the Holy Grail War.

"Truly" the man continued, not noticing the shocked look adoring the face of the person he was speaking to, "lettin one's guard is bad enough for even us common folk, but for one like yourself who is dressed like a knight but doesn't have a weapon, well any desperate thief would attempt to rob you"

Arthur's thoughts raced; the belief this was simply a dream being nearly completely shattered in the last few seconds. He had neither the imagination nor the creativity, even in death to imagine this.

Leaving only the option he did not think, or maybe that he didn't want, on the table.

In his brief time in the 5th holy grail war, he had heard whispers of a magic possessed by only one individual.

The operation of parallel worlds.

Ice pickled in his chest at the thought, his mind still scrambling to believe this was simply all a dream, despite the scenes playing out before him.

World travelers could not be a common circumstance, they didn't exist in his world, what would be their reaction if he was found out? Torture? Death?

For some reason, the thought didn't sit right with him, the acceptance he thought he had of death being revealed to be nothing more than an illusion.

Arthur clenched his fists, knowing he was about to break one of his own tenets, all in an attempt to save his own pitiful life.

His face slowly contorted into his usual calm demeanor as he left his thoughts, raising his eyes to the face of the man before him, who stood awaiting an answer.

"Ah, I must say I never thought about that, I've never had to worry about that before" Arthur responded, forcing his tone into the neutral expression he had mastered over many years.

At his words, the man in front of him let out a deep chuckle, reverberating off the stone stairs Arthur was sitting on.

"Seems we live in two different worlds than" the man finally replied, his innocent statement causing Arthur to wince internally.

"Nevertheless, good sir," Arthur responded, steeling his resolve as he stood and extended his hand forward, "Arthur Pendragon, happy to meet a kind soul."

Waiting for the man's reaction, which would undoubtedly confirm the unease present in his stomach, Arthur could not decide whether or not he wanted the man to recognize his name.

With the conclusion of Arthur's introduction, the man's eyebrow raised, seemingly not having anticipated his response, before raising his hand to meet Arthur's own,

"Pendragon, eh? Names Kadomon Risch, 'fraid to say I've never heard of any nobles round here with the name Pendragon."

With his suspicions confirmed he had no choice but to continue to break the tenant's that he lived by.

"My family is from quite far away" Arthur stated, his heart racing after hearing the man's statement, "Truly I never expected to be recognized, and truly we were only noble in name, we live nearly no different from yourself."

Lying to the man before him broke his oath as a Knight, breaking the last true connection he had left from his old life.

He was no Knight.

He was no King.

All that was left was simply a lost soul, with no purpose in his life.

The conversation continued, consisting of mainly small talk and Arthur's thinly veiled attempts to pick basic information out of the man, forcing the blond to support the lie he uttered. Thankfully, the newly revealed shopkeeper had errands to run, forcing the conversation to end, leaving Arthur alone to find purpose in his new life.

Regardless of the methods, Arthur lamented, deciding to move from the plaza into one of the connected streets, I've managed to glean some useful information

The Dragon Kingdom of Lugunica, one of the four major nations, and one that would soon decide its next leader from 5 candidates, whenever the last one was found. It also seemed that various race's of so-called "demi-humans" existed as humans with characteristics of different animals.

The information left him at a loss, he was in an entirely separate world, one where he was completely devoid of any and all expectations.

He had spent his entire life dedicating every aspect of his life to the betterment of his kingdom, one he would never return to.

He was alone, without any information about the world around him, and with Arthur's inability to understand basic human emotions he truly doubted he would find any support here. Hell, the only reason any of the knights of the round table followed him was because he was king, a title he doubted would hold any weight here, wherever here was.

Not that he wanted to take up that title again, yet the fact remained that he truly didn't know life without it.

His hands grew clammy, and each step he took seemed harder than the one before it. His focus shifted to his hands, becoming acutely aware of the beads of sweat faintly clinging to it.

Unease washed over Arthur's body, and the demeanor of the street seemed to change in an instant, throwing a hurried look around him, Arthur attempted to locate what his instincts were telling him to be wary of.

The marketplace was seemingly just as busy as it was a few short minutes ago; however, where once their attention was focused on the various stalls filling the street, they were now all seemingly focused on something at the end of the street, however, the crowd blocked him from seeing exactly what they were all fixated on.

Suddenly the feeling magnified, and a rustle of wind to his left caused his attention to snap to it, trying to locate its origin.

Only to see a young girl barreling towards him at a speed he had sparsely seen a human move at.

The girl was already bracing herself to hit him, no doubt she had concluded that there was no way a human could move out of the way in time.

Luckily, he became something less than human many years ago.

Arthur's mana flared as it activated, wisps of smoke becoming visible streaming skywards off of his armor.

To the onlookers around them, it must have seemed that in one second, he was destined to be slammed into by the blond-haired girl, and in the very next he was completely out of her way, without a reason to be worried.

As the blond-haired girl sailed past him, disappearing into the darkness of an adjacent alleyway, Arthur could not help but be wary of the ability he had just shown, not wanting to become the new object the onlookers became so intent on staring at, after all who knew what abilities were considered abnormal.

Casting his gaze to the inhabitants of the street around him, he noticed how the majority of them were staring at him with an expression of awe, no doubt to them it appeared that one moment Arthur was doomed to be slammed into and the next he was magically out of the way.

Undoubtedly a man destined for greatness, how wrong they were.

Memories stirred in his mind, of a similar situation in his past.

"Are you certain you wish to draw that sword?" a soft voice spoke behind him laced with mystery, the question hung in the air but caused no disturbance to the man before him.

He did not need to turn around to know who the speaker was, only one person would ask him such a cryptic question after following him here.

"There is no going back if you do" the voice continued "but be warned, the minute you draw that sword you will become something less than human, and there is no doubt that the life you will live will be wished for by no one."

"Is that so?" the golden-haired man asked, his gaze remaining fixated on the pedestal in front of him.

Resting inside the pedestal was a golden blade with a royal blue hilt, and a blood-red gem implanted in its guard.

A sword the likes of the one in front of him, standing unaccompanied in the middle of the field no doubt would have been taken by now, if not for the inscription engraved on the center of the blade in a glowing gold script.

"Whoso pulleth out this sword of this stone is rightwise king of all England"

Staring at the inscription, the man posed a question, "The right to rule of England rests on the drawing of a single sword? Is that wise… Merlin?" he spoke, turning to face the origin of the voice as he let questions linger in the air.

As he turned a white-haired woman came into view standing a few short paces behind him, her pure white hair gently flowing in the wind. Adorned in a white robe with purple and blue pieces of cloth reminiscent of flower petals covering the upper half of the robe. Faintly, underneath the lower half of the robe, black pants adorned with golden accents were visible, before coming to a stop at the black boots that stood in the never-ending sea of green.

Silence descended on the clearing in cascading waves. Green eyes met purple as the two stared at each other, both silently regarding the other, two different paths they walked, one, a renowned mage given the epithet, "The Magus of Flowers" and the other, the unknown son of the former king, thrust into an unforgiving world.

Slowly, the mage shook her head, "Who is to say? The determination of whether or not it was wise will rest on the actions of the wielder, not on the sword itself, the sword merely chooses the best possible person to wield it, and even then, the future isn't assured to be bright."

"And what becomes of the future should no one draw this sword?"

The mage didn't respond, and as seconds passed it was clear this question was one she would not answer.

"I see then" Arthur intoned, his eyes reflecting a determined gaze "it seems like there is only one way to find out."

"If that answer is one you seek, your choice should be known to you."

Seconds later, the threads of fate spun, as a golden sword was pulled out of its resting place,

In England, with the drawing of a sword, he had emerged from an unknown squire to the king of the land.

Now, he had gone from a nobody on the street to everyone's center of attention.

Unease again filled Arthur's body, yet this time he was unable to find a discernable reason, perhaps it was a delayed reaction to the attention he was now receiving, perhaps it was due to something else entirely. Whatever it was, he decided to act on the feeling, quickly turning and sprinting to the same alleyway the blond-haired girl flew into, a small pulse of mana being used to aid in his escape.

Retreating some distance into the alley, away from the noise and prying eyes of the street, Arthur leaned against an alley wall, his muscles still taunt ready to be spurred into action at a moment's notice.

Why did that event cause such a commotion? That girl had been moving incredibly fast as well, so why were they all looking at him with shock written across their faces.

Besides his display of agility, there was only one other thing he could conceive causing the disturbance.

It would seem I truly am out of place, Arthur mused internally, his eyes sweeping over the armor covering his body.

It was not as if the armor stood out due to its grandiose, it was a typical outfit of a knight, except that Arthur chose to forgo the helmet out of personal preference, the only decorative aspect of the armor were the various blue lines that ran up and down the pieces of armor as well as the three-part royal blue surcoat he wore under his armor.

Thinking back to his earlier encounter with the fruit merchant, he remembered being mistaken for a noble, a fact he played with due to the shock of the situation, seemingly just for the armor he wore.

Raising his gaze to the sky, he let out a sigh, the consequences of the scenario he found himself in finally starting to manifest in his mind.

The air was different here, thick, teeming with energy that swarmed down the street, adding a heftiness to the air that Reinhard had never experienced before.

Technically today was supposed to be his day off, yet he couldn't find it in him to let such an event go unnoticed.

As he slowly traversed the crowded market street, politely waving to people that greeted him, he couldn't help but notice that the number of people gazing at him was less than normal, extremely so.

Minutes ago, he had been the center of attention, something that he had come to accept, now, their gaze was situated at the opposite end of the street from where Reinhard came from, coincidently it was also seemingly the area with the most amount of energy, judging by the way that it became more and more became tangible as he made his way towards it.

He had never known mana could be this dense, even when around the eccentric margrave himself, he had never felt anything near this. Admittedly, he didn't know much about magic, being completely incapable of using it himself, nevertheless, it almost seemed like mana was brought directly into the world right in front of him, something he knew was impossible.

Finally arriving at the other end of the street, he took a brief look around him, yet apart from the density of the mana present in the street, everything else looked perfectly normal. There was no damage to any of the buildings or stalls that could suggest a fight occurred here, there also didn't seem to be any lingering traces of the various different types of magic in the air, instead, the mana in the air was non-distinct not correlating to any particular type of magic, a type of mana that was completely unproducible.

Even Reinhard himself, in his incredibly limited knowledge of magic, knew this fact, mana was only present because of Od Laguna, a being only he, himself intimate with, only it was capable of creating this energy and birthing it into the world.

Despite this fact he was seemingly witnessing such an impossibility himself, with each second that he felt the pressure in the air, his suspicions rose and rose.

What could-

"Mr. Sword Saint?" A soft high-pitched voice interrupted his musing, startling him internally, people typically did not attempt to talk to him, simply giving him polite waves.

Casting his gaze down at the source of the voice he was greeted by the green hair of a young girl.

A young girl in the middle of the street that was seemingly alone.

Crouching down so the girl didn't have to stare upwards at him, he gave her a soft smile, the girl, who couldn't be older than 10, had blue eyes several shades lighter than his own and a smile much larger than Reinhard's own was split across her face.

"Are you looking for your Knight friend?" she innocently enquired.

Knight friend? Reinhard thought, the only person he could perhaps call a friend was Julius, who coincidently was a knight, nevertheless, he was tending to his mistress out of the town so there was no chance the girl could be referring to Julius.

Perhaps it is just another knight, and she thinks that they are all friends with me, he continued to muse, it was a thought that a child would think, after all, it was common that children were told stories of heroic groups of knights that were essentially family. Sadly, Reinhard could attest that such stories were not truthful, particularly when it came to him.

Regardless of the child's thoughts on knights, there was one fact that was lingering in the back of his mind.

The market street was usually his patrol spot during the day, and, as far as he was aware, his day off today had been an impromptu thought that the garrison commander had come up with, it was highly unlikely that a different knight was reassigned to his typical patrol route.

If there is someone in the area impersonating a knight…

"I'm afraid I don't know who you are referring to, could I inconvenience you with describing this knight to me?" he asked softly, careful not to let his darkening thoughts be detected by the child.

"Oh, Mr. Sword Saint! He was amazing!" the girl shouted, her enthusiasm being completely unexpected by Reinhard "He had on armor that shined brighter than the sun, he also had blond hair that gleamed when the sun hit it, not to mention his green eyes twinkled like the stars! He was the most…

After the first few details, Reinhard's mind wandered, attempting to think of a knight that could fit the child's description, but no knight had a combination of green eyes and blond hair, green eyes themselves already being extremely rare in the first place.

Not to mention her description of the man's armor, which was undoubtedly made from metal, something that was a rarity in knights, extremely so in the royal guard which, undoubtedly, would have been sent to guard such an extremely populated area.

"… was nearly slammed into by a blond blur that was moving too fast for me to properly see before he simply appeared a few feet out of its way, he moved so fast it was like he disappeared! I could have sworn I saw his armor smoking once he was out of the way through…"

Smoking? Could that be the source of the mana in the air?

He didn't know exactly what this meant but his intuition was screaming at him that the two events were related.

"Did you happen to see where this 'knight' went?"

"He disappeared into an alleyway! I believe it was that one." The girl announced pointing her arm towards a non-distinct alleyway not too far away from them.

"Well, I thank you, without your assistance, I don't believe I would have been able to locate him." Slowly standing up from his crouch position he posed a final question to the girl, "Is one of your parents in the area?"

It was concerning that she didn't seem to be accompanied by anyone, even if there was a man impersonating a knight in the area, he wouldn't be able to forgive himself if he left this young girl to her own devices. At the very least he could ensure she would be safe before he resumed his investigation.

The girl looked sheepish for a second, idly twirling one of her fingers through her hair before she forced herself to respond. "I sort of… got separated from my mother earlier, I was pretty scared earlier… but after seeing that knight I felt really safe…"

"I see" Reinhard responded, suppressing his curiosity about her… unusual answer. "Could you point me to the last plac-" Reinhard attempted to finish before a shout surged through the air.

"PLUM!"

The girl's head snapped to the source of the voice seconds before she was engulfed into by a dark-haired woman.

To Reinhard, it was obvious that his search was over before it even began.

"Where did you go, one minute you were right beside me, and in the next moment you were gone, do you know how worried I was? And then I finally locate you and I find you with the Sword Saint!? Do you know how valuable his time is!?"

The woman finished berating her daughter before finally turning her grateful gaze upon Reinhard. "Thank you for making sure my daughter was safe, I'm truly sorry that you had to accompany her."

"Truly I did little to nothing, I'm afraid your daughter has been a far greater help to me than I have been to her."

"Now," she said, seeming speaking to her daughter, "What do we say?"

"Thanks! Mr. Sword Saint." She toothily smiled at him, before her mother started to drag her away, her grip, Reinhard noticed, never loosening.

With one problem solved Reinhard returned to his initial objective, tracking the source of the wild mana. Making his way towards the alleyway the young girl pointed towards, his mind was abuzz with activity.

Would the man be peaceful?

If he wasn't could he prevent casualties?

If he couldn't… would his next meeting with that young girl be at a gravesite?

As he got closer and closer to the dark entrance of the alleyway Reinhard's mind continued to fall farther and farther into his near-constant worries. Worries that were always present but masterfully concealed behind the facade of the Sword Saint.

It'll be my fault.

I will have killed them.

She died because of me.

Despite these thoughts, nothing could have prepared him for what happened next. Just seconds before entering the alleyway, a deafening sound echoed into Reinhard's ear, the sheath that so diligently housed the sword at his waist, unlatched.