The End

What remained of the Prince’s forces gathered in the center of the village, intermingled with the peasants who were exhausted and covered with their own blood. They were assembled together in a circle together to watch history be made.

Someone had dragged a table and chairs into the center of the village, where a prince and a peasant sat together. They had been arguing for hours over finer details. At certain points, pitchers of ale and water were brought for them. At other points, the peasant pointed out to the horizon, to the dragon still collecting the gold that had been magically brought into being.

Kyle found it a nerve-wracking experience. He tread as carefully as he could, especially since the man across the table was once a CEO who might have experience screwing people over in the fine print.

But he found Demerius to not be thinking straight. He was emotional, upset at the situation he found himself in. Both that the situation existed and that he himself had played a critical role in creating it.

It put Kyle at ease. Because if Demerius wasn’t thinking straight, he couldn’t sneak in those subtle poison pills.

It was entertaining in the same way watching a debate on public access television would have been – informative, but ultimately not something most would choose to watch if they could help it.

Kyle had forced everyone to watch.

He had told Demerius why from the start – he wanted witnesses. He wanted so many witnesses that if Demerius lied – and in Kyle’s view, it would be more like when he lied – his only option would be the most bald-faced lies possible. To ask people to deny what they had seen with their own eyes.

With what Kyle had seen in this life and the last, it was not impossible to think that Demerius would try.

But as more and more things were agreed on, the more comfortable Kyle felt with what was happening. He’d won. Against all odds, a peasant had beaten a prince.

The sun had started to set by the time everything was finished. Abagail had joined the two in the center, watching the two sign the terms they’d agreed upon before duplicating the contract and giving each of the men a copy.

Demerius shot Abagail a nasty look before turning back towards Kyle, who’d reached out his hand to shake. “You expect me to shake your hand?”

“If you want to walk away from this, you will.” Kyle kept his hand out.

For a brief moment, Demerius seemed to consider the alternative before realizing Kyle would likely order Fiona to punch his lights out in front of everyone. Then he finally shook Kyle’s hand and turned to leave without another word.

With the Prince getting back on his horse, his remaining knights and archers filtered out from the crowd. The dead were wheeled away. Slowly but steadily, the peasants were left to be alone. Just as they’d fought to be.

It was enough to make them celebrate.

----

Kyle had seen a number of festivals in this life. Celebrating the harvest, the start of the new year, important birthdays. But he had never seen the pure joy in everyone’s eyes. All of the villages, all of the people who’d survived, dancing and carousing together.

What was just as crazy was how he was the center of attention. People kept slapping him on the back, shaking his hand, toasting to his health over and over. York passed him a healthy glass of ale with a thumbs up, and even Benny – even Benny! – cracked a smile at him.

He sipped at his drink, only for it to spill on himself as someone pulled him onto his feet and into a dance. Their black, braided hair rested on his shoulder.

“Hello, you.” Abagail, powered by an amount of alcohol that would have knocked out a lesser woman, was elegantly leading Kyle into an intimate dance. Her hips bumped into his, and his bumped back on pure reflex.

“A-Abagail,” Kyle choked out. “I… I didn’t think you’d be here.”

“Oh, you think I’m gonna miss an excuse to get plastered?” Abagail leered at him through her glasses “They broke out the good stuff tonight.”

Kyle’s head was pulled into Abagail’s chest, his cheek against her bosom. “Mmph?!”

Abagail kept grinning without abandon. “I was thinking about what comes next. You know, you made it through that fight by the skin of your teeth.” Her fingers danced on his shoulder and pulled him in closer. “I think buying a new house in Trunsit is a bad idea.”

His hand landed on the small of Abagail’s back, sliding just a little down. “No?”

“You still barely know how to cast the simplest of spells.” Abagail dipped Kyle down as a dance move, before bringing him back up. “Can’t trust you to live on your own. Especially now that you’ve made an enemy of the Prince.”

“What are you saying?”

Abagail dipped him a second time, her face dipping closer this time. “I’m staying with you. You got a problem with that?”

Kyle’s face broke into a blush, and he hadn’t nearly enough alcohol to blame the booze. His mind drifted back to when he’d collapsed onto the bed after riding home, after realizing the Prince had lied. To the deafening silence that greeted him.

It sounded just like his old postage stamp apartment.

“I, um, I think I’d like that.”

As Abagail started to lean in further, eyes closing and lips puckered, he felt himself be yanked away and watched the witch collapse to the ground.

Kari shot Abagail a look before turning her attention to the matter at hand. “Sir Kyle. I never had a chance to properly thank you. For helping me realize that I could never marry a man that I did not love.”

“Oh!” Kyle coughed. “Yes. I know it’s a radical idea. But there’s a freedom in such a simple thing.”

Kari leaned into Kyle, putting a hand – and her head – on his chest. “It’s like out of one of my favorite stories,” Kari smiled. “All that’s missing is the….” She developed a nosebleed, which she quickly wiped up with a handkerchief. “The rousing ending.”

There was a certain romance in it. Saving the princess and all.

“Tell me,” Kyle smiled. “How do you think that story ends?”

“A-Ah…” Kari looked up at Kyle, unable to say it. Instead, she leaned in with a smile….

Only to fall forward on her face as a red arm pulled Kyle aside and spun him around before stopping him with a single finger.

“You know,” Fiona pointed out, “with all the time we missed, we’ve got a lot to catch up on.”

Kyle was struggling to undizzy himself, but Fiona’s finger was helping him stay upright. “It’s not fair, what happened to you.”

“Nah, but it doesn’t matter. I don’t care what the Prince says, or what the other girls say, or what the humans say.” She picked up Kyle in a bridal carry with a lecherous grin. “I got here first. I will have you for a husband, fates be damned.”

In all Kyle’s life, he’d never been confronted with a woman this forward or blunt. Someone who not only knew what they wanted but were willing to throw aside anything in their way to make it real.

Fiona leaned in to seal the deal, only to be tackled to the ground by an infuriated Abagail and Kari. Their attack launched Kyle into the air, only for him to gently fall back to the earth with a simple spell.

On his knees, Meredith was only a bit shorter than Kyle was. She looked at the other women fighting and shook her head with a smile. “Hello, Kyle. I’ve come to collect.”

“Collect?” Kyle raised an eyebrow. “I don’t think I owe you anything.”

“Oh, Kyle, not money~” teased Meredith. “You agreed to be my research assistant, remember?”

Research. Assistant. “I believe I did.”

“That means you’ll support me any way I need, right?” Meredith moved in close, wrapping her arms around his neck and putting her forehead on his. “It’s been too long since I had someone like that in my life.”

He did owe her a great deal.

“S-Sure.”

Meredith started to move in, only for three pairs of arms to grab her by the ankles and drag her away.

“Noooooooo! Let me go! It’s my turn!”

Kyle whistled as he stared at the night sky. It was one heck of a party. One heck of an ending.