The Return

 “I’m back.” The False Arthur proclaimed.

“You…You’re the real one?” Selphine asked.

The False Arthur ignored her and turned back to Louise and Emmett, giving them a hand up.

“M-Master…is that you?” Louise was stunned as “Arthur” patted her on the shoulder.

“You did well, I’ll take it from here.”

He turned faster than anyone could see and immediately launched a massive blue fireball that threatened to engulf Selphine and her servants. Instead of conjuring a shield, she instead created a barrier that surrounded them and left no openings.

The fireball crashed into the barrier and dissipated, but not before leaving a massive crack on it. The original’s abilities were clearly far superior to mine, since I had been mostly relying on his memory to cast, not knowing how to maximize the potential of each attack.

Selphine removed the barrier and snapped her fingers, causing all of her undead slaves to rush towards “Arthur” at once, but he seemed totally unfazed, standing there and waiting for them to attack him.

The undead Christopher was the first one there, thus making him the first victim to “Arthur” who clapped his hands together which summoned a wave of lava. The zombies had rushed too close and thus weren’t able to react in time. They all got engulfed by the lava, except for Christopher who had a small barrier appear around him that managed to shield him while the rest of the corpses were burnt to a crisp, and fell down as if they were puppets who’s threads to the puppet master had been cut off abruptly.

Christopher jumped back towards Selphine, who grimaced at the sight of the false Arthur’s powers.

“Alright, fine, you win for now.” She sighed and snapped her fingers, which made her eyes return to normal and Christopher’s corpse to collapse onto the floor.

“Wait!” Emmett started to go after her, but “Arthur” extended his hand and stopped him.

“It’s pointless, you wouldn’t win.” He said.

“Well then, why don’t you stop her?”

“Because I’m not sure if I’d win, either. Anyway, my time is up.” He turned towards Louise who had been standing back silently. “I’ll see you soon.”

“Master, I…” Louise couldn’t find any words to say.

Suddenly feeling an intense pain from out of nowhere, I blinked and inexplicably found myself back inside my own body without even realizing. The pain immediately died down after a few seconds.

“Ah, damn…” Pain shot all over my body, I collapsed to the floor. The adrenaline had delayed the effects, but I’d taken quite the beating overall.

“Which one are you, now?” Emmett asked, giving me his hand.

“The new one.” I took his hand and struggled to get up. “But I gained the old one’s memories, thanks to the ritual.”

I turned to face Louise, who was glaring at me.

“Hey, so what was this whole ritual thing, anyway? I’m out of the loop.” Emmett said.

“Don’t worry, I know everything, so I’ll explain later.” I answered. “Well, almost everything. I don’t know who that Selphine woman was and what she was trying to accomplish here, but like I said, we can think about that later, let’s just get out of here for now.”

“So where do we go? It’s not as if we can go back to your place, or something…”

“No, we can. Rosy is in on this.”

“For real?” Emmett exclaimed. “Wait, was I the only one that was out of the loop this entire time?”

“No, my parents don’t know, that’s why we arranged this ritual for when they were out of town, and it’ll be a while til they get back.”

“Alright, it’s settled then!”

The two of us looked back at Louise, who was staring down at the ground blankly.

“So, uh, what’s up with her?”

“Give her a break, she just saw me shoot her brother in cold blood.”

“Right, that happened. I was looking from above with a see through spell.” Emmett explained. “Either way, what do we do with her?”

“She’s coming with us, obviously.”

“Good luck convincing her with that.” He chuckled.

I then remembered that I wanted to ask Emmett something before it slipped my mind.

“Hey, Emmett?” I asked.

“Yeah?”

“Since when can you fucking use magic, you idiot?”

“Oh, that, well, it’s a long story. How about this: I’ll explain after you explain everything that happened here, alright?”

“Deal.”

I then walked over towards Louise, who still looked lifeless.

“Hey,” I said, which she offered no response to. “Listen, I know it’s tough for you, especially because I killed your brother right in front of you, but I need your help. You can take as much time as you need, but please tell me you’ll help me.”

“....Okay.” She said softly.

“...Wait, really?” I was shocked by how easily she had caved. “To be honest, I didn’t expect you to agree so easily.”

“Don’t misunderstand.” She continued. “I’m doing this for Arthur, not for you.”

“...Well, I am Arthur, but okay…” I muttered.

“You can explain everything to Emmett by yourself since you regained all your memories, right?” She said, “That means you don’t need me today, if all you’re going to do is tell him what happened.”

“Okay, deal. Just go home, and I’ll tell you at school tomorrow what the plan is, alright?”

She nodded and started limping out. Of course, she’d also taken some damage, but not nearly as much as I had.

You see? I told you binding contracts work. We should use them more often, whenever you’re in a bind.

Nah, I don’t think so, this was just a one time thing.

We’ll see about that…

Looks like I was going to have to endure the original’s voice from now on, huh? Better get used to it.

“Hold up, get going first.” Emmett said. “I’ll take care of the corpses.”

“There’s no need, there’s a seal around this place that makes it impossible for…oh, right, you broke the entire ceiling, I forgot.”

“Yeah, sorry. I’ll clean this place up, so you head back first.”

“Are you sure? I can help if you want.” I said.

“Nah it’s cool, you need some rest.”

“So do you…”

“I told you, it’s fine, just go already!” He insisted.

That was how I ended up heading back first. The rain had completely subsided, which was weird, since it had been pouring down like crazy only a few minutes ago. It was also totally dark, night was completely settled in.

I instinctively walked in the direction of the station before realizing that my injuries would draw too much attention, so I decided to simply walk back home. After all, Emmett’s house wasn’t too far from mine.

However, it wasn’t close either, so I figured I’d have to walk a good hour at least, but that was the price to pay to avoid suspicion being cast on me.

Luckily for me, I didn’t end up encountering a single person as I walked home, and found myself staring at the mansion as I stood right outside.

As i walked through the front door, Rosy’s eyes opened as she saw how bloody and battered I was, and immediately rushed towards me.

“M-Master Arthur, you’re hurt!”

“Rosy…The ritual didn’t work. I’m still the Arthur that woke up this morning, but I’ve regained my memories.” I decided to be honest with her, that was the least I could do, after all.

“Oh, I see..” She said, while holding my arm up with her shoulder.

“Wait, hold on, take me to the living room first, Emmett’s coming in a bit.”

“No, you’re too injured, you need urgent treatment.”

She then easily picked me up in a cradle carry and started bringing me up the stairs.

“R-Rosy! I-”

Rosy brought me to my room and laid me on the bed.

“Hold on, the blood-”

“I’ll clean it later, Master.”

Rosy then started healing me using magic that I’d taught her ages ago, after I revealed to her what I was up to. Since then. She’d perfected her craft, and was probably the perfect healer. I laid on my bed as she put her hands over all the wounds, healing them within mere seconds. At the end, she panted heavily while all my wounds were closed. THat didn’t mean the injuries were gone, though, it was like putting a small bandage over them.

“Thank you.” I bowed my head to her.

“There’s no need for that, Master,” Rosy then flinched. “Master Emmett is right outside, shall I greet him?”

Damn, he’s already here?

“No need, I’ll do it myself.” I got up from the bed and exited the room, before noticing she was still there. “What are you doing?”

“I will clean the sheets, if it’s alright with you. Your blood is everywhere.”

“Wait, aren’t you exhausted? You can leave that for later!”

“Master, don’t underestimate me, please.” She puffed her chest proudly, so I relented.

I went down the stairs and opened the front door to see Emmett closing in.

“Yo, I took care of everything.” He saluted me with a smile on his face.

“How did you get here so fast? Did you take the train?”

“Huh? Of course I did, why wouldn’t I?” He seemed confused.

What an Idiot! Taking the train with his clothes so-huh? His clothes are completely spotless!

Oh, right. His house was close by, so he could have just changed up, I forgot. Either way, I motioned for him to come inside and then closed the door behind him, so that I could finally explain everything that was going down.