[center][h2]Theseus[/h2]
[h3]Homurahara Academy, King’s Banquet[/h3][/center]

“Familiar, indeed.”

Saber’s words, whispered to his Master, were accompanied by a small smile — one different from those confident smirks he had shown him, or the bold grins he seemed so fond of sharing. Much like the sentence, it carried an edge of wistfulness, a faint nostalgia.

Even if many years passed between his time on that ship and the adventures of his later life — there was no doubt that the memory of those days would never fade. However, before he could call out to the musician… 

It seemed that tonight’s host had a few choice words for those gathered here.

From an outside perspective, there would be no dramatic change of appearance — a smile remained on his face, his bearing still oozed confidence, and he seemed to take the other Servant’s frankly ridiculous demands in stride.

And yet, compared to the brightness he had shown his Master so far, the dark look he was shooting the one that proclaimed himself the greatest of them all was so different that one might think him another person entirely. 

What a repulsive laugh. He gladly matched it with his own chuckle, though it certainly carried no humor behind it.

Yeah, just from those words alone, Saber already knew that him and that guy— 

“Unfortunately, that would conflict with my goals as they are. That being said, if you want my head, you can come and take it if you can. 

“It’ll be my pleasure to break your face when you do.”

—would absolutely never get along. 

But Saber was no [i]barbarian[/i]. He would not be the first to draw weapons and break hospitality — if the other Servant took offense and came to him, it would be another story, but as it was, he would leave the matter alone for now. Rather, another one of the guests seemingly sought to salvage the meeting from going to hell before it truly began, and so, posed the first real question of the night.

“...Hm. That’s a bit tough.”

Despite having become a “king”, Theseus had never thought much about the change, partly due to the heartache it had come with, partly because he simply saw it as an extension of responsibilities he had already taken on his shoulders the moment he had stepped out of Troezen and into Attica. 

The burdens and responsibilities that came with the throne, the hopes and expectations that accompanied the crown, they were new in some ways, yet overall not too different from what he had already been doing to begin with.

Simply put, rather than “a king who was a hero”, he was “a hero who was a king”.

“I guess if I had to say, it’d be “answering”. People swear themselves to you, entrust their lives to you, and give their loyalty to you. In return, the king puts his own life on the line for them, watches over and nurtures and kingdom, and carries the burdens of its people without flinching.

“In the end, for me, it has always been about protecting what I wanted to protect. That has never once changed.”

[@Yankee] [@Aoko Aozaki] [@ReallyDumb] [@Phonic] [everyone-else-at-this-place]