Chapter Text
"Who? Me?"
The hedgehog shook his head.
His gaze moved from the sword, to the knights, and back again.
Well, nothing could really shock him nowadays, after literally being teleported into a fairy-tale land—but this sounded kind of absurd.
He, a king?
...Nope.
"You shall be the new king."
The sword proclaimed, with complete certainty.
For a moment, nobody spoke.
The air was tense.
Uncertainty, and unease filled the air.
You could even taste it.
The knights remained frozen in place.
Caliburn's choice made sense. Yet it still felt wrong.
Sonic wasn't from their kingdom. He wasn't part of any royal family, as far as they knew.
But then again, stranger kings had claimed stranger thrones.
Sonic felt like someone was brushing his quills the wrong way.
This was just wrong.
The blue blur closed his eyes and crossed his arms.
He imagined himself with a crown, a kingdom, power, wealth—everything a man could ever want.
But not Sonic.
When he finally spoke, his voice was slow and measured.
"I am no king. That's not how I roll."
Sir Lancelot bit his lip.
"...The sacred sword cannot be wrong—"
"Of course I am not wrong! Sonic is the king this kingdom needs!"
Caliburn declared.
His words were final. His expression flat.
Sonic did not like the sound of that.
The king this place needs, huh?
...
The knights, Merlina, and the sword were all eyeing him expectantly.
Nobody moved.
Nobody seemed eager to volunteer.
Nobody seemed to have a plan.
They were all just waiting.
...Why were they staring at him like—
Then a realization struck Sonic.
They wanted him to move.
To say something.
To tell them what came next.
They couldn't deal with the aftermath on their own, could they?
...
Sonic's expression gave nothing away.
But as his foot tapped against the ground, his gaze drifted across the ruined kingdom.
The shattered castle.
The broken homes.
The people standing around with no idea what came next.
The king this kingdom needs...
Did they even need a king?
The people stood there watching it all, uncertain of what to do.
Just like the knights.
...They were all just helplessly lost.
It would be pretty heartless to just walk away now, wouldn't it?
Ugh.
Sonic sighed.
Afterall, the defeating the final boss part was only half the job.
"I am no king– but I can see we've got bigger probelms rigth now. This whole kingdom is a mess, guys. I say we start by—"
They listened.
Without complaint.
And so, Sonic pulled the knights and Merlina, the sorceress, out of their stupor and got them working together to restore the kingdom.
Piece by piece.
Brick by brick.
No one brought up the king business again.
...For the next hour or so.
But there was little doubt in the people's minds about who they wanted to see on that throne.
The real question was—
Did he?
The castle was the next—well, the second step in the grand rebuilding plan.
(The first had been securing the buildings that could still be saved.)
The castle needed to be rebuilt so that people whose homes were under construction could live somewhere with a roof over their heads.
And honestly, it was pretty damn spooky. That castle.
It could benefit from a slightly less edgy tone. Not that there was anything wrong with edgy...
Sonic refused to be the one in charge of that, though.
Even though the knights and the sword had tried to push him into at least redesigning the throne room. Sonic did not let himself be persuaded.
That left the three knigths to deal with it by themselves, mostly.
The hedgehog had already disappeared again.
No one really knew where he went anymore.
...Well—actually, he was outside, talking to the locals, the staff, and probably the blacksmith —
The door flew open with a loud bang.
The knights jumped and flinched, raising their weapons.
Sonic smiled at them and playfully raised his hands.
"Oops. Sorry. I thought the door was heavier, so I kinda—guys. We need a bigger kitchen for the staff, more rooms, some materials, a table, chairs, and—And gimme a sec—"
The hedgehog pulled a piece of paper from his quills and started reading it.
"Ah. And a smithy. Yes."
Sonic sounded extremely proud of himself.
Sir Percival tilted her head.
"...Sire, are you certain about letting the peasants—"
Sir Lancelot interrupted her immediately.
"We will adjust the plans to your liking."
He said.
Too fast.
Too obedient.
It bothered Sonic more than he would admitt.
"Hey, if you think it's BS you can tell me. We gotta make this kingdom work somehow, and I think teamwork is in order."
They didn’t argue.
They simply dragged a gigantic block into the center, following Sonic’s sketch on the paper.
The smithy.
And when I say large, I mean GIGANTIC.
...The knights weren’t happy about it. Neither was the sword.
Still, nobody said it out loud.
Not yet, anyway.
Who would be the one to point it out to the hedgehog?
"...Sir Sonic, I think we should move that to the corner and shrink it. We won't have enough space otherwise," Sir Percival said carefully.
Sonic hummed, and tilted his head.
"...Yeah, I guess.... But let's not shrink it too much. I promised Tai—the blacksmith—that he'd have enough room to work and help us."
It was evening once more.
Sonic was standing in the corner of the room, arms crossed, deep in thought.
Sir Gawain and the other knights simply watched him.
There was a problem.
A problem that required the king to act.
That REQUIRED a king in the first place.
And it needed to be addressed.
The problem was—this blue hedgehog was a master at changing the subject. Every time someone brought up the role expected of him, he would deflect.
He did it so skillfully that the knights often only realized afterward that they had ended up talking about something else entirely—usually food, or something called Chilidogs. (Whatever that was.)
"There are rumors about you, Sire," Sir Gawain said carefully.
Finally.
Sonic snapped his head toward them.
His gaze was unfocused at first, then sharpened as it landed on them.
The knights grew uncomfortable.
Sonic shook his head.
"Oh. Well, let them. I don't really care—"
Sir Percival interrupted him.
Kudos to her, honestly. A few hours ago, she wouldn't have dared to.
"Rumors that you are a slayer of kings—that you will slay the other kings too. So far, these are just pesky rumors, but they might provoke war, especially if we stay without a representative figure for long."
Sonic snapped his mouth shut, then hummed.
"Hm. That’s no good. Got any ideas on how we could—"
The knights instantly looked away.
Sonic sighed through his teeth.
"…Right. We’ll figure it out. One crisis at a time—rebuilding the castle and towns takes priority for now."
Sonic was gone again, running off somewhere without much explanation.
All he had said was that he had an idea on how to solve the rebuilding the kingdom problem.
Not the rumors problem.
Not even the war problem.
(Arguably, the more important one)
No.
The rebuilding problem.
So the knights were left in charge of rebuilding the castle and the town, as well as helping in whatever way they could.
Of course they were helping.
It was their kingdom. Their people.
They cared about them all. They were there to protect them. It was their duty.
And to protect the king.
The king....
...
Sir Percival couldn’t stop thinking about the hedgehog—about his words, or lack thereof, and his actions. By all means, it didn’t make sense.
Nothing made sense.
"Do you think… Sir Sonic is really fit to be king?" she asked carefully.
The reactions were immidite.
Sir Lancelot and Sir Gawain tensed.
For a moment, neither of them responded.
Then they slowly turned to her, a fire burning in their eyes. Anger.
They were ready to throw hands.
(And swords)
Percival exhaled and decided to continue, to make herself more clear— she was not trying to be disrespectful.
"He clearly doesn’t want the throne— What does that mean for the kingdom? What does that mean for us? What does the future hold for the Knights of the Round Table?"
The tension broke slightly after that.
She had said what they were all thinking, after all. Hopefully.
Sir Gawain looked away.
Lancelot sighed.
"…I don’t know," he admitted. "But what I can say is that as long as we are the knights, we shall serve the one who was chosen by the sacred sword."
Gawain nodded.
"Yeah. I don’t know either—but I trust Caliburn, and he’s never been wrong before."
The knights fell silent again.
And started working once more.