Arthur 4 : The return of the prince

Chapter 7

It has already been two years and six months since the invasion of M the Evil was defeated, two years and six months. A tiny amount of time for some who didn’t see winter coming. This was especially the case of Armand, Arthur’s father, who, by dint of spending his days at work, paid little attention to the changing weather. Even when he started snowing like now. Indeed, if he deigned to look out the window of his office, he would see snow slowly falling on roofs, roads and sidewalks.

However, for others, these two years and six months were a long time and did not seem to end. To find out, let’s leave Armand’s office and go to the town college.

Arthur, fourteen years old, now living with his parents in the town of Hartford, had returned to school. However, since he left the world of the minimoys, he began to lose interest in the classes he attended, even if the results he obtained in each subject could be satisfactory in the worst case. When he had free time, when he recreated it for example, he remembered this little piece of paper on which his grandfather Archibald had painted a representation of Selenia, the minimoy princess for whom Arthur would have devoted all his life, and it was from this memory that Arthur began to draw Selenia. Although he was not very good at drawing, he applied a great deal to every stroke he made, every line he drew on his sheet, every detail.

Arthur took his time to draw, even though he knew he would not finish his drawing in one recess. He wanted his drawing as sublime as Selenia was, to be as faithful as possible to the model of which he kept the memories. And very often, he wanted to isolate himself to make this drawing. So at this moment, when the time of the recreation rings, he was left alone in the class, claiming to his teacher that he did not want to catch a cold, especially now in this snowy weather.

Each time a recreation ended, Arthur took care to hide his personal work before his class and teacher returned. It should not be that the other classmates take him for a strange and unsociable boy, subject of all the mockery and harassment possible and imaginable. However, his absence during each recreation began to be noticed, even though his classmates showed nothing of their astonishment, at least until Arthur saw two or three students coming together to speak in a low voice, probably to talk about him. As long as Arthur wasn’t directly impacted by this situation, he didn’t care.

It was then that three classmates landed in front of his office. Arthur didn’t know them, but they knew them well because they were known to be the school bosses. It was Roger, Johnny and Mandris, obviously the brains of the gang. Three months earlier, these three bullies had been temporarily excluded from school after harassing, racking and beating another child from school. Since they returned to school, they seemed to be looking for a new prey, and from now on, they seem to have set their sights on Arthur.

But Arthur did not seem impressed, quite the contrary. He found all three ridiculous when he saw them trying to subdue anyone they wanted.

"Can you tell us what you do there every time you recreate?" asked Mandris, trying to appear as authoritarian as possible.

"Why the question, Mandris? Looking for a new friend? Roger and Johnny aren’t enough anymore?" replied Arthur with a hint of mockery.

"Huh? Are you kidding us?" scolded Johnny, grabbing Arthur by the collar, forcing him to get up.

But Arthur did not let him. He grabbed Johnny’s wrist with his right hand and squeezed him hard enough to force him to let go. It seems that this method worked because Johnny loosened his grip under the effect of pain. It must be said that in two and a half years, Arthur had decided to get into muscle building and not to let anyone bother him, which seemed to bear fruit when it comes to defending against scum like Mandris, Johnny or Roger.

Arthur looked the three bullies straight in the eye without saying anything. The latter seemed a little stunned at the idea of seeing this little guy stand up to them when he was alone and at first sight he had no way to defend himself. But Mandris refused to be intimidated any longer.