Cardverse - The story of the Spades

Guests

Many days have passed and Arthur has become accustomed to the life in the castle. He has been helping Alfred a lot, which helped to lighten the amount of work for everyone in the castle, hence everyone beginning to warm up towards the blonde. Yet Arthur still has another challenge to face.

(Arthur's POV)

As I make my way down the halls to get to the office I notice the atmosphere in the castle being kind of...odd? I don't know how to put it but I guess you could say it's a little more unsettling than usual.

I'll have to make sure to ask Alfred about this! Opening the door to the office I finally reached I put down the files finishing my work for the day. As I do this I can't help notice an open letter lying openly displayed in the middle of the desk.

My curiosity gets the best of me and I take it. Searching for the name of the person who send it on the envelope, I can't help but notice the symbol of diamonds imprinted in the wax seal.

Deciding to read the letter I find out that it's from the jack of diamonds explaining that they will visit us in three days in order to meet the new queen. Three days...I wonder when it was sent...It would explain why everyone has been running around a lot lately.

Putting the letter back into the envelope I suddenly feel someone standing right behind me. "It's not nice to read letters of other people," I hear a voice whisper in my ear. As I turn around I see the king smirking mischievously at me with his face being way too close to me.

I lightly push him away by his shoulders as I make up an excuse. "Sorry, I thought it may be a bill or something since it didn't seem to be a secret or anything considering it was lying in the open," I reason.

"Oh well, since you've read it you now already know that the royals of diamond are gonna visit us tomorrow!" he exclaims excitedly. "Tomorrow?! The letter came two days ago and you didn't tell me anything about it?!" I ask in disbelief.

"Well I sort of told you now, didn't I?" he questions while nervously avoiding eye contact. "Please tell me earlier from now on!" I state.

"Oh well what's two days gonna change..," he murmurs under his breath. "Well Alfred you may not know this but I haven't been keeping up with royalties at all. If you can remember I didn't even know you were a royal when we met! So I'll have a lot of catching up to do! Don't even thing about helping me mister, you're gonna sit here and do your work, do you understand?" I ask pointing at him. "Yes..," he mumbles in defeat sitting down at his desk chair.

"Good! I'll be going to the library then. You may join me-" his face brightens as those words escape my mouth "-after you finished your work," his expression immediately goes back to defeat.

"See you later then!" I state while closing the door behind me, seeing him in his office sitting on the chair and resting his head on his arm.

He's so childish sometimes...I chuckle thinking about it. "What brings you joy my queen?" I hear a voice question behind me. I turn around to find that it's Yao.

"Ah- I told you you could drop the formalities just Arthur is fine. And I'm laughing at the king's childishness, you know the usual." I say chuckling a little.

"Ah yes! He's gotten worse since you're there but thankfully you are a great help so there is no problem! He always wants to work on your side or check on you instead of focusing he is really thinking a lot about you," Yao explains chuckling as well which leads to me blushing. I didn't realize he was that overprotective.

"So where are you headed?" Yao asks. "I was about to go to the library, doing some research before our guests arrive tomorrow!" I exclaim feeling a little embarrassed about my lack of knowledge in that field.

"Wow you're really invested in the work you get handed. I won't stop you then! Have fun," he states walking off and waving I wave back and continue my way to the library.

~time skip~

God this thing is huge...I can't find anything recent though. Why is it so hard?

I have been searching for some recent or at least valid information for hours now. Now I am in the deepest parts of the library. I feel like I got lost...great...just great...

Making my way through the labyrinth of bookshelves I can't help feeling watched. Even after checking the area around I can't shake the feeling. After what feels like days I stumble upon an opening. How huge can a library be?

In the middle is a book openly displayed on a lectern. It had the symbols of all four kingdoms on it. It's locked and looks very old. I can't help but feel myself getting pulled towards it...wanting to touch it...to open it...

As I make my way towards it I sense a strange power, the feeling increases the closer I get. I touch the book and am momentarily blinded by a light surrounding me.

Closing my eyes, I can't see what's happening around me. After some time I feel the light fading and decide to open my eyes. Everything seems normal...what was that?

As I think this I suddenly hear a voice ask "so you're the new queen huh? Gotta admit you're kind of cute." I turn around and am faced with a silver haired and red eyed guy who wears royal clothing but with no symbol of a kingdom on it.

"W-who are you?" I ask in shook. "I'm a joker and you've summoned me by touching the book. Gotta say I didn't expect you to make it on the first try," he walks towards me and takes my hands into his inspecting them,"you must have practiced a lot, performing such strong magic and not even feeling a blow...Amazing...You're quite interesting! I like you, you're different from the other queens," he says moving away from me.

"I feel like we're gonna get along nicely! So my name is Gilbert your majesty, may I know yours?" he bows. "U-uhm...my name is Arthur! You can drop the formalities," I nervously stutter. "Arthur... interesting," he takes my hand kissing the top which makes me blush." Well Arthur to explain what my business with you is. I am a joker like you know. I can be summoned by queens and queens only, as well as only if they can perform strong enough magic which is rarely the case. So I've been in that book waiting for a long time now! I will help you collect information and be your personal...how can you describe it...joker...which means if you have problems making a decision you can always ask me for advice. Since I'm my own person it's pretty much up to me if I want to help you, so you better be nice to me," he winks at me while saying the last part.

"W-well thank you! That's so nice! Can you even tell me about recent information considering you were stuck in the book for so long?" I ask curiosity in my eyes. He looks at me and smirks, "Of course, I'm all knowing, I already knew your name I just didn't want to hit you with everything at once," he replies confidentially.

(Noone's POV)

And so they talk for a long time Arthur asking a lot of questions and Gilbert answering them. Arthur gets all the information needed and is about to leave before Gilbert stops him and tells him one final rule. "Noone but a queen can know about me, you're not allowed to tell anyone! Do you understand?" Arthur agrees and makes his way out of the library where a tired king waits for him.

Finally having finished everything they go to bed and everything seems to be going great, but they don't know what they got themselves into with the joker being active again.