It was a wonder, looking back later, that he had been stunned more by the memories that assaulted him when he saw the face of Artorius Morgaine than the scene of Mattheus Crown's death. Maybe such a reaction showed exactly how much more traumatic sustained torture and torment was compared to death.
His heartbeat was almost rabbiting out of his chest as he stood frozen while the Prince watched Lord Blake walk away. Mattheus was almost paralyzed by the litany of taunts and insults ringing around his head, spoken from the blond before him in various stages of life.
Mattheus knew. He knew the Original was gone. But the remnants were so strong he was having trouble remembering he only became Mattheus Crown for a few weeks.
It felt like he had experienced every single meeting with the Prince himself. The cruelty as children to the isolation and being made a pariah amongst his peers as a teenager. Getting beaten and being unable to retaliate.
The youngest Crown was unable to react in time. Artorius had been standing at ease before lunging at Mattheus.
A hand clamped onto his throat, cutting off his gasp. He scrabbled to pull the older man off but Artorius's strength was not something easily dismissed. And Mattheus, at the back of his mind, knew struggling would be futile as he was easily pushed against the wall.
Artorius, the man that had tormented the Original into a spiteful mass of bitter complexes, leaned close. The Prince's expression was twisted in rage, becoming much more familiar and genuine than the civilized mask of before.
It was the Artorius from the memories.
Mattheus Crown's living nightmare that stalked the Royal Palace.
"Your rebellion is unamusing, Mattie," Artorius hissed. "Was the lesson not sufficiently beaten into your head after the last time we met? Does this look like disappearing to you?"
Mattheus felt bone-deep terror as memories started bleeding at the edges of his consciousness.
The last time they met was over a year ago, when he ended up beaten black and blue. He never realized Mattheus suffered complications of chronic pain as a consequence, along with permanent tinnitus.
When he died, the revival erased any malady Mattheus used to possess.
There were now two hands wrapped around his throat. It felt like a slowly tightening vice as Artorius started squeezing, slowly increasing the pressure as dark-purple, almost black eyes glinted with cruelty.
"It's laughable you think you can oppose me and win. You should have kept living with your head down, like the spineless worm you are. Look how you're making me dirty my hands right now to punish a dog that has forgotten who its superiors are."
He realized, almost detachedly, that Artorius knew exactly how much pressure to use to prolong the time Mattheus would stay conscious while also divesting him of breath. His lungs burned. His head blanked.
"I warn you away from Bellaine and now you lick the feet of my old maid of an aunt? You have been a—"
Mattheus's head swam. He thought he heard screaming. Was he screaming? Could he even scream when he couldn't breathe?
"—pest for my entire life. Annoying—"
He. Couldn't. Breathe.
"—should just kill you and be done with it, and this stupid cat!"
Mattheus gasped as soon as the hold on his neck disappeared. Consequently, because those choking hands had been the only thing keeping him up, he immediately collapsed to the floor, back leaning against the wall.
Having been taking heaving breaths because of his oxygen-starved body, his breath still hitched when he saw the Prince aim a vicious kick toward Brunilda. Mattheus was still too out of it to remember that his friend was more than just the blue-furred cat she appeared as.
Brunilda deftly avoided the kick with a loud yowl (that sounded familiar. Was that the screaming he thought he heard?) before darting in front of Mattheus. She stood facing Artorius, puffed up and letting out an aggressive, spitting hiss.
In contrast to her appearance, her voice sounded calm and steady in his mind. "It's alright. Just take deep breaths."
Artorius looked down in annoyance toward Brunilda. He sneered, "Isn't that the beast my dear aunt owned as a pet for a while? She is marking her territory, isn't she?"
There was noise close by and the Prince looked in the direction it came from. Irritated, the blond gave one last look to the pair on the ground as if they were filth before he walked away.
Pale eyes watched the disappearing figure as he finally exhaled a shaky sigh of relief. He reached up to his neck before focusing on healing the damage the Crown Prince caused.
"Sorry," Brunilda apologized.
Mattheus started shaking his head before stopping when the motion just brought pain.
"It is problematic he is the Prince."
"It's fine," Mattheus whispered.
He perfectly understood why Brunilda didn't take action to protect him. It was the Crown Prince of the country, after all.
It was why the original Mattheus Crown had never been able to fight back either.
It was why he didn't apply healing magic as he was being strangled by the mad Prince.
It was why Mattheus thought things in the future were going to be rather difficult.
"Is everything alright? Lord Crown!"
Mattheus turned to see a guard come up. It was probably this man that had been drawn in by the ruckus Brunilda made in order to get Artorius to stop.
He smoothly dropped his hands from near his neck, having healed the majority of issues at last, before smiling a bit sheepishly as he stood up.
"Ah, excuse me. I was a little lost getting to my new office and Brue was rather disagreeable over it."
The guard looked rather bemused but he was not in a position in this society to question or outwardly judge a noble. "I see. Do you want me to bring you to your office, my lord?"
"Do you know where it is?" Mattheus smiled and visibly brightened.
He ignored the beep from the System. It was easy to pretend to be perfectly fine—surprisingly so—but he didn't want to chance losing the mask as long as there was an audience to witness it.
After the guard replied in an affirmative, the youngest Crown waved him to lead on before he subtly healed the remaining ache from his throat.
As soon as they arrived, he went on automatic while his new secretary as the Court Healer introduced herself, Mattheus found the first opportunity to have "Minnie" give him some privacy.
"Are you alright? You were holding your throat for most of the walk." Brunilda immediately spoke up as soon as Mattheus was able to reply to her.
He massaged the back of his neck and shifted his head left and right as he collapsed on the chair. "I'm pretty sure now that it takes longer for me to heal myself than others." He sighed.
"Oh."
Mattheus just hummed in agreement.
There were two beeps this time.
Pinching the bridge of his nose, he gestured exasperatedly with his hands to bring up the System menu.
"Did you get another alert?" Brunilda tilted her small head as she sat on his desk.
"Yes, but only after Artorius left," Mattheus sighed. He was mentally fatigued from both the memory dump and the surprising effort it took to heal himself, so he resorted to physical gestures rather than his usual mental commands.
"What's with that, by the way? I saw you freeze when you saw him, so you got memories, I'm guessing. And his words sound like he has a history with the original Mattheus Crown."
"The Crown Prince is apparently Mattheus Crown's childhood bully," Mattheus replied even if he was vastly understating Artorius's role in the Original's life.
He was stopped from elaborating further when he saw the "quest," pausing from confusion at what he was reading.
[Emergency Upgrade]
Mattheus's brows hiked up as material requirements were listed.
"What's with that face? What kind of 'quest' did you get?" Brunilda's ears perked in interest.
"It's weird… it looks like a system upgrade? How does that even work?" Mattheus voiced skeptically.
"Oh?"
"How would these materials and items even help?" Mattheus muttered to himself as he tilted his head left and right, hand on his chin.
"What materials?" Brunilda asked.
He started to answer before shaking his head. Straightening up, he slammed both his palms on the table. "Wait. That's not important right now. I'm not excusing the Original's reply to how Artorius messed him up but he's the Prince of New Albion. The Crown Prince AKA the successor to the throne."
Brunilda used a paw to straighten out her whiskers. "Are you saying there might be a valid reason he turned traitor?"
"What?" Mattheus blinked before realizing what his friend meant. "No. I mean he's the Crown Prince which doesn't bode well for the future of his country from what I see of him in the memories. But, also, that I have an office here. And that I'd be around places where I could meet him more."
"He did look like he wanted to kill you," Brunilda said as if she was remarking on the weather.
"Exactly!"