Four

Sadie knocked on the door.

"Is everything alright? Were you able to convince the King to-"

"The call didn't go through!" Keanu forced a smile, "So I changed my mind, we'll use the tokens, after all!"

Sadie smiled sadly, she could tell something was up, "That's...great! But are you sure you're alright?"

Keanu died a little inside, the deal didn't go through, so there was probably no point explaining. He didn't want to frighten her most of all

He took her hands, "I'm alright! Thanks for looking out for me, Sadie,"

"I mean," she almost pouted, swinging their hands, "I am your wife and best friend foremost, that's what I'm here for..."

What would have been a word of encouragement for a normal married couple ended up being a double-edged sword of embarrassment for them.

"H-hey, you can't just say that with a straight face!"

"What do you mean, you made me say it!"

They were thankfully interrupted by George and Darcy, who emerged with assorted snacks. I mean, look at those two, I wonder how they even got married.

"Did we miss anything? Whose side am I supposed to take?" George asked, tossing each of them honey-potato snacks.

"I wouldn't say it's a fight, it looks like either one of them said something embarrassing. Methinks it was Mom," Darcy debated.

"Honestly, you should have seen the wedding," George remarked, "They weren't this crazy back then,"

"There was no way I would have seen the wedding, Uncle, I wasn't even born." she deadpanned at the chagrin of her parents.

"Y-Yeah, but I meant it figuratively," George explained frantically calculating in his head. He decided to keep the calculations in his head for now, as they still had plenty of work to do.

"Did you get the acorn, then?" he said, sitting down at his desk.

"He changed his mind," Sadie explained on Keanu's behalf.

Whilst she explained some more, and the three of them, including Darcy, went back to their work, Keanu had time to think. The previous exchange was able to distract him momentarily, but it wasn't long enough for him to completely discard his anger.

He remembered King Pann's outrageous bargain.

"Their souls. In exchange for the Golden Acorn, you must give me their souls."

Was he serious, or was it just a sick joke. Keanu began to overthink. If it was a joke, then maybe he should have given the king more time to explain himself...and most of all, he just hung up on the King of Maptropolis. But if it wasn't...Keanu felt he had every right to be pissed. There were lives on the line, there was no way he'd make such a twisted bargain.

Evidently, the phone call had had a negative effect on Keanu. But the more he thought about it, he decided not to think about it anymore.

He decided to think of it like when you go to the store to buy something, but you forgot your wallet so you leave empty-handed. As long as no one knows you went to the store in the first place, it didn't happen.

"I should focus on the Challenge, now. King Pann is the least of my worries." he thought.

King Pann thought the opposite.

"Such Insolence!" he boomed, startling his officials, "D'you believe this punk 'ad the balls to hang'up on me?"

"What if...it's not that deep? What if he just got cut off--" a sceptical advisor began.

"Oh, so you're defending 'im?! And what's up with your tone?"

"I mean, What if he was cut off because he was using a payphone?"

King Pann stared at his advisor impatiently, "Are you off on one?"

This could be translated as "Go on," as the advisor took it as an invitation to explain what he meant.

"I speculated his use of a payphone because he is clearly too inferior to use a regular phone." he finished, with an anxious smile. He probably wondered internally why he would go to this length for extra credit.

"Too complica'ed." King Pann remarked, "Write it down anyway, I want to use it later,"

"Whatever for, your benevolence?" another advisor asked.

"I've decided I'll pay Oakcrest a visit, see how far the apples fall from the tree..." a wicked grin filled with contempt crept across his face.