[L laughs, suddenly and harshly. It echoes startlingly in the quiet archives.]

I'd never be admitted. I'm so terribly ordinary.

[He says so with the confidence only accessible to one who's quite extraordinary. You could just never tell by looking at him; human, brittle, probably not set to live very long based on the way nature and habits have shaped him.]

A king with no subjects still had them, once; it's a matter of remembrance, identity, and legacy at that point. Unless it's not the title that matters, but the act of ruling, in the present?

[His smile is soft and tempered.]

That truly is exclusive. A hundred kings gathered in a single hall could be wholly equal, if it is not their hall... but should no lord emerge, conflict certainly would.

If it did, would you win?

[He frames this so lightly as to sound reckless, the kind of question someone clever, but far duller than him, might dare to ask.]