Small edit: This is not a one-shot. I have most of the chapter written already, so I'll try my best to keep up a weekly update.
Arthur sat by his desk, mindlessly going through some reports. It was well past noon and he hadn't seen Merlin since he had woken him up and basically thrown breakfast at him. His quarters were not exactly messy, but his laundry was piling up and he'd soon run out of clean shirts (that didn't have holes somewhere). Normally he would find Merlin to take care of it. However, the castle was brimming with knights and lords from all over the kingdom, who were all here to discuss state matters with their king.
Arthur counted himself lucky that his father had slowly recovered from Morgana's betrayal and had resumed all his kingly duties after Arthur had acted as regent for three months in his stead. Arthur knew that the time where he would be king was soon upon them, but he wished for a couple more years of just being prince Arthur. He didn't feel ready just yet. His three months as regent had proved that. Arthur was not the kind to hesitate, but during his regency he had found himself not always knowing what the right decision was. He had asked for council as often as he dared without anyone questioning his ability to lead, and Arthur had never in his life been more grateful for Merlin's council and support than he had during those three months. Even if Merlin didn't know much about politics, it was often his support that helped Arthur make a decision or not give in to a decision made by the council or others.
Another great pillar of support had been his uncle Agravaine. Having heard of Arthur assuming regency, his uncle had come to the castle and offered his council. His uncle always had his best interest at heart, and had knowledge and experience which Arthur didn't. Arthur could honestly say that without the two of them, he wouldn't have thought he could be king at all. Now he was merely aware that he needed a little time to prepare himself.
The conference taking place during this time was of great significance to Arthur as he got to learn more about the affairs of the outlying villages and the more direct relationships with bordering kingdoms. Of course, Arthur had other duties as well. When the politics had been talked over as much as they could and then some more, a tournament would be held to celebrate the kingdom. Arthur was of course expected to both participate and win it.
And it was because of all of this that Merlin wasn't currently doing his laundry. His manservant was currently employed with sir Ronald whose guest quarters were on the other side of the castle. Arthur thought that he was unlikely to see Merlin for another couple of hours, and resigned himself to sorting out these reports before hoping he'd see Merlin before dinner.
Arthur was therefore surprised when Merlin came by less than an hour later and picked up the basket of laundry before leaving again. Arthur wanted to ask if he really had time for that, but Merlin was gone before he got to say anything and he figured it was all good.
Regardless, during dinner Arthur asked sir Ronald if he was satisfied with his servant, and he said the Camelot really only had the best of the best. Arthur nodded and forgot about the whole thing for the evening.
"Sir Ronald is very pleased with your service," Arthur told Merlin the next morning when the servant brought him breakfast, "Called it 'the best of the best'," Arthur continued, "Are your servant skills merely lousy when it comes to me or does Sir Ronald have a very low bar for your to clear?"
Merlin looked at him, slightly confused, which wasn't the reaction Arthur had expected. He had expected a clever reply or some sort of insult about how Arthur was spoiled, but he got nothing, only: "I don't work for sir Ronald."
"What?" Arthur gaped, because he had personally assigned Merlin to sir Ronald, and since the knight wasn't missing a servant, something else had happened at some point, "Then what have you been doing all day?"
"I work for sir Richard," Merlin explained before finishing up making Arthur's bed, "Would that be all, sire?"
And while Arthur would like to keep Merlin to explain the sudden change, he wouldn't want to keep sir Ron- Richard waiting, and he dismissed his servant. It was weird though. Had Merlin forgotten who he had been assigned to and then the rest of the servants had just made it work, or had it been a deliberate decision from Merlin's side? Arthur wouldn't assume so. Merlin hadn't met any of the two men before and sir Ronald was a nice person. It had been part of the reason Arthur had assigned him to Merlin, because his servant had times of sloppiness and sir Ronald was the least likely person to give him a hard time for it.
Arthur was on his way to the training grounds to find either one of the knights, wanting to ask them about their servants, when he walked into Carolina - almost knocking her over - and figured that he might as well ask her instead as she was supposed to be working for sir Richard.
"I thought you were working for sir Richard," Arthur asked without giving an explanation, and the girl bowed before him.
"Yes, sire, I was, but Merlin kindly offered to switch with me."
"Why?"
The girl looked flustered for a second before answering him, "I work in the kitchen often and sir Ronald's quarters were closer."
Arthur nodded and dismissed her. She bowed and disappeared down the hall, Arthur looking as she hurried off. He was certain that she had a good reason for lying to him. While he knew about her kitchen duties, once again, she had been assigned to sir Richard exactly because his quarters were closer to the kitchens, so unless their guests had both swapped servants as well as rooms, something was going on and Arthur couldn't be sure what.
Arthur continued to the training grounds, not having much else to do at the moment, and saw as his knights sparred against some of their guests. He laughed heartily when Gwaine took on two young knights and beat them wielding his sword with his left hand. His knights of the round table were the best fighters in the kingdom, even if people didn't believe when he said so, and it made him happy to see them thrive.
He oversaw their training for another ten minutes before Percival came to stand beside him.
"How's practice?" Arthur asked his tall friend, who shrugged.
"Practice is good, company is bad," he said and rolled his shoulder, possibly sore after a full morning of practice. Percival was always one of the first at the training grounds, so it was no wonder that he was in the need of a small break.
"Was your company Gwaine?" Arthur joked and Percival let out a small laugh.
"I think I would have preferred Gwaine over sir Dick over there."
"Sir Richard?" Arthur questioned and looked over at the knight. He was a little older than Arthur, but his full and dark beard made him look much older than he was.
"He is a pure-blood," Percival explained and Arthur understood. A pure-blood was what Arthur and his knights of the round table had started calling people who absolutely despised Arthur's decision to knight commoners - peasants - and often acted rudely towards them. Arthur had made it a habit to have them spar against either Gwaine or Lancelot just to shut them up. Once, he had given Percival a hammer and let him go to town on a particularly rude knight, who easily matched Percival in size, but couldn't hold a candle to his talents. The knight only had Percival's kindness to thank for still having a skull.
The fact that Richard was a pure-blood didn't sit well with Arthur. Not only because it always irked him when someone had the nerve to say that his knights didn't deserve to be serving Camelot, but because Merlin had a sharp tongue and didn't know when to shut up. Arthur figured that it was only a matter of time before Merlin inevitably said the wrong thing and Richard would come to him to complain about his incompetent servant.
"Where's Lancelot?" Arthur asked, looking for his knight and Percival shrugged.
"I don't know. I haven't seen him today."
Arthur nodded and left the training grounds. He should probably be doing something more princely, but the whole swapping of servants, an annoying pure-blood and a Lancelot not at practice was all a bit weird.
He didn't really know where to search for Lancelot other than his quarters - where he obviously wasn't - so he went back to his own room, to wait for whenever Merlin would come back. Luckily for him, Merlin was already there, sorting out his newly washed clothes and selecting what Arthur would wear for the evening's feast. Today was the last day of politics, so the feast would be celebratory and bigger than the previous nights.
"Merlin! Just the person I was looking for," he said upon entering his chambers and his servant rolled his eyes.
"Let me guess, you want me to polish your armor and sharpen your sword and muck out the stables and-"
"None of that actually," Arthur interrupted, "Except for the armor being polished, you should do that before the tournament tomorrow."
Merlin shook his head and chuckled, before he finished with the clothes and began cleaning Arthur's room, "So what did you want from me, sire?" Merlin added the 'sire' almost mockingly, but Arthur shrugged it off.
"Why are you working for sir Richard?"
"Carolina asked me swap because-"
"Sir Ronald's quarters were close to the kitchens, yes, she told me, but we both know that's a lie so why-" Arthur stopped when he noticed something weird about Merlin, "- why are you using your left hand to clean the table?"
"You think that has something to do with Carolina lying to you?" Merlin smirked and continued his chores.
"Just answer the question."
"I twisted it when I moved sir Richard's stuff into his quarters. So many stairs," he sighed.
"You're lying," Arthur said blatantly, "You were fine yesterday, and you were fine the day he came."
Arthur couldn't fathom why Merlin would lie to him. He had always taken Merlin for the brutally honest type, unable to lie and just as unwilling to do it. And yet, the lie had slipped from Merlin's lips so easily that if Arthur hadn't been thinking about all of these things already, he would never have noticed.
Merlin looked stunned, he looked exactly like someone would when they had been caught in a lie, and Arthur waited patiently for an explanation and when Merlin didn't give him one, he walked over to his servant determined to find out what was going on.
He made a move to take Merlin's wrist, wanting to inspect it, but Merlin withdrew his hand and took a step back, clearly not wanting Arthur to see. And this was another puzzle. Surely, Merlin knew that he wasn't getting out of this, so why was he so reluctant to just, for once, do as he was told.
"Merlin," Arthur said sternly, "Let me see."
"That's really not necessary, sire," Merlin responded, and this time the title wasn't said as a smug remark. He said it in the tone he used when him and Arthur were in a rough patch - whenever they didn't get along. Usually it would pass after a couple of days if Arthur just let whatever they were disagreeing about go, but this he wouldn't let go. He wanted to know.
When Merlin didn't seem to get that Arthur was not backing down on this, Arthur, rather forcefully, took hold of Merlin's arm and pulled up his sleeve to reveal a wrist that had just been bandaged. Arthur looked at Merlin, demanding an explanation which Merlin didn't provide, so he just removed the wrappings to look at whatever was underneath.
Merlin winced a little when the last piece of the bandage left his skin and Arthur took a look at his servant's wrist. It was completely burned. Arthur knew from his many years as a knight that the burn - while having been treated - was quite fresh and it made his stomach turn. It began from the top of his wrist, stretched further up his arm and was easily twice the size of a gold coin. It was etched deeply into his skin, as if the object that had burned him had touched his skin for a prolonged amount of time. Definitely long enough for Merlin to not just feel the pain, but suffer immensely from it.
"Who did this?" Arthur asked, already knowing the answer, merely needing Merlin's confirmation to act on the anger that was slowly building up inside of him.
"Arthur, it's fine, don't worry about it," Merlin almost pleaded and Arthur looked at him wildly, not understanding why Merlin was seemingly fine with this whole situation. Sure, Arthur didn't always treat him well (in his morning blurry he knew he often threw goblets and pillows after his servant, who was really only doing his job by waking him up), but if he ever went too far, Merlin always spoke up. Arthur would never hurt Merlin like this, and Merlin should know it wasn't okay for anyone to treat him - to abuse him - like this.
"Fine?" Arthur roared and Merlin pulled his wrist out of Arthur's grip and took a step back from his angry prince, "What part of this is fine?"
Upon looking at Merlin's concerned face (which seemed wrong considering the circumstances. Shouldn't Arthur be the concerned one?), he took a deep breath to steady himself.
"Is this why you took over for Carolina? Did he do this to her too?"
"No," Merlin said quickly before Arthur could start imagining all his servants being abused by that disgusting pure-blood, "He has a… reputation with the servants, so I offered to work for him."
Arthur looked at Merlin. Merlin who wasn't a very good servant, and was thin and young and not strong enough to defend himself against a knight, and had apparently willingly volunteered himself to be abused, "Why?"
"He can't hurt me," Merlin said and gave him a small smile, and Arthur could only wrinkle his brow in confusion.
"Can't hurt you… Merlin, did he hit your head too? He burned you. He did hurt you."
"I'm sorry," Merlin shook his head, "What I meant was that he can't hurt me as much as the others."
"And why is that?" Arthur asked, and picked up the bandage from the ground to wrap Merlin's wrist again. He didn't want to see the burn anymore.
"Because I'm yours."
"What?"
"If a knight accused any other servant of even the smallest crime or incompetence, they can have them fired, but not me. Only you can fire me, so when we get rude guests like this, I always offer my service."
"You've done this before?" Arthur asked, not knowing what else to say. He finished wrapping Merlin's wrist and his servant bit his lip when Arthur secured the bandage tightly.
"Yes, although I've never been burned before."
"You say that as if you've been abused otherwise," Arthur said darkly and Merlin looked like he wanted to lie, but apparently decided against it.
"Usually they just punch or kick me, and I can deal with that. No one wants to hurt me so badly that I can't get their chores done."
Arthur wanted to hug Merlin. He didn't do it, but he wanted to. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. Couldn't believe that Merlin so willingly let himself be abused and had never, never even once, told Arthur about it. Was he afraid of how Arthur would react? Afraid that Arthur would look at him differently? He would have been right. Arthur had a new found respect for his servant, and once again had it confirmed that despite how useless Merlin sometimes seemed, he was brave and kind-hearted, and someone was going to pay for this.
"I find it hard to believe that Gaius would keep quiet about something like this," Arthur said to change the topic slightly. He knew how protective Gaius was of his ward and he honestly couldn't imagine that the old physician wouldn't send someone to hell over this.
"Yeah, he doesn't know," Merlin said nonchalantly.
"Then who treated you?" Arthur asked. He would have assumed that Merlin could tend to himself if it was just bruises and perhaps a sprain somewhere, but a burn? That stuff hurt like hell, and the remedies against them were almost unbearable. Arthur knew from experience.
"Lancelot helped me," Merlin confessed, and suddenly it all clicked together. Arthur wasn't sure if he liked all these new revelations. He could have accepted and understood if Gaius knew, but Lancelot? Was Merlin really that much closer to the knight than he was with Arthur, that he would go to him when he got hurt? Or was it just because Arthur was a prince.
Sensing the confliction in Arthur, Merlin explained, "He was there when it happened, so he helped."
"He was there and he didn't stop it?" Arthur yelled, angry anew, and Merlin rolled his eyes.
"Arthur, listen before you do something you will regret," Merlin said, his normal defying tone of voice finally having returned, and Arthur looked at him, awaiting the explanation of what the hell had happened.
"Lancelot came to take him the training grounds. They were supposed spar or whatever it is that you do with each other, but when sir Richard asked what noble house he came from, well, he didn't react well when he found out that Lancelot… did not."
"I would ask what this has to do with you, but I assume that you said something you shouldn't have."
"You know me so well, sire," Merlin grinned as if this entire story wasn't leading up to him getting burned, "I told him that it didn't matter what house Lance came from, only how good he was with a sword and how loyal he was. That was when he send Lance out of his chambers and gave me this," Merlin gestured to his wrist, "He left immediately afterwards and Lance helped me treat it."
"And you just… let him do it?"
"I have learned that resisting usually makes it worse, and he's still here for a couple of days so I don't want to know what his 'worse' is."
Arthur shook his head in disbelief, and slowly made up his mind. He turned on his heel and exited his room.
"Arthur?" Merlin called after him, slowly catching up to him in the hallway, "What are you doing?"
"Making him pay."
"Arthur, no, your father wouldn't approve. I'm just a servant."
"You keep telling me that I'm not my father, so just watch as I do the right thing that he would supposedly disapprove of."
"Not supposedly, Arthur, definitely."
"A knight should behave with honor and respect. You are one of the citizens of Camelot that he has sworn to protect. I don't see why my father would disapprove of me reminding him of the Knight's Code."
They ran into Leon in the hallway on their way to the training grounds where Arthur had last seen sir Dick. It looked like Leon had something to say, but he held his tongue after one look at Arthur's face. He fell into tempo with Arthur and Merlin, and Arthur heard his servant whisper to Leon: "Whatever he's about to do, I swear I tried to stop him."
"When he's like this, there isn't much to be done," Leon replied quietly and Arthur decided to just ignore them. He was doing the right thing.
When Arthur saw sir Dick at the training grounds sparring with Elyan, he somehow got more angry just looking at his face. Him and Elyan seemed evenly matched, but Elyan's advantage was in different terrain where he could fully utilize his flexible style. Arthur took pride in his knights of the round table and this pure-blood was about to pay for what he had done and what he had said.
Arthur came up to the two knights sparring, and upon seeing him, they both immediately stopped. None of them had a chance to ask what he was doing before Arthur had thrown his glove at Sir Dick's feet to challenge him.
"What reason do you have to challenge me, my lord?" He asked, glancing at the glove.
"You know why," Arthur snarled, "Now pick it up." The knight accepted the challenge and looked at Arthur.
"Did he beg you to do this?" He asked mockingly, nodding his head towards Merlin, "Did he come to your quarters crying like a little girl?"
Arthur was ready to take his head right then and there, but with this many people watching he wanted to avoid making a bigger scene, "Tomorrow, noon," he simply said and the knight took off, knowing that he was dismissed.
"Not that I'm disagreeing with you wanting to kill him-" Gwaine said, coming out of nowhere.
"I'm not going to kill him," Arthur clarified, even if he really wanted to. He was going to publicly defeat him and then declare his punishment. He was toying with banishment, but for now he was undecided.
"Sure princess," the rowdy knight continued, "I just wanted to know why you challenged him. I dislike pure-bloods as much as you, but we can handle ourselves."
Arthur looked at Gwaine, wanting to explain why he was so worked up, but he thought that this would be for Merlin to share if he wanted to.
"I have my reasons," he simply replied and walked back to the castle. He had to tell his father about tomorrow's challenge.
It did not take him long to find his father, however, as the king was employed with state affairs and surrounded by a great number of knights and lords, Arthur decided to wait until he could have a private moment with him. There was a good chance that his father would not take well to his challenge and if they were to engage in a loud argument, it would be better to do so in private.
Arthur merely let his father know that he would like to have a moment of his time when he could grant it to him, and begrudgingly went back to the training grounds to beat something up. He was still raging with anger, and perhaps he should let off some steam before talking with his father about these matters. He wanted to be able to keep a cool head if he were to convince his father than he was doing the right thing.
This was the third time Arthur had come to the training grounds today, and the knights were beginning to notice his odd behavior, but no one dared ask him. Merlin had quietly followed Arthur everywhere he went, apologizing to everyone who came too close to the prince and got frightened by his temper. After Arthur had bumped into the third servant, Merlin urged him to at least watch where he was walking, but Arthur had barely registered that he had spoken. So Merlin, knowing where he was headed, walked in front of him, steering other people out of the way.
Finally, at the training grounds, Merlin equipped Arthur with some light armor and a dull sword, while Gwaine bravely volunteered to be Arthur's first opponent. It wasn't much of a fair fight as Gwaine was already tired after a day's practice and Arthur was on murderous path. After having defeated Gwaine, Arthur moved onto spar against Elyan and started feeling himself calming down. Or maybe it was merely his energy leaving him as practice (if it could be called that) dragged on.
Merlin was still there, watching Arthur's every move. At some point he showed Gwaine his wrist, likely telling him why Arthur was so angry, and Gwaine got a grim look on his face. Gwaine was just as, if not more, protective of Merlin than Arthur was, even if he did sometimes try to convince Arthur that Merlin was capable of taking care of himself. Arthur believed this to be because he knew Merlin better, because a person who so often tripped over their feet couldn't possibly be trusted to take care of themselves. And this incident just proved it. Merlin might be brave, probably braver than all the knights, because it took guts to willingly walk into a situation you knew would hurt you when you couldn't even defend yourself, but you couldn't fight people with bravery alone.
Arthur was getting worked up again. He didn't understand Merlin. Not in this. He used to think he knew everything about his servant, and to an extent he still did. As shocked as he had been about the incident, this wasn't exactly something that was unlike Merlin. It was dumb and it came from a place of kindness with a total disregard of himself. The action itself, Arthur understood. What he didn't understand was why Merlin had kept it to himself. Why all of the servants had kept it to themselves. Merlin had said that Sir Dick had a reputation. That meant that he must have done it before and the servants all knew this as Merlin had taken him on, and none of them, not a single one of them, had spoken about it. No, they had covered it up, lied to him, while Merlin had gotten hurt. He couldn't believe that the other servants had so willingly turned their backs on Merlin, and he found it hard to accept that Merlin wouldn't tell him. Didn't Merlin always urge Arthur to always tell him what was on his mind? Didn't Merlin always tell Arthur when he didn't like something? He had spoken out about the stupid rule keeping commoners from being knights. He had spoken out about Arthur marrying out of convenience rather than love. Merlin was not the kind of person to keep silent about what he thought was unjust. So what was different this time? Why was Merlin so adamant about not letting Arthur know, about not wanting Arthur to make wrong right.
Arthur launched out in frustration and Elyan fell over in defeat. He was soon replaced by Leon, who was then replaced by Percival when he too got forced on his back. When Percival had to admit defeat, no one else stepped up and Arthur threw his training sword at the ground. Merlin took this as a cue to help Arthur out of his armor, and was immediately by his side. It was only then that Arthur noticed Merlin's difficulty with unhooking the straps. His right wrist didn't bend properly, and it seemed to be painful for him to even use it. When he tried again with his left hand, however, his clumsy fingers couldn't get around the straps properly, and Arthur felt a pang of guilt knowing that if he had not noticed Merlin's burn he would have yelled at him for being so incompetent. Instead he let Merlin fumble about until he finally got Arthur out of the armor.
A guard soon appeared in front of Arthur and informed him that his father now had time to see him.
His father was in his quarters, getting changed for the banquet later, and hardly acknowledged Arthur as he walked in, Merlin still dutifully following him (he suspected he wanted to try and reign in some of Arthur's anger, but Arthur honestly didn't know what Merlin could do when the king of Camelot - who didn't seem to like him much - was also in the room).
"You were missed during the signing ceremony," his father began as his servant bowed to the king and was dismissed, "I assume you are here to tell me why."
"I have challenged sir Richard to a duel by the knights' rule," Arthur started, not wanting this to drag out longer than was needed. His father, the king, looked at him as if searching for signs of Arthur having gone mad.
"On what grounds have you issued this challenge?"
"For having no honor, my lord," Arthur began, "He disrespected my knights and mistreated his servant, an act which is only the latest of many incidents."
"And by your knights, I assume you mean… those four," His father gestured vaguely and Arthur had to bite his lip from saying something he would probably regret. Uther was a pure-blood as well.
"Those four," Arthur said sharply, "are some of the finest knights in the kingdom and to disrespect them is the same as disrespecting me."
"Arthur, it is not exactly dishonorable to question your knights. If that is all your challenge is based on then I suggest you apologize to sir Richard and withdraw the challenge."
Arthur would have yelled if Uther wasn't the king. If he was just his father, he would definitely have yelled: "I told you, he mistreats his servants. I would have challenged him based on that alone. How can a knight who is sworn to protect the people of Camelot also be the one to inflict pain on those people? It is dishonorable."
"Sir Richard is an honorable knight, and has been so for longer than you. If he has harmed - as you so say - a servant, he likely did so with a good reason. Servants talk, they probably exaggerated the extent of his punishment. Besides, you didn't exactly assign him the brightest of servants," Uther finished and sent Merlin a look.
"I saw the damage," Arthur growled, feeling Merlin taking a step closer to him, "There was nothing just about what sir Richard did and I will go through with the challenge. I merely came to inform you that it will take place before the tournament starts tomorrow and I will not be attending tonight's banquet."
"Arthur!" His father roared disapprovingly, "You have neglected your duties enough today. I demand that you at least make an appearance at the banquet."
"For sir Richard's own safety, I will not be attending. That is my decision, father, do not try to change my mind."
Arthur left before his father could say another word. Merlin on the other hand…
"Arthur," he hissed, the disapprovement in his voice mirroring his father's, "You have to go to banquet! What were you thinking?"
"That sir Dick would lose his head before tomorrow if I attended," Arthur said and heard Merlin gasp horrified by the nickname, but otherwise he shot up and followed Arthur to his room, mumbling about how he couldn't possibly go back to sir Richard now, so he could finally clean Arthur's room.
Arthur spent his hours catching up on whatever he had missed during today's meetings. When evening rolled around, Merlin disappeared for a short while, only to return with some of the food from the banquet to give to Arthur.
"I'm not hungry," Arthur said honestly, but Merlin didn't listen (when did he ever), put down the food and set the table for Arthur who could only sigh. Thinking back, he hadn't eaten much today so Merlin's instance that he eat was justified and for once he did as he servant wanted of him.
"Eat with me," Arthur said and gestured to the chair across from him, "I can't eat all of this by myself."
Merlin looked like he wanted to decline, but if Arthur was right he hadn't eaten much today either, so in the end Merlin set the table for one more and joined Arthur for dinner.
"Why didn't you tell me?" Arthur asked, knowing that now that he had some of the truth, Merlin wouldn't be so dumb as to keep up with the lies.
"Because you've challenged a knight to dual of which one of you will die," Merlin deadpanned, and Arthur just looked at him.
"You couldn't know that I would do that."
"I knew you would do something," Merlin said and rolled his eyes, "You always do things without thinking, and look at how your father reacted. You shouldn't have done that."
Arthur shook his head as he had done so many times that day. He really didn't get Merlin sometimes. But he wanted to, he wanted to understand what went through his servant's head, so that hopefully this sort of thing would never happen again.
"I still don't understand," he confesses, "It wasn't just you, but the other servants didn't say anything. Not this time or any time in the past. Don't they trust that we, that I, would do something about it?"
Merlin sighed and put down his fork. He debated for a while how to tell Arthur, or maybe what to tell Arthur, it wasn't entirely clear, he just knew that Merlin was debating something.
"I made them promise not to tell you," he finally said, and Arthur looked at him waiting for an explanation, when it didn't immediately follow. Merlin sighed again, "It's not like it's easy for them to just let me take all the rude ones on, but as I said, I usually have it the easiest. But I know you, and I know you wouldn't take it well if you knew, so in exchange for swapping duties, I make them promise not to tell you, so that I could avoid… this. They didn't want to lie to you, Arthur, I know. They've tried to convince me many times before that I should tell you, but I never got hurt badly enough that it really mattered."
"Except today," Arthur said and looked at Merlin's wrist.
"Except today."
"But even today you didn't want to tell me. Why?"
"Force of habit, I suppose," Merlin said at first, "But I still didn't want you to know. I am capable of taking care of myself, and now you're doing this." Merlin gestured to the food in front of him, "As happy as I am to serve you, this is something that I kind of liked doing by myself. It is one of the few things where the person I'm helping isn't you. It felt rewarding."
Arthur couldn't help but smile a little, "That's very selfish of you."
"I suppose it is."
Together they managed to get through all of the food Merlin had brought up for Arthur, and after several trips to the kitchen - since Arthur had insisted that Merlin shouldn't put more strain on his wrist than he already had - the table was clean and Arthur prepared to rest for the night, wanting to be as ready for tomorrow as he could be. Even with the challenge, he still had the tournament to go through, and he couldn't afford to slack of in any event.
As if sent from heaven, Gwen came to help Merlin get Arthur ready in the morning (after he had eaten and bathed of course). Arthur didn't know if Gwen knew of Merlin's injury, but as a part of the servant staff, she would undoubtedly know about Merlin and his antics. Arthur wondered if she too had been saved by Merlin at one point, and had promised not to tell a soul about it. Arthur figured that she would have since she had never told him anything.
They didn't exchange many words, but before Arthur could make his way to the fighting arena, she wished him good luck. It was hard to resist kissing her, so Arthur doubled checked that no one could catch them before he leaned down to kiss her and promise her that he would win. Her reassuring smile made him feel stronger as left to fight.
Sir Dick was already waiting by the arena by the time that Arthur got there, and Arthur counted himself lucky that it was almost noon because he couldn't wait to wipe that stupid smug off of his face. From the whispers around them, it was clear that very few people knew why Arthur had issued a challenge in the first place, but there was still an overwhelming support for the crown prince.
There were more spectators than there usually would be at events like these, but it was all because of the tournament. Arthur could see as the knights around him prepared themselves for later, while only a few - namely his knights of the round table - had already gathered to watch Arthur beat this jerk into the ground.
Just before noon, his father arrived and took his place on the makeshift throne close by the arena. Silence fell as he held up his hand to speak.
"Citizens of Camelot," he spoke, "Today we are gathered for a tournament to celebrate the strengthening of our kingdom. The knights of Camelot will show the strength and honor of our proud nation, and the last one standing shall be rewarded with five hundred gold coins. However, before the tournament can begin, we shall bear witness to duel between sir Richard of House Cunningham and the crown prince, Arthur Pendragon. The dual shall be by the knight's code and to the death," he finished and the two knights donned their helmets before facing each other and waiting for the signal to begin.
Arthur was confident. There were few knights in Camelot who could even be considered a worthy match for him these days, and even fewer who had a chance of defeating him. Sir Dick was not one of those people. Arthur looked to the edge of the arena to find Gwaine smiling smugly, undoubtedly expecting to enjoy the display Arthur was about to give them all. Arthur took a deep breath just before the gong echoed throughout the arena.
Sir Dick charged first, but his stance was wide and Arthur easily dodged his sword, and moved in to thrust his sword into his side. Dick took a step backwards, but didn't falter and attacked once more. This time, Arthur didn't have time to dodge so he merely blocked with his shield, Dick's power being inferior to the knights he usually trained with and easily fending him off. He let Dick try a few more times, and skillfully avoided any swing of his sword and thrust of his shield. Arthur didn't usually taunt his opponents like this, usually fought with honor and defeated his opponents quickly and swiftly when he was this superior, but all such thoughts didn't even cross Arthur's mind today. For every second he looked at his opponent's face, he got more and more enraged. It wasn't just for what he had done to Merlin and all those servants before him. It was because this man was living proof of everything that was wrong with this kingdom. The dismissal of the knights who didn't come from nay noble family. The disregard for the lives of people who were deemed as nothing more than simple peasants. The ignorance, dishonesty and lack of honor which some people who dared call themselves knights of Camelot possessed. All of that as well as Arthur's blindness to all of it for all those years it had been going on and he had turned a blind eye. This man represented so many things Arthur despised and today he would destroy those things.
Arthur finally began to fight back, his first attack disarming sir Dick of his shield which made the crowd cheer for him. He could faintly hear Elyan's signature whistle somewhere behind him, as well as Leon's cheers. Arthur smiled, knowing that his knights were supporting him, and blocked sir Dick's next attempt at him. Arthur blocked his sword with his own, and with his opponent stuck in place, he kicked him to the ground, forced the sword out of his hand and held his blade to his throat. It was too easy.
"I have no desire to take your life, but you can no longer be a knight of Camelot. You will renounce your title and return home knowing that what you have done was lacking in honor and duty."
Sir Richard didn't answer, but his eyes looked pleading so Arthur retracted his sword and stepped away from his defeated opponent. By all means, that should have been the end, but it wasn't. Sir Dick was quickly back on his feet, sword once again in hand as he charged at Arthur, one last attempt at defeating him. Arthur didn't hesitate when he ran his sword through him, the blood soiling his blade and the life leaving his eyes. Arthur had no regrets.
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