This is the last chapter! I can't believe I've written over 25k words about Arthur's inability to complete basic tasks.
Arthur woke up the next morning to someone shaking his shoulder. "Gwen?" He blinked in the morning light.
"Good morning, Arthur."
"Where's Merlin?"
Gwen laughed. "Hopefully still asleep. I told Gaius not to wake him and let him sleep in today."
Arthur gave a noise somewhere between a scoff and a groan. If Merlin wasn't awake, why did he have to be?
"So have your experiences 'enlightened you to the plight of the servants'?" His queen asked.
"Is that something Merlin said?" Arthur mumbled into his pillow.
"Yes, they are his words, but as a former servant myself, I'm inclined to agree that 'plight of the servants' is an accurate description."
"Yes well, you can't tell him or he'll lord it over me for the rest of our lives, but yesterday was exhausting. I feel like an old man with the way my back and knees hurt. And how in the world does that man remember so many names? There's like a thousand servants in this castle and apparently he knows every single person in the lower town as well. And Gaius is a menace! He manipulated me into helping him with deliveries. I wasn't supposed to have to do any physician's apprentice duties!"
Gwen smiled at the similarity of both men's complaints for the other's job.
Arthur continued to complain, oblivious to his wife's amusement. "Do you know how many buckets of water I had to carry yesterday? Twenty-seven. Twenty-seven. It's an obnoxious number of buckets. And they're apparently needed for everything."
Gwen nodded along in knowing sympathy.
"And every time I turned around someone else needed help. I not only had to do my chores, but the chores of every other servant in the castle! And he made it one of my rules to say yes to everything. He knew it would happen; he's even more manipulative than Gaius. I hope for his own sake that he actually knows how to say no every once in a while."
They both knew that Merlin rarely, if ever, said no to helping someone in need. The rule was more than fair as a way to show the amount of work Merlin did on a day to day basis.
"And I'm starving. Please tell me you brought breakfast up, I feel like I haven't eaten in days. I don't even think I ate the equivalent of one full meal yesterday."
Gwen smirked, amused at her husband's longwinded rant. "Yes, I did. But save some for Merlin."
Arthur snorted. He'd have to or his manservant would pass out from the lack of food. Arthur couldn't even blame Merlin for snitching food here and there from his plate. Though that didn't mean that Arthur wouldn't bring it up to annoy the younger man at every possible chance in the future.
The morning dragged on slowly as Arthur waited for Merlin to wake up and join him for breakfast.
Gwen left Arthur soon after waking him to track down Sir Leon. She headed for the armory knowing he likely was leading the knights in training. Arthur had agreed that he would not be training today so that he could catch up on the affairs of his kingdom (read Merlin's reports).
Sir Leon left the end of training to Sir Percival while he and the queen made plans to split up and confer with each other later in the day. They talked to the staff, the knights, the council members, and to Gaius about both Arthur and Merlin's work.
Leon discussed with Harold about Arthur's chores. "Anything significant you observed that greatly helped or hindered his work." The knight explained. "I want a full idea of what he did throughout the day."
Harold paused a moment before answering. "His work on the washing was acceptable but not grand. His chambers as I saw them in the morning was decent but not spotless, I don't think he cleaned the windows or dusted anything in the room at all. He likely decided that if it wasn't dirty then it didn't need to be cleaned, which is absolutely not the case, Sir Leon."
Leon nodded in agreement. "Of course. What about his afternoon chores?"
Harold flailed a little as a small blush crept to his cheeks. "I-um, I don't know about those. He disappeared while I was helping out another servant. I wasn't able to catch up with him for the rest of the day."
Leon's straight face didn't falter—he was a knight, after all—but inwardly he was laughing. It was well known that Harold flirted with anyone that would flirt back, but to have been so distracted as to lose Arthur was a whole new level. Giving his thanks to Harold, Leon pulled out the parchment Arthur used the day before and glanced at the schedule written on it. He'd have to track down some of the people Arthur helped to ask them of his work.
It took Leon the better part of two hours to track how well Arthur did with the rest of the chores. The stable hand told the knight that the stables were cleaner than they had ever been and the kitchen maids all had glowing reviews of Arthur's help with the feast. Once Merlin had actually awoken, he and Leon discussed Arthur's performance when attending Merlin directly.
"Well he did try and drown me in the bath." Merlin said with a frown. "And he never emptied the bath; but I suppose other than that he did fairly well." Arthur had done admirably, following all the protocols of court and serving when he needed to serve. Merlin had also shown Leon the work Arthur did in polishing Merlin's armor and sword. They were both spotless and expertly taken care of, not that Leon was surprised since he knew Arthur taught all the squires and young knights how to care for their equipment properly.
Leon next went to Gaius to see his opinions on Arthur's performance. Even though technically Arthur wasn't scheduled to help Gaius with anything, Leon knew that Gaius had woken Arthur up and that he had returned to the physician's chambers later in the day.
Gaius didn't hesitate to answer Leon's questions. "He did well. Although it took a few minutes to get him awake that early in the morning, he never was one for mornings, but he did manage to be out the door on time and he later helped me with a delivery. You can ask Agnes how that went." The physician went on to give Leon directions to Agnes' house.
Sir Leon left Agnes' house both confused and amused. The old woman had told Leon of the "royal impersonator" that had delivered her draught. The story wasn't very descriptive but she made sure to specify that the man wasn't as much of a troublemaker as Merlin. She also heavily emphasized that she liked Merlin better, which caused Leon to laugh for a full minute after being not so nicely pushed out of the house.
Gwen reviewed Merlin's achievements of the day. While Leon was following what Arthur had done, the queen went to talk with the other knights to find out how Merlin had done. Gwaine enthusiastically informed her of Merlin's successes at training the knights, though she had already heard all the accounts of the fight that had made their way into the rumor-mill.
"I'll admit, he surprised me. He pays more attention to our training than I thought he did." Gwaine explained. "You should have seen the princess' face when Merlin evaded My Awesome Sword Move. Priceless! He was beyond shocked. It was glorious; I'm so proud of Merlin." Gwaine gushed on for a few minutes about all that had happened and Gwen determined that Merlin had did an exceptional job training the knights, especially given his lack of natural talent for sword fighting.
Next she spoke to the council members about his efforts during the council. They were still a bit upset that Arthur had allowed a servant to be king for the day, but aside from a few grumbles they had given vaguely positive feedback about Merlin's time as king. She made a note to ask Sir Leon for some more detail when she met back up with him. The councilmen were not the most forthcoming with information, despite her efforts to talk with multiple of them.
Gwen returned to the King's chambers to read over Merlin's reports, noticing, as Arthur had, that they were exceptionally well written. It seemed as if the vaguely positive remarks of the councilmen were not accurate to Merlin's performance.
Gwen smiled to herself; Merlin put in all of his effort in everything he did. She was incredibly proud of him, especially since she knew exactly how hard it was to transition from a servant to a monarch, and he did it in a day. Stacking the reports back into a neat pile, Gwen swept out of the room to go find Leon so they could make a final decision.
"It was certainly close, but I think we know which of them won?" Leon asked Gwen after they discussed all the actions of the two friends.
Gwen nodded. "Yes, I think we do."
Arthur stood before the crowd. They all quieted down as he began to speak. "As you all know, yesterday, my manservant Merlin and I switched places for the day. Queen Guinevere and Sir Leon have determined a winner for the challenge." Arthur paused a moment to let the suspense build. "I of course won the challenge, but in the spirit of the game, I will be raising the wages of the entire serving staff in the castle." The crowd cheered and Arthur smiled widely before walking away.
Merlin stood next to Lady Morgana off to the side of the room. "Of course." He whispered mockingly.
Morgana suppressed a smile. "You must have expected he was going to tell everyone he won. He'd never admit to losing, not to his people."
Merlin smirked. "Doesn't mean I won't tell people."
"Well you did win. Though I will say, I am surprised you both did so well." The words were said with the clear indication that she wasn't surprised, but rather that she was impressed with the both of them.
"Surprised?" Merlin exclaimed in fake shock.
Lady Morgana just rolled her eyes.
As the announcement ended and people began leaving the room, Merlin rushed to catch up with his king in the hallway. Falling into step with Arthur, Merlin scowled. "You won sire?" The question was snarky, but not bitter.
"Of course."
"Ah, yes of course." Merlin snarked. "As long as you follow through with raising the wages."
"I said I would, I'll raise everyone's pay, except for Harold." Arthur tacked it on as an afterthought, just to annoy Merlin.
"Really? I think he deserves the biggest raise, he managed to deal with you for a whole morning, that's better anyone else can do."
"And what is it that you do then?" Arthur was goading him on and Merlin was ready to banter.
It had been a fun challenge and he felt that they had both learned a lot from it. Merlin knew that they had grown closer over the past few days and it made him smile a bit brighter as he joked with his best friend. "I'm just incredible at my job—and your job too."
"Let's not forget who won this challenge."
"Despite what was announced today, I seem to recall Gwen and Leon deciding that I had won." Merlin gestured with his hands, pretending that he wasn't entirely sure of what had happened.
"I'm the king Merlin, I can't be seen losing to my manservant, friendly challenge or not."
Merlin rolled his eyes. Arthur was lucky he didn't like being the center of attention anyways. He was okay with officially losing as long as Arthur kept his promise. Which he knew Arthur would; he'd joke about it but he would follow through and raise everyone's wages, even Harold's.
"Can't be seen losing…" Merlin said mischievously, "What do you call it when we play dice? Because you certainly never win that."
Well this is the end, thank you to everyone that read, favorited, followed, and reviewed.
Also for those of you wondering, I imagine that after this Arthur no longer makes Merlin muck out the stables and officially makes him an advisor to the crown, but still rarely gives him days off because Arthur can't function without Merlin.