Shoutout to that one guy who reviewed all of my fate works to get this thing revived. If you are out there, Thanks and you are Welcome.
By the way, I'm making another fanfic called. "Archer's Struggle against Saber(s)". The latest 3 chapters are about Archer x Goddess Rhongomyniad. I am here to announce that I will be making a separate long form fanfic about this ship. I'm still figuring out if the fanfic I'm talking about is either a crossover or a non crossover. Please review here to help me out with this problem.
Anyways enjoy.
This…is awkward…
The Red Prince had found herself in a very tense situation as she sat adjacent to the Knight of Treachery. Saber Lily and Archer - who was sitting beside her - were chatting without a care in the world. Unknowing of the weird situation that was forced onto her. The weird situation being trying to strike up a decent conversation with the Red Knight.
"Chaldea's a nice place, don't you think?" Prince Mordred chuckled nervously.
"Hn." Sir Mordred replied as she stabbed on her steak.
'You're not helping at all!' Thought the Red Prince
"How long have you been here? As in summoned?" Prince Mordred asked again with a smile that screamed 'don't hurt me, I'm just trying to talk here!'
Sir Mordred meanwhile looked at her counterpart like she was the scum of the earth. Like a worm to be trudged upon without a care. However, the Knight grunted out a reply as she noticed Saber Lily smiling at her brightly to encourage her to speak up.
"As long as Archer is over there." Sir Mordred said as she flicked her eyes to the Red Prince's seatmate, "And he's one the first to be summoned."
"Mordred was the fifth to be summoned." Archer explained in more detail. He then looked towards the Saber Trio eating happily near them, "these three were the ones in between."
"I see…" Prince Mordred nodded in acknowledgement towards her Knightly self. "You must be one of the more experienced servants around then?"
"As if." Snorted Sir Mordred. "I haven't seen much action for a while now. It's always the new servants who get the chance to go out these days."
"I-i see…" The Red Prince anxiously commented. She was not exactly the best when it comes to breaking tension but my goodness, this is hard. What did she do to warrant this treatment? At least the Bowman did her a favour by steering the conversation away from them. Otherwise, things would go so horribly right about now.
"I'm curious as to how you became King." The blue Saber commented as she took a bite. "You shared a bit about your childhood, but what of your adulthood?"
"I…" Mordred scratched her head. "I don't remember much? The oldest I can remember being is 30 years old. Past that, everything's just hazy."
"Not a bad age. I was 35 before I died." Lancer Arturia commented at the head of the table. She was drinking a glass of milk.
"My father lived longer than that, actually." The Red Prince though carefully. "She was around… past 50, I think."
"But you can never tell since we don't look like we aged." Saber Alter said as she glared daggers at the Lancer version of herself, who only whimpered under the heat of the glare.
"Mom did… she didn't have much left in her after you…" The Red Prince said with a hint of melancholy. The Arturias, the Round Table, and the Mordreds around the Prince felt sad. They all know that she was talking about Guinevere. Saber Lily took this moment to steer the conversation to safer waters.
"So what was your coronation like?" Saber Lily asked enthusiastically. "It must have been fun."
"It was." The Red Prince smiled, clearly glad about the change, "Well, kind of. Allow me to paint the picture."
The rest of the cafeteria braced themselves for the story they were about to hear. The Knight of Treachery had to hand it to her alternate self. She knew how to hold a crowd in the palm of her hand. She felt a pin prick her heart at the thought.
"It was the year 535. A few years back, Lancelot defeated le Fay's Kingdom in Cornwall with an army of eighteen thousand. I was only 20 back then. A twenty year old, husband-less princess who still dreamed of wielding a sword one day that wasn't just in the sparring grounds." The Red Prince smiled fondly at those memories. "Father never allowed me to see the battlefield and neither did Mother. She was adamant that I live my life as a princess. I wanted what she wanted, but my heart longed to fight."
"And so, I did the unthinkable." the Red Prince paused for dramatic effect. "I left the palace with whatever gear I could steal in the Royal Armory and took Llamrei to Cornwall."
The silence in the room told everything to the Red Prince. Her original clearly did something similar to this.
"What did you steal?" her Summer version asked. "Original took Clarent while I took Prydwen."
"Funny enough, I did think of stealing both of them." the Red Prince thought contemplatively. "But it was the dead of night and a torch was too conspicuous. I didn't realise it then, but I actually took some pieces of Gawain's armour because I thought it looked plain. My weapon of choice at the time was Marmiadoise. The sword is rumoured to belong to Hercules, so as a bookwork I went with that.."
"You're a what?" Original Mordred asked in genuine confusion before getting hushed by the Blue and Alter Sabers.
"Moving on," The Red Prince smiled apologetically at her original. "Once I got to Lancelot's camp, I tried volunteering as one of the grunts of this Lieutenant. I was helpful to him, yeah. He even taught me some things about being a soldier in the King's Army. Turns out that Lieutenant was Galahad. He ratted me out after seeing my face. But before Lancelot could do anything about it, Morgan attacked."
"Long story short, the battle that made me the Blood Knight was a diversion to distract Lancelot from the real target." The Red Prince concluded with a slight tone of sadness. "Morgan had all of her forces siege Camelot itself. She managed to mortally wound Father before Lancelot and I routed the besieging army."
"There… lying at the foot of her throne was my father." Mordred rasped. The memories flooding through her mind like it happened yesterday. "I ran towards him. Crying and yelling for anyone to help him. I even called for that damn Merlin, but he wasn't in the city."
"I held my father for minutes. Watching as the blood poured down onto the floor." Mordred whispered as if in pain. "It was there that she took the crown off her head and placed it on me. That bloodstained crown… she then died in my hands."
"That's terrible…" Saber Lily choked through her tears. "You must have had a hard time being King after that. With Morgan still waging war against you."
"Well…" the Red Prince scratched her head as she struggled to find a way to explain it. "Not exactly…"
"To start things off," the Red Prince continued after waiting for the questions to die down. "The Royal Council didn't want me, the princess of all people, to be King. They wanted Gawain to lead. He's the senior most nephew and is well respected in every circle of the Kingdom. They decided that my father's action of placing the crown on my head is 'symbolic'" The Red Prince rolled her eyes. "And passed a vote to declare Gawain the rightful King."
"How did it end up that you were King then?" Gawain asked as he cleaned himself off of his spit take. "Your story doesn't add up to the titles you have."
"I know right," the Red Prince chuckled lightly. "I'm a damn girl so why would I be a King? If anything, they should've just made you my Regent while I assumed the throne as Queen. But no, the political instability at the time wouldn't allow me the crown I deserved. And I understand that, really." The Red Prince scoffed. Clearly unconvinced of the words she's saying to herself.
"In came Merlin." The Red Prince continued. "He had the brilliant idea of arriving right after father died. I did him a favour by not castrating him the moment I saw him, and he repaid me by suggesting something so stupid. Honestly, awful to even think about. But effective. If the council didn't want me - a princess - to take the throne in the worst time possible what's stopping a prince from doing so?"
"Gasp! No way, he-" Merlin exclaimed giddy from a table far away. He shut himself up when half the room roasted him with their glares.
"He turned me into a boy." The Prince sighed as she shook his head. "At least, in the eyes of everyone I knew. Merlin cast a powerful brainwashing spell that transformed the memories that had anything to do with me into one where I lived as a boy. The city of Camelot was the only city in the Kingdom aware of my presence due to the fact that my father didn't want the widespread news that I existed reaching the ears of Morgan so early in my childhood." The Red Prince then turned to Lily and said. "Remind me to talk about that part in the future."
"Moving back. With Camelot fully under the control of Merlin's spell, the Council actually became confused at the decision they made and formed another session to correct their mistake. I was made aware of this change just hours after Merlin's machinations, and literally the next day my coronation occurred."
"So yeah, it was kinda fun." The Red Prince concluded. "I had to find Avalon to give back to Merlin as payment for his efforts, but other than that the Coronation was great. It was easily the best party I've ever been to."
"That… doesn't sound like it." Summer Mordred said weakly. "It's kinda horrible, your situation back then."
"It's alright." The Red Prince consoled her alternate self. "At least I made things right by father by saving Camelot from being destroyed. That ought to count for something, right?"
"I guess?" Summer Mordred conceded but still unconvinced. But the conversations on the table now changed to other topics. The whole room's curiosity for the Red Prince satiated. For now.
"...I'm done here." The Knight of Treachery stood up from her seat. Not even caring to take her plate with her. As the doors of the cafeteria shut behind, the Red Prince took her time to ask,
"What's her deal, anyways?" The Red Prince asked curiously. "I know about the fact that she- or we - are destined to be the reason Camelot fell, but our alternate self here," She pointed to Summer Mordred. "Hasn't been insufferable at all. What's up with that?"
"She…" The Blue Saber bit her lip. "Hasn't exactly had the same upbringing you did."
"She was raised by our bitch of a sister, Morgan." Saber Alter elaborated with a bite to her steak. "She was taught to be a tool. A weapon for our destruction. And when the day came, she came to us and fed us lies about her ties with us. We cast her out like the bastard she was. Maybe she's mad about that."
"Maybe?" The Red Prince asked incredulously. "You made a ticking timed bomb!" She then paused to think about what she said. "I know what timed bombs are?"
"Moving back," the Prince said with seriousness, "I'm not stupid to ignore the fact that she hates my guts. And from what I heard from you, she's going to either kill me or die trying."
"Why do you think that?" Lancer Artoria asked with concern.
"Because she will imagine what could've been her life through me." The Prince wisely answered. "It will gnaw at her like a festering plague. It will consume her until all she could think of was me… and the life that I had."
"Doesn't seem like a problem to me." Saber Alter rolled her eyes as she sneakily took a piece of beef from Lily's plate. "What's one less Mordred to me, anyways?"
"Alter me!" Lily exclaimed indignantly. "How can you say that about Mo-chan? She hasn't done anything wrong."
"You weren't there, Lily." Saber Alter frowned lightly. "You can't tell me that she didn't do anything wrong. That brat's the reason -"
"Alright! I get it." The Red Prince cut her father off. A surprise for many, as neither Original nor Summer Mordred had the courage to do something like that. And the weird part is: Alter didn't feel as offended as she should have. Probably that Kingly pedigree the Red Prince carried about her coming into play.
"I can't go around knowing that the original might stab me in the back out of nowhere, okay?" The Red Prince made her point. "So, please help me out with this."
"Hmm…" Saber thought to herself. Suddenly, her eyes sparkled as she turned towards Archer - who was only there to clean up after the Knight of Treachery. The Red Prince can see that he visibly shivers as he turns towards her Blue Father.
"Archer, you seem to be well acquainted with Mordred. Why don't you share your thoughts in this manner?" Blue Saber asked innocently with a hint of cheekiness.
"She's your child, Saber. I am in no capacity to say anything." Archer wisely countered.
"But you are the only one she seems to get along well with." Saber Alter teamed up with her counterpart. "You clearly are fond of her in some way."
"Don't make it sound weird." Archer scolded the Alter to which she just mumbled into her meal. "Besides, it's probably healthier if you - and I mean all of you -" he pointed to the pouting Arturias, "to settle this issue yourselves. Mordred needs you more than me."
"And if you're asking me," He looked towards the Red Prince. "Just challenge her to a duel. If you win or lose, she'll probably listen to what you have to say. And don't hold back. You'll just make her angrier." Archer finished with all the seriousness he could muster.
"That doesn't sound like I'm resolving anything at all." The Red Prince frowned as she crossed her arms at the bowman. "If anything, I'm just volunteering myself to be her punching bag."
"I'm serious." Archer emphasised with narrowed eyes. "The only way to get through a blockhead is if you break through it. I should know. I've had a few blockheads myself." He then stared at the multiple Arturias present, who looked away in shame.
"You seem well versed when it comes to my father and I." the Prince analysed as she read the room. "I don't remember you being in Camelot when I was alive, so who are you?"
"You can call me, Archer, to start with." Archer deadpanned as he carried the empty dishes towards the kitchens. "And don't think too deeply about it, I'm just a nameless servant."
"That's a lie and you know it!" The Prince yelled as the kitchen doors closed on him.
"Ugh, that man's kind of irritating now that I think of it." The Prince huffed as she continued with her food.
"He's nice if you get to know him well enough." Lily smiled sweetly as she filled her cup with water.
"You have no idea." Saber and Alter said in unison as they raised their hands for seconds.
