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“Alright, that’s it.” Merlin throws down his pack, after he finishes treating Leon’s injuries.
Arthur whines at him - although he’d never admit that’s what he was doing. “What is it now?”
Merlin grumbles, “I just don’t understand.”
“Doesn’t that happen all the time?”
Merlin concedes the point, as a far larger picture is being painted in his mind. “Sure, but now I at least know why the rules were put forth in the first place.”
“Rules?”
Merlin didn’t say it in the most insulting manner he could, but his thoughts on the matter were quite clear anyway. “You know, for you Nobles.”
Not again! Arthur doesn’t know if he could take Merlin needing another lesson on the goings on of Royalty. “What, exactly?”
“Why are the Knights always the ones doing patrols?”
He appears genuinely curious, but the Prince can’t fathom a reason why. “Who else would be doing it?”
“Here’s a thought: maybe members of the standing army.”
Arthur smiles at his manservant, indulging. “Why would they?”
“Correct me if I’m wrong, Sire-”
“I will.”
Merlin huffed but kept talking, rather than address the insult. “It seems to me that you lot like going on hunting trips so you can track and kill poor, defenseless animals.”
“Hey!”
Merlin does not allow himself to be deterred by a newly minted Knight who hasn’t been around Arthur half as long as him. “And with all the complaints about it being too hot or too cold, or someone not packing your favorite bedrolls... Well, I can only assume that it’s not the actual nature bit that you find enjoyable.”
“What are you getting at, Merlin?” It was rare these days that he didn’t understand what Merlin was trying to tell him. (Even if he didn’t like it, Arthur usually knew what the servant was implying.)
“Why do you waste the daylight, bandying about in the woods, when you could be doing something else?” There would have to be a continuance issued later on for Merlin’s insubordination.
“What else would the Knights be doing? The point is to give them a break from training.” The Prince had never previously admitted as much out loud. Always coming up with some excuse about the kitchens using more game. Or telling his father how it gave the men practice traveling on the roads, getting comfortable, for when they would need to use them in war.
“So why not have the people trained from birth to pay attention in boring meetings, be the ones that sit by and watch the dangerous criminals?”
“That’s not...” Arthur had no idea what argument he could make against that. “There’s no need to change anything.”
“I’m in the dungeons more than you,” Merlin gave him a wry smile. “You haven’t seen the guards nodding off after playing dice. It’s unbecoming.” On the last word he made his voice a perfect, hauty imitation of the Crown Prince.
Arthur hadn’t caught up to the part where he was being insulted, or he elected to ignore it. “They do that?”
Merlin gave him a shifty-eyed look. “More than they should.”
“They shouldn’t be doing it at all!”
Merlin was shrinking in on himself. Arthur hated when he did that, but didn’t always get what caused it. And now when Merlin should be feeling proud for bringing an important issue to a Royal (that actually deserved his attention as Crown Prince, no less) the Physician’s ward clammed up. “Well then, wead out the bad ones.”
“Sure, like it’s so simple.”
Sometimes, when Merlin was showing a modicum of intelligence, he could be quite wise. While the rest of the time he acted like he had more than half a brain, Merlin would say things as though they should be obvious. As if everyone knew it too. (It was almost like how some of the Lords demonstrated their ‘superiority’, except Merlin honestly couldn’t imagine anyone not knowing the things he considered self-evident.)
The Prince hoped this would turn out to be one of those times.
“I can give you a few names of people to... retrain.”
He bit out, “How do you know their names?”
“Hello, Prince’s Manservant.” Merlin actually waved to emphasize his identity. “The Steward talks to me about the Royal household staff.”
“The Steward knows?” Arthur felt like his world had been pushed off its axis. “How can it be such a big deal if no one’s said anything before?”
“It’s not like it’s everyone.” Why did it feel like Merlin was always calming down Camelot’s Heir? “It’s not that much of a problem.”
“If the Steward is concerned, then it most certainly is.”
Merlin chewed on his lip. “Fine, it’s not incredibly pervasive.”
“Oh, how lovely is that!” And there was the never ending well of sarcasm, beginning to tinge with bitterness.
In a matter of seconds, Merlin turned serious. “Some of the people you station outside of Nobleman’s chambers put Knights to shame with their willingness to risk their lives, for people they’ve never even talked to.”
“So you’re trying to tell me the good outweighs the bad?” That was a lark.
“More like a solution would take more oversight from the Captain of the Guard, when he’s all of a year from retiring.” Merlin meant it as a joke, he wanted Arthur to laugh it off.
Instead it only put him more on edge. “Who told you that?”
“You.”
Oh, right. He’d been drunk. “Well don’t tell anyone.”
The other Knights found it hilarious that the Prince was asking his manservant not to tell anyone, rather than swear him to secrecy or order him not to say a word. (Mostly because they knew Merlin wouldn’t do either if he didn’t want to. So making the request was Arthur’s only real option.)
It maybe wasn’t the best idea to allow that to enter the awareness of people the Prince had to command on a daily basis. Was probably also bad form for them to argue in front of his Knights, in general. Let alone show them that his servant knew more about the castle than he did. But Arthur was too tired to deal with any of that right then.
Merlin sighed, “I just don’t get why it’s like this.”
“Tradition.”
“Yes, but there had to be some Knight that didn’t have the stamina for patrolling, what did they do then?”
The Prince had once ordered a Knight, that was said to be instrumental in Uther’s initial sword training, to set up outside the vaults for an evening. Convinced him by explaining that his father would prefer the man close at hand.
It was mostly so they wouldn’t have to worry about him wandering off.
Maybe Merlin had a point. For once. (Far too much for his liking.)
Arthur didn’t answer. Instead he decided to test the waters with an argument that he knew the King would make in his place. “That’s the way that it is. Any change will be seen as not befitting of one’s station.”
Merlin scoffed outright. When he calmed himself, his eyes flashed indulgently. “What makes someone a Knight?”
They had been over this after Lancelot. “Noble blood, and an accepted swearing of allegiance.”
That was exactly what Merlin had wanted to hear, but he still shook his head. “Maybe that’s part of it - but I’d say the thing that Knights pride themselves on is the training, their expensive gear, and the number of people they have attending them while in the war effort.” A cheeky grin was only acceptable when you were telling a Noble all the ways that they were different and better than you. “Knights being such a large expense of money, time, and resources is why you don’t have armies of them.”
“Merlin!” He was growing impatient.
“None of that changes if you put them just outside the lap of luxury.” Merlin chuckled, “And they get the added bonus of having an easier time happening upon those of higher stations.”
Sir Waldin blushed, remembering the number of times that Merlin had accused him of such a thing.
The servant was unusually protective of the Prince’s time. Consistently saying that anything which could be brought to Sir Leon first, and then voiced in a report, should be.
“Shut up Merlin.” The Prince had heard enough out of him to want three full days to detox.
“But will you-“
“I said shut up.”
“Shutting up, Sire.”
If only that were true.
Arthur had his first chance to test the idea two weeks later.
His father told the guard, who stopped the sorcerer from killing Sir Gerwin as well as Prince Arthur, that he would receive some form of reward. The council was trying to determine what form it would take.
“What if we were to have him accompany the other Knights to Sir Lionel’s property?”
Uther dismisses the idea out of hand. “We cannot do so.”
“Why not? Mr. Stapleton has family in the area and with Sir Gerwin injured in the attack, they could use the extra man.”
“He is not trained for it.”
“Oh, I think he’s proved here today that he has the skill in any case.” Gestured to the room at large. “I might add that there will be two Knights with him who could, no doubt, pick up any slack.”
“You’ve thought about this before.” It is not a question.
With that kind of smile, Arthur’s teeth could cut glass. “Of course, father. You have taught me better than to suggest anything before the Council if I was not absolutely certain of its efficacy.”
Uther is known throughout the realm for his master skills as a negotiator. (Or manipulator depending upon who one would ask.) That pronouncement was the first time any of his advisors had considered the fact that the King was raising his son to be just as shrewd, and cunning.
The prospect that Arthur could eventually surpass even his father’s skills did not sit easy with anyone.
The older members, especially, felt threatened by it. The younger ones merely saw the Prince as another Noble to watch out for during treaty signings. The only other concern would be that he also had the power to stop arguments in their tracks.
“But why focus on this subject?”
Arthur turned more bemused than insulted. “You know that Sir Lionel despises when we send anyone besides his own Knights to his estate. I think Mr. Stapleton has earned the honor, and it doesn’t hurt that the suggestion could eliminate a potential problem.”
Making the argument before the Court ensured that the Prince could bypass any directive by his father not to bring it up with them. They both knew that having it out then and there would only hurt them.
Uther had been pushed into agreeing, but that did not mean there would be no consequences. Arthur was prepared for whatever form they would take.
He thought this was worth it. Laying the groundwork for improving the security and safety of Camelot always would be. (It didn’t hurt that the Prince thought it might help the people come to terms with changes he would implement during his rule, before they would ever have to truly contemplate them.)