Mordred

Before my mind even fully registered the oncoming assault, my body had already moved. Rolling out of the loveseat and teleporting myself to the other side of the room, and I turn to face my attacker. I easily identify the culprit as Morgan, however I have no idea why she would be assaulting me.

"What is the meaning of this Morgan?" I question her as I stand straight and begin to formulate a plan on how to best take her down without bringing any harm to her.

"You knew." she calmly answers me as she summons a flame over both of her palms. "You knew and you didn't tell me."

With a glare she launches two streams of fire at me. With a raised eyebrow, I wrest control of the flames from her and extinguish them.

"You knew that I had a sibling!" she exclaims as she fires a curse at me, this time in a far less calm manner. "YOU FUCKING KNEW THAT ARTHUR IS ACTUALLY A WOMAN AND YOU NEVER TOLD ME!!!"

Tilting my head to the side, I dodge the curse and immediately identify it as a Gandr curse. Evidently Morgan is not trying to kill me, rather it seems that she simply needs to vent.

"I did know." I tell her as she continues to fire curses and flames at me, only to have no effect when I inscribe a runic array in front of me that shields me. "However, I never had any proof. Besides, you refused to even entertain the possibility of having a brother, let alone a sister."

"IT DOESN'T MATTER!!!" she screams hysterically as she continues to fire spells at me in an erratic fashion. "YOU WERE MY TEACHER. YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO HELP ME AND TELL ME THE TRUTH, NOT WITHHOLD INFORMATION FROM ME! YOU TREATED ME LIKE UTHER DID, COMPLETELY DISREGARDING MY THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS! I THOUGHT YOU DIFFERENT THAN THEM, WHO ALWAYS DISREGARDED MY SISTER'S WISH OF BECOMING KING!"

"You are right." I answer her as my shield continues to block the incoming attacks and I slowly approach her. "I should have told you. Even if you did not believe me, I should have told you."

Shielding myself from a particularly strong curse, I speed up my approach and grab her arms as I reach her and pull her into a hug as she begins to cry.

"Why did she, Artoria, receive Uther's love & hopes while my sister and I had been spurned?" whispers Morgan as she quietly cries. "Morgause died without receiving any of his affection, yet not only is Artoria raised in secret from all, me included, but she was groomed to become King. What makes her so worthy, while Morgause, who had bled and shed countless tears training to become King, is seen as nothing other than another daughter to marry off."

Listening to her speak, I cannot help but feel wary towards her growing dislike towards her sister. It is growing closer to hatred, it would be best if I stop it now. If not, then I can at least redirect it towards a person far more deserving of her hatred.

"From the information that I have been able to gather, it seems that Artoria is innocent. The true cause of this situation is Merlin." I tell her as her tears stop falling.

"Merlin?" she asks as she looks up at me, her voice quiet yet with a hard edge to it. "That fool that incessantly attempts to flirt with me?"

"Indeed." I reply as I pick her up and lay her down on the only couch not destroyed from her outburst. "It was Merlin who prophesied to Uther that his heir would be born after you. It was Merlin who hid Artoria as soon as she was born and groomed her to be King. One can even see his influence in her. Her understanding of human interactions reaches as far as a knight like Sir Ector and Sir Kay can teach her, everything else is obviously Merlin's work. She does not understand the consequences that acting emotionless will have on the kingdom. Especially since it is currently split in a civil war between those who support her and those who oppose her."

"You are right." answers Morgan with a thoughtful expression on her face. "Throughout the past months in the war many of her soldiers have uttered the same words over and over again ��The King is not human. He does not understand the people.' Those are also the same words used by her opposition when questioned why they do not follow Uther's wishes and accept her as King."

I did not foresee the fact that my words to Merlin would have such heavy consequences when heard by the lords of Camelot. Many of them refuse to follow Artoria due to the fact that the competition was rigged in their eyes.

However, when Merlin mentioned that it is only natural for Uther's successor to be his child the lords tried a different approach. Blaming their refusal to follow Artoria on her biggest flaw, her lack of emotions. Like Morgan said, their excuse for refusing to follow Artoria can be broken down to two statements, "The King has no emotions, therefore he is not human. He does not understand the people."My speech to Merlin only made the situation worse, with many of them repeating it verbatim.

While Artoria seems to have taken my words to heart, she struggles to actually put them into action, after all a lifetime of conditioning cannot be so easily broken.

"If Merlin is the problem,-" says Morgan as she gets up from the couch and brings me out of my thoughts. "-then I shall simply have to get rid of him."

"Be careful." I tell her as she walks towards the room's exit. "While Merlin does not possess as much raw power as Scathach and I, he still possesses a substantial amount in addition to his vast knowledge and tricks."

"Of course. I was taught by the two most powerful beings on the planet, there is no way that I will lose to him." she says as she walks away before turning back to face me. "Also, I am sorry about earlier."

"Just make sure to better control yourself, there are beings out there more powerful than even I." I tell her as she walks away, almost missing a step after hearing my words.

While I would love for her words to be nothing but the truth, the fact of the matter is that many of the TYPEs would absolutely obliterate me.

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It has been around five years since Morgan found out the truth about Artoria's gender, and three years and a few months since Artoria ended the civil war and took the throne of Camelot. While she has managed to make the lords surrender, that does not mean that all has been peaceful for the Kingdom of Camelot. Throughout the five years since the unification of Camelot, countless assassination attempts have been made on Artoria's life, and without someone like Agravain to take care of the kingdom in the shadows many attempts have reached far before ending in failure. Some imbecil even had the audacity to attempt one during Artoria's marriage with Guinavere.

It became such a worrisome situation that Morgan took matters into her own hands with none other than Scathach and I being the wiser. Although I would not be surprised if Merlin somehow knew, especially with his clairvoyance. While many have noticed the lack of assassination attempts, none have been able to track it back to Morgan who has taken to make sure that none of the lords ever threaten Artoria ever again, fully embracing her persona as a witch queen. Although now she is Artoria's witch queen with the King being none the wiser.

That is about as much as I know about the situation in Camelot however. For the past five years I have been fully engrossed in setting a strong foundation for the Clocktower, I do not want a repeat of canon's Clocktower, especially not their disregard for human lives just to reach the Root. While I am in no way shape or form a saint, I do however have morals and beliefs that I live by, and I am in no way shape or form a selfish bastard. If I had to classify myself under an alignment, then I believe that I would fall under true neutral. Even then, I am not sure. It has so long since I have encountered anything from my previous life that I have fully embraced the identity of Ambrosius Malphas. Whoever I was in my life before the jumps no longer matters for I am now Ambrosius Malphas.

"Ambrosius." Scathach calls out to me, bringing me out of my thoughts. "Have you forgotten that we are to pay Morgan a visit today."

"Oh." I cannot help but say. In my attempts to finish putting the laws of the Clocktower on paper, I had completely forgotten. "My apologies. I had completely forgotten."

Returning the papers back to their storage space on my desk, I get up from my seat and transform my rune suit into a simple pair of black trousers, shoes, and white button down shirt before walking out of the office to meet Scathach in the corridor.

"You are overworking yourself love. Look, you are even beginning to gain white hairs." she jokes as she fondly rubs my hair.

"Right. It is almost as if the majority of my hair did not turn white during the most difficult and scariest battle in my life." I answer sarcastically with an eye roll.

"Regardless, you cannot overwork yourself. Can you not delegate some of your work to the Animuspheres, or perhaps the Archibalds. I am sure that they would both be delighted to do it for you." replies Scathach with a small frown.

"I did." I reply to her as we make our way to a teleportation pad. For some reason Scathach absolutely refuses to let me teleport anywhere in the castle, so she had me install a specific room designated to teleporting in or out. "It is for this reason that I am able to take this time off to visit Morgan."

"Is it truly that difficult to come up with compromises that both you and the mages would agree upon?" she asks.

"Yes. Especially since the majority of them are arrogant with no regard for any form of life whatsoever." I tell her as we reach the teleportation room. "Many of them would have no qualms about abducting some hapless man or woman to conduct experiments upon. As long as they reach the Root, then nothing else matters."

The teleportation room is a simple circular room capable of holding dozens within. It has glowing runes inscribed upon the walls and floor, with the teleportation array being a far more complex version of the one in battle. Not only does it serve to teleport Scathach and I to places where our teleportation markers are inscribed, but it is also capable of transporting an ally in danger to the castle using a rune inscribed on their body. Making use of many types of sensory runes, the array senses a person's heartbeat, magical energy level, and whether they are experiencing a certain amount of stress to send them here. Other than runes inscribed to teleport, it also has security runes designed to protect the castle should anyone not registered to the bounded field teleport in. That includes wraiths, malevolent spirits, souls, and anything that the runes classify as hostile.

"If they hold such disregard for any form of life, is it truly a good idea to associate with them?" she asks with a frown

"If I do not reign them in, then who will?" I say as I begin to activate the array.

"Very well. However, you must be careful. While we are among the most powerful on the planet, that does not mean that there are none who cannot fight us on even footing." she says with what I like to call her teacher tone.

"Of course. I am not an idiot after all." I reply as the array activates and teleports us away to Morgan's secret residence in Camelot.

The first thing that I notice upon arriving is a child's scream.

"I can't!" screams the child's voice in pain. "It hurts too much!"

Without wasting a second, Scathach and I rush towards the child's voice. Arriving in Morgan's training courtyard, the first thing I notice is the most adorable child I have ever seen kneeling on the floor as tears flow from her eyes. Standing at around three feet five inches, the child has blond hair tied into a short ponytail, the most expressive emerald green eyes I have ever seen. She holds her arms in front of her face, and one can clearly see that her magic circuits are overheating.

Standing in front of her is obviously Morgan, however she no longer has her previous light appearance. Instead she now bears an uncanny resemblance to her canon counterpart. She wears a black and blue dress revealing her red markings on her chest, navel and abdomen, and a black veil that covers her face.

"You will continue your training even if you must learn to ignore the pain." she tells the child, completely missing our arriva.

"The curse." whispers Scathach from beside me. "It has activated."

"That is enough, Morgan." I say as I approach her.

"What are yo-"

"Shut it." firmly orders Scathach as she interrupts Morgan. "I do not wish to hear a single sound out of your mouth."

Walking over to the child, I kneel in front of her and wipe her tears.

"What is your name, child?" I ask her as she looks up at me with her emerald eyes.

"Mordred." she whispers.

"That is a beautiful name." I answer her as I place my hands under her armpits and lift her. "Come. Your mother needs to have a few words with her teacher. How about we find the kitchen and make ourselves something to eat."

"Is mother in trouble?" asks the adorable child as we make our way to the kitchen.

"A little bit." I reply as we approach the kitchen.

"Why?" asks Mordred.

"Because she hurt you little one." I answer as I set her down on a counter and go about searching the kitchen for ingredients.

"I don't think that she did anything bad. Even though my arms hurt and she was being a little mean, I'm okay with it because I want to become strong enough to beat up the bad magus Merlin so that she can be happy." explains Mordred as she sits on the counter and swings her legs, her expression no longer downcast.

"You want to beat the bad mage Merlin?" I ask her with a raised eyebrow.

"Yup." she answers with an enthusiastic nod. "Then mother will be happy and she won't make me do painful training anymore. Plus I can become the greatest knight ever if I do."

Looking at the child's optimistic face, I cannot help but smile at the similarities between her and Aoife. Both were born from powerful parents, both are overly energetic, and both aspire to become powerful warriors.

"Can I ask you something?" asks the child as I go about making her a sandwich.

"I believe that you just did." I answer with a mischievous smile.

"You know what I mean." she replies with a pout as she crosses her arms.

"Of course. Go ahead." I say with a chuckle.

"Are you my father?" she asks with a thoughtful expression on her face.

"What makes you think that I am?" I question her back as I go cooking the meat.

"Well, mother listens to you, and she doesn't listen to anybody. She even let you take me away." explains the child.

"Do you want me to be your father?" I ask her as I place the remaining ingredients in the sandwich.

"If you become my father, will you teach me how to become a knight? Mother only teaches me magecraft." says the child as she picks up her sandwich and takes a bite.

"What makes you think that I can teach you that?" I question with a raised eyebrow.

"Because you're strong." she replies as she continues to chew.

"Very well. From now on I will be your father, and I will teach you how to become the greatest knight in history. Your first lesson is simple, never talk with your mouth full." I tell her as I ruffle her hair.

"Wait!" she exclaims after she swallows. "Are you really gonna be my father, and teach me how to become a knight?"

"Of course little one. When you are finished with your training, you will be an even better knight than King Arthur. First however, you must finish your food."

My answer comes in the form of an enthusiastic nod as she continues to happily eat her sandwich.