Wizard's Wish - (Kinda) Yandere SGE x reader

Chapter 79: How Not to Throw a Coronation

(Just so u know, a lot of chapters will be in only Y/n's Pov, but maybe someone else's if she is around heavily. But plot relevant chapters like this and the next chapter which are from the viewpoint of other characters will be included because it would be missing a lot and might still include characters talking about Y/n. But some chapters like for example the Coven looking for a new School Master won't be included.)

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Though he had no time for himself, no time for Y/n, not time at all, Tedros refused to get soft.

In his knee-length black socks and cut-off breeches, he shone through the dark, muggy halls of Gold Tower, a towel slung over his bare, tanned chest. He knew it was in vain and obsessive, this getting up at half past four to exercise, but it felt like the only thing left, like the only thing left he could actually control. Because at six on the dot, Lady Gremlaine and four male stewards would barge into his room and from that moment until he slogged back into bed at night and he didn't need any more trouble. His kingdom was already on the verge of revolt. That's why he'd ceded Lady Gremlaine total control over the castle. As Arthur's once-steward, she would be well-managed. But there was another reason he'd let Gremlaine keep him on a tight leash, one he could never say out loud.
Tedros didn't trust himself as king.

He needed someone like Lady Gremlaine who could watch his every move, who would check his every decision. If he'd only listened to her at the coronation, none of this would have happened. But he was listening to her now. Because if there was one thing he knew, it was that there could be no more mistakes.

Last night had already been a serious blunder. Lady Gremlaine had warned him not to repeat his father's errors and let a girl interfere with his duties as king. Tedros took this warning seriously. Up until yesterday, he'd done well to concentrate on his task and let Y/n concentrate on hers, even if it meant he'd had more freedom to see Y/n at school than he did now as king in his own castle. But then he'd gone and snuck into her room dead-tired, defenses down, and acted like a sniveling child. Tedros cringed, replaying the moment in his head. He'd brought Y/n to Camelot away from everyone else and everything she knew, and he wanted her to feel safe and care of. But instead she had to live in almost isolation and bombarded with work, and Agatha was so busy with the work he gave her that he couldn't even feel happy that he knew Y/n at least had Agatha. He couldn't let her see how weak and scared he was. He couldn't let her see that all he wanted to do was run away with her. To hold her tight and shut the world out. To keep her all alone with him and nobody else. And she would be his, and only his.
Stop acting like a mad man, Tedros chastised himself. Act like a king.
So he promised he would never interrupt Y/n like that again , even if it left a big black hole in his heart.

Tedros scuttled through the hall's colossal gold passage and soaring arches, sweat sopping his wavy blond hair, his breeches sticking to his thighs. He couldn't remember the castle ever feeling this stifling. Two mice darted past him into a hole in the plaster. A procession of ants wove around the friezes of famous knights on the wall, now damaged and missing limbs. When his father and mother were king and queen, this hall used to be minty clean, even in the August doldrums, Now it smelled lik dead cat.

Down three flights he went, socks slippery on dull gold stone, before he hustled through the Gymnasium, a lavish collection of training equipment surrounded by weapons and armor from Camelot's history, enclosed in glass cases. One would assume this was Tedros' destination, but instead he scurried right through, his pure blue eyes pinned to the dusty floor, trying not to look at the large glass case in the center of the room... the one case that happened to be empty. Its placard read: Excalibur

He was still thinking about that large, empty case when he arrived at King's Cove, a sunken bathing pool in the bowels of the castle. When he was a young prince, this man made grotto had flowering vines around tall piles of rock and a steaming-hot waterfall. The balmy water once shimmered with a thousand purple and pink lights from fairies who tended the pool in exchange for safe shelter at Camelot. Tedros remembered his mornings here as a child, racing the fairies around his father's statue at the center of the pool, his tiny opponents lighting up the water like fireworks.