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

Chapter 94: Sides of a Story

____

A few hours later, Tedros had been riding with his father's knight across sun-drenched hills.

The two had made good time through the night, moving east from Camelot through the outskirts of Pifflepaff Hills, before curving north towards Nottingham. They'd traveled in silence, each in a long, black coat, with hoods shadowing their faces, so that even the few riders they encountered hurried past, avoiding eye-contact, no doubt thinking they were minions of the Snake.

At night, the Endless Woods usually left Tedros tense and on edge, especially with Wanted posters of Lance's and his mother's faces coming in and out of the dark at him, tacked to trees as he passed. but the young king was distracted by the sheer freedom of being on open land. It was the first time in almost a year that he'd left the castle. He hadn't realized how claustrophobic he'd been, sealed inside that crumbling compound, no matter how vast it was. Nor had he realized how relieved he would feel away from Excalibur taunting him at all hours of the day, despite having to replace his hallowed sword with a middling blade he'd scrounged from the armory. And though he could sense the tension inside him building, as if a storm was coming, he felt unshackled out here, more capable and knightly than he ever did in the castle— even when he and Lancelot galloped through Camelot's slum cities spattered with graffiti and effigies denigrating his reign... even when they skirted the shells of towns ravaged by the Snake's attacks... even when his conversation with his mother kept pulsing in his head...

"She grew too close to your father, Tedros..."
"... always insinuating herself between your father and I...

"There was something about that room I never liked..."

All through the ride, Lancelot's black horse stayed neck and neck with Tedros' blue-gray one, though the king rode at a reckless pace, not stopping once to eat or sleep. Tedros kept glancing over at his knight, but Lance was always there, right beside him, his face as placid as Tedros' was clenched.

And indeed they reached Nottingham's outskirts, it was Tedros who halted first, his back hurting, stomach aching, and bladder bursting. He almost fell out of the saddle, darting behind a shrubby tree, while Lancelot opened a bag and laid out a late breakfast of smoked salmon, toasted bread, and fresh pears.
"How much longer to Nottingham?" Tedros asked impatiently when he sat, lumping salmon between pieces of bread and scarfing it down.
"You're not due in Sherwood Forest until six," said Lancelot, watching Tedros stuff more in his mouth. "No need to give yourself indigestion."

"I have business in Nottingham first," said Tedros.
The knight snorted. "No one has business in Nottingham." '
"I need to see Lady Gremlaine."
"Thought we got rid of that woman."
"I have questions to ask her."
"About what?"
Tedros glared at the knight. "None of your concerns."

Lancelot took his time putting salmon on his toast, "You're right. None of my business if you think your steward has a child with your father." Tedros stopped eating, mouth full. "You don't think I would have thought of it too? For a half-second at least," said Lancelot. "You not pulling Excalibur. Guinevere hating that woman. The Snake saying he's Arthur's son. All the clues are there."
"And yet...?" Tedros said.
"They don't add up. You didn't know your father when he was young. When he came to the school for Good, he was shy and anxious, and a newly crowned king. No matter how popular he became or how much muscle he built or how cocky he might have acted, he was always that same Arthur inside, asking why he was chosen to pull Excalibur over everyone else in the Woods. It was Arthur's greatest strength: he relentlessly questioned himself and wanted the brutal Truth. It's why he chose me as a best friend, a greasy, pockmarked lout who would tell him the Truth instead of all the refined Everboys who'd lie and say whatever he wanted to hear. And it's why he chose Gwen over all the other girls who just wanted him for his crown. "