The next day there would only be 3 rounds of jousting, the top eight, the top four and the semifinals.
The top eight and top four went by in a heartbeat and now it was the semifinals.
Taylor took his seat beside Guinevere, and they watched Sir Alynor take the victory becoming the first of the two finalists.
Then before the second semifinal match between Sir William and Sir Leon, Gauis came over and sat beside Taylor.
Taylor and Gaius talked and he told Taylor about how Merlin had vented to him about how he hasn't had a moment to lay down ever since he first arrived in Camelot, after Gaius found him sleeping on the floor in his quarters without finishing his chores.
While Taylor knew that Arther hasn't left and Merlin is still serving him, Gaius doesn't know that and Merlin isn't allowed to tell anyone by Arther's order.
And Taylor wasn't going to outright tell Gaius that Arther was still here but he did give him a hint, " Gaius look over there, do you see who Merlin is currently working for?" Taylor subtly pointed towards the rest tents where the knights that are participating in the jousting tournament rested and waited.
Gaius looked over and saw Merlin giving "sir William" his lance.
" He is working for Sir William of Daria!?" Gaius said with surprise, he wasn't surprised that Merlin was working for a knight as he was already aware of that, but he thought that it would have been Sir Leon not a knight who was unknown to anyone before the tournament.
Under Taylor's carful wordplay Gaius came to a certain conclusion and decided that he would talk to Merlin later tonight.
Very soon after the chat between the two of them, Sir Leon and Arther as Sir William arrived to their starting point.
But Taylor also noticed that the way Guinevere looked at Arther had changed compared to the previous day.
" Do you no longer favour Sir William?" Taylor asked.
" I think he's an arrogant pig." Guinevere replied absent mindedly.
But upon realising who she said that to she started to panic.
Before she said anything, Taylor whispered, " Don't worry Gwen I won't say anything, however maybe you should actually tell him how you feel, after all, he's not the prince right now."
Taylor let Guinevere sit on that thought and proceeded to watch the match between prince Arther and Sir Leon.
Without any hesitation after the 2 flag bearers ran the outside the 2 rode towards each other.
.
.
.
One was unhorsed and the other firmly in his saddle.
The knight in his saddle was thrusting his lance into the air showing his elation at his victory over his opponent.
While the knight that was on the ground got up and accepted his loss with grace.
' Well it seems that Arther is thoroughly going to enjoy his victory over Leon, although I suppose that's understandable as this was the whole reason that he faked his journey to the northern border.'
Time passed and it was later in the afternoon when Taylor who was buying food for dinner from the market when he bumped into Guinevere.
" Hello Gwen, are you also shopping for dinner?" Taylor asked.
" Actually thanks to your advice I told him everything and to apologise he said he will cook dinner." Replied Guinevere.
"He's cooking."
*she nodded*
" The he I'm thinking of."
*she nodded*
" Does he even know how to cook?"
" I don't know, I suppose it will be a surprise for both of us."
After chatting for a short while later Guinevere and Taylor went their separate ways.
Taylor finished all his shopping and returned to his room, that he had added a kitchen too, during the past month.
Although not as refined and what he was used to, the health and safety of food preservation in this world had reached a satisfactory level of refinement. So all the meat, vegetables and fruit products that he had bought where all very clean.
Today's dinner is going to be roast beef, with pees, carrots, roast potatoes and wine to drink, because it would either be that or water.
And while normally it would take a long time to roast the beef the magic of this world could still allow him to speed up or slow down time within a small area.
Once he finished preparing dinner plated up two plates for dinner and set the table, soon after a knock at the door could be heard.
Taylor opened the door to Morgana in a beautiful dining dress… and a total of 10 knights also standing outside.
This was going to be their first time having a meal at night together.
" Well now, Morgana you look absolutely gorgeous, like the moonlight on a winter's night."
Morgana gave a slight smile before saying, " oh my, should I take that as a insult or a compliment, after all you could be saying that I'm cold and unfeeling."
" I'm afraid it's very much a compliment, after all If I meant you were cold and unfeeling, I would've said you felt like the moonlight on a winters night."
Morgana has been consistently enjoying the little back and forth with Taylor as before she could only do this with Arther and he felt more like a brother to her than anything else.
Taylor than jested for her to enter, so Morgana told the knights to remain outside and entered Taylor's quarters and the door closed.
They had a very enjoyable conversation over dinner, however as much as Taylor has tried to avoid it the topic, Morgana still asked about the necklace he gave her and the correlation it has to her nightmares.
So Taylor choose to tell her that it is a magic item that works slightly similar to a dream catcher but for nightmares.
Obviously Morgana felt a variety of emotions, not all necessarily positive but the most major one was still relief as it truly had been Beyond her recollection of when she had last dreamed so peacefully.
The diner concluded on a positive note and Morgana proceeded to her chambers.
…
A few hours later, Taylor was laying down in his bed when a knock came from his door.
" Who is it?" Taylor called out.
The answer came in a hushed tone, so hushed in fact that if it was anyone else they would not have been able to hear " Teacher, it's me Merlin."
" Come on in." Taylor responded while getting out of bed.
The door opened and Merlin walked in.
Merlin then explained to Taylor that a soldier was found dead and have most likely been dead for two days now, and that it is all but confirmed that the assassin Mryor has already arrived in Camelot.
" Gwen told us that you know, so I hope for some advice."
" what do you want to know?"
" How can I quickly find the assassin before they find Arther?"
" Well they have most likely already found Arther but just haven't the perfect chance to kill him yet, so you currently have two options, a magical one and a non-magical one, which one would you like?"
Merlin took a full minute to make his decision and once he finished thinking he gave his answer.
" The non-magical one Teacher."
Taylor gave a smile, " This is why I like you are the best Merlin, you've learned to only use magical methods as last resort."
" Okay Merlin for the non-magical method, only a simple thought process needs to be followed, what would be the perfect place currently for an assassination to happen without anyone realising it was an assassination?"
Obviously Merlin could come to a quick conclusion with a hint like that.
" The upcoming finals."
" Yep, because if the assassin has realised that 'he' is jousting as William then Myror will try and joust in place of sir Alynor."
" Sir Alynor is in danger."
" Only if the assassin has found that 'he' is jousting… did anyone approach you while serving 'sir William'?"
Merlin thought back to the day before when a dark skinned man approached him asking mostly casual questions until he brought up whether he was still serving Arthur.
Merlin now knew who he needs to lookout for and who needed to be protected, but how he could do that while keeping Arther's secret safe.
Well he is clever enough to work out what to do, he asked Taylor to do something and Taylor agreed.
Merlin thanked Taylor and left in order to go to where Gwen and Arther currently are.
…
The next day instead of sitting in the audience stands like normal Taylor was at the rest area for the two finalists.
Taylor was there under the semi-guise of wishing good luck to the two on behalf of Morgana, which isn't a lie as she had indeed asked him to do so during dinner last night.
Taylor gave the compliments to the one who is the face of sir William.
And then proceeded to sir Alynor.
Taylor then gave similar yet different compliments and they talked for a while longer.
A minute before they talked, Myror had peeked into sir William's tent and confirmed the presence of Arther wearing an identical set of armour to the person who is the face of sir William.
He then proceeded to sir Alynor's tent but upon seeing Taylor he moved just out of sight, but in that single moment Merlin spotted him bringing Sir Leon and a small group of knights to surround him.
" Assassin Myror, by order of the king you are here by arrested for attempting to assassinate the prince." Said sir Leon with his sword drawn pointing towards Myror.
Myror seeing that his back was to the tent, entered through one of the gaps only to be impaled by a sword that had been pointing in his direction.
The one holding the sword… Taylor.
In fact Taylor and sir Alynor had entered his tent to discuss business as sir Alynor had ordered a sword from him, so Taylor wanted to check out his current personal sword to get a idea on how he uses it and what he is used to using.
Sir Alynor handed Taylor his sword and as Taylor began to inspect it Myror ran into it piercing his heart.
Needless to say sir Leon, Merlin and the rest of the knights entered and seeing the scene realising Myror would not be getting arrested.
But this would stay as a footnote as it was time for the finalists to face off.
Both Arther and Sir Alynor traded hit for hit, neither being unhorsed even as the went into their 5th round.
Then it came to one final blow from each and the unhorsing finally happened.