Camelot proceeded without a hitch except a few conflicts with King Lot and Morgan, nothing Artoria and her knights couldn't handle.

Mordred grew up rather well. I still visit every now and then, and she seems to be coming up pretty well, if a bit hard headed. Though, it isn't a bad attitude or anything, just general hard headed-ness.

Which is a trait I noticed all Pendragons have. Artoria, Morgan, Agravain, Gawain, Gareth and Gaharis. All of them hard headed.

Heck, I remember Lancelot saying that Gareth would sometimes just smack her head on her training dummies and shrug it off. The fact Gaharis and Gawain didn't have a problem with that just added evidence to that fact.

I don't even want to know what Artoria thought because, knowing her, she'd praise Gareth for having such endurance.

Anyway, back to Mordred. She went on to become a knight, which weirdly enough surprised Artoria, but didn't surprise Kay or Merlin.

When Artoria asked why would a girl like Mordred choose being a knight instead of focus what kind of dress to wear for the next party, Kay and Merlin gave her a deadpan look that I remember to this day.

The Round Table knights grew in numbers. Gaharis and Gareth joined eventually alongside many others. So did Lancelot's prodigy, Galahad.

I didn't get along well with Galahad. It's not to say that we had any bad blood. We just tended to avoid each other. There was a certain... narcissism to Galahad that reminded me of fairies, which I didn't like.

Back to Mordred, she managed to join the ranks of the Round Table. She also got Clarent. Though, not by stealing it. She actually got it as a gift from Artoria on the day she became a knight of the Round Table.

They've grown quite close. In fact, Artoria even left Mordred in charge of Camelot when she went with her armies to fight off Roman invaders. I didn't take any part of the battles there because, this time, the fights were between humans only.

Elementals like me have no say in the wars of man.

I did pay regular visits to Mordred during the time Artoria was away, though. One in particular was interesting because it was after Morgan tried to play mind games with Mordred.

I stretched my puppet body as I walked around the castle. They were fewer guards and knights around with Artoria taking the majority to fight off Roman invaders. The remaining knights of the Round Table were working to make sure the lack of numbers didn't affect their defenses.

While walking around, I found Mordred leaning on one of the walls with her arms crossed. "Hey, Mordred. How have you been?"

She must have been deep in thought because she jumped slightly when I called for her. When she looked at me, she smiled. "Oh, hey, old man Zack! Been a while!"

"So, what were you thinking about?" I bluntly asked.

Mordred looked at me for a couple of seconds before turning away and scratching her head. "Well... Mother kind of showed up."

"I'm sorry you had to go through that," I immediately replied, knowing how unpleasant it was to talk to Morgan.

Mordred snorted. "Yeah, she felt as freaky as you guys said she would," she sighed as her smile turned to a frown. "She said a whole load of crap that I already knew but... It did made me wonder..." she looked back at me again. "Why doesn't father name me their heir?"

"Ah," I realised that Morgan probably tried to put ideas in Mordred's head. "It's probably because, and I honestly don't mean this in any bad way, not everyone is made out to be a king."

Mordred deadpanned at me. "How the hell is that not a bad way!?"

"Because its not a matter of Artoria not caring about you," I replied with a shrug. "Let me ask you something, Mordred. Can you actually picture yourself sitting on a throne and listening to nobles, reports, and requests for hours every single day? Having to put up with just plain incompetent people and morons and then dealing with finding their replacements?"

Mordred looked down in thought before giving me a bitter smile. "Nah, I'd probably snap and just start punching people in the face. I can hardly stop myself from doing that right now with most knights away with father."

I chuckled while giving her a pat on the shoulder. "Not being made out to be a king isn't a bad thing. It's like not being made out to be a carpenter or something. It doesn't mean Artoria cares for you any less. After all, she trusted you to be in charge in her absence, didn't she? She just doesn't want to put you for a job you won't be comfortable with."

Mordred looked down again before she smiled. "Yeah, I guess you're right. Guess Mother was full of crap like you guys told me."

"There you go!" I patted her on the shoulder with a proud smile.

"Sir Mordred!" Gareth suddenly came in running before she stopped and saw me. "Oh! Zack! It's great to see you again!" She immediately smiled at me.

"Good to see you, too, Gareth," I replied.

"What's wrong, Gareth?" Mordred asked.

"Ah, there's a few clashes in some knights' schedules. We want to run through any changes we made with you before we implement them," Gareth explained.

Mordred sighed and shook her head. "Fine, I'll be right there," she turned to give me one last smile. "See you later, old man Zack!" With that, she walked away.

"Sir Mordred! You can't call Zack that," Gareth cried out, following her sibling. "You have to be more respectful to the elderly!"

I snorted and had to stop myself from outright laughing. I didn't really take offence in how Mordred called me, and the fact Gareth was unknowingly calling me the same thing just made it whole deal funny.