#which is easily abetted by Williams whole 'screw the monarchy' thing

[ireallyneedaintrestinglife]

Ok I know this would never happen in canon but like I cannot get the idea out of my mind.

We know that Ealdor is a small village on the edge of Cenreds kingdom, near Camelot. Imagine Cenred traveling through Ealdor to get to Camelot so they can make some kind of deal or whatnot and they stop at Ealdor for the night.

When they arrive everyone is all 'yes sire' 'of course sire' bowing and polite and 'my king this' or 'my king that'. Except, that is, for Merlin. He gets scolded by Hunith multiple times to not stare directly at royalty and to bow and do this or that but he flat out refuses to speak to them at all.

This eventually leads to Hunith coming up with the lie that Merlin can't speak so he, hopefully, won't get in trouble for not treating them with the respect they think they deserve.

When Hunith finally manages to drag Merlin into their little cottage to ask him why he's acting this way Merlin mentions that Cenred feels icky and wrong. When she tries to get him to elaborate Merlin can only respond with a few short words.

"He is NOT My King"