It wasn't exactly... pleasant to hear all of that. It was one thing to know that Merlin was behind perhaps everything he'd done in recent years, it was another to know the details of it. And yeah, Merlin had been the real hero in a lot of places and it sounded like if Merlin hadn't intervened, then Camelot would have been destroyed. His father would have died years ago. Who even knew where Morgana would be. Guinevere would've been lost to him and she was more precious than the kingdom when it came down to it.

Arthur had actually lost track of how many times he owed Merlin his own life while he had been talking.

He'd knighted men for a fraction of the things Merlin had done. But as far as he knew (and still believed) those same men didn't hide anything near what Merlin had. Arthur sighed quietly, staring at the sword in his lap. He hadn't thought to put it away the entire time Merlin had been talking.

Cast me away. There was no place in Camelot for lies of that size. His father had tried that, Morgana and Agravaine had as well and it made Arthur's skin crawl to think about building his kingdom on anything but truth and honor. Take me up. Though if anyone else had ever been so loyally dedicated to Arthur and his kingdom, the king was hard pressed to name them.

"... thank you, Merlin." Whether or not Arthur was thanking him for telling him or everything that he'd done, well. Arthur himself probably wouldn't be able to say.