'Yeah, 'kay," Kaden nodded at the suggestion, even though he found himself just a little stung that Merlin didn't want to take the trouble and tell the stories himself. He was still going to read the books— he was curious, honestly, about Arthur, way more than the battles. Although blood, shit, brutality, victory, death— nearly everything he read lately was full of all that. He wasn't shying away from the battles, just perhaps shying... kinda a bit more toward Arthur? It was something about the way Merlin had talked about him that was digging deep.
Besides, how often did you get to finish a book and then interrogate one of the characters about what happened?! Imagine meeting Jake from Animorphs— oh god, imagine meeting Cassie.
"It's Kaden," he added, swinging his foot beneath the bench and watching it instead of the wizard. "Just by the way."