Mordred - II

Artoria -"What do you want to talk about."

Mordred -"I wanted to hear something from you. I started thinking from the day of disbanding of the knights of the Round Table. You said we let you down. But your policies failed not only with the nobles, but also the masses. You have clairvoyance, so you should know these policies would fail, yet you still followed through. You said we never gave you proper solutions for the problems plaguing the empire, but did you seriously need them. Furthermore, you had always come with solutions on your own. What really made you leave an empire behind? You need better excuses to fool someone."

Artoria -"Good question. Next."

Mordred -"Answer me, seriously."

Artoria -"OK, I was just trying to leave behind an empire whose governance policies would look up to in the future. I am sure what I failed to achieve, they would surely be able to. I wanted to plant the ideas through these policies which might fail me in this era but in future, we'll see. Don't you think the successors would be amazed at what I have achieved through my years as a ruler? I modernized the agriculture, promoted cultural and social exchanges and stopped the practice of looting from the villages to support wars. Oh! I was undefeated throughout my rule and united the isle of Britain and, I suppose, I'm the first one to unite the whole of Britain. Quite a grand record. Aren't I praiseworthy."

Mordred was trying hard to steer the conversation towards Artoria's true goals, instead Artoria kept going on tangents, derailing from the original question.

Mordred -"Wasn't all that the duty of the ideal king?"

Artoria -"Ideal ruler, heh! Uther and Merlin found it easy to sway the public and noble support that way. Merlin foretold the prophecy of the Red dragon and White dragon. But truthfully, there is no special red and white dragon. Both me and Vortigern got our dragon ancestry from the last true dragon, Dragon of Albion. Funnily enough, he hates the humanoid Dragons and if he were alive, he would have definitely made sure to remove both Vortigern and me."

Mordred -"So Merlin and Uther wanted you to keep Vortigern out of Britain, got it. My mother interfered, thinking if you have right to the throne, so should she. To my knowledge, both Grand uncle Vortigern and mother had inherited the primeval black power directly from Britain. Grandfather also had this power. On the other hand, you did not inherit this power. It was as if, no, there is no if, the entire Britain was vehemently against your lordship."

Artoria -"If Morgan accepted both humans and fae maybe then, nah-ah, she was at first so much into that proper lady bullshit. It was funny to see her slowly fall from grace as she goes from a pure fae to a twisted witch. She thought I got all the love from Uther and Igraine. It was funny, Vivian was my magic instructor while Morgan wanted me dead. Those were the fun days. While I faced very strong opposition, but Vortigern was also looming around. I had to prove myself in war, and they considered me as a card against him."

Mordred -"You have a twisted sense of humour."

Alisa -"Yer a yin scary lassie." (you are a one scary lady.)

Mordred -"She has always been like that, fearless of anything in front of her. She scared the nobles shitless when she found nobles going against her orders."

Alisa -"Whit did she dae?" (What did she do?)

Mordred -"Oh, at first we were a kingdom with different tribal rulers under her liege. She established some rules and laws using her authority. Rules were like guidance, you could break them and there would be no consequences, but Laws were different. Each one had to follow them irrespective of their social status. Now among these rulers most were only supporting her in the fear of Vortigern. So they didn't oppose at first. Since anything related to war was directly under her control, so were the war slaves. It's all fine and good until her liege decided to ban slavery and free the war slaves, but Nobles and citizens were against it, so she ceded it at first, but inhuman treatment was banned. But some nobles and citizen undermined her authority. They only thought of her as a woman and nothing more. They not only tortured the slaves but to acquire more slaves attacked the villages from the annexed territories."

Mordred stopped and began to recall the things that Artoria did in anger.

Alisa -"Whit neist?" (What next?)

Artoria -"Nothing happened. I just at first trained my own army from scratch that only listened to me and not others. Making sure when nobody was expecting, I held the local rulers' hostage when they gathered for the new year party. I united myself as Britain Empress and began dismantling the armies of these lords and nobles. I centralized the army under my leadership and then began implementing the laws and polices that would help shape a beautiful Britain. Everyone just reacted too much, I am not some super mastermind that used unthinkable tactics. Everyone underestimated me and paid for it, and now everyone over-exaggerated what actually took place. I just hit it when it was time and hit it hard."

Mordred -"Also mention that people who first refused to adhere to your law, you made them carve in stone with one hand and legs tied, and I quote 'Slavery Bad' 1000 times. Citizens, nobles and lords from men to women, none spared. You can see a field in every major city with large stones with names and the quote engraved. And you ask me we exaggerated your story. Your attitude truly changed after you united the Britain or you were bidding for your time. If at first, everyone held you in high esteem for your leadership and impartiality, they began to fear you for your same impartiality and leadership. From this point there was no option of arguing your decisions, only executions. Nobles noticed the disappearance of those who tried to rebel and were scared shitless."

Artoria -"Not stroking my own ego, but I was a war commander and Merlin and Uther trained me for it. I found that the Britain divided under various Rulers of tribes would easily fall to Scottish and Picts from the north or Saxons and Lucius Tiberius of Rome. So, I made sure Britain stood tall and flourished. As for the Laws and punishments, I was kind enough to not execute anyone for going against the laws I established. I demanded everyone to follow the Laws I set, since I myself adhered to them. Who are these nobodies to go against them, if I bound myself with these laws then everyone that steps in the empire had to."

Alisa -"Yer selfish." (You're selfish.)

Artoria -*HaHaHa* "For I am a ruler."

Alisa -"Ye cuid hae handled it kindly." (you could have handled it kindly)

Artoria -"I tried at first but failed. I had promised someone to build a beautiful Britain laden with smiles, but I could not. So, my only aim was to push the history in such a way that it give me what I want. I have laid the groundwork and waiting for the time when people will be forced to recognize it themselves. Only despair can make people learn the value of peace and equality. One day, the words I forced them to carve on the stones will be carved on their hearts. I am a ruler and I will get what I want."