Escalation Tendency (3)

It's been two months since the campaign of France, and the situation was just slightly more stable than the last time I was there.

The new Kingdom of Gallia had to face two distinct issues that swiftly demanded the attention of the newest 'King'. Vallius, or Vallia, proved in this circumstance that, albeit unprepared to some of the aspects tied to the new problems. I still had a bit of unease at the idea of putting a young woman in charge of a kingdom, especially one that lived Ria's own lie for the sake of not being shunned and rejected as a possible king. In a way, the reasons made for a massive difference for the two as Ria would still be able to rule as a Queen, but she would definitely end up having to face some stronger opposition by the nobles and numerous wedding proposals. Still, Vallia listened at what I ended up writing in my letters regarding possible options to take to curb these worries, and, after making sure to pick the best ones available through the advice of some trustworthy friends with expertise on each matter, the former commander proved that she was capable of being a more than decent king by steadily moving on to deal with this troublesome double trouble. The problems in this case were: 1) Reorganizing the cultural organization in the land while also removing the loyal vassals of the previous monarch; 2) fixing the food situation.

The first was quite obvious to describe. The new ruler couldn't exactly leave some of the more troublesome families in charge of any strategically important regions. So, through the fact that her army was still mobilized and ready to strike in case they tried anything funny like a revolt or even a rebellion, Vallia had them sign their territorial holding back to the crown for the time being and she started to gauge who should get those seats. She took a rather slow pace, still using local administrators to delegate as she took a full month to search through the many good men and women that could potentially own these lands. In the end, four regions were given to individuals from humble families. This unusual choice which saw her grilled by some of the old guard nobility was reasoned through the fact that the people weren't going to accept any attempt to subvert the idea that a Gallian Region should be governed by a Gallian person. The people wouldn't accept a Roman, nor someone that was known to work for Romans. So, in a rather bittersweet ending, Vallia managed to put through loyal administrators that were aware of their regions' plights and could work to improve those rather than focusing on improving their family's wealth. I sent a letter to praise her about this step taken, but I also wrote about her interesting proposal regarding trade deals.

In fact, the second issue was tied to the destroyed fields during the war. It hadn't been caused by the invading army, but the defenders attempting to sever the logistic boon of having closer food to rely on. I had already countered that issue way before that happened when I studied my campaign for Scotland. The only thing that prevented a full-fledged collapse from happening was that Morgan didn't demand the burning of fields which could have sustained the advance of the army. An army with an empty-stomach was the same as having an army of children. While the children would constantly whine and rant about wanting to be home, the men would just demand the right things but whine nonetheless. A demoralized army was the worst kind of army. Which is why I saw it fit to organize a logistic company for each army and pack it with cooks and other food specialists which would be tasked with keeping watch over the food reserves while also expanding those if necessary through the ingredients they could find in the natural locations they ended up visiting. Food was never a problem for us, but now it was a problem for the new Kingdom, and Vallia outright refused to establish a complete reliance on our wheat production. On the other hand, she couldn't exactly expect Gallia to pull itself up on its own. People had lost their homes and their work, so she had to find a solution that relied on both us and also the strength of her new nation.

The resulting effort was a trade deal. A reasonable one at that. Vallia requested for two things in exchange of monetary compensation: She wanted to have a small but steady flow of wheat to sustain the needy people just long enough for her other request to bear some fruits. The other need was 'men of work that had experience on the land'. She wanted skilled workers to help her build a generation of more experienced and aware farmers and peasants that would eventually restore the agricultural economy back up for Gallia to be independent on trade. It was feasible, and I could send some 'experts' to help her with that goal. The money would be delivered in installations to avoid any major economic upheaval. It kept coming precisely on the days indicated by the group she hired to deal with this exchange. Very efficient, very precise. I was definitely feeling better about having pulled a Merlin now. It still didn't help that she also had to contend with a 'neutral' border on the east and a shaky one in the south.

The girl allowed a small but effective standing army to remain. It was mostly made by the men that had been recruited and that didn't have a job as civilians the moment the levy was called off. There was no complaint about that decision, mostly because it was all set to reinforce the border in the south against the Visigoths and the Burgundians. I suggested taking steps to neutralize the latter fraction since they weren't tied to either Odoacer's kingdom and they were foes to both the Alemannis and the Visigoths themselves. It was a plan currently being looked upon, but she expressed reluctance until the economic situation was solved. Something that I agreed to, but reminded her that it was only for the best to find a time to strike as soon as the new country's economy was geared to take the costs of warfare without any major repercussions on the homefront. That, we were on the same line about.

Another matter which interested Vallia, but mostly me due to my first meeting with their king, was the concessions offered to the Franks. The promised trade deal came to be, with a good part of the wines from the Gallian vineyards being exchanged for resources to aid Vallia's state to recover from the recent war ravaging its land. The tribes kept away from making moves through the borders as raids were put off for the time being. The real hope here was to eventually convert the tribal nation in a proper kingdom, something I could tell was already possible due to the fact that, historically-speaking, Clovis did become the first King of Franks after conquering Soissons so… it was technically possible to coerce him to eventually become the leader of a kingdom and form a solid Christian powerhouse between the Benelux and North-West Germany. Which was good and did more to lessen the chances of new 'barbarian' invasions too close to home. I brought the situation tied to Mya about her family and my lovely wife was interested about it due to the many ideas that were offered in the long term. "A family", she commented sweetly while hugging me in the happiest mood I have seen her in a while, "I have more family than before."

The overall Gallic 'Revival' was something that angered Lucy. The girl had expected it to be more Roman and for the Barbarians to be shoved out of the 'rightful Roman land'. I reminded her that it wasn't exactly necessary, not when there were too many enemies and very few of our neighbors were actually geared to be useful. The Franks were a dominant force in the dual region they occupied, with their military skills refined by numerous clashes between their Germanic brethren and Rome itself. So, despite her best attempt (which also saw some seduction attempt gone wrong), the redhead conceded to my point. And actually started to be more of a pain in the ass to improve her 'lacking' seduction skills. Of course, the best adjective would have been non-existing and preferably meant to be kept as such for the greater good of my sanity. With the situation in continental Europe mostly peaceful, I took the chance to further expand on the available reforms and work on finally bringing up new institutions to reform society. I finally tackled education to a more extended level.

I decided to finally set up mandatory elementary school from the age of five up to the age of fifteen. Considering the current age, fifteen was the age of adulthood for many due to how easy it was for men and women to die of illnesses that we had yet to discover a cure for. And since adulthood meant being sent to work, I knew that I couldn't keep anyone at school beyond that age. Various experts from localized areas were selected to form four public schools: one in Londinium, one in Lindum (modern-day Lincoln), one in Eboracum (modern-day York), and the last one in Dumbarton where a major Roman settlement once existed. I had plans to expand this, adding specialization schools for those that wanted to further expand their skills and experiences before starting to work. Medicine further improved as I started to fund the projects of turning some of the new buildings in the major hubs into proper hospitals. It was about time that the effort in updating medical care was expanded to the rest of the kingdom after it had remained restrained to the capital for a while now. I was taking all possible steps to solve the most common and most dangerous medical cases from becoming a serious issue to the subjects, but I already knew that many would still die due to how long this process was meant to be. It was an unpleasant reminder but… I was doing what I could. And I knew that, while I couldn't save them all, I could at least save those after them and the generations that followed.

The path of being a good king was running smoothly… and I wanted to believe the same when it came to the role of being a parent.

Little Mordred was… a cutie pie. I was totally putty with kids, I blame my mom for making me do numerous jobs as a babysitter. After getting to understand the basics of what not to do with a child, it tended to be easy to prevent most of the 'disasters' tied to little toddlers like Mordred. So, while she was handful at times when she was hungry, or she had to poop, or when she wanted company in general, I knew what to do or say to make her happy. Mya was a bit surprised by this, but beamed at the chance of seeing how it works and trying it herself. She started with small things, like how to lull a toddler without being too intense about it, or how to pat her back when she was done eating and needed to be helped digesting. Those sounded insignificant, but a parent has to start from small things before ultimately understanding how the general role was meant to be dealt with. And my dear wife was doing her best about it.

Still, there were times where she was busy with something else or… I just wanted to have my baby girl for myself. And these times saw me take the little one around and even spend some quality time with her by the office. Going through paperwork was tedious on these occasions but… it was still feasible. In fact, it made each session with her particularly amusing as I would be forced to take small breaks to play around with the little terror.

"How is wittle Mordred? Did you sleep fine, sweetie?"

A happy gurgle, little Mordred eagerly reached up for my hand and focused on my index finger. She held it as tight as she could and got it close enough to nuzzle it with her cheek. Another gurgle, her toothless smile just vaporized my heart and I calmly tickled at that soft cheek of hers. "Oh my, what a strong princess, I bet you will be the one punching those trying to take you away from papa when you get old enough for marriage, aren't ya?"

Another half-giggle, I could tell she wasn't aware of what I was telling her, but she was nonetheless fine with it. And that was more than enough for me to feel pleased at that future trouble. I kept on playing, making sure the toddler had all the love and attention as possible without going too far with it or leaving her on the dry end in that aspect. I knew I was incredibly sugarish around her, something that was picked up by the knights themselves when I was around them with the child in my arms.

Lancelot was much to my surprise the one that got the most attention out of the rest. I think it was tied to the fact he tended to wear his armor a lot and it was all strong and mighty. I had been having a good feeling that my lovely daughter had this fixation for fighting. Which would make sense since Morgan conceived her with the intention of making her similar to Ria, to turn her into a weapon against her. Of course, that function was never going to happen until I was alive and even existed as a soul in this world. Nope to that. Out of the rest of the knights in terms of liking for Mordred, the next one was Tristan due to his harp and how he knew how to articulate his music to not be too upsetting for Mordred and actually getting her to like it. Then it was Gaheris, which stood out as an unexpected development due to the fact he had initially wanted to do nothing with his youngest sister. Time proved him wrong as he slowly became quite close to the child and actively became nervous of 'hurting her' while he wasn't looking. Gareth was the least liked, but not due to a lack of effort. Sometimes you are liked by kids, sometimes you're not due to their own grasp on 'liking and disliking'.

With the kingdom prospering, so did Camelot. Despite the few issues we were experiencing with Ria and I regarding the situation concerning Mordred, the fellow monarch was willing to listen when it came to economic advice. She was no fool in underestimating the expenses of handling a kingdom where the vassals were still doing the minimum to solve the plight of the small villages within her territory. I took some celebrations as occasions to personally send monetary gifts in an effort to inject some coin in Camelot's economy despite Ria's mild irritation. The girl had voiced her opposition to this practice, but I mentioned that considering the size and economy of her nation, she had two choices: She either submitted to the idea that she would have to face a civil war to wrestle the control of most of Camelot back to her, or she would have to play the long game with the money I was giving her. The purpose of that budget wasn't to play around with it or make only charitable events. She could ask for the smaller and most insignificant bits of land and settlements and use that money to turn them into profitable sources of new income. She could easily subvert the grim predicament she was in, but she needed to be quick. Much to my relief, she had taken steps to this path and was given some support by Galehaut. It was a small surprise, only because I was aware the man became a staunch supporter of his king's decision-making and willpower, thus granting her a potential ally to keep even beyond the endgame if it meant helping her people.

And so, with the foreign affairs going peacefully back to normal, I thought that the next events were mostly going to remain about Mordred's growth and the reforms I had in mind for my kingdom. Of course, my expectations were dashed away by the rise of sudden reports in several spots of inland England. Numerous attacks on small settlements, barely drawing any victims but causing damage to buildings, walls, and even sections of the roads. At first I thought a new group of bandits had been born from some criminals banding together, but the descriptions of the attackers left me particularly perplexed and even worried when we finally had a drawing from one of the guards that had seen some of the attacks happening. Not a good-looking figure, and one that stole from Altuos a shocked look as he looked through his oldest tomes to find out what was known about it.

The correct term to define it is Mors. There wasn't much known about it beyond it being a type of entity that was considered an enemy to everything that lived. The proof of death, a concentration of self-decadence that led to it being one but also nothing. We had no means to know how it came to be so we couldn't prevent others from being spawned. I tried to search for more since this was proving to be a worrisome issue. It was growing. At first it was as tall as a horse, but with the passing of the days, the beast grew to be twice as tall as a normal horse. Somehow, it was becoming stronger, angrier and more vicious. And it was due to this that I took a rather risky action and sought information from the only one that could tell me more about this kind of creature.

"A Mors?" Morgan hummed in surprise, closing the journal she had been writing on. "And you said that it has been active for a month now?"

"That would be the case, yes," I replied with a calm voice. "I have a couple of questions before hunting it down-"

"If you seek to anger the Faes."

…

"Beg your pardon?"

"The Faes are in charge of hunting down their corrupt kin. Mors are, after all, Faes that have lost purpose and name, and that now have no reason to be beyond to pollute the world."

"Yet there was no report of 'attempts' to stop these attacks. And it's been two weeks now," I countered, to which the woman sighed.

"Which is why this sounds interesting? Faes should have intervened, even so now that one of their flawed mistakes is putting a bad 'impression' of themselves to humans. Which is not convenient when they need to be near human settlements to survive."

I frowned. "Why would they need that?"

"It's not a clear phenomenon, but it ties to the need for self-fulfillment. There is something about humanity that normal nature no longer gives them. Hence why I believe there is a fae community growing near your capital."

That was going to be something to check later on but… I had this first problem to solve first.

"What are the best ways to counter a Mors?"

"There are two that I'm aware of. Either a major assault with men armed with Iron weapons, or… the intervention of a Fae much stronger than the Mors itself."

…

"You're not getting freed."

"Then I guess you can start digging graves for those that are not going to come back home, Joseph. Because there is no amount of planning and time in this world that can spare you from facing a toll from that battle," She argued flatly, her tone almost showing disdain at my refusal. "Of course, my wandering would be strictly tied to you and, considering our current deal, I wouldn't be able to harm you or those you consider friends or allies."

"...Can you really help in killing that entity? Answer honestly."

Morgan scoffed softly. "Do you really think my power has diminished? I'm still a great sorceress with many spells by my tongue. One word and the monster shall be felled by magic itself."

…

"I will bring the other knights-"

"You will not."

"You will be guarded," I sharply interrupted her intervention.

"Which isn't why I said no to that. Your knights have weapons that are blessed by my magic or some other Fae's own power. And thus, they are not effective against a monster that is known as the 'Fairy-Killer'."

That actually left me stumped. Was that actually a thing? I thought about it and knew how some elements that sounded overly simplistic and overly reliant on magical concepts alone were actually a real limitation over the world, both in cases of individuals and items. If a monster was 'named' by magic in a way, then they would definitely gain a form of resilience but also advantage against a specific kind of magical type. Still, that didn't mean I was planning to go there on my own and just Morgan. And I knew there was someone that wouldn't have minded hunting down a mystical beast after dealing with the same monsters for many centuries now.

"Then I suppose I will ask Scathach. I'm sure she will be happy to kill something like that."

I would have imagined Morgan taking a more annoyed look at not having this trip alone with me. In fact, I would have imagined that, after that kiss and the strange looks she gave me, that she would have felt any progress she felt she had made went to ruins with that imposition but… she seemed more concerned about something else.

"Oh, so you wish to bring with us your mistress?"

...

"She is not my mistress," I replied sternly, her smile cleverly irritating me with how it was presented.

"Just because you don't call her that, it doesn't mean her role fits with the title," Morgan teased, knowing that it was a sore spot. "In fact, I doubt anyone would mind if you took her as your second wife. The church? I bet their representative in this city would lavishly support. A good Christian king redeeming a woman of the past, condemned to an atrocious burden, saved by herself by the power of love and compassion."

"Have you been writing cheap romantic stories while you were stuck in this cell?" I questioned back with equal poison, drawing a confused look from the woman. "Like, this sounds like the saddest way to pass time. Why not do something more productive like drawing or-"

"There is nothing cheap or romantic about my dabbling in writing. In fact, I would dare to say that I would be deeply amused if you ended up reading some. Your wife can be quite chatty while holding her daughter. Something about a mole that can't be seen under that much clothes-"

"And I believe we're done talking for now," I interrupted dryly, already walking away. "I hope you're ready by tomorrow, because we will be going from early in the morning."

I was really going to have a long talk with Mya about being this open and easy to pry info from when handling Mordred. It was adorable when it was around people like me or others she could trust. And Morgan was neither. Especially with how much blackmail potential she could use in the matter of teasing and gain control of any conversations if she wanted.

She smiled eagerly. "I'll be ready."

This was going to be a very long week. That much I could already tell...