Crusader Kings (1)

It's been two big months since that meeting with Ria and Guinevere, and let's just say that a lot has happened in that amount of time.

A lot.

Starting from introducing Barghest to Londinium. People weren't exactly fine with a large hound that looked ready to pounce and kill the first target on sight, but actions spoke better than words, so I allowed a few kids to approach the beast and test its tame degree. The large dog wasn't truly convinced at first too, baring her teeth before the bunch of children that were picked for the occasion. 'Brave boys and girls', that were more into trying out how fluffy the dog was. What ensued was Barghest making it a personal mission to actually be subjected to head-pats, chin-scratching and even some belly-rubbing when she felt the itch to get treated to some pseudo-cuddling. Most of the time she would ask either me, Mya or even Lyanna once she got around the size of the big floffy doggo. The redhead proved to be the best 'prepared' for it, going as far as saying that Barghest liked her the most.

A tiny white lie considering that the large fairy dog preferred to rest her head on Mya's lap whenever tired. I would get that treatment too, but it would happen less than it would with my wife. Plus, I guess that very notion came from the fact that my beloved wife's pregnancy was becoming more visible, with her belly growing as she got through the last months of this process. Her moods were moderately weird, nothing too crazy but definitely gaining a few frowns from me and others due to her interesting food choice. Her mood swings were bearable, and the worst that happened through this phase was her necessity to be constantly around me and demanding cuddles. It was adorable, but it also left us both in awkward circumstances when she got a stronger mood out of the proximity. And I could tell that I was doing things to people like Scathach and Morgan. The former was reasonable as she had pressed the issue of going for a new 'deal' with us regarding our relationship, but Mya had been the one to set her foot down on the matter.

I would have expected the woman to be immensely angered by this very development, but for some odd reasons… she wasn't. No, what I could pick up during training or even during some casual talking with the former Warrior Queen was that she was waiting for something. It was as if there had been a conversation that I wasn't aware about and something that, once brought up to Mya, would only get her to smile giddily and silly.

"Can't tell. Girls' talk."

...What the heck?

I would press this for a while, and yet gained no genuine response from it. Actually, that seemed to further enable Mya to be incredibly teasing in this regard, poking fun at my paranoia and calling me a dummy for thinking it was something that awkward. And the way she put it didn't exactly put any worry to rest. Nonetheless, this was perhaps less worrisome than what happened with Morgan. One would think that someone as restrained as the witch would be less conscious of what is going on with the world, but when I first went to visit her and check on her, she asked to have a private talk with me and…

"You took my sister's purity."

The accusation felt less than a random assault and more of an affirmation. Her voice exuded with certainty that left me stomped on how she got to that point.

"What?"

"Feigning ignorance will not spare you from the fact I know that's the case. Odd how she lost that detail of her being when you were visiting her and her little pet," The blonde rebuked strongly, odd anger emerging from her gaze.

"...What if that was the case?"

"It is the case, Joseph. I have left some elements that would warn me of this instance- nothing deadly obviously, but meant to tell me of this kind of development once those happen," The woman replied, and then assured as she spotted the annoyed look on my face at the mention she had something to monitor Ria. "Still, I guess a man can't help himself in keeping just friends with my sister."

"I wasn't the one offering-"

"That's not the issue here, you buffoon!" She yelled, almost jumping at me from her chair and getting me to hold my sword's handle. She spotted that, pausing and then backing off from the confrontation. "The issue here is that now you have started a dangerous game that could either crack your kingdoms or worse. What if that foolish pet of hers notice what happened? What about your wife?"

I opened my mouth to that, but as she finished saying her side of the trouble, I couldn't help but hesitate. Said hesitation was quickly noticed by Morgan and the woman frowned at me harder due to it.

"You told either of them, didn't you?"

"I did not," I replied. "But… they might be aware of this for other reasons."

I didn't need to go deeper in this matter, with the witch giving me a long look and groaning.

"You four… Aren't you and your wife Christians? Wouldn't that be against your religion?"

"Technically speaking-"

"I don't need technicalities. How can you just roll with it? It's childish, absurd- heck, you are going to risk more than losing your crown with this matter."

"Not… truly."

Morgan's spiel stopped, then her gaze moved at me once more as she pressed me on the topic, confused by my response.

"What do you mean? This act-"

"Wasn't against any religious rules. But it will still cause a massive ruckus due to Ria's real gender and… role within society. Two kings sharing a bed with their wives? Very awkward to fully explain."

"That's the least," The woman remarked dryly.

"But that's not the point you're lamenting about, isn't it?" I rebuked flatly, growing annoyed by her vehemence at this point. "After all, your issue with me is tied to the fact it was your sister who got in bed with me."

"...No."

"You are annoyed that it wasn't you, somehow. That I should have picked you instead of her-"

"That's not what I was-"

"Then what do you want out of this, Morgan?" I interrupted again, arms crossed near my chair as I gave her a strong glance. I could tell something about this gnawed really deep in her mind. "Why are you so incensed about it?"

What I got through that visit was silence. She stared back at me, her face slightly pinker than before either due to anger or embarrassment, and tears slowly forming at the edges of her eyes. I wasn't sure what was going on inside her head, but I gave her plenty of time by just leaving after ten minutes without an answer. Reluctance had flashed within her expression, but the blonde refused to bring up that argument beyond that point. Instead I noticed a general effort in ensuing visits where she would try to get close to me, to slowly wrap her fingers around my hand, to sit nearer to me than in previous times. I could see it all, but I refused to either be too loud in that rejection or even ignore it. She could pick the signs herself and I could see it on the upset growing during these times. She knew what would set her free, but decided to be stubborn and prideful, picking the old ways as her favored course of action. Too bad for her…

I thought that would have been the end of it but… that didn't seem to be the case. Lucy had much to think about as she remained in Londinium. I just couldn't help but notice the sudden lack of her outbursts or aggressive efforts of persuasion. No more as touchy, no more as loud- she behaved differently, keeping her brazen behavior despite this strange development, but I was soon able to identify the cause of it all. When Mya was around, Lucy tended to behave quietly and meekly. Not to the point of being confused as a shy girl, but to the point where I could tell she was trying to leave the room unnoticed. An effort denied by Mya's unusual interest to drag the reluctant redhead in conversations whenever she was around. Likewise, a similar behavior unfolded when Scathach was nearby, with the redhead preferring to keep close to the door and leave as quickly as possible and that bizarre reaction seemed to give Scathach amusement. I asked, and, once again, I was given cryptic messages back.

'She is just a bit shy. Worry not, she will be honest when she feels ready.' Mya.

'She is a fool, but there's a chance she can improve from that point.' Scathach.

Yep, I think I will just give up the guessing game before I lose my mind.

Nonetheless, the situation at the homefront was quite calm beyond this kind of drama. The kingdom had finally finished the last steps of the 'centralization' effort, with many autonomous cities within the country now firmly submitted to the capital's will. With submission came help and reform. Builders were dispatched to expand infrastructures in towns, cities and even small villages, a survey on all major roads was called to provide better paths through the entirety of the nation and churches were being built in new places. Britannia had finally cemented its domain within the British Isles, its gaze now aimed elsewhere as it was now able to resume a job left 'unfinished'. Gallia had yet to be fully unified, with the south still being held by the Visigoths. I had thought of going after the dangerous tribal kingdom as soon as possible, but I decided to wait to have a strong enough fleet to cover the Atlantic flank from any incursions from the Spanish ports before going for it. And when the newly-created country asked for help due to some border conflicts escalating in its southern border, and the Alemanni becoming more hostile by the day, I saw fit to organize a 'united front' to crush the Visigots and the Alemanni at once.

Clovis was interested when he was invited in this alliance, even so when I brought him a non-negligible slice of land that would further bolster his Kingdom's standing but also remove a threat from his borders. Vallia had finished going through the last necessary efforts to form a professional army, but mentioned how a prolonged war would be detrimental in the long run. So, the plan for this campaign was simple: free Southern Gallia and provide the lands owned by modern-day Switzerland and the French Comte to the Franks. The decision would permanently seal Gallia's issues in the East, minus Odoacer's kingdom, and fix their focus on a border that was easier to defend. Yes, we were just going to push the Visigoths beyond modern-day Spain's borders and not beyond that. Blockades would do the rest by the time the land objectives we had set to capture were under our control.

What really made this effort 'easy' to look at was the large majority of citizens in these regions being Chalcedonian Christians. The Visigoths had espoused Arianism, which was seen as one of the heretic alterations of the more common Chalcedonian view. And yes, the version of Christianity back home was not Chalcedonian, but 'Britannian', but no council had seen fit to define it as a heretic twist to the religion, so for now we had no trouble in that regard. With the fleet fully modernized and packing enough ships to be a formidable fleet, and the soldiers being sharply trained and provided with better equipment through new technologies to improve the light armor, artillery being able to now pack greater explosives with greater precision, and we were experimenting with some air-balloon technology. Nothing that we could use yet, and it would take about a year or so to get something done would just work the way I wanted. Both for civilian purposes, and war-related reasons.

This improvement even applied new rifles in the form of a 'step back' from my previous effort. If I wasn't going to get my Garand-wielding army, then I preferred to rely on something that I knew would still make the difference. In this case, the Dreyse Needle Gun, or an altered version of it. The rifle was a downgrade compared to the ideal gun I had in mind, but it did serve its purpose and, after organizing who was going to hold it within each team within the army I dispatched, I ultimately created it as a means to introduce 'sharpshooter' within warfare itself. Individuals that had sharp eyes and could see from afar, and that knew how to handle the rifle with dedication, care and appropriate gestures. Training proved that the groups of sharpshooter were going to be devastating and so I was quite relieved when I was given confirmation of this during the month-long campaign. Where the Franks had an easy time shattering the Alemanni, with none of the German tribes beyond the Rhine being interested in aiding the smaller country, the small Britannian contingent sent to support the Gallian Armies was immediately seen as a valuable unit.

Despite early plans suggesting that it would take long before we reached the modern-day Franco-Spanish border, a combination of rapid devastating assaults and encirclements led to a very odd situation two weeks into that war. Most of the Visigoths' troops had been annihilated in that swift attack, the border was wide open and ready to be crossed and Vallia was…

'Can we get more?'

Despite previous unease at proceeding further than the established line of demarcation, I could tell the success had given her confidence to go beyond early plans. And since I wasn't up to disappointing my newest ally, but also mind the fact going too deep would just draw too much attention and stretch the lines of logistics, I accepted but limited the advance to end taking the regions of Catalonia, Aragon, Navarra and the Basque area. Going any further was discouraged, with the point of those regions being priority due to their highly-defensive terrain which would give a bigger springboard in case of a new war with them. Much to my relief, Vallia accepted the points I had raised, allowing me to ultimately secure a foothold in Spain. What wasn't exactly known at the time was that I got the chance to instigate a fourth ally into moving against the Visigoths. I was no expert in Iberian history within this context due to how little was known about this time period. There was a large understanding of what happened three decades ago, when the Suevian King Rechiar managed to oust the Visigoths from most of the Iberian territory.

Sadly, this circumstance faltered when the war took Rechiar out of the picture and allowed for a comeback from the Visigoths. After a few tentative letters exchanged with the current ruler of the Suebi in Bracara, I managed to secure a deal with the young prince in charge of the state affair. Prince Rechiar the Young, named after his grandfather, was a revanchist youngster. He saw the war situation as an opportunity to jump the winning wagon and, when I approached him with the ambition of conquering the rest of the region under his banner, the boy jumped at the occasion.

It didn't matter how prepared his troops were, he would have had an easy path to glory- yet I was surprised to learn that some of the armies were being dispatched in a similar way as Britannian troops moved. It was at this point that I learned that I got some admirers in Europe that would have made for good allies in my plans. Not too many, but enough to present some ideas for future expansion. Beyond that point, the rest of Iberia was fully conquered and the war itself ceased as the Visigoths were kicked out of Europe and exiled in their North African provinces.

By the end of the month-limited campaign, a meeting between kings was called and I was forced to finally leave Londinium to take part in this. Tolosa (modern-day Toulouse) was picked as the place of reunion where four Kings would meet and formalize the spoils of war gained through this campaign. Clovis didn't mind the fourth invite, Vallia was less pleased by it, but nonetheless relieved to know that the threat created by the mere existence of the Visigoths was now gone. It was going to be a monumental event nonetheless, four kings known to be pro-Rome were finally going to meet in a single place and finally speak with one another as friends and allies.

An opportunity many would see as dangerous or good depending on their standing on what should be done of the memory of the old Roman Empire. But as the meeting's date drew close, I just could feel that things were only to get complicated as many would never accept this alliance to last for long. Especially a certain ruler in modern-day Italy that would prefer for the dream of Rome to be crushed forever. Or maybe something else as, unaware to all four of us, an uninvited guest would soon prepare to depart for that meeting, bearing with him a much familiar flag to define his loyalty and holding a letter with an even more important seal to it.

A man of God and faith had made a decision, and that decision was going to be a game-changer for the next few years in Europe.