as in the changling, tzeentch, slannesh, and the other chaos gods are going to get giddy about this shit-storm. Hate to say it, but i have a bad feeling that mordred's work is going to get fucked over, and it seems no matter the time-line or world...
lileath is a dumbass.
(Talking from Lord's of Darkness by Alucard Vampiry, fun fiction...i doubt mordred and dracul/aleksander von Carstien would get along if not try to rip each others heads off.)
Yeah, something is definitely going to go wrong, I can just tell. Though Bretonnia definitely doesn't stand a chance if it came down to it.
Also, I forget, did Mordred ever go in to detail about Camelot beyond the cliff notes? Or did anybody in the family ask about it beyond the basics?
After-all, the Pendragon story and heritage is quite unique… beyond the obvious dragon relation.
Edit: Lol about the dragon conference. It'll probably freak out a bunch of the factions like the High Elves of Caledor and others associated with the dragons. It isn't too long ago that they got reinvigorated by Mordred so….
she definitely would...only for her grandma to come along and either spank her ass or put her down like the dog she becomes. Then rant at her kids for allowing this shit to happen and then comforting them about the loss...and then go on a rampage against the criminal scum.
Good chapter.
I will be honest, for some reason I kind of want to see the twins fail at their job so horribly that Mordred is forced to come back and become Empress again to fix things again.
Good chapter.
I will be honest, for some reason I kind of want to see the twins fail at their job so horribly that Mordred is forced to come back and become Empress again to fix things again.
Mordred on how fucking dumb her kids were in 20 years:
"WHAT THE HELL!?! I LEAVE FOR TWO DECADES AND EVERYTHINGS A DAMN MESS!!! WHY IS THE EMPIRE SPLIT IN 3?!? WHY ARE THE RATS EVERYWHERE?!? WHY ARE THE ELVES PISSED AT US?!? WHY ARE THE UNDEAD INVADING, CHAOS STORMING, AND EVERYTHING IS IN A SHIT-BASKET?!?"
kids: (to terrified of mom's fury to make a coherent sentence, especially when she brings out the dreaded paddle of doom, and glares at their harem for also enabling their stupidity...as well as dragging a chaosified artoria in chains behind her)
wouldn't it be funny if Mordred accidentally stepped into a singularity where the King and Knights of the Round Table including their own Mordred witness the power and personality of the Goddess Mordred, it be quite shocking.
She smiled widely, this was pretty exciting! She got famous enough to be cloned and summoned across the multiverse to help save humanity! Being a clone was kind of weird but it was better than Grandma freaking out and storming over to here and wiping them all from existence. Grandma would do it too, since servant bodies are made from magical energy and these guys didn't have a deity of magic to interfere with Grandma's control over all magical energy.
She nodded to herself and mentally affirmed that it was a good thing that she was a clone and not her true self. She turned to look at her master, heh kinky, and decided to say hello to break the awkward silence that prevailed in the last minute or so.
"Hello!~ I'm Artoria Pendragon, Dragon of Treachery, Granddaughter of Goddess Mordred, and most recently, Servant Rider. Nice to meet you Master! Who came up with the master and servant titles by the way? It's not cool to force your fetish onto people in a professional work environment!"
Oooh, it was even more awkward now! What did she say wrong now? Think back! Like Grandma taught her! Master recognized her name and Grandma's name but not her title and was taken aback by calling Grandma a goddess and was thrown for a loop by pointing out the clear fetish material in their job titles. So… they didn't know the glorious word of their Goddess and Savior, Mordred Pendragon? Was that right? Heh, Grandma would be super mad if she tried to spread her religion to Chaldea, she should totally do that at some point!
"Excuse me miss? Would you mind explaining a bit about what you just mentioned?" The purple girl standing next to her master asked her.
"Sure! It all started when my grandma, Mordred Pendragon first arrived in the Old Empire decades before I was born when it was being invaded by a lot of greenskins and wound up leading a campaign against the greenskins before getting called a false saint and exiled from the Old Empire. She then led her army out into what was at the time called the Border Princes, picked out a small chunk of it and created what would be the start of Modern Drachenreich also known as the Dragon Empire.
Grandma was so badass that no one could accept she was a human and people started worshiping her. And as it turns out, so many did so that when she conquered the rest of the Border Princes a few years later while pregnant with my dad and uncle that she ascended into godhood. I was then later born when Dad interfered with a ritual to create a weapon supposedly capable of defeating Grandma involving an evil dragon's egg, some BDSM elves, and worshippers of a malicious outer god.
Obviously the way I was born invoked Pendragon's Luck and once I hit double digits, I started running into and attracting some really shady people and befriending them. Usually it all worked out fine but when I was a teenager, there was a bit of a thing that I was involved in and I became known as the Dragon of Treachery, don't worry though! My title is pretty misleading." There! She nailed it!
"A-ah… Thank you? That's quite the series of events…" Purple girl said hesitantly.
"You're welcome~ What is your name by the way? Neither of you have done any introductions yet and it's kind of getting rude." She teased, cocking her hip a bit.
Oh look! Master was back in reality with us! And speaking too! "My apologies, I was imagining what was going to happen the moment you met the rest of the Pendragons here. I'm Ritsuka Fujimaru and this is Mash Kyrielight, welcome to Chaldea." Oooh, that's a nice smile~ No! Down Libido! Remember Grandma's Ninety Day Trial rule! No sexy times until you've known them for at least ninety days and have hung out for at least thirty of those days!
"Thanks! How about we get some food? One of the two best ways to get to know someone, breaking bread and breaking faces!" She cheerfully suggested, getting not a single twinge from Ritsuka and resigned exasperation from Mash.
"Of course the first thing she asks about is food, she's an Artoria." Hey! She was a Pendragon, having good food and eating it was important to their family culture! Right next to beating each other u-
Oh! My! Grandma! What was that delicious smell? She sprin- Power walked to and through the doors blocking her from the room housing the divine smell she could detect. Grandma damn it! There was a line! Yes! The line was short! Spr- Power walking! Towards the end of the line she grabbed a tray and started piling as much as she could fit onto her tray, paying no attention to the people looking at her or what exactly she was adding to her tray as it all smelled and looked delicious.
Spotting a near empty table with only a couple blondes sitting there, she sat down and took a bite of her food. And then she took many more bites as she slowly cried from how good it tasted, Grandma wasn't kidding that her food was merely decent in comparison to true chefs. She was in paradise! And then she tasted a familiar flavor and heard the sound of metal being chewed. And now she was crying for an entirely different reason.
Spitting the remains of her fork back out she took a napkin from the blonde sitting next to her to wipe her eyes. "Thanks…" She muttered.
"No problem, the first time eating EMIYA's food can be pretty intense. Don't worry too much about getting made fun of because of your reaction. Name's Mordred Pendragon by the way, nice to meet ya." Oh shit, Pendragon's Luck has struck again.
Though, this version of Grandma was pretty wimpy looking… Didn't even have that subtle aura of extreme power waiting to disintegrate you for daring to not bow down in awe while simultaneously comforting you, swearing that nothing could go wrong when she was around. She was pretty sure Grandma didn't know that was a thing but definitely was a thing, there was also a thing about people getting stepped on that she had absolutely no desire to imag- Nope! Nah-uh! Look! A Distraction!
"Indeed, Hunger is the enemy and EMIYA is one of the best at defeating it. I am Artoria Pendragon, though you may know me better as King Arthur. it is a pleasure to meet you." The blonde across the table was a version of her great grandmother? This was her namesake? She looked and acted super formal! She was nothing like her! Wait… Was that master being surrounded by people back there? He looked pretty worried about something, maybe she should go help him? Oh… Nope! Not messing with Harem Business, she was staying here where it was safe.
"Uh wow, it's pretty weird that I ended up sitting down at this table. I'm Artoria Pendragon, Granddaughter of Mordred Pendragon and named after my great grandmother, Artoria Pendragon. Nice to meet you?" Ack! She got sprayed by them! Why were they drinking at the same time anyways?
"C-come again?" Grandma asked timidly, she wasn't sure she liked this version of Grandma so far, but then again, she barely knew her.
Coughing into her hands and wiping her face off with a fresh napkin, she did her best formal introduction. "Ahem, let me introduce myself proper, I am Artoria Pendragon the Dragon of Treachery and Servant Class Rider, Daughter of Greggory Pendragon the Mage Count, Niece of Johen Pendragon the Emperor of the Dragon Empire, Granddaughter of the Goddess Mordred Pendragon who was the Founder of the Dragon Empire, Great Granddaughter of Artoria Pendragon the Mythical King of Camelot. I normally don't introduce myself this way, too grandiose don't you think?" She declared, smiling widely.
She then shifted Grandma so that she wasn't face down in her food, glancing at her namesake, she saw that she was completely frozen, fork full of food mid air, eyes looking forward but glazed over. Looking around, wondering what to do with the two mentally damaged elderly relatives of hers, she was startled by a hand clasping onto her shoulder.
Hi there! Nice to meet ya! What did you say to these two?" Asked the pink haired girl? No? Weird, the pink haired person was messing with her instincts a ton.
"I just introduced myself, for a second time even since they asked me to repeat myself! Honestly, Old people need to take care of themselves more, their hearing clearly isn't what it used to be and I had to move Grandma's face out of her food so she wouldn't suffocate when she fainted." She exclaimed before letting out a very exaggerated sigh.
The pink haired person blinked and replied, "you're Mordred's Granddaughter?" Their words echoing across the suddenly very quiet room. Literally echoing in fact. With years of experience of family gatherings she gathered mana to her ears and placed a magic barrier over them right before the room exploded into noise. She stole her great grandmother's half eaten tray of food to eat as the occasional sound from the chaos penetrated her barriers.
"I'M A GRANDMOTHER?!?!?!" "What do you mean she's a goddess?!" "Founded an empire?!" "What the fuck is going on?!" "Food Fight!!!" "Wai- Shit!"
A smile formed on her lips as she slid under the table while she ate her food, it really felt like a proper family reunion now. All that was missing was Grandma beating everyone up in the name of training. She was going to love it here, no doubt in her mind.
Artoria Pendragon The Second, Dragon of treachery Servant Profile.
Class: Rider
Alternate Classes: Saber, Assassin, Foreigner.
Servant stats:
Strength: C
Endurance: B
Agility: A
Mana: A
Luck: B
Skills:
Divinity: A+
Magic Resistance: B
Riding: A
Charisma of Wicked Wisdom: B
Mana Burst: A
Pendragon's Luck: A+ (This is basically Murphy's Law Married to Narrative Tropes. The higher this skill, the more likely Things happen to the skill owner. Things can include but are not limited to: Becoming a protagonist for a random genre, randomly obtaining overpowered abilities or discovering legendary items of power, being cursed/blessed with LIT(Living in Interesting Times) and/or getting born via a ritual involving BDSM elves, an evil dragon's egg, and worshippers of an malicious outer god.)
Noble Phantasms:
Bob the Unicorn: A+ rank. Spirit type. (Artoria is able to summon the family pet, Bob the unicorn to her side and dismiss him at will. While at her side, he negates all incoming magic ranked A and below while giving Artoria two thirds of the magical energy spent on those spells. The previous effect also works on magic above A rank but at half efficiency, merely weakening the magic by 50% and granting Artoria a third of the magic used. He can also consume ambient magical energy passively to eliminate the cost of having him active. While Artoria is mounted on him, boost her by one rank in all physical stats.)
Treacherous Greatsword: C rank. Anti-Unit type. (Forged by her grandmother, the goddess Mordred, it is legendarily powerful and was designed to mimic her grandmother's own sword, Clarent, in its ability to channel large amounts of magical power. Doubles in power against Traitors.)
Treachery's End: B+ rank. Anti-Army type. (Normally this would be A+ rank in her Saber form but as a Rider this was ranked down to give her Bob the Unicorn. Like her grandmother and great grandmother Artoria has taken a liking to blasting out giant sword beams to decimate armies. In her Rider form it is much weaker than normal but at the same time she can potentially strengthen it back up to it's normal power if Bob eats enough spells to power her up.)
AN: Hey guys, so this week, I'm posting early and it's an omake! Today is offically the one year anniversary of me posting the first arc, thank you everyone for your support, if I had been told that I would make it this far a year ago I probably would have laughed in your face at the idea. So as cliche as it is, thank you for sticking with me so long.
P.S. I may or may not (probably not) get an actual story post out this week, my muse (and I) was having too much fun writing Artoria for me to wrangle it into writing much at all in canon story content. I may have also gotten addicted to Stellaris recently too.
Hahahaha there has to be a great story on why she got that title. Too bad it not the same universe as when Mordred was summoned or it could have been so much more fun.
Oh god grandma mordred will be coming over because she thought about it.
Chaldea is doomed for a pissed off draconic godess of magic kicking everyone's asses. In the name of family reunion…of course this also means the dragon empires hero's will be coming over…the amount of bashing on the round table for their goddess will be hilarious and amazing!!!
Hahahaha there has to be a great story on why she got that title. Too bad it not the same universe as when Mordred was summoned or it could have been so much more fun.
Thanks, I made it up on the spot and in hindsight I think it works pretty well in general. I actually made this rule up just for Artoria but Mordred would have definitely given a similar rule given to her sons too for multiple reasons, not the least of which is potential enemy honeypots getting knocked up with her descendants would be, to use an understatement, disastrous.
Ruler? I guess I could see her as that, Though, I see her more as Foreigner, Alter Ego, or maybe Grand Saber/Caster personally. I only mention Grand Saber/Caster since she has been fulfilling that role in the world.
Yeah... I actually forgot I wrote that omake but even then it is pretty outdated, Mordred in that one is only a retired queen so I would have had to rewrite that... But it is totally possible for Mordred to get summoned by Chaldea in an omake.
I want to see taylor Hebert get thrown into this reality and get picked by Morgan right off the bat. Every time someone questions why the goddess of thunder and dragons is sheltering what seams to be a no name woman cripple; she laughs at them so hard she doesn't even explain until much later. Meanwhile, taylor tries to enjoy retirement only to have sporadic boughts of escalation, she starts tapping into her legend as it bleeds over into the local warp.
The sound of my alarm clock alerted me to the time and I sighed as I started cleaning up the mess I had made. A gentle wave of my hand and the crowded table full of papers containing designs and thoughts for making sheets of metal possible dried and I stacked them on top of each other before stuffing them in my bag of holding.
Turning to the other table, I did the exact same thing to my theories and ideas on stable fire starters and dumped them into my bag as well. It sounded so simple to just make a bolt action rifle didn't it? It's so simple really, a sliding bolt that can be locked into place to secure the firing chamber, a bullet, a firing pen to ignite the primer in the bullet, and a trigger to activate the firing pen right? Well, as I was finding out, that was vastly oversimplified.
Despite past experience with muskets, I had left a lot of that to my Research and Development Department even if I followed that project pretty closely and I was seriously considering just leaving this to them too. But I needed something to do while I was stuck guarding Myvnilth and Grimby's lair as they were off sending out the message that the next "Dragoncon" was happening. Hell, calling it a Dragoncon wasn't entirely wrong since it was a Dragon CONference according to Grimby.
Turning to my last table, I carefully lifted it up and started walking towards the disposal room. Said room was just a roughly carved out circle with very thick stone walls that things in need of removal from existence were put and then blasted from existence by a dragon, usually one that lived here but I had no problem taking care of the mess I made while a guest here.
Setting down the table and checking that none of the extremely hazardous materials had spilled, I breathed out lightning and disintegrated it all which was a fun trick I figured out recently to play up my dragon side. While it felt slightly wasteful just disintegrating it all, everything I used today wasn't reusable beyond as a toxin or highly unstable explosive and I had the ingredients and the recipes if I ever needed some of these as unlikely as that was.
I sighed and turned to go sit down in the golden throne haphazardly sitting on a pile of gold and silver coins and trinkets. Plopping down I sighed again, in reality, my experiments were more to distract myself from the fact that hundreds of thousands of people were preparing to rebel to install Artoria on the throne hoping that I would for some reason come back if she was made empress.
I was highly conflicted, besides the fact I spent half my life building Drachenreich and it would be a shame for it all to go to waste, I wasn't as immune to the loss of life as I tried to pretend I was. Ignoring Bretonnia and its suicidal peasants was fairly easy, the whole mess was mostly their own fault and I had little issue letting darwin award winners collect their prize.
Not running around taking care of the many, many hordes of enemies that need killing was a bit hard but doable since depriving the people of this world of their ability to defend themselves by accidently convincing them that I would always be there to save them was a horrible idea and that I really enjoyed having a private life and the ability to relax which pulling an, who was it again? Oh yeah, pulling an All Might would really interfere with that.
But not doing anything about the hundreds of thousands of people that I, in a roundabout way, interacted with on a regular basis who were being convinced to rebel against my son to put me back on the throne that I just left? That was something I struggled with. Especially since it was something I could easily take care of by just showing up and talking to them and hundreds of thousands of lives were at stake here… But it wasn't my job anymore, I had specifically stepped down so I could be free of handling stuff like this so I could go off and do other things that were very important, many would argue said things were important enough that I shouldn't have wasted decades building Drachenreich.
On one hand, I could at least tell Johen that a large army of rebels were forming and was quickly getting ready to attempt a coup with Artoria as their unsuspecting figurehead. On the other hand, it was Johen's job now and I couldn't play helicopter parent on my thirty year old son, I had to trust that he could handle it and that all of my work stabilizing the empire wasn't for nothing and that if he wanted or needed my help, he would ask.
And on the third mutant hand, this really shouldn't be my problem and I was actually kind of pissed off that it was even a thing. I didn't know if my daughter in law was just too busy getting her brains screwed out to do her damn job as spymaster or what but it was really fucking frustrating. It really shouldn't be possible for so many people to turn traitor without it being noticed.
And on the fourth mutant hand, I wasn't sure if I had legitimate concerns and reasons or if I was just coming up with excuses to avoid having to deal with it.
I grimaced, this whole mess was not something I wanted to deal with but at the same time decades of being in charge led me to wanting to go back and solve the clear problems and threats to Drachenreich I was aware of. Which was why I had been trying to distract myself from the whole ordeal with my gun experiments.
Crossing my legs, I slumped forward and rested my face in my palms, I groaned. Being retired was not as relaxing as I thought it would be, hell! I wasn't even relaxing, I was just trying to deal with problems I couldn't deal with before because I was too busy being the empress! I had become a workaholic, incapable of relaxing without turning it into some kind of work project! Where did the old me who could spend days just loafing around, reading fanfiction and playing video games go?
I half laughed and half scoffed at the thought, I used to hate the fact I was a couch potato and now I was bemoaning the fact I had gotten off my ass and couldn't stop myself from getting things done? I was really terrible at this whole work life balance thing wasn't I?
"Mormor has the cutest reactions when you groom the base of her wings, all of her muscles relax and she purrs if you can believe it! It's hard not to spend a couple days just grooming her wings just for her reactions but she gets really pouty if you do that though and it's really unfair how guilty she can make you feel with just a betrayed look." Grimbiedon excitedly explained to Malok as she wove protections into Malok's lair, they wouldn't last even a single year without her to maintain them but that was more than enough for what they were intended to do.
"And how does she survive with such a vulnerability? She lives among humans who are vicious savages and would gleefully take advantage of such a weakness to kill even a whelp like her."
"Ah, but is it one truly? I had been a bit curious as to her response to a hostile presence while in such a state and led a few ogres into the lair to see what she did. It is a good thing that we didn't have any treasures anywhere near the entrance because one moment she was purring along and the next she was trying to repair the gaping hole in the mountain side that used to be the labyrinthian entrance to our lair. Turns out that getting her to relax also means relaxing the amount she holds back, our little goddess definitely makes up for her young age in sheer power." The Great Storm Dragon said, chuckling.
She glanced at the red dragon who wasn't sure if he should believe such a tall tale and she dipped her head in assurance that yes, her partner was in fact telling the truth.
"Hmm, very well, I'll go to this conference, it would be good to at least meet the whelp that is taking over for The Father. At least she hasn't lost all of her senses despite her bout of madness in making deals with dwarfs and wretched elves." Malok declared, snarling at the mere thought of elves, not that she could blame him considering his past.
Finishing her weaving, she stood up and informed the two gossiping dragons, "I have finished with the wards, for the next year your lair will be protected against the average thief but keep in mind that someone skilled enough can break through these wards without alerting you. With that done and your agreement to come to the conference, it is time for us to depart. It was a pleasure to talk with you again, Malok."
"If they are skilled enough to sneak past a dragon of your skill then I'm inclined to let them keep whatever they take. I appreciate you visiting, this was a pleasant change of pace despite the surprise and short notice. Next time Grimbiedon, give a dragon a bit more than a mere month's notice when inviting them somewhere." Malok said, scoffing at the short notice. He waved them out as her partner sheepishly chuckled.
"Ah, sorry again, we had intended to give more notice but poor Mormor got used to a human's time span so we've been rushing around trying to get everything done in time for her that it just kind of happened."
"No matter, this was long overdue anyways, it is good to see that the whelp isn't wasting any time and getting things done despite it being mere decades after her ascension."
Realizing that they could spend months talking, she snorted out some frost and headed out of Malok's lair, gently reminding her partner of their duties. "Ah yes, thank you for reminding me. Sorry Malok, we still have a couple more dragons to speak with and if we don't go now they won't have even a month's notice! It was good seeing you again, we'll see you at the Dragon Conference!"
"You as well, I will be there."
She hummed as she practiced her thrusting, in and out, in and out, always the same distance, not too short and not too far. Too short and it doesn't matter if you stick it in if they can't feel it. Too far and you wasted time and energy that you could have spent thrusting some more~ She giggled at the innuendos as she practiced with her greatsword, it was more of a slicing weapon but with its length, it worked as a short spear as well.
"Thinking impure thoughts again Artoria? I'm not sure your father could handle any more of your lurid humor anytime soon." The sound of her friend's voice snapped her out of her thoughts. Pausing, she turned to look at Detlev, absently noting that it was rare for him to visit her outside of their scheduled times. She grinned, how lucky!
"Hehehe, he was a little disturbed last week wasn't he? I just can't help it, it comes naturally to me." She rubbed her nose and rested her greatsword against her shoulder, aaaahhh, what men wouldn't give to be able to do that with their own greatsword~
"I can see that clear as day on your face…" Detlev commented dryly before glancing around. "I believe it's time that I show you what Arnolda and I have been doing for the last few months, we are only a couple days from the grand reveal and we want to give you a sneak peak, what do you say?"
"Hmmm…. Of course I would! I would love to see what the two of you have been acting so shifty about since I met you!" She darted forward and grabbed his arm, dragging him towards the gates. He sighed as she dragged him along, knowing better than to resist.
"Why can't you just let me walk normally instead of dragging me around, you don't even know where we need to go." She looked over her shoulder and grinned at him.
"Because you wouldn't know how to move quickly if your life was at stake! Now, just point the way, I want my sneak peak!" She was so excited! She had restrained herself as much as she could to avoid spoiling herself but it was finally time for the reveal! Arnolda and Detlev have been hiding this for months from her!
She dragged her friend along as they quickly moved through the city. Rapidly passing the usual sights and sounds, pausing briefly when she noticed something. "Look! Hedwig's Bakery is finally open again!" She excitedly pointed out to her friend.
"What do you mean finally? It's only been two weeks since you wrecked the place trying to buy the last few loaves of bread." She pouted at his dry words and turned her head away from him. Only to turn it back, much to her friend's amusement, as the sun was shining brightly today.
"I didn't wreck it!" She protested, "it was only a wall, a few windows, and some tables that got broken. And I wouldn't have broken them if it weren't for those meddling adults and their cat! Why for Grandma's sake did they decide to try and force their 'healthy diet' stuff on me anyways? Do I look like a Bretonnian knight, overweight and ugly?"
"I think it had more to do with the fact you were buying literally half the bakery's inventory than anything else." She turned to glare at him but he was already raising his free hand in a defensive gesture. "I know, I know, 'dragons need more food than humans' and all that but just because you say that, it doesn't change the fact that watching a tiny girl like you try to eat half the bakery is rather worrisome."
Pouting even harder, she picked up the pace and continued their journey towards the quieter side of town. In what felt like an eternity and a single second, they arrived at the old marching fields that were fenced off about a year ago ever since that disastrous day when her dad and uncle had tried to teach everyone high magic. The sheer number of miscasts meant it needed to be left alone for a while so that the lingering magic could disperse naturally over time. Ignoring the sudden creeping feeling that this was not going to end well, she turned to her friend.
"Here? This isn't a good place to set up, there were a ton of miscasts about a year ago here and it should be pretty dangerous still from the after effects." She warned him, hoping that this was just a shortcut. Those hopes were quickly dashed when he shook his head at her.
"It'll be fine, a few mages working on the project with us spent a lot of time making a spot safe again. The spot is just through those trees over there." Pushing down her rapidly growing dread, she let go of the arm she was holding and walked through the trees blocking her line of sight, Detlev sedately walking behind her.
An army encampment was what greeted her. Tents lined up in neat rows, men walking back and forth and what looked like several hundred soldiers in the midst of training with their shiny new muskets and bayonets. Off to the side she could see Arnolda looking over dozens of cannons and mortars, all branded with the seal of approval that all imperial artillery required before active use. There was no way that this was what she thought it was right? Please?
Detlev spoke from behind her, unknowingly shattering her silent pleas. "Welcome to the reclamation army, camp three. The tent right there will give us the privacy we need." In a reverse of their usual, she allowed her to be led over to a nearby tent by her likely soon to be former friend.
Inside the tent were a dozen chairs and a pair of tables, a deck of cards lying in the center of one and a pair of dice on the other. Detlev gestured for her to take a seat as he did so on the opposite side of her. Sitting down and slipping her tail out the open back of the chair. she put on her poker face as Grandma had taught her, something she had never had to use around her friends before...
Detlev clapped his hands together lightly, looking more energetic than she had ever seen him before. "So, I should explain how this all came about and what for right?" She nodded like this was a perfectly normal conversation and that she wasn't already starting to mourn his and Arnolda's deaths.
"Well, it all started a bit after the empress declared that she would be stepping down about nine months ago, Engla Reiter and General Louise Kirchbaum met while drinking one night soon after the news broke out. They realized that something was not right about the perfectly healthy empress just abandoning the throne. Through some brave investigating they discovered that Greggory and Johen Pendragon had usurped the throne and driven the empress into exile!" He "revealed" with a dramatic finish.
She didn't know what was more ludicrous, the idea that Dad and Uncle were capable of even touching Grandma in combat or the two of them ever going against Grandma for the throne. She also knew those names, Mom Tallis had brought along Reiter every once and a while to some parties and meetings. And Kirchbaum had spent years working under Great Uncle Helmann and she had personally taught Artoria a little bit on strategy and tactics a couple months ago when Great Uncle Helmann had been too busy to do so himself.
Clearing his throat awkwardly, Detlev began his… story once more. "With that discovery, they couldn't just sit still, Drachenreich needs Mordred Pendragon on the throne after all and with the two vile serpents in charge who knows what ruin they might lead us to." She had to work very hard to not show any signs of wanting to punch him in the face, the width of the table helping slightly. She couldn't believe she had thought the two of them friends.
"Knowing that secrecy was a must, they reenacted the old reclamation methods, at first bringing in trustworthy individuals that worked alongside them, then like an avalanche, more and more were recruited and told the truth, we worked hard to gather two hundred thousand valiant patriots loyal to the goddess and willing to die to reclaim her throne.
But everyone knows that fighting a pendragon is nearly impossible, even one of your younger siblings could cause havoc on the level of a powerful vampire but we realized that pendragons are perfectly capable of fighting other pendragons. Between how much your grandmother is known for doting on you and your passionate bouts where you barely disguise your desire to rid the world of the traitor sons was clear to us which is why Arnolda and I sought you, Artoria the Dragon, out and became friends with you."
What? Sure Grandma barely tried hiding her favoritism for her but she loved her dad and uncle! Why did he think she hated their guts? Sure they got a bit rough when sparring but everything was always healed by morning, the worst that's happened was when Dad was being lazy during their fight the morning after Adult Night and she cut his pinky finger off.
"Outside of your spars with the traitor sons, you are quite skilled in hiding your hatred for them which is why it took so long for us to let you in on this, we had to be sure you were willing to become a kinslayer to stop the traitor sons' madness. This part is a little awkward for me to bring up but I know that you will forgive us since it was for a good cause! See, we kind of… Had a mage illusion themselves as you and told them how to act like you so that we could convince more people of our righteous cause." Detlev confessed, looking slightly nervous at his admittance of using their friendship as a way to recruit people in order to murder her dad and uncle and probably the rest of her family too.
"I won't lie and say I'm not a little upset that you went behind my back on this but you're right, this is important enough that it needed to be done." She told him solemnly, lying through her teeth. A tiny part of her was surprised at how well she was doing at pretending that she didn't want to rip him limb from limb.
He grimaced at her response, likely because her being serious like this had only happened once before in his presence and being reminded of the time she buried a dozen criminals she had killed for betraying her wasn't something a fellow traitor like him would be happy being reminded of.
"Thank you Artoria, I'll find a way to make it up to you, I promise! But now that you are with us truly, we don't need an illusion when you walk among us! As it happens, the next and final speech before we reclaim Drachenreich in the goddess's name is in three days and we would love for you to give it in reality." The traitor said, his words half pleaded and half bargained.
Glancing out the tent flap, she noticed that it was now into the evening and she had her excuse to leave right this very moment before she just started slaughtering her way through the camp and tipped off the other traitors. "I would love to! But judging by the light level outside, it looks like I need to get going before a bunch of guards or worse, my siblings get sent out to find me, I'll see you again soon, bye!" She said, quickly rising from her seat and giving a jaunty wave as she hightailed it out of the camp.
"Ah, I guess she is more mad about the illusions than I thought…" Was the last thing she heard behind her before she entered the city proper, tears welling up in her eyes as she bolted home.
His hand slammed into his brother's, their arms flexing and revealing the powerful muscles that laid under their skin in spite of their limited time for training. "It's good to see you again Johen! It's so rare that we get to see each other since Mom somehow suckered us into being responsible adults, I assume you are here to meet with Uncle Helmann?" His brother asked despite already knowing the answer.
"It is good to see you again, you always end up making me feel better about myself just looking at you." "Oi, we are identical twins damn it!" "Considering how scruffy your bread has gotten, I'm not quite so sure about that. Anyways, yeah, times up and I need to know where we are at, Bretonnia has gotten far more aggressive lately and if we aren't ready to attack then they just might attack us instead."
His brother grimaced some, he was most likely well aware of the forces that Bretonnia was building up, The Drachenruhe province was connected to Bretonnia through Winter's Teeth pass which connects to Mondider's Pass. Fortunately, Wissenland also connects through Mondider's Pass so if Bretonnia decided to invade, they would have to face both provinces instead of just one or leave their backs completely exposed.
"Before I let you go off to your meeting with Uncle Helmann, I've got to get an answer to this or it will just keep bugging me… Despite our total inability to get past whoever is stonewalling us in our investigation of the steadily intensifying rumors of us kicking Mom off the throne, you've refused to get Mom involved, why?" He paused as he looked his surprisingly serious looking brother in the eye. He never did explain did he? The two of them were usually in sync enough that they didn't need to explain their thought processes to each other.
"A few reasons, some better than others. One is that it pricks my pride a little bit as someone that once solved mysteries like you collected harem members that I haven't managed to find the source of these rumors Another would be that asking Mom for help so soon after she left would be a massive sign to the rest of the nobility that I wasn't ready and that the throne is vulnerable and potentially ready for the taking.
Moreover, you must have noticed it too but Mom looked like she was so much happier after my coronation. She literally skipped through the halls for a couple days, I knew it had weighed on her but seeing that really put it into perspective for me. It feels too cruel to ask her for help after she was so happy to be free of it all.
Not to mention, I'm not sure if she even knows what's going on. She cut back quite a bit over the last couple years on just how much her divine system interacts with people, outside of family, I've heard that it is just vague emotion with little context nowadays, I have no idea if she gets much if at all from her side of things if she has cut off so much of her own responses." He stopped to catch his breath and to allow his brother to respond.
"Yeah… I noticed that too… Well, thanks for answering, you're right, some of those are better than the others but they are good enough for me. Well, I've delayed you long enough, Uncle Helmann has to have gotten ready by now. We eat in dining hall three nowadays if you want to join us for dinner." Greg said before leaving the room to do whatever it was he was actually supposed to be doing right now.
Shaking his head, he exited the small room they had been using for privacy and went down the opposite hallway, a short but brisk walk led him to his uncle's office. Some would say that as the emperor, his uncle should be the one to come to him but when the emperor was capable of going from the northernmost to the southernmost part of the empire in mere hours, it was far more convenient and practical for him to be the one traveling.
Knocking on his uncle's office door, he was surprised to have the door opened for him instead of just being told to come in. Inside was his uncle and most trusted general but strangely with only one of his aids who quickly left the room once he entered. Raising an eyebrow, he turned to his uncle.
"What's going on? Usually you have at least half a dozen assistants in the room in every meeting but today the one that you did have couldn't have left faster."
The general was solemn faced and his voice grim as he spoke. "My apologies Your Majesty, I've just discovered something moments ago that is incredibly distressing. Someone is building an army and using our own soldiers and weapons to do it." He then pointed out the window and said, "you see all those soldiers training in the courtyard, looks full doesn't it? Well, we are missing nearly eight hundred soldiers as well as nearly four dozen cannons and three dozen mortars. I only caught it because I had been stuck holding a list of who and what we should have from a meeting when I was doing my surprise inspection moments ago."
This… This was not good, there was no good reason for so much artillery to be missing and without anyone noticing until now. Combined with whoever was spreading those nasty rumors about him and his brother stunk of a brewing rebellion that now had enough artillery to flatten small mountains and they had discovered it right on the edge of war with Bretonnia.
"Fuck. Good job catching this, knowing our luck and taking in current events, this is likely a sign of a coup or uprising of some kind. I assume that you are already trying to track down who is compromised?"
"Of course Your Majesty, it's a short list taking everything into consideration, I should have plans for countermeasures in two hours and an initial list of traitors ready in three."
"Good, I will be the one to talk with Greg about this, I doubt that whoever is behind this has limited themselves to the Drachenruhe province but he won't take it well that it was first found here of all places, especially considering the current spymaster of Drachenreich is his wife. I also want you to prioritize making sure that our defenses along the Bretonnian border will hold against them for as long as possible. If the worst comes to pass, we will need the time to handle an armed uprising across the entirety of Drachenreich before we can reorient to face the Bretonnians."
"Yes Your Majesty, I will get to work immediately. Good luck with your broth-" His uncle was cut off by his brother who was radiating pure rage despite his calm exterior, trailing behind him was a distraught looking Artoria.
He went to ask what was going on when Greg spoke first. "We've got a problem. There's a rebellion containing a claimed amount of two hundred thousand soldiers with potentially hundreds of cannons and mortars as well as multiple mages just days away from going off and they are all rallying behind someone pretending to be Artoria in the hopes of somehow putting Mom back on the throne."
He shared a look with his general before waving the two of them in. "I think we just discovered what you are talking about, come in and tell us everything."
AN: Oh man, this was a behemoth of a chapter to write but I think it was worth it.
Two hundred thousand rebels? Just arriving one day all of a sudden without any signs whatsoever?
Yeah, that's practically impossible, mostly because secrets tend to turn into gossip when two hundred people - on average - was involved in said secret, and the chances gets increasingly unlikely when you add thousands more into the mix. The exception would be when there's an active information cordon by a centralized power and that's on the hand of Johan and why the hell would he try to overthrow himself like that? There's easier way to get out of power and Mordred's already set the precedent. When shit gets rough, find a successor and just abdicate!
There's definitely holes in the Aegis of Mordred and then some Tzeentchian bullshit is at play here. Because that's the only way I could see this rebellion being remotely plausible.
Two hundred thousand rebels? Just arriving one day all of a sudden without any signs whatsoever?
Yeah, that's practically impossible, mostly because secrets tend to turn into gossip when two hundred people - on average - was involved in said secret, and the chances gets increasingly unlikely when you add thousands more into the mix. The exception would be when there's an active information cordon by a centralized power and that's on the hand of Johan and why the hell would he try to overthrow himself like that? There's easier way to get out of power and Mordred's already set the precedent. When shit gets rough, find a successor and just abdicate!
There's definitely holes in the Aegis of Mordred and then some Tzeentchian bullshit is at play here. Because that's the only way I could see this rebellion being remotely plausible.
That or it could just be a bunch of dipshit farmers thinking that the leader they love and who improved their lives got booted off by her son(s). It happened ALL the time in the past so the chances of it happening is more than 0.
That or it could just be a bunch of dipshit farmers thinking that the leader they love and who improved their lives got booted off by her son(s). It happened ALL the time in the past so the chances of it happening is more than 0.
Yeah, not arguing the motives. People are idiots like that. I'm arguing about the numbers and the fact that it was successfully kept as a secret.
If it's just five thousand people suddenly decided to gather, arm themselves, prepare in secret, and then rebel with total surprise on their side, I can buy that. It happened a few times. But 200.000? In secret? Come on, man. That's not even close to being possible. The funds for weapons and food would leave one hell of a mark on the economy, and don't get me started on transportation, mustering rally, and command coordination. Someone would have noticed on day one. The fact that they missed something this big is a mark that some Chaos bullshittery is happening.
Mordred: I am going to avoid making the the same mistakes all these othere monarchs and define an exact line of succession and ensure good leadership policies so the people won't go nuts when I retire.
