22 The war games

Right now my face is all black. I'm sitting in the living room with Mordred at my right and Arturia seated in the couch in front of us. Looking at that silly face makes my blood pressure to skyrocket and my anger is no subsiding at all.

"What happened in the kingdom? Tell me everything you know but before that… Moon, could you please make that only the Knights of the Round Table can hear us, I don't want someone sniffing this conversation" (Lucius)

{Understood user, canceling video and audio feed to the other forces, Galahad, Lancelot, Gawain, Perceval, Bors, Tristan, Lamorak, Gaheris and Kay are connected to this feed} (Moon)

"You can speak now" (Lucius)

Arturia listening to that begins to tell Lucius what really happen

"Well the thing is that Julius Cesar together with Ying Zheng attacked our kingdom from two different fronts. At first the battles were only skirmish but after a few months a cease fire was made, the reason for that was because the wedding of Nero with Gilgamesh; together with the other knights we decided to send a delegation to congratulate the weeding. I don't like Gilgamesh so I send Tristan with a few gifts in my representation, everything went well Tristan returned and the cease fire was lifted, a few more months we captured the enemy generals of the two sides that attacked us.

Until that moment everything went very well we achieved to annexed a part of the other two kingdoms as collateral for the ransom of Lü Bu and Marc Anthony. As you know there exist five Kingdoms that are the largest: Uruk (Gilgamesh), The Saint German Empire (Karl), Asirya (Semiramis), Mongolia (Altera) and Alexandria (Iskander). There were others that wanted to create more kingdoms, two of them were the ones that attacked us Roma and Great Xia. In this case our Kingdom The Holy Empire of Knights is one of the medium ones.

The smaller kingdoms united and created a Republic known as the Federation, in there the Aztec, Egyptian and India banged together with the Nordic Kingdom that Medb is the Queen. We are surrounded by sea in the east a mountain range that is the frontier with Great Xia in the west, in the south the dessert connects with Mongolia and the north is home of The Aztecs ruled by Moctezuma the war lord.

After the weeding of Gilgamesh and Nero they decided to visit the capital city of every kingdom as a form of political might, after all with the weeding of Nero and Gilgamesh Galia was annexed by Uruk and they became much stronger.

At first, every Kingdom became alert about this but the new spouses were only talking and sightseeing the kingdoms. When they reached the frontier with us, we invited them to Camelot and all was fine. But after they left riots started to take place in the capital, at first were only a few dissatisfied voices but later increased to a coup leaded by Julius Cesar. I was confronting him when he calls Sherezade to help him and in the end I lost. We fleed to the dukedom of Galahad that is part of the Kingdom and before I could make more plans I was summoned here." (Arturia)

After listening to the history I made a call to Galahad and ask him about the actual situation.

"We lost the capital city and the lands that we acquired in the last war; thanks to Tristan and Bors we were able to stop their advancement but the situation is dire" (Galahad)

I listened that and started to speak with Arturia.

"Arturia I will tell you what to do, Moon gave Arturia the ability to communicate with the Knights; first of all you didn't make many mistakes Arturia so I'm more relaxed knowing the situation, second the capital city is a trap devised by me, if you are wondering why, that's because there doesn't exist only one capital. According to the rules set in the game a city became a capital when they have a minimum of one million habitants and an area of about Ten square kilometers, in our case the city is in the form of a ring with a radius of three kilometers but I found a loophole in the rules.

Our total population is 36 million, and we have ten dukedoms with each one having a city of ten square kilometers at minimum, the population in the capital city is of 6 million but the rest is divided between the dukedoms therefore we have eleven capital cities according with the rules.

I devised this because I knew that when I leave the throne of heroes, a lot of idiots will try to take the kingdom from your hands. When I was there, every one of them decided to leave us alone because all their plans were useless and you are one of the most powerful heroes, so they decided to never mess with us. Emperor Ying was the first that I killed when I saw how he manages his kingdom. The other one was the fatso Julius Cesar and the last one was Altera when the only thing she did was plundering the nearby villages. As you know only five war games are held in this time. The losers in the last game became homeless and they sell themselves as mercenaries, in our case we commenced as Mercenaries that were for hire, with my business sense I amassed a fortune and that was also the time that we took down the fatso and decided to make a Kingdom. I did all that because of Mordred and that she desired to see you as a king, so I give you a new Kingdom and I took the position as Prime Minister. I used all my talents to make the Kingdom prosper and you with the other Knights will be the muscle in case of war.

But is better that I give you a punishment for falling in the trap of Gilgamesh, Nero, Fatso and Ying Zheng. If you are wondering why the trap of so many, well that is because you are and IDIOT!

How in all hells you fall for the same trap that I used to kill Julius Cesar in the first place! Your brain is made of muscle or what?! You don't remember that we did the same thing! In that time i decided to incite a coup with Spartacus as the leader of the revolutionary army; when the two confronted in their last battle we sneaked and started to kill all the officials in the government, the generals were captured and I took control of the entire economy from the shadows. In the end Spartacus lost but I told you that Julius Cesar was tired of battling and with the help of the people you killed him with Excalibur. In the end that the war game was over and we became the rightful owners of the new kingdom, after that because I told you to not reveal my position I went and became a consultant as a covert agent to other kingdoms. In the end we took three more kingdoms and became a medium size Kingdom.

Other thing that makes me mad is that you know that Nero and Julius Cesar are in a way family and that he hasn't forgotten the humiliation in his defeat, besides how are you so stupid to battle him if you know that he has Sherezade in his side.

You don't remember that Sherezade is the bane of every person that is a king! She has the trait of Anti-King in her veins for God's sake! If you confront her ten times you will lose ten times!

Mordred as your Prime Minister I give you the right to punish this foolish person that has the guts to call herself as a King. You are hereby ordered to spank her one hundred times! " (Lucius)

Mordred at first was shocked but later she was walking with a smile to her Father. I know that she always wanted to spank her father for a lot of reasons. Arturia was blushing and tried to escape but I took the poison chains and rendered her immobile.

Mordred with dexterous hands started to strip Arturia from her armor and only when she was with her inner cloth (that didn't cover anything important and DAMN! What size are those!) Was the moment that she started the punishment.

At first Arturia was making treats like

"You dare to lift your hand at your father! I never raise such an ungrateful daughter"

"Mordred you will pay for this"

But after a few more spanks she was sobbing

"Mordred please stop this"

"I know my wrongs, stop your hand please!"

And later a few moans were escaping her mouth, when I heard that I make my way to the kitchen and took a bottle of whiskey. A long time later Mordred was walking in my direction with a satisfied smile in her face. I went to the living room when I saw a sobbing Arturia hugging her knees and in the corner of the room crying and saying.

"I'm no longer pure…sniff…sniff… I was sullied" (Arturia)

Sigh… this woman, how is possible that she is a genius when she is fighting but an idiot when management is required. I approached her and with a look of – you deserved this punishment - written in my face help her to stand. After the two of us were standing she looked at me with pure fury but an expression like – what? You have something to say? - written in my face was all that I need to make her lower her head in shame and put her armor. If I'm totally honest with you, it was very funny seeing Arturia trying to sit down again in the sofa.

I took my seat and tell her our next plans

"Tell Galahad, Tristan and Bor to protect the borders with the other Kingdoms, later command Lancelot to divert the attention of the army that is under Julius Cesar and call Perceval and Gawain, send them to the Aztec Empire and the Mongolian Empire, we need to make Great Xia and Uruk became bussy fighting the incursions of Quetzalcoatl, Altera and the Eagle warriors, she is more than enough to stop Ying Zheng and Altera can make the life of Gilgamesh very difficult. With Moctezuma stopping Great Xia, Rome is open to the attacks so we need to send a few heroes I think that Cu Chullain, Jean and Saint Martha are more than enough to wreak havoc in that place. Tell Jean and Martha that if they do a good job I will consider summoning them and maybe enlightening me with their teachings." (Lucius)

Arturia was giving the orders to all her knights, the battle tactics are his forte, so I didn't meddle in that. I continued to drink my whiskey when Arturia spoke again with a serious face.

"What do you think is the purpose of the war games?" (Arturia)

I looked at her and looked at my whiskey; my image was being reflected in the amber color of the whiskey. Without looking at Arturia I told her.

"The real purpose of the war games is to find the ones that can lead the heroes in the future. With each game Grail is evaluating every one of the Kings, the aspect of the evaluation is something that I don't know; Moon Cell and Grail are the same person but Moon Cell is more like an A.I and Grail is the physical representation of the Grand Grail, the two of them are one but different. Moon Cell's job is to record everything, the job of Grail is to make the impossible possible.

That's why all of you want to obtain the power of Grail to have one of your wishes accomplished. The winner of the war games will have first access to the worlds I traveled with their power intact. Gilgamesh, Semiramis, Iskander, Karl de Große, Napoleon and you are the ones known for being a King and because you can maintain your kingdoms intact will have the dibs in which world you want to appear again." (Lucius)

Arturia was contemplating my words; don't mistaken her for an idiot, she is not althought i always call her that. The root of the problem is that she thinks that a King is someone that is not human, so I correct her.

"Arturia, you remember my words about what a King is?" (Lucius)

"A King is someone that can inspire respect and fear from his people, there are times that he acts with benevolence but there are times that he needs to be a tyrant. A king is the one that needs to protect his people in times of need, a King is someone that punish the wicked ones and reward the ones that achive merits on their own, also a king heard his people but he has the decision in the end and a King needs to be Human because if you aren't human how you expect that the Humans follow you." (Arturia)

"You know now why your regimen was lost in the end right?" (Lucius)

Arturia was taken aback and slowly she closed her eyes and was thinking about her time as a king.

Arturia POV

"You know now why your regimen was lost in the end right?" (Lucius)

When Lucius told me that, I was remembering all my decisions as a King, I never heard the voice of my vassals, the people in the end was saved but I lost my life. I was betrayed for my most trusted retainers and all of that was because from the start I throw my Humanity. I thought that a King isn't Human because he needs to throw the lives of his people with a single order the same with the fate of the nation; I never knew that my father "Uther Pendragon" he for his obsession to poses my Mother Igraine went to war until I was older. I never understood that and I think that because my father did a lot of bad things I was with the idea that a King is inhuman. It wasn't until I meet Lucius that I knew my error, until this day I remember his words.

"A King needs to be human because if his not he will never know what is the loss of a human life, the joy of his people, the suffering of his people and the wellbeing of his nation. A human only follow another human. A God is different of us Humans; in the bible the Old Testament to be more concrete, God killed a lot of humans with the flood and asked that his creations make sacrifices to him to calm his anger. Other example is when God spoke to Moses about the suffering of his people in Egypt, but what a lot of people didn't appreciated about the story is that the one that lead the Jews to the promised land was Moses a Human.

Your end was being betrayed for your most trusted people because you never put yourself as a Human, that was your mistake and you made that mistake from the moment that you pull Caliburn from the stone, sealing your fate." (Lucius)

He is right a Human only follow another Human, that were the words that make me reconcile with my knights; all the emotions that were closed in my heart were liberated with a lot of strength, I never knew that the feelings were something so precious and I was with the idea that they were only a nuisance. He has my thanks for bring me back from the dark place that I was trapped.

After remembering all that I answered him

"My error was thrown my humanity and feelings to the trash. Like you told me I needed to become Human to lead my knights again and because of that I thank you, now I know why is to be happy, sad and laugh or cry. And thank you for helping me to keep my kingdom alive in the war game. I really want to take the correct path this time and if I can obtain the first place my wish will no longer be disappear from history, I will wish that in this new universe my name was remembered for eternity"

When I finished saying those words Lucius was laughing nonstop.

"HAHAHAHAHA! And that my dear is the true meaning to the word Immortal. An Immortal is not someone that can live for millions of years; an immortal is someone that lives in the heart and minds of the people! What is the meaning to live eternally if no one remembers you! HAHAHAHAHA" (Lucius)

Maybe because he call me dear… my cheeks were blushing; I know that he is the husband of Mordred and she is my Daughter but I really want to have someone with whom laugh, cry, grew old and die. Sigh… how fortunate is Mordred to be with someone like him. When I was in my own world, Lucius spoke again.

"I will tell you a little secret Arturia; the war games are the result of me because I wanted to know the end of a TV series in my world: The Game of Thrones. I was talking to Grail when Semiramis, Karl, Napoleon and Billy the Kid heard that, at first they were like I'm not interested but the more they listening the more exited became with the idea. And that is the very reason why the war games exist. At first the games were a distraction of the monotonous of the life in the throne of heroes but later with the help of Grail became something that everyone wanted to participate and because Grail make an oath to grant a wish to the winner." (Lucius)

My mind stooped working when I heart those words. After a few seconds my mind started working again and

"WHY THE WAR GAMES THAT EVERYONE LOVES IS THE RESULT OF A TV SERIES??!!!!" (Arturia)

I screamed with all my heart to the skies.