1940, two years after a brutal civil war that saw the return of Kaiser Wilhelm II, the revived German Empire has become the most dominant military, economic and technological power in most of Europe, having reformed the Central Powers and conjured m...
Guinevere stood over the balcony of her keep in an effort to help clear her mind, but the new scent of smoke laced with charcoal as opposed to the fragrance of nature broke any concentration.
The city of Guinevere, once the first capital of the Arthurian Empire and the sparkling light meant to represent the beauty of his wife of the same name, went from a bustling forest to a factory. Industrialisation was what it was called; the promise of building back up what was previously a weak nation to the greatest power ever seen.
Smoke now poured out of house chimneys, the lower class now employed in giant factories now making up the grandeur of the city rather than the keep itself and the manufacturing of material needs on a scale unseen before. The people have even taken liberty of adopting clothing like those seen in Berlin, showing that only in a matter of months, they'd have progressed so far than they would have in literal centuries.
"I miss not having to see smoke in the distance," Lera said sombrely, ignoring her own vow of silence when on duty when beside the Empress. "Is this supposed to be civilisation? I wish to see the sky again but that smoke keeps getting in the way. And it reeks!"
"Like all promises made by these Germans, there was always a catch they failed to elaborate on," Guinevere said blankly. "I gave the permission and they did as they pleased."
Lera, as well as the other guards and servants, appeared stunned but also terrified. Not even they would want to annoy the Kaiser's men. "Just because they aren't here doesn't mean they aren't listening, my Empress. These Germans are crafty. They probably have something to watch us within our walls."
"If that is true, then they already know that I am distressed with the current situation." The Empress raised her head and turned around, staring at the wall behind her with a grin on her face. "Which I'm sure you know, right Stauffenberg?"
When she tried to scan the wall behind her to catch a glimpse of red lights, a glint or anything that would give away the dozens of cameras likely installed across her keep, she only found the shocked, wide-eyed stares of her Hands staring right at her. In shame, she turned back around and observed the sight of what was once her city.
Every time she looked at the centre of it to get a glimpse of where the old slums were, she'd always notice the eyesore of the arms industry where metalworkers and engineers worked tirelessly to produce as many copies of the German rifle as possible to equip the Empress' new army. An army that promised to outmatch Mordred's army even when outnumbered a thousand to one.
What made it even stranger was when all of it was on the demand of the city's saviour: Werner. The empress would've expected Helga to have something to do with this new change of pace, but it turns out it was the young oberstleutnant that had the ambition to lay the foundations of a new superpower. Had he realise that there is no point to this at all? Doubtful, but it seems he has played his hand in establishing German dominance over the Continent.
Guinevere looked down in the square below her castle at the sight of her new army: the Empress Guard. Made up entirely of the levies who remained loyal to Guinevere - an attempt to prove that trained swordsmen and archers were no match for peasants with rifles. Even from high up on her balcony, she can tell that they had no armour, just a uniform coloured in green and red to match the historical colours of the Arthurs, save for a strange-looking helmet with a spike at the top. Each carried a rifle that didn't at all match the ones the current Germans were using to slaughter Mordred's Imperial Army.
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