Chapter 58

My name is Liz Bain. Been living in Liverpool my whole life. I have seen a lot of things in my time, good and bad. Yet I had never expected to see this. A day when King Arthur himself returns from the dead?

Where magic knights slaughter the military like it's nothing. Where magic turns military bases to dust in seconds. The whole damn Government just disappearing and leaving the nation to one man.

First the city of Camelot appeared one night, and then we slowly were drip-fed information about it, and the people inside. The army keeping people outside.

The legendary king declared his right to the throne.

It was a nice distraction from the truth. The world was going to shit.

Those damn Americans had fucked up badly on their housing market, and that threw the entire world into an economic nightmare.

Banks are about to fall, and prices are rising on everything. People are losing everything they own, and huge investment firms and banks, the people causing the damned mess, are getting bailed out on our backs.

A rough time was coming and then came the interview. After weeks and weeks, months, there was finally a chance to see the inside of the legendary city and words from the people inside.

After so long with little information, everyone eagerly sat by the TVs and watched every moment.

And what an interview.

Massive announcement after massive reveal. History books have to be completely rewritten, and the national inheritance has to be rethought.

But more than that was the fact that King Arthur declared himself the absolute king of England, Wales, and Scotland.

Then, using that claim to make big decrees. 

No income tax for a year.

A stop to all evictions.

Those two alone were enough to throw the entire nation into chaos. And everyone quickly supported them.

Sure, they were crazy, but they were also different. The government was more busy bailing out huge soulless corporations than the needy people, so everyone gladly accepted someone who did.

A big part of the interview was about the many failings of the government and democracy itself. And honestly the king wasn't wrong.

It had its problems, but there wasn't an option for something else.

Or at least there hadn't been.

But then the king just finished up with more decrees, all to cement his rule.

After that came the two-day war.

Firstly, Sir Mordred, the knight of rebellion, had broken the military blockade of the city and ended up fighting and killing some of the soldiers there.

Then, the day after, the real war started and ended just as quickly.

It was impossible for it not to be broadcast to the world.

England wasn't so large that something like that could just be hidden, so everyone, myself included, watched on. And it was horrifying. While we didn't see how Mordred cut people apart, the explosions were impossible to hide, as was the final attack he unleashed. 

What followed that was two other attacks, both by the king himself. Twice did he strike, and then the war was over.

Two days, two battles, two strikes.

That was all the once greatest empire in the world was capable of. It was embarrassing.

And life changed after that. Hundreds of strange knights left Camelot and spread out through the realm of Albion, as it was called now.

Those knights filled the streets now. And while some fools tried to fight them, and the new system, most didn't. not that it helped them, those knights, they weren't human.

They didn't sleep, didn't eat or drink. And nothing seemed able to harm them. they seemed to just keep guard, and people had tried talking with them. they didn't really speak, but would respond to some questions.

They acted like the police; they would react to reports of crime or answer questions when someone sought help. They also seemed to be able to tell if someone lied to them.

Honestly, they weren't too bad.

I didn't have much to do with them, but they were no bother, and at times they helped people.

What really troubled me was the uncertainty. There had been enough of it before all this, with the economy and all.

But now… it was worse. The entire world was in chaos, and a nation fell, and in such a way, not to mention which nation it was.

Britain might not have been home to all the biggest international companies, but it still had enough that their sudden loss of their base in the UK was hurting.

Shares and obligations are all suddenly not worth the paper they were written on. Even the Pound's value had fallen like a rock.

Thankfully, prices didn't rise further after that, mostly because a new decree from Camelot stopped the crazy rise and brought the prices back to their previous levels.

But yeah, things could be worse. But it did really seem like King Arthur wanted to make their lives better, if by force. It was strange, but then again, it did almost fit the whole image.

Fighting for the good of the people, and even if the people turned against him, he never stopped fighting for their future.

Everyone walked around nervous about the future, and the news sure didn't help. Some people didn't take to it as well as I did.

Small rebellions shut up here and there. or at least the knights of Camelot called them rebellions. Most of the time it was just people thinking that the fall of the UK meant there weren't any laws anymore.

They quickly realized they were wrong. The police were still around, upholding law and order, and the many knights around handled crime, too.

And Mordred, he was the king's main enforcer and knew no mercy.

Gangs and other criminals that had plagued the nation for years were swiftly dealt with.

It was a mixed bag.

Some good, some bad. So same as always.

But people had hope.

Hope for a better future.

And with the latest news that Camelot indeed had the gold to pay for everything, people felt even more hopeful.

If nothing else, I would make sure to visit Camelot before things turned shit. That place was in the news all the time; entire channels just showed different parts of the city. It was quickly becoming the number one must visit spot in the world.

-----

"Camelot has reached around 20% occupancy, and the rate is expected to slow down slightly; we expect that reaching full capacity will take the rest of the year at the very least." Agravain reported.

Sitting on my throne, I just nodded. I knew life in Camelot wasn't for everyone. The lack of electricity was enough to stop most people. I might offer warm water and free firewood for cooking and heating, but that wasn't enough for most.

Those who had been brave enough to move in were either older people or those who wished for a simpler life. So, we still had plenty of families with young kids.

Another large part of the population was those who sought to make money from tourism. And there were many of those, thousands of them came and went every day. Outside the city, people are planning to build up hotels and more.

Though such things took time, more so since getting any kind of permissions took a long time. I was much too busy to deal with such things right now.

My time went into keeping the realm together, and improving it would come next.

"Moving the administration here isn't progressing very well. They are too dependent on modern technology, so they are resistant, and I have been unwilling to force things due to them not being able to continue their work here." Bedivere, too, delivered a report.

"Yeah, you really should rethink getting the city up to date and bringing it into the 21st century." Yalena interjected.

"No." I declined. "I won't let Camelot fall to that; this city is one where people are at the forefront and they shouldn't be chained down by such temptations."

I knew very well all about the current age and the importance of the internet, yet I didn't want it in Camelot. It felt wrong.

While I allowed people to bring phones, tablets, laptops, everything. Even granting such things to the former widows. I drew a line at anything that would change Camelot itself.

"Alright… That will make it nearly impossible to move the full administration to Camelot, But yeah, there is a request for funds. They have done the numbers and need 147 tons of gold, we have checked it, it's legit." Yalena continued.

"See to it Bedivere."

"There is a rise in unemployment, so we should see to creating more jobs to replace those we get rid of." Agravain moved on to the next topic.

-----

It was more than three hours later that Yalena finally stepped out of the castle again. The meeting had taken most of the day.

Even then, she couldn't help but admire the efficiency of everything. She might have been an assassin. But she had worked plenty undercover, shadowing important targets.

She knew how slow most governments were. Taking weeks to reach a decision in most cases. Here. Billions were approved in seconds. Massive projects are approved in minutes.

While she still wasn't a fan of a dictatorship, even if it was a monarchy she couldn't deny that things got done, and quickly at that.

With a good ruler in place, it wasn't bad, but she also knew that there were far too many bad people out there for it to be a better solution than democracy.

Still, at least Arthuria truly did want the best for her people, even if she caused massive trouble for the rest of the world doing so.

Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, she looked around at the life that was Camelot. When she first came here with the others, the place was quiet, but now it was filled with sound.

She had to admit that it had been nice that the city had been empty when they moved in, given the younger ones had been nervous, jumpy, and on edge.

So, moving into a place without anyone else allowed them to calm down somewhat. And now, with more people, the youngest could benefit from having other kids around.

Yalena looked around the crowd, which in turn looked curiously at her. After all, she had just come out of the castle, which made her the center of attention. Yet, the enforcement knights standing by the entrance to the castle kept people from swarming her.

As a trained assassin, she carefully scanned the crowd; it was just a reflex, really, just part of her training. And while most of the people were just random tourists, but one face in the crowd had her freeze.

Their eyes locked.

Recognition sparked between them.

The other person walked up to her. "Hey Yalena, it's been a while." She greeted her.

 "Natasha."

(end of chapter)

Damn right I did that! First talk about how I didn't want more reaction, and then give you just that. 

You really shouldn't trust me like that.

Anyway, still bit more here and there, I can't avoid that, but moving things along all the same, right now showcasing the trouble with ruling a kingdom.

But still keeping other things moving, Like no way SHIELD is letting things go, sure, they might be scared as fuck, but not so much they won't gather information.