Steel and Mana

The real danger came right after the battle. Elliot's freshly recruited army was assigned the task of collecting and herding the panicked, broken enemy warriors. In contrast, the elite soldiers of Avalon only intervened when their more vulnerable allies could not handle the task. Like cornered creatures, the isolated groups of rebels lashed out, attacking anything unfamiliar or different looking than their comrades, causing the only casualties and injuries on the Avalonian side.

With Matilda sending the defending army out to support them, the crushed troops of her sons were finally fully disarmed and herded into their temporary prison. It was then everyone realized that from the 3,000-plus strong army, only about 1,000 survived while the rest either died in the short battle or bled out in the aftermath, succumbing to their injuries. Those who survived were being overwatched by the Avalonian elite and the Lion itself, standing menacingly over them, its flamethrowers pointing directly at those who survived, ready to turn them into charcoal at a moment's notice.

Well... that was what the enemy thought, not daring to do anything in the shadow of the Lion while its pilot was within the city, meeting with Matilda Zimmermann, leaving an empty Lion behind. Yet, only its presence was devastating enough; some prisoners began to worship it in hopes of redemption.

"That was unbelievable..." Matilda whispered when meeting Kalash in the flesh. "I didn't think it would be that fast and powerful in action."

"It was built to fight back against... monsters." he answered, changing the enemy's identity at the last moment, almost telling her Leon built it to fight against the Ishillian warships.

"I can't imagine what kind of monsters you had to face that need something like this to beat it down." She nodded, trying to smile, but Kalash could see the desperation and fear in her eyes. No matter how experienced she was, Matilda couldn't hide it as she had yet to learn what had happened to his sons.

"They are different... But, let's talk about the now because we can't stay forever, Countess Zimmermann." Before she could interrupt him, Kalash continued, cutting straight to the facts she simultaneously wanted to hear, yet not, "We have all three of your sons. One has a broken jaw and a few missing teeth. Another was caught in an explosion, but he survived. However, both his legs are broken, and he is probably having hearing issues. The third... Unharmed. No injuries are visible on his body, although he has yet to regain consciousness. We found him the furthest away, collapsed in his own mess."

Hearing that all three of her sons survived, she swayed a little, almost fainting, but Pion, who was accompanying Kalash, quickly reached out, straightening her position.

"Will... Will you execute them?" She stuttered after finally recollecting her bearings.

"It's not up to us." Kalash calmly stated, "I'll do as my son asked us. They are going to be returned to you, and you will have to decide on their punishment. We came only to crush the rebellion, that's all."

There were many things Matilda wanted to say, but in the end, she simply bowed to Kalash, inviting him to dinner, but he refused, citing that he had to return to his duty as he was no longer a noble but a Knight of Avalon. The pride in his voice as he told Matilda his new title was shocking as no noble would ever speak about being a knight as he did, yet it wasn't the first time she had witnessed it. The young soldier, Polo, who was following Pion around, was similar. She caught them talking about being a knight multiple times, and she got the feeling that even if she offered a rank of nobility to the young man, he would outright feel offended by the notion.

"Avalon... huh..." She smiled, watching them leave. Only Pion and a hundred elite soldiers would remain in the city, supporting her, while the rest of the Avalonians would leave.

"You can only understand it if you lived there." Pion exclaimed, standing next to her, hearing her soft murmurs.

"Yeah... maybe you are right... maybe you are..."

...
....

Arriving at the battlefield, Levy Tobrok couldn't help but gasp, seeing the visible destruction. Although most of the bodies were already collected and were being burnt away in a mass grave, the earth was still turned over, and the air was filled with the smell of iron and charcoal. He was accompanied by two Avalonian soldiers at all times, partially because he was under their protection and also under their surveillance.

"Your father has regained consciousness but not his mental clarity." The soldier on his left said, lifting his helmet's vizor as they walked towards the city, here to visit Matilda Zimmermann and try to plead for his father's life. Or... to say his goodbyes.

"What do you mean, Ser Tyon?" He asked politely, looking up at the tall soldier.

"It's Private First Class Tyon... eh, whatever. It means he has probably gone crazy. You'll see when we visit the dungeons."

"I can understand that..." He shrugged, trying not to curse his father as they walked on, making him unsure about his own fate from here on...

...
....
......

"Hmmmm... Hmmm..."

"Stop." Yuri moaned, throwing a pillow at me from the bed just as I walked out of the bathroom.

"What?" I blinked my eyes, stumped, as all four of my wives looked at me.

"You have been humming since morning." Luna explained, shrugging, "It is annoying!"

"Ah... Sorry, I was distracted. I didn't even notice it!" I answered sheepishly, and it was the plain truth.

In the morning, Merlin came over and presented me with the reports and recounts of the battle, which I had been going over multiple times since then. With how it played out, for the foreseeable future, we will have the utmost advantage if we were to face regular armies. Simply by the fact they were staying so close to each other, we didn't even need to fight them, really. Slot twice as much CC into the howitzers, and we will kill them all before the battle starts.

With only ten artillery pieces, we almost killed at least half of the army, broke their lines, and the rest was mopped up by our regular troops. If the dictionary has an easy win described in it, then this was it. As long as countries do not adapt and spread their forces, we will surprise them in one fell swoop. Still, there were problems, not with the soldiers or Oleg's tactics, but with our conventional weapons. They were surprisingly weak. Even if we crafted reinforced steel swords for them, they broke just the same. It was the first time that I realized just how strong monster meat has made my people. They could cut a horse in two if they put their back behind a swing! Yet, that was only something that was, at best, the minimum requirement against fighting beasts.

"You are humming again." Sasha exclaimed, drawing my thoughts back to reality.

"Ehehe... oopsie! I was considering the details in the reports I received, and it is evident that we are going to need to redo all our conventional weapons. I will have to call upon our blacksmiths, for what we are producing now is just not good enough. I want to explore other options!"

"What do you mean?" Mikan asked as I climbed into bed between them, glancing to the side where our kids were already asleep in their cribs, hugging each other.

"We need something as resilient as our armors. Normal metal doesn't cut it..."

"Hmmm... We need new alloys?" Sasha hummed the same way I did, forcing everybody to look at her, "What?"

"Nothing." Luna grunted, rolling her eyes while I just chuckled, kissing them in order.

I knew what Sasha was thinking about, but that would be impossible for now. Recreating those metals that I was familiar with was currently out of the question. I don't even know how I would start on it. So, until it is rediscovered by someone else, I won't be able to pull out titanium from my butt. The same issue I have with tungsten or wolfram, giving our lightbulbs a shorter lifespan than I would be happy with... But that is life. I can't do everything by myself. Not that it really matters because people still love it all. After they learned from the papers that street lights would be installed and people could pay to electrify their homes, they were audibly abuzz about it. Still, we are waiting for the situation to settle and for coal to start coming reliably to Avalon. Then, we can build a coal-fired power station and go from there.

"What I was thinking of," I started, leaning down and hugging them as best as possible, "is that we should utilize the monster's bones. They are pretty hard, and big ones even have naturally formed runes on them. They are much harder to work with, but we could try to make some weapons out of them and test them out."

"Sounds brutal... I love it!" Yuri grinned, and I knew she would like the idea.

"Then we can try magically reinforce them. It has already worked with other formations, so it is not a new concept, but if we start putting CC into everything, we will run out of it and be unable to tackle truly ambitious projects. I want those tools that are being worn out and need constant replacements to be magic-free. Otherwise, it is a waste."

"What about tattoos?" Mikan asked, and true, she was right.

"For that, we will need monster blood first." I answered. It was one of the reasons I was waiting for this year's winter. "Merlin and I finished the first one; we are going to test it out on me."

"On you?!" They asked in sync, sitting up and looking at me.

"Yeah, I will get a tattoo." I answered, feeling myself starting to pout because it felt like I was trying to convince four mothers at once that I wanted one. It was... ridiculous! I'm a king or what, no? "It will allow perfect synchronization with the mechs and will also be the key to the machines. Only those who have the correct tattoo will be able to activate and operate them! Besides, they are modular. New inventions can be added later as sub-formations, connecting to them like cogs."

"You won't turn into..." Sasha whispered, making me open my mouth wide.

"Are you all thinking about shipslaves? No way! This is nowhere near like that! We made sure! Geez..." I added with a shrug, rubbing their heads, "It is to enhance our capabilities and also to bind a Knight to his machine and prevent others from stealing our technology. It will have significant benefits because it will now also include the marker technology, so their cannons should become even more accurate! After everything is ironed out, Yuri and Father will also get theirs."

"Where?" Yuri asked at once, her eyes shining like she was four, and she was told that Santa was coming tonight.

"Anywhere. No matter, every pilot can choose. Mine will be on my back; there is enough space for expansions later on."

"I want it on my tits!"

"..."

"What?" Yuri questioned, seeing us watching her with raised eyebrows, "Okay, then on my butt! No? Pussylips? Owie, don't pull on my ear!"

"You are being unreasonable." Sasha said calmly, twisting it once more before letting it go.

"Okay, okay... haahh... what about below my navel? Is that fine?" She moaned, relenting, making us sigh, knowing there was no way we could keep arguing about it; she would have it her way anyway.

"We will have time." I said, ending the conversation and pulling them back to the bed. For now, we will sleep~ and enjoy sweet dreams! Really, that is what life is about—enjoying the moment."