Tyranny of Steel

The sun rose in Granada, the young King of Austria lay sprawled out on his bed naked next to his newest bride. On his nightstand was a golden chalice with the slightest residue of fortified wine dried and sticking to its gilded center.

After returning to Granada, with the former King of Portugal in tow, Berengar had celebrated the night with the many soldiers who had taken part in the combat operations. He spent the remainder of the night making love to his wife. 

However, now he groaned as he slowly reached consciousness, his head was pounding, and he felt as if he were neither living nor dead. His deep sapphire eyes stared at the ceiling, though he could only see its well-carved surface with his left.  As he struggled to regain control over his thoughts, a single phrase escaped his lips.

"Fuck my life."

Having said this, a series of memories from his past life flooded his brain, causing further agony to his already poor state. He could immediately remember that he had spent several years of his past life waking up to an alarm clock saying a similar sentence as his first words every morning. 

It took well over thirty minutes for him to rise to a standing position, and the moment he did so, he felt wobbly. At this moment, Yasmin awoke; she was in a similar state, and rather than say good morning to her husband, she immediately rushed to the window and vomited the liquid contained in her stomach. 

Berengar, ever the gentlemen chose to ignore this fact and merely decided to slowly but surely get dressed in proper attire before descending the staircase. Upon reaching the bottom level of the Palace, he immediately found a passed-out Hasan lying defenselessly on one of his grand sofas. 

The moment Berengar saw this, he groaned before kicking the man in the leg, immediately waking him up in a startle. It took several moments for Hasan to notice that the person who had woken him from his drunken stupor was none other than his friend and ally Berengar von Kufstein. Berengar did not hesitate and instead began to speak to Hasan with a grave tone. 

"Get you, servants, to brew some coffee; we're going to need it for the discussion that we need to have."

Hasan immediately nodded his head as he rubbed his eyes before calling out to his servants.

"Get the coffee ready!"

He had no idea where they were located, but they were sure to hear his cries. Thus while waiting for the coffee to the properly brewed, Berengar and Hasan walked over to the Dining Room. Despite their victory celebrations, the men had not had a proper conversation on where to go now that the Portuguese King had officially surrendered and agreed to annexation. 

After a few minutes of moaning and groaning, struggling to recover from their dreaded states, the coffee was set before the two monarchs as they immediately began to sip from their cups. Berengar had long since started exporting the substance into Granada via his trade routes through the Byzantine Empire, and it had become quite the lucrative trade.

Now he was finally enjoying the fruits of his efforts and was thankful that he had gone through the difficulty to achieve this. After taking several large gulps from the brew, the young Austrian King sighed heavily before commenting on the situation at hand. 

"Three-fourths of Portugal lies in the control of various local warlords and despots. Though we have seized the critical centers of Portuguese Control, there will still be intense fighting in the months to come. I will be withdrawing back to Austria within a fortnight.

During this time, I intend to set up a joint task force between several of my officers and your military; the goal is to put down any resistance within Portugal and exert Granada's control over the people.

With your permission, I would like to station an expeditionary force of between 5,000 to 10,000 men of various units in Granada to aid in the development of your Army and assist in combat operations against the rebels."

Hasan dwelled on this plan for several minutes as he thought about the condition of his forces; with the Austrians and Byzantines withdrawing, he would ultimately be left with an army of roughly 25,000 men to contend with the remnants of the Portuguese Army who now acted as local warlords and despots. He would also need to maintain the border with his limited number of soldiers, greatly diminishing his combat capabilities. 

Thus the Sultan was quite pleased that Berengar was willing to dispatch a fresh unit of a sizeable force to aid him in expanding control and influence over the recently conquered regions. Ultimately he nodded his head after taking another sip from his coffee before agreeing to Berengar's terms.

"Very well, I look forward to cooperating with your forces in the future. As for the Byzantines, I assume they are packing up and leaving Iberia for good?"

Berengar nodded his head slowly before revealing the information he had received.

"Palladius is required back in the Empire, and the forces he brought with him are needed in the Balkans. There is turmoil in the east, I am not entirely sure of the situation, but from what my agents have gathered, the Islamic states are preparing in the shadows for something big, possibly a Jihad..."

Hasan scoffed at this notion before commenting on the other Islamic States who existed across the globe.

"Pfft, Fools, if Byzantium was able to dominate their enemies in North Africa with the old weapons you gave them, imagine what they will be capable of with the new ones. I doubt it will end well if those fanatical fools declare a Jihad!"

Berengar chuckled when he heard this before making fun of the moderate Sultan.

"Oh so, Granada will not answer the call to Holy War?"

The young Sultan immediately glared at Berengar for making such a jest before declaring his intent.

"I do not need to get involved in the religious conflict; I have other concerns to deal with. I still have to maintain my control over Granada and Portugal, rebuild from the damage we have caused in our invasion, and secure my borders against my Catholic enemies. If those fools want a Holy War, then they won't be able to count on me to support them..."

Berengar smiled in silence; he took another sip from his coffee before switching the subject to something more personal.

"Since I will be leaving within the next few weeks, I will be taking your sister back with me to Kufstein. Are you sure you will be alright without your big sister to take care of you?"

Hasan scoffed once more at this snide comment before wearing a proud smile on his face.

"I am not a little kid who relies on his big sister to get by in life; besides, I have two wives to keep me company. I'm sure whatever grief I may feel with my sister's departure can be appropriately treated by the two of them. Speaking of which, I hear you have a beautiful young sister who will soon be of age. Why don't you marry her off to me?"

A stern frown appeared on Berengar's face as he heard this before placing his ceramic cup down upon the table. After doing so, he made a short but bold statement.

"Don't even think about it!"

Hasan chuckled lightly before slapping Berengar on the back in response to this.

"I see you have a sister complex, huh? Just remember, your taboo thoughts are fine, but you should never act on them... Sooner or later, you will have to wed your precious little sister off to some other man!"

Berengar immediately shrugged his friend's hand off his shoulder before chastising the man.

"I have a sister complex? You are one to talk!"

Hasan merely laughed at such a defensive comment and began to sip from his coffee once more. He had enough fun at Berengar's expense, any more, and the King of Austria might actually get mad, and the young Sultan of Granada was all too aware of what happened when Berengar was angry. 

Thus the two men continued to banter for some time. After a while, breakfast was brought to the table, and the seats were filled with Yasmin and Hasan's two wives who gazed lovingly at their men. Berengar had drunk more than his fair share of coffee during this process to help overcome his hangover. 

With this new phase of the War in Iberia, Berengar would soon return home. A semi-permanent unit would be stationed in Granada, who would regularly rotate with other soldiers to ensure that Berengar's Army maintained some form of combat experience between his effective campaigns. 

While Berengar planned to conduct combat operations in Portugal, the Aragonese King worked hard to unite his Kingdom and his neighbor Castile. Though the fighting had been fierce, soon, a new Kingdom would arise in Iberia, and in the end, there would be two powers fighting for control of the peninsula in the years to come. 

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