Tyranny of Steel

Aubry was back at the Palace in Paris; his father, King Gilles de Valois of France, was currently in the process of scolding the errant Prince. For the past year, Aubry had been fighting alongside one of his lovers, the Duke of Burgundy, against the English invasion.

Rumors began to spread of the Holy Maiden of France, and they had inspired a fighting spirit within the French people. As such, the French had started to make significant gains; that is until now. The Duke of Burgundy had made a shocking announcement on this day. He would be seceding from France and pledging his support to the English Crown.

Few knew the actual reason for him doing so, and it had begun to cause speculation within the French Royal Court as to why the Duke would suddenly turn sides despite the French beginning to gain the upper hand in the conflict.

The reason for this was quite simple, the Duke of Burgundy found out that Prince Aubry was cheating on him with a total of four other lovers, feeling betrayed and outraged that the young man he had pledged his love to was such a filthy slut, the Duke of Burgundy declared open rebellion against the French Crown.

Because of this, France had once more begun to enter into a state of defeat, as they were now being attacked on both sides by their enemies, splitting their armies in two to combat the new threat from within.

Gilles was one of the few men aware of the reasoning for the Duke of Burgundy's betrayal, and he only had one person he could blame. That being His errant son who liked to dress up as a woman and get rammed by other men. Seeing his son kneeling before him, who looked prettier than his daughter, caused Gilles to spit upon the youth in disgust.

"Your degeneracy truly knows no bounds, my son. I would have thought that you learned your lesson by now, but you can't behave yourself, can you?"

Aubry had a calm expression; he had been in this situation many times before, and as such, was well aware that his father's punishment would never be too severe. Thus he merely sat there stoically waiting for his father's critique of his behavior to end. 

"Do you not have anything to say for yourself? Are you not sorry for the damage your actions have caused? The lives that have been lost? Do you have any idea what you have done to this Kingdom!?!"

With each question the King asked, his tone of voice grew more furious, and so too did it become louder. Still, Aubry did not speak a word while being scolded in such an outrageous manner. Sibilla, on the other hand, gazed at Aubry from the other side of the chamber. She was Aubry's elder sister and the only Princess of France. 

Though nobody knew it, it was precisely her fault that Aubry turned into a crossdressing freak. She had always been envious of Aubry's natural beauty, even when they were children, and as such, she had spent a great deal of time dressing Aubry up in girl's clothes and putting makeup on him.

Eventually, such behavior influenced the boy into the young man he had become. Even she was amazed at the body count Aubry had behind him. Princess Sibilla was by no means pure, despite being unmarried, but she was far from as experienced as Aubry was.

Such a thing was another point of contention in her heart, as more than once, guys she wanted to get with passed her by so they could sleep with her crossdressing little brother. After all of this, Aubry was somehow labeled the Holy Maiden of France and caused such a huge fiasco.

She was both impressed and envious of Aubry's talents in attracting men. As such, she merely sat by and watched with glee as her younger brother was scolded for his lecherous actions that had led to the Duke of Burgundy acting in rebellion. 

Eventually, the King sighed heavily before calming himself down. He rested his head within his hands before coming to a decision.

"I have no choice but to send you to the frontlines again, you will bring back the head of your former lover, or you will never be allowed to return to this Palace. Do I make myself understood?"

Aubry snickered as he heard this lenient sentence for his crimes and responded to his father like an obedient child.

"Yes, daddy..."

The King's skin instantly crawled when he heard this; every time his son referred to him in such a manner, it made him want to cut his own ears off. Aubry needed to be taught a proper lesson, but he simply did not have the heart to be so cruel. 

Aubry raised from his position and left the Great Hall, leaving the King alone with his only daughter. Sibilla immediately began to chastise her father for being so lenient with Aubry.

"Tsk...tsk...tsk... The King of France is being lenient on his children once again. Do you ever wonder if that's the reason we all turned out so sinful?"

The moment she said this, the King's expression worsened as he heard his equally as disappointing daughter enter the fray. As such, he responded with a weary face.

"Sibilla, my only daughter, don't you have something better to do? For example, you could be skinning a puppy or pushing a baker's son into the oven at this very moment. Anything other than giving this old man even greater heartache."

Sibilla immediately began to protest as she heard this

"Ughh, You push the baker's son into an oven one time, and you never live it down! No father, I do not have anything better to do at the moment besides watch you slap Aubry on the wrist for causing the Duke of Burgundy to rebel against you!"

The King immediately began to fire back at Sibilla's response as he began to chastise her as well.

"Don't even get started with me, young lady! You have caused your fair share of internal rebellion! Remember the time you caused the Duchy of Aquitaine to side with the English because you nailed the Duke's scrotum to his bedframe!"

As Sibilla heard this, she began to giggle wickedly; she had completely forgotten about the incident and began to mock the events.

"Oh yeah! I forgot about that. Of course, it was his fault, he told me I couldn't make him cry in bed, and I took that as a challenge!"

The King of France began to sigh once more as he heard his daughter's reasoning for her actions. Sometimes he swore that God was punishing him by giving him, such wicked children. Aubry was a lustful crossdresser, and Sibella was a violent psychopath. His other two children were not much better, one was a lazy glutton, and the other was a greedy coward. 

He could swear that if he ended up having seven children, they would each be the personification of at least one of the seven deadly sins. He had no idea how his children turned out so horrible; maybe Sibilla was right, perhaps he was a terrible father who allowed them to get away with too much mischief. 

As he thought about such things, Sibilla began to laugh once more before speaking the thoughts on her mind. 

"Do you actually trust Aubry to lead an army against the Duke of Burgundy? I mean, he will probably just end up sleeping with all of his Knights. To think that the legendary Holy Maiden of France is nothing more than a perverted prince! It is hilarious, isn't it?"

At this point, the King had suffered enough of his daughter's torment and got up from his seat before slapping her across the face. 

"Get out of my sight!"

In response to this, Sibilla snarled at the King as if she were some wild beast before turning away and walking towards her room, leaving the King of France alone on his throne, thinking about how he had managed to screw up so much as a father, and as a King. 

Aside from his wayward children, there were several other things that the King had been lamenting as of late. The war against England would not be ending any time soon, and none of his children were up to the task of leading the armies against the invaders. His most excellent General had just turned against him because of his son's scandalous actions, and now he was left with a war on Three fronts. 

The English invaded from the North and the Southwest, and now he had to fight the Burgundians in the Southeast. Things did not look like they could get much worse. He knew that when the English King heard about this latest betrayal, he would be laughing up a storm at the misery and humiliation that the French Royal Dynasty had suffered on this day. 

As such, the French King had turned to his most recent pastime, the method that most depressed people used to get through the day. Thus the French King poured himself a chalice filled with wine and began to drink his sorrows away. 

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