Tyranny of Steel

The morning sun shone through the windows of the Kaiser's office and glanced off the back of his leather chair. Sitting in front of him was none other than his wife Adela, who had an excited smile on her face.

She had spent a long time working with the nation's best architects to come up with her newest idea of cultural unity. Adela placed the blueprints onto the table and handed them over to Berengar, who looked over them for a few minutes before questioning his wife's motives.

"You want to build an arena? Not only is this stadium larger than the ancient Roman colosseum, but it is also more opulent. Just what madness compelled you to design such a thing? Do you have any idea how much this will cost to construct? Why on earth would we need such a thing?"

The arena in question was designed to seat seventy-five thousand people. The bold, new architectural design was unlike anything Berengar had introduced previously. If the Kaiser had to put a label on the design, it was eerily similar to the Berlin olympistadion from his past life, with one major difference. It was a fully enclosed arena with a giant dome on top.

Adela was proud of the design that she had helped come up with and gazed upon her husband as if she was looking at a fool. Perhaps he had too little coffee this morning and was still drowsy. She sighed heavily before outlining her reasoning for making such a large request.

"Berengar, you are aware that the sports you have introduced at a national level are growing in popularity at a shocking rate, right? No holds barred fighting, in particular, has a large following among your people, and there are several professional leagues in existence. At the moment, these fighters have small venues to compete in, and it is simply not enough to accommodate all the fans!

I suggest that we build this stadium as a way to show our support for sports, and bring the various small fight leagues together to build one national league. We can even create smaller feeder leagues out of the lesser fighters out of there. Then once this stadium is completed, we can host national level tournaments, and championship events where we will sell tickets to those who want to watch.

With a national league, we can print the results in the paper, and use it as a means to foster comaraderie through the various german states through a common interest. People all over the reich will be able to display their love of our martial culture!"

Berengar had to admit, the girl made a persuasive argument. Though it would cost a considerable sum to establish the Arena, it was only a matter of time before someone came up with the idea. Why wouldn't the crown take the chance to personally profit from it? Thus, Berengar let out a heavy sigh as he agreed to the request.

"Alright, but it's coming out of our own treasury. Also, look for investors. I don't want to bear the sole cost of the construction of this damn thing."

Adela had a wide smile on her face as she hugged her man and kissed him on the cheek before praising him for his generosity.

"You're the best!"

Berengar brushed off the compliments as he sent the girl on her way. He then proceeded to thoroughly look over the reports he had gathered in the various fight leagues. In years past Berengar had introduced combat sports such as wrestling, boxing, kickboxing, and submission grappling. However, no holds barred fighting was the most popular sport of all. He had even given the sport an official name which was kampf or struggle.

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Over the years, the sport took off like wildfire, and many of its fighters had been improving upon the basic techniques that Berengar taught them. Though the fighters were nowhere near the caliber of those professionals from his past life, they were rapidly improving their skills.

Many of these techniques were being taught to the German youth in the cadet corps, thus fostering an entirely new generation of talent for the sport. In Berengar's mind, a man who did not know how to fight was no man at all. Thus, he had emphasized martial training at a young age for the boys of Germany.

The firearms, and hand to hand combat training that was taught in the German cadet corps, was a large part of Berengar's plan to foster a martial society, the other major component being the popularity of combat sports. His own son supposedly had high marks in the physical aspects of the Cadet Corps training. This was unsurprising, as Hans had a head start over other boys his age, being trained in martial arts, and shooting at the age of five.

Berengar sat back and sighed as he drank from his coffee. Perhaps building such a monumental stadium in Kufstein would be a good idea after all. Still, he shivered at the expense. While he was overlooking the forms necessary to approve the construction of such a thing his wife, Yasmin entered the room with her daughter Zara in her arms.

Months had passed since the little girl was born, and she was growing at a rapid rate. Berengar smiled and got up from his seat to greet his wife and daughter. First by kissing the infant girl on the forehead, and then by kissing his wife on the lips. He was excited to see Yasmin, as he had not spent a considerable amount of time with the woman lately.

"Sweetheart, what can I help you with?"

Berengar was overly pleasant with Yasmin. Around her, he lost much of his domineering personality and instead behaved like a kindhearted husband and father. For whatever reason, the woman had such a unique effect on him, possibly because she was older by a few years, and far more mature than his other wives, who still acted like teenage girls in many ways.

Yasmin smiled when she saw Berengar approach them, and greeted him with a proper hug and kiss, before responding to his question.

"Husband, it is good to see you. I was just wondering if you had time to help our son Ghazi with some things. He is still young, and it is difficult for me to teach him how to behave like a proper ruler."

Berengar chuckled when he heard how much effort Yasmin put into making sure her son did not turn out like her now deceased idiot brother. Berengar brought Yasmin deeper into his office before sitting down and responding to her concerns.

"Relax dear, he's still nothing more than a pup. He has plenty of time to grow into a proper man. Let him enjoy his childhood when he can. Instead, you should leave matters of state to me. After all, I am the one fighting the war in Iberia."

Yasmin smirked smugly at her husband before chastising him for his words.

"You're fighting the war in Iberia? Last I checked, you were here in Kufstein delegating responsibility of the theater to your Generals."

Berengar feigned offense at this remark as he teased the woman for her blatant honesty.

"You wound me madame, if I could I would be kicking down doors in Spain, and dragging rebels from their homes with a rifle in hand. Alas, I cannot. I'm far too important for such grunt work."

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Yasmin giggled when she heard this. Berengar always had a way of making her laugh, even if others might find him particularly funny. For whatever reason, she found the idea of a one eyed emperor kicking down doors and fighting rebels in Iberia to be humorous. As she thought about this absurd idea, she realized she had not investigated how the conflict was going and was quick to inquire about it.

"How fares my broth- I mean my son's troops..."

Berengar could tell that Yasmin had still yet to fully adjust to the idea that Hasan was dead, and her own son was now the Sultan. He grabbed hold of her hand and gave her some good news.

"Well, you will be happy to know that the conflict is settling down. With the introduction of shotguns, our troops are far more efficient at removing rebels. As for the Granadan Army, it is modernizing quickly, and growing in numbers. That's about the extent of the good news, though. The presence of German troops in the region and the Muslim minority rule are two enormous powder kegs.

Every time we wipe out one rebel cell, two more pop up in its place. If I can't find a way to bring the catholic Spaniards to accept the rule of our son, I'm going to have to resort to some inhumane tactics."

This line of thinking disturbed Yasmin, from the look on Berengar's face, even he doubted whether he should actually commit to such cruelty, she could not help but ask what horrible idea he had in mind.

"What is it that has you so concerned? You normally don't look so grim when talking about war."

Berengar could not deny such a statement. What he was planning was less of war and more of ethnic cleansing. He stood up from his seat with a grim expression on his face and looked out the window at the peaceful metropolis below. He spoke in a tyrannical voice as he explained his plans to force the Spanish population into submission.

"If the Spanish do not accept the rule of my son, then I will be forced to use chemical weapons. I can not keep sending young men to their deaths in a foreign land. At this rate, it is a conflict that Germany will be tied to for decades.

So, if the Spanish and Portuguese rebels do not lay down their arms and subject themselves to the rule of the Sultan, I will be left with no choice but to shell the city of Madrid with chemical weapons. Once every man, woman and child in the city are dead, I will use it as a threat. Continue to resist and you shall suffer the same fate. I'd like to see how many catholics are willing to take up arms and resist the Sultan's rule, knowing that by a simple command, their cities can become a wasteland completely devoid of life."

The thought that such powerful weapons existed horrified Yasmin. She knew little of chemistry, but was aware that Berengar's weapons were already terrifying, and she did not doubt the existence of weapons that could wipe out all life in a city. She now understood why the man was hesitant to take such action.

The reality was, Berengar was completely unwilling to lose Iberia. One could easily chalk it up to the sunk cost fallacy. He had spent too much effort, too many resources, and too many lives to unite Iberia under his authority to give up now.

The Kaiser refused to allow Iberia to turn into his Afghanistan. If he had to purge every Catholic from Iberia, then he would do so. He was a man determined to win his wars by any means necessary, and the catholics could not resist his rule if they were all dead.

Yasmin could see the determination in Berengar's eyes and could only sigh in defeat before saying the words in her mind.

"I hope it doesn't come to that..."

Berengar nodded his head in agreement before speaking his thoughts on the matter.

"So do I..."

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