Rhea woke up in a strangely comfortable position. Gilgamesh was in her room again, and had apparently decided to sneak into her bed. At least he was wearing clothes.
"What time is it?"
"The time is of no consequence. However I received a rather... intriguing...invitation by Rider earlier. Apparently he wishes to have a meeting of the kings."
She blinked.
"Do you want me to make snacks?" she asked.
"I merely wished to present you as my Queen among the mongrels who dare to call themselves king. If only to dispel any illusions they may have had of your status."
"Your... queen?" said Rhea baffled.
"Only you have proven yourself worthy to be my royal equal."
"...Is this your weird way of asking me to marry you?" she asked baffled.
"I want to establish my claim on you, so that none of the lowly mongrels that wished to chain you will ever touch you," said Gilgamesh. "Besides, Tokiomi's antics are swiftly proving quite tedious."
"Just to be clear I am not sleeping with you just yet," deadpanned Rhea.
"Oh? Is that a challenge?" smirked Gilgamesh.
"There is no way in heaven or earth you are getting lucky because you tried getting me drunk. I know how to cast a wandless sobriety charm," said Rhea flatly. "If you want into my bed, then you had better prepare to work for it."
Gilgamesh looked rather pleased at the prospect.
"A queen who is quick to share her favors with a man would not be worthy of my time."
"Thanks...I guess?" said Rhea.
"Just know that when I do earn the favor of your bed, I will make it quite memorable," he purred, stroking her cheek.
Rhea blushed, causing Gilgamesh to chuckle wickedly. It was fairly clear from her reactions to his courtship that Rhea had never been with a man before. He was quite eager to claim his queen, because he knew that once he did her loyalty was absolute.
Still, she snuggled against him for a bit until she felt like getting up. Or Tokiomi called him back, whichever happened first.
Later that night...
"I see you two have become quite close!" said Rider cheerfully.
He rather liked Rhea, and it was clear she was rather...fond...of the golden king.
"If you attempt to lay a finger on my queen, I will happily kill you on the spot, mongrel," said Gilgamesh.
Rider grinned when he saw Rhea's faint blush at that remark and the fact she didn't deny her attraction to the man next to her.
"Indeed, you two would make quite the royal couple! A queen who is truly fit for a king of any age!" said Rider.
Her blush got worse, to his open amusement.
Saber decided to broach something that had been bugging her. Namely Gilgamesh's reaction when he first encountered Rhea.
"Archer, when Rhea first appeared on the battlefield, you were beyond furious. And yet now you announce her as your queen. Was there some dispute between you?"
Rhea snorted.
Gilgamesh smirked.
"Why Saber, jealous? I have more than enough room for you too."
"Do it and I will spike every bottle of wine you drink with an extreme diuretic," said Rhea without hesitation, glaring at him. "I do not share what is mine that easily."
If anything, Gilgamesh's smirk became even wider at that pronouncement.
Rider looked between the two of them and grinned openly.
Saber was still waiting for an answer.
"He was angry because he thought I was imitating the only being he would ever consider his equal, unaware of the fact that I was his friend's daughter," clarified Rhea for Saber's benefit. "Naturally since I amuse him as much as his friend did, he has decided the best way to keep the 'unworthy mongrels' from attempting to reclaim me is to claim me himself."
"...And you're okay with this?" asked Saber.
"He's an arrogant ass, but at least he when he does it he can back up his words with actual power. Compared to the idiots I had to deal with in England, he's a refreshing change of pace. Besides, most his rather annoying behavior steams from the fact that he only had one person who could actually stand up and tell him no and not get killed for it in the process," deadpanned Rhea. "So long as he has someone who can stand up to his ego, most of his rather annoying habits should curb themselves to tolerable levels."
"Wouldn't it be better to cull them altogether?" asked Saber.
"Most women make the mistake of trying to 'change' the men they marry, only to wonder what happened to the man they fell in love with," said Rhea flatly. "I would rather he curb the worst of his bad habits, rather than try to change him entirely. Besides, he's a king. Arrogance and a large ego are part of the package."
"Well said!" agreed Rider. "A king must be more greedy, laugh the loudest and have the biggest appetite of them all if he wishes to be considered a good ruler!"
"You're wrong," said Saber promptly. "A king must lead by example, and serve his kingdom."
Rhea almost spit-taked at that.
"Where on earth did you get that ridiculous idea?" she said incredulous.
Hearing Saber's idea of what a king should be, Rhea didn't know whether to laugh or sigh.
"Saber...you missed the point of kingship so utterly it's rather tragic," said Rhea.
"Excuse me?" said Saber irate.
"I concur with Lady Rhea. Your idea of what kingship means is more of a burden than anything," said Rider.
"Explain yourself," snapped Saber.
"Saber, were you a priest in life, or some other religious figure sent by god?"
"Of course not," said Saber. "It may have been my destiny to pull the sword from the stone, but I have never claimed that I was some holy figure."
Her mentor was a half incubus, for crying out loud. It was rather hard to claim she was a holy figure with someone like Merlin acting as her adviser.
"Then why in the name of sanity do you believe it was your job to save your kingdom?" asked Rhea incredulous. "Clearly you have a rather skewed idea of how a government actually works."
Saber stared, and she wasn't the only one. Rider looked at her with interest while Gilgamesh merely sipped his drink with amusement.
"Why don't you enlighten us then?" asked Rider amused.
"Generally people could care less about who is actually in power so long as the system of government continues to work as it should. For example... Rider, would you say a common baker in your time would care one wit about the fact you conquered a distant kingdom so long as they were protected and no one of importance to them was affected by your conquest?"
Rider's amusement grew, as did his respect for Rhea.
"No, a common baker could care less about his king's actions so long as it did not effect them in some manner."
"What about you Waver? You're British the same as me. Do you honestly care about what the royal family does outside of general gossip?"
Waver blinked at being addressed, before he answered honestly.
"I generally don't care about that sort of thing. It's not like it effects me after all."
Rhea looked at Saber.
"See? The commoners don't generally need saving, just a government that keeps things running so they don't have to think too hard about it. And as for the lords and nobles, well...they're easily replaced with people who have done something to attract the positive attention of the current monarch. Face it, the only reason you could possible have for wanting to 'save' your kingdom is because you weren't happy with the way your legend ended."
Rider sipped his wine. He openly agreed with Rhea on that point, and thought that Saber's wish was rather foolish in the long run.
"Besides, when you really get down to it a government is just a system of people that the sheep can pin the blame on when something goes wrong and they have to actually care about it."
"...She has a point," said Waver.
Saber huffed and was clearly trying to think of a way to counter Rhea's argument.
Except she couldn't. Not without sounding petty or childish.
"Lady Rhea is indeed the Queen of Wisdom's daughters," said Rider. "To say that you wish for the 'salvation of your country' means that you intend to erase the marks that you yourself made on history."
"Well she did stop aging as a teenager, before puberty fully set in," snarked Rhea. This wine was really messing with her ability to hold her tongue, but she couldn't find it in her to give a damn. "You were just the scapegoat the Britons needed to clean up after the mess the warring nobles were making, so they made you king. Except you never really accepted the idea of being the one in charge, did you Saber?"
Saber glared at her.
"It is the King who offers themselves to the people and their country," said Saber.
"No. It is the people who offer themselves for their country and their king, not the reverse," corrected Rider.
"Saber, clearly you never got the point of ruling. Either that or you've never properly played chess," said Rhea shaking her head.
"What does chess have to do with it?"
"It's called the 'game of kings' for a reason," said Rhea absently, swirling the wine in the cup. "After all, it's a fairly accurate representation of how wars work across the ages. No well educated person would expect the king to do the bulk of the fighting. They're always present at the major battles, never during the key turning points that lead to them."
After all, the "king" had the least maneuverability of all the chess pieces, with the Queen being the undisputed strongest.
It was always the last piece to be captured for a reason.
Saber scowled.
"Those are a tyrant's words!"
"So? One man's hero is another man's villain. Or can you honestly claim you did not make your share of enemies before you obtained the crown?" said Rhea flatly. "It is because kings are inherently tyrants that they are able to lead everyone else."
Rider nodded in complete agreement to that.
"A king that regrets his rule or it's conclusion is worse than a tyrant. He is but a fool, spitting on the sacrifices of his men that helped to forge his kingdom," said Rider.
"You say that, and yet your heirs were slain and your kingdom broken into three parts. Do you honestly claim that you do not regret that outcome?"
"None. Not if it came to pass by my judgment and my retainer's sacrifices. It's destruction was inevitable. I shall grieve. I shall weep. But I shall never regret," said Rider without hesitation.
"You..." started Saber.
"Let alone undo it! Such an act would be a mockery of all who fought with me!"
"Only warriors find glory in destruction! Of what worth is a king who fails to protect the powerless? A just rule, with just laws...those are the true duties of a king!"
"So you, the king, are a slave to what is right?"
"That is acceptable. A king is martyr to their ideals."
"That is not how a person should live," said Rider.
"If I rule the nation as a King, I cannot ask to live as a person," said Saber. "King of Conquerors, you seek the Grail merely for your own benefit. You could never understand... you who became ruler merely to satisfy your own endless greed."
"I'm beginning to think that you are still a child, Saber," said Rhea flatly. "And I'm starting to get a much better idea why Camelot fell so easily from within, if this is the example you set for your men."
"I agree! A king without greed is even worse than a figurehead! Saber, you said that you would martyr yourself for your ideals. In your life, you must have been a pure saint. A proud and noble figure, certainly. But who can truly admire the martyr's thorny path? Who dreams of such an ending?" demanded Rider.
Saber was silent, unable to respond to that. Rhea, however, did have something to say about that particular matter.
"Idiot and fools," said Rhea without hesitation. "Why do you think I left England? I could see my how my own path would end if I had stayed the 'figurehead' that the magical enclaves had created around me, and I had the sense to leave it before they turned me into a martyr simply because they didn't want to get their own hands dirty. Saber, the fact that you would willingly choose to walk along that path proves you are little more than a fool... or worse, an idealist who has only the barest idea of what reality is like."
"A king... The king must be greedier than any other. He must laugh more loudly and rage for longer. He must exemplify the extreme of all things, good and evil. That is why his retainers envy and adore him. And why the flames of admiration, to be as the king is, can burn within his people. Proud knight of chivalry the righteousness and ideals you bore may have indeed saved your nation once. However I'm certain you know what became of those who were saved, but left to themselves."
"What?" said Saber softly, Rider's words hitting her to her core.
"You saved them...but you never led them. You never showed them what a king should be. You abandoned your men when they lost their way. Then, alone and untroubled, you followed your own pretty little ideals. Thus, you are no true king. You are only a little girl, enraptured by the ideal of a king that serves others, but not themselves."
Rhea...sipped some more wine, uncaring of the hard reality check Iskander was giving Saber.
She had to admit though... Iskander's Noble Phantasm was beyond impressive and showed what a proper king should be, to have his men follow him even after death.
When it came time to leave though...the effects of the wine hit her hard.
Gilgamesh smirked at her.
"I don't get it...normally I can drink grown men under the table, so why is that wine affecting me so much?" she wondered dizzily.
"For starters you haven't eaten anything to absorb the alcohol," Gilgamesh pointed out, smugly. "Besides, the wine in my treasury is far more potent than anything made by modern mortals."
"Ugh...there is no way I can return back to my tent like this," said Rhea, giving up on walking.
So with a bare thought, she became a ferret and primly scurried up Gilgamesh's arm to settle around his neck. She almost purred...he radiated just the right amount of warmth to make it easy for her to snuggle against him.
Though she almost giggled at the memory of the 'amazing bouncing ferret' once known as Draco Malfoy.
She snuggled against his hand as he stroked her fur, openly amused by her solution.
Tokiomi would just have to deal with the fact he was bringing her into the mansion.