Ever since Arthur made a full recovery, Camelot has entered a period of relative peace. The threat of war is gone, the monsters have been dealt with, and the common folk are busy preparing for winter. While you couldn't exactly call it "peace and prosperity" this year, they managed to weather all their troubles. The autumn harvest was fantastic, and the hefty war reparations Camelot won meant that many military families had enough cash to get through the cold season comfortably.
So, even though the weather is getting colder, the city is actually heating up!
Camelot is about to host a massive event: the Knights' Tournament!
The grand tournament, held every three years, is finally here again. It's always scheduled right before the new year, and this year is no different. Since an especially large number of knights signed up, the opening ceremony is set for December 15th, followed by fifteen days of competition to crown a champion.
The tournament is timed perfectly to end just before the Celtic New Year's Eve (December 31st). This is the Celts' most important holiday, a full day of celebration that officially marks the start of the new year with the midnight bells. In Kai's mind, it's basically the equivalent of the Lunar New Year he knew from his previous life—it's the major holiday. (By the way, that New Year's Eve celebration, called Hogmanay, is still a huge traditional festival in modern Scotland!)
This means that starting December 15th, all of Camelot is in for a two-week party! However, for a lot of people, those fifteen days are going to be a major headache.
As the tournament date gets closer, more and more knights are pouring into Camelot, causing a massive surge in the city's population. These knights aren't traveling alone; even the poorest ones bring a squire, and the wealthier ones bring a whole entourage.
Plus, you have nobles from all over coming to watch the spectacle, and their retinues are even bigger. As a result, every single inn and hotel in Camelot was fully booked by the beginning of December. Knights arriving late have been forced to rent rooms from citizens and local merchants.
This has been a huge financial boon for the city's commoners, who are raking in cash before the New Year's holiday. With so many people pouring into Camelot, there's huge demand for food, drink, and services. It's a great way for folks who usually have nothing to do in the winter to earn some extra money.
Of course, alongside the economic boost, this influx of outsiders has caused some serious problems: brawls and street fights are breaking out everywhere.
Most of these knights are young, ambitious guys who have come to Camelot to make a name for themselves. They're supremely confident and full of testosterone, so they're not exactly going to be on their best behavior. Arguments and petty skirmishes are now commonplace.
People in this era are the kind of tough guys who jump straight to fighting after just a few choice words, so brawling is routine, and even death is an expected outcome.
This has been an absolute nightmare for Kai. Since he's taken over for Arthur as the commander of the Knights of Camelot, he's in charge of keeping the peace. Thanks to these over-caffeinated knights, Kai hasn't had a good night's sleep in two weeks.
These hotheads are turning Camelot into a zoo. They drink a few beers and start raising hell, with public fights happening all the time. Right now, the average non-natural death rate in Camelot is 3.5 people per day, all due to brawling.
Kai is dealing with twenty or thirty cases of assault, serious injury, or homicide every single day. The legitimate chief of police in him wants to treat these guys like gang members and just lock them all up in the dungeon for disorderly conduct. But this is the Middle Ages; knights have special privileges. Kai can't punish them; at most, he can break up the fight, wait for them to cool off, and then release them.
Unless they harm a Camelot civilian, Kai really has his hands tied.
Fortunately, King Uther issued a decree long ago forbidding private duels before the start of the tournament, so the knights are holding back a little bit when they brawl. The unlucky ones who end up dead are mostly squires. And even when a squire dies, Kai has no authority to prosecute, because a squire's life belongs to his knight. Unless the knight formally asks Kai to intervene, he's powerless—and those stubborn knights usually prefer to settle things themselves in a formal duel rather than go through the official channels.
So, the tension between the knights is thick, even before the tournament starts. This is why the death rate in every tournament is always so high. These guys don't view it as a sporting competition; they see it as a dueling contest, and once they're in the arena, there's no holding back.
On the other hand, people in this era love this kind of spectacle. King Uther, for example, is a prime example; he enjoys watching knights fight savagely.
Kai really doesn't care for this atmosphere. It's fundamentally different from the organized sports he knew in his past life—it's barbaric and bloody. As a police officer with years of experience, he finds it jarring.
But that's just the social norm right now, and Kai can't change it. All he can do is try his best to stop the street fights and get those reckless tough guys to calm down a little.
Just now, Kai managed to break up one fight, and immediately, someone ran over with a message: two nobles are demanding a duel for some unknown reason. Neither side will back down, despite the local knights trying to talk them out of it, and they both insist on having Kai witness the duel.
If the knights are impulsive young men full of bravado, the nobles aren't much better. They've all been deeply influenced by the code of chivalry, so they prefer to settle disputes through duels rather than official legal channels.
And most of the time, the reason for the duel is over something completely trivial.
These past few days, even though the tournament hasn't started, the dueling arena is never empty. Nobles challenge each other daily over all kinds of ridiculous things.
This has been a real grind for Kai. Not only does he have to deal with the constant brawling, but he also has to run to the dueling grounds to act as a witness.
He can't really say no, since he's cemented his reputation as the premier knight in all the Celtic kingdoms. A lot of knights and nobles feel that having Kai witness their duel gives them major bragging rights.
When Kai arrived at the dueling grounds, he spotted a familiar face. Gwen was waiting by the entrance and hurried over the moment she saw him. Kai was curious; she was Morgana's maid. Why would she be here at the dueling grounds instead of with Morgana?
"Gwen? What are you doing here?"