Since returning from Mapjess, Braydon had finally managed to find some time to relax. While there were many ongoing problems, nothing needed his immediate attention, or they could not be solved with immediate attention in the first place. This had managed to take him through to the new year, when he received a letter from the crown. It was a few days after the start of the year, presumably the courier had been sent on the first day of the year. Something Braydon hoped was an auspicious sign.

“This should be the all important letter.” Braydon sat in his study with Nela and Mireille, who had taken up semi-permanent residence in his study. Apparently it was the warmed room in the castle over the cold months. He found that claim spurious but was not going to contradict them, their presence was not unwelcome. Most of his time was going over old books from Baron Monrow’s collection or training with either Gerald or Rhydian. Braydon alternated partners depending on if he wanted to beat someone up or get actual training done. He ended up sparring with Gerald a lot.

“Let’s hope the king managed to get this passed the nobles.” Nela replied, her schemes could be perfectly executed but that did not mean that they would stand the royal court. Even the king could not guarantee that at the best of times. 

“Indeed, otherwise it will be a lot harder to get anything done. Those fence sitters will not want to anger several factions by helping us if I get censured.” Even though he had expanded his land, all of his western borders were still with neutral lords or those supported by another faction. This was both a blessing and a curse. It would be very hard to get any deals made with them, they did not want to annoy the other factions, but it would also mean that he did not have to butt heads with Duke Burn’s faction to his south directly.

Braydon opened the letter reading it’s contents with a frown. It appeared that things had not ended as clear cut as he had hoped. This was a royal decree so there had not been much extra information to explain what had happened. If he wanted to get a better picture, he would probably need to go speak to the king in person. And that would likely not be in the near future, a journey to the capital was not that urgent. There would be other matters to deal with now that he had received the decree. 

“Well that went relatively well.” He handed it to Nela to get her opinion, and it seemed that she was more positive about it than he was.

“How so?” Although he had been recognised as Baron Abel’s successor the land’s had not been unified into a viscounty by a technicality. As Baron Abel could still be alive, he was the rightful one to become a viscount. It was technically still his title, Braydon was only acting in his place as a successor. But he had disappeared, so unless he re-emerged it could not be a unified viscounty. And Braydon could not come out and say that he knew the man was definitely dead, killing your father for his title is the business of princes. The nobles would just use him killing the rightful Baron as an excuse to strip him of the inheritance he had fought so hard to gain, even if he was not blood related. In fact, especially because he was not blood related.

“Because you are now rightfully in control of the viscounty, in all but name. The neighbouring nobles will be more likely to accept deals with you now that they know they won’t be censured with you.” She had a point, it was one of his two big worries about censure alongside direct intervention. But there were still problems with this arrangement.

“But I will not be seen as legitimate in many actions as I have not yet truly gained the title.” Braydon was worried that there would be those who would cause trouble on these grounds. Nobles would fight over anything, let alone an entire viscounty.

“And what does that matter to you, none of your neighbours would be foolhardy enough to attack you outright. So long as you get at least one on side, others will follow. There was never a need to be friends with everybody. Plus, so long as Baron Abel does not rise from the dead you will take his title in five years anyway, you can then send in another petition for unifying the viscounty then.” Though, they both knew that that could be another battle in its own right. Just because it was the reality, it did not mean the other factions had to recognise it.

“If they come, hit them.” Mireille decided that this would be her moment to share her thoughts on the matter. Whenever she spoke all tension was taken out of the room. The more relaxed expression that Braydon wore was proof of that.

“Haha, you can count on that.” Braydon laughed but Mireille was right. If enemies came knocking, all he could do was fight. There was no two ways about it, either he would win or he would lose.

“Rhydian has said he will be returning to Mapjess soon.” Braydon informed Nela, Rhydian had become an all purpose military advisor at this point but that did not stop him from travelling everywhere. He had returned for year’s end, to join the feast. Though ‘feast’ was just a meal between all of the upper ranks in Braydon’s inner circle. There was not much of a celebration, the only other people in the castle were servants and soldiers who had their own festivities. 

Before that, Rhydian had been overseeing training of the troops in Cliforge, two of the infantry units had been moved there in case of any new situations over the border. Luckily it had only been a slow stream of new migrants. The warring nobles in Shuluk had consolidated under two main factions or been weeded out. There was the Grand Duchess representing her young son on one side against a loose coalition of earls and other lesser nobles. While that meant it was less chaotic, there would soon be much more bloodshed.

“Already? Does that man ever rest?” Nela was shocked at how early he had decided to move out again. There was not much of a threat from the neutral eastern nobles, so she could not understand why he did not give himself more of a break. It had barely been four days since his return.

“He is the kind that prefers to do all of his work at once and then rest afterwards.” Braydon sighed knowing that it was probably this trait that made Rhydian look older than he was.

“But his is a job that gets a continuous stream of new things all the time.” Nela tried to justify why Rhydian’s attitude would not work. All she got in response was a helpless shrug.

“Tell him that, I’ve already tried. It is either he never finishes or we manage to find him subordinates that he trusts enough to do all this grunt work. And even I don’t have any of those for my work.” Braydon’s response stumped Nela. It had taken over two months to even get her a personal attendant, Baron Monrow’s servants had been a great selection to choose from. It would be a miracle to suddenly find so many good clerks.

“Perhaps we should start training our own, there won’t be any immediate results but it will definitely help in the long run.” She suggested, getting looks of shock from both Braydon and Steven. Did she just propose stepping on the toes of the clergy?

Darkwood

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