As they walked into the central tent of the King’s encampment, the smell of wine blasted them. Braydon had heard the chatter of the other nobles from quite a distance but the smell of wine only really hit when the entrance flap was lifted. As Cinar had predicted, later that night the King had summoned all of the present nobles or their representatives for a discussion. Though from the amount of gossiping going on the King himself had not yet arrived, whenever Aled was in a room there were more hostile glares than idle gossip.

“They really are treating this as some nice outing.” Braydon whispered under his breath to Rhydian. He had already called it but it did not make him pleased that he was right. And now that Duke Oakley was trying to pull something they were probably looking at this meeting as an entertaining side event to the battles.

“Just be glad that the King does not have a habit of travelling luxuriously as well.” Rhydian responded with equal measure of resignation. As a military man, it pained him to see these people not treat war and its planning with due respect. Of course, not everyone there acted like that but nobles who took an active interest in a martial lifestyle were few and far between. There were definitely more with wine in hand than waiting for the meeting to start.

“I’m guessing the number of nobles here over men who can actually command an army has something to do with Duke Oakley’s ostentatious comments.” Braydon looked to Cinar, he had been here longer than them and had time to speak with the King as well as gather information. Though the biggest give away that Braydon saw was just the number of nobles who had obviously never seen a battlefield in person present. Most military campaigns consisted of the few nobles who knew what they were doing and the knights who had been entrusted with leading their lord’s army.

“Partly, but not quite. You may be a bit young to remember but the rivalry between our two countries means that whenever there is a war, many of the nobles participate. It is a great merit to win a battle against Casburland, more so than against other countries. These past several years have been very quiet on the northern front so many of them are raring to advance their standing.” Cinar explained in more detail some of the motivations of the nobles for coming. 

He was partly right about Braydon being a bit young; the last time there had been a war with Casburland, Braydon had only just taken up training in a serious manner. He knew that it was a great achievement to win against Casburland but not about the political circus that the nobles played to get such achievements. Though Braydon was sure that none of them would actually stand on the battlefield, they would just take the credit for being there if their men performed well.

“Who do you reckon will make the greatest fool of themselves?” Braydon asked them both, he could hardly see this being a serious meeting, not with the sheer number of men with great ego, wine in hand and a lack of knowledge. And since that was the case, he might as well enjoy the show.

“Normally I would pick one of the drunkards around here but Oakley made some bold claims and if he doesn't bring anything to back it up it will definitely be him.” Rhydian made his guess, also having given up on taking this meeting seriously. It was the first big meeting of all of the leaders present, the only serious thing that would be happening here was setting the ground rules for further meetings. It would be the proceeding meetings where actual planning was done.

“Then I will go with Earl Chandler, he has just the right amount of status and lack of brains in normal times, he should make at least a minor embarrassment of himself now.” Cinar also seemed to not be taking this seriously either. Braydon didn’t know if it was because of his inherent personality or having given up after seeing what kind of people attended wars against Casburland in the past. At least if he was anything like his daughter then it would be both.

“I thought he had not done anything stupid in recent years?” Braydon asked, he had grown up hearing rumours of the Earl’s buffoonery but had never seen it in action and he had not shown himself in court in the past several years.

“That is just because he managed to do what nobody else has managed to do since the previous King’s early reign. He got the King and all of the dukes to agree on something, that he should never attend another court session again. He tried several times but after getting bared at the door several times he stopped.” After hearing that recount of the man’s ‘achievements’, Braydon was sincerely impressed. The heads of the major factions never came to an agreement on anything, they could find a way to turn everything into a political dispute.

“Of course, it took so long to happen because they could not agree on the proper procedures to do it. Barring someone from court without any actual crime had never happened before.” And there was the kicker. ‘So they did manage to turn it into a political dispute.’ Even with that, it was still quite the feat. To be so stupid to annoy everyone and make it so that they wanted nothing to do with him was a special kind of impressive.

“It seems that everyone has gathered.” It was at this moment that Aled walked in, alongside him was Duke Oakley. Braydon would not be surprised if they entered at the same time because they couldn’t agree on who would enter first. At least now the meeting would get under way.

“Let the stupidity begin.” Rhydian whispered under his breath as the crowd of nobles and knights quieted down, causing Braydon to almost choke to cover his laughter.

Darkwood

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