“Let’s hope that things go better than they did yesterday.” Braydon muttered to himself as he waited for the meeting to start. Viscount Sharpe had taken up a lot more of Gerald’s time than he had thought, and that meant that getting Gerald to do his work turned into that work just not being done at all.

“Well you probably will not get much done today either.” Ethan replied, he stood beside Braydon also waiting for the meeting to start. They were waiting in the same room that all the meetings were held in, standing in front of the main table as the other nobles crowded in. It was late to start because the King was going over the details of Nela’s predictions with the person herself. Since she would not be in the meeting personally, he wanted to get the best understanding that he could get beforehand.

“I was hoping that this would be a quick one.” Braydon half sighed, knowing that his hope would be futile. Anytime new information came up that required the discussion of the entire anti-Ryder faction there was bound to be disagreement. That was the consequence of an uneasy union of two largely separate factions. Especially when one of them didn’t have a leader or unified opinion as it was.

“There are drawbacks and benefits to getting the neutral lords on side.” Ethan returned. Not that he needed to tell Braydon that. He was the one who proposed working with the neutral lords in the first place. Not to mention that they would be dealing with his matter with Viscount Sharpe at some point in the meeting.

When Braydon thought of Viscount Sharpe, he looked around the room to see if he could spot the man, a harder task than it would at first seem, given the number of people that occupied it. And soon after Braydon gave up on the effort, the man either was not in the room or stood somewhere at the back. There was not much to differentiate him from many of the other Fiverian nobles, given his stature and relatively bland features.

“You are not going to find any pretty women in the crowd.” Ethan could not help but joke when he saw Braydon looking for someone.

“I know that, there are hardly any lookers among the ladies here anyway.” Braydon also joked but in a low voice. If any of the lords heard his opinion of them it would cause him no end of hassle. Ethan, on the other hand, had a hard time suppressing his chuckles at his companion’s comment.

“Ok, I am sure that you all want to get onto the main subject of today’s meeting but first we have something else to deal with.” Saving Ethan from the weird looks he was getting, the king came in and announced the start of the meeting. And from his words, he intended to deal with Viscount Sharpe before discussing Duke Ryder.

“I am sure that many will enjoy this.” Braydon muttered once more. The looks of anticipation on the other lords’ faces showed that they were still quite interested in a dispute that made it all the way to the King’s notice. Usually they were dealt with by Braydon’s knights or Braydon himself at most. But this time Braydon himself was involved. Just his recent notoriety got them interested in his drama.

“To start off with how about we deal with a conflict of interest that has arisen between Viscounts Fiton and Sharpe? Viscount Braydon, if you will.” The King started off the proceedings but quickly handed it off to Braydon. It was clear that he wanted as little to do with it as possible. When he was mentioned, eyes soon turned to look at Braydon.

“Is Viscount Sharpe even here?” Before he got started Braydon had to ask. He had continued to try looking for the former as the meeting started but still had not been able to find him. If Viscount Sharpe failed to even turn up to the meeting when he knew that their dispute was to be dealt with, that would be far more damning than anything that Braydon could say about the dispute itself.

“Would Viscount Sharpe like to step forward?” The King said, half hoping that he was not there. If Viscount Sharpe hadn’t even turned up he would not have to render a potentially controversial decision. There would be no way for anyone to defend him.

“...”

The various lords looked around as they tried to see if the person in question was standing somewhere in the room. But after the seconds passed it became increasingly clear that he was not there.

“Will somebody go and look for him. Tell him that if he does not turn up, he best be prepared for whatever punishment is deemed appropriate for ignoring a royal summons.” King Aled pronounced in a serious tone, getting looks of surprise from around the meeting room. The punishment for ignoring a royal summons was far worse than the punishments that would be given for trying to order another lord’s knight could ever be. And given the weak position that the royal house had been in for years, it was a long time since that punishment was handed down.

“Did I stutter?” Seeing that nobody left, the King asked again. This time a servant at the door left after recovering from their stupor. Aled may not have wanted to cause internal divisions but that did not mean that he was against reasserting royal authority when he was given the chance. And since the battle lines were drawn he had more room to do so, doubly so given that he had a legitimate reason to give the punishment that he had threatened.

“Whilst we wait, perhaps we should discuss other topics?” Ethan suggested. It was more productive than just waiting around, and he wanted to stand around doing nothing as much as Braydon did. The difference was that he was not involved in the conflict, thus it was more appropriate for him to say something.

“Certainly, I am sure that everyone is agreed?” The King added, wanting to move on before any of the northeastern nobles tried to question his use of royal power. Just because they were in the same tent to combat Duke Ryder, did not mean that they were suddenly in favour of increasing royal power.

“Good then let us move on to discussing our strategy.” Seeing that nobody had spoken up, he started the more important topic for the meeting. This was where the true uphill part of the meeting would lie.