Chapter 134: Chapter 134: Rhydian States His Case

“I think it was mostly luck.” Braydon was glad that it had gone the way it had so far too. He would be much more comfortable having Rhydian command the army than someone who he knew little about, even if they did have a good reputation.

“Oh?” Nela knew that everything had an element of chance but to attribute it mostly to luck seemed to be a bit of a push to her.

“Nobody had even considered that a knight would be suggested, let alone that it would be such a famous one. There were even questions about Rhydian being one of my brother’s knights, their lack of information blindsided them to the possibility.” Braydon was sure that if the northeastern nobles had thought about it earlier they would have mounted a stiffer counter than the almost passive acceptance that they had ended up showing.

“Luck can be counted as a skill, just not a reliable one.” Nela warned, she did not want to see Braydon attribute his actual ability to luck as much as she did not want him to actually rely on luck. Neither would be very good should his ‘luck’ fail him at a critical moment.

“I know that, and I’m not going to count on luck to get Rhydian selected. If my senses are right it is going to be a tooth and nail fight.” Braydon didn’t know much about Earl Downs but from what he had seen so far the man was not one to back down without a fight. And he had the capability to back it up, at least rhetorically.

“Then I hope for the best.” Nela responded, ending the conversation just in time for them to see Rhydian approaching.

“I hear I have been summoned, it must be important for me to be summoned at such a time.” Rhydian was well aware that the lords were having a meeting, or at least should have been when he was summoned to said meeting. And from the bits of conversations that he had heard he could all but confirm his conjecture.

“Indeed, and now that you are here we can restart the meeting.” Braydon wanted to get this out of the way as soon as possible. While it was important that a commander be chosen, it was only important because of the things that would need to be done after.

“Then we should not delay.” Rhydian agreed, though Braydon was unsure if it was because of Rhydian being eager or his natural inclination to get everything done as soon as possible. There was no way to tell with Rhydian.

“We will take our leave.” Braydon bade goodbye to Nela and Rhydian saluted, the more formal address was in case of any observers around the area. While they had made sure that nobody was in earshot of their conversations, that did not mean that they were not looking at them from time to time. Braydon did not want the trouble of his relations with Nela being called into question at the current moment. Even if they did not care, others would question how close they appeared to be.

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“Now that everyone has gathered once again and we now have Sir Kelly in our presence we can truly begin the selection between Sir Kelly and Earl Downs to lead our army.” Gathering scattered nobles whilst they were chattering with each other took longer than the King had thought, especially when they were all in the same mansion already. He was almost of the mind to just pick one there and then and be done with it. But he knew if he truly did that, there would be no end of problems.

“I would first like to ask Sir Kelly for his opinion on what we should do under the current circumstances. I assume that everyone already has a general idea of Earl Downs’ opinion from the past few hours. It would be good to hear from the other man we are considering before we make our decision.” The King said that but he was not looking for an answer, it was going to happen. If someone said otherwise, he could simply say that the man was being unreasonable.

“Under the condition that Duke Ryder has not made a move yet, I think that we should posture ourselves as if we are confident we can win a battle on our current advantages. It does not matter if it is true or not, it will give the Duke pause for thought. After all, he does not want to sustain too many casualties when there is still another enemy for him to face.” Rhydian came out strong, advocating that they do something rather than wait for Duke Ryder to act. 

Braydon was glad that it was Rhydian who was in that position right then, as even without knowing exactly what had happened in the meeting prior, he took a position similar to that which Nela had suggested. Braydon had the confidence to not take a long time catching Rhydian up because he knew the man well enough to know what kind of tactics he preferred. And that fit perfectly with what the royal faction wanted to do. 

Not to mention if he had taken the time to tell Rhydian what had happened, it was likely that Rhydian would be accused of just following what Braydon had told him to say. And that would not help him gaining the support of any of the northeastern lords. And he needed at least some of them on side to realistically have a chance to be the leader of the troops.

“And what about if Duke Ryder takes us up on that offer? You do not think that we can face the entire might of his army on our own do you?” One of the lords stood closest to Earl Downs questioned. It was clear what his stance was going to be regardless, but this question would be critical in getting some of the more undecided lords on side.

“There is a chance that Duke Ryder attacks us no matter what we do, my job as a leader would be to put us in the best position. I do not believe that sitting around and doing nothing would help us any more than at least trying to better our odds.” Rhydian was not phased by the harsh wording of the question. He had faced worse from his fellow knights when he was serving under Isaac Fiton as they came up with strategies to face the enemy many times before. He was not about to be cowed by a mere question.