A beautifully decorated coffee cup fell towards the ground and broke into several pieces. The black liquid spread on the carpet and floor. In any other situation this would have annoyed Berward, as this delicious drink had become legal only some years ago.

But now coffee was the last thing on his mind. For some reason he was suddenly overwhelmed by a horrible feeling. A cold sweat formed on his forehead and it felt like he had been split in half, he fell on his knees among the fragments of the cup and spilled coffee. But the sudden seizure lasted only for some seconds, leaving him feel only somehow hollow afterwards. Instinctively he raised his left hand, moving his fingers like testing that they were still there. Of course they were there, it was all in his head.

He had felt like this before, and the feeling promised no good.

Berward raised his head to look up. His king was clearly worried of him, but he was still as helpless as he had been so far. It was almost like his majesty didn't know what they should do. If he didn't know then who did, Berward pondered.

"I th'nk that… Tino… Finland." Berward groaned as he stood slowly back up. He had felt like this when Tino had been captured for the first time some decades ago. It could mean that it had happened to him again, he had been captured… or something worse.

"Finland is g'ne." he managed to say.

"What do you mean 'gone'? Sveaborg is invincible!" the king asked, sounding almost hurt because Berward dared to claim such a nonsense "That little seizure of yours must have been only war weariness." he said and walked to put his coffee cup on a silver tray.

War weariness? No. Of course he was tired, maintenance of the military drained his energy, but it had never before caused such a seizure. Especially when he was stuck here, drinking coffee with the king and not personally in the actual war zone. He had trusted his king when he had said that everything was fine, but the seed of doubt had been planted already some time ago. Why the king hadn't given him more soldiers, they could have helped him to break out of the siege of Denmark and Norway? Was he fit to be the leader at all?

"I need to leave immediately to the eastern p'rt of the kingdom." Berward blurted out "And I demand to have enough soldiers to tr'vel with me."

"You demand?" the king turned to face Berward "You aren't one to demand anything. Do we need to remind you that we are your ruler?"

Berward continued to stare at him, he needed to understand the seriousness of the situation.

"We do understand the seriousness of the situation, we really do." the king continued, like reading Berward's thoughts, which made him happy at first "But what happens if you leave? What if Denmark and Norway attack more seriously? Who will stop France if your most important troops are somewhere else?"

For a moment Berward didn't understand what his king tried to say to him. Did he want Berward to stop France? Half of the kingdom were under an attack, he was sure something had happened to Tino and the enemy approached closer the western parts of the country every day. No, he had definitely no time to think about France, he didn't even care if France's boss was the devil or not.

"Your Majesty," Berward started, trying to sound as respectful as possible in this situation "I'm s're you know very well th't a country needs to obey their ruler, it's the unwritten rule. But there have been cases where a country has m'naged to oppose their leader. It's rare and it d'mands extreme willpower, but I'm sure I would find it in me if necessary. That's why I hope you don't give me a reason to c'nsider getting a new boss." Berward ended his unusually long speech and kept his eyes locked on the king. If this wouldn't work then he didn't know what would.

"Now you are already threatening me!" the king's face turned into a shade of bright red. People didn't usually speak to him so directly, he wasn't really used to it "We should throw you in jail for that, that… that's almost lèse-majesté, a crime against majesty!"

"Probably, but your citizens wouldn't l'ke it." Berward answered calmly. He had most likely broken countless of rules just a moment ago. It felt weirdly liberating not to care.

The king started to walk a tiny circle in the beautiful hall. Then he stopped, like wanting to say something, only to start walking again. Berward just looked at him, waiting nervously.

"Alright!" he finally snapped "Alright! Sveaborg is invincible, there is no way someone could beat it, unless Finland didn't obey the orders and didn't even go there. You are now risking us all because of him, so I really hope you know what you are doing. I will give you a group of skilled soldiers, they will take care of Denmark and Norway if they still try something. You can go to check the situation with your own eyes, are you happy now?"

Berward just nodded to his king, bowed and left from the room without saying anything else to him. There was nothing to say, he had said already too much. And he had meant every word. It had worked, that was the most important thing, but he had wasted already too much time with him.

Author's notes: This chapter was short in the original, so short that it could have been part of the previous chapter. But I didn't change it at all because there is already everything that's needed.