Jarudiel was starting to think that perhaps he had been too optimistic about the whole 'Lord of Caed Nua' thing. Now, he personally thought it a very simple matter: he had conquered the place from top to bottom, killed the old owner, had the blessing of the talking throne who had designed the whole place, and had invested thousands into renovating everything. That should make him the owner of the keep without any doubt. But nope, apparently that would have been too easy, so now he had to listen to a ruling on the matter because some noble thought that old blood-ties mattered more.
As far as Jarudiel was concerned, the matter was either resolved peacefully here with Lord Gathbin getting the boot, or in the middle of the night with Lord Gathbin getting Azureith's Stiletto pierced through his heart. Jarudiel preferred the former, but wasn't against the latter if necessary; he wasn't going to give up on his keep, he was fond of it by now.
"Ah, here comes lord Gathbin."
Jarudiel turned towards the door and relaxed his stance. Even if he was looking to dress this guy down, he would try to be civil and diplomatic as long as he could.
...well, Lord Gathbin sure wasn't going for diplomacy himself, immediately accusing Jarudiel of murder, pretending, stealing, and of being low-born. Rude. He didn't murder Raedric, he confronted the guy fairly. He wasn't pretending anything, he was the rightful owner of Caed Nua. He didn't steal the land either, he conquered it fair and square. The only thing Lord Gathbin got right was that he wasn't noble, but that was irrelevant in the first place.
"This man here? This is the Lord of Caed Nua?" Lord Gathbin asked and looked down his nose at Jarudiel. "I thought he was just another servant. Perhaps a valet or a porter."
Okay, that was it.
"Everyone who owns their own keep, raise a hand!" Jarudiel said and raised his hand. "Go on, don't be shy!"
He enjoyed Lord Gathbin's expression of shocked disbelief and then anger very much, enough to tide him over the Chancellor's speech, even the part where, for a second, he thought he was actually going to lose Caed Nua to this little shitstain (and have to murder him in his sleep to reclaim it). However, turned out that Erl Bademar was a reasonable person and Jarudiel would have to send the man a batch of cookies sometime.
Lord Gathbin, of course, wasn't as reasonable. Jarudiel stopped the attempted assault on the Chancellor silently, biding his time to rub his victory in the vile Lord's face. Just a little longer, just enough to not have all hell break loose.
"I'll be coming for what's mine. Count on it! Come, Captain Emery - we're leaving."
Jarudiel smirked, waited for the guy to take a few angry steps towards the stairs, then clapped his hands twice.
"If you own a keep and know it, clap your hands", he sang quietly and clapped his hands again. "If you own a keep and know it, clap your hands."
Lord Gathbin turned around, red faced and absolutely enraged, but thankfully Captain Emery was on top of the situation and stopped him from lunging at Jarudiel, although she couldn't stop the string of expletives from leaving his lips.
Jarudiel's smirk widened and he clapped his hands again.
"I'M GOING TO HAVE YOUR HEAD!"
"If you own a keep and know it, then your face will surely show it-"
"Someone fetch the guards! Lord Jarudiel, please!"
"If you own a keep and know it, clap your hands!"
Later, when Lord Gathbin put together an army and threatened to destroy Jarudiel once and for all, Jarudiel wondered if he maybe shouldn't have pushed the guy so much.