Hello everyone. Here is chapter 4. I hope that you will enjoy it. :)
After Albert and his men went off to fight a rebellion, Maria is currently trying to raise new forces to protect her husband's kingdom as she knew that there is the threat of Haredi and Swain, though, she wasn't sure when they would invade as they could invade at anytime.
She was having a tricky time trying to convince the nobles of this threat and they remain oblivious to the two threats to the kingdom while Banderas watched from the side-lines as the arguments and counter-arguments are mounting up between the Queen and the nobles.
The nobles were a stubborn lot as they were the ones that passed laws and choose the next King or Queen if the predecessors either stepped down or died without an heir, though, they do the same when the King or Queen has an heir, because they wanted to consider all of their options.
"We need to raise a new army, to combat Haredi and Swain" said Maria as she talked to the nobles. "Because if we don't, then, they will come to invade this kingdom".
"With all due respect, your highness, but, we can't do that" said one of the nobleman in an act of defiance. "The men are needed to gather in the crops and the harvest".
"Besides, we can't just rush into a battle without a strategy" said a second nobleman as he became worried. "Because if we do, then, we will be brutally killed".
"Listen to me, we need to combat this threat, right now" said Maria as she became angered. "Albert told me, that if you see a threat, you need to combat it".
"I agree with the Queen, we need to stop Haredi and Swain" said a third nobleman. "King Albert would tell me, the exact same thing".
"To combat the threats against Haredi and Swain, we need a King" said a fourth nobleman. "Our current King is away, but, we need a new one to keep this kingdom, stable".
"I think that prince Banderas should be the new King, he needs experience" said a fifth nobleman. "Think about it, he could learn valuable lessons from the experience".
"But you would be sending him to the wolves, though, he's the son of Henry" said a sixth nobleman. "If Henry finds out, that his son is our new King, he'll be furious".
"We will have the ceremony in secret, my friend, that's how the ceremony will be done" said the seventh nobleman. "That way, Henry will know nothing about the ceremony".
The rest of nobles started arguing about their for or against argument concerning on whether to actually go through with the suggestion of having a ceremony at all, though, Maria had to use a firm and loud tone in order to the nobles to stop arguing amongst themselves about it.
She had decided to allowed the nobles to go through with the ceremony as she knew that Albert would want his kingdom to have stability until he returns from crushing the rebellion, something that nobles nodded in agreement to as they began to talk about the ceremony will work.
Unknown to them, a hooded figure had been watching the ceremony and the hooded figure quickly, but, silently, ran out of the meeting room as the figure began to spread the word about the possible coronation and the word was spread very quickly throughout the land.
The word had spread so quickly that it even got to the messenger of Swain, the messenger deciding to take this piece of information as well as news that Albert has marched off towards Alfred's kingdom to sort out the rebellion, the messenger hoped that the news would make his master smile.
He quickly went on his boat and he began to set sail to Swain's kingdom in hopes of delivering this important news to Swain in the hope of convincing Swain to invade Albert's kingdom while the latter is out to fight a rebellion, knowing that Albert's kingdom is now open to an attack from Swain.