On the way to the palace, rocking in his carriage, Nicolas was reminiscing about the two boys he once watched over. Boys who were now men and yet, somehow, he had to do more damage control now, then in the days when they were children.

Chuckling to himself as he remembered the good times he looked at the capital, its streets and people were all dear to him and he was prepared to do anything to protect them and their peaceful lives. Soon Nicolas’s carriage entered the courtyard of the inner castle. As he opened the door and exited the carriage the archduke put on a business-like expression and walked down towards the audience chamber. ‘Knowing Karloman and his son they are already in the hall crying and complaining.’

Inside the royal palace a red faced marquess was citing his grievances to the king. His face painted with grief, he did his best to have the king settle this matter and force a solution that would be in the Lothar's favor.

The soliloquy ended the moment the doors were thrown open. A well known figure entered, the only man in the kingdom brave enough to enter the king's presence without announcement or request.

“Brother, clear the room.” Disregarding the people present Nicolas Ritter spoke these words looking straight into the king’s eyes.

Not wasting any time Karloman stood in front of the new arrival, “Archduke Nicolas, please, I am in the middle of an audience. Your arrival is quite auspicious, you were there, do tell his Majesty of what happened.”

Ignoring the marquess, Nicolas once more repeated his request. “Brother, clear the room, now.”

The king let out a sigh, rubbed his temple and, after a moment, gave his orders, “All shall leave, my brother and I need to converse in private.”

Silence swept the room, one by one council members, guards and finally an angry and resentful Lothar left the room. The two figures remaining were two brothers who could now talk openly.

Waiting for the guards to close the door the brothers stared at each other until finally the sound of the doors being shut echoed in the now empty chamber. William was the first to voice his view of the situation, “Nicolas, we have an issue with Al, he seems to be out of control.”

“Alfred is not an issue. You know him well enough that you should not doubt his loyalty. If anyone that old fox is much more likely to plot against you while wearing that servile expression.” Nicolas quickly refuted his brother.

“If he were so loyal he would accept the hand offered to him by his father-in-law.” William stood up and started walking towards the balcony, “He should just take Karloman’s offer and be happy that his son has a grandfather.”

“William, I advise you to never utter those words again, the boy himself refuted any connection to the man…” Nicolas did his best to inform his brother about the situation at hand, but was only interrupted.

“They fed him with hate, that child should be taught to love, not hate from such an early age.” William quickly gave his view of the situation in order to refute his brother’s claims.

“Whatever they did to the boy is of no relevance, he is now of that conviction, Henry is strong and smart, there is no point in making him hate you for going against his family.” Nicolas reminded his brother of the strength of family bonds, particularly the one that these Sigurdsons have shown to have.

“If only Alaster was alive, none of this would have happened. He was a man of honor. He would honor the pact that was forged when those two got married.” William’s face sank as he remembered Alfred’s father.

“Alaster is gone William, that man was a paragon of virtue, a loyal man to the last moment and Alfred is just as loyal. Remember though that unlike his predecessor Alfred is not as forgiving or does he ever forget.” Nicolas advised his brother the best he could not to make an enemy of Alfred.

William allowed a bit more of his emotions to surface, “Alfred is one man, who is he to challenge my decisions, same goes for Eleonora, why did she do that? We need that alliance to counter the ambitions of the West.”

“Alfred is not just a man brother, remember, all loved Alaster and they still praise him, but in the East he is just lord Alaster. Sigurds love his son for what he did for them and call him “The Noble”, to make an enemy of him is equal to going against the whole of the Military Frontier.” Nicolas cautioned his brother as any advisor with a bit of insight would.

The air around the king changed, his hand lightly trembled. “Alfred the Noble, only in the East, everyone else has taken a liking to the Albion's version of his name” pausing for a moment William spoke, “Alfred the Butcher”.

“Since when do we accept the words of those bastards!? If they say it is night then it must be high noon outside, do not insult our homeland, brother!” Nicolas, for the first time since they were children raised his voice towards his brother.

William was taken aback, Nicolas was not a man who would lose his composure even in the most difficult times. This pushed the king over the edge, now he was angry, all the emotions he held bottled up until now exploded. “Brother there is more!”

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“What?” Nicolas paused, he had a bad feeling and wanted his brother to get on with his next complaint.

“His men are going around killing people throughout the city!” William was now waving his hand around pointing towards the citiscape below them.

“Who are they dispatching, exactly?” Nicolas returned to his usual calm demeanor.

“Well it started with low level organizations, I have allowed it to go on since those thugs had no value and rooting them out would help the city.” After pausing for a brief moment, enough to drink some water, the king continued, “Since then they made their way up the ranks, they started killing mid to high ranking officials of various factions and even our own people started showing up dead in the alleys.”

Nicolas only nodded to signal his brother to carry on.

“The men they killed were corrupt but not to the extent that death would be a fitting punishment! Still I kept my mouth shut, if Alfred wanted to make enemies of the capital nobles he could do so.” Sighing out heavily William brought the true issue before Nicolas.

“Then, as Alfred entered the city, his men started their slaughter. Two major organizations were wiped out, not a single soul remains alive in the capital and from what my reports are painting, not many remain outside of the western and southern parts of the kingdom.”

Nicolas kept quiet until now, “So? From what I hear he has cleaned up our garbage, we should thank the man.”

“Must you always side with the man? He did not wipe out some no name organization you know.” Taking another moment to regain his composure the king continued once more, “He annihilated the “Broken arrow society”.”

Nicolas would have been flabbergasted by this news had he not received it from Alfred himself a few hours prior to this. Keeping his face straight the archduke finally spoke, “They tried to bite the wrong person.”

“Is that all you have to say!? They were the crown’s eyes in the darkness. No noble was to touch them. I let that be known to all the aristocrats down to the count level. Alfred went against that order!” Breathing heavily, William finished his case.

“They went after Henry, brother. Think about what would happen if they bared their fangs towards anyone from your family.” Nicolas did his best to rationally explain the situation to his brother.

“They failed, I personally reprimanded them for their actions and they assured me it was a rogue element. They have served us for more than fifty years now, all that experience and trust now lost, forever.” William had a pained expression on his face, he had used that guild many times and they always got the job done swiftly and efficiently, so this loss was not something he could just overlook easily.

“We can always get new cutthroats to do the kingdom's bidding, but can you say the same for Alfred? Are they worth getting on his bad side?” Nicolas pointed out what was obvious to him, but not to his brother.

“He is doing as he pleases in my city, not some region under his control, but in MY city!” William was now completely losing his temper, the fact that someone dared to kill his people weighted heavily on him.

“You are not making sense, yes we lost a group we could have used a bit more, but they went after someone that was forbidden for them to touch. They have lost our trust and if you don’t have trust in their line of work…” Nicolas was doing his best to calm his brother down, but his explanation was cut short.

“So, you would side with Alfred over me? William felt betrayed, his voice much lower than before.

“You are my brother and my king, I will follow you always. If you doubt my loyalty then I will…” Nicolas took out his seal, the representation of his standing as minister, and placed it on the railing.

William was taken aback, his brother was not the theatrical type, he was truly prepared to resign. As if a bucket of cold water was poured onto his head he calmed down and retreated before Nicolas, “Forgive me brother, I will let you handle this situation." Pausing for a moment he took a deep breath and spoke, "Also I will once again try to reforge my friendship with Alfred.”

“Will, he was and is always going to be your friend. Just show him that you trust him and don’t allow the whispers of those who hate him and the shadow of the crown to affect you.” Nicolas was finally relieved. If the most important people in the kingdom were going to mend their friendship, he could relax a bit and focus on the darkness that was brewing all around them.

Wanting to talk about something that would not cause any more friction with the archduke, the king asked about the boy who he knew only through a short introduction. He lamented the fact that he did not have a real chance to get to know the child. "Nicolas, the boy, is Henry like Alaster or like Alfred?"

Nicolas kept looking at the people busying themselves with the flowers below as he spoke, "That child is his fathers image, down to the toxic tongue and the swift hands."

"To that extent?" William was surprised about the quick reply and the certainty with which the words were spoken.

The archduke felt a slight headache as he spoke, "Oh, he will be a handful brother, he is going to grow up into a fine man, but only to those he loves and cares for, for his enemy he will be like his parents."

"Will Eleonora not stop him from becoming too bad?" More than anything else, William was now intrigued as to why his brother saw the boy in such a light.

"Today, as I did my best to prevent the marquess from permanently retiring with his son, I saw Eleonora and Alfred, neither had a shred of mercy and only stopped for the sake of their child and the peace that they worked so hard to protect." Alfred's response was quite shocking to William.

"Then he will be a spoiled little brat by the time he enrolls into the Academy." Feeling a bit saddened by that fact William spoke in a defeated tone.

"No, the boy is taught properly. The one difference is that unlike Alaster who protected his son, but did not side with him if it would go against the kingdom's interests, these two will burn the world for their child." Nicolas did his best to summarize his view of the Sigurdsons of this generation.

William smiled and after a moment of pause the king spoke once more, “When will you pass the judgment?”

Nicolas returned the seal into his coat pocket and stared down into the yard that was brimming with life and basking in the warm rays of the Sun. “After the inspection of the noble children.”

William only nodded, he gave the reins to his beloved brother and all he could do now was support him and not get in his way.