The conference

But for that to become reality he needed loyal men by his side. And what other ways to gain the support of already available ones.

"Gentleman, now that we have a clear picture for our future goals. It's time for us to get in action. And for that I have a plan." Alfred said to his merry band of subordinates.

"As expected of Lord. Always the man with the plan." One of the four knights praised.

"Yes, yes. Lord is always the smartest person in the room." Another knight said.

"No matter how hard my part is, I swear that I will cross mountain of blades and swim through sea of fire just so I could do my part." The elderly knight chipped in.

"Old guy, how do you know Lord's plan includes crossing a blade mountain and swimming on fire sea. For all that we know, neither of those two things are part of his plan." The last of the four said.

"Shut up you imbacle. Never question the wisdom of the old. No one will know you are illiterate if you just keep you mouth shut.�� The elderly knight retorted.

"Who are you calling an imbecile and illiterate, you wrinkly butted, three legged old man. You better watch your mouth." The younger knight argued.

"How purprestures, you dare talk like that to your elder? You are just a milk tooted, big foul mouthed baboon with stinky breath. Learn some respect first."

"Who are you calling a baboon you old man. Do note that I am taking your age into consideration. You already have one leg in the grave, or else I would have already challenged you to a dual to settle this matter."

"Humph, do you even know how to lift a sword, boy? You are too young to challenge me. How about asking me in another hundred years. By then hopefully you would have grown hair in between your legs."

"Old man you dare…"

The two clowns continued to quarrel, while others watched in amusement. Alfred on the other hand was facepalming. All is efforts in firing up his knights went down in drain because of these two clowns' one silly little skit. Not wanting to drag this comedy long, Alfred decided to intervene.

"Enough you two. Stop this silly drama right now or ill send both of you out to do manual labour in this freezing temperatures without any cloths."

"But Lord, he insulted me first and questioned my honer." The young Knight complained.

"Stop your whining right now or you will be the one responsible for petroling the fortress tonight." Alfred angrily shouted at the younger knight.

Looking at the annoyed look on Alfred's face, the younger knight shut up and did not dare to open his mouth anymore.

"Good. Now that all of us are back on the same page, it's time to continue where we left off." Alfred said looking at everyone's faces.

"Yes, I agree with the lord. We need to stop wasting time and get this meeting under way immediately. So that we can wrap this up fast, and go backing to defending the fortress from animals. Those beasts are not going to kill themselves."

"Thank you for speaking up. Now you should shut up and let me speak." Alfred said, warning the elderly knight this time.

"As you wish my lord." The elderly knight said, not understanding Alfred's attempt, he kept sending provoking signals to the younger knight.

As for the younger knight, after being reprimanded by Alfred, he no longer paid any attention to the old man's provocation, but secretly decided on his own to settle this matter another day.

Alfred also chose the same thing. After being interrupted from time after time, he directly chose to ignore these four clowns and proceed according with his previous plan.

"Everyone, as I said before. This winter is going to be particularly difficult. We don't have the support of any of our allies this time. No extra troops are coming to help us. We have to guard the fortress on our own." Alfred continued. "But don't worry. Although this looks an impossible endeavor, it's actually not. Gentleman there is still hope left in the horizon. After our last near disastrous encounter with those beasts, I have thought long and hard about it after waking up. What went wrong last time? Why were those damned beasts able to nearly breech our walls last time? Rudolf tell me, what do you think is the cause of our near failure."

"I admit my mistake my Lord." Rudolf said as he knelt don't on his knee. "It was probably due to my own negligence that beasts were able to break in and the lord was injured. I am willing to take all the responsibility for the matter and accept punishment. But I beg the lord to spare my family and let my eldest son inherit my title. He is more loyal than me and will serve the lord with more diligence. I beg the lord to show mercy."

"Get up."

"Porden? What did you say, my Lord?"

"I said get up." Alfred commended. "I never said that you were responsible. Nor am I blaming someone else. What I asked for was the reason we that nearly failed. Not who was responsible. So, I am asking again What. Happened. Exactly. Last. Time. Redhead, this time you answer. If you still don't understand the question, just give me a summary of what happened during the last beast tide."

"Yes, my Lord." Listening to Alfred's command, Redhead stood up and saluted him first.

"My lord, As I remember, that day it was another of the moonless winter nights. Troops and the serfs that were guarding the fortress were relaxed but still vigilant for any sudden attack by the beasts. After all, the weather had finally cleared up a little after two days of continuous snowfall. There were no high winds, no snow flakes, in fact the temperature was less cold than normal. And given the circumstances, the serfs and the solders could ask nothing more."

"In fact, even we all deduced that any beast attack was to happen, it will take two days at very lest. So, we decided to forego the usual night petrol that night. In stand you Lord appointed an experienced veteran from Lord Edwards time to inspect the troops that night. Thinking that even if something were to happen, the old guard with valued experience would at least be able to stall the beasts for some time, giving enough time to us to reinforce the front."

"And every thing went well for most of the night. With no fierce beast sighting for the majority of the night, the sleepy troops became complacent and rested near the fire, sending the serfs as there stand ins."

"But just a few hours before dawn, the peace of the night was suddenly broken when bells all over the wall, signalling the attack of the beasts. Lightning to the sudden ringing of a single bell, the men became confused first, thinking this was some minor problem."

"But as more and more bells started ringing in the next few minutes, the men sobered up, they knew it was an attack. The beasts had attacked again. And on top of misfortune, the serfs that were supposed to make up numbers had run away and hid themselves at various dark corners in the fortress."

"Luckily, it was just around the time when the guards were changing shifts and both the fresh and last shift's men were present at the same time, making it easier for them to react. With the numbers in hand, our men quickly took action, and patched up any opening that might have been created because of those cowardly serfs' desertion. Although the initial attack of the beasts was fierce, due to reacting in the right time we were able to stop them."

"It was probably then that Lord, you arrived first, followed by me and Rudolf. While you took command of the defence, me and Rudolf joined the fray with the men against the beasts. As the fighting with beasts were getting into a stalemate, out of nowhere a wind eagle came and ignoring the walls, it pounced on you from the sky."

"You and the wind eagle fought fiercely and lord, even tried to lure it away from the men by making it follow you, but the eagle was fast and injured you in the back as you were running away. But before the eagle could land its next blow, Lord Nathen arrived along with the other four knights."

"Seeing that Lord was injured; Lord Nathen became furious and pounced on the bird directly. The eagle was smart and sensing that lord Nathen poses significant threat to it, chose to retreat. But Lord Nathen was not done with eagle and chased after it, even chasing behind it beyond the wall. In the meantime, we had already evacuated the lord into safety and entrusted you to Lady Natalie"

"The eagle ran into the forest to evade Lord Nathen but Lord Nathen adamant about killing the eagle followed it to the forest. Although I don't know what happened inside the forest, after half an hour of fighting, Lord Nathen came out dragging the eagle's dead body. By then the beasts had retreated and the situation was under control."

"As for the appointed old guard, after finishing up on his rounds, he fell asleep after chugging down a bottle of alcohol. We later found his body, in his post, ripped apart by beasts into shreds and mincemeat. If any consolation he probably died in his sleep, and did not struggle much."

Redhead narrated the tale as best as he could, as much as he knew. After hearing what his knight had to say, Alfred remained silent. He knew full well that in that situation no one was to blame. The beasts had caught everyone by surprise. In fact, taking into what had happened, some of the blame falls on Alfe's shoulder and in turn his. Even though he was not committing them, he is now responsible for any and all mess Alfe had left behind.

Alfred sighed.

"You all can leave for now. I need some time to rethink the situation. Some of the plans I had before needs further reconsideration. I'll call you all back when I am ready again." Alfred said with a reflective tone and dismissed everyone in the room.

Everyone looked at each other and as if reaching a general consensus, one by one everyone left the study, leaving only Alfred and Nathen sitting on their seats.

"You wont leave?" Alfred looked at still seating Nathen curiously.

"My Lord, please forgive me for not listening to your order, but I want to talk." Nathen said kneeling on one knee.

Alfred was intrigued. This was not the way Nathen usually behaved. From the memories Alfe left behind, he knew Nathen was a loyal, brave and strong minded fellow. He was the most loyal knight under the Autarch family and often listened to Alfred's orders and followed them to the last word.

"Tell me, what is in your mind." Alfred curiously Asked.

"First of all, forgive me my Lord. For that I have failed to protect you. I have no excuses for my previous failure and ask the Lord to punish me."

"What?" Alfred was puzzled.

"My Lord, in the last beast attack, because of my negligence, you were gravely injured and nearly lost your life. Suffice to say it was because of my lack of oversight. So, I ask the Lord to punish me."

"Brother, are you a M?" Alfred asked suddenly.

"My Lord, what is a M?" Nathen asked innocently.

"No, it's nothing, forget what I said just now." Alfred said, rubbing his head. He had not fully wrapped his around the last problem, now this guy pops up. "Tell me, do you think what happened last time was your fault?"

"Yes, it definitely was my fault."

Alfred was speechless.

"Brother aren't you a little bit straight forward in admitting your mistake." Alfred thought in his mind.

"Tell me, why do you want to be punished? Is it a hobby of some kind?" Alfred probed. "I mean do you like getting punished? Is getting punished fun for you?"

Alfred became vigilant. If Nathen turns out to be like a certain female knight from his previous world, he has to keep his distance from this guy from now on.

"Lord why would I like getting punished?" Nathen became confused. "It's just that I feel that not protecting you was my failure and a big dark stain in my honer. As a knight, any stain on my honer is a big insult to my name. So, I ask the lord to punish me and give me a chance to redeem myself in the future."

"So that was the case." Alfred felt relieved. "If so, then I have an appropriate punishment for you."

"I am willing to accept anything you say, my lord." Nathen steeled himself.

"Good," Alfred instand relaxed a lot, "Nathen Lockwood, From now on you are relive from your position of chief knight of Autarch family and appoint you as my personal bodyguard>��

"As you wish my Lord."

"Good, you can leave now."

Listening to Alfred orders, Nathen started to hesitate.

"You have anything else to say?"

"As a matter of fact, yes my Lord." Nathen replied.

"Go on. Tell me." Alfred said in a casual tone.

"Remember that eagle that injured you my lord." Nathen paused.

"You killed it right?"

"No, my lord it's still alive."