59 a party to remember IV
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Friedrich Wilhelm POV
286 AC third moon
When I finished giving the notice about the tournament, my servants stopped bringing food, and we waited for the lords and their families to finish their meal.
We left immediately to the half-built arena that we had prepared to observe the tournaments, during the journey we saw large groups of people leaving the arena, possibly the losers of the preliminary rounds.
As soon as we arrived, many lords started to set up tents and began to prepare for the archery tournament.
I spent a good few minutes making sure that all the lords were settled in their places and could observe the arena.
When I made sure everyone was in place, I went to my seat where I was close to most of the lords supreme.
But I found Robert and Jon Arryn arguing.
''What's going on'' I said looking at the two of them.
''Ah lord Hohenzollern help me with this, King Robert insists on participating in the melee tournament, it's too dangerous for the king'' Jon Arryn said a bit annoyed.
I sat back in my seat and looked at Robert.
''Robert you cannot participate, it is too dangerous for you, besides we must consider that most of the knights would not dare to raise their sword against you and let you win'' I said with a conciliatory tone.
''Do you think those knights are going to let me win?'', said Robert with a frown.
''No one would dare raise their hand to the king, well, except my knights, they would give you the biggest beating you will ever suffer in your life because for them in combat it doesn't matter who they fight, they will always go all out and that is why it is very dangerous for you'' I said with concern.
''Yes Robert you would ruin the tournament, besides you didn't bring your armor or your weapon how are you going to participate'' said lord Arryn, joining to convince Robert
''No, I am going to participate and that is definitive, I will get armor from my brother's men'' said Robert annoyed.
Lord Arryn began to rub his eyelids because of the possible headache he must be having.
''If you wish so much to participate, come to my tent, and we will lend you one of our armors, so at least you will be protected by one of the best armors in the seven kingdoms,'' I said looking at Robert.
I signaled one of my bodyguards to accompany Robert to look for a suit of armor while I stay with Lord Arryn.
''Lord Hohenzollern, I apologize for ruining your tournament, but we can't let Robert get hurt'' said Jon Arryn, very worried.
''I know, I am going to give orders to some of my men to try to get Robert out of the tournament as soon as possible and with the least amount of damage because I don't think he is going to make things easy and get eliminated from the tournament early, as he is a good fighter" I said looking at lord Arryn.
''Call Charles, I need him here now'' I said to one of my bodyguards.
''I thank you for your concern, let's hope this ends well for both of us'' said lord Arryn wiping his sweat with his handkerchief
''Yes, let's hope we can enjoy the archery tournament'' I said looking at the arena while the shooting targets were being hung out.
''Let's hope there are no problems with this as well'' said lord Arryn, a little calmer.
For the next 20 minutes, the final phase of the tournament began, where many men took turns shooting arrows at the targets.
This time it was no surprise that there was a good group of Finns in the final, as it is the weapon they specialize in, but they are not used to use longbows with a lot of power, preferring small curved bows with which they can jump and shoot arrows at the same time.
But Aleksanteri had made it to these rounds proving how skilled he is with the bow and, on the other hand, I had noticed that the previous champions of the tournament in the capital had returned the archers of the Tarly House.
For another 30 minutes, the tournament continued until we reached the last rounds.
Aleksanteri had been showing his skills mainly to do what he likes most to humiliate the nobles, there were some lords of the river lands who are skilled archers, but Aleksanteri did in a moment a jump and made 2 shots of arrows hitting perfectly on target.
Or on another occasion in the speed test, he had shot his 10 arrows in 12 seconds, hitting 8 on target and the other 2 outside the maximum scoring zone.
''It is amazing the skill of that man, but I find it strange that he carries the arrows in his hand instead of the quiver'' said lord Arryn.
''They are trained to use the bow while running or using their skis, so they are used to carrying and use the arrows while carrying them all in their hand'' I said, explaining why Aleksanteri uses the bow like that.
''Is he one of yours?'', Lord Arryn asked.
''Yes Aleksanteri is his name my best scout'' I said smiling.
''Then these are the men you spoke of in the capital'' said lord Arryn scratching his chin.
''Yes they use the bow, but they are not very skilled with accuracy, as they are only scouting'' I said smiling.
I'm not going to explain to lord Arryn the reason why they prefer to shoot more arrows than precision, you don't need a deadly shot if you use a poison on the tip of your arrow, just a little bit through the skin and into the bloodstream is enough to cause a quick death.
In the end the tournament ended with Aleksanteri as first place and a Tarly archer in second place, I am amazed at the amount of training those archers must have to match some of my best men.
''My king, I apologize for the delay, but I had to get my armor ready for the melee tournament'' Charles said as he apologized.
''Charles, Robert is going to participate in the melee tournament, I need you to eliminate him from the first ones, and please reduce the possibility of him being hurt, I don't want the king to end up with broken bones because you used too much force'' I said looking at Charles
''Yes my king, I will see to it that Robert is among the first eliminated from the tournament'' said Charles and retired to his tent to be ready for the tournament.
''See matter solved, Charles will take care of eliminating Robert very quickly and I will have my knights stand by Robert's group making him one of the first to be taken out of the tournament, but I think we are going to have to talk about rescuing the king'' I said laughing
''I hope you don't put Robert's ransom too high because at the moment the crown will be at critical levels in its reserves because of the increasing expenses we will have to face'' said lord Arryn, a little upset.
As we waited a loud noise of approaching boots began to sound and every second that passed the sound grew louder and many lords began to look around nervously.
Until the tournament fields appeared a large group of armed men at the entrance of the arena.
They were the old tercios, composed of veterans of the religious wars, that would perform a military parade in front of the lords of the seven kingdoms.
I decided to keep silent about this event so that it would better fulfill its purpose, that the lords would feel the fear of a force fully armed with steel and unwavering discipline.
Many lords began to look at me with fear in their eyes and others looked at me with hatred, Lord Arryn's eyes were wide and could not open any wider.
''Lord Hohenzollern, what is the meaning of this'' Lord Arryn said with some fear in his voice.
I put a finger between my lips as I smiled to signal him to be silent.
A Field Master approached me on horseback, when he arrived in front of me he got off his horse and began to read a scroll
''My king, this humble subject requests your permission to begin this military parade on your great day'' said the Field Master in German while he knelt down.
I rose from my chair
''Permission granted, you may begin the parade'' I said in the common tongue with enough force in my voice to be heard.
The Field Master returned to his tercio and began to parade with his men through the tournament grounds.
''It's just a military parade, my lord hand they are quite common in Prussian culture'' I said politely.
''By the seven Lord Hohenzollern I thought you were about to do something else'' said Lord Arryn, wiping the sweat from his head as he tried to control his breathing.
With my speech, the mood calmed down, and the lords realized that my men would simply be marching around the arena until the melee began, but still, there were many lords who had been frightened, perhaps thinking it was a trap to kill them all.
I will have to apologize tomorrow by simply hiding behind the fact that I thought that the Westerosi culture also performed military parades in a common way like the Prussians, there is no better way to apologize than to abuse that they do not know our customs.
During the next 15 minutes 6000 men marched through the arena in perfect order, giving coordinated steps where you could not differentiate even the slightest error and with an obvious standardization of weaponry, what they finally did was to march around the arena and exit where they entered in rows of 6 men wide when this demonstration of martial skill ended preparations began for the melee tournament.
''I must say that watching your tercios is a different in person is different from hearing about them in stories of battles,'' said Lord Arryn.
''Thank you, Lord Arryn trained long hours to get my men to march in perfect order'' I said, laughing.
''But lord Hohenzollern, please next time let us know you will do something similar, many must have had the scare of their lives'' said lord Arryn quite relaxed.
''why Lord Arryn, don't you people do that'' I said asking
''Well, yes, but not at this kind of parties'' said Lord Arryn.
''I'll be more considerate next time,'' I said, running my hand through my hair.
Soon after, the teams began to form, as it is common for lords coming from the same areas to help each other until they reach the finals of the tournament and then divide and fight for the top prize.
As I had promised lord Arryn, the Teutons were to the right of the group of lords from the Stormlands, ready to charge Robert's group.
Lord Arryn was sweating profusely because if Robert died he would create a succession crisis right now between his brother and his future ''son'' who had not yet been born.
The signal was given to start the melee tournament
And a full-fledged battle began. There were almost 100 participants in this battle.
My knights showing their swiftness quickly looked for a fight against the group of storm lords and their knights, the main problem was not to hurt Robert, so most of them avoided entering into combat against the king of the seven kingdoms.
The only one who looked for a fight against the king was Charles, who managed after 2 minutes of fighting to separate him from his group and take him to a personal combat.
Robert wielded a hammer that he must taken from one of his banner men trying to hit Charles, but the Teuton was extremely fast, even with all the steel he was carrying on himself.
Every blow Robert tried to hit him ended up seconds away from colliding with Charles' armor, but he always dodged them.
Charles was watching Robert's every move for an opening until after several failed attempts by the king to hit him, Charles saw an opening and charged at Robert.
Quickly, he forced him to drop the war hammer, and for a few seconds Robert was fighting Charles with nothing but force, until a fight that must have seemed eternal to Lord Arryn, Charles threw him to the ground.
But even there, Robert struggled with all his strength to get Charles off him, who was trying to pull out his dagger and make the king surrender.
The whole audience was silent watching the king's fight, only the fight of the other participants could be heard.
Charles seemed to be having trouble subduing the king until at one point he punched the king in the face, but it seems that the helmet did its job.
The whole audience screamed in surprise
after that blow, Robert seemed a little dazed what Charles took the opportunity to break the strap for the neck that kept the gothic helmet in place and remove the helmet to finally put the dagger in his face.
Robert tried to fight one more time, but when he finally decided to give up, Charles helped him up and Robert started to get out of the arena.
You could see that Robert came out with a broken nose with the force of the blow that Charles gave him.
''Well it seems that everything ended well Lord Arryn'' I said looking at the fight that was going on.
''Yes, when Robert showed up he didn't want to give up fighting,'' said lord Arryn very worried.
''Yes, it seems he is stronger than he looks because if Charles had a hard time defeating him, I think he could have defeated other knights of mine without any problems,'' I said worried.
Apparently what they say about the Baratheons being strong by inheritance is not a joke, I will have to talk to Charles to see if he held back or if he really had so much trouble fighting against Robert.
