"Who would like to volunteer their troops for the vanguard?" Alexei asked the group of Nobles in front of him.
"These Barbarians will feel the earth as our hooves crush them! We the Knights of the Vazquez family volunteer as vanguard!" Hernando Her Vazquez, one of the few loyal retainers from the Central Region Nobles answered with fealty.
Not many Nobles from the Central and West Regions sent reinforcements as the Central Nobles were still quite subvertly opposed to Varhys, along with the Central Church in the Western Region who outright refused Varhys' call in the West and so most Western Nobles prioritized the Church over the Imperial Family leading few of them to answer the call.
Only the deteriorating and unorganized Southern Nobles and the Eastern Noblemen under the Medici Family answered the call of the Emperor for the reinforcement of Konigsberg.
And sadly most of the families who did answer the Emperor's call only did so out of the obligations forcing them as the Emperor's retainers, and not due to their loyalty towards the Crown/Empire.
The Emperor did have a very negative image among the upper class...
And so most of the Nobles here sent the minimal troops required of them. Duke too only came with 200 men due to the fact that Vivian only sent the required people of a rural county such as Maine due to budget constraints.
Although Duke and Vivian initiated great projects that would no doubt produce them vast amounts of wealth in the future, such projects require copious amounts of Gold to fund before they do start becoming productive. Hence why the Pendragon Army is still per-soldier funded (Each man buys their own gear), unlike the Golden Armies of the Medici who are each loaned gear by the Medici Family themselves.
So it was of no surprise that although there were soldiers with decent gear here and there, the majority of the reinforcements were sadly inadequately armored.
After a brief moment of silence from the first vanguard volunteer, Silvan's Uncle who had accompanied him finally said: "Hmph! It looks like no one's brave enough to go forward, well then, us the Medici will have to be the vanguard then..."
Silvan rolled his eyes as he grumpily murmured in a hushed voice to his uncle: "I can't believe we're wasting such precious time on these Barbarians, can't we just rush them and get this all over with?"
In truth, Silvan's words represented most of the Noble's thoughts there in the meeting room.
They belittled the Northmen Barbarians as just another raid since no distinctive news yet was available. So most of them just wanted to get things over with so they could go home with the loot and honor they earned.
To most of the Nobles here, the Barbarians reaching Konigsberg was just another unlucky fluke or the incompetence of the Bizmachs, some even rationalized.
And of course, Darius and Deacon, the sycophantic yes men that they were, also voiced their boredom and the eager anticipation they had to quickly experience their first War to Silvan's uncle.
Seeing the utter lack of respect/fear that the young new Nobles had of their enemies quickly angered Commander Alexei as veins started popping up on his old face, shouting: "You!-You! Young leeching bloodsuckers think war is a GAME?!"
"First of all, if you're so bored that you can't even learn about your enemy, then I suggest you get out! I don't need another dumb Noble brat adding to our body count!" Old Alexei pointed a quivering finger at Silvan.
"Second of all, I also don't need a privileged snob-nosed idiot who thinks just because his daddy was a lil' count he can now order everybody else! Who died and made you commander, huh sonny?!" Alexei beratingly pointed another finger to Deacon for blocking Duke's path earlier.
"I-I" Deacon felt incredibly embarrassed at the sudden change Alexei undertook.
From a dignified Noble Commander to a sudden grizzled veteran soldier who cussed like he came straight from the slums. This was another reason why the particularly haughty Nobles hated Alexei...
Alexei grew up in the streets, he was even been an orphan stealing food off of stalls at one point before he was taken in by the Varangian Guard.
Hence why his real way of speaking was incredibly offensive and dirty to the Nobles he pointed his dirty commoner's tongue at.
The worst part and the number one reason Nobles hated Alexei was that he was both part of the Imperial Family AND somewhat with the Bizmach Dukedom, hence no Noble other than the Emperor himself actually had an official position higher than that of Alexei. Meaning he could cuss and curse at any Noble all he wants (Which he frequently did by the way), and nobody could talk back, less they want to be indited with treason.
And so the poor Deacon could do nothing but stay silent as he was humiliated by the funny old man in front of him. Much to Duke's delight of course.
"Kekeke" Duke giggled in the sidelines... Sadly for him, Alexei's eyes turned towards him instead!
"And YOU!" Alexei's trembling finger pointed at Duke.
"Y-Y-Yes Sir!!!" Duke accidentally saluted in fear/admiration of the old legend in front of him.
"Don't you 'Sir' me! Don't think for a second just cause you married a Princess you're suddenly hot stuff, fatso! You're Grandfather would be disappointed to know you broke your're house' code of punctuality!" Alexei also berated Duke, but unlike the first two he berated, he was more disappointed than actually angry.
"Won't happen again, sir!" Duke answered respectfully like a soldier, instead of using the tone of a Noble Commander most Nobles spoke with, which somewhat lessened Alexei's anger as he slowly backed off and looked at everybody in the eye, speaking with a grave voice:
"Britenwald and the Britannica Islands have been taken by the Northmen... The threats we're going to face are no longer 'just' barbarians" Alexei talked in a tired and somewhat saddened voice as a soldier behind him helped the old man carefully sit down on the chair behind him.
Seeing even Alexei, The Empire's Last Wall Standing react that way, the Nobles in the room could no longer pretend they didn't know the gravity of the situation...
"With the Arcane City of Britenwald destroyed, even the hiding cultists worshiping their dirty Gods abandoned the City's underbelly..." Alexei added.
Britenwald was the Empire's Magic Capital of sorts, and as the Magic Capital, it's only expected that all magical goods and artifacts needed by researchers could be found and bought there.
Hence why even Cultists who preferred seclusion, worshiping their Illegal Gods, God's whose form of worship/sacrifice deemed too dark and cruel to operate within the Empire's borders, rested within Britenwald's hidden underbelly, whose black market had everything a cultist needed. From human organs to freakishly deformed and forced human-animal hybrid slaves for sale.
With Britenwald being taken over by the Northmen, all the Cultists, Mages, Shamans, Sorcerers, and Wizards all scattered away like scuttling rats to the other regions of Brune for shelter.
"That's why... If we do face some Cultists here and there, I order you to ignore and report back immediately... We already have the Northmen to deal with. We can't risk adding cultists to the ranks of our enemies..." Alexei pointed out how they would approach the scattered cultists.
With everybody realizing their situation the room became quiet.
"That is all, everyone dismissed!" The old commander, waving his hands, signalized the end of the meeting.