The Knight's Mysterious Maid-Chapter 297: Leader (2)

On her walk here, she thought over how she would get to speak to Rafael without anyone interrupting her. If her father is present, he wouldn’t allow her to go forward to speak with Rafael on their behalf. Her father sometimes reacted too fast instead of hearing her out. Annalise didn’t want him anywhere near Rafael when she was already tasked with trying to get Rafael to hear her out.

Phillip folded his arms. "I don’t like this idea. With the knights coming, this is too big of a war for you to lead on your own while I am here. You don’t have the experience leading an army."

"You would not be sitting around doing nothing. It is important that our homes have warriors here to protect them in case everything does not go as we planned. You said it is time I start getting experience leading. Trust that I can handle this on my own," Annalise said, hoping her father would say yes.

"You are my only child, Annalise. I don’t feel comfortable letting you lead without me by your side. You need to watch what I do-"

"It’s a little bit too late for that," Celeste said, interrupting Phillip. "You had plenty of time to let her follow you when she turned sixteen. She was already skilled in using all kinds of weapons and she excelled in our fake wars to train the children. You let boys whose hands shook when they picked up a sword join you, but you kept Annalise behind. Should our warriors start losing, we need a second defence here to protect the old and children left behind."

"I know you fear losing me, but you have to let me do this. You always feared that I would not be safe going beyond where you marked, but I survived being far away from home for weeks. I have a plan to help us with this coming fight and all I need is for you to give me enough warriors to carry out that plan," said Annalise.

"I don’t see why you are not agreeing to it. She’s always been praised for her skill with a sword. There is no one I know who hunts like my granddaughter. Remember that your father sent you out leading a group of our warriors to prove yourself. You can’t keep Annalise under your wing forever. It’s time to make use of her years of training," Celeste said.

"I agree with Celeste," Ezra spoke up. He had been following Phillip for ten years now and those years had been great, but it was time for Phillip to step down and let someone young with new ideas take over. "I am not against you being our second defence. They will target you. They’ve seen you many times to spot you amongst our warriors. They have not seen Annalise."

"I will join in staying behind to protect our homes," Celine announced. Her talent had always been in making poisons, but she was skilled when it came to using a bow and arrow.

It pained her to think of her daughter being out front in the face of danger, but she always knew this day was coming. They could not keep sheltering Annalise when she sought after a fight. Celine would also like for Phillip to pass on his position to Annalise since he was getting too old for this.

Celine watched him leave every day to go out to look for danger and kill off any guards trying to sneak on their land. He used to complain of his right hand hurting at the end of the day, but then he stopped. Celine thought the problem went away until she caught him wincing during the time he spent training behind their home.

Celine didn’t want this to be a story of Annalise finally taking over because her father was killed or passed away. Celine wanted her husband to be around for a long time. For them to settle in peace like Celeste did.

"Celine!" Phillip exclaimed, surprised that his wife was going along with this. Normally, she agreed to prolong Annalise becoming the next leader.

"She looks determined, Phillip. We should hear her plans and follow her lead. So that we do not lose our daughter, you should start telling her what to expect from our enemy. We are wasting a lot of time sitting around talking about marriage and debating who will lead our warriors. Let the child take over," Celine said, smiling in Annalise’s direction.

She hoped she wouldn’t regret this decision and end up losing both her husband and child.

Phillip turned to Annalise as he started to make his decision. She had spent years training for this very moment. Had he not been afraid of bringing his only child into this war, she would have been by his side in the past, watching how he kept the guards off their land.

He would like to go back to the days when Annalise was little and wasn’t near ready to be talking about leading. Still, even in her youth, all she talked about was fighting.

"We’ll split our warriors. The majority of our army will follow Annalise to where the knights must travel to reach us. A smaller group led by me and Celine will stay behind to protect the children and elderly. I will place Ezra as your second in command. I already know that you also want Thomas by your side. Now that we have agreed on that, let us hear more of your plans," Phillip said, standing up to give Annalise his seat.

If her plans ended with the knights going back to where they crawled out from or dead, he would officially name her the next leader when it was over and step back to be like his mother, offering an opinion at these meetings. If needed he would also join Annalise in the future to ride out and help defend the land.

All Phillip knew was fighting. Taking a break to spend a day with his wife without running to take up a sword when border guards were spotted too close to them was not something he got to enjoy. He apologised to his wife and mother many times for how he was ready to fight until his body grew weak.

Annalise walked over to where her father stood and sat down in the seat meant for the leader. She looked to her right at Celeste, who winked at her, and her mother, nodding her head as she encouraged Annalise to speak.

"This is what we will do," Annalise started.

An hour later, after everyone present at the meeting offered their ideas and agreed on a few strategies, they all went their separate ways. Annalise was silent as everyone left because she had a secret plan to plot.

Her talk with Rafael had to go well so a fight wouldn’t start, but if he didn’t listen to her, she would follow through with the fake ideas she presented.

"Chin up, Annalise. After what we just discussed, you shouldn’t walk out of here with a worried expression," Celeste said, placing her thumbs on both sides of Annalise’s mouth, and then moving them up to make Annalise smile.

"You two," Celine said, standing in front of Celeste and Annalise to stop them from leaving. She turned around to make sure Phillip was still out of the home, speaking to Ezra about gathering all their weapons and the armour picked off fallen border guards. "Are you hiding something from me?"

"Your daughter has fallen in love," Celeste confessed.

"Grandmother!" Annalise exclaimed, staring at Celeste in disbelief.

"Oh please. It would be a problem if I told your father. You need more people in on this to help you meet with that man," Celeste said, not regretting telling Celine. Annalise will need a few people to help defend her decision. "You shouldn’t blindside both parents like you did when you ran away.

"I-"

Annalise was interrupted by Celine grabbing her shoulders. "You did what?!" She said, a little louder than she intended to.