The knights seemed to stare at the young king and Gabriel warily for a moment. Silence lasted for several minutes, before a pair of knights stepped forward. Soon, four more. Few more. By the end of the minute, roughly a third of the knights had stepped forth, but the others shook their heads. Thirty two knights, though mostly younger knights, had volunteered.<br/><br/>None of the older, more experienced knights were willing to return though. They looked more infuriated, angry, and glaring at the king in a manner not fitting for a knight. They seemed unwilling to answer to the king's words before a knight captain spoke up among them.<br/><br/>"The kingdom will stand. The Duke's taken us in and allowed us to right wrongs, and we will continue to do so. We will no longer taint our order with submission to King. As far as we are concerned, the Order now stands independant of the King, in service of the<em>Kingdom</em>, and the<em>King</em>has already proven himself unworthy of respect. If the king can restore his crown,<em>without us</em>, I'm going to be willing to reconsider, but until then, any knight that walks away with the king abandons the order."<br/><br/>The words were very harsh, and seemed to make even the third of knights that<em>had</em>stepped forth hesitate. First three were returning to the group of older knights, and others looked to be considering it too.<br/><br/>The knight captain had kicked the chair from under the king, and the smug smirk on his face showed.