"Yes, my lady, I am glad to be able to work with you," said Flavian, with a bright smile on his face.
Flavian and Elzar were in the office discussing the matter of the new commander of the imperial army. "You came at the right time. We would like to talk about an important matter. Why don't you have a seat?"
Hearing this, Anton started preparing tea for refreshments. As the three of them sat down on the sofa placed in the office with Elzar and Leesa sitting on one side of the sofa and Flavian on the opposite side. "My lady as you know we were supposed to find a suitable new commander for the imperial army through the tournament."
"Yes, Your Highness. I am aware that was one of the motives behind the tournament."
"Certainly, but we failed to find anyone suitable for the position from the list of participants of commoner and noble's teams. And thus, Elzar suggested that you would be perfect for the position."
"What! Me, Your Highness?"
"Yes, Lady Marlene. Watching your performance in the tournament, I found that your strength and skills were equal to mine, and since you won the tournament, it proves that you were the most capable one among the participants. Hence, your abilities by merely being the assistant of His Highness would be a waste. Therefore, I humbly request you to join the imperial army as the new commander-in-chief. I am sure that together we can make a formidable force that will make the imperial army grow even stronger than before," requested Elzar.
'Well, I was here to strengthen myself anyway so this will be a perfect opportunity. I get to test out my skills in the name of training the soldiers.' Leesa, after acting like she had given enough thought to the matter, finally broke her silence, "This is an excellent opportunity for me, Commander Elzar but are you sure I am alright for this position? I mean the social norms of society won't allow it."
"My lady, I too, believe you have the potential to lead the imperial army. I refuse to accept any lower potential for this position just because of some nonsensical social norms that have been made by the nobles for the sake of glamourizing their so-called nobility."
"Ahh, yes, Your Highness, I will gladly accept the position."
Elzar, being a commoner, understood the depth that the statement carried. When he was appointed as commander of the army many noble soldiers refused to accept his leadership and often disregarded his decisions. Elzar was determined to show them that his leadership was just as capable as theirs. He trained the army and led them to several victories. In the end, his success earned him the respect of the soldiers, and they followed him loyally.
So now that Leesa had mentioned the problem, he knew what she was talking about. There are a few female soldiers in the army but the others don't think of them as their equals and don't like to train with them as they think they are weak because they are females. But after he started to mandate their training with each other the problem's scale seems to have lessened.
The noble society is harsh in this sense. They criticize to the point of literally diminishing an individual's whole career, esteem and hope. When Leesa was announced as the new commander of the second division of the imperial army the news spread like wildfire. There were many who were furious at the news. They felt that Leesa, being a woman, was not fit to lead a large group of soldiers. Jealousy swooned over some and they began to criticise her harshly and spread rumours of her incompetence. While some even plotted to have her removed from the position. However, it changed nothing as Flavian was adamant about having Leesa as his assistant and new commander-in-chief of the second division of the Imperial Army.
Despite the opposition, Flavian had faith in Leesa's capabilities and vowed to stand by her regardless of the consequences. He slowly began to turn the tides of public opinion in her favour with the help of the Duke and Duchess as his strong support.
While all this was happening, Leesa was in her own world. 'The main reason I agreed to become the crown prince's aid was to test out my skills when dealing with all the opponents because the crown prince was attacked at least twice a day. The best part of my additional role is that I would have the opportunity to train every day with people with high potential.'
The topic stayed hot for a while but then as people progressed in their daily lives it went cold after a few days. Everybody who had decided to make Leesa give up the position failed miserably. It was most common for people to humiliate her at balls and events, but Leesa was aloof, they couldn't even bring themselves to try to humiliate her, because her aura was so intimidating that even a grownup could be scared. In reality, she didn't mind these people as long as they didn't get on her nerves. If anyone irritated her, she decided to dispose of them on her own.
The second most popular strategy these individuals employed was to provoke Flavian by making disparaging remarks about Leesa during routine noble meetings. Yet, their attempts were in vain, for the instant they uttered negativity, Flavian swiftly expelled them from the meeting, imposing significant penalties for disrupting the meeting time on other unrelated matters.
After these incidents, Leesa actually became famous as the crown prince's lady knight. She became the first female commander-in-chief of the imperial army. Her reputation spread quickly among young noble ladies and soon she was known as a powerful leader throughout the empire. Her strength and courage inspired countless people and she was regarded with admiration and respect. Even though she had yet to prove herself on the battlefield, those who witnessed her matches at the tournament believed she was powerful enough to hold the position of commander.