Herald of Steel



After Kyamin finished shouting at Alexander, he then looked at the pasha with reddened eyes.

He was still not reserved to die like this.

And fortunately for him, Alexander was still not willing to kill him yet, as he gave him the excuse,

"And why would I not be serious about letting you live? I remember that Lord Maizdy actually died while escaping the city."

"His horse was galloping at full speed, and accidentally stepped on a large pothole it missed in the dark, breaking its legs, and causing the lord to fall and break his hip."

"And then in the ensuing chaos, under the pursuit of bandits and wide animals, his body was forever lost," Alexander very casually gave this recount, sending a very suggestive smile towards Kyamin as he as so.

And this produced a mixture of happiness and fear among all the listeners.

Happiness at the thought of this troublesome man-child being finally out of their life.

But fear that killing Pasha Muazz's son and successor would certainly mean the destruction of the treaty and result in a direct war.

But soon all of them reasoned that since the die had been already cast, they can only jump onto Alexander's ship.

Because Maizdy's ship was sinking.

And they were not loyal enough to follow him to the depths.

And besides, they reasoned it was ultimately Alexander's problem.

They were really innocent, and so, even if the worst came to worse and they were captured by Pasha Muazz, he would likely understand if they told him they only did the things they did because they were forced and under duress.

At least that was the sliver of hope they hung on by, praying that that bad-tempered noble would be understanding.

"Hahaha, I just remembered that we have not been properly introduced by Lord. I'm Talukder (Viscount) Kyamin. My fiefdom is in the Kyash area, around east of the Cisrian hills." Kyamon had an oily smile as he greeted himself, making his choice evident to all.

"You bastard…you dare! My father will skin y…*urggg*" Maizdy attempted to go off on a tirade as he understood the nobles were openly betraying him.

But his journey was stopped short after a strong punch to the jaws from one of the soldiers.

While the nobles and the lord basically ignored this howling dog and continued one by one with their introduction.

After finishing which, Kyamin, as the representative of the noble finally asked this with a gentle smile, "Then what does Your Lord want to know?"

"Write!" Was the only word Alexander said.

'Write? Write what?' The nobles appeared confused, and they looked curiously at Alexander for clarification.

But Alexander did not need to, as soon, the soldiers, as they were told before took out a few sheets and placed one in front of each of the nobles.

"I remember hearing one of you say Maizdy was here for something related to the army." Write about that," Alexander slouched back in his chair in a relaxed posture as he said so.

He preferred written statements over verbal ones, because, one- it made it easier to notice logical mistakes, and two- in situations like this, the others could not fix their story on the fly to match the others.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the table, the nobles examined the new material with curiosity and wonder.

'What's this? Papyrus? New kind of vellum?' They wonders as they picked up the paper and felt it against their fingers.

"*Ahem*" But Alexander's cough quickly made them remember why they were given that, and soon the quill met paper, with the sound of scribbling filling the room.

'Darm it, cunning bastard.' And while Kyamin wrote all the secret plans, he also kept on cursing Alexander.

Because writing the plan meant he could not lie about it as he did not make prior preparation with the other nobles.

And so he could only go the opposite way, and try to include as much information as he knew into the single sheet about the 'army', and hope that his voluminous recount would please this daring psycho the most.

And after almost half an hour of rapid writing, with many of the papers chuck full of small text on both sides, the men finally let go of their quills and these now almost blackened papers were collected and given to Alexander.

"Here, you read half, I will read half," Receiving this, Alexander divided the paper in half, giving Melodias three, and him taking three.

But if Alexander was hoping to reduce his workload in this way, he was sorely mistaken.

Because Melodias in an embarrassed voice squeaked out, "My…my lord, I can't…I have not yet learned …to read Azhak."

The man quietly mumbled this one out, afraid to say it out loud in front of subordinates.

"..."

Well it had been only two months, and Melodias was virtually illiterate to begin with, so ultimately Alexander chose not to criticize his army's second in command in front of his employees.

Instead, he only made a flat face and pursed his lips showing his disapproval, before taking back the papers and starting to read through them, while Melodias could only turn his head in another direction to avoid the awkwardness.

For Alexander, this reading proved to be quite important.

Because reading six different versions of the same story, he got the main gist of what was meant by the word 'army'.

And after finishing reading and re-reading the pages, Alexander pronounced what was in there so that everybody could know.

He said in a somber voice, "The pages basically say that an army of about forty to fifty thousand (40,000- 50,000) men will come to Zanzan from the east late this month. They will have ten thousand (10,000) mercenaries and some five to six thousand (5,000 - 6,000) cavalry, and chariots, with the rest being made of conscripted peasants."

"And Maizdy was sent here to be the leader, along with that man called Nibbar being his assistant."

Alexander thus finished succinctly after pointing to the slumped-over, dead Jamider (Earl).

After Alexander finished, the threat of an attack on the horizon did not cause any panic as one might expect.

Because inside the room were veteran warriors who would not flinch at the sound of the words war and battle.

No, instead they were surprised.

"Does Amenheraft wish to break the treaty unilaterally?" Melodias loudly asked the question which was on everybody's mind.

'Unilaterally? You are the one breaking it unilaterally!' Kyamin shouted in his heart at this shameless accusation, given that it was Alexander go unambiguously threw the first punch.

But outwardly answered in a neutral tone, "The king believes that if he can take Zanzan out of the alliance, then he will no longer have to comply with the treaty. And this is why he even hired the famous Jahal mercenaries."

"Hmmmm," Alexander audibly hummed hearing this answer.

Because it created many more questions than it answered,

So he decided to tackle them sequentially so as to not forget any of the points.

He thus started with the first and most important point, "You said that Amenheraft believes that retaking Zanzan will make him no longer bound to the treaty. Essentially meaning that he thinks winning the next battle will win him the war."

"But why does he think that? I only control just one city. Why does he think that destroying one plague-ridden city will destroy His Majesty Ptolomy? Will Adhan and Matrak simply dissolve if I die? Does he think that I'm the king and not Ptolomy?" Alexander believed that this could never be the real reason for this hasty attack.

It made no sense.

Even if Amenheraft was a prophet and somehow got to know about the huge potential of Zanzan, it was still only potential.

To risk breaking the treaty so early appeared suicidal for Amenheraft given his financial situation.

"We don't know Your Grace. We were only told this." Kyamin answered quickly and in a high-pitched voice, almost sounding like he was squeaking, as he was afraid Alexander might stick a bolt through him thinking he was lying or hiding information.

So he quickly pointed, "The real details might be only known to Lord Maizdy and Lord Nibbar."

"..." Not getting his answer, Alexander pursed his lips and coldly glanced at the other five as a way to pressure them.

He doubted Maizdy would talk, and instead of waiting his time there, he wanted to squeeze these men.

But they only cowered and avoided eye contact, drooping their head low.

"My lord, these are only Talukders (Viscounts) and Shordars(Barons). Perhaps they were only instructed to obey orders," Seeing no response, and afraid Alexander might kill another man just to ven, Melodias lightly whispered into the pasha's ears.

And this seemed to make sense, as Alexander whispered back, "Yea, you may be right." before adding in Thesian, "All these appear to be shrimps. With neither the size nor the spine. No wonder they know much of anything."

Alexander was referring to both their low strength in terms of land and wealth and their low levels of loyalty.

Because as much as Alexander did not like Maizdy, and would call him an idiot for not understanding the situation, he would also say the man had spine.

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