Herald of Steel



The nobles had no answer for Alexander

"....." And as Alexander was beginning to fume, Kyamin in an oily tone let out, "My lord, we are not the only nobles that know about Zanzan. A lot more of them have already left Jabel for other territories. They all have relatives there."

"That's right my lord. If you wish, we can even find out who said it. Maybe a week," A smartly mustached man made this daring promise.

"No, it's alright. Let them make this mistake," Alexander lightly replied with a wave of his hands.

If the enemy wanted to think Zanzan was a vanishing city with about 20,000 to 30,000 men, then let them.

Alexander would hold the surprise for the battlefield.

"Okay, I think that's it. Does Lord Melodias want to ask anything?" Alexander felt he had squeezed out everything he wanted to know.

"Umm, yes." But Melodias seemed to have a little bit of extra curiosity, as he politely asked,

"My fellow lords, all of you must have your maps regarding the area. And it would be very useful if we could have a look at them. They will greatly help us prepare for the coming invasion."

Melodias sounded very respectful and deferential.

"Yes, yes, all of us have them with us," And one noble blurted out, even adding, "I have it in my room. I can fetch it right now." as he attempted to get up from his chair.

But Melodias only raised his hand as a signal, and lightly said, "No, it's alright, we can find them by ourselves."

'Ourselves!' Melodias words turned the heart of the noble into a chilly tundra.

"My..my lord, what do you mean by ourselves?" Kyamin screeched out in alarm,

Followed up by Latif who turned up the octaves, "That's right. This was not the deal," while, Jamil barked,

"See, I told you he was a bastard. Fucker never intended to never let us live."

It appeared the cat was out of the bag.

"Ahh,..." Melodias cried out a whoopsie, before turning to Alexander guilty, "Sorry My lord, it seems I let the words slip."

Melodias knew this single mistake could cost him a lot in future promotions.

Would anyone trust a subordinate with a loose tongue?

"It's fine, don't worry about it. I was also finished with them," Alexander, at least outwardly and in front of everyone did not blame Melodias as he lightly blew it off.

And his confirmation drew another crazed period of shouts from the men, as they said unspeakable things to Alexander and even extended these curses up to his parents and even the previous fourteen generations.

And if not for the soldiers who had stepped closer to them to stop them from doing anything foolish, they would have certainly rushed at Alexander to kill him.

Alexander let these harangues pass through his ears like soothing music.

And after the nobles finally tired themselves out, Alexander decided to see how much further he could take this farce.

Ideally, he wanted to extract a written confession of all their various, because every noble had committed crimes.

And if possible, if the sun had risen from the west, even the deeds of their lands.

"My lord, your manners wound me," Alexander's surprising opening muted the nobles.

'The bastard is going to kill us and he says 'he' is hurt,' They felt Alexander was truly a bona fide politician.

But Alexander was not yet done as he continued, "While it is true I wanted to kill you before, as a way to erase any witness of me breaking the treaty, but now things have changed. Because I alone cannot defeat this great army attacking me."

"So, I wish to ally myself with you." Alexander made his made-up statement.

"..." The nobles only silently listened, not biting.

And this was okay, as Alexander finished by saying, "But just saying you are my allies will not work. I wish to see your sincerity. So I hope that you will write about all the various misdeeds you know about your fellow lords. And then sacrifice it to the Temple of Ramuh as a means of purifying yourself,"

Alexander pronounced this world's very first Christian-styled confession.

"Bullshit! You bastard! That's bullshit!" And this was the initial response, coming from the predictable Jamil.

"Lord Alexander, although we had our differences, we both are nobles. And words between nobles are sacred. Do you not fear the gods?" Kyamin was desperate as he pulled out the god card.

The confession was a no-go.

But Alexander very much wanted this, as he said, "If we are speaking of the wrath of the gods, then did you know that we dug up many bones of women and even children in Zanzan? Bones which had arrow marks on them"

This made the nobles turn silent, as Alexander at last posed with a sneer, "Are you going to say none of you what happened there?"

"....That was not us.." The nobles said in unison, vehemently denying any involvement.

This types of acts may be committed but never admitted.

And Alexander appeared to be understanding, nodding his head and saying, "Yes, I know, I know," before adding, "But the ordinary people don't know that. So I'm afraid they will not like our alliance until they know you have truly repented."

This lame excuse did not convince anyone, as they thought, 'What you really want is leverage using our crimes. And since we will not be writing our own ones, we won't know which to omit.'

Every noble knew a bit about the other, so it was very much possible one or two dark fishes had slipped out of their nets.

"...If we write this, will we live? Do you swear? No matter our previous crimes, do you swear?" Finally, Shordar (Baron) Latif cracked.

'Gotcha! Alexander really did not think this would work.

It appeared this timid noble had quite a skeleton in the closet.

"Of course! Revealing and seriously repenting will absolve you of all sins. The gods are merciful to the weak mortals. I, Pasha of Zanzan swear to the gods that all seven…um six of you will be allowed to live if you repent!' Alexander said this with warmth and piety in his voice.

'Is he really going to let them go?' And his promise sounded so sincere that even Melodias appeared confused.

And so, with Latif as an example, and seeing him start to write the various sins of the other six, the others too quickly capitulated.

Even the bad-tempered Jamil joined.

It seemed no one wanted to die.

And when that stack of paper finally landed on Alexander, signed and even stamped by its respective writers, oh boy did it have some dark things.

Though it was not really unexpected, and included mostly things like how one noble had snatched a peasant woman from her husband, how some of them held regular human hunting sports, how one of the noble's wife loved torturing her slaves, how some sadistic loved flaying little girls alive, and as such.

The crimes against Maizdy were particularly long both because they were well-known, and because he was gonna die anyway, which included almost all of the above.

But one of the others were too far behind.

For example, Latif, that soft-spoken, timid noble so eager to lick Alexander's boots, it was said that he was a homosexual and that he hated women with a passion.

In fact, Kyamin wrote that Latif would buy women slaves from him whom he would cut their breasts off and then enjoy watching them bleed out.

He had even built a special room to enjoy this.

No wonder he was hesitant to confess.

And it was not to say Kyamin was any better.

He was a slave dealer and was usually the main organizer and supplier of Muazz's human games.

Every one of these men were rotten to the core.

'Well now I feel much less guilty about killing them,' Alexander felt that he was doing the world a service by getting rid of these beasts.

And then, though he further wanted to make the nobles write the deeds to his land, he found that pushing it, and thus he got up and bowed, saying, "Well, gentlemen, the Goddess Gaia has read your confession. And though you have sinned, she has decided to forgive you…"

The slight pause made the nobles break out into glee.

A feeling that evaporated almost instantly, as Alexander pronounced, "The goddess says your death in this world will absolve your crimes in the Hereafter. And she will let you then be reborn in her garden as pure flowers. So Die!"

"Noooo *arhg*"

"You can't do *urgggg*,"

"The gods! Do you not fear.."

The nobles all screamed and thrashed as the guards moved in at the signal, being helplessly cut down by the steel swords

And the bodyguards made quick work of them.

While Maizdy made this clever remark before death, "Hahaha, good, good. Kill us. Break your swear. We will live in the heavens. And you will burn in Hell for eternity."

But who was Alexander?

He only shamelessly grinned, "Break vow? Who is break vow? The one who made the vow is the Pasha of Zanzan."

"But have I ever introduced myself as Pasha of Zanzan?"

"Or have you heard any of the soldiers call me Pasha of Zanzan?"

"No."

"And besides, who do you claim to be the Pasha of Zanzan?"

"Is it me?"

"No,"

"Because the one who made the vow according to you is Muazz, hahaha."

Alexander's smile got larger and larger following each question until even his canines were showing, and his smile appeared like the devil laughing at their foolishness.