Herald of Steel



There were of course some strategic questions that Alexander had refused to answer some questions, such as inquiries regarding the crossbow and how they were made and used.

But in return, he did reveal some of his inventions, showing them things such as paper and sugar, which were close at hand.

All of which the nobles were very impressed by.

Finally, at one point the meeting came to an end, when a messenger at last got impatient enough to intrude into the tent and inform Alexander that the army had been waiting for hours in stand by, growing impatient by the minute as they were eager to march home, but were still waiting for him to give the order.

"Ah, yes, yes," Alexander too was surprised by how quickly the hours had slipped by, as only now he realized it was already midday and thus decided to end the meeting there.

"My lords, we can discuss more once we get inside the city. Please excuse me," Alexander cordially finished saying.

"Of course, of course. We will also instruct our men to hand over their arms so they can enter the city with you," Lord Prantik replied, effectively handing his safety over to Alexander.

And hence, the order soon came, the camp was dismantled to its last tent, the outer, wooden wall was dislodged, the perimeter ditches filled, and the victorious army quickly made their way into the city under the thunderous cheering of the crowds.

It appeared that the entire population of the city had crowded themselves around the gate, throwing flowers, drinking, singing, and dancing with the soldiers, as the long line slowly entered the gates.

First entered the cavalry, holding the blue flower standard of Alexander's house, as they paraded their strong war horse dressed in blue, heavy armor.

This was followed by Alexander and his bodyguards, his gaudily dressed horse drawing all the attention.

Then came the crossbowmen, each man holding their crossbow in ways that bought the best exposure to it.

The citizenry had never really seen this new weapon before and so were most drawn by it, while the soldiers took the opportunity to show it off.

They told the crowd about the weapon, mimicked how it worked by showing the loading, shooting, and reloading mechanism, and then retold their glorious individual contributions to the battle.

All highly embellished and exaggerated of course.

"There was once three archers shooting at me. But I leaped out of my pavis, steadied by crossbow, and bang- one down. Right through his heart."

"And then quickly reloading, another went through the throat… there was blood all over, hahaha…and then another through the temple- three in three breathes,' One man was heard proudly recounting his kills to his audience, who looked at him with awe and reverence.

And such cooked-up stories were being peddled by most of the soldiers, which if were true would have ended the battle in a matter of minutes, not hours.

While lastly, some crossbowmen were even seen trying to court the roadside girls using their weapons, engaging in talks that could only be described as corny, such as 'I have a bigger weapon in my home that I can show you.'

And many of the girls even agreed to this, most not because they were that gullible, but because they wanted simply wanted to sleep with a man that won a war and test his virility.

They even thought that it would even make for a nice story when they met their friends.

The crossbowmen were also not the only ones getting the glory, as the cavalrymen recounted their fight with the camels, vividly describing the strange animal to an enthralled audience, while all the infantrymen portrayed themselves as the ones who had run in front of the charging horses swinging the flaming chains.

In this way, the crowd released all the tension of the last two months and made the victory procession last almost till dusk.

For those had been truly grueling times, with nothing but work, work, work, and so everyone tried to relax and let off some steam, as they enjoyed the fruits of their labor, their victory.

Alexander and others too took part in the revelries, making him appear just as one of the people, and only returned to his manor when the crowd started to rescind at around nightfall.

"Welcome back," Cambyses was there to greet him by the door, as were the others, including the Queen mother and Mikaya.

And seeing his new bride's smiling face, Alexander could not help but say to himself,

'If I lost the day before yesterday, today would be so much different. Describing everyone's fate as tragic would have been an understatement.'

And this realization made him truly value the victory, which was much closer than he would have liked.

If Faruq had played the game a bit better, then things would be very, very different right now.

The prime example of which would be if Faruq had reinforced Ural's flanking attack with some of his Jahal mercenaries.

Alexander would have certainly lost the battle then.

But life did not have 'ifs and buts'.

And looking at Cambyses's smiling face, he was relieved at that.

"Haha, it seems the gods really do favor you Pasha Alexander. Your victory will inspire the entire country against Amenheraft," From the side, the Queen Mother did not forget to make it seem as if Alexander's fight was really a proxy war against Ptolomy and Amenheraft, even though it was nothing of the sort.

The former had even declined to lend any material help to him, which Alexander was still ticked about But he decided now was not the time or place to make a scene, not in front of so many people. "Yes! It is only by the grace and goodwill of His Majesty that we were able to win. Long live King Ptolomy!" So he put on a humble facade, portraying himself as an obedient vassal.

"Long live King Ptolomy!" Came an almost spontaneous reply.

Alexander then turned to the twins and particularly Mikaya, as he spread his arms as if encompassing the heavens and grandly said, "My dear lady, we have won. The Jahal mercenaries had been defeated!"

Many did not understand the significance of saying this to a lady, but those in the know knew how near the days leading up to the battle, Mikaya had almost eaten his ear off going on about the deadliness and lethality of those cut-throat mercenaries, urging him again and again to escape to save his life.

'There is no way to defeat them in open combat. And we cannot last a siege,' She had said.

And having faced the ten thousand (10,000) in battle, Alexander would indeed give them the due they deserved, and even agree that Mikaya was right about their fearsomeness.

These men could be counted as among the best cavalry in the world at the time, as even after taking two heavy charges head-on and losing their commander, they did not break and run.

But at the end of the day, they ultimately still lost.

And that was what really mattered.

"Perhaps there is some truth to what some of the things they say about you!" Mikaya only smirked the reply, alluding to his open secret status as Gaia's chosen.

This was a sensitive topic, and Alexander did not like talking about it so openly, so Mikaya saying it meant that temporarily the once-warm relationship between the two had frosted a bit.

And this was not just due to the Jahal mercenaries, but the following reason that Alexander revealed.

He was not willing to be outdone by Mikaya, and so he also similarly smirked and then sarcastically said,

"Perhaps then your father will have the time to send me all the things I ordered. Hopefully, by now the weather will have cleared up, or the guilds will have the goods, or the ships will have the proper rigging, or the slaves will not be sick, or some other misfortune."

This was alluding to the fact that Pasha Farzah had yet to deliver him the goods Alexander had purchased from him, which amounted to around 300 million ropals, and which were past their due delivery date by a month.

And how every time Alexander would ask Mikaya about it, she would come up with various excuses.

He could have really used that 20,000 slaves if they had come in time.

And so, Alexander's sarcastic voice had a very real undercurrent of anger and frustration as he said this, as evidenced by how had said this at the very front of the doors, in front of a large crowd, which went on to show how aggrieved Alexander was really by this fact.

He had even already paid in full for the goods, particularly because he did not want to carry all the extra gold when he left for Zanzan back in October, and because he trusted that Pasha Farzah would not swindle one of his only two allies.

"My father will visit Zanzan personally to compensate the lord for this," Mikaya only replied this to the accusation, which mellowed Alexander quite a bit.

In fact, the letter regarding the battle had already been sent to Ptolomy and Farzah by Seelima, and Mikaya the day prior, where the former requested Pasha Farzah to personally visit Zanzan for she had correctly foreseen Alexander's frustration at being left hanging out of dry by his allies in his time of need.

And thus, with this, Zanzan finally survived its first real battle.

(End of Volume-2)