Herald of Steel



As Camius succinctly finished his retelling, Alexander seemed more interested in the fact that there was a Zanzan man whose son lived in Tibias.

That was as rare an event as finding a golden hare.

Never mind the bad blood between the two, the faith of Ramuh also very explicitly forbade such union and even actively sought to persecute them.

And if all that was not implausible enough, not anybody would own a vineyard.

Typically it belonged to nobles or very well-to-do businessmen.

After all, wine-making was a skilled and labor-intensive process, meaning it required both deep knowledge and a lot of start-up capital.

And if they did indeed have these then what were they doing struggling in Zanzan?

Judging by Camius's words, the father might not be struggling, but he was not flowing with cahs either.

And even if he was, given the disasters that had befallen Zanzan, why hadn't he chosen to leave?

There was a myriad of questions that came to Alexander's mind;

"His son? Lives in Tibias?"

Thus the surprise in Alexander's tone as he posed.

"Mmm, I too was surprised as much as you when I first heard it doc," Camius frankly responded in a familiar tone, addressing Alexander like so in private, before adding,

"As Krypsos tells me, he married the daughter of a Tibian noble. She met him during one of his travels and then chose to run away with him."

"Apparently it was love at first sight," Camius said with a mirthful smirk, while Alexander's brows twitched as having actually encountered such a cliche story.

That girl was both very stupid and very brave.

And Alexander also could not help but think if he had a daughter, whether she might do such a thing.

While Camius continued,

"Anyway, after they ran, and the girl changed her faith to Ramuh's, at first the girl's understandably furious father disowned her, even swearing to never see her."

"But after the couple had their first son, that began to change. It seemed after knowing he had a grandson, the old man's heart softened."

"And after a few years, he eventually patched things up and even invited the couple to Tibias."

"But Krypsos declined initially, saying Zanzan was the city he was born in and Zanzan would be the city he died in ."

"But he did agree to send his son there eventually."

"And even took refuge there when the drought hit."

"He only came from after a few months you took control."

"Whereas his son stayed back. He already has quite a successful wine business there."

"And that's the story of a father having a son with a vineyard." Camius finished the story.

Hearing which Alexander could not marvel at the thing called fate.

Who knew his randomly chosen recipe had managed to get Camius such a golden opportunity?

At the time of his choosing what type of wine to make, he had only chosen that because there was no such type of wine in the market and Alexander really liked its taste.

"Huh! Who knew? I guess coincidences do exist," He could not help but say.

"Mmmm, I guess," And Camius nodded along, saying, "And if you think about it, then it would seem that I really managed to get inside Tibias because of you, doc, haha." Camius chuckled.

"So how did you get inside? By selling your wines to the son?" And then Alexander again asked how the specifics.

"Yes, that's right."

"That son is a real wine sommelier. And we became best friends after sharing a few bottles."

"The man absolutely loves the stuff."

"And it seemed the nobles he sold these to using his grandfather's connections also shared this feeling."

"So he was always back for more."

"This went on for six-eight months."

"But the problem that came afterward was that I was unable to meet his ever-increasing demand."

"You can only move that much grape on carts quickly enough before it loses its taste after all."

"So right after the war ended, he one day came to me to propose that I set up a branch shop in Tibias."

"He said that way I can use all the fresh grapes I could ever want right from his vineyards."

"And even make it cheaper as the grape would not have to transport for a hundred kilometers."

Here Camius paused a bit, as he turned to Alexander while articulating his thoughts, before continuing,

"And I was of course tempted by this."

"As you know Thesalie is basically a military fort housing a city. For outsiders like us, getting inside is too hard."

"Even the native merchants that trade in and out of there have to be approved by the trade guilds there."

"So of course I wanted to go."

"But I was also skeptical and wary of the man's proposal."

"I wondered if he was sincere. And even thought what if they kidnap me to get the secrets of the wine?"

"But talking to the man for some more, those fears eventually alleviated."

"Primarily because the son asked for one-third of the profits."

"This was a lot….which paradoxically was also how I was able to tell the deal was not too good. The man wanted the money."

"And so I accepted."

"I joined his caravan and after a week of travel reached the city."

" And when I did, and looked at the city…." Camius paused here a bit, as if deliberating whether he should really tell what was in his mind, but a split second later finally made up his mind, saying, Well let me tell you, Thesalie really is as formidable as they say."

"In fact, I think I will be doing it a disservice when describing it."

"So urge doc to go see it for yourself if you can."

"But if you want a description, here it is."

"It's perched on a huge hill, surrounded by similarly hilly, wooded terrain all around, much like the Cisran hills in fact."

"Only a narrow, about three men wide, curvy, twisting road leads to the gates."

"Its walls looked as study as Zanzan's itself, and was manned by literally an army of sentries armed with bows and arrows."

"Any army even trying to get close would be turned to hedgehogs by those men."

"And if all that was not enough, if the wooden hills, the narrow paths, and the archers still could not stop the army, they still had one last option, a giant ditch dug all along the length of the wall.

"Meaning no ladder rushes or siege towers."

Camius seemed very impressed and also scared as he gave the recount, before turning to Alexander with a bitter, almost defeated look to say,

"I know that you are planning on attacking it doc. But frankly, I have no idea how you are going to overcome the defense. They really seem too formidable." Camius ruefully shook his heads

It seemed the centuries Tibias had to develop its defenses had been well spent.

And hearing his spy master's description. Alexander felt a slight headache.

At first it seemed like Camius was describing a much more formidable Zanzan.

And then, judging from Camius's recount, Alexander felt like he would be attacking something akin to the walls of Constantinople.

Expect he would have no huge, big ass cannon that would lob a 1 ton stone into the walls.

He did not even have good trebuchets, much less gunpowder.

Now, Amenheraft had managed to avoid that problem by circling around it.

He had sailed across the sea and attacked one of the vulnerable port cities, capturing it and then proceeding forward.

But that certainly was not an option for Alexander who lacked any kind of navy and had not a blue ball's chance in hell of developing one in just two years.

'I should go and have a look once I get the chance,' So Alexander decided to make time to go see the obstacle for himself at some point.

"Okay, the city walls are formidable. But what about its insides?"

Then throwing the worries about the attack out of his mind, Alexander asked Camius to keep describing what he saw.

"Oh! it was magnificent. The city is huge, having close to 200,000 inhabitants, with 20,000 militiamen guarding it."

"There are huge, magnificent houses as well as many dingy abodes strewn about."

"There is a giant river running through the city, and it is from here the populace gets all its drinking water."

"This river also flows towards the interior of the country, and I saw many sailboats moving up and down it, carrying all kinds of goods."

"It also means that unless there is a total blockade of the entire city, they can still be supplied."

"There are also canals dug around the city that divert some of the water to nearby farmlands outside, while many nobles also have their own personal irrigation systems for their gardens."

"And it was in one such vineyard that I stayed."

"It was luxurious."

"The accommodations were nothing short of excellent, with expensive food, wine, and even women to keep me company."

"While the vineyard was as large as it was lush and vibrant."

"And because it was already the end of summer when I got there, I got to taste all the ripes grapes firsthand,"

"And let me tell you, there is a reason Tibias is famous for its grapes. We must have it"

"In fact, when we take the city, I think we should try and take it with as little damage as possible to the vineyards. They are precious!"