Herald of Steel



In the minds of the council members, there was little difference between getting shot by a crossbow and getting shot by a bow.

Because in the end, it was the same thing, being shot by arrows.

And since bows had been around for literally thousands of years, in their minds, it was like- 'A man got shot to death by an arrow. Tragic but let's move on."

But crossbows though similar in principle to bows, were also quite different in many parts.

Parts which made them a very lethal threat in some cases.

The key difference that a crossbow had was that it could be scarily accurate even in the hands of an untrained peasant and that its first shot could be launched without any warning, unlike a bow which needed to be drawn.

And it was these qualities that made it such a great weapon, both for untrained militia and for inexperienced cavalry. 

But these qualities also made it a great weapon for assassins.

It was small and portable, so could be easily hidden under a shirt.

It could be fired at an instant, especially the first shot and the shot would be scarily accurate. 

Lastly, the bolt it shot would be powerful enough to cause a kill.

After all, a large crossbow could have a draw weight of as much as 1000 lb of force.

And even a small one would easily go around 300 to 400 lbs.

So if one thought about a crossbow was really like a primitive gun.

And letting every Tom, Dick, and Harry have a private gun was not in the interest of Alexander.

And it had not been also in the interest of the European nobles during the Middle Ages.

Which was why it was such a restricted item then.

Something the nobles of this time could very easily empathize with, as shown by Menicus who quickly said, 

"I agree with Lord Alexander here, Lord Menes. You should have been more careful over guarding this thing."

"We do not want more people committing such crimes."

He sounded diplomatic. 

But the next speaker was certainly not so polite.

"Yes, yes. Such things must be banned. Immediately! What is the military doing letting these dangerous things go out so easily?" 

This outburst was actually done by Harun, who was usually a taciturn man.

It seemed that the threat of having to look one's shoulder every time he went out had made the usually soft-spoken man quite anxious.

A feeling seemingly shared by many others too, all of whom too took turns pointing their finger at the two men with various degrees of acrimony.

And facing not just Alexander's glare but the combined verbal assault of all the council members as a whole, the two men could only lower their heads lower and lower as an apology.

"I…It has been truly a blunder on my part to let this happen. I'm willing to take any punishment the council deems appropriate," 

Finally, facing all the rebukes, Menes decided to take responsibility as the head of the army.

"Me too. I'm willing to take any punishment the council deems appropriate," And seeing him, Melodias copied.

Hearing the two man's admission, seemed to please the others, as Menicus approvingly nodded, before turning to Alexander to propose, 

"Then how about docking a month of their pay my lord? That sounds good enough to us." 

Though harsh in his words, it seemed Menicus was still sympathetic to the two men.

After all, no 'real' had been done and the threat had been effectively contained.

People make mistakes all the time and so it was no reason to punish them too harshly for too little. 

But Alexander seemed to be of the mind for something a bit more extreme, as he turned to look at the two with a bit of displeasure.

"Hmmp! For you two, even a year's payment is nothing, so what's one month! No!"

And then turned his focus solely on Menes, saying,

"Menes this happened under your command, and I want you to fix it."

"I have never said anything about your performance with Tibias, be it the battle, the siege, or the manor."

"Especially the manor, if you had acted more proactively, it would have been certainly saved."

Alexander's tone was strong and didactic.

"But it was your colleague Melodias who broke the Tibian lines first and initiated the rout, saving the city."

"And now you do this" 

"This oversight is one too many."

Hearing Alexander's vexed tone, many of the sharper council members could guess what he was about to say.

And it was exactly as they thought, 

"So I'm replacing you with Melodas. You will take his post from tomorrow until further notice!"

"Tha…that!"

"My lord think is over a bit…"

"Isn't that a bit rash?"

Hearing Alexander's sudden declaration naturally some of the members experienced shock and dissent.

Even Melodias himself seemed to oppose the order, being one of the first to speak out against it. 

"I accept." But the man in question seemed to know his time had come, turning to Alexander and saying, 

"It is true I have not been able to perform as many expected. I thus expected something like this to happen as you returned. But thank you for giving me so long. I appreciate it."

Menes surprisingly took the news well.

And Alexander was quite pleased to see this, letting out a few extra words of encouragement, 

"Mmm, you work hard and do well. And by the time we are ready to attack Tibias, perhaps things might change."

This sent a message to Melodias that Alexander's replacement might be a temporary one and that he should not start thinking the post was his for life.

This was the conclusion of Menes's demotion and Melodias's promotion.

Following that, the council members then in record time agreed to ban all crossbows from civilian use, with the offender facing as far as facing the death penalty if found housing, holding, and never mind using the weapon.

The strict penalty for the offense was not even suggested by Alexander.

Or the military council members for that matter.

It was in fact suggested by the civilian members, who seemed to be the most spooked.

And this was understandable given they spent a lot of their time with slaves and workers, even if only overseeing them.

They did not end up like in Alexander's scenario.

So it was agreed that only nobles would be able to carry crossbows with each one having to be registered and regularly re-registered with the military to ensure nobody tried to sell one on the side.

After this, over the following days, the council meeting then went on to discuss newer, better ways of stopping the weapons and armor theft, as well as industrial ones.

"My lord, the spies we caught also informed us they were all sent here to try and find out all the new things Zanzan was making."

"Paper, iron, cement, you name it. The enemy is greedy and has no morals." 

"One of them even told me that it was the killed noble who had shown Tibias the secret way up the Cisran Hills."

As Alexander said so many bulging eyes and shocked faces greeted him.

Although Alexander personally was highly skeptical of the claim, as only one of the two laid testament to it, Laibak's still alive partner.

Laibak himself said it was certainly possible, but whether it was done, he was not made aware of it.

While the other man was also unable to provide any proof, only swearing to the gods that he heard the old man let it slip during a round of drinks.

Which this left Alexander in a limbo. 

On one side there was the swearing to the gods which was usually very sacred.

But on the other side, he found it unlikely and thought the man was trying to lay claim to something he had no hand in.

And for now, he leaned towards the latter. 

But given the danger had passed, and the man in question was dead, Alexander decided not to dwell on it too much and simply let it go for the moment.

But although Alexander himself did not believe the information, that did not mean others would not.

And believing it had certain advantages for Alexander.

"My lord! Is what you said true!" Menicus's wizened face shook like a withered tree as he asked.

"Mmmm, one of the spies confessed. So you can all see the dangers they pose." And Alexander replied with a sober face, using the half-verified information to drive home the dangers the spies presented into all their hearts.

Then reminded them, 

"And although we foiled this one, remember this is just the beginning."

"Even if they failed this time, our enemies are numerous and they will try again."

"Be sure of that!"

"Many, many more will surely come."

"So we must think of a way to stop them?"

"Any ideas!"

Alexander could certainly foresee his enemies giving it another try at the spy ring and then again if they failed, and then again if that did not work.

In fact the various groups he was hostile to might simply just continue to do so until they had some sort of eyes and ears in the city.

And the helpless thing was that although Alexander knew this unless he became a prophet, he had no way of catching them like he had done this time every single time.

So the reality was they were gonna get in. 

And the question was how to contain them.