Herald of Steel

The messenger pronounced in an impeccable regal tone, "I, Arazadm, hereby represent the ruler of the worlds, the summoner of thunder and fury, the conqueror of the wildlands, the bringer of life and provider of subsistence, the divine son of Ramuh, the god on earth, His Royal Eminence Amenheraft."

'These royals sure have long titles behind them. How long does it take to write their names? Do they sign using their full name or do they use seals?' Alexander had lost himself in thought after hearing just the first two titles of the king, mocking him in his head.

In reality, the use of such long names was a type of phycological trick meant to intimidate the opposition by informing them of the various accomplishments and thus the very dangerous foe they were facing.

And it mostly worked, especially against commoners who held reverence against all kings, even opposing ones.

But too bad this time they met Alexander, who simply placidly waited for the messenger to get to the meat of the issue.

The messenger, thankfully, did not know, of Alexander's disdain and continued, "My liege wishes to employ each of you for five hundred ropals a month for the next six months. The details are military secrets and can be discussed once you accept the commission."

Hearing the order, Alexander was internally surprised and then became very weary.

He saw it as an Adhanian plot to get them to lower their guard and lure them out of their defensive position, to massacre them.

But he did not let a thread of such thoughts surface.

"Five hundred ropals! Really! For six months?" Alexander's eyes almost started glowing green, as a flattering smile formed on his face.

Then he immediately got up and pulled a chair towards the messenger, "Hehe, so it was you esteemed sir! Please, sit down sir here, please. And please forgive this fool for having eyes but failing to see Mount Tai," he said while rubbing his hands together in an oily manner.

The ingratiating attitude and the toady smile plastered on Alexander's face only drew even more scorn and disgust from Arazadm, as his idea that these commoners only cared for money and knew nothing of honor was reinforced.

While for Camius, after initially thinking, 'Where's Mount Tai,' eagerly looked forward to the performance because whenever Alexander played the role of a clown, somebody was going to get scammed.

"Hmph, so do you accept it or not," Arazadm asked impatiently without bothering to sit down.

"Hehe, well we are mercenaries. And the Cantagenans don't have the coin to pay us. So, if it was upto me I would accept it now."

Then Alexander told him about some difficulties, "But, I will need some time to discuss it with the other leaders. How about esteemed sir comes back a week later."

"A week? Seems a bit long." Arazadm scrunched up his eyebrows in apparent displeasure.

"Esteemed sir, please understand. A week is not a lot of time for us," Alexander implored, "We will need this to regroup from our recent loss, choose replacement officers, pack our supplies, and most importantly convince the soldiers to accept the commission. After all, many had their loved ones sacrificed in the ritual."

'',

"You heathen infidels were the ones to attack us. You got what you deserved." Arazadm was completely unapologetic and even proud of the act.

"Yes, yes, sir is right," Alexander answered sycophantly. "But these stupid soldiers will not understand that. But worry not, sire, give them three-four days to mourn and they will soon remember their one and only friend, gold."

"Hmmm, okay, I will bring the contract then." Arazadm agreed.

Truthfully one week time was not a big deal for him as it would take much more than that for even the Adhanians to plan everything for the attack.

Then he asked, "How many are you?"

This was to know how much he would have to bring the next time he visited as mercenaries were usually paid their coin in advance for the first month to cover various preparation expenses.

"Hehe, actually we still haven't taken a proper man count. Why don't I give sir the number next time you come." Alexander honestly offered.

"Hmm, can you give an estimate?" Arazadm pressed.

"Fifteen to twenty thousand, I would guess." Alexander gave an exaggerated number.

"Okay," Arazadm didn't contest the numbers and then wordlessly strode out as if speaking to

Alexander for a second longer than necessary was torturous for him.

Once the tent became empty, Alexander snapped an order to Camius.

"Get me the leaders. Now!"

And soon Alexander informed them of the encounter.

"Is it a trap?" Melodias came to the same conclusion as Alexander.

"Why do they want to hire us?" Menicus prudently asked.

'Right, why did they want to hire us?' Alexander asked himself as he just remembered he had forgotten to ask Arazadm why exactly did he want to hire them when they had a perfectly good functioning army themselves.

As he was contemplating on what lies to sell, Petricuno came to his rescue, "Hah, obviously they think us nothing more than amoral brutes who can't see nothing but gold. Those bastards think they can just throw some coins in front of us, and we will come wagging our tails like some dog. Fuck!"

Clearly, Petricuno had his own experience of discrimination and prejudice.

"Maybe they …" Heliptos piped up to offer an explanation.

'',

But his words were suppressed by Alexander, who quickly jumped in, "Petricuno has excellently said my thoughts. You should have seen the way that man looked at me. You don't look at even stray dogs like that."

He was afraid that if they kept on discussing this topic, the greedy mercenaries would actually choose to accept the offer.

Five hundred ropals was a lot of money, almost equal to five thousand tustas, which was twice the amount the Cantagenans were willing to give them and certainly enough to entice some of them to take it to recuperate their recent losses.

This would be disastrous for Alexander who would not be able to escape Adhania on his own and thus be forced to accept the commission.

"Hmm, it seems the Adhanians truly take us for fools to use such a cheap trick." Melodias sneered.

"Hmph, those rich assholes think only they have brains and all of us are lesser beings with dung for heads." Petricuno vented.

The mercenaries began to think that Adhania, inflated by its recent successes, simply was underestimating them and so laying such an obvious trap.

After all, would they need to hire mercenaries when Adhania had its huge one hundred thousand army to take on any challenge?

Alexander was very pleased by how the conversation was being directed and decided to remind the mercenaries, "We will have a lot of gold from the Cantagenans. There's really no need for us to gamble here."

"Yes, I believe the gold from the Cantagenans will more than makeup for all the loss I have taken here." Menicus, being the eldest was most adverse to taking risks, preferring to end his life on a bed rather than a field.

With the reminder that a free gold pile was directly under their nose, these mercenaries finally cooled down on the offer and though the Regias and Alcmene mercenaries wanted to accept it, Alexander decided to quickly end the conversation, without giving them any chance for input, "I have decided to stall for time and agreed to meet the messenger in a week's time. So we will leave six days from today, sooner if possible."

"I have no problem," Menicus's gruff voice echoed and other leaders' consented.

And so, with the date of departure set, Alexander saw off the mercenary leaders and could finally catch up on some actual work.

He first started by inspecting Nestoras's books for accounting irregularities, calculating their disposable income, and making a rough estimation of how much money he would have to give the dead mercenaries' families.

He then planned the shuffling of the officers and captains in his group, particularly demoting Pallidus and the squad captains (men in charge of ten men) and platoon captains (men in charge of fifty men) favoring him and promoting men loyal to him, like Remus, Camius, and Bartholomew.

And at last, he drew up training plans for the verdant Cantagenans, to maximize their output within the short time.

He sent these written orders to Menes, telling him, in addition to ironing out the cowardice of the Canagenans and instilling in them an eagerness to fight, he was specifically to focus on teaching them how to charge, throw javelins and dig ditches quickly.

Alexander handed Menes the power to choose platoon captains for the Cantagenans and told him to choose seven promising men as potential candidates for the phalanx captain, from which Alexander would choose four or five.

And, at last, Alexander finished the address by saying that he will inspect the soldiers' improvement three days later, and their performance would directly reflect Alexander's own evaluation of Menes's capabilities.

And while doing all this heavy paperwork, the evening slowly crept up on Alexander, the candles were lit, and after tidying up the last bit of work, he decided to turn in for the day.