Herald of Steel

Perseus had married his wife, Lady Parthia of his own choosing, after being charmed by her looks and personality.

And it was not hard to see why, given she was definitely a beauty on par with Ophenia and The Queen Mother as could attested to by Alexander.

But initially, this act was fiercely opposed by the royal family, who found the woman to be too lowborn.

For Lady Parthia, though not a commoner, was born of only a minor noble house that was in decline at the time, as all its direct line of descendants had perished in a war some time ago, leaving only two sisters and an infant brother behind.

Thus many in court saw their courtship as the girl trying to grab the leg of the biggest and strongest tree out there to save her family.

However, Perseus did not give up.

He persevered to his utmost to get the girl of his dreams and ultimately, after quite some effort, he did manage to get her, as he was able to convince his family and the court to agree.

And the day they got married was one of the, if not the best day of his life, while the experience he had in his nuptial chambers that night was perhaps one of his most treasured memories.

What was better still was that Perseus's long was not only one sided,

The duo's relationship was reciprocal in nature, meaning Lady Parthia too loved her husband.

This was one of the only reasons why Perseus, in much contrary to his predecessors, had no mistresses or illegitimate children.

He loved her that much.

The reason for telling all this was because it meant to show that his wife was one of the man's reverse scales, one that never should be touched much less poked.

In fact, when the king had learned of Lord Theony's betrayal and how Alexander had taken over the capital as well as the palace, the man had been very worried initially, fearing the worst for his three family members.

There was even a point where he regretted not having taken them with him on the campaign.

And only breathed a sigh of relief upon confirming that his wife and two daughters were alive and untouched.

Incidentally, one of the reasons the man was even willing to negotiate up until now was because he learned his family was safe.

For if Alexander had touched or harmed them in any way, especially his wife, Perseus would have vowed to fight to the end.

Thus for Petricuno, a lowly mercenary to see such things about the queen of a nation, his death was not underserved.

Nor did he ever see it coming.

For even the wielder himself did not know what he was doing until he had finished doing it.

Perseus did not know what had come over him, but upon hearing his wife's name come up, and hearing the filthy things being said about her, his body had reacted almost instinctively.

Unsheathing his sword with a sharp *clang*, his blood burned with fury that such a lowly mercenary would dare to say this thing, as he drove the weapon into the man's chest with nary a thought about the consequences.

And the large steel blade worked just as intended, as it dived deep, deep into the chest of the mercenary leader, who still had that bewildered look on his face as if he could not fathom what was happening to him even as the life was bled out of him.

*Splurt*, *Splurt*,

Perseus expertly retrieved the deeply driven sword with a strong tug, as the dying man then slumped weightlessly onto the bed, with a huge gaping wound on his chest that was profusely gushing out blood, his eyes still sporting that incredulous look with a slightly agape mouth.

Petricuno perhaps was unaware of his death even as he died, or at least astounded that he had died like this, in such a random way, in such a random place.

As the man who once dreamed of becoming the biggest mercenary leader in all of Thesos, it was certainly a lamentable way to die.

*Kyaaaahhh*

The first people to react to the man's death were naturally the two prostitutes beside him, who understandably were shocked to find their patron dead upon just waking up.

Hence letting out this pitched scream at the top of their voice, these naked ladies tried to quickly bunch up and get away from Perseus in shock and fear, pulling the bed sheets closer to hide their shame as well as making it appear like it was a curtain that would be able to shield themselves from attacks.

"Haa… haa" While Perseus, ignoring the terrified two only let out tired pants of exhaustion, his enraged eyes now looking unfocused and confused, as he felt his small entourage give him stunned looks of incredulity.

Because they all knew what their king had just done and what all this meant.

Perseus killing Petricuno here likely meant losing the 3,000 to 4,000 mercenaries under that man's leadership, and even the possibility of losing the whole Tibian contingent.

Because other than Perseus, Petricuno was one of the other reasons the Thesians were able to be suppressed from deserting.

The mercenary leader still very much wanted to defeat Alexander and worked to ensure the fellow brethren he came here with toed the line.

In that same vein, whenever these Thesians raised the issue with Perseus, the king could point to Petricuno and say that the man had also come from the same place as them, but he was not leaving, so why were they?

But now with the man's death, that deterrent was obviously gone.

So losing the entire Thesian contingent would amount to close to one third of their entire force.

Such a thing would be crippling to any army, much less the current, so much weakened army of Perseus.

And it was not like Perseus was unaware of the consequences

Hence the tired pants at the man woke up to the fact of what he had done, as looking at the dead mercenary leader in the following moments Perseus felt a surge of immense helplessness.

Yes helplessness, but not regret.

He did not regret what he had done.

For if he was given the chance, he would have likely done the same thing again as he would never let anyone besmirch his wife.

But what really struck Perseus hard was how as the king he was actually being made to feel fear for the death of a mere mercenary leader.

Just a year ago, he could have just snapped his finger, and ten of these types of people would have come scrambling to kiss his feet.

Oh, how the mighty had fallen!

And thus in the subsequent few moments, Perseus lamented his own loss of power.

However, the strong man did not stay in that state of mind for long.

What was done was done.

Resolving himself that there was no use crying over spilled milk, hence the king's mind began to race about what to do next.

Beucae it had to be remembered that they were still inside a brothel that was teeming with mercenaries.

And given the piercing shriek those two girls had given, this human alarm bell was very much likely to have at least a few men already on their way.

As a matter of fact, the king could already hear the footsteps on their way.

So now the question became how was Perseus going to handle these men when they got here.

Explain himself? Say he found Petricuno like that? But how?

Given the short very short window of time Perseus was presented with, he found himself unable to come up with anything remotely believable.

"Kill them!"

So he came up with the only viable option for him, as he hissed the command to his entourage, asking them to ready their sword and be prepared to cut a bloody route through the entire building.

It would be extremely dangerous but that was the only thing Perseus could think of.

So the man and his few bodyguards quickly poised their bodies as such, placing their hands on the hilt of their swords and being ready to strike at a moment's notice.

"Your Majesty! Enemies! Enemies are inside the city! They are burning the city!"

Thus imagine their surprise when they got this panicked shout instead of an inquiry, as the messenger, a lean man, with a face like a fox with whispers along his cheeks alarmingly pointed to a part of the city while saying so.

"Enemy? Which enemy?" And such was Perseus's surprise that he was unable to even understand the context of the man, as the man posed so while cleverly moving his body right in front of Petricuno's sprawled corpse, thus blocking the man's view.

It was to be remembered that currently, it was light, and given the brothel's naturally low illumination, this man had been unable to make out the state of their boss under such dim candlelight.

Perseus was saved.

"The Zanzanites! The Zanzanites are attacking. Someone opened the gates and let them in!"

"A few of our brothers are holding them in the market place but we need reinforcements, Your Majesty! Hurry!"

"?????" For Perseus, it was like the man was out of the frying pan but into the fire.

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