The Pleasure Lord

Around seventy soldiers died on the Merchant Union side and six on Cyrus's side. Soldiers that were severely injured and still alive were being treated by the puppets even if they were soldiers under the Merchant Union.

"Cyrus, when do we head out?" Jack asked.

"We will need to leave a thousand soldiers behind to watch over the captives. While the rest of us need to quickly reach and capture the Merchant Union city as it is not heavily guarded at the moment. There are only around eight hundred soldiers left there to guard it. We can leave now." Cyrus replied.

Suddenly a veteran soldier who was being tied to a rope cried out in alarm when he heard their conversation.

"Lords, please have mercy, I have a son who is stationed on the city wall as a patrol guard. Let...let me come with you. I will tell him to surrender."

Just after he said that many soldiers from the Merchant Union started begging for mercy either for their family living inside the city or a relative working as a guard there. They feared for their family's lives, even more, when they found themselves lucky surviving this battle. Who says they might not be unlucky afterward if someone dies close to them during the war.

At that time, Alex was coincidently sharing Cyrus' vision to see the results of the battle and to see when will they depart from there.

As he listened to the pleadings of the captives, Alex had an idea and immediately ordered Cyrus telepathically to do as he says.

"Quite down" Cyrus shouted first and told them to listen to him.

"Alright then, only those who have any relative or a friend serving in the military and they are currently stationed on any position inside the city will raise their hands," Cyrus shouted again so that everyone can hear him loud and clear.

Many people raised their hands tied with the rope. The captives then were quickly divided into two groups on the who raised their hands. Alex knew many soldiers would lie to just get back to the City where their families live but he did not care about such a small thing.

In another hour, Alex's army finally arrived at the proximity of the Merchant Union City. They had completely ignored the two villages that came in between.

The guards on the wall of the city and in the watchtower immediately starting ringing the bells to alert everyone in the city.

Most of the guards of the city defense unit were trying to enter the Merchant Union hall so that they can save their lords.

But the entrance had been blocked debris if wood and stone statues. Anyone that tries to move them will get shot on his legs by arrows fired by the shadow puppets from the balconies.

One time the guards tried to cover fire their comrades so that they can quickly remove the obstacles.

But when they tried to that, Alex who was standing on the terrace with Master Clayton would show his marksmanship by firing from his bow in return. The arrows would be so precise that they would destroy the bows in the hands of the guards.

This went on for half an hour until Alex had deterred them by placing a sword on the old man Kon's head and Hazmos too.

Both their family members had also arrived and tried to negotiate with Alex to release them. When nothing worked they straight out started threatening him.

Family members and guards of the other five council members immediately sent their messengers to inform the situation to the patriarch of their family about President Kon and Mr.Hazmos being held hostage in the Merchant Hall by an unknown group of people.

Alex didn't mind them because all their patriarchs excluding Ms.Violette have either been killed or captured by him.

On Violette's side, Norman had killed Dario and his group of guards all by himself. Right now, they were heading towards the troops marching east to face the Frey's army as they were supposed to join midway. As to what they had in their minds, Alex had no knowledge of it.

When the bell started ringing, the guards crowding outside the Merchant hall silenced for a moment in confusion and then started panicking after understanding the meaning of the bell.

"What do we do? What do we do? What do we do?" A guard repeated the same sentence over and over in fear.

Most of the people were divided on whether to save the president of their city first or the city itself.

One of the guards suggested leaving two hundred people here to watch over Alex and his group while the rest of them should go and take over their position on top of the city walls.

Alex internally scoffed at them since the Merchant Union city was already in his bag.

Outside the city, Alex's army marched over and stopped at least two hundred meters away from the walls of the city and the closed gate.

The guards standing on the city walls were sweating bullets since they knew that the armed group outside the city was not their own.

Cyrus sent a hundred-men captain level soldier to go and convince the guards on top of the walls to surrender so that they do not need to create bloodbath.

Rowan was one of the guards standing on the city walls when he noticed a man coming closer to the wall with a lighted torch in his hand. A comrade by his side knocked an arrow on his bow and took aim at that person.

When that man arrived at the foot of the twelve-meter wall, the light from the fire torch in his hand fell onto his face. Rowan was shocked and immediately stopped his comrade from firing the arrow at that man.

Twang

Just in time, Rowan was able to change the direction of the bow with his hands so that the arrow embedded itself on the ground far from that man.

"Stop, he is my father," Rowan shouted loudly so that everyone can hear him not accidentally kill his dad.

Another guard at the captain level with the responsibility of defending that wall exclaimed in surprise: "He really is Rowan's father what is he doing here."

He too recognized the man standing down as both of them were friends.

"Dad, what are you doing here?" Rowan asked while being relieved that his father was still alive. When he first saw the unknown army arriving from that direction where his father gone to defend, he started worrying for the safety of his dad.

"I am fine, son. Corwin, listen carefully. Master Kelis is dead, Master Nev and Master Thomas have been captured by them. Our army lost utterly to them in just twenty minutes. They are too strong. We cannot defeat them. I came here to persuade you all to surrender and avoid any further bloodshed. They had promised to treat us with dignity and release us in two days max after the war ends. Trust me they too strong to fight against." Corwin was the name of his friend and was also a hundred men captain like him before he became the chief of the merchant union city's defense unit.

"Liar, he must have defected to the enemy side. Don't believe his nonsense. How can Patraich Nev and others lose so quickly to them? Guards kill this traitor. He is trying to shake our morale and confidence."

Some family members of the six council members were present there. They couldn't believe or they didn't want to believe they would lose their patriarch of their family.

Corwin men would not listen to them because they had no authority over them at all. Its always been like this.

The seven council members would provide resources to train soldiers to protect their city but with no one person having complete control over them.

Every mission or ever move made by their military needed to be authorized with a seal from all the seven council members.

President Kon had the power to command them without getting permission from the other six members on some exceptions that they had decided long before.

"Reily, I cannot trust you. I don't know if you are telling the truth or the enemies are making you do this." Corwin actually trusted his friend and also somewhat believed what his friend had said. How can such a large enemy force arrive at their door from the direction that their comrades and the three Dantian Formation Realm Cultivators had been stationed? They can only arrive here by defeating them.

"Corwin, I begged their commander to come here with them and warn you guys to not make any foolish mistakes. Remember, that they have four thousand and five hundred soldiers from our city as captives." Riely shouted back. He had also included the soldiers from their city that had been captured by Cyrus at the border before. Cyrus had told this information to Reily on the journey itself. Remembering how they got defeated, Riely chose to believe the commander of the enemy.

Cyrus then sent another ten captive soldiers to put pressure on the city guards.

The guards on top of the walls had already started hesitating and some even considered to open the gates and surrender since they cannot defend against such a large army.

Another thing was that President Kon and Hazmos were being held hostage so there was no one strong enough to guide them through this matter.