Herald of Steel

Lord Parker watched Lord Bernard struggle to come up with a plan with a complicated feeling in his heart.

This was because he knew he was being unfair to the man.

How could a single man hope to achieve something when so many of them could not?

But he also knew it had to be done. Lord Bernard had to fail here.

And the reason why he needed to do it was all because of Alexander, because of the hostage situation that he had created.

To fully understand the thought process of Lord Parker here, one had to go back a bit.

Go back to when the late Lord Margraves had appointed Lord Bernard as the head of the family's forces.

The shrewd old man turned was not blind to the back handed dealing Lord Bernard had used to get his post.

But despite being aware of it, he largely let it slide.

Because the old lord actually approved of the act.

This was due to the fact Lord Bernard was infamous for being a 'soft rice' and a pushover, someone who was weak willed and bent his back to strong men very quickly.

Which might sound like the very opposite of the characteristics you would want in your general, but not so here.

Because here Lord Margraves had been much more concerned about placating Lord Parker's side than maintaining control over his men.

Hence he hoped this pusillanimous but dashing man would be able to charm the other side and cater to all the ducal family's requests hence as to not give them any reason to cancel the deal.

After all, if the Margraves troops had a very strong, competent general to lead them, then he would certainly protest the presence of so many troops inside the city.

Such a thing would not only be seen as detrimental to the sovereignty of the family but also be seen as a personal attack on the general, who might feel his own position and importance threatened.

Thus the fear was- with such a strong-minded individual, he would likely create conflict with the ducal troops over various things, each one like flint hitting flint.

And if any one of these sparks were large enough and it set off…. well it could easily spell disaster.

An event that the old Margraves lord of course wanted to avoid at all costs.

And thus after taking all this into consideration, Lord Bernard got the post through the blessing of the then family head.

And credit to the late Lord Margraves, this appointment did work just as he had intended back then.

Lord Parker was clever enough to easily read between the lines and understood what the Margraves family was really trying to do here.

Thus he gladly played along, giving Lord Bernard his due respect as was becoming of one of the highest ranking representatives of the Margraves family.

And Lord Bernard too had reciprocated in kind, following Lord Parker's orders to the tee, and giving the ducal scion little reason to antagonize him.

In fact, to show his appreciation, Lord Parker would even occasionally invite the handsome man to bed, feeling both attracted by the beautiful man but more so because in Sybarian culture this was known to be the utmost honor for an officer- to be invited by his superior for a night like this.

Kind of like how in modern times, it is a big deal for a college professor to invite one of his students to coffee- this meant that he was very impressed with their intellect.

Thus in this way, Lord Parker continued to keep Lord Bernard happy and managed to gain full assistance in directing the 10,000 men.

So up until now, it seemed that everyone was on the same wavelength and could read their script clearly.

Until that is Alexander arrived, throwing a huge wrench into their perfectly working machine.

Here was a man of great renown, a rising warlord, who landed right at their doorsteps leading 5,000 veterans.

This changed the equation- as it meant that this was no time to be playing house with each other.

Lord Parker and Lord Bernard's previously harmonious relationship would no longer work as intended because both men served two different masters- one the Heeat family, and the other Margraves family- which itself was split in two and fighting among themselves for power.

And each of these factions had their own wishes and desires.

Even the part of the Margraves family that supported Lord Parker had disagreements between them, such as Miss Linda initially vetoing Alexander's assassination.

All these examples gave rise to a single logical question- 'How can such a fractured entity face such a solid threatening force?

The query had been made by many even since the day Alexander landed.

But up until now, this had been relatively on the hush-hush, as these people had no concrete platform to talk on, and no particular incident to point to that would support their statement.

Until now that is.

With Alexander having taken over the mansion, almost all of Lord Parker's advisors had covertly asked him to remove Lord Bernard and replace with him someone more loyal.

Someone who would look for the Heeat family's interest first and the Margraves's second.

They had whispered to Lord Parker's ears, "My lord, you very well know how fickle this Bernard is. He cannot be trusted. Especially now that Alexander has his father…. who knows what he will do if the other sides contact him? It will not be wise to let him have control of the army."

And this of course made perfect sense to Lord Parker.

The lord even had the foresight to consider scenarios such as 'What if Alexander was to display hostages from atop the ramparts just as they were about to attack the lines? Would the Margraves officers still order their soldiers to follow them to battle? Very likely not.'

Thus he took the words of his retainers very seriously.

But although willing to take the step, Lord Parker suddenly found himself questioning how exactly he was going to implement it.

Because Lord Bernard was not his subordinate whom he could fire at will.

In fact, it was unknown who it was that could even fire Lord Bernard, as the former head of the family Lord Margraves was dead and Miss Linda was still not officially the matriarch."

While forcefully moving the man did not seem prudent.

Because Lord Bernard naturally had his own officers, many of whom had their own families in the mansion, who were of course hostages too.

So if Lord Parker were to move one out of caution against Alexander, he would have to move the whole lot.

And they have to do it in one single go, or else, if only Lord Bernard was to be removed, it might very well trigger these officers to rebel as they would see this as Lord Parker trying to forcefully take over their family.

'How was this any different from what that damend Alexander was doing?' They were sure to ask.

Such a move would then very well create a great cause for bloody infighting.

Hence what Lord Parker's adviser wanted would need quite a bit of time to plan, prepare, and then pull off.

The time that Lord Parker did not think he had.

So the man instead produced this makeshift plan, in a deliberate attempt to stump the other man, all so that he could produce an excuse to dismiss him.

Sure this still would likely not go down well with the Margraves family officers but Lord Parker guessed he could manage that.

But luckily or unluckily for the man, Lord Bernard would manage to avoid this trap, as looking at an inconspicuous cup of wine and suddenly feeling thirsty, an idea snapped inside his mind.

So turning to Lord Parker he revealed how the entire city was supplied with fresh water from the nearby river using underground aqueducts and storing them in large artificial underwater tanks called cisterns.

Lord Parker was at first astounded to hear just how advanced the Margraves was in their engineering prowess.

Such complex urban infrastructure was basically unheard of to him.

And the shock multiplied as Lord Bernard proposed,

"We can cut off the sections leading to the mansion using wood or stone, thus blocking the water. And then if we want, we can even dig small channels from there out to the sea, to flood them with seawater. This will make even the water already present there undrinkable."

"Alexander will be kneeling in front of you by sundown."

Lord Bernard's impressive plan and confident demeanor shook Lord Parker

Although he wanted the man to fail, he also could not deny his brilliance.

While the jealous Achillas tried to discredit the man with a scornful bark, "Hah! What tall tales are you spinning? Blocking off part of the underground aqueduct? Such a thing is impossible. Would the whole thing not be filled with water? How are the men supposed to get there? Swim? Joke!"

The stout man seemed to pose that because all the channels were connected and had running water gushing through them, it would be impossible to just turn off one section.

"We have done it before." But Lord Bernard's curt claim put that thought to rest.