Herald of Steel

Lord Bernard's claim about being able to shut off the water supply and make Alexander kneel sent a prickling pain surging through Achillas's whole body.

He abhorred the man. Not because the man had harmed in any way.

But because of how handsome the man was and much more so because he was someone other than the general who got to share his lord's bed.

It made Achillas extremely jealous.

And thus he would always try his best to make things difficult for Lord Bernard.

So now that the man here was claiming to be able to solve all their problems in one go, it of course made Achillas feel very uncomfortable.

But there was also very little he could do about it since his boss appeared to be very interested to hear the man out.

Thus having gotten the permission, Lord Bernard iterated,

"The underground channels are not fully submerged as General Achillas claims. No, even in their most filled state, such as during the rainy seasons, the chambers only reached up to a man's shoulders at the maximum. And now that it is winter, I doubt it will even reach our waist. The men will be easily walk to the selected sections."

"Mmmmmm, yes. And if we are still doubtful, we can always send some men to check it out."

No sooner had Lord Bernard revealed the state of the aqueducts, this sudden announcement of approval rang out from Lord Parker, which produced a great surprise inside the men in the room.

Even the slowest of them could read the fact the lord very much liked this plan, which was why he took the enthusiastic initiative to offer his suggestion.

And that too in much contrast with their original goal- to make the other man fumble and remove him from his post.

Up until now, the group had not been really looking here for an answer, but only for an excuse to make Lord Bernard fail.

But now it seemed the equation had changed.

As long as Lord Bernard could deliver what he was promising, it seemed Lord Parker was willing to let the man retain his post in the army.

It was something that even surprised Lord Bernard, while the displeased Achillas made one last attempt to make the handsome man stumble, as he turned to pose,

"My lord, what was the event that caused your family to ward off sections of the water supply?"

The general was really hoping here that the other side had been bluffing when he said that they had done something similar.

Because in his mind, being able to cut off not the whole supply but only a part of the supply sounded too incredulous.

And Achillas was not simply saying this out of thin air. But out of experience.

The experienced general had laid many sieges before. And he had dammed off entire rivers to cities too.

But being able to do it partially, to control the exact water flow, that sounded too difficult in his opinion.

But alas, Lord Bernard was speaking the truth.

Just because Achillas and his family could not do it did not mean the Margraves also could not.

The family had many expert engineers who were indeed capable of accomplishing this impressive ancient feat.

And even worse for Achillas, Lord Bernard's claim was an easily verifiable one, as the armored man revealed,

"The channels and underground cisterns need to be cleaned once a year or two. The surrounding river has a lot of silt and if they were simply left there, it would build up and clog the entire passageways. So we regularly cut off the water supply to a section, remove all the dirt, grime, and wastes, and then move on to the next part to do the same."

Lord Bernard did not need to explain why they did these works section by section and not the whole city at the same time.

Not only would that have taken a lot of effort and manpower but cutting the entire city's water supply for so long would surely be impossible.

Plague and chlorea would have run rampant, and perhaps even much earlier than that, the people would risen up in full scale revolts.

For the surrounding audience, Lord Bernard's solid explanation left no one in doubt about the feasibility of the plan.

Because such a thing would be well known to almost all the citizens, as they were bound to experience some sort of momentary water supply disruption annually due to these works.

Meaning Lord Bernard could not lie about such a thing.

And to add even further credibility to his words, Lord Bernard pointed out,

"And during this time, we would also clean the water tanks used to store water. Because just like the channels, dirt, and moss also accumulate in them over time. Around the walls and the bottom."

"In fact, sometimes it would be so bad that we would even find fish swimming and breeding there. The water started to taste foul then. So they too needed to be cleaned regularly."

"Great! Let us do what you just said."

No sooner had Lord Bernard finished his recount that Lord Parker very eagerly gave the green light for the plan, much to General Achillas's chagrin.

But there was no take notice of the man's thoughts, as all the surrounding officers instead focused their attention to the man who was seemingly in their lord's good graces currently, heartily congratulating him and then trying their best to suck up to him.

The sight disgusted Achillas. And he began to already plot how to trip the man.

While Lord Bernard basked in his newly found glory. This was a first for the men.

This was the first time in his life that the man was genuinely adored and respected, so he could not help but break into complacent chuckles, taking in the flattering with gleeful abandon.

While Lord Parker seeing such a reaction wondered if he made the correct choice.

But then quickly convinced himself that it did not matter.

As long as the man could accomplish what he promised, Lord Parker would not mind even if his officers literally kissed the man's ass.

He could have this little time under the sun, as long as the man could rescue his wife and son.

Thus with this new strategy developed, Lord Parker decided to end the meeting for the day there, leaving the large war planning tent with the reminder, "Lord Bernard, I will leave you in charge of gathering all the men and material you will need for the doing all this. You will start the day after tomorrow."

By the sound of impatience in Lord Parker's voice, if it was not already approaching dusk today, Lord Parker might have actually ordered the man to start tomorrow.

Such was his concern for his family. The young man was surprisingly sentimental.

While Lord Bernard felt a bit of a shock hearing the tight deadline.

Here he thought he would at least have a week. Or maybe even two, during which the man planned to lounge and relish his newly found status.

So the strict demand made the task seem almost impossible.

It had to be noted that even when the family did these works, it took them time to prepare…to get everything in order.

So Lord Bernard initially thought of haggling with Lord Parker to get an extension.

But quickly recalling the absolute state the man had flown off to when Lady Miranda's messenger delivered the news about Miss Linda and Quentin, Lord Bernard wisely chose to keep quiet for now.

He understood that the young lord was under a lot of pressure, and had barely slept in the last 24 hours, as crisis after crisis assaulted the relatively inexperienced man.

This had naturally put him in a very foul mood.

Hence the handsome man decided to wait till morning to break the news- after the man had a good night's sleep and could think clearly.

So Lord Bernard sharply replied with an affirmation, and then expectantly looked forward to being invited to Lord Parker's bed, as a reward for coming up with such an excellent strategy.

Which he got, as the young lord vented his anger on the much larger man for the plight his wife and son were in, riding him roughly and making his rear sore.

And as this was going on, in the same vein, Alexander too got to enjoy that night- him by eating the curvy Queen of Adhania.

At the end of the day, in celebration of his first victory over Lord Parker, Lady Nanazin would accompany him to bed, and let him use her rear hole for the first time, the act thus forming a coincidental resonance with the other side.

Only the genders of the people each lord was having were changed.

In Alexander's case, the naked regal queen would spread her fair abundant fleshy cheeks by herself, and then allow the man pound her dirty pink hole to his heart's content, while she bit into the feathery pillow and let out amorous moans.

To Lady Nanazin, the feeling of being stretched and poked by Alexander was like no other and she would release so much warm dew that it could completely soak the sheets beneath her flower.