Herald of Steel



Alexander certainly noticed the rapid evacuation that was going on near him all throughout the night.

After all, thirty thousand people and close to fifteen thousand draft and combat beasts moving about was kind of hard to miss given the amount of noise they made.

There was also the not-so-subtle clue that nobles had come to him requesting a prisoner deal, which typically indicated the end of a battle or at least a ceasefire.

Hence Alxx knew the enemy would not leave Zanzan soon.

But even knowing this, even as the enemy was slipping through his fingers as some would say, he still let them complete their departure with virtually no resistance.

After all, it was dark and he had little cavalry.

He did somewhat plan to attack them in the morning if they were still there, hoping to catch them out of formation, but found the enemy was proficient enough to complete the entire loading of their forces within twelve hours, which was something Alxx was actually very impressed by.

It was after all not easy to load all the men, cargo, and animals into ships in the middle of the dark, never mind so quickly.

But Faruq and his allies managed to do this, fueled by a great urgency, and also by the fact that their camp housed little food and grain, which were the heaviest of the objects to carry, preferring to keep them in the ships for easier transport as they marched towards Zanzan.

And so when Alxx woke up before dawn the next day to prepare for the day, he was greeted with the sight of the numerous giant ship sails slowly disappearing into the horizon as he had breakfast and discussed various things with his genearals.

The fact that Faruq had still decided to give his allies a ride home would have certainly disappointed Alxx if he knew about the row the man previously had with his allies.

But Faruq still had the state of mind to not destroy the goodwill completely, and so decided to play the fake role of a generous host.

But not for all of them.

Faruq had not given the ride to all the nobles, a total of four men to be exact.

"*Sigh*, so the die has been cast," One of these four men, Lord Prantik let off a breath of resignation as he, like Alxx watched the white sails disappear.

He had made his bed and now he had to live with it, good or bad.

While Shordar (Baron) Prantik came to terms with that, he also reminisced about yesterday, particularly thinking about how he thought he was trying to convince Alexander to agree to a ransom, but in hindsight, it appeared as if Alexander convincing him to come under him.

He even suspected it might have been Alexander's plan all along, to put on a hard front, and make the other side concede to his, in most eyes, ridiculous demands.

And the possibility of it had the experienced politician shiver a bit at the thought.

'Maybe that's how a lowly slave could defeat us. Maybe he is special,' He then hoped, somewhat praying that his new lord might be as bit as formidable as he was thinking him up to be.

Because that would mean greater protection for him from his once allies turned enemies

"Well, let us get our men. We need to get back as soon as possible,"

A while later, seeing no point in waiting, another man from the group gestured towards Alxx's camp, wanting to start the formal negotiations as soon as possible.

And so the small group made the short journey across the small distance and were soon at Alxx's doorsteps.

"My lord, someone name Shorder (Baron) Prantik is here to see you. He is with about a thousand men and three other nobles." A herald came to inform Alxx around 8 o clock, just as he was preparing himself to head back to the city.

"Oh?" Alxx let an involuntary hum of intrigue, for he did not think there would be so many buyers of his proposal given yesterday's response.

He was also surprised that the other party let these 'rebels' go.

If he was in their position, Alxx would have certainly considered executing them for treason.

After all, why should you just stand by and suck your thumb as your ally switches sides, letting the enemy become stronger?

Is it not better to kill them when they are at their weakest?

But Adhania did not work like that, where outside of combat, nobles were seen as almost inviolable.

And so, they were allowed to live even when they choose to leave.

"Escort the nobles inside. And then tell the thousand men they can either give up their weapons and enter the camp, or wait outside." Alxx gave the order, as he then quickly set about reorganizing his room to better entertain these guests.

They were going to be his first guests after all.

And a while later, after the body inspections, four gentlemen were ushered into his personal tent.

"My lords, welcome, welcome," Alxx put on a very cordial face in front of them the moment they entered, much different from the one at the battlefield, as he gestured to them to have a sit on the couch he had prepared for them, while one of the guards quickly stepped forward to serve them wine and some fruits.

"My lord let me introduce you…." Once seated comfortably, the very first thing Shordar (Baron) Prantik did was introduce his three fellow allies, saying their names, peerage, and where they were from.

There were two shordars (barons) and one talukder (viscount) among them, and their fiefdoms were in areas Alxx had no idea of.

And knowing this Lord Prantik was generous enough to give the estimated distance they were from Zanzan, which ranged from 250 to 300 km from him, and that put their lands around the center of the province, which was around 600 km from north to south.

This distance was not close, but neither too far, being about 10 days march away, meaning Alxx would be able to exert his influence relatively strongly around them.

"It greatly pleases me to all of you my lords. So how can I help?" Alxx then casually replied with a smile, knowing full well the reason for their presence.

"It is a pleasure to make your acquaintances my lord. We have considered your offer, and we wish to accept it,"

With the pleasantries done, the one named Quasim, who the Talukder (Viscount), went straight to the point, frankly and directly.

"That's great!" Alxx flashed a large smile, and then chuckled, "Haha, I can see many of you are impatient to get your men."

"I presume it's because you want your men to harvest the spring crops," He paused to look around and got a unanimous nod, before continuing,

"So, since we are short on time, we will skip all the large feasts and lengthy formalities, and simply hold the oath of allegiance tomorrow at the temple."

"How does that work?"

This was a very fast schedule as typically such formal occasions usually took months to prepare and plan, though a lot of that had to do with setting enough time for the party to arrive from his fiefdom to his lord's.

But still, it was very fast, and seeing Alxx was not trying to take them on a spin, all of them were relieved.

"Thank you for understanding, my lord. We are really short on time now. But we promise to back came another time to truly dine and feast." Came the joyous reply.

With this most important deal done, the group settled down to a more relaxed posture, as it was then Alxx's turn to pick the quad's brain.

So for the next four hours, the four answered all kinds of inquiries of Alxx, ranging from political, economic, military, and personal categories.

Alxx firstly asked about the quad's neighbors, and their relationship with them, which they all answered as being once good, but now very bad, which was normal.

He then asked about their administrative style, their fiefdom's specialties, tax revenues, and the general state of their lands.

And the answer to the last query came mostly as negative, which was also normal, as they would not have joined Alxx otherwise.

He then asked about their military and past experiences, followed by why they chose to side with Djose and then change.

"He promised us a lot of money. More than King Ptolomy."

"But his son Faruq refused to pay, saying we had not won so he won't pay. That's why we changed sides," Lord Prantik was very open about his reason, and Alxx did not think there was anything wrong with it.

Another question that Alxx had asked was this, "Why.did you want your men so badly? Why could you not borrow some from others?

And the answer was the others also had lost a lot of men, and did have enough to spare right now.

While those that did saw the men being put to use in their own territory as being much more useful.

Alxx for his part also answered many of the quad's questions, such as some of the details of how the vassalize would work and how the army would help protect them, while also telling them about Zanzan's style of rule, which the nobles recorded.

So, all in all, it was a very fruitful conversation, as Alxx got to many times multiply his knowledge about the lands he ruled.