Herald of Steel



As it could be easily guessed, this conversation was happening between the Kaiser family of Sybarsis and the King of Tibias, Perseus.

And why this was happening was also pretty apparent.

With the Kaiser family's plot foiled for now in Galiosis, they quickly pinpointed one of its main reason as being Alxx's help at the critical moment.

And so they wanted him gone, both as revenge and also because they wanted to cut off this ally of the Margraves.

Hence, the meeting with Adhania's natural enemy Tibias with the promise of significant aid in return for attacking him this winter.

And hearing this dignitary from the rich family allude to 'significant' help, everyone in the court felt quite eager.

And even the king leaned a bit forward, and very interestedly asked,

"Oh! How much is the Kaiser family willing to gi…I meant invest?"

The specific word choice very easily gave away the king's mood and detecting this, Clive first paused and produced a confident smile, drawing out the tension, before finally laying out his offer, "To help Tibias's economy, we are willing to offer several things."

"First we are willing to make a one-time, in full deposit of 75 palkis…just so that Tibias can get itself going."

The moment Clive said the amount, as expected by the rotund man, it made everyone in the crowd draw a cold breath of air and produce an audible *whoah*.

And this was the exact reaction the envoy was hoping for.

And the reason for this could be understood if one knew the value of 75 palkis, which was 2.5 tons of gold, or 125 million ropals.

This was an enormous amount of money even for Adhan, much less Tibias, which was much poorer than her neighbor.

And once the court calmed down, the dignitary furthermore promised, "In addition to this we are also willing to lend some of our famed war elephants to aid in the battle."

"Ships to help with the logistics."

"And lastly a promise that Tibias will get to keep all the land it occupies."

All these aids were very lucrative offers, especially the promise of the elephants, which were considered the secret weapons of the Kaiser family and not easily given.

It appeared that the Kaiser family was really willing to go all to try and topple Alxx.

While hearing all these promises, the king put on a thoughtful face.

Nobody in this world was running a charity and ever give free money.

So he first wanted to find Sybarsis's angle on all of this.

"Why does your family want to attack Zanzan? I don't recall you having any big grudges with them."

"And why do you need us?" He posed.

"Haha, well to answer Your Majesty's second question first, Zanzan and we are not exactly close. And so the logistical challenges it poses is quite large." Clive gave a reasonable answer

And it was true to a certain point.

Just shipping the supplies to those soldiers at such large distances would take nearly a month.

But the much bigger reason was that they had no fleet to speak of currently, and by the time they had built up one, who knows how things will have turned out.

It was certainly possible that by that point the Margraves would have also built up their own navy and challenged the Kaiser Family at sea.

So it was deemed much more viable to use the local forces to target Alexander.

Having answered one of the king's questions, Clive addressed the other, "And as for why we want to attack Zanzan…..well Adhania has been weakened by its recent drought and civil war."

"So we feel it is the best time to strike and force it to open trade with us."

Here Clive blatantly lied, because he did not feel it was necessary to inform the king of a small country about their internal squabbles.

While the king of Tibias, Perceus, hearing of Clive's reason gave himself some time to think, as his court advisors stepped up to offer advice to their liege, both in favor and against the war.

Those against naturally informed the king of the high casualties they had sustained in the last three years, and how any more lack of strong-bodied men would gravely affect their ability to grow food.

While the war faction pointed to the apparent weakness of Zanzan and reassured him that Sybarsis would have their back.

And as was expected, the latter faction won.

Because 125 million ropals was too big to pass away.

Even if the army ate up half of it, there would still be enough left over for the nobles and the kings to feast lavishly.

So the king had his mind made up.

Almost.

For he had one last inquiry.

"Lord Clive, the walls of Zanzan are strong and robust. Breaking them is out of the question. And climbing over them is very difficult."

"So how do you propose we win this siege?"

"And win quickly. Because I do not want Zanzan to call for help."

For the nobles present at court, this had been always a very tough question.

Breaching walls was always very difficult, which had been the bane that prevented them from conquering Zanzan City.

Though in fairness it was also a kind of boon as Adhania too had not been able to breach their fort situated at the mouth of the Cisran hills, thus resulting in the stalemate.

And so all the nobles present thought this messenger from afar would simply suggest the usual approaches, massed ladder charges, combined with siege towers.

With all the usual problems that came with it- for the former, it was huge casualties and a low rate of success, while the latter needed a lot of time to build and set up.

That ran opposite of what Perseus wanted, a quick siege.

Thus imagine their surprise when Clive promised this, "Haha, rest assured Your Majesty. My family has built a weapon capable of firing a 20 kg stone 150 meters away. Using it, even the famed walls of Adhan will turn to rubble!"

Clive here was naturally describing a catapult, or a torsion catapult to be exact.

As he said so, the news of the existence of such a weapon naturally a great deal of commotion among the nobles present, and even the king started to interrogate the man on the matter.

"Really! How! How can such a weapon exist?" He asked.

But Clive declined to further comment on the matter, only saying, "If Your Majesty is willing to go to war, we are willing to lend you 10 such weapons. You can find out how they work then."

The confidence with which the portly man said left little doubt in Perceus's mind that this weapon was really real and could really do what the man was saying.

Hence he began to seriously consider war with Zanzan just after one year of respite.

'I wonder how the men will react?' He said to himself, though he was not overly worried about that since with the 125 million ropals in cash, he would be able to soothe any discontentment away.

Thus Perseus declared, "Thank you for your offer, mister dignitary. We will think about it and give you an answer soon."

This ambivalent answer might have sounded strange to some, given all the talk about the war, but Perseus said this because he had sent an ambassador to Zanzan with certain demands and he was still waiting for the man to return.

But he really held no hope that his envoy would come back with anything useful, largely because the demands he sent were unlikely to be accepted by Alexander, or for that matter anyone.

In fact, he had just sent the man to scout Zanzan and access its fighting potential, and figure out its defenses,

So, though the king said the decision about the war was like it was an issue still up for debate, it was in fact really a done deal, and he just wanted to hear that man's thoughts on the matter.

"Ahh, excellent! Then I shall await the good news," Clive sensing the meeting was over, gave a bow and asked to be excused.

But before he could leave Perseus had one last question.

"Wait! You said we would get to keep the land. What about the loot?"

Here the military king was asking about the booty they would get when they sacked Zanzan.

"Ah yes, I almost forgot," Clive also let a small exclamation at this question, as then flat out said,

"We would like a share of the booty. Let's say 80%."

"......." Perseus remind silent for a while.

It seemed that the Kaiser Family planned to recoup all their investment through that.

And he had really no problem with that.

And so straightforwardly nodded and said, "Hmmm, okay, we can come to an agreement around that value."

And Clive remembering one last question inquires," Ahh, Yor Majesty, how many men are you able to field? It must be large enough."

"About 30,000 to 40,000. Rest assured." Was the instant, very confident answer.

Which seemed to please Clive as he determined to be adequate, and thus with a smile and one bow, the fateful meeting came to an end.

And about a week later, Percesus's envoy, who was also his best friend and occasional lover Leosydas arrived, bearing the fruits of his expedition.

It would be his words that determined whether Zanzan would have another war in just three months.

One which it had no idea was coming.