Herald of Steel



In the time that Perseus's adjutant had started to look for Cambyses, he did not forget to carry out his king's other orders too.

So with his command, parts of the army all began to carry out each of the tasks.

One of the groups got to clearing the dead bodies, starting with the most visible ones laying on the first floor.

These corpses were all carried or dragged by their feet out of the manor and thrown into a nearby heap, soon to be buried or cremated, though not before the Tiibans would strip them of everything valuable- their armor, clothes, shoes, jewelry, and even things like gold teeth.

And it was among these piles of dead bodies where lay JU as well, still breathing, still unconscious but fortunately no longer bleeding so profusely.

And even more fortuitously he was placed around the top so he did not get crushed in the heap and in such a way that he could still breathe.

While another group got to work taking count of the prisoners captured, though a full number would take a while given many of the captured were still busy upstairs servicing the men.

So for now they only took stock of the men, among which were obviously the soldiers who surrendered, the servants and slaves from the manor, and also some staff from the workshop, with the most notable one perhaps being Gajopk, the glass maker with the immaculate mustache, though currently his bushy hair seemed to have lost a lot of its luster.

Everyone there, amounting to a roundabout of two hundred (200) was soon gathered in small groups, and after a part of them, including the glassmaker was sent to the dungeons, the people in charge were informed there was no more space there, and so the remaining were moved to outside the manor, around the front courtyard.

A point of note here would be none of these prisoners were shackled or bound like actual prisoners.

Instead, they were left like prisoners of war (POWs) seen in documentaries, unarmed and kept within a boundary, within which they were free to move around, but always kept an eye on with some armed guards on patrols to prevent escape.

And this was a similar case in the dungeons, where the iron gates were not locked, mostly because the Tibians had not found the keys yet, and so the Zanzan men simply stayed inside a jail without a lock.

But there also didn't need to be.

Because the real locks were right in front of them, twenty thousand of them, in the form of Tibian soldiers.

So every one of the captured men sat still like a harmless puppy, not daring to cause any trouble.

Then there was the group who went around the manor in search of 'treasure', or more specifically looking for the treasury.

And after a bit of searching, and through a few narrow, inconspicuous corridors, they managed to find it.

"Hahaha, this must be it!" Standing in front of a large, very heavy-looking wooden door the small group of men exclaimed, certain that it was this kind of vault door fit to safeguard the treasures of a lord.

And once they found it, without further ado, these men quickly got to working, using the massive hammers they wielded to smash against the locks, which though sturdy, were eventually forced to concede, cracking open after one too many hits, to at last reveal all the contents hidden beyond it.

"Th..this is….oh my god I must be seeing things! How is there so much!"

And as the men there entered the sanctuary with their torches, the dim glow of the fire bouncing back from all the shiny gold and silver coins laid strewn about, they were astounded to find just how much wealth there was, so much so that momentarily they even suspected their own eyes thinking the glare from all the gold had caused them to start hallucinating.

And the reason for this complete incredulity was that in front of them laid literally heaps of gold and silver coins, not just one but multiples hills, all rising into the sky like towers made of literal gold, glittering under the light like stars from the sky.

Among them too were many precious gems such as rubies, sapphires, and emeralds, sprinkled all around the room, both as only the stones themselves, and also embedded in various gold jewelry, ornaments, and vessels.

While lastly the entire room was furnished by a few paintings here and there, most featuring a particularly fat man and supposedly his kins, along with a few nude paintings of beautiful women, all giving the treasury almost a more 'refined' touch, as if their presence there worked to offset the gaudiness of all the gold and silver in display.

At least that was the impression soldiers who opened it got as they swung their torches around in order to get a better view of the room and try and confirm there really was as much gold and treasure as they thought there was.

And once they were convinced of the reality of it all, the men felt faint for a second time, though this time it was out of sheer joy.

"Rich! Rich! We are rich! Who would have thought a single city would have this much wealth! We are gonna be so rich!"

One of the men could not help but cry out loudly in ecstasy, just barely stopping himself from breaking into a dance.

Though this reaction was of little surprise given the men had never seen even a hundredth of this much wealth gather all in one place.

He could have been hardly at fault even if he had started singing.

In fact even if Perseus was here, perhaps he too would have lost his composure. as he himself had never seen so much gold piled up like that.

"Ho..how much do you think there is?" At last one of the other men asked this all-important question, though he actually sounded a bit fearful when he posed it, seemingly afraid the answer might be bad for his heart.

"....." And at first, he got a wall of silence, as none of the others had the slightest idea either.

The treasury seemed as immense as the vast ocean to many.

"Tons…it has to be tons! Yes, tons!" At last one of the men blurted out, his octave becoming stronger with each sentence, as he became surer and surer.

'Tons?'

And at first, his answer confused the others because the units did not match.

Until finally they caught it.

The man answering had given up on calculating the amount of money there and resorted to guessing the weight of gold there.

It was an absurd thought of these regular men, but they were also facing an absurd amount of money.

200 to 250 million ropals was that much money.

And weighed an absurd 5 tons.

Which for context was about 40% of the annual gold produced in the whole of Adhania, totaling about 12 tons!

So the men's incredulity was of little wonder.

"*Clang*, *clang*, we should inform His Majesty as soon as possible."

"Yes, *clang*! I'm sure he will be very happy when he knows."

"And *clang* will likely reward us very handsomely,"

It was finally a while later that the men had gotten their bearing back, and decided to do what was expected of them.

But not before each swindled a few extra coins for themselves.

And this was the origin of the *clanging* sound, as the men grabbed fistfuls of ropals and tried to stuff them in their pocket or in anywhere else that would fit really, as long as it did not become too conspicuous.

Because though this practice was openly known, as it was only natural the soldiers would take a nibble at the treasure they found, but it was never explicitly condoned.

For even if the amount of wealth taken was minuscule when relative to the gigantic pile, even a rounding error to many, but still, according to the laws of Tibias, even a single gold dust taken during a campaign belonged to the king and the king alone, and it was up to him to distribute it as he saw fit.

And this was especially true this time given Perseus was personally in charge.

So what the soldiers were gong was stealing from royalty, the punishment for which was death by quartering, i.e.- by having one's limbs tied to four different horse or ox carts which were then pulled in all different directions, thus being gruesomely dismembered.

But these men did not seem too bothered by that threat, only making sure that they did not overdo it.

And so, once these men had filled their pockets with as many coins as they could possibly carry, they finally decided to move on.

"Wait! Do you smell that?"

But just as they were about to, suddenly the distinct smell of smoke, began to hit some of the men.

"*Sniff*, *Sniff*, Yea…what is that?" And with one man pointing it out, the others too began to notice.

"Come on let's go. It's coming from there. Smells like smoke," So the group diverted their course and started to follow their nose.

And then they saw it!

An entire lower wing was completely engulfed in flames, the heat coming off searing anyone even trying to get close, while the dense choking smoke turned that part almost pitch dark.

The men instantly understood this was no small fire, but a raging inferno.