Herald of Steel



Gelene's answer very much reflected the cruel realities of the times.

Such tragedies were not unique or even rare as cities and homesteads were frequently captured and the women subjected to these acts.

And so they had to grow numb to these or die.

Gelene herself was a victim of this tragedy when she was captured by the slavers and so over time had developed a thick shell of acceptance of the fact, hence her subtle mocking of the women who were crying, as she saw them as weak.

While Alexander hearing the confirmation felt a tang of pain in his heart.

Both because of how innocent women were forced to just accept this tragedy and over the recently occurred tragedy.

He had of course guessed such a thing had most likely happened when he learned the enemy had taken the manor.

But the confirmation still hurt him.

"*Sigh*, I see. Truly a tragedy. I once worked shoulder to shoulder with many of these women, *sigh*,"

Hence he could not help but let out two large sighs as he remembered how as a slave he worked hand in hand with some of them.

And now many of them were killed or violated trying to defend his house.

It was not a good feeling, and what further accentuated the feeling of guilt was how he himself had invited them to his house promising them safety and shelter.

'What a blunder,' Alexander could not help but lampoon.

"*Snort*, What crying in the woods!" Whereas his partner did not seem to share his thoughts at all, saying,

"When the manor was captured, instead of standing and fighting, many of them broke and ran. And with them being slaves, I suspect many of them are simply trying to escape."

"So I have had Melodias send capture parties. Everyone should be caught soon."

It seemed Cambyses was beginning to show her imperious side even in front of Alexander when it came to administrative matters.

And hearing this Alexander felt Cambyses's logic was a bit weak, for it was unlikely these slaves would be able to go far in this weather with the supplies they had with them.

They should come back to the city if they knew what was good for them

But Alexander did not outright dismiss the thought either.

Because thinking back, if Alexander was given such a chance, and he had no other way of escape in sight, he might have also rolled the die.

"That's good. Our men are already searching the woods for any leftover Tibias units So they can also help the lost servants get back." Hence Alexander was diplomatic in his speech.

"Mmmm, let's hope so too," And Cambyses lightly nodded to it.

Following this grim topic, Alexander moved to something lighter, talking about a bit of his time in Adhan and his experiences there, at some point moving to the issue of food, and Alexander ended up saying,

"The food there was good, but not like Julkain's. I missed Julkain's cooking the past months. How is she?"

Julkain was the cook who had tackled Alexander during his first venture into the kitchen and was then promoted to a guard/cook of his personal kitchen.

Alexander had high hopes for her and so was interested to know about her well-being.

"Julkain is dead!" But his breezy question was replied with this ice-cold reply.

It came from Mean, and Alexander had never heard the spicy girl so solemn, her face hard and fists clenched.

It seemed that death had hit her particularly hard.

And it was somewhat also panged Alexander, both hearing the news and upon seeing the hurt Mean.

While Gelene was there to add a bit more commentary,

"Yes. They found her burned body inside the manor. Next to her daughter too. Poor woman." as she then shook her head.

No one would know but the fate of this woman had been particularly gruesome.

She was a physically strong woman and so had attempted to fight off the Tibians when they tried to approach her and her five-year-old daughter.

The girl was her most precious possession and the only thing she had to remember her husband by.

So she was determined to try and protect her.

In fact without her child, the woman might have considered suicide.

And if she really had done that, her ending would have been certainly easier.

But she had not.

And trying was very much different from succeeding.

In fact, her struggle had only succeeded in making the men more interested in her and the innocent flower she was trying to protect.

So they forcefully retrained her and made her watch as they took her daughter right in front of her, the child screaming her heart out at the violent acts being done to her, while her mother's heart shattered at the sight.

And once the child lost all her voice and the light began to fade from her eyes, they discarded the limp body on the floor, not caring if she had died or simply fainted, as they moved to the fresh prey- the mother.

They pinned the still struggling woman down and started to mutilate her as they performed the deed, making her bleed out as she was raped.

So when the manor started to burn and the soldiers quickly left the room leaving the pair behind, it was a kind of relief for her.

But by then it was already too little too late by then.

Both the mother-daughter pair's injuries were too gruesome and they simply lacked the ability to try and run.

That of course did not mean Julkain did not try.

She had indeed tried to get her and her daughter out, attempting to drag her and her child's body towards the door and even trying to scream out for help.

But her body was too weak and her voice seemed to have cracked after the throat's recent abuse, so the screams were weak and hollow.

And a while later she could not even do that as the approaching smoke made her cough incessantly.

So she failed to escape, and could only silently whimper as the flaming hands of death slowly approached the pair, the temperature slowly rising around them, first sizzling their skin, then burning it, and then slowly roasting them bit by bit for a long time, prolonging their torment for as long as possible, all while they laid on the floor helplessly, unable to move.

One might even say being raped would have been better.

But the gods seemed to want the punish the duo for whatever reason and so they died after experiencing a prolonged time of torment, whether it be the rape or fire.

Julkain definitely deserved better.

But all such evidence of her pain was burned away by the fire.

As for identifying her body, well she and her daughter were burnt to a char so there was no way they could be facially identified.

Instead, she was identified by a unique small iron ring on her left ring finger that her husband had given her.

The Tibians in their hurry to escape had seemingly forgotten to loot that.

"....I see. That certainly is a tragedy. I'm sorry." And as Alexander came to know about the loss, he could only express his condolences, before adding this with a clenched fist to try and cheer Mean up, "But rest assured Mean, I promise I will get revenge on those guys. Tibias will pay!"

"*Sigh*, it's oaky. It was war anyway." But instead of getting an enthusiastic nod, Mean only replied this listlessly, before taking a mouthful of soup with her metal spoon.

The tone of the reply was one of nonchalance and acceptance, showing no rage or lust for vengeance but only sorrow.

This momentarily surprised Alexander, but then he was reminded of how this was the common mindset of this time period, one where they took death as a natural part of life much more easily than their modern counterpart.

One of the reasons for this was simply a lack of knowledge.

People did not really understand the cause of death or why they got sick and died.

So due to the absence of modern understanding of medicine and medical technology, the act of dying was seen more as an inevitability or an act of god rather than something mere mortals could have a hand on.

And this technological backwardness led to the next reason which was the sheer scale of deaths one experienced in their life.

Everyone, whether it be poor or rich, noble or peasant, slave or freeman, everyone grew up surrounded by death, with almost all of them inevitably witnessing someone close to them dying during their childhood, be it their parents, their relatives, their friends, their neighbor or even their siblings.

The universality of it seemed like a cruel reminder of death to all, telling them regardless of their status they would all end up in his hands.

And this experience of childhood would repeat itself into adulthood too, where plagues, diseases, famines, natural disasters, and wars would have people all around drop like flies.

So at one point, society as a whole would just become desensitized to it all.

And lastly, it was ingrained into people's minds that during a war, anything went.

Mean was not angry at Tibias for killing Julkain for the same reason modern people would not get angry for one army killing an enemy soldier.

The act was considered acceptable within the rules of war.

Hence she was sad, but not seeking vengeance.