Herald of Steel

As the officers continued to drink, if one bothered to pay good attention, they would have found that it was only Kalidus's men who were actually drinking, taking in enormous amounts of the poison.

While in the case of Lapitus's men, they seemed to be only pretending to take large gulps, while in reality, they were only taking small sips from their limited volume of safe drinks.

They talked far more than they drank.

*Thud*, *Thud*, *Thud*

When the very first man fell, it drew more laughs than concerns from the nearby men.

"Haha, hey what's wrong, can't hold your liquor, hahaha," They chuckled at their colleagues for his inability, no one even bothering to go up to help him.

*Thud*, *Thud*,

But then suddenly two more went down.

And that made the laughter subside quite a bit.

This did not seem natural, with especially how those eyes looked, a glassy gleam of realization floating in them, like the truth had been revealed to them just as they were crossing the gate, but it was already too late. 

*Thud* *Thud* *Thud*

And then a few more almost simultaneously went down.

At that point, there was no more laughter.

The room had suddenly become as soundless as the grave

It was almost uncanny how quickly the cheerful din of the place was replaced by an uncomfortable, stifling quagmire to anxiety.

"You, Lapi… you do …g!" 

And even with advanced age, it was Kalidus's keen eyes were the first to catch on to what was likely on, though, by this point, he was already too late, as evidenced by how he was slurring.

Kalidus had noticed that it was only his men that were going down, and so it left him no doubt of the plot he was already ensnared in.

But unfortunately, it was too little, too late for him.

Though he willed it, his hands lacked the strength to grab his sword, while his legs were unable to respond to his command to charge at Lapitus, only staying rooted at its place and shaking like a leaf.

The poison was already too far into the system.

"The wine! It's the wine. Lapitus lied about the wi…!" 

With Kalidus's loud shout, the others too woke up to the deadly betrayal ….but so what?

Like Kalidus, they too had trouble just standing up, never mind fighting.

And even those who could summon their sword, those who were at the peak of their fitness, they were easily subdued by Lapitus's men who far outnumbered them and that full control of their body facilities

"Poison! Co… ward! Whe…re is yo …honor! Trait…! I spit… spit o.. you! The god w…"

Kalidus's eyes went teary as he saw his men who were trying to resist being cut and hacked and slashed by brutal strikes to their guts, hearts, and even necks.

These once fierce warriors deserved better.

But now rendered defenseless due to the poison, they were unable to defend against even the simplest of blows, while he himself found losing strength and slumping over to the ground.

They did not deserve to die like this, cut down like dogs.

It broke Kalidus's heart.

And as he felt death's icy grasp wrap around him, Kalidus did not beg for his life.

The man was not even afraid of death, having seen it an uncountable number of times, having dealt it almost as many times to others, and already had one foot with him.

He also did not ask why Lapitus was doing this.

It was so obvious that it would be a waste of his limited breath.

Instead, he only cursed Lapitus for choosing such a way to kill him.

As a warrior, he has at least wished to die by the sword.

And he knew Lapitus knew that it was always his dream to go like like that.

So for Lapitus to deny him that honor at the very twilight of his years, that was what incensed Kalidus the most.

So even when he found his speech fumbling, he did not stop cursing the man.

While the recipient of these attacks, Lapitus had no emotions on his face.

His face was not flushed with ecstasy at the fact that the plan had gone so smoothly, nor was he shedding tears of regret over his betrayal.

He only projected a stoic face from which nothing came out 

And that was because after what he had done, there really was nothing for him to say.

Lapitus did not bother to present any excuse or portray himself as the righteous one here.

And the same thing went for many of the older officers in his group, who simply let their counterparts peacefully drift into slumber, not letting out any cries of revelry.

Perhaps their silence also signified that a small part of all of them felt shame at having done such a cowardly act to these men who just minutes ago were their colleagues and even brothers in arms.

And so the entire place was eerily quiet, absent of any euphoric cheers or of any mournful groans, as the poison once it was activated, worked rapidly.

It was under the bright, orange hue of the setting sun that finally the chaos in the officers' quarters came to an end, the carpeted floor now scattered with close to ten bodies.

"Old man, rest well. You led a good life. Now let us lead us ours. We will come to apologize to you when our time is up,"

Stepping up to Kalidus's body, Lapitus gave these words as his last respects, saying why he did what he did- it was to survive.

And though Lapitus said these words looking at Kalidus, perhaps they were more directed towards his men, who undoubtedly were feeling guilty over their heinous act.

'Yes, we did it because we had no choice. We want to live.' And hearing, many consoled them as such.

"That's right. Calopy and my daughter are friends. I will surely take care of her," 

One of Lapitus's men even stepped up to promise this to Kalidus's rapidly cooling body, Caloopy being Kalidus's youngest granddaughter who lost her parents to an illness.

Though tt was unknown if Kalidus would have actually wanted his dear granddaughter to be near one of his murderers, or turned in his grave at the very thought.

But whatever Kalidus's thought on the matter would be, for now, it did not matter.

For as soon as it was considered everyone was dead, Lapitus ordered, 

"Clean this up. Quick!" 

"Move them to those unused rooms. Quick! We need to report to the mansion for our duty soon!"

The way Lapitus used the word 'quick' twice went to show the urgency.

Hence the men quickly got to work, dragging the bodies along the corridor to the very back of the keep, a place where rarely anyone even went.

Lapitus was confident that this place would be hidden enough for the bodies to be not discovered for at least the few hours he needed to do what he needed to. 

And while his men carried out their clandestine orders, Lapitus went over to the window covering the city, his heart heavy with uncertainty, as he then looked down on the wine in his cup.

'It's all because of you, my love. I could do all this only because of you." 

He then mysteriously whispered towards the liquid, love filling his eyes.

And what he meant by this was that the way he got this rare wine was that Lady Felicia had one day bought the stuff, claiming it to be from her father. 

And now it was using this same drink that Lapitus had managed to basically decapitate Petrino's forces.

However there was quite a bit of a hidden secret behind Lady Felicia's claim. 

The real way she got it was much different, though those events did not matter here.

Once the bodies were disposed of, Lapitus and his men soon got ready for their next shift, and a while later, they found themselves in Petrino's audience.

"My lord, Lord Kalidus said he was feeling a bit under the weather after standing in the sun all day. So he asked us to take this shift for him. He promised to be here by supper."

Lapitus kept his address regarding his unplanned visit short and concise.

The less he said, the less chance of him messing up.

"Oh! Okay, you go do your thing." 

And seeing this distasteful man, Petrino dismissed him almost instinctively, waving his hand like buzzing off an annoying fly even before Lapitus could finish.

He really did not care about who was in charge of security here.

He only cared to look at all the courtesans that were already starting to flutter around the great hall room.

He could not wait to taste them.

Now of course inviting people of such professions to a funeral event was egregious, to say the least.

Petrino might have pissed in his dead father's face and the amount of disrespect would have been almost the same.

But hey, he was the ruler here, so who was going to argue with him?

So while Petrino planned with glee for his night of debauchery, Lapitus, having gotten the lord's open permission was easily able to take over control of the mansion guards.

Everythign was set. 

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