Herald of Steel

Pasha Muazz's rage induced state would last almost a week, with his allies largely leaving him alone during this while.

Something that worked to make the man even angrier as he saw it as him being abandoned.

Normally, whenever he had these kinds of tirades, there would be a whole host of sycophants pleasing and placating him. 

Whereas now, there was not a single one.

This vivid, visual representation of his fall from grace and the sinking realization of the scale of the loss terrified the man and he let out his insecurities the only way he knew how, through sheer unbridled rage.

The man was truly spoiled and rotten.

And the recipient of his fury was unfortunately the poor staff unlucky enough to get him as the master as well as the various materials that adorned his abode. 

The death toll in his estate by the end of the week would reach half a dozen, with property losses in the tens of thousands of ropals.

As for Alexander's last group of recipients, the neutral and ambivalent nobles, their reactions were mixed, ranging from unmatched elation in some to fearful trepidation in others.

It was almost a perfect reflection of their varied allegiances.

Some reacted like Ptolomy and his court, rejoicing, "This is a sign from the gods! His Majesty is truly blessed! It is only so that the city was able to be captured under his rule." 

To note, their claim very conveniently forgot about Alexander.

These kinds of people mostly included those who were already thinking of switching sides or in the midst of discussing it.

As for more neutral and hostile nobles, they were of course very fearful.

If Alexander could even break through a city like Thesalie, what chances did they and their puny cities have?

Hence soon some pleas of allegiance started to come to Zanzan, each bearing gifts and looking to swear fealty.

While another group of nobles took the completely opposite approach, signing secret treaties with their neighbors and proposing to band together and resist Alexander in the event of any aggression.

And at the same time, they sought reassurance from Amenheraft, hoping he would protect them.

But Amenheraft himself was in a dilemma.

Almost all these nobles were from Zanzan and some from Adhan, and in those territories, he lacked sufficiently powerful allies to reassure them.

Hence he gave them mixed answers, the contents largely depending on the peerage of the person asking and the strategic value of the place he controlled.

And when the nobles presented their case as a group, one which caused much headaches for Amenheraft, he tried to balance his capabilities with his promises.

So in the following months, Amenheraft's standard reply came to be this, "Rest assured, the treaty with Ptolomy is still in full effect. Your lands will be safe. And when the time comes, we will obliterate that blight from these lands. Fear not, as long as you are with us, he cannot harm you."

This on paper sounded very grand.

The treaty was only three years into its agreed six years time limit and that appeared to give Amenheraft a good amount of time to prepare his and his allies' forces.

And if it was really true, perhaps it might have actually worked to alleviate some of the worries.

But there was one tiny problem with it.

And that was 'technically', that treaty did not include Zanzan. 

Alexander had refused to sign on that particular condition, claiming all of Zanzan belonged to him and that all the nobles must follow him, while Amenheraft had categorically refused to accept that statement.

And with both sides at an impasse, the entire thing was left at that, in limbo with no clear direction. 

So just as Amenheraft could claim Alexander would not attack due to the treaty, Alexander could claim there was no treaty regarding these lands and he was free to annex them, setting it up as one of the flashpoints for the annulment of the treaty. 

And the nobles of course were aware of this.

But when they raised these concerns, Amenheraft simply reassured them unless Alexander wanted to assume the title of an oathbreaker they would be safe and left it at that.

While the nobles, being stuck between a rock and a hard place, the majority chose to swallow the explanation and hope Alexander also thought as Amenheraft did.

After all, whether Alexander becomes an oathbreaker or not, it would not matter to them if he attacked and they all end up dead.

And it was out of that fear that a small minority, consisting of the most hawkish nobles, advocated a surprise strike right now right into Alexander's heartlands.

They saw it as being presented with the perfect opportunity, with the man absent and his army occupied elsewhere.

If they struck now, surely they could take Zanzan and cut the head of the snake.

But of course most of the men saying those were more full of hot air than taking actual action.

They lacked any sort of real authority and those that did, knew better.

The image of Perseus smashing their heads against the Zanzan walls was still vivid in many minds, and in the last two years, they certainly had learned of how Alexander had defended his city.

They understood that a solid wall of crossbowmen would be too hard to chew through.

Not only that there was also really no one close enough who could attack Alexander quickly enough to take advantage of his absence.

The only viable candidates were the Matbars (Marquisses) but each of them were hundreds of kilometers away, with their own security concerns.

Furthermore, even if they wanted to strike Alexander, given the approaching fall season with its harvest, followed by winter, it would be spring at the earliest or even summer when they could be ready.

By then Alexander might be already back in Zanzan.

A possibility made much greater by the fact that Thesalie was near the doorsteps of his capital city anyway.

Due to all these it seemed that for now, Alexander's borders were safe, leaving him free to continue his penetration of Tibias.

Aside from the Adhanians reacting as such, there was one last group that also reacted to Alexander's capture of Thesalie.

And that was the Tibians themselves.

In Tibias, among the general populace, there was not much reaction, which was normal given the time period. 

Given the technology of the time, the propagation of this news to the more remote parts of the country took anywhere from six months to a year, the carriers mainly being the traveling merchants and peddlers, who passed their information from mouth to mouth.

"The city… *sigh*, to think even Thesalie would be was destroyed. What times have come!"

"The blood… the blood that been spilled there flooded the city up to my ankles. I was there! I saw it!"

"There were auctions held at the market that sold naked girls in the market. Little girls! Ye size! It was horrific!"

"Those barbarians! They are here to kill us all! All!"

"The city was left largely in fact, The Adhanians spared the people as they promised!"

"The army there did not take even a single slave captive. Everyone was set free."

"All the citizens were given free food and coin in compensation."

Interestingly every peddler seemed to have his version of the story, his version of the truth.

And what was so curious was just how wildly some of their truths varied, to the point you would think they were describing completely different events.

Then to further muddy the waters, these recounts would get further distorted when going from mouth to mouth among the common peasantry, and in a real-life example of a game of Chinese whisper.

So by the end of it, Alexander would either become a paragon saint of virtue, or the devil incarnate in the eyes of the people living in different parts of the country.

Now, though many of the tales these merchants recounted were of horrific events, be it true or false, but most of these talks among the citizenry were largely viewed as gossip and interesting stories to pass the time among friends and family in gatherings like one would banter when drinking or at the dinner table.

It was never seen as any real news that required them to act.

For these simple folks, Thesalie was a dream-like place, many, many distances away. 

Perhaps even in a different dimension.

Most of these peasants were so illiterate that they did not even know what was Thesalie, never mind understanding the gravity of its loss.

Was it a kind of food? Was it a drink? Or was it a city of great strategic importance?

If anyone asked this multiple choice question to a sampled populace, the answer would likely be neatly divided into one third for each option.

The only real records of the city available to the majority of the public were mainly in the form of folktales and tavern songs, but even they only described how that king or this noble defeated the monstrous Adhanians coming to enslave them all using the grand, impregnable walls of the city. 

Those songs would focus more on the king, the gods, and the nobility than the city itself. 

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