Herald of Steel

The pain emanating from his wound finally caused the man to forget for the moment the mistakes that led to the current circumstances.

And he decided to put off trying to think of ways to prevent something similar from happening again for later.

Instead, upon hearing the bodyguard's recommendations, Alexander chimed up to say, 

"Forget about getting those things. By the time you get it, I will have bled to death already."

"Get some strong wine to clean the wound instead. And then cauterize and bandage it."

Alexander sounded both irritated and a bit tired.

The loss of blood was beginning to make him feel weak.

And knowing he might very well be right, that doctor bodyguard solemnly nodded, accepting.

So some of the wine the priests used was quickly acquired and poured over the cut, cleaning it, the sharp point of a dagger was heated over a candle flame till it became red hot, and then yanking out the stuck dagger in one swift motion, the wound was quickly cauterized and sealed by sticking that hot piece against it, much to Alexander's loud, agonized screams.

The man might be tough, but he was no robot.

Burning hot steel against the skin still hurt like hell.

Afterward, the wound was quickly patched up using thick rolls of bandage and soon Alexander was back.

"Alexander, you lost a lot of blood. We should get back and rest." Hemicus then recommended this.

Something that Alexander chose to heed, as curtly nodding his head, he replied, "Yes let's. But before that I have one last thing to do."

And then ignoring all the surprised and even disapproving looks, he went to look for the high priest, who was surprisingly easy to find.

The old man was at the foot of the altar, sitting down, a trace of concern still masking his otherwise tranquil face.

Alexander was actually impressed the old man was as calm as he appeared to be.

Seeing Alexander, the man quickly got up, softly crying in elation, 

"Great lord! I'm so glad to see you are safe. We swear we had no idea about this. It was all…"

"Shut up!" Alexander was in no mood to hear these long winded excuses, as he then clenched teeth his teeth and snapped, 

"If I wanted you dead, this entire place would have been drowned in blood already!"

"Now, I will ask again, do you accept my proposal or do you want your assholes stretched till it breaks!"

The rage in his voice was palpable.

"Accept! Accept! We will move the statue to any place that pleases my lord," And the high priest was almost scrambling to form the words, immediately acceding to all Alexander's requests.

There was no way he would dare so no.

"Hmmp!" And Alexander exited the temple with only that imperious snort.

"Get a doctor. We still need to stitch the wounds." As the group came out of the temple, Hemicus then ordered one of his subordinates as such, for a cauterized wound was not a fully sealed one, it was only held in place by brunt skin that had fused together.

Any large movement or vibration would tear it.

"Alexander. can you ride a horse?" Hence such a question.

 "Yea." Alexander shortly nodded, noticing that whenever Hemicus got worried about him, he switched to calling him by name.

And then turning to Lapitus who had gone very pale, like he was still recovering from the shock, said, 

"Lapitus! Make sure the people know what happened. Tell them that it was the priests, wanting to save their lives, who decided to replace the bull with the statue of the Goddess."

"Say that exactly!"

Alexander emphasized.

And from the wording, it was very apparent why Alexander wanted it to be said this way.

To dump all the blame and dissatisfaction of the people onto those six.

It was one of the reasons he did not slaughter them all.

"Yes, my lord." And contrary to assuming Lapitus would appear reluctant, he appeared actually quite enthusiastic.

As long as Alexander did not kill the priests, he was willing to follow most things.

Though that line was soon crossed by Alexander's next command, 

"And find people who might harbor rebel ideas like that priests. Who did he regularly meet? Who were his friends? Who were the co- conspirators? Bring them before me within the week." 

*Tremble*

Lapitus's body visibly shook at this, knowing what the likely outcome would be.

But nodded nevertheless.

He understood that the current Alexander was in a very bad mood, and made up his mind to softly approach the topic at a later date to reason with him.

After all, not everyone that met with that priest were his ally and given the abruptness of the attempt, it could even be reasoned it was committed in a moment of overzealous passion, spurred by Alexander's wish to attack their most sacred symbol.

Lapitus approached the mansion with such thoughts, as then he posed,

"Lord Pasha, should we cancel the feast?" drawing his attention to that meal that was supposed to start at noon.

By now it was approaching dusk.

And as Lapitus said so, his eyes squarely landed on the bandaged left arm, which had already produced a dark patch on the center.

It was very possible that the wounded had opened. 

He even lampooned, 'None of this would have happened if we just stayed here and ate the food.'

"No, let the men enjoy themselves. I will join after I'm stitched up." 

While Alexander appeared to be still in the mood to party.

So with that Alexander was taken to an inside room and after he had the deep cut closed with almost twenty stitches, he joined the rest of the nobles and military officers already gathered thete.

The men there remained oblivious to Alexander's injury, something that he had asked of his bodyguards as he did not want others riled up and do anything extreme in revenge for him.

So with that began the great feast as food, music, and wine flowed till almost midnight, by the end of which Alexander was blind drunk.

It had seemed to him that every nobleman and every officer worth his salt had toasted to the victory, praising Alexander for his accomplishments.

And in return, he was forced to drink, and even the small sips he had each time added up very quickly.

The only good thing that came out of this intoxication was that it helped to dull the stinging pain from his arm.

But this and the unexpected happenings of the day also meant that Alexander's initial plan to hold a meeting that night was swiftly swept aside, and as Alexander was being escorted to his room by Hemicus and the others, he struggled to even see where he was going.

And by the time he hit the bed, he lost almost all his senses.

Even the next morning greeted him with a splitting headache and a stinking pain from his arm, so deciding to treat himself a bit, the man skipped the morning in its entirety and only got ready to work at noon.

After a sumptuous lunch much of the headache was gone and though the pain from the arm still remained, he knew he could not off work only because of that.

So with that, he finally checked off some of the most important things he had to do- the first of which included getting to inspect the treasury.

Situated deep underground, the large, ornate heavy oak doors were opened to reveal its contents, with the most striking site being the huge stone statues located there, much like in the temple.

And according to Lapitus, these were the statues of Lord Ponticus's ancestors, meant to oversee and protect the contents held in the room.

These included large piles of gold and silver coins, many kinds of jewelry such as rings, bracelets, neckpieces, etc. belonging to both men and women, beautiful ornate ceremonial armor sets made of pure gold or silver, porcelain vases, precious plates and cups studded with rare gemstones, and many more. 

Its contents were certainly quite bountiful, though to Alexander, this actually seemed to be a bit disappointing.

Given the opulence he had seen in the display, he had expected the treasures would be enough to recoup his cost of raising an army that came to around 60 to 70 million.

But by his experienced estimate, everything here combined would not exceed 15 million ropals max.

This amount of money was of course not nothing.

But certainly far shorter than what he wanted.

The value here was not even enough to cover the cost of the promise he made to the city and its reconstruction.

And this made him think, 'When the glamor and sparlings are taken out, Tibias is poorer than I expected.'

Though it had to be remembered that Thesalie was a city right on the border, and not the capital.

It was natural not to be overflowing with riches.

After securing the treasury, Alexander was then taken to a strange place- the ice room, where Lapitus claimed, "My lord, we have kept all the heads as you instructed. They are still fresh."

This weird statement referred to the instruction Alexander had given to that messenger who came to him to inform him of Lapitus's successful coup. 

And the reason for this was because along with the women, gold, expensive fabric, and jewelry, he also wanted to send these heads to the capital.

His idea, 'To show everyone what happened when they resisted him.'

.