Herald of Steel

They had tried their best, even resorting to revealing each other most shameful secrets.

But it seemed that had failed.

The cards had always been in Alexander\'s hand.

And they had been always banking on Alexander keeping his word.

But it seemed that the game was rigged from the start.

"Bastard…." The hot-blooded Jamil vomited the curse along with a lot of blood as he slumped over.

The soldiers had not only attacked with swords but crossbows as well, making them all riddled with bolts, looking almost like a porcupine.

And as the man stumbled, his bloodshot eyes never left Alexander, hatred glowing out of them, as if he seemed to curse Alexander\'s shamelessness.

In fact, even Melodias had half-blushed with Alexander\'s flimsy excuse, along with his bodyguards.

The macabre scene lasted less than five minutes, and as the muffled grunts died down, Alexander slowly got up from his chair to address the soldiers, "As you have heard, there are maps in this house. I want every inch searched thoroughly for them. There should be nine. Go!"

Alexander was much more interested in the loot than taking care of the bodies.

"Yes," The soldiers shouted in unison before fanning out.

While Alexander turned to instruct Melodias, "You stay here and see that everything of value is collected and properly stored. Pay particular attention to collecting every bit of papyrus. And once you have done this, set fire to the mansion."

Alexander wanted the bodies to turn to ash just as the house.

"At once," Melodias received the order with a salute.

And finally done with this, Alexander at last made his way outside the large mansion.

"*Sigh*, it\'s already morning," He squinted at the sky, finding it dull and overcast.

The meeting had lasted close to six hours, and dawn had broken a lot earlier, a phenomenon missed by Alexander due to the heavy curtains and that the wintery sun had yet to wake up.

In fact, it might be very much possible that the sun might not even choose to show its face today.

\'Well at least it\'s not snowing,\' Alexander murmured feeling the freezing breath escape his mouth, as suddenly a scout appeared and reported after saluting, "My lord, thank goodness you are free. Lord Menes is asking what to do with all the noblewomen and men that the soldiers have captured. They are currently in the military camp.

"And also there are a lot of women and children that you instructed to be moved to the barn. They are asking for food and blankets. What should we do?" The man looked at him with limpid yes.

"....." The thought of killing so many defenseless people, particularly women and children certainly struck Alexander\'s conscience even for a little bit and he paused to give the order.

\'No, if I let these people go, they will never be grateful. They will only plot to launch attacks against me and my family. Maybe now, maybe few years from now, or maybe even decades from now.\'

But ultimately Alexander clenched his teeth and hardened his heart to give the order,

"We have gotten what we needed. Tally which soldier collected how many nobles and then kill all the men, women, and children. We have proof that they are devil worshippers."

The nobles did confess to the fact that they helped spread rumors about Alexander and thus the label \'devil worshipers\' did have the tiniest bit of merit.

"....Yes, my lord," The scout was a bit surprised that they would simply kill the nobles after spending so much effort and even money capturing them.

The custom was usually to ransom captured nobles.

And the man was sure Alexander could have earned a pretty penny from this.

But he knew this was not his place to intervene.

So, after a bit of pause in surprise, he quickly bought a scroll, wrote down the order, got Alexander\'s sign and then performing a military salute ran off.

While Alexander was escorted to his personal camp at the edge of the city, where he decided to get some sleep.

He had skipped it last night.

And after we woke up the following evening, he joined Menes on supper, "So, there is an army heading towards us?"

It appeared Melodias had filled Menes in.

"Mmm, we can talk about the details once we get back to Zanzan. There is time." But Alexander appeared disinterested in this topic, and more interested in stuffing his mouth with the dried fish with bread.

So the two generals finished the meal in relative silence, with Alexander occasionally asking about the city, and particularly inquiring about the maps.

"We found six of them my lord, of varying detail and depicting different areas. We will need some more time to fully understand them," Melodias was quick to reply.

Six out of nine was a good result.

And also Alexander\'s presumption of there being nine was erroneous.

Because Maizdy and Nibbar certainly did not have maps with them, and among the nobles, one or two might have possibly lost in the chaos.

So Alexander nodded happily, "Good. We can read them back in Zanzan." as he finished his meal.

No mentions of the valuables looted were discussed, and certainly, nothing about the frailer nobles killed.

The campaign lasted another day, and the marching took another day extra, until the huge column finally entered Zanzan late at night, laden with many riches.

Seven nobles had all their riches taken, and the soldiers had been careful enough to lick the tiniest scraps of meat from the bones, as evidenced by how some of the men even carried fine timber for 30 km as battle booty.

All in all, this campaign, which lasted four days from its start to finish, was a resounding success, with a major thorn removed from Alexander\'s side, and costing him less than 20 dead, and 30 wounded.

A less than 0.1% casualty ratio.

While the approaching army was dealt a heavy blow they did not even know about, for without the native nobles\' support, these new troops, landing in unfamiliar territory, and without proper accommodation and supplies in place, will certainly find it difficult to operate as easily as they must have hoped.

And without Maizdy to lead the army, or Nibbar to offer guidance, the operation certainly would be delayed or might even be canceled, which would be much to Alexander\'s advantage.

The only thing the young Pasha lacked currently the most was time.

Alexander entered the city with these hopeful thoughts, where, even this late, a large crowd had gathered to welcome back the heroes.

And as the soldiers passed through the streets, illuminated by held torches on both sides, songs were sung, various dancers performed all the sides, and flowers, nuts, and berries were used to welcome them back.

\'Hmmm, I should build a triumph. That will make these occasions grander,\' This plan came to Alexander as he witnessed the cheering crowd.

He had found that Adhania already had a custom of greeting its returning soldiers, as they were also greeted as such in Adhan, and thus felt that a Roman triumph, with its magnificent arches, would be quite fitting.

The procession slowly passed through the city, until it made a full circle of the city, and it was finally then Alexander was allowed to return to his manor.

Alexander had noticed his family in a heavily secured part of the crowd, but only after entering his estate did he have the chance to talk to them.

"Welcome, back" Cambyses was the first to run and hug him.

This felt like the longest four days of her life.

She had never been away from Alexander for even a day until now, and she had barely the past days, her mind gripped by impossible \'buts and ifs\'.

"Hahaha, I\'m glad to see you are well too," Alexander responded in kind to this overt show of affection, even gripping Cambyses\'s back and lifting her up into his arms.

He too had missed her.

And with this done, he turned to slowly greet his other women, which were a lot less passionate, followed by Mikaya and The Queen Mother.

"Alex, leaving your newlywed wife. How horrid you are," The silver-haired girl did not forget to take a jibe at Alexander, while The Queen mother really meant her sting,

"My lord Pasha, how brave of you to destroy the evil nobles. I\'m sure the greater devils will be cowered by the valiant victory."

The meaning was obvious, \'Now that you have killed these nobles, what\'s stopping Amemheraft from tearing the treaty?\'

This was certainly a concern.

And something even Alexander had thought before the campaign, which was \'how to sell the attack to Ptolomy and Farzah\'.

And initially, he wanted to make up the excuse of a possible incoming attack and that his was just a preemptive strike.

But fortunately for him, Djose had made this explanation much easier.

And so in a masochistic schadenfreude way, Alexander was even grateful to Djose for this war.

Thus Alexander replied to Seelima as such, saying, "Haha, this strike will certainly make the greater devils pause. They might even stop doing anything foolish."

Alexander did not want to give the news of war right after returning and thus made this wordplay.

And Seelima seemed to understand, her eyes turning from anger to curiosity.