Herald of Steel

And then instead of getting into the nitty gritty of who was the aggressor, Alexander or them, Lord Bahram diverted the topic to the thing they were here for.

"Lord Alexander, you must be aware of why we are here. As per the rules of war, we would like to exchange our prisoners for a ransom. Please name your price," He asked, taking charge of the talks.

But Alexander did not seem interested in such an exchange and so only replied in a sharp, angry tone, "Ransom? Why should I accept a ransom? So that you can take your men, rest and recuperate, build up your forces for a later time, and then try again a few years later? Why should I accept such a dumb deal?"

"No, it\'s better that your men stay with me." Alexander said shaking his head, firmly declaring, "The captured men will work as slaves in Zanzan, toiling away to redeem themselves for the crime of wanting to destroy it. There will be no ransom."

"......"

Alexander\'s denial of the norms of the battle shocked the nobles to silence, for battles in Adhania were usually low-casualty affairs, especially when fought between the nobles themselves.

This was evidenced by the existence of various rules designed to encourage talks even just before the start of the battle, how nobles would be protected even during battles, and how it was the norm to exchange prisoners after the conclusion.

Hence, for Alexander to ignore all such rules made them feel alarmed.

Because they saw such a man as not one of them with a conflict of interest, but as an intruder threatening to conquer their lands.

"....Alexander….do you not wish to follow even the slightest bit of modicum of civility in this battle?" Lord Bahram talked slowly while clenching his teeth in rage, feeling like he was talking to a wall.

Such blatant disregard for the basic rules of battle set the man\'s blood on fire, but if Alexander truly refused to ransom the men, then was no little they could do.

"Hmmm, it was you who destroyed the pillar of civility first! It was you killed you Vespay! Not me," Alexx snorted in rage, turning his head to the side in disgust.

He was still very angry with that loss.

"Yes, we killed him. And we would kill him a million times again. And even then it would not have been enough to douse our hatred for what you did in Jabel." Seeing the talks go nowhere, Lord Bahram finally snapped, pointing his finger and hysterically shouting in rage.

The man had had it.

"Whether the destruction of Jabel happened before you plotted to attack me or after, is something you are better aware of than me. So get off your high horse!" Alexander only replied with a cold, chilly tone to the accusation, as his eyes then glowed with hatred over the following words,

"You people ask me for a ransom price. Yet you were the very same people who swore an oath to maintain an armistice of six years. You people swore to not attack me over the time period. And then you people accepted money and goods in exchange for that."

"But you still broke the sacred deal. And now you dare to stand before me and preach to me? What guts!"

"You are a group of liars, cheats, swindlers, and shysters. There will be no ransom deal with your kind." Alexander let his tongue lash out to its fullers, holding nothing back as he brushed his hands in a dismissive manner to show his anger and frustration and to indicate the talks were over.

"Bah! A lowly mongrel, scum of the earth dares call us names. You are not a noble! You will never be a noble! Hmmp, choke on your slaves!" Lord Bahram too was not to be outdone, spewing similar accusations as he turned his horse to leave.

It seemed the talks were over.

But in reality, they were not.

Because though Lord Bahram could afford to walk away, the other, smaller, nobles could not.

One particular example of this was Shordar (Baron) Prantik, who frantically rode to the front of the Jamider (Earl) and quickly addressed, "Pasha Alexander, Lord Bahram does not represent all of us! Some of us are still willing to negotiate."

And then he spread out his palms to say first and foremost, "I will admit that attacking your lordship was a mistake. We broke an oath we should not have. For that, I personally apologize."

Lord Prantik had no problem putting him in the weaker, defensive position as Alexander held all the cards.

And seeing the negations hanging by a thread, the other nobles too decided not to intervene.

Prantik noticed that this admission somewhat softened Alexander, as he then went on to say, "But the reason we had for attacking you was the various unfortunate happenings that occurred around you. Some of which were interpreted by our superiors as breaking the treaty. And hence we were summoned to the cause without knowing the full details."

The man eloquently described the circumstances, dumping all the fault on those with higher peerage than him, and absolving him of all the blame.

This was the one instance his low peerage rank came in handy.

The man then finished by saying, "But now I can see that we were wrong. And so I hope that you will consider the ransom deal, so that other nobles do not similarly misinterpret your intentions and cause a repeat of the unfortunate circumstances."

This Prantik was quite shrewd, managing to weave in an apology and a threat at the same time.

And what was even more dangerous was that he was right.

For if Alexander truly wanted to deny a ransom, it was very much possible similar coalitions would form against him again and again.

Because Amenheraft would use this as a rallying cry to make the Zanzna nobles attack him again and again, saying Alexander did not follow their customs and thus labeling him as a foreigner occupying a part of Adhania.

And though the nobles of Adhania loved to fight against one another, they were also rather protective against any outsiders, for when faced with an external threat, many times they would put their differences aside for the time being and rally together to deal with the intruder.

This was how a nation twice the size of the Roman empire in terms of land area had managed to stay together for two thousand years.

Its rulers, ruling class, and various aristocratic families had come and gone many many times, more times than anyone would care to count, but its people had not changed, as each successive rulering dynasty strongly and bloodily defended against all external threats.

A similar example could be found with the European powers, who tore and fought each other every day of the week but would always ally together to fight against outside invasions, such as the Ottoman invasions into the Balkans.

Or the various Germanic tribes banding together to fight the Romans.

Hence, faced with such an opponent, even if Alexander won this time against Kuleef, next time it might be Ankoot sponsoring the attack, followed by maybe Jahruba. then Abu Hamam, and the list could go on.

Alexander would be foolish to expect that he could win every single one of his battles.

And even if he could, then all his resources would be spent on trying to suppress rebellions and uprisings in his own land, hampering his land\'s growth and development.

Alexander would be prudent to avoid this as he had very acutely felt the extent to which a war could hamper one\'s productivity just in the past two months.

And this was a relatively short war.

"You Adhanian nobles do not see me as your own. And it is likely you never will. So why do say agreeing to this deal will get me peace? It seems to me conflict is inevitable." But even knowing this Alexander put on a tough front, for he did not like being threatened.

And basically told the others that he would be seen as their enemy regardless.

"No, no, Lord Alexander can certainly become one of us. You just need to show you are willing to. All of us are men of our word," Lord Prantik replied quickly, trying to edge Alexander toward a deal.

He had noticed that Alexander was no longer so staunch in his stand.

"...." Alexander gave a strategic pause, as he glared at the thin noble, putting a sort of phycological pressure on him.

"How will you guarantee that the ransom will be followed through? You already broke the treaty once," He then slowly asked, maintaining eye contact with the man the entire time.

He was like a predator, looking down on his prey.

"I will swear by the name of the gods." Came the short, simple answer.

The man was desperate and that promise was as ironclad as one would get when it came to deals during this age.

But it was still not enough for Alexander, who brushed such a solemn promise by saying, "That is not enough. If I give you the men, even if you keep your promise, you will come back after the armistice ends to fight me again. I need something more."

Alexander was basically asking them to become vassals.