Herald of Steel

Alexander would modify the order to move the army from ’at once’ to ’by tomorrow’, courtesy of his officers.

A huge machine like an army needed at least that much time to change course.

It also let the scouts send a better picture of the overall situation and allowed Metztil’s men who were scattered around the countryside to get back to the camp and join the ranks.

Lastly, it gave the men time to discuss strategies and formulate a coherent plan.

It was also here that many of the officers raised the obvious point,

"My lord, we should not lift the siege! Let them run! Isn’t this what we exactly wanted? With the defenders gone, Caira will be ours by tomorrow!"

And indeed this logical rhetoric gained a lot of traction among the gathered man.

While the rebuttal came from Remus, who snarled with a very excited face,

"Fool! What use is taking the city? We are here to beat the Heeat family not conquer cities! As long as they remain, the threat to Lady Miranda will remain. Remember… we left the city for the Heeats just three months ago… so what? Did anything happen?"

Given the amount of pain and suffering the Heeats had caused Remus and the original 5,000, the man was certainly very eager for revenge. He did not want to end the campaign in such a lukewarm, tasteless fashion.

And this same sentiment could be said to be shared by many of his soldiers, as the hot blooded men were always looking for a good fight.

So when their commander heard some of the officers were trying to get in their way, he immediately protested.

Find your adventure at NovelBin.Côm

The accused officers however did not lose any steam and bravely stepped up to the challenge, cooly chimed,

"Taking the city now is very different from back then. We now have the strength to hold it. And even if we want to fight the Heeats, we can do it after taking the city… those are not mutually exclusive. Let us have Lady Miranda enter the city… she will appear like a hero to the people, the great lady who stopped the ’native barbarians and evil Adhanians’ from razing the city to the ground.

We can have her sitting on the MV throne by the end of the day and no one would dare argue!"

As these heavy, prophetic words were uttered, the first to turn his head in surprise and admiration was Alexander, and he could not help but take a good, second look at the young officer.

Clean shaven with short, curly hair, the lingering baby fat on his cheeks and dimples made him appear almost like a kid- in the middle of his teens at best.

It took Alexander a good few seconds to recall his details- the young man, named Shahin was a small noble who had joined Alexander’s army very recently.

His father had died in the Battle of Adhania, where Alexander slaughtered Amenheraft’s forces, leaving the young man as his next heir.

But due to his age, he came very close to being usurped by his elder illegitimate brother.

Luckily Alexander suddenly annexed the surrounding regions of Zanzan, which included his own fief. At that time, the young man cleverly exchanged protection for his position in the military for twenty five years of undying service.

As Alexander refreshed his memory, he could not help but delight in the discovery of this uncut gem.

When he had accepted the offer, he did not think much of it because Shahin’s fief was really too small for him to be worth it.

He only took it because by law the young lad was its rightful inheritor and Alexander did not mind helping him out.

But now seeing how the man thought and spoke, his impression of him very much changed.

He could not help but think how what the young officer said made sense.

Indeed he could bypass the intractable elders using the set of circumstances, nominating Lady Miranda as the head by having the people simply accept her as such. Ŗä₦ꝊᛒЁs̩

Alexander might be even able to have Lady Miranda kill those despicable elders in front of the crowd for ’colluding with the barbarians and bringing this disaster’.

Two birds with one stone as they say.

As Alexander seriously contemplated the possibilities, Remus quickly noticed the looks other neutral officers were pulling and immediately sensed things were going bad for him

"Tsk! Why don’t you just admit you want to loot the city!" He hence cried out in a last ditch attempt to slander the young lad.

"......" But Shahin did not bite.

After being around a few illegitimate brothers who always poked and prodded him to get a reaction so that he would mess up, there was no way he was going to react to such a cheap shot.

But one who did respond was none other than Menes, who felt personally slighted upon seeing one of his officers get attacked in such a malicious way.

Starting in a deep, booming voice, the giant black man growled,

"Remus! You very well Shahin made a very good point. Do not let your personal feelings get in the way of your judgment. If you have any real concerns about what he said… Speak! And we will listen.

But from what I see, we can take the city, and wait for Lord Parker to come to us. Use the walls to our advantage this time."

"Or we can leave a small garrison to go attack him if you really want." The elder Scorpyo added Menes’s idea.

"...." And facing two such prestigious officers, the younger, much less accomplished Remus had little recourse but to admit defeat.

He only shot a whimpering look to Alexander, who had started this idea in the first place.

And in service of the young general’s efforts, Alexander decided to speak up, tracing his chin in a very thoughtful manner and then pronouncing in a cool, calming voice,

"Let us not jump to conclusions right away. We indeed saw many soldiers leave Caira but that does not necessarily mean the walls are undefended. For instance, they could have raised militias from among the citizenry to make up the numbers so taking the walls will be harder than we are all thinking.

Or it could all be a trick for some unknown purpose we don’t know.

Perhaps this is all simply bait to make us attack the walls while they sneak up from the back, catching us in a pincher.

And if we turn around to face them, the defenders might sally out and attack our back. But if we don’t… well."

As Alexander trailed off, all his generals suddenly felt a slight chill run through their back, as they marveled at how their commander thought.

So much so that they subconsciously discarded the next throwaway line Alexander casually uttered, "Of course, it is possible they felt truly left the city and do not intend to return."

Such optimistic thoughts were hardly worth their salt here as if the Heeats truly had no intention to fight, they would have sent peace terms.

So the only logical answer that remained was that Lord Parker was still very much in the end, and was either in the process of gathering reinforcements or formulating a new plan or both.

And given Alexander had no idea which of the three, it was impossible for his officers to make any definite suggestions.

What if they said something and it turned out to be false?

Even if they did not lose the battle because of that, it would still decrease their level of competency in Alexander’s eyes, which meant fewer promotions and less power.

And everyone wanted more power.

While having successfully subdued his generals, Alexander decided to end the meeting there,

"Let us wait till tomorrow before we make a certain decision. It will allow our scouts more time to observe the enemy and see what he does. Metztil’s 5,000 men are also due sometime around the morning. In the meantime, we can start packing."

Then to give skeptics Remus a way out, Alexander also added,

"Also if you want, we can launch a massive attack on the walls right around dawn… to see if the walls have truly been emptied. If it succeeds, then all is good. We will do it as Remus and Lord Shahin said. If it fails, then we will lift the siege and try and find where Lord Parker has set up camp. Agreed?"

Having pleased both parties of the argument, the officers had little to grumble about and left with varying degrees of acceptance.

But even the most reticent ones could not find too many flaws in Alexander’s suggestion.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

For the defenders up on the wall, the crack of dawn opened with perhaps the largest barrage of stone throws of the war.

This was because Alexander had ordered his artillerists to empty the full inventory of their stones and then get ready to pack up.

But he would never get to order the planned large scale ladder rush to accompany the barrage because one of his scouts would quickly come with word that a huge army was spotted heading towards his camp.

So Alexander would instead order his men to form up and march to meet the enemy.

Let us say no to piracy! Don’t take part in a crime! Don’t patronize thieves!

Please come Here!

=>Link to the original site:

/book/herald-of-steel_24388579605084705

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!