Herald of Steel

General Achillas's heart had skipped a gigantic beat when first heard the words- 'You will go.'

"Wha…" as he could not help but quickly blurt out so.

But Lord Parker never gave the general a sliver of a chance to even start the sentence, as he quickly went on to describe how Achillas was supposed to do it.

"...." Hearing this the general for a brief moment became shell shocked.

'How am I supposed to negotiate? What do I know about making deals?' He thought to himself incredulous;y, and then began to look at Lord Parker as if he asking whether all the screws in him were still there.

And while Lord Parker certainly detected the weird look, and it was not something he did not at all appreciate, he did not bother to defend himself.

He was the lord here, and whatever he said, whether it made sense or not, or whether Achillas liked it or not, it did not matter, the general was required to follow it regardless.

He had sworn to according to his oath.

Thus as Achillas continued to look at Lord Parker with a shocked gaze, the man returned the favor with a calm, determined look.

"...."

So for a while, the entire room entered into an uncomfortable silence, as the two men kept staring at each other, both unwilling to give in as that would reveal weakness in their stead.

Until Achillas finally broke.

Now he did not break because he was unable to keep up the stare any longer.

But because he understood his lord was truly determined this time.

And so to keep playing this game as his retainer would be far too rude.

Thus knowing his limits, the general prudently decided to back down, giving the victory to Lord Parker.

Before verbally agreeing to it while flashing his palms, "Okay, okay, I will go. But know that I know how to only fight with swords. The fight with the quill is more of your thing, milord. I am not good that at."

And Achillas was not being humble when he said he was not good at talking.

On the contrary, he was being generous when he said just that.

Because in reality, he was not just bad with the quill., he was utterly incompetent with the pen, for he was an illiterate.

The reason for this was because Achillas was not a noble, but the son of a blacksmith who had caught one day the eye of the current Duke Heeat by a great stroke of luck.

The opportunity had allowed him to somehow join the army as an officer, and from there, using his own merit, as well as a bit of laying in bed with the right people at the right time, he swiftly rose through the ranks, until he earned enough trust of the family's lord to become the guardian of the family's young maser.

Whom he of course had previously bedded too.

In fact, this was one of the reasons why he managed to get the job in the first place, eking out the victory against so many other worthy candidates.

And this relationship had continued up until now, although somewhere along the way, this transactional feeling seemed to have developed into true love, at least for Achillas.

Anyway, Achillas's low upbringing meant that he had really gotten the chance to develop his literary skills, and by the time he was offered this opportunity, the fertile time had already passed.

Achillas had become too busy with all his various other duties and perhaps much more importantly, lost interest.

Thus instead, he now depended on his right hand man to take care of all the administrative affairs.

So it would be that man who would do all the heavy work, writing reports and making plans, while all Achillas would have to do is put his seal on the papyrus or parchment or paper using the large signet ring on his left hand.

Also, as a side note, this adjutant was also one of Achillas's 'lovers', one among many with whom Achillas had slept to advance his career, and one who now got a share of the general's bed when Lord Parker was not available, this time as a way to advance his own career.

Oh, how the tables turn.

Now, all this meant that Achillas was not the most eloquent man, and due to his illiteracy, neither did he know about the intricacies of the Heeat family to know what deal would be acceptable to the family and what were the deal breakers.

And while Lord Parker might surely be able to teach the man the basics with a few days of intense crash course studying, at that point, it might be easier to just send a man who really knew his stuff.

Thus Achillas frankly revealed that he could not be able to act as a good delegate even if he were to be sent there.

"That is fine!" Lord Parker however did not seem to care, as brusquely waving his hand around, he declared, "You will be there as to negotiate in name only. So do not accept any offer or make one. Just simply say that you are there to hear what the other side has to say and relay the information back to me. These negotiations all usually go like this, with several back and forths, as each party gathers information about the other and… haggles."

"So you do not need to feel too pressured on what you will say."

Firstly reassuring Achillas like this so that the general did not panic inside the enemy's den, Lord Parker then turned his voice didactic, as flicking his index finger, he instructed,

"Thus your main job instead will be to find a way to meet with Linda. Say whatever you need to Alexander to do that. You can try saying something like that you want to meet her and Quentin on my behalf, in order to confirm they have not been harmed in any way."

"Or that you want to consult her on what the Margraves family thinks might be an acceptable deal with Alexander. Make up something believable, " the ducal lord urged.

And then finished the speech with a slanted glance and a cunning smirk on his thick lips,

"Of course, if you do not think you are capable, I can always select Lord Bernard. In fact, now that I think about it, he should prove to be a much better candidate. After all, he is familiar with everyone in the family. Sending a known face is a time tested technique. Hmmm… maybe…"

"No!"

The momentLord Parker showed the slightest hint of thinking of replacing Achillas with LB, the jealous general almost shouted the deep objection.

There was no way he was going to let that flashy punk take his thunder.

Sure, Achillas had been feeling quite a bit of trepidation about swaggering into the enemy's headquarters 'naked', as he had never done this before, so all kinds of dangerous what ifs had swirled in his mind.

Such as- what if Alexander killed him? Or captured him? Or tortured him for information? Or did any other thousand different things, many of which Achillas was himself guilty of doing at some point in his life.

Even when the messenger had 'divine' protection, thus making the man suddenly become fearful of the rumored wrath of the gods.

Achillas could not help it even though he knew these were very different circumstances, and it was very, very unlikely that Alexander would do such things to him, if for nothing but the objection from the Margraves family.

However, Achillas's imagination still ran wild.

And as various bloody scenes flashed in his mind, for some time, Achillas was having some very strong second thoughts about visiting the mansion, even though his lord had urged him to contribute.

However, the mere mention of that hateful Bernard was enough to blow away all such hesitations away.

Achillas would be even willing to walk bare footed through a bed of coal if it meant thwarting that man.

And so suddenly, Alexander's threat of capture and torture did not seem too bad.

Thus, quickly putting a stop to Lord Parker's 'brash' move, Achillas turned his head to flash an oily smile,

"Lord Bernard is not from our family my lord. So how can it be appropriate to have him represent us? Surely Alexander would scoff."

Assuming so, the well built man then began to heavily shake his head, before pointedly stating,

"No… it has to be someone from the Heeat family, and a high level one at that. Only then we can fool him into thinking that he was truly serious about the talks. And are not only trying to bluff with some kind of other agenda in mind."

Even Lord Parker was surprised by the eloquence on display here.

It seemed that when it came to his benefits, the general was quite the smooth talker.

As further evidenced by the fact he was not yet finished but continued,

"Not to mention without me, Lady Linda might not even believe the message was from you, my lord. Surely she is unaware of your…. 'close relationship' with Lord Bernard," Achillas made to get this last jibe in, as he ended with the declaration, "So it best be me."

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