Herald of Steel

"Mother! Are we going to give up just like that?"

As Tepin left the chief's hut with an unwilling gait, he asked this with the most bitter tone he could muster.

It was clear not only was he very unsatisfied with how the meeting had ended, but seemed to also reproach his mother for not trying hard enough.

After Atzi had made the proposal to take the entire offered area for themselves, the rest of the neutral nobles almost instantly agreed, voicing their agreement with great alacrity,

"The chief shaman said it right! We Helvati are the biggest and strongest tribe! Why should we bother to ask for help from others? Since they don't wish to help us, we will do it without them, haha… ha."

Atzi only needed to show the barest proof of feasibility for these men to jump blindly at the idea, boisterously supporting their chief.

All because of one thing- Greed!

It was a terrible avarice that could make men lose all their faculties.

"Sigh!" The elderly former shaman of course very well understood this.

Which was why she also understood that arguing with them would have been moot.

But at the end of the day, she also could not fault them too much. The offered bait was too large for these men to ignore.

To give one an idea of the scale of the rewards, the total area the natives had was only around 40, 000 to 50,000 sq. km.

And even then about half of that that was uninhabitable swamps, marshes, and hills inhabited by only a scattered rag tag of the smallest and weakest tribes.

This meant that the roughly half a million natives basically lived in an area half of what was being offered.

How could the men not lose their minds at the thought of being able to control and live in an area twice their entire current holdings?

It was very understandable.

"Greed is a terrible sin, my child…. Terrible sin." Thus towards the accusing facade of her son, the elderly shaman could only chime this while ruefully shaking her head.

It was unknown whether the old man was lamenting the noble's cupidity and lack of foresight for rolling everything on such a risky move or over her own greed for hankering after the throne for so long.

"..." While hearing this, Tepin produced a complex, mixed gaze. Enjoy exclusive adventures from m-v l'e|m,p-y r

The succinct answer clearly conveyed that his mother was content with the decision and had no wish to fight it.

Tepin guessed perhaps this was because deep inside, she too supported the decision in principle, and wished to see her tribe succeed and thrive.

Or perhaps it was because she had become too tired and old to keep up this old feud going.

Whatever the case, this last move by her former pupil seemed to have been the last knockout blow.

However, the young Tepin thought very differently.

He was a man who had decades to live, and simply could not stand by and watch his life hit a dead end just like that.

'No! I am not like my mother. She already has one foot into the grave. I cannot give up! It's not over yet!' Thinking like this, he thus decided to let her mother be and instead seek out his other collaborators, confident that they would surely agree with them. 𝐑ÁŊȯ𝐁Еş

After all, these people had spent enormous amounts of time, money, and material just in these last few weeks to try and trap Metztil.

There was no way they were going to sit by and suck their thumb while all their investment go down the drain just like that.

But when Tepin meet these people the next day, suddenly almost all of them began to sing a very different tune.

Some refused to simply see him outright, feigning other commitments, whereas most of the time until now they would come running like a loyal pet the moment Tepin called.

While other simply advised Tepin to accept reality.

Only one, a high ranking military officer and Tepin's close childhood friend actually chose to listen to what he had to say.

Tepin let off all that he had in his chest the moment he got the chance,

"Tayaca! What Metztil doing is foolish! You know it better than anyone. Raising 20,000 men by ourselves? That's ridiculous! We do not even half as many.

And who will protect the tribe once the army is gone? You already know how our relationship is with the other tribes. Should we come back to a place where our mothers and daughters have been raped and our homes torched to the ground?

Tepin tried to show the military leader the dangers of going on this excursion.

"Last time I heard the chief wanted 10,000 to 15,000 men… not 20,000." However this military officer did not seem to take Tepin's bait of hysterics, and first only calmly corrected this 'wrong'.

He easily detected that Tepin was trying to exaggerate the number to try and spread panic.

Then he continued in that same, neutral, cool voice,

"Also, your fears are nothing but the fantasies of a deranged man. Who is going to attack us when we have such a huge army? Even if we leave our gates wide open without a single guard, a donkey would consider thrice about our brutal retaliation.

Not to mention, at most, we will be within a week's march from here Rest assured, there is no danger of us being harmed."

"....." Tepin only hatefully glared at the calming flash of palm, finding the logical answer too bitter to swallow.

Hence, even though defeated, he refused to give up, and clenched out,

"What you say is only true if our army wins. What if this is all a trap? What if we are surrounded and all killed… perhaps this is all a trap? Those outsiders wish to finally accomplish what they failed to do last time."

"Snort! Then what if it started raining pig tomorrow?" To Tayaca, Tepin's words sounded more like he was cursing them, "Hmmmmp, there is risk in everything!"

So he replied as such with a cold snort as a flash of pure anger glazed over his eyes.

The hidden meaning behind the words was clear- 'We have already taken all these into account. And the potential benefits outweigh the risks."

"....." That was perhaps the last nail in Tepin's coffin.

He understood the game was up.

Metztil had likely gotten to all his supporters and most probably promised them generous rewards in exchange for withdrawing their support for him.

And if that reward came in the form of land, Tepin could hardly blame them for accepting.

Due to the scarcity, the intensity of the struggle for good, arable land among the natives was something that needed to be seen to be believed.

Hell, if Metztil provided him with a big enough plot, even Tepin would be tempted to give up all his mischief.

Tepin produced a dejected sigh at the answer, as his face turned black and bitter, emitting a helpless, forelone aura.

It was as if he had just lost a part of his soul.

Seeing this, Tayaca felt his heart turn a bit soft.

As his old childhood friend he could not help but feel a bit guilty for 'betraying' him like that.

So he tried to smooth some of that ache, speaking in a very sincere, low, self depreciating voice,

"Do not blame me Tepin. You know I would never support Metztil if he had just threatened me or out of mere benefits.

But you should know better than me the state of our tribe. Harvests have been falling each consecutive year and the chief shaman herself has predicted a great drought soon. We need new land. There is no way out for us.

So you tell me…. what should I have done? What use is ruling over a mountain of skeletons?"

Indeed, one of the reasons why the Helvati were willing to interact with Lord Janus in the first place was because of their own difficulties.

The fact was after so many years of farming, the swampy, low grade soil was no longer arable.

The earth was nearing its life cycle and would likely not be able to produce decent crops for a few years while it recovered.

This naturally sent the Helvatis into full panic mood. They might not have understood the science behind this, but they knew the signs from hundreds of years of experience.

That was also why Atzi was able to so easily convince the nobles.

"...." While hearing Tayaca's words, Tepin was at least glad his friend was being frank with him.

Indeed, when he saw his friend turn his back on him, he blamed him for being a turncoat.

But perhaps he would have rather wished the man kept that image.

Because the sound, logical, answer broke the legs of Tepin's anger.

Now it had no legs to stand on.

Thus he did not know how to feel when he heard his friend further console him,

"Don't worry. I will not let anything happen to you. Your father's name still carries a lot of respect in the army. He is still revered as a hero. Metztil will not dare to do anything.... as long as you do not cause toruble."

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