Herald of Steel

Kefka was Amenheraft's eyes and ears, seeing what the king could not observe, hearing what the king could not perceive, and then letting the master of the nation know what was going on in the shadows, behind his back and out of the light.

He was a genius spy, able to form a complete picture of the situation from bits and pieces individual spies would feed him and had built an intricate web of relations all over the country and even abroad, using bribes, cohesion, blackmail, and even intimidation to get the information he wanted.

His intelligence web was massive and other than him, no one really knew the true extent of his reach or the total number of people under him.

For example, he was the mastermind behind the Agapios incident twenty years ago, where he was able to organize, infiltrate and smoothly exfiltrate one of the most secure houses in one of the most secure neighborhoods in the world of the time, which was in no way a small feat.

And if Amenheraft had listened to Kefka's intelligence report, the rebellion wouldn't or more accurately couldn't have happened.

But now, with him dead and most of his men either killed or scattered, this precious, almost priceless spy network structure was doomed to shatter into pieces and disappear into the dark recesses of history, with not even leaving a single piece of official document behind to verify its existence.

The spies would soon stop receiving orders, their pay would disappear and the contacts would never meet anyone with matching secret passcodes.

And so these gold mines of information will remain forever untapped and will slowly fade into obscurity, making Amenhearaft if not fully blind, but at least partially so.

But Alexander did not know such things at least yet, instead, he had plans to use Kefka's body to accomplish something and tried seeing if Ptolomy could come up with the same answer as him.

"Your Majesty, I remember hearing of Adhan's famed immortal- loyal, undead soldiers who would die and then again raise from the dead at night," Alexander smiled questioningly at Ptolomy.

"Haha, commander, you don't still believe in children's stories do you? That's only what mothers tell to lull their children of sleep," Ptolomy laughed at Alexander, both because of the outlandish claims made by Alexander and also a bit relieved that this formidable man was not perfect.

'He's still a boy in many ways,' Ptolomy gleefully thought he had found Alexander's weakness- a superstitious nature,

Alexander returned the laugh with a grin and shook his head as he said. "No, no I do not believe such fairy tales. But the people in the city might."

This confused everyone, even Seelima, so Alexander spoon-fed them, "How does this rumor sound, 'The king in his golden armor was slain at the city gates in front of all the soldiers. But the gods decided it not to be so. Hence they revived him like the immortals, and sent him an army so that he can take back the city from the heathens."

Ptolomy and the other five literally went pale white in fright hearing this potentially devastating rumor and the weak-willed king even began to shake and quake in fear.

"That…is there such a rumor?" For the first time now, Alexander could clearly detect fear and panic in the mature woman's voice.

"No,... but if Amenheraft declares this with his army in front of the gates, the Adhanians in my army would likely mutiny. And Amenheraft is only three weeks ago. I don't have the time to drill loyalty to the soldiers for King Ptolomy in such a short time." Alexander pointed out a large gap in their defenses.

"....., then,,,,then we can only pray and hope that he doesn't say it," The Queen mother said in a helpless tone with clenched fists.

'Heh, if prayers and hopes were the 'be all end all' of things, then the world would have been ruled by priests and pastors.' Alexander sneered at the mentality of just giving up after a bit of trying.

His evaluation of the threat the Queen Mother posed also dropped, as an enemy prone to giving up was no real enemy.

Alexander then raised the issue of allies, "Your Majesty, are we to fight alone? Didn't you claim that many nobles supported you? Where are they and their armies in your time of mortal need?"

This was a part that genuinely stumped Alexander, as, if Ptolomy's claims that the nobles were fed up with the king were true, he should at least have a decent-sized army with him.

​ But Ptolomy had zilch.

Ptolomy had an embarrassed look on his face as Alexander hit him in his soft spot and he mumbled almost incoherently, "The nobles that supported me have suffered too much from the drought and are currently unable to provide me with any significant help."

"You mean they ditched you when they determined Amenheraft had regained heaven's favor by defeating us twice." Alexander sneered and tore off any shred of civility.

"Yes, that's part of it. But also because it's really true and more importantly they are scattered all across Adhania and many will have to cross territories of nobles loyal to Amenhearft to reinforce us. And the time they would take is simply too long." This time it seemed Alexander was partly wrong in his assumption as the Queen mother pointed out.

She then quickly accepted her side as the weaker one, trying to spare Ptolomy from further humiliation at the hands of a commoner as she pleaded, "And that's why we have turned to you, commander Alexander."

Alexander for a moment felt a bit awkward as he thought that he had let his bold thinking get the better of him and did not keep his tongue in check.

But this lasted only for an ephemeral moment as he quickly asked, "Then what about that Pasha Farzah?"

He did not believe that man would capitulate too and was eager to know his excuse.

"That... Pasha Farzah's territory is all the way up north and his army is already busy defending it from any potential attack by the neighboring two provinces. Also by this time of the year, the water in his ports starts to freeze so shipping becomes difficult."

He, at last, added, "This is also why we asked Cantagena for help, and then you guys landed at Acme."

The mention of Acme reminded Alexander of something as he asked,

"Oh yea, what was up with Acme? When he landed near it, we fought a small skirmish, and then, as we approached the city, its gates were suddenly opened and we walked right inside it, after which we sacked it." Alexander asked with a raised eyebrow, finding the situation a bit strange in hindsight.

"I don't know much about that thing." Ptolomy shook his head in denial.

"It was all planned by Tibias. I heard the plan was to bride the city guards with food and have a contingent of Tibias spies infiltrate the watchtowers and take control of the gate mechanisms. But, only they can tell you the real details," Ptolomy subtly hinted to Alexander that he was unlikely to know how Acme was sabotaged.

Alexander sighed with heavy regret, as he still didn't understand the strategic significance of sacking that city and wasting valuable time when their true goal was to reinforce Ptolomy as soon as possible.

And it was likely like Ptolomy said, he would probably never know the truth as all the higher-ups of the time- Agapios, Samaras, and Damious were dead, while the lower mercenary leader only knew the order, not the reason.

Perhaps the general let greed blind him, perhaps he needed supplies or perhaps he had simply lost control of the army.

Whatever the case, it resulted in the killing of close to seventy thousand men, women, and children, a massacre Alexander had been forced to be a part of, lest he disobeyed military orders and increased the casualties from seventy thousand to seventy thousand and one.

But Alexander did not let these unpleasant memories bog him down.

He had done those acts under duress, under the threat of steel, and under the threat of death.

He had done what he had to do to survive and if gods really do exist and they find him guilty of trying to survive by murdering innocent people, then so be it.

Alexander would enter hell with his head raised up high.

Alexander snapped himself out of the unpleasant quagmire and then asked Ptolomy about Agrinat, "What about Lady Inayah? Can she provide men?"

Ptolomy again produced the same awkward look and said, "That… I will ask. But Agrinat is a small city of just thirty thousand men. And that was before the drought."

Thus Alexander understood that he was basically alone against the god-king.

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