Herald of Steel



For a while, in between the time Melodias was out 'finding' Theony, Alexander sent out peace feelers to try and gauge Mithriditus's reaction.

He began, "Last time the envoy I met was someone called Leosydas. Would my lord know him?"

"..." And for a moment, Mithriditus was unsure how to answer.

Whether tell him he was dead or lie.

"Of course I know Lord Leosydas. We all do. But unfortunately, he was one of the many martyrs of this war."

Mithriditus decided to tell the truth because he felt there was little point in trying to hide the death of such a huge figure.

A huge, grand funeral for Leosydas would surely be held once they got back to Tibias, and the whole world would naturally know then.

So Mithriditus was frank about it, adding, "*Sigh*, Zanzan is not the only one who has taken losses in this war. We are all victims!"

He seemed genuinely hurt by Leosydas's loss and attempted to use this to show Zanzan was not the only one with grievance and thus tried and muddy the field.

A tactic that backfired spectacularly as Alexander not only did not sympathize with the loss but instead barked,

"Heh! Who told you to attack us in the first place?"

"It's good that that swindler is dead. Serves him right."

Alexander was very keen to make it clear who was the aggressor and who the defender was here.

While Mithriditus hearing Alexander bad-mouth Leosydas produced a frigid aura and clenched his fist.

Clearly, he was offended.

'It seems that man was well-respeced' And noticing so, Alexander noted this.

And he was right.

Leosydas was always seen as a sort of a moderator who tried to balance the wants of the nobility and the royal family, and he generally managed to strike a good balance, keeping both sides happy.

Hence his popularity.

And so hearing his death be so crudely celebrated certainly stung Mithriditus.

"..I would advise you to be a bit more respectful to the dead," Mithriditus chewed the words out through his teeth.

"*Snort*" And Alexander only snorted back.

He had a lot more choice words to say about Leosydas, especially about how he stole tens of millions of ropals from him, but given they were still in the midst of negotiating, Alexander decided to hold back his barbed replies until the terms were concluded.

"We met another negotiator who came to us when the lord was not present. Fat and slimy looking! Where is he?"

While Menicus, true to his mercenary origin was very crude in his description as he posed this.

".....it was His Majesty's decision," And Mithriditus gave a very cardboard cut-out answer, giving the impression that Perseus was dissatisfied with the former's performance and hence sent him.

"I see." Alexander was curt in his reply as he really did not care whether the negotiator was fat or thin, as he then got to the meat of the issue.

"We would like to propose a man-to-man exchange of prisoners. One Zanzan for one Tibian."

"That…." And though this was a perfectly fair deal, Mithriditus seemed to hesitate, because remember he really did not have the authority to make any promises.

So he tried to drag the talks out by saying things like, "How can that be! The ones you captured are mere peasants! While many of the soldiers in our captivity are all veterans!"

Mithriditus had only heard Alexander was a mercenary and made everything up from there.

And even when Alexander tried to clarify this complete hogwash of a claim, Mithriditus remained staunch, displaying an unflinching attitude.

And the same attitude went with trying to sign any kind of peace treaty, where even Alexander's offer of white peace was rejected by Mithriditus who claimed that both of them had lost one battle each and were tied.

So he claimed that there would have to be another decisive battle before any peace deals could be reached.

"I'm really here for Theony. He is His Majesty's adjutant and my liege is quite fond of him," Mithriditus at one point said out loud, which made Alexander joke to himself,

'Why? Does he help warm his bed?'

And though he was wrong in that, he was not too far off.

But whoever Theony slept with was not really Alexander's concern.

Instead, he was more occupied feeling a bit regretful about letting such a prized fish go.

'If only I would have gotten a few more days' Alexander wished for a bit more time to try and pry things out of Theony.

And though the thought of letting Laykash leave and exchange him after a few days was tempting, seeing the man's current condition, weak and thin, Alexander could not find it in his heart to do so.

He owned a lot to Laykash.

And so Alexander continued the talks, trying to come to terms regarding various situations as well as glean extra bits of information from Mithriditus about his country until finally, Mithriditus returned, between the time which the two sides were unable to come to terms with anything, courtesy of Mithriditus of course.

But this bubbling dissatisfaction was suppressed as soon as Melodais entered, accompanied by the man in question, for Theony had arrived in the flesh.

"It seems my lord was right. The guards were indeed wrong about the prisoner," As Meloidas entered with Theony, he tried to make it sound like this was all the guards' fault for making Alexander say the man was dead.

"Mmm, be sure to punish them later," And to save face Alexander replied as such, though he was just saying this, he had no intention of actually following through.

"Uncle!" But this casual theatre was suddenly shattered by Theony's excited cheer, as his eyes turned into gleeful joy seeing the familiar figure.

Mithriditus was not actually his related uncle, but something that Theony had come to address him as such in private due to their frequent interactions and huge age gap.

And now, meeting him in enemy territory, the young man got excited enough to address him as

such reflexively.

He had been fairly certain that he would be exchanged sometime in the future but did not think it would be so soon.

It had been only two days since his capture.

So seeing the king had sent someone as high-ranking as Mithriditus to fetch naturally made Theony ecstatic.

And as Theony was over the moon seeing his uncle, Mithriditus took the time to check him out too.

Theony was dressed in the same armor he had seen his last wearing, the king's luxurious armor, which Melodias had chosen to make him wear, and did not look too beaten up.

There was a bit of ink under the eye, possibly due to sleeplessness, and he sounded a little weak. But given he could walk and talk, Mithriditus was happy

So having gotten what he came here for, Mithriditus immediately got up to hug the young man, exchanging some very short pleasantries with him, before turning to Alexander to say,

"The exchange is complete. Please allow us to return."

Mithriditus could not wait to go back.

"*Wave*"

And Alexander very unceremoniously discharged them with a casual flick of his wrist, in a matter that was very disrespectful.

But Alexander did not care.

He did so because he was very unsatisfied at being unable to come to any sort of conclusion to his war as although the enemy was battered to a virtual pulp, having lost half of its original force, it still seemed ready to fight, refusing to yield.

While in his city sentiments of frustration about the war were growing.

Alexander did not wish to fight with Perseus anymore because his people did not wish to fight with Perseus anymore.

In fact, it was also because of this he was yet to pick up on that attack on the enemy's camp which Cambyses had initiated.

We wished for Perseus to leave without having to spill even more blood.

That and also he was afraid if things got too dire for TIbias, in their desperation they might do something crazy such as killing the 2,500 to 3,000 prisoners they have.

So he tried to use the diplomatic route to get them back, and having failed he was in a foul mood.

However his mood improved significantly over the next few days since Mithriditus was back to give basically everything Alexander wanted.

It seemed that with Theony returning and the trio's urging (Philips, Mithriditus, and Theony) Perseus finally cooled down and began to see things objectively.

Mithriditus also revealed to the king the peace terms he had discussed, and recognizing his position, Perseus at last sued for peace.

So the treaty was:

A white peace lasting for one year.

Neither side being required to pay any war reparations.

No merchant from either country would be persecuted.

And lastly, and perhaps most importantly, an equal number of prisoners were to be exchanged.

Here, Tibias exchanged all of its captives, while Zanzan allowed Mithriditus to choose which of the roughly 3,000 men he would like to free.

And though Tiibas had tried to argue for the remaining 12,000 too, even offering to buy them using the money the Kaiser money had given them or from the pool they had swindled from Alexander, Alexander was adamant about keeping them.

"We need them to rebuild our city. Any ransom can wait till the peace treaty expires." He had said.

And it was with these conditions, the brief but deadly war had finally come to an end.

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