Herald of Steel

Chapter 830 Alexander's Dilemma

In Menes's letter, aside from the details of the battle, the one other thing that he greatly emphasized on was the capture of foreign troops, which also went on to explain how Perseus was able to gather double the estimated force.

In that letter, the general highlighted the finding of many dead bodies bearing telltale signs of armor designs identical to Thesos as well as the capture and confessions of many such men, who all claimed to be from various city states, and were sent here by their rulers to help Perseus defend the homeland of all Thesians.

All those men spoke with very distinct dialects and had unique gestures and clothing that gave irrefutable evidence of their identity.

And as Alexander read this, he found a loophole in this thinking, a possibility that he had not considered.

It had not even entered his mind that wars were not necessarily a two man's game, in fact, it rarely ever was.

But because Alexander mostly fought alone, with only the occasional mercenary support from Pasha Farzah, he had assumed the other side would too. 

That was a mistake and a flaw that was further highlighted upon reading the latter part of the letter, which described how there were also forces belonging to Amenheraft, particularly Matbar (Marquiss) Kyuam in that attack too.

Menes had managed to capture not only trained soldiers but also a few high level officers, who were low tier nobles like Shordars (Barons) and Talukders (Viscounts).

But according to the generals, none of these men agreed to speak anything useful, like why they were here and why they were fighting on the side of Adhania's hated rival.

Even when Menes tried to gaud them by saying things like, "Amenheraft's lackeys have truly fallen far. To be even licking the feet of Tibias. Heh! Aren't you supposed to be proud nobles? Why are you so ashamed of the things you did?" 

They revealed nothing, only repeating the name of their house and lineage and demanding to be treated accordingly. 

"Send word to my family. They will pay the ransom. Till then we demand to be treated as befits our station." 

Seemed to be their standard answer.

And due to their identity, Menes was wary of trying more extreme methods without Alexander's permission.

This news came as a much more unexpected revelation to Alexander and one that made him restless.

He did not know what to do with it.

On one hand, he felt that he should rejoice, as this meant that once he was done with Tibias, rather than keep his army idle, he could use this situation as a caucus belli to attack that Matbar (Marquiss) who was situated to his west.

Alexander would admit he had been eyeing those territories for quite some time now.

And it was not because they were particularly valuable or anything.

Rather, it was because the lands of Matbar (Marquiss) Kyuam were really boxed in from all sides.

To his north was Ptolomy's Adhan, and to his east was Alexander, while his west and south were the ocean.

Meaning if Alexander were to attack, there would be little chance of the man receiving any outside reinforcements, at least by land.

Furthermore, using the presence of these Adhanian troops, Alexander could discredit Perseus, by showing to the people and more importantly the nobles that their king was little more than a puppet serving Amenheraft.

These were the upsides.

As for the downside, it was obvious- the appearance of many more troops that he would have to grind through.

One should never underestimate the number of men even a Matbar (Marquiss) of a huge and populace country like Adhania could summon.

Also, just because Alexander could obtain a caucus belli from this did not he could use it without any worry, for Amenheraft was not necessarily going to simply clap his cheeks and accept Alexander eating a powerful man of his faction.

The self proclaimed king could certainly decide to intervene even at the risk of tearing the treaty.

Thus Alexander wondered, 'Where is Manuk? Why isn't he here yet? Shouldn't he be here by now, meeting with me to discuss these things?'

'Did his boat run into some kind of trouble? But the weather has been pristine and the rivers calm as a lake."

Given the fast boat, Menes said he had given Manuk, it should have taken the man at best three days to reach the city.

Now it has already been a week.

Thus, worried about the delay, Alexander sent out scouts that very day, and within two days they returned with news.

They of course did not find Manuk, but the sharp noses of these hunters aided by locals did manage to sniff out the wreckages of several burnt boats, and a subsequent dive around those areas quickly revealed burnt, eaten by fish corpses, still wearing that telltale Zanzan chainmail, leaving no one in doubt to their identity.

'He killed them? But why?' And upon receiving the report, Alexander wondered so.

He was unable to understand Manuk's rationale for killing some regular, no named grunts.

And the reason for his confusion was because he did not know about the rift that had opened up between Manuk and Perseus.

The result of their thorough break meant that their cooperation had come to a screeching halt, which naturally meant Manuk would not be sending any more soldiers to Tibias.

Hence the smart priest saw no reason to waste his efforts discussing ransoms and prisoner transfer with Alexander.

For there was no need for Matbar (Marquiss) Kyuam's services and thus no need for him to get the man's soldiers back for him.

Diplomatically it was far more advantageous to simply act like these soldiers never existed as this way, Manuk and Amenheraft could clean themselves of all responsibility by simply claiming it all Matbar (Marquiss) Kyuam and his retainers' personal idea, who acted on their own accord.

As for whatever happened to the captured belonging to Matbar (Marquiss) Kyuam, well that was his and Alexander's headache, not Manuk's or Amenheraft's.

Ah, the tragedy of being only a pawn.

But unaware of all this, Alexander spent two whole days swimming in confusion, trying to solve this problem from every angle he could think of.

He even considered the possibility that there might be someone of very special status among ten men and fifteen sailors, being disguised like that and that Manuk's true target was them. 

But he of course came up empty handed.

And then, seeing no solution in sight, ultimately decided to give up, opting to send a messenger bird to Adhan, briefly explaining the situation to the court and asking particularly Pasha Farzah for insight on how to proceed. 

And with that done, he turned to more important things he had to attend to.

Such as the capture of Parthenigh- The capital of Tibias

Alexander had already ordered the capture of the city as soon as Menes felt he was ready, and in the letter, the sturdy man had mentioned that by the time Alexander reads the letter he would be in front of its walls.

And that given Perseus's defeat, as well as the catapults they carried, the walls would not be hard to take.

Hence Menes invited Alexander to set for Parthenigh as early as possible.

And Alexander felt inclined to accept the offer. For it would be of great propaganda value.

And when planning for it, Alexander also decided to take the Tibian nobles here in Thesalie with him, as a way of showing off to them, to cement in their memory of Alexander stepping with their capital and claiming it for himself.

Furthermore that way, Alexander could also show the captured prisoners to them and let 

them decide who they want to follow.

Hence, with an escort of 5,000 soldiers, Alexander decided to take a huge fleet of boats down the River Diannu, expecting to reach the capital within a week at the latest.

But before that, he had to solve one last problem, that one matter about Lapitus and Lady Felicia. 

Gelene had informed him that the working girl had arrived, and so one opportune night, Alexander arranged for a feast with Lapitus and some of his offices, the official reason being that since he was about to depart for the capital, he wanted to have one last party with them, to bond with them and make sure they would properly garrison Thesalie while he was away.

While in reality, Alexander wanted to get Lapitus drunk and then throw him into the hands of the girl Gelene brought and wait to see her do her magic.

This was quite a common practice as lords and army commanders rewarded their subordinates as such.

So Alexander was sure this would not raise any suspicion.

An assumption that actually proved to be wrong as when Lady Felicia first heard of this, she had first urged her husband to not go.

'Say you are sick!' She had whined in a soul stirring way.

But in one of those rare instances, she had failed in her persuasion, for Lapitus pointed out, "If I do not go to that feast and feign sickness, I will no longer be the garrison commander. The pasha will surely choose someone healthier." 

And thus the dice of fate rolled.

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