Herald of Steel

841 Lapitus's Tribulations

Lady Felicia left without giving Lapitus a chance to question her, just like Alexander had instructed.

Thus the man was left to deal with this hot potato of an intelligence as he saw fit.

And like Lady Felicia had predicted, over the next several hours, Lapitus agonized endlessly about it, pacing restlessly to and fro in his house as he was torn between his old and new oath.

Until finally lunch time came and Lapitus made the excuse of wanting to see his wife and daughter to visit the mansion.

And once the couple managed to find some time alone, Lapitus whispered pointedly to his wife,

"Why do you want to betray the Pasha?"

When Lapitus was thinking about betraying Alexander, this was the single query that had been haunting the man for the better part of the morning.

"I don't." And Lady Felicia hissed this surprising reply, pointing, "I only do not want the Pasha to win too easily."

"If he keeps on fighting…. Well, then there will be more chances for you to earn honor and glory. And we will be able to get more his favor."

The way to earn honor and glory was of course referring to Lapitus joining the war and winning battles for Alexander.

"..." And to this, Lapitus seemed to have no reply, only putting on a thoughtful face, trying to balance greed with duty

While Lady Felicia went back to being silent, surprisingly adhering to Alexander's instructions

Given her prize was so close, Lady Felicia did not want to give the man any chance to find faults with her.

"........"

And the silence between the couple lasted almost the entire afternoon, as Lapitus left Lady Felicia to rejoin his daughter at the small party without saying yes or no.

And even as evening started to approach, Lapitus gave no answer.

Which at last prompted Lady Felicia to urge, "The aviary will close any moment. If you want to send the information now is the time."

By this point, the woman had a hint of desperation in her voice, for if Lapitus did not send the message, it might cost her her neck.

But Lapitus seemed to want more time, as clenching the pocket where he was carrying the paper he had written the key points on, he gritted his teeth, ".....I need more time to think. I will do it tomorrow."

"..."

This amount of resistance was not something Lady Felicia had expected, as according to her estimate, a bird should have been already flying towards the capital- Parthenigh by now.

So seeing Lapitus's indecision, Lady Felicia finally decided to try and bend some of the instructions Alexander gave, subtly nudging her man by creating a sense of time pressure, "If you gonna do it, do it quickly. We should not delay, lest it becomes too late."

"....." But Lapitus did not bite, only producing a wall of silence as the man turned unusually taciturn, his thoughts to his own.

And so the day passed like that, with both husband and wife being very restless, though for very different purposes.

Following the encroachment of night, Alexander then invited both of them to spend the night in his house, though the couple experienced very little sleep there, particularly Lapitus, who stayed up basically the entire night, various tumultuous thoughts gripping him, as he grappled over the guilt of the things he did, over the guilt of betraying his liege, and over the guilt of the potential decimation of his country right before his eyes.

And what was most difficult for him was that in this quest of his, the main person who started all this- his wife, proved to be of no use, only saying she would support him either anyway and thus he should do what he felt like.

This was a great departure from the usual way Lady Felicia did things, where it was she who was always pushing her man to do everything.

And although Lapitus had disliked it at the time, now that Lady Felicia left everything to him, he found himself grossly longing for Lady Felicia's input.

Dawn cracked for Lapitus with such thoughts, and as if to clear his mind, the tired, insomniac man decided to take a walk around the city even as the sun was waking up, one which brought him to the harbor along his travels.

And there he suddenly spotted a large group of very specially marked boats being filled with supplies, their recipient clear- the army, which was advancing towards the capital.

And seeing this, another piece of Lady Felicia's advice rung inside him- 'If you want to go to the capital, you can take one of the boats. I will think of an excuse to tell the Pasha. Don't worry about it. Go!'

Hence the opportunity right before him proved a tempting sight and Lapitus thought multiple times about slipping into any of those boats using the dense crowd and then confessing all his crimes of Perseus.

He even circled several vessels multiple times but ultimately turned back every single time seemingly unable to make up his mind at the decisive moment.

"Captain! Is that you!" Until suddenly a sharp, youthful voice addressed him, seeming to clearly recognize him.

And suddenly fearing he had caught, the alert man whirled around at the speed of sound in shock, like he had been electrocuted.

Only to find a very young, slim man waving and grinning at him, a sight that brought him a great deal of relief.

It was a face not too familiar to Lapitus, but this was natural, for being a high ranking leader, he had many subordinates who he did not know by face, but conversely, the men knew him.

So the other side recognizing him was not at all surprising.

"Ahh! I thought it was you."

Having confirmed it was indeed Lapitus, the young man then cried out joyously, before saluting and introducing himself, "Ah! I'm a newly promoted officer, sir. My name is Anon. I just got a bit excited seeing you here, sir. Apologies."

"May I help you in any way?"

The man, barely appearing to be in his twenties seemed on his toes to try and accomplish any wish Lapitus might have.

"N...." Lapitus's first thought was to quickly dismiss the man.

But then suddenly stopped himself, like he had thought of something, as turning to the man, he asked, "Actually, I thought we talk a bit. Do you have the time?"

"Of course! Of course!" And the young officers seemed over the moon at the offer.

Even if he did have something to say, he would be foolish to ditch his boss's boss's boss and go to that.

'If I can leave a good impression with him, I will be golden.' This thought was basically plastered onto his face.

And although Lapitus could clearly see the ulterior motive, he did not seem to care, as after a bit of hesitation, Lapitus asked,

"You must have heard it too, right? Of Zanzan's victory against the king? They say an attack on the capital is imminent."

"As a Tibian, what are your thoughts on this? On our great country possibly being no more?"

Yes.

Lapitus was so desperate for advice that he turned to an almost random passerby.

But then again, perhaps it was not so foolish given he was asking for the opinion of the 'people'.

"Ah!" And for the young man, hearing his boss suddenly ask such a grave question made him involuntarily gasp.

For a moment he even seemed unable to understand what he was being asked, as he only stared blankly back.

"Well?"

Seeing the man in a stupor, Lapitus then again posed.

And this finally made the man respond, as he first frankly chuckled,

"Captain, how can I say anything about the actions of kings and lords? Doesn't land belong to the one with the greatest army?"

Anon revealed the prevailing thought of the time, before saying his own two cents, "But if captain wants to know how I personally think, well me and my family have actually been better off under the new pasha."

"Our houses have been rebuilt for free and the money given to us was more than we had in saving before."

"I think many people seem to think that too."

The answer was clear, concise, and radiated flashes of happiness.

"But…. what about your oath? To defend the crown?" However for Lapitus, this was the main point against all other reasons.

It had always been a sore point of his since the day he betrayed the city and produced a constant stream of pain.

"....hehehe" And towards this, after being initially surprised and then even a bit ashamed, Anon scratched his patchy cheeks and chuckled somewhat embarrassedly, "What we have done…. is done, We cannot change that."

"We knew what we were doing but still did it. The ancestors will never forgive us."

The man sounded sullen.

Before suddenly his voice turned high pitched and radiant, as he informed Lapitus with almost a fanatical gaze,

"That's why I decided to switch sides captain. No point in crying over split milk."

"I'm a believer of goddess Gaia now. She has forgiven my previous oaths and let me swear anew one with her!"

"The ancestors' spirits cannot bind me anymore!"

An extra note from Author:

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I will be able to edit a lot of the story because I plan to start posting it on Webnovel around February 2024.

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