Herald of Steel

854 Alexander Enters the Capital

"Dammit!"

Seeing the four, no …five dead bodies in the room, as the little boy was yet to be moved too, and feeling the distinct stench that accompanied such a state, Lord Theony found himself cursing under his breath.

Not only did that perfect play he was so looking forward to got completely trashed, he was now left with the unenviable task of having to deal with this mess.

A mess that no doubt threw a wrench into his plan as now undoubtedly he would be the one who would get blamed for this.

'I should have been more careful with my words.' And Lord Theony blamed himself, feeling he had revealed too much of his plan in front of the lady through his words and actions.

"Lock this room up! Nobody is allowed to enter it."

But since the deed had already been done, Lord Theony did not waste time crying over spilled milk but instead went into crisis management mode, turning to the men and further ordering,

"Take the bodies out and quickly bury them in the garden. Make sure to cover their faces when you move them!"

"Then arrange it so that everyone thinks the five are still alive."

"The maids are still to bring them food and sometime later they are to take away the finished dishes."

"Of course, they will not be allowed to enter the room, but you get the idea."

Lord Theony left the details to the men.

"Yes, my lord. The guards at the door will handle them." And the officer leading the men understood what his master wanted.

The guards would take the food, eat it themselves, and then send the cleaned dishes back.

And it worked, as for the time being, none remained the wiser.

It was with such mixed success that Lord Theony managed to gain control of the capital, and over the following days quickly consolidated his hold over it.

A great boon in that endeavor came in the form of the royal seal which Lord Theony had managed to nab for himself, using it liberally to suppress and silence any dissenter and doubters.

When anyone of the royal family wanted to exit their room to meet with others, the seal would come into view denying them.

When a group of nobles wanted to see the Crown Prince, there was the seal.

When some of the officers questioned a few of the suspicious orders given to them by Lord Theony, the seal shut them up.

And even the very questionable decision to open the gates of the capital to let Alexander's army in would be issued by Lord Theony by relying on the seal.

It was like a cure-all for all his problems.

And Lord Theony certainly felt addicted to using it.

Even during his long time as a lord, never had the men obeyed him so unconditionally.

But here, it was like simply hearing the order was from the king made it absolute and unquestionable.

Even though Lord Theony knew just how rewarding it was to be the king long prior to this, it was one thing to know, wholly another thing to experience it for oneself.

And upon actually tasting the power, he would have to say, Lord Theony found the taste so much more delectable than we could have ever imagined.

For a brief moment, he even thought about betraying Alexander.

Killing him so that he could have the country all to himself.

Of course that was only for a moment as such a thing would be impossible even if he were to try.

But along with all the positive strides Lord Theony managed to make for himself, there were also some stumbles along the way.

One such particular hiccup was the scouts he had sent to hunt down Philips coming out empty even after three days of scouring each and every blade of grass along the riverside.

"Look again!"

And every time they would come empty handed, Lord Theony would bark this, before sending even more men to look for the escaped prince.

But of course, the men would fail to detect even a tiny whiff of the man, much to their lord's ire.

And it would only be after a week of relentless hounding that Lord Theony would decide to call off the search.

Another slight trouble was that with the passage of time, the people were starting to get suspicious of many of Lord Theony's claims, with more and more voices raising the want to see concrete proof.

But that did not prove to be too much of an issue, as Menes managed to arrive before any rebellion would foment and when his men entered the city, any and all such efforts were dead even before they could germinate.

The people who were originally suspicious bitterly shook their heads for not having acted sooner, while those who were clueless to that point felt betrayed and heartbroken.

But regardless of their individual thoughts, they all wisely shut up and bent their knee.

"Haha, Lord Menes! It is an honor to finally meet you. Please drink! Drink! I must thank you for sacking the city, haha"

Lord Theony naturally held a great party for Menes and his officers, getting to know many of the military men as he then inquired about Alexander's whereabouts.

And felt much reassured to know that the man was already on a boat and would be joining them soon.

Following the food, Lord Theony naturally arranged for entertainment for Menes and his men, with the general himself being presented with the following lucrative option by Lord Theony, "Lord Menes, in this palace, we have the Queen, her two unmarried daughters, a few princesses (the king's sisters), and a few of prince consorts (the wives of the king's brothers) as well as their children. Which ones would you like to have?"

Lord Theony had of course phrased it like that so that Menes did not have to choose only one.

And hearing such a rich and expensive menu, Menes's heart of course leaped at the thought of ordering the most expensive dish- the Queen and the two princesses.

It was the instinctual thought that came to him even though he knew nothing about them, much less having seen them.

Because frankly, Menes would not have cared even if they were as scary as ghosts, for he did not want to sleep with them because of their beauty but much more so because of their exalted status.

And who knew the next time he would ever get to taste women of such high status?

If ever.

But with much regret in his heart, Menes ultimately refrained.

Because he knew those three were reserved for Alexander.

It would be one thing if Alexander was still back in Thesalie waiting for Menes's report.

The general would have gladly tasted these delicacies then.

But with Alexander literally only days away from reaching the city, he knew he could not do it.

This was not something demanded of him but certainly expected.

So even if Menes thought that Alexander would not either of touch them, Menes knew that claiming them before Alexander got here would be too impolite.

Hence he settled for two of Perseus's sisters, who were married themselves, but who cares about that?

Alexander entered the capital city of Tibias exactly two days after Menes did, and even while he was on the boats, he could see a huge procession of his soldiers dressed fully in blue standing by the river cheering and shouting to greet him.

The large fleet of boats was quickly invited into the city, and as Alexander docked off the harbor, he found his generals as well as Lord Theony personally waiting for him.

"Welcome Conqueror of Tibias! Welcome to Parthenigh- once the capital of Tibias." And Lord Theony greeted Alexander with such grandiose words as he bowed deferentially, before leading him to an ornate carriage.

Alexander found the tour of the capital to be nothing special, being of a very similar layout to Thesalie, with the poorer living near the outer city walls, while the richer neighborhoods resided at the center.

Among the few notable architectures inside the city was first and foremost of course the palace, being of a very similar shape to the one in Thesalie- only much, much, bigger.

Alexander found everything here to be bigger- bigger walkways, bigger courtyards, bigger gardens, bigger buildings with many more rooms, and even bigger pools.

And this was actually quite normal when came to know that the palace Lord Ponticus lived in was actually built by the royal family a few generations ago and modeled after this very building.

Alongside the palace, the next thing of note in the city to Alexander was the main ancestral temple of the Tibians, situated by the banks of the River Diannu.

It was a very large temple, several times bigger than the one in Thesalie, and although much of the layout was very similar, there was one glaring exception.

Right past the front gates, along both sides of the walkway were a large number of ornate black and white obelisks, arranged in an immaculate grid like structure, with intricate frescos etched into them.

Alexander would be told that each of these obelisks represented a hero of Tibias.

In there, Alexander also got to see the huge larger status of Tibias's statue, and his eyes even shone with greed when he saw many parts of it made of pure gold.

And the last notable thing the capital had, something that Thesalie did not- was a large amphitheater for outdoor plays.

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