Herald of Steel

There was indeed a reason why nobles did not like mercenaries in their territories and vehemently disliked them inside their cities.

It was because these men would almost always be troublemakers.

Not only would they be armed, but with many years of fighting under their belt, they would have a very rough and combative attitude towards any sort of authority, a will forged over many years of combat.

And it would be this defiant mindset that proved especially hard to control for the local city guards, as the veterans of the mercenary group tended to look after these, what they basically considered, peasants in armor.

So when you got a whole crowd of troublemakers, they soon started to pose a great danger to the city and its citizens.

And currently, the men inside the city of Kalimat were certainly paying homage to that reputation, as spurred on by the acts of a few drunken ramblers, others too started to quickly follow suit, wreaking havoc on the town.

Many even cheered while doing this, shouting,

"Ahhhhhh! That's right. This place has nothing. No booze, no food, no whores. These ungrateful wretches are only alive because of us. Let's teach them some gratitude."

The reason why the men were shouting those particular things, and perhaps one of the reasons why it was so easy for these mercenaries to find themselves resorting to such violence was because some of the things these men were saying were indeed true.

Kalimat, this small town of less than 10,000 was utterly incapable of tending to such a huge amount of sudden traffic, so despite the city lord's best effort to try and stock the adequate supplies, due to the short duration of the notice, he was unable to fully prepare.

Hence many of the 3,000 men who were let into the city with the promise of a good time found themselves dry, hungry, and cold without a woman to hold.

And if you have already not paid your men for months, and then promised them adequate merriments to sate them in exchange, what you really do not want to do is then be unable to fulfill that promise.

But unfortunately for Perseus, unbeknownst to him, that was exactly what happened.

The five local taverns were certainly not enough to host the 3,000 men, be it giving them enough drinks or good food, the latter of which was something many of the men had been quite looking forward to as the military rations while on the move was certainly not gentle on the taste buds.

As for the town's two brothels, well they had almost instantly become the exclusive properties of the very top echelons- like Petricuno and the leader of the Kaiser family, leaving the others with nothing to squeeze or taste.

So it took only a spark to get the angry men going, as under a moonless, dark night, the 3,000 men quickly started to do whatever they wanted.

Now, in defense of the king, he did tell the city lord to make preparations for hosting 3,000 men.

But the lazy noble had only done the bare minimum, not paying much attention to the task as he did not think entertaining some lowly mercenaries was worth his time, and upon Perseus's arrival, simply pretended everything was in order as Perseus let the bloodthirsty men in.

The result of which culminated in the current tragedy, as many of these brutes broke into shops to loot it, while others broke into houses and shops to find their own booze.

And there, their eyes naturally drifted toward the gold, jewelry, and coins available around them. But perhaps most of all, they landed on the soft, defenseless women residing in the house.

And they were indeed defenseless despite their husbands being present.

For in front of these strong, fully armed men, and multiple of them at that, there was never anything any single man could have done anyway.

So many such women and girls were tragically shamed, their mournful cries shrouded by the cackle of these mercenaries enjoying themselves.

Almost all the women were forced to pleasure more than one man at a time, their clothes all torn apart.

And many times the mercenaries made them perform in front of husbands, or forced mothers in front of daughters, sisters in front of brothers, and even children in front of their parents.

The tragedy here was immeasurable and even if the affected people lived, they and their families would surely be scared for life.

However, this very thing was indeed unveiling right now, as contrary to anyone's expectation, the city of Kalimat was beginning to be sacked.

Given the size of the commotion, it did not take long for the word to reach Perseus, as the scant few city guards, seeing the extent of the disaster unfolding right before them, knew their limits, and instead of going on a suicide mission to try and stop a vastly outnumbered and out armored foe, instead decided to quickly retreat to the safety of the mansion, thus bringing with them the news of the disaster.

*Bang!*

The leader of the city guards had entered, or more like intruded onto the party with this fierce blast of the door, something that initially drew the ire of many present as they deeply scowled at the unwelcomed intruder.

However that anger quickly turned into stunned surprise upon hearing what was happening just a few hundred meters away from them.

However, the fact that some flashes of gold were already beginning to appear on the horizon that many could see even from the mansion irrevocably led credence to the captain's claim.

Surely that was the work of some overeager pyromaniac setting a house or two on fire.

"Your Majesty! Your Majesty! You must stop them." And seeing this, the first to break down was the city lord, who started to plead with Perseus with a panicked, flushed face.

"......" While Perseus's eyes initially turned very frosty and scary, as he was incensed over the fact that those mercenaries would even begin to try to do such a thing while he was still in the city.

However, the smoldering volcano quickly subsided.

Because the king soon remembered his position and the absolute state of his army.

Given the mercenaries made up more than half his army, Perseus could hardly afford to antagonize these men.

Especially given he had not paid the men.

The dangers of this had always been aware of Perseus, he knew to always pay his soldiers on time.

However right now, it was not like he really had any choice.

The man was desperate.

So even though he would have normally taken drastic actions by ordering the guards to seize these ruffians, right now, getting up from his chair, he turned to the city lord to say,

"Let me go to talk to their leaders. They will surely be able to calm the men down."

This was a much softer approach than the others had anticipated, but since the king had spoken, the others had to obey.

Thus quickly taking his entire entourage through the currently being violated city, Perseus eventually made it to the establishment where the two leaders were staying, the duo's presence taking some time to confirm.

But upon reaching it, what Perseus got was no deferent welcome or even a welcome for that matter, but mostly slurred, slobbering, intangible murmurs- such drunk were even the men stationed outside.

And it took Perseus exercising great patience to not blow his head right then and there, even though his entourage very much wanted to as evidenced by the scowls they were giving.

Instead, keeping his cool, Perseus persevered to meet with Petricuno, but even that meeting did not go according to plan.

When Perseus told the man of the things his men were doing, instead of sobering up, the drunk mercenary only snuggled closer to the two naked women wrapped around his chest, being fully naked himself too, which would have been a very rude gesture in front of anybody, as he then in a slurred speech groggily spat out

"Hah? My men are sacking the city?"

"Let them," He casually dismissed the alarming news like it was nothing, saying, "You stinky king have not paid us for so long. My men deserve it. Didn't you let us do the same to that other city? What's the difference?"

The casual, almost dismissive way that Perseus was being addressed made it very hard for the man to keep his cool even when he was trying his hardest.

But that patience finally burst when the drunk man let slip a thought he had hidden deep inside his heart.

Intoxicated and not even sure where he was, Petricuno, suddenly pointed his finger to Perseus and producing a very sleazy smile, slurred,

"Hehe, I know how you can pay us if you do not have the money, Your Majesty. Hehehe, I remember, seeing your wife. She was quite the beauty. Why don't you lend her to us hahaha…*clank*.....arghhhhh."

The man did not get to finish that sentence as suddenly there was a sharp clank of some type, followed instantly by an agonizing pain bursting out of his chest, following which he widened his eyes to see a solid steel piece sticking out it!

Perseus had struck!

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