Herald of Steel

Alexander’s generous time limit caused a booming cheer to erupt from the soldiers as they rapidly dispersed like ants on a hot pan, eager to wreak unimaginable havoc on the ancient beautiful city and its inhabitants.

As the file of soldiers in front of the temple rapidly thinned out, there was a small contingent requested to stay behind by Alexander.

And if one were to look closely the soldiers there were from Alexander’s original group, plus Melodias’s.

Alexander shouted, “Men, I am sure you want to know why I stopped you from having fun, instead forcing you to guard the inner gate and the temple gifts.”

“Ahem,” Alexander cleared the phlegm in his throat and resumed, “That is because this a different kind of mercenary from Nestoras’s or Aristotle’s. A kind of mercenary where there will be no looting or killing of innocents and certainly no ****.”

This was like telling someone who loved starting the day by cracking open a cold one that he had to give up drinking and become sober immediately.

Unless that person had a spiritual rebirth or his liver was dying he was unlikely to even consider it. ｂ𝚍ｎｏ𝚟ｌ.

“*Clatter*, *Hub-hub*” Alexander’s speech instantly and predictably caused a ruckus among the group and many looked confused and even a bit angry.

Alexander keenly noticed this was from mainly the men from Melodias’s group, those who had just joined and hence did not have much loyalty toward Alexander, to begin with.

He was very pleased by the fact that his own men were mostly surprised but remained patient, knowing Alexander never spoke without reason.

Only a few like Pallidus joined Melodias’s men, and Alexander even heard Pallidus personally shouting, “Heh, the brat’s gone mad after one success,” thinking Alexander would not hear it, but he did.

Alexander didn’t let the soldiers hang for long, “All of you have two options to decide from. Option one- you can join the others and take part in the collection of loot and booty, taste the fine things Adhan has to offer, and make general merriment. That is an option.” Alexander repeated.

‘But,’ Everyone used to Alexander’s way of speaking knew the dreaded three-letter word was coming,

“But, you will not be a part of my mercenary group.” Alexander dropped a threat that made many go wide-eyed.

Alexander then quickly moved to reassure the men, “Don’t worry. Don’t worry. This is not a punishment. None of you will be kicked off the army. Only out of my mercenary group. You can still fight and plunder as while we are in Adhan”

“And when you decide to leave the army, all of you will be given the promised ten thousand (10,000) or fifteen thousand (15,000) tustas. Not a single coin will be deducted from your pay as indemnification. And for all of your hard work and loyalty for all these years you will be even given a severance pay of twenty-five thousand (25,000) tustas in addition to your previous reward.”

“Uhhhoohh,” This immediately caused a loud cheer and some of the more impatient and unruly men even detached themselves from the crowd and started running toward the city, not even bothering to listen to Alexander’s second option.

These men had done the math in their heads, and they liked the results.

Each of them would get anywhere from thirty-five thousand (35,000) to forty thousand (40,000) tustas and since a family of four needed around a thousand five hundred tustas a month to live, this meant that these mercenaries would not need to work for two whole years!

And that was enough for them to not even hear what Alexander what to offer in his second option.

These were mainly from Melodias’s group and although Melodias shouted and implored them to just stay a while longer and at least listen to the man who had won this city for them, the men’s heads were only filled with one single thought, ‘If we don’t hurry, all the fair one’s will get used. Hehe, I wonder how much different a noble’s one is different from the regular whores’.’

These beasts could hardly keep it in their pants.

Alexander watched this desertion with a mixture of pleasure and insight.

Pleased that he had identified these disobedient bad eggs and will never have to deal with them and felt insightful because he had learned just how hard it was to control men.

Melodias was very well respected by his men as he had sacrificed so much for them, but even his words fell on deaf ears when such soft and sweet booty lay in front of them.

‘*Sigh*, it is so hard to stop men from committing atrocities.” Alexander inwardly let out a heavy breath.

He then remembered reading a report in his previous life that even after the United States of America had spent tens of billions of dollars on morality and ethics classes to teach its soldiers how to treat the residents of US-occupied territories, there were still many cases of rogue soldiers raping and killing innocent civilians.

And that was in an era of mass surveillance and high degrees of awareness among the people and so these cases were able to be caught.

So how was Alexander going to stop his soldiers from doing such things in an era so backward that they hadn’t still mastered making steel?

Alexander could even see some of his own men, men he had gotten well along with before, men he had thought were loyal, dithering on what to do next.

‘Should we stay with the commander and his new ways or take the money and go? We can easily find another job with any other mercenaries,’ Alexander could almost hear these thoughts forming inside the minds of his men as many started contemplating switching mercenary groups.

And given that most of the mercenaries were in dire need of new recruits right now, these experienced veterans would be taken in with open arms.

So, seeing this, Alexander felt that the original conditions of option two that he had thought up in his mind might be a little too harsh and decided to modify them.

“Now, option two.” Alexander slowly said.

“Option two is you stay here and guard the loot and gates. It’s not glorious and it’s not fun. But in exchange, you will all be given a fixed salary of two thousand tustas regardless of employment or not. But that’s not your biggest perk.”

Alexander then shook his head animatedly, “No, your perk is the fact that you will get to be commanded by me and share in my success. So if you have confidence in me. If you feel like I can lead you to victory, If you feel like that I lead you to greater wealth than thirty-five- forty thousand tustas. And if you think you have the willpower and discipline to control yourselves, then and only then stay.”

“Haha, of course, we will stay with the commander.”

“Leader for life.”

“We are yours to command.”

Thinking Alexander had finished, many mercenaries cheered and started boisterously making big claims.

But Alexander was not finished as he then issued a penalty for breaking the conditions of option two, “And remember, if you stay and still commit such crimes. Then not only you will be discharged with no pay, but you may also then be handed over to the nearest city lord or even the king to be judged and put to death and sold to slavery!”

This threat of death or slavery scared many as many soldiers started having second thoughts again.

Alexander sighed heavily in his heart when he saw some of them, many great fighters, leave to start plundering the city.

But, he did not regret it.

He wanted a clean corp of soldiers absolutely, blindly loyal to him which he planned to use as a kind of seed to grow his new army.

And to make sure this new army grows strong and healthy it was vital that he cut off the bad, rotten parts from the very start, from its inception, so it does not spoil the whole structure and cause it to rot from the inside.

Interestingly, Alexander also noticed Pallidus leave for his group and make towards the city, which made Alexander remember the shout the former gave.

He knew that this scum was never gonna stop scheming against him and Alexander swore in his heart, ‘Heh, you think you can leave this group, Pallidus? Haha, how can you be allowed to get off so easily after everything you put me through?’ while his eyes flashed a chilly blue light few noticed.

‘Who’s he planning to have me kill now?’ Camius was one of the few who did. and lampooned in his heart.

“Commander, every other mercenary and army does it. So, why are you not letting us?” One of the mercenaries who quite looked up to Alexander said with a tone of just indignation, feeling as if his hero had just betrayed him.

Alexander gave a kind smile at the young boy about the same age as him, “Umm, very good question.”

“It’s because what I want are soldiers that follow orders, kill enemies, and take over places with as little destruction as possible so that that place can be used to generate wealth.”.

“What I do not want are soldiers like the ones we faced today. I do not want soldiers who break discipline at the first sight of gold and make them vulnerable to ambushes. I do not want soldiers that burn and raze cities, making it totally useless to both sides.”

“In essence, what I want is a professional army with strict discipline. And those who stay behind will be the pillars of that army.”