Herald of Steel

The Heeat soldiers instantly recognized the familiar voice coming from the other ship as one of their famous commanders, and quickly straightened their backs, looking alert and well disciplined.

While the Margraves turned their heads to look back at the same tall, muscular man, with an aquiline nose and sharp eyes with great wariness.

For them, Lord Parker’s reinforcements had suddenly turned from a godsend miracle they were all waiting for into something more similar to a deadly curse.

What was the new commander going to do when he learned of how General Achillas was snatched from them, all the green around men wondered with dread and trepidation.

“Commander! It’s a relief you are here! You must punish these scoundrels! They let General Achillas…”

And their fears were not helped by the fact that the moment that commander got within earshot, one of the more eager Heeat officers ran up to instantly reveal all his complaints against the Margrave troops, hoping to both exact some revenge on them as well as save his own skin.

“Shut up! Get back in line!”

It thus came as a great relief to the Margraves when they saw the new commander being in no mood to entertain such talks and barked at the approaching man with a martinet shout.

Instead of lending ears to such banal complaints, the new commander’s main priority now was rescuing all the available men, and so he quickly turned to order his crew, “Rescue all the men from here! Move them to the other available ships! Quickly!”

It seemed the fate of Achillas could wait.

Thus, for the next few while, the newly arrived reinforcements worked not to chase the retreating enemy but to move all the Margraves and Heeat soldiers from around the vicinity to their new, undamaged ships.

So the ones on the rickety ship were extended gangways to better vessels, the ones still alive and floating around in the nearby waters were fished out with ropes, and lastly, the lucky few who were still atop the bridge, having survived its destruction were given a much needed ladder.

“So… now tell what happened?”

And it was only after the rescue was well underway that the new commander bothered to pick his ear up about the happenings of the day, looking to hear the report from both sides.

“Sir, this is what happened. We were on the bridge and….”

The one to begin first was naturally the much more enthusiastic Heeat officer, according to whose version of the story, the Margraves had decided to abandon them when the bridge had begun to collapse, and then threatened to execute them even when they did eventually provide help.

And worst of all of course they had conspired to sell their General to the enemy as a malicious way to hurt the Heeat family.

That last part was strangely true although few actually believed the man, including himself- because in truth the officer was exaggerating the whole thing as a way to put all the blame on the Margraves.

While the Margraves, hearing this pile of lies fumed with great indignation, cursing at how the other side had zero respect for them, both soldier and nobility alike, while trying their best to defend themselves.

Hence, the leading officer vehemently denied all accusations made by the other side as blatant lies and worked to strongly emphasize their efforts to actually rescue as many Heeat soldiers from the falling bridge as possible.

Following this he especially made it a point to accurately claim that it was always the Heeat soldiers who were the aggressors, such as them being the ones to shout phrases such as ‘kill the Margraves and make way for our brothers’ as well as gutting the captain of their ship, and trying to harm Lord Bernard.

As for the loss of Achillas, well, the officer really had no defense for that and so cleverly deflected the blame onto their lord commander, who till now was so conveniently unconscious.

And given the current circumstances, perhaps getting stabbed was the best thing for him, because it allowed Lord Bernard to skip all the treacherous questioning, leaving it all for later.

Instead, his injuries actually allowed the Margraves to get a strong position in the negotiations as they could easily point to the hit on the noble as a point of contention, blunting all accusations thrown at them using this one instance.

After all, hurting an allied noble was an extremely big taboo, never mind when it was done so blatantly in front of all.

“……” The new Heeat commander heard both sides of the story from start to finish with a stoney countenance, his facade betraying not an ounce of emotion except the occasion furrowing of the brows, although the inside of his heart groaned with extreme irritation.

He could easily see how both sides were at fault here, the Heeat soldiers for blatantly attacking the other side and the Margraves for losing Achillas, no matter what the reason may be.

However, these breaches were so large and endemic that the commander found there was no way he could prosecute them on his own. He simply lacked the status and authority.

So the clever man decided to shelve the problem for now, intending to dump it on Lord Parker to deal with later on.

Hence imperiously flashing both his hands, he placated the two feuding factions for now,

“I understand both your grievances. Rest assured, fair justice will be met out to all once we return to camp. Lord Parker is a just and honorable man. He will never discriminate based on his allegiance.”

The last sentence was naturally geared towards the Margraves who the commander accurately sensed as being wary of meeting Lord Parker, being plagued by the burden of having lost this general cum lover.

Hence his words, empty as they may be, at least worked to relieve some of the tension. Although it was unknown how impartial Lord Parker would really be after learning of Achillas’s loss, they could hope, couldn’t they?

Then to further soothe the frayed Margraves, the Heeat commander sought to even punish the man responsible for the attack on Lord Bernard.

“Where is the one who attacked Lord Bernard?” He had posed in an officious tone, swerving his head around to spot the culprit.

And soon his eyes landed on a tall, rough looking man stepping forward, head hung low as if he was trying to appear demure and small.

The madness and bloodlust of battle that had gripped him only some time ago was nowhere to be seen now, instead, his countenance was only of a very tame and calm man, servile and obedient.

It was a facade that was produced instinctively by the body as the Heeat soldier knew there was little point in trying to hide given the number of witnesses who had seen him commit the act.

So he felt it would be better for his defense if he simply confessed, as it gave him a better chance to defend himself.

“Sir! I had no idea he was a lord! We were all blinded in the sheer fray of melee and it just… accidentally…..”

The man should have really just held his tongue and prayed for his imminent journey to the afterlife because the Heeat commander had already proclaimed the man as dead the moment he heard Lord Bernard had been attacked.

No one attacked a friendly noble and got away with it, no matter what.

“Slit his throat and dump him into the sea.”

Thus the man was not even allowed to finish his defense as he heard his death sentence being read out to him in such a cold, almost callous voice, the commander not even bothering to take the man’s words as anything tangible.

The only thing that mattered was his act, and everything else was dismissed as a meaningless jumble.

“Mmmmmmmm!!!”

Hence, immediately after the decree, the man was violently grabbed in the limbs and mouth by all the troops around him, by the very men who he had called him brothers just a few moments ago, and was then violently and cruelly executed exactly as per their commander’s instruction, before being dumped overboard.

The speed and tractability with which all this was done really went to demonstrate the power a noble carried- as even while unconscious, Lord Bernard’s attacker was dealt with without even a single urging from him.

The Heeat commander issued the order like it was the most natural thing to do, while the troops also carried it out one, because they too believed in it, and two because they did not want to get implicated in their foolish colleague’s folly.

Perhaps Lord Bernard’s confidence in that he was untouchable was not that misplaced after all. Because if you were brought up in such an environment since childhood, where everyone is afraid of you, of course, you would get very arrogant.

It was fortunate that his arrogance had not cost the man his life this time. Because although the wound was deep, the onboard physician determined that the blade had not luckily hit any major artery, but only pierced the stomach.

A good few bedrest would be enough to let the man recover.

As for his counterpart Achillas, well the man was not so lucky.

Let us say no to piracy! Don’t take part in a crime! Don’t patronize thieves!

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