Herald of Steel

The room that the nobles were being guarded in had many soldiers inside, the bright chandeliers making their weapons and armor evident to all, from the shiny bronze cuirass to the dull shields to the short swords to lastly the crossbows or Instant bows each carried.

And these men seemed there to protect just nine men, all of whom were seemingly in a fluctuating mood.

Some of them paced around the large, central table with brisque, nervous footsteps, their hands clasped together, their head down, eyes darting all about in confusion.

It almost appeared as if they thought that if they looked long enough at the floor, they would be able to read the soon-to-be-sent revelation from god that would tell them how to escape this predicament.

Others did the same thing just sitting, their body occasionally twisting and turning to show their discomfort.

While some had gathered around Maizdy, whose entire face was bloodied supplicating words of comfort to him, as the fat man fumed in rage.

When the soldiers had barged into the room, he was the first one to greet them with the lambasting words, “How dare you swines attack us?” and then attempted to make the soldiers not only leave the mansion but surrender to him.

An endeavor he failed in because Jamider (Earl) Nibbar quickly intervened, saying in a soothing, flattering tone, “Now, now, my lord. Let us be patient. These men are just obeying orders. We need to talk with the Jakqum that orders them to get anything done.”

And this managed to avoid an altercation for that moment.

Though it was an effort rendered quickly futile when altercations did break out after the soldiers declared they were going to body search the nobles and everybody complied except Maizdy.

‘*Sigh*, this is called being in a rock and hard place’ Nibbar said as he sat at the head of the table, thinking how he had to manage both the opposing soldiers and the noble themselves, his mood currently at a nadir.

He also reminisced how the soldiers had moved all the women and children to a nearby barn meant for the horses, and though it was said this was ‘to protect them from all any danger’ meaning preventing suicide and such, the act still gave Nibbar a bad feeling.

‘I can’t rely on these idiots to do anything. I need to talk to that Jak…no Alexander personally to eke out an escape, Even if means temporarily switching sides.’ Nibbar was ready to promise almost anything to Alexander to come out of this alive, even betraying his fellow nobles.

And thus eager to show his willingness, and trying to start the conversation before any of the nobles did something stupid, he jumped out of his seat the moment he saw the young man, almost a boy walk in with his entourage.

“My lord”, He even addressed the approaching Pasha as ‘My lord’ to show his friendliness.

But it was all for naught.

Because even before he could say the word ‘welcome’, his eyes caught a bow-like thing, held horizontally by the boy, and shortly after, he suddenly felt a stinging, warm sensation around his neck which rapidly turned into agonizing pain.

And as his vision darkened and he slumped over the table, lying in his pool of blood, Jamider (Earl) Nibbar still could not believe what was happening to him.

‘Did the bastard shoot me? Was I, a noble shot?’ He thought incredulously as death tightened its grip on him, the reality not sinking in until the very moment the black wings of the angel of death became apparent to him.

“…” And as Alexander lowered his crossbow, the room sounded like it was a tomb. ．𝙘𝙤𝙢

No one, not even the people closest to Alexander had expected this course of events, and they all looked at him with shock and fear.

The soldiers were afraid that they had done something wrong to warrant such a move from their lord.

While the nobles were shocked that one of their own was killed in cold blood just like that.

Even in battles, the moment a noble surrendered, from that second on he would become untouchable.

Which gave rise to the strange phenomenon where many battles in Adhania between nobles would seemingly abruptly stop because one side would all too easily surrender the moment they saw things not going their way.

So, if nobles were protected so well even during battles, the shock that one of them, a Jamider (Earl) at that, was killed without nary a word could be imagined.

They looked at Alexander with first stunned horror, before the realization of the reality made them feel cold with fear until finally it transformed into boiling rage for some.

‘Since we are going to die, then let’s go out fighting,’ Some thought, trying to jump out of their seats

But these martyr-like thoughts were temporarily extinguished by Alexander’s loud, warm greeting,

“Good morning gentlemen. I am glad to see all of you are well.” He paired a kind, gentle smile with the light, jovial greeting, as he sat strode towards the table and sat on a chair after he himself pulled it out.

Alexander had been a bit confused at first about how to greet the nobles.

Saying ‘Goodnight’ did not feel right as it gave a different meaning.

And thus he thought that since it would be morning soon, it would be more appropriate than a good evening.

But the nobles had much more important stuff to consider than whether Alexander’s greeting was appropriate or not.

Like if he intended to kill them all or not?

And so they watched with weary eyes as the heavily armored man took a seat at the opposite end of the large, long table, but not before very prominently and suggestively placing the thing he used to kill Jamider (Earl) Nibbar upon on the table.

This was a clear, naked threat.

While Alexander looked at the frightened nobles and felt smug, happy that he had succeeded in his first step, which was to give himself the impression of being a bit crazy.

And that was also why he had already decided prior that he would kill the first noble to speak up.

To create shock and awe among the nobles

And Jamider (Earl) Nibbar just happened to be the unlucky one.

Because for the last time in his life, this noble would be a bit too over-smart, rather than being just smart.

The nobles were in flux about what to do.

Alexander’s warm smile directed towards them as one of their own lay dead with blood pouring blood out from his throat contrasted each other too much, and none of the nobles dared speak first.

And so Alexander said again, his smile widening to a grin, “I said how are you, my man? Well? Or did my men scare you, hahaha?”

He appeared to be half-deranged, with a few screws loose.

Finally, a while later, understanding that not answering this nut-case might not be the best idea, one of the nobles, felt that he should get up and give a full bow, before greeting,

“Greetings my lord. We are immensely happy to meet you. How can we be of service?”

The tone was gentle and servile.

“Hahaha, well you could have met me at my wedding. It was just a week ago and Jabel’s pretty close. So did you not come?” Alexander seemed to have picked the second sentence of the greeting as the most interesting one.

‘Because you bastard did not invite us,’ All the nobles you heard this swore in their hearts.

But outwardly another noble quickly chirped up,

“Hahaha, yes, yes, it was our mistake. But Your Grace, see, many of us are still recovering from the plague and so could not make the time. Thousand apologies, thousand apologies.” This seemed to a quick-witted one, as others soon followed suit.

“Yes, yes, that’s right. We very much wanted to meet The Lord. But the illnesses… really…ohhh,” One breathed a fake sign of resignation.

“Yes, yes..it is truly a shame on us that Your Grace had to come to meet us. But the plague…ohhh,’ Another involuntarily shivered.

“Hahaha, oh, so that’s it, that’s it. I understand,” Alexander exaggeratedly nodded his head as if buying this excuse.

It appeared that though these men were not leaders, they sure could wag their tongues.

“So, what important has made the lord visit us at this late hour? Is it Tibias?” At last, understanding the situation was safe, Kyamin opened his mouth, probing Alexander and the man that had silently sat beside him, Melodias

“Hahaha, well as you mentioned, since there was so much plague in Jabel, and we have eradicated the plague in our city long ago, we came to see what was wrong,” Alexander gave an improvised joke answer just the nobles had given him stupid excuses.

“*Bang*, Jakqum! Do you know what you doing? Do you not care about the treaty?” It was the noble side the first to crack, more specifically Maizdy, who was no longer able to bear with the farce.

‘Fuuucccckkk,’ While Kyamin internally almost tore his lung out hearing this, as did many of the other nobles.

And if any of them was half as brave as Jamider (Earl) Nibbar they would have shouted a severe scolding, if not landing an outright slap on the fat man.

But they were not.

Which was why they were not called Nibbar.

Instead, they could only look on horrified as the current lord of Zanzan raised that new weapon and pull the trigger.

*Shooo*