Herald of Steel

Going to battle outnumbered was never a pleasant feeling.

The simple reason for this was with a larger army, one could form a longer battle line, which would allow them to outflank and envelop the opposing small army from both sides.

This meant that in a traditional battle, the smaller force would be forced to match this extended line, resulting in thinner lines, and more prone to breaking.

Hence, all things equal, usually the one with the larger army won.

Which was also why winning with a smaller army was so celebrated and applauded, both in this timeline and in Alexander’s previous life.

“Can we expect any reinforcements from our allies? Amenheraft is blatantly breaking the treaty,” Heliptos made this request some the third time.

“There will be no reinforcements. We are on our own,” And Alexander again very clearly let this be known as he had stated the reasons before, to the disheartenment of many.

“Well, 40,000 against 50,000 is not too bad. It’s hard, but not impossible,” So Menicus could only make the best of the circumstances, and tried not to sound too pessimistic. .

“That’s right hahaha. The Lord did say previously that Zanzan will always face outnumbering enemies. This is the norm, haha,” And Grahtos joined him, appearing unfazed.

This half-fake, half-real bravado soon infected the whole council, as each of them upped his predecessor with even more absurd claims, until finally it got so ridiculous that Alexander decided to end the meeting, “Well then, we are decided. My lords work hard. Because Gaia willing we will not lose.”

“Yes. By the grace of Gaia.” The reply came in a chorus, and as usual, the council members all left except Theocles.

The archpriest gave a primary rundown of the temple, and the followers gained in recent days, which Alexander nodded to with pleasure, and then followed it up with a gift, which was a few sheets of paper.

“These are the various crimes the nobles in Jabel confessed to committing. Use this to boost the morale of the people in the city. You can also share it with the Ramuh temple,” Alexander gave the short instruction.

And after ending a glancing look at the paper, the smart priest quickly replied, “Yes my lord.” with a bow, his heart extremely pleased.

Using this document, he could easily spin the story into ‘the devils coming back to harm Zanzan’ in his sermons, boosting the people’s will to fight.

Thus in this way, Alexander’s preparation for the war began in full swing.

While in some other place, far far away from Zanzan, a heated meeting was about to take place regarding the same thing.

“*Bam* I will skin that animal myself. I will rape his women, feed them to the dogs, salt….” These choice words were being uttered by no other Psha Muazz, whose flesh seemed to sizzle with anger and hatred, turning from porcelain white to chilly red, as the portly man paced around the room with short, stubby steps.

While the rest of the people in the room had flat, somewhat frustrated looks on their faces as this episode had played itself quite a few times already.

But nevertheless, the events of Jabel had shocked all of them when they first heard of it.

Hence the meeting.

“*Sigh*, to think there would come a day when us nobles would be killed like that in our own territory. Like some dogs! The heavens are not blind, They will not tolerate Ptolomy!” The deep, remorseful voice came from an aged man.

He was Jamider (Earl) Nibbar’s father, and it had been less than five years since the sixty-three-year-old had handed his fief to his apple in his eye, son Nibbar- a capable, wise lord, worthy of carrying on the family name.

That was until two days ago, when, concerned that his son was three days late in making his scheduled contact, the veteran noble sent a scouting party around Jabel, where they finally learned of the disaster that befell their beloved lord.

The scouts had not simply ridden to Jabel at first.

At first they asked around the nearby sparsely populated villages and hamlets about the happenings around Jabel.

And in was there they were promptly informed that a large army had entered the city a few days ago and that afterward, all nearby villages had noticed large, thick plumes of smoke rising from the city across the horizon for several days.

The news of this had made the scouts’ hearts drop.

They were smart people and very well understood what this mostly likely entitled.

Because an unknown army and fire equaled bad things.

For if he was not dead, then a messenger would have surely reached them by now, letting them know of his current state, whether it be injured, or captured and thus demanding a ransom.

But since none of that had happened, only the inevitable option remained.

This news made one hot-blooded man particularly distraught, so much so that hearing this, he even struck the old man telling this, killing him on the spot for the crime of delivering such ‘foul’ news.

But it appeared that such foul news was indeed real.

For when the men entered the abandoned city, the smell of burnt wood, and charred animal and human remains were the first things to greet them, followed by the grotesque sight of corpses sticking out of mangled houses, being feasted upon birds and animals.

The delicious smell attracted small animals such as mice, cats, and dogs, to even large ones such as foxes which gnawed on the cooked bones while crows and vultures poked and extracted the good, soft bits such as the eyes and the brains, laid bare courtesy of the solider who used his sword to crack open the skull.

“These animals killed their own people,” One of the scouts spat out seeing Alexander’s cruelty, disgust for this Pasha of Zanzan sprouting and growing as he assumed all of them killed to be peasants when really they were almost all nobles or related to them in some way.

“I’ve always said these Thesians are barbarians. They did not even bury the dead. Fucking heathens, *pooo*,” And his brothers-in-arms were happy to join him in this act, spitting the bad breathe out.

Burying the dead had great significance in Adhania, not only due to religious reasons but also due to health reasons.

Because, although the Adhanians did not have full knowledge about diseases or what caused them, they did know through experience that burying the dead helped prevent the spread of it.

But, it had to be said that the reason why they believed it so was creative to say the least.

The prevalent germ theory would be discovered much, much in the future, as for now, the people believed that all diseases were caused by supernatural factors.

And so the natural leap forward after this belief was the thought that the spirits of the unburied bodies roamed the earth, restless and unfulfilled, hence spreading plague and misfortune all around.

In this way, an incorrect reasoning still led to a correct method, something similar to how even a broken clock shows the correct times twice.

While the reason behind Alexander not burying the corpses were a few pragmatic ones.

Firstly, it was because most of the corpses had been already half cremated after being burnt, thus reducing the chance of a plague spreading.

Secondly, it was winter and freezing, so rotting would be almost static.

And thirdly, which was also the most important reason, the news of the war had made Alexander want to return to Zanzan as quickly as possible.

This was also the reason the city had been left abandoned.

Originally, the city was supposed to be abuzz with construction and other activities by now, but all those men were being trained in military drills.

The scouts bore first-hand eye-witness to the havoc Alexander bought upon the city, while they made their way through the dilapidated, muddy streets until finally reached the mansion, the source of the greatest atrocity.

And as they approached the burnt barn, “Argggg,” even these seasoned men could not help but hold their noses and step backward at the nauseating, stomach-churning smell.

“*Ugggg*” And one young man even let out his breakfast at the smell and sight of the grotesque mound of flesh, and bones fused together into a small hill, which had started to rot in some places due to the snow which had fallen and then melted around the heated flesh.

“Women! Children! In a barn! Caged! Like animals!” The leader of the scouts said these words one by one, even rage turning to tears.

Not even a hardened man as he could imagine the terror and fear these folks must have felt in their last moments.

How these women must have banged and slammed against the barn door or even the walls, even when the blazing door would have been burning, scalding their fists, and the black air filled the barn.

And this was not to even say about the children, who appeared to be in the center of the hill, as the mothers likely tried to protect their babies for as long as their fleshly earthly bodies could, an ultimately futile attempt in the end.

So just looking at only this, without context, people would find it hard to say that Alexander was any better than the ‘beasts’ he claimed to have killed.

And with these thoughts, this fury and revenge burning like the sun in each of the men’s hearts, they entered the mansion to retrieve their lord’s body.