Herald of Steel

Alexander held massive feasts the following three days, as he entertained himself and the four nobles, stuffing themselves with various types of meat cooked in many different ways- stewed, smoked barbequed, etc, many cuts of fish which were boiled, steamed, grilled, and seasonal vegetables sauteed in butter.

But the star of the show was definitely the dessert dishes, which included a few types of cakes, some pastries, and puddings.

“My lord, this is amazing! How much of this sugar can we buy?”

One of the nobles even forgot the etiquette about not talking about business during such formal fests, as he got distracted by the creamy, sweet delights,

For someone who had never tasted sugar, this new sensation was truly irresistible.

While Alexander and the city as a whole relaxed for a few days, the two other sides were really in the completely opposite side of the spectrum- one enjoying grief, the other side surprise and a bit of dread for not helping on time.

Firstly, there was Pasha Djose, and by extension Amenheraft’s side, who were completely shell-shocked by the news of the loss.

They had never considered the possibility of a loss, much less a crushing one like this.

For them, the worst outcome would be if Alexander was somehow able to outlast in a siege.

And even if that had happened, then they had planned to destroy the countryside, plundering the about-to-ripen spring harvest and leave the usurper destitute.

But they failed to do even this, caused by poor morale, the possibility of taking further losses by Alexander’s skirmishers if they went out of the safety of their camp, and the delay of the initial start of the invasion, which made many nobles want to return to their fiefdom as soon as possible.

Thus instead of inflicting heavy losses on Alexander, it was them that suffered crippling blows, losing 20,000 of their troops as killed or captured, with a few further thousand injured.

Furthermore, the famed Jahal mercenaries had lost more men in a single battle than in any other battle in their whole illustrious history, and which even included their legendary commander, while there was the destruction of Matbar (Marquiss) Uzak’s elite units, that had effectively rendered him unable to undertake a similar kind of attack for at least a few years.

Then there was the loss of an illustrious Jamider (Earl) house, which had the former, the current, and new head of the house killed and the entirety of its military strength destroyed- 3,000 chariots, 6,000 men, and 6,000 horses.

This type of loss would be grievous even to Amenheraft at his prime as the king, not to mention a relatively small house.

Thus it was almost given that this house would be unable to affect Adhnaia’s politics for decades to come, if at all, as it was very much possible the house would cease to exist due to infighting between the next line of succession at risk, which were now not at all clear, or by the outright annexation by nearby nobles.

The latter would be possible due to the current weak state of the royal authority, providing the opportunistic people the sweet ability to annex these weak, defenseless, delicious territories without much backlash.

An opportunity many would be foolish to not capitalize on.

But all these mishappenings, all these deaths and losses, were not the worst of it.

No, that would the loss of prestige and credibility dealt to Amenheraft’s camp.

Amenheraft had gone from the invincible god king incapable of losing battles to losing three consecutive ones, all to the same person nonetheless, and it greatly hurt morale and confidence on his side.

He had already lost a large base in the battle to retake Adhan, and now with even more losses, Amenheraft lost enough staunch allies that many were starting to see him as unreliable, and not the encompassing juggernaut he portrayed himself as.

Hence the previous phenomenon where factions were slowly budding in his court finally cemented itself, each led by a strongman who wanted to do things their way and supported by a group who sought them as protectors to take shelter under.

Thus it seemed that soon Ptolomy would not be the only rival to Amenheraft, but a few more hopeful candidates would add their names to the draw, the two most probable were his two other brothers.

As mentioned previously, though Amenehraft had a lot of step-brothers, other than Ptolomy and Djose, only two others possessed any real power to oppose him.

These men, one a very accomplished military veteran, the other a renowned scholar, and politician, through marriage basically controlled their wife’s respective Matbar (Marquiss) families, courtesy of the former king’s machinations.

And though they had stayed neutral up until now, it was certainly possible they would choose to join the fray now sensing Amenheraft’s weakness.

For even if they had no desire to fight for the throne, the underlings under them might want them to, in order to acquire more opportunities for themselves.

In fact, there was already a shadow war going on between Amenheraft and Ptolomy regarding this, the latter trying to break up Amenheraft’s power base using monetary, military, and political rhetoric.

‘What kind of a god is so broke that he cannot pay bereavement payment?’

‘What kind of a god loses having such overwhelming numbers?’

‘What kind of god breaks treaties?’

Ptolomy had sent these messages following Alexander’s victory, portraying Amenheraft as someone abandoned by the gods, and setting himself up as the rightful king.

And like before, he proposed another round of monetary rewards for those who defect, while rescinding all rewards from those nobles responsible for the attack.

And this time, the response to Ptolomy’s call was much more resounding than the previous time, as many noble houses flipped bolstered by Alexander’s win.

While the man himself, Amenheraft certainly aware of all this felt as if the ground under his being slowly dug out.

But there was little he could do aside from reassuring his allies.

‘Darn those bows,’ Amenheraft would constantly murmur this, even in his sleep, to the point his wife one day even ask him what he was talking about.

Amenheraft of course was referring to the crossbow, and his mind constantly recalled the recount of the battle and how it was said that it was those bows that had managed to pin the mercenaries, their trump card.

And knowing that if they were unable to find a counter to that new weapon, future fights would be very difficult, came the worrisome murmur. 𝐨𝘃𝗹.

While Amenheraft racked his brains over the challenges posed from multiple fronts, Ptolomy too faced challenges of his own.

Particularly placating his victorious general.

While the king was ecstatic that his ally had won such a huge victory, evidenced by how he even declared a three day feast when he first heard the good news, still, even the somewhat slow king understood Alexander was angry as the latter had yet to send any letter about his victory.

In fact, there was no official information from Alexander’s side regarding the situation, with the only communique being between Adhan and Seelima.

And though Ptolomy would have felt slighted before, the Queen mother had strictly ordered him to appear cordial in front of Alexander.

‘Someone who can beat the Jahal mercenaries head-on is not someone we can afford to lose now. We need a general like that,’ She had written to Ptolomy.

“Farzah, you go to Zanzan and meet with Alexander. Show him our sincerity,” Hence Ptolomy ordered.

And Pasha Farzah, being also interested to know about the details of the battle, accepted.

“Haha, who knew that brat was such as good commander?” He chuckled heartily.

He was really in a good mood knowing his promising ally was safe.

This shrewd politician had also coasted on Alexander’s success to strengthen his factions quite a bit, as it was he who put Alexander on a pedestal of magnificence and paraded him as Amenheraft’s kryptonite, showcasing his military prowess.

Not to mention how he had also taken advantage of Djose’s attack to expand Ptolomy’s control around Adhan.

‘Surrender, or be charged with treason,’ This was the choice many nobles living close to Adhan who were loyal to Amenheraft had found themselves, as Pasha Farzah’s son led a huge army to attack these virtually defenseless towns and cities.

And even when these nobles sent for help, Amenheraft ignored them, as he had no real troops under him to come to their rescue, and he knew this was Ptolomy’s way of retaliation.

“My men will soon come to your rescue. Hold on,” Amenheraft had hence replied with this kind of vague promise, really intending to liberate these settlements once he won the battle.

But given that he lost, these nobles obediently flipped, with most even coughing up the ropals they were paid.

Thus Ptolomy’s control had expanded a few times following Alexander’s win.

Pasha Farzah had also been informed by Mikaya about Alexander’s displeasure at not getting his goods in time, and the man could only let out a wry smile.

But he did not regret it, as back then he had taken that precaution thinking it was the best, based on the then circumstances.

“Well, guess, I will have to give him a discount,” He casually shrugged, as this was not his first time dealing with such circumstances.

Delaying or stooping deliveries to allies or enemies depending on how the future develops was a tactic as old as time.

And he was sure if Alexander was in his place, he would have done the same.

Thus, with these thoughts, the old man set about organizing a ‘congratulatory gift basket’ for his much younger peer.