Herald of Steel

The delegate did not feel too offended when being thrown out of the city.

He knew such negotiations usually did not conclude with just one meeting and felt that this was just the enemy acting tough to make them lower their price.

‘Hah, I’m sure you will come begging to such to get your men soon,’ The man felt confident, and so responding to Cambyses’s accusation of them breaking their promise and stealing money,

the man replied, “The peace treaty that you signed had no set time limit my lady. Also, we have stolen nothing. You gifted the money to us,” before he returned to his camp.

It seemed like a true politician, the man had little shame.

But the news he bought Perseus did not please the king.

Killing 2,000 men would get him nothing, and each day he stayed there, his army simply ate more and more of his food and got nowhere.

Perseus was truly getting frustrated.

The siege was not meant to last this long.

“There are a lot of people around the surrounding villages. Should we conscript them to do a ladder charge,” Perseus proposed to Leosydas, feeling that was the only way to use the technique- to forcibly use the nearby folks as human meat shields and pass the arrow storm that way.

He had not done so before because Leosydas had asked him not so so as to make Zanzan surrender peacefully.

But since that clearly was not gonna happen now, Perseus was eager to give that move a try.

“There were not a lot of people around the surrounding villages. There are barely any useful men, only old folk.” But Leosydas only shook his head in denial, feeling paltry numbers would not be enough to launch a successful assault.

And so the war council fell into a dilemma about how to proceed.

It was at that moment that suddenly, Perseus’s adjutant burst into the tent with a piece of startling news.

“My lord, our scouts have caught a Zanzan spy loitering around our camp. He says he can get us inside the city! But before that he wants to talk to you,” The man delivered the sky-shattering news.

And given the current situation Perseus was in, this information of course moved him enough to want to meet the man.

“Bring him here,” So Perseus immediately ordered a meeting, as he turned to Leosydas and smiled, “Well, whatever he has to say, there is no harm in listening to it, now is there?”

And Leosydas completely agreed, hence soon after entered a middle-aged man with messy hair who was dressed quite shabbily.

The coat he draped over his body though thick had many patches to it, the black color having faded to reveal a dull grey, as if it had been worn for a very long time and cleaned many, many times over.

His face was long, thin, and wrinkled, the boots covered in snow and mud, and he kept wriggling his hands together to turn them from blue to red.

“Who are you? And what do you want?” And after scanning the man, from his chair, Perseus very commandingly asked.

To which this unknown stranger politely bowed and said, “This here is a lowly slave named Mohshin. My master has sent me to express his sincerest greetings to you, Your Majesty! Long Live the king! Long Live Tibias.”

This amount of boot-licking caught Perseus a bit surprised, as regular Adhanians were not so servile to Tibias.

“Oh? Who is your master then? And what does he want?” Perseus furrowed his eyebrows as came the next natural question.

“….” The thin man did not immediately answer this inquiry.

Instead, he very naturally turned to look at Perseus’s adjutant, and sent him a very knowing look, knowing that he would not be getting to meeting with a nation’s king if the latter did not know about his offer.

But since the king had asked, he again said it out of his own mouth, providing a bit more deal,

“Your Majesty, my master feels you have been facing some difficulties in taking the city. The walls of Zanzan are formidable indeed.”

“As such, he is willing to offer your esteemed self an alternative path into the city…for a small, tiny, insignificant price of course, hehe,” The man here chuckled a dirty smile, revealing his bad, yellowed teeth.

To say Perseus was ‘facing some difficulties’ in the siege was of course a huge understatement.

So any other way of ending it was very tempting.

But then again, this offer sounded even fisher than rotten fish.

“Zanzan…for a small price you say?” Perseus raised his thick eyebrows as he said this in a mocking tone, sneering, “If your master wanted something from me, why didn’t he come? Didn’t have the guts to see me?”

Naturally, Perseus was cautious about this offer.

“My master is cautious about revealing his identity. Surely my lord understands.” But Mohshin reasoned this with Perseus, reassuring, “I swear by the gods Your Grace, the information I bring is without a doubt true. Or may the curse of a thousand generations be upon me.”

It appeared the man was eager to convince the king.

And hearing this, Leosydas decided to intervene, pulling a smirk and pointedly asking, “Then if you have all the information, why do we need your master? Why can’t we make you tell us?”

The man was alluding to torturing the information out.

To which the middle-aged only swallowed his laughter as if not to appear too disrespectful, before slightly bowing and saying, “My lords, I’m but a humble slave. If you so wish to do so, I will be too happy to oblige. I live for your satisfaction.”

The man had not an iota of fear in his voice.

Though immediately after he added this warning,

“But if you did do so, I will not be able to return to my master and he might get anxious enough to notify the relevant authorities of the blind spot, Then all your efforts will be for naught.”

It seemed the other side had come prepared.

“What is the secret? Some hidden passageway? A tunnel? Or an overlooked gap in the wall?” So seeing force was not an option, Perseus attempted to guess the answer.

But Mohshin simply chuckled and shook his head.

“No, no, nothing so simple. It is much, much grander! Grand enough to let your entire army though.” He mysteriously said.

And this last sentence was certainly potent enough to capture Perseus’s attention. ．

‘An opportunity to attack with his entire army. How can I have failed to see such a huge flaw?’ Perseus asked himself incredulously and even started to think the man was pulling his leg.

A gap that could let 35,000 people was no small gap and something people tended to notice immediately.

But that also tickled Perseus’s curiosity.

‘If it is really true,’ Perseus felt his body heat up just at the mere thought of it.

“What is it? Tell me now!” Thus the king let his emotions get the better of him, as he barked this, giving away his eagerness.

“…” Mohshin only smile, because they had not discussed the payment yet.

And this was where Leosydas inserted himself, playing as the cooler heads of the two.

“What does your master want?” He lightly asked, and at this, the traitor turned to give the man a slight smile for asking the right questions.

“My master wished to be made a noble of Tibias for his efforts. And wants Zanzan as his territory!” Came the demand.

And it was indeed a big demand.

Conquering Zanzan had been the dream of all Tibians, and to be able to finally do so only to give its control over to an Adhanian seemed to be preposterous.

And Perseus was just about to rebuke such a demand when suddenly his friend spoke up,

“Fine! If his information proves valuable enough, and we can take the city using it, we will make him a count and give him Zanzan as his fiefdom. Happy?”

Perseus went slightly aghast at his friend’s offer, as this was quite much, and he wondered why he was bending so much to just the initial demand

‘So why is Leosydas beign so impatinet?’ Perseus wondered.

But he did not outright oppose his friend in front of the ‘client’.

So turning to Mohshin, he officially said, “Yes. Just like Lord Leosydas said, if he can get us Zanzan, as the gods as my witness, I swear I will make your master a count of Tibias and bestow Zaznan to him.”

“Now tell us about this hidden passageway!” Perseus repeated again, unable to wait any longer.

And given that he had teased them so much up until now, Mohshin did not keep them waiting any longer and revealed,

“My lords, as you might know, Zanzan is surrounded by three great walls, the north, east, and south. And they are indeed formidable.”

“But the western side is actually open! It is only protected by the Cisran hills.”

“The original rulers of the city, the Muazz family thought that no enemy would be able to scale those peaks and attack the city.”

“And given it is difficult to build walls over hills, they simply did not.”

“But the current lord has built quite good roads there to help with the mining there.”

“So now, it is actually possible to attack from there!”

“So, if Your Grace wants, you can take your army over the hills and flank the enemy.”

“They will never see it coming!”