Herald of Steel

Chapter 591

It was natural for the ends of escape tunnels to usually lead to ports, rivers, or forests, places from where one could easily hitch a ride such as on a ship or a boat, or hide from pursuing enemies.

And in the case of this tunnel, it was the former, likely designed with the intention of escaping the city by a secret ship or skiff placed nearby the exit.

And as Cambyses made her way outside, she soaked her body in feeling the fresh, cold winter air run through her lungs instead of the stale wind back there, rejoiced in seeing the lit-up sky as dawn approached instead of the pitch darkness save of the dim glow of the torches, and stretched her body in comfort to shake off that claustrophobic feeling of that narrow tunnel.

Even for Cambyses, who could be said on the smaller size, the tunnel had felt quite cramped, never mind how the bulky soldiers in full suits of armor felt.

Perhaps that was why the first few soldiers had run towards the light at first glance.

‘Seriously! If you are gonna make something like that, make it a bit bigger. If it had been Muazz who was escaping, he might not have even been able to use it,’ Thus Cambyses thought to herself recalling the size of the rotund man and comparing his circumference with that of the small tunnel.

Though the reason they had made the tunnel so narrow was due to its long length, as the Muazz family had insisted that it be made very well without any water leaks, which would become harder and harder to do the bigger the tunnel became.

But whatever the reasons were for making the tunnel like it, all in all, Cambyses was very pleased with how everything had turned, for though she had not shown it, deep inside she was always afraid some unexpected problem might occur along the way.

‘Maybe the tunnel will be waterlogged.’

‘Maybe part of the tunnel has collapsed, blocking the way.’

‘Maybe the entrance will be blocked.’

‘Maybe we will get lost or stuck.’

Like Harun, Cambyses too had these fears as they escaped, but knowing they could not go back through the corridor of fire, she tucked them deep, deep below her stoic facade, and putting on a brave front fearlessly charged forward, rolling the die of fate.

And fortunately, that gamble paid off, as Cambyses could see they had emerged unscathed and completely undetected out of a small entrance designed to look like an inconspicuous cave around a remote part of the southern part of the city situated along a beach, though Cambyses would not say exactly which beach it was.

But that loss of direction was of little concern given who they were and the kind of entourage they had.

Just asking anyone in the streets would let them know where the lord’s house was.

“My lady, we are out! Hahaha!”

Basking in the dawn’s light, Harun was the first to congratulate Cambyses on leading them out, with the man then letting out a burst of boisterous laughter, feeling more blessed than he had ever felt.

‘It was a close one!’ The man sighed a breath of relief at his close brush with death.

Though it had to be noted that this was not the first time the man had faced death, as his previous occupation of being a mine supervisor had made him face the grim reaper multiple times, appearing before him in the shapes of landslides, with even one managing to catch him and burying him alive.

Only a miraculous rescue had saved him that day.

But those were during the days when he was a lowly civilian, whereas now he was a full-fledged noble.

Harun had certainly grown to appreciate his life a lot more now, and this event made him all the more aware of the preciousness of it.

While the other two were much more stoic.

With the first thing Menicus even saying, “My lady, do you think it was wise to set the manor on fire?”

“What will you tell Lord Alxx when he gets back? Especially if Lord Menes manages to take it back quickly?”

“Given how well we lit it, there is no way we can put that fire out. It will need to put itself out….after burning everything around it.”

It seemed the old man was still salty with the decision, feeling Cambyses had been too reckless.

“Hopefully the fire will not spread out,” And Grahtos in a low voice muttered this in support, though his quiet octave resembled the strength of his explicit support for Menicus.

He still did not dare oppose Cambyses openly.

To this Cambyses only curved her thin lips in a taunt and after sending a sneer of derision toward Menicus said, “You are still holding on to hope that Menes can rescue the manor? Heh! Are you even sure he is alive?”

Clearly, Cambyses had lost confidence in Menes hence the remarks and the dangerous route she had sent him on.

Cambyses was not done yet though, as after saying this, she then posed,

“Heh! If you are so confident then why didn’t you stay behind and prove it with your life? Why run?”

And this made Menicus blush a bit, as him accompanying them tacitly showed his level of faith towards Menes.

Though he liked to believe the manor could be saved, he was not willing to stake his life on it.

And seeing this Cambyses finally breezily waved her hands, and finished by saying,

“Whatever happens to the manor, I will personally talk to Alex about it. You don’t have to care.”

And with this done, she turned to the soldiers and decisively ordered, “Now, let’s stop wasting time and go to the western district. I have a city to protect!”

At this moment Cambyses looked more of a general than Menes.

As this group was making their way back towards the defenders gathered on the foot of the hill, on the opposing side, standing outside the door to the manor was the king of Tibias- Perseus. ．𝒄𝙤𝙢

And currently, he was in a pretty pleased mood.

For he saw the attacks against the manor were proceeding pretty swimmingly.

There was still a little resistance at the door, but it was of no big concern for he could see it was being worn down pretty quickly.

The wooden door had already been shattered, and his soldiers were now engaged in a melee with the scant defenders holding the door.

Sharp spear thrusts going toward the Zanzan defenders could be seen and the sound of heavy shields bashing against them could be heard, as Perseus’s men tried to dislodge them from their position

And though the defenders tried their best to hold on, given their astounding numerical inferiority, it was hardly a contest, and a breach through there was imminent.

And as if there was a further signal of better things to come, he also saw that his men had finally managed to get the portable ladders they had bought with them set against the walls leading the windows on the second and even third floor, and they had already commenced the climb, smashing them open with axes or hammers before entering the manor through there with almost no opposition.

This oversight had of course happened became Juminus did not get enough time to close off all pathways leading into the manor.

So not only Juminus was being attacked from the front, where he was barely able to hold on, but a part of the enemy was also pouring in from another side, making his defense effectively futile.

“Men upstairs! There are enemies coming from upstairs!”

And this devastating news was delivered by one of the many women Juminus had sent throughout the manor in search of Cambyses, to which Juminus felt like being kicked in the guts.

But Juminus still reacted quickly, turning to his assistant, and ordering,

“Quick! You go hold of the staircases! Form a choke point with the men! Before the enemy can flood downstairs and destroy us in a pincher attack!”

Hence, Juminus hence was forced to deploy his reserve forces to go and guard the mouth of the various stairs and winding corridors instead of using them to reinforce the forces holding doors.

And at this point, Juminus knew the battle, if one could call it that was effectively lost.

Till now, in his heart he had held a bit of hope to be able to defend the manor for a while given they had around a few hundred strong men and the building had been designed with many choke points all around the houses, negating the enemy’s superior numbers and helping them in exactly the situation they were in.

But once he heard the windows were breached, being a resident here he knew very well just how many windows the manor had, and he also knew almost all of them were undefended.

So even a fool could see that it was only a matter of time before they were drowned in a flood of thousand men from all sides.

There was no way to win.

So by this stage, Juminus only hoped to hold the intruders off for as long as possible and kill as many of them as possible.

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