Herald of Steel

"Lord Parker! We might have followed you here because of your family name…. but now… we are going on ahead with or without you."

The one to make this gruff, assertive statement was none other than the aged noble who had his family tortured at the hands of the Helvati, leading a delegation of Margrave's officers and nobles into Lord Parker's tent that was set up on a hill. Enjoy new tales from M V L

It was currently approaching dusk on the very day they had left Caira and already cracks were beginning to appear between the two allies.

The Heeats were dissatisfied with how the Margraves had 'driven them out' of the city, while the Margraves were very angry at how the Heeats were still refusing to join them against their hated enemy.

After what Metztil's men had done, most of them wanted blood.

Judging by the delegation's flushed faces and sharp eyes, they could not wait to draw it.

"I have already told you… that it will be better if Alexander comes to us, my lords. Look at this hill! So defensible!

Let us wait a few days… if the northern barbarians really do as you predicted, then Alexander will be like a bird whose wings have been clipped! It will not be too late to slaughter him then."

Facing the large entourage, Lord Parker uttered these sentences with gritted teeth, each of the words possessing a very clear undertone of frustration and suppressed anger, as if he was very annoyed at having to deal with them.

He had been through the same thing quite a few times before.

In fact, the Margraves had followed him here because he had urged them using such excuses, asking them not to give Alexander battle right then and there.

Lord Parker had correctly feared that Alexander would not give up just seeing the Margraves approach him and seeing that, the overconfident Margraves would suddenly lose morale.

Hence, a much better option in his opinion was thus to camp on this hill and use the terrain to defend.

"We don't care one bit about Alexander. He is your problem… not ours! We want those barbarians. The worst thing that can happen to us is if they escape. We want to surround and 'slaughter' them… not Alexander!'

The Margraves noble's attitude however clearly revealed that while planning his strategy, Lord Parker had forgotten, or at least severely underestimated their rage.

It was so much in fact that even when he offered the full resources of the ducal family to help the Margraves get their revenge on the natives, only asking in return to be just patient and deal with Alexander first, the nobles still refused.

According to them, once the Helvati ran back to their swampy homeland, it would be very hard for any expedition to do any meaningful damage to them.

"We have already tried this many times, burning their dwellings and taking many slaves. But they always run into the hilly woods and use guerilla tactics to hound us. Unless we commit to a multi year campaign, once they run, we will never be able to catch the true culprits." They repeated.

Even Miss Linda added her voice to the fray, the lady having chosen to accompany the marching army instead of staying in that empty city all by herself, feeling much safer in the midst of tens of thousands of troops rather than amidst a paltry force of a few thousand green recruits that were under the relentless bombardment by a very determined enemy.

Urging her husband to also follow suit, she wanted the Heeats to fight alongside her family and show them his support, claiming this would help smooth out much of the earlier acrimony.

But that request was flatly and utterly refused.

Perhaps it might have worked if Lord Parker was not absolutely furious with Miss Linda over her many schemes and antics, but now, he had been fully bought in by Lord Kite's plan.

Lord Parker had no incentive to leave his advantageous position, at least until he got his reinforcements.

As for the probability of Alexander taking Caira in the meantime… well Lord Parker did not mind.

He could siege and starve Alexander out of submission.

After all, he and his family had the willpower and resources to stay permanently on this island for as long as it was necessary. But Alexander could not.

And as long as his army remained intact, he would always remain a thorn for Alexander.

If things looked really dire, he would not even mind asking the nearby Strauss family for help, destroying both Alexander and the Margraves and creating a new order on the island.

All these contingencies were already within his expectations.

Hence unable to reach a consensus, the Margraves decided to march towards Caira by themselves, while Lord Parker and his wife who he put under house arrest watched on from the top.

"Lord Pasha, the enemy seems to be around 15,000 strong… all of them infantry. They should be here within a few hours."

The report from his forward scout somewhat surprised Alexander because neither the number nor the composition fit what he knew.

It should have been at least 20,000 or even more if levies were raised from the citizenry, along with 2,000 to 3,000 cavalry.

"So less? Are you sure?" Hence, he could not help but ask for confirmation.

"Yes. My men double checked. And the enemy is really not trying to hide his movements."

The scout leader too had found the number suspicious as he was the one who had calculated the initial Heeat numbers.

So this time, he had them verified before bringing them to Alexander.

From what they could currently see, the enemy really had those numbers.

"Hahaha, looks like some of those cowards ran even before the fight! Heh! As expected of that craven family!"

The one to let out this boisterous laughter from Alexander's side was other than Metztil, who had come here to discuss some last minute deployment details with the pasha.

And after his translator helped him understand the contents of what the scout was reporting, he let out his disparaging comment, his face flushed with excitement.

Without prior knowledge of the numbers, the tribal chief thought this was the best the Margraves could muster.

While the always suspicious Alexander was experiencing the very opposite set of emotions, feeling very alarmed upon sensing the abnormality.

'Is this army the bait? Are they hiding a shock force somewhere else?' He could not help but turn his head subconsciously towards the treeline that was surrounding him.

Right now, the man could not help but think back about the battle he had with Lord Ponticus while trying to take Thesalie.

Using the cover of night and the dense forest, the old man had led a force of 20,000 around his camp to launch an ambush in his rear, while using the other half of his force as bait to engage in a frontal assault.

And the brilliant move would have worked too if only for not Remus's advantageous position to give the unlucky man away.

Alexander still occasionally dropped a cold sweat while thinking how narrowly he had avoided that disaster.

And learning from his mistake, Alexander thus quickly gave the following order,

"Order the army to get ready to march! We will meet the enemy by the river banks."

The place he was talking about was about ten kilometers southwest of here and was free of any woods or tree lines for a good distance.

Hence even if the Heeats were hiding any cavalry ambushs, Alexander thought he would see it coming.

The only problem was selling the idea to his ally Metztil, who hearing the order expressed his skepticism with a slight frown,

"The river banks? Why not meet them here? It will save us energy and killing the army right in front of their walls will completely destroy the morale of the defenders. We can have the city by noon."

As expected, Metztil might not be a good politician, but he was a shrewd commander.

Alexander did not argue with Metztil regarding his point, neither did he reveal his true thoughts in fear of panicking the man and making him second guess.

Rather he revealed a much more believable but also manageable reason,

"I fear the wall defenders might coordinate with the Margraves to launch a pincer attack, sallying out to attack our flanks. I don't want to fight a two front war!"

Now, this possibility was not as fearful as a suddenly flanking ambush because all Alexander needed to do was leave a garrison contingent in his camp while he gave the approaching army battle.

This way once the defenders tried to 'stab him in the back', his forces in the camp could provide aid.

That's why Alexander used the phrase 'two front war' instead of something this 'being attacked from two sides'.

It was also thinking that Metztil might sniff this loophole out that Alexander quickly added, "Besides, would it not be better to meet our hated enemy as soon as possible? Why waste good time? If we move quickly enough it might even catch them out of formation.."

These reasons were enough to quickly convince Metztil, especially since he did not feel like arguing Alexander with over something so trivial.

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