Herald of Steel

Alexander left Miss Linda to simmer in that large yet lonely tent amongst fear and apprehension about her future with a slightly twisted glee in his heart.

After all the trouble this ambitious lady had made him go through, this amount of discomfort was the least she deserved.

Hence Alexander also refused all her requests to let her meet with her sister or even answer questions about what was going to happen to her.

Rather, stepping out of the tent with a breezy gait, he first lightly tapped Laykash on the shoulder with a gentle smile,

"You did well in securing the camp without hurting anyone. Take any two slaves from here you like…. And let your officers have one each. "

Alexander here of course referred to the fact that Miss Linda and Lady Adele were captured without any sort of humiliation. Resisting the great allure of forcefully taking such beautiful noble ladies where there were basically no consequences for doing so could not have been easy.

And if it were the Helvati to scale the hill first or even Alexander's own levied troops, their fate would have been likely very bloody.

So Alexander was glad that he sent his very well trained and trained cavalry as the shock force, as these people had been taught as part of their military drills how to detect people of high value, and thus differentiate between people they were allowed to touch and those who were off limits.

These types of people were of course always nobles and if you paid even some attention, it was not that hard to separate these pampered, soft cushioned folks from the rest of the chaff- their appearance, clothes, and temperament were ninety percent of the time a dead giveaway.

And indeed, Laykash had spared not only the ladies but many of the other noble ladies belonging to various Heeat nobility in this way. They had come to Galiosos as wives, finances, or even hidden mistresses of their now captured or killed partner.

Alexander's appreciation got the cavalry commander to produce a very large grin, where he first humbly confessed that he was only doing his job before thanking the generous lord for his great gift.

"My lord, my officers will surely praise you for your generosity when they hear this! Let me thank you once again on their behalf," Laykash appeared almost overly flattering over his adulation, making Alexander feel a bit sick.

"… But my lord… the thing is…. Ummm… I do not want any slave. There is a foreign noble lady that has quite caught my fancy. I want to take her as my mistress."

However, the reason behind the buttering was soon made clear as after quite a few awkward pauses and slightly ashamed looks, he revealed his true demands.

"....." While hearing this Alexander out on a rather pensive face.

He did not go into detail asking who this woman was, but got thinking there was little chance of a noble lady agreeing to become the concubine of a relatively small time cavalry captain.

Laykash might be quite liked by Alexander and thus earned quite a modest stipend, but when compared to a true blue blooded noble, his status was still nothing to be envious of.

Not to mention, Layaksh did not even want to take this woman as his main wife, but as a woman barely better than a maid. This for a good lady brought up in a monogamous society must be mortifying.

But Alexander did not raise these issues with the hopeful man.

Laykash had just given a great gift, and so with a curt nod, simply declared,

"Go ask her if she is willing to go with you to Zanzan. If she says yes… then congratulations. You can take her tonight. But if she refuses… don't push her. Simply bring me her name and other details. I will try to get her for you during the next negotiation."

This promise of a mere possibility was more than enough to send Layash to the moon, as he let out a great big grin and took his oath once again in front of Alexander.

While Alexander's heart twinged a bit in regret for that noble lady.

Now that Alexander had set his sights on acquiring her, unless she was directly related to the ducal family, such as being Lord Parker's sister or aunt, her fate might as well be sealed as the mistress of a small military captian.

And worse, it was evident that Laykash's fondness for her was a fleeting one. He liked what he saw at the spur of the moment, so now, he wanted a taste.

But what would happen once he had his fill? Would he come back for more?

No one knew for sure… but Alexander was willing to bet no.

Laykash was bound to go into many more battle, and meet many more fanciful beauties, perhaps taking them all one at a time as his new prize.

Then, the fate of this noble lady would surely become one of neglect and poverty, discarded to make space for new toys.

But despite knowing all this, Alexander would not deny Laykash his prize, because the tragic reality was that Laykash's loyalty was much more important to him than the fate of some unknown beauty.

And this would not be the last time Alexander would ink the fate of those under him, thus creating a tragic set of circumstances.

...…

The aftermath of the battle and its subsequent cleanup would take a few days during which a lot of things would be completed.

Firstly, the battlefield would be cleared of the dead and wounded, the former buried in mass graves dug by the Helvati after the corpses were stripped of anything and everything valuable, while the latter was either captured or taken to the clinic depending on whose sides they fought.

Secondly, special hunting parties on horses would be sent out to track and kill or capture any fleeing Margraves or Heeat forces remaining around the vicinity.

And all the nearby towns and villages became suspects of harboring fugitives during that time. As for what these searching parties did when they entered these towns, well let's just say Alexander turned a blind eye to them.

As the victorious forces, even Alexander's most trained and well disciplined forces were not above entering taverns and leaving without paying or visiting shops and taking a few things they liked as free mementos.

As for the barbaric Helvati…. well Alexander was just glad to see they did not commit mass rape or raze the place to the ground.

They usually took a few women, willing or not, for their officers to enjoy and some livestock to feast as meat was always very rare at home. And if they found a Margraves or Heeat soldier hiding that village's chief head would come top.

This amount of trampling, the surrounding towns and villages, although angry and bitter about it, could still accept.

Alexander would also have to admit that even if he did not agree with the method Helvati used to 'collect' their prisoners, he could not argue with the results.

Only two days after the Helvati started killing chiefs for the crime of harboring fugitives, the escaping enemy suddenly found they had no safe haven.

Thus within the next few days, nearly all of them were caught.

In this way, a total of nearly 11,000 prisoners were taken from there, almost all Heeat. And when combined with Lord Bernard's nearly 3,000 contingent already in custody, Alexander had to admit, he got himself a nice harvest.

Even if they were sold as regular slaves, each of these good, young, hot blooded men would fetch him around 5,000 ropals, or 70 million ropals total.

And if Alexander counted the vast number of nobles included in there, realistically, it was very much possible to push that number up to an even 100 million!

'Haha, taking this dangerous trip has not been a waste!' Alexander thus could not help but grin.

In the following days, these captured forces were also moved from the wilderness of the hill into Caira city, where the men were tallied and divided according to their identity- i.e.- peasants and nobles.

Then needless to say, the peasants were left to linger in large, open air penned fences with only a small blanket for warmth, while most nobles were given large luxurious tents and good food that made it almost seem as if they were not prisoners of war, but honored guests.

Only the fact they had to share the tent with a few of their colleagues and they were not allowed to leave at will gave away their true state.

Another thing that was moved was the loot from Heeat's camp, which too granted Alxx a huge harvest, including the money that was swindled off of him all those months ago.

And lastly, there came the news about Lord Parker, which deemed…. Inconclusive!

According to Remus who had spent the entire night searching for his prey only to return empty handed,

"We have found remains of quite a few capsized boats down the river. They were all likely taken down by the bad currents and over capacity. So the lord also probably drowned in his heavy armor. We are searching for the body."

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