Herald of Steel

Chapter 1222: Lord Macht's Last Roll

The conclusion of any battle would almost always cause two very different scenarios to play in the opposite camps.

And this time was no different.

Thus as Alexander entertained the newly arrived Lord Janus, filling him on the details of all that had just occurred and rejoicing the fresh injection of supplies, on the opposite side of the pond, a very different set of emotions ruled the ground.

Back in Lord Parker's camp, the air was dull and gloomy, as a whirlpool of anger and indignation surrounded them all.

Many were unable to accept the fact of who they had been defeated time and time again despite outnumbering the enemy by so many times.

Thus they cursed, spat, and doubted themselves, even wondering if they were truly fighting a god's chosen.

And there was only man left to deal with them all, the one who was right in the center of the maelstrom- Lord Macht.

Just like he had predicted, suffering almost fifty percent casualties and still failing to take Phyrros Island caused a major backlash among both the participating Margraves as well as the Heeat officers, with the former accusing the general of leading them to their death, while the latter accused their commander of handicapping them by diluting their formations with these 'undesirables'.

Blame for the loss of the battle was relentlessly thrown by both sides onto the other, with the only single common consensus being reached that it had been wrong to assimilate the two families haphazardly together like it had been done.

Lord Macht fumed with immense rage when hearing this.

He had expected this kind of reaction from the Margraves, that was fairly understandable.

But like how the Margraves stuck together, he had also expected the same from his own officers.

Even if that was not the case, even if they did not actively cheer for him, Lord Macht at least thought they would act as the silent majority.

He certainly did not expect that they would start to plot against him for power the moment he slipped up. The simple warrior hated these shadowy games, being quite bad at them.

Lord Macht's mistake here was that he had assumed these officers were 'his' when in reality a lot of them was really Achillas's, their loyalty solely tied to them.

To them, Lord Macht was, for all effects and purposes an outsider.

As for the rest, they were either nobles who only paid lip service to Lord Macht, or neutral officers who were more akin to ravenous sharks, their ambitions coursing through every pore of the body as blood.

All these three different groups thus had their own wants, with the 'loyal' group wanting to replace Lord Macht with someone more competent who could lead them to rescue their general, the nobles wanting to seize power for themselves, and the unaffiliated officers fishing for any available advantage to get that next, sweet promotion.

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And given that Lord Macht had no real political identity, being purely a military commander appointed by Lord Parker to win battles, the moment he failed to do that, he quickly lost most of his authority.

The man was left with no real allies, appearing like the lone survivor of a shipwreck, surrounded on all sides by sharks.

This was also why, after his failure to reign in the various forces within his camp, Lord Macht in a very uncharacteristic move sent a negotiating delegation to Alexander, wishing to discuss 'terms'.

The small team of men led by the noble Lord Kite would thus meet Alexander, Lord Macht, and Lord Janus in one of the manor's many studies.

"So what does the Heeat family want to discuss? Your terms of surrender?"

And Alexander would begin the talks with such boisterousness, putting on a very confident look to pressure the other side.

On the other hand, however, Lord Kite would refuse the aggravating bait, but flash a very professional smile, reply in a very cool tone,

"First of all, on behalf of our lord, let us express our sincerest gratitude for taking so good care of the general. We will certainly keep in mind such goodwill."

Lord Kite had of course sought an audience with Achillas before sitting down to discuss anything, to make sure the golden goose was still alive.

And indeed the general was given the best care Alexander could possibly muster, with him even personally ordering the physically many of the prescribed treatments.

Alexander could do this due to Achillas's injury being relatively simple- a broken spine. So all that really needed was for the man to lay down on his back perfectly flat and still, and then wait... wait for the bones to repair by themselves. It was honestly a very boring affair.

Hence when Lord Kite went to meet the general, he found the man all wrapped up tightly with bandages on a large, wooden bed that had only a thin mattress on it, and a powerful smell of various medicinal herbs drifted out of him.

A whole host of doctors, attendants, and slaves took care of all the man's physical needs, while armed guards patrolled the medical tent, making any covert rescue attempts impossible.

Lord Kite and Achillas did not speak for too long, with the former simply asking about the man's health and then quickly reassuring him that everything was fine and that they were in the midst of negotiating his release.

Achillas however did not seem to be interested in his own arrangement, appearing very disappointed in letting himself captured like this.

Instead, he seemed much more about Lord Parker quickly asking Lord Kite how he was.

The man knew his lord well and seemed to be able to guess the kind of nervous breakdown he would have.

This was why Lord Kite decided to spin a little tale for the injured man here.

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