Herald of Steel

Chapter 1353 Metztil and His Tribe

The numbers asked by Alexander were simply infeasible for Lord Janus.

Not only was he asking for too much, but the time frame was also too short.

So after a bit of haggling, they settled on a much lower number of 2,000 sailors, with 1,000 of them being sent straight away with the following ships and the other thousand to be sent within the year.

In addition, Alexander was also required to pay an additional 5 million ropal in lost tax revenue to Lord Janus for the eight years they would stay with him.

This came to an average of about 300 ropal per man per year, which was actually on the reasonable side- a peasant for instance typically paid anywhere from 200 to 250 ropals a year, and thus a skilled sailor who earned more was naturally worth more.

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During his stay in the city, Alexander also got to meet with Metztil the tribal chief, although in a much more casual setting.

"I am sorry we have to do this chief, but many of the nobles would not look kindly to us meeting openly," Alexander lightly apologized while addressing the man in a large, yet sparsely populated room located fairly at the back of the manor.

It was like he was too ashamed to see the man in the official guest rooms.

"Bah! You outsiders are all the same. You do not need to move your honey tongue." The gruff chief however only spat out this in a disinterested voice, seemingly not caring about the lack of hospitality.

He had no love for the people here despite their recent co operation and so also expected none.

Hence quickly finishing the few niceties, he got to eagerly report the recent happenings at his tribe.

It was mostly good news, with the biggest windfall being Metztil firmly cementing his position as the chief of the tribe with the victory.

Alexander was hardly surprised by this- given the amount of free land Metztil obtained and the abundant loot he had taken back with him after sucking the surroundings around Caira bone dry, if the chief still could not buy the people's loyalty, then he deserved to get his head kicked in by a donkey and be deposed.

Hence as the people's lives there significantly improved by this flood of goods and promise of access to much better quality lands, they were glad to swear to tear anyone who threatened their chief to shreds.

Removing Metztil through an outward ploy had become basically impossible by now.

Not that any of the elders had much time to do such a thing anyway.

They were far more occupied with choosing and overseeing their people move to their allocated lands beyond the walls.

This had to be done as quickly as possible, lest any of the lands remain empty. Not only would be a waste of resources, but empty lands also invited 'squatters'.

Fortunately for the Helvati, this 'immigration' was completed with minimum trouble as the 'invaded' Margraves lords had little strength to complain even if they wanted to.

Both Miss Linda and Lord Castell had told them very clearly they were not going to interfere here- courtesy of an agreement reached between them and Alexander.

So the only thing these elders had to worry about was making sure their own people did not cause needless trouble.

The only slight 'hiccup' if you could call it that, was that the offered lands were a bit too much for the Helvati to swallow easily in a short period of time. They lacked the population.

Alexander thought he was being very diplomatic and polite here, but unfortunately, Metztil saw it as something completely different.

Suddenly twisting his face in great anger, he venemously spat,

"Bah! You sound just like my wife. I know she has no balls, but I did not think you had neither! Share land! Share land you say! What did those worms do to deserve it? It's my men that bleed and died! While those cowards hid in their tribes, sucking pussies and fucking donkeys! And you want me to reward them with land! Land we took from you. Land.... "

Alexander's eye visibly flickered as he heard the chief go off in this tirade of a rant, his heart darkening.

'I was a fool to think I could reason with these barbarians.' He rebuked to himself.

But still, for the sake for the greater picture, Alexander patiently sat and took the abuse.

And after chief Metztil was finally done, he still once again urged, reiterating his points and enticingly said aloud,

"Chief Metztil, I think you misunderstand me.I simply think that these lands will be far more useful if you gave some of them to the other tribes. Only united under a single flag can you natives face the forces of the Margraves and Heeat family. And you can be the old holding that flag! You can be the new Coatl!"

Coatle was the name of the legendary man who had once banded the tribes together, posing a great threat to the invading Sybarsis forces.

And Alexander thought Metztil would be mighty tempted to follow in this heroic man's shoes.

Which he was.

Just not in the way Alexander expected.

At Alexander's clever deduction, instead of being impressed, Metztil appeared very angry and scornful, sneering with disgust,

"Bah! Do not think I do not see throught you outsider's schemes. You could not swindle us out of our land directly, so now you are resorting to this. Just as I thought... all of you are the same... backstabbing bastards."

"Give up our land? Bah! Over my dead body."

"If those old coots want it... well they can come and take it! We Helvati never shy away from a fight. I will even welcome it. I am always looking for a good excuse to annex those wastes. I will be the new Coatle like that! Not by pampering to the wishes of those cowardly worms!"

Alexander said nothing after hearing that, understanding the decision had been made.

However this gave him a lot to think about.

Let us say no to piracy! Don't take part in a crime! Don't patronize thieves!

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