Herald of Steel

Chapter 1224: Lord Macht's Camp

As a last ditch attempt to try and rescue Achillas, Lord Kite wanted to promise a three month long truce in exchange for his general.

However, Alexander was not interested.

After the consecutive winnings, the man doubted the Heeat family would be willing to launch any large scale attacks any time soon.

In fact, Alexander would be glad to see them attack his prepared lines. The result of that endeavor was already known.

Thus the very bottom line laid out by Alexander was for the enemy to leave the city, handing over the defense of the city to him.

This however was unacceptable to the other side, as Lord Kite did not have the authority to do such a thing even if he wanted to.

Thus after a few hours of bitter bickering, Lord Kite was forced to leave empty handed.

Near the very end, Alexander did offer to discuss further terms about what to do with the captured eight hundred men, wanting to use them to extract some milder concessions, such as lifting the siege on the manor, or even just the flow of fresh water.

Lord Kite could clearly see what Alexander was trying to do here- taking advantage of the man's failure of the main mission to hand him some second hand scraps so that the lord did not embarrass himself by returning totally empty handed.

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After all, if Lord Kite could get back eight hundred men instead of a 'measly' one, surely it would save some of his face.

However despite its allure, Lord Kite did not bite.

The nobleman was among the very rare breed of men who did not let his honor get in the way of the things that mattered the most, and more than that, he knew such a gift was unlikely to please his current boss.

In fact, Lord Kite feared the black man might even lash out at him for being shameless enough to come back with such a thing when he failed in what he truly asked the man to do.

The bare handed commander would get a pained sigh from Lord Macht once he got back, that disappointed moan perhaps hurting him more than any scolding he might have received.

Following the failure to rescue Achillas, the situation within the camp deteriorated further and further with each passing day, forcing Lord Macht to give in to more and more of those voices wanted, all in an attempt to stop the camp from imploding into itself.

Or he and his young master seriously risked having their throat slit off in the middle of the night.

This might have seemed like an absurd idea even a day ago, but now, Lord Macht could no longer brush past it. The recently reinvigorated Margraves appeared to be on the verge of taking the warpath if their demands were not met.

Thus instead of desperately clinging onto power, Lord Macht fortunately had the presence of mind to give what they wanted, letting go more and more of his power and reversing most of the steps he had taken to consolidate his family's hold on the army.

Hence the newly formed formations were all disbanded and the troops 'unmixed', just as asked by his own officers,

While all the Margrave troops were restored to their own units, and placed under their own officers, all of whom were released from their custody, save for the handful of few who had directly participated in the bridge battle and were seriously under investigation for incompetence.

Among the released was also the 'injured' Lord Bernard, who right now seemed to have made a complete and miraculous recovery.

No longer appearing lethargic and half conscious most of the time the lucky son of a bitch was currently bright as a daisy, sporting a magnificent grin paired with twinkling eyes as he roamed the camp under a heavy entourage of his own men.

Even the man himself did not think he would be able to get himself out of the whole kerfuffle so easily.

Because one moment he was nearly drowning in the quagmire of the abyss, awaiting imminent execution, all his plans thrown into total shambles. At the time, what he had done and how he had betrayed Achillas appeared very clumsy, almost childish.

But just as the stone was about to roll off that cliff, all of a sudden it completely reversed directions.

In the blink of an eye, the man was free of all danger, free to bathe in the glorious winter sunlight with his ranks fully restored and his dreams now seeming much closer to reality than ever.

It was such a change of fortunes that Lord Bernard found himself occasionally pinching himself a bit to make sure he was not dreaming.

Lord Bernard's release of course had Miss Linda's direct hand in the matter, with her edging the soldiers to demand his release from Lord Macht. And once he was freed, the lady got to quickly get the man up to speed in the current affairs.

"So many things have happened!"

And as Lord Bernard got to know more and more of the details, even the clever politician was forced to sigh in amazement, feeling a bit overwhelmed.

After being totally confined to his quarters for so many days, the changes felt very large, and thus Lord Bernard spent a few days trying to reinsert himself into the loop

"Haha, the gods favor me!" Then upon finally understanding how the many internal forces of the camp were threatening to tear apart the alliance, the man was not only worried but chuckled in glee.

After all, only in murky water as such that one could fish for the greatest advantages.

Hence upon having regained his position as the chief of the Margraves family's army, he quickly began to covertly undermine Lord Macht's power under Miss Linda's directive, wishing to erode it to the point he could usurp him.

This proved to be a deadly challenge for Lord Macht, who was no expert in this field.

By all accounts, Lord Macht was just a simple warrior, and his upbringing and career were more suited to maintaining discipline and leading soldiers. He was no doubt also very good at that, able to effectively steer the men under him even in the worst of times.

It was just that this time, these men were not alone, having the backing of powerful figures.

This proved completely uncharted waters for Lord Macht, for as a hot blooded man, the man found talking too annoying and was much more of the mind to directly bash his enemy's skulls rather than try and change it.

And when he did have to deal with them in those rare few circumstances, it was usually handled by the master he served, Duke Heeat, or at least with his complete backing.

With that cheat, Lord Macht really did not have to develop any skills, simply 'one shot'-ing his opponents with the Duke's name and authority.

This was why now that he was stripped of all his advantages, Lord Macht appeared like a drowning man clutching at straws.

The pair of Miss Linda and Lord Bernard caused many troubles for the man, ranging from demanding better rations for their men, pay equal to the Heeat men, compensation for the deceased, and even political concessions such as guaranteed autonomy for the family.

Lord Macht wanted to tear his hair out after hearing many of them, such as the demands for equal pay and compensation.

According to Sybarian custom, there was no way the men serving an earl could get the same payments and benefits as those serving a duke. Such a thing would destroy the entire social hierarchy of the nation.

Hence when Lord Macht heard this, the proud veteran almost vomited blood, feeling as if his face was being dragged through the mud.

It was thus rather fortunate that the man still had a bit of rationality left in him and did not want to completely shatter their alliance with the Margraves. Else he would have certainly lashed out at the ask with the utmost vehemence, dying the entire camp with blood.

As for the political tasks, they were so outrageous that he directly ignored them, thinking Miss Linda was simply playing with them.

Lord Macht tried his best to cater to the demands while trying to retain as much power as he could, while at the same time, he decided to directly write to the Duke, letting him know of everything

"My lord, the situation here has reached its precipice. Young master has become ill and I am ashamed to admit I am unable to contain the situation on my own. I plead that you send 20,000 reinforcements as soon as you can."

In his letter, Lord Macht cleverly did not mention Lord Macht's true state, one, for fearing the duke might not like him bad mouthing his son.

Furthermore, the commander also did not want to completely burn the bridge with Lord Macht despite all that had happened, as, at the end of the day, the man was still in line to the throne, and his future boss. Lord Macht did not want to intentionally make things harder for himself.

And lastly, he thought that by presenting the Heeat family as still a strong, coherent force, he would have been able to convince the duke that the external threat was truly formidable, forcing him to take the letter's demands seriously.

The 20,000 demand still was a bit much, even Lord Macht would admit it, but by asking for so much, the man at least hoped to get half the men.