Herald of Steel

In the coming days, Miss Linda and Lord Bernard would continue to gnaw at Lord Macht's power, trying to replace him and his men with their own, with the ultimate goal of Lord Bernard taking over the entire army.

However, the pair would be unable to accomplish that last part, as the drowning man would be saved by a re-emergent Lord Parker.

The young lord seemed to have finally been able to shed the shadow of losing Achillas, and at last, responding to Lord Macht's repeated pleas, decided to take hold of the helm of the ship before he sank with it.

Seeing him, the Heeat soldiers who were all just a second ago scattered and ready to tear each other apart for more power and influence all of a sudden dropped everything and rallied behind their one true lord presenting a fully unified front.

This near altruistic behavior of giving up power might have seemed a bit strange to an outsider, but when one thought about it, it was all too natural.

All 10,000 men accompanying Lord Parker were the Duke family's elites, swearing their vows to only him and his family members.

Thus when someone with their blood took the reins, the wild horse was easily tamed.

And that was also why Lord Macht had such a tough time commanding them because, without that blood, they did not see him as legitimate.

With Lord Parker joining the fray, the Margraves almost instantly felt their tide turn.

Miss Linda was quickly restrained, and placed in her tent at the order of her 'husband', who was presumably worried about her catching a cold.

Lord Bernard was also forced to give up all his ambitions and the man scuttled back to his tent, where he cleverly decided to avoid showing himself in front of the lord.

The dashing man knew he was considered a gross eyesore by the lord, still under high suspicion of betraying Achillas, and he certainly did not want to give Lord Parker any chance to have him arrested, or worse.

In this way, the Margraves troops lost two of their most important heads overnight.

And just when the enemy was at their weakest, Lord Parker decided to strike.

By now, Lord Parker's prestige and legitimacy had made all the Heeat troops consolidate under one flag, turning this once loose pile of sands into a thick sheet of iron.

He was then able to use these great muscles to get a lot of things done, by first imposing a curfew on the camp to bring military order back and then isolating the more troublesome Margraves officers on suspicions of incompetence.

This was the stick.

Then as a perfect demonstration of Lord Parker's abilities, the man quickly followed it up with the carrot, acquising to the Margrave troop's demand for increased pay, as well as other compensations, all coming from the money he had swindled from Alexander. 𝙧𝘈ƝÒBЁȘ

It was a move that broke away from the nation's military tradition and although this might not seem like much to a modern audience, for the extremely traditional, conservative Sybarian society, this was shocking.

It was to the point that if not for the circumstances, Lord Macht might have even jumped up to stop Lord Parker no matter what. Because he did not want to want to set such a precedence.

Lord Parker's efforts soon showed themselves, with the camp that was under imminent threat of collapse miraculously rebounding itself to its former state.

Order was restored, schemes were put down and although the Margraves troops still managed to retain their autonomy, they were no longer a match for the Heeat forces, going back to being effectively their auxiliary force.

In other words, the situation mostly returned to the same equilibrium it was in before Achillas's capture.

Alexander naturally remained oblivious to the situation in his enemy's camp, the wave of chaos followed by the restoration of order going mostly undetected by him.

If he had known how close his enemies were to tearing each other, he would have certainly tried to give each one a helping hand, wishing to make things even more chaotic.

He perhaps would not have dared to attack them given the huge discrepancy, but providing other kinds of aid, such as spreading rumors, or using Achillas and the other prisoners to confuse the enemy would definitely be on the table.

The pleasing turn of current affairs was thus quite unfortunate for Alexander.

The only good thing coming out of that was the enemy had wasted a lot of time trying to sort himself out.

And then even after Lord Parker stabilized the camp, he did not bother with any strategy to go and attack Alexander.

The recent string of losses had the man and his men too demoralized to even attempt any such an endeavor, and it was gravely feared another such loss might very well rout the entire campaign.

Hence Lord Parker couped himself up in his tent, waiting for a response from his father.

He would only try and drive Alexander out once he had such an overwhelming force that it would be enough to blot out of the sky… figuratively speaking.

Now this stationary state of the battlefield was not something too unfavorable for Alexander either.

Because like Lord Parker, Alexander too was waiting, hoping for his reinforcement to come, preferably before the Duke.

Hence it could be said that now the battlefield had shifted from here to the main centers of power for the two forces, each racing to send their troops before the other.

In this endeavor, Alexander's side undoubtedly had the advantage, with nearly two months of head start.

However, even then victory was hardly guaranteed. Because in terms of resources and much more than the ability to gather those resources, Alexander's territory certainly fell quite short of its adversary.

This was all too natural.

Despite Alexander's explosive growth, his foundations were still shaky, as he still had not enough time to consolidate his power.

And this situation was made all the worse by the fact it was not even Alexander who was raising men, but his wife and proxy- Cambyses, a woman.

Hence whereas Duke Heeat could simply send a letter to his retainers, asking them to contribute to the war effort no questions asked, and they would have no choice but to cooperate fully, she would have no such luck.

Plus since Alexander had already taken most of the easily available troops with him, while the remaining troops were needed to safeguard her territory, Cambyses was forced to raise new men, specifically two legions worth as per her husband's request.

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However, given the political situation that has been already discussed, this was proving to be easier said than done, Cambyses was finding out much to her chagrin.

The lady had initially thought it would be easy since she had raised a 40,000 army to counter Perseus when he first attacked Zanzan. So a force quarter the size should have been a cinch.

However the circumstances now and then were oh so different.

At the time, they were the ones being attacked, and by none other than one of Adhania's most hated rival.

Many noblemen were under the direct threat of losing all their fiefs, hence Cambyses had to just raise the banner and everybody came rushing to her, willing to give everything to drive his evil invader out.

Now however there was no such great external force to unite them all.

Moreover, although Alexander's intervention was sanctioned by his council of advisors, many of the nobles in the parliament remained critical of it, claiming the young man was a busybody.

They would have much preferred the man to remain in Zanzan and stabilize it, taking care of the many problems, big and small that arose from the vast newly conquered territory of Tibias.

Thus when Cambyses went to them asking for levies to save her husband, they began to drag their feet, claiming all kinds of problems, from monetary, to political such as war fatigue, to simply the cold weather being too bad for the levy officers to conduct their duties.

Cambyses would grind her teeth in rage at this, however at the end of the day had no choice but to accept it.

She knew lashing out would only aggravate the matter, and although the nobles were exaggerating, some problems were indeed there.

Thus she could only urge them to do their best and move with urgency.

And it was finally after two months of haggling and negotiations that these lumbering men at last got their act together, presenting her with all 10,000 of the prerequisite men as well as a detailed list of all the supplies that would be required for the journey.

This list was another proof of breaking away from the traditions of the time, as whereas normally each noble would be responsible for supplying his own levies at times of war, this time, it was decided that it would solely be Cambyses responsible for paying for the entirety of the campaign

This was the deal she had struck out with the nobles in exchange for their cooperation on the matter, and only then was able to get them to move their bodies.

But at least they did, so now, Cambyses's only hurdle was equipping her men.

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