Herald of Steel

While giving free rein to Metztil, Alexander cleverly asked the man to focus more on the rich noble houses and manor.

And given the high quality loot there, the Helvati chief had little reason to refuse.

Thus soon many nearby nobles began to hurry towards the safety of the huge walls of Caira, bringing with them all kinds of exaggerated stories, such as claiming to have seen fields of fire that spanned for 'kilometers'.

This account inevitably caused great distress among the elite and they flocked to Miss Linda to do something to save their lands.

At the same time, the lady got news back from her family in the north and they claimed to have no knowledge of any kind of deal being struck with Lady Miranda there.

Neither could they provide any explanation as to how Alexander was able to swell his men to such great heights.

The reason for this was that Lord Janus knew which nobles were loyal to Miss Linda and kept them attending Alexander's meeting.

They were deemed more harmful than good for the discussion and at some point of the meetings, Alexander even secretly decided that after knocking out Lord Parker, those lands would be redistributed- mainly to 'his glorious self'.

And to get that land as soon as possible, as well as wishing to end this campaign quickly since he had a lot of things to do back in Zanzan, Alexander did not wait for any local reinforcements from the nobles.

He moved within days after the matter was discussed.

Thus only a very short time passed till the development of current situations, making it hard for the spies to obtain all the details of the discussed information before passing it along.

Hence the only thing those letters said was that a northern native army had invaded their lands and judging by their movements, was suspected to have been heading towards Caira.

This was old news to Miss Linda as her couts had long ago discovered the distinct war paints and rough clothes the Helvati wore. They were tell-tell giveaways.

Not to mention how many of the nobles heard those men clearly shout in their distinct tongues.

But what this letter did was finally confirm the lady's initial suspicions and it put great pressure on her.

She now understood Alexander was not cooperating with rebellious nobles, but the far more dangerous northern natives.

The woman went ballistic figuring this out.

This was because the natives were her family's greatest enemies, their differences considered irreparable.

She would rather deal with traitors than these barbarians. Because at least those traitors were one of 'theirs'.

As such there was no way she was going to sit back and watch as those barbaric heathens slaughtered her men and desecrated the lands of her ancestors.

Out of her own urgency, Miss Linda hence began to covertly support the nobles who were causing trouble for Lord Parker and behind his back started to urge the army to push for an open battle.

The men were rallied under the banner of fighting off the invaders and soon even protests started to appear in the streets, with people chanting things like,

"The army is meant to fight, not hide."

"Protect the lands! Protect the grain!

"Protect our homes! Protect us from famine!"

"Drive away the barbarians. Our land, our home! Drive away the barbarians!"

Lord Parker watched all this unfold before him with nearly manic malevolence.

Because the plot was too transparent to miss.

He knew there was no way these unlearned, unsophisticated cityfolk would have dared to raise even a peep without the tacit nod of the Margrave's army promising them protection, while the city's various gangs and rats took the lead, all of whom were under the control of the Margraves and its nobles.

It was only by using that kind of muscle that the people could be told to protest without turning the whole thing into a massacre by the belligerent Heeat forces.

But at the end of the day, this revelation did not affect the plan.

Because even if Lord Parker could unveil this open secret, there was little he could do to stop it.

Things thus continued to snowball while the young scion only played defense, and soon, the entire city of 100,000 became charged up and ready to fight under the manipulation of the nobles.

The 10,000 Heeat men garrisoned there also began to feel the people's pressure mounting on them, as they clearly felt the gazes of the ordinary citizens turn increasingly hostile at them.

Whenever they walked along any street, regular people which side and avoid them like they were the plague.

Merchants would try and avoid selling things, and even if they did, they would charge them anywhere from 200% to 1000% extra, i.e.- 2 to 10 times.

'Prices have gone up due to the siege,' They would claim.

Now, it was true prices tended to skyrocket during sieges.

In the most desperate of cases, it was not strange to hear of nobles exchanging gold necklaces for a loaf of bread.

But clearly, things had not become so dire. Ordinary citizens only had to pay 10% to at best 30% more of the pre-siege amount.

In addition, Lord Parker had even instituted a rationing policy and fixed prices.

But when the shopkeepers were informed of all of this, they either feigned ignorance, made some excuse like it was impossible for them to sell at such a low price without incurring a loss, or blacklisted from all future purchases.

Meaning whenever the soldiers came to buy goods next time, the merchants would claim that due to low fixed prices and high demand, their stock had run out.

While some of the bolder shops even dared to shut shops right in front of the soldier's faces, although such a move was rarely a good idea.

These hot blooded men armed with weapons did not look kindly at such rudeness and there were even instances of a few brawls breaking out among the two, with the largest and bloodiest one happening in one of the brothels after they refused to serve 'these cockless cowards' as uttered by the serving girls'.

Apparently, the girls working there were all free women who came from the same village and worked in the same red light establishment in the city as a way to support their families. Enjoy exclusive content from mvl

The relatively small business was run by that village's chief and he gave the girls and widows from there who were down on their luck employment opportunities here.

However that chief, along with the entire village was raided and massacred by the marauding Helvati just two days ago.

These women were understandably devastated by this news, for not only had they lost all their loved ones, but without the chief, it was even unknown how long they would be in business.

It was right then this group of Heeat soldiers appeared before them, in a classic case of bad timing.

And heartbroken and distressed, these women then began to lay part of the blame on the soldiers, accusing them of hiding behind the walls like cowards while the people outside burned and died.

They cried,

"Cowards! How dare you wear that armor? What good is that?"

"Strip naked and give it to us! We will go fight them!"

"We have more balls than you even when we were born without any!"

"Why do we pay you taxes? Waste of space!"

"Eating our food and shitting all day! Get out you useless bums!"

Many of these chants were taken from the protesting crowd, who were in turn taught by the scheming nobles.

But at that moment, those girls greatly messed up.

It was fine to shout these objectionable lyrics when they were in a crowd of a few thousand to even ten thousand people.

There was strength in numbers and the Heeat soldiers would not be able to do anything about them even if they tried in fear of intervention from the Margraves troops.

There were many friends and families of the troops among them after all.

But now isolated and alone, these women in their rage and sorrow momentarily forgot their vulnerability.

While becoming fully enraged after being called such nasty names, the bellicose Heeat men could no longer bear it.

Finally, they found an easy target to vent all their anger and frustration on.

Hence in revenge for the all discrimination and slights they received, they brutally raped and then killed all the women there.

This tragedy became a blessing in disguise for the Margraves, as such cruelty and bloodshed shocked and fully enraged the entire city.

Lord Bernard gained the perfect capital to press his foot on Lord Parker's throat and with banners calling for the army to head out and fight the enemy flying all over the city, chimed,

"My lord, I cannot any longer control my men. They no longer have the patience to wait for your father to send his men. We plan to head out in three days. Will you be joining us?"

That last part was not really a question.

It was a statement- 'You WILL join us.'

Because if the Margrave army were to go off to fight Alexander, the only force in the city would be Heeat military.

And only god knew what they could do when there was no one to stop them.

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

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