Chapter 855 The Tibian Nobles (Part-1)
?855 The Tibian Nobles (Part-1)
After Alexander entered the capital, he quickly got to work getting to know about the latest situation.
With his first and most immediate inquiry being - "Where is Perseus now?"
"The scouts have located the king four days west of here. But at the moment he seems to be moving south." Menes quickly reported, aware of such a thing because he had sent a detachment based on Lord Theony's intel.
Hearing Perseus was on the move, made sense to Alexander, as he felt he could understand Perseus's line of thinking.
Alexander had been told the entire truthful story of Lord Theony's coup d'etat, and one of the conclusions that Alexander came to hearing that was surely the Crown Prince had already reached his father or at least managed to send a message, informing him of the loss of their capital.
Thus, with the capital lost, and the northern half of the country under the enemy's control, if Perseus should want to continue fighting, Alexander figured there really was no other option for the king other than to head south in this peninsula of a landmass, which was the furthest distance from Alexander as he tried to regroup and reconstitute his army.
"Should we give chase?" And hearing the king on the move, some of Alexander's officers then eagerly asked, itching for a fight.
They did not want to give Perseus a moment's respite.
"...Hmmm...." And to this, Alexander put a thoughtful face.
It was not like there was no merit to this suggestion.
If possible, Alexander would definitely love to catch up to Perseus and force him to a decisive battle,thereby finishing the threat as soon as possible.
After all, who knew if the king would magically get another round of reinforcements that Alexander had no idea about?
Perhaps with the larger army, the man would then be able to turn things around and force Alexander to get on the back foot.
And even if that did not happen, even if Perseus was to only hole himself inside a city and fight to the death, well a long siege too would be a pain to deal with.
So cutting the head of the snake as soon as possible certainly felt like a good idea.
But all this hinged on Alexander being able to actually catch up to the Perseus in the first place- an endeavor that was quite difficult given the latter already had a head start and certainly knew the terrain better than him.
So Alexander feared he would end up chasing after Perseus's illusory tail and simply tiring out his army with nothing to show for it.
"How many men does Perseus still have?" Whilst trying to come up with the decision, Alexander then asked this, wanting to know the strength he would be facing.
He reasoned that if Perseus was weak enough, then the gamble might be worth taking, reasoning that even if his army were to become tired or fall into any kind of unforeseen trap by Perseus,they would simply be able to bulldoze through it through raw muscle power. New novel chapters are published on
"The scouts report around 33,000 to 35,000 men are moving with Perseus."
But Grahtos's report smashed any such optimism, as that number put both sides on nearly equal footing, with Perseus even coming out somewhat on the top.
While the expensive gear they wore, such as gold plated sword handles and ivory sword sheathes gave credence to their high statues.
Even their simple mannerism was very refined, much different from a peasant's.
And if that was not enough, there was also the fact that many carried their family's personal seal with them.
Thus soon a crowd of flustered nobles took rapid turns to churn out many inquisitive questions such as- who are you, why are you here, how many of you are there, why you were fighting for His Majesty, etc.
And all the responses confirmed Alexander's allegations and even added weight to the young lord.
Especially that last 'Why you were fighting for His Majesty?' which got a very interesting response.
When asked this, stepping up, one of the captured lords pronounced, "We were sent here by our lord Matbar (Marquis) Kyaum under His Majesty's Archpriest Manuk's instructions."
"We were told that a secret agreement between Tibias and His Eminence Manuk had been reached where it was determined that in return for us helping the Tibian king defeat the Lord of Zanzan, the northern half of Tibias would become ours!"
This was of course a lie, something Alexander had concocted himself.
How?
Well the day prior, when Alexander had gone to see the prisoners for himself, he twisted the nobles' arms.
During this visit, one of the captured lords seeing Alexander dressed in full armor asked him about the progress of their ransom
"Ransom? What ransom?" And Alexander had pretended to be surprised by the mere notion of it, and revealed with a light smile,
"We have received no diplomatic messages concerning your release. Neither from your family or your lord."
"How can that be? His Eminence Manuk should have surely sent word on our behalf!" And this message was greeted with such shock as more than enough time had passed for the message to have reached Alexander.
Some even cried this in disbelief,
"Pasha Alexander, are you sure you are not lying?"
That particular statement got a resounding rebuke from one of Alexander's surrounding entourage, while Alexander revealed with a slightly malicious grin,
"Something has happened between your dear Eminence Manuk and the king. Their alliance hasbroken apart."
"Manuk has already left Tibias, leaving you to die in this ditch."
"So you see, with no one to prove your identity and no one here to ransom you, you are nobodies!"
After that implicit threat, it did not take Alexander long to make them sing the tune he wanted.
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