Herald of Steel

Given the Margraves were getting ready to sally out, it was only natural for Lord Bernard to demand that Lord Parker follow him out of the city.

Because with them gone and no other force to defend Caira, only god knew what the Heeats could do.

Capture the Margraves family and take them hostage?

Massacre the whole city in revenge?

Loot and plunder everything and then leave?

Everything was possible.

The world would have been their oyster.

While hearing this ultimatum and understanding the mean things he was being suspected of, Lord Parker seethed with unbridled rage and anger,

"You dare plot like this? Who cares if a few whores died? When did they start caring about those cock sucking hussies?

He roared at the city folk before turning to shout at their puppet masters, "Is this how the Margraves treats its savior? We came here to help save you from destruction. And this is how you repay us?"

What Lord Parker was alluding to here was indeed correct.

In normal times the people of Caira would have hardly bothered themselves with such a thing.

Sadly, even the slaughter of close to a dozen women was really nothing to bat an eye about in this day and age.

However this time, it was different.

The people were already riled up and possessed the covert support of the Margrave's troops.

Many of the gangs even received instigating 'scripts' from their learned patrons with poems that disparaged Lord Parker and the cowardly Heeat soldiers, calling them to be 'only man enough to kill women and children'.

People would chant these updated lyrics while protesting along the streets and although they were orderly till now, everyone knew it was only a matter of time before things turned violent.

In these ancient times, the two words- protest and riots were nearly always interchangeable.

This put a timer on Lord Parker's stay on the city, as Lord Bernard flatly declared that they would have to meet Alexander within the week least the city turns into a fiery inferior.

"The situation in the city is turning bad by the day. We need to move as soon as possible Lord Parker. If large scale riots do break out and the enemy senses it to launch a coordinated attack on the walls, they might very well take the city. We cannot let that happen."

Lord Bernard had a facade of great concern as he revealed his concerns about such an accident.

Lord Parker's eyes however only burned with even more rage hearing this 'story', roaring in his heart,

'Bullshit! Without you scum protecting these rioters how can this be happening? Just have your men step down! I will have the city under control before sundown.'

Lord Parker wished with all his might to dye the streets of Caira with blood and viscera.

However as much as the man wished, he could not utter these words without 'evidence'.

And unfortunately there was no 'evidence' to be found, because everything was an open secret.

For instance, Lord Bernard's excuse for the deploying his men at the rallies was presumably to prevent the protesters from turning violet and had nothing to do with protecting them from the Heeat men.

In the same way Lord Parker's complain that there were many of the Margraves troops were joining the crowd was simply brushed aside as the men's freedom of choice.

"Many have friends and family among the crowd. The men only went there to greet them. It was nothing," Lord Bernard had no trouble launching such a shameless fib without batting an eye.

Truly the hallmark of an excellent politician.

And the similar excuses were spewed out when Lord Parker clenched his teeth to make up the excuse-

"I believe there are many of Alexander's spies that have infiltrated the crowd. They are the ones instigating the people to riot. I would like to have my men apprehend them before these miscreants can cause any harm."

Lord Bernard only chuckled amusedly at this weak attempt, "Thank you for informing me this my lord. But how can we let our guests work? Please leave it to us. We know the locals here better. You just concentrated to defending the walls."

Covertly deploying troops using the excuse of spies and agitators was perhaps as old as civilization itself.

So how could an experienced schemer like Lord Bernard let himself trip at such a cliche?

Thus, for Lord Parker, it seemed that whatever reason or 'evidence' he put forth, the Margraves family would never move against the protesters.

It was like he had the elusive smoking gun for all to see, but just that the Margraves refused to even acknowledge its existence.

A modern day equivalent of this would be like the prosecutor coming to court and showing a blood stained knife as the murder weapon to the jury, but the twelve people not even looking at it.

This set of circumstances enraged Lord Parker so much that if not for the serious threat from Alexander outside, he would have seriously considered ordering his men to take control of the city by force, even if meant starting a mini civil war.

Now, the Margraves did all this because the message from the very top was clear-

'These barbarians have to be defeated and have to be defeated now. Get the Heeats to join you no matter how.'

This directive was personally given by Miss Linda herself, and it came as a result of the same kind of blind prejudice she had towards them just like her elder sister. Having been taught in the same curriculum, it was one of the few things the pair shared.

This hatred was also one of the reasons why she refused to entertain Lord Parker's pleas about holding off on the attack until reinforcements from his family got there.

Imperiously flashing her hand in front of her husband like he was a servant, Miss Linda snorted,

"We cannot wait so long. Once these barbarians have finished looting, they might very well go back to their skunk holes to enjoy the spoils. They won't stay and fight. This is what they do… those craven, black worms!"

And indeed she was speaking from experience here- the natives did indeed usually follow this tactic.

Rather than try and fight the much more powerful Margraves family head on, the much weaker tribal folk would instead periodically launch raids into the rich territories and snatch whatever they could, before quickly vanishing into the safety of their swamps before a successful counterattack could be launched against them.

In this way, they avoided contesting lands in costly fights which would have been too hard for them to hold in the long run anyway.

Instead, they let others do all the hard work before simply swooping in near the end to take whatever the land produced.

It was like having all the upsides of owning the land without any of the downsides- i.e.- having to protect it with men and material.

This was the main reason the northern wall was built by the family, to stop such raids.

And Miss Linda thought this would be the same case now.

She assumed that natives were probably lured in by the conflict between Alexander and Lord Parker, and sensing the family's weakness, decided to fish in troubled waters.

But she was confident the moment they sensed danger, they would quickly retreat, happy with the mountain of loot they had already collected.

Miss Linda did not even dare imagine that the natives would dare to have any designs for her city.

And there were three good reasons behind her thinking this way.

One was simply hubris, pure and simple.

She believed the natives had been already beaten to a pulp by her family and whatever stragglers remained could no longer possess any true threat to her.

Sure they could be annoying and make life inconvenient for the border folks. But in front of the true might of her family, they were like mosquitoes.

Constantly buzzing around and making one very irritated, but the insect would hardly be able to drain all the blood and kill the body.

The second reason was that even if the natives took her city, it would not be the end for them.

It would only be the beginning.

There was a secret tacit understanding among all the nobles in the entire island that the natives could never be allowed to take any land. And this included even the Strauss family as well as frightening Kaizer ducal family behind them.

These behemoths were yet to act because things had not become so dire but if they did… well, unlike the crippled Margraves, they were still at the peak of their conditions.

So Miss Linda was confident the natives would never be able to hold onto the city even if by some miracle they managed to take it.

Rather, when the time came, they would be surrounded and slaughtered to the last man.

And this certainty made her arrive nicely at her last reason- the native's greed.

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Having read their history, Miss Linda knew of these men's nature and was confident that the natives perfectly knew their predicament.

Which was why upon given a comparable match, she thought they would choose to run with their loot rather than risk losing it all in a fight they really had no chance of winning.

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

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