Herald of Steel

"My king! Hahaha, it seems you have managed to capture the manor all yourself. Looks like I was never needed, haha," A few whiles after Perseus entered, Leosydas too made his debut, and quickly came to meet up with him in the outer hall room, greeting his liege with a joke and a victorious smile.

And upon placing his eyes on his friend, and already knowing what he had done, Perseus\'s eyes widened in pleasure as he too replied with a large grin,

"Oh, it\'s good that you are here! This time we could not have won without you. You really are the hero of Tibias!"

And he meant it when he said so because without Leosydas\'s attack from the other side, he knew they would still be stuck on the other side even now.

"That\'s *cough*, *cough*," But just as Leosydas was about to answer, he suddenly started violently coughing, and with it came clumps of blood and gore, as the man bent down subconsciously clutching the areas around his wound.

"Leo! Wha…your wound!" And seeing this Perseus immediately understood what was going on as he rushed to support his friend.

And he was not the only one that came to Leosydas\'s rescue for everyone in the room did too, with one of the nobles then quickly shouting, "Doctor! Get a doctor. Leosydas\'s wounds have opened up, get a doctor!"

It seemed that all the movement and strenuous activity in the past few hours had snapped the man\'s delicate stitches and opened the gaping wound up, even causing a huge amount of blood to flow out of the tight bronze armor.

It seemed the stitches were very well torn.

While Perseus, seeing his friend in this position, was in no position to consider anything else, and quickly ordered him to be moved to a nearby bed in any of the nearby rooms, with him personally accompanying him.

But before he left the scene, he left with these series of instructions to his adjutant,

"Clean the manor up! Gather all the prisoners and move them to the dungeons. Throw the dead bodies outside!"

"Then take the kitchens and start preparing a hot meal. The troops are exhausted."

"And after that get back control of the army and start to organize them."

"We will launch an attack and take the city before midday."

Perseus vomited this quick list of incongruent but connected activities from the top of his head, going on to show that no matter how busy he was, the king was still a competent leader, able to recognize what was needed from him with just a thought.

"Yes, my lord," And immediately came the answer with an accompanying salute.

"Oh!" But before the man could go off to carry out these tasks, suddenly Perseus\'s low hum reached him as if the king remembered something, and so he turned around to hear the man dressed in luxurious armor say,

"But before all that, secure the treasury. And then bring to me all those related to Alexander, wherever they are."

"*Nod*" The adjutant silently bowed at this, though he really did not want to go door to door looking for his target when all those things were happening.

As a man, he really had no interest in seeing other men naked and busy doing \'that\'.

But just as he pictured this, suddenly he stopped, not choosing to immediately leave.

Instead, he fidgeted his eyes a bit, as if he was contemplating whether to say his idea aloud.

But he was still not sure how to say it.

Until finally, knowing time was limited and Perseus was not going to stand around all day waiting for him, he plucked up his courage and asked,

"Umm, Your Majesty….would it be possible…umm perhaps may I take one of the concubines?....…Just for a day or two!"

The man added the second sentence very quickly, already sporting a deep crimson blush on his face as he asked so.

And seeing this Perseus was at first a bit surprised.

While this silence made the young squire feel afraid as he thought he had asked something very improper.

"Oh….Pooofff….Hahaha," But such concerns were blown away by Perseus\'s boisterous laughter who had only been surprised at the man\'s reaction as he had asked the question.

And as the adjutant raised his eyes at this sound, he was greeted with a toothy grin, as the king added,

"Oh, I remember you are still very young, haha."

"But I never thought you were that inexperienced, haha. Be sure to visit some brothels come we go back, hehe."

Perseus got a good chuckle from this as he never expected anyone would ask permission for something so obvious, while the young adjutant who has joined Perseus as a way to gain experience felt his cheeks burning up in embarrassment.

The young man was quite conservative in love, and though he heard of such things before, this was essentially his first time seeing it up close and personal, hence the shame.

And so it took monumental courage for him to ask that \'shameful\' request.

While Perseus treated it as if he was asking for some bread, only breezily waving his hand and saying, "Yes, yes, you can have any woman you like. Now, go, go," as he almost shooed him away.

"Any woman!" But the adjutant did not go and only stood there in exclamation.

Because according to the unspoken rules of the Tibian military, in case of a large city\'s capture, the city lord\'s main wife and daughter were said to belong to the highest person in command.

And though it was no ironclad law, and many times the soldiers capturing the women had their way before presenting them to their command without facing any consequence, this time it was different, for this time it was the king himself who was in charge of the army.

As such it was expected that Cambyses should be handed over to him unharmed.

But Perseus did not seem to be in the mood for this, thus said to his adjutant, "Yes, yes, I\'m not interested. Take any number of women you like. Just be sure to finish what I said," as he gave the man full reign to choose anyway.

"Thank you! Thank you, Your Majesty!" And hearing Perseus was relinquishing his claim of him, this of course got a huge grin from the young man, who excused himself with a salute and then quickly started to search for his destined one.

Though that euphoric glee quickly turned to bitter frustration when even after a solid half an hour he turned empty-handed.

"What do you mean you found no one?" The young man snapped at a captain whom he had tasked with leading the search.

"I\'m sorry my lord. But we sent men to every room and even asked the women present here if they related to the lord. But none replied." The captain hung his head a bit low as he answered, adding, "We even asked if they were nobles, *shake*, *shake*."

The man answered with a gesture from his head.

He too was feeling a bit dejected as being unable to accomplish the task even when he was given 4 phalanx units, which were more than a thousand men.

"......." While the adjutant hearing this turned silent.

According to the captain, his men should have visited every room with \'occupants\' in them, and it should not have been hard to determine who was a noble and who was a peasant even at first glance.

Noble ladies simply had fairer skin, smelled better, and even generally more beautiful.

Even if the woman lied and kept quiet, the soldiers enjoying her should have ratted her out.

And it should not even have come to it.

Because generally, noble women would either commit suicide in such cases or come forth on their own volition to prevent getting gang-raped by the common soldiery.

Because even if their fate was to be violated, most preferred to be taken by one or two military leaders rather than drown in the filth of the common mass.

Because can you imagine what the crutches of those soldiers who had walked and fought for so long might be like?

Or when it was the last time they took a bath?

The filthiness and hygiene around there need not be said.

And it was even not uncommon for many women to retch and vomit just from the smell coming from there.

Hence all this made it all the more baffling that Cambyses had not been caught yet

"Could they have escaped?" So the only real possibility lay there, as the adjutant pronounced with deep bitterness to his voice, while the captain stayed silent, not having anything to add.

But this silence inadvertently proved to be a tactile admission, as the adjutant then silently cursed to himself, \'Dammit!\'

He had found Cambyses quite attractive upon first seeing her on that wall, and when the manor had been taken, very much wished to take her, a desire which had been further fueled up until now by all the explicit scenery all around him.

But now that bird had escaped, possibly through a secret passage, while he was left with a rock-hard boner.

No man liked being blue-balled.

But that frustration did not last long.

For it was soon filled with fear, as suddenly one of the soldiers was seen sprinting towards him full speed, his face filled with terror, and bringing his legs to a screeching halt at the last second he shouted towards the adjutant, "Fire! The manor is on fire!"