Herald of Steel

Ptolomy rebelled out of genuine pity for his country, but Alexander wondered how much he understood still now that the nobles were just using him.

Ptolomy's story continued, "The first few years were very hush-hush. There were only a few of us. But it all began to change three years ago when the drought hit."

'I wonder if that Farzah guy knows black magic and caused the drought. At this point it would not surprise me,' Alexander had grown weary of this Farzah.

"The drought devastated Adhania, and although it was a tragedy for Adhania, it was a boon for us. The drought gave us the rallying cry we needed and our numbers swelled, But it could not still hope to compete with the royalists."

Ptolomy then produced a different smile, a slightly ashamed smile, "So we asked for foreign aid. And Tibias and Cantagena responded."

"But," his octaves roared again, "it was to save my Adhania, To save it from the clutches of a deranged lunatic."He justified his actions.

"I see," Alexander seemed to uncharacteristically agree with Ptolomy.

And then asked the question that crept up in his mind, "So, this asking for foreign aid, was it you that bought it up or….." Alexander trailed off.

"It was Pasha… Farzah." Even the slow Ptolomy began to see the pattern and smelled something was not right.

'Oh, you poor naive child, the Cantagenans and Tibiasians were already there. You didn't call them, they called you,' Alexander made a bold assumption that the coup's real intention was to carve up the nation by these three factions and Ptolomy was just the scapegoat.

Alexander noticed Ptolomy half connect the dots, but didn't give him the luxury of time to think. "So, the Cantagenans and TIbisians, they wanted to help you out of the kindness of the heart? Because the people were suffering and they felt it was heaven's will to help you?" Alexander found himself to be in a sarcastic mood now.

When asked about the details of the negotiations Ptolomy turned a bit red, "Those are secret negotiations. Nothing had been set in stone."

Alexander was displeased with this avoidance, "You are in our hands. To ensure that you do stay in our hand, and not end up in the king's, it's in your best interest to satisfy us," He growled.

Feeling the weight of the many eyes cast their cold gazes on him, Ptolomy could not hold it, he buckled, "Farzah said that our army was vastly outnumbered and that it was no match for Amenheraft's elites."

'Of course, it was Farzah- why was that guy not king, but this waste,' Alexander moaned in his mind.

Ptolomy was still talking, "So he said only hope was to take advantage of the fact that they were away campaigning and gather reinforcement before they had the time they could soon return to retake the city."

"And so we sent for the Cantagenan reinforcement-you while Tibias launched a suicidal attack to the south to draw the army's attention away."

"It was a very good plan, with the real hard part of it getting to the capital before the army could. And we did do that. But somehow the king beat us anyway." Alexander drew a rueful smile.

And it infected everyone in the room.

"Yea, maybe he really is blessed by Ramuh," Ptolomy had a dejected tone to his voice.

"So, the plan was to use the Cantagenans to fight the Adhanians? But doesn't Adhania traditionally crush Cantagena in land battle?" Alexander seemed to find a glaring flaw in the plan.

"No, no, we have intended to fight in them in open ground." Ptolomy raised with hands and waved them around to deny this tactic.

"The plan was to have your's and my forces use the large walls of Adhan to repel any sieges and essentially starve the besieging army. We have already gathered all the food from nearby places so they can't forage and we knew they had little food with them. And even if they did have a lot of food that would make their supply chain huge and slow, and be unable to come to their king's aid immediately. That would give us more time to consolidate our power." Ptolomy was forced to reveal his plan in its entirety.

'Hmm, I see. The plan is pretty solid. Due to the still infantile development of proper siege technology at this time, breaching the ten-meter-high walls would be almost impossible. Adhan by its terrain is nigh impregnable, situated on a cliff and having one of its sides facing the 'Life Sea.' Alexander only lampooned the fact that 'Man proposes and God disposes.'

"*Sigh*, If you don't have luck on your side, all the planning in the world means nothing," It was unknown if Alexander was saying it to Ptolomy or himself.

"Maybe the gods do exist," Ptolomy released a dejected sigh for the umpteenth time.

"So, what did Cantagena and Tibias want in return?" Alexander wanted to know what he had offered them, especially Cantagenan that launched a war even when they could not afford to.

Ptolomy forcefully smiled, "We promised Acme and the Zanzan province to Cantagena and a few southern provinces to Tibias."

"Heh, you sold your country? Didn't you want to save it?" Alexander taunted unreservedly.

This seemed to hit Ptolomy's sensitive spot as he flared up, "Don't assume stuff you have no idea about, brat."

But this outburst didn't faze Alexander as he only chuckled, "Tell me, did you plan to take them back once you took the throne?"

"That…that.." With his intention to break his promise totally exposed, Ptolomy started another round of flapping his mouth like a fish, but he eventually recovered and shouted, "I would never do that."

But Alexander read him like a book as he avoided eye contact while saying that, which was a tell of him lying, something Alexander had noticed quite early on.

"Heh," Alexander didn't bother arguing with him and only gave a snigger.

"So, how did you pull off the coup, like occupy the actual city and take the throne," Alexander asked off a tangent.

Ptolomy again looked around to find the curious gazes and replied, "First we arranged for Manuk to leave for the army under a false pretense. Then, a merchant from Tibias came to Amenheraft saying he knew of a herb to cure father and only someone of divine blood was qualified to pluck it. Amenheraft left the capital with a paltry force and with the forces Pasha Farzah had smuggled into the city, we took it in his absence. Our only mistake was letting Kefka escape and alert the king early. Ohh, that merchant is with us- he is called Kalopsus." Ptolomy named someone to help corroborate his story.

"Hmmm, tell me more about this Farzah?" Alexander was intrigued by this scheming old coot and wanted to know more.

"Pasha Farzah," Ptolomy seemed to be correcting ALexander for calling a noble with his honorifics. After that, he delineated, "He is around fifty years old. His territory- the Matrak province is huge and borders Exolas and because he trades with both them and Cantagena, his riches are second to only the royal family. But he is not arrogant. He treats everyone, even a neglected prince like me..."

Ptolomy then turned into a simp fanboy as he droned on and on about how good and kind and all the other superlatives this guy was and Alexander failed to get much of anything other than the things that were publicly known.

Alexander then impatiently raised his hand to stop with sycophantic drivel and asked, "Okay, now let's return to the topic why should we keep you? You are very dangerous to give refuge to and you have no money to pay for our services."

"I can get you.." Ptolomy almost shouted.

"We want it upfront. We have been cheated too many times with this 'later payment promise to fall for it again," Alexander shut off Ptolomy's proposal.

"Why are you being like that? You are going in the same direction anyway? What's the harm?" Ptolomy almost turned nagging and grumbling.

"Who said we are going north?" Alexander was curious why Ptolomy made that guess.

"Heh, you think I'm that easy to fool? Where are you gonna go anyway, south?" Ptolomy spoke in a disdainful tone.

Their destination Cantagena lay west to Adhania, and north, north-west, and south, south-west, were their only options as Adhan lay to the east and directly west lay marches and jungles that were very hard terrain.

"Why? What's to the south?" Alexander had an ominous feeling.

Understanding these fools were about to march to their doom, Ptolomy burst into hysteria, "Hahaha, you fools were really gonna march south? Haha, then forget what I said. Please go ahead, hahaha," Ptolomy found the entire situation so funny that he found it hard to keep himself seated, almost rolling into the floor.

"Why what south?" Alexander asked in a harsh tone, not finding the situation at all funny.

The lives of ten thousand men were at stake.

Understanding angering the mercenaries was not in his best interest, Ptolomy stopped laughing and turned his eyes into a gleeful crescent, "Let me guess, you want to travel south, enter a city and catch a ship to Cantagena, am I right?"

And was Alexander's plan.

"But you see, in winter, the sea winds south of our country reverses. So no ship leaves for Cantagena. Ships can come from Cantagena, but the opposing winds are too strong to make the return trip."

Then Ptolomy let out a huge grin in glee, "Hehe, it looks like you are stuck with me. Escort me to Agnirat and I will find 'escorts' to take your home,"

The remaining audience did not find his rhyme funny.

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