Steel and Sorrow: Rise of the Mercenary king - Chapter 323

Chapter 323: Nice development Chapter 323: Nice development Alpheo sat at his desk, the golden light of the afternoon sun streaming through the arched windows of his chamber.

The faint scratching of his quill echoed in the quiet room as he meticulously penned the edict on fine parchment.

His hand moved with precision, the ink flowing smoothly as he detailed the grant of administrative powers to the bodies he had chosen to govern the fiefs of Egil, Jarza, Clio, and Asag.  Finishing the text, he leaned back and inspected his work, nodding in satisfaction.

He reached for the block of wax resting on the edge of the table and held it carefully over the flame of a nearby candle.

The wax softened, dripping onto the parchment in a deliberate, rounded pool.

From his desk, Alpheo retrieved the banner stamp of House Veloni-Isha, a carved sigil of the house’s crest-a soaring phoenix with nine fists around .He pressed it firmly into the warm wax, holding it for a moment before lifting it away.  The letter’s text formally assigned governance to the two administrative bodies dispatched to the fiefs.

These bodies, composed of advisors handpicked by Alpheo, were to oversee taxation, justice, and the maintenance of order.

Of course Alpheo had not done this out of his own will, for after all he was not the owner of those fiefs; he was instead requested to do so by his companions, who admitted not to knowing jack-shit about ruling.  “We can barely hold a quill, let alone rule over people “they had told him when he asked the reason for their choice.

And Alpheo had obliged them, not only sending capable administrators but also crafting and delivering the sigils they lacked-simple rings bearing their banners that the would use for official document..  Having sealed the administrative edict, Alpheo reached for the small stack of papers neatly arranged at the corner of his desk resuming the rest of his work .

His fingers brushed over the pile, selecting one from the top.

The document detailed the expenditures from the royal coffers in the last two month, where apparently Alpheo had spent 35,000 silverii on the various expenses related to the aqueduct, with an additional 5,000 to send weapons to the various villages in his national effort to fortify the coastal villages.

As Alpheo read through the report, a faint smile touched his lips.

The expenditures had proven to be a sound investment.

Over the past month, there had been a significant decline in requests for state aid to rebuild burned villages.

The modest defensive measures, combined with the stationed army, had not only repelled the small pirate raiding parties that had long plagued the coast but also dissuaded further attempts.

Reports even indicated a sharp decrease in the number of raiding ships altogether, as the pirates realized there were far easier targets than the crownland’s now-militarized villages.

This outcome was no surprise to Alpheo; he had anticipated it.

After all, most of these pirates were not hardened warriors but desperate peasants looking to earn a few coins before returning to their fields or families.

Their inexperience and lack of discipline made them poorly equipped to handle armed resistance.

Faced with villages that actively fought back and yielded scant rewards for their trouble, they quickly reconsidered their choices.

Rather than persist against these fortified villages, the pirates had begun moving northward to attack less-prepared settlements under lords who had failed to allocate any response to such threats.

In any case it was now their problem, not his.

Such undertakings , while yielding tangible results, had left Alpheo’s coffers unfortunately almost barren, with a mere 6,000 silverii remaining.

The weight of such a sum-paltry for him that held just few months prior 45,000-was felt keenly by him as he reviewed the numbers.

Maybe I am a bit too lax with money….

Still, the timing could not have been better.

It was August, and the harvest was in full swing.

Soon, a round of taxation would bring much-needed resources to the court.

Nobles, as always, would deliver their tributes-primarily in coin-but it was the grain that Alpheo truly sought from the private fiefs of the crown .

For his future ambitions, silver was secondary to sustenance.

Grain was the foundation of his plans that he wanted to work on this year .

The work he envisioned would require more than just funds; it demanded a steady and abundant supply of food.

The princedom’s low population remained a persistent problem, one that Alpheo intended to solve by encouraging migration and resettlement.

But to attract and sustain a larger population, Yarzat would need full granaries, he could certainly not hope to invite people and then leave them on their own without food or help for a few months.

Grain meant security.

It meant being able to weather poor harvests, feed laborers engaged in state projects, and support new settlers as they integrated into Yarzat’s lands.

Without it, even the most ambitious schemes would collapse under the weight of hunger, unless of course one had ample coin to buy the grain he needed.

Putting away the positive thoughts about the upcoming harvest, Alpheo reached for another report from the stack on his desk. However, the moment his eyes scanned the header of the parchment, his calm demeanor shattered into a flash of irritation.

The report was from Herculia, sent by the two men he had sent there to make use of the rebels.

He clenched the parchment tightly, his knuckles whitening.

This?

Here of all places?

If he hadn’t decided to sift through the mundane reports tonight, who knew when he might have stumbled upon it?

Alpheo’s jaw tightened as he resolved to have a very pointed conversation with his secretaries.

Their laxity was unacceptable.

Reports such as this belonged in the priority file, not buried beneath mundane village assessments and minor trade correspondences.

He took a slow breath, forcing himself to focus.

The problem of his staff could wait until tomorrow; for now, the report needed his undivided attention.

In truth, Alpheo could hardly place the blame entirely on his secretaries.

The fault lay in the nature of the letter itself.

At first glance, it was the picture of innocence-a benign correspondence between supposed friends, with nothing about it to arouse suspicion.

In fact, Alpheo had gone to great lengths to ensure it appeared that way.

He was no fool; he understood that what he was orchestrating was tantamount to supporting a covert insurgency in another nation-a diplomatic taboo of the highest order.

Such actions required absolute discretion.

If any part of this operation was uncovered, nothing could lead back to him or Yarzat.

The letter was deceptively simple, devoid of any distinctive markings, save for an odd, faint circle near the far-left margin of the envelope containing the letter.

To the casual observer, it would seem a meaningless blot-a careless dab of ink from an unsteady quill.

But Alpheo had designed it that way.

For those who knew what to look for, the circle was a subtle sign.

The true brilliance of the deception lay in its construction.

To anyone holding it, the letter was a single sheet of harmless pleasantries.

But if one carefully peeled apart the seemingly ordinary parchment, they would find two pages glued together.

Inside, hidden between the layers, lay the real message-written in clear, uncompromising detail.

Still, maybe the letter fell into the hand of a clumsy secretary who failed to spot the ink.

Anyway I will talk with them, afterward.

For now, I am curious of what’s inside.

——— I write with the most promising news regarding our endeavors.

The rebel band has successfully assimilated several smaller bands, swelling their numbers to nearly a thousand active combatants.

This force, though unconventional, is proving to be more than sufficient for the tasks assigned to us.

As per your directive, the mission concerning the twin fortresses has been accomplished with precision.

Both Kiryo and Srits have fallen, delivered into rebel hands.

After initial failures regarding any assault made on the first castle,we unwillingly took the rein of the operation understanding that if it continued it would lead to a riot of the men within the band, or so we believe from the behavior in the camp.We hereby report the strategy that was used to take the castles.

During one of the assault, we created a fake cavalry charge, masqueraded as reinforcements,which compelled the garrison to open their gates in desperate hope once the attackers were made to rout .

Once the gates were opened, and the rebel’s forces went in , they wasted no time.

Control of the gatehouse was swiftly secured, and the rest of their forces poured in, overwhelming the defenders.

By the time the sun set seven times, both fortresses were firmly in their grip.

As we deliver the report , we apologiz for the matter given the order that they we not to get too close to the endevour, unfortunately we believe that our actions was required to make sure that the task assigned to us was to meet success.

As we look to the future, the next phase of the plan awaits your guidance.

I humbly await your next directive and stand ready to ensure its execution with the same precision and discretion that has marked our efforts thus far.

——– As Alpheo finished reading the letter, he paused, his brow lifting in surprise.

The news within was far more promising than he had anticipated.

The two individuals he had chosen to lead this covert operation , selected primarily because they were expendable, and yet they had not only met his expectations but exceeded them.  He allowed himself a small, rare smile of satisfaction and a bit of admiration , too.

Their method was a clever twist on a strategy Alpheo himself had once employed to secure his entry into Yarzat after the death of Arkawatt.

Yet, while he now was forced into working within the tightrope constraints of diplomacy and noble law-the rebels had no such limitations.

They had the freedom to employ methods that a prince could only dream of without facing the consequences of dishonor or political backlash.

The rebels’ use of a falsified banner, for instance, was a tactic that, in Alpheo’s position, would have been unthinkable.

Faking the heraldry of another house was not only a grave crime but also an unpardonable affront to noble decorum.

For a prince, such an action could destroy alliances and provoke endless feuds.

Yet for these rebels, unshackled by the burdens of nobility, it was merely a means to an end.  Initially I had thought to use them for this one job, yet apparently I understimated their ability….

he thought as he drummed his fingers onto the desk ,reaching the conclusion that perhapse discarding them after this work finished was too much of a waste, as he after all was still in the midst of building an undercover network, and perhapse he had already found the first two members….