Herald of Steel

"......"

Facing the objection from the towering and influential Lord Macht, the much younger and junior Lord Parker found himself unable to get even a proper footing in the conversation.

A large part of it was because the next in line duke knew the opposite party had the complete confidence of his father and the latter almost blindly trusted him.

Meaning whatever the man said would go in front of the duke, without the latter not even verifying it most of the time.

There were even occasions when Lord Macht's testimony had trumped Lord Parker's, such as when the latter skipped sword practice to go play hookey, with the father choosing to rather believe his bodyguard over his own flesh and blood.

Of course, such an exalted privilege was not simply given out to anybody by the Duke.

It was something that Lord Macht had earned for himself with his own sweat and blood, drop by drop, inch by inch, over a span of literal decades. All the scars on his body were there to prove all that without a shadow of a doubt.

And in reciprocating to that sacrifice, the Duke gave this great honor to Lord Macht, knowing his loyalty was beyond reproach and his honor unshakable.

The man would never lie about anything to his liege.

It was also one of the primary reasons why Duke Heeat had helped the man get his father's name, as a way to repay the man for his many years of loyal service protecting him, recalling that there were at least two times in his life when he would have surely died in battle if not for this man taking the blow for him.

All these examples went to show that in front of such an influential figure, the 'freshly hatched out of the egg' chick named Lord Parker had trouble standing his ground.

Ignoring this man's advice or going against him was sure to make his father very angry. And once he was informed why his son had done the act, well, the anger was sure to burst into full fledged fury.

Lord Parker was still fearful of his father when it came to such matters. And thus he noticeably shimmered down, figuring fighting this deputy of his father was much more trouble than it was worth.

He quickly broke eye contact with the fearful man and left the stage with only this hidden threat,

"I'm still your lord Lord Macht! You best remember that!"

The threatening words were spoken with an air of grievance as if the young man was lamenting his powerlessness, while also clearly indicating that he could make life very difficult for the other once he took officer.

"Hah! You are not my lord yet brat! Wait until the day you are to talk to me like that!"

Needless to say however, such a weak jibe had minimum effect on Lord Macht.

Forget the fact that Lord Parker had made that 'great' threat with a shaky voice and a weak, thumping heart, even if he was deadly serious, the inflexible warrior would not have budged an inch.

He was sent here by his lord to perform a given set of duties and he would see it was done to the tee no matter who or what obstacles rose in the way.

Even if that obstacle was the next duke himself.

"......."

While hearing how his threat was tossed into the garbage like a waste rag without even a moment's consideration, Lord Parker felt his ego hurt and he clenched his fist to the point his knuckles turned white.

Some of the surrounding soldiers wanted to step forward and defend the man seeing this, however, the moment they recalled that they would have to face Lord Macht- sporting that imposing figure and those icy cold eyes, such mutinous thoughts very quickly fled.

Thus soon a solemn state of silence descended upon the tent, as Lord Macht stepped up to take over.

"Get up!" His very first address was to the kneeling officers, all of whom flashed a ruddy, grateful smile while scampering to their feet.

They all undoubtedly owed their lives this time to this commanding man, one who had dared to go so blatantly against their lord just in order to save them.

And so they were all about to express their gratitude one by one when suddenly this boomed out,

"Tell me what happened out there today! Again!"

Lord Macht did not seem to put much thought into his altruistic action or even about the fact that he had utterly enraged his future employer. Instead, he simply ordered the men to once again retell the events of the day.

"Yes sir. We….."

The first to step forward was the most reactive of the officers, Lord Kite, and began the recount the events in chronological order, before being quickly buttressed by others with their own experiences.

Until finally, it ended with the testimony of that new commander sent as reinforcements.

And as Lord Macht poked and prodded the officers during the interrogation, he came to quickly unearth much of the hidden details regarding what had transpired in the ships, and by the end of it, his blue eyes had turned icy, perhaps even more than the time when he locked horns with Lord Parker.

The experienced veteran who had commanded countless troops over the span of decades could easily spot the flaws in many of these officers' retelling, such as them blaming everything on the Margraves while washing their hands clean.

Lying, or perhaps more accurately- embellishing the truth of the matters to one's supervisor was something that unfortunately was wildly prevalent within all militaries of the world, to the point it had almost taken the form of a tradition, and became a sort of expected way of doing things.

Meaning Lord Macht too had 'lied' and much more importantly been 'lied' to.

And it had happened so many times over so many years that the man had easily developed a very keen nose for being able to suss out any bullshit the other officers might be trying to sell him.

Hence following the end of the recount, his voice boomed out with a freezing shout,

"You claim the Margraves decided to attack you when there was no longer space in the ship? Then why didn't they just stop taking more men and leave?"

"..." There naturally was no answer as every man understood they had been found out. And they did not dare insult Lord Macht's intelligence by saying otherwise.

They simply kept their mouths shut while the other side fumed, their silence laying undeniable testament to the fact that today they were the aggressors here and the Margraves had every right to be indignant.

However, after finding the officers becoming cleverly mute and ashamed, this experienced warrior did not choose to linger on this matter, intending to leave their punishment to others.

Rather, the man suddenly turned his focus to that commander who was in charge of the reinforcements, and as the pair's gaze met, Lord Macht piercingly inquired,

"Commander Rick… why didn't you chase that traitorous Margrave flagship? They could not have gone too far by the time you got here."

Hearing his name being singled out like that, the man cursed his rotten luck, wondering what he had done to deserve to get that deployment today.

'I did nothing wrong today. Rather I helped our troops!' He shouted in his mind defending himself before lifting his head up with clenched teeth to meet Lord Macht.

The man was instantly assaulted by the same sensation Lord Parker had faced when encountering the veteran man, with his body suddenly turning cold and chilly despite the raging fire inside the tent.

For the first time in his life, Rick understood just why this elderly black man was so revered by everyone.

Lord Macht did not always show it, but when he released his imposing aura, it was not one bit inferior to Achillas.

In fact, given the former's much greater age, it was arguably thick, even more tyrannical, one that made any soldier want to follow his order without question.

The commander wasted no time in stepping up and in a very flustered manner spat out his defense within a single breath

"Se.. my lord, my orders back then were to rescue the men. When I got there, many of the men were freezing to death on the water, while those few atop the bridge seemed to be on the verge of falling any second. All my attention was taken by them."

What the man said was indeed true, all the men waiting for rescue had let out intense shouts of joy upon seeing them, then pleaded for help.

It was also something Lord Macht could easily imagine, as well as verify with the other crews.

But the man would not have to do any of that, as after giving this answer, Rick quickly added this as a way to divert the former's attention,

"Also my lord, when I spotted the Margrave flagship, they had already sailed quite a distance and I simply assumed they were going there to rescue Lord Kite. Perhaps you should him."

Hearing his name being uttered out of nowhere like this, Lord Kite instantly cursed the man and his entire fourteen generation.

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

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