Herald of Steel

Chapter 767 Entering Thesalie (Part-1)

It was a never before experience and by the end of it, Lady Felicia struggled to even comprehend what was happening to her except that it felt really good.

While Alexander, after months of abstention, did not show any gentleness towards the fairer sex, using her to fully relieve himself, and marking her entire body with red hand prints and flushed skin.

If her husband were to see her body in the next few days, he would at a glance be able to tell what had occurred.

And it was only hours later that the poor lady was allowed to rest, her eyelids by that point drooping like an elephant was standing on them.

She probably fell asleep even before her body hit the bed.

Alexander woke up right at dawn, excited by the prospects the day held, feeling fresh as a flower even after just four hours of sleep.

And as he opened his eyes to the sight of the unusual companion he was sharing the bed with, who was still knocked out cold, he asked himself what he was gonna do about her.

There were marks and hickies all over her, not to mention her lower half was flooded with his gift.

 She was supposed to meet her husband today, and possibly sleep together tonight.

That would be a problem.

So as he got dressed and brushed his teeth with some ash and a twig, he asked Lady Felicia\'s personal maid to come to his tent, handing her some oils and salves and telling her to attend to her mistress. 

 "*Kyah!*" And as the girl lifted up the sheets, about to go start, Alexander heard this sharp, short pitched cry come out, no doubt from the shock of seeing the devastation he had wrought on her mistress\'s body.

In fact, the girl was so shocked that she literally jumped back a few feet and covered her mouth in horror.

If Alexander did not know any better he would have thought he had just shown her her mistress\'s dead body.

But for the maid, this was really her first time seeing Lady Felicia like this.

Even though she was fully aware of her mistress\'s affair with Petrino, how could she not given the long time she was with her, still, nothing like this ever happened..

And if not for the visible peaks and troughs of the lady\'s chest, she might have even feared the worst. 

While Alexander seeing this smirked, \'I wonder if she will tattle to Lapitus,\' though he knew that was unlikely.

Personal maids were usually very tight lipped, that\'s how they got their job in the first place.

So Alexander left the two alone, with a simple letter for Lady Felicia telling her what to do next once she woke up. 

Alexander came out of his tent, a full hour later than the designated time, and found his entourage immaculately dressed and ready.

All his bodyguards wore ceremonial armor, and the horses were all decorated with vibrant clothes and beautifully painted armor, with the lead horse being especially gorgeous, a tall stallion, the biggest of its size there, with snow white, porcelain skin, wretched in gold ornaments and gilded with magnificent ribbons.

The mere presence of this beast seemed to dim all the light around it as if it was soaking it all up.

And many soldiers could be even seen taking furtive glances at it like it was some very beautiful model.

This was a horse Alexander had gotten as a marriage gift from Pasha Farzah when he married Cambyses. 

The old man had written to him very straightforwardly asking what he wanted as a gift, and instead of being coy, Alexander unabashedly replied - a beautiful white horse to show off.

He wanted it knowing that Matrak was famous for having the world\'s finest horse breeds.

Its terrain was much like the steppes of central Asia, and horses in huge herds could be found roaming freely in the wild.

Alexander originally wanted the horse to play as the \'prince on the white horse coming to pick his bride\' during the ceremony.

But the gift could not come on time.

So upon receiving it, he decided to keep the stallion for such special purposes.

Seeing their lord approach, the gathered group quickly got on their own steads, and once everyone was ready, Alexander softly ordered, "Let\'s go."

The procession was hence soon on its way, being personally led by the man himself, with his military officers and nobles in tow, closely followed by numerous infantry on foot.

The approach towards Thesalie was slow and deliberate, with even the short distance from the camp to the city taking a while, while many of the soldiers behind danced, sang, and blew trumpets and horns to signal their triumph.

Along the way, Alexander laid witness to some of the remnants of the battle that remained even till now

with perhaps the biggest one being the concrete wall he had built right in front of the city to attack its wall.

That was still there.

And seeing it made Alexander ponder on what to do about it.

Because now that the city was taken, there was no need for it.

\'I will need to tear it down, huh?\' Hence Alexander thought, the realization making Alexander a bit sad as he was a bit reluctant to do so.

After all, it was a great accomplishment, having built it under those circumstances and in so little time.

Furthermore, he had great sentimental value to him, since this was the thing that really got him the impregnable city.

The wall here laid testament to his own military brilliance if he said it so himself.

But Alexander also knew keeping it was not feasible, not only would it be an obstruction to the traffic moving in and out of the city, but in case of a siege, it would be detrimental to Alexander, as it would allow any attacker to use it like he had done.

But then Alexander thought of turning the thing into a barbican, which was a type of semicircular wall located a bit in front of a castle\'s gate, manned by soldiers to limit access to the main gate.

The road between it and the gates would also be walled, thus making a surprise attack on the gates really impossible.

And since the wall was already there, and it was so thick and formidable, converting it into such a defensive structure seemed like a no brainer.

It was a very tempting thought.

But though very sound on the surface, Alexander soon found several points of contention once he thought about it a bit more.

First of all, the wall was not circular, but straight, simply ending at an open point.

So the gap between it and the city was huge, thus easily letting the enemy get through and attack the gates, kind of defeating the point.

But it could be also argued that this was not a great deal breaker as Alexander would extend the barbican to meet the walls.

Which was where the second problem came in.

And that was that it was too large.

A barbican was built to allow a small garrisoned force to repel a much larger force by preventing them from targeting the fortification\'s weakest structure- the gates.

But since Alexander\'s walls were so big, it lost in the wars of economics.

And lastly, a barbican was originally invented in the Middle Ages to protect a castle\'s gates.

The main point here being one, singular gate.

Whereas Alexander was trying to apply the theory to an entire city with four huge main gates and who knows how many smaller ones.

There were so many of the latter ones that he lost track of counting, 

So to make the barbican effective, Alexander would have to build at least three similar ones.

That was far more hassle than worth it. 

So the wall would be eventually demolished under the brutal hits of hammers and chisels, and in place of the barbican, the city\'s filled up ditches would be \'re -dug\', which played a similar role.

As Alexander came to this decision, his thoughts were soon distracted upon seeing the gates of the city being opened up to him, where lines of cheering soldiers were gathered around both sides of the streets.

All of them had huge smiles on their faces, and if Alexander looked close enough, he could see many having bulging and even overflowing pockets.

No doubt courtesy of all the loot they had taken.

And Alexander even wondered with a smirk in his heart if their smiles were due to seeing him, or because they were in general in such a great mood after having enjoyed themselves for the last three days.

And it was with these thoughts that Alexander at last entered the city of Thesalie, 

"Whooo!"

"Lord Alexander!"

"Lord Pasha!"

"Long live Zanzan! Long live Adhania!"

And the moment he entered, the cheers seemed to have ever so high pitched, reaching such a new feverish, as the sky itself seemed to be shaking.

Please come Here!

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