Herald of Steel

The guards stationed near the gates showed each of their skills, describing it in the most exaggerated, flashy way their limited vocabulary allowed.

In front of the learned shaman, they could not use their usually vulgar language.

But among them, one man stood out from the rest. And that was due to how different his speech was from the rest.

A gentleman of elderly stature, this veteran man chimed up to sincerely note,

" 'Holy Father' it is too dangerous to go out all alone on your own! We hear wolves and foxes howling all the time from the forests. Some even come out and gnaw at our walls, bitting at it madly. Half the animals go mad during this time of the year. Only inside here can the Great Father protect us all from all the evil of the Mother Goddess."

The pious man quickly offered a silent prayer as he reported the dangers that lay outside the tribe's walls, cautioning Tepin out of genuine goodwill.

"Right! Even we do not dare go out alone." He was then quickly supported by the guard's captain, who flashed the spear he was holding and shook it a bit.

This was his subtle way of hinting at Tepin that the man was defenseless.

And truly, Tepin did not have so much as a dagger on him, for shamans were prohibited from carrying such crude items of blood and violence.

Not to mention the material it would be made out of.

A shaman carrying a steel item outside of war! Even someone as powerful and high ranked as Tepin would find it hard to claw out of that outrageous scandal.

Any normal shaman would be stripped of his position and then be burnt at the stake.

But now such strict belief constraints were coming back to bite him in the rear.

It was common knowledge that many animals went crazy during winter, sometimes to the point of eating their own young.

It happened due to a scarcity of available food.

But these primitive people did not know that and as usual, attributed the phenomenon to supernatural forces.

In the native religious beliefs, just like the night and day, the year too was evenly divided among the Father and Mother spirits, with the warmer months i.e. from April to September belonging to the 'good' spirits, while the rest of the colder months from October to March belonged to 'Her' malicious forces.

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This distinction had a profound social impact on the Helvati as well as other native tribes.

Marriages, childbirths, business ventures, and even the start of wars were dictated by which month they were in, and one of the factors the shamans used when making prophecies and fortune tellings was this.

All this meant that it would seem highly suspicious to the guards if Tepin were to leave his tribe all alone at night in the dead of winter. Not to mention dangerous.

Upon hearing the pleadings from the man, Tepin also realized this.

He had made the decision to leave the

So turning around he spoke, "The chief asked me to keep this an absolute secret, but I am on my way to ask the Mexxity for more men. We need their men for the war!"

"Mexxity!" The utterance of the word instantly brought equal parts hate and surprise.

They were the Helvati's closest rival and seen as the source of at least eighty percent of all their troubles. Needless to say, the relationship between the two was frosty at best.

So how could a high ranking man like Tepin be going to meet them at such an hour, they all thought?

"See! The chief sent me out in such a harsh time precisely because of this. Because he knew the people would not support him. But the fact is we need their men. You all must have heard of the land deal right?"

Of course, they had heard it. Tepin had spent the last few weeks doing nothing but stuffing the entire tribe's ears with nothing but that.

"We heard the chief call for war today afternoon! So it's true?" Tepin noticed the aura around them clearly the moment he brought up the mention of the deal.

All the lethargy and concern for him were washed away by this great wave of zealous energy. The allure of new land was that potent to the natives.

Although Tepin had perfectly predicted this, but still, he found it eye opening.

He now perfectly understood how Atzi was able to turn even his strongest supporter against him within just a few short hours.

It might have sounded miraculous or even ridiculous, but if she were to promise them land and then swear that Alexander would only negotiate with her and her husband, few would choose to remain with him.

After all, even if they were completely blind loyal followers, Tepin would still have to reward them somehow for their service.

But the question was what could he offer that Metztil couldn't?

He could not even match Metztil's offer.

While if what Atzi said was true about the condition of the deal and the drought, killing Metztil now would likely make Tepin the greatest criminal of his tribe.

No true Helvati would be so blind as to sacrifice their entire tribe just for one man's foolish ambitions.

Not when the result would be him forcefully gripping onto power only until the famine hit when the enraged people would likely barbeque and eat him.

When Tepin thought about it like that, he strangely no longer felt bitter about his loss.

In fact, a part of him now even wished Metztil to succeed, because that would also mean his mother and children would have a greater chance of surviving.

But that did not mean was ready to throw in the towel for the chief's seat himself.

Thus towards the excited guards, Tepin very succinctly retold a modified version of the story, one where it had been presumably secretly decided that the Helvati and Mexxity would ally together with Alexander.

"Due to the bad blood between us and to avoid riling up the people, the chief wants me to deliver a message to them, asking for our armies to march separately and only meet up once we have crossed the 'southern' wall."

To the natives, the same 'northern wall' of the Margraves was called the southern wall…. because it was south of them.

"Ahhh!" And at this, the soldiers produced an 'enlightened' look.

It was unknown how much they truly understood of the political ongoings but they were happy to be simply included in the conversation.

For common folks like this, it proved to be the juiciest gossip. And like any old gossip, they did not bother to think twice about what was revealed.

And thus it was under an armed escort that Tepin was oh so helpfully escorted out of their tribe.

Tepin was clever to escape when he did.

Because under his wife's directive, Metztil had tried to actually have the mother son pair killed the very day he gave the order for the army to mobilize.

He sought consent from the nobles to do so, offering them a larger plot of land in exchange.

However, they were denied on grounds of maintaining tribal brotherhood and harmony and instead urged to be more lenient.

In reality, some of the elites still held respect for Tepin's mother and many of the military officers remembered his father fondly, for he was the great general who won the decisive battle that got the Helvati their current position.

So they were unwilling to see such a great man's line be cut off just like that.

And unwilling to push these people's buttons just as they were about to start a war, Metztil had little choice but to consent.

Hence the deal that Tepin had suspected was struck- as long as nobles stopped supporting Tepin and ceased causing trouble for Metztil, he would let the pair live as well as look past their own involvement in past misdeeds.

This was an easy thing for the nobles to agree to because it served both their personal and tribal interests.

Thus one of the braver ones even frankly explained himself,

"Chief Metztil, this deal is too easy for us to accept. And I believe you also misunderstand us. We never had any grudges against you… nor did we seek to betray you in any way.

The only reason we supported Tepin was because he was able to point out many of your lackings. So we used him to present those to you.. for the good of the tribe. Heh heh… like those outsiders say- a sword is only tempered under heat and pressure."

Metztil had to try hard not to put on a disgusted face as he heard this perfidy.

Sure enough, these old foxes changed skins faster than snakes.

Mixing truth into lies, and ditching allies the moment it did not suit them any longer, this particular noble could be said to be the perfect embodiment of the spirit of the tribe's elites.

Metztil only coldly shrugged the man's hollow words and instead ordered them to concentrate on gathering the asked men.

10,000 men were quickly gathered within three days and soon Alexander found Metztil had returned.

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