Herald of Steel

Chapter 725 Lapitus and Alexander (Part-2)

Lapitus's request for more time made Alexander ruminate. 

If he did so, it could mean getting the city without burning it down.

On the other hand, he had already spread the exact deadline for surrender.

So deviating from it would damage his image.

So before he made any decision, Alexander wanted details.

".....how many are you? And what will you do with the time?" He thus posed.

"There are a few hundred of us! Much more than the fifty or so men under Petrino! We just need a bit more time to get all of them together and capture them!" 

Lapitus very quickly and loudly claimed.

Though he very cleverly skipped the fact that the few hundred men he claimed to have also officially belonged to these fifty men.

How many would choose to rebel and join him when the time truly came remained yet to be seen.

"....." While Alexander, both unaware and unconcerned about this, paused again to think.

 Agreeing to this extension would be a bit problematic, but a far greater shame would be if Alexander were to deny them this coup.

So he then changed the topic to get to know Lapitus.

"What can you tell me about yourself? Why did the soldiers choose you? Weren't you the former city lord's trusted man? Why do this? What about your oath?"

He wanted to know the type of person he was dealing with.

"My family has served Lord Ponticus for generations. And I would have gladly died by my oath for the former lord." Lapitus was very loud and defensive when claiming this, but then his voice turned bitter and even hated filled, 

"But the current lord…his son….hmmp, …I owe him nothing! I have not sworn fealty to him, neither do I intend to!"

It was very apparent that the two men had some significant beef with each other.

Though Lapitus seemed reluctant to elaborate, which was understandable given Alexander was just a stranger he had only met and no one would want to reveal such intimate details so soon.

Thus instead, after clenching his teeth during a slight pause, Lapitus quickly changed his tone to a firm, strong one and declared, 

"Nevermind even if I was bound by my oath, I still might not have followed those fools. They refuse to see reason even when pushed this far."

"Forty thousand! We lost forty thousand men and still they refuse to surrender!"

"If Lord Ponticus was here, he certainly would have done so and saved the lives in the city."

"So, I am not breaking my oath. I'm following it!"

Lapitus sounded very confident in this claim to even Alexander, though here he was actually lying through his teeth.

For if Lord Ponticus was here, not only would he have surrendered, he would have fought on till the last man, woman, and child in the city laid their lives in defense of it, and that would have even extended to his own family, where perhaps even the threat of complete massacre of them right in front of him might not have been enough to coax him to the negotiating tables.

The proud man was that much devoted to his task.

Furthermore, if he was alive, no soldier would have dared to rebel and do what Lapitus was doing.

The man was too prestigious and cast too dark a shadow on the man's heart for that to ever have the slightest chance of happening.

Lapitus even literally felt his knees shake just thinking about doing this kind of thing behind his former boss's back.

While on the contrary, hearing Lapitus's claim, Alexander usually commented with a twinge of regret, "Hmm, perhaps it was a mistake to kill him, " though it was doubtful how much of it he actually meant.

As for Lapitus, he forcefully suppressed the fear of that deadly possibility and instead finished his piece by saying, 

"That is why I gathered the men under me to try and save the city because my lord would have wished so. Because my lord would have wanted us to be alive without family." 

Lapitus presented his case as him carrying out the will of his deceased lord and thus fulfilling his vow.

And not as a coup to grab power. 

Whereas the reality was almost as almost as different as black was to white.

First of all, it was the regular soldiers who had come to him, begging him to lead them. 

He never took charge.

In fact when he was initially asked, he was even reluctant to commit this act treasonous act.

As a matter of fact, the soldiers did not even come to him per se.

The chain of events was far more roundabout.

What actually happened was that a few of the wives of the officers under him had actually come to see his wife.

These ladies were close friends of each other due to their husbands being colleagues, and it was them who had first asked Lady Felicia, Lapitus's wife to pass on the message to her husband.

And it was really her who had managed to convince Lapitus to accept this, and this was after quite some back and forth and even a bit of a row.

At one point, the lady had even taken their daughter on her lap and shrieked, 

"Here! Look at your daughter and say that you want to see us dead! Say that you want to see us with our throats slit. Say that you want to have us raped and violated!"

"You already failed to protect me once, now you want to fail even your daughter?" 

It was especially those last words uttered by the lady of the house that had bitten Lapitus particularly hard, more so when he was reminded of that unpleasant event from some time ago.

And it was that scene of the mother daughter duo holding each other and looking at him expectably that finally forced Lapitus off the edge of indecision and commit to this conspiracy.

So in reality he was nowhere as eager to rebel as he was painting himself to be in front of Alexander.

Furthermore, his painting of Lord Ponticus as a man of the people, someone who really cared about the lives of his subjects was a complete lie.

The truth was largely the opposite.

In that man's eyes, the people existed to basically serve him and the city- Thesalie, little more than that.

So Lapitus was largely doing this to save his family, and nothing so grand as defending his oath.

And though there was nothing wrong with the former, the latter sounded much cooler.

Hence his reasons for saying so.

As for Alexander, well it was very difficult for him to verify whether Lapitus was lying or not, especially in the short term.

And even if he was, it was of little concern to him.

Because his main calculus would not change.

The digging of the first wall was still ongoing, and whether or not Lapitus successfully managed to hand over the city or not, would continue at its current pace regardless.

As a matter of fact, if Alexander wanted he could extend his deadline for the surrender till the day he launched his attack on the second wall.

Hence he generously proposed, "Okay. I will give you some time. How about I make it two weeks instead of the one?"

Alexander tone's was magnanimous. 

"That…" But instead of Lapitus quickly accepting it, his lips curved and twitched a bit.

Clearly, he wanted more.

"That….three weeks would be better my lord. Getting all of them together in a single hall will take a bit of time," Lapitus explained his need, adding, 

"But once we do that, I can officially declare the surrender of the city without contention. That will spill less blood on both sides," 

It seemed Lapitus wanted to neutralize all the higher-ups at once so then there would be no possibility of anyone ordering any of the garrisons to go fight him or Alexander's invading forces when they broke through.

The coup would be much easier to conduct that way, without the soldiers receiving conflicting orders. 

That would also make the takeover of the city much less chaotic.

And this was certainly one of the reasons for Lapitus wanting more time.

Though another major reason for requiring this long period of time was because Lapitus wanted to see if the ten thousand reinforcements promised to him would really come.

That additional troop had the chance of changing the whole equation and though he would not outright admit it, he still held out hope for the city's salvation.

He hence put his foot on both boats.

Of course, he hid this latter and only presented the former.

However, although Lapitus hoped the first reason would convince the man in front of him, Alexander did not really pay much heed to it.

Because given the long and arduous siege, his men had endured, the possibility of taking the city without shedding blood had long gone out the window.

A siege was sometimes even more exacting on the attacker than a defender, especially when it was as complex as the one Alexander had implemented.

And after fighting for so long, the physical exhaustion had already begun to take its toll on the psyche of the men, who wanted to vent.

Nevermind Alexander had also promised all the men certain liberties for three days after they helped him take the city when he first recruited them.

So for all these reasons, Alexander saw little reason who acquire so much to Lapitus.