Herald of Steel

"*Clap*, *Clap*", Melodias politely clapped at Petricuno as the man made his way back to the group.

He walked with slumped shoulders and a drooping head, pretty disheartened at the lack of support, because Petricuno truly believed he was the most qualified.

He did not buy Alexander's little story and thought of the boy as being capable but ultimately just lucky.

"Well, then senior, please take the stage," After Petricuno's turn, Melodias cordially gestured to Menicus, the eldest of the group to make his speech.

"Let the boy go and let's get it over it quickly." Menicus roughly retorted.

This was because everyone could hear occasional shouts like,

"Alexander, we want Alexander."

"We have already made up our minds."

"Son of Gaia."

'Either the soldiers really want me as their commander or Cam really paid them well,' Alexander's mouth twitched at the slightly embarrassing situation.

There was something such as being too popular, where people put unreasonable expectations on somebody they idolized and then instantly turn on them if they failed to meet such expectations.

Alexander felt his problem might have changed from not being popular enough to be seen as a god who could do wrong.

There was also the possibility of the other leaders banding together in fear of Alexander's popularity.

But whatever it was, there was little he could do to change that right now.

'Camius will be busy,' Alexander ruefully lampooned as he decided he would have to spread some malicious rumors about himself.

A strong slap to his back woke Alexander from his thoughts as Melodias boisterously laughed, "Haha, well go on brother. Looks like the soldiers are calling for you."

Thus Alexander slowly made his way to the top of the table, where the instant his face appeared, the crowd burst into a sky-shattering cheer and started enthusiastically discussing among themselves.

"That's him, that's him, ooh hoo,"

"He once bandaged me. The son of Gaia bandaged me himself."

"So young!"

"Of course, he is. How can the son of a god be old like us humans."

"Right, right, this proves he is blessed by Gaia. How else could he be here today?"

"Hehe, he might not be as young as he looks. I heard he drank from the fountain of youth."

"Ohhh, who did you hear it from? Hmmm, but it could be certainly true.

"Maybe he only disguised himself as such but in reality is hundreds of years old."

"Sage, Hasurite told me he's a sage in disguise."

"Right, I heard he invented the smoked sausage."

"Mascus told me the sweet water is made from fruits made by his magic."

"As expected of the son of the goddess of providence. He has saved us from starvation."

"If not for his warning, we all would have died."

"Yes, Samaras did not listen to him and was eternally damned"

"Oh, father why did you not listen to the divine son?"

"We must follow him if we want to live."

"Yes, follow Alexander!"

"Alexander for commander."

"Alexander, Alexander,"

"Commander Alexander, Commander Alexander,"

"Alexander, Commander Alexander,"

"Son of Gaia, son of Gaia,"

"Alexander, the divine son of Gaia,"

Even before Alexander could start his speech, the crowd spontaneously burst into a rave, chanting his name in unison.

There was no doubt about the candidate chosen by the soldiers.

The zealous revelry of the soldier's shouting could be heard from even past the walls of Adhan, where some of the curious sentry guards atop their watchtower craned their necks to see what the commotion was all about.

Alexander simply stood on the table, facing the joyous crowd with shaking clenched fists and a rapidly pounding heart that almost wanted to break out of his chest out of sheer excitement.

Looking at the throngs of excited mercenaries at his command, he recalled an interesting fact from his previous life.

He remembered that Julius Caesar had stopped a mutiny by addressing the mutineers with a single word, 'civilians."

And Alexander felt he had matched and arguably trumped that today, by gaining control of an army without uttering a single word.

Alexander loved drawing parallels between himself and the most famous Roman ever to live.

Whenever things got too tough for Alexander, he used to comfort himself by thinking that Julius Caesar too was once captured as a slave by pirates.

But he had managed to escape and then returned with an army to kill his captors.

Alexander regularly fueled himself by thinking, if an ordinary boy like Caesar could do it, why couldn't he, he who possessed knowledge these people could only dream of having.

But Alexander's ambition was not to only parallel Caesar but to exceed him.

Where the roman senator failed to become emperor, Alexander fully intended to succeed.

And today and now was his second real step.

Because today, he had finally done it.

After ten long years of struggle, he had finally gained some control over his life as he could use the ten thousand-strong army to guarantee his safety.

Being able to taste the saccharine taste of success after so many years of brutal hardship made Alexander so emotional that he felt like choking up and his nails dug so deep into the palms of his hands that they started bleeding.

But Alexander did not feel any pain, only pure unadulterated pleasure.

After allowing some time for the perfervid atmosphere to quench the soldiers, Alexander used both his hands to gesture to the mercenaries to calm down and said,

"Brothers thank you for choosing me as your new commander. I swear to use my actions and not my words to convince you that you have indeed chosen correctly."

This produced a second round of vociferous shouts.

"Well, I guess it saves us the time," Melodias ruefully smiled.

He would be lying if he did not feel a little acidic in his heart that a slave freed just one day ago was so much more popular than them.

But the soldiers had chosen their commander and he had to accept it.

Alexander slowly got off the table and approached the group of mercenary leaders with steady footsteps and when near slightly bowed, "I pray seniors can provide me their help and support in these troubled times. And please feel free to offer me any advice you may have at any time.

I am not without errors and I hope to receive your guidance."

This humble and very down-to-earth attitude extremely pleased the leaders and they felt their small dissatisfaction melt away.

They had expected Alexander to be domineering and bossy like Damious given his popularity, but this soft approach somewhat placated them.

'This nose milk-dripping pup might not be totally incompetent. Do those rumors actually hold some water?' Petricuno ruminated.

It had to be said that the reason some were happy was not because of Alexander's modesty, but because they took his gentle manners as a sign of weakness, a weakness they believed they could exploit for their gains.

After all, how hard could it be to deal with an eighteen-year-old boy?

A boy who was a slave until yesterday and whose hair down there had not probably grown properly.

"You do what you have done until now. You don't need an old bone like me telling you what to do," Menicus commented.

"Haha, right, right. You are blessed by the gods. You don't need us. Just say and it will be done." Melodias chimed in.

'Is this a test? Are they trying to test my narcissism,' Alexander inwardly frowned and he felt a weird kind of deja-vu of facing Aristotle and a much more competent Nestoras.

'I have decided that I really dislike old men,' He at last lampooned.

He then responded, "No, no, please, I am no god's son. Esteemed leaders will all know that I made it very clear I am no divine being."

Here he then admitted, "I did spread the rumor about it though because after three consecutive natural disasters hitting us so quickly, I feared without this claim, without this mental support most soldiers would simply surrender or run away. So, please do not take that claim seriously."

Even though it was an open secret among the higher-ups, this frank reveal managed to garner quite a bit of goodwill for Alexander.

His warm attitude also won the hearts of many, particularly Menicus and Melodias who inwardly decided to follow any reasonable given order without causing too much fuss.

At this point, Melodias reminded, "We have yet to formally recognize Alexander as our new Commander. The decision has to be unanimous, so does anyone disagree?"

Naturally, the answer was a resounding affirmation and so Melodias nodded happily, "Good, let's go up to the podium and announce the result then."

So the five leaders- Alexander, Melodias, Menicus, Petricuno, and Heliptos all got up on the sturdy table and Melodias lifted Alexander's right hand into the air and cheered, "Soldiers, here's your new commander, Alexander."

"Alexander, Commander Alexander," They chanted for the third time.

It seemed that these soldiers were really into chanting.

And with this formality done, the soldiers were dismissed, and the leaders got off the table that had been turned into a makeshift podium,

"So, what's our next move," The no-nonsense Petricuno directly asked Alexander even before his feet could touch the soil.