Herald of Steel

*Bang*, *Bang*, *Bang*

The gates of the Zanzan's garrison were battered with the heavy fists of a few hooded men on horseback.

They were covered head to toe in a sort of waxed cloak that made it somewhat waterproof, although that hardly shielded them from the almost painful gales and stinging drops hitting their faces and exposed hands.

"Open up! Orders from the lord! Open up," The group then quickly shouted, eager to get inside.

This hastiness was not only the product of wanting to quickly relay the message but perhaps more importantly a desire to get access to some warmth.

Because even though the distance from here to Alexander's manor was not that much, the freezing weather and gale like winds had made even taking a single step an ordeal. Thus many parts of their exposed skin had already turned an icy blue.

"Who the fuck is here at this time of night?" While the guards at the gates irritatingly grumbled at the 'intruders', struggling to free themselves out of their warm, snug quilts.

Given they were inside Zanzan's wall and there was an outrageous storm going on outside, it was safe to say they were shielded from any outside threat for the foreseeable future.

Hence taking advantage of the cool, wet atmosphere, and wanting to savor the amazing weather, most of the men, including the guards at the gate had decided to go to sleep early.

Thus it took a while for Hemicus's men to confirm their identity, and then even after they entered, it took them a while to pass the message to the proper commander.

Because the ones truly in charge of the legions such as Menes and Melodias were not here, they were sleeping in their quarters in the eastern district. While their second and third in-commands that were supposed to be here were also absent, apparently having gone home this afternoon after spotting the dark clouds.

In fact, this same judgment could be given to many soldiers, who felt safer to reside in their homes rather than in the barracks for the night, hence leaving it almost half empty.

It would seem without any outside threat, the barracks had become very lax with its discipline.

This was also something that completely engaged the group of Hemicus's men, who spent a good half an hour just to find the next highest commander in charge.

"What is this? Is this how you run a barracks?"

Hence once they finally found the groggy man half stumbling out of his room, the leader of the messengers roared out so with unbridled anger.

Named Resdatus, he was an elder gentleman from Alexander's original mercenary group, having been moved to this current position due to his age.

But despite having already crossed forty and blind in one eye, no strength seemed to have been lost in his voice, as the veteran, seeing the current absolute state of the garrison felt like having chilly rubbed on the eyes.

The state of the troops here was an absolute disgrace in his eyes. And he was just barely able to stop himself from slapping the commander before him unconscious.

Mostly because he feared he would have to then spend another half an hour finding the next candidate.

As for the commander being shouted at, facing such an aggressive 'greeting', all the sleepiness in him instantly shattered like a soap bubble… and the eyes blotted open.

"What… who… you… do you know…" The man blurted, and was just about to have the guards arrest these men when lucidity returned to him.

Given where they were, given these men were still on horseback, and given they had rudely woken him up from sleep in this terrible weather, it did not take a genius to figure out who these men represented.

And the sight instantly struck fear into him.

"I…"

"The pasha has given you orders. Gather all your men by the courtyard within the hour." Resdatus however cut the man off with a steely glint, being hardly in the mood to bicker. He knew time was of the essence and hardly any time to waste.

Unfortunately, it would take the commander much more than that limit to gather his men, since a lot of his men were not present in the barrack.

Thus he had to send quite a few contingents out, who went knocking house by house urging the soldiers to report back.

So by the time Resdatus managed to gather the required the personel…

"*Splash*, *splash*, *splash*..…Shit! The water is up to my waist! I can hardly walk!"

"Agghhh… this water..*splash*, *splash*... I don't even want to think about what is dissolved in it."

"Everyone, be careful of where you step. Look out for potholes or sharp objects. Don't get cut!"

"Oh right… that's easy! I did not know we had a fish with us. Hey guys, we found someone who can see through water!"

"Great! Now we only need an owl! Then we will only need to follow them!"

"Where are we even going? I can't see anything! Hey… can anyone light a torch?"

"Light it with your ass you idiot! Fart on a torch and see if it lights up!"

"Stop moaning and look in front of you, you bunch of wasted imbeciles. We would not even be in this mess if not for you leaving the barracks… pray the lord does not have your head in the morning!"

Forced to walk out in the middle of the night amidst gale force winds and blistering rain with virtually no visibility, these soldiers were naturally peeved.

Of course they did not dare badmouth Alexander or any of the officers. Most of them even agreed with the order in principle.

They did however groan about the purpose of their patrol, bitterly cursing among themselves in low, suppressed voices,

"What are we even doing here? Looking for beggars and vagabonds? Which poor sod of a beggar would be out in these streets in this weather? Those rats are probably all holed up in some sewers!"

"That's right! And we are also supposed to look out for broken buildings and fires? How the fuck can you have fire in this weather? In fact, I would love some fire! I am freezing here."

"Shit! Speak of the devil. Hey… there is a half broken building there. I think I can hear screams. You scoundrels… come, move your legs!"

"Dammit! I can barely walk or see! How are we going to rescue others? Hey wait for me! Wait for me…Aghh.. dammit!"

In this way, it could be seen that although Alexander's orders regarding the flood were in principle quite sound, there were still a few 'plot holes'.

For one, the men he ordered to execute them were a bit late, and more fundamentally, he forgot to take into account the exact details of the situation.

For instance, he ordered the grain to be moved if the water was spotted to be rising.

However, he forgot exactly how the carts and horses were supposed to travel given by then the roads would be waterlogged and there was virtually no light.

And indeed, the men were soon faced with this exact problem.

Even though they managed to arrive at the dock warehouses mostly on time to react to the rising water level- they were ultimately powerless to do anything about the deteriorating situation. Enjoy exclusive chapters from My Virtual Library Empire

The commanders and captains initially even tried quite hard, screaming at the men to get the carts going to try and save some of the goods.@@novelbin@@

However….

"Captain… the horses are not moving. They are too scared by the darkness and endless lighting. Some of them are even kicking and biting! No one can control these mad beasts!"

"Sir… the cart's wheel broke. We must hit a pothole. Please! The roads are too deep in water to see anything. "

"Commander… the horses… they are too tired. They can't pull so much weight through the water!"

"We need boats! Not carts… fucking boats!"

Thus soon, the men could do little except stand and see the water level rise and rise, until many of the precious goods got submerged in water.

The only silver lining was that the water was mostly stagnant, so there was no strong current washing away. So the hope was most of them would stay in their place as the water receded.

….

Alexander's men thus worked themselves to the bones, standing all night in the soaking night, too bad they were able to produce little result.

As for the pasha himself in charge of all this- well, after the ladies were done with their games, and each returned to their rooms, he retreated to his study to finish up some paperwork that had piled up.

He worked on that for a few hours and then attempted to close his eyes for a bit.

However, the constant pitter patter and rumbling of thunder striking outside felt like enormous gongs striking his ears, making it incredibly hard for him to get any shut eyes.

It was like he was being constantly reminded of the imminent danger that was just a sunrise away.

Hence jumping up from bed, Alexander thought it would be far more use of his time sketching out a rough plan of the kind of orders he would be giving out tomorrow morning.

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