Herald of Steel

As the new leader, Alexander quickly started giving orders.

"Cambyses, you are to secure our food. Go take inventory of how much meat we managed to get last night and how much-smoked sausages we managed to make."

"I will try to secure as much as possible for us," Cambyses promised with a determined face.

Then Alexander addressed his second in command, "Menes, go tell the soldiers about me becoming their leader. Also convinced them to support me tomorrow at the voting."

"It will be easy." Menes grinned with a nod.

Anyone who could oppose Alexander was either dead or cleverly chose to jump ship.

"Camius, you do your usual thing. Spread rumors about my deeds. Especially among the Cantagenans and Alcmene and Regias's troops. Nudge them towards voting for me."

"No problem. Last night those guys were eating up anything and everything I said about you." Camius slyly smiled. "I promise they will see only you as the rightful candidate." He solemnly claimed.

"Remember to tell them the scavenged meat and the smoked sausage as his idea." Theocles selflessly added, which got him a grateful look from Alexander.

Such a claim was not easy to give up and it would really help Alexander tomorrow.

Alexander then tasked Theocles with his most important task, "Theocles I am entrusting you with collecting the most important thing for us- money. The Cantagenans are decimated and I want you to secure as much loot as you can from their dead."

"I will try to put a corrupt puppet leader in exchange for their gold." Theocles happily smiled.

Nestoras would have never been able to come up with this order and Theocles was once again pleased that he chose the right person.

Done with receiving their instructions, the men and woman headed off to perform their respective duties, and Alexander, free and finally his own boss after ten years, with no one to tell him what to do, strangely felt a bit lost on what to do next, and so decided to go check out his new tent, the tent reserved for the group leader, the tent he designed for Nestoras.

So, with the assistance of some helpers, Alexander moved his little belongings out of his old tent and into the new one, and then with nothing left better to do, and that big bed looking mighty inviting, he decided to take a short nap, just a bit of shut-eye to re-energize the body.

But his short nap actually lasted till sunset when he was woken up by the clanking of footsteps and human ins and goings.

As the leader, his tent was supposed to be off-limits to almost everyone and any assassin would not make so much noise, so Alexander was puzzled by what could be making such a ruckus.

He opened his groggy eyes to see men moving things into his tent, things he could identify even in this soft candlelight as belonging to Cambyses.

'What is the girl doing now?' Was Alexander's first question.

And the person in question was there to answer it.

"You're awake! Great! The guys have prepared a feast for you. Let's go." Cambyses eagerly shouted.

Alexander still groggy from just waking up felt confused and wondered if he had heard it wrong.

Because as far as he knew, they did not even have enough to feed themselves, so where would they get the food for a feast?

But even before he could ask such questions, or why she was moving her stuff into his tent, he was dragged by his hand out of his tent and into a small opening, where a large bonfire had been lit and meat of various shapes and sizes were being prepared beside it.

Alexander was the chief guest of the party and when he entered with Cambyses holding hands, it drew quite a few knowing smiles as the duo made their way to the center of the party.

"Any new information from the goddess?"Menes was the first to greet Alexander with a smile, playfully making fun of him for sleeping the entire day.

Alexander only gave a shy smile in reply.

It was really not a good look for a new leader who had taken post just that day to onlysleep the whole day while everyone worked.

He had intended it to be just a power nap of at best an hour and not the solid almost twelve hours of sleep he took.

'Looks like I was more tired than I thought Alexander ruefully reminisced.

"Haha, don't worry." Seeing Alexander embarrassed, the giant strongly slapped him on the back. "You are the leader! Who's gonna blame you, hahaha." He ended the sentence laughing boisterously.

"Hey, leader, join us here." A loud, warm voice from the front then beckoned Alexander to them, allowing Alexander to escape this awkward encounter.

And Alexander approached them to see the faces of Camius, Batholomew and Remus, and a few others, illuminated by the bonfires, as they sat on the ground enjoying their meal.

"Sorry, we started without you, here have some." Camius enthusiastically passed some cooked meat to Alexander who graciously accepted.

"It's good to see you here, Remus. My condolences." Alexander then offered his sympathies to the boy, who surprisingly did not look too down.

"*Nod*, I tried my best, but he chose his path." Remus let out a heavy sigh as he drowned a large sip of his drink.

"The one silver lining is our people did not get sacrificed," Bartholomew added.

And this drew Alexander's attention and naturally asked for clarification.

"I met two mercenaries from Regias's group in the medical tent who told me." A feminine voice from behind him rang out.

Alexander turned around to see a short, raven-haired girl, holding a wooden plate with some meat on it, accompanying her ex-mistress.

It was Mean!

The girl then expounded, "They told me Regias And Nestoras were placed in the left wings and were the very first to be killed by the Adhanians."

"May Gaia guide them to Elysium." Alexander made a hand gesture with his hands.

Then, choosing not to continue this conversation about the dead and the deceased, he diverted the topic, saying with a smile "Congratulations on your freedom, Mean. Finally, you are a freedman."

But strangely, he did not receive the usual 'Thank you' or similar platitudes.

Instead, he got a sneer, "Only a disloyal snake like you would be happy to not serve the mistress. I will have you know Mistress has bought be back!"

Mean reported this 'recapture' of her with infinite pride in her voice as puffed her nonexistent chest in smug satisfaction, clearly viewing herself as superior to Alexander.

"I said she can work for me as long as she likes and can quit whenever she feels like it." Cambyses offered a clearer explanation.

Then she added, "I even offered her a wage."

"Hmph, as if I would stoop so low as to accept money for serving my mistress. Getting to serve you is my greatest reward." Mean said these usual words of flattery with genuine feelings.

She truly loved serving Cambyses and vehemently rejected it when Cambyses offered her money for the work, even feeling vaguely insulted.

Though if one were to understand the history between the two, one would not find it so strange.

Because in Mean's eyes Cambyses was not her master lording over life.

She saw her more as an older sister or even a mother/guardian, who cloth, fed, reared, and protected her.

They even slept together, sharing intimate acts together meant for only lovers.

So in her eyes, being free was almost equivalent to being disowned by her family or being dumped by her girlfriend.

That's why when she heard of her emancipation, instead of joy she felt horror, pure unadulterated terror thinking she had done some extreme, unforgivable crime and was thus banished from her mistress's life.

And so she went to Cambyses like a gale, with tears and shot running out of her face as she asked for forgiveness.

It had made quite a scene in the camp and after spending a considerable time calming her down, Cambyses finally understood what happened.

And then, although Cambyses tried very hard to convince Mean of the perks of being a freedman Mean would hear none of it, even threatening to end her own life saying, 'If I can't serve mistress, I don't have a reason to live.'

So, the two, at last, reached a compromise, where Mean could continue doing what she was doing and Cambyses would from now on pay her a wage.

"I told her if she did not want to take the money, I would hold onto it and give it to her descendants." Cambyses clarified that she was not using Mean as a slave, even though she would like to be treated as one.

"Hmph, then mistress will have to hold onto it forever, cause Mean's never marrying." The short girl shot back.

"Not even Alexander?" Cambyses teased.

This statement caused the girl to flush in embarrassment as she stomped her feet, "Mistress, mistress is bullying me."

"Hahaha." Came the group's loud laughter.

It was not a particular secret in the group that Mean liked Alexander, a rumor Alexander started to save her from Octavius.

Per the rumor, both of them were in love, but in reality, Alexander loved Cambyses, and Mean loved them both.

She loved Cambyses the most, but she also loved Alexander, who had done much for her, though she was very shy to ever admit it.

And like this, amidst the merriment and laughter, the meat was eaten and wine drunk, and jokes were told as the living tried to forget the pain of losing their loved ones and tried to appreciate the company of those who still accompanied them.