Steel and Sorrow: Rise of the Mercenary king-Chapter 669: The road forward(5)

It was a clear, golden day—the kind that made the rooftops of Herculia, if they were not destroyed by the fire, glint like polished bronze under the midday sun—when the city fell.

Not with fire and blood, not with the crashing of steel or the screams of dying men, but with a silence so complete, it seemed to shame even the crows who were voicing out their words by cawing overhead.

Or perhaps just protesting against the lack of a meal. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

The fall of a royal seat, one that had stood proud for one hundred and thirty years, came not from defeat in battle, but from surrender. A quiet, tired surrender by soldiers who had given all they could, only to be abandoned by a crown that no longer had the will or perhaps the means to protect them.

As promised, the gates creaked open. One by one, the garrison emerged, heads bowed beneath the weight of shame and dust, their weapons falling like discarded burdens at the feet of the enemy, who for each, Clung , the swords made when they fell onto the ground or atop other swords, allowed them to stand an inch taller.

At the front of that somber procession walked Thalien—the third-born, the overlooked, the boy who had always stood behind his elder brothers. He stepped forward alone, unsheathing his sword with a slow, practiced grace. Then, wordlessly, he dropped it at Alpheo’s feet.

In the defeated soldiers’ eyes, he had become the only noble ember left in a royal house otherwise reduced to ash.

The one who stood behind and fought until he could

But of course, the truth was far more bitter.

Thalien had not stayed to defend Herculia. He had stayed to build his future, the city was simply his means for that.

It was his ambition—not honor—that broke the city’s will. His negotiations, his betrayal, had hastened the collapse. Had the true commander remained alive, the city might have endured longer. Food or not, Cretio was granite, unyielding , even as famine hollowed the people from the inside out. Surrender would have been a word left to die on his lips..

But he was gone.

A final gasp. And with him, perhaps, the last chance of a prolonged resistance.

Maybe, in some cruel twist of fate, that was a mercy. At least he died before hearing the news—that Prince Arnold had, under pressure, divorced his daughter, severing ties with the one man who had stood by him through every battle, every failed campaign, every mistake.

That final betrayal would have killed him, if the poison Thalien gave him hadn’t.

And so Herculia fell—not in fire, but in silence. Not with a scream, but a sigh.

And above it all, the sun shone down on the boy who smiled as he handed the city to its conqueror... and stepped over the ashes of a house he once called home.

As promised, no harm befell the garrison or the citizens who had laid down their arms. Their lives and freedom had been secured by promise of word, and Alpheo, despite the reputation his banners carried, was not one to break his word.

Still, peace came at a cost.

For two days, the people of Herculia stood outside their own city, forced to listen to the chaos that echoed from within. Screams , not of agony but drunken delight ,rang out from pillaging soldiers. Doors were shattered, cellars emptied, heirlooms snatched from mantelpieces by hands that had long itched to claim the spoils of siege.

It was the victors’ celebration.

After two months of waiting, and burying their shits in the ground , the soldiers were finally collecting their due.

And the citizens? They could only listen as their past—family treasures, shopfronts, childhood homes—was reduced to coin and kindling.

But they were alive. And in a war such as this, that counted for something.

It was the best compromise Alpheo could offer. No massacre. No executions. No rape. Just looting. Their holdings might be gone, their savings vanished, but their limbs remained intact, their daughters unviolated, and their lives unclaimed by war.

Compared to what other conquerors might have offered for two months of defiance, it was mercy gilded in iron.

Still, not all were thankful.

Among the most discontent were the lords and knights who had marched with the now-dead Lord Cretio. Once proud nobles defending their homeland, they now sat uneasily in the very camp of the man who had taken their capital.

Their swords had been surrendered, their pride bruised, and the memory of their liege’s death still raw in their minds. Most suspected that Alpheo’s generosity was a façade—that soon they would be bound in chains, held for ransom, humiliated before their kin.

But Alpheo had no such intention.

He delayed their release not out of cruelty, but design. There was still use for them—unknowing instruments in the next phase of his campaign. Men who believed themselves defeated would soon be carrying out his will, unknowingly undermining the very institutions they had once sworn to defend.

They would become the rot within their own order.

For there is no blight more ruinous than the one delivered by trusted hands.

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"Your Grace," Thalien said, bowing low as he sat down in the tent he had been led "as promised, the city is yours."

Alpheo didn’t immediately respond.

He simply watched the boy standing in the shadow of a city brought to its knees. The conqueror hadn’t expected this. Herculia, jewel of the southern spine, fallen not through fire or siegecraft, but through the ambition of a forgotten son.

It was as if fate itself had conspired to place the capital in his lap through the hands of a child too clever—and too desperate—for his own blood.

He didn’t smile. Not yet.

But it was a victory, and a monumental one at that. Herculia, the heart of the crown’s authority, now flew his banner. The greatest barrier between Alpheo and his domination of the region had crumbled. And while his army still had to reckon with Lechlian’s final force—still gathering, still threatening—he knew now that the tide had turned.

If he broke this last host, then nothing would stand between him and the total subjugation of Herculia.

But even that was only the beginning.

For Alpheo’s ambition did not end at rivers or ridgelines. The conquest of Herculia was merely the first stone laid in the road ahead. His plans reached farther, deeper, hungrier—toward a transformation of the South, of the continent itself. What he aimed to build would reshape not just borders, but the very order of nations.

And it had all begun with a city, a siege, and a boy with a dagger tucked behind a smile.

"You have indeed done so," Alpheo finally said, his voice calm, almost languid now. His shoulders eased back, and for the first time in days, he let his head lean into the throne-like comfort of his chair, the tension draining from his limbs. "As promised, I shall grant you a title. When the campaign concludes, I’ll carve a piece of the land I conquer and set it aside, just for you."

A smile touched Thalien’s lips, unbidden and bright with the glow of long-sought validation. "I thank you, Your Grace."

"There’s no need for thanks," Alpheo replied, his tone turning colder, flatter. "You’ve paid dearly for it."

He sat up slightly, eyes narrowing with the kind of curiosity one might give to a beautiful but venomous snake.

"You’ve handed your father’s enemy the city of your birth. You’ve betrayed your family, your house, your people... not in a moment of desperation, but in full awareness. You did not break. You chose. You severed every bond behind you to fashion new ones with strangers, better yet invaders."

A humorless chuckle escaped him. "There aren’t many who would do what you’ve done. So... cheers to you, Thalien . Oh I’m sorry... Lord Thalien."

Thalien didn’t flinch, didn’t shrink in face of the accusation. "Indeed, I have," he said softly, with neither shame nor regret. "And if I may be so bold, Your Grace... I would have done it for far less."

At that Alpheo raised an eyebrow, but said nothing.

"You call it betrayal. But is it betrayal," Thalien asked, his voice steady, "to kill an enemy on the field? Do you curse your soldiers for doing so? Do you mourn the strangers they cut down in your name?"

He received nothing in response before continuing

"How many men die not knowing they would’ve made good friends with the ones who killed them? How many never learn they shared the same laugh, the same favorite wine, the same fear of the dark? Yet we call it duty, not villainy."

His eyes burned now not with rage , but the desire of a man looking for validation or agreement in his beliefs. "Why is that death acceptable—expected, even—yet when someone turns against the ones who raised them with chains instead of care, suddenly that’s betrayal?"

He leaned forward , speaking now with the clarity of someone who had been waiting a lifetime to be heard.

"You have a son, don’t you, Your Grace?" he asked, though he didn’t wait for a reply. "Do you love him? Would you hold him when he cries? Would you take pride in seeing him struggle, grow, fight just for your praise? Would you let him even try?"

Silence stretched between them, taut and suffocating.

"I was never given that chance. I gave all I had just for a glance. A kind word. A moment. Instead, he locked me away. No arms to hold me. No pride in me. Not even his hate. Just... nothing."

Alpheo remained still. He understood now—this wasn’t ambition he was listening to. This was the voice of a wound that never healed.

"So tell me," Thalien continued, voice cracking now, raw and human, "what respect do I owe such a man? What trust? What sacrifice? None. None at all."

His eyes, which had gleamed with triumph only moments ago, now shimmered with something more terrible: honesty.

"And yet," he said, voice hollowing, "my hatred for him surpasses even yours, Your Grace. That man—my father—is the only soul I have ever wanted to suffer."

Thalien took a breath, steadying himself.

"I didn’t give you this city because I wanted a title. I did it because I wanted a stage. I wanted him to watch everything he built crumble, and when his eyes finally—finally—turn to me, I want mine to be the last thing he sees... filled not with the love a son should have for a father , but with the hate he planted in me for every day of my life."

The tent was silent again as Alpheo regarded the boy—no, the weapon—he had welcomed into his camp. There was no joy in his face. But there was, perhaps, a quiet and terrible respect.

That of a self-made man recognising another in his equally callous ways.