Herald of Steel

"*Sigh!*"

Thinking about how his ancestors had played off the natives against one another, making promises after promises to them before breaking them one after another without batting an eye, Lord Janus ruefully shook his head, lamenting the chain of tragedies.

From the bottom of his, he did not condone such dishonorable activities.

But at the same time, he knew he could not deny their effectiveness.

By playing the smaller tribes against the larger ones, by promising these neglected groups power and riches, the Margraves family was able to quickly augment its mostly mercenary hired force with almost twice the auxiliaries.

After these men were equipped with the latest weapons and armor of the time, the native tribes found themselves quickly outnumbered and outgunned.

Time after time, the two sides met in battle, and time after time, the result was the same.

Of course, there were one or two glorious native victories amongst all of them, but in the grand scheme of things, these were merely ripples, produced by ingenious ambushes or very specific circumstances.

But at the end of the day, the financial and technological might of the other side proved too big a difference for them to produce any real waves.

Lord Janus did not bother to tell Alexander about how exactly the Margraves family betrayed the tribes who had sided with them, finding the matter too shameful to admit.

At the same time, he was also unsure of what the truth was, because the Margraves naturally did not write down the filthy tactics used in their official chronicles.

That would be too great of an admission of their guilt.

The pages were thus filled with flowery languages portraying them as saints who offered the tribes everything they were promised, but it was the 'treacherous' natives who went back on their words and greedily asked for more.

That's why Lord Miranda used the exact word 'greedy' when describing them. Because she had been taught that.

And this second point was another reason why Lord Janus did not go into detail about the exact ways the Margraves turned their backs on the natives.

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Because he knew if were to start describing it, Lord Miranda would interject with her own version, denying many of Lord Janus's allegations, all of which the elder man would have a very difficult time countering.

After all, everything Lord Miranda said was backed up by official accounts, with tens, if not hundreds of testimonies and references.

Whereas what Lord Janus knew came only from various hearsays from his father and grandfather, as well as what he had gleamed through by reading between the lines of the official history books.

Of course that did not mean that the old lord doubted the authenticity of his findings or that the records were not perfidy, but it was just that he did not have the means to prove his version.

Largely because the one entrusted with the truth- the Margraves family was also not interested.

Hence even if Lord Janus was to look for it far and wide, he would not find it here.

This was an open secret among the members. Even Lord Miranda was mostly aware of it.

This was why she did not interject till now, letting Lord Janus reveal the outline of past events.

Lord Miranda understood that if Alexander was truly serious about cooperating with the northern natives, it was necessary for him to know about this faction- their motives, their desires, and their past.

Without that, it would be unwise to shake hands with an unknown group.

The enemy of your enemy was not always your friend.

But there was also a limit up to which Lord Miranda was willing to air her family's dirty laundry. It was enough for Alexander to know that her family had been unfair to the natives some time ago.

There was no need to dig up the wound by going into details.

Thus the plump lady was glad to see Lord Janus eschew the topic using only a complicated face and a dejected sigh.

While Alexander too sensing the atmosphere did not poke for more.

He was very familiar with the stories of the Spanish and the Native Indians, and although things had not been so brutal here, he could roughly guess what had happened next.

After the larger tribes were driven out, the smaller tribes had run out of their usefulness, so they were most likely dealt with using various ways.

Perhaps the Margraves set themselves up against one another just like before.

Perhaps they were puppeted, with the chiefs replaced with someone more favorable towards the ruling family.

Or perhaps they met their end in the most brutal way, massacred or sold offf into slavery.

Alexander even assumed these tribes might have been naturally pushed out by the stronger, more numerous immigrating populace, just like how the Native Indians were pushed out of their lands.

Only in this case, these Sybarians came in search of trade and commerce, rather than gold.

As Alexander made his own assumptions about the atrocities that might have been committed by the Margraves in the name of power and peerage, Lord Janus suddenly released a long, deep sigh and once again resumed his second half of the recount,

"Indeed, we were able to carve out a large chunk of the island during the first few years of the campaign. Those petty, half naked natives were far from being a challenge to a behemoth like us. They were driven out all the way to the swampy marshes and hills. And for over the next two decades, they were never seen. They did not even make a single peep.

We thought they had simply died out of diseases or something. They were no longer considered a threat by us.

So we forget about them. Instead, we focused on developing our recently conquered fief, and quickly made great progress. Using it, we were even able to appeal to the Federation Council and got the title of viscount in one go, skipping the landed man and baron."

As Lord Janus said he took a pause, letting Alexander keenly notice how the elder man's twinkled in delight and pride, as if he could not help but relish that fact.

It even seemed the lord wanted Alexander to partake in the celebrations.

And it was indeed true that such a rapid rise was very impressive. Not many nobles could claim to skip two peerage levels in one go.

However, it was just that Lord Janus had grossly chosen the wrong audience for his speech.

The man in front of him had skipped all the steps to get to the top in one single jump, and thus a leap of two levels was hardly enough to elicit an applause.

Rather Alexander was surprised by how Lord Janus kept referring to the Margraves as 'my family'. Strictly speaking, this was not correct, as Lord Janus had been only a steward of the family, not related by blood with them.

However given Lord Miranda's tacit approval of the word's use, it seemed he was considered as much a member of the family as any other blue blooded member.

While back on the other side, Lord Janus was predictably a bit disappointed at Alexander's lack of response towards this impressive feat, but choosing not to dwell on it for too long, quickly resumed, this time shaking his head with a bitter swing,

"*Sigh*... however that was when tragedy struck! Once when our army was off fighting a battle in the mainland, the natives rushed out of the swamps, this time fully clad in pristine bronze armor and iron swords, catching us at our weakest.

Four cities fell one after the other, razed to the ground all of them, while every man, woman, and child unlucky enough to fall into their hands were slaughtered.

This sudden change came because, between those twenty years, a very charismatic leader had been born among the tribes.

He subdued all the petty quarrels, unified the chieftains and instated many reforms, his most impressive accomplishment being throwing out the law that stated-

'Anyone who uses iron weapons will be excommunicated from his tribe'.

This law was considered one of the most sacred tenets by all the tribes and the main reason why we could not sell weapons to the tribes even though they were constantly at war with each other.

Because they believed even if they won the battle, they would be excommunicated by all the rest of the tribes. And worse earn the ire of the gods.

That's also why that change came as such a surprise to all of us. Honestly, even I do not think I could have imagined that. Those shamans were so boorish that it is hard to imagine they would abandon their law even if the sky fell on top of their heads.

However it seemed after being driven out of their lands, the natives had changed their beliefs.

They began to actively buy up weapons. That was easy given Galiosos had become a major trading hub. All they needed to do was produce the coin and merchants from all over the Center Sea would flock to them with all the latest and greatest armament they could offer.

All this made the next century a very bloody affair for us."

"

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