"How can that be?" To nes's 'grave' news, Manuk outwardly sounded alard and even crestfallen.
But internally, he was elated.
Because being able to avoid this encounter was actually a very large boon for him.
For this way, Manuk would not have to really co up with whatever ssage he had originally wanted to make up.
He would not need to even see Alexander. as upon learning of the news of the absence, putting on a long face, Manuk proposed,
"Lord General, the ssage I carry with is really important. I must see Lord Alexander as soon as possible. Would it be possible for to hire 10 of your n to escort us to Thesalie? I'm afraid we do not know the way."
The man of course had no intention of really eting Alexander, for there was no need to.
He wanted these n only to lead him too close to Thesalie, which stood at the very edge of the borders.
And once there, he could make his way to friendly territories on his own.
But if he were to go on his, well, 30 well ard n drew too much unwanted attention.
So to avoid that, upon making his request, without giving nes a chance to respond, Manuk imdiately put his hand inside his satchel and brought out a small pouch, "Of course I will pay. Here."
*Clang*, *Clang*, *Clang*
As he said so, ten small, very thin gold bars popped into his palms, glittering under the afternoon sun, and sending dazzling sparkles.
Each of these bars was custom made by Manuk and weighed 10 grams.
This was a little trick the priest had picked up over the course of his life when he was sent as an envoy to various parts of the country.
He had found that during travel many small inconveniences such as harassnt from city guards or small officials could be easily solved with gold and bribes.
And while gold coins usually did the trick, sotis larger amounts of 'oil' were needed to grease the wheel.
But carrying a lot of coins was bulky, so Manuk ca up with carrying pure gold in small denominations like this.
With gold going at 50,000 ropals a kg, each of these 10 g chips was worth around 500 ropals, more than three months of a peasant's earnings.
And Manuk here was offering 10 of them for the service of 10 n!
Just to escort them to a place that would at best take three weeks even if they really took their ti.
A killer deal to say the least!
"What is the ssage?" But before accepting the rich paynt, nes posed, appearing curious, for he too was a mber of the council.
'Since Anheraft has sent his n, it probably has to do with Tibias right? What does he want?' nes was intrigued.
"I'm afraid my instructions were clear, General." But Manuk very deftly declined to answer.
'What ssage? Even I don't know the ssage,' While internally he sniggered so.
To the rejection, nes did not seem perturbed, for he expected much, and felt like whatever Anheraft wanted, it was better felt to the much smarter Alexander.
Thus ultimately accepting the paynt, he nodded and replied,
"We will arrange a boat for you. It will be quicker to reach the city through the RIver Diannu. You should prepare to load your supplies."
Since Manuk had inford him the ssage was of quite an importance, nes wanted to arrange for him to arrive at Thesalie within the quickest ti.
"Ah!" And at the ntion of the supplies, Manuk produced a very convincing troubled face, delineating,
"General, you see… we have run into so troubles with our supplies. Our ship ran into a storm and ran aground, losing much of our supplies."
Following so the priest turned to look at nes with pleading eyes,
"I know that your camp supplies are limited. But would it be possible to part with so?"
"Of course we will pay."
Fearing nes's rejection, the man quickly produced another pouch of similar value- 5,000 ropals.
It had to be known that it usually took only 2 ropals a day to feed a man.
So thirty of them would need 60 ropals of food every day.
And here Manuk was offering 3 months of pay for a journey by boat that would take at best a week, as a show of sincerity.
As for just how genuine his true feelings were, well almost everything he told nes was bullshit, but his need for the supplies was indeed real.
Everything he had brought was left at PR's camp, and that had been already raided by the legionaries.
Manuk had already written everything there off.
To Manuk's offer of rumination, nes casually waved his hand and in a sudden grateful tone, pronounced, "Keep it. Take it as a token of gratitude for saving my life."
And then quickly turning to Remus to avoid looking at Manuk's surprised face, he commanded,
"Remus, I put you in charge of arranging everything for them."
"Make sure to do it within today. The ssage he carries should be very important."
"I'm going back to the tent."
And with that dumped on that the head of his subordinate, nes was out, but not before hearing this chuckle co out of Manuk,
"Hahaha, Lord General is truly a sincere man of virtue."
While Remus hearing all this extra workload blurted, "I…," before trailing off.
He knew that since nes had given the order personally, he was militarily obliged to carry it out unless he wanted to risk being court martialed, and he had to follow it no matter how tired or exhausted he was.
And with a rueful shake of the head, he then went to process everything for Manuk.
The Sissillpond Ridge they were in was half a day's ride from the banks of River Diannu, and given that the battle had started literally at dawn, it was only approaching midday by now.
So quickly having a short al at nes's camp, the group of now forty n were hastily on their way, riding on fresh horses that nes had gifted them.
Officially- they were given so that Manuk would deliver his ssage faster.
But non officially- it was really a show of gratitude for saving his life.
Because they were on opposite sides, nes was unable to show such goodwill too openly, and thus the employnt of such covert tactics.
Hence, using these pri stallions imported directly from Pasha Farzah's province of Matrak, the n were able to reach a small town situated on the banks of the Diannu that was currently being used as a major supply hub for nes's army just before dusk.
The group spent the night in the town, for they were exhausted by the long ride, and boats did not sail during the night.
And it was only in the morning that by using Remus's authority, Manuk was able to finally get five large boats, enough to transport them and their much bigger horses.
Though even that endeavor was not easy, but not for the reasons you might think.
The reason why Manuk had trouble finding suitable boats was because given this town was the main supply hub for the food and ammunition such as pillas and arrows for 30,000 n, there were so many boats that were literally traffic jams, as vessels laden with goods from Thesalie lined up one after another to unload their cargo.
But ultimately the forty n were indeed able to board and make their way towards Thesalie.
But they would never reach it!
For rember, Manuk had no intention of going to Thesalie.
Thus, once the boats were around half a day's distance from the city, Manuk called all his n onto his boat and inford them that that night, they would be given a particular light signal through the oil lamps.
And at that point, all of them were to kill the 10 n and 15 sailors scattered across the five boats.
And that was exactly what happened.
Those poor 25 n did not have the slightest idea what was coming, and even as their throats were slit literally in the middle of their sleep, they could not grasp what had happened, but less why it did.
The complete unexpectedness of the attack and the fact that the 25 were scattered in various parts of the 5 boats made them easy picking for the grouped together band of determined killers, as they were able to strike from the shadow stealthily against these isolated targets and take them out one by one.
And once they had done so, able to kill everyone without raising any alarm or letting them escape by jumping into the water, they waited till the morning to moor their boats on the shores of a nearby secluded part of the forest, and taking the forty, exquisite horse breeds as their prize, the n set fire to the boats and the bodies witing before simply leaving!
"Hahaha, to be able to get such pri horses. This trip was not a complete waste."
"Yes. That black idiot is really sothing haha."
"I was getting a bit worried back then. But everything worked out better than I expected. Praise Ramuh."
And as the n galloped through the woods on their new prizes, such were their conversation.
Mocking nes for showing gratitude.
And these were supposed to be priests of a god.
How lantable!
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