The Heeat soldiers instantly recognized the familiar voice coming from the other ship as one of their famous commanders, and quickly straightened their backs, looking alert and well disciplined.
While the Margraves turned their heads to look back at the same tall, muscular man, with an aquiline nose and sharp eyes with great wariness.
For them, Lord Parker's reinforcements had suddenly turned from a godsend miracle they were all waiting for into something more similar to a deadly curse.
What was the new commander going to do when he learned of how General Achillas was snatched from them, all the green around men wondered with dread and trepidation.
"Commander! It's a relief you are here! You must punish these scoundrels! They let General Achillas..."
And their fears were not helped by the fact that the moment that commander got within earshot, one of the more eager Heeat officers ran up to instantly reveal all his complaints against the Margrave troops, hoping to both exact some revenge on them as well as save his own skin.
"Shut up! Get back in line!"
It thus came as a great relief to the Margraves when they saw the new commander being in no mood to entertain such talks and barked at the approaching man with a martinet shout.
Instead of lending ears to such banal complaints, the new commander's main priority now was rescuing all the available men, and so he quickly turned to order his crew, "Rescue all the men from here! Move them to the other available ships! Quickly!"
It seemed the fate of Achillas could wait.
Thus, for the next few while, the newly arrived reinforcements worked not to chase the retreating enemy but to move all the Margraves and Heeat soldiers from around the vicinity to their new, undamaged ships.
So the ones on the rickety ship were extended gangways to better vessels, the ones still alive and floating around in the nearby waters were fished out with ropes, and lastly, the lucky few who were still atop the bridge, having survived its destruction were given a much needed ladder.
"So... now tell what happened?"
And it was only after the rescue was well underway that the new commander bothered to pick his ear up about the happenings of the day, looking to hear the report from both sides.
"Sir, this is what happened. We were on the bridge and...."
The one to begin first was naturally the much more enthusiastic Heeat officer, according to whose version of the story, the Margraves had decided to abandon them when the bridge had begun to collapse, and then threatened to execute them even when they did eventually provide help.
And worst of all of course they had conspired to sell their General to the enemy as a malicious way to hurt the Heeat family.
That last part was strangely true although few actually believed the man, including himself- because in truth the officer was exaggerating the whole thing as a way to put all the blame on the Margraves.
While the Margraves, hearing this pile of lies fumed with great indignation, cursing at how the other side had zero respect for them, both soldier and nobility alike, while trying their best to defend themselves.
"Sir! I had no idea he was a lord! We were all blinded in the sheer fray of melee and it just... accidentally....."
The man should have really just held his tongue and prayed for his imminent journey to the afterlife because the Heeat commander had already proclaimed the man as dead the moment he heard Lord Bernard had been attacked.
No one attacked a friendly noble and got away with it, no matter what.
"Slit his throat and dump him into the sea."
Thus the man was not even allowed to finish his defense as he heard his death sentence being read out to him in such a cold, almost callous voice, the commander not even bothering to take the man's words as anything tangible.
The only thing that mattered was his act, and everything else was dismissed as a meaningless jumble.
"Mmmmmmmm!!!"
Hence, immediately after the decree, the man was violently grabbed in the limbs and mouth by all the troops around him, by the very men who he had called him brothers just a few moments ago, and was then violently and cruelly executed exactly as per their commander's instruction, before being dumped overboard.
The speed and tractability with which all this was done really went to demonstrate the power a noble carried- as even while unconscious, Lord Bernard's attacker was dealt with without even a single urging from him.
The Heeat commander issued the order like it was the most natural thing to do, while the troops also carried it out one, because they too believed in it, and two because they did not want to get implicated in their foolish colleague's folly.
Perhaps Lord Bernard's confidence in that he was untouchable was not that misplaced after all. Because if you were brought up in such an environment since childhood, where everyone is afraid of you, of course, you would get very arrogant.
It was fortunate that his arrogance had not cost the man his life this time. Because although the wound was deep, the onboard physician determined that the blade had not luckily hit any major artery, but only pierced the stomach.
A good few bedrest would be enough to let the man recover.
As for his counterpart Achillas, well the man was not so lucky.
Let us say no to piracy! Don't take part in a crime! Don't patronize thieves!
Please come Here!
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