Alluding to the capture of Achillas, Scorpyo paused here to reveal an amused chuckle, strategically building up the tension in Remus.
It was here that he also recalled the absolute chaos the camp was thrown into when they first saw the Margrave's ship, as they thought they were under attack.
Most were very pessimistic about their chance of repelling such a naval invasion given their lack of experience fighting at sea and much more than that, their numerical disadvantage. So many soldiers and servants ran to and fro with little heed to their surroundings, with many even ignoring their officer's orders.
There were even some who assumed that this was it- the end of their campaign and got ready to surrender.
Thus the sudden sight of the white flag came as great a relief to them as a burst of torrential rainfall after a drought, with a lot of them finding it too incredulous.
And as Scorpyo thought about it now, he even smirked to himself thinking, 'If Margraves had known about our true state, would they have still bothered to raise the flag? Or would they have sailed right into port and demanded our surrender? That might have actually worked heh heh!'
"What did you see? What was the prize?"
Scorpyo did not get to swim in his musing for long as he was suddenly yanked out of it by this loud query from Remus, who was clearly more interested in the man moving the story along.
"Heh heh... it was the enemy's general- Achillas!"
The man did not keep Remus in suspense any longer and gave a straightforward answer immediately.
"...." To which Remus was so shocked that he could not even give a yelp of surprise, and only stared at the man wide eyed.
If he did not know the man well enough to know that Scorpyo would never joke about such a thing, Remus might have put his arm around the man's shoulders and had a hearty chuckle, digging in elbow into the man to congratulate him for the good laugh.
However now.... Remus did not know how to feel, the sheer shock of the news leaving him too stunned to feel even happy about it.
"Achillas! The Achillas! That short, bulky man who was always seen beside LP? That Achillas?" So instead, he first and foremost sought to confirm whether it was really the same men they were talking about.
Because Remus had known of the man mostly by reputation, having only caught a slight glimpse of him when he came to the manor as a messenger.
"You can go see for yourself. He is in the camp clinic." Scorpyo, instead of going into details defending himself, simply pointed Remus in the direction of the infirmary, before casually retelling how they found him,
"The crew of the ship showed him the moment we boarded. Apparently, he had been injured during the fighting, and they brought him to us as a token of their sincerity."
The succinct explanation left a lot of holes for Remus, such as who the hell were 'they' and how the hell did 'they' do this because the ship clearly belonged to the Margraves family, not the Heeat.
Alexander at last reached Phyrros island soaked like a wet dog, and if he thought the water was bad, well perhaps the cold air hitting him as he got out of it was even worse. It was to the point where he seriously contemplated going back to the water and waiting there until one of the soldiers could fetch him a warm blanket or something.
But that thought was eventually shelved, not so much because it was a bad idea but because he thought it would make him appear weak and not manly in front of his troops.
Thus the man had to reluctantly wade through the freezing wintery winds and at last managed to meet up with the garrison there, who were at least able to give him a dry towel and a warm fire.
From there, Alexander also ordered the men to rapidly expand their fortifications, having the two hundred men move their base to the camp left by the Heeat garrison and instructed them to get about repairing and reinforcing the place.
He said to them,
"The enemy might very well send a force to reclaim the island. Your job will be to hold on until reinforcements can arrive. Got it?"
It was overseeing these works that made the Pasha quite late in setting off for home. But at least the silver lining was that when he left there, there were around seven hundred men including the servants left there, all dug in well and deep.
They had enough food to last them a week and Alexander promised them to send three days worth of fresh water the very next morning, making the place very hard to take.
And with that, Alexander thought he was done for the day, and thus prepared himself to hit the bed the moment he reached the Margraves manor.
Because remember, the man had not slept the previous night in preparation for the capture of the island.
And after going through a day such as this one, the man felt as if elephants were standing on his eyelids. He could barely keep them open.
But alas! How wrong he was to think the day was done!
Because even if the day had ended, as soon as he landed, Alexander was quickly informed of the Anoon and Ser Robert's defection, and hearing of the prize they had brought him, knew there was no way he could go to bed now.
Let us say no to piracy! Don't take part in a crime! Don't patronize thieves!
Please come Here!
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