In the coming days, Miss Linda and Lord Bernard would continue to gnaw at Lord Macht's power, trying to replace him and his men with their own, with the ultimate goal of Lord Bernard taking over the entire army.
However, the pair would be unable to accomplish that last part, as the drowning man would be saved by a re-emergent Lord Parker.
The young lord seemed to have finally been able to shed the shadow of losing Achillas, and at last, responding to Lord Macht's repeated pleas, decided to take hold of the helm of the ship before he sank with it.
Seeing him, the Heeat soldiers who were all just a second ago scattered and ready to tear each other apart for more power and influence all of a sudden dropped everything and rallied behind their one true lord presenting a fully unified front.
This near altruistic behavior of giving up power might have seemed a bit strange to an outsider, but when one thought about it, it was all too natural.
All 10,000 men accompanying Lord Parker were the Duke family's elites, swearing their vows to only him and his family members.
Thus when someone with their blood took the reins, the wild horse was easily tamed.
And that was also why Lord Macht had such a tough time commanding them because, without that blood, they did not see him as legitimate.
With Lord Parker joining the fray, the Margraves almost instantly felt their tide turn.
Miss Linda was quickly restrained, and placed in her tent at the order of her 'husband', who was presumably worried about her catching a cold.
Lord Bernard was also forced to give up all his ambitions and the man scuttled back to his tent, where he cleverly decided to avoid showing himself in front of the lord.
The dashing man knew he was considered a gross eyesore by the lord, still under high suspicion of betraying Achillas, and he certainly did not want to give Lord Parker any chance to have him arrested, or worse.
In this way, the Margraves troops lost two of their most important heads overnight.
And just when the enemy was at their weakest, Lord Parker decided to strike.
By now, Lord Parker's prestige and legitimacy had made all the Heeat troops consolidate under one flag, turning this once loose pile of sands into a thick sheet of iron.
He was then able to use these great muscles to get a lot of things done, by first imposing a curfew on the camp to bring military order back and then isolating the more troublesome Margraves officers on suspicions of incompetence.
This was the stick.
Then as a perfect demonstration of Lord Parker's abilities, the man quickly followed it up with the carrot, acquising to the Margrave troop's demand for increased pay, as well as other compensations, all coming from the money he had swindled from Alexander.
It was a move that broke away from the nation's military tradition and although this might not seem like much to a modern audience, for the extremely traditional, conservative Sybarian society, this was shocking.
It was to the point that if not for the circumstances, Lord Macht might have even jumped up to stop Lord Parker no matter what. Because he did not want to want to set such a precedence.
Lord Parker's efforts soon showed themselves, with the camp that was under imminent threat of collapse miraculously rebounding itself to its former state.
However, given the political situation that has been already discussed, this was proving to be easier said than done, Cambyses was finding out much to her chagrin.
The lady had initially thought it would be easy since she had raised a 40,000 army to counter Perseus when he first attacked Zanzan. So a force quarter the size should have been a cinch.
However the circumstances now and then were oh so different.
At the time, they were the ones being attacked, and by none other than one of Adhania's most hated rival.
Many noblemen were under the direct threat of losing all their fiefs, hence Cambyses had to just raise the banner and everybody came rushing to her, willing to give everything to drive his evil invader out.
Now however there was no such great external force to unite them all.
Moreover, although Alexander's intervention was sanctioned by his council of advisors, many of the nobles in the parliament remained critical of it, claiming the young man was a busybody.
They would have much preferred the man to remain in Zanzan and stabilize it, taking care of the many problems, big and small that arose from the vast newly conquered territory of Tibias.
Thus when Cambyses went to them asking for levies to save her husband, they began to drag their feet, claiming all kinds of problems, from monetary, to political such as war fatigue, to simply the cold weather being too bad for the levy officers to conduct their duties.
Cambyses would grind her teeth in rage at this, however at the end of the day had no choice but to accept it.
She knew lashing out would only aggravate the matter, and although the nobles were exaggerating, some problems were indeed there.
Thus she could only urge them to do their best and move with urgency.
And it was finally after two months of haggling and negotiations that these lumbering men at last got their act together, presenting her with all 10,000 of the prerequisite men as well as a detailed list of all the supplies that would be required for the journey.
This list was another proof of breaking away from the traditions of the time, as whereas normally each noble would be responsible for supplying his own levies at times of war, this time, it was decided that it would solely be Cambyses responsible for paying for the entirety of the campaign
This was the deal she had struck out with the nobles in exchange for their cooperation on the matter, and only then was able to get them to move their bodies.
But at least they did, so now, Cambyses's only hurdle was equipping her men.
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