"*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.
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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